Day 8 - Painting & Games

I was back up at the kindergarden school again today, but this time, we got to do some painting! The rest of the group went to the school down the street while Pastor Brent, Jeff, Nic, and I painted the classrooms of the kinder school. This was quite the experience for me because I had never really done painting like this before. Or if I have, it has been many years because I don't remember it. 

It was definitely a challenge. I wanted to be able to do a good job, but I was worried that the walls I did wouldn't look as good as the guys' walls. Since there were four of us and four walls, we each did our own wall. It was tough, but I did enjoy doing it. It was cool to see the difference between the before and after.

I ended up doing 2 walls in total, one in each classroom. I was slower than the guys at it, but I did my best and that's all that matters. 

The fumes were really strong, so we had to make sure to take breaks and go outside and get some fresh air. We went to the pouporia and got some té fríos - Yay! :D My fav! A funny thing happened when the guys tried to open them though. Pastor Brent was trying to hit off the top and ended up hitting it so hard that the bottom broke off! And then Jeff tried to open Nic's and his broke too! Needless to say, the rest of us went to Marco to get him to open ours as he opened his without any issues. After our little refresher, we got back to work. Kathy and Jen joined us after lunch and we were able to get all the walls finished by the time it was time to go. Here's some pics of us hard at work.

There's me in the corner! 

Tonight, I stayed later at the Team House while Dale and Carolyn took Jeff and Joanne back to their place for a bit. I got to hang out with the team and we ended up playing a bunch of games. It was really cool to be able to hang out with the girls and Nic outside of the normal busy schedule. I feel like I got to know them a bit better and see different sides of some of them. Julia, for instance, can be REALLY crazy, but in a good way. She was kind of all over the place, which is a side of her that apparently only comes out in the later evening, during the time that we're usually gone by. 

Anyways, so we ended up playing Dutch Blitz for a while. There were so many of us wanting to play that we actually had to do teams. But there weren't enough people for everyone to have a partner so I was left being the only one without a partner. It was really hard keeping up with everyone. While each person on the teams only had to focus on one task, whether it be flipping from the deck or dispersing from the woodpile, I had focus on both at the same time. I was able to keep up for a while, but I slowly started to fall back. I was exhausted and honestly I was starting to become disheartened. It's not a good feeling when after every round your points keep going down and you steadily sink deeper into last place. I almost hit the point where I just wanted to go hide in the bathroom and cry. I know, I know, it sounds stupid to get worked up like that over a game, but it's hard when all the odds are against you and you try so hard that you're to the point of exhaustion, but yet you have nothing to show for it. I think it's harder for me because I am a very competitive gamer. I blame my parents for that. They're both really competitive when it comes to games and it's like I got a double dose of it from both of them. Now I'm by no means a sore loser, but it is a blow to the confidence when you continually get negative points. It's a sucky feeling. We finally switched over to Phase 10 for a bit, but we got bored of that after a while and switched back to Dutch Blitz. Nic left at that point, so I was able to have a partner this time, which was so much nicer than going it alone. Needless to say, Taylor and I kicked butt as a team :P 

Despite the rough feelings at one point, overall it was a really good evening :) I really did enjoy spending more time with the team. I wish I could have been able to stay later other evenings and spent more time with them. But, unfortunately, that was not in my control. 

Tomorrow we're back at the kinder school doing some more painting, but this time we're all going in and doing decorative painting. I'm really excited for it :) 

Until tomorrow! Hasta mañana! 

~ Cass Haines ~

Day 7 - Fun Day & Christo El Picacho

We went to a new school today and did our "Fun Day" with the kids there. It started with a couple of songs, like "I'm Trading My Sorrows" and "If You're Happy And You Know It", but in Spanish rather than English. Then Dale told the story of the boy who had a headache and then died and Elisha came  and breathed into him and he came back to life. He had a few of the team members and some of the kids come up and act out the story. 

Then Pastor Brent, dressed as Professor PB, did an object lesson in which he poured water into a cup and had it switched around with other cups and then had the kids guess which cup the water was in. Little did they know that there was a special powder in the cup that made the water solidify so that when they tipped the cup over, no water came out. It was followed with a message about how things don't always go the way we think they will. 

Then Julia came up and gave her testimony about losing her father and when she asked how many of the kids had lost a parent, many of them raised their hands. It's so heartbreaking to see that so many kids have lost a parent. I couldn't even imagine losing one of mine. It would crush me. After her testimony, Joanne prayed for the kids and then the kids breaked for lunch. 

After lunch, we had six stations set up that the kids could rotate through. I was co-in charge of the hoola hoop game, in which the kids had to link hands in a circle and move the hoola hoop around the circle without releasing hands. It was a lot of fun and we even joined in the circles and played with them. Some of the other games included sac races, dart throwing, knocking over cans, bean bag toss, and water gun shooting. The kids were all so excited to play the games and they were all actively involved, which is so amazing to see. Kids in North America would probably find some of these games lame, like the sac races, and not want to do them, but all of the kids wanted to play all of the games. I just love how excited and happy they are to do things, to have fun. 

 

We kind of edited the game for the younger kids, just holding it and letting them jump through the hoop. 









This one the didn't even keep their hands connected, they just jumped through!

This was the right way to do it!  









The Fun Day ran from about 10-12. After it was finished, we returned to the kindergarden school where Nic had stayed for the morning to help Lenny with the outer wall (we had visited the classrooms there that morning before we did the fun day and did the lesson and craft with the kids there). They made a lot of progress on it. 

Tomorrow, we are going to do the finishing touches on the outside and then start painting on the inside. After lunch, Nic and I went to the pouporia and got a couple of Té Fríos and this time Nic paid for mine, which I didn't ask him to do or even expect him to return the favour. So thank you, Nic :)

After lunch, we packed everything up and went on a little adventure up to the Cristo el Picacho, which is a tall statue of Jesus overlooking the city. Before we reached the statue though, we stopped and went into a zoo that they had up there as it was going to be closing earlier. Nic and I roamed around, checking out all of the different animals. There were a lot of different kinds of birds and some gaters and even some raccoons, which isn't something we'd normally think to find in a zoo. 

These were probably my two favourites, the lion and the monkeys. The lion, though he was just lying there, had a very authoritative look to him. He certainly owns the name "King of the Jungle". It also reminded me of Aslan :) And the monkeys, well that's kind of obvious, as monkeys are my favourite animal :P

As we were leaving, I happened to find a pine cone on the ground. I don't know why, but it caught my attention. The reason I'm bringing this up is because it'll come back into play again in a couple days (I'm kind of cheating because I'm adding this in a couple days later). 






Before we left the zoo area, we went to look out over the city. The view was beautiful <3











I wanted to put this in too because it's prob one of my fav pics of Nic and I. Well, despite my bangs going crazy, half up and half down. I think that we both have really nice smiles in this pic :)

Next, we all piled into one vehicle and drove up a bit further to where the statue was. They would only let us take one vehicle up so we all had to squish into the van. I thought the view was beautiful before, but up here, it was breathtaking! 

The view of the city from the statue of Jesus.

Oh, you know, just taking a selfie with Jesus :P









As I was standing there, taking everything in, this one line suddenly came to my mind, "You're the God of this city". God is at work in this city and I just felt this overwhelming excitement bubbling within me. It was so surreal, standing there and realizing, this is where God has called me for the next two months. There are still moments when I can't believe that I'm actually here. And it was really cool to be standing at the feet of Jesus :P







This is Doreen. She is a troublemaker. She is not afraid to openly tease you about things and it seems like when she's got an idea in her mind, that she doesn't let up on it easily. She is so sweet and funny though, so I guess I'll forgive her for making me blush in front of everyone multiple times! :P







We did a bit more exploring around the area before leaving, finding a tower type thing that you could go on top of (a bunch of us girls went up and pretended we were Rapunzel letting down our hair) as well as a Mayan temple. 

Overall, it was a really fun day. I'm looking forward to going back there again with the next team, although I'm not sure if they could beat the fun that I had with this team. I honestly didn't know how well I would do at making friends with this team and though I haven't become super close with the girls, I definitely gained a new friend out of Nic :) 

I just got this from Doreen and it's definitely my new fav pic!

That's all for today. I'm looking forward to being back at the school painting tomorrow. Until then, buenos noches! 

~ Cass Haines ~

  

Day 6 - Working with the Boys & First Rain

Instead of going to the schools again, today I went to work with the boys at the kindergarden school. I didn't get to help put any of the cement on the walls, but I did get to help mix the cement and carry buckets of it, as well as buckets of water. I also got to help sift some sand too! Look at me, hard at work!

The guy beside me is Victor, whose church we went to on Sunday. He is really funny. He likes to do fist bumps, but he liked to mess with the guys and switch his fist to a palm or scissors or other forms to throw them off as they were doing the fist bumps. He worked/oversaw our work at the school. 

These were the Essex guys that I was working with. On the left is Nic, who has become one of my really good friends, and on the right are Jeff and Pastor Brent. Pastor Brent used to work at Elim in Sault Ste. Marie and he likes to make lots of Sault comments at me. He even calls me Sault! He's really funny and likes to tease. I'm learning to make witty remarks back at him (isn't that such a nice pose he's doing? ;P ). 

The rest of the team joined us a bit earlier today as the classes were ended early again in the morning. So we all sat inside the kindergarden school and started playing the "I'm going to a party and I'm bringing _____" game, where there are rules on what you're able to bring. So if the rule is you can only bring things that start with the same letter as your name, then I could bring chips, cookies, and candy, but I couldn't bring pop, balloons, or jellybeans. The point of the game though is to try to figure out what the rule is. Another rule you could go by is that you can only bring things with double letters in its name (aka cookies, balloons, apples, spoons, etc). It was a lot of fun and we played that until lunch. 

After lunch, Nic and I took a walk to a pouporia the next street over and got bottles of ice tea, which only cost 20 lempiras for two (that's equal to about .50 each!), which I paid for (you're welcome, Nic!). They were really cool though because they were glass bottles! 

I didn't realize until later that I had taken a picture of the english side of the bottle. On the other side, it says "Té Frío", which is a name I've had to learn so that I know how to order ice tea when we go places. It's kinda been my go-to drink here, but I have been trying other drinks too! Like the banana pop, and on our way home today we stopped at a grocery store and since I only have 13 lempiras on me, I decided to try another new pop, which was a coconut pop. I know that my mom wouldn't like it but it wasn't that bad. It had an interesting taste. It almost reminded me of a white cream soda, but with a slightly different taste to it. Carolyn says it reminds her of the white freezies. 

In the afternoon, I did some more cement mixing and I did some sweeping inside of the classrooms as some of the cement bits had gotten in through the window, so I thought I'd help clean the place up a bit. I also cleaned around the tables where we had been eating. I was just about finished when the rest of the team returned, so I quickly finished up so that we could go. 

On our way home, Honduras got what it'd been missing since November: rain! We could hear it coming before it started, as it was thundering and lightning for a bit before the rain hit. The sky got so dark that it felt like it was heading to 6pm (which is when it gets dark here), though it was only 2pm. The rain came down heavy and hard. It was so crazy seeing how quickly water filled the roads as we were driving. I tried to get a picture of the water levels on the street, but this was the best I could get.

At one point, it even started hailing! It was coming down so hard that it sounded like rocks hitting the van! It was still raining by the time we got back to the team house, which was fine because Tegucigalpa really needed it. Apparently it's supposed to rain until next week, but it's not a constant rain. Dale said that it'll usually rain for like an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon during rainy season, which is what we're getting into now. 

Once we arrived back at the team house, we discovered that the power was out! So we all just sat inside the house and played a game where we tossed a ball with questions on it around and wherever your right thumb landed, you had to answer that question. So we did that for a bit and then we had our debrief for the day and schedule for tomorrow, though they wouldn't tell us what we're doing in the afternoon. I think I may know what we're doing though because I think Dale had mentioned about us going up to the Jesus statue. I'm not sure, but I think that's a definite possibility. 

Unfortunately, because of the power outage, dinner was not able to be cooked so instead, we had a makeshift supper of cold cuts, veggies, and salad. And more pineapple! I'm finding I'm really liking pineapple! We hung out for a little while after supper, but not for too long as we needed to get heading home. Traffic was crazy busy. As I mentioned earlier, we stopped at a grocery store and I got the coconut pop. When we finally got home, we had hot dogs that had cheese in them. They were really good. Elisa and I played a couple rounds of Spot It before she went to bed and now here we are! That was pretty much my day in a nutshell! Tomorrow we're doing a fun day at the school, which involves all the kids from the morning and afternoon classes. We're doing a story, a testimony, an object lesson, and we're going to have a whole bunch of stations that the kids get to rotate through, so that'll be fun. I'm looking forward to doing that. And then we have the unknown afternoon plans. It sounds like it's going to be a good day :) I'll fill you in on the details tomorrow night. Until then, buenas noches! 

~ Cass Haines ~ 

  

Day 5 - The Schools & Daycare

It was quite an early start this morning. I had to be ready to leave by 7:15am, as I mentioned in my last post, and I was so not ready to be up and rolling. But I did, because it's what I have to do. One of the reasons we had to leave so early was because we were picking up Jennifer, who is an American missionary who helps with Schools of Hope and has been living here for 4 years now. She seems really nice :)

We expected to visit about 8 classes that morning, but unfortunately the grade 6 class was not there. We also found out that we were working in a limited time frame as the government had sent out a notice of a heat warning, which cut school hours. The kids were only going to be there until around lunch time and then they were all sent home. So we had seven classes we had to go through and do the lesson and craft with. I did not have a huge role today, as the Essex team was in charge of everything. I did get to go into the classrooms before the team and help hand out Bible Bucks for doing their homework and knowing the memory verse. Some of the kids tried to cheat by bringing up their homework sheet twice, so we had to initial the page in the same spot to make sure that that didn't happen (or at least that they wouldn't get away with it). It was crazy because in the second classroom we went into, a whole bunch of kids swarmed me to get their homework checked and get Bible Bucks. It was kind of overwhelming! They were all trying to get my attention and I couldn't understand what they were saying. But I made it through and it wasn't as crazy with the other classes.

So what would happen after we finished with the Bible Bucks, the team would come in and introduce themselves. And then the lesson would be shared, which was about trusting God. Julia led the lesson in the morning section and later, in the afternoon, Taylor led the lesson. One of the parts of the lesson included an exercise that we know as the Trust Fall, in which you have to fall backwards and trust that the person behind you will catch you. They had a couple of the girls on the team demonstrate first and then they had kids come up and do it with them.

After the lesson, they had a craft, in which they made a bracelet with ten plastic beads and a plastic cross. It was so cool to see kids get so excited about craft time, especially the older kids. In North America, a lot of the older kids are really disinterested in doing crafts so it was so refreshing and uplifting to see these kids really get into the crafts. 

The team did a really awesome job with both the lesson and the craft. As you can see above, the kids were really into the craft and the team was really involved with helping them. 

While in the last classroom, which was two classes of grade ones, one little girl gave me this ring.

It's a little plastic, blue ring that just barely fits on my pinky. At first, I wasn't sure if she had just found it on the ground and was giving it to me to return to its rightful owner or if she was actually giving it to me. I had to ask her "Por mi?"(For me?) to which she nodded her head and said "Si!" (Yes!). It was so sweet and unexpected! My heart almost melted in my chest! Her name was something like Annie or Anna (it's hard to tell sometimes because they speak so softly!) and she was such a sweetheart. And of course I got hugs from them :) 

Across the room, there was a group of boys making the Spiderman hand gesture and making "pew" sounds. One of them did it in my direction, so I reacted like I had been shot. He loved that and soon all of the boys were running over and "shooting" me before running away again. And of course, I had to react each and every time they did it. How could I not? It made them so happy and their laughter made me happy :) This continued on even after class had ended and we were all hanging out outside until the kids went home. 

These are a couple of the kids from the school. The little boy was such a trickster! He would go to do a high five with you and then, at the last second, he would move his hand away and slide it back over his hair all sleek like! It was the ultimate "DENIED" move! It was hilarious though and he did it to all the of the team members. What a kid!

This is Gretchen. She was such a cutie! She was just sitting quietly with us on the steps and, as we found out a bit later through an interpreter, she just wanted to sit with us while she was waiting for her sister to come get her. I attempted to use the little Spanish I knew to communicate with her a bit. I even pulled out my Spanish phrase book and dictionary. In the front, there were some common phrases so I'd say the English word and then the Spanish translation and all of a sudden, she started to repeat after me! It was really cute! She'd repeat the English word and the Spanish translation after me. And then we moved onto colours. One of us would point to a colour, or she'd say one, and I'd tell her how to say it in English and she would repeat it back to me! It was really cool how though we didn't really speak each other's language, we still found a way to communicate and understand each other. She was always smiling while we were talking and I just found her to be the sweetest little girl! 

After all of the kids went home, we went and spent some time at the daycare that is attached to Victor's church and is run by his wife. We went and did the bracelet craft with them before lunch. They were all really cute! Dale did a couple songs with them and they all sang along and did all the actions and it was just adorable!

After that, we went to meet up with the guys of the Essex team, who were doing work on a kindergarden school building. They had to put cement on the walls, which appears to be a lot like what I did in the Dominican. Here are the boys, hard at work.

After lunch, we headed back up to the school we had just been at, as the students that were there for the afternoon did not get the memo about classes being cut, so we were able to go into 6 classes in the afternoon. In one of the classes when I went to do Bible Bucks, a whole bunch of the kids suddenly came up and swarmed me, giving me hugs. It made me sooooo happy! And they were all just adorable! The afternoon proceeded like the morning, with the lesson and the craft. I slipped away during one of the lessons (as I'd heard it many times by then) and went to the popouri (not sure how it's spelt, but it's basically like a little corner store where you can get snacks and drinks) and I got a banana pop! It was... different. It was the kind of thing that you try to try it, but I wouldn't have it again. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't added to my list of favourites. 

Once we had finished all of the classes, we loaded up the vehicles, picked up the boys, and then headed back to the team house. We had a bit of time before supper, so I had a mini meeting with Judy to discuss some internship assignment details and how we'd go about adapting them to my situation. We decided that I would work with Dale on Mondays and Wednesdays at the schools and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'd be with Kathy doing administrative stuff. Judy asked me if there was anything else that I wanted to do within my internship and I mentioned that I wanted to do hands on work so she asked me if I'd like to be involved with the work crew tomorrow, which I was totally down for! As much as I do love hanging out with girls, I find I sometimes enjoy hanging with guys more. It could be because I grew up with two older brothers so I was used to hanging with boys or because I'm not into a lot of girlie things and can relate better to guys. I don't know. But I'm happy to be put somewhere where I can be of use. There wasn't a lot I was getting to do at the schools since the Essex team was doing everything. Dale said that it won't normally be like that for us as usually it'd just be us doing lessons and stories and crafts with them. 

For supper, we had chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and cooked pea pods of some kind. It was all REALLY good, especially the chicken. I really enjoy the chicken here. And for dessert, we had cake! Nic and I hung out during supper, bonding through musical theatre and Julian Smith. It feels so good to be able to talk to someone who understands and can relate to all of the things that I know and have done. 

After supper, we had our debrief, in which we shared our day's experiences and thoughts and then discussed the schedule for the following day. Judy had me close in prayer, which I had a mini panic attack over as praying out loud is one of my biggest struggles, but I pulled through. The ending was a bit rough, but I'll get better the more I do it. 

After the debrief was over, I was sent on intern missions to find more shovels and other tools for the work crew tomorrow and label them all with "Escuelas de Esperanza", which means "Schools of Hope". Little do the boys know that I will be joining them tomorrow! 

Speaking of tomorrow, I have another early morning ahead of me, so it is time to call it a night. Oh! But before I go, I have to note that we went over 25 speed bumps over the course of the day. Dale confirmed that they are to help slow traffic down so that vehicles aren't racing through the streets, especially on streets with homes. There are 3 speed bumps alone outside of where the president lives!

Anyways, time for sleep now! Until tomorrow! 

~ Cass Haines ~

Day 4 - First Church Service & Valle de los Angeles

This morning, we went to Victor's church for morning service. Apparently they don't always have morning services, as usually they start at 4pm. It was a really good service. We were welcomed in Honduras fashion with hugs and kisses. It was not a huge building, but it wasn't as small as some of the churches we visited in the Dominican. They had a nice set up, with purple curtains at the front. They had all the instruments that we have in our churches back home: drums, keyboard, acoustic guitars, and bass guitars. I didn't recognize any of the songs they played, but the first couple songs they did were really upbeat and we were all clapping along to them. The first song I noticed lasted a lot longer than our songs typically do, which I found interesting. Hondurans don't really care about keeping to a set schedule of time, so it makes sense that it would be longer as they just want to praise God. Speaking of praising God, I found it interesting that when the service began, they said we were going to start by praising God, which was followed by the two upbeat songs, and then they paused to say they were moving into a time of worshipping God, which led into softer, less upbeat, clappy music, and more so gentle, worship music. I found it interesting that they separated praise and worship into two different moments, as in North America, we generally say we're doing a time of praise and worship, not one or the other. I've always associated them as being one and the same thing, but the Hondurans mark them as two separate aspects. I found this enlightening as it was true. The praise section was upbeat and joyful and exciting, as we were in a time of praising God for all that He has done. And then the worship section was a more personal, thanking time of worship, in which we gave our personal adoration to God. Praise was more of a fellowship while worship was more personal. Or at least, that's what I found it to be.

Something I found really cool during the service was that it was a little girl's birthday and she gave 1 lempira into the offering for each year of her life (she gave 7 lempiras, which the church all counted with her). Then the band played a kind of birthday celebration music as people in the church could come up and give the birthday girl a hug and, if they wanted to, some lempira birthday money. I just found this so cool how the whole church celebrates someone's birthday and how supportive they are of each other.

Something I forgot to mention was the trip up to the church. The church is located in the same area where many of the schools that Schools of Hope is involved in are located (at least 2 were pointed out on our way there). They are located up in the mountains as during flooding back in the 1990's, many people had to flee to higher ground and set up temporary homes there. But, years later, they still live there. The roads are very bumpy and rough (they are not paved) and driving up there involved a lot of steep hills that we weren't sure if we were going to make it up (well Elisa was a little concerned, but they've driven up those roads hundreds of times so I trusted that we'd make it). On our way up and down, we also passed a cemetery that is for those that are not as wealthy. Judy was telling us about how people are buried in cardboard boxes or sheets or whatever the family can find and that they are buried not as deep as we bury bodies in North America as they have to dig out the graves themselves. The terrain was really rough and rocky there. Here is a picture of one section of the area (it covered a large area):

For lunch, I got to try my first traditional Honduran meal, the name of which currently escapes me. What it was was a tortilla wrap which you fill with fried beans, scrambled eggs, and cheese (shredded and this creamy kind that is almost like a Honduran cream cheese). Apparently this is a traditional Honduran breakfast (which we had for lunch). It was interesting. I'm not sure if I would eat it every morning, but it was interesting to try.

This is the meal (I forgot to take a picture before I started eating so there is a bite missing). Also included are avocado slices and fried plantains.

After lunch, we all piled into the vehicles and took a trip to Valle de los Angeles, which is like a little shopping valley. This is the view right before you get into the valley:

Valle was really neat! There were all of these little shops with different trinkets and such in them. I unfortunately forgot my money (I thought my purse was in my bag but I had taken it out the night before), but I knew that I'd be coming back here with the next team, so I wasn't too worried about it. We had to stick in pairs and eventually it ended up being Elisa, Nic, and I wandering around together, finding Nic green elephants and a machete. Nic is one of the team members from Essex and we really started bonding over this trip. He is a really funny guy and we get along really well. The three of us had a lot of fun exploring all of the little shops. Nic and I scared Elisa with a wooden snake at one shop and we continued to tease/scare her with it the rest of the evening, which was all good fun. Elisa and I are really getting close too. She's kinda come to be like a little sister to me. She fell asleep with her head on my lap on the ride home later. She's a really sweet girl and so funny. We have a lot of fun together.

Back in Valle, the three of us got ice cream before we met up with the group (it was the imported kind so it was safe to eat). That is Elisa on the left and Nic on the right. These two are my closest friends here and they are so much fun to be around. Part of me is really sad now that Nic is only here for a week. And Elisa has school during the week so we're only able to hang out on weekends and evenings.  We're kind of like the Three Musketeers or the Three Amigos! ...Actually, we're probably more like the Three Stooges :P We're all just such goofballs! The fact that we were using our straws as blowguns to shoot bits of napkins and rice at each other after dinner kind of proves that. Dinner by the way was amazing! We went to a restaurant in Valle and they served us tortilla chips and a bean and cheese dip, and then we had rice and tortilla wraps and like four different kinds of meat! We had steak, chicken, pork chops , and sausage! They were all so good, especially the steak! Ok, I didn't actually have the pork chops, but they looked good! Oh, and we had french fries, but those weren't part of the traditional Honduran meal we were having.

We would put the meat and rice on the wrap and eat it like that. It was sooooo good! I'm looking forward to going back there next month with the next team!

Overall, it was a great day. I really got to bond with my new friends and enjoy some of the Honduran food and culture. Tomorrow we are heading up to the schools. I'm really looking forward to finally getting into the schools and working with the kids. I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds!

Oh, one last side note about driving! There are A LOT of speed bumps here! Like seriously! On the main roads and everything! I guess it must be to help traffic not to go so fast or something. I'll have to ask Dale about that tomorrow. It's actually crazy how many speed bumps we go over on a trip. I'll have to count one of these days and record just how many we go over.

Early morning start tomorrow! Have to be ready to leave by 7:15am! So I must call it a night! Buenas Noches! Hasta mañana!

~ Cass Haines ~

Day 3 - Arrival of the Essex Team

Today was more of a laid back day for me. I stayed back at the house while Dale and Carolyn went to do final preparations for the team arriving. I felt bad that I wasn't able to be of use to them.

Nothing exciting really happened until we went to the team house to do the first debriefing with the Essex Team. We all went out to the back of the team house and Judy, Kathy, Dale, and Carolyn went over all of the ground rules and things to expect and watch out for while here. Dale had me come up to do a demonstration with him for having your money out in the open and I had no clue what I was doing so I kinda felt bad and awkward... Dale seems to be the kind of guy to just laugh things off though, so I'm trying not to get too worked up about it. Dale actually is a really funny guy. I think I'm going to enjoy working with him in the kids ministry.

After the debrief was done, it was supper time! Meatballs, rice, and cooked carrots and what appeared to be zucchini. I actually really like the cooked zucchini! And I tried pineapple! Normally I'm not a fan of it, but it's actually pretty good when it's real, fresh pineapple, as opposed to the imported, genetically modified stuff we have in North America.

Oh, we also discovered that there is a pool at the Team House! Sure, it's maybe only 2 feet wide, but it's a pool! I may have been persuaded by Judy to go in it ;P

After dinner, we took a little walk to the corner store within the gated community to show the team where it was and then we pretty much called it a night. The team all needed sleep as they'd been up since Friday morning.

Back at the house, Elisa and I hung out and watched How To Train Your Dragon 2. Gah, all the emotions when *SPOILER* Hiccup's dad died :( It was heartbreaking that his mom and dad had just been reunited and then he gets killed saving Hiccup's life. Gah! All the feels! After that, Elisa and I played a bit of Quiz Up and then we called it a night. We have to be ready to go by 8:40am tomorrow, as we're going to Victor's church (Victor is a Honduran who works with Schools of Hope). So now I must bid you adieu as it is time for me to rest.

Until tomorrow!

~ Cass Haines ~

Day 2 - Shopping & The Marketplace

Waking up in Honduras was a new experience. Luckily the Ruttans let me sleep in since I hadn't had a proper sleep since Tuesday night. When I got up and ready, Dale, Carolyn, and I went out to do some running around. The following includes my observations of the places we went:

The mall

The first thing that I noticed walking in was the guard with a gun. Because of my experience in the DR and having read up on Honduras before coming, I knew that I would see many guards with guns around, but it is still a weird experience seeing them in places like the mall because it's so unlike what we're used to in Canada. Yes, we have security guards in our malls but they aren't heavily armed with guns in their hands. It's definitely something to get used to. 

There were a lot of shops there that we have in North America, but there were also a bunch of shops I didn't recognize. There was a place like the Bath and Body Shop called Applewood. I saw Beautiful Day in there, which is a kind that I have at home. I also saw a place that is called something like Anne's, which I've seen in Traverse City. You can get pretzel dogs there, which I love! Unfortunately, I did not get one today. Maybe next time we're there. Anyways, it was just a short pop in there so Dale could get his hair cut. 

The bank

Their banks are really interesting here. When you go in, you give the person behind the desk some kind of card and they give you this key card which you have to use to get through doors and elevators, which we had to take upstairs. It's cool to see how secure their security is here. 

At the bank,  I got some of my lempiras switched into smaller bills to make it easier to buy things since not a lot of places would have change for a 500 bill, which is equal to twenty five dollars US. 

The marketplace 

The marketplace is just wow. It's this big area that has tarps over top, and there's all these little stalls with all kinds of produce. There were so many stalls and they mostly sold all of the same things. Dale and Carolyn buy most of their produce there. It was interesting watching them communicate with the tenders, asking "Cuanto es?" which means "How much?" Something I noticed that I found odd was the fact that their oranges aren't even orange! They're more of a green and yellow colour. 

Dale pointed out on a hilltop a statue of Jesus that overlooks the city. He said that we'd get to go up there at some point and see it so I'm excited for that. We unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) did not get to go to the meat market section (as there were more sections there than just the produce) but we're going to go there next time so that I can experience that (and so they can buy meat). I did have a small experience with a meat market in the DR, so I know somewhat what to expect there. 

The grocery stores

Before going shopping, Carolyn and I went to an upper section of the grocery store were they had a couple of little food and drink shops. There I made my first purchase, buying a Mango Granita from Espresso Americano. Then we went shopping for other food. It was so strange seeing what looks like to me like such high prices for things (39.00 for a bag of chips), but that is because everything is in lempiras. So something that is priced as 39.00 is more like $2.00 US. It was interesting having to try to figure out how much things would cost in American. I actually got a lot of good deals. I think I spent about 160 lempiras, which is only $8.00 and I got 3 bags of chips, a small bag of combos, a box of microwave popcorn, and 4 packets of drink mix. When we got to the check out, we weren't allowed to pack any of our stuff ourselves into the bags, as that was the baggers' job. After they bagged the stuff, they even loaded it onto these kind of cart things and took it out to the vehicle and loaded it into the back for us. It's weird being served like that, other people taking care of everything for you. Once they loaded everything, then you give them a tip for their service. Carolyn commented that they must give really good tips because people always fight over who gets to serve them when they go in there. 

Next, we went to a store that is like their version of Costco, where you can buy bulk versions of things. Dale and I went down the freebies aisle, but unfortunately most of the stalls were closed :( 
There was another store that we had gone in earlier in the day that was kind of like a Giant Tiger and while we were walking around, a song came on that was like the spanish version of Pharrell's "Happy". I found it so amusing hearing the song in another language! And, ironically, it made me very happy :P

Driving

At one point during our travels around town, we saw a bumper sticker that read, "Sin Dios la vida no tiene sentido" which means, "Without God, life has no meaning". I had to write that down as soon as I saw it because not only is it so true, but it just makes me so happy to see people with bumper stickers like that. I've also seen many God and Jesus related signs as we've driven around and it just fills me with such hope seeing a country that's so full and open with its faith. It gives me hope for other countries becoming Christian countries as well (technically Catholicism is the largest religion but the fact that the country is so open to religion and faith in God and Jesus is just amazing).

Update: I have discovered that there are street signs, if you know where to look. They're mostly all overhead, like how they are on highways and they're usually posted a bit before the actual street, not right beside it as we're used to in North America (at least that's what I've observed). So there are more than just the one street sign I saw. 
We took a bit of a detour on our way home as Ben missed his bus from school. In his defence, he missed it because he was helping someone carry a table. If you're going to miss anything, helping someone is a good reason why. So we had to take a drive to his school to pick him up, so that was actually kind of cool for me because I got to see where the kids go to school. 

When we finally returned home, Elisa, Carolyn, Reuben, and I went for a walk through an area which currently the name slips my mind, but it is a neighbourhood that is right across the street from us and the only way in is past a guard and one of those raising and lowering bars. We had a nice walk through there and I saw a beautiful view of the city.  

It is seriously so beautiful here. It's a little smoky over the mountains right now because they are doing burnings in preparation for the coming rains but even still, I think it's beautiful. 

For supper, we had stir fry, which is like one of my favourites! It made me so happy! After supper, Carolyn took me down to the bottom of their walled in area and I got to see a wider view of the city (they have a great view from their balcony. I will post a picture of it later). 

I think it's so beautiful at night too, looking out and seeing all of the lights of the city. Just gorgeous! Elisa came down and joined us after and we ended up hanging out the rest of the night, playing Spot It and Bananagrams and we watched a movie called "Over Her Dead Body". We are getting along so well. I think she probably appreciates having another girl around the house. 

Well, it is time for me to sign off now. The team from Essex is arriving tomorrow so I need to get to sleep. 

Until tomorrow, buenas noches!

~ Cass Haines ~