The calm before the storm...

School is about to start on Tuesday, the 1st of September. Therefore, I wanted to get one more blog in before the chaos starts. We have had some interesting run-ins with animals while in Honduras. Cows wander the streets here like its nobody's business, and occasionally they wander into places they shouldn't be. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the cow who wandered into Destino, but I do have a picture of the ones that like to graze outside our gate. This one wasn't thrilled that I was taking its picture.



Next, we heard some commotion one afternoon during the teacher's training. A few boys had brought a burlap bag with something in it to the school that was causing all the women to scream. When I went to check it out, this is what I found:



Yes, it is a boa Constrictor, about six feet long. It was found eating the eggs in the Destino hen house. Don't ask me how they got it in that burlap bag. Here's a couple more shots of it.





There's nothing strange about these guys, but I wanted to put a picture of our doggies on here. Their names are Pebbles and Patches.



On a different note, we have been attending a bilingual church called Grace Life. In this picture, we only arrived 15 minutes early, and the pastor himself was just getting there. As you can see, we are the only ones accustomed to being early.



And one with the other American teachers:



Well, I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to show you pictures of some of my students next time. Love you all!

Getting Down to Business

On friday, Nathniel and I went to Destino to help them get some work done for the other American teachers flying in today (august 15th). They are renting a house in Siguatepeque, and they needed help moving a bunch of furniture from Destino to the teachers' house.

First of all, here are a couple of pictures of Nathaniel and I with some of the adorable kids at Destino.



This little boy's name is Sammy. Is is quite the clown of the house. Last time I was at Destino, he was a newborn baby, and I got to hold him. It was great to see him so much older.



more kids...



And now, some pictures of Nathaniel working hard.





Well, off to the grocery store. We start training on Monday, so there will be more to come soon!

Hola from Honduras!

Hola from Honduras! This is our first official Honduras post on the blog! Things are going pretty well here, and we are beginning to settle in a little bit. There have been a few bumps in the road, but they have all been minor. Its been really tough trying to communicate with the locals around here not knowing much of the language. As I am writing this, the gardener is here mowing the lawn (Isaias is his name). It was lots of fun trying to communicate with him when he showed up at the gate. Luckily, we think hes pretty trustworthy (you never know around here). Here are a couple of pictures of the house we are staying at.



this is a shot of the living room and kitchen as you walk in the front door. Notice Nathaniel being silly with his beloved banana pop.



And another one of Nathaniel with his giant banana pop.

Kittens

Well, now that I can FINALLY put pictures on my computer again, I'd like to show you a couple of pictures of the litter of kittens I rescued this summer. They were living under the foundation of a house down the street, and I would go over there to feed them a couple of times a day. They were very ferile (wild) and didn't trust me very much. You could tell the mother had been someone's pet at one time because she was friendly, but VERY protective of her kittens.

When I called the landlord of the house, he said that they were going to seal the foundation that day. So, I asked him if I could try to catch them so they wouldn't die. He had his construction employee bring out some live traps and we caught all but one (the most shy of the litter). Here is a picture of all the kittens in my bathtub. They were terrified!



So, for the next 3-5 weeks, I tamed the kittens one by one, and gave them away. It wasn't until about a week after catching these that we finally caught the last kitten. She was the most beautiful, but also the most terrified of them all. It was hard work socializing her. I didn't want to give her away to anyone because I knew she would be too scared, so I kept her until she was the only one left. By the end, she would sleep on my lap in the living room and BEG to be petted. It was such a fun and rewarding experience. Mindy ended up naming her Kalena, and I brought her to Virginia with the rest of my pets. Now she adores Mindy and is loving her new life.

This is one of the bravest kittens of the litter



another one of the more adventurous ones...I actually had to dig this one out of the foundation of the house after being stuck for 2 days. MY knuckles were bloody, but I felt good to have saved its life.



This one stole my heart quite a bit. She didn't like to be held much, but she loved to be petted, and was quite the talker. It was really hard to give her away.



I do have pictures of Kalena, but they aren't accessible right now. I'll have to put them on later.

In other news, Nathaniel and I are now living in Honduras! Today we are traveling to our temporary house in Siguatepeque. It should be exciting! I will post about that later, when I have more pictures.
We love you all!