The End

Nathaniel and I would like to inform any viewers and followers e have left that we will no longer be using this blog, as it is no longer working correctly. We now have a new blog, which you can find at www.nathanielandmallori.blogspot.com. Notice that we have reversed the order of our names from the current URL. If you follow this blog, please discontinue, and follow the new one. Thanks!!!

You Betta Belize it!

I recently had quite the adventure traveling with my friend, Amanda, to Belize to renew our passports. Central America has this silly rule that you must travel at least 2 countries away and stay for at least 48 hours in order to renew your visa for another 90 days. So, we packed our bags and set out for Placencia, Belize.

To make a long story short, 10 buses, 4 boats, and 2 taxis later, we arrived at our destination. It took us a full 12 hours to get there! We were so exhausted! I wish I could put up some pictures of the peninsula known as Placencia, because it was SO BEAUTIFUL. However, since I can't, you'll have to check out my profile on Facebook to see them.

We had a great time hanging out on the beach, eating at the local "De'Tach" restaurant, or trying to understand the Creole that the locals were speaking.

All in all, it was a great trip, even though we got stuck in San Pedro (about 2 hours away from home) because we got there too late and there were no buses running to Sigua that night. So, we ended up missing an additional day of school which would not have been avoided.

We got back to school on Wednesday, taught for one day, then learned that the school was going to be closed until after semana santa due to a throat virus that is running rampant in the school. Please pray for the health and safety of all the students and staff.

God Bless you all!

The Beach!

I have decided, as you can see, to update this thing despite the technical difficulties I am having. A lot has been going on recently, both at the school and outside of it. Last weekend, me, Nathaniel, and 2 of our friends (amanda and amanda) FINALLY got to go the beach!!! I planned the whole trip, since it was my turn, and I decided we should go to a remote carribbean beach. I chose a remote place because it gets you out away from the pollution so the water actually looks blue, not brown. It was SO beautiful. You can see pictures on my facebook account. The best part was that the weather channels all said it was supposed to rain, but praise the Lord, it turned out to be a gorgeous day!

At school, things are down to the normal daily grind. We are about 1/2 way through partial 3, and its nothing out of the ordinary. I let my kids watch Cars (the movie) this week, but this time with English subtitles instead of Spanish. It was cool to see them translate phrases they knew, and get excited because they could understand something.

Personally, I've been having a good time here. It was great to get our of sigua for a weekend and see something new again. We also recently discovered that Sigua has a great public pool, so we will definitely be hitting that up from now on! March is going to be a busy busy month, with having to take a trip to Belize to renew passports, My parents visiting for Semana Santa, Nathaniel's parents visiting the week after that, etc etc. I Can't wait!!

I'm not sure what's going on...

I just want to inform everyone that I really do want to update this thing, but for some reason, they have removed all the links to add pictures, videos, or anything else cool. I;m not sure what's going on with it, but I'm going to try to update it to the latest version. In the meantime, you can check out my school blog at www.destinodelreinoenglish.blogspot.com

Thanks, and sorry!

If I'm gonna be cold, I'd rather be in the Ocean!

Last week, a group from our home church in Greenwood, IN was in Honduras for a mission trip. It was so great getting to see everyone from home, and share our lives with them again. I probably looked like a kid in a candy store waiting at the San Pedro Sula airport for them to come out of customs. The trip was a great success, with a couple hundred salvations, and a few instantaneous miracles. The team spent a couple of days here in Sigua, a couple in San Pedro, a couple in the mountains, and 1 in Tela (a beautiful coastal town). I was so excited to go with them to Tela since I have been trying to experience the turquise waters of the Caribbean since we got here. Unfortunately, it rained the ENTIRE time we were there. We were at a beautiful resort that was right on the ocean, but also had a huge, gorgeous pool. It was the low season, so we pretty much had all of this to ourselves.

A group of us decided that no matter what the weather, we were going to swim. So, we put on our bathing suits and ran out into the pouring rain to jump in the pool. It was kind of chilly, but fun anyway. Pastor Scott decided that if we were going to be cold, he would rather be in the ocean, so off we ran. Turns out, this was a bad idea because there was no shelter from the wind and rain, which pelted you like hail, and the churning water was very dirty. So, we ran back into the pool and played volleyball for about 1 1/2 hours. FUN!

here is a picture of only one small section of the HUGE pool.



And one of the ocean...notice the red flag and all the waves.



Here is a picture of Jill and Ranen...so cute!



And one of the children's crusade on the central plaza.



And a precious one of my worst students praying the prayer of salvation.



And finally, Pastor Scott at the hotel in Tela being goofy during a game of Farkle.



On another note, my 5th graders have recently become alarmingly proficient in their limited knowledge of the English language, and are quickly becoming my favorite class. There are fewer of them, and they are older which makes them fun to work with. They now constantly use English phrases for things they need in class such as "I am finished", "Can we play a game", and "How do you say...". I usually end up starting class 15 minutes late every day because they are bombarding me with questions about English, American culture, etc. Of course, I don't mind this at all, even if they are just trying to distract me! I have one precious student named Lorena who is very smart, but hasn't quite figured out sentence structure yet. If she doesn't know what to say, she inserts the word "the". For example, almost every day in class she asks: "Teacher Mallori, the finish the class the play the game?" I haven't had the heart to correct her yet because its more important to me that she's trying. Someday maybe I will find the right time to do so.

Here are some group pictures of the class. I tried to make them take a serious one first, but we ended up with some bunny ears anyway.



Just the boys:



And just the girls:



If you care to know details about my classes at Destino, please feel free to visit and/or follow my other blog designed specifically to keep sponsors informed. The URL is:
http://destinodelreinoenglish.blogspot.com

Love you all!

GGOOOAAAALLL!!!

I never thought I'd get to the place in this country where things start to seem mundane and normal, but I have. My days are filled with school, meetings, and sometimes church. Things have calmed down since the political crisis to "talking" and trying to come to a conclusion in a "civilized" manner.

Yes, things had calmed down quite a bit, until.....

We were at home last night, minding our own business, when we heard a ton of cheering, honking, and fireworks. We knew there was a Honduras soccer game on, so we figured they must have won. When it didn't stop after about 10 minutes, we got on the internet to see what had happened. Well, as it turned out, they ended up getting into the World Cup. If you know Honduras, you know that is all this little country has ever dreamed of. Our friends, the Aplicanos', in San Pedro were crying and couldn't stop because they were so happy. In fact, its such a big deal, that the government declared the next day (today) a government holiday, and closed all government buildings and offices! WOW.

Needless to say, all the kids were in a great mood today.

I don't really have too many pictures to share, but lately I have really enjoyed the bus ride home because I always sit with Stefany, one of my students. She speaks English pretty well, and between her English and my Spanish, we tend to have pretty good Spanglish conversations. Here is a picture of us on the bus.



Nathaniel has been traveling a bit with John DuBose, the pastor of the local bilingual church here. A couple of weeks ago, they went to a remote mountain village to attend a service. This is one of the places that the November team might visit. Here are a couple of shots from that trip.

John DuBose is on the left, NAthaniel is on the right. The man in the middle is the pastor of the church they visited.


And a shot of the congregation:



I should have some more pictures soon, as the American teachers and I are planning a trip to a nearby lake called Lake Yojoa next weekend. Travel is so inexpensive here, and the lake is less than an hour away. It'll be a good way to spend our 3 day weekend.

We love you all, and thanks for your prayers!

Banana, Banana, Banana

So, I just got back from an amazing weekend in the Jungle rain forest on the north-eastern coast of Honduras! I went with 2 other English teachers at Destino, Amanda and Amanda Marie. It was such a beautiful place, with all kinds of neat outdoors activities. The best part is, it was really cheap!

So,I mustered up all my courage and headed out on a 5 hour bus ride. We arrived in La Ceiba at dinner time and ate at a yummy pizza hut, then headed into the jungle for some quality time with mother nature. The plan was to stay the night in the dormitory of the place (called Jungle River Lodge), then do some White Water Rafting and Zip lining on saturday, then head back on sunday.

As it turns out, the river was very low due to very little rain in September, so we couldn't do as much rafting as we wanted to. Therefore, to fill the time, our tour guides took us on a hike up the river to jump off some tall rocks that are normally submerged. Then, we floated back down the rapids to our rafts. Here is a picture of me getting ready to go rafting.



And me with all my gear.



There were tons of really tall rocks to jump off of. Most of them were at least 5 meters above the water. I really thought about jumping off this one. Here's me thinking. I'm the one squatting down.



almost...



But no. In the end, I chickened out. Maybe its because when my friend jumped, she got bloody gums.

Here are some action shots of us rafting.








Jungle River had a resident Macaw. If you know me at all, you know I'd be in heaven with a bird like that. And I was, even though you couldn't hold it. It did talk though. It said "Hola" and "Hello".



I also very much enjoyed the hammocks they had. We had lots of good conversation in these.



Now, on to the Zip lining. What a blast! I was really nervous about this because I was afraid of a free-falling feeling. It wasn't scary at all, though, and our guides gave us a tour through the Jungle and showed us lots of really neat plants. Here is me practicing with the guide.



and a real one.



And the three of us.



It was probably one of the most fun times Ive had in a long time. Maybe next time Nathaniel will be able to go with me. More to come soon! Feel free to leave comments! Love you all.