It's just life these days.....

The bus has stopped breaking down (knock on wood), we have actually had a full week of school, our house is complete, I take a Spanish class three days a week. I have conquered all hurdles keeping me from routine. It’s just life now. It sure makes me happy.

Julie, Quinton and I went to Tela a few weekends ago for a relaxing time at the beach. Friday was a holiday so we didn’t have school, so on Thursday we left school a little early to catch the direct bus to the little beach town. We arrived in Tela during daylight, settled into our cheap hotel (blocks from the Caribbean Sea) and were so excited to be away from Siguatepeque. The evening was great. We had a great dinner of tipico (beans, crème, tortillas, grilled pork, eggs) and cervezas. After dinner we checked out the places along the beach. We has a margarita at this great little place on the “boardwalk” (it is not made of one piece of wood) were we were entertained by a mariachi band. The accordion player took my breath away, and the big fat man with the baritone voice gave me goose bumps. We didn’t stay out too late and fell asleep watching the first television I have seen in three months. I woke up about two hours later with what appeared to be food poisoning. I spent a rather unpleasant night vomiting in the bathroom with no toilet seat. The next day, I regained enough energy to lay on the beach. By 4pm Julie was feeling just as I had the night before. She was ill all night as well. We called our weekend quit’s Saturday and by the time we got back to Siguatepeque the rain had invaded and Quinton had his bout of vomiting. Our weekend turned out to be much gloomier than we had hoped for. At least we were home on Sunday to write our lesson plans.

This weekend we spent at home. It was the Bab’s birthday (a central figure in the Baha’i faith) and we had all intentions of going to the Baha’i center to learn a thing or two about this religion. Quinton, Julie and I took our laundry to the laundry place and got hungry for pizza. At the pizza place we met up with our friend Oscar who’s cousin owns the pizza restaurant. We lost track of time and missed the Bab’s birthday party. Oscar ended up coming over to our house to watch movies and hang out. Saturday we all lounged around all day and did absolutely nothing but make a big breakfast which we ate outside, watch a few episodes of Veronica Mars season one (thank you thank you thank you Lydia!!!) and play with the pets. Sunday was more of the same. Oso (our puppy!!!) had a bath and I spent an hour boiling chicken and rice for our princely cat, Memo.

At school this week we are giving the kids exams to mark the end of the first quarter. You should see the exam for first grade science. HA! I am not sure how appropriate final exams are for first graders. I think quizes are strange enough for these kids (who cannot read) much less something called a final exam. They will draw pictures for me, I guess. The end of next week we will have a music concert. It will be the big debut of Mister Sun, Animal Fair, The Wishy Washy Washer Woman, and Little Red Caboose! Will the children and parents of La Orquidea be able to handle the Outdoor School like flair of the event?!?! Will the children be able to pull it together without giggling? Only time will tell!

I must write more exams. love you all.