This year school has been cancelled for Swine Flu, Politics, World Cup qualification, and now Agatha. Agatha is a Tropical Stormed turned Tropical Depression and it slammed into El Salvador, Guatemala, Southern Mexico and Honduras. Guatemala has especially been hit. Click here for an article on CNN with a CRAZY picture from Guatemala.
What does Agatha mean to me? My experiences with Agatha have been the following. Friday afternoon 4 other teachers and myself went to the beach for the weekend. We slept outside on Friday night, with the protection of a canopy. As one of the teachers said, "We were like vegetables in the grocery store with the misters on all night." We didn't get soaked but everything was very damp! Saturday morning the sun did manage to peak out for a little while, but we decided we were done being misted vegetables so we went home that afternoon. Which was a very smart choice because Agatha came rolling in Saturday night. It just rained A LOT all day on Sunday. The past 10 days have been pretty wet so the rivers were already pretty high and then with the heavy rainfall on Sunday the rivers started to flood. Tegucigalpa is in a bowl. There are mountains on all sides which does not serve well for drainage of all this water. The rivers and streams that flow through the city have over taken roads and have washed away bridges. In Honduras 17 people have died, 11 bridges have washed away, 63 homes have been destroyed, around 3500 people have been evacuated and 3000 people around are in shelters. And there are countless roads, bridges, homes, schools, businesses that have been damaged.
The infrastructure of this country cannot handle natural disasters. One of the problems is sewage. Many of the sewage lines have been destroyed and well now it is just flowing with the water. Awesome huh?
God is watching out for us. The sun was out most of the day helping the waters to go down. However the waters are still raging. There are still many areas that are under water and the country is still under a National State of Emergency. The government has shut down all schools as many schools are being turned into shelters. We are thankful for the days of rest, but at the same time these days come at a cost for so many people. I think of the farmers whose fields are being destroyed. The markets that are under water, the business that have feet of water in the buildings. How long will it take for the people to recover?
Pray for the people. Pray that the sun will come out tomorrow too. Pray that the waters will go down. God will provide, he is so much greater and stronger than these raging waters.
Pray for Guatemala too. Thursday a volcano erupted. Just so happens to be the volcano that I climbed 2 months a go. The ash and debris from the eruption is clogging the drains making the flooding worse.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Mathlete
This year is full of new experiences for me. Add Math Olympics to the list. Either my high school didn't participate in academic competitions, or I wasn't smart enough to be invited so I didn't know about them. :) I think I would have liked Math Olympics as a student. Each grade level has a team of 3 and together they have 2 hours to complete a test. It is a test of 20 questions and it is graded with a score of perfect score, superior, excellent, very good, or participation. 7th-9th grade out excellent scores, 10th-12th got superior. We are VERY proud of the kiddos. One of the math teachers has been here for 20 years and she can't remember the last time we did this well. Usually one of the classes gets a very good. Gold star for us!
A few details of the trip. One way it was 9.5 hours, in a school bus, in 90 degree weather, with 90% humidity, and we had to wear pants and a collared shirt. The day of the competition the teachers got there early to make the tests. What a chaotic mess. Lets just say, it took us 2 hours to make the test when they gave us an hour. But it all got done. I really enjoyed talking to the other teachers. All the schools that participated are bilingual and I was really impressed with their English. I expected broken English when really many spoke it without accents. 2 of the ladies that were in my group had studied industrial engineering, but now are math teachers. They said even though they were the top of their class, the men always get the jobs. They do enjoy teaching now and would never want an engineering job.
In other news...On Monday half of the 7th grade class was missing because they were at the funeral of a classmate's grandpa. I found it a bit odd that they would be going to the funeral of a grandpa so I asked them why they were going...The grandpa was a former president of Honduras. Oh the kids I teach.
Here is a great Honduran law for you...if a student fails my class for the year, he/she is given a chance to take a test to pass. This test is called a recoup. The test is made up of material of the quarters this student failed. So I get to make recoup tests for a handful of students, and each test will probably be different because they all have failed different quarters. Great huh? And then if they fail this test, they can take a test made up of material from the whole year. And then if they fail that test, they can take another test. And then if they fail that test, the teacher is asked to look over the tests to make sure they can fudge a point here or there. Just wrong...So I have that to look forward to.
Less than a month I'll be home!!!
A few details of the trip. One way it was 9.5 hours, in a school bus, in 90 degree weather, with 90% humidity, and we had to wear pants and a collared shirt. The day of the competition the teachers got there early to make the tests. What a chaotic mess. Lets just say, it took us 2 hours to make the test when they gave us an hour. But it all got done. I really enjoyed talking to the other teachers. All the schools that participated are bilingual and I was really impressed with their English. I expected broken English when really many spoke it without accents. 2 of the ladies that were in my group had studied industrial engineering, but now are math teachers. They said even though they were the top of their class, the men always get the jobs. They do enjoy teaching now and would never want an engineering job.
In other news...On Monday half of the 7th grade class was missing because they were at the funeral of a classmate's grandpa. I found it a bit odd that they would be going to the funeral of a grandpa so I asked them why they were going...The grandpa was a former president of Honduras. Oh the kids I teach.
Here is a great Honduran law for you...if a student fails my class for the year, he/she is given a chance to take a test to pass. This test is called a recoup. The test is made up of material of the quarters this student failed. So I get to make recoup tests for a handful of students, and each test will probably be different because they all have failed different quarters. Great huh? And then if they fail this test, they can take a test made up of material from the whole year. And then if they fail that test, they can take another test. And then if they fail that test, the teacher is asked to look over the tests to make sure they can fudge a point here or there. Just wrong...So I have that to look forward to.
Less than a month I'll be home!!!
Monday, May 3, 2010
2 months later...
So sometimes I forget to write. My bad.
What is going on as of late???
I HAVE A NIECE!!! She is beautiful and I am super thankful for her. I CANNOT wait to hold her and love her and feel her little heart beating against mine. Her birth has made me extra homesick, but the countdown is in the 40's so I CAN DO IT!!!
Today I just had to laugh at this...Most kids put their assignment in their book to keep it safe, or a folder, or a binder, or they give it to me. One of my students folds it into 8ths and stores it in his wallet. So today when I was checking their assignment he pulls out his wallet and among about 6 other assignments, he pulls out his math assignment. Pretty smart, because your wallet is definitely one thing you make sure is safe!
When we left for Spring Break there was rumor that we were going to have to go into serious water rationing. Even before we left, the water was being rationed. Our big tank was filled every 3 days. If it ran out before, too bad so sad you will be smelly. We never ran out, but we did get low! Anyway, there was rumor that it was going to be moved to every 3 WEEKS that we would get water. Well God heard our prayers and we have been having CRAZY storms. The thunder will shake the walls, it is pretty awesome. And the rain, well the rain is great. However rain means more bugs which is not good for some. I am not suffering from the bugs, but others are getting eaten alive which is no fun.
I am currently reading the book 'Follow Me to Freedom' by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins. It is a book about being a Christian leader and what that means. It is challenging me to think about who I might be leading and where I am leading them to. And also where God might be calling me to be in a leadership role. Sometimes I wonder why God called me to Honduras. I believe it was to strip me of all the comforts and routine of life. I left a community of people who knew me and appreciated me. I left behind being able to fly home on a whim if my heart desired. I left behind my cell phone, my car, my amazing bed, everything...God is teaching me that He is all I need. I was stripped of every comfort that I had and was forced and still am forced to rely on Him; to KNOW Him. He has put people in my life to encourage me to find my everything in Him. "The Christian life is about surrounding ourselves with people who like like someone we want to become, people who may be a few steps ahead of us on the journey." Does this mean surround yourself only with people who are amazing Christians? No. It means your inner circle, your bff's, your homie g's need to be able challenge you and hold you accountable. So that in turn together we can reach out. A leader can't lead by his/herself. We need each other. I am truly thankful for my bbf's, my homie g's, my family. I feel like God is guiding me into something, some sort of leadership role somewhere somehow, we'll wait and see what that is!
We have 29 days of school left. I am trying my best not to be anxious for the summer. God is teaching me patience!
What is going on as of late???
I HAVE A NIECE!!! She is beautiful and I am super thankful for her. I CANNOT wait to hold her and love her and feel her little heart beating against mine. Her birth has made me extra homesick, but the countdown is in the 40's so I CAN DO IT!!!
Today I just had to laugh at this...Most kids put their assignment in their book to keep it safe, or a folder, or a binder, or they give it to me. One of my students folds it into 8ths and stores it in his wallet. So today when I was checking their assignment he pulls out his wallet and among about 6 other assignments, he pulls out his math assignment. Pretty smart, because your wallet is definitely one thing you make sure is safe!
When we left for Spring Break there was rumor that we were going to have to go into serious water rationing. Even before we left, the water was being rationed. Our big tank was filled every 3 days. If it ran out before, too bad so sad you will be smelly. We never ran out, but we did get low! Anyway, there was rumor that it was going to be moved to every 3 WEEKS that we would get water. Well God heard our prayers and we have been having CRAZY storms. The thunder will shake the walls, it is pretty awesome. And the rain, well the rain is great. However rain means more bugs which is not good for some. I am not suffering from the bugs, but others are getting eaten alive which is no fun.
I am currently reading the book 'Follow Me to Freedom' by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins. It is a book about being a Christian leader and what that means. It is challenging me to think about who I might be leading and where I am leading them to. And also where God might be calling me to be in a leadership role. Sometimes I wonder why God called me to Honduras. I believe it was to strip me of all the comforts and routine of life. I left a community of people who knew me and appreciated me. I left behind being able to fly home on a whim if my heart desired. I left behind my cell phone, my car, my amazing bed, everything...God is teaching me that He is all I need. I was stripped of every comfort that I had and was forced and still am forced to rely on Him; to KNOW Him. He has put people in my life to encourage me to find my everything in Him. "The Christian life is about surrounding ourselves with people who like like someone we want to become, people who may be a few steps ahead of us on the journey." Does this mean surround yourself only with people who are amazing Christians? No. It means your inner circle, your bff's, your homie g's need to be able challenge you and hold you accountable. So that in turn together we can reach out. A leader can't lead by his/herself. We need each other. I am truly thankful for my bbf's, my homie g's, my family. I feel like God is guiding me into something, some sort of leadership role somewhere somehow, we'll wait and see what that is!
We have 29 days of school left. I am trying my best not to be anxious for the summer. God is teaching me patience!
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