Sorry (as always) for the absence. I've been trying to get my body and energy back to 100% since our busy, busy, beach weekend. Looks like I caught some nasty virus, so as I'm on the final stretch of getting better, my sweet pup is getting over a nasty rash, and my car is also recovering from its latest trip to the shop.

Currently we've been working hard in the bilingual school as second semester started back in January. With spring break right around the corner (and spring break groups who come to visit at JEC), we're neck deep in multiplication, charts, ABC's (for our newest boy), and pen pals. So today I'm going to talk about what each of our 7 boys are currently working on at the bilingual school.

Nelson is the oldest (above), and Antony is the youngest (below), so I'll start with them. Nelson is in his final year at Alison Bixby Stone, and he's literally smarter than I am. I'm not being silly - I'm being honest. He's currently learning the basics of social media, e-mail, and how to work with computers. The school we are hoping (and praying) to send him to next year, Del Campo International School, uses iPads for their lessons in class, so its great Nelson is getting a good base now to prepare him for the big transfer to "high school" (here starts at 7th grade). Of course, he's Facebook crazy right now - already addicted - and I hate that, but it is good for him to learn. The picture was taken last year at a mother's day luncheon where we won a Twix bar for winning a game of bilingual bingo.

Antony just started this semester in kindergarten, and he turned 6 a week after he was accepted into the school. A space opened up, so we grabbed the opportunity and ran with it. The bilingual school rarely has space available, since each grade (nursing-6th) only has 1 class per grade (max 18 students per class). Of course he cried the first few days, since the other kids have spent 5 months listening to the teacher (who is Colombian, yet speaks awesome English) talk and give instructions in english. So after a few weeks, he knows the basics - "hello, teacher", "how are you", "eat", "sit", "go".. you get the idea. We're working at home on singing and learning the ABC song... so sweet :)

Cristian - always gets respect awards at school for great behavior

Daniel - who clearly is enthusiastic about being on cross-guard duty.

Luis Fernando... who's insane and never sits still (but I love him  so much)

Norman (the monster) who is practically fluent in english and in 3rd grade

The four boys we have in 3rd grade are all about math right now. Lots of graphs, times tables, division, and word problems (duh duh duh). Some are really catching on, and others are not. We're working very  hard to memorize, study, and in the mean time keep studying spanish, reading in both languages each day, and working on calligraphy. Needless to say, 3rd grade has our hands full to the max right now.

Jose Alexander... the one in the sunglasses (haha!)

Jose Alexander is the last boy we have in Alison, and he's in second grade. Jose struggles a bit more than the average joe because of the amount of malnutrition he suffered when he was a newborn. Although memorization of numbers, letters and other basic elements of english (and even spanish) are challenging for Jose, he speaks and understands the language extremely well for someone in second grade. So we make sure to speak in english at home to practice, always working on writing our numbers and letters as often as possible. We are also working on words like "big, bigger, biggest", "small, smaller, smallest" and matching the word with the pictures of different things. *I'm sure there is some proper or more professional way to say this, but remember I studied international business in college... so that's the best everyone's going to get.* This picture was taken over a year ago, but it's so Jose.. so I had to include it.

With that update on these sweethearts, the one last detail would be we are always looking for donations for these boys' educations. Two have scholarships at the actual school, two have full time sponsors for their educations, and then the rest are paid from purely from donations made by people like you. Since Antony is new, we are looking for donors to pay for the spring semester. For such an amazing education, this school is very affordable for a private, bilingual education. The monthly cost to attend is roughly $220 with a one time enrollment fee of $248. If you or anyone you know would like to help, please contact me! The education these boys are receiving is changing their lives!!

Hope everyone had a special Valentine's day. The boys here had a school-wide party, so our contribution was coke, chocolate and brownies (per the boys' requests). Everyone went home with full bellies and happy hearts. The previous picture is outside my bedroom at my house. My mom sent a few valentine's goodies via Lindy, who came down for our annual beach trip.  It made me feel a little bit more love down here in Honduras.

Hasta la playa, neña!

A week ago today we packed up two, school-size buses, three of our work vehicles, and Jovenes en Camino headed south. 

An annual beach trip was something our director, Ronald Millon, wanted to make a priority at the beginning of each year. Not only is it special for the boys, but we also extend the invite to all employees and their families. This being said, we also let the families know the trip is in no way luxurious. We sleep on a concrete floor inside a hot church in Choluteca, where even the night temperatures are over 80 degrees. Plus you sleep inside along with 120 people, so you can imagine the body heat generated. 

Therefore not everyone always comes, but most decided they wanted to bare the heat this year. We headed out on Friday midday and returned Sunday afternoon. Luckily a church in Choluteca (about an hour away from the beach) always opens their doors for us to sleep and use their bathrooms/other facilities to call home for that weekend. 

This year I drove my car along with my 4 friends who visited, Scat, Richy, Lindy (Wendy), and Cassie. We packed up fans, sleeping bags, and snacks for the road trip we had ahead of us. The boys followed behind on the big, blue JEC bus, and we arrived just as dusk was settling in Choluteca.

After a church in Barrio Brazil led a devotional, they fed us dinner and each of the boys got a “welcome cupcake”. We set up camp, played soccer, and got ready for the busy day ahead of us on Saturday.

This year we decided to join Ronald and his family on the “terrace”. This means we slept outside under the stars on the second level where only the roof has been poured - no walls, no sides, etc. My mom would’ve died. No one slept close to the edge, and luckily being hot was not one of my concerns. The night wind kept us chilly, so my beach towel and twin air mattress were my best friends. *Picture credit to my friend, Cassie.

Saturday (early) we got up, watched the boys bath in the river behind the church and got ready for the short hour drive to Cedeño. The water was chilly early morning with lots of wind, so again, we lucked out since the south in Honduras is known for extremely hot and humid days. After helping the boys get sunscreen-ed up (yes, Hondurans still wear sunscreen) we hit the water. Here people swim in clothes (shorts, tshirt) as a cultural thing. Even though it felt weird, I didn’t have to worry about burning this time! 

Our big treat on Saturday is a local fisherman always prepares fried fish (the whole thing, eyes and all, baby), banana chips, and repollo (salad). The boys go crazy over this, so we all sit under the tiki huts with our feet in the sand and fill our bellies. 

After lunch I had helped orchestrate the best surprise ever for my best friend, Sarah Catherine. Her boyfriend and I had been in communication since New Years to discuss how he would pull off the surprise engagement of the century. 

Needless to say, she was surprised and everything went as planned. She and I met while in Honduras, so it only seemed fitting to help her beau pull it all off in her favorite place in the world. 

Saturday night we headed back to Choluteca, celebrated Scat and Richy’s engagement at KFC, and then watched the boys play soccer until late. Sunday morning early meant church, and then it was back to reality.

My friends headed home on Monday, then we all decided to get sick in different ways. Today is my first full day back at work, so thank goodness we’re all getting back in the groove of things. 

The boys had an amazing trip and all came back exhausted before starting the new school year (public school boys) on Monday. Needless to say no one wanted to get up Monday at 5:30 in the morning. 
Here's a picture of the boys all ready to walk to school at 6 AM. 

Excited, right???