The rusted ladder is the scary bridge we climbed to get to West Bay.
The cross is at the top of the Amigos property (standing 25 ft. tall).
The picture of the house is my home for the next year! :)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
La Playa, Helado, y Actividades... Si, Por Favor!
We returned this past Monday (the 12th) from Roatan for a long weekend vacation. It was B-E-A-U-tiful! We stayed in a little house that was across the street from the beach. You would literally walk out of our mini-resort and see palm trees with white lounge chairs and a backdrop of blue, turquoise, and completely clear water. It literally looked like the picture you find and put as your desktop background on your computer when it’s freezing cold and all you want to do is go to the beach, feel the warm sun on your face, stick your feet in the sand and listen to the peaceful noises the ocean has to share.
We got into Roatan Friday (the 9th) right around dinner time. We went out for pizza and arose early Saturday morning to start our activities. After getting breakfast a few of us went kayaking. As we were kayaking we realized that we were able to see right down to the bottom and decided to rent snorkel gear after lunch. The snorkel gear cost $5.00 to rent for an entire 24 hours. We decided to rent three sets between the nine of us. We then went straight out and while some snorkeled all the way out, through the entire bay and out into the ocean, a few of us decided to swim after them. We saw all sorts of different fish… some pretty plain and some that were spectacular and radiating with color!
As a few of us were out snorkeling the others came out in kayaks and before we knew it all nine of us were out in the ocean, knocking each other out of the kayaks and swapping snorkel gear. Talk about a great time!
Afterwards we laid out on the beach for a while and then went back to the house to get ready for dinner. We picked a great weekend to go on vacation, since we don’t have a TV in the house here at the hogar, because the Honduras/U.S. soccer game (winner would go to the World Cup) was on. The nine of us got dressed up and sat in a Thai restaurant, owned by a French man, watching the Honduras/U.S. soccer game at the bar. Talk about a night of culture! After the U.S. won J, we went out for drinks. We went to multiple bars including one where you were required to "walk the plank" to get into which meant crossing a 1 ½ ft. wide plank over the water into a platoon boat. We ended up at a bar with live music. I, of course, couldn’t help but dance and had a BLAST! I think what made it so much fun was that random people at the bar would come up and sing with the band, including freestylin’ to English songs, in Spanish and the indigenous languages of the Caribbean. Everyone was getting into it and just was a really fun atmosphere.
Sunday morning I woke up and walked with Erica to West Bay. It was about an hour walk down the beach from West End. On our walk we encountered sea urchins, slippery rocks, a rusted old bridge that we HAD to cross and finally made it to our destination which was even more beautiful and definitely worth the walk. Roatan is known for the West Bay beach. After snorkeling some more and laying on the beach, others from our community made their trek towards the West Bay beach as well. Each one with stories about crossing the rusted old bridge (which I took pics of and will have to upload- there were holes in the middle of the stairs to get up to the bridge and once at the top it felt like the wind was strong enough to blow the bridge over… but don’t worry Mom, Erica is a Civil Engineer and I had her look at the bridge before we crossed and she gave her approval ;) ).
Erica and I left (by water taxi) the rest of the gang to take back the snorkel gear. Afterwards we decided to grab nothing else but ice cream and ate it on the edge of a pier with our feet dangling off looking out at the beautiful ocean. Once everyone returned from the beach, Rita and I started to make community dinner in the house and we all ate outside on the porch. After dinner, we went to a double deck pier, climbed up to the second level and laid on our backs to admire the stars. Again, pretty awesome night!
We arose early Monday morning to travel the 11 hours back to the hogar by boat, taxi and 2 buses. SO worth it!
What’s the latest and greatest this week? Since we didn’t start work until Tuesday, this week has FLOWN by. Clare, our Volunteer Director, is coming today (Friday the 16th) to visit until Wednesday. We’re all really looking forward to seeing her! Especially the newbies b/c we are all wanting to bounce new ideas we have off of her as well as feel some relief in what we each are struggling with not only individually but as a community. The next 5 days should be very fruitful!
Hope you are all doing well! Please keep those prayer requests coming and know that you are all in my thoughts! It’s been hard not talking to everyone whenever I want and having to update people on my life through a blog. So, please don’t hesitate sending me updates on your lives as well! I want to hear how you’re all doing… email is hard to transfer all of these to the house laptop so if you’re interested in being my pen pal that’s great too! My address should be on one of my most recent blogs!
All my love,
Kate
We got into Roatan Friday (the 9th) right around dinner time. We went out for pizza and arose early Saturday morning to start our activities. After getting breakfast a few of us went kayaking. As we were kayaking we realized that we were able to see right down to the bottom and decided to rent snorkel gear after lunch. The snorkel gear cost $5.00 to rent for an entire 24 hours. We decided to rent three sets between the nine of us. We then went straight out and while some snorkeled all the way out, through the entire bay and out into the ocean, a few of us decided to swim after them. We saw all sorts of different fish… some pretty plain and some that were spectacular and radiating with color!
As a few of us were out snorkeling the others came out in kayaks and before we knew it all nine of us were out in the ocean, knocking each other out of the kayaks and swapping snorkel gear. Talk about a great time!
Afterwards we laid out on the beach for a while and then went back to the house to get ready for dinner. We picked a great weekend to go on vacation, since we don’t have a TV in the house here at the hogar, because the Honduras/U.S. soccer game (winner would go to the World Cup) was on. The nine of us got dressed up and sat in a Thai restaurant, owned by a French man, watching the Honduras/U.S. soccer game at the bar. Talk about a night of culture! After the U.S. won J, we went out for drinks. We went to multiple bars including one where you were required to "walk the plank" to get into which meant crossing a 1 ½ ft. wide plank over the water into a platoon boat. We ended up at a bar with live music. I, of course, couldn’t help but dance and had a BLAST! I think what made it so much fun was that random people at the bar would come up and sing with the band, including freestylin’ to English songs, in Spanish and the indigenous languages of the Caribbean. Everyone was getting into it and just was a really fun atmosphere.
Sunday morning I woke up and walked with Erica to West Bay. It was about an hour walk down the beach from West End. On our walk we encountered sea urchins, slippery rocks, a rusted old bridge that we HAD to cross and finally made it to our destination which was even more beautiful and definitely worth the walk. Roatan is known for the West Bay beach. After snorkeling some more and laying on the beach, others from our community made their trek towards the West Bay beach as well. Each one with stories about crossing the rusted old bridge (which I took pics of and will have to upload- there were holes in the middle of the stairs to get up to the bridge and once at the top it felt like the wind was strong enough to blow the bridge over… but don’t worry Mom, Erica is a Civil Engineer and I had her look at the bridge before we crossed and she gave her approval ;) ).
Erica and I left (by water taxi) the rest of the gang to take back the snorkel gear. Afterwards we decided to grab nothing else but ice cream and ate it on the edge of a pier with our feet dangling off looking out at the beautiful ocean. Once everyone returned from the beach, Rita and I started to make community dinner in the house and we all ate outside on the porch. After dinner, we went to a double deck pier, climbed up to the second level and laid on our backs to admire the stars. Again, pretty awesome night!
We arose early Monday morning to travel the 11 hours back to the hogar by boat, taxi and 2 buses. SO worth it!
What’s the latest and greatest this week? Since we didn’t start work until Tuesday, this week has FLOWN by. Clare, our Volunteer Director, is coming today (Friday the 16th) to visit until Wednesday. We’re all really looking forward to seeing her! Especially the newbies b/c we are all wanting to bounce new ideas we have off of her as well as feel some relief in what we each are struggling with not only individually but as a community. The next 5 days should be very fruitful!
Hope you are all doing well! Please keep those prayer requests coming and know that you are all in my thoughts! It’s been hard not talking to everyone whenever I want and having to update people on my life through a blog. So, please don’t hesitate sending me updates on your lives as well! I want to hear how you’re all doing… email is hard to transfer all of these to the house laptop so if you’re interested in being my pen pal that’s great too! My address should be on one of my most recent blogs!
All my love,
Kate
A Million Questions, Let the Journey Begin...
So Ive had this post for almost a week and a half, however our internet continues to go out so bear with me... ENJOY!
Hola Amigos!
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to compile an update. However, I just realized that I can start writing these blogs on the laptop we are given in the volunteer house and end up uploading it to the blog to save my hour of internet each week.
Anyways, I have now been at Amigos for almost four weeks! Time here has been amazing and I’m really enjoying myself thus far.
We arrived Saturday, the 19th, in the evening just in time for dinner. As we pulled up in the van the boys all ran to the gate and greeted us there, with Father Dennis O’Donnell, cheering with the biggest grins on their faces! At dinner we all introduced ourselves and then afterwards the boys were surprised with a piñata. One of the padrinos, (Honduran couples that come to live on the property to act as parental figures to the boys) Luis, was in charge of the piñata. He was getting so into it and excited and in that moment just felt like one big family as everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. The evening continued with 2 hours of dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album (which has been SUPER popular here in Central America ever since his recent death- pretty sure I’ve heard Thriller more here in the past 2 months than I have in my entire life!). It was a lot of fun to watch the boys dance and then for all of the volunteers to join in shortly after.
I also received a nickname that night that some of the boys still call me today. For some reason, that night, they thought I looked like Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter … most of the boys are obsessed with the movies). My hair is shorter after I got it cut in Guatemala and that day I scrunched it so it looked really curly. Also, the boys are not able to say “Kate” so the ones that can… do… and all of the rest call me “Kahtee” (when they draw me pictures or write me cards they write “Kati” or “Cati”). It’s pretty fun! Some of the volunteers just call me “Kahtee” as well.
Sunday we celebrated Mass in the chapel (which is the third level of the volunteer house) with Fr. Dennis O’Donnell. Afterwards we played with all of the boys and relaxed.
The first week was basically just us getting used to the property and the surrounding area. We went on a couple trips to Posas Verdes (a small town about a 10-15 min walk from the Amigos property) and Macuelizo (the main town in this area). We were also introduced to and had meetings with a few of the employees here at Amigos.
The past three weeks have been spent shadowing the current volunteers in action. We have observed classes, gone on social work trips (visiting families of some of the boys), delivered checks to those in our BECA program (a scholarship program for students in the outside communities), cleaned the boys dormitories, etc. After shadowing the volunteers we will be choosing our jobs at the beginning of next week.
I’m interested in taking over a few jobs here and looking forward to what I will accomplish in those jobs. My top choice at the moment is to be working in the social work area here at the hogar. My Spanish isn’t up to par at the moment so in order to take on that job I will need to really focus on improving my Spanish. I’m also incredibly interested in helping out with the BECA program and again, this requires me to improve my Spanish since I would be working with individuals in the surrounding communities. This is a challenge I want to overcome.
Last week I went I shadowed the older volunteers on a social work trip. We went to visit Nahun’s family (Nahun is mute, but can understand what is said to him). His mother didn’t know we were coming and so it was a beautiful blessing to watch them visit with one another both with FULL smiles. We also met Nahun’s two younger brothers and Nahun’s baby niece. Their home was two rooms, 1 for sleeping and the other with a bed and kitchen in it. AMAZING to think about all the rooms I have in my house and how some of them aren’t even used on a frequent basis. It just opened my eyes to a lot that I need to continually thank God for. I want to be involved in social work to have those constant reminders throughout this next year.
Another job idea I have, and am exceptionally excited about, is being the new physical education teacher. Physical education at the moment consists of the Honduran teachers throwing the kids a soccer ball and letting them go. Not all of the boys are interested in playing soccer so most of them sit out. Therefore, I look forward to taking over this position and creating fun and new activities for the enjoyment of all of the boys. I also plan on starting up a mini sports league for the boys here with at least futbol and ultimate frisbee as options.
Just excited b/c right now the newbies are all in a limbo stage and have lots of time on our hands (which I’m sure we’ll be dying for in a month or so) and sometimes we feel just frustrated b/c we want to get to work.
Hola Amigos!
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to compile an update. However, I just realized that I can start writing these blogs on the laptop we are given in the volunteer house and end up uploading it to the blog to save my hour of internet each week.
Anyways, I have now been at Amigos for almost four weeks! Time here has been amazing and I’m really enjoying myself thus far.
We arrived Saturday, the 19th, in the evening just in time for dinner. As we pulled up in the van the boys all ran to the gate and greeted us there, with Father Dennis O’Donnell, cheering with the biggest grins on their faces! At dinner we all introduced ourselves and then afterwards the boys were surprised with a piñata. One of the padrinos, (Honduran couples that come to live on the property to act as parental figures to the boys) Luis, was in charge of the piñata. He was getting so into it and excited and in that moment just felt like one big family as everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. The evening continued with 2 hours of dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album (which has been SUPER popular here in Central America ever since his recent death- pretty sure I’ve heard Thriller more here in the past 2 months than I have in my entire life!). It was a lot of fun to watch the boys dance and then for all of the volunteers to join in shortly after.
I also received a nickname that night that some of the boys still call me today. For some reason, that night, they thought I looked like Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter … most of the boys are obsessed with the movies). My hair is shorter after I got it cut in Guatemala and that day I scrunched it so it looked really curly. Also, the boys are not able to say “Kate” so the ones that can… do… and all of the rest call me “Kahtee” (when they draw me pictures or write me cards they write “Kati” or “Cati”). It’s pretty fun! Some of the volunteers just call me “Kahtee” as well.
Sunday we celebrated Mass in the chapel (which is the third level of the volunteer house) with Fr. Dennis O’Donnell. Afterwards we played with all of the boys and relaxed.
The first week was basically just us getting used to the property and the surrounding area. We went on a couple trips to Posas Verdes (a small town about a 10-15 min walk from the Amigos property) and Macuelizo (the main town in this area). We were also introduced to and had meetings with a few of the employees here at Amigos.
The past three weeks have been spent shadowing the current volunteers in action. We have observed classes, gone on social work trips (visiting families of some of the boys), delivered checks to those in our BECA program (a scholarship program for students in the outside communities), cleaned the boys dormitories, etc. After shadowing the volunteers we will be choosing our jobs at the beginning of next week.
I’m interested in taking over a few jobs here and looking forward to what I will accomplish in those jobs. My top choice at the moment is to be working in the social work area here at the hogar. My Spanish isn’t up to par at the moment so in order to take on that job I will need to really focus on improving my Spanish. I’m also incredibly interested in helping out with the BECA program and again, this requires me to improve my Spanish since I would be working with individuals in the surrounding communities. This is a challenge I want to overcome.
Last week I went I shadowed the older volunteers on a social work trip. We went to visit Nahun’s family (Nahun is mute, but can understand what is said to him). His mother didn’t know we were coming and so it was a beautiful blessing to watch them visit with one another both with FULL smiles. We also met Nahun’s two younger brothers and Nahun’s baby niece. Their home was two rooms, 1 for sleeping and the other with a bed and kitchen in it. AMAZING to think about all the rooms I have in my house and how some of them aren’t even used on a frequent basis. It just opened my eyes to a lot that I need to continually thank God for. I want to be involved in social work to have those constant reminders throughout this next year.
Another job idea I have, and am exceptionally excited about, is being the new physical education teacher. Physical education at the moment consists of the Honduran teachers throwing the kids a soccer ball and letting them go. Not all of the boys are interested in playing soccer so most of them sit out. Therefore, I look forward to taking over this position and creating fun and new activities for the enjoyment of all of the boys. I also plan on starting up a mini sports league for the boys here with at least futbol and ultimate frisbee as options.
Just excited b/c right now the newbies are all in a limbo stage and have lots of time on our hands (which I’m sure we’ll be dying for in a month or so) and sometimes we feel just frustrated b/c we want to get to work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)