...after an eventful couple of days

One week and two class periods down. While I somewhat actually miss my students from last year (something I had trouble thinking possible), I am pretty ridiculously happy with this year's crop. Sure, there are always students who I know will give me trouble, but these kids are much more along the lines of what can be expected. Maybe it's because I know to expect something different from what I expected last year. They seem much savvier. I feel funnier. They can follow my ridiculousness much better than last year. They (knock on wood) don't talk as much. It all lends to a sense of increased optimism.

Yet school is not all there is to life in Honduras. I joined a gym for 263 lempiras a month. My roommates and I plan to go there twice a week. I'm in my bible more, although finding outlets for worship (at least ones where I can feel like I'm getting something out of it) down here appears as hard as ever. My moto has come back from the shop, although it's not seeming to be perfect. The new teachers seem very cool, particularly a few, and I have enjoyed getting to know them, although the married couples lend a distinctly new dynamic to the community. It rains every freaking day, which is good considering last rainy season's clear lack of rain caused problems with water supplies later in the year, but makes it very frustrating to try to ride the moto up to Kristin's house. We're taking bets (not literally) on the first day with no rain - I'm totally overshooting things with October 3, whereas the nearest guess to mine is September 7. Look who's going to be the most pleasantly proven wrong. I watched Predators (seriously?) at the theater with my roommates. Playing cards is back in full force. We bought a grill, and harbor vast fantasies of culinary adventures.

Motivation is still hard to come by. But life is in greater force two weeks in.

...which, it's important to note, is still Honduras for Hondurans, too

One thing I have to remind myself of frequently when down here is that, even though there are so many inconveniences to life in Honduras that make me wish I were just back home, I have a "back home." I have an address in the States I can send stuff to if I want to take advantage of a sale on Amazon or order a limited edition pressing of a record or t-shirt, knowing that I'll be able to pick it up when I go home in the next few months. I won't be here forever. Inconveniences down here are temporary.

Meanwhile, for my students, this life IS their life. This IS their "back home," inconveniences and all. Just because they deal with them every day doesn't make them less frustrating. Take today, for example. (By the way, it was the first day of school today.) Every year, the seniors make a grand entrance at the opening assembly. This year, the seniors had an elaborate plan of riding in on fire trucks and military vehicles. Yes, riding INTO the school grounds, with music blaring and yelling while hanging off the sides. Well, besides the fact that they only obtained one fire truck and had a short chain of random pick-ups behind, when the seniors had been planning this they didn't realize the school would randomly start building a large awning thing over the main entrance of the school, making the prospect of driving anything beyond the parking lot impossible. This meant all the students had to walk down to see them drive into the parking lot, siren blaring. However, because of the narrow nature of the walkway from the entrance up to the school buildings, only the few students in the front had a fair view, through the construction, of 70 seniors dancing and waving their arms. The whole "entrance" was hardly one, and I'm guessing many of the seniors are pretty disappointed that they were forced into a lackluster one.

So I may get frustrated, but at least I don't have to deal with the issues of Honduras as a simple fact of life beyond this year.

...with a bunch of new friends-to-be

I'm closing my second full day down here, looking forward to the 3rd night in my new bed, and I'm terribly excited to get to know the new teachers for this year. (I'm probably even more excited to be with the returning teachers for another year, but that might be a given.) Last night was a birthday party for Paula, and many folks were there. This afternoon/evening I went with Kristin to a number of the houses near her house and just hung out with the various teachers for a while. It was awesome.

I'm developing some of the good habits I know are necessary to have in order to thrive down here. I need to develop a couple more, but I think I'm miles ahead of where I was last year. God is good.

...hearing geckos and geese

I just heard the first gecko call. The "tchk tchk tchk tchk" that fooled me for far too long last year into thinking it was someone rapping on a neighbor's gate is a sound that is so distinctly Honduras to me. The thunder and lightning of the approaching nightly storm are getting brighter and louder. Our new house has neighbors 3 doors down with very loud, obnoxious geese. Neighborhood dogs egg each other on, as usual. Vehicles with engines far too loud for their own good race by on the nearby Anillo Periferico, or circular highway that goes around the city.

There is much more sound to the atmosphere of Honduras than the States, that is for sure.

...again, quite soon

Ok. I'll admit, the end of the school year and this summer has been much more eventful than my blogging has let on, i.e., more than "nothing" happened. I rather stumbled to the end of the year, spent a night in the Atlanta airport, arrived at home, and have been spending far too much money on going out to hang out with people, but making money at the same time on the farm. I took a trip to Chicago, a trip to Traverse City, purchased materials for a coffee table version of Wooly Willy, and have checked in with a psychologist that speaks my language natively.

I'm pretty okay with the idea of going back. It's going to be difficult, I know. I'm trying to take the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" school of thought. I'll let the second year bump in ease of teaching that I've been told of take its course (hopefully) and take things as they come.

I'm also hoping to implement a few new life strategies. Physical fitness. More intentional spirituality. Basically, being a better person and approaching life more intentionally. I'll bring a better journal down, re-implement it. I just want to use time more wisely and constructively. If I do that, it doesn't matter where I am.

I'll also try to keep this posted as frequently as possible. I'm told I'm a pretty good blogger when it comes to frequency of posting, and I'll try to keep that up, too.