Utila adventure

We recently had a visit from my mom and brother Casey. They came to Honduras for 2 weeks and we got to spend a week with them on one of the bay islands and then a week showing them around Copan. Here are some pictures from our adventure on Utila.


My mom rented a house on the beach. This is a picture David took of the sunrise the first morning we were there. He was sitting in the backyard. Out in the water about 50 yards from the short wall was a coral reef. We carefully walked out there on the sand then then snorkeled and saw many beautiful fish.
David and Zach were very excited to go out in the reef and had to try on the gear for size. They also wanted to try and improve their tan since the only tan they get here in Copan is a farmers tan due to the polo shirts we have to wear for uniforms. When we were snorkeling we saw a stingray, brightly colored fish, many parrotfish. We couldn't help but think of finding Nemo as we explored the reef.
The tans however did not work out as planned. This is after applying a lot of sunscreen. Zach's back was the best. He put on sunscreen and then sat on a wooden beach chair waiting for us to be ready. The wooden chair absorbed the sunscreen so he burned in a nice striped pattern.
One of the days in Utila we rented a golf cart and set off on the island. We had a lot of fun testing the limits of the cart. Another day we took a boat trip to a couple different beaches and the keys off of Utila. We had a very strange driver who barely spoke to us about what we were going to do. At one point we found ourselves stranded on an island hoping he was going to come back and pick us up.

On the last day we went to swim and it started raining while we were there. As we were riding bikes back to the house it started to downpour. We later admired the tropical storm from our back porch.

Overall we had a very nice trip. Our only complaint were the sand fleas who despite the amount of bug stuff we applied still seemed to eat us up.

David and Zach went exploring some caves. We were able to eat a nice variety of foods and celebrated many GOLDEN birthdays. Casey turned 21 on March 21st which was while we were on the island. David turned 24 on March 24th which was after we got back to Copan.

For his birthday I got David a GPS which is something he has been wanting. He thinks it is awesome and has been using to track all sorts of things. He informs me now that our walk to school is 1.4 miles. Thank you GPS...now we know how far we walk and our average speed not to mention so much more.

Happy Birthday David!!!

Also, David really likes coconuts. At the house where we stayed there were many coconut trees and David cut a coconut down each day.

We have had quite an exciting week this week and want to share a little bit before we head out to our next adventure. First, our friend Lissa is visiting. She and her husband Eric have been living in Costa Rica and Nicaragua for the past 6 months. They are now traveling around Central America before they head back to the United States in May. Currently Eric is in El Salvador participating in the election they are having there and Lissa came to visit us for the week. We went to the bird park and got to hold some of the beautiful Macaws.

This is a picture after Lissa tried to pick up one of the bird and he bit her finger. The blue on on the left likes to leave his mark by biting a hole in your shirt. He did that to everyone there that held him.
Friday the fifth grade classes had a field trip to the ruins. They have been studying the Mayans in their Social Studies class and so the Spanish teacher organized a trip. We luckily got to go along and better yet got a day off of teaching classes. We had a very long tour but enjoyed our day. Lissa got to come along.

This is my 5th grade class. There are 14 students and recently I am coming to realize how much I love these students. Lissa came in and taught art classes this week. I think sharing my class with her made me realize how lucky I am to have such great students and how I have a good relationship with all of them.
In David's classes this week they had Mathlympics. What is this...you may ask. Pretty much it is a way fool kids into taking many quizzes. He had a topic for each day and all 4 classes in secondary took the same quizzes. Everyone's scores were tracked and each class had gold, silver and bronze medal winners. On Friday they had the closing ceremony complete with ribbons, pie or cake and a movie. This was all started to celebrate pi day which actually is today (3.14 or March 14). It was a success and many students came by all week to check their standings in the competition.
Medals for the winners made out of....chocolate.
Proud medal winners in 7th grade. They even showed off their medals to other teachers in other classes.Last of all...last weekend we visited a waterfall in a nearby town. We hiked to it and it was in a beautiful spot between some nice rocks.

Well thats about all. We are heading out for Utila, one of the bay islands, tomorrow. My mom is coming to visit and we are taking some time off of school to spend with her on the coast. We are so excited about a vacation!

Fun Day and Field Trips

The school's anniversary was this month so we had a full week of fun. Each day was a different theme day all week. At the end of the week we had a 'Fun Day' which means a half day of school where the teachers put on a sort of carnival. We had frisbee toss, face painting, food, a water slide, music, a soccer tournament, an eating contest and much more. These are some brothers who are competing in a tortilla on a string eating contest.
Some of the 5th grade boys as they wait for their team's turn in the soccer tournament.
The teachers having "FUN" on Fun Day. Perhaps this is after the kids went home.
A couple of weekends ago we went to Agua Caliente, a natural hot spring, to celebrate another teacher's birthday. The highlight of the trip was getting to ride for an hour in the back of a pick up. We enjoyed standing up as we went bumping down the dirt road enjoying no seat belt laws. It was awesome.

David has been taking a few field trips with his middle school students. For an art class they hiked up to Llanatillos, an aldea (a small village) oustide of town. We visited this place back in the fall. They make pottery up there so the students learned the process and even got to buy clay to make their own pieces. As usual the educational part lasted only a few minutes and then the students spent the rest of the time playing soccer with the little children at the school up there.
This sign is a welcome sign except it should say Bienvenido. We often see signs where people mix up their "v" and "b".
Maria, the woman making the pottery, constructed this beautiful pot in a mere 5 minutes.

A week later, David went again with the secondary students on another field trip. This time it was for PE class and they hiked up to La Pintada. This is the village where they make corn husk dolls and weave cloth.
David may have found a new profession.
They also spent time visiting the small school in La Pintada.
On the way home they stopped at "Los Sapos" which means the frogs and is a small ruin site. After seeing the main ruins in Copan these just look like a bunch of rocks. Supposedly it is a Mayan fertility site.

Well that is a glimse as to what we have been up to lately. Each day the weather changes so we never know what to expect. We hear that this is the coldest Feb/March they have had in a long time and we should have had hot summer weather for a long time by now. The sun is shining today and we hope we've had the last of the cold.