GOING TO THE WORLD CUP!

VAMOS AL MUNDIAL? Am I talking about the USA or Honduras? BOTH!!! This could not have gotten better.

As Honduras played El Salvador, USA also played Costa Rica. Honduras beat Costa Rica 1-0. However, this win would not give them enough points to qualify them for the World Cup unless Costa Rica lost. USA was losing to Costa Rica the entire game until the last 25 seconds of the game and USA scored to tie the game 2-2. This allows Honduras to have enough points to qualify for the World Cup 2010. Amazing!

People are everywhere in the streets, cheering, cars honking, yelling. It's pure Honduran style.

To top it all off: President Michelleti came on the television to announce a National Holiday for tomorrow. So, NO SCHOOL!
Oh and this is from my principal:
Because this is such a wonderful thing that has not happened since 1982 here in Honduras, we will not have classes due to their qualifying for the World Cup. Enjoy the day off and please do not stress over another day lost.

Heck, I won't stress! I'll celebrate with the best of them (and did so)! :)

We headed into the thick of it all to join in the fun. Went to Blvd Morazan, funny that after living here a while that I actually run into people I know out and about (Rachel, I ran into the boys from AquaSplash), ate at Burger King, cheered with the rest, talked with people, and people watched.

Highlights:

Kaytie at Burger King ordering a "Crispy Chicken from the EconoWendy's menu". She was ordering Wendy's at Burger King. I about fell on the floor. We laughed hard over this. Like we weren't already a sight before.

Getting yelled at "Hey gringo, thank you!" Or Aaron getting hugged by other men and being told thank you because basically the USA's tie allowed Honduras to be in the World Cup.

People walked up to us, gave us high-fives or hand shakes to thank us.

Watching people shake cars as they drive by. It's their weird way of celebrating and fun to watch. No mom, I didn't do it myself. Thought about it though. :)


My two favorite countries are in the World Cup 2010. Can't wait til June!

One trip at a time

So where did we go this time? To San Pedro Sula, Honduras to watch the Honduras vs. USA soccer game. So who did I cheer for? I guess one would have to ask with me. I cheered for Honduras. Why you ask? Well for many reasons:
1. I didn't want to get killed...haha
2. I already knew that the USA was basically qualified for the World Cup 2010. This game wouldn't have hurt much.
3. This country has been so divided over the political situation lately that I wanted to see the country united over what they agree on the best....soccer. Plus, I like to root for the underdog.

With all my heart I cheered loudly for them and found myself exhausted at the end of the game once the adrenaline was done racing through my veins.

Final Score: USA 3- Honduras 2 (Just as I actually predicted although hoped for differently)

Check out the pictures from this link: (if it'll work)
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=2083712&id=15305745&ref=nf

Also, I was awarded "Teacher of the Month"...but not really. More like awarded in appreciation for the work I do for the school with the North American Community. It was an absolute surprise today. Happened at the general teacher's meeting in the afternoon. Thankfully I was paying attention and not grading! Nice to be thanked. :)

Oh and I get to teach this Saturday. Fabulous, huh? We've lost so many school days already this year due to flu and political problems that we have to make up days here and there. So option one, teach on Saturday. Sense my enthusiasm yet? One day off in a two week stretch....should be exhuasting!

Little by little

So life is coming back to normal little by little. It's over a week now since Mel Zelaya returned to Honduras and has been camping out in the Brazilian Embassy here in Honduras. Yesterday also marked 3 months since all this mess began when he was ousted.

So, let me be honest, a week has felt like months! Let me give a quick recap:
Monday: Mel returns and we got on lockdown at 4pm
Tuesday: entire country on lockdown all day!
Wednesday: curfew lifts during day and we spend 5 hours in a supermarket fighting for food
Thursday: we return to school for a half day, curfew at 5pm
Friday: curfew at 8
Saturday: didn't go anywhere, stress had made me sick as a dog and curfew started at 6
Sunday: Managed to go to church, which was such a relief to see some of my friends, curfew at 9pm
Monday: curfew at 10pm! quite the change and a half day of school
Tuesday: half day of school and curfew starting at 10pm

So my life has consisted of sending emails alerting the North Americans, half days of school, pretty much going no where, and not taking public transportation at all. I think I'm ready to start braving it! You only have one life, might as well live it fully!

So tomorrow is Wednesday and we are suspecting to have a full day of school.

Why are things returning back to normal? Because Honduras is able to do things with it's constitution that other nations can't. The following articles of the Honduran Constitution have been suspended
for the next 45 days (until November 11, 2009):

Article 69: The right to personal freedom
Article 72: Freedom of Speech
Article 78: Freedom of Association
Article 81: Freedom of Movement
Article 84: The right to due process _

For the next 45 days, the defacto regime has stated that the local and
national police, at times to be assisted by the military, will arrest
individuals for the following reasons:

* Disobeying announced curfew, or appearing to engage in
suspicious activities
* Gathering in public without prior approval from police and
military forces
* Carrying out media announcements violating the law or government
resolutions , or offending human dignity or any public official

So basically anyone who wants to support Mel right now can plan on being arrested. That's the only thing that is bringing peace back around. It's only a band-aid to the problem; however, it's allowing some relief.

Check out this lady's blog for more info. http://lagringasblogicito.blogspot.com/

Keep praying for Honduras and honestly, praying for me as two jobs in all of this has proven to be quite the responsibility!

Another day

So today has been unlike the others...thankfully. Last night at 8:30pm we found out after having already been told school was canceled that we would in fact have school. I was frustrated. I thought it was ridiculous. Who in the world would find out?

Well, more people than I thought would found out and chose to come to school. I had 13 out of my 24 students attend classes today. They were antsy after having been couped up too and not sure what to make of all this; however, overall it was good. It was good to be back to "normal". Normal crazy IST that is. :) It was good for not just them but me too. It was good to do something and not just sit and read the news and worry. Today was only a half day; however, it was enough. :) I was told that International School and the American School were the only schools in Tegus open today. Go figure! My entire life I've always gone to "that school" that never closes. :) Why would it change now? But let's be honest. IST closes a lot. I heard comments that many people in the city were pissed that we went back to school. They interpret it as our ignoring the problem, not caring, not showing true patriotism, etc. Pray that we stay safe along with our children school buses as they travel home especially in the afternoons.

Same plan for tomorrow. Half day.

Continue to pray for Honduras. These next few days are crucial in knowing whether this could get resolved quickly or this could be drawn out. Representatives of the United Nations are arriving tomorrow to discuss the situation either tomorrow or Saturday. I believe they may propose Zelaya returning to power with the stipulation that certain other leaders have to stay in their positions. He may accept this. If he doesn't, it may get interesting. There may be other options too that I'm not aware of. Today thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the UN office in Teguc to express their opinion. Seemed relatively peaceful.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3608336&id=686774273#/album.php?aid=145608&id=686774273

Keep praying.

Today I'm mad

Today I'm pissed. I hate that this is the situation we are in. No one outside of here truly understands what is going on. We are day 2 of no school. We actually had the curfew lifted from 10am to 5pm tonight. So, the school wanted to make sure we got out to get our essentials. We thought...woopie! Caged animals can finally escape! But the entire zoo of Tegucigalpa thought that too, not just the monkeys of IST I guess. I have never seen so many people in my life. There were lines miles long waiting to get gas. After an hour on the bus trying to get to the supermarket normally 15 minutes away, we entered into a supermarket that had lines wrapping around the entire thing. And I'm talking lines worse than on Black Friday's shopping day. We ended up being in line alone for 4 HOURS! I felt like I was going to faint. Some gave up. THe rest of us were ruthless and stayed with it. People in our supermarket were fortunately pretty kidn for the most part. Asking if people could pass things, saying excuse me once in a while, etc. There were no fights breaking out or violence. We actually even had fun chatting amongst ourselves at times. HOwever with my job, I get stuck on the phone a lot. http://www.elheraldo.hn/Secciones-Principales/Inicio There were too many people for carts and all the baskets were taken so people ended up using those orange plastic pots for plants or the crates that bread comes on or eggs come in. Allows for the people that are stocking up for 5 years to take all they wanted. People were buying 4 boxes of toothpaste, 6 bars of soap, pounds upon pounds of meat, bread, tortillas, bags of flour, 5 gallons of cooking oil, etc. It was madness.

So, last night a lot of vandalism was done to parts of town. People broke into supermarkets and swipped the shelves bare of everything there was. Broke into the ATMs taking 500 million lempiras ($26,000 in cash). It's chaos. Check pictures here. http://www.elheraldo.hn/Especiales/Honduras%20en%20contra%20de%20la%20ilegalidad%20del%2004%20de%20septiembre%20de%202009/Ediciones/2009/09/23/Noticias/Zelayistas-saquean-bancos-y-tiendas

The frustrating part is that there seems to be no end in sight. I predict no school for tomorrow and there is currently no end time to this curfew. The problem is however that when you tell people to stay home, they go crazy and they invent problems to make. Thus people have had time to make home bombs, etc. In all honesty, my neighborhood is really chill. We can't even hear anything from where we are.

So why am I here? Well, for starters I can't leave even if I wanted to. There is no exiting traffic and there are no flights domestic or international at this point. Also amidst my being completely pissed off that this is what my life has to consist of for right now, I love this country. Hate it's government and politics, hence I initially came here to teach the children that are the future of this country, to instill in them good Christian values as they will be the future leaders of this nation. I pray to God that through them change will come. But for now....here we are. This is my situation.

Please pray.

If you want to know more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125373506454635023.html

And this just downright pisses me off. Thank you home country for doing just about jack shit to help us too except cause chaos.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574427403985118892.html

Life is unpredictable

Isn't that the truth! We've just gone from 10 days off of school due to the flu. On Monday we returned to school for what would feel like the first day of school again. My kids were surprisingly well behaved. Well, I more so fought with them about getting their heads of their desks and to pay attention. "But Miss I no sleep until 4." I felt their pain.

Well, around lunch time things began to shake up a bit. The principal's assistant Roberto showed up in my room to ask for a child to go home. I asked what was up and he signaled for me to come to him. I had flashbacks from last year of when Mr.Greene came to my room to tell me my student David had to go home because his father died. Thankfully this was not the same news but still it was news. Roberto informed me that the ex-President Mel Zelaya had returned to the country and parents are coming by the masses to get their children. I had 4 kids leave. We finished out the school day unsure of what was to come and the kids were uninformed.

At 3:30pm my principal barged into our planning meeting to announce curfew was starting at 4pm and we all had to go home. As we're all rushing to get out, we had to pile into cars as there were not going to be any buses. Everyone is supposed to be inside. I guess you actually can be arrested for being out. Which makes sense because the purpose is to keep violence down and Mel's supporters at home. So Mel snuck into the country via El Salvador border at a blind spot. Spent all night driving in a car and found refuge in the Brazilian Embassy which of course is neutral grounds. Once he leaves, he'll have to be arrested. Him being arrested will upset the masses; hence the curfew.

So, we don't have school today. 10 days off...one day on...one day off with who knows how many more. So to top it all off, as I arrived home yesterday I hadn't even walked in my door yet when a neighboring teacher yelled "Kristi, Did you hear that the girls were mugged at gun point?" Oh shit. So with the cell phone network being down at the point I was limited on who I could call. I finally located them and after an hour of sweating and making repeated failed phone calls I located the girls and Ben who could get them. Here's the kicker. They had read my email about staying home and chose to go out anyway and just close to their home had their cell phone, a few lempiras, and their house keys stolen. The house keys was the new factor into the situation. So we had to get them to their house to get their things and all 4 came to crash in my apartment. They are doing ok emotionally. We all slept well and I am thankful their is no school for the fact of 5 sharing one bathroom in the am. So....what do I do now?

We're running low on food and water. Supposedly I can go out and buy it but not sure how or if stores are even open. We're under curfew until 6pm tonight! That's 26 hours of not being able to leave home so far! We have no idea from one minute to the next of what could happen.

Being here in Teguc we are in the thick of things. Where Mel is currently is on the other side of town from us thankfully, yet the highway to the south is in our neighborhood and many could be trying to come in to support him.

So, I've got cabin fever to the max! Another day of 'vacation' and I have to stay at home. Blah! I can't say we're excited about not having school. We're so behind as it is already. It's hard.

God is in control. I know he will protect us and stand by us. We have to rely on him.

So I'm home all day doing not much of anything. Give me a call. Send me funny links or new things to check out.

In his grip,
Kristi

A few surprises

An already planned Independence Day break pleasantly surprisingly so got turned into a 10 day break thanks to the flu going around. Thank you Lord for a much needed break. So 4 days turned into 10 days off. :) HEAVENLY!

So what have I done with my time since then....if only you knew.

First of all I had already had a trip planned to the island of Roatan located on the northern coast of Honduras. I had spent a week there during my semester here and just relished in being back there. I took a group of 15 others for a few glorious days of fun in the sun. We were able to spend an extra day there due to more days off, but with how hot it was we were glad to return home. So what did we do?

(Sorry these are in random order)
Pancha and her baby

Juanito and I First time I've ever held a monkey :)

Barnie and I

Two story dock that I jumped from…picture below :)

Group headed out for our day of a glass bottom boat tour, snorkeling, and day on West Bay Beach

Paradise

Pancha and her baby again

Barnie and I again

Jumping! WAHOO!!!! I continued to do so for a couple more times even though something stunk my wrist after jumping the first time.

Heather, Marnie and I doing our canopy tour. I’ve done it many times and still love it

Superwoman or as he said “Superchica”

The Marlin Fishing Tournament...this was our winner weighing in at over 500 lbs!

Heavenly

The dock on the back of our hotel. Many memories were made here: wishing on shooting stars, long talks, laying under the stars, getting to know my new friends better

Back rub loving time. Wonder who’s idea this was? hehe



Chillaxin in the sun




And I had thought these were big before I saw the winner! Either way…I don’t like the thought of those being in the same water as me. Thankfully I didn’t come upon them snorkeling. The other stuff I saw was big enough for my comfort anyway!


So a few days of bliss makes one happy. :)

I've been pondering a couple of other things lately. My mom always comments about my generation. I've come to realize she's right. Technology has advanced so that my world is smaller...hence I can say it's "my world". It's tangible to me. It's within reach. For example, I can communicate between nations in a day. I do so daily in fact! I can facebook a friend in Austria, talk to a friend in Honduras, talk to my friend in Nicaragua (love you Beth), talk on Skype to Beth in Seattle, call MI and talk to a friend in the Philippines. Yeah...our generation is a bit different I suppose and I thank the Lord for it!

I've also been pondering the thought of relationships. I've always thought that we should love everyone and be open to everyone. However, I've realized I get attached easily. Way too easily. I think God is asking me to evaluate those relationships and attachments lately. There is a part in Joshua where Joshua is mislead into making a covenant with the locals because he didn't take it to God. Do you have attachments to people or things that maybe you shouldn't because you haven't taken them to God? I'm struggling here with this. There are a lot of great people in the world...some I have more recently met than others. I also realize that with this I spend more time focusing on and worrying about those that don't love me back than those that do! Why is that? I'm open to input.

Love you all. Back to reality for me in a few days and it'll be working double time I have a feeling.

Thanks for reading. :)