Long Awaited Vacation!

So yeah, I've been back from my vacation for two weeks now...sorry I haven't updated you all. These past two weeks have been filled with business and sickness, but that will come later.

Oh vacation! I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent traveling around. Like I said in the previous post, the marrieds and I left at 3:30 in the morning. Quite an un-godly hour if I must say so, but there was no traffic whatsoever, kept the car cool, and allowed us to miss a majority of the Police check points. We were expecting the first drive to Copan to take 7-8 hours. That is what many people were telling us it would take. Well, we arrived in Copan 6 hours after leaving. We arrived in time to see some of the processionals that take place on Good Friday. They were also laying out "carpets" of colored sawdust.



I LOVED Copan. It is a nice little town. We spent a total of 5 full days in Copan. It was almost too long, we could have spent 4, but it was nice to not be rushed in trying to experience things. We only scheduled about one thing a day which made it really nice. The rest of the time we usually spent back at our hotel lounging in their hammocks or taking naps. We didn't get to do everything we had planned. We wanted to do the water tubing on Sunday (Easter). However, the Catholic church here has a tradition of going to the river to "bathe." So we decided to not do it on that day and just never tried again. We also wanted to go to the Hot Springs, but didn't realize they were about 45 minutes away, so that was nixed. Otherwise, we had a really pleasant time in Copan doing the touristy stuffs.

We left Copan on Wednesday and headed on to Tela. Tela was not like I was expecting. It was a little more run down than I thought it would be and the beach itself was dirty being the week after Samana Santa. However, it was really nice to see the ocean. Oh how I have missed that without realizing it. We only spent one full day there, but that is okay. I was ready to come back.

Overall the trip was great. We got to experience alot, didn't run into any issues, and to top it off were only stopped by the police once. That is a feat in itself. Many people were telling us about how many times they were recently stopped on the same stretches of road. We went through 21 police check points and were only stopped the one time. Made us happy!!!

Well at the time of writing this we have 5 very short busy weeks of school left. We have only had two weeks in this partial and already I have to get mid-term grades together to give the parents. We are having parent/teacher meetings next week for the last partial. This is probably the last time I will see some of these parents as we don't have meetings with them when school is finished. There is just alot to accomplish, finish up, and get ready for the end of the school year.

The day after my vacation I was sick with the nasty. I don't know what I ate, but something came back to call with a vengeance. Now I am sick again, but not with stomach stuffs. We had a teacher retreat this past weekend and I was not feeling well the day before we left. I thought it would only last a day or two, but I did not feel well the whole trip. Started out with just body aches and by the end of the trip I had strep throat. So yeah, not fun right now in the midst of craziness.

Here are some ways you can pray for me:

1) health...I have gotten sick alot this year. Please pray that God would keep me healthy for the rest of the duration here so that I can finish my work to the best of my ability.

2) influence...the I will finish the year with a strong influence over these children’s life and not just become another teacher

3) that I won't get wrapped up in work but also enjoy the last few weeks we have with the culture and people

4) knowledge about what to do next year =)

Here are some pics. from the Copan Ruins...

A view that welcomes you as you enter

Hieroglyphic staircase that was put back together wrong so they don't know what it actually says.

The royal section.

More of the royal section. They played their own games here.

The gang...behind is a shot of the "ball court" where the Mayans played their games with thousands in attendance.

A view down to the "common" section...ball court to the right.

There are a couple underground tunnels that you can visit. These two pics are shots of the temple that is under the present one. They say there are 4 temples underground. Each time a new one was built right on top the former one.

What the above temple is believed to have looked like.

Just throwing this in for kicks...found a Friends Church there. This is the school, but I found the actual church later. I hear that they have bilingual services. Didn't find it in time to try and attend. Would have been cool though =)