Unpredictable

As a teacher, you’re bound to experience different things each and every day. You can plan every minute to a T, but there is always the unexpected. You never know what will happen during your day that will throw everything off. This is what I love about teaching—the unexpected. Well..with some exceptions. All my professors warned us education students, “There will be a time when a child throws up in your classroom.” I chose to ignore that comment since I am a baby at handling anything in the category of bodily fluids. Well a few weeks ago I got over that fear..a girl threw up in the middle of my morning devotional. We were starting to sing the song “You give me joy, joy, joy…..” and she vomited all over my nice rug I bought for the classroom. I panicked big time. I had a hard enough time keeping it in myself, much more trying to help her to calm down.  Well after that episode I figured I’d be done with student sicknesses/injuries for the rest of the year. Just had to get it out of my class’ system, right?? So wrong.

Today I was having such a peaceful recess. Behind our school there are stairs that lead to a patio that looks over our whole town. The stairs are surrounded by trees, and the view from them is perfect. It is my recess duty to sit on those stairs. I usually am accompanied by 5-10 of my students hugging me, playing with my hair, or tickling me while trying out new English phrases. Today I spent all recess taking pictures with all my boys; we were having a blast together. 

At the end of the recess my students ran up to me and said “MISS!!!!!!!!!! LOOK!!!!!!!!” My student, Nessly, was standing in front of my holding her leg. On her leg was the hugest gash I have ever seen in my life. It was such a deep gash I could see her muscle. After taking first aid classes for previous jobs, I knew I couldn’t freeze up (even thought that’s what I wanted to do). I rushed Nessly to the office and ran to get paper towels to put pressure on her leg. Only part of the gash was gushing out blood, the other part of the gash was too deep to even bleed. I looked to my principal for a little bit of help, and he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders like it was not a big deal. Another moment it would be handy to know Spanish. All the other teachers looked and asked, “What are you going to do with her? Did you call her parents? Are you taking her to the clinic?” How in the world am I supposed to call her parents? I don’t even speak Spanish, much more have their phone number. Everyone was just staring at the insanely HUGE gash. No one was doing anything about it! Here I am holding blood soaked towels against her leg, while everyone is looking at me wondering what actions to take. Finally I told another teacher she needed to take me to the clinic. We carried my little Nessly to the pickup and brought her just down the road to the clinic. Once there, I helped transfer her to a stretcher and brought her into a little examination room.

The teacher who brought me there left and told me to stay with Nessly, she needed someone to calm her down. Two ladies came in dressed in normal looking clothes. They started getting needles out, so I assumed they were the nurses, or maybe even a doctor, who knows! Nessly was absolutely terrified, she did NOT want stitches. She kept screaming at the top of her lungs, “NO QUIERO NO QUIERO NO QUIERO!!!!!!” She started shaking and screaming uncontrollably when the nurses stuck the needles into her leg. We had three people trying to hold her down. I felt so terrible for her, I wanted to cry right along with her! Here she was in a hospital room with all these strangers and her teacher who doesn’t speak Spanish. She must have been so terrified. The screaming didn’t stop since the nurses starting giving her stitches literally 45 seconds after they gave her medicine to numb her leg. Maybe this is a new kind of medicine, but I thought you needed to wait a few minutes in order for the medicine to kick in and for her leg to actually turn numb. I know she could feel every single time a needle went in and out of her skin. Her body would tense up and she let out a blood curdling scream. 

She was starting to have such a panic attack that she was having difficulty breathing. I was trying to help her take deep breaths, in and out. Finally I said “Let’s count to 60, and then it will all be over with!” I was astounded she believed me, she started counting. It amazed me even more she started counting in English! I felt pretty proud that in this extreme condition she was still able to count to 60, all in English. And amazing enough, the exact time she got to 60 the nurses backed away from her leg. They were done, just as I had promised Nessly! Weird how that works.

Two minutes later a 10^th grader walked in the room and said Mr. Perdomo (the principal) wanted me back at the school. I had to leave poor Nessly at the clinic. By the time I got back to school my hands were covered in blood. I quick washed them in the sink, walked over to my class, and continued teaching for the rest of the day! No biggie…I just witnessed a girl having a traumatizing experience. I was just thankful I was able to be there for Nessly. I do not handle blood well..just ask any of my friends and family—everything grosses me out. But once again, God gave me the strength I needed.

Today is FRIDAY which means a long weekend for me! We don’t have school on Monday (ONCE AGAIN) so Gayle, Eleanor, Anna, and I are traveling to the beach town Telah. Hopefully the thunderstorms in the forecast go away. In La Union it is FREEZING. Ok it is only in the 50’s, low 60’s, BUT we are literally in the middle of a cloud. There is constant mist in the air…makes for a very damp and cold me! Drink some hot chocolate for me please. J ALSO this next week is a deadline of supporting a student at this school. If you want to support a student, LET ME KNOW A.S.A.P. If you already told me, I’ll be sending you more information this coming week. Remember: it is only $50.00 a month and you’re changing a child’s life. 

Everyday Life

Quick note: sorry I haven’t been posting lately, life has been so busy! Also I meant to post this days ago but our electricity has been out and it finally came on today. I could not be more serious when I tell you my whole class and I started screaming and jumping for joy when the lights turned on!!

Two weekends ago I traveled to another exciting place, Copan Ruins. I saw the amazing intricate work of the Mayans which was breathtaking. What isn’t in this country?! We didn’t have school last week Monday so we had an extra day to travel—we definitely needed it!! I didn’t have much planned last week since we spent the weekend traveling which made for a crazy/busy/insane school week. I don’t ever want to head into a week unplanned again!

This weekend a few Calvin students who are doing a study abroad program in Tegucigalpa visited La Union to see what our life is like. It was fun to be able to chat with Americans and play a little bit of “Dutch bingo”. When you combine the schools Calvin and Dordt you’re bound to have at least one connection. During their visit we had a lot of discussions about our life and work here. One of the questions asked was this: What were some difficult things you dealt with coming into La Union? Are you getting used to them? Are there things you can’t get used to?

I thought about this question for a bit. Funny that I even had to THINK what was difficult for me coming into La Union. As I replayed the first couple days—who am I kidding, the first couple WEEKS—I remembered all the things I was stressed out about. All of those small issues that I now am used to. Here is what I shared with the Calvin group:

The first few days, I freaked out. I had a meltdown or crying session at least once a day. I didn’t realize that this was going to be so difficult for me. But now as I look back on the things that made me upset, they are no longer a big deal. I don’t get upset when brown water comes out of my sink at least once a day. I’m used to climbing up a hill or climbing down a hill anywhere that I go, and by the end of the trip being soaked in sweat. It is normal for me to go home and wait 40 minutes for my room light to flicker on. I don’t try to wait for my bathroom light to come on or I’d be there for days. Since the bathroom light doesn’t work I usually am taking showers in the dark…scary when you’re shaving. I’m used to looking down at the ground whenever I walk somewhere. I expect children to yell “GRINGO” at me when I pass by. It isn’t weird for me to have to move off the road for the herd of cows that are coming through, it happens almost every morning on the walk to school. I don’t yell at the bus that wakes me up every morning at 5 when it drives LITERALLY inches from my window and honks its horn. I don’t shake my head at the church bells going off every hour; instead I count them to see what time it is. I actually almost ENJOY the 3 hour bus ride on dirt roads out of the mountains; even though I know the destination is only 25 miles away. There are loud fireworks I hear at random hours every day (last night it was 4:00AM and right next to my window) and I no longer mistake them as gunshots. It doesn’t faze me that it takes at least 50 minutes or more to make every single meal; I’m happy if the electricity stays on the entire time I cook. Every time I go to the bathroom I no longer have to remind myself: throw the toilet paper in the trash. I don’t consider myself lame to be crawling into bed at 8:30PM, even though you might. It’s just a nightly routine to check my bed for bugs that could eat me alive. I expect to hear a scream from Gayle every night when she finds a lizard or frog INSIDE her bed. When I walk home in the dark I don’t find it strange to pick up a rock to throw at the rabid dogs that come near me. I no longer feel completely defeated that it takes me 4 times to explain everything to my students. I’ve sometimes even responded to my students when they shout “MISS” at me. I am slowly getting used to the awkward silences that Hondurans have in the lull of conversations and they just sit there….staring at you. I understand there’s always a chance the internet at the school won’t work, and when it is ‘working’ it is the slowest internet I’ve experienced in my life.

But there is always going to be the standard things I can’t get used to while living here. I won’t get used to the fact I can’t see my family whenever I want. It still bothers me they are living their lives and I feel a world apart from them. I still don’t like the fact I have to pick two or three people that I want to call in a week and that it isn’t feasible to talk to everyone I love. I can’t get used having some weeks that are too busy I don’t have time to call anyone. I still get jealous when my friends are together and I know I can’t see them for a few more months. It makes me very sad there are friends I haven’t kept in touch with since I’ve been down here. It frustrates me that I used to be someone who always kept in contact with everyone and now it’s impossible. I also don’t think I’ll ever get used to the surprise of what my students don’t know. I found out this week one of my students can’t even count to twenty..no wonder she isn’t passing math. I also found out that one of my students doesn’t know the alphabet. I asked her to write a y and she wrote a w. She had no idea what the letter y was. It is hard to get used to being able to reach all learning levels in my classroom.So, yes, when you move to Honduras there are many things that are easy to get used to, but some things (a.k.a. being a world away from your loved ones) is a difficulty I can’t get used to. Missing you all this week.

Looking at my list, I feel good. When I first arrived I didn't know how I was going to get used to this life..but it happened! Here I am alive and doing quite well if I don’t say so myself. Even though I might be doing well, I can’t say the same for a lot of people at our school. Our principal’s wife, Esperanza, is suffering from intense migraines daily. They have been to every hospital in Honduras and can’t find what is wrong with her; it is a scary situation. Our secretary’s (Yesi) sister (Wendi) is suffering as well. Both of her kidneys are failing and there is nothing they can do about it. She is only 25 years old. Also a lady who is very important to this community and school (not to mention related to half of our school) is having her last days on Earth this week. She is dying from cancer. There is a lot of sadness, tears, and pain in everyone’s faces this week. Please keep everyone in your prayers.