Sharing My World

I had been anticipating my parents’ and Megan’s visit since they day I came back to La Union from Christmas vacation. It became easier to live here knowing in the near future my family would be joining me in my adventure. How quickly their visit sprang upon me! Before I knew it March 28^th was here and my parents and Megan were flying into Honduras.

My students were PHSYCHED for my family to be here, it was their topic of choice for weeks! My parents and Megan planned to get into La Union at 6PM on a Wednesday. The entire school day was filled with anticipation, my students and I could not WAIT to see them!! I rushed home after school to tidy the house and make a batch of cookies and an egg-bake for breakfast in the morning (I didn’t want my parents to starve here!). I was trying to rush through both recipes before my family arrived; Gayle and I were running into each other, all of our dishes were being used, food covered the countertops. Meanwhile, I started to have a trickle of students show up at my house! They all wanted to see my parents just as badly as I did. Nearing the arrival time of my family, Gayle and I managed to finish both recipes, we had washed all of our dishes, and I had 8 screaming children running around my house. I have never seen my children so crazy before!! And trust me—they are crazy. They were doing flips on my tile floor, punching each other, throwing candy across the living room, using our huge butcher knife to cut onions, taking full BITES out of the onion, and all the while screaming at the top of their lungs.

Finally, I watched as Ablin (their chauffeur) drove up the hill towards my house. My students got into position, holding a frying pan full of candy. It felt so great to hug my parents and Megan…they were FINALLY HERE!! It was so strange to see them in my every day setting. They walked into my house with my students screaming “WELCOME TO LA UNION!!!” and throwing candy at them. Thank-goodness my entire family loves children as much as I do! 

After I showed my parents around my house, they rubbed off (almost) all the dirt from their face, and my students had shown them every trick in the book, we headed for dinner. I took them to our only “restaurant” that we eat at in La Union called El Comedor. Almost every little eatery is called El Comedor in Honduras. Since the power was out for all of the day before, the chicken was not edible; we opted for some baleadas ricas instead. I couldn’t really tell you if my family enjoyed them or not, they were too busy sleeping at the dinner table!  I think I even heard my dad start to snore. I felt so bad for them; they had all been traveling for almost 24 hours straight with no sleep.

On the walk back to my house I asked Megan how the ride to La Union was. I had been so nervous for them; riding on the dirt tracks straight up the mountain is not the most comfortable ride! Megan told me, “It was actually fine, it just felt like we were driving to the end of the world!” …Tell me about it!

Back at our house, we crashed and went to bed. I was lucky enough to share my twin bed with Megan for the next two nights! But it’s not like that is uncommon..we’re used to it.

The next morning we were up early and were walking to school by 6:40AM. I was so excited to bring them to school and show them more of my everyday life! It was fun to walk through the streets and have my family look at the town for the first time. Everything for them was new, exciting, different, and culturally opposite while I am used to walking through poverty-stricken streets.

Once we arrived at school it was a non-stop Tom, Helen, and Megan celebrity day. My students ADORED my family and were overJOYED to have them in the classroom. During morning devotional I thought my eardrums were going to shatter they were singing so loudly. They poured their hearts out into EVERYTHING they did on Thursday. Every two minutes it was, “TOM, watch me do this! TOM look what I wrote!! Helen, play this with me!! Megan, look at me!! TOM!! TOM!! TOOOMM!!!!” Of course my dad was the star of the show. For some reason, kids love love love my dad. Always have, always will..there’s no use trying to compete with him, he’ll always win the popularity contest with children.

Some of my students would start to ask absolutely ridiculous questions just so they had a question so that my family would turn their attention to them. It was absolute mayhem. I tried having my mom and dad play a spelling game with them; that was sensory overload. Any time my dad or mom got an answer right they would scream at the top of their lungs… “YEAH!!!!! YES TOM!! TOM IS THE BEST!!! TOM!!!” Even the principal had to come to our classroom to tell my students to quite down! I couldn’t even control their excitement. My students wrote them and read out loud letters welcoming them to La Union and asked a few questions. The most popular question was “What is more beautiful, La Union or the United States?” One of my students wrote in his letter, “Thank-you for your daughter. She is very beautiful and I am very happy she is my teacher.” My eyes welled up at that one!

During recess my dad played futball with all the boys in the class while the girls surrounded my mom, Megan, and I. My dad must have impressed them during their futball matches, the boys came back from lunch break with an even more adoration than before! Their little hearts were broken when my dad and mom went back to my house after lunch to take a nap. Every 10 minutes they asked, “Where is Tom? Why your parents go to your house?” Thankfully Megan stayed at school which satisfied their attention needs. They found out they got the same reaction out of Megan when they tickled her as when they tickle Miss Van Dyke.

By the end of the day my energy was completely wiped out. I couldn’t believe the amount of energy my kids produced the entire school day!! After school I took my family up to the cross where there is a beautiful look out of La Union. We were up there just as the sun was setting over the mountains; one of my favorite parts of the day! My family was in awe of the pure beauty I am surrounded by! Once again, I was overjoyed to share my life with them.

We climbed into bed early that night; the students had worn us out!! We woke up Friday refreshed and ready to go. Thank-goodness my students were not as crazy on Friday. I think they were so exhausted from expending so much of their energy the day before! Some of them could barely keep their eyes open during class.

Megan took over my Language class and taught them the difference between Can and May; she was a natural. I enjoyed watching someone else’s attempts at getting my students to understand! During lunch we all went down to the futball field and played with all the boys in my class. This time I got to witness first-hand the love all my boys had developed for my dad in just these two short days. They were constantly vying for his attention, impressing him with their mad skills. At one point, my dad was standing still on the field and one of my little boys walks up to my dad, reaches up, and holds his hand. It brought tears to my eyes; this little boy had never experienced the great love of a father. His father is not a very kind person, and it is very apparent he shows no love in the household. Having my dad there showed him love from a man is possible. It made me so happy my boys got to see what a loving and involved dad looks and acts like. But at the same time it breaks my heart that all my boys do not have dads more like mine. I am so blessed to have a dad who loves me and shows his love to me. 

Towards the end of the day my parents had a surprise to hand out to my students. Each of the boys were given a nerf-football and all of the girls were given a jump rope. All of them also were given bubbles from my brother Greg’s wedding. At this point I let the mayhem take over; there was no point in trying to control the class anymore! Thankfully they settled down for a few minutes to take some pictures with my family.

I couldn’t believe how sad I was to see my parents and Megan say goodbye to my students. It felt so amazing to have them with me in the classroom; I didn’t want to see them go! I also know my students were very sad to see them go, they kept asking, “When are you coming back?” My eyes (again yes I know) were tearing up as each student said goodbye and walked out the door. I think part of it was my family was foreshadowing what I have to do in just two short months. It is hard to fathom how in the world I am going to leave them!!!

That night a teacher made a dinner for my family and then we went to play volleyball with the 10^th graders. The next day we headed out for our vacation in Roatan, which is an island off the coast of Honduras. Our travels to Roatan is a whole different story in itself…I’ll spare you the 30 minute long story. We spent the next 3 days relaxing, sunbathing, and eating in paradise. It was exactly what we all needed!

Wednesday I had to say goodbye to them and it was not easy! I really did not want them to leave me, I felt like I wanted to hop on the plane with them! Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I have two more months here, but it isn’t easy to see your family leave.

I was so happy and so thankful for my family’s visit. I loved sharing my little world with them!! I am so thrilled someone got to see where I live, where I teach, what my students are like, what my every day schedule is like. Now whenever I tell them, “ugh I feel so dirty and the water’s off..all I want to do is take a shower!” they will completely understand how I feel.

My students are still asking about them this week, they are quite concerned about when they will see Tom again. I told them now it’s their turn to visit the United States, and they need to promise to attend a university there. They said it sounded like a perfect plan. 

(I tried adding pictures to the blog, but the internet isn't working well enough..I'll upload them sometime soon!)