"Winter"

Things around here have been pretty boring since my last post. Rainy season, or "winter," has begun. Last Tuesday it rained all night and continued through most of the morning. It was the first day that I wouldn't consider hot since we got here. I wore my short-sleeved knee length dress with sandals and my students wore jeans and sweatshirts. It was funny to me because I wasn't cold at all. I also was able to open the windows in my classroom and use the fans instead of the AC. The kids weren't thrilled with this idea and a few of them asked me to turn it on and looked at me funny when I said they should just take off their sweatshirts.

Rainy season brings all kinds of "fun" flooding issues to the area.  The streets flood badly which decreases the number of lanes and sometimes causes cars to not be able to pass through but most of the time they just slow down and drive through the several inches of water. It also causes a lot of mud slides in the area. The building, which is brand new, that Natalie's classroom is in flooded on Tuesday. We arrived to a couple inches of water covering the entire floor. The teachers just took the kids next door to the gym and waited for it to get cleaned up. They were back in the room by the time school ended.

We were supposed to take a trip to Copan with other people from school, but the school cancelled the trip because of the rain. (New foreign hires as a group are allowed 4 trips using the school's "bus" and driver.) They said the roads wouldn't be safe so we couldn't go. Some people went anyway, taking a public bus, but we decided to play it safe and stay in town.

Natalie's part of the school (the Early Childhood Center or ECC) had their traditional Honduran dance the Friday before last. The outdoor, but covered, gym was a bit flooded so to enter we had to walk around the outside through the grass/mud to a different entrance. Not normally a big deal, but all the kids were wearing white outfits (see photos below) and all the Honduran moms wear wedges or heels and had some trouble since the grass is on a slant. I was happy in my Tevas.

 Ready to head to the gym from my classroom.

 Waiting for the program to begin with one of her classmates. Part of the directions for the outfit were that the girls must wear their hair in braids. The other little girl has yarn woven in as extentions. The other part of the directions (which I completely ignored) were that the girls were to wear make up. After this photo the other girl got bright red lipstick. Natalie got chapstick.

The parents were told to go to the audience section. Natalie dealt with this by crying. Her teachers finally got her to stop by letting her lay down on her backpack.

I ended up missing her dance because I had to go give my bimesteral (quarter) exam that happened to be scheduled for the same time. Her teachers showed me a video that afternoon and it was pretty cute.

Other than that, we've pretty much been going to school and hanging out at our house. I'm enjoying the time with just the three of us. Here are some pictures of our lazy day activities.

 "Helping" daddy with dishes.

 Sleeping on the couch with her my little pony.

 Playing babies with Daddy.

 Sleeping with all her "guys."

 Playing Dora cards. She likes for the animals (Rusty and Popples) to help.

 I'm not sure how this started, but we all thought it was hilarious.

 Daddy has become Natalie's favorite seat.

 She still loves seeds. We haven't found them here though. My parents brought us a stash.

And of course, blocks are still a favorite. We build towers and castles and robots. I couldn't get her to stop eating pretzals for the picture.

Other activities have included eating, playing Rock Band, watching movies, answering Knowledge Bowl questions, Lisa playing Scrabble with a neighbor, David playing Christmas music, grading papers and of course just "playing toys."

I'm never quite sure how to end these things. Hopefully we'll do something entertaining to post about in the near future.