Exactly What I Needed

Sometimes, I have hard days.  No real reason why, but they are just hard.  I struggle with the littlest things and they shouldn't add up to a hard day, but somehow they do.  Well, today was one of those days.  I was just dragging a bit. When we had tutoring after school, I just couldn't focus and decided to drink a cup of coffee.  Unfortunately, the coffee didn't help my cause and I still was just mentally beat... so much so that I kept thinking it was Thursday.  So tonight when I walked into the church right at 6pm, I was shocked to see the Missionaries of Charity and their beautiful kids.  I thought to myself "Wow, they brought their kids to adoration AND mass! How beautiful! How brave!"  As they waved me over to sit with them, I was super excited.  The seat next to one of the little girls that I love so dearly was open.  As soon as I sat down, she gave me a huge hug and all of the little stresses of the day melted away.

The little bell rang for mass to begin.  A reminder that it is Wednesday, not Thursday, which meant that there wasn't adoration today. But I didn't care about that fact that I was disoriented about the day of the week, or the little things that have been driving me crazy all day. I was at mass with a little girl who just couldn't get enough of being next to me.  It was a beautiful feeling to feel wanted.  All of mass she just wanted to snuggle in next to me.  I might not have processed a lot of the reading in spanish today or understood a bit of the homily, but God showered me with His love through her.  And as always, God knew exactly what I needed.

It's All About Perception

One thing that I have definitely learned since being in Honduras is that you are entirely responsible for how you feel.  When something difficult begins to occur, if you meet it with resistance it is going to be the most difficult thing that you have ever experienced.  It is going to wreck your emotions and make you feel weak and incompetent.  However if at the beginning you choose to look at it as an opportunity to grow, you begin to flourish.  It is going to be rewarding because you can mark your own growth.

It's all about how you perceive a situation.  I found this little gem on pinterest that perfectly depicts what I mean...

Some see a difficult student, 

        some see a child that needs love.

Some see a confrontation coming, 

        some see an opportunity to die to yourself.

Some see a grocery store that doesn't have what you want, 

        some see the chance to try new things.

Some see a struggle, 

        some see a new chance to grown.

I want to challenge you to choose to have a positive perspective in life.  Meet the struggles with the least resistance.  Take the opportunity to let God work in you.  Typically, the difficult moments are the ones that allow you see things in a completely different light.  They are the ones that push you to have a broader outlook on life and see things completely different than you ever have before.  Perceive the world in a beautiful way!

Lychees!

Since I arrived in Honduras, I have been on the prowl for one specific thing - lychees.

I first tasted the greatness of this amazing fruit in Jamaica.  I can still remember driving down the mountain and the brother from the Missionaries of the Poor pulled over and summoned the other brother up to talk to him.  It is a vivid image of the second brother removing his cassock and jumping off the side of the mountain into the trees.  I was both shocked and amazed as he scaled the tree with ease.  I noticed he was collecting these red, spiky things.  I was curious, what could this be that made a man jump off the side of a mountain? Well shortly after he collected a plethora of these little spiky balls, I found out.  He came back, handed me one and said that this was a lychee.  He thing showed us how to twist them open to reveal a white flesh membrane. He sucked it into his mouth and motioned for us to do the same.  He warned us that there was a pit in the middle but to eat off as much of the white part as we could. It was like something I had ever tasted before! Tart, but sweet and absolutely delicious!

Well you can imagine my shock in November, years after my only encounter with this amazing fruit, that they have lychees in Honduras!  It was when I was visiting Eric and the Missioners of Christ for a small mission over Thanksgiving.  Eric was showing us around Comayagua and there was a person selling them.  I literally looked at Eric and said "LYCHEES! THEY HAVE LYCHEES!" He looked at me, smiled, and asked the woman how much they were.  I bought a big bag and took them to the mission house to share with everyone.  They were just as I remembered, and I was super excited.

So, since arriving to Honduras 6 weeks ago, I have been looking. Sometimes I would see people eating them, but no one selling them.  Not in the grocery store or being sold by street vendors.  I was disappointed, but I have been on the look out. Well today is the day that I finally found them! We were at a farmers market in the barrio next to ours when a man looked at all of us "gringas" and pointed to his produce and said "Tengo lychees!"  I looked over and saw what I have been looking for!  I approached his wife and purchased a large bag for 20 Lempiras, which is approximately $1.  Best dollar ever spent!

After my great buy, I couldn't wait to get home and dive into this amazing treat that I have been blessed with!  As you can imagine, I am nom-ing down on these as I write this post.  Luckily, the bag is quite large and it doesn't even look like a made a dent in it so I'll have this wonderful treat for the next few days! Hopefully...

Independence Day in Honduras

On September 15 Honduras celebrates it's independence.  I was very blessed to be able to be here and witness a great celebration within Comayagua!

The week before, the teachers at school kept talking about how we needed to prepare a float for the parade.  So on Friday after work and Saturday morning, we all got together and built it for the parade.  It was a beautiful float with a large image of the church and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  I learned a very valuable lesson about the people of Honduras and it's something that I truly appreciate about this culture - the people here care about spending time with each other.  I know this may seem like something that is true in the U.S., but it is so much more here.  They do not put productivity first or what needs to be accomplished.  We were there to BE TOGETHER.  At first, my super goal-oriented self was frustrated because I just wanted to start working and the supplies were not yet onsite.  But once I realized the joy of spending time with the other teachers, I came to see what a blessing it was to just be.  There was no pressing deadline or agitation with each other over what we were accomplishing because we were completing the number one priority - being together. This is a lesson that I hope to carry with me always - Be present and love where you are.  It was awesome! I mean, eventually we did get a lot done and built this awesome float!

Julie and Jenny with the float!

So early on Sunday morning we all met at the parade route.  I had no ideas really on what to expect.  I was amazed at the number of people that were there to participate in the parade.  Then, I found out that this parade was only part 1 of a 2 day celebration! Sunday was all of the elementary schools and the private schools.  On Monday, Independence Day, was the parade for the high school and college students.  Each school was represented, as well as drum corps, majorettes, pageant winners, and other individuals.  There were so many unique costumes and the beats of the drummers were awesome! I loved being emerged into such a great celebration of culture!

 It was a great day experiencing the culture and being with my coworkers! Remember, be present and love where you are!

Humility and Joy

       I've noticed that every day this week one of my students, Armando, keeps making a point to stand next to me during morning and afternoon prayer. He always has this huge smile on his face.  Well, yesterday he decided to keep asking me to read the first part of the prayer aloud.  "Miss Cheryl, even just the first word!" When I inquired why another student, Michelle, yells "He loves how you say 'Señor!' Please Miss Cheryl, for Armando." I immediately became really self conscious and though to myself "Do I say it wrong? No, I know how to say Señor!" So I gave in and uttered the word señor in my best spanish.  Armando grinned from ear to ear.  I smiled and we all laughed at just how silly Armando was being. I just let it go, he's a native spanish speaker and I am not - I'm sure my accent is funny.

      Later in the day I was reflecting on this crazy interaction.  I have been taking spanish lessons at night and I am starting to really feel confident in my pronunciation of the words I use often.  I want to be fluent, even though I know I am long, LONG, way away.  But hopefully, one day, I can get there.

     Well, I went in to teach the last class of the day and Armando says "Miss Cheryl, can we have a free write today for our journal - I have a topic I want to write about."  I agreed and let them all spend the first 10 minutes of class journaling about whatever they wanted.  He sprinted up to my desk as soon as he finished and said "Miss, you have to read this!"  This is what he showed me: 

     I laughed so loud that it peaked the attention of all of the other students in the class.  Armando's face turned bright red and we laughed and laughed.  All of the others begged to read it.  He refused to let them read it and asked me not to read it out loud. So I agreed with one stipulation, that I could take a picture of it. With this little journal entry and an afternoon of good-humored fun, I gained a lot of humility.  I am not great at spanish, I am definitely no where close to being fluent, but I am trying.  My students know that I am working on improving my spanish just as they are working to improve their english.  It was a humbling moment that brought so much joy! 

      Immediately after the students went home I went to the teachers room and shared with my coworkers.  I told the story in my best spanglish.  It was great! A few of the bilingual teachers helped me translate a few words here or there, but I did it! Everyone got a kick out of it because they know that I'm trying.  It was at that moment, when all of my coworkers and I were laughing that a little bit of humility brought so much joy.  I thought of how different the situation would have been if I would have become offended.  I would have been frustrated, angry, and unsure of how to handle it.  I would have walked in the teachers room embarrassed and unwilling to speak.  But God gave me a little bit of humility, and it brought such great joy!

Day of the Child

          Today was the annual “Day of the Child” celebration all across Honduras.  I have been hearing about it since the first day of in-service, but I never really received details about what we were celebrating.  Well, today I learned – it truly is just a day to celebrate children.  We celebrate by doing things all children love; we played games, ate a lot of super delicious sweets, took our turns at a piñata, and laughed a lot.

            When I arrived at school we immediately went to the church and as a school we started the day in prayer.  It was awesome to see teachers being thankful for their students and students being thankful for each other.  From there, the secondary students boarded a bus to go to a public school in a less fortunate Aldea.  We brought snacks and piñatas with us.  Since I’m the homeroom teacher for 8^th grade and teach all of the upper grades, I got to go with them.  

After a 30-minute bus ride up the mountain filled with teenagers being teenagers (singing along to the radio, eating snacks, and chatting away) we finally arrived at this beautiful little piece of land with 6 small, garage sized, buildings on it.  Each building had two classrooms in it, fully equipped with chalkboards and desks.  It was such a beautiful school.  My heart longed to be there every day, serving these students who struggle to make ends meet.

            Quickly, I learned that God has placed me at the ICB for a reason and although my heart longs to one day possibly teach at a school like that, I am blessed to be where I am.  The language barrier was jarring to me.  All of these beautiful brown eyed children ran up to me and my students, expecting me to know what was going on.  I greeted them “Hola!” But that is where my Spanish and international game ideas ended.  I know a TON of games to play with children, but I didn’t know how to communicate ANY of it in Spanish.  Luckily, I am blessed to have amazing students who saw me struggling and stepped in to help.  Carlos immediately being leading a game of “Mar y Tierra,” and the children laughed and laughed.  I loved seeing him be a leader as my other students quickly stepped up to help him.  Aaron stepped in to help be my translator as I talked with the other teacher from the Aldea.  I am so grateful for students like Carlos and Aaron.  They are so willing to help others and are great examples of what it means to have a servant’s heart. 

Aaron and Gustavo leading the kiddos in a game!

Carlos leading "Mar y Tierra"! 

After playing a few different games, my class rounded up all of the little ones we were in charge and we shared a delicious cake, a ton of cookies, and some pop - a prayer first, of course.  The smiles on the faces of the children and the laughter between my students and the kids were such a joy to see.  After everyone had their fill of sugar, we went back outside for the much anticipated piñata!

            It was my first experience with a piñata here in Central America and we had 3 for our group! It was awesome watching as they seamlessly took turns and counted each persons number of hits.  Everyone got a chance and each time candy rained down on them they shrieked with joy and scurried about collecting their fair share.  After we were done with the piñatas and cleaned up, we went back to school.

When we arrived, the elementary students were playing.  The elementary students stayed at school all day and had their own celebration. There was bounces houses and a clown! The kids were all wound up because they ate so many cupcakes, cookies, and pizza all day long.  My students started playing soccer and included the little one that wanted to play.  Everyone was just relaxed and having fun until the busses arrived.   

Overall, it was a wonderful day with many, many blessings! My students are awesome and I would have been so overwhelmed and unable to function without them.  It was amazing to see God working through them to share joy and love with those that are less fortunate then them. God is good!

Gustavo, Carlos, Aaron, and Hector - 4 of my superstars for the day!

My Soul Rejoices

Living in Honduras so far has had many, many challenges.  The struggles are present and very real to me.  I am blessed to have these struggles because they are forcing me to grow closer and closer to our loving Father and trust in His amazing Son.  However, sometimes those struggles bring out a not-so-good version of myself.  I recognize some of these as my personality traits when I get frustrated and I have been actively trying to work on them.  In these moments of weakness, I have definitely fallen away from acting with kindness in all things.

As Catholics, we are blessed with the wonderful gift of confession.  Growing up confession was never something I liked or even really understood.  But as I have grown older, I truly begun to feel the loving embrace of God through the sacrament.  Today, I was blessed to have the opportunity to go to confession with one of the Friars here with the CFRs.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to ask for repentance and receive such wonderful graces from God.  Immediately after confession, I had the ability to pray in front of the tabernacle and my soul felt overjoyed with love from my Father.

I would like to encourage all of you, if you haven't gone to confession in a while to seek out this wonderful gift that we have been given.  Most parishes offer it each weekend.  It is such a beautiful way to feel the redeeming love of our amazing God!