last few weeks in tegucigalpa.

wow.. the last few weeks have been filled with so much. i am sorry i haven't really had time to blog. let me try to catch you up. 

our last week together as interns for first session was wonderful. we spent the mornings with our students and the afternoons with our precious children at casitas kennedy. we only worked monday through thursday of this week. 

monday we did not have class. instead we went to visit the families that the ctc ministers to directly. our ctc volunteers (aka our students and our friends) joined us. my heart was both broken and touched as we visited family after family. the typical home we visited was four walls made of tin or wood with pieces of tin or curtains dividing the house into rooms. houses are close together and i feel like everyone knows everyone. to visit two of the families we had to climb. not just a little hike, we had to really climb. we visited a family of four and then proceeded to climb a little further up to Rosa's house. Rosa is a beautiful young lady in her early twenties. she has a son who is about six months old. Rosa was telling us when she was pregnant it was hard for her to climb to her home. i cannot imagine. it was hard for me without thirty pounds added to my midsection. Rosa is beautiful and has such a sweet spirit. She is such a good mom... most of the women in the families make tortillas and beans to sell as a way of supporting their family. after we visited the families we bought some tortillas and beans for lunch. they were delicious. we finished eating and were ready to leave. when i asked rachel (the director of the ctc- who is absolutely amazing) told me it would be 50 lempiras (roughly $2.50). i gave the precious lady 200 lempiras (roughly 10 US dollars) and she began to cry. i too then began to cry. she was so grateful for such a small amount of money. i was so humiliated by how much importance i place on having money and material things. my parents give me a weekly allowance for food while i am at school and i am ashamed to say that i have never once, in two years, told them thank you. so... thank you mom and dad from the bottom of my heart for working so hard to provide for me. i am promising not to take the little gifts for granted. 

us with rosa and her son after we climbed to her home. :) 

with the sweet women who made us tortillas and beans. (rachel was obviously not ready)

tuesday and wednesday were regular days. sarah, sarah, karla and i taught our last few english classes to the ctc volunteers and caitlin, kimberly and luis shaped little minds at the elementary school. 

thursday was special because it was our last day with our students as a team of 7 and sarah, caitlin and kimberly's last day with them for the summer. kimberly and caitlin's student's put on a little program for their parents. after that they joined us at the ctc. our students (friends) had decorated the room and prepared a feast (not an exaggeration) for us. we sat around and took pictures, laughed at things that had happened, sang, ate and just enjoyed each others company. rachel printed diplomas for everyone that had completed the class and she even had certificates made for we girls, karla and luis. as sarah and i gave them their diplomas, we gave them a cd with the songs we had learned, took pictures and of course cried. these people have forever changed our lives. the Lord was so faithful and i cannot imagine teaching english with anyone but sarah. thursday afternoon was our last day at casitas kennedy and it was so hard. there were many tears shed. as we went from casita to casita my heart broke. we gave them their gifts and said our goodbyes as a team. there is nothing harder than leaving someone you love so much. especially children.  

caitlin and kimberly's students. 

our family. 

friday was our first and only free day of the month and we wouldn't have had it any other way. our amazing driver, julio caesar joined us for breakfast at the apartment for a last meal all together. after breakfast we set off for valle de angeles (valley of angels). it's a city about thirty minutes outside of tegucigalpa. it's filled with cobble stone streets and market shops (sarah has a lot of pictures on facebook). we took about a 10 minute walk to a park like area where we "rode horses". this was an adventure. of course we imagine riding horses on the street the seven of us all together having a good time. well... when we got there we found out that they only had three horses. so.. we rode three at a time. the horses were quite small. kimberly and i made luis ride the one with its ribs sticking out of its side. even though it wasn't what we expected, we laughed and had so much fun. we had lunch at a really good pupusa place. (if you haven't tried them... do it... they are the best!) at the restaurant, they had fruit drinks you could order. sarah d. and caitlin ordered pineapple and sarah and kimberly ordered watermelon. this was a disaster. the drinks were the fruits juiced with water. it was like you stuck a straw in a watermelon and began to drink. sarah d. and caitlin didn't like their pineapple. kimberly liked the pineapple so she swapped with sarah d. sarah doesn't like watermelon so why she ordered a watermelon drink we are all still so confused. by the end of lunch sarah d. was chugging the watermelon juice. during this lunch we also ate karla's meal. the waiter brought out a thing of bean dip with sausage in it and chips. we being the americans we are thought that it was a gift for us because we were american. WRONG. it was karla's lunch but she didn't tell us that until after we had all gotten our food and realized she didn't have any. we left valle de angeles and went back to the apartment to get ready for our farewell dinner. when we got to the restaurant luis and karla had decorated the table with balloons, personal notes to each of us, fake lempiras and a wooden cross. they had also had cookies made that said "thank you." we were so surprised. karla and luis have become two of our closest friends. they are with us for well over eight hours a day. helping us communicate with the people and children we love. they both have the sweetest spirits. they both love to serve. they love their jobs as translators and luis would love to do missions full time. i cannot express to you in words how thankful we are to have had luis and karla as translators and as friends this summer. 

in valle de angles. 

watermelon juice chugging champion

"translators unite!!"

farewell dinner. :(

saturday was a sad day. we had to be up early to have sarah, caitlin and kimberly at the airport on time. i was not ready for this. we were in a routine. everyday we did the same thing and we did it together. because i am money bags (what i call myself) i had to get them all settled with the exit tax and all that jazz so they were able to leave the country. (i contemplated not paying it.) i was standing in the line with luis when i heard something. i left luis in line to see what it was... it was our friends from the ctc with two guitars singing "joyfully" in the middle of the tegucigalpa international airport. of course we were all crying. they had come to surprise the girls. my tears then began to confuse me. i had no idea if i was crying happy tears to see our friends love us so much or sad tears to see my sisters and friend leave for the states. our friends stayed with us as we took the girls upstairs to say goodbye and put them on the plane. i had stopped the tears from flowing until i had to say my final goodbye to sarah and caitlin. i am crying now thinking back on it. i have never been more thankful for a month with my sisters than i am for this june. the Lord was so gracious to allow us to have this time together, serving him and watching him grow us individually and together as sisters. i am more thankful than i know how to express in words. it is not often that one gets to share such an experience with not only her sisters but her best friends. i cannot wait to flood our apartment with pictures and memories from this summer. that afternoon was weird. it was different just being the four of us (luis, karla, sarah d. and me). we hung out and talked about funny things that had happened over the past month. 

the best surprise ever!

miss you sooo much.

on sunday luis, sarah and i went to church like always in el eden with our friends at the ctc. we worship together and then have sunday school. after sunday school we spend time just talking, playing fútbol with the kids and visiting. this sunday we treated our volunteers to our favorite food... baleadas!!!. we all loaded up and headed over to coco baleadas for lunch. it was delicious. sarah and i made deals with some of our friends and had them order our baleadas. maybe the best decision so far this summer. :) after we ate baleadas, we took a walk around central park and ended our day. 

nelson and sarah. 

neto and me.

central park.

the next week was the best week sarah and i could have had. God was so faithful. we knew if we had a regular week with the same routine it would have been so hard for us not having sarah, caitlin and kimberly. so... the Lord blessed us with an amazing team from houston, texas! i wish i could sit here and name them all off and tell you how wonderful they all were but that would just take too much time. i will give you the links to SCOTT and KRISTIN'S blogs. we were with the team in the mornings and the afternoons monday through thursday. in the mornings we went to different schools in el eden and in the afternoons we were at casitas kennedy. the kids the team worked with fell in love with them instantly and the team was so willing to do anything. they were the epitome of a mission team that interns are thankful for. they didn't complain. the were go with the flow. they were so welcoming to sarah and me and we could not be more thankful. they were funny. they invited us to meals with them. they allowed us to share in their devotion time one night. this was so sweet for us. hearing what the Lord was doing in each of their lives through the people and the children we love was so encouraging. we stayed at their hotel for at least an hour after they finished. sarah worked on bracelets and talked with lindsay and leah, two sisters on the team... and jonathan and frank let me talk about theology for an hour. i know i bored them to death but they were so sweet to let me keep talking... on thursday we spent the entire day in el eden because that afternoon we celebrated the one year anniversary of buckner's ctc in tegucigalpa. to be apart of and get to experience the dramatic effect this ministry has made on the community was truly a blessing. (look for a blog when i return to the states solely devoted to this ministry of buckner!!) our volunteers were recognized for all of their work and contributions to the center. we were like proud parents. 

cj and me.

the team.

precious nicole. 

then... we got to friday again. friday was full of surprises. this was our last day in tegucigalpa. i started the day off crying. in the five and a half weeks i had been there, it had become my home. these people had become my family. we laughed together and at some points cried together. we even lived through trials together. i wasn't ready to leave. that morning sarah, luis and i went to the ctc so sarah and i could get our hair cut. (they have been having beauty workshop for the women in the community). after that luis told us that rachel had a meeting so we had to leave the ctc and go down to the church. we were a little confused but we didn't question. well... luis lied. we got to the church, walked upstairs and were greeted by a surprise party. there were balloons, food and the christian rap cd we had made mauricio playing in the background. we loved just sitting with our friends and talking about funny things that had happened. my birthday is july 30th and sarah's is august 2nd. so surprise again... since our friends weren't gong to be with us on our birthdays they made us our favorite, tres leches, and we celebrated our birthdays. after we ate cake we did our goodbye talks. i cried. sarah cried. they cried. we had to stop with about twenty minutes left so we wouldn't end on a sad note. when the time came and julio caesar was outside we made our rounds with hugs, last words and last little surprises. i think i can speak for both sarah and myself when i say we felt like we were saying goodbye to our family. 

getting my hair washed... a cut came after. 

betzabe, lorena and siloe

our family. 

we went to the apartment and just kind of sat around. we were full from our party with our friends and crying had taken away any appetite we may have developed on the car ride home. that afternoon we went to the orphanage. it wasn't a typical day. they were treating the center for mosquitos, so for the most part everyone was outside and there were far fewer tias there than normal. this made it a weird last day for us. all the kids were really hyper and energized and just being crazy kids and there were only three of us. we were being pulled in every different direction. the babies were out of their casita because of the treatment so i got to hold my babies and love on my sweet any (annie). (the babies have been in quarantine with rotavirus). that's just what we did. we loved on kids. we played our hand clapping games, pushed people on the swing, sat and talked with what spanish we know, played "quien?" and just enjoyed being there one last day. it didn't seem like a last day because everything was so crazy and so hectic and we had our last day with sarah, kimberly, caitlin and karla to compare it to. i didn't cry until i was back in the hotel getting ready for dinner. there are so many things i miss about these children, and i definitely have an aching to return to them. 

that night we went to dinner with the team. even though we were going to dinner with the whole team,we had a special surprise for luis and karla. we had gotten them a small tres leches cake that morning and had written, "we love you karla and luis." well... we didn't think out things very well as far as hiding it and getting it to the restaurant without luis seeing it. sarah got luis out of the room before me and into the car and i used my poncho to hide the cake. i walked downstairs with the cake in my arms carrying it almost like a book. bad idea!!... i started to feel something cold on my feet. it was the milk from the cake. it was leaking all over my poncho and my feet. it was warming up, which is not a good thing for a "three milks" cake. finally i make it into the car and we headed off to the restaurant. we get twenty seconds out of the driveway and i realize i probably don't know enough spanish to tell the people at the restaurant what is going on and ask them to use their refrigerator. sarah and i start laughing but luis doesn't pay us any attention because he's gotten a phone call. he told us it was maria fernanda (one of our friends working at our apartment) telling him he left his wallet in the office. we turn around and go back to the apartment. he gets out and then i look in the rearview mirror and see a car i recognize with familiar faces standing around it. it was david, shari, nicole, mauricio, and neto. they had come to give us our goodbye cards and a little gift. this made me tear up again knowing that they had driven to our apartment just to see us again and give us our beautiful hand made cards. luis was a really good liar and this was a very nice surprise. we said our final goodbyes (for now...) and headed to the restaurant for real this time, still with a melting tres leches cake in the back seat. we got to the restaurant and asked luis to stay in the car. our spanish was flawless as we explained the surprise and asked to use their refrigerator. (thanks to our prayers on the drive over) we were so proud of ourselves. we were having dinner with our wonderful team when karla came over to us and asked us to come with her outside. when we got there our sweet friends josué, nelson, betzabe and siloe were outside waiting on us. they had come to surprise us and tell us goodbye. all of these surprises made "goodbyes" seem more like "see you laters." when we went back into the restaurant we gave karla and luis their cake, ate it and said our goodbyes to the team from houston.

 the awesome/half melted tres leches cake. :) 

shhhhh.... 

sarah and i didn't think to start packing until we got home friday night. we both had to do laundry and pack up our lives from the last five weeks. luis and karla helped us clean/kept us company. we had to be up by four saturday morning to be at the airport at 5:00 am. it was still dark outside when karla walked in with breakfast from denny's. when we got to the airport, we found out we were allowed one bag of 35 pounds for our toy airplane flight to san pedro sula. well... we both had two bags. and one of mine was 58 pounds. i only paid a 6 dollar charge for my bags. (america take lessons from honduras in charging for extra bags.) no one was in the airport at this hour. we sat at a table for a while and visited with karla and luis. then they sent us off. we went through security crying. i couldn't stop. once i start crying my tear ducts become overactive and just don't stop. after being delayed for an hour we finally took off and headed for san pedro sula. 

i had originally planned to update you on the last few weeks including our first week in san pedro sula but it's just too much. so i will try to post an update soon about san pedro sula. here are some things i can tell you and some things you can be praying for. the first few days in san pedro were rough simply because it wasn't my home. i was homesick for the very first time. it was a foreign feeling for me. i am still very much homesick but the Lord has been so faithful and so good to me since coming to san pedro sula. he is teaching me so much about serving him and doing so with a willing heart. he is also teaching me so much about his will... he is reaffirming for me that it is perfect and giving me comfort in trusting it. the other two interns (lisa callie and rachel) are great and our translators (lulu and jansy) here are so nice. we have been at nueva esperanza in the mornings and with the transitional girls in the afternoon. i cannot wait to update you on this past week. i love you all and thank you so much for your prayers. 

"Lord, if what I ask for does not please You, neither would it please me. My desires are put into Your hands to be corrected. Strike the pen through every petition that I offer that is not right. And put in whatever I have omitted, even though I might not have desired it had I considered it... Not as I will, but as Thou wilt." - Charles Spurgeon 

"I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence." -Acts 2:24-28