Beauty

Hello! Wow, time flies when you're having fun. And when you're having fun on a bus and cross a time zone boundary, that makes it go even faster. Haha, that happened when we crossed over into Mountain time from Pacific time. We were all laughing and having a good time at around 3:00 PM... and then POOF! It was 4:00 PM. U_U xD But anyway, road trip is all over now. Yup. There's two months left until graduation, which is on August 3rd. And then my lovely parents are bringing me home. And then I'm off to Jury Duty on August 11th. And that's as far as my life is planned out to date.

Anyway, I've been thinking about beauty today. I was rereading one of my favorite books, and it struck me in a new way. And one beautiful thing is art. So I wrote down some thoughts from the book and drew some artwork around it. :) A beautiful display of information about beauty. It's up on my wall now.

Here's a close up.

Honduras Paused!

Well, I only got the first 7 days of Honduras prepared and scheduled to post! I write this on April 30, and tomorrow I depart. Woohoo for road trip! =D Too bad for Honduras info. :( Ah well. xD Hopefully I'll take the time to get it up once I return from road trip... sometime in June, I think.

See ya! :)

P.S. Here's an action shot from the life of a GL... With a bunch of stuff to grab for road trip, and a very short time to grab it all! I should have at least got a basket before darting through the store grabbing my stuff, yeah? Well, looking at my list I found that I needed more stuff than I thought I did. xD

Honduras Day #7 School of the King

March 10, Day # 7

• Breakfast.
• Packing... talking with Kaitlin and Marie about practical stuff living here. Burning trash with Leah. Sweeping patio, cleaning toilet.
• Second group. About 10-12 of us + our luggage + a couple mattresses in cattle car. Picture, Cydney. [Picture!] 30-45 minute drive. So beautiful. x) So we headed over to Institute del Rey, the School of the King. It's a gated area containing three houses, fruit trees, lawns, a soccer field, basketball court, (though no one thought much about basketball... soccer was the thing!) a covered patio area, and the school itself - a bunch of classrooms (and library!) all connected in a square with a central courtyard. Living there full time was a missionary couple, Wendy from GL's host church, and Alison from somewhere else. And there were security guards.
• Arrive at school... getting settled, then 20 min with students on their break. Then a bit later, chapel. Garrett – Stomp. Chad – He Reigns. (Technical difficulties, order really Garrett, Chad, Stomp, He Reigns, Rebecca, So Good.) It /was/ so good! But I must return to short bullets. 
• Those tortilla things. Home kitchen. We walked across the street and knocked on the door of this private house, where these ladies ran their home business. Rob and I were the ones who spoke some Spanish, so we were able to step inside along with Pastor Ed while the others waited outside. They had such a cool little kitchen! We told them how many baleadas we wanted, and they got started making them. They made the tortillas from scratch, then filled them with beans and cheese. Kind of like a folded quesadilla, but fuller. While they made them, we walked up the street to a couple little shops. Then on the way back we paid and picked them up. 
• Talking with Wendy and Amanda, foot massage.
• Cindy explained amibas. We all have them in our stomach, actually... it's just not something we like to advertise in the states!!! It's only really a problem when you get too many of them inside... which is what happens when you a) drink unfiltered water over there, or b) don't drink enough of the good water and get dehydrated. Poor little Haley had it bad, and Cydney, and Annie... stomach aches and other unpleasant symptoms. 
• Dinner prep.
• Anna ice cream. It was 14 limpera... which is about 75¢. For an cool little ice cream! Anna picked it up for me from the store down the road. And having something cool and creamy in a hot land where everything is room temperature or warm... is such a treat. Just like a squished peanut butter and jelly sandwich out on a hike tastes way better than a fresh one in the kitchen. there's just something about being out on an adventure... it makes you value little things more. They just taste better than normal!
• Organizing suitcases. And shoes several times. I lined up all our suitcases along the wall. There were about 5 of us in the living room, so I got everything organized and easily accessible for each of us. I love organizing!
• Dinner. Matt’s bday. x) First birthday party ever. “Speech, speech, speech, speech!” Just like Bilbo! And great speech about first bday sober and surrounded by loved people. Matches for candles in chocolate chip banana bread. It was cool!
• After dinner – 8:00. Curfew 10:00. 5 things to accomplish. 2 back rubs (Haley and Abbie), I foot rub (Amanda), shower, and this log. Dishes, logistics hiccup, Me, Amanda, (Clara, Megan, Taylor.) Haley y Abbie fell asleep. 10 min per foot, then rush to shower at 9:45. Kristie – “Next time don’t wait until the last minute.” No need to explain. My value is not in that. Quick shower, quick prep for bed, in bed 10:05ish. Now time for sleep!!! – 10:25 Yes, I had more tasks lined up then I had time for, faced with a pile of dishes and limited help. It was just a little hiccup where not enough workers were assigned to clean up. Just two of us... but then three more came and joined us when I went out to ask if anyone could help us, so it all worked out fine. Still, there was barely time to shower and get ready for bed! It's such a joy to not have to worry what people think... In the past I would have felt less valuable, because it looked like I did something extremely immature. (Dawdling until the last minute and then jumping to use the shower.) I probably wouldn't have explained in any case, because it would just look like an excuse... but the difference is what I felt inside. In the past, I would have felt bad. Felt like my value as a human being had gone down because someone thought I did something immature and irresponsible. It's so cool to just have quite peace, resting assured of my value in my Creator, not in how people rate my behavior.

Honduras Day #6 Pictures

I was able to go for a little walk and grab some pictures before breakfast... :)

Standing at the girls' house, looking down on the group house.

Beautiful Honduran forest, mountains, and sunrise!

Clothesline!

This is the area we dug out the other day in order to make a place for the clothesline to be extended. And those spiky plants up there are pineapples!

Girls' house to the left, back of the group house to the left. ;)

Group house window.

Girls' house. It's actually a duplex. The right side is the girls' house, the left side is where a missionary family normally lives... but they were on furlough, so it was empty.

My laundry.

Dog.

River... and foster home in the distance.

The path to the other side of the property! It was probably a 3 minute walk from the group house to the foster houses...

Chicken house.

Worker's house.

Foster house.

Shed.

Library, with concha behind it. The concha is the basketball court/gathering hall.

Attack geese!

Library and concha again...

Middle courtyard.

Truck and computer house, where the guys staid.

Path down to foster houses.

Green foster house.

Blue foster house.

The other blue foster house.

Trees.

Blue foster house. (There are a total of three: two blue and one green)

Cook stove in the back.

Trash pile.

Beautiful. 

8' 8' 8' hole!!! =D I love holes. x) And I so enjoyed working on it with my brothers, when I had the chance. The purpose of the hole, when finished, was to burn trash in.

Back of foster home.

Chickens.

Bikes.

Carolina and I. x)

Construction for bathrooms added onto the library...

Sign.

La concha!

Playground. ;)

Back of computer room.

Carolina and Fredrico homeschooled, I'm pretty sure.

"Welcome to the Library"

Books... :)

"Discover the world with books"

:)

First up close map of Honduras I saw!

Storage area of the library.

Hill across the street.

Path.

Flowers.

Upper path to the right leads to girls' house, lower path to the left leads to the group house.

River down below.

Door.

 Meal plan.

The interns staying there... their chore chart.

I love luggage tags!

This is the messiest my suitcase ever got! I was digging something out, and I took a picture before putting it all back where it went. And all that stuff to the left isn't mine, only the stuff on my suitcase's lid.

A college student also lived there. 

One of the interns, and view of group house.

Something like - Wherever you go, I'll go, wherever I live, you live... something along those lines. I didn't look it up, just deducing from what I know of the language and the tone of the picture. It's beautiful! 

The map, all marked up some more!