October Update Newsletter

This is what I just emailed out to everyone on my list... some of it is a repeat from my previous blogs, but my prayer requests are new...

October Update from Honduras

First of all, I’d like to apologize for not sending out a newsletter since June. I’ve been busy, but that’s really not an excuse. For this newsletter, I thought I’d do something different and give you a few highlights from each month and a few pictures along with a link to lots more pictures. So, here you go:

July

I spent most of July in the states with my family and friends. I was able to spend time with all of my immediate family, along with several aunts, uncles, and cousins. I spent most of my time in Dallas, but also spent a couple of days in Fort Worth with my friends from TCU, the 4th of July weekend in New Orleans (visiting one of my good friends), and a day in south Texas. It was a nice, restful time that was a blessing and encouragement as I was able to share with many people about what’s going on here in Honduras and catch up with what’s going on in their lives.

August

School started! This year I am teaching a wide assortment of things. I’m teaching all the core subjects to 4th grade (Julio and Kevin….both kids under the care of our ministry, and both in my class last year); Math, Science, Home Ec, and Reading to 5th graders (Elli, Emma, and Jennifer…all Missionary Kids…Elli was in my class last year); Math, Industrial Arts, and Reading to 6th grade (Franklin…he’s Kevin’s brother…also a ministry kid); and Biology to five 10th graders (Audrey, Caleb, Diasira, Eleni, and Jhoselyn). That sounds like a lot, but it all fits into one school day! My kids are pretty much all full of energy and keep me entertained all day long.

September

September included a Honduran Independence Day celebration. Honduras, along with several other Central American countries gained their independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. To celebrate their independence, we had a Honduran festival in which each of our classes presented information about a department (slightly similar to a US state) of Honduras. Although the presentation took lots of preparation, I was pleased with how my 4th graders performed. Julio pretended to be “Jose Cecilio de Valle” a Honduran founding father, and Kevin interviewed him. I was also impressed with Kevin because he said everything in English, but then translated it to Spanish as he went. We ended the morning eating a sampling of typical Honduran food. It was a good morning and I learned a lot about different areas of Honduras.

October
Not much has happened in October so far, with the exception of my birthday. I celebrated my 24th birthday on October 4th along with 4 other teachers that have October birthdays. We all went to dinner and had a fun night together.

Prayer Requests:
Pray for the hearts of all our kids to be open to God’s love. With most of our kids coming from rough backgrounds, some of them have hardened hearts.
Pray for continued joy and patience as I teach lots of high energy kids every day!
Pray for several of our teachers who have hard stuff going on at home right now and are having to deal with it from here.
Pray for two of our missionaries who are getting married in December. They’re getting married in the states and have to plan everything from here.
Prayer/Praise: After lots of prayer and consideration, I have decided to extend my commitment here with WGO for another school year (meaning I’m committed through June of 2010). Please be praying for me to continue to develop relationships with the kids along with other physical, mental, and spiritual preparations as I adjust my thinking to staying here for another year.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support! I’ll try to keep you guys updated on a more regular basis!

Here’s a link to some more pictures!
Pictures from school:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109782&l=f5bd5&id=18304898

Life outside of school:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111784&l=0174a&id=18304898

Also, don’t forget about my blog: http://hannahhonduras.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Hannah Dakel
Hannah.dakel@gmail.com
www.wgoreach.org

pictures!

here are some pictures i thought you might enjoy:

1. kelly, me, and abby in our matching honduras shirts!

2. my favorite honduran butterfly..... underneath his wings.... 3. and the top of his wings...isn't he pretty? he was being very friendly too!
4. kevin taking a math test....

5. and me helping julio with something...it wasn't his birthday...he just wanted to wear the hat...

community outreach

you may remember me writing about a community literacy program we were doing on our mountain last year. well, we're doing the same thing this year, but a little different. this year it is pretty much completely student led with only supervison from adults. there are 4 or 5 of our high school students that are teaching it. anyway, today i had the opportunity to go and see what it was like this year. there were only 2 students from the community there...they were an elderly couple ...probably at least in their 60s, probably 70s. it was really cool to watch how God is using our students, one of them in particular who was teaching today, to reach these people in our community. she was teaching them very basic things such as the alphabet in spanish, and how to write their names, etc. she had to show one of them how to take the lid of his dry erase marker. it's cool to think about how much of an impact this can have in these people's lives and fun to see how appreciative they were of all the help.

please pray for this program and wisdom in making decisions about the long-term plans of it. Also please be praying for the kids club portion of the program that we started last year. our kids are responsible for planning all of it this year and there hasn't been much excitement or follow trhough with the ideas. also...not many kids are coming to the program. please be praying for wisdom in how/if we should proceed with this program as well.

here's another prayer request too :). please be praying for my students who have the chicken pox or "chicken pops" as some of them call it. i went to visit their house the other day and they look and seem pretty miserable. they're pretty much covered all over with the sores and said they have them in their mouth and eyes too. that can't be fun. i took cookies to them that we had made in home ec, and kevin said, "thanks miss hannah, but i don't know if i can eat this. the chicken pox are telling my stomach that i shouldn't eat anything."