Christmas parties, Graduation, and Thanksgiving

The last week of school (Nov 24-26) was a short week b/c of Thanksgiving and graduation. Grades were due that Monday, so we didn't really do any real school work at all. That Monday, in the elementary side of the building, we had a christmas party all day! We divided the kids into 4 groups, and each of the teachers was in charge of 2 stations...one before recess and one after. Each of the 4 groups then rotated to each teacher's station and then repeated the rotation with a different activity after recess. My stations were decorating christmas cookies, and making a "gingerbread" house. Other stations included making christmas ornaments, reading christmas stories, games where they dressed up like santa, and making christmas decorations and crafts. After lunch, we came back and watched "Polar Express" and then let the kids play outside the rest of the afternoon. And you've heard of tacky Christmas sweaters? Well, 2 of my friends and i decided to make tacky christmas t-shirts to make the day more fun. We all had little jingle bells glued to them as well, but after the first hour or so, we ended up ripping them off b/c they got to be really annoying.

Wednesday of that week was graduation! We had 2 of our Honduran students graduate from high school! I'm very proud of them and had the privilege of teaching them both Chemistry last year. I'm glad i had the opportunity to teach them and get to know them a little better. Graduation was full of many of our students performing music in one way or another. My 4th-6th graders sang "Lord I Lift Your Name On High" and "Open the Eyes of My Heart," which they'd been working on in Music class, as well as a song that they sing in chapel. Kevin also joined the praise and worship band at the end of the ceremony and played the drums for a worship song. At the very end of the ceremony, they called all the students and teachers up on the stage to sing "a special song." the kids didn't know what we were going to sing, so they were confused. We ended up singing "Feliz Navidad" in Spanish and English for all the parents. It was a fun way to end our time together!

Thanksgiving was fun,too! About 40 of us from WGO gathered at the mission house for thanksgiving. We all brought our favorite dish to share with everyone, which made for a lot of food, but it was good! It was a fun time to spend with the other teachers and some of the people who work in El Hatillo (where the other half of our ministry is located) who I don't get to see very often. That night, 5 of us spent that night at the mission house because we were leaving very early the next morning to go on vacation. I've spent the night at the mission house a couple of other times, but then there were more people. this time was creepy b/c there were just the 5 of us girls and it's a big building...and it was dark. As we were all leaving the common living room/meeting room area, one of my friends looked out the big sliding glass door (which looks out over a gorgeous view of the city...but that's not important in the story) and sees what she thinks is her reflection...only to realize, "Oh...that's not me. I'm not wearing a hat!" as she screamed and ran back to where we were. The person wearing the hat then shined his flashlight inside to see what was going on. It turned out to be a guard, but it was pretty scary. My friend then realized that she left something in that room that she needed, but didn't want to go back and get it. I volunteered to go get it, only to find the guard still standing there, swinging his flashlight back and forth and looking at me. It was creepy! But we survived the night...with little sleep b/c some of the girls were being very giggly...and left the next morning for vacation! (I'll write more about that in my next post)

November and my kids!

There's not a lot to say, but i thought I'd let y'all know i'm still alive and share a couple of pictures with you!

we only have about a week and a half left of school this semester! Graduation is Nov. 26th, then we're out of school until January. This semester has flown by! Since we're not in school at all in December, we're already starting to do Christmas stuff! it's fun! The stores around here had christmas stuff out at the beginning of october, maybe even the end of september! i think that's b/c halloween here isn't a big deal, and of course, they don't celebrate thanksgiving, so christmas is the next big deal! anyways, i thought that was kind of funny.

here's a picture of me and my 4th-6th graders that we took yesterday. i spend the majority of my day with these kids, either all of them together or in different combinations. i love them!

And here's a picture of all of our students, pre-k through 12th grade! sorry it's kind of small. I'll try to post it on facebook, too. it might be easier to see on there :)

As always, thanks for all your prayers!

Please pray for a strong finish to our semester and continue to pray for the salvation of some of kids!

oh yeah.... Robbie's coming to visit me next week! Please pray a for a safe trip for him and a good visit! I"m excited!!!

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."

chicken pox!

This morning I received a phone call saying that Julio and Kevin have chicken pox and wouldn't be in school today. When I got to school, I found out that Franklin, my 6th grader, along with Emma, one of the 5th graders also were out with chicken pox. So today, I just had Jennifer and Elli, two 5th graders for class today. Neither one of them have had chicken pox before, so I'm just waiting for them to get it too. So...needless to say, I had a pretty easy day. 3 of my class periods I had free b/c I was only supposed to have 4th graders. I had plenty to do, though b/c grades were due today. This will be an interesting week with no kids! Some of the other teachers are giving me a hard time about not having any classes.

Speaking of grades, it means we've been in school for 8 weeks! I can't believe it's gone by so fast!
It's getting to the time of year, again, where I need to decide whether or not i'm staying here with the ministry for another year. Please be praying with me as I make this decision. I need to tell the leadership here by November 15th.

November 15th is also an important date b/c that's the day my brother's coming to visit me! I'm excited that Robbie will get to see everything i've talked about the past year or so and I'll get to spend some time with him!

drums and a bee sting...

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I wrote a new update. Sorry about that. We just finished our 4th week of school and our progress report grades are due on Monday. The year's already flying by.



This school year has brought some new challenges, but I've really enjoyed it. I feel like i'm developing stronger friendships with the other teachers and am getting to know the new teachers better.



I'm enjoying teaching more of the kids and getting to know some of them that i've never taught before.



Yesterday was kind of eventful. Kevin, one of my 4th graders had the opportunity to play with the high school kids in teh worship band for chapel in the morning. Last year, he learned how to play the drums and was very excited to get to play with the older kids yesterday. He said it was his dream to play in his band and now he got to do it. It was funny watching him afterward with the other kids. They were all saying, "Kevin, come sit by me!" and telling him what a good job he did. It was fun to watch. Here's a picture of him right before he played:

















Also, yesterday afternoon, Julio, my other 4th grader, got stung by a bee on his lip. We had our windows open b/c it was hot in our room, so i guess it got in through the screen somehow. Julio was reaching down to get his language book from the shelf and then came running to me crying and holding his mouth. At first he told me that a spider bit him and then pointed to something black moving around on the floor. Kevin saw the whole thing happen and said he would go kill it for us. He ran back into the room with the fly swatter and killed the "spider" for us. He came back and told us it was a bee. When I went to see it after it was dead, it definitely was a bee...a big fuzzy yellow and black one. Anyways, it stung him on the lip, so his lip was really swollen and made him talk funny. He said it hurt, but he enjoyed all the attention it brought him. He kept going ot look at it in the mirror and laughing at himself. Then he would start talking and stop in the middle b/c he couldn't finish what he was saying b/c he was laughing so hard. I gave him some ice and he got some benadryl, so by the end of the day, the swelling had gone down and things were better. He was excited too, because i didn't make him take his spelling test or language test that afternoon....because all of this had happened right before and i knew he wouldn't be able to think straight. When his lip was all swollen he said..."so...do you think if i poked it, it would 'splode?" It was pretty funny.



Anyways, all that was the end to a pretty long and somewhat stressful week, so needless to say, I'm glad that today is Saturday!



You can be praying for:

1. The health of the teachers...several of us have been getting sick and having various health issues.

2. The continued adjustment for the new teachers.

3. Continued patience, strength, joy, and wisdom as I teach every day.

4. The leadership of the ministry as they make tough decisions everyday regarding the lives of our kids.

5. The country of Honduras. There have been some changes and treaties, etc going on with the government.


Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement!

Here are a couple of links to albums of pictures I have on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111784&l=0174a&id=18304898

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109782&l=f5bd5&id=18304898

Enjoy!