Spanish Church

This morning I went to a spanish speaking church. I usually go to an English speaking church, and i like most things about that church, but I've been considering for a long time switching to a spanish church. I went today with a couple of other teachers and a new missionary here that is looking for a spanish church. All that to say, i really enjoyed it! I don't know if it's because it's something new or what, but i found it very refreshing and i was encouraged that i understood the majority of what was being said. that's what's held me back before. i wasn't sure if i could understand enough for it to be worth it, for me to grow at all from church. I can say today though, i understood most of it, and only got lost when he started talking really really fast. This summer and next semester, I think I'll try going to different Spanish churches and try to find one that I like.

I've also decided recently that i need to be working on my spanish more, specifically my speaking. I can understand a lot of what's being said, but my spanish conversational skills are a little rusty. i feel like i'm forgetting a lot of the basic stuff i've learned a long time ago....like basic greetings and present tense verbs. it's kinda sad. So, that's a new goal of mine...to speak more spanish to practice, and not care if i mess up a lot to start out with, because i know i will, but that's the only way to learn and be confident in my Spanish speaking abilities. Going to a spanish speaking church will help with this goal, too :).

Solamente tenemos 3 mas semanas de la escuela! (translated: we only have 3 more weeks of school)

February/March Update

“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now…” -Philippians 1:4-5

The past two months seem to have flown by! I can’t believe that it’s already March. As always, I’ve been keeping busy. Here’s what’s been going on:

100th Day of School
In February, we celebrated our 100th day of school. Our Kindergarten-5th grade classes spent an afternoon based on the number 100. They put together 100 piece puzzles, made crowns, made 100 handprints among other things. The kids enjoyed having this fun afternoon celebrating our 100th day of school.

Coffee Field Trip
Here at Rancho Ebenezer, we grow and sell coffee to incoming mission teams as well as various organizations and people in the states. As elementary teachers, we decided it would be fun to take a “Coffee Field trip” to learn how exactly the coffee gets from the plant to the cup. Alan, one of our house parents, and the guy who is in charge of the coffee processing, was glad to show us what exactly goes on in the coffee making process. Here are a few interesting facts I learned:
We have 20,000 coffee plants at the ranch, each one lasting for 50 years.
Each coffee plant has “cherries” on it. It takes 4,000 of these “cherries” to make 1 pound of coffee.
Coffee plants are very durable. They can be run over with a car and spring back up to their original condition.

Spelling Bee
Our 2nd through 6th graders had a spelling bee! I enjoyed being a judge for this event and made sure the kids stayed within their time limit of thirty seconds. I was very proud of all of the students. They did an exceptional job, especially my two 5th graders! Elli won first place and Jennifer won 2nd place, although, I can’t take credit because I’m not their spelling teacher.

I had visitors!
February 28th-March 2nd was a very special week for me! My mom, brother, and brother’s girlfriend came to visit me! It was my mom’s spring break from school, so she was originally planning on coming. At the last minute (a couple weeks before the trip), we worked it out so that Robbie and Mallorie could come with her! I really enjoyed having them all here to experience what I do on a daily basis. My mom said she was so glad to see in person what I did because the pictures apparently don’t do it justice. It was such a blessing and encouragement to have them here…like a little bit of home brought to me. They were able to go on the coffee field trip with me, experience the spelling bee, hang out at school with me, meet my friends/coworkers, go to a waterfall, and help me with a sewing project for my home ec class.

Prayer Requests:
Pray that I will daily keep spending time with God…that it would be a priority and that I won’t be distracted by other things.
Pray for my students, that they will continue to work hard and learn more about God.
Pray for me as I teach every day, that I will have patience, wisdom, and creativity with my students.
Pray that God would provide the teams we need to come for the remainder of the year.
Pray that God would provide the preschool teacher and high school teachers we need for next school year.
Pray for our safety. Sometimes we get comfortable where we are and forget that it can be a dangerous place.

Pictures:
Follow the links below to lots of pictures!

Vistors part 1
Vistors part 2
100th Day of School
February and March Pictures



As always, thanks for all of your prayers and support! I wouldn’t be here without your help and God’s provision!


-Hannah Dakel
Hannah.dakel@gmail.com
Hannahhonduras.blogspot.com
www.wgoreach.org

A fun visit!

This past week, my mom, my brother (robbie), and my brother's girlfriend (mallorie) came to visit me! We had a lot of fun! It was a blessing and encouragement to have them here.

While they were here, we had a coffee field trip and spelling bee at school, my mom, mallorie, and i helped my 5th graders sew purses in home-ec class, they helped me with a couple of projects i've been meaning to do at school, we went to the city to hang out with friends a few times, and we went to the waterfall. All the kids really enjoyed seeing robbie again so soon after his last visit in November. I'm so glad it worked out for all of them to come and hope they can come back again soon!

Here are a couple of pictures:

An interesting week

100th Day of School!

Monday, February 9th was our 100th day of school! We had a nice celebration in the afternoon all planned around the number 100. The kids made crowns with 10 groups of 10 things on them and wore them for the rest of the day. They had 100 minutes of free time (broken up into smaller sections so they didn't get bored), worked 100 piece puzzles, made 100 handprints, and wrote their names over and over again in a 100s chart...one letter in each square and each letter a different color. Most of the time it made a cool pattern...see the picture below...

the kids had a great time and it was a fun afternoon.

An almost broken nose

On Thursday of the same week, one of my students almost broke my nose. I was sitting on one of my tables and julio was standing in front of me with his book in my lap. I was looking down, watching him work, and he got really excited b/c he figured out how to do something, so he jumped up and his head came up and hit my nose really hard. It hit so hard, that it made my eyes water and it bled a little. I had to ice it for a little while. Julio was eventually very apologetic, and now we all laugh about it. Kevin, my other 4th grader sometimes just looks at my nose and laughs. Looking back on it now, I laugh too, but at the time it wasn't very funny.

Valentine's Day

The next day was the day before Valentines Day. We had a little party at school for that, too and had cookies, juice, and a few valentines day activities. After lunch, some of the pre-k, Kindergarten, and 1st graders came around to the classes and gave the teachers flowers. It was really sweet. All the kids also made lots of valentines for each other. Here in Honduras, Valentine's day is called, "Dia de amor y la amistad" (or "Day of love and friendship"). My 5th grade girls made a valentine for the 2nd and 3rd grade boys class, but they made sure to underline the word "amistad" or "friendship" because they wanted to be sure the boys knew that they didn't love them. I thought it was pretty funny.

Several of us teachers got together on saturday night and had a nice dinner. we had fun celebrating our friendship as well. We ended up having 3 yummy cheesecakes. At our house, we had 2, one plain, and one with a blackberry glaze. One of the parents sent us a chocolate one as well. We enjoyed the variety. It was a special treat b/c we don't get cheesecake very much here.

Other news:

My mom, Robbie, and his friend, Mallorie, are coming to visit me next week! I'm really excited to have visitors. It will be a fun week! They'll be here Feb 28th-March 7th. Please pray for a safe trip for them and a good week.

School's back in session!

Sorry it's been so long since i've updated anything. I had a great time in Texas for Christmas. I was able to see a few friends, lots of family, and really enjoyed being with all of them for Christmas. It was a quick trip, but it was very encouraging, refreshing, and relaxing!

We started back to school this past Monday, January 12th. The 12th also happens to be one of my student's (Julio) birthday, so we had a little party for him that afternoon. This is my schedule for the semester...it's easiest to just lay it out w/ times and instead of trying to explain stuff:

8:10-8:20- Teacher meeting and prayer time
8:20-9:00- 10th grade Biology
9:05-9:45- 4th and 6th grade math
9:50-10:30- 5th grade math
10:30-11ish- Recess
11:00-11:30- 5th grade science
11:35-12:10- Planning Period
12:10-12:45- Lunch
12:50-1:30- 8th grade science
1:35-2:15- 5th grade home-ec
2:20-3:00- 4th and 5th grade grammar
3:05-3:45- 4th grade spelling and reading


So put together, that's 11 different subjects for 1 school day :). That sounds like a lot, but it's not bad. I love all the variety, plus, my biggest class only has 4 kids in it.

My first week of school went well. It was fun to see all the kids again, and get back in the groove of things. It'll be a challenging semester, but I'm excited about it!

Prayer Requests:
-for my students this semester: Julio, Kevin, Elli, Jennifer, Franklin, Banya, Fany, Emily, Caleb, and Audrey...5 are Honduran students and 5 missionary kids
-that we would have a great semester!

Thanks!

I'm in Texas!

I just wanted to let you know I'll be in Texas until December 31st! I've been here a few days and it's been nice to just relax and spend time with my family. I have my dad's birthday, an out of town wedding, and of course Christmas, but that leaves a few days after Christmas if any of you are free to hang out. I'd love to see you! I'll try calling some of you soon...

Whether I get to see you or not, know that I really appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and financial support! They've been such an encouragement this year. May God bless your Christmas this year!

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)