We got ourselves a game!

So we have been having "soccer practices" for about a month and a half now. It has been tough because the players have no discipline and have never been required to practice. Sometimes players show up and sometimes they don't. So last week I wrote up a contract and sent it home with anyone who wanted to be on the team. They had to sign it as well as their parents. The players are now expected to stay at school from 2:30 to 5. The first hour is study hall and 3:30 to 5 is practice. We have had two boys practices and two girls practices. So far every practice has had a full team. The second problem has been that we have no games scheduled, the public schools get out in two weeks and every other soccer coach on the island speaks Spanish. I'm working on the Spanish thing but its coming SLOW. Both of these issues have been stressing me out a little because I felt kinda like I was being thrown to the wolves with a soccer team that had no structure or direction. Its been a blessing to have the students respect our new practice model. It took a lot of chasing kids through the parking lot to make them stay but, its working. So the game thing. Without games, the kids have no drive or motivation to train. I knew we could only keep practices up for a limited amount of time without games. So yesterday while we were practicing, a man was watching us play so I went to talk to him while the players were doing some drills.

He spoke just enough English for me to understand that he was a soccer coach also. One of the injured players came over and helped me with the translation. After a 10 minute conversation of nodding my head and whispering, "what did he say?," we had a game scheduled for next week. So as of now we have our first boys game scheduled Tuesday as 6. Also as I sat down to begin this blog, one of the girls from the team came in and said another school wants to set up a game for next week. They will be sending an invitation to play for Friday of next week. So we got ourselves some games! Things seem to be getting on track with the sports finally, its a beautiful thing.

Aside from the soccer teams things at school are going great. We were using the parachute in all of the elementary school classes and they LOVED it. I mean how could they not.

Dounuts galore!!

So about a month ago, these 3 little girls stopped by our apartments selling donuts. I was so stoked because it was a rough day at school and nothings sounded better than to sit back and eat a bunch of sugar. I think the teachers that live on the hall bought the little girls out for the day. When they went to Amy's apartment, she showed them love through chewing gum. The girls were so excited and had both pieces of gum in their mouths before they reached the door. they came back a few days later and we went through the same routine. This scene repeated itself for about 3 weeks, each time the girls began to stay a little longer and talk a little more. They don't speak a lick of english so it's giving us an opportunity to practice. Amy has taken these beautiful little girls under her wing and has been showing them the love they may have never experienced before. They are now waiting on the steps outside our apartment almost everyday when we come home from school. They usually stick around and hang out for about an hour. Our time consists of playing memory, drawing, learning geography with the world map on the wall, getting smoothies, and a lot of Spanglish. These little girls are 9 and 10 years old and work selling donuts for their mom from the time they get out of school until dark and the entire day on Saturday. They live in a home with 6 other children and are obviously not a part of high society. It has been a beautiful opportunity for us to love them and allow them an opportunity to be kids with our full attention for an hour a day.

Soccer / Futbol

A life in Honduras is not complete without a soccer ball. Every day is made up of the same question asked a million times, "Mr. Harrison can I have a soccer ball", "Can I have a futbol"or "I want me ball." The high schoolers think they are the next superstar and the younger kids plan on being the next superstar. But thats a pretty standard mindset and it makes them want to play that much more. The high school kids played two games this week. I have not been coaching these games because they are games the kids set up outside of school, but they have been fun to watch. Two of my soccer balls have disappeared as a result. The first one exploded 3/4 of the way through the game and the second one was kicked over the fence and "vanished." The kids are having fun though and I am beginning to earn their respect and trust. I don't quite know to how use it yet but I know Soccer is and will be a powerful tool God has laid before us to impact these students and the community. Sports are such a strong way to unite people. During the political turmoil Honduras is going through right now, soccer has become even more valuable. The people are split because of the opposing political agendas that are present and they feel like their voice is being ignored by most of the world. For those of you who may not be keeping up with it, the military of Honduras removed their president by force and took him out of the country in June. He was attempting to violate a court order which refused to let him poll the people about changing their constitution. Supposedly there is a lot more to the story and some other shady things that were going on but that is the reason that has been spoken of. There is an interim president and elections will be held in November. But in the meantime, the US along with many other Western countries have refused to recognize the elections. The US has cut off all funding to Honduras and has refused Visas for Honduran citizens to travel to the US. At the same time, World cup qualifying games are being played right now. Honduras is currently in third place and every time they play the country rally's behind the sport that is serving as a rock for the country. I was on the mainland when they beat Trinidad and tabago, you would have thought you were in Chapel Hill for a national championship win. There were 15 to 20 people in the backs of trucks, honking water flying, mobs chanting. It was Loco. Amy, Mitch, Jessica and me rode around the street in the back of a truck getting soaked by filthy water and hollering "viva Hondruas". It is great to see a whole country unified behind a single team.

Two Weeks Down

We have officially had 2 full weeks of school. Today was Hot! I had PE all day so I was outside teaching the kids how to spike a volleyball. Some of them did well while others were pretty humorous. Overall, they are surprisingly good at volleyball. Yesterday, my last class of the day was 7th grade bible. I was teaching them about the story where Jesus turns water into wine. This class hadn't been responding very well. I felt like they were giving me the answers they thought I wanted and not really letting God touch their hearts through the scripture. I think part of that was due to my style of teaching. I feel like the lord is telling me to not focus so much on making sure they soak up the knowledge but to drive home one message and build on it with the relationships he will nurture in the class. The kids need to know that they are valuable and that God loves them. I will strive to make them aware of this and to stop for any opportunity that God places in my path. It is sometimes hard to identify or engage these opportunities so I am praying for God to keep me sharp and open my eyes to his work. When it comes to PE, the kids are learning all about volleyball and continually begging to play soccer. I make deals with them to play soccer the last 10 minutes as long as they do everything I ask. Its a beautiful thing. Thank you for your prayers and I hope all is well. Much love.

Getting Schooled

I love my Wednesday mornings. I don't start teaching today until nine forty five so I get to work on all my planning for next week and relax for a bit [and blog]. Things are still going well here, we had our second soccer practice yesterday which was better than the first. 16 kids showed up and they were only 20 minutes late. We are working on it, things run a little slower here. I started going to a church about 2 miles from my apartment. I went there two weeks ago with two other teachers and we met Sherman and his brothers. Sherman is a 55 year old man who owns the iguana farm here on the island. Him and his brothers have been on the island their whole lives and also build boats for a living. Sherman took us after church on a sweet tour of the island and bought us lunch at Wendy's. It was great to see new parts of the island and to have an islander giving us his perspective. Mitch and I are going over to Sherman's brothers workshop today to check out the work he does on the boats. I feel like everyday is jam packed with school and whatever adventure presents itself in the evening. Sometimes the adventure is a trip to the beach, a local restaurant or a nap. Th teaching is going well in the classroom and outside. I think the kids are getting somethings from bible class and they seem to be enjoying PE. keep us in your prayers, that I will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to the students. I am teaching them stories about Jesus' life, simply trying to pound the Gospel and they seem to be responding well. I love what I am doing and am so thankful for God placing me and all of the other teachers here on this island.

Nap time

Today was the first day of school. It was only a half day but I am already dead tired, this teaching thing is no joke. I had 5 classes of elementary school PE and 7th grade bible class. the kids were great and thankfully most of them speak english. We went through all of our warm up drills and played some soccer. It was a great first day. The 7th graders are a little shy but they will come around. Tonight I am going to a spanish Church of God foot washing youth service with some friends but I haven't visited one of the english speaking churches yet. It is very crazy how many churches are on the island but there is very little outreach. A Wendy's opened up about a mile from our apartments this week which is the big excitement in our area of the island. I have already been twice and thoroughly enjoyed my number 6, spicy chicken. Here are a few pictures of the past 2 weeks. We went to the beach on the other side of the island last weekend with the other teachers. the first picture is the apartments for all the american teachers and the others are from the beach.