After our visit to Gracie’s we had two days to jumpstart
before we left for Roatan. I’ll go more into detail with the happenings of La
Kennedy, etc. in another blog so that I can continue on the travel topic.
Roatan was certainly a massive switch in comparison to
Gracie’s. As I had said previously in my
fundraising post, Roatan is an island on off the northern coast of
Honduras. Even though it is part of the
country, it has a very different culture and is nothing like the mainland. The closest thing I can compare it to would
be a Caribbean stop in a cruise…pretty fitting since about 2-3 ships stop there
each week. Thanks to everyone’s donations,
we were able to bring four of the boys on the trip with us, which made it even
more like a vacation. YAY!
In order to get to Roatan, we took a 6 ½ hour bus ride at
5:00 am from Tegucigalpa to La Ceiba, a city on the northern coast. Because groceries are so expensive on the
island, we had to quickly go grocery shopping in town and make it to the ferry
which would take us the rest of the way.
Unfortunately, grocery shopping took the place of eating for the day, so
everyone was increasingly tired and hungry as the day progressed. After shopping, we took a 1 ½ hour ferry ride
to the island. The ferry to Roatan is
known for its choppy waves and sick passengers; every person is even given a
Dramamine pill for the ride. I chose not to take the pill because I didn’t want
to fall asleep on the ride, and luckily I didn’t suffer for that, but there
were a couple of people that were sick by the end of it, including little
Anderson who ended up sleeping on my lap because he had never been on a boat
before and was about to throw up.
Eventually we made it to the island and after a total of 14 hours of travelling. We stayed in a house which is rented out by a missionary woman named Deborah. Deborah is a teacher on the island and she also ministers to other missionaries who want to come to Roatan by providing cheap housing and transportation. After unpacking and eating a make-shift meal, I think we ended up going to bed a little after 11 so that we could wake up and teach school with Deborah in the morning. Such a busy day!
The school we taught in was made up of kindergarten and 1st grade in the morning and 2nd and 3rd grade in the afternoon. The kids are bilingual, which made it a blast to teach. We really only helped out with their work every now and then, because they each work at an individual pace similar to a homeschool. I would love to say we were all full of energy and ran around a ton with the kids, but we were all super exhausted afterwards. I think the majority of us ended up just going back and crashing in the house after school.
Eventually we made it to the island and after a total of 14 hours of travelling. We stayed in a house which is rented out by a missionary woman named Deborah. Deborah is a teacher on the island and she also ministers to other missionaries who want to come to Roatan by providing cheap housing and transportation. After unpacking and eating a make-shift meal, I think we ended up going to bed a little after 11 so that we could wake up and teach school with Deborah in the morning. Such a busy day!
The school we taught in was made up of kindergarten and 1st grade in the morning and 2nd and 3rd grade in the afternoon. The kids are bilingual, which made it a blast to teach. We really only helped out with their work every now and then, because they each work at an individual pace similar to a homeschool. I would love to say we were all full of energy and ran around a ton with the kids, but we were all super exhausted afterwards. I think the majority of us ended up just going back and crashing in the house after school.
The remainder of our trip was essentially a solid,
much-needed vacation. I don’t think any of us really realized how heavy our
ministries were becoming in Tegucigalpa until we could just let them go for a
couple of days, relax, and debrief. We
spent an entire day at the beach (I am now suffering from that as I shed all of
my skin) and went to a Mayan animal park.
At the animal park, we were able to hold baby monkeys, snakes, and some
other creature that no one recognized. It was so great to have all of the boys with
us so that we could get to know them in a different setting and just be free
with them. Three of the boys had not
ever been to the beach, so it was such a blessing to be able to experience that
with them for the first time. It is such
a simple pleasure for so many people in the United States, but seeing their
faces as they first jumped into the water showed me how truly blessed we are.
The day we spent at the beach was in West Bay, the tourist beach, but we had a local beach about 2 minutes from our house. I think we spent more time lying out on that dock at night than we did in our rooms. The stars were SO CLEAR because there was no light pollution, so I was able to geek-out and talk about space with everyone each night.
The day we spent at the beach was in West Bay, the tourist beach, but we had a local beach about 2 minutes from our house. I think we spent more time lying out on that dock at night than we did in our rooms. The stars were SO CLEAR because there was no light pollution, so I was able to geek-out and talk about space with everyone each night.
If nothing else, the trip was worth it for me because I was able to
fully grasp the beauty of God’s creation.
Between the incredibly blue water, the perfect stars, and swimming along
the coral reef, it was definitely the best 3-day vacation I have had in a long
time. I’ll refrain from posting the picture of me holding the snake for the
sake of my mom’s heart. =]
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