Thank You!

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has donated. I received the list of the people who gave and was moved by how many people there were.

For those of you who don't know, I have been raising money to help cover my expenses, such as my plane tickets and stipend. If you have not donated yet but would like to, please go to https://rca.org/volunteersupport and select my name under designation.

Thank you and God Bless

"If everyone in town donates one thread, the poor man has a shirt." - African Proverb

Week One in the Books

I finished my first week of teaching today and I have to say it went rather swimmingly. Next week I will be teaching Tobi and Ben along with Peter, but to start, it was nice only having the one student to concentrate on and to get the teacher juices flowing. This weekend will include lots of prep (much more than last weekend) but I am up for the challenge and am excited to get to know the boys.

A couple updates on new experiences. Jarle the pilot was bringing a patient back to her home and said that there was room for me to come along. I enjoy riding in the small plane so I went along. Long story short, on our way back to Ahuas, he let me fly the plane for a while! A little scary when we went near a cloud and had some turbulence, but other than that it went great.

One other new experience: doing laundry by hand. I have a couple scraped up knuckles and some not-so-white whites to prove it. Not nearly exciting as flying a plane but still a new experience.

"After enlightenment, the laundry." - Zen Proverb

1st Day: Success!

Today was my first day teaching Peter and it went surprisingly terrific. Peter has ADD and I have watched how he behaves with his family when told to do certain tasks. I was prepared to try to keep him on task and get him back on track for most of the morning. Instead he was a perfect student. He worked hard for three and a half hours straight! I kept asking if he wanted a break but he just kept trucking through. We even got through two days worth of History and Grammar! I realize that setting today as my expectation of him every single day is too much, but I'm glad I was able to see what he is capable of. Besides, if we kept going at this rate, I'd probably be home in March!

Two quotes today!

"Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally." - David Frost

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success" - Dale Carnegie

Darkness!

One of the most fascinating things about Ahuas is how day turns to night. In MN, during the summer, the sun doesn’t go down until 8 or 9 and then there’s an hour or more of dusk. Because Ahuas is so close to the equator, the sun sets at 6 and disappears from the heavens at 6:30. No twilight, no “we can still play futbol for an hour”, I mean, one minute you’re walking along, watching the colors of the sunset and the next thing you know - WHAM! - you just smashed your face on a tree because you can’t see six inches in front of your face.
Three words of advice: Grab a flashlight.

“No matter how dark the night, somehow the sun rises once again and all shadows are chased away.” - David Matthew

Sweatin' & Preppin'

And now I am in Ahuas! At this point I am not teaching yet. That will come next week. My goal for this week is to memorize names and faces, practicing my Spanish, and looking over the curriculum for my students and prepping. A quick update about the students: it turns out that Hazel (the 9th grader) will be leaving Ahuas to go to high school in Tegucigalpa. That means I will be teaching Peter (8th grade), Tobi (7th grade), and Benjamin (5th grade). Tobi and Ben are the sons of Jarle the pilot. I also found out the the “classroom” is actually the living room/dining room in the Rudy’s home. One last thing: it’s really, REALLY warm.

“Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.” - George Carlin

The Flight In

This is the plane that I took from La Ceiba to Ahuas on Tuesday. It can hold a total of 6 people but because of how much stuff needed to be packed in, the rear seats were filled with cargo. I got to sit up next to the pilot, Jarle (YAR-ley), and wear the headset. It turns out that he is the father of Ben and Tobi, the Norwegian boys. He is one of three pilots for Ahuas. Along with us was Scott, who is a teacher at the Christian school in town. The forth passenger was a patient at the clinic. The flight was not as scary as I thought it would be. It was actually very peaceful looking at the forest and jungle and the ocean. I had hoped to add a video and more pictures on here but because of the slow internet connection it is nearly impossible.

"Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives." - Socrates

Whew!

Well, I made it. I am now sitting in a hotel room in La Ceiba, Honduras. I will get on a very small plane tomorrow morning and make my final flight and arrive in Ahuas.

I have to be honest about one thing. When I took this job, I realized that being in a rural setting where I don't know anyone or speak the language for ten months was going to be difficult. But the half day that I have spent in this hustle and bustle city has me absolutely exhausted! I can hardly catch my breath!

Pictures to come soon.

"I've chosen to treat my life more like a party than something to stress about." - Martin Short

Butterflies

As I finish packing my bags (and weighing and re-weighing them to make sure they are less than 50 pounds) I start to have the same thought that many of you might have: Kristian, what in the world have you gotten yourself into? To be perfectly honest, I'm not 100% on the answer to that question yet. However, that uncertainty, that feeling of nervousness creeping into my stomach, is exactly why I want to, or rather have to do this. I strongly believe that in order to be the best ME I can be, I have to go beyond what's easy. It's times like this when I feel myself stepping outside of my comfort level that absolutely gets my blood pumping. As I am writing this I am less than 6 hours away from boarding my flight so I'm going to try and catch some shut-eye with a racing heart and a stomach full of butterflies.

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth... not going all the way, and not starting." - Buddha