“I’m in love with you!” or How a different Honduran man has confessed his love to me each week, after seeing me once, probably while I was driving.

This title is more of a fact than an explanation of this blog, fyi.

Honduras is weird. Like, in very unexpected ways. Sometimes it feels like normal life, but the next moment the security guard at the bank will tell me he is in love with me, or the garbage-truck driver will follow me around the block so he can ask me out once more as I try to drive away and not acknowledge his question. Some days I wake up and I’m sweating before I make it out of the house, and others I’m freezing my butt off, using my pillows as supplemental blankets. I chase a three year old with her face covered in toothpaste around her house then get caught in the path of the security guards chasing a possum around with their flashlights, and there is rarely a moment where someone isn’t missing something and asking me where it should be. It really is incredible how this place has taught me to be a special ed and kindergarten teacher-accountant-child sponsorship program coordinator-women’s group leader-nanny- chef for a dozen-house keeper- plumber-maintenance man-catequisis teacher-finder of lost things, all before 10am. Can I make you some coffee while I fix the faucet and audit our checking account? There is never a dull moment.

Have you heard the saying “this too shall pass”? I remember thinking in middle school that it meant the bad would always come to an end and be followed by the good, but eventually someone pointed out to me that life is a two-way street. The good will pass as well and be overshadowed by the bad, which will pass and be soothed by the good. The cycle will continue as long as we live, which makes me wonder now if the correct way to classify things isn’t by some other, less black and white, matter. I have seen so much beauty here, and so much destruction. Destruction of the spirit, of communities functioning in their old ways in favor of a change for the better. I’ve been part of giving a child a home, a family, and the chance at a new life, and I’ve been a part of telling two young brothers we could no longer love and serve them here. I have been more formed and shaped by this place than I ever thought possible, and I give thanks for that every day.

There is no “normal day” here, and things are constantly in flux, but as I pause to look out over the horizon I realize the place we call home today is vastly different from the place I came to make my home two years ago. For these reasons and several others, I will be finishing my term of service at the Farm of the Child with a heavy but hopeful heart on July 26th 2014.

The kids ask me “Why can’t you just stay? Are you sad? Do you hate it here? Do you have another job or another mission you are leaving for? Are you in love? Will you still love me when you’re gone?” and a host of other questions that I can’t seem to answer with anything but a broken heart. Each and every time my answer has been and will be “I will always love you. I will not forget you. I am not leaving because of you. You could never do anything to lose my love or support. This goodbye is not forever.” Some days pass where I’m trying to convince them, and others where I’m trying to convince myself, but each one ends with me peacefully proclaiming that my decision has been made and will bring glory to God. I can ask for nothing more.

He always wants you more than He wants to use you.

So I just read this short article from FOCUS, and so much seemed like I could have been writing it myself. Working and serving in a place that you live presents it’s own whole new set of challenges- you’re always on call, your only friends are your colleagues, and 80% of your students and the people you serve have seen you in your pajamas. Everything you do, or don’t do is tinted the same color as your work, and it is impossible to separate the two.

As I sit in the airport and finish my vacation this is sitting really heavily on my heart. Life at the Farm has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination, and in those challenges we (I) often fail to set aside time to pay, to pamper myself with a good book and a strong cup of coffee, to remember the blessings I’ve been given and offer thanks. I live in a Catholic children’s home and days go by where I don’t even think to give thanks for that opportunity let alone the vibrant colors, the chirping birds, or my screaming housemates. I am so humbled by the people I’ve met and the opportunities I’ve had, and pray that I’ll continue to be blessed with this life and the people in it. I know He wants me!

 

 

 

sacrifice is not something to regret but something to aspire to

The sacrifices that people make are really incredible. Have you ever talked to like… anyone about what they have sacrificed to be where they are? Pretty much each person on this earth has some story of sacrifice – a mother who gave up her education so she could raise her kids, a child who left their family and country in hopes of a better future, a gay man who gave up his family’s love and acceptance to be true to himself. The stories are as varied as the snowflakes in a blizzard, and we very rarely pause to think about what sacrifices someone may have endured to become the person they are.

This has been a day (month) of staring those sacrifices in the face and being blown away at the people who I see behind those tired eyes and empty hands.  I guess I don’t spend enough time really considering the burdens and sacrifices others have carried and how’s that has formed them. I guess that’s just something to consider!

“She taught me ask about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love…  that it should be done from necessity not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don’t have enough of their own. ” -Veronica Roth

Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you do with your life, be passionate.

                 Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate. -Jon Bon Jovi 

      Okay, so there may be a few things that are more important than passion, but i’ve realized lately that if I am not passionate and driven, I really could not care less about almost everything else. I need to be challenged and to be able to succeed in at least some of those challenges. I need things that make me laugh so hard that I’m afraid i’ll pee my pants, and to be allowed to cry just as hard. Passion is defined as “strong and barely controllable emotion” or “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.” Which, if you ask me, seems a bit too strong. But then again, maybe that is my problem. I need passion, but I am afraid or unable to really seek it out. We say we are passionate about things, but in reality we just have a fondness for them. Why is that? I am so, so guilty of this, and I am so, so tired of it as well! I want to feel strong and barely controllable emotions about the things that make me tick, that fill me up. Those life-giving things should be the roots of my passions, not the ends.

          Now, this may seem a bit random- i’m writing a blog at 1am about passion. What has gotten into me? Probably a lot of things, but if you were to ask right now what I think of when you ask what i’m passionate about, i’d have a weird answer. Honestly, i’m passionate about little kids, their development, education, and awesomeness, and i’m passionate about my night guard. 🙂 I decided that passion should not be reserved for those things others deem worthy, but instead for those things that move us, even in unexpected ways. So what if i’m moved by a glorified piece of plastic? I can guarantee i’m not the only one that ever has been.

      So my point, I guess, is that we all need to be more passionate and less discriminate about the subjects of that passion. I get into this rut where it feels impossible to ever be fully functional without a pot of coffee or a serious self-pep talk and some solid “tummy time” but what’s the use? Why do we watch ourselves getting burned out and falling apart when often all it takes to hold it together is a little passion? Sometimes, I will be teaching kids all day that have no desire to succeed or to take their educations seriously. It can be a life-draining force in a big way, but last year I realized that all I needed to feel better, and oftentimes help my special ed kids feel better too, was a little passion. I was wearing too many hats to balance (special ed department, kindergarten teacher, accountant controller, english teacher, women’s group coordinator/baby sitter at times, sponsor a child coordinator, and generally on-call missionary… whew.) and knew I either had to let something fall or find joy and passion in something I had to balance anyway. So I opened my eyes to the little pumpkin heads in front of me in Kinder, to the driven amazing kids in special ed, and to the somehow soothing bickering of those Honduran ladies. You can find life and passion in just about any place if you know what to look for. For me, I need to look for silly-ness and genuine trust, and a never-ending source of chances to learn (even if it is from your mistakes.)

      This year, when I feel like I can’t handle it all, I take a break and visit the 1st grade classroom. Most of those kids were my students in Kinder, and all of them have this beautiful, pure, passionate love that they are so eager to pour out onto me, undeserving as I may be. I so look forward to the days where I am in their classroom, or even the class next door because they always yell out the door “Profa! Te quiero! Ven y ver lo que puedo hacer!” “Teacher! I love you! Come and see what I can do!” and stop me in my tracks. That’s the joy I want. That’s the passion- they are overflowing with excitement and emotion, with passion for LIFE in all it’s masks.

      So I guess I don’t have a conclusion to this, except a little unsolicited advice: 1. no matter what you do in your life, be passionate. 2. When you find that passion in others, soak it up as much as you can. When you find it in yourself, pour it out indiscriminately so others can catch those golden drops. 3. Always have an answer to the question “What are you passionate about?” and never be ashamed to proclaim it. After all, maybe someone will be walking by who could really use a little of your passion too.

Some things cannot be communicated but only experienced with dirty feet and tired eyes.

Do you ever realize something that makes you feel so insanely content? Everything seems clearer than you can remember, and peace is immediate. I guess I’m having one of those weekends- It is amazing how reading an article or having a conversation can have this effect so acutely.
Life is hard. Like, in general it is challenging in ways I probably will never feel able to handle completely. It is also so beautiful that some days I am knocked off my heels by the smile of a child or the intense green of a tree. The Finca has been a place of many blessings and many challenges- we have been in chaos survival mode since November and it seems at times there is no end to it. And who knows, maybe there isn’t. But the key, I’m learning, is to embrace that which is beautiful to have a light on hand for when the darkness seems unlikely to recede.
There will always be those days (weeks…) where I can’t seem to get enough sleep to function, or I feel so utterly purposeless here, or even where I really just pray it would end. I know they will come, and I know they will go. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I will read a story about a three year old’s logic or the follies of speaking Spanish and be so overcome by the sacredness of it that I can’t help but laugh until I cry, or cry until I can do nothing else but laugh. Sometimes (ahem, like now) there will be an obscenely loud retreat outside my window that lasts 20+ hours, and I will want nothing more than to curl up in the quietest place and go to sleep, even if that is the shower, but then there will be moments where I am blown away by the kinship and love of these very loud teens.
Every coin has two sides. It is so easy to always look at the negative and feel justified in your misery, when we really need only to flip the coin over to see its beauty. You’ve got a flat tire and a truck loaded down with a literal ton of stuff, but a taxi driver helps you change the tire instead of earning money on his fares, and the tire repair process at the llantera is so cool you can’t help but stare. I have to admit that I’ve done a bad job of seeing the other side of the coin or believing it had value. I pray that I can always remember the beauty that is waiting with just a simple change of perspective, and work to find it even when I feel too weak. Especially when I feel too weak.
Feeling weak is no strange concept here- at times everyone feels like they are drowning, and sometimes we all feel it at the same time. Those are the toughest days to push though, but are so very worth it. If you’ve never woken up and wondered how you’d make it from breakfast to bedtime without falling apart, you’re probably not alive. There is a spoken-word poem I love that says “this life will hit you hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach but sometimes getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.” I guess my lungs often need that reminder. (Youtube If I should have a daughter by Sarah Kay, I promise it is worth it.)
In reading the blog of a fellow missionary yesterday (check it out here: http://www.heartanddepth.com), I found myself crying in a restaurant partially because I felt so much joy and understanding, and partially because I couldn’t stop imagining our youngest child doing the same. Do you want to know how life is at the Finca? Do you want to hear stories? I will try to share those in this next month in the states, but the truth is that “some things cannot be communicated but only experienced with dirty feet and tired eyes.” This life is certainly full of those things. I pray that one day you all will be allowed to experience the same truth.

wrapping up 2013!

Just over two months ago, five new missionaries arrived here at the Farm. It is really hard to believe that a year ago that was our group- 5 new people, unsure about everything in their future except that they want to devote their next 27 months to this beautiful mission. Reflecting back on this year is both a joyous and a distressing experience- there have been the lowest lows right alongside the highest highs, but I am overwhelmingly glad that I’ve been through it all. I have struggled a lot, but this year has been more formative than any one I can pinpoint.
I’ve spent this year living in a house with between 9 and 21 other people, teaching classes I never studied to teach in a language I just learned, and constantly learning how to do basic things like it was the very first time. (I’ve learned to swim, drive a manual, start a fire, bake, cook, cut chicken, use Excell and Quickbooks, and probably a million other things over this time.) As I was coming to the end of my first year teaching at the end of October, I realized how very full of blessings this school year has been. I started out teaching Special Education (hardcore. I’m the entire special ed department…) and English for 3rd and 4th grades, and finished the year as a SpecialEd-English-KindergartenTeacher-AccountantController. (Where else do you get a title like that??) I’ve learned how they do math in Honduras, which is WAY different from how we do it in the states, the national hymn, hundreds of command words in Spanish (sit down, don’t bite, get off the roof), and how to keep laughing at myself especially when I really would rather cry.
In March I began living with two new people in a new room, which puts my tally up to 5 different roommates over the last year. Last January I lived in two of the children’s houses and cared for them while we were in staff transitions. I am constantly marveling at how I see my students in especially weird situations (kindergarteners running around outside in just their undies, 4th graders swimming in the river, random children at my kitchen table while i’m walking around in my pj’s or leaving the shower in my towel….) and how I have learned to love each of them so deeply through that. Nothing goes according to plan, nothing remains peaceful or quiet for long, and nothing fills me up in quite the same way either. Life is, in and of itself, a time of transition. Everything is constantly changing and evolving around you, whether you realize it or not, and especially when you’d rather it all remain the same forever. There is no use fighting against it, and eventually I learned to throw my hands in the air and enjoy the ride. I’ve felt homesick, i’ve been physically sick, and i’ve been sick and tired of almost all the different parts of my life here, but I know i’ll never be sick of the strength, love, and resiliency I see each day in our children.
We entered a sculpture garden competition at a local animal park with all our kids against 14 other groups of grown adults, and won first place. We managed to cook and serve Thanksgiving dinner for 50 people even after getting rained into the Farm two days before. We survived the departure of the old class of missionaries, and are hopefully on our way towards thriving in general. Our community is evolving and changing, but growing together each step along the way, transforming into another type of family all together. I wish I could recap the last year effectively, but so many things are better experienced, and frankly, it has been like getting stuck in the eye of a tornado. It will just have to suffice to know that it is one big adventure!
There are a lot of mysteries in the next year, as well as in every “ordinary” day here at the Farm, but some things have finally been resolved. I’ll continue to teach Special Education full time, stop teaching English and Kinder, and begin working in accounting part time as an accountant controller, which basically means it’s my job to know everything, all the time. I’ve also been gifted with the opportunity to start a pre-kinder play group so that our youngest child can have contact with kids her own age (can also be read “They are letting me hang out with two and three year-olds and calling it work.”) I can’t honestly say that this has been an easy, good year, but it has been one I wouldn’t trade in for the calmest, most peaceful moments that exist.

For your reading enjoyment: A list of blogs I’d love to write but don’t have the time:
The annual missionary talent show
• The time the car almost rolled into a busy city street and someone suggested we all get out, someone suggested we all hold still, and I suggested someone put their foot on the break
• The donkey that Haydee fed oatmeal to off a spoon
• The first time the Finca flooded and all the students, teachers, and clinic patients got trapped here overnight
• The time we went to mass in the balcony and awkwardly followed the priest down the aisle again
• The disappearing turtles
• “Litany of the stop light”
• The men’s weight gaining contest (hint: it ended with two of them losing weight, and the “winner” only gained two pounds)
• The time when one of our kids accidentally burned the hair of another while dancing with fire
• The drunk man who drove his car into the river, kept calling Laura Doctor Jones, was incredibly confused, and drunkenly bought us soda late at night.
• The time a caterpillar burned me in the armpit while I was laying on a bench in the kitchen

April abound!

Greetings!

March finished out with a beautiful, and relaxing (that may have been one of the most beautiful parts…) Easter. We went to mass. had a party for Easter and the birthdays of the month of March with lunch and tons of games, and then we kicked back at the house for a while, and even went swimming. I cooked dinner with my favorite cooking partner, then we watched “Drum Line” for my birthday as a whole community. Allison and Erin Marina even surprised me with gluten-free brownies and strawberry ice cream, a card that had all my favorite things, and a little poster with a quote I just love! “Come, come to Him who made thy heart, come weary and oppressed. To come to Jesus is thy part, His part to give the rest.” It was so full of laughter, joy, blessings, and delightfu moments.

The month of April flew by so fast, I am just not quite sure where it went! It started out with misguided, and poorly coordinated pranks,and was soon followed by the start of the second quarter in school, (we finished 1/4 of the school year already! whoa!) a visit from my mom and a trip to Roatan, and a chaotic return to school after my vacation days. The community is in the rotation of vacations, and on Thursday my roommate and another friend leave, then the week after one more goes, and none will be coming back yet, which is pure strangeness, and an oddly empty house. THEN the summer vols come, and I get to start training one in Special ed to take over when I’m gone in june/july!

Full blow coming about my mom’s visit soon!

Blessings and love from the Finca!

December, January, February, AND March!

Hey There!

It has been far, far too long since I last sent an update on my life and the happenings here at the Farm, and I’m not quite sure where to begin! I guess the best way to go is month by month, starting in December:

• The oldies left and the community spent a couple weeks in a state of “who are we and what are we doing now??” but soon recovered. We had the Pescatore family visiting for Christmas, (the wife and family of the founder of the Finca, who passed away in a plane crash in the early stages of foundation) and they brought a TON of clothes and things for each child from a second sponsor the family personally found for EVERY child here. (Literally a ton. 16 suitcases.) I’ve never experienced anything quite like spending Christmas Eve (that’s when they open all their presents here, then stay up till midnight celebrating on the football field) in a children’s home. The kids are just so grateful and definitely pretty cute too! My favorite moment had to be watching the youngest girls opening their gifts, and one finds a bar of soap, (they each got a bar of soap, toothbrush, and hairbrush/mirror set in their bags too) holds it up to her glowing little face and yells  “Jabón!” like it is the coolest thing ever. It definitely made the late night prepping all the gifts beforehand worth it! Plus, I built this sweet little kitchen which the kindergarteners now think is the best toy in existence…
• Christmas day we broke into cooking teams and basically feasted all day. I was on the breakfast team, and we made good beans, (I have never appreciated good beans as much in my life as I do now) a southwestern egg bake, some delightful pastry, fruit salad, and good coffee. Christmas day was full of challenges and home-sickness but so beautiful too.

December was definitely a challenging month because of all the festivities, lack of sleep, weird schedules, and especially being so far from my family and friends for a time that is inherently made up of time with loved ones. Fortunately, my community is full of wonderful, loving, supportive people, so we all made it through!

Playing santa’s elf building a sweet kitchen!

January

• New year’s was so different than I had expected- there isn’t a huge count down at midnight, but there is a party with a ridiculous amount of purely Honduran food. The missionaries spend the day with the kids so that the tías can get together and cook a feast, and I took the youngest boys to the beach with another missionary. We spent the day running around, looking for sea shells, swimming, and just being generally crazy.
• We spent the first half of January still “teaching” winter school (essentially day camp to keep the kids under age 12 occupied while the older kids are doing their work hours around the Farm. ) We started in November, and though often the three of us new teachers/missionaries would come home completely drained and blown away by how crazy and difficult a day with so many of our young kids can be, we learned A LOT. In our training days, the sub-director of the school had expressed to us that winter school would feel a lot like new teacher hazing, (it did) but that it would also make us so much more equipped to start teaching come February. (It did that too!) That is not to say, though, that we weren’t happy to finish and to be able to pass the torch on to the newbies of the incoming class!

February

• School started! We had a week of teacher training with the new Honduran teachers, the new missionary teachers, and all the teachers from last year. We set up out classes, wrote lesson plans and tried to figure out how we were going to make it through the hectic year to come. I soon realized that though 4^th grade feels a whole lot like getting hit by a tornado each day, I am learning fast how to hold my ground in the storm.
• With the beginning of the year also came the beginning of Special Ed. I struggled (still do) a lot with the fact that I’m the “expert” in ANY type of special needs here in the school and on the Farm but really just have a tiny bit more training than everyone else. I really do love being able to give the kids individual attention and help them in such a beautiful, individual way, but I definitely have a lot to learn still!
• Though February was a month of chaos, we still got time to step back and remember how to be normal adults. One of my community members celebrated her birthday in the middle of February, so a group of us went to Tranquility Bay to spend the weekend relaxing and spoiling ourselves. Laura, Kit and I even went snorkeling! (I can’t even swim, so that is definitely impressive.) It was such a beautiful new experience to be in the middle of the Caribbean sea just floating around seeing the amazing creation below. It was humbling to see in such a close way how small we are in this world as people, and in our jobs, and I still need to be reminded of that when everything here seems too intense or too big!
• Valentine’s Day! Apparently Hondurans are big on “amigo secreto,” (secret friend gift exchanges) so we did one within the farm itself, and with the teachers. I made a painting for both of my people, and got a cheesy Honduran tourist tank top from one of the nuns here, which I  secretly love,  and a really sweet duct tape wallet & passport cover set from Allison, which I  admittedly love.
• We finished the month with a retreat in the beautiful mountain town outside of La Ceiba, and had a ton of fun and time to just be together. There was a no-talent show, and we even went swimming in the river in the pouring rain. It is so incredibly beautiful up there!

March

• March was by far the fastest month- I feel like we just had our retreat last weekend, but it has been a whole month now! We are all facing our own challenges as a community and as individuals in our different works, but still find time to have a ton of interesting conversations, and to practice the should-be fifth pillar of the Finca: Flexibility. As she was cooking Monday night rice and beans, Ashley and I were talking about a handful of who-knows situations we face day to day and she decided she’d like to share a little nugget of wisdom with you all. Wise words from Ashley “the Finca is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. Work with it!” Cheesy? Surely. But still so true in this crazy month of March!
• We had cleaning day, which is a twice a year event where we take EVERYTHING out of our house and clean, organize, and streamline it. I was on the sala and our not so little library with Kevin M and definitely enjoyed the super-productivity of it all!
•  Today, we had moving day as well! Every 6 months we switch rooms and roommates, moving all of our stuff into the garden to clean the rooms we are moving into, and then move our stuff into our new, freshly scrubbed rooms. I am pretty excited about my room, and my roommate, but will definitely miss my old roommate and the best room ever!

• Holy week is starting tomorrow with Palm Sunday! We don’t have school for the entire week, which is a much needed break. We do have a ton of activities scheduled, but as long as none of them involve me teaching 4^th graders about foods or numbers for a week, I think I’ll be great.
• One week from tomorrow, I turn 22 as well!  It will likely be my most overwhelmingly busy birthday ever, but I am sure my lovely community will make it something beautiful to remember too! Plus, it’ll be my first birthday at the Farm, and on Easter Sunday, so there are surely some delightful things in store!

Easter & birthday update coming soon! (definitely sooner than the January and February update did…) :]

p.s. interested in hearing about the weather? It is generally rainy, or like this:

What a beautiful day in Ceiba for “senior photos” for the teens, I got one too!

Happy March!

Kiddissa

December!

We’ve officially been here at the Farm for 10 weeks, and a lot has changed! December 1st the oldies (missionaries who have completed their service term) left, which was both sad and delightful because the dynamic in the community has changed a lot and we are all starting to fall into our places in the house. Plus, we can all fit around one (giant) table for meals, which is so great.

This past weekend we went to Ceiba/ Pica Bonita to have a do-nothing retreat after the last few busy weeks we’ve all pushed through. It was really nice to have some time to just be a bum with the rest of my community while they’re being bums too. We just finished teaching escuelita, which is basically summer school, and we have a 2 week break from winter school, the daycamp the 3 new teachers run for the children on the Farm under 12 years. I learned a lot of Spanish and how to handle the kids in both of those classes, but I also feel like it is teaching on steroids and is kind of a burn out factor so it is a relief to have a bit of time to step back and relax. This upcoming weekend we are going to Ceiba to either get our residency cards or to apply for an extension, depending on where the office is at. So next week we will hopefully be Honduran residents!

We planned vacation times, and i’ll be home somewhere close to the middle of June to the middle of July, which is going to be delightful and i’ll send out more info when I book flights with my travel partner!

I am finally really liking being here, which is such an insane relief because I can focus my energy on other things, especially the kids, whom I just adore. I am so interested to see where so many relationships go here at the Finca, and the lessons i’m going to surely learn in the coming months and years!

Christmas is in just a few days, and though i’m a little homesick with the holidays coming up, I am excited to experience such a different, beautiful holiday season here with these kids and my fellow missionaries! I don’t know what to expect, so I can’t even give you a preview, but stay tuned for the rundown on the happenings here! Merry Christmas everyone!

Love and blessings,
Kiddissa

Finally! Hey from Honduras!

Greetings from the Farm!

Life here has been one big blur lately because it is moving incredibly fast, and we are starting to get really busy! My group has officially been here for almost 7 weeks, which seems like forever and no time at all, all at the same time. There are so many different things about life here- the bugs and animals, for one, are definitely an adventure. We have chickens and turkeys and guinea hens, geckos, scorpions, tarantulas, at least 4 different types of ants, rats, turtles, crabs, garobos (which look kind of like iguanas but are definitely different.) jellyfish in the sea, plus a host of other random unidentifiable bugs and flying things.

There are 20 people in the house right now, which is not as crazy as you might think, and the “sabios” leave December first which will bring the community down to just 13 in the house and 2 in Ceiba. I am so stoked to share the bathroom with just 9 other people!

We’ve started our jobs, including escuelita and winter school, and it is definitely an adventure! Escuelita is basically winter tutoring for the kids that have been passed to the next grade but need a little boost, and winter school is basically day camp for the kids under 12 to keep them from getting into too much trouble or driving their caregivers insane. They get to act crazy with Kevin, Kit and I instead! I am speaking infinitely more Spanish than I was last week, and it is getting to be less terrible basically every day.

I’m getting involved with the women’s group, which is one of my small jobs, and they never cease to make me laugh or surprise me. They are all  so feisty! We went on a retreat the Comayagua this week, and it is about 10 hours each way by bus, and there was not a single dull moment on the bus or in the retreat center. Plus they help me to be out in the community instead of cooped up in the Farm going crazy!

There have been some really beautiful events and times with the kids, and some really difficult things too, but in general life is pretty evened out and good. I’m getting adjusted to so much still, including the food and being sick pretty often, and I often need “tummy time,”  (to lay on my tummy on my bed and be grumpy before I have to rejoin the real world) but in the end of the day I’m still really glad I’ve taken on this crazy, beautiful adventure.

The “sabios” are leaving December 1^st, and though it will be nice to have a smaller community and they all need to move on to different life things, I am really bummed! I’ve grown close to a lot of them, and it will totally change the dynamic in the house when they leave!

The sea is incredible and under 30 yards from our front door, the mountains are in our back yard, and the sky is the bluest I’ve seen anywhere but Colorado in the summer. We are seriously surrounded with so much beauty it is often breath-taking. This place is truly blessed.  

Though there are TONS of blessings here, the is also a lot of need still, and i’m always looking for help and support for my mission!  Please pray for the Farm, and if you feel called/ are able, please consider financially supporting my mission in whatever ways you can! You can find more info about my mission, and a link to make a donation at http://www.farmofthechild.org/missionary/kiddissa-samaan/

I love hearing from home and everyone, but my internet and phone access is less than reliable. So, Write letters! I will always write back, and probably do a little happy dance on Thursday mail day when it arrives. Plus, you’ll get more detailed insight on the craziness than is life here, and some pretty delightful stories too.  🙂

Kiddissa Samaan

Finca del Niño

Apartado Postal #110

Trujillo, Colón

Honduras, Centro America

Love and happy thoughts!

Kiddissa