15 day journey of language school

Day 6
Today was our last day of class at Guacamaya Language school in Copan. I feel that this has been a very good week for us, well I can speak for myself, that this was needed 2 years ago. And I know for sure that I need to go for another 3 - 6 months. I want to communicate and need to communicate here in Honduras. As a local friend pointed out to me the other day, I sound like a Gringo. I dont want to sound like a Gringo anymore, it is time to start living Honduran!!! I really enjoyed my teacher Duneska and Corbett really enjoyed her teacher as well. We feel that this might be the place we will return to for the duration of our school experience. Todays class was extremly hard for me. We were behind and so we tried to cram four iregular verbs into one day's worth of lessons. Not cool, my brain couldnt handle it. Well at least I know where I will need to pick up next week when we travel to Trujilla for another week of language school. A new week and a new school, new teachers and location. Hopefully we will have as good a week as we had this week. This afternoon Corbett will go to learn how to make a pasterila (something that is common here in Copan). I like them so that is a good thing.

Tomorrow we will leave for San Pedro to pick up Makenzie, she has been with Cindy and Henry all week getting spoiled. Next week will be very difficult for us I fear. Our child may be rebleous to us. Only time will tell. Our bus leaves Copan at 7 am. We were talking to our house lady about when we were going to leave. When we told her that we were going to take the 10:15 bus, she said o no, there is not a 10:15 bus, only early morning and late in the afternoon. We were told by the agent in San Pedro that a bus left from Copan at that time. Another reason we need spanish, in the morning the last bus that leaves is 7am . Then the next one that leaves is 2 in the afternoon. It's a good thing we went to purchase our tickets today. Long day tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it. I really dont want to leave here even though it is expensive here.

15 day journey of language school day 5

Day 5
We had eggs and toast and more fruit. I love the fruit here. My wife doesn’t. She doesn’t like fruit in general, a little on the weird side. Class was good today. My Teacher gave me a 97% on my memory skills with the occupation cards. I had 3 that I struggled with on the pronunciations. Well that’s better than what I use to get in school and yesterday I couldn’t remember 15 of them. So it is true the older you get the wiser. Yea whatever. I tried a joqcotes today. Its some type of fruit. I really liked it. It was similar in texture to a plum but tastes totally different, and the size of the fruit is similar to a large cherry. Today was the 1st day my brain started shutting down. The last 30 min of class was horrible. Its like I took a sleeping pill for my brain. One step forward 2 steps back. I learned today that my teacher is not a Christian or catholic. But because of my lack of Spanish, sentences are hard to come by and I was not able to ask her any questions about it. So that is something I need to pray about. This afternoon we went to the Copan Ruins the main brain spot of the ancient Mayans. It is a really cool place to visit. To learn of a lost people group and see the art work they produced around 700BC. We hired a tour guide. Very necessary for the 1st time to visitors. There were only a few signs explaining what was going on, what each structure meant and why they disappeared. The guide was not cheap but necessary and worth it. We learned a lot about the Mayan culture. I took a lot of pictures but found out that my camera chip is corrupt again. I only got 8 pictures. So this is the 3rd time I have taken pictures this year and lost them because of my memory chip. At least it worked yesterday at the bird park. After the park we went to a coffee shop that has free internet. Good coffee and great chocolate cake. I got to check up on several things and emails and all is well. I better go study my verbs. I have many words to remember.

15 day journey of language school day 4

Day 4
We had pancakes and fruit for breakfast. I am use to having syrup but we didn’t have any . Instead we had local honey. That is preferred in Honduras and I guess will take a little time getting use to. I had a lot of fruit. I love fruit. I could get use to living here with Tina. Her house is really hot and the bed is uncomfortable but the food is excellent and she is very personable and likes to talk which is good practice for us. Class was good today. I’m not sure if my teacher is laughing aa lot because she laughing at me or because I’m funny to her. What ever it is it makes me feel comfortable and makes it easier to learn. I guess if I was afraid to make fun of myself it might be different. But I am the first to make fun of myself. I don’t like teachers that are up tight. This afternoon we went to a bird park called Guacamaya. Which is Macaw in English. It was pretty cool; we got to see many birds native to Honduras, some that are near to extinction due to trading, illegal exporting and so forth. We saw Toucans, Macaws (This is the national bird of Honduras), and the national bird of Belize I don’t remember the name but that’s ok. At the park they take in abandoned birds that were taken from the wild illegally. They have a cool looking natural swimming hole however we didn’t take advantage of it. And the best part was a interactive area where you can hold some of the birds. How often do you get to hold a giant Macaw? We ate at a restraint recommended by my teacher, something Momos. It was decent priced and great food. I had the Tipico Con Carne. This is a typical plate you will find in most restraints here in Honduras. It consists of eggs, refried beans, fried bananas, tortillas and meat, I had chicken. Today in class I worked on occupations and AR verbs. Conjugating verbs is not that hard to me. Its remembering the vocab and the meaning that kills me. My teacher sent home with me homework and 30 note cards. With occupation pictures and told me to memorize them for tomorrow. She jokingly told me I could only miss one! I have about 15 that I can’t remember urgg. O well time to go memorize.

15 day journey of language school day 3

Day 3
I woke up feeling a little tired today. I feel good but tired. However I was ready to bring on the day. Food again has been good here at Tina’s. Class was good an productive. I think even though I am already behind Corbett. I guess I am just a slow learner. O well, I am trying. My teacher is great. She laughs at me but makes me feel comfortable and that it is ok to screw up. I have been studying the words given to me from yesterday, I still don’t have all of them down and today we went to the market, I learned what several of the items are that I didn’t know before. I also didn’t know before today if some of the items in the market were vegetables or fruits. I have a better understanding know. My teacher tried to teach me how to write the names and would try to spell it out for me. After about three words of suffering, she took the notebook and wrote them down for me. I guess something’s I have no hope on spelling in English or Spanish is not a strong area for me. Was that a P or a B or was that a T, I don’t know.

Corbett went to sleep at 7:15 again, which is ok. It gives me more time to study. I know I am going to be quizzed tomorrow on what we learned today. And I want to do a good job and not fail. I am so frustrated about my Spanish, I wish I could carry on a conversation, I act like I understand when I think more often than not I do not understand. Today I learned fruits and vegetables, body parts and more vocabulary, plurals and masculine and feminine proprieties. If I can retain the words tomorrow I will be excited. We went to Café Welch again today. Tomorrow we will go to a bird park. We were going to go to the ruins but at the last minute I decided today was not a good day to go. Maybe we will go later in the week when we have more time.

15 day journey day 2

Day 2
I had a restless night of sleep. Its good to see that the roosters followed u from home. The only exception the roosters here start up at 4 instead of midnight like they do in Yamaranguila. Corbett tried to shower but couldn’t, she said the water never warmed up for her. Last night. So I embraced for a freezing cold shower. It turns out the water was scalding hot. I could barely get under the water it was so hot. I guess Corbett dosent know how to work the widow makers down here. She seems to have the same problem with ours at home as well. She said I have to turn it on next time for her. We are off to language school and breakfast. I hope the breakfast is as good as dinner last night.

Yup Breakfast was as good, and the families name is Tina and Jesus. I think I can remember that. Day 1 of class, no intro no welcome, no let’s take care of the bill, follow me and take this test. That was our introduction to school. Test huh. Really? A test? Where’s the coffee? Any way the test was three pages. I was able to complete the 1st section. (Ok I thought I was) The rest of the test I had no idea how to fill out. So much for thinking I know Spanish. I know nothing. I might as well throw everything out the door and start over. When I finished, or should say when I gave up on the test, I took it Followed Corbett into the other room and before I turned the corner, Corbett was coming back with her teacher.

I walk around the corner and literally run into my teacher. She takes the test, looks at me and motions for me to follow her. Ok this is weird I think to myself. No introductions, no review of the test by the director it is all pre destined. I guess. We sit at this table facing each other she takes out a piece of paper and starts numbering it for the first 8 questions on the test. Right away I realize I did not answer the basic questions correct. O my, this is going to be a long week. She introduces herself to me I forget it. That is my life story never remembering names; I didn’t remember my home stay family now I don’t remember my teacher’s name. O well. We worked up to 10:00 and then we took a break, she told me that after the break we would have to give a presentation and that I would have to introduce her to the class as well as myself. Cornered. I have to give in and ask her to repeat her name…several times. Apparently I said something of humor during the introduction and she ran with it and had fun with it. Urgg Im being made fun of , and know it , but can’t do anything about it. I must learn this language. O well, I think I lucked out I really liked my teacher and I think the week will be a good one. She works at my pace and makes me feel good about the fact that I really don’t know anything about Spanish even when I say I understand or comprehend, she says uh and then goes on to explain what the word means. I need to work on telling the truth, I don’t know I don’t understand, maybe I will understand more if I would just accept that I don’t know anything. She is good about making it ok that I don’t know anything. After class we walked around a little and hung out at Café Welch, we were told by several people on staff that they have great coffee and dessert. I had coffee…not bad, not great either. Corbett had ice cream it looked good. We were given homework and so we did it at the café. I guess I will have home work all week. Not a bad thing, I must practice as much as possible. The food continues to be great at Tina’s house. What a blessing to be feed great and not have to worry about where we are going to eat.

15 day journey of language school - day 1

Day 1 of a 15 day journey. This morning we said goodbye to the farm and to Makenzie. We will be without Makenzie for 7 days so that we can focus on language study. The bus ride was ok, on the 1st bus from La Esperanza to San Pedro was delayed due to a flat tire. Because of the flat we missed our connecting bus to Copan. The flat tire was a little scary. I was sleeping and was awoken by a big popping sound. Of course we happened to be right above the tire that blew. We were not sure if it was the tire at first. The bus kept on going and the driver kept on picking up people. Every time it would slow down and stop to pick up people smoke would start coming into our window. Finely after about 20 min of going down the road the bus pulled off at a tire shop and got the tire changed. Because of the flat we missed our connecting bus to Copan Ruins. So we had to wait about an hour in the bus station for the next and final bus of the day. If we missed this bus we would have had to stay in San Pedro. We weren’t going to miss the bus!



Waiting in the bus station can be dangerous, you have to watch out for banditos and people are yelling all over the place, chaos and confusion. The good thing is there was a pizza hut in the station like the ones you see in the airport. Woo Hoo two weeks in a row we are able to enjoy pizza. The pizza here is so much better here than back home. Fortunately we had no problems on our next bus. We were told that it would take three hours when it really took us 4 hours to get to Copan.



When we arrived one of the teachers was at the station/street corner where the bus dropped us off. They had a sign with our names on it praise God, it was dark and we didn’t know where we were. This is our first time to go to Copan and getting there at dark is not the best thing. Our 1st impression of Copan is wow. It is a colonial style town with cobble stoned streets nestled in the side of a mountain. . Though it was dark the surroundings seemed to be beautiful. We met the teacher and she took us tour guest house. ( I have a bad memory, don’t remember the name of the family we are staying with. ) At this point we have had little interaction with the school. The house lady was very friendly and welcoming us in. She made us dinner…Wow and very needed after a full day of traveling. The dinner consisted of fried beans and bananas, some kind of green stuff like spinach…not sure what it was…and fried potatoes with eggs and garlic and of course tortillas. And of course she offered coffee, and even though I was tired, I never turn down a cup of coffee. Families in Honduras will offer coffee any and everywhere I go. I love this place. Our room is small, and a little noisy but will do. We are here for study not for vacation. The bed is not very comfy o well suffering for Christ. I’m glad we’re here, but nervous about class tomorrow. I hope my teacher is good and patient with me. I get nervous in these types of situations and want to perform really well, ok I get shy and am afraid of failing. Well I guess it is time to go to bed so that I can get up and learn tomorrow. Class starts at 8 am sharp…I don’t even know where the class is or who my teacher is yet. My friend was here two weeks ago and said he had a teacher Nazi a great teacher but tough…I hope I don’t get her but I am sure that with my luck I will get her. Only time will tell.

Can we create something our of nothing?

We can’t create anything out of nothing. Only God can do that. At times I feel that I am being pushed to create things out of nothing. I am reminded that only God can do that. He breathed the world into existence out of nothing. He can take a zero and make it infinite. We cannot do that. However we can turn a little something into several different things. For example think of music. On the base there are around 12 basic notes. Out of those 12 notes we have yet to hit our finale or run out of new options. Right now I can think of several types of music, Rock, Blues, Reggae, Big band, Country, Ragatone, Celtic, and the list can go on and on. Or think of an architect all they really have to work with is straight lines, Circles and Squares. Out of that they come up with amazing designs and continue to come up with new innovative buildings. Or how about numbers we have only 9 digits ok maybe 10 if we count zero. Out of the digits we have, we are not limited to only 9. We have an infinite number to work with.

God has given each one of us special gifts that are unique to no one else. Think about this…The World population is over 6 billion people, and who knows how many there have been walking on the face of this earth since Adam and Eve. No two people are given the same personality and gifts. God is amazing. But do we really seek out our true capabilities? Do we ever reach out limits? How do you dream? Do you dream in Color? Do you dream of the past? Or do you dream of the future? We have the ability to change our future. In order to do this we have to know where our hearts are. Where our hearts are we should be as well in everything that we do. If we follow our hearts our abilities are limitless. Think of the things we can create.

Random things about me

Things about me:
1. I have been married for 8 years
2. I love my Wife
3. Have one child
4. Makenzie is three
5. I love Makenzie
6. She takes after me in a lot of ways...Help us all
7. She Is very adventurous
8. I am very adventurous
9. I worked at Wal-Mart for 10 ½ years
10. Quit Wal-Mart in April 2008 to become a full time missionary
11. My life is packed away in storage in Springdale
12. I live in Honduras
13. I love working with Hondurans
14. I love learning from Hondurans
15. I love working with my hands and building things
16. I love problem solving
17. I believe that there are no problems in the world, problems are only opportunities waiting to be solved
18. When I hear the name Roxanne, I think of the song Roxanne and have to sing it
19. I cant sing a tune to save my life
20. I love singing
21. When I sing I change the lyrics
22. Changing the lyrics drives my wife crazy
23. I am an Eagle Scout
24. I have held over 25 jobs
25. My first job where I owed FICA was Subway
26. I didn’t like owing FICA
27. When I was in High School My best friend and my Girlfriend and her best friend worked at the same Subway
28. I enjoy Hiking
29. I enjoy Camping
30. I was 12 when I got my first Motorcycle
31. I do not have one now but wish I did
32. I love fishing…But never go, I don’t like fishing from the shore
33. I wish I had a boat
34. I enjoy meeting new people
35. I use to travel around the country presenting in front of audiences
36. I am shy
37. I enjoy traveling
38. I plan to visit over 30 countries in the next 5 years
39. I enjoy writing
40. I get frustrated when I write because I struggle to spell
41. I am learning Spanish
42. I took German in High School, a lot of good it is doing me in Honduras
43. Last summer I traveled to Belize via bus and water taxi, without any organized plans on how to get there or what to do when we got there.
44. I want to go skydiving
45. I enjoy watching all types of movies including chic flicks
46. One of my all time favorite chic flicks is Ever After
47. I have eaten Snake and liked it
48. I have eaten Ants from Ecuador and liked it…tasted like peanut butter flavored popcorn
49. I ran in a Half Marathon in 2007 and would like to run in another one someday
50. I enjoy snow skiing and water skiing
51. I really enjoy road trip type movies
52. I like reading, but fall asleep easily I am currently reading “No Small Snakes” and working my way through the new testament…currently I am on “Romans”.
53. I love coffee…speaking of I need to go roast some
54. I enjoy blues music…especially when it is live
55. I have been to several concerts most recent was Natalie Grant…Most memorable was skipping school in 12th grade to go to see Guns N Roses with Metallica in Kansas City and my Wife taking me to see Eric Clapton
56. Even though I have seen Jimmy Buffet in concert, I would like to see him again
57. My favorite adult beverage would be a Margarita
58. I am thankful for all of the great people I have met over the years, and hope to meet thousands more.
59. I do not remember a lot of things from my past, but what I do remember I am thankful for, I think God for saving my life and removing me from a path of destruction.
60. I apologize for anyone who actually read this entire list. The scary thing is I could write pages upon pages about random things about me.

Mountains how they humble the soul

Recently returned to the Highlands of Honduras, I have found myself to be overweight and out of shape. Though, I thought that three months in the states couldn’t really affect me that much. Uh yea right. So the other day I went to the mountains, the long tedious journey to get to Agua Caliente, this of course is where my passion lays, the remote villages of Honduras is where you can find some of the best coffee. The first night on the coffee buying trip, we stayed in Mounte Verde. That night when I was reading my bible the following verse came to me.” John 12:25 The one who loves his life 50 destroys 51 it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards 52 it for eternal life. 12:26 If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow 53 me, and where I am, my servant will be too. 54 If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” Needless to say the verse came at the right time, I was feeling a bit anxious about the following days hike. The verse reminded me that I have to get out of my comfort zone, the farmers will not come to me but I too them.
Energized the following days hike was comical at times but none the less energizing. I felt great and focused on the task at hand and how I was following Gods heart to reach the nations. Well the day went great, accomplished all that needed to be accomplished and had a great evening of relaxation listening to the water fall and the rain. How peaceful, and what a great way to take in God’s beauty.
The next day however was not a good day. When we woke in the morning it was still raining, how is this, this is supposed to be the dry season. I started to focus on poor me and my conditions around me and not on the true worship, praise and thanksgiving that God gave me another day. Anyway long story short, hiking out of the mountains was the hardest hike I have ever done. God has a great way of humbling us. I felt like I was king of the earth and nothing could stop me. The previous two days were great, everything was going my way, yup I was super missionary. Until Tuesday morning, the great hike out of the mountains. It rained all night, so the already muddy road was like a road full of sink holes or quick sand. Every step I took I felt like I was going to sink in to my knees. At one point one of my shoes came off, this was within the first mile of the hike out of the mountains. Oh-No I thought, I am going to get a blister for sure. Well thankfully I had sweat wicking wool socks on and Gore tex shoes I never formed a blister. However, further up the mountain, I started to get overheated and dizzy, to the point I felt I was going to pass out. I have never gotten to this point before and I hope that I will never get there again. I had to sit down for about 15 minutes to cool down, at least three different occasions while hiking out of the mountains. On that day I took my eyes off of God and learned a very important lesson. Never get so comfortable with the situation that you forget to keep God in your plans. And slow down and enjoy every minute you have, never stop worshiping the great I Am. My Body is God’s temple and I shall not neglect it, if I neglect it how then shall I go to the ends of the earth to do the Kingdoms Business?