Dec011

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Marcy's Journal

December

12/17/11

Substitute Teaching

Sponsor Our Girls! (update)

Here Comes the Stage (update)

Cakes

Songfest

Prison Verses Music Concert

Substitute Teaching

Right after the Cape Cares Brigade in Los Encinitos, I got a call on Sunday to substitute teach on a Monday. The teacher I had substituted for before, her father passed away suddenly. Hondurans are allowed 1 week off for grieving, so I had a week of covering 7th and 8th grade again. I thought it would be no big deal, since there would be lesson plans, right? But when I arrived there were no lesson plans. I spent the first day asking the kids what page they were on in each subject and looking at notebooks and starting somewhat of a lesson. It was a little easier since I did not type up lessons, but I still found myself on-line at night looking for cool activities to do in class. Ironically, evolution was the topic in 7th Science. So, I asked the kids if they knew what the opposite of evolution was. Since I had taught bible that day and had my bible at class, I proceeded to explain creationism. I explained how I disagreed with the Science book, explained what the textbook was teaching and would teach, read the bible on creation, and challenged them to compare everything they are taught with the bible. My discussions in 8th grade Science went from fossils to aliens (from a discussion they had with their teacher the week prior).

It was great to see the kids. It was great to leave quizzes and class activities to be graded by the teacher. Although they begged in class to ‘do nothing,’ we managed to cover some material and have fun at the same time.

Sponsor Our Girls! (update)

Discovery School has been invited to the Golden Gate International Children’s and Youth Choral Festival – a week long songfest (a choral ‘Camp Rock’, except more on the educational/cultural side than the rock side). As you can tell by the name (Golden Gate), the festival is in California. See: http://www.goldengatefestival.org/ The girls (Katarina and Mikayla) will stay with a host family from July 7-July 15. An anonymous donor has already paid for the registration fee of $700. Praise God!

If you would like to sponsor one of our girls or in part, please let us know (please mark donations with child’s name or Choral Festival in addition to Fenn/Honduras):

Katarina $500-600 (flight)

Mikayla $500-600 (flight)

Here Comes The Stage (update) (see pictures)The stage Kjell has been working on for the one-act play was used for Songfest before the kids' Christmas break. It is very windy at Discovery School and there was a little problem with the curtains (black, thick tarps) blowing and pulling on the cables. However, Kjell asked Ed, our missionary friend from Zambrano who helped build the wooden extension stages, to help construct a wooden frame for a third cable to hold the curtains. It worked beautifully. Kjell also painted the stage with the help of Rebekah and Jeremiah. Look how awesome the stage looks, complete with curtains (tarps), and lights. There is still time to be a part of this. Please note in your donation “For Discovery School Stage” (in addition to Fenn/Honduras).

Cakes (see pictures)

When I substitute taught for the second time at Nashville School in Valley, I was invited to the teacher Christmas party. So, I volunteered to make a cake (vanilla was the request). I guess I thought a snowman would be easiest since frosting is white and a snowman is white. It was fun to eat and hang out.

The next day, I took a trip to Las Botijas (2+hours) with Katarina and Rebekah. My missionary friend, Jennifer, was in charge of putting together a wedding for their foreman and ‘wife.’ Jennifer made all the cakes (4 sheet cakes, 4 round cakes) and needed help with decorating. I had never decorated a wedding cake, but quickly went on-line to find, save, and print some pictures to bring with me. It was interesting to me that with wedding cakes ‘less is more.’ They really do not have much decoration. It was a little hard to work with the frosting, but it was better than nothing and I had fun.

We looked at the bride's dress and Katarina tried it on (NOTE: There is a college in the States that donates wedding dresses that Hondurans can borrow from another missionary. However, if anything happens to it, Jennifer was going to have to get it dry cleaned, so it was kept at the house). It was then that we realized there were too many wrinkles! Jennifer fired up the generator, took out an ancient iron, and we began to carefully iron parts (one ironing, one holding the dress) with a sheet over the top. It turned out to be harder than we thought, but after we had started, the dress looked so much better, we could not stop.

I would have loved to stay for the wedding, but it was late in the evening. So, when the cakes were done, lunch eaten, and the dress ironed, we started our journey back home. We stopped in Zambrano for some tajaditas (fried platano chips) for the ride home and said ‘hi’ to a few friends.

Songfest (see pictures)

Last Thursday the kids had their holiday concert at school called ‘Songfest’. My camera is good, even for videos, but apparently can not last long enough for 4 performances. So, for some of them, I just got a piece. Rebekah’s class acted out a part of the Nutcracker Ballet, Jeremiah’s class sang Feliz Navidad, Mikayla’s class did a dance, and Katarina’s class did a play. Because the stage is an outdoor stage, we were extremely glad it did not rain.

Prison verses Music Concert (see pictures)

On Friday, Katarina, Mikayla, and I went with a missionary friend, Teresa Searcy and a group (8 of us in total), to feed 165 prisoners at the adult prison (in a separate gang section). We fed 22 kids (ages 18 and under) in another prison (Renacer) a Christmas dinner. We filled the truck and a car with 50 roasted chickens, potato salad, seafood pasta salad, coleslaw, beans, tortillas, semitas (Honduran cookies), cupcakes and cheese. They loved the food and it was really a blessing to be there and serve. Teresa was able to pray with several inmates for different needs which they had in their lives. She really serves as an advocate for prisoners (gang member prisoners specifically). There are no pictures and there is so much I can’t share, but just keep her, the gang members, and ministry in prayer.

As the day went on, we needed to rush back to Tegucigalpa. Discovery School had another concert that was part of a Christmas Concert put on by a music school. What a clash of cultures it was to enter the building with everyone in their event clothes and listening to the result of hours and hours of rehearsing.

So my mind was wrestling with itself. I hadn’t left the country. I was still surrounded by Hondurans. What a contrast: ‎200 + Hondurans locked up for crimes versus 200+ Hondurans watching or participating in a concert. What's the difference with where they ended up? Love or lack of? Not necessarily. Sometimes children in wealthy families are just as neglected as poor or drug selling families. Poverty? Not necessarily. Talent? Nope. Opportunity. Imagine if one of the families at the concert had given one of the boys or men in prison that one thing: opportunity. We can all do that, right?

Stage