Hello family and friends!
Well, my goal was to write a blog post every two weeks. I missed last week- sorry about that!! Some of you know that I am not the biggest writer and it takes a lot of motivation to take the time to sit down and write. As you might have noticed with some of my other blogs, however, once I sit down to start writing and something really takes off, I can write quite a bit. Next week’s blog will be a fun one to write because I will be sharing all about Thanksgiving! We have been prepping for a while and it is going to be a crazy day since over 80 people will be in our house.
Things here are going really well. We are currently in the middle of “vacation” here. I put that in quite because vacation just means a different type of busyness. School ended two weeks ago with a beautiful graduation ceremony for our 6th graders. Honduran law only requires school through 6th grade so it is a big deal. We also had a wonderful celebration of our 9th graders. Our colegio (middle school) is 7th through 9th and then our Finca kids have the opportunity to move to La Ceiba and attend high school in our Phase II program. A week and a half ago we had a send off for 3 of our kids and the new Phase II encarcados (leaders). This means that our Phase II program will be 5 Finca kids and the two leaders, as the oldies Erin and Alicia will be moving back to the Finca to pend their final days with us. Dalilia was also part of the program but just graduated from High school and will going to university on a scholarship!! It was so exciting to hear about this. We won’t have another high school graduation until two years from now, when I am an “oldie” here. It will certainly be an epic weekend as all five current Phase II kids will be graduated since some are in three year vocational programs but the new kids will only be doing 2 year university prep programs!
Anyway, back to “vacation”. During this time, we have a lot going on. If you have turned twelve or started 6th grade, you can participate in PAVI, which is a work program around the farm where you can earn small amounts of money- mostly to save for their time in Phase II and also to spend on treats, special clothes or an extra time to watch a movie, etc. They do a variety fo different things including maintenance work, tutoring in the neighborhood, working with winter school, cooking, etc. All of our kids under 12 or those who were not deemed ready for PAVI go to winter school. Every morning for 3 hours, myself and the other 3 new teachers do a variety of activities with this group of crazy kids. I say crazy because sometimes (honestly, most of the time), it is crazy. Some people fondly refer to it as Finca hazing. We are all adjusting to our roles as the authorities and learning more and more each day. It is pretty exhausting but a lot of times really fun. Sara and Kevin (who will both be in the colegio) can up with most of the day to day activities and schedule. Allison is a rockstar when it comes to filling extra time or just working with the kids in general. On Thursday of this week, she came up with these impromptu obras (skits) to do with the kid at the beginning of the day. They were hysterical and a huge hit. I have taken on the role of the leader of the littlest children (2 who were just in Pre K and 4 who were just in Kinder). They can sometimes be a handful but I am learning how to bet work with them.
In addition to PAVI and Winter School, we also have winter activities which are geared mostly for the older kids. We do things like art, sports, exercise, book club, bible study, etc. Betsy (my room mate who is soo fun!) and I are doing a theater class. We meet every Monday afternoon and our first meeting was soo fun. Last year, it seems like they took a while to get into it but both Betsy and I totally put ourselves out there and looked like idiots this year. And it worked- the kids get pretty into it, everyone had a great time doing the funny warm ups, practice with emotions and diction and some improve games. Some of our kids are some serious hams and I think we are going to have a ball together, as long as our older kids don’t become “to cool for school”. We will soon start on obras for the oldies, who will be leaving in about 2 weeks and then we will do a Christmas play! I loved it and can’t wait for Monday!
Every afternoon and all day Friday, I spend in accounting. I am now officially the “contadora” for the Farm and things are going well! I really like this work and feel ready for the responsibility that comes with it. I feel blessed that God gave me work that I am relatively comfortable with to go with the craziness of the many other things that are outside my comfort zone.
I have also had my first official meeting with the Personnel committee. We will be responsible for picking all of our summer volunteers (there are usually 2-3) and all of the new missionaries for the next year. This was just a brief introductory meeting but we already have some application reading and decisions to make about some other personnel thing. I really am excited about this small job and work with a great committee of people.
For beginning this typing session with absolutely no clue of what to write, I’d say that was a lot of information and sharing! I hoped you enjoyed it. Can’t wait to write next week and share our Thanksgiving stories. I pray for all of you who will be doing a lot of traveling this week and visiting with family.
To my family, I wish I could be there to celebrate with you all but please know I am thinking about you and being well taken care of here!! I can’t believe it is already Thanksgiving- where is this time going!!
Also, my wonderful grandfather will be celebrating his birthday this week. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIBBER!!! I miss you and love you!!
All my love to everyone,
Erin Lucia
P.S. Theresa, a past Finca volunteer and my AMAZING Finca-assigned prayer partner, was the only one to comment with the food that I cooked. 10 points to her even though yes, she does speak Spanish and knows about Farm life
Great stuff, Erin...keep up the good work!
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