Oh February!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I've eaten enough sugar today to last a life time....tres leches cake, another piece of cake, red hots and a brownie.  Glad another holiday is not on the horizon for awhile.

The first two weeks of February have flown by.  Our visitors are both now in Cofradia, though the Miss has yet to leave the apartment.  She got the cast off but is still learning how to walk on her hurt foot.  The Mister was quickly thrown into developing and leading classes for kindergarten, first grade and second grade in Vida Nueva after observing in SJBS for a week.   The weekend was quite nice.  On Saturday a few of us ventured to El Galopa (a great meat filled restaurant a few kilometers outside of town).  We were able to have a few beers (females don't do this in Cofradia) and play pool (women don't do this anywhere in Honduras) and have fun.  While waiting for the cab to take us to El Galopa we were able to buy some DVDs.  Since then we've watched Black Swan and Love and Other Drugs.  I would recommend Black Swan.  The next day was entrega de notas and the Super Bowl.  Parent teacher conferences/handing out of grades went very well.  We were lucky enough then to have a student invite the teachers that wanted to watch the Super Bowl over to see it.  All I can say is that I picked a bad year to leave Wisconsin football.  Way to go Packers!

I spent two days with Mr. Harmon and Oscar in Vida Nueva last week.  The students there are wonderful and the school is very cute.  These kids and their parents are very dedicated as the school year doesn't start until the end of August and they are sending their kids five days a week until then to get them to the level needed to start school (classes are offered in English, math and Spanish).  This is BECA's first expansion effort and will kick off in full fall 2011.  We went to a kindergartner's birthday party last week.  I always forget until I see them in action how dangerous pinatas are.  But kids sure do love them.

We had last Friday off of school so that the school could fumigate for bugs.  I had grand plans to go to the beach but they were foiled by rain.  So I ended up going with some teachers to SPS and we went bowling.  My Muilenburg relatives can stop laughing now as I was the high bowler (130).  It was a great way to spend a chilly, rainy afternoon.  We followed that up by going to Miss Danelia's (our Honduran Administrator's) house for pizza.  I'm talking all the fixings - pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, peppers, sausage, salami, ham, cheese, tomatoes, etc.  It was really good and topped off with hibiscus tea (my favorite).  On Sunday, I went to the school to cut grass (done in 4 hours love, love, love the lawn mower) and then we had elections for the next school's junta directiva (board of directors).  I was nervous for the elections as I wasn't sure what to expect or what the outcome would be.  Things went very smoothly!  I'm in the process of handing out scholarship applications to families that want to apply for a scholarship for next academic year.  I'm expecting about 100 families to fill out applications, which in turn means that starting the end of March I will be visiting all applicants houses to do an interview as part of the scholarship process.  Needless to say, I will be busy.

I'm happy to say that I'll be seeing two of my best friends this Friday as they come to visit.  We've got big plans to stay in Sambo Creek (outside Ceiba) and snorkel in the Cayos Cochinos (Pig Islands - ironic as they are supposedly very beautiful and clean and one of two places I have yet to visit in Honduras) and visit some amazing hot springs.  I hope the cold front we're experiencing (mid 70s I know I know) is gone and the sun back by this weekend.  Can't wait!

My boss is here for 2.5 weeks so things are busy with meetings and planning for the rest of the year.  We're in the middle of the time where there are non-stop visitors.  After Mike leaves, Laurence from our New York office is visiting with two donors, we have several past teachers coming the next few weeks, and several family members.  Should be a fun ride.