Hello there! I can’t believe it has already been a month since the last time I updated y’all. Boy, has it been a busy month. Everything from having summer vols to welcoming back our missionaries from vacation to having several former missionaries visit to subbing many classes to loving on the kids have happened in that short span of time.
I know I keep on saying this, but I will say it again. I am exhausted. Truly exhausted. Every. Day. I come home and lay down in bed and am knocked out within seconds. Then I get up and start a new day for the same exhaustion to hit again. And yet, it is so completely worth it. Getting to wake up at 4:45am to start my day at 5:45am is tiring, and yet I do it for love of God and love of these kiddos that I get to serve every day. The first thing I do in the morning is pray, and then I go to the church to pray some more. The only difference is that at the church I get to do it with the entire Finca community. Everyone is half asleep, but we’re all in it together and we start forming memories at that time. The kids and I exchange looks when we make mistakes while singing a song or when I catch them making silly faces at each other. We start silently laughing at each other, knowing that we are the only ones who understand what is happening.
After church, I go to the school to open it up and check the bathrooms for toilet paper (pretty fun stuff, I know). From there, I go around to the kids houses to supply them with school materials. If I’m lucky, I get invited in for breakfast. On the DL, this is why I planned to distribute school supplies right before school starts. It is fun to eat good Honduran food while also spending some QT with the kiddos. In the morning, I mainly go to my ahijado’s (Confirmandee’s) to say, “Good morning” and receive a big hug. Once the school day starts at 7:15am, it’s busy busy busy. Depending on the day, I might be in the library reading a book, working with Dania (our principal), or subbing a class.
There were several weeks during the month of July when I got to sub for Math classes (5th-9th grade) and Kindergarten. I know. Imagine me as a Kinder teacher…let’s just say, there were no more options. Subbing for 5th through 9th grade was so much fun, considering that is what I want to do after leaving the Finca: teach math for high schoolers. I loved being at the colegio (which is 7th-9th grade) and teach more complicated material like algebraic expressions and how to find an angle. Though it was fun, it just made for a very full day. Classes from 7:15am-12:05pm with one 10min break in between is no joke. Subbing for Kinder on the other hand, is on another level. My respect for Emma (my fellow missionary), whose main job here at the Finca is teaching Kinder, grew exponentially. Many kids were sick during my days as a sub, so I only had about 5 out of 12 kids on average. Getting to work with little kids is lots of fun, but very difficult. Like, what do you do when you ask a kid to stand up and they just look at you and say, “No”? Or what about when they say, “Profa, Profa, so-and-so is not coloring?” Or what about when you catch a little boy peeing on a tree during recess time? These are some of my overarching questions and I was only a sub for Kinder for 5 days! I guess you can say I got very lucky. Overall though, I am glad I had the experience, even temporarily.
After school is over, I gladly head home for lunch. Having a short 30min-1hr long break is much needed at this point in the day. The day must go on though. I usually go over to some of the kids houses after lunch. It usually results in me being called over to almost every house. I’m serious when I say that when I walk past a house all the kids run out to me and say, “Ali, Ali, I need a new notebook for school?” Or “Ali, can you print these pictures for me? I need them by tomorrow morning.” Or “Ali, can you help me with this homework assignment?” I am glad to help and it sure does make the afternoon pass by quickly. On the days when I don’t have to do school related activities, I get to simply hang out with the kids. I might get invited to drink some afternoon coffee or I may just sit and chat and talk about life with a kid while playing Mastermind or War. Taking a kid on a walk around the Finca is always a good choice as well.
At 5:00pm, there is usually some sort of spiritual event happening. Again, the same thing as morning spiritual events happens where the kids and I make faces at each other and bond. After the spiritual event, I usually feel done with my day. But sometimes, I still get to go to a kids house and help them make tortillas or I get to play with them for a short while on the soccer field. That is, if I’m not cooking dinner. I’m not going to lie though. After dinner, I am ready to go to bed. Most of the time, I don’t. I might take some time to read or do some work related things, but I try to be asleep by 9:30pm so that I can have enough energy the next day to do it all again.
So that’s a little glimpse into my day-to-day life here. Of course, there are days that are different. Like this month, the kids had a week off school. What did we do? We had a lot of fun days planned for the kids. We had a movie out on the campo (soccer field), we had a beach day that involved an elite ice cream bar, and we had a girls’ night where we watched “13 Going on 30”, had cupcakes and Shirley temples, and put on some face masks which we used to go around the Finca and scare the adults like house parents and even our Franciscan sisters! It was so much fun!! There was also an afternoon where we had a field day as a final event with our summer volunteers. The kids were placed into 4 teams and had to compete in multiple events like musical chairs, a relay race, tug-of-war, and of course, a water balloon fight! The kids had so much fun and it was a lot of fun to watch them and even get to partake in the activities a little bit. The afternoon ended with the little kids playing at the park with some missionaries while the older kids played a game of soccer with the rest of the missionaries. Those random fun days are always a blast and they keep life here at the Finca interesting. And along the way, you get to build relationships with the kids and love on them.
A lot of what I get to do here is about being present to the kids and to the community around me. It can be tiring, but I love that I can serve the kids here and I love that I have gotten to build relationships with them. I cannot believe that in about one month, I will have been here for 2 years. What a gift it has been to be a part of this mission. I praise God for this opportunity every day.
I hope you all know that I am praying for you and ask you to do the same.
Until next time,
Alicia
