Yes....we are still here.....

And yes...we are somehow still WAY too busy. My excuse: I'm a first year teacher who has been "drafted" help out coach track because my spouse was a head track coach before and she got snookered into coaching too even after she desperately tried to say no. Her excuse: She's married to me. It has been a struggle to get through from one day to the next. We've had power outages, cable outages, and a few days of sickness. We are back trying to get into the groove of teaching. A fellow teacher and friend of mine told me that out of the first 15 days of school, we were only in school for 10 of them. The break is nice, but it has really messed with the rhythm of teaching. Caroline got a bug for a few days...I'll let her share her own thoughts on that. Needless to say, she could only eat cheerios for a few days. She is back in true form now......

Any way, not a bunch of time left...I have to go grade a HUGE BUNCH of tests before the weekend. I'll try to post more often. I know it's kind of unfair to you guys who want to know about what is going on in our lives. We are going to get a local phone very soon so we'll let you know soon.

Talk to you later---mike

Hurricane Felix Update

Currently outside the front of our apartment

I just wanted to let you know that we are fine. We had yesterday out of school and today out of school. We do not have to make-up either day so far because they have 5 built-in days in the calendar. It is currently about 6:30 AM on Wednesday, September 5th and they said the storm was really going to hit here at 6:00 AM today, but all it has done since 6:00 PM last night has been a steady rain (not a down pour at any point). There has not been a lot of wind so far either. Currently, it is actually not raining at all!! I just looked this up on the national hurricane center site:
...FELIX WEAKENING RAPIDLY OVER THE MOUNTAINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA...HEAVY RAINS STILL EXPECTED... AT 400 AM CDT...0900Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION FELIX WAS ESTIMATED NEAR LATITUDE 14.0 NORTH...LONGITUDE 87.0 WEST...VERY NEAR TEGUCIGALPA HONDURAS. (we live 30 minutes away from that)
THE DEPRESSION IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 9 MPH AND THIS MOTION SHOULD CONTINUE TODAY. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE DECREASED TO NEAR 30 MPH...45 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. FELIX IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES ACROSS NORTHERN NICARAGUA AND EL SALVADOR...WITH 8 TO 15 INCHES OVER MUCH OF HONDURAS. ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF 25 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS. THESE RAINS WILL LIKELY PRODUCE LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS AND MUD SLIDES. PERSONS IN FLOOD-PRONE AREAS SHOULD TAKE ALL NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY. (we are not on a mountain side, so we should be fine)

Thanks for your prayers...apparently they are working!!!! We will keep you updated!
Caroline and Mike

.....Currently outside the back of our apartment

Here are some other Honduras Plants!

Some of these flowers/plants are around campus and some are on hikes that we have taken...enjoy...

Hurricane Felix

Hi everyone, it is currently 6:16 PM on Sept. 4th and the storm has not really hit us yet..just a little windy and some rain...we will try to keep you posted...We don't have school again tomorrow, so pray that we have power!
Caroline

attempt at a video snippet?

This is a link to something we took a video of...

Felix schmelix

The word on the street right now is that Felix the Hurricane is going to in fact hit Honduras, but it is not going to be near us. We are expecting rain, and there was a slight chance of schools being closed, but that threat seems to be very small. We were watching CNN and they were talking about Honduras and even mentioned "Tegucigalpa." It was almost like we weren't here and it was something that was happening very far away. Then everything comes back into focus and you realize "Hey, that's us!" Kinda weird. Well....as far as life here is concerned, Caroline has once again volunteered to be involved with track, and I have of course dutifully followed here down the dark trail of "helping." It's a TON easier though...it's only about 6 weeks, the practice HAS to be over by 4:15, and there are only two track meets. Plus, it gives us a good chance to interact with the kids, which is ultimately, kinda why we are here. Anyways, the whole coaching thing went well enough....we'll see how it changes when the kids are whining about having to run so far!
I've made a few "rookie" teacher mistakes, but nothing serious. I'm slowly changing me teaching philosophy to reflect the culture here...things go slower, so I need to go slower. The whole "hurry up and get it done, and it better be perfect" attitude is slowly going away.

Hey, write us sometime, mkay?