shoe on the roof.

Friday at school I kicked my shoe on the roof. I was playing with Kimberly in the plaza during lunch and kicked a ball, but my little black flat flew farther than the ball and landed directly above my classroom. My kids loved it.

marvin's apology.

Marvin has been my biggest problem all year. He is a very energetic, boisterous child. He's always cracking jokes at others' expense and laughing when someone makes a mistake. He often interrupts my class by talking or getting out of his seat. It got to a point this week where I was spending more class time reprimanding Marvin than teaching and attending to the other students. I marched Marvin to the office, quickly explained to the principals that I could not conduct class with him present, and left. Marvin came back sobbing. Now, whenever he gets in trouble, he's very apologetic and regretful. He cries and promises to do better, but his behavior never improves.

The day following this climactic event, Mr. Lara, one of the principals, pulled me and Marvin out of class and explained to me that Marvin had made a deal with him. He handed me this letter:

To: Mr. Calderón, Mr. Lara y Ms. Anderson

I promise That I will never go to the office. I will have a Good behavior. I will not said bad things, and make Jokes in class. I promese That I will be better from Today. I am sorry of my bad behavior. I Talk with Ms. Anderson and, she told me That if a had a good behavior, she will gave me stickers, and Ms. Anderson told me that we are going to have something special.

¡I AM SORRY!

From: Marvin Javier Salinas Escalante

lesly is in love again.

Remember Lesly? She's the one who was in love with my brother just from the picture I have hanging in my classroom.

Well, Lesly has found love again. This semester Abundant Life has recruited a new teacher, Tad, or Mr. V, the apple of Lesly's eye. She was enamored the moment she met him. He visited my class the first afternoon he was on our campus, and Lesly ran up to him and said, "Do you have a girlfriend?" When his reply was "No," she immediately wrapped her arms around him.

Lesly made it very clear that she was crazy about Mr. V. I asked her, "What about my brother? I thought you were in love with him." Her explanation was very logical. "Well, your brother he is not here, and Mr. V, he is."

A couple days later, after she had recruited me to help her hunt down Mr. V and sat staring at her unaware love in the door of his empty classroom, I said to her, "Lesly, he's too old for you. You're not allowed to date until you're 18." With pure sincerity, she stopped me and said, "Miss, no! When my mother is born, my father he have 15 years." She went on to explain, "Mr. V only llevarme 13 years, so I have a chance!"

wasps.

A few days ago at school, there was a horrifying swarm of wasps. I was teaching one of my morning classes, and the kids suddenly brought to my attention that there were hundreds of wasps outside our east windows. It should be noted that in my classroom, the east windows are glass, and the west windows are completely open apart from bars. I tried to calm the kids down, reassuring them that the wasps couldn't get through the glass. But then we turned our attention from the east to the west, and horror struck me as I saw thousands of wasps swarming the school's plaza. I thought to myself, "They're going to come into the classrooms," and then what would we do? It would cause mayhem. I felt like I was in a horror film or a reenactment of one of the plagues, and fear seriously settled within me. But just as quickly as they came, the wasps left. Only one wasp found its way into our classroom that day, and no one was even stung.

weather, paint, clean lips.

I've been back in Honduras for almost a week now. I was not quite ready to leave home, but I reasoned with myself, arguing that at least the weather would be warm. Well, the weather wasn't so inviting either. It's in the 50s at night and the 60s during the day. Now, I know all you back in winter wonderland are thinking, "That's nothing compared to our subzero temperatures!" But please imagine sleeping in a bedroom where the temperature is about 55°. It may be 0° outside back in the midwest (or wherever you find yourself), but I bet most of your central heating thermostats are set to 70°. Excuse my rant.

Jacki and I painted our room today. It looks a lot cleaner, a lot healthier, and a lot more inviting. Hopefully my health will improve because of this. We're hoping we bleached and painted enough to kill it all.

I found some random entries in my journal that I neglected to share a while back:

• Levi swears that "finidished" (a word he uses for "finished") is an English word that comes from France, even though I've reminded him that French is spoken in France.
• Maria José asked me one day if she could go to the restroom to clean her lips.

back to honduras.

I'll be on my way back to Central America way too early tomorrow morning. I have successfully cycled through and gotten over both bronchitis and then pneumonia in my two weeks at home. I feel like I got here yesterday, and in less than 24 hours, I'll be back on Honduran soil.

Pros

• It's currently 72° in Gracias and 8° in Indianapolis.
• I'll see my 23 little rascals again.
• My dollar goes a lot further.
• Back to simplicity.
• Back to my Honduran friends and American roommates.
• I can eat unlimited baleadas and mantequilla again.

Cons

• I'll be away from my friends and family.
• Back to work.
• No more sleeping in my oh so comfortable bed.
• No more central air control.
• No more American convenience.
• No more (preferred) church.

So, to some of you, I'll see you on the other side. To the rest of you, I'll see you this summer, unless of course you opt to come visit me on my mountain. There's also Skype, e-mail, Facebook, instant messaging, international phone calls, letters, etc., but that's not as good as the real thing.