yo ando aqui

it is monday, april 11...increible! i have only one month left here in beautiful La Ceiba.
day to day life has been interesting and productive...i am continuing with half the day in school and half the day in the orphanage. i am becoming a pro in the orphanage´s kitchen, preparing tortillas, baleadas, panqueques, peeling vegetables with a unsharped, large knife..almost like a machete lol. my classes have been going well. i mostly just spend my class time conversing in spanish with my teacher, sometimes walking around the city and just chatting. the other day i went with my teacher to the market area of the town and we bought coconuts and drank the coconut water..then we had the old lady cut the coco in 2 pieces with her machete so we could eat the part on the inside. it was pretty sweet, but i think im allergic to coconut as my throat was scratchy and itchy the whole time!! i don´t want to die in honduras!!
speaking of near death experiences, i did have a less than safe morning in an area of la ceiba called la zona viva. it was 9 am and i was walking to the beach to go for a run. i was talking on my cell phone and this man, about 34 yrs old, started to get real close towards me. i didn´t really pay any attention, but then he said he wanted to rob my cell phone or shoot me. i don´t think i could hear the threat in his voice nor understand his spanish perfectly because the response that came out of my mouth was ¨No, es mio´...which in spanish means ´No, it´s mine´. So, I told the thief that he could not have my phone because it was mine!! I continued in Spanish and said that he couldn´t have my phone because i worked to pay for it, and it wasn´t his to take. A very stupid response i know, as the correct response would be to hand your phone over no questions asked. my response suprised the man and he asked me if i was from la ceiba, and i responded with ´yes, i am from here´... which obviously is not true. but anyways, the event evolved from a robbery into the man walking alongside me for 2 blocks chatting with me and asking me questions...then he told me it was my lucky day and he wasn´t going to rob or harm me!! thanks be to God. He never laid a finger on me. i never felt fearful or considered that he would actually harm me, but i do know that i need to be more cautious in the future. there are headlines in the newspaper here that say ¨Murio por su celular´..which means, ¨Died for his cellphone´!! Crazy! i promise to hand over my posessions next time instead of the possibility of my life!! ahh!
On to more uplifting news... life is good here. Our little school,teachers and students took a trip to Rio Maria and went swimming, saw waterfalls, and jumped off cliffs into the water. We had a big birthday fiesta on the beach and in the villa of a student from the school. I have been learning some fancy soccer movies from one our teachers. A senor in my neighborhood invited me to play on his women´s soccer team, and I am so pumped... when i´m in a spanish speaking country, all i want to do is watch soccer, talk soccer, and play soccer!! one final little trip i took this weekend was to Sambo Creek, a Garifuna community. we went to the aguas termales, hot springs, and covered our bodies in the mud-clay and then bathed in the springs..both hot and cold. Estuvo rico!! It was soo relaxing and fun. After, we ate lunch on the beach...consisting of a plantain soup and fried fish that was caught that morning!
God is good and I am seeing His grace and love in so many situations and in so many people here in Honduras. Love you all lots and please continue to pray for me as i pray for you as well. Besos desde Honduras!!!!