weekend at gracias

this weekend was a long weekend, so the other volunteers and i set out on an adventure to a town 4 hours away called gracias. the trip there was ridiculous as always... betwe4en crowded buses, 80s music videos and water pouring from the bus ceiling, quite comical. the first night we got there we wandered the town and headed to the hot springs which were pretty great! they were out of the town, and still pretty natural. And then we hitched a ride back to our cute little hotel that overlooked the town. (hitching rides= getting to sit in the back of a pickup as it flys around corners!)
the next morning we woke up early, to conquer the highest peak in honduras! this part is to make my dad proud! we got up at 5:30 and headed on our way for a 7 hour hike! i for the first time appreciated being prepared with a mec backpack (and even used the hip belt that i begged to cut off do to the lame appearance when first purchased) and mec rain coat. as you ascend you enter a cloud forest which feels like thick fog! anyway, it was really intense and really exciting!
that evening we felt ambitious and decided to grab a ¨half hour bus¨to the nearby village to do this pottery clinic thing. unfortunately, the bus ride was extended, due to stopping for a drunk man to buy beer, to urinate, for the police to search our bus, to catch a loose chicken on the bus... and by the time we got there it was getting so late we needed to get back. desperate times call for desperate measures! so we hitched a ride in the back to a cattle truck (seeing a cow lying down) and soon were crwding in the corners as the unhappy cow moved and slid around, peed everywhere... after being terrified, we climbed out and clung to the back to the truck for the rest of the 45 minute ride. if you know me at all, you´ll realize that this is the kind or retarded adventure that i LOVED every moment of! anyway.. it was a pretty great weekend and im excited for more to come however, back to school today was a draining experience!
With my grade ones.. I have basically given up treeaching them new concepts and am basically working on keeping them busy with activites. And seeing as another volunteer is leaving I asked if I could move to grade 4.. which she said yes! so now im just hoping to survive the rest of this week and trying to motivate myself to accomplish more with the older group! i still am really unsure about what im accomplishing here.. and hopefully this switch will bring about a change for the better! and maybe my new class will give me a purpose to be here more than punishing kids and adventure on weekends!
more updates to come...
and pictures when i go into the city with faster internet!