One week til Christmas!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!! Christmas spirit is hitting us full force and we couldn’t be more excited to get to share it with family! The Lord has blessed us tons and tons and what we’re most grateful for is you guys – our wonderful friends and family!

We’re done with school – yay – but we want to share some of the Christmas play with you. It was adorable!!!!! The idea was that a little mouse family was telling the story of an American family and a Jewish family in Israel. At the end, the son of the Jewish family has to go to war, and they focus on the thought that no matter who you are or where you’re from, when you’re in war all you want is to go home. The message was for us to be grateful for what we have and to remember that though we’re fortunate enough to spend our Christmas with our friends and family, not everyone is. They showed a slideshow with some photos from Colombia, Iraq, and the Sudan reminding us to keep ourselves in prayer and to help those less fortunate than us.

(PS – if you would like to help a refugee from Sudan get to the States, you can send money to a World Harvest Church, http://www.rodparsley.com/, and he brings them over, but I think that time is running out because the Sudanese government is enacting legislation to prevent the refugees from leaving…)

Below are some of the photos from the play and there are many, many more on Dave’s website: http://community.webshots.com/user/virginiatechdave

Dave hurt his arm, here are his x-rays! He sprained his wrist playing soccer at the youth thing… but we are happy to report that at 8pm, clinics in Honduras are nothing to be scared of! Cheap and good, couldn’t be better! Paint was peeling a little on the walls, but the rooms were very clean, the instruments were sterile, and the staff was friendly and skilled. All in all, if you come visit us and we wound you, you will be ok! J And Dave’s wrist is healing nicely!

Also, thank you mom, Paul, and Papa for the package! We love everything in it, and just about everything edible in it is gone… heh… Ang – we got your card and I almost peed my pants, I was so happy to hear from you!

Liza left us!!!! Well, ok, she’s coming back, but she went to NY for the holidays. We miss her; having her cat live with us is ok, but Ceiba (her cat) is a poor substitute for Liza herself. We love you Liza!

Ok, I think that’s all for now, we love you guys and we’ll post again soon!!!

Long time, no post!

Hey all! I almost forgot how to type, it’s been so long since we’ve posted!!! MUCH has happened, so I’ll try and tell you about it, though it may not be in chronological order…

We spent a wonderful honeymoon at a resort on the beach called Helen’s. It’s right on the water and the upstairs suite is only about $40 a night. We relaxed all weekend and dreaded leaving…. It only we could be independently wealthy and not have to work… :)

This is the view from the private balcony in the suite at Helen's

We are almost done for 2007, only 2 weeks left in the school year and we find ourselves getting very attached to the students here as well as our coworkers. Our relationships are getting deeper and God is providing opportunities to minister in a variety of ways! Keep praying that He will open doors and allow us to love on them!

Dave preaching at chapel last Friday.

Some of our wonderfully energetic 7th graders!

We went to a soccer game last night with Megan and her 2 kids (she is a teacher at the school and also took Elizah and I to bible study). It was AWESOME! Our team from La Ceiba, Victoria, was taking on a team from Tegucigalpa. It was a 1-1 tie in the end, but tons of fun to watch! The people around us were screaming, cheering, running back and forth and setting off their own fireworks from the stands. A few drinks went flying, but we were doing well so it didn’t get too rowdy!

Adriana, Megan, Andrew, and I in the stands at half-time.

Right after Victoria scored a goal.

And most exciting of all… MY MOM IS COMING!!!!!!!! Yes, you read it right, my mom and Paul are coming to La Ceiba!!!!!!! :) Praise the Lord!!!! Thank you Papa! I can’t wait to see them and I’m in the process of making arrangements!!!!! If you would like to come too……. :)

Ok, enough for now, and we’ll try to be better about posting… sorry!
Love you all!
-Becky

our address!

here you go, if you want to send chocolate and love, here is our address:

Dave and Becky Sharp
Iglesia El Faro, Carretera Ceiba- Jutiapa, contiguo Terminal de buses de la Hedman y Alas, La Ceiba Honduras

When it rains...

you can apparently still get sunburned if you live in Honduras!

Dave, Elizah, and I went with our friend Miguel to the beach on Saturday. We took the bus to Sambo Creek (a Garifunas village where life is not the same as in the big city...) and then walked to the beach out front of a hotel called Helen's. (Which, by the way, is where we'll stay for a few nights if you come visit us beacause it's ON the beach, beautiful and around $25 a night for a 2 person room!) We got in the water and played in the sand, only being asked for money by a weird guy once! :)

We were in the water, honing our football skills by throwing a coconut back and forth, when all of a sudden, Dave felt a sharp sting. We ran, terrified, to shore to figure out that he was stung by a jellyfish! It swelled a bit and turned red, but apparently (according to the staff at the hotel) there are no secondary effects... The swelling subsided and the pain went away and all was good as new. We ate lunch and hung around for a while longer. Then, around 3pm we went home.

(This is an old photo of a nearby beach. Sorry no photos from this weekend, Miguel told us to not bring anything we didn't want stolen...)

... To discover that we were FUSHIA! Turns out if you're a gringo/gringa and you don't use sunscreen you will get burned EVEN IF IT'S RAINING! heh... we certainly learned our lesson. From now on, I'm wearing sunscreen to bed! We've been showing our love for each other by applying aloe and lotion to each other's backs. What devotion!

We love and miss you all, but GOD IS GOOD and He is blessing us left and right here! Our prayers are with you as we know yours are with us!
Much love,
Becky

My amazing Dad-

So yesterday seemed like any ordinary day... until I was in Geometry class with the 11th grade and Lupe knocks on the door. I open it and she is holding a BIG vase of beautiful flowers, saying "They're for you."

For ME!

My dad sent me flowers from allll the way in the States just to say that he was thinking about me!

I LOVE YOU DAD!!!!!!!! I couln't stop telling people yesterday and today about it! You are awesome!

Love,
Becky

Something to pick you up!

This was written by a dear friend and ever-mentor, Barbara Robinson. She posted it to the comments, but I love it so much and I don't think that everyone that reads the website reads the comments, so I wanted to post it here for all to read!

Love you Barb!!! So glad to hear that you are loving where you are - that makes 2 of us, God is SO FAITHFUL, and I am so glad He put you where you can shine for Him!! You are a blessing!! Keep on posting! :)
(I love you so much too, Carrollyn!!, you just didn't write a poem... :) jk)

God’s Love is Grander than the Grand Canyon!!

**********************************************

God’s love is as wide and deep and great as the Grand Canyon He made.

His love flows like a Niagara Falls waterfall.

His light shines like a Key West sunrise.

His love sparkles more than all the lights in Las Vegas.

But His love is true and steady, instead of glittering and flickering false hope.

Nothing is grander than our own Lord, not even the Grand Canyon He personally created!

Like an expansive canyon view, or an ocean-front view, His love spreads and expands throughout all eternity with no end in sight.

All you have to do is invite Him in as your personal Lord and savior, trust Him, and He will be your guiding light, outshining the glitter of Hollywood and Vegas.

©Barbara Robinson, July 19, 2007

Hola!

Hey all! It has certainly been a while since we’ve posted. It seems like every time there is time, there is no internet! But all that should change soon, Dave and I are going to use this next paycheck (Tuesday) to get cable and internet! Which means we should be able to post from home AND if all goes well (God willing!) we should have an internet phone up and running in the next week or 2… we finally unlocked our cell phones from the states, and the number is : 33-66-80-45, keep in mind 2 things-
1) you would need to affix a code for Honduras in front in order to call and I don’t know what that number is, but you should be able to find it…
2) It will cost you a fortune to call… if you can wait, please just wait until we get the phone and that way you are saving money.
Right now we are in the middle of a 4-day weekend. Friday was off in order to celebrate the Independence Day (Sept. 15th) and Monday for Teacher’s Day. Honduras has a lot of holidays, they know where it’s at!

A new missionary teacher has arrived. Her name is Elizah and she is from California. She understands a lot of Spanish, but doesn’t speak as well… yet! She will undoubtedly learn very quickly and blow Dave and I out of the water. She’s very sweet and we’re glad to have the company (she lives right next door to us!)

Friday we went to the Quince party of one of our students. Here, rather than celebrate the sweet sixteen, they commemorate the 15th birthday. Yes, I said “commemorate.” Please believe me when I say that this “party” was more impressive than our wedding! She was beautiful and had 15 “maids” (her friends in what looked like bridesmaid dresses) paired off with equally impressive guys in tuxes. She danced with her father, sang, and then there was a performance by Castillo del Rey, a human-video group at the church. After all that was the catered dinner and the cutting of the cake. It was just like a wedding, without the groom. There was even a cake topper on top of the cake of a girl in a white dress! It was awesome to be a part of and to see our students all dressed up and having fun outside of classes.

Saturday was the Independence Day parade in Centro (downtown). There were a bunch of marching bands from different high schools in the area and tons of people. We walked around for a bit, accidentally drank the “purified” water brand that we were warned not to drink, bought and ate some lychees, and had a really good time. Dave was even “interviewed” on a radio program in Tegucigalpa. A man walked up to him and started asking him how was the parade, etc. Keep in mind that our Spanish comprehension is minimal and our ability to speak is equal. Dave managed to convey that he was from Florida and the parade was very good. :)

We love you alllllll and we love reading your comments, so keep ‘em coming!
Love,
Dave and Becky

Felix...

So, apparently with Dean, we hadn't seen our last hurricane here in Honduras... this time the hurricane is coming much closer and it's worse, but we're safe. We are staying with Pastor Ken's wife and 3 kids part to be connected and part to help her out since Pastor Ken is away on Costa Rica for language school. We had a close call as the roof/patio was flooding and we were worried that the water would start pouring down the stairs into the living room. Griselda and I were bailing water while David found the clog in the pipe... to make a long story short, we were able to drain the water and then the rain slowed a lot. At this moment, the rain is very slow and there is little or no wind. It shouldn't be too bad, so don't worry about us! The kitties and we are safe, sound, and even dry! Praise be to God!!! I don't know exactly what to expect from the storm from this point forward, but if it gets worse we'll let you know! We love you and miss you and hope that you're all doing well!
love, Dave and Becky

Strike!

Hello to all!

Becky and I are still doing well! There is a huge strike right now in Honduras, a lot of people are unhappy with the government or wages and are picketing. We are safe where we are, but some people that live near the airport could not get to school yesterday because picketers had blocked the bridge. Also, Pastor Ken could not leave for Costa Rica because the bus drivers were on strike and he was supposed to leave Monday morning on a bus. It is much better than we initially heard, though! At first we heard that the water and power companies would probably strike as well so we would be without running water and electricity, but that did not happen. Hooray for electricity! From what we hear, it will all be over within a few days.

The kitties were having a little trouble adjusting to the heat (it gets up to about 90 here every day). So guess what we did? WE CUT THEIR HAIR! They look pretty funny. Becky says they are ugly, but I don't think so. They are doing much better now. They are running around and playing more, especially in the evenings, when it is a little cooler. Pictures are coming, I left them at home. We will probably try to save up for an air conditioner for the spring, when it is supposed to be the hottest here.

Happy Birthday to Becky!!! We stayed home Sunday, Becky wanted to cook a Honduran recipe. She made a dish with chicken in coconut milk, it was delicious! The only downside is that the jalapenos in it made her hands burn from cutting them and my hands burn from doing the dishes. They aren't that hot in the states!

I need to get a crown done here... I should really set up an appointment soon. Apparently, I had ANOTHER tooth that needed a root canal (I hate my teeth). I found out right before we left for Honduras. The root canal was done last week, here in La Ceiba. It went pretty smoothly, but it hurt a bit more than the previous ones. The endodontist that I went to was very good; she goes to our church and is a member of the school board.

Last week, in addition to being the first week of school, was also the youth rally at the church. The youth had worked for a long time, preparing their own programs with skits, songs, and games. It made for one busy week, but it was very good. Our next door neighbor, Carly, wanted to go with us to the rally, so she came Thursday and Saturday. Our neighbors are very nice, we like them a lot! They also speak beautiful English, which is a huge blessing in many ways.

School is going pretty well, we have a lot more planning periods that we ever did in Florida, but there is a lot more here to do. We help out in a lot of ways around here. We fix computers a lot. We also proofread tests, quizzes, and handouts that other teachers are printing. Yesterday we helped Lourdes and Pastor Corona move their offices. Also I have 4 labs to prepare for, yikes! We also have to write our own tests and quizzes, which I am finding out is kind of annoying. Compared to last year, I have a lot less students, but Becky has more. I feel very disorganized at this moment. We have so very little free time! I want to organize, but have too many other things to do. Things will settle down, but pray that we use our time wisely and make the most of the work time that we have. It will get better, I am trusting in God!

WE ARE OK!!!


our street is flooded! (up the street view)


our street is flooded! (down the street view)



right outside the church

Dean has passed, and we are all safe here at the school. It brought a lot of heavy rain Monday, and the city flooded in some places. We had an interesting taxi ride during one of the first squalls that came through, but it was good because we got home just before our street flooded. It stayed like that for a few hours, and then the water went back down.

The first day of school (Monday) went pretty well. It was only a half day, which was good because we had many questions about policies, etc before the day was over. Yesterday, we did not have school because of the weather (which actually wasn't bad) so we spent the day regrouping and planning. Today classes went well- it was our first full day of class! Things are up and down, we are usually very happy to be here, but sometimes we just wish we were home.

Rufus and Tiny are doing well! They just had their third, and last, trip to the vet . Now the vet can send all of the paperwork to the capital, Tegucigalpa, so our cats will be officially Honduran. The paperwork was much more expensive than we were told when leaving the US, so we will be making the cats clean the house and do dishes to earn their keep.

Keep the people of Mexico in your prayers, the rain was pretty bad here and we were nowhere close to the eye with much much more rain and high winds.

Most of this I wrote yesterday, but the power went out after this was typed but before I got it posted. Bummer! But praise God for auto recover! The power seems to go out a lot here. It went out today as well in the middle of class, but the church has generators which they use in cases like that.

Dave and Becky

Pre-Dean

So we haven't been able to post in a while, due to flaky internet and lack of time (apparently we have to work, we can't just hang out....) but we finally found the opportunity so we decided to snatch it up!


We've met our neighbors, who speak beautiful English!!!, and they are really nice. They're helping us get settled and feel our way around. Today she was telling us about preparing for Hurricane Dean. It's not supposed to hit Honduras, but the rains can cause some pseudo-severe flooding... Nothing too dangerous (and our apartment is on the 2nd floor so our stuff will be fine) but we just needed to stock up on some kerosene, water, and food. Thanks again for the lantern Mr. Sharp! For the price of a gallon of kerosene we would only be able to buy 1/2 a pack of batteries!


We start school on Monday, and we're really not prepared... I don't know how it
will go but God is sovereign and we trust Him in it. If you're the praying
type, you can pray for a smooth start to the school year!


Last Saturday we went to Los Chorros (the waterfalls) with Pastor Ken, his family, and another family. It was wonderful! The falls are all natural and go up the mountain for miles with a waterfall, then a pool, then another waterfall, another pool, etc. At the base pool is a part where the water swirls around to make a natural whirlpool. We played there with the kids for hours!



Oh! and we found a scorpion near our house! It was pretty cool! (well, I mean, had it stung us, we probably wouldn't find it that cool, but it didn't so YAY!) Dave, of course, took pictures and then carried it in a tub back over to the empty lot so it wouldn't bother anyone. Everything is so different here in La Ceiba, it's a little hard to get used to, but it's really exciting at the same time! I want to post a picture, but I can't seem to get it to load on this connection... I'll try and get it later!

We love you and miss you all! Hope everything is going well in the states (We heard about the heat wave! but at least you all have air conditioning!) We'll try to post again soon and let you know how we rode out the storm :)

We're not dead!

Hey everyone! It's been a while since we've posted, and we want to let you all know that we arrievd safely in La Ceiba and are alive and kicking! The cats are fine (though apparently they need even more documentation that they are healty and not going to spread some weird cat disease to all the cats in Honduras...) and we even (finally) have all our baggage!

Our apartment is very cute (read: small), but we're really happy with it. We even have a stove (with one funtioning burner), a fridge, and a MICROWAVE! Also a washer/dryer available to all tenants and a bathtub! And don't worry mom, we have bars on our windows and a guard at night, so we're really quite safe! It may seem like we don't have much, but we have everything we need and more, we're very blessed, especially by Honduran standards!

Our teacher orientation has already started, and though we're excited to begin working, we were hoping for a little more time to adjust. A school year is a little like a roller coaster, one it starts rolling, you can't get off til the end so buckle up and hang on!

We love you all and will try to post again very soon with some pictures!!!

Two weeks left :o

Saturday we had a big yard sale! We sold a lot of things we had around the house but could not keep. Thanks to Becky's mom for letting us sell her stuff too. God is awesome, we made a bunch of money and got rid of almost all of our things. We also sold ALL of our furniture, now our apartment is bare! After 2pm, we left the few items we had left outside and put a big FREE sign on them. Our neighbors picked up everything but a few clothes, so we have hardly anything to drag over to the thrift store.

Sunday we went to church ...our next to last Sunday in the states :( Then we went to Becky's mom's house, she prepared an AWESOME one year anniversary dinner for us! YUM! Thanks guys, and happy one year anniversary Becky, I love you so much!

Today we moved out the last of our furniture, ran a bunch of errands, got an oil change, bought some "learn spanish" books (entiendo ingles), and bought cat carriers we can take on the plane. I also lost most of my keys, but never found them...

Tomorrow we are driving down to Angela's in West Palm Beach, should be fun!

so little time...

We're back in Florida after a CRAZY buy WONDERFUL couple of weeks. It was great to see everyone again, some of the people we stayed with we hadn't seen since the wedding! Now, though, we have to get down to business... packing the house and taking care of all the details. Whew! Who knew we had so much junk?!? Thanks to my mom for helping us sort through everything, without her we wouldn't get anything done (even if we do make frequent brownie breaks - hey, we have to use up the mixes before we leave, don't we?)

We bought our tickets. Apparently, when you fly with animals, 2 are allowed on per plane as carry-ons. What they don't tell you is that one is allowed in coach, and one in business (their version of first class). At first we were a bit dismayed since we're broker than broke, but on the phone they hooked us up with a really good price that was even better than the coach ticket online. I'm now looking forward to my first ride in the front of the plane! Hope Dave doesn't miss me too much while he's cramped in the back! :) It's only a 2 hour flight anyway...

About Honduras

For those of you know don't know much about Honduras and where we'll be staying, here is some of the basic info (courtesy of world factbook):

capital - Tegucigalpa

where we'll be - La Ceiba, on the north coast

approx. size - slightly bigger than Tennessee
president - Manuel Zelaya
currency - Lempira

exchange rate - ~19:1
declared independence - Sept. 15, 1821 (from Spain)

hurricane Mitch - killed ~5600, $2 billion in damage

ethnicity - mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%, Amerindian 7%, black 2%, white 1%

religions - Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%

language - Spanish, Amerindian dialects

flag symbolism - The blue and white and the five stars represent the United Provinces of Central America

GPD per capita (Purchasing Power Parity)- $3100

unemployment rate - 27.9%

population below poverty line - 53%

agriculture products - bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp

industry - sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products

american food walking distance from school - Pizza Hut, Applebees, BK, Wendy's, Popeye's, Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin Robbins

where Becky can get coffee - Espresso Americano

How to get started...

Any suggestions? Having been called to Honduras with about a month to take care of all the loose ends makes for an interesting month... We're currently in the process of figuring out what to do with our stuff (furniture, etc.) and how to take our cats on a plane to Central America! Hopefully they'll forgive us...