Good-bye El Salvador, Hello Honduras

El Salvador gave me a wonderful send-off. I forgot to mention that they got me a gift which I was presented with at mass: an NPH t-shirt and towel. Very fun! Loly, one of the girls' house director, made me a special dinner of pupusas Sunday night. I also got a delightful send-off from my little girls. They each wrote me a precious letter and drew me a picture. I received some of the nicest letters of my life from Susy, Roxy, and Gloria (older girls). If you think the art of letter writing is dead, visit NPH!! At night, each girl took turns thanking me in their own way. When it was time to say goodnight, little Deysi gave me a good long hug and told me to remember that the door to the NPH home is always open to me.

I was a little nervous about the whole bus situation, but it was fine. I left around 9:30 a.m. and arrived in San Salvador around 11:30 a.m. At noon, the bus left for Tegucigalpa. I was a little concerned about the border, but there was no problem. The police did board to check some bags, but I just had to show my passport. Apparently, I'm too cute to be a smuggler. ;) It turns out it was the Nicaragua/Honduras border that was the problem. The bus was a nice charter bus, and we watched several movies in English, which helped pass the time. We actually watched Speed...great idea to watch a movie about a bomb on a bus!! The bus arrived in Tegus an hour earlier than scheduled. I figured I would just hang out at the bus station until the NPH driver and visitor coordinator (Uli) arrived, but I was informed that the station was closing. Can I tell you how much I didn't want to wait on the streets of Tegucigalpa...with all my baggage...at night?!?! I called Uli, who told me to take a taxi to Cero Grande (the bus station lady kindly helped me with this) where I met up with them. I was safely within the confines of the Ranch by 8:00 p.m.

I had a meeting this morning with the school principal who remembered me from last year (she's new to the position but not the school). I went down to the primary school with her and met with Kenia, who is in charge right now. A lot of people are gone to Mexico for a big NPH International meeting, including the national director. I observed the pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade Montessori classrooms. I'll go to second and third tomorrow. Yet again, they're telling me I can do whatever I want. If I have my way, I'll be doing a lot of one-on-one work with the kiddos. But we'll see! I'm heading down to the boys' house this evening for dinner and to see my Axel!