Photography Fail

I took zero pictures this weekend, which is a shame because pictures would have taken the place of the thousand words that I am about to write.

I spent most of my weekend at my home away from home, mainly to avoid boredom, power outages, leaky roofs, and rice and beans. On Friday I watched the "30 Days of Night" sequel. Worst idea ever. Not even mildly entertaining. And then I went to bed at 8. Coolness factor diminished. Points retracted. Amy -1, Honduras 0.

Saturday morning was spent practicing photography with someone else's camera. So no, I don't have those pictures but I'll get them. For now, take my word for it that there are some good ones. Here's one taken last week to hold you over. The color on the leaves is for real.

After this experimental activity, I took a walk up to a beautiful waterfall shower (but did not shower in the waterfall). It was too cold. No camera. No pictures. There will be a next time. Amy -2, Honduras 0

Then I went rafting! In the raft was 2 Omega raft guides and me, the dead weight. Their mission was to explore an alternative river should the Cangrejal be too wild to raft (see: A Walk In The Rain). We drove up to Uraco, a small village that lies at the "end of the road" - literally the end of the road that connects La Ceiba to the Cangrejal River Valley where I live. One road, and we drove to the end of it and then rafted down the Yeruca River, which joins the Cangrejal in the village of Rio Viejo. It was a "boney" river, according to the guides, which made the rafting very physically demanding (for them). I sat there, rowed forward and backward when told, and "moved left" (shifting the weight distribution on the raft so that the raft can pass through and over protruding rocks). Again, no camera. No pictures. There will be a next time. Amy -3, Honduras 0

Rafting makes you want to drink. And drinking makes you want to drink more. And drinking more makes you hung over. And here we are... hungover, blogging, and eating plain pasta. Life gets a lot better than this. Amy -4, Honduras 0.

Now for the interesting stuff. (I do work!) Tomorrow and Tuesday we have parent-teacher conferences, a first for Guaruma. We felt it was really important to open our doors to the parents as friends and the teachers of their kids. We plan on keeping it a relaxed atmosphere while we share with them a little about our background, their children's grades, and projects we've been doing in class. Despite our incentives of coffee and pastries, we're really curious on how many parents will show up since they are notorious for not being invested in their kids' education. Vamos a ver.

I'm getting a little more creative with the blog - check out the tabs the proper "About's" as well as the blogs that keep me reading. Don't forget to email me or post your questions for AA Tuesday! And join the Team!

Mosquito Bites: 3 - all on my knee
Final Score: Amy -4, Honduras 0 (Totally embarrassing.)