We made it!

Friends and family,

We finallt made it to Honduras! The final passport was received midday on Friday (yes, the day before we flew out) and we then headed up to Memphis where we stayed the night so we could catch our incredibly early flight to Miami (we had to be at the airport at 4:30AM - yikes!) Everything went smoothly and we arrived in Miami with no problems, but about an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave for San Pedro Sula, the setbacks began.

We were hanging out, waiting for our flight, when James and Allen announced that they had just read that the flight to San Pedro Sula had been cancelled - not delayed - cancelled. Of course I headed up to the ticket counter, only to be told that the next flight to SAP was full and that we would have to stay the night in Miami . . . not news I waned to hear. I kept talking to the agent and eventually he was able to ook us on a flight to Honduras later in the afternoon, the only problem was that five of the remaining six seats on the plane were in FIRST CLASS. That´s right, Sanja and all of the students got to fly in first class while I was stuck back in coach and let me tell you, first class is a prett swanky place to be, at least it looked that way from where I was sitting . . .

We arrived in San Pedro Sula around 5pm only to discover that our luggage had been left in Miami - not news we wanted to hear, but so far we´ve been dealing the best we can. We arrived in Copan after a long bumpy van ride, took the kids to their host families, and all crashed with exhaustion.

Yesterday morning, we got the kids up, they ate breakfast with their host families (Sanja and I had empanadas - they were heavenly!) and Enrique Carrillo (aka Kike), the school director, gave them a tour of La Escuela Guacamaya (The Guacamaya School) and of the town of Copan. After lunch, we went to El Parque de Pajarros (The Bird Park) and got to see some really amazing birds like Scarlet Macaws, Toucans, Owls, Parakeets, etc. At the end of the tour the students even got to hold some of them. I will try to post pictures later this evening. We spend a good portion of the evening buying clothes, as the thought of spending a third day in the outfts we wore on the plane was more than any of us could handle (plus American Airlines has to give us $25 each for each day that we go without luggage).

This morning the students met their private Spanish instructors, and each of them is currently in class improving their Spanish. They are doing an awesome job, and they have really impressed me with their ability to deal with challenging situations like flights being cancelled, luggage being delayed, eating new foods, holding enormous birds, etc. They are SO AWESOME!!!!

I´ll have one of the students post later, but for now I´m signing off.

Adios!

Therese (aka Ms. McKinny-Wood)

P.S. If you need to reach me, I now have a cell phone that can be used here in Honduras, the number is 011-504-9818-8845. Keep in mind that without a phone card, it is really expensive to call Honduras, so I recommend buying one before you call - you may be able to get one online.