Mags is on the road again!

I wrote this blog while sitting in my Master's class - "Special Education in the Regular Classroom." I promise I was paying attention at the same time... Yesterday was the half-way mark for me. Half-way through the class, and half-way through my degree! A master's degree in International Education - at least it sounds important.

My goal this year was at least one blog entry per month. I'm not sure what happened to October. It's not that we've been traveling. The world traveler right now is Maggie. She went to Antigua, Guatemala with her AP Modern European History class last month. I was especially jealous. They studied Baroque art and architecture with a historian and an art historian from the school. Maggie could not stop talking about it when she got home.

Most people drive to Antigua from here. There are a number of fancy bus companies that offer the route. But the over-riding attitude (pun intended for my AP Language students who read my blog) is that the route in not safe. Evidently the high-end tour buses are being frequently robbed. So all the parents of the AP students paid for airline tickets. Mags said she was in the air for less than 20 minutes, but it was certainly worth the expense. As I type this entry, I am waiting for her to return from Costa Rica.

I've been to Costa Rica as well, but I never made it out of the airport. We changed planes there last year on our way to Bogota. I almost ended up staying, but not because it was such a nice place. I was so busy arguing with a salesgirl in the gift shop over the "buy two - get one free" bracelets I was trying to purchase that I almost missed the flight out. Luckily Mags doesn't have enough money to get in the same trouble. She was there for the International Knowledge Bowl tournament. I imagine she spent most of her time competing in a Costa Rican school somewhere. I hope they did well. We practiced as a family by watching Jeopardy on tv.

The only place James and I have been lately was a new Habitat for Humanity village in Santa Ana. There's a nice Carolina connection - Habitat Charlotte purchased the land for Habitat El Salvador to build a whole community of new homes. All the concrete curbs have been poured so you can see the future lay-out (although it was amazing to see how quickly the weeds took over the curbs in the rainy season). Now there is a Day Care Center and one completed duplex. There were five new houses beginning on our last trip. James takes the National Honor Society back on Saturday while I am still in my master's class. I can't wait to hear how much has been done.

I finally got to go into a completed house. The houses are painted cement block with tile floors. There are three small rooms - two bedrooms and a central living/kitchen area. The large room is about 8' by 12'. The back porch has a big sink and a small attached bathroom with a toilet and a shower. In a tropical climate, a lot of living is done outside, so a small house is not necessarily a big problem. But this house looked dry and safe and definitely earthquake proof.

Speaking of earthquakes, I had developed my own early warning system. Whenever our jalousie style windows started to rattle a bit, I knew a quake was coming. What I forgot about was the windy season (in between the rainy and the dry seasons). I spent all last weekend thinking an earthquake was coming - because the windows rattled day and night from the gusts of wind. It's cooler now and the winds have died down - but a fair trade off from the weeks of rain we had. I will not miss grey skies.

Even though the papers are piled up a mile high, I think I need some sunshine. They will be waiting for me when I get back later. Can't wait to see everyone at home at Christmas!