Sunday, January 10, 2010

Week 1 Update

Hi all!

Well I made it to Honduras! YEA! Monday night my friends Ali, Gretchen and Mark took me to the airport and saw me off to Honduras. I flew to Guatemala and from there to El Salvador, then to Roatan, Honduras where I am at currently. I will be in Roatan for the next three months, however there is the possiblity we may sail to Belize at some point but we will see.

This week has been pretty low key. The staff has given us lots of time to sleep off any jet lag, get to know each other, and get acclimated to living aboard a sailboat! My team is great. There are 6 of us, 5 girls and 1 guy (lucky guy, haha!) The 6 of us are from all across the US: Washington, California, Colorado, Illinois (me), Bloomington Indiana!!! ( I was really happy about having a fellow Hoosier on the team!) and North Carolina. We have three staff leaders currently, one from England, another from Connecticut, and Chris the director is from Washington. We will have a fourth staff member joining us in a few weeks from Las Vegas.

Life aboard a sailboat is fun! It's a lot like being in college again. So far the best parts of living on a boat have been sleeping outside on the trampoline netting under the stars and waking up to see the ocean water underneath me! Also we take showers in the ocean. There are showers on board the boats but it's lots more fun to do it in the ocean and it saves water too. We just put on our swim suits, jump in the water, lather up, swim around awhile, then get on board and hose off in the fresh water. Pretty cool! I share a bunk with two other girls and will sleep in there when its rainy (which is has been the past few days) but plan to sleep outside as much as I can!

Our first speaker just arrived and we will begin classes tomorrow. We have a pretty heavy schedule each day. Usually we will start around 8 and have some sort of worship and devotional time until about 9. We are then in classes from about 9 to 1. The rest of the afternoon is open, but is spent reading (we are required to read at least 4 books and write book reports on all) or doing classwork. We are also encouraged to read through the entire bible while we are here so I'm loving doing that! Every Tuesday we have an hour seamanship class where we learn about sailing, and once a week we will meet in the evenings to have a lecture/discussion on a book we are reading called Good to Great. It's all about leadership. We eat breakfast and lunch on our own; usually cereal, sandwiches, etc. At dinner time we take turns making dinner for the team. I am on the shopping/provisioning team so once a week I go out to the markets to buy food for the team. That is the general schedule we will follow for the full three months. After these three months of lecture/training we will leave for our outreach!

I am really enjoying it here and looking forward to diving into the classroom study and learning as much as I can. I am also really excited about exploring the Hondurian culture. So far I haven't had too much time off the boat to explore around the island, but plan to very soon and will send an update on that! One thing I found pretty funny here is everything is imported from the US! It's a lot more westernized than I thought it would be. When I was at the supermarket the other day I felt like I was at home. All American products! Hopefully we'll get a lot of chances to explore local cuisine and stuff.

I have to run but I just wanted to say Thank You again to you all for your support and encouragement. I am so excited for this journey and already am learning so much.

Love,
Brittany

5 comments:

  1. Britt-
    I had no idea this was a mission experience! I just read your FB update and thought you might be traveling there for work. I just finished reading some of your blog and will definitely be praying that you have an amazing experience. Mike and I were just talking on the way home about how we want to take a family missions trip when our kids are older. As helpful as they can be for the people in other countries, most of the time it is more life-changing for the person that goes. May you grow beyond your expectations and be blessed with safety, health, and friendship! Enjoy the beautiful land, too:) Can't wait to follow your adventures!
    Love,
    Jenn Pflugner

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  2. SOOOOO Glad you made it there safely girl!! Sounds like quite the life-style change....in all good ways!! Sleeping on a net over the ocean, wow! It makes me think of a book I was recently reading "Life of Pi". Pick it up if you get a chance while you're out there (although, now that I think of it, you probably won't have much time for just pleasure reading). :) Miss you, and hope that you get more culture time soon. Soak it all in, praying for you every time I think of ya (which is often!)
    Love you girl! Ash

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  3. Hey Britt!! Love that we can follow everything that you are experiencing through your cool blog. It helps us to feel like we are there with you :) So glad you made it safe to Honduras. Know that Aaron & I are praying for you and all that God has in store to grow and strengthen you these next few months. Love you lots!!
    **Nikki

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  4. Britt!! AT & Chicago miss you!!

    The whole experience sounds so amazing... hopefully this trip will lead you into some exciting and rewarding "blitzes"!

    -The M.

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  5. Good to Great, hope you love that book like I did! Miss you but get ecited everytime I read your blog!

    Gretch
    aka Grady ;)

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