The first month or so...

Hello friends and family,

TA DA!!  Here it is: the long awaited correspondence!  I'm very surprised that I haven't heard back from more of you, asking to cancel the "subscription" to this wonderful newsletter.  Just remember, it's never too late...  ;-)

Money Stuff:
The first two months here in Honduras have been great.  Much thanks is still due to my friends and family that have already participated in the funds drive for the music program here at CEAD.  Through you're generosity, at least $3,500 dollars have been raised so far!  Special thanks there go to Central A/G in Huntsville as well as First United Methodist Church in Cleveland for there support and use of the building.

However there is also some surprising new news that has me as excited as I can possibly be.  First of all, one of my college professors, Dr. Linda Thompson, has arranged for Lee University to donate some used Orff instruments!  This is possibly one of the best things that could happen because once they come in, it will allow the students to be involved with real musical instruments in an easy, efficient and fun way of producing music.  For those of you who don't know, these instruments are very expensive and my guess is that all together they are worth between $1,000 and $2,000!

And running a close second in the realm of great news is that CEAD Christian School might be buying themselves a keyboard for the music program.  This would be an immense blessing because it would allow that first amount of money ($3,500) to used elsewhere.  And that amount will stretch so much further than if it had been used on a single keyboard!

Learning Spanish:
I hadn't really thought that I've learned much new Spanish since I've gotten here simply because I'm really only relearning words that I should have remembered from one of my four classes in the subject.  However, thinking back to my experience on the plane ride from San Salvador to Tegucigalpa, I couldn't speak more than one or two coherent words to my seat partner.  And last night, I was actually able to hold a decent conversation with the guard at the gate of my neighborhood.  I'm actually very pleased... so long as the listener is extremely patient, there is quite a lot that I can get across and/or understand.

I'm currently taking some Spanish lessons with 2-3 wonderful young ladies, and although they are definitely "taken", they have many ideas for potential "novias" for me.  They're worse than my uncles!  ;-)

School:
Here at the school, things continue to plug along.  I'm learning more and more about the balance of planning and flexibility, and it's an ever increasing learning process for me.  Fortunately, my teaching load isn't too heavy, and I do have quite a few planning periods.  If all goes well, this next Tuesday I will be starting an after school "music club".  It's main purpose will be to provide a choir for special occasions.  But I just couldn't bring myself to call it a choir knowing that would scare away some great musicians that I've already met.  Besides... hopefully this will be much more than just a choir!

I'm also hoping that through this music club, I can be better able to teach student leadership and well-rounded-ness of music.  But much remains to be seen since we haven't even begun yet!  ;-)

Tegus (Tegucigalpa):
Although this is one of the most beautiful places I could ever possibly have come to, the city itself is not unlike many large cities in the US: dirty.  But oh, you should see it at night!  It's so beautiful.  Tegus has about one million inhabitants and yet it doesn't seem much bigger than Huntsville, AL.  This is probably because a large majority of it's inhabitants live on the outskirts of the town, closely packed together in small shacks and huts that they themselves have pieced together.  Although I seriously doubt there are more cars here than in Huntsville, traffic is MUCH worse.  It's sort of funny as well though.  Huntsville takes in almost the entire county in it's vast suburban sprawl, but Tegus is very small indeed.  I believe I can get almost anywhere in Tegus simply by driving 5-7miles any direction.  Now, the time that it would take me to get there is much longer due to the traffic, but the size and area of the city is small.

The Spiritual:
The "Spirit Realm" (Oooo, spooky subject, I know) is much more readily recognized here.  People in general (both Christians and non-Christians alike), are consistently convinced of the power and influence of spiritual things and beings.  In a way, just this one thing is so much better than the "American Way".  Americans are so ready to discount it all together.  Even though Christians in the US are willing to say that the spiritual realm is real, very few actually live and act as if it is.  Even in their daily speech, no one mentions the hidden spiritual intent and degradation behind certain advertisements or activities.  It's as if they really don't believe it truly exists.

But here, things are vastly different.  No one doubts a demon's power or ability to ruin someone's life or control their body should they so allow it.  We Americans are often afraid to even talk about the Devil for fear that we will be giving him more credit than he deserves.  How foolish!  Look around!  He doesn't need credit; he has results.  It's high time we denounced him, and started actually talking about and fighting this battle we are in.  Or is it not really an important battle?

Conclusion:
But alas, I digress.  I hope this letter find all of you well and strong in the Lord.  Be assured that things are going very well for me here and that this is exactly where I need to be.  You and I can question my mental cunning and prowess ;-) ... but I will not question my calling.

Ever your servant in Christ!
--
Jason Scott Vawter
-Iota, Chi, Theta, Upsilon, Sigma

PS-please don't forget to feel free to opt out of this newsletter... it won't hurt my feelings a bit.  *sniff sniff*   ;-D


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I have a blog about my Honduran adventures that's open to comments from the public.  It can be found at http://afishymusicmachine.blogspot.com, and I'd be honored if you stopped by.