The whole time I’ve been in Honduras I have always kind of wanted to go to school here.  I have not really had the opportunity because when we moved school was already in the second half of the year.  As the school year was approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to check out all the options of me possibly enrolling in a high school.  There are a few good bilingual high schools in San Pedro so I looked up their phone numbers and called about possibly going to visit the schools.  All of this happened the first week of August on Sunday and Monday.  On Wednesday my dad, mom, and I all went around to the three schools.  The first one we stopped at is named Internacional Escuala Americana.  When we pulled up to the gate, the guard came out and asked us what we were there for.  Just for future reference, everyone at a bilingual school doesn’t speak English.  Of course the guard was limited to only Spanish, so my dad tried to explain the best he could that we needed to talk to a lady by the name of Joanne Rogers (the lady we talked with on the phone).  The guard had no idea what he was talking about, so he pointed at a sign that said, “Matricula.” We obviously had no idea what that meant, so my mom looked up the word on Google Translate.  It means enrollment, so we agreed with the guard and he let us in.  We pulled into park and got out looking for an entrance to the building. I saw a small yellow gate so I started that way. About that time my dad said, “Wait, come over here real quick.” I thought oh gosh what is he about to make me do. Of course we did what all gringo missionaries do and we held hands and prayed in the middle of an empty parking lot.  It felt pretty silly, but doing that helped to open up my eyes and let the Lord speak to me about the right decision to make about each school.  As we walked in the small gate, another guard came up and said something so dad just said, “Matricula,” and he knew where to take us.  We came up to this room named High School Office.  We stopped there and the director of the school came out.  He was an American so it kind of surprised me. We started talking and it turns out that no employees were at school yet, because they were still on vacation.  The director didn’t know much about what we were asking him, so he just showed us around the campus and told us to come back on the 18th. This date was familiar because that is the day my online classes started.  I am currently taking dual enrollment online classes through West Georgia Tech. These classes also started on the 18th.  I came to realize that I was going to have to make a pretty quick decision. We were on to the next school. This school is named Freedom High School.  We have a lot of translators that I am close with that go to this school, so it was already pretty high on my list. When we got up to the gate at this school we just told the guards that we were here for matricula and they let us right on in.  We parked right up next to the school and went around to where all the offices were. We were standing there and a lady came up and asked who we were waiting for.  My dad told her we were looking for a woman named Gloria (The lady we spoke with on the phone from Freedom).  Well, that lady was Gloria so she told us to wait right outside her office and she would be with us in just a moment.  When she called us in, we all sat down and she started going over the costs and things like I was 100% going to enroll there.  We told her that we were just there to talk about the possibilities of me enrolling.  She took us on a tour of the school and then took us to the principal to talk about further things.  When we got there, we just asked him a lot of things about what classes I would take and if I would be able to get out for each team that comes down.  He was very open to me missing some weeks here and there for teams but not all of them.  After that, he gave me a paper that showed what classes I would take.  The Honduran school system only goes to eleven grades, but they learn the same amount as the U.S.  They said that I would be in the tenth grade, which makes sense because I would still have two years of school left just like I do now.  He showed me my classes and I noticed that I would have to retake Biology and Chemistry, in which I have completed both, so that was a big negative in me going there. He then told us that school starts on the 18th. I knew that this was going to be a faster decision than I thought.  We talked a little bit more and then we were on our way to the third and final school of the day.  This school is named Albert Einstein International School. This school is in downtown San Pedro, which is like being in a jungle with a lot of concrete.  When we finally got to the school, after trying to figure out where it was, we just walked right in and didn’t have to explain anything to the guard.  When we were inside, it reminded me of a small two story apartment building.  We went and talked to a lady who couldn’t speak much English, but she was trying really hard.  She started explaining how the school is a trilingual school and that I would have to take four weeks of French before I could start classes.  When we heard this we pretty much just left. That was probably the weirdest school I have seen in my life. As I started to think about the possibilities, I really only felt like Freedom was the only option.  Then again, I didn’t want to have to retake classes because it seems pointless.  I thought about it and came to realize that the best thing was just to stay with the online classes.  It would be a really good experience but I felt like God spoke through the responses we got at each school.  As school has started back up in Bowdon, I am a little sad because I’m not there with all of my classmates.  This is the first year since kindergarten that I will not start off at Bowdon.  Then, I think about how I am doing God’s will and there is nothing else I would rather be doing than that.  Please continue to pray for my family and the whole organization here in El Plan. Thank you for everything!

Brantley Henderson