Dan here wanting to get caught up on things. As you might know from the last blog school is coming to a close (we have one more week)! For 7th grade that means my students are taking their 4th quarter final exams. After that there will be an end of the school year party day, recuperation exams for students who didn't make grades and some paper work, but then it is onto vacation. Year 1 of teaching...almost complete!
Life is good here in Juticalpa. Good people to be around and each day is full of things to take care of, places to go, people to enjoy and experiences to be had.
Mario and I are doing well in the house. We're keeping up our good cooking: lately it has been sweet corn from his farm and mucho mantequilla (a lot of mantequilla which is sort of a butter/sourcream sauce). We put it on pretty much everything although a dietitian might tell us to do otherwise.
One thing that happened lately which was fun was the Math Olympics 2010. Apparently every May there is a day where top junior high and high school students from all around take a math test, and then the top students move on to a larger regional competition. So last week our principal Annie informed me that we would be going and that I would be chaperoning our students. Three of my 7th graders got to go and three 6th graders too. So we jumped on a bus that was also taking students from other schools and drove up to the next town Catacamas. In the picture is Annie's husband, Henry, who is a math teacher at another school in town. He shares my affinity for math which makes him a really cool guy. Actually, I don't know if I mentioned this, but Annie, Henry and their baby Tommy, are going to be moving to the states this July. The reason is in part because Henry wants to study math at a US university so he can go on to become a professor. All of us here at Olancho Aid are very sad to see Annie leaving because she is such an amazing educator and person, but we all understand their decision and hope them the best.
Anywho, here are the top mathletes from the area lining up to sign in.
Here is team Santa Clara.
Jonathan is a little math genius. I majored in math in college and he was explaining math problems after the test to me in clearer ways than I could understand them myself!
There were probably 300 students, 30 teachers and some administrative people there....I was the only white person, haha.
The students were split into 3 levels according to which grade they were in. The grades ranged fom 6th through 12th. Here are some level 1 students chatting nervously before the test.
There were 5 problems and the students had 3 hours to complete them.
The level of concentration in those classrooms was intense.
Anywho, here are the top mathletes from the area lining up to sign in.
Here is team Santa Clara.
Jonathan is a little math genius. I majored in math in college and he was explaining math problems after the test to me in clearer ways than I could understand them myself!
There were probably 300 students, 30 teachers and some administrative people there....I was the only white person, haha.
The students were split into 3 levels according to which grade they were in. The grades ranged fom 6th through 12th. Here are some level 1 students chatting nervously before the test.
There were 5 problems and the students had 3 hours to complete them.
The level of concentration in those classrooms was intense.
But with the spirit of math in the air it was over before we knew it.
Someone smarter than me told me that life is about balance, and since Friday was all about academics, that meant Saturday was time to party. We volunteer teachers got invited to one of the Honduran teacher's birthday parties. We did some dancing and socializing. Here are most of the lovely ladies I have been fortunate enough to spend a year with.
Then we went out dancing at a local dance club.
Here I am working on my bachata with Iveth, one of the Honduran teachers at Santa Clara.
But the real stars of the night were these two. At one point everyone had cleared the dance floor and they had everyone's attention with their suave dance moves.
My old roommate in college believed that if you have a big night, you should get up the next day and do something active rather than laying around trying to recover. In keeping with that, myself, Mario, a short-term volunteer Sam, who lives in the same colonia with us, decided to cut the grass of an overgrown soccer field near our houses. Here is Sam with showing us how to get the job done with 21st century technology.
Here is me attempting to get the job down with 15 century technology, but I have always wanted to use a machete.
Mario was the real expert at using it though.
After mowing the lawn we were exhausted and thirsty. We noticed some coconut trees nearby and since we had our machetes we decided to have a drink.
Having recovered from a big weekend of dancing, it was back to school for our second to last week of the year, but my last week of actual teaching since the last week is for testing.
It was a week of review and trying to bring closure to some of the things we have been learing. Many of the students though are more than ready for vacation and don't want to do any more school work. I can't blame ... many of us teachers feel the same way.
My students did get a hold of my camerca at one point,
and they do love the spotlight,
very much.
This weekend that is coming to an end now, was fun and full of activity. 2nd grade's First Communion, lunch at our bus driver's house (Victor), a get together with american teachers from another bilingual school in town and our last Life Teen (youth group) meeting. Here are some of the youth group students enjoying some soda and chips.
Here is the youth of Life Teen along with Sarah, Beth, Rosie, Sam and myself.
Someone smarter than me told me that life is about balance, and since Friday was all about academics, that meant Saturday was time to party. We volunteer teachers got invited to one of the Honduran teacher's birthday parties. We did some dancing and socializing. Here are most of the lovely ladies I have been fortunate enough to spend a year with.
Then we went out dancing at a local dance club.
Here I am working on my bachata with Iveth, one of the Honduran teachers at Santa Clara.
But the real stars of the night were these two. At one point everyone had cleared the dance floor and they had everyone's attention with their suave dance moves.
My old roommate in college believed that if you have a big night, you should get up the next day and do something active rather than laying around trying to recover. In keeping with that, myself, Mario, a short-term volunteer Sam, who lives in the same colonia with us, decided to cut the grass of an overgrown soccer field near our houses. Here is Sam with showing us how to get the job done with 21st century technology.
Here is me attempting to get the job down with 15 century technology, but I have always wanted to use a machete.
Mario was the real expert at using it though.
After mowing the lawn we were exhausted and thirsty. We noticed some coconut trees nearby and since we had our machetes we decided to have a drink.
Having recovered from a big weekend of dancing, it was back to school for our second to last week of the year, but my last week of actual teaching since the last week is for testing.
It was a week of review and trying to bring closure to some of the things we have been learing. Many of the students though are more than ready for vacation and don't want to do any more school work. I can't blame ... many of us teachers feel the same way.
My students did get a hold of my camerca at one point,
and they do love the spotlight,
very much.
This weekend that is coming to an end now, was fun and full of activity. 2nd grade's First Communion, lunch at our bus driver's house (Victor), a get together with american teachers from another bilingual school in town and our last Life Teen (youth group) meeting. Here are some of the youth group students enjoying some soda and chips.
Here is the youth of Life Teen along with Sarah, Beth, Rosie, Sam and myself.
These have been some of the highlights of the past two weeks. I hope you enjoyed them and I hope life is finding you well.
Hasta luego (until later)
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