Thanks for tuning in for another blog. The latest big news down here is that the new volunteer teachers have arrived. The got in late Thursday afternoon after traveling all day, some of them were traveling since 1:00 a.m. that morning. Needless to say we didn't really start to get to know each other until Friday when we took a tour of the three OAF schools and the city of Juticalpa.
Here are most of the volunteers at the spanish speaking high school, Cardenal. In total there will be 15 volunteers this year, 9 new volunteers and 6 returning.
Sunday morning we all went to mass in a little town outside of Juticalpa called Jutiquile. If you remember back to my first blogs, we did this same thing last year. At the end of mass Padre Ricardo, OAF's founder and the regular priest for Jutiquile, had us come up in front of the congregation to be introduced. 
Here's Padre with (from left to right) Michelle, Anne (from Chico, California!), Carrie and Ginny (returning volunteer). The short man in front is a mentally handicap man who is lives in Jutiquile.
This is Peggy with the microphone. She is the primary school's, Escolar Santa Clara, new directora (principal) now that our past directora, Annie, moved back to the USA with her husband and baby boy. Annie was an incredible leader, educator, colleague, etc. last year and many people were up in arms when she announced she would be going back to the States. However Peggy has been doing a great job so far. I think we are in good hands with her. To the left of Peggy is Andrew, the 7/8th grade art/activities and history teacher. Next is Mary, a returning teacher, who will teach 5th grade. Mary actually went to Cal Poly with me (although we didn't meet until Honduras ... small world) and is from Woodland, CA. Finally is Jackie, who will be teaching prepa, which is the equivalent of our kindergarten.
Here (from left to right) is yours truly. I will be teaching 7th/8th grade math, 7th grade geography and I will be co-teaching 7th/8th grade PE. I will co-teach PE with the secondary school, Instituto Santa Clara, directora, Maki. I did not get Maki in any of the photos, but she has volunteered with OAF several times in the past. She is full of great energy and, like Peggy, will do a great job this coming year. To my right is our english teacher, Angela, who is from Claremont, CA. This is actually where my family lived until I was five years old. After having a conversation about this, I found out that Angela knew the street my family used to live on, the kindergarten I first went to school at and the swimming pool where I learned to swim ... again, small world. Next to Angela is Jeff. He is from Boise, Idaho and will teach 6th grade at the Escolar. To the left of him is Michelle who will teach 3rd grade, and finally Anne, who will teach Kinder, our equivalent of pre-school. 
Tonight, we celebrated Lacey's birthday. She will teach 2nd grade. Andrew, left of Lacey, revealed his culinary skills by baking a cake for everyone.
Thse are just some more birthday party pictures of Carlos' (OAF's director, not to be confused with directora) sons, Giancarlos and Andre. They think they are pretty cool.
But I reminded them how little they are.
Hope life finds you well.
Here are most of the volunteers at the spanish speaking high school, Cardenal. In total there will be 15 volunteers this year, 9 new volunteers and 6 returning.
Sunday morning we all went to mass in a little town outside of Juticalpa called Jutiquile. If you remember back to my first blogs, we did this same thing last year. At the end of mass Padre Ricardo, OAF's founder and the regular priest for Jutiquile, had us come up in front of the congregation to be introduced. Here's Padre with (from left to right) Michelle, Anne (from Chico, California!), Carrie and Ginny (returning volunteer). The short man in front is a mentally handicap man who is lives in Jutiquile.
This is Peggy with the microphone. She is the primary school's, Escolar Santa Clara, new directora (principal) now that our past directora, Annie, moved back to the USA with her husband and baby boy. Annie was an incredible leader, educator, colleague, etc. last year and many people were up in arms when she announced she would be going back to the States. However Peggy has been doing a great job so far. I think we are in good hands with her. To the left of Peggy is Andrew, the 7/8th grade art/activities and history teacher. Next is Mary, a returning teacher, who will teach 5th grade. Mary actually went to Cal Poly with me (although we didn't meet until Honduras ... small world) and is from Woodland, CA. Finally is Jackie, who will be teaching prepa, which is the equivalent of our kindergarten.Here (from left to right) is yours truly. I will be teaching 7th/8th grade math, 7th grade geography and I will be co-teaching 7th/8th grade PE. I will co-teach PE with the secondary school, Instituto Santa Clara, directora, Maki. I did not get Maki in any of the photos, but she has volunteered with OAF several times in the past. She is full of great energy and, like Peggy, will do a great job this coming year. To my right is our english teacher, Angela, who is from Claremont, CA. This is actually where my family lived until I was five years old. After having a conversation about this, I found out that Angela knew the street my family used to live on, the kindergarten I first went to school at and the swimming pool where I learned to swim ... again, small world. Next to Angela is Jeff. He is from Boise, Idaho and will teach 6th grade at the Escolar. To the left of him is Michelle who will teach 3rd grade, and finally Anne, who will teach Kinder, our equivalent of pre-school. Tonight, we celebrated Lacey's birthday. She will teach 2nd grade. Andrew, left of Lacey, revealed his culinary skills by baking a cake for everyone.If the background of our volunteers has any effect on how well the school year will be, I think it will be a very successful year. Many of our volunteers have a education backgrounds, previous teaching experience as well as volunteer experiences. This will definitely be the largest number of volunteers OAF has ever had (every year OAF has seen nearly a 100% increase from the previous year). Vamos a ver (we will see).
Thse are just some more birthday party pictures of Carlos' (OAF's director, not to be confused with directora) sons, Giancarlos and Andre. They think they are pretty cool.But I reminded them how little they are.Hope life finds you well.
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