Hope all is well. I have to say off the bat that I am going to make this quick because I am in a rush. Don't feel bad for me though. I am in a rush because I in 2.5 hours I leave for Guatemala. So I wanted to get this blog up before then, because when I get back in a week I will have a whole new batch of pictures.
Ok, so where are we at? Well, The school year has ended, and here's how it went down.
This is our Instituto Biligue Santa Clara (IBSC) 7th and 8th grade picture at the end of finals week. It was a good day.
We don't have year books and so we signed each other's shirts.
We said our goodbyes. Here I am with some of our 8th grade boys. You might categorize these three as our "challenging" group. In fact you might notice Kevyn on the right lovingly trying to buckle my knee with his leg, probably for all the detentions I have given him throughout our two years together.
Here is Josseline and Lupita, two eighth graders, who I worked especially closely with this past year. The reason is because last year they both failed 7th grade math, which motivated Josseline (left) to literally try and bride me with crema de mantequilla, a lactose product that Mario love and buy from her parents store. Luckily I found the strength to resist the bride :-) but which meant that we had mandatory tutoring twice a week to review the 7th grade topics. Many times they, and I, dreaded our tutoring after a long day of school, but I think we got a lot out of it.
The IBSC teacher crew (left to right: Andrew, Johana, Andrea, Danna, Diana (both students), Maki and I). It was a big week, knowing that I wouldn't see many of them again.
The following week though we had to come to school. Honduran law states that any student that fails the school year can take a recuperation exam to try and pass again (Actually they get two! One they week after school ends and if they don't pass that, one in August before the next school year starts.) So that we administered exams. However, there was something else going on that week too. This is picture taken right next to the Cardenal building, in which we have been huéspedes (guests), this past year, since we don't have our own IBSC building yet. This is the location of the IBSC's future.
A parish group from Brentwood, Tennessee called the Holy Family, in addition to tremendously helping Olancho AID in many aspects, has raised enough money to fund a building just for IBSC. Also, they have been down here for the past two weeks, working alongside Honduras and laying the foundation.
Holy Family has been moving "big weight" figuratively and literally.
These is the future of IBSC. This June, July and August they hope to complete the first story and next year, the second.
So on Friday, the parents society, some students and we teachers of IBSC had a big thank you party for Holy Family.
Here are two of them with one of our 7th graders, Luisa.
We had the property on one of our teacher's brother's property on the outskirts of Juticalpa. I had a chance to talk with him one on one. He was an amazing person to talk to. It was one of those wise-men encounters you hear about in stories. I didn't want to miss a single word he said.
At the party we had traditional dancing, marimba, and typical Honduran food,
and they got presents.
Here' Andrew breaking it down with one of IBSC mom's.
When the weekend came it was time to get out of town. All of us volunteers knew that our time was ending and so have been trying to savor every last thing before we head back to the States. To our great excitement, the garderner of IBSC, Juancito (middle) invited us male volunteers to go amardillo hunting in the backcountry near his village. We were stoked!
We had to do some serious hiking,
but we got some great views.
Then we it trudging through the low lands under the blazing sun.
Here's Juancito investigating an amardillo hole.
As the hours past we we did come across some wildlife,
and a mango tree bursting with fruit. If you threw a stick into the branches about 7 mangos would fall.
However, we never caught or even saw any amardillos. In fact besides the cows, the only thing we saw was this little turtle Mike here found in a river. (Mike was a friend of Jeff's who was visiting).
That's ok though, we had a great time!
Saturday night was our volunteer goodbye/thank you dinner. Here's Mary with our jolly and amazing bus driver, Victor.
We received plaques and some kind words from the administrators of OAF.
Again, sorry if I am speading up now, but I have less than two hours before we leave for Guatemala. Sunday was going to be my last opportunity to go to Mario's village and say goodbye to his family.
Here is the flower garden Mario made for his mom in the front yard, which ironically has "Forget Me Not" flowers growing in it. (Thanks Amy, and they have grown a lot since we planted them.)Sunday and ended and that brings us to this past week. Many of the Santa Clara Escolar (the primary school) left on Sunday, but we at IBSC stayed another week to work.
But, I can't say it was all work. Here we are on Tuesday night having a little IBSC teacher party. There might have been drinking involved.
Then on Wednesday we got invited to barbeque at Nasry's house (8th grader). Andrew and I received machetes. Anyone need any gardening work done this summer?
Thursday, it was time to start saying goodbyes IBSC. Here I am, demonstrating how gringos are just taller than Central Americans, with Juancito.
Probably the prettiest woman Honduras wanted to take a picture with me: Lourdes, the Cardenal secretary.
Finally, if there hadn't been enough events and activities, Cardenal had a student-teacher soccer game. They asked me if I wanted to play. Thanks guys you made more than just my day.And that is where things are at. I booked my flight back to the States for June 28th so I would have a week to some last minute traveling, and so for the next week Mario and I head off to Guatemala. We will get back next Sunday and then I will be flying home on Tuesday. I can't believe it is almost over. Can't wait to see you all soon.
