Catching Up on Things

Long time no talk ya'll. It has been two weeks since my last post, but that means I have been very busy and there is lots to talk about in this post. So...not this past week but the week before was the week that the new president of Honduras, Pepe Lobos, was inaugurated into office. That meant we had the day off school. After talking to Padre Alberto (we'll get to him later), he says one of the problems with Honduras is corruption in the government...hopefully this new president will make some positive changes.
Anyway, although we did have school off, we teachers had a meeting to discuss the upcoming science fair this spring. It should be a great experience for the students. More on that in weeks to come. After the meeting though, myself and some of the girls (volunteers) headed to one of our regular restaurants, Tacos Mexicanos. This place will make your mouth burn, which is unlike most Honduran food. I used to be under the impression that the farther south you go from the USA the spicer the food got, but actually, only Mexico seams to have the spicy food. Down here and during my time in Costa Rica last summer, I have found the food to be pretty bland.



Speaking of food, on the following Sunday, Liz and I had one of the art teachers, Karol, over for brunch to practice our Spanish. We had a great conversation when she arrived....when she arrived. Besides bland food, punctuality is another little cultural regularity I have learned about. When a Honduran says they will be at your house at 1:00, they really mean 3:00. This is something that can drive us Americans nuts, but if you are patient you learn to live with it.

The next week of school, was a funfilled week because it was catholic school's week. This meant that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all had themes or activities, and then Thursday and Friday we had parent teacher conferences.

Monday was dia de los calcetines locos (crazy sock day).

Let's see 'em Kevyn.

Nice.

Here's a fifth grader, Carlos David.

Jonathan, my little 7th grade math wiz.

Me and the girls. I didn't have much in my wardrobe for crazy socks, but I wore unmatching ones.

Yes Alex.

I think quiet Katherine's took the cake.

Then Tuesday was "students dress like teachers and teachers dress like students" day.

Here is the 5th grade Honduran teacher, Ivonne senior, with her 7th grade daughter, Ivonne junior.

Megan, the 6th grade American teacher, with one of her students.

Jonathan, again, dressed as one of the art teachers.

I was flattered when Karol's son Carlos, a first grader, came as me. He really had me pegged. He even had minature sunglasses just like mine. As for my dress, this is pretty close to the 7th grade PE uniform with one of my students hairdos... I got some laughs.

Also on Tuesday was the schoolwide spelling bee. It was pretty intense. In the primilinary rounds some kids were brought to tears.

Here is probably my favorite student, yes teachers do have favorites, Jose Carlos. Sadly he got out in one of the later rounds on the word "encode." I figure he must have never heard this english word and so preceeded to spell it "i-n-c-o-d-e." Your still my hero Jose Carlos.

This is the 6th grade girl who ended up winning. She was really good.

Then on Tuesday night, some Honduran teachers, some American teachers and myself went out to the movies to see Avatar. It was a great movie even in Spanish.

Little Alejandro, the son of one of the Honduran teachers, joined us as well.

We had to stop in the park to get some food before the movie though. We had gringas and baleadas. Gringas are cheese, meat, some seasonings and maybe a few other things in a tortilla, while baleadas usually include beans, cheese, mantequilla (a sort of sour cream butter), eggs and maybe some avacado and meat... mmm.

Wednesday,was a big day for all of Honduras. It was the day of the Virgen de Suyapa (Virgin of Suyapa). The story, according to Wikipedia, says that a man named Colindres, was traveling home from being away at work, but before he reached home night came. He decided to sleep outside, but while he was sleeping he felt a sharp pain in his side due to an object he was laying on. He threw the object only to find it beneath him again when he layed back down. In the morning he discovered it a statue of the Virgin Mary. In years following, the statue has been accredited with miracles throughout Honduras. Our Lady of Suyapa is the patroness of Honduras.

For the special day, we gathered in our nice outfits and said a rosary in spanish and english.

However, after the prayers it was playtime. The rest of the day was dedicated to a schoolwide soccer tournament.

And if you know anything about Central America you know they get excited about soccer.

My 7th grade boys, taking on the 6th grade boys.

7th grade won the tournament!

The rest of week was dedicated to parent-teacher conferences, which went smoothly. Then on Friday we played some soccer and basketball with some of the local university students who wanted to practice their english...it was fun. Saturday, found us doing our youth group and stocking up on peanut butter for the lunches of the week ahead.

And Sunday morning Sarah, Beth, Nicole and I invited Victor, our fearless busdriver, over for lunch at my place. Burritos with guacamole...mmm.

The just about brings things up to now, except for Sarah, Beth and my little expedition to find a tv for the Super Bowl. We had been told that we could watch it at the Bishop's house, who has Dish Network. He is actually from Boston. The Bishop was actually back in Boston, but another priest, Padre Alberto, who he lives with him told us he would let us in to watch the game. When we got there though, it turned out that they didn't get the correct channel, so we ended up talking with Padre Alberto for a bit...and what a interesting guy! He's a chain-smoking, swearing, beer drinking priest with strong political convictions from Malta who can speak about four languages and has built more establishments here than one would believe: an orphanage, a prison, a soccer stadium, and the list goes on. Needless to say it was cool to talk with him. Sadly, I didn't get my camera out before he had to leave to hear confessions. Above is Sarah and Beth in Padre Alberto and the Bishop's place.

If you are wondering how I am doing, I am great.

I hope today finds you the same.

End of Quarter II, Beginning of Roommate VI

This past week was the last week of Quarter II for my 7th graders. That means all week they had final exams and I only taught the 5th graders, whom do not have exam week.

These are the students lining up before school.

This past Sunday I got a new roommate and I hope I don't scare this one off like the last 5 :-)

Her name is Liz and having lived with her for a week, I can say she is a great person to be around. She is in her early 30's and has spent the last two years working in US embassy in Mexico City. Before working for the government however she got a masters in education. So she has taken a couple months off from work to get back to the classroom for a bit. Not only is she full of great advice and information, but she also had a desire to teach math to 3rd-5th graders, so....I happily let her take over the 5th grade math classes.

Like I said she is full of great ideas, and so when were chatting about how one of our common goals is to become better at Spanish, she suggested that we invite a Honduran over once a week for dinner. Here she is after we are about to have our Honduran guests arrive on Tuesday night.

Henry is who Liz and I invited. He is a gardener at school. He actually lived in Florida for five years and so speaks some English, but at this table we asked him not to use it. On the left is Peggy, my roommate for the first three weeks after Christmas break. It was her last night in Honduras before she needed go back to Connecticut and finish college. She was great to live and I started seeing her as a "The Olancho Aid mom" because she was always wanting to make meals and pack lunches. It was sad to see her go.

For our Tuesday night dinner, however, she invited one of her Honduran friends over, who also cleans our house, Benita.

This is Benita's son, Fernando, who is a 2nd grader at Santa Clara. He didn't feel like eating so he decided to hang out in the living room and play monster truck games on the computer.

Her is Peggy and I the next morning when she was about to get on her bus to the airport.

The week continued and the 7th graders took their tests. Here is one of my "challenging" students, wearing my sunglasses on the busride to school. The 7th graders like to hangout on the back of the bus.

The just couldn't get enough of my sunglasses.

Eventually, after much test correcting and finalizing quarterly grades, the weekend came. On Friday we had our little guitar session and Saturday was full activities. Saturday night though, Honduras played an exhibition soccer game with the US, which actually took place down in Carson, California. So, I gave my first roommate, Mario, a call to see if he was free. 2 hours later, Mario, Mario's current roommate, Jay, and myself were grabbing dinner at Chester's Chicken and heading back to Mario's to watch the game.

Here is the three of us each with a barriga llena, corazon contento (full stomach, happy heart). Jay is a bit older than Mario and I. He is a grandfather from New England, who, after retiring, wanted to do service work. This is his second time to Honduras and he spent a year in Haiti doing public health work. He has been sharing his personal reactions to the devastating earthquake which happened their recently. On a lighter note though, we watched the game and even though US lost 3 to 1, it was a good night.

Today, Sunday, I went to mass with Sarah, Beth and Nicole (other volunteer teachers at Santa Clara), and then met up with two high school seniors from Missouri who we had met earlier in the week. They have been down here in Juticalpa for a month, even though we didn't know about them until this week. They told us that their Jesuit high school mandates that seniors take the month of January off to "serve." Since one of their Dad's is a doctor and does medical work in next town north of here, they decided to come to Juticalpa. Apparently, they have been doing a lot of physical labor and medical work, but this past week, their last in Honduras, they came to Santa Clara to help in the classroom, help the gardeners and play with the kids, which is where we met them. One thing they haven't done though is get out into town much, so we took them to Central Park and got tacos and gringas with them. We assured them they wouldn't get sick off the local food...I hope we were right.

That's all for now, hasta luego, (until later).

busy busy

This is week two since we got back from Christmas break and teaching at Santa Clara is busy. Besides it being the end of the 2nd quarter and having to prepare final's tests, the 5th grade teacher has been having chronic voice loss from teaching. She consulted her doctor over the Christmas break and he said if she didn't make a change she could damage her voice permanently. So I have taken over her math classes. I am happy to do this...but it is pushing me to grow in my capabilities.





Besides much lesson planning and such, we had a mass on Thursday. It was given by a priest, Fr. Dan, who runs another organization here in Olancho called Project Eden. It is centered around agriculture and healthy living. This is the organization that my friend and once roommate, Mario, is part of. Later in the week, Friday, Padre Dan, Mario another guy, Jay, and I went out for dinner.








Here are some of my female students in their "mass day" uniforms.

And the guys.

Finally Friday came and I couldn't have been happier to have some time off. When I was in school I never thought that teachers could be happier than their students that the weekend had arrived, but I know it is true now! However while we were finishing up school, but still had about 30 minutes left of class a group of men came to fumagate for mosquitos. They seemed to be in a hurry because we didn't get to finish the day and we had to leave early.

We even got a little fumagated ourselves! You never know what is going to happen down here.

So we got out of there and the beautiful weekend arrived. And what better way to start it than playing some guitar. Some of the other volunteers have voiced their desire to learn guitar and so I am helping some of them learn. Here is Beth, the southern bell from South Carolina.

Then on Saturday we celebrated our director's, Carlos', birthday. He's the man. The weekend was good and relaxing. Also, today, Sunday, the organization gained a new volunteer for ten weeks and I gained a new roommate. Her name is Elizabeth and she is 31. She is nice. She will be helping out at Santa Clara.

As for the upcoming week, I get a bit of a break because it is testing week and I will be administering tests mostly.

I hope all is well with you and may you see all your days as full of infinite possibilities rather than "normal" or "routine." Que le vaya bien (Have a good day)!

1st Week Back

The break ended and it was time to say goodbye to friends and family. I flew out of San Francisco on a redeye flight Saturday night.


Golden Gate

We, volunteers, arrived back in Juticalpa Sunday afternoon, and before we knew it were back at school on Monday morning with our students. The week was a "getting back into the rhythm of things" type of week. However, we got through it, even with a few minor colds, and Friday arrived.

We were happy to have the weekend so we decided to go out for dinner.

It was good to see volunteer friends again. However the volunteers from before the break weren't the only ones back in Juticalpa. Three volunteers from last year, John, Eric and Peggy, came down with John's family and their friends. Peggy is here for about 2 more weeks to help with office work, but John, Eric, John's family and friends were here to retar the roof of the special needs school of the Olancho Aid Foundation (there are three schools in the OAF: a high school (Cardinal), an elementary school (Santa Clara), where I teach, and the special needs school (Nazareth)). Eric, John, John's family and friends along with Hondurans worked during the week on the roof while we long-term volunteers taught and on Saturday morning we got a chance to see the project.

(pardon the format)

They would transfer tar from 55 gallon barrels to 5 gallon buckets and then use a pulley system to lift the buckets to the roof.

Once on the roof they would pour the tar into 25 gallon barrels...

and make a fire under them to heat the tar.

When the tar had the right viscosity they would spread it on the roof with paint rollers...

then put a layer of water-proofing paper ontop of the tar.

After a couple of layers of this, this is what it look begins to look like.

Here are some pictures from the top of Nazareth's roof.

After working on Saturday the special needs students of Nazareth had us gather for a show.

But it wasn't just a show to entertain. It was also to show some important people what kind students Nazareth provides for. Mark, above, a friend of John's family, is from the Rotary Club in California (he and his family are actually from Woodland...small world). The came down to meet with the Rotary Club here in Juticalpa. The idea was to have the two clubs collaborate in funding Nazareth, which is totally tuition-free for its students.

Angel, as well as other officers from Rotary Club, Juticalpa, seemed to think that Nazareth was a worthy project to get involved with. Thus, not only was the new roof a positive step for Nazareth, but now there seems to be a solid source of funding for the future.

If I have talked with you since I started my time here with the Olancho Aid Foundation you might have heard me say that one of the struggles we volunteers have had is that our students at Santa Clara were different than what we expected. We thought they would be poor children who were struggling to afford clothes and such. However on the first day of school we were greeted with students who were well groomed, had full bellies and had parents using Blackberry phones. We questioned what value we were providing children who weren't struggling (at least financially). It was not easy for some of us to deal with, in fact some volunteers decided to leave due, in part, to this.

Sometimes though, when time has passed a bit, consolation come. This week we learned a little more about the funding of Olancho Aid. We learned that the tuition that the middle/upper class students of Santa Clara pay, helps pay for Nazareth, which doesn't charge tuition. So maybe we volunteers aren't working with the poor, but in a larger sense we are helping to provide for the special needs youth who wouldn't otherwise have a chance at education. This is motivating for us.

Ok, enough of the deep stuff...who are these Nazareth students?

These are two deaf girls who did a dance for us to music. (think about that)

A down syndrome student singing.

A down syndrom girl performing a Shakira dance.

A young man singing.

A skit.

A young woman, with cerebral palsy, reading a poem.

The students giving hearts and hugs to John, and his family and friends.

All together.

And actually if you look closely in the back of the group picture you can see why a new roof was needed.

After all of that, John's family took us out to dinner which included good food, conversation, drinks and dancing.

Although Christmas break was great, it is good to be back.