The School Year Coming to an End

Hola,

Glad to see you again. Last time we talked I believe I was announcing my decision to stay for another year. Before getting too carried away in the future though let's look around and see where things are at now. Well, we are in the homestretch of this school year. We have 3 weeks left of official classes followed by a week or so of grades and paperwork before we are out for the summer!

Many of us teachers begin each day with the thought that the end is near. It is bitter sweet for some. Sweet in that everyone can't wait for a two and a half month vacation, but bitter in that many of the teachers will not be seeing their kids again once they go back to the states.

However before too much emotion takes over there is still work to be done. For me that means trying to fit in all the things I wanted to teach this year, but never seemed to get to. This past week in math the 7th grade learned about scale drawings and proportion, then we made proportionally correct floor plans of our classrooms. Next week I hope to get my kids thinking about the value of their education by looking at the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan that Greg Mortenson (3 Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) has been building schools for who otherwise wouldn't have an education.

This sounds great in theory, but another reality at school is that kids are getting harder to keep focused on school. They know the summer is close too! I am having some of my greatest challenges in classroom discipline right now....which brings to my next point....Fridays.

Our regular Friday basketball games with the local university students is nothing short of sacred. We really let out the steam from a week of frustrating students, grading, lesson planning, and all the curveballs teaching can throw at you.

We had a big group this past Friday since and group of volunteers just arrived on Thursday. Three of them, Rosie, Sam and John have been volunteers here in the past. Like many of the people that come down here, they are great people and fun to be around.

Some of our students even came to the game.

Like always, we played hard until it got dark.

We all had a good time.

This Friday, however, there was a little extra bonus because Padre Ricardo, who is the founder of the Olancho Aid Foundation, invited us over for spaghetti and beers. Here is Beth, Nicole and Rosie digging in.

After a long week, basketball and dinner at Padre's we slept like rocks. Today, Saturday, one of my student's family invited myself and a few other teachers to a river to swim and barbeque. This river, Rio Boqueron, was actually the same river that some of us teachers went to last weekend to go hiking. That hike was suppose to be a pleasant hike with a nice view at the end, but instead it turned into a death march: our guide (the security guard from school) didn't know where he was going, there were all kinds of poisonous and thorned plants, barbed wire, fires, steep cliffs, bees, spiders, ticks and not enough water (I have some pictures on facebook of this if you want to check it out). This Saturday was much nicer.

We went to a nice swimming hole,

cut some wood,

and got the BBQ going.

We cooked up some chata (a variety of fruit in the banana family)

Oh and then we cooked up some great beef and pork. I probably ate a whole cow by the end of the day,

but there was enough for everyone.

It was great hanging out with our students outside of school,

enjoying each other's company,

looking at the fish,

and swimming.

We had a great time. It was a great way to unwind from a long week of school.

Tomorrow we go to Mario's soccer game in San Francisco and then it is onto the lesson planning for next week. Before we know it this year will be over. Before everyone leaves, some of us plan on taking a little vacation throughout Honduras to see some of the islands off the north coast and the Ruinas de Copan (some ancient Mayan ruins on the west side of Honduras). I plan on staying this summer working on the farm with Mario and possibly teaching some English classes. More to come as time unfolds.

Hope all is well back home and life is treating you well.

April in Juti

Hello Everyone,

So it has been awhile since I have put up a good blog, so here we go. We have just finished the month of April and there are only 5 more weeks of school...crazy how time flies. I can remember walking into my classroom for the first time. However, now that the science fair is over, we are doing some fun projects. In geography we made salt dough maps (a playdough-like mixture of salt and dough) of mountains above India: the Himalayas, Karakoram and the Hindu Kush.

Here are the 7th graders making them. Notice Kevin on the left there with a nice wad of salt dough in his hand...perfect for throwing. Yes, he did throw it...I had to make him stand in a corner by himself for a few minutes before he could join the group again.

Some kids got a lot out of it, like Concepcion here.

Also at school, we just had Dia del Trabajo, the equivalent of our Labor Day. Here is our Directora, Flavia, thanking our janitor ladies and garderners in front of the whole school (from left to right: Don Jose, Dona Patricia, Dona Veronica, Dona Marina, Ninera Claudia and Ninera Kenya). They are great people.

In my personal life, I have moved out of my old house, where I was living with all the short term volunteers (they have all gone home for the time being), and moved back in with Mario. I lived with him for about 1 week when I first arrived in Honduras. Here is our house, Betania.

It is a nice little house in gated colonia (community)...muy tranquilo.

la sala

la cocina

y mi dormitorio.

We are still holding our youth group every Saturday. One Saturday night we decided to have a campfire at one of the student's property outside of town. Night tag, smores and telling jokes was a good time.

Some Saturday's though, no students show up for youth group. When that happens we make the best of the situation. Sara has been showing Beth and I (we are the three youth group leaders) her gymnastic's skills.

I have been wanting to learn to do a backflip like the soccer players sometimes do when the score a goal. Looks a little difficult, although Sara can do it, so I asked her to help me learn to stand on my hands. I am up to five seconds!

Also, as I mentioned in the last blog, I am going to be staying for another year. I am going to be moving to another campus, the junior high/high school campus. This is right next to the university that is also part of the Olancho Aid Foundation. Here are some pictures of the university and jr/high school campus.

It is really nice and I am excited about it.

Like most Hondurans, my roommate Mario plays soccer. He is in a league that plays every Sunday. In fact his team recently got second place in their league and so are playing at the regional level.

There team name is Milan.

So, myself and most of the other volunteers decided that a good way to spend the first half of our Sundays was to cheer on team Milan.

So for the last three Sundays we have piled into the back of Mario's truck, while he drives to whatever town he his team is playing in that week.


It has been a good way to get out and see the countryside of Olancho.

Megan's parents even joined us while they were here visiting from New York.

We gringos set up our chairs on the sideline right next to all the Hondurans. We get a lot of attention being white, although the girls get it the worst.

Wearing a hat is important in the intense sun down here.

Hey Ginny.

The games can get rough. The guys that play are between 15-27 (quite a rang) and they play hard.

Ya Mario!

This past Sunday, we decided that since we gringos couldn't stick out any worse than we already do, we would spray paint shirts. The Mario's team got a kick out of it.

After one of the games we were in Mario's hometown, San Francisco de la Paz, and Mario took us to the farm/health clinic where he works. (Mario lives in Juticalpa, but commutes to SF everyday).

So we got the tour of the farm.

Mario got his degree in agro-industrial engineering.

He and is workers produce some great crops.

Mario in his element.

Lovely Ms. Veazey, Sara, with a lovely looking onion.

Mario checking to see if the carrots are ready for harvesting.

It is a beautiful place.

This summer I am still trying to make plans: one option is go to language school somewhere, but another option is to stay here and work on the farm with Mario. Vamos a ver (we will see).

Hope all is well with you, and take care.