Daily Volunteer Life in Honduras

Hello loyal followers :-) I titled this week's blog "Daily Volunteer Life in Honduras," and although nothing out of the ordinary happened (i.e. no trips to other countries, snorkeling on foreign islands or cooking with indigeneous families), I still want to share with you the daily life of a volunteer in Honduras that I find to be extraordinary.


During the first week of every month we have a mass. Padre Ricardo said the mass.

He got the students involved in acting the homily...it was cute.

Here is a picture of the backside of our school.

On Monday, I got sick and had to go home early. I stayed home on Tuesday also. I think I ate some bad cheese. Luckily I had plenty of good people around to take care of me and was back up and teaching on Wednesday.

One routine that my roommates Liz, Tony and I like to do, is a nightly reflection over our day. This is Tony and Liz in our living room with a little lit candle on the floor.

During the week Liz took some shots of me explaining some math to one of my students, Ivonne.

She has improved a lot from the beginning of the school year. Her mom, Ivonne Sr., was the 5th grade Spanish teacher, but sadly this week Ivonne Sr. and our 1st grade Spanish teacher left Santa Clara for public school teaching jobs. Public schools offer a much better salary and better benefits. In fact teaching positions at public schools here in Honduras are sought after professions, unlike the USA. It was amazing how fast our teachers left. Monday the 1st grade teacher was gone for interviews with the public school and Tuesday she came to school to say that her new job started that day and she had to leave. No two weeks notice or anything. Very similar situation for 5th grade. Students were upset and people were worried about who was going to teach these classes, but so far Annie has managed to find some replacements until we get things settled. Again, expect the unexpected while volunteering in Honduras.

It was a full week of school with the science fair preparations, rushing to make lesson plans, but not forgetting to celebrate small victories with some wine in the evenings. I think I am getting better at this teaching thing thanks to all the support I receive from the people around me. I have a long way to go though.

Friday comes like it always does and after some intense basketball games with the university students Tony, Liz and I went to get some pizza and beer.

It was just perfect for Friday night.

On Saturday I made lesson plans for the coming week, but I also found time to accept some coconuts from our neighbor Norma.

Tony tried to cut some open but ended up cutting himself open.

Luckily, Norma had a machete (who doesn't down here?) and so we got to eat our coconuts.

Saturday night a bunch of us went up to Nazareth, the special needs school, where a new group of temporary volunteers are staying for a week. They are from Massachusettes. Here is Sarah, Liz, Tony and Carlos's son Andre. It was a beautiful evening in Juticalpa.

Here is Tony next to Tula, one of the office staff, demonstrating how he is probably the tallest person in Olancho.

If not Honduras.

It is always great hanging out with the volunteer groups that come down, not only to get free food, but to talk with them.

And that brings us to today. Liz was feeling especially wonderful this morning and so made Tony and I banana pancakes...thanks Liz!

buen provecho (bon appetite)

After breakfast, Liz went to Jutiquele for mass while Tony, my old roommate, Mario, Mario's current roommate, Jay, and I went up to Mario's hometown, San Francisco de la Paz.

Here is Jay and Tony in the town square.

And now Tony and me. This is the first town square I have seen with a basketball court in it.

We went to mass.

I liked this shot. Notice the cowboy hats on the window sill. All the men put their hats up there during mass.

Then it was off to enjoy Honduras's favorite sport.

futbol (soccer) Here is the town's soccer stadium.

Mario's team was in the city finals. After this they play teams from other cities.

It was a great day for a game although the sun was definitely out in full force.

Here are some people trying to find shade next to the stadium's snack bar.

The other team was pretty physical but over all it was a clean game.

And what a game it was. At the end of regulation time it was 2-2. This is after these players had played in the intense sun for over 1:30 hours. Then they played a 30 minute overtime, which still left them tied. Next they went to penalty kicks where each team got to take 5 shots. Both teams made 3. So finally they went into penalty kicks where a team would take one shot and if they made it and the other team could not answer the first team won.

Here is the other team about to shoot. The eventually beat Mario's team for the city championship. It was quite a game, but Mario's team still gets to go the next level, just as the 2nd seed.

So it was a great week, overall, with nothing out of the ordinary, but still extraordinary. This coming up week I will be at school for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but for the latter half of the week, I get to go to the capial, Tegucigalpa, with Annie and another teacher volunteer, Mary, for a teacher workshop. I am really excited.

So, until next time, vaya con Dios (go with God).

Beginning of Lent

Hello Bloggers,

Sorry about missing last Sunday's blog, but you'll have to excuse me. I will explain everything in the following :-)

So last time we left off was Sunday the 14th of February. Monday started a full 5 day week at school with plenty of work to do. We are pioneering a school-wide science fair, which is taking a lot of energy. We should be completing it just before Semana Santa (Holy Week).

Speaking of leading up to Holy Week, Ash Wednesday (the day that begins the season of Lent) was on 17th and so we had a school-wide service.

Padre Ricardo (Father Richard) said the service and gave out ashes.

Here's Rony (middle) sitting with his kinder buddy.

It was a good service with lots of music and the ever-present Honduran hand waving.

The next day, Thursday, Liz and I had Maritza, one of the Honduran 7th grade teachers, over for a spanish-speaking only dinner. She brought her husband and her friend Carola. Carola has been studying english for some time now and wanted to meet us Americans.

Maritza made yucca con chicharon, which is basically yucca (a root-like vegetable), fried pork rhines and a cheese pepper topping. It was pretty good but I could live without the fried pork rhines.

Oh, and Maritza brought her two children also.

Friday came and after a long week we were never so happy. This picture was taken at one of our favorite restaraunts in town, Oregano's. We volunteers, were being treated to dinner by Kristi and Rob Privette before they left the next day to go home. Kristi and Rob are a couple who volunteered down here two years ago. Kristi is a high school science teacher in the states and Rob is a veterinarian, but they both are still involved in Olancho Aid. During the week that they were here Rob helped in the office and Kristi helped at school. She observed in my classroom and later gave me advice on how I can manage my class better...thanks Kristi.

Annie's son Tommy, enjoyed the meal too.

Besides making lesson plans for the next week and chores, we had the 6th and 7th grade youth group on Saturday. We had a few newcomers that weekend.

We talked about Lenten resolutions.

Then came Sunday, and it was a good one. I say this because on a rare occasion I get beyond my thick skull and do something smart like following good advice. This Sunday I followed the advice of taking Sunday off and using it for rest. In the morning my roommate Liz, Annie, Tommy, Annie's husband, Henry, Padre, a group of 19 volunteers from New Hampshire (who are here doing medical service for a week) and I went up to the little town north of here, Jutiquile, and went to mass.

Here is Tommy and Annie.

Here are the New Hampshire volunteers mingling with the locals during the sign of peace (la paz).

At the end of mass Padre brought all the New Hampshire volunteers to the front of the church to introduce them and explain to the congregation what they were doing here.

After mass, Liz and I were dropped off at one of my student's, Christian, property. He had invited us earlier that week.

Alejandro and Lupita, also 7th graders, walked us around the property when we arrived.

A rural plot of land.

Here's one of the neighbor's houses.

I was happy to be there.

This is Christian's little brother, Edward (I believe). Although he looks like a little man, he's only in kinder.

Alejandro and Lupita are cousins....but honestly, everyone seems to be cousins down here.

So what did we do all day....well, fish swim, birds fly and Hondurans (aka catrachos) play soccer... and so we played.

And then we ate and talked.

And then we played some more soccer.

We repeated this cycle of play, eat, talk, play until the sun went down.

It was a great way to spend Sunday.

The next week, this past week, was another full 5 day week with lots of things to teach, tests to take, science projects to work on, etc. However, outside of school some exciting things happend. On Tuesday evening I got a phone call from our principle Annie. Here's how it went:

Annie - "Hey Dan."

Dan - "Hey Annie."

Annie - "Guess what?"

Dan - "What?"

Annie - "There a new volunteer coming who will be living with you. He's from Boston and likes to play sports."

Dan - "Great. When is he coming?"

Annie - "Tomorrow."

I was excited that there would be another male volunteer for the first time since September, but I was a little shocked about how soon he would be arriving. Apparently someone in the office had thought someone else had told me, and that person had thought someone else had told me...you get the idea. Even if it was a geniune mistake in communication, it still adds to the wisdom any volunteer in Honduras should be told, be flexible and expect the unexpected.

Luckily though Tony, all 6'6'' of him, turned out to be a really cool guy. Here he is playing my guitar. His first day was a little rough though: he left Boston at 3:00 that morning, on the busride from Teguc to Juti, his bus broke down, and when he arrived a lightening storm hit leaving us without power or water. Badly wanting to be clean after a long day, he took his first Honduran shower outside in the rain. Liz, my other roommate, and I felt a little guilty because we had planned to play some "newcomer" tricks on him, but then reconsidered when we realized that just living day to day life is challenging enough.

But there was a good part to that day too. The group of volunteers from New Hampshire invited us up to Nazareth (the school where they are staying), for some dinner.

Benita did the cooking for us.

Then again on Thursday, the New Hampshire group took us out to dinner at a good restaruant in town, La Fonda's.

I had been waiting for months to try the pincho mixto (mixed meat kabobs).... mmm

Aww and Friday... In the last month we have started to play basketball and soccer with some of the local universtiy students on Friday afternoons. And now that Tony, who can dunk and is probably the tallest person in Juticalpa, was on our team we were ready to dominate.

Things turned out quite different than we thought though. The regular students we play against didn't show up, but instead a bunch of tall local guys did. I thought Hondurans were only good at soccer, but I was wrong. They ended up crushing us 5 to 0. Like I said, expect the unexpected.

Here's Sarah and Megan supplying us all with much need water after the game. (yes notice the water is bagged, not bottled).

Saturday found us at the orphange with the youth group.

We did some reading to the little kids, but the hit of the day was a good game of elbow tag.

go Lupita go

Jose Manuel, a 7th grader, catching his breath with one of the orphan girls.

Sunset outside of the orphanage.

Walking down the road after leaving the orphange.

I just like this picture.

And what is this you might be wondering??? Well, while I was eating dinner at La Fonda's on Thursday night with the group from New Hampshire, we got to talking about little differences between west coast USA and the east coast: I had never heard of a "snowblower" or didn't use the adjective, "wicked" example. "he's wicked smart" (actually this was more Tony's Boston talk). What the New Hampshire group was really surprised about though was how I had never had a peanut butter and fluff sandwich. They were so appalled at my lack of culture :-) they insisted I try one before they left.

It was pretty good.

Saturday night was their last night in town and so they showered us teacher volunteers with gifts: shampoo, Q-tips, peanut butter, etc. Here's Beth with a bag full of goodies. They were a great group and hopefully they make it home safely.

Then on Sunday I decided to go mass in Jutiquile again although today, I am sadly not able to take the whole day off like last week since I have to get some tests graded. Here' Annie and Tommy at mass.

Tommy's cuteness makes makes him a popular guy.

Actually I was pretty popular at mass also. One of the men came up to me after mass and insisted I have my picture taken with some of the local girls, who he kept telling me one of them had been to the states. Don't worry Mom, I am not engaged.

Here is what Jutiquile looks like.

After mass we were invited to sweet bread and coke in one of the local's houses.

And that brings me to the present. Overall things are great here. We have four more weeks before Easter break when myself and some other volunteers head out to Mexico. Currently on my mind, between attending to my teaching responsibilities and running around doing all the things I have just described, is what to do after this year: stay another year, go home, find another volunteer program. We'll see.

Hope you are well and enjoying life.

Hasta luego.