Thanksgiving in Central America

It turns out there are some really wonderful people around these parts all willing to come together to celebrate our beloved holiday, Thanksgiving. My whole staff, the staff from the other bilingual school in town, other folks from the States and from other parts of the world gathered at the Goodwin's house for a potluck feast last weekend. It was delicious!

We met these two Irish fellas a couple days earlier. They are from Dublin and are spending close to a year backpacking through the Americas. They came through Gracias to climb Mt. Celaque, but decided to stay a couple extra days after we invited them to the feast. They were pumped for their first Thanksgiving! They were quite fun and I hope to cross paths with them again when I (crossing fingers) go on a backpacking trip through Europe some summer.

This is the Goodwin's new house. They have a beautiful place and will be using it to open an orphanage for local children within the next few months.

This was the view as we were walking home. Gorgeous!

The day before the grand feast, I was able to go to San Pedro Sula to visit my cousin, Mark. He was in the country for work. I couldn't resist the opportunity to see family, so I hopped on the bus with two friends at 5 AM for the 5 hour journey. We went to the mall for a couple hours, then met Mark at an Italian restaurant for lunch. What a TREAT that was!!! Living in a small town here means limited food and shopping, so we all geek out when we are in a bigger town or city and can find items, especially food, that feels like "home." Anyway, lunch was great and it was fun to see Mark. After that, we got back on the buses and were back in Gracias by 8 pm.

I was touched to be invited to my student's birthday party, which happened to be the same day I was in San Pedro Sula so, unfortunately, I couldn't attend. But it was quite the gesture as they took a moto-taxi to my house the night before to drop off this darling invitation. She also brought me a treat bag at school on Monday since I wasn't there. Impossible not to love these kids!

The weekend prior, several of us went to Santa Rosa for a day so we could watch my roommate, Richelle, play in a volleyball game. She found a local men's team that let her join their team and she gets to travel with them to play in games and tournaments. Who would have thought there would be a volleyball team anywhere here? Not me! I went to practice with her a few times, but she's the pro and does a great job showing up all those men!

While we were in Santa Rosa, we also went to the mall, which is basically one store and a Pizza Hut (Pizza Hut is a pretty big deal in this country)! As mentioned above, we enjoy finding different food options, so indulged in the fine dining experience at the Hut. The most exciting part of this experience was the lovely bathroom with automatic faucets, paper towels and full length mirror. I'd try to explain the wonder of this, but no words can describe. Pictures were taken, though!

The most recent and most grand adventure of the month was this past weekend. While Thanksgiving obviously isn't a holiday that is celebrated here, the school was nice enough to call off school on Thursday and Friday for us. Our first long weekend in a couple months meant only one thing- skip town and go as far as possible! My roommate has a friend that is currently working and living in Guatemala City, so that is what we set our sights on. We left immediately after school got out on Wednesday to catch the first of 4 buses. However, this first bus moved at a glacial speed, and took 2 hours instead of 1. We decided to stop for the night afterwards so we didn't get stuck in the next town, which was way less safe of an option. Here we are crammed into a little taxi to get to the hotel. That's Nina, sitting on my lap in the front, and the other four girls squeezed in back. That's how they roll in C.A., no safety rules! Or, better, no rules at all!

That morning, we caught the next two legs of the journey, and arrived in Copan Ruinas around 10 am, hoping to get on a noon bus into Antigua, Guatemala. However, ran into another snag and was unable to get tickets on that bus, leaving us to stay in Copan that night. Finally, on Friday morning, we were able to get to Antigua. What a beautiful place!! There were so many tourists, which meant many great restaurants and shops! I was pumped to sit at a coffee shop and sip on an iced coffee. I was also able to glimpse at the score of the Nebraska-Iowa game and sported my Husker shirt all day long. Go Big Red!

 

This is Holly getting her hair wrapped:

On Saturday, we took a bus to Guatemala City, or "Guate," as they call it. It was huge! I definitely saw a Wal-Mart and a Wendy's. Woah, big time. We didn't see much of the city, though, as we had limited time. We stayed with Sydney's friend, who happened to be hosting a Thanksgiving feast for him and his co-workers that night. Who could say no to a second feast? Certainly not any one of us!

Finally, our journey came to an end yesterday as we had much better bus luck, catching all four legs in row for a total of 12 hours on stinky, dirty buses filled with people, chickens and broken windows and seats. It's the good life, folks!

A Very Un-Fall

It's been interesting lately thinking about how it's fall back home and how I'm missing the leaves turning, Halloween festivities, cold air and Starbucks pumpkin lattes!  I do have to say, though, that our days are significantly less hot than they were in August, it's raining more often and my tan has drastically faded.  When my students started wearing scarves, coats and hats to school, I thought it was silly.  However, I'm now also having moments when the 60 degree mornings feel cold.  I wonder how I'll fare in Nebraska winter for the two weeks I'm home over Christmas?!

In one of my latest packages from my lovely friend, Renee Loftus, was a Flat Stanley from her 2nd grade class.  Flat Stanley is supposed to travel to different places and my job is to take pictures to send back to the class and tell about where he went.  My first stop with Flat Stanley was my backyard to meet the chickens:

I travelled to Copan Ruinas last weekend and saw this on the bus.  It made me laugh.  The old men were cold which resulted in the cowboy  hat sitting on top of the bulky stocking cap:

Bus rides are real interesting.  And by interesting, I mean either entertaining or awful - it swings one way or the other.  The particular bus ride from the picture above was at approximately 6:30 am and the party music was blaring.  It wasn't too crowded and I could enjoy the people watching, putting it into the "entertaining" category.  On another bus ride last weekend (it was actually a large van), I had to sit in the front between the driver and some other guy.  The van was packed, people one on top of the other.  As we approached a police check (first one I've encountered thus far), the driver reached over me to wake up the guy sitting on my other side to tell him to put his seat belt on.  I had to laugh, because neither myself or the other 25 people crammed on the bus had seat belts and it didn't matter.  I wonder what the police would have done if that one passenger hadn't been buckled up?  I'll add that to the list of things that don't make sense.

We went to Copan because it is known for having Halloween parties every year (a tradition apparently started by Peace Corps volunteers a while back).  So, many Americans living in Honduras go there for Halloween weekend.  Some of the bars were decorated appropriately, but other than that, it wasn't anything too Halloween-ish.  My friends and I did have a great time staying there, though, and scoping out a new place.  The town is much more touristy than Gracias, and we even found a cafe that served bagels and cream cheese - yum!  We also went to a German bar that had two beers on tap and that was a special treat!  Our friend's uncle owns this particular bar, and I loved the way it was painted:

The main attraction in Copan is the Mayan Ruins.  I didn't see it on this trip, though, because I will be going back with my Dad and Uncle in February.  They recently decided to make the venture down here and I'm really excited for them to come!

Halloween also happened to be my roommate, Sydney's birthday.  So, on the actual day, we went to the local bar for a celebratory drink.  Please take notice of the pumpkin straws and bat rings we all have in the photo.  That is thanks to my dear friend, Renee, who is from Salem, MA and loves the holiday.  Those bat rings brought my friends and I great joy!

School has been going well still.  My students survived exam week probably better than I did.  Their behavior had little to be desired (I don't blame them, they had to work hard for all those exams), but I felt like I was going crazy  at moments because of it.  So much so that I had to teach them the words frustrated, cranky and sassy.  The important things, right?

This past week our schedule went back to normal, and now all is well.  Here  they are during art class and also a couple of funny writing samples.  I love how some of their writing is starting to take on a little more personality, now that they're handling English a little bit better.

On Friday, the senior class did a fundraiser called "color day."  That was, if students brought in money, they could wear their street clothes to school instead of their uniform.  It was so cute to see them out of their white polos.  I also had 7 students absent and wow, what a difference that made.  I only had 21 kids in the room and it felt empty!

Another recent event was going to the home of our little friends, Lucia and Lucio, for dinner.  They made Gallina India, which is just a fancy way of saying yard chicken.    It is apparently a delicacy here, but it was so tough I couldn't even bite into it.  I tried ripping at it with my fingers, too, and was extremely unsuccessful.  I hated to be rude, but I physically couldn't eat it.  Dinner was followed by very loud music on their large speaker set.  It's funny how people can have so little, live in these tiny shacks, and still manage to have cell phones and large stereos.  They played the music so loudly that it vibrated the tin roof.  Oh, Honduras.

Here we are with the kids:

We've also taken the kids to the pool a couple times recently.  Two of them had never been swimming and they all had a blast!

I'll leave with a little rant.  You know that feeling when you think something is crawling on you, but you look, and nothing is there?  Well, here, 9 times out of 10, something is crawling on you.  And it's probably an ant.  I'm also sick of seeing them on my food.  I wonder how many ants I've ingested thus far?  Probably best not to think about it...

Time Flies

It's been a very busy couple of weeks here on the work front, hence the lack of posts.  My school sends home report cards 8 times a year and we had our first mid-term grades due 2 weeks ago.  What's crazy is the end of the partial (quarter) is now coming up and we'll have to be doing the next report card soon, too!  Grading is new to me and it took quite some time to calculate grades for 29 students in each of the 7 subjects that I teach.  This past week all of us maestros had to prepare our partial exams, too.  Yes, my little 2nd graders have to be tested in each subject and are subjected to "exam week" just like the high schoolers.  I'm a little nervous as to how they will do.  Their English has come quite a ways since the start of the year, but tests are still difficult for them!

Here's a picture of some of my kiddos that hang out with me for tutoring after school:

The little one, Josef, is the brother of Rodrigo, on the far left.  I think they are just two of the cutest brothers ever!  Then there is Anthony, he's most adorable and most frustrating, all at the same time!  Mariam is on the right, she is very smart and needs a lot of love.

A funny story about Anthony - he's one of the most distracted children I've ever met.  I have found that when removed from the classroom, he gets his work done mas rapido.  I don't even have to say anything now, just go over to his table, pick up his work and set it outside the door and he follows, but not without flashing me the cheesiest most mischievous grin ever.  One day last week I had to do it twice.  The second time I added "adios, Anthony."  The entire class erupted into laughter, as if it were the first Spanish word I muttered in their presence.  It definitely wasn't, but they were in hysterics.  They go, "Meees, you speak the Spanish!"  I had to fuel the fire so I responded, in Spanish, "yes, I speak a little Spanish, but with my students I speak English."  It was all over from there, good thing it was almost the end of the day!!  

Here's some more fun pictures from the classroom:

Notice the weak smiles?  It takes much coaxing to get any Honduran to smile for a photo.
  

This is Susan, the female version of Anthony.  She also happens to be my next door neighbor and frequently pops her head into our house.  I was playing with her and a couple other students (by the way this is perfectly acceptable and not a creepy thing to do here)at her house the other day when the power went out.  Apparently, the thing to do when the power goes out is play hide and go seek.  I can see how that is fun because it is pitch black and you can just lay down on the floor anywhere to hide!  

Here are the kids making a class collage of Nouns.  

Recently, we also had our first parent-teacher conference night.  It was very different than what I'm used to.  It was more of an open forum for parents to ask general questions all together.  And then if they had specific questions about their kid they just stayed after and asked.  

We also had Friday off for a "staff development" day.  Other teachers from the area attended, and it was a bunch of presentations by different people all day.  I happened to be one of those presenters, and it went quite well.  I talked about classroom management since it's something I noticed most of the local teachers know nothing about!  I will abstain from ranting about this, but, let's just say teachers in the US get much better training than teachers here!

On top of all that, I had my first illness.  I woke up with a high temperature one day and it was pretty miserable to have to corral my little munchkins in the heat with a fever.  At the end of the day, I went to the clinic to get some meds and clear up whatever I had as quickly as possible.  They said I had an ear infection, but that's up for debate.  Regardless, I got a shot in my rear (it kick starts the antibiotics, they give it to you for pretty much any illness).  About 4 or 5 days later I was feeling better.

On the homefront - I believe I mentioned in my last post that we got two chickens.  Well, they have been providing us with some entertainment.  They figured out how to escape our yard and go into the neighbors yard.  After it happened several times, it was suggested to us that we use some string to tie a stick around their legs.  It's basically a chicken shackle to weigh them down a little big so they can't fly.  It was quite the scene when we (ok, my roommates) chased them down and held them while the string was being tied around their legs.  

Another interesting event was going to our little friend, Lucio's, birthday party.  It's always so fascinating to see the homes here.  Most people live with not many material possessions.  I gave Lucio a little bag of a few cheap plastic animals.  He thought they were the best things ever!

And lastly, if you know me, you know I always make time for fun.  Last weekend I went to Santa Rosa with a few of the girls for a night out on the town.  On the bus ride there, we were held up for a few minutes as we passed this rally in support of the Libre party presidential candidate.  They were just riding from town to town, honking their horns and being obnoxious, in typical Honduran fashion.  

They MIGHT Actually be Learning!

Last week was a great one at school.  I felt like the class hit some milestones and were actually absorbing things.  Maybe there is hope?!

One of my big goals with them is to teach them how to work independently.  I'm despirately needing that quiet time so I can meet with individual students or small groups for reading.  Last week I had them work on writing during this time and they loooved writing and drawing about princesses, mario, monsters, butterflies, etc...  When I had them share their writing with a partner, they were pumped!  

Even my student who rarely does her work, wrote during this time.  She's lacking some motivational skills, but we're working on it.  I was so excited to see her working hard on writing.  And what teacher can be mad when this was the product?:

Other updates - In this world which is so different than back home, daily thrills are a far cry from what I'm used to.  In Saturday's case, getting my laundry cleaned and dried at the lavandaria was most exciting.    Why, you ask?  Because when I wash my clothes by hand, they really only feel about 75% clean.  And when I try to dry them on the line, it usually rains.  Drying clothes inside takes at least 2 days and then they smell.  OH, the things I will NOT complain about when I'm back in the states!  Anyway, the clothes are not only washed and dried, but are folded and smell great!  Then they are sealed up in a plastic bag and ready the same day.  Magical:

We also got our lawn (weeds) mowed this weekend.  By mowed, that means two young boys with machetes came over and choppped it by hand.  What tough work!

Oh, and we also have two more members of la casa verde; two chickens.  It's much more cost effective than buying eggs all the time.  I wasn't opposed, so long as I didn't have to do the work!  My roommate jokes about us being off the grid pretty soon.  Knowing her, it may actually happen! 

I will have many more pictures in future posts now, thanks to my parents sending me another camera!  They are the best!  And many thanks to all my friends and family that have already sent me goodies and things for my classroom.  I am forever indebted (and also super lucky)!