Tuesday, November 24

Frustrating afternoon again for me and my kids; I just feel like no matter how many times I ask for attention and respect, it seems to in one ear and out the other, for some kids more than others. Mr. Lara is teaching my math class now and I explained to them I should be given as much respect as he is given in math class. The afternoon wasn’t so bad because I helped with 7th grade dancing, then Bible, and then dancing with 5th grade for the last hour. Jacki had told me some more things during the day about being cautious about going to Teguc since this weekend is the elections and things have been going on there. So after school we had a meeting with Mr. Lara about whether or not we were still going to go to Teguc for the weekend. Our embassy advised us not to go and other people weren’t too sure because of other things they’ve heard, but we could each come to a personal decision whether we wanted to go or not. So we had a powwow about the pros and cons of going and not and in the end, LB and I are still going and the other girls (Kirsty, Jacki, Sarah and Julia) decided they felt better staying here.
I just didn’t want to because I had been planning on this weekend for so long, I didn’t want to change my mindset on it; I feel like it’s going to be the thing to carry me through til Christmas. I mean if it had been a group decision and we couldn’t go, I just wouldn’t go and deal with it, but I have a choice. I think the benefits for me outweigh the risks: free lodging and food, a nice thanksgiving dinner, hanging out with friends, being in the city, etc. I understand there are some risks and I will be more cautious about where I go and when I go and who I go with, but either I’m stubborn and I’ve made up my mind I’m going and don’t want to change that or I just trust that Vida Abundante is taking every precaution as they can and we can take every precaution we can and then we just have to trust in God’s protection…maybe that’s naïve or stupid, I don’t know. I wish everyone was going because even though it’s not true, it feels like there’s division in the house and group because the other girls are talking about things they’re going to do instead since they’re staying here. I wish we could all do it together: either all Teguc or all in Gracias, but it’s not working out like that. I hate missing out on stuff, so even though I’m really excited for Teguc and it’ll be great, I’m sad I can’t be here at the same time as well to hang out with the other girls and do what they’ll be doing, too.

Monday, November 23

Frustrating morning…it was just a Monday for me and my kids; the afternoon was better because I had some free time and we got to practice for our Christmas program, which went pretty well. The girls are catching on really quickly, so I think we’ll be able to learn it in time. They seem really excited and they’ll be so cute when it’s done! It’s been hard to help Ana with the 7th grade because their practice time isn’t the same as my time with the 5th grade, so I hope I can still help her a little bit somehow. One of my kids, Byron, came up to me today and was like, ‘’Miss you know what I like most about Christmas?’ I was like “What?” He answered, “The presents (and I was thinking, ‘Kid you better not say snow, because I know you were in the States for a few years, but you won’t get snow here’)…and the food!” And then he turned and walked back to his desk. Those comments like that just lighten my day a little bit and make me laugh because it’s so random, but he felt like it was important to tell me or just wanted to tell someone I guess. Another random thing from today, one of my girls, Nohemi, came up to me in class and just gave me a big hug. It was during a time in class where I was frustrated because I felt like no one was listening, and it just made my heart soften. That she either noticed I was frustrated and gave me a hug for that or just wanted to…either way it was really sweet.

Science was just crazy today; I had one page left of a lesson to get through and I didn’t finish it. Two reasons: the kids were asking questions (good because it means they’re curious) and making comments (sometimes good and related, other times not); and I had get their attention every time I turned back from writing something on the board or their classmate started with their question/comment. It was ridiculous how much time that took away from class. Then there’s the ‘pencil sharpening, can I go to the bathroom, playing with things they shouldn’t be playing with during class, getting out of their seat to say something to someone when they shouldn’t and borrowing pencils, erasers and markers’ normal stuff that happens during every class. I don’t know how to have the class run smoother or to keep their attention better…these are times I wonder if being an Ed. Major would have helped! It was Mr. Bran’s birthday today so all the staff had birthday cake afterwards and then we had a pretty normal evening at home afterwards.

Sunday, November 22

I slept in, cleaned the bathrooms, made pancakes with everyone, graded,and learned my 5th grade girls dance. Mrs. Laurelais brought some homemade mocha cake over and said she was going to make us dinner because she had promised to make Alex and Alyssa a Philippino dish and they leave tomorrow! So we don’t even have to make dinner! We enjoyed our lazy afternoon, watched a movie, and then Mrs. Laurelais brought over dinner just as our neighbor Paola came to tell us that church was at the moment. Well it was 5:30, not normal church time, so we weren’t ready to go and we had just gotten our dinner. So no church for us today I guess. After dinner we chatted, finished our movie, said to bye to Alyssa and Alex because they were leaving really early tomorrow morning and went to bed.

Saturday, November 21

Kirsty and I walked to town again today, but we left a little later than normal so we had to book it to town. On the way we had good conversation as usual and were talking about politics in the US, how its looking right now, how we think it will be in the coming years. We came up with a grand idea to solve all the problems of bipartisanship when it comes to choosing a president. Kirsty and I will be the President and VP on the first bipartisan all female ticket. That way we can cover all the bases: get the women, get the moderates, get the Democrats and Republicans except for the far left and right who don’t want to come more to the middle. And if we marry people of another race, that will just add to our appeal. She’s going to get a law degree, I can be a world traveler/missionary…what experience we’d have. And then our other great idea was she could be president for 2 years, then I’d be president for 2 years so we could share the spotlight and responsibilities. I don’t think this will really come true, but we had a great time coming up with all these ideas and dreaming that it might be possible for something like that in government someday. We got to the bank just in time and were sweating so much because we walked so fast. I love a good workout, but I hate being sweaty and then having to wait in line in public. We had to wait for 45 minutes, too. I swear I don’t know what takes the Hondurans so long at the tellers. I say I need this much money, they get it, I sign and I’m done.
Eventually we got done and headed to Guancascos for lunch and internet. We stayed there for quite a while, went to recharge our phones, and headed up the mountain just as it was becoming dark. We had planned a bonfire for tonight because we had all these cereal boxes and package boxes that we needed to get rid of, so why not try a fire? Well we weren’t very prepared because we didn’t have much wood, kindling or other. We went looking for some wood and Kirsty and Laura Beth come tromping back in the house with a tree branch and they were like ‘Our Christmas tree!’ So we all got excited and LB had lights and ornaments she had bought. So we decorated our ‘Christmas tree’ and propped it up against the wall. We all put on green and red clothes and mittens and scarves and took the picture in front of our tree. After that little sidetrack, we tried making the fire first with the cardboard and paper, but it didn’t work.
So we went searching for wood, but a lot of it was damp; I mean we live in a cloud forest. Mr. Bran found some good kindling wood so Alyssa and I remade the fire and we finally got it burning well after some time. We were prepared with the food for a bonfire though; we had bought marshmallows, chocolate and graham cracker-like crackers for s’mores! It was also one of Alex and Alyssa’s last nights in Honduras because they head back to the States on Monday so it was kinda like our little going away party. We got some good embers going, roasted tons of marshmallows, had some great s’mores, and stayed up really late. It was a great Saturday night in Villa Verde.

Friday, November 20

Today was a little bit different from my normal Friday. First, today was the first day Mr. Lara started teaching my math class so I had the first period off. So instead I helped Ana with the 7th grade Christmas dance, which is crazy long and hard. I’ll be helping them the whole time as well as teaching my 5th graders…should be fun! They’re doing a dance to the Pink song “I’m coming up, so you better get this party started”, but the lyrics have been changed to say “Time’s running out so we better get this season started.” The whole song is like that, changed so it talks about Christmas; kinda corny, but the whole program is like that haha. Then one of my classes was to teach my girls the dance or at least show them. I got through 2 moves with them. I have to look at the moves more closely this weekend. Then in the afternoon I took my kids outside for science for the first time to look at and learn about rocks. It was kinda hard to keep all their attention when I needed to explain something, but I think they had fun being outside and applying their learning to tangible things. Then the afternoon I had my 9th grade Bible class, and for my 7th grade Bible class, I helped the girls learn a few more moves of their song. My last hour is usually penmanship which we skipped in favor of a game to learn our reading vocab. So it was a great Friday actually. After school we just chilled at home and made a delicious dinner of chicken parmesan. We just keep spicing up our food more and more! We all watched Revolutionary Road (a movie we bought of the street haha), but it was good quality and I liked the movie. Afterwards we listened to some Dane Cook for some laughs and went to sleep.

Thursday, November 19

I had meeting with the administration today about how I’m doing in my classroom and how I was teaching. Good news! They said that I’m doing a good job, that I just needed to make sure to keep up the work in books for all the kids, to get to this lesson by end of parcial. Mr. Lara also told me he was going to take my math class to give me more time to correct things for 5th grade, which is great and surprising. I asked him why math and he was like ‘Miss I’m much better at math and than language or anything like that.’ I kinda laughed and was like ‘Well thanks.’ He and his wife are great and they just told us they’re staying til June instead of leaving in January. I’m so thankful for that because I would not have felt as comfortable at this school without them here. He’s the only bilingual administrator; Ana and Mrs. Lopez are the only other two Honduran teachers who are bilingual. I just think if you have a bilingual school and teachers from the states who may or may not speak Spanish, it just makes sense to have at least one bilingual administrator. I can understand Mr. Calderon usually, but to talk to him about some things, it’s just easier to do it in English. We had tutorias after school; I had my kids make flashcards with their reading vocabulary so they can learn it. I think they really liked that, so maybe I’ll try it more often. They seem to be learning better with them. We had Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais again tonight, which is always an experience. I do admire and enjoy her wisdom and her passion for God, like I said its just very intense that’s all. She talked about Jesus being our mediator and why he had to die and the tabernacle and all that stuff. It was kinda all over the place so to retell it to others would be impossible. It’s kinda hard to keep a straight face all the time because she does this thing with her eyebrows putting them up and down really quickly, so sometimes I have to stifle a laugh haha.

Wednesday, November 18

I had a rough day at school with kids; nothing new just frustrated because I had to stop constantly to ask for their attention. I guess some days are just better than others for some reason. Today we were also told by the administration more about our Christmas program we’re putting on in December. First, the date changed from the 16th to the 9th, which means we have less time to practice. Something about the people who need to come to help from Teguc, it works better for them to do it the 9th. We all watched the DVD they sent of the Christmas program and each of us has to teach our kids the dances. So I can not only add teacher to my resume, but also dance teacher/choreographer haha. My boys and girls have separate dances, but I think the Spanish teachers are taking my boys, so that’s good. The ‘funny’ thing was there was only one DVD, so we have to burn some more so we can have copies to practice with our kids. So we’ll see how it goes! We went to town today; got to sit with 2 of my boys on the bus and ask them what they want to add to our prize box that I can get in the States. Other than that, just a normal Wednesday evening in town.

Tuesday, November 17

My kids were a little more rambunctious today, so I had my patience tried a few times. Sometimes I don’t know whether yelling louder and louder to have my voice heard is better, or whether I speak normal and see who’s listening haha. My reward system of getting stars for good behavior bore fruit today, so my kids got choose their pencils or erasers for 10 stars or wait til 20 stars for a bigger prize. I had tutorias after school today for math and science. Tutorias is a great idea, but it would be a better idea if there were more people to help us out after school. I have about 5-10 kids every Tuesday and Thursday; so today it was hard for me to help the ones who need math and study with the ones who need help in science. Thankfully Laura Beth didn’t have kids so she helped me with the science kids. Also the kids who are in tutorias are the ones who are the ones who have a hard time paying attention in class so all of those kids together is almost as frustrating as my whole class! Hopefully I can figure out how to do it better as the year goes on because I really do want these kids to understand and have their grades be better as well. Normal night after tutorias of dinner, grading, relaxing…oh and I killed a scorpion.

Monday, November 16

Good day at school; I stayed a while afterwards because LB had a lot of grading to do and I wanted to get some grading done, too. I took care of some odds and ends of decorating in my classroom, putting up some of the kids’ art projects and stuff. We headed home about 5 and I finally talked with Amy on the phone, which was great because I haven’t talked to her in a few weeks. There’s just so much that happens in 2 weeks sometimes to try to remember it all and get it into a limited amount of time is frustrating. I don’t like how it’s hard for people in the states to call abroad without huge phonebills or international plans on their phones. I don’t mind being the one to call people because it really is cheaper for me, but it’s just hard when I don’t get a hold of people and don’t know their schedules. Darn international calling charges.

Jacki, Sarah and Jacki’s friend Alyssa were in town so it was me, LB, Kirsty and Jacki’s other friend Alex had just gotten back from traveling around Honduras for a week by himself. We asked him how it went and what he had been learning about God and stuff and it opened up a really good dinner religion conversation. We’re all at different points in our faith journey with different questions and doubts and it was enlightening to gain wisdom from what others have been learning as well as be challenged by their questions. We talked about why Jesus had to die, why God couldn’t just forgive our sins without having Jesus die; whether heaven and hell really exist and about eternity; what happens to people who aren’t sure about their faith, who are searching or even those who haven’t heard the Gospel what happens to them when they die. Big questions without easy or simple answers, but it was very satisfying for me to talk about that stuff. It felt like I was back at college, being academic, thinking, pondering, wrestling with ideas and questions and where to find the answers, if they exist. And after that Alex had told us how many times he had Dunkin Donuts in SPS and we were like ‘Let’s make donuts!’ So we did; we used pancake mix with egg, milk and sugar and then fried it in oil. It worked pretty good actually; I was kinda surprised. We put some sugar, honey or jam on them and if we had had frosting, we would have for sure put some on. It was amazing.

Sunday, November 15

Love Sundays…we had pancakes for breakfast, which were amazing as always. Sunday afternoon was lazy and then the Laurelais’ (our Philippino neighbors) had invited us over for a late lunch. We weren’t sure what we were going to have because we had heard fish and some of us weren’t excited about that. But when we got there Mr. Laurelais (who isn’t usually very friendly at school) had put the movie The Proposal in and was like ‘Do you like this movie?’ and we were like yeah! It was so nice to be in a home, not just a house. They had a living room with furniture, TV and lamps and a real kitchen with a countertop and kitchen sink. It was a really cute house and home; it made me excited to go back for Christmas to be around family and be in a home. I like our house, but it’s hard to make it homey when your living area is so open and you might only be staying for a year. Anyways, they made us homemade pizza, which seriously is the BEST pizza I’ve had in Honduras yet. I had like 6 pieces; I couldn’t help it. So we got to have dinner and a movie on a Sunday night. Afterwards we just chatted about school and our kids; the problems we’ve been having, the cultural differences in teaching here and lots of other good things. We have Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais again on Thursday so we’ll see how our second time goes! After dinner we came back home and Laura Beth and I had a really good talk about life and God and guys and relationships. Again it seems like God is just really calling us to have him be our source and everything and its being shown to us in different ways. It was good to share that with someone else and see what God is teaching them and just reflect together.

Saturday, November 14

Kirsty and I walked down the mountain today, which I haven’t done in a few weeks so it felt good to get that exercise and spend that time chatting with Kirsty as well. We arrived in town and desperately needed to go to the bank because we didn’t have money. We were close to the bank when Gustavo, a mototaxi driver we know, pulls up and asked where we were going and was like Vamos. So we got a free ride the rest of the way to the bank. Apparently everyone needed money or got paid on Friday because the bank was SO busy. We got to the bank at 11 and it closes at 11:30. We waited and waited and finally got out of the bank after 45 minutes. They only had two tellers instead of three, which didn’t help things. We kept seeing people we knew at the bank, too so every 10 minutes we’d turn around and there’d be our neighbor, or another teacher from school, or someone else we knew.
After the bank I headed to Guancascos and stayed there for quite a while for internet and lunch. Late in the afternoon, Kirsty and I went to get things for our kids for our prize boxes for good behavior. Some of my kids will be getting 10 stars soon so I needed to get some prizes for them. I bought things like pencils and erasers, stickers, markers, mainly school things; I also bought some things for when kids get twenty stars. It was also Doble Saldo for Digicel, which never happens. This means if you put 100 Lemps on your phone, you’ll get 200 Lemps. They match what you put on your phone, which is great; Tigo (another phone company)does this often, but I don’t think Digicel does often. So Kirsty and I put some money on our phones to take advantage of that deal. We went to get popsicles while we waited for our mototaxi ride back home. I was the only one home for a while, so I just did some things around the house, had dinner and then the rest of the girls came back from town. We had a great night just chatting and listening to comedy on our computers.

Friday November 13- PT Conferences and 9 week grades

Parent Teacher conferences today! I almost sent one kid to the office today. He was constantly getting up out of his seat, talking to other kids and playing his air guitar and riding his air motorcycle in class, so it was distracting to the other kids. The only difference with this kid is he has ADD, so it’s hard for him to stay focused, which I understand. I try to help him, reminding him to take things out for class, reminding him to focus, asking if he’s understanding. I don’t know what else to do for a kid with ADD in my class. How much of his ‘misbehavior’ can be attributed to his ADD and when does it cross the line into his responsibility? I constantly have to tell him to listen, stop talking, stay focused, sit down. When is he just not listening and obeying and when is it because of the ADD? I try to be patient, but doing that everyday along with telling other kids besides him wears me down sometimes. So any suggestions are welcome!
The kids got to go home early at noon so we would have time to prepare for parents to come and pick up grades and talk with us if they have problems. We had lunch, got ready (we had to look nice and wear our full uniform of pants and suit jacket with white button up shirt) and then the parents could come to pick up their grades between 2 and 6. It was a long day. It was weird to be on the other side of PT conferences, being the teacher and not the student. It made me appreciate my teachers more, as this whole year so far has been teaching me. I had an overall good experience with the parents; it just helps when they can speak English! I had a few parents who spoke English, some I did by myself in Spanish and got my point across, others Mr. Bran and Mr. Lara translated for me because the parents had more complex questions and issues and I wanted to make sure I was communicating what I wanted with them.

Most of the questions and problems I had with parents were over their grades in Language and Reading. Let me give some history as to why this may be difficult for many of my students. Last year, while the teachers were great, they didn’t follow the curriculum as closely as the administration wanted them to. So now I come in this year and the administration really wants us and expects us to follow the curriculum more closely, which I have been. Also, it’s a new grade so the curriculum is not only being followed more closely, but it will be harder; that’s the basic logic of education. My reading scores may be low because we have a reading quiz over vocab every week, which counts as a test grade. So if the kids don’t study or don’t do well on those, their grade will drop. Otherwise reading is participation in class and doing worksheets which test their comprehension and speed. Some of the kids have trouble with this (understandably so since it’s in their second language), but I try to give them extra time than the sheet states to give them a better chance. Language…English and English grammar is just hard. The verbs we use are just consistent in the way they change from present to past to future; the singular to plural nouns don’t always follow the same rules for all words. I feel for these kids and the difficulty with trying to understand it. Some things they just need to memorize, others they just need to practice. So in class they do well, but they all seem to have trouble on the tests. So I have kids who are failing or having trouble with subjects stay for tutorias on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
It’s interesting to me as well that the students who have very good grades, but have a 90 instead of a 95 in one class are concerned about that one class and why the grade is low. Its like, just be satisfied in your children’s performance this time, encourage them to keep at it and try a little harder if you want their grade to be higher, but have a little grace they’re in 5th grade. Another parent was very concerned that her student’s grade in 2 subjects were below 80, which is also understandable. It’s just the way she expressed her concern almost made me feel like she thought it was partly my fault her daughter had low grades. She said her daughter had never had this low of grades before, why they were that low and what she could do to help her at home. I gave her suggestions to help her student and told her to try that and then be patient and see how things go this 9 weeks.
At the end of the night I was so tired from the long day (like 10-11 hours), talking to parents, explaining the same thing more than once and trying to concentrate in listening and speaking Spanish. We walked home in the dark (I had a flashlight this time!) and had easy leftovers for dinner. I relaxed by watching a movie and fell asleep.

Thursday November 12

I finished the rest of my planning today; this is why I really like Thursdays. One of my students has been absent for over a week now and she’s not sick, so the administration was trying to figure out why she didn’t want to come. Mr. Calderon said she doesn’t want to come to school, so we should make her cards saying we miss her and want her to come back. In my mind, if a kid doesn’t want to come to school because something’s happened I understand, but I don’t think that’s the case here; it’s the parent’s job to be like too bad you’re going to school. She’s so far behind on everything already missing tests and such…its frustrating because I don’t even know where to start to get her back on track. It continued to get colder and rainier as the day went on and I only had on a long sleeve and cardigan, I was so cold. Compared to at home right now it probably wasn’t that different, but remember…I haven’t had very cold weather here, everything is open and breezy and there’s no indoor heating; my living area is essentially a big walled in porch!
Dennis and Vicente came today because the scholarship kids at all the kids get doctor checkups. Dennis came a few weeks ago for fiesta tipicia, but we haven’t seen Vicente in a month so it was nice to see both of them for a little bit. I had tutorias after school and they went pretty well for Language and reading. The mix of kids in tutorias is difficult sometimes because they are usually the ones who pay the least attention in class so even in smaller groups they are still kinda distracted or not listening as well. I’ve been trying to be more patient and understanding with my kids making sure I don’t sound too angry or mad when I’m frustrated while still being firm and being able to take or make a joke. It seems like when I have days like that, they go better so maybe I’m kinda getting the hang of how Rachel Sneden can be a teacher haha.

I went home after tutorias, had dinner, and we had decided to start a Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais, our Filipino neighbor. I think it will be a good thing to do as a way to grow spiritually besides attending church in Spanish. Laura Beth, Kirsty and I were there and we got to share our faith stories with each other, so that was nice. She’s very nice and so petite and cute and really on fire for God; almost to the point where it’s intimidating! She’s just very passionate about letting God be our EVERYTHING and only walking with him and following him, which I totally agree with. It’s just when she’s sitting across the table sharing these things with you so passionately and then just staring at you to see how you react to it, I didn’t know what to do except nod my head in agreement. I guess I just haven’t been around someone that passionate in a while and I was taken aback. I want to love God with that same passion and be in love with him, but I think the way I’ll express that with others isn’t going to be the same way she does. I am looking forward to what we’ll learn from her and from each other though.

Wednesday, Nov 11

Wednesdays my kids have art. Miss Holly, one of the teachers from Britain, is the art teacher and she had my kids make saltdough creatures. I really enjoyed watching them use their creativity in making animals; they got so into it. They tried the dough even though we told them not too and were like ew this is gross! And we said we told you! We also had a meeting after school which consisted of instructions for parent/teacher conferences and giving grades on Friday. They also reminded us to keep locking our doors, which is even more important because money has gotten stolen recently from our rooms. These meetings always seem to take longer because they need to be interpreted and everyone wants to give their two cents about everything; I usually plan on at least an hour. We went to town afterwards, got internet and then dinner; Kirsty, Sarah and I were starving and ate our tipico food so fast. The only unfortunate things is that because of meeting , we weren’t able to go to the bank so I have less than 100 L ($5) until Saturday…not fun. Kirsty and I rode up with Juan Carlos, whose son Candido is in Jackie’s K4 class; he’s so cute joking around with him. He asked if I wanted to come see a movie in his house, but I was like you need to sleep… J so cute.

Tuesday, Nov 10

My day today went well overall until my last hour. We had penmanship and towards the end of the hour it just got crazy. My kids were all finishing, and they were asking to put their stars on their card for good behavior and asking if there was tutorias all within the same 10 minutes. I hadn’t given any names for tutorias so I didn’t know if kids should stay or go, so I didn’t know what to tell them. Meanwhile the bell is ringing, buses are leaving and I was getting stressed out. I didn’t want kids to miss their bus or their parents to be confused whether they were supposed to be here or at home…ugh. So once they all left I just sat down on the floor of my classroom and had to breathe deeply for a little bit and compose myself. I had one kid who missed his bus because of the confusion so I worked with him on math, then packed up and headed home. We got our laundry, hung it up to dry some more (it’s been so damp here it takes forever to dry outside), then I did dishes. Then dinner, more dishes, grading, planning and finally a little relaxing at the end of the night.

Monday, November 9

God really blessed this Monday it seemed like. Most of the time by the end of the day, I’m kinda tired and a little frustrated, but today everything went smoothly. It felt really good to end a day and still have energy. . I had to stay after school for 2 of my students to finish their last recup tests and then I could finally turn in my 9 week grades. t’s been kinda cooler and rainy so far this week so we’ll see if that continues this week. I may not have fall weather like at home, but this is a small taste of it with the cool and rain. I got to talk to one of my best friends from home and my fam today. I’m not homesick or anxious to get home for Christmas, but I’m definitely looking forward to it and it’ll be refreshing to be home for a few weeks. My parents told me this past weekend that they booked their tickets to come see me here in Honduras in February! I’m really excited for them to come see what my life is like here. So everyone but Mae is going to be coming to Honduras; she gets to go to France and Spain this summer though. Life here settles into a routine for normal 5 day weeks; Mondays and Fridays I walk home right after school, Tuesdays and Thursdays are tutorias, Wednesdays are nights in town, and at home I grade, relax, make dinner, clean, and head to bed. Such is my life in Honduras.

Saturday and Sunday, November 7 & 8

Saturday
Sarah and I went to town in the morning, went to Guancascos, did some shopping, and then went for lunch at a tipico restaurant where we got bolibaleadas (tortillas with bean, cheese, mantequilla and eggs). They were so filling and so not good for you, but taste amazing! Haha. Afterwards, she went to hang out with Gustavo so I met up with the girls again. I got to talk to some friends back home who I haven’t spoken to in a while, so that was great to be able to catch up with them. We headed back up soon after that and had a relaxing evening.

Sunday
I love the weekends for the fact you can sleep until you don’t want to anymore and it doesn’t matter what time you get up. I spent some good time with God, taking a verse and kinda making my own Amplified version of it since I don’t have any other resources for Bible study. It was sufficient and good for my soul. Soon after our neighbor, Mrs.Laurelais came over to help us make a Filipino meal. It was a little early (we had just finished a late breakfast), but the prep time took a while so by the time it was ready, we were ready to eat it. The dish was very similar to Chop Suey and had lots of veggies along with noodles, shrimp and chicken. We spent Sunday afternoon relaxing then most of us decided to go to the hot springs. It seems like a prerequisite for it to be raining when we go to the hot springs, because it definitely didn’t stop raining the whole time. We arrived and enjoyed the hottest pool, which is like a nice hot tub. It’s still kinda weird going there because people still stare and especially guys try to hit on us and stuff; it gets really annoying, like haven’t you seen a gringa before? But we still had a good time; we ate some grilled corn with lime and salt (yum) for a snack there and then began the process of heading home. We got home too late to go to church, but we all had things we had to do to get ready for Monday, too.

Friday, Nov 6

Yeah for Fridays! Today went pretty fast. I gave my science recup test, which was a little crazy because the kids who had to take it stayed in my class with the kids who didn’t; it was challenge to keep things quiet. Hopefully that went well for my students; we’ll see once I grade them! I have a few more tests to give to kids who were absent or need more time to study on Monday and then I’m done and grades for the 9 weeks are done. My kids worked really well the last hour of class (penmanship) so I gave them 10 minutes of free time to play games or whatever, which they really enjoyed; I mean come on it’s Friday. J I stayed after school to grade some things, headed home, and relaxed for bit. We had stir fry for dinner and cut up so many veggies, which was great to have the variety. After our great dinner, we seriously had food comas because Kirsty, Sarah and I all went to lay down and fell asleep! I woke up later and watched some ALIAS with Laura Beth and hit the hay.

Thursday, Nov 5

Thursdays aren’t too bad usually because I have more prep hours, but I had to finish making my recup test for Friday during that time, which took a while. The math one was hard to make with all the diagrams and symbols. I had to give a reading recup test at the end of the day during my seatwork hour which was hectic. Half of the class needed to take this test and other half didn’t. So I sent half of my class to be with Jacki since she usually does my seatwork, and the other half who had to take it were with me. We also had less time than usual because our bell for our classes is rung by hand, not electronically. So if they guy (Don Humberto) doesn’t keep track of time, the bell is late. This happened for this hour so my kids had 10 less minutes to work on their test. Some of them didn’t study much plus not having enough time…it was frustrating to me and to them. Then I had some of the students who needed to take the language recup test stay after school to take it during tutorias. They were most of the same kids. Many of them (whether from not understanding the written English or just not really thinking it through) didn’t understand that directions. So I to constantly explain the same directions over and over. I wondered if they had even read the directions at all. After they had finished and left I was spent from the frustration of how recup tests were done, hoping my kids would do well, but knowing for some of them it wouldn’t matter. To be honest, today was a day that I said, “I don’t want to be here. I didn’t go to school for this; I don’t know if I’m doing it right or making sense to these kids…” I’m really not trying to be a downer, but it was an end of my rope moment and I just wanted to be home, even for a few minutes. The rest of the night I just thought a lot and relaxed and got ready for tomorrow.

Wednesday, Nov 4

We had chapel today and Mr. Laurelais taught about Samson. The kids really liked it actually and were pretty attentive. I decided to sit with my kids instead of stand. I think I’m going to do it more often. I sat by some of my favorite kids (I know we aren’t supposed to have favorites, but come on, it’s going to happen) and they were just so cute sitting closer to me. One of my girls was playing with my hair, which felt great and one of my boys was asking me all these great questions. I wish that being a teacher required more of the relational part and not as much of the disciplinarian part. I enjoy being with my kids so much more when I don’t have to tell them to sit down, please be quiet, I need your attention. It’s refreshing to be able to hang out with them. I think that may be something I may be realizing is different with this job than the other experiences I’ve had with kids. With Young Life for example, my “job” was to form relationships/friendships with kids; I was more of a mentor/adult friend/leader and less of a disciplinarian. I feel the scales have tipped more the other way for teaching. It’s not bad, just something to get used to and figure out how I can best do my job being me and having the experiences I’ve had.
Today was kinda crazy too because I had to scramble to finish my recuperation tests for the kids who had failed reading and language so they could be copied before tomorrow. One thing that has been frustrating with these recup tests is that the kids are told they are taking these tests the day before. The tests are made by their teachers, but it covers all the material from the 9 weeks. Then the administration was like ‘There’s not enough room on the sheet we give their parents to tell them they are taking a test to put all the themes they need to study for the test.’ So we just had to give our kids the page numbers of what they should study. That’s hard even for a high schooler or someone in college. If they had planned ahead, these kids could know specifically what to study and have a better chance of doing well on this test. But now these kids don’t really have much of chance; I don’t know how many of my kids will really do better on this test than the other tests during the 9 weeks. Then it’s almost a waste of their time and our time. Other than that, today was a normal Wednesday of going to town after school for internet and groceries. We stayed pretty late and had some trouble getting mototaxis back up, but it ended up working out alright.

Tuesday, Nov 3

Today started out well, but I had a new seating chart. Some of my kids need to stay near front because they either get easily distracted, can’t see well, or they need to be up front so I can keep an eye on them. I think I have realized that some kids will keep talking and doing what they do no matter where you put them! I also started a new reward system, where they get to earn stars for how well they behave through the day. We’ll see how it works! Later in the day, I got fed up with the kids trying to talk over them when I was teaching so they wrote lines. I explained to them why I need them to listen: respect for me and respect for their classmates when they speak, trying to help them learn so they can do well, learning patience and self control. I explain it’s because I care and I’m not trying to take away their fun. I had tutorias after school today for reading so we played some games to study for their vocab quiz tomorrow. Afterwards I walked home, but realized I had forgotten things at school to help me make my recuperation tests so I had to walk back. Recuperation tests are allowed (might be required) by the Education Department of Honduras. If a child fails their subject for the parcial (9 weeks) they can take a recuperation test and that will be substituted in their test grade for the 9 weeks. I spent the evening making my recup tests and relaxing.

Deep thoughts: We ultimately are alone on this faith walk; it’s just me and God ultimately, no person, not even your spouse will ever fill you like God does, lead you the way God does, will be your source like God is. Just a hard realization I guess sometimes to be reminded of that. God provides us with so many friends and family to walk with us through life and help us on our faith journey and he loves community and relationship and created us for that. But truly, ultimately when it really comes down to it, its you and God, he should be (and IS) enough to fill us.

Sunday and Monday, November 1 and 2

Sunday
Wow, November already! Today was a typical, but needed Sunday. It was really relaxing, no schedule kind of day. I started figuring out my 9 week grades, which took longer than I anticipated. I had some good convos over coffee time, had some great fresh fruit salad, and went to church later in the evening.

Monday
Another week! Some administrators were still here from Tegucigalpa and earlier in the day our principals were coming around to take some of our kids’ books to show them they were working in them. It was frustrating though because they would take some of my kids’ math books during math and language during language. Therefore some of my kids couldn’t do the lesson or work because they didn’t have their books for that hours. I also finishing final grades for the 9 week, which is a lotta work, but needs to get done. Done with my first nine weeks…crazy!

Random Thoughts

I was looking through my pictures tonight and I have realized I have been blessed to have met so many truly amazing people in the last 4 years and even the last year of my life. I know its all cliché and I’m not trying to sound mushy, but really God has been so faithful in allowing me to meet such quality people. I wish with all my heart I could keep in constant meaningful contact with all of you. I hate that living out of the country makes that even harder than it already is to keep in touch. I hate that even if I tried my hardest and I was in the United States, life happens and I will lose contact with friends who are amazing people. So to all of you who have been a part of my life in the last 4 years and this past year, THANK YOU for the blessing you have been to me: in who you are, in the memories we have shared together, and for bringing joy and wisdom to my life.

Saturday Oct 31- Fiesta Tipica

Today was Fiesta Tipica; no Halloween for me! After all of the practicing and craziness, it was here! I donned my tipical dress (borrowed from Teguc) and all my natural looking jewelry. The day didn’t start out the best though because we had miscommunication about mototaxis in the morning. One of our neighbors said he’d take us all down, but he told us on separate occasions. So we were trying to figure out another taxi and not be late to the fiesta. When finally arrived, I was already slightly frustrated from the mototaxi confusion and then we had to start selling right away. My champa was called La Fritanga, which included all things fried: tacos, enchiladas, tajaditas, pastelitos. Apparently it’s everyone’s favorite food, too because we were ridiculously busy! I felt like I was back in the strawberry fields at the stand except now everyone was yelling at me in Spanish what they wanted and I was trying to make change, give them their ticket and remember what they had so I could tell the other teachers in my booth (Sarah and one of the Spanish teachers) what they had ordered. Meanwhile the program was starting, but we had no chance to leave our champa at all until the program was done. Sarah and I were disappointed that we didn’t get to see our kids do their dances because we were so busy in our champa. We were stressed out and done by the end of the selling time. I finally got to get out of the champa and tried some of the other food. I had some tipico food like beans, tortillas and salsa as well as this sweet stuff that tasted like sweet bread pudding.
The fiesta was starting to wind down, so we helped clean up, changed out of our dresses, and went to Guancascos. Then Jacki and I went shopping for food and at the market and returned to Guancascos. The other girls headed up, but me and Sarah stayed longer, waiting for Gustavo, our mototaxi ride up the mountain. My stomach had been hurting all day and I didn’t know what other medicine to get, so I got some anti parasite medicine just in case and it seemed to do the trick. Well something was wrong with Gustavo’s taxi so we waited forever for him and finally decided to call Samuel to take us up. I just chilled the rest of the night to make my stomach feel better.