Tuesday
I had a fine day at school, but I was very sore from soccer yesterday! It was kinda cloudy and rainy today unfortunately. I stayed after for tutorias, which went alright (science) and then stayed longer to work out with Kirsty and LB. We ran for 20 minutes, did some abs and then walked up the mountain. I am so sore still…my body probably hates me working out 2 days in a row after like a month of nothing! I arrived home, did dishes, took a shower, had dinner, played Euchre, dishes again, and then grading.
Wednesday
We had chapel today and Sarah did the battle of Jericho. She played Joshua says and on the spot, was like, ‘Should I have them scream like the Israelites?’ I told her to go for it, so we had all of the elementary kids scream to take down the wall of Jericho! It was great. Wednesdays have been a little different for me lately with schedules because Mr. Lara wants to do 2 hours of math, so I have to either give up my spelling or reading that day; it usually ends up being spelling because we have reading vocab quizzes on Wednesdays. We went to town again today, went to Dinoras, got ice cream from Melanie’s, went back up, had a good dinner and then some grading/planning. We’ve also been talking about changing our Semana Santa plans because some of us are having friends and/or family come during that time and to go to Guatemala is such a trip when we’d only get to spend 3 days in Antigua. Guatemala deserves so much more time than that. The next option for us which would be better for almost everyone would be to stay in Honduras and do things around in Honduras, like go back to Copan for some people or maybe go to the coast to another beach or go to the islands or Lake Yajoa. I need to get planning that because it will be here before I know it!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 25
Today was a good day at school and the weather was beautiful today. My kids are improving in grades this nine weeks as I had to figure out this week who needed recuperation tests. I have less kids in recup this time than last time, so that’s a sign of progress, which makes me happy. It still tends to be the same kids that need to do recup, but sometimes it helps boost their grade higher; any little bit helps. The last hour of my Monday is spelling. My kids were kinda rowdy in the beginning, but then I gave them the last 15 minutes to do their homework (copy their list 3 times) and they ALL were working pretty quietly. So, I asked them if they wanted to listen to music…”Yes Miss!” Ok well it has to be quiet because my computer can’t go too loud. What song? They chose Michael Jackson of course…Thriller, then Lady Gaga Poker Face. I haven’t heard my whole class that quiet in a while! It was amazing and brought a smile to my face how much they liked the music and still were able to work.
I played soccer after school against the girls and man I’m out of shape! I was huffing and puffing and red in the face, getting kicked in the shins, did a roll and tumble on the cement, bumped my head on a tree branch, and then had to walk up the mountain. So needless to say I was tired! We had a great dinner, did the dishes, played Euchre and that was the conclusion to another Monday in Gracias, Honduras.
I played soccer after school against the girls and man I’m out of shape! I was huffing and puffing and red in the face, getting kicked in the shins, did a roll and tumble on the cement, bumped my head on a tree branch, and then had to walk up the mountain. So needless to say I was tired! We had a great dinner, did the dishes, played Euchre and that was the conclusion to another Monday in Gracias, Honduras.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Saturday and Sunday, January 23 & 24
Saturday
I slept in since I stayed up late last night and then Jafet and Candido came over to play for a bit. They love Jenga (thanks Herremas!)and they also liked to draw on the Paint program on my computer. I love them, but after a while I told them we needed to do some things around the house and get ready so they’d have to head home. They weren’t too happy about it! Poor kids…sorry! I then proceeded to clean the floors really well, laid out and took a nice dip in Froni’s pool she has up here in Villa Verde. The pool isn’t exactly like pools in the States, but it was great to cool off and relax a little bit.
We had to get out in time to get ready for the baby shower we had that night for Ms. Melgar. She is Jacki’s assistant in K4 and is having her baby in March. The baby shower was very similar to those we have in the States. We played baby games, one where we guessed how round Ms. Melgar was with toilet paper, guessed baby food flavors, and then which word meant baby in different languages. Afterwards we had dinner and cake to celebrate. There wasn’t a gift opening time because instead we each gave about $10 and that was all given to Ms. Melgar as a gift for her to use for whatever she needs for the baby. The mothers and those closest to her also gave her advice and then we prayed for her. It was pretty fun and all in Spanish of course, but it was fun to be with people from school outside of school celebrating something like that.
Kirsty, LB and I were the last ones to leave because Samuel came late and the ride was going normally until we get about half way up the hill. Then Samuel met some of his friends, got out, and was like, “They’re going to drive you the rest of the way up.” We were like, “What?!” especially when they couldn’t even get the moto started well or shift it; if they couldn’t do that on that part of the hill, we were so scared for what it would be like on the road closer to our house! Eventually we got going and they got the hang of it, but we were telling them for a while to make sure they don’t kill us. They had fun with it though and were joking around about it. We made it up, thank God, and got ready to watch the USA vs. Honduras game. It was a friendly game, a way for both of the teams to get more practice in before the Mundial in June; not all of the best players were on each team, but Honduras still won 3-1!
Sunday
After sleeping in and breakfast, I went to school with Juila, Kirsty and Tad to grade papers and decorate my door for bit. The rest of the day was pretty slow and relaxing; I had lunch, chilled in the afternoon, listened to a sermon on my computer from RezLife, and then Jacki made delicious pizza for dinner.
I slept in since I stayed up late last night and then Jafet and Candido came over to play for a bit. They love Jenga (thanks Herremas!)and they also liked to draw on the Paint program on my computer. I love them, but after a while I told them we needed to do some things around the house and get ready so they’d have to head home. They weren’t too happy about it! Poor kids…sorry! I then proceeded to clean the floors really well, laid out and took a nice dip in Froni’s pool she has up here in Villa Verde. The pool isn’t exactly like pools in the States, but it was great to cool off and relax a little bit.
We had to get out in time to get ready for the baby shower we had that night for Ms. Melgar. She is Jacki’s assistant in K4 and is having her baby in March. The baby shower was very similar to those we have in the States. We played baby games, one where we guessed how round Ms. Melgar was with toilet paper, guessed baby food flavors, and then which word meant baby in different languages. Afterwards we had dinner and cake to celebrate. There wasn’t a gift opening time because instead we each gave about $10 and that was all given to Ms. Melgar as a gift for her to use for whatever she needs for the baby. The mothers and those closest to her also gave her advice and then we prayed for her. It was pretty fun and all in Spanish of course, but it was fun to be with people from school outside of school celebrating something like that.
Kirsty, LB and I were the last ones to leave because Samuel came late and the ride was going normally until we get about half way up the hill. Then Samuel met some of his friends, got out, and was like, “They’re going to drive you the rest of the way up.” We were like, “What?!” especially when they couldn’t even get the moto started well or shift it; if they couldn’t do that on that part of the hill, we were so scared for what it would be like on the road closer to our house! Eventually we got going and they got the hang of it, but we were telling them for a while to make sure they don’t kill us. They had fun with it though and were joking around about it. We made it up, thank God, and got ready to watch the USA vs. Honduras game. It was a friendly game, a way for both of the teams to get more practice in before the Mundial in June; not all of the best players were on each team, but Honduras still won 3-1!
Sunday
After sleeping in and breakfast, I went to school with Juila, Kirsty and Tad to grade papers and decorate my door for bit. The rest of the day was pretty slow and relaxing; I had lunch, chilled in the afternoon, listened to a sermon on my computer from RezLife, and then Jacki made delicious pizza for dinner.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Friday, January 22
Good day at school. I had the 9th Bible exam today, hopefully the kids did well; we reviewed in three classes so we’ll see this weekend after I grade them! During penmanship, fifth grade’s last hour, I told them that if they work hard, then they could play for 10 minutes. That worked pretty well! Vivian kept asking for me to play Lady Gaga “Poker face.” I walked to town after school to watch some of Kirsty’s kids play in a soccer game, but either the time got mixed up or something, so we didn’t get to see them. Since we were in town anyway, we went to get popsicles at Lorendiana’s and dinner for Kirsty and Julia. We went up with Juan Carlos, who decided to play a little trick on us. He bought some gum and gave it to us, saying it was sweet. Well not so much; it was extremely sour for the first few minutes and my mouth was puckering like crazy and Juan Carlos was laughing like crazy at his joke. Oh Juan Carlos, you’re so funny! We ate delicious sweet and sour chicken by Jacki for dinner and then played Euchre for a long time. Tad and I did well as partners against Kirsty and Julia; granted Kirsty hasn’t played Euchre much, but she’s getting better! Afterwards Kirsty, Tad and I stayed up later discussing all the deep questions of life…always a fun time.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21
Thursday
My kids were much better today overall; they seemed to be quieter and listening more so that was great. Hopefully trying to be more firm consistent in my discipline will help things. It was one of my students last day here because she was going to a different school for the last half of the year. She’s one of my better students all around and I love having her in class, so I was sad to have to say bye and know I won’t see her in class on Friday. Tutorias went alright with language and reading; I also had some kids that had to make up tests so I did that with them while the others worked in their books. I climbed up the mountain afterwards and met Candido and Jafet. They wanted me to come inside and watch a movie with them, so there I was for about an hour with these 2 adorable little boys watching the movie Spirit and Ice Age in Spanish! They gave me an orange, some candy and a rice krispie treat and were cuddling up to me at times as well. They’re such sweet generous kids; it really brightened my day and filled my heart.
My kids were much better today overall; they seemed to be quieter and listening more so that was great. Hopefully trying to be more firm consistent in my discipline will help things. It was one of my students last day here because she was going to a different school for the last half of the year. She’s one of my better students all around and I love having her in class, so I was sad to have to say bye and know I won’t see her in class on Friday. Tutorias went alright with language and reading; I also had some kids that had to make up tests so I did that with them while the others worked in their books. I climbed up the mountain afterwards and met Candido and Jafet. They wanted me to come inside and watch a movie with them, so there I was for about an hour with these 2 adorable little boys watching the movie Spirit and Ice Age in Spanish! They gave me an orange, some candy and a rice krispie treat and were cuddling up to me at times as well. They’re such sweet generous kids; it really brightened my day and filled my heart.
Wednesday, January 20
Today I had my kids write lines saying they would respect me and their classmates when we are talking by listening. This came about because of what they wrote about: talking when I was talking and talking when their classmates were asking questions. I remind them if they want their question to be heard or want others to listen to them when they talk, they need to listen when others are talking, including me. So that was fun. We also finished our oral reading tests today and when they’re not reading out loud to me they can read books I got from the library. Since we started that, when they have free time after tests or something, they usually pull out a book and start reading. It’s so awesome to see that because hopefully their reading skills as well as English will be improved. I also found out this morning that one of our students parents had died the day before; he was shot and was involved in the drug business. This was crazy to me; I guess I was just naïve to think that our kids’ lives aren’t like that. I know some kids here are poor, but those who have money don’t always get it by reputable means. So Julia had to go to the funeral, which was quite an experience for her to see one of her third graders just shut down with his dad now gone. It just makes me realize that I can really make a difference in some of these kids lives so they hopefully they don’t get mixed up in that way of life. I trust that the things they learn, the examples and models they see in the teachers and in the administration will be something God uses to keep them on the straight and narrow and dream of something more. We did our town run today again with Rodrigo in the truck; no nasty turpentine stuff spilling this time! On the way up he and Jacki were talking about the differences between different Latin American’s attitudes; like Hondurans, Guatemalans and El Salvadorans are this way, Costa Ricans are this way, Puerto Ricans are this way, etc. It was really interesting and funny to hear what Rodrigo had to say about all the different places and entertaining conversation for the ride up the mountain.
Tuesday, January 19
Normal day today, although I’ve been having trouble with my kids getting out of their seats for this and that and the other thing, so this week was put down my foot time. Otherwise it’s just so distracting to me and to the other kids so I’ve been stricter about that lately. I had tutorias which went pretty well because I only had 4 kids; Mr. Lara took the others for math. I felt a little more productive in the small group setting with the kids and I feel that at least in that time they remembered and understood what we talked about in science. I also played Euchre tonight for the first time since this summer with Kirsty, Tad and Julia. It was a blast because me, Tad and Julia know how to play pretty well, but Kirsty is still a novice so we played an open hand and then the following hands we had to remind her of a few rules like following suit, when to lay trump, and not reneging. But we got through a game and promised to play again to keep improving her Euchre skills.
Monday, January 18
I was not ready for this day because of how fast the weekend went with going to San Pedro and I wasn’t feeling too well. I have a decent amount of free periods though so that helped me to ease into the week at least. I just didn’t feel fully aware of everything that was going since my sinuses were stuffy and it’s harder to stay patient when I don’t feel well either. When I was coming back to the classroom after lunch, Adolfo met me and was like, “Miss don’t open the door, recess isn’t done yet (which it was)!” I kept telling them I had to open the door and Adolfo and Dani started literally dragging me away from the door! It started out like oh haha you’re pulling me away, but they were strong kids! It only took two of them to make it difficult for me to keep moving forward. It was kinda fun though. I stayed after school to grade things, headed home, did some stuff around the house, made dinner, and hung out and joked around a bit with LB, Mr. B, Tad, and Kirsty. One thing though is the internet keeps me up later, which is not a good thing; I like it in our house, but it can be a curse as well as a blessing!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Weekend January 15-17
Friday, January 15
I finished my first full week back from vacation and the day ended up pretty well. It was Hilary’s last day in Gracias and I wanted her to go to the hot springs. So I tried to get ahold of Fausto since he has a truck instead of a mototaxi now and could more easily take us to the nice hot springs. Unfortunately he didn’t answer his phone so we didn’t end up going! Instead we just hung out together, played cards and watched movies at night.
Saturday, January 16
Today we got on our way to SPS, though later than I had wanted. Ana had said she was going to go with me and Hil, but then she felt sick and had misplaced her wallet; but then she found her wallet and decided to come with us and see how it went being sick. Hilary had her first mototaxi ride down the mountain on her last day; there was some miscommunication between the bus, where Ana was, where we were, but eventually we all got on the same bus to Santa Rosa. The bus ride there wasn’t too bad as far as being busy; I think it’s because we left later. When we got to Santa Rosa and had to switch to San Pedro, it was a little more crazy. All the men were out saying go to this bus and one even took Hilary’s suitcase saying we should come on this bus because it’s leaving now. Well Ana stepped in thank goodness, got the suitcase back and we rode a nicer, safer bus to San Pedro. The hotel picked us up at the terminal (I was worried we wouldn’t be able to find them) and we arrived at the hotel. We were starving so we got a taxi to the mall and ate at Applebee’s. After dinner we went shopping at Zara’s and were almost done and then Ana started feeling sick and got sick in Zara’s, poor thing. We kept shopping for a little bit after because she needed some workout pants and then got a taxi back to hotel to chill. We watched American Idol, the starting episodes, so that was cool to be able to see some American show for a night.
Sunday, January 17
We got up, had breakfast and took the shuttle to the airport to bring Hil. I said bye and was sad to see her go and wanted to make sure she got through everything ok. Ana and I left the airport and headed to the bus terminal where I was able to find out some more stuff for transporation for Semana Santa. After waiting a little bit, we boarded our direct bus to Gracias from San Pedro. The only difference between an indirect and direct bus here it seems is that with the direct bus we didn’t need to get off at Santa Rosa. But we still stopped at almost every stop along the way from San Pedro to Gracias. We had a CRAZY bus driver; for example on the way out our bus was racing another and honestly we almost crashed into the other bus with a side-on collision and this happened twice. I started praying right then that we got home safe. I started feeling sick that day too with stuffy/runny nose and sore throat. We arrived back in Gracias and headed back up the hill for chili for dinner by Jacki. It was a long/short weekend for me and I did not feel quite prepared for it to be Monday.
I finished my first full week back from vacation and the day ended up pretty well. It was Hilary’s last day in Gracias and I wanted her to go to the hot springs. So I tried to get ahold of Fausto since he has a truck instead of a mototaxi now and could more easily take us to the nice hot springs. Unfortunately he didn’t answer his phone so we didn’t end up going! Instead we just hung out together, played cards and watched movies at night.
Saturday, January 16
Today we got on our way to SPS, though later than I had wanted. Ana had said she was going to go with me and Hil, but then she felt sick and had misplaced her wallet; but then she found her wallet and decided to come with us and see how it went being sick. Hilary had her first mototaxi ride down the mountain on her last day; there was some miscommunication between the bus, where Ana was, where we were, but eventually we all got on the same bus to Santa Rosa. The bus ride there wasn’t too bad as far as being busy; I think it’s because we left later. When we got to Santa Rosa and had to switch to San Pedro, it was a little more crazy. All the men were out saying go to this bus and one even took Hilary’s suitcase saying we should come on this bus because it’s leaving now. Well Ana stepped in thank goodness, got the suitcase back and we rode a nicer, safer bus to San Pedro. The hotel picked us up at the terminal (I was worried we wouldn’t be able to find them) and we arrived at the hotel. We were starving so we got a taxi to the mall and ate at Applebee’s. After dinner we went shopping at Zara’s and were almost done and then Ana started feeling sick and got sick in Zara’s, poor thing. We kept shopping for a little bit after because she needed some workout pants and then got a taxi back to hotel to chill. We watched American Idol, the starting episodes, so that was cool to be able to see some American show for a night.
Sunday, January 17
We got up, had breakfast and took the shuttle to the airport to bring Hil. I said bye and was sad to see her go and wanted to make sure she got through everything ok. Ana and I left the airport and headed to the bus terminal where I was able to find out some more stuff for transporation for Semana Santa. After waiting a little bit, we boarded our direct bus to Gracias from San Pedro. The only difference between an indirect and direct bus here it seems is that with the direct bus we didn’t need to get off at Santa Rosa. But we still stopped at almost every stop along the way from San Pedro to Gracias. We had a CRAZY bus driver; for example on the way out our bus was racing another and honestly we almost crashed into the other bus with a side-on collision and this happened twice. I started praying right then that we got home safe. I started feeling sick that day too with stuffy/runny nose and sore throat. We arrived back in Gracias and headed back up the hill for chili for dinner by Jacki. It was a long/short weekend for me and I did not feel quite prepared for it to be Monday.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Thursday, January 14
Usually Thursdays are one of my more relaxing days of the week, but today it was a tough one. It started out ok, then I had a meeting with Mr. Calderon. He explained to me some special needs of some kids in my classroom, how to help them and also some pointers/suggestions on how to run the class better with discipline and keeping the kids attention. They weren’t necessarily personal to me, but it still made me feel like I still don’t do enough to discipline my kids when I feel like that’s all I do sometimes. I don’t know if I didn’t start out hard enough on them and now there’s not the routine which helps my class run smoothly or if Mr. Calderon is expecting too much. It was just another thing to make me feel like I don’t know how to do this job and wonder why I’m being a teacher for a year. I don’t know what else to do to get my kids to behave and pay attention in class. Then they continued to not pay attention during the day which made things worse for me; I even sent some to the hall. After school I had tutorias, which are the kids who need the most help in the classes they struggle in. I asked them at least 3-5 times for their attention and they would give it for a second then start talking again. Finally fed up, I walked out and went to the office to get Mr. Lara to come talk to them and that helped some. Also progress reports are due tomorrow so that’s another thing to add to the plate of not fun stuff today. I just wasn’t in a good mood during the day. I get so hard on myself and want to be able to do everything I should to be the best teacher, but I don’t know what to change, how to change, how to adjust things to kids, how to have more patience, to be more creative and still be structured….ugh.
Wednesday, January 13
Normal school day; it was chilly and we had chapel. We are learning about the sea in science and we were talking about different intertidal zones. I was talking about sea anemones and how that’s what Nemo, the fish, lived in. Marquito comes up to me and is like, “Miss, Nemo is in the word anemone!” And it took a fifth grader to point that out to me after all these years of watching Nemo. I was jus tlike yeah it is, until I realized how smart that was to realize that! The school started this new thing wehre Rodrigo, one of the new staff in the office, will take us down the town on Wednesdays after school to do our shopping and then bring us back up. The thing is we have to do all of this in ONE hour! So we have to ride down, get to the bank, go to Dinora’s, go to the market and drive up the mountain, trying to do this in less than an hour! This was our first time doing it, so hopefully we can get better at speed shopping and splitting up. When we rode back up the mountain, I was in the back of the truck and there was this turpentine stuff (some liquid that smelled really nasty) and it started leaking! I grabbed it, it got all over my hand, and I tried to keep it right side up the rest of the way flying up the mountain. Eventually it stopped leaking, but my hand smelt like gasoline for the rest of the night…yuck.
Tuesday, January 12
Since we arrived back in Honduras, it’s been relatively cold. Again by cold, I mean 50s or low 60s during the day with clouds and 40s at night. And for those in Michigan that sounds like a great spring day. Well it is, but again, when your house has no indoor heating, your school is very open, and your living area is a glorified tent with walls. I never thought I’d wear a scarf or mittens to school or in my house…yes, yes I did. I’m ready for the warmer, more pleasant weather to come back. And for Hilary I feel bad that she doesn’t get to enjoy the nicer weather being here! The school day went pretty well; I got a little impatient with my kids before lunch. They seem to be talking more often when I’m talking, like it will take a few times of asking for their attention, counting down and waiting for quiet. But they still make me laugh sometimes. For example, I have Uno cards they can play sometimes and they ask me when they want to play: “Miss, can we play One? (instead of Uno)” It’s hilarious! Also, Claudia didn’t know what my mittens were called so she said, “Miss can I borrow…how do you say this? (pointing to my mittens and I reply with mittens)… “Mittens….like a cat’s name!” So cute.
Monday, January 11
Today was probably the best Monday I’ve had here for a few reasons. First the school day went pretty well overall, which is always great. Second we had been hearing another American teacher, a guy, was coming this week and we were all excited to meet him. Third, we had been trying to get internet up at our house for about a week and the internet guy finally came today! So right after school we had a meeting to go over our end of the parcial stuff and as we were finishing the new teacher came. So we all went out to meet him; his name’s Tad and small world we figured out we have mutual friends, but he’s from West Michigan so not a big surprise either! Anyways, the internet guy came at the same time and was ready to go up to our house to install the internet! We still had to get the router for our house, so we all headed down the mountain with the Lara’s, whom had been showing Tad the comedor (Sonia’s house) where he was going to live. We wanted to welcome Tad to Gracias so we took him to Bella Celaque and suggested baleadas. We had a good dinner, then ran to get our router and headed back up the mountain with the internet guy. He installed the internet, which is via satellite, hooked up the router and viola! We had internet in our house!!!! It was crazy we probably all spent the rest of the night being amazed by the power of technology that you can get internet in the mountains of Honduras. It was kinda expensive to install but split between 7 people, it wasn’t too bad, and then it’s only $10USD/month/person. So now I can keep in better communication with people (hopefully). It was a great Monday.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Weekend January 8-10
Friday went by pretty well at school and the kids and teachers were both ready for the weekend to rest some more after vacation. It’s funny because vacation is supposed to be a time to rest, but it always seems that when you come back from vacation you are tired! Candido and Jofet (two neighbor boys, ages 4 and 6) came over and we were playing Jenga and they wanted to play. So they stayed for quite a long time playing Jenga. They were a little young to play, but actually did quite well and loved it when it fell and made a huge noise. Then they decided to use the Jenga blocks as building blocks for a while, building houses and fences. So cute. Friday night was pretty chill at our house. We made one of our classic dishes, stir fry, which was amazing as always. Jacki and Sarah decided to do some interpretive dancing/exercise to MIA and other music so that was some our entertainment for the evening. Hil and I watched the Kite Runner, then headed to bed.
Saturday all of us but Jacki and Sarah walked down to town; they stayed behind because they were repainting their room. It was a perfect day to walk down to town, not too hot. We got to town, went to the bank, Guancascos, then to Bella Celaque for lunch. I wanted Hilary to be able to have some more tipico Honduran food; she’s already had baleadas. It was delicious as always. Afterwards we went to the market for some fresh food and to look around at the things being sold to see if Hil wanted anything. Gracias doesn’t really have many typical Honduran souvenirs, but it was fun to walk around, too. We saw Candido in the market because his mom works there and he came running up to us and gave us all hugs. He kept asking his mom if he could go with us and she told him no he’s sick and he can play with us later at our house. Well he wasn’t too happy about that and kept asking her and we told him he could come up later that night and play. Finally his mom said no, stop asking and he started bawling! It broke my heart to leave him. Poor kid, he has to stay in the market all day instead of playing with us or other kids. We headed back up soon after, and then Jacki and Sarah headed down. Their room looked great; so white and clean. Hilary helped me grade some stuff and we just chilled and made dinner. We’ve been trying to figure out this whole internet thing up at our house deal and it turns out it’ll be more expensive than we originally thought, but we’re still going to go ahead with it and hopefully have internet by sometime next week up at our house! It’s cheaper than going to Guancascos and paying for a meal and mototaxi two times a week, if you can believe it. Saturday night Hilary and I watched another movie and then went to bed.
Sunday we slept in, had pancakes for breakfast and relaxed all afternoon. Hilary and I walked down to school to bring some of my supplies to my classroom I didn’t bring this week and then afterwards I showed her the river near the school. We had church with the neighborhood at night and there was a dogfight during the service which was crazy and kinda scary actually! These dogs would slam up against the door, barking and running around. After church we had soup for dinner and got ready for our full week of school.
Saturday all of us but Jacki and Sarah walked down to town; they stayed behind because they were repainting their room. It was a perfect day to walk down to town, not too hot. We got to town, went to the bank, Guancascos, then to Bella Celaque for lunch. I wanted Hilary to be able to have some more tipico Honduran food; she’s already had baleadas. It was delicious as always. Afterwards we went to the market for some fresh food and to look around at the things being sold to see if Hil wanted anything. Gracias doesn’t really have many typical Honduran souvenirs, but it was fun to walk around, too. We saw Candido in the market because his mom works there and he came running up to us and gave us all hugs. He kept asking his mom if he could go with us and she told him no he’s sick and he can play with us later at our house. Well he wasn’t too happy about that and kept asking her and we told him he could come up later that night and play. Finally his mom said no, stop asking and he started bawling! It broke my heart to leave him. Poor kid, he has to stay in the market all day instead of playing with us or other kids. We headed back up soon after, and then Jacki and Sarah headed down. Their room looked great; so white and clean. Hilary helped me grade some stuff and we just chilled and made dinner. We’ve been trying to figure out this whole internet thing up at our house deal and it turns out it’ll be more expensive than we originally thought, but we’re still going to go ahead with it and hopefully have internet by sometime next week up at our house! It’s cheaper than going to Guancascos and paying for a meal and mototaxi two times a week, if you can believe it. Saturday night Hilary and I watched another movie and then went to bed.
Sunday we slept in, had pancakes for breakfast and relaxed all afternoon. Hilary and I walked down to school to bring some of my supplies to my classroom I didn’t bring this week and then afterwards I showed her the river near the school. We had church with the neighborhood at night and there was a dogfight during the service which was crazy and kinda scary actually! These dogs would slam up against the door, barking and running around. After church we had soup for dinner and got ready for our full week of school.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Thursday, January 7
I have quite a few free periods on Thursdays which was nice to plan for next week and get organized in my classroom. Hilary helped me out in the morning because Mrs. Lopez didn’t have any social studies classes; it was great having her there to give me help. In science we learned about water so I did a demonstration with kids with pairs of hydrogen atoms together with one atom of oxygen. I think visuals are a good thing and I want to do them more often in my class instead of just always copying down notes, but my kids were so talkative when I was trying to explain the demonstration to them. So we’ll keep trying a few more times with demonstrations if it helps them remember better. I’m really behind in Language and I don’t know what to do to catch up or go any faster. The English Language and grammar is hard to learn if you’re a native speaker sometimes, much more when it’s your second language. So it takes me that much longer to explain things because I want to make sure they understand the material; many times one lesson has to be split into two. We had tutorias after school today and Hilary was there to help; she took my reading kids and I did stuff with the language kids. We came back home, relaxed, talked and joked around. Julia recently moved up to Villa Verde as well, so it’s awesome to have all of us girls in the same place; we can talk and hang out together more frequently.
Wednesday, January 6
First day back at school….tough. I felt like it was a dream and I was going through the motions of teaching. I think it was hard for the kids too; they kept saying they were sleepy, they wanted more vacation and I agreed with them! But we got through the day together, talked to them about their breaks a little bit. Hilary’s first day there so she met Mrs. Lopez and the principals and is starting to get things set up for her time her helping Mrs. Lopez. She was with me for the first part of the day and the kids decided to call her Ms. Sneden 2 haha. So I showed her around school, explained the basics to her and she seemed to enjoy her first day at ALCS. Mr. Sebens, the kids’ teacher from last year, had sent some things for the classroom and the kids and they really enjoyed hearing from him in his card and receiving his gifts. My kids’ art teacher wasn’t here today so I decided to have them make some things ahead for Valentines’ Day; they all added their unique touch of creativity to the valentines. For example, I said they could make hearts, chocolate, flowers or candy. Alvaro asked me if he could make a chocolate ninja to which I said sure why not! Hilary and I stayed after for a while organizing my classroom and then headed home. One thing we didn’t expect coming back was how cool the weather was going to be. Again we had no central heating so temperature outside seeps in very easily. It’s been in the low 60s with wind and clouds, which feels chilly after being in it all day. Currently I am wearing 2 pairs of socks, a scarf, tank top, T-shirt, jacket, and sweatpants. Never thought Honduras would be chilly, but I can handle it better than the cold back home! Sonia made us baleadas for dinner (no charge!) so that was amazing.
Sunday and Monday, January 3 & 4, 2010
Coming Back: We left really early to get to O’Hare and we had a fine flight to Houston with a short connection to SPS. Our flight to SPS had a little turbulence so I was a little scared, but we landed fine. We went to the hotel, took naps, had dinner at Applebee’s with Julia and Hil, came back, talked, watched TV, and went to bed. We were picked up by Espinals in the late morning, went to shop for house stuff and groceries, which took longer than I thought it would take the Espinals, so we left SPS at about 5 and got to Gracias at 9 pm. Then Rodrigo and Humberto brought us and all of our luggage up the mountain in their trucks. We had so much stuff it was almost embarrassing; a lot of it was for our classrooms though. Tuesday we went to town late morning after pancakes to get groceries and internet. Then we headed back up, cleaned the house, organized my room, and got stuff ready for school tomorrow.
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