Some funny things: I was telling Carlos how to do his language assignment and I was like “You’re smart you can do it!” And Leonela laughs and was like, “Miss Sneden you told Carlos to do it!” I was like, “Leonela what is going on in your mind!” Crazy kids.
Most people who know me know I like Michigan State. Well I have not just one, but two Michigan alum teaching down here with me (Kirsty and Tad). They are both very proud of their university, but Tad is let’s say a little more outspoken about it. He has taught his Nivelacion class (kids learning English this year) the “Hail to the Victors” song. I hear this song about once a day coming out of his classroom from these kids. I stopped by his classroom to tell him something about our passports and the kids (knowing I’m not a Michigan fan) break out in the song; I was like, “No way…” and walked away. Ah young impressionable minds; they probably don’t even know what they’re singing.
Kirsty had gone to the US this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to interview at a law school she’s been wait-listed at, so all of us teachers took some of her classes throughout the week. I taught second grade math Wednesday (they had a test) and science on Thursday (about being cheerful, respectful, and honoring/obeying authority as a part of their health curriculum. I felt so different in the way I spoke with them: my tone, being even more deliberate and slow in my pronunciation with them and using simpler words. They were so well behaved though, almost always asking to get up to get anything. Loved it.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday, April 22
It’s been raining almost every afternoon here now; I think the rainy season has arrived! And yet I still forget to bring my raincoat. Wednesday we went to town like usual, but in the rain so I was all wet. I stayed at Guancascos to use the internet since it wasn’t working well at the house. Thursday I instituted a new checkmark system for classroom management. My kids are good kids and few give me actual attitude, but they do tend to interrupt each other and me or get out of their seat quite often without permission, which is frustrating when I’m trying to teach. So I was stricter with them that if they did those things, increasing checkmarks with increasing consequences. I try to be lenient, but I also need to follow through because if I don’t, my class might get too out of hand by the end of the year.
After school and the afternoon downpour, Tad and I decided to check out the river behind my house because we hadn’t been down there since we’ve received all this rain. We hiked on down, wearing shorts because it was still humid. We climbed over our normal spot we sit on and went up the river a little ways, finding a nice rock to sit on. We were sitting there, enjoying the view and the rush of the water since we hadn’t heard that in a month or two, when my foot near the water started getting wetter. It kept getting wetter until we turned around and literally saw a rush of water coming down the river. I was like, “Go, go!” and we scrambled over the rocks to get to the opposite closest shore. In 10 seconds or less the spot we had been sitting on was under water! We were just ‘in the right place at the right time’ with the time delay from the storm to the water rushing down the mountain. Stuck on the opposite side of the river, we had to figure out a way to get back to the correct side. We found a fallen tree, shimmied across that, stomped over some tall grass, and followed the water pipes to the field behind our house. Our legs were all scratched up from wearing shorts, but it was quite the adventure; we won’t be going down to the river after a rainstorm any time soon.
After school and the afternoon downpour, Tad and I decided to check out the river behind my house because we hadn’t been down there since we’ve received all this rain. We hiked on down, wearing shorts because it was still humid. We climbed over our normal spot we sit on and went up the river a little ways, finding a nice rock to sit on. We were sitting there, enjoying the view and the rush of the water since we hadn’t heard that in a month or two, when my foot near the water started getting wetter. It kept getting wetter until we turned around and literally saw a rush of water coming down the river. I was like, “Go, go!” and we scrambled over the rocks to get to the opposite closest shore. In 10 seconds or less the spot we had been sitting on was under water! We were just ‘in the right place at the right time’ with the time delay from the storm to the water rushing down the mountain. Stuck on the opposite side of the river, we had to figure out a way to get back to the correct side. We found a fallen tree, shimmied across that, stomped over some tall grass, and followed the water pipes to the field behind our house. Our legs were all scratched up from wearing shorts, but it was quite the adventure; we won’t be going down to the river after a rainstorm any time soon.
Tuesday, April 20
Tuesday was a very tough day with everything that had happened on Monday. I woke up and literally did not want to go to school and almost didn’t. I got ready although dirty and decided against makeup because I didn’t feel like it. I literally did not want to be in Honduras at this point in time. I wanted to teletransport to American for a while. It wasn’t just one thing that had brought this frustration, but last night with no water was the last straw for me. I gathered myself together as best as I could and went to school. I tried to put my frustration behind me and not let it affect the way I interacted with my kids because after all everything that happened was not their fault and they shouldn’t get the affect of it. But they were also not listening very well that day which added to my shorter fuse, so during reading I was waiting for their attention and put my head in my hand and the tears started coming. I tried holding them back, but they started coming so I kept my head down and tried to not let my kids see (they did and started murmuring, “Miss Sneden’s crying”) and walked outside the classroom to try to compose myself. I let a few tears go, wiped them off and came back inside to start science.
I eventually made it through the day and the rest of the week went a little better, especially since we got our water back later that day! A shower has only felt that good to me a few other times in my life! Jacki and Sarah had stayed home on Tuesday, so we had one of the best dinners we’ve had in Honduras so far to eat: chicken with this good sauce, homemade bread, green beans, and pasta salad and for dessert carrot cake with frosting. WOW. I felt so fat after that!
I eventually made it through the day and the rest of the week went a little better, especially since we got our water back later that day! A shower has only felt that good to me a few other times in my life! Jacki and Sarah had stayed home on Tuesday, so we had one of the best dinners we’ve had in Honduras so far to eat: chicken with this good sauce, homemade bread, green beans, and pasta salad and for dessert carrot cake with frosting. WOW. I felt so fat after that!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday and Monday, April 18 & 19
After our cliff diving adventure we thanked our guide for the amazing adventure and relaxed at the restaurant. Just as we were about to leave, we saw this couple we had met at the brewery the night before, Stacy and Harrison. They had been at the park as well and we all needed to get back to Pena Blanca. They spoke better Spanish than we did, so they helped us figure out we couldn’t get a taxi as cheap as we wanted to, so we’d have to wait for a bus. We walked to the edge of town and were told the bus might be awhile. Stacy thankfully hailed a truck for us on her third try, so we rode in the bed of a truck to the town and walked to the brewery from there. When we arrived there was some confusion about our lodging for that night since we were switching rooms; I wasn’t even sure we’d have a room the way it was sounding. Bob, the owner, took care of it though and things were all squared away. I was frustrated at my lack of understanding of Spanish again, tired from the long day, and then the confusion about our lodging for the night as well put me in a bad mood, but I rested a while and then had some dinner and felt better. We talked to Stacy and Harrison over dinner about a ton of things; Harrison was a Peace Corp worker and Stacy had taught English in Ecuador for a year. We met a variety of people at the brewery, which is always cool to hear everyone’s stories of why they’re in Honduras and where they’re from and where they’re going. I love it. It had been cloudy and thundering all day and it finally rained that night, which was so calming to listen to as I was falling asleep.
Monday we got up a decent hour, had breakfast, and called a mototaxi, who arrived later than we hoped. We got a bus to SPS from Pena Blanca and when we arrived arranged our transporation to Santa Rosa with a nicer bus line. We left around 2 pm, but then around 15 minutes outside of SPS, the bus breaks down. We are sitting in this hot bus, while the driver and ticket guy are trying to fix it. Eventually I got off the bus; I couldn’t handle sitting in the heat just sweating anymore. We waited for an hour for another bus from this line to get there, but when another bus towards Santa Rosa came, we jumped on it and lost the money we paid for on the broken bus. New tickets bought, we headed towards Santa Rosa at like 3:30ish and arrived around 6:30ish. I saw no buses in the terminal, only taxis. I ran across the street to get money from the ATM because I had none, and the ATM WAS OUT OF MONEY. It would happen.
At this point I was extremely frustrated because there were no more buses to Gracias so we’d either have to pay a taxi $30 to take us there or stay the night. Thankfully another guy needed to go to Gracias and we split the cab ride with him, with just enough money to pay the $10 each. The cab ride was a thrill ride: in the fog, at night with twisty roads and the cab driver’s car was not top notch, either. In Gracias, we called a mototaxi to bring us up the mountain and we didn’t even have money to pay for it! Thankfully our moto-driver was our neighbor and let us pay him back later. All I wanted at the end of this crazy long day was to take a shower to wash away the sweat, dirt and frustration. I got home and…we had NO running water. It had off all day so all our dishes were dirty, no one had taken showers since yesterday. That was the last straw for me. I did NOT want to be in Honduras that night. I wanted to go home to the United States where everything was clean, efficient, doesn’t break down and if it does, it’s fixed ASAP or get great customer service. Needless to say that was one my least favorite days in Honduras and unfortunately put a gray cloud over an otherwise awesome weekend.
Monday we got up a decent hour, had breakfast, and called a mototaxi, who arrived later than we hoped. We got a bus to SPS from Pena Blanca and when we arrived arranged our transporation to Santa Rosa with a nicer bus line. We left around 2 pm, but then around 15 minutes outside of SPS, the bus breaks down. We are sitting in this hot bus, while the driver and ticket guy are trying to fix it. Eventually I got off the bus; I couldn’t handle sitting in the heat just sweating anymore. We waited for an hour for another bus from this line to get there, but when another bus towards Santa Rosa came, we jumped on it and lost the money we paid for on the broken bus. New tickets bought, we headed towards Santa Rosa at like 3:30ish and arrived around 6:30ish. I saw no buses in the terminal, only taxis. I ran across the street to get money from the ATM because I had none, and the ATM WAS OUT OF MONEY. It would happen.
At this point I was extremely frustrated because there were no more buses to Gracias so we’d either have to pay a taxi $30 to take us there or stay the night. Thankfully another guy needed to go to Gracias and we split the cab ride with him, with just enough money to pay the $10 each. The cab ride was a thrill ride: in the fog, at night with twisty roads and the cab driver’s car was not top notch, either. In Gracias, we called a mototaxi to bring us up the mountain and we didn’t even have money to pay for it! Thankfully our moto-driver was our neighbor and let us pay him back later. All I wanted at the end of this crazy long day was to take a shower to wash away the sweat, dirt and frustration. I got home and…we had NO running water. It had off all day so all our dishes were dirty, no one had taken showers since yesterday. That was the last straw for me. I did NOT want to be in Honduras that night. I wanted to go home to the United States where everything was clean, efficient, doesn’t break down and if it does, it’s fixed ASAP or get great customer service. Needless to say that was one my least favorite days in Honduras and unfortunately put a gray cloud over an otherwise awesome weekend.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday April 16, 17, & 18
April 16, 17 & 18
Friday
Friday went fine at school; I feel more laid back on Fridays because I get to wear jeans and it’s the last day before the weekend. After school, Tad and I went down in town to use internet since it wasn’t working at the house because of the weather. First we tried Guancascos and the internet wasn’t working there; so we went to Don Juans and it wasn’t working there either! After a few tries, it started up. I had assumed and heard that if you bought something, like a drink or whatever, then you didn’t have to pay internet. We bought a few drinks and then dinner later since it was getting late, but when we went to pay, we ending up having to pay for internet and dinner and our drinks. Not doing that again!
Saturday
This weekend I took a trip to Lake Yojoa, which is one of the biggest lakes in Honduras. I’ve heard it’s beautiful around there. There’s also the only microbrewery located just outside the lake. Jacki and Kirsty had been here over Semana Santa and raved about it, saying how the food and drinks and surroundings were amazing, so that’s where I went! The unfortunate thing about Honduras is that what would take about 3 hours total if there were direct roads and we had a car takes about 6-7 hours via public transportation. So the trip started at 5am with a mototaxi ride to Gracias to catch a bus to Santa Rosa, to catch a bus to SPS, to catch a bus to Pena Blanca, which is near the lake. After arriving in Pena Blanca, you take a 10 minute mototaxi ride to the brewery. We arrived at at the brewery (called D & D; it’s owned by a guy from Oregon) around 1 pm. We checked into our room and as we were walking towards the restaurant to eat food, we hear, “Tad?!” Out comes Pat, one of Tad’s friends, Renske (one of the European girls who teaches in La Union) and a few other people. We were like no way. They were staying by the lake, too, at a different hotel, but had come to enjoy the brewery so we joined them for lunch and enjoyed spending the afternoon with them. They had all come with Renske and Laura’s host dad, Alvin, who owns the bus station La Union and is well known there. We had some good conversations in Spanish and English about how Americans are with sending money to developing countries. Do they do it to say, ‘Look how much money I gave to build this one classroom and look what I did to help these poor people?’ or do they do it humbly and let the Hondurans use the money they sent to build not just one classroom, but four? Someone had sent money to the school and only wanted to use this money to build one classroom, when it was more than enough to build four. But the donor said only one. It was just interesting seeing the perspective of a Honduran on that. After relaxing for the afternoon, the whole crew came back to have dinner with us. I really enjoyed talking with Laura and Renske for a bit, along with everyone else. We talked about going on a large fishing boat onto the lake the next day and they said they’d let us know if that worked out.
Sunday
Unfortunately the next day at breakfast we got a call from Pat. He told us one of the other guys who was there the night before, Derrick, had fallen off the back of Alvin’s pickup and cut his head open and had to get stitches late last night. So we wouldn’t be going onto the lake that day. I really wanted to see the lake though because I heard it was beautiful, so we walked almost to Pena Blanca when a taxi came and brought us to the hotel we wanted to go to on the lake, Agua Azul. It had a terrace restaurant with a great view of the lake. It wasn’t the clearest day that day, kinda hazy, but it just added to the beauty and the mystery of the lake. We weren’t quite sure how to make it back to town, but we asked the people inside and they told us to just wait for a bus to take us back to Pena Blanca. It worked. Love Honduras.
Tad and I decided we wanted to go to this waterfall we had heard about and that it was quite a sight to see. So we took another crowded bus to the drop off point and proceeded to walk until we found the entrance to the park. I tried talking to the guy and basically understood what he was trying to say about going in, needing to find a guide if we wanted to see the waterfall, go here, pay here, etc, etc, but I was still so frustrated I didn’t understand everything. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of just because I didn’t speak good Spanish and didn’t know what was going on. Well we decided to pay the guide to take us to the waterfall, so we paid the entrance fee, found our guide, left our stuff in the restaurant (he was like ‘You don’t need anything; you’re going to get very wet’) and headed towards the waterfall. I had no idea what to expect of this waterfall or what exactly we had paid this guide for, so I was blown away when I saw the size of the waterfall. It was about 140 foot waterfall; absolutely gorgeous. We kept walking, went through this gate and proceeded to climb along the rocks right next to the waterfall with our guide. We got close and were getting soaked and then he told us we were going behind the waterfall, but first had to jump into this pool from about 5 feet. We did it, and kept going towards the waterfall. It was so hard to breathe with the water rushing over top of me and getting in my eyes. I just had the guide lead me. Finally we made it so we were standing behind the waterfall; I could look up and see the water rushing over top of me. It was breathtaking and amazing.
We rested in a little cave behind the fall for some air and then made our way back to the cliff we were going to jump off of. Yes, I went cliff jumping (into water). Our guide pointed out the spot we needed to jump to; Tad went first and then I took about 5 minutes to work up the courage to actually do it. The highest cliff I jumped off of was 26 feet high; it hurt when I hit the water and I was freaking out a little in the air because it was a longer hang time. I’m so glad I did it though! I would have regretted it if I hadn’t; this was my reasoning to make myself jump: if I didn’t, when would I get the chance to again. After I went Tad jumped in a second time, which meant I had to as well, but after that I was finished; it hurt too much!
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Friday
Friday went fine at school; I feel more laid back on Fridays because I get to wear jeans and it’s the last day before the weekend. After school, Tad and I went down in town to use internet since it wasn’t working at the house because of the weather. First we tried Guancascos and the internet wasn’t working there; so we went to Don Juans and it wasn’t working there either! After a few tries, it started up. I had assumed and heard that if you bought something, like a drink or whatever, then you didn’t have to pay internet. We bought a few drinks and then dinner later since it was getting late, but when we went to pay, we ending up having to pay for internet and dinner and our drinks. Not doing that again!
Saturday
This weekend I took a trip to Lake Yojoa, which is one of the biggest lakes in Honduras. I’ve heard it’s beautiful around there. There’s also the only microbrewery located just outside the lake. Jacki and Kirsty had been here over Semana Santa and raved about it, saying how the food and drinks and surroundings were amazing, so that’s where I went! The unfortunate thing about Honduras is that what would take about 3 hours total if there were direct roads and we had a car takes about 6-7 hours via public transportation. So the trip started at 5am with a mototaxi ride to Gracias to catch a bus to Santa Rosa, to catch a bus to SPS, to catch a bus to Pena Blanca, which is near the lake. After arriving in Pena Blanca, you take a 10 minute mototaxi ride to the brewery. We arrived at at the brewery (called D & D; it’s owned by a guy from Oregon) around 1 pm. We checked into our room and as we were walking towards the restaurant to eat food, we hear, “Tad?!” Out comes Pat, one of Tad’s friends, Renske (one of the European girls who teaches in La Union) and a few other people. We were like no way. They were staying by the lake, too, at a different hotel, but had come to enjoy the brewery so we joined them for lunch and enjoyed spending the afternoon with them. They had all come with Renske and Laura’s host dad, Alvin, who owns the bus station La Union and is well known there. We had some good conversations in Spanish and English about how Americans are with sending money to developing countries. Do they do it to say, ‘Look how much money I gave to build this one classroom and look what I did to help these poor people?’ or do they do it humbly and let the Hondurans use the money they sent to build not just one classroom, but four? Someone had sent money to the school and only wanted to use this money to build one classroom, when it was more than enough to build four. But the donor said only one. It was just interesting seeing the perspective of a Honduran on that. After relaxing for the afternoon, the whole crew came back to have dinner with us. I really enjoyed talking with Laura and Renske for a bit, along with everyone else. We talked about going on a large fishing boat onto the lake the next day and they said they’d let us know if that worked out.
Sunday
Unfortunately the next day at breakfast we got a call from Pat. He told us one of the other guys who was there the night before, Derrick, had fallen off the back of Alvin’s pickup and cut his head open and had to get stitches late last night. So we wouldn’t be going onto the lake that day. I really wanted to see the lake though because I heard it was beautiful, so we walked almost to Pena Blanca when a taxi came and brought us to the hotel we wanted to go to on the lake, Agua Azul. It had a terrace restaurant with a great view of the lake. It wasn’t the clearest day that day, kinda hazy, but it just added to the beauty and the mystery of the lake. We weren’t quite sure how to make it back to town, but we asked the people inside and they told us to just wait for a bus to take us back to Pena Blanca. It worked. Love Honduras.
Tad and I decided we wanted to go to this waterfall we had heard about and that it was quite a sight to see. So we took another crowded bus to the drop off point and proceeded to walk until we found the entrance to the park. I tried talking to the guy and basically understood what he was trying to say about going in, needing to find a guide if we wanted to see the waterfall, go here, pay here, etc, etc, but I was still so frustrated I didn’t understand everything. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of just because I didn’t speak good Spanish and didn’t know what was going on. Well we decided to pay the guide to take us to the waterfall, so we paid the entrance fee, found our guide, left our stuff in the restaurant (he was like ‘You don’t need anything; you’re going to get very wet’) and headed towards the waterfall. I had no idea what to expect of this waterfall or what exactly we had paid this guide for, so I was blown away when I saw the size of the waterfall. It was about 140 foot waterfall; absolutely gorgeous. We kept walking, went through this gate and proceeded to climb along the rocks right next to the waterfall with our guide. We got close and were getting soaked and then he told us we were going behind the waterfall, but first had to jump into this pool from about 5 feet. We did it, and kept going towards the waterfall. It was so hard to breathe with the water rushing over top of me and getting in my eyes. I just had the guide lead me. Finally we made it so we were standing behind the waterfall; I could look up and see the water rushing over top of me. It was breathtaking and amazing.
We rested in a little cave behind the fall for some air and then made our way back to the cliff we were going to jump off of. Yes, I went cliff jumping (into water). Our guide pointed out the spot we needed to jump to; Tad went first and then I took about 5 minutes to work up the courage to actually do it. The highest cliff I jumped off of was 26 feet high; it hurt when I hit the water and I was freaking out a little in the air because it was a longer hang time. I’m so glad I did it though! I would have regretted it if I hadn’t; this was my reasoning to make myself jump: if I didn’t, when would I get the chance to again. After I went Tad jumped in a second time, which meant I had to as well, but after that I was finished; it hurt too much!
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Friday, April 23, 2010
Monday-Friday, April 12-16
The days have been going alright this week. The amount of emotions I go through in a day is crazy; sometimes I feel so frustrated with the administration or my kids I could cry and then the next hour my kids do something that makes me smile or laugh. All these little frustrations keep building up throughout the day, whether because of the administration, my kids, not being able to teach well or handle my kids problems well, people being disrespectful and inconsiderate, etc, etc . All these little things add up everyday and have really dragging me down. I consider myself a flexible person most of the time and I can usually roll with the punches alright and let things go after they happen, but lately that hasn’t been the case and I don’t know why, which is aggravating. I think God uses my kids sometimes to show me how he feels when he’s trying to talk to me and I won’t listen or he’s trying to get my attention and I’m ignoring him. Maybe he feels exactly the same way I do when I’m disrespected or people won’t listen or don’t care or give me attitude. God uses whatever and whoever he wants to get our attention sometimes.
Tad said something a few weeks ago when I was really struggling coming back from Spring break, too. He said you just have to remember that you’re not here for you, you’re here for the kids. And maybe I’ve forgotten that; maybe I’m so focused on myself and how I feel that I’ve forgotten why I feel like God called me here in the first place. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate and give myself a reminder of what I’m doing here because I can’t continue my next two months here like this. I don’t want to; I want to enjoy my time as much as possible and while I know that frustrations will still come up, I just feel like right now I’m not enjoying my job. I’m just going through the motions of it, doing it, getting through the day. I never want that to be my attitude towards my job for a long time. If it is, something’s wrong with my attitude and spirit or what I’m doing I’m not meant to do for a long time, I guess. And I think that’s one of the things I’ve realized being here as a teacher (maybe just a teacher for Abundant Life): I can teach and I’m alright at it and I care about my kids and try to do my best, but I don’t think I’m meant to be a teacher.
Anyways, this week is SAG so most of the middle school kids are gone. We split up the hours between the middle school teachers, so I get a few extra free periods by not having Bible class from that. Other free periods were taken away by classes like PE (which I have to cover) and math, which I’m not technically supposed to cover; Mr. Calderon is, but apparently he has more important things to do since he’s the only principal at school since Mr. Lara is in Teguz with the kids. I really enjoyed being able to develop some more relationships with the middle school kids that were still here and hadn’t gone to SAG, whether that was just playing games with them or chatting. It’s just hard to then go back to teacher mode after that with them and find that fine line between teacher and ‘friend.’
One thing there’s been some confusion on when the teachers are actually going to be done at the end of the year; it may not be June 11, but a few days after like June 15…we’ll see. We had rain on Tuesday night with thunder and lightning. It was much needed and peaceful to listen to. I ran up Celaque the other day and it went pretty well; some days are good, some days not. I started the Joke of the Day this week with my kids and I didn’t realize sometimes how much jokes depend on knowledge of the language. The kids don’t get the jokes sometimes unless I explain them so I let them do a few in Spanish. I usually understand their jokes in Spanish, but even then I may not fully get it. That’s the thing I hate about not completely understanding Spanish, I could have more deep and relevant conversations or be able to joke around more if I knew more. It’s also the same with our kids and people here; they don’t seem to get sarcasm for example sometimes because they can’t pick up the nuances and tone besides just the words.
Tad said something a few weeks ago when I was really struggling coming back from Spring break, too. He said you just have to remember that you’re not here for you, you’re here for the kids. And maybe I’ve forgotten that; maybe I’m so focused on myself and how I feel that I’ve forgotten why I feel like God called me here in the first place. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate and give myself a reminder of what I’m doing here because I can’t continue my next two months here like this. I don’t want to; I want to enjoy my time as much as possible and while I know that frustrations will still come up, I just feel like right now I’m not enjoying my job. I’m just going through the motions of it, doing it, getting through the day. I never want that to be my attitude towards my job for a long time. If it is, something’s wrong with my attitude and spirit or what I’m doing I’m not meant to do for a long time, I guess. And I think that’s one of the things I’ve realized being here as a teacher (maybe just a teacher for Abundant Life): I can teach and I’m alright at it and I care about my kids and try to do my best, but I don’t think I’m meant to be a teacher.
Anyways, this week is SAG so most of the middle school kids are gone. We split up the hours between the middle school teachers, so I get a few extra free periods by not having Bible class from that. Other free periods were taken away by classes like PE (which I have to cover) and math, which I’m not technically supposed to cover; Mr. Calderon is, but apparently he has more important things to do since he’s the only principal at school since Mr. Lara is in Teguz with the kids. I really enjoyed being able to develop some more relationships with the middle school kids that were still here and hadn’t gone to SAG, whether that was just playing games with them or chatting. It’s just hard to then go back to teacher mode after that with them and find that fine line between teacher and ‘friend.’
One thing there’s been some confusion on when the teachers are actually going to be done at the end of the year; it may not be June 11, but a few days after like June 15…we’ll see. We had rain on Tuesday night with thunder and lightning. It was much needed and peaceful to listen to. I ran up Celaque the other day and it went pretty well; some days are good, some days not. I started the Joke of the Day this week with my kids and I didn’t realize sometimes how much jokes depend on knowledge of the language. The kids don’t get the jokes sometimes unless I explain them so I let them do a few in Spanish. I usually understand their jokes in Spanish, but even then I may not fully get it. That’s the thing I hate about not completely understanding Spanish, I could have more deep and relevant conversations or be able to joke around more if I knew more. It’s also the same with our kids and people here; they don’t seem to get sarcasm for example sometimes because they can’t pick up the nuances and tone besides just the words.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Monday-Friday, April 5-9
Monday I had a really rough day going back, despite the fact that I had a few days to get ready for it. I would say it was one of the hardest days to come back to here. I think being out of teaching for a week, traveling, being with my friends and having fun that it was hard to come back to the real world. It was the same for my kids; they kept saying, “Miss I want to sleep; let’s have more vacation!” But I eventually got through the day somehow and got the hardest part of after vacation out of the way. Tuesday and Wednesday were better with my kids. On the way home from school, I noticed this thing moving across the road. I pointed it out to Tad and we realized it was a snake! We weren’t sure which kind it was so we memorized the coloring on it and looked it up on the internet when we got home. We realized that we had just saw a coral snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in North America! I was amazed and freaked out. Good thing God was watching out and we were able to see it and ‘admire’ it from a distance.
Thursday I had an alright day, but the afternoon was kinda tough with my kids. We had tutorias after school for language and I could not get them to quiet down and pay attention. We had a test next week, so I wanted to go over some of the things on the test. They just kept talking, making comments, being loud and not paying attention. And frankly I was fed up with it. I stormed out of the classroom after asking multiple time for their attention and asked Mr. Lara and Mr. Calderon to come and give a reminder to these kids about what respect was. They came and reminded them of why they were in tutotorias: to try to improve their grades; if they weren’t going to respect the teachers trying to help them with that and they didn’t care, then they shouldn’t be here. They also got a punishment of parents being called and recess taken away. I felt kinda bad, but they needed it so it wouldn’t happen again. I’m giving them a few more weeks in tutorias to see how they do and if their behavior doesn’t improve, some of them won’t be staying any longer. Friday was pretty laid back, especially with the older kids preparing for SAG (Student Annual Gathering in Tegucigalpa this coming week for the middle and high schoolers of all ALCS schools). They practiced their speeches, musical numbers and other things and the whole school basically didn’t have classes after lunch. They did well, but honestly some of the singing could've been improved; I give them props for doing it though! After school I ran up Celaque, which sucked after not doing for a week or two. Its always frustrating to me when I can’t make those hills; then I remember how high I am and that I live on a mountain. March Madness is done, but Tad and I had done brackets and betted a free dinner for Friday night for the winner. Guess who won? Man sense…HA!
Thursday I had an alright day, but the afternoon was kinda tough with my kids. We had tutorias after school for language and I could not get them to quiet down and pay attention. We had a test next week, so I wanted to go over some of the things on the test. They just kept talking, making comments, being loud and not paying attention. And frankly I was fed up with it. I stormed out of the classroom after asking multiple time for their attention and asked Mr. Lara and Mr. Calderon to come and give a reminder to these kids about what respect was. They came and reminded them of why they were in tutotorias: to try to improve their grades; if they weren’t going to respect the teachers trying to help them with that and they didn’t care, then they shouldn’t be here. They also got a punishment of parents being called and recess taken away. I felt kinda bad, but they needed it so it wouldn’t happen again. I’m giving them a few more weeks in tutorias to see how they do and if their behavior doesn’t improve, some of them won’t be staying any longer. Friday was pretty laid back, especially with the older kids preparing for SAG (Student Annual Gathering in Tegucigalpa this coming week for the middle and high schoolers of all ALCS schools). They practiced their speeches, musical numbers and other things and the whole school basically didn’t have classes after lunch. They did well, but honestly some of the singing could've been improved; I give them props for doing it though! After school I ran up Celaque, which sucked after not doing for a week or two. Its always frustrating to me when I can’t make those hills; then I remember how high I am and that I live on a mountain. March Madness is done, but Tad and I had done brackets and betted a free dinner for Friday night for the winner. Guess who won? Man sense…HA!
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