Homestretch until Christmas

Well, we didn't go to Tegucigalpa but we had a really fun, really delicious weekend! We spent no less than seven hours on the internet on Saturday. Let me say that we don't get internet that often. Usually I'm able to get online twice a week, and usually it's an extremely slow connection. So this weekend I was able to spend a bunch of time online and connect with my family and friends. I'm not able to keep up with many people while I'm here, so I really cherished the opportunity to talk to everyone.

Now, I know for most people, a long list of the meals they ate over the weekend wouldn't make for very good blog substance. However, when you live in Honduras and live mostly on beans and tortillas, a list of weekend meals is worth writing about. So this weekend we made... corn dogs, onion rings, green bean casserole, balleadas, quiche, french fries, cookies, and chili. Yeah... yum.

So we ate a lot and laughed a lot and had a lot of fun up in the mountains. I don't want to go back to school tomorrow! But it's really cool to think that there are only two and a half weeks left until I get to go home for Christmas.

Fun times in Villa Verde and Gracias

An arrangement of random photos taken by everyone... some by Jacki, some by Sarah, some probably by Rachel and LB and some by me. Villa Verde and Gracias...


Our little town of Gracias. Amazing photography by Jacki.


An example of the bugs we find...

... and are no longer scared to kill


Our Charlie-Brown-looking Christmas tree


Bonfire night...burning our garbage


Alex wanted to lean there


We live in a cloud forest


Our two adorable neighbors





The view from our home


My roomies

Fiesta Tipica Photos

Photos of our school's biggest annual fundraiser. These were also taken by Jacki...




These girls are my family here... I love them xoxo






Two of our neighbors in Villa Verde

Copan Photos

Well, since I haven't had a camera, I haven't been able to post many photos on this blog. But my friends have given me photos so I can post some of those! Today I have internet that's a little faster so here are some photos from the last month.

These are from Copan, most of which are compliments of Miss Jacki Warren...
















More to come...

Corn dogs and onion rings

I can't believe Thanksgiving is over! Actually, it feels like Thanksgiving didn't happen at all. We've been having a really fun weekend at the house and I'm definitely appreciating the time to relax. However, it feels oddly Thanksgiving-less without turkey and home. On Thanksgiving day, we came to town and stocked up our kitchen with all sorts of goodies. On the night of Thanksgiving, at the last moment we decided that what we really wanted to do was make homemade corn dogs and onion rings. So that's exactly what we did! We very quickly mastered the recipe and made some completely delicious fried food for Thanksgiving. A few weeks ago we figured out how to make homemade donuts (a very dangerous discovery) and now we know how to make corn dogs and fried food. I can see myself expanding in size here in Honduras!!

Last night we had a Thanksgiving feast with all of our neighbors. Our feast consisted of french fries (supplied by the Americans), sweet and sour chicken and cake (from our Filipino neighbors), and lemonade (from the Hondurans). It was so delicious! And really awesome to spend time with our neighbors. I love them.

Although I love it here, with each passing day I get more and more excited to go home. I have no idea if I'll experience serious culture shock or just feel comfortable as soon as I get there, but I don't even care. I'm just really looking forward to spending some time in my home country!

Tomorrow are the national elections. I really hope they're 1) free and fair and 2) uneventful.

A couple of weeks ago, Laura Beth and I were in the forest looking for sticks for roasting marshmallows, and we noticed a really small tree that had lots of sticks on one branch. So I took the machete and chopped it down (we were being really silly) and came back with a huge branch. When we brought it back into the house, we all quickly discovered that it was the perfect Charlie-brown looking Christmas tree! So we decorated it and now we have a Christmas tree.




Happy Holidays from the girls in the mountains! :)

Thanksgiving in Gracias

Oh man, so much to write about! Well, times are interesting here in Honduras. The elections are this weekend. For anyone unfamiliar with the political situation here, there was a military coup in June to oust the then-president Mel Zelaya. Since June, there have been riots, parades, demonstrations, and curfews. When Zelaya came back into the country, school was cancelled for two days because the de facto president, Micheletti, imposed a national curfew. My friends and I were tear gassed in San Pedro Sula. It's been quite an interesting couple of months, and now the time to elect a new president has come.

Unfortunately, the elections fall on the same weekend as Thanksgiving. The school offered us a really generous Thanksgiving weekend, and I have been really excited about it. They offered to drive us to the capital, put us up in a hotel, and pay for our meals for the weekend. I've been out of college for a year and a half, but I still usually follow my collegiate instincts, which tell me to go where the free food is! However, I couldn't shake the little feeling of nervousness that it might not be a great idea to travel to the capital city during election weekend. Especially after I received an email from the US Embassy saying not to travel to Tegucigalpa. And then most of the Hondurans I talked to confirmed that it would be dangerous. And the organization in England that's associated with our school explicitly forbade its volunteers from traveling to the capital this weekend. And bombs have been going off in various places around the city.

So at the very last minute, me and three of my fellow teachers decided to opt out of the weekend. It kind of sucks-- I had really been looking forward to this weekend, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't turn down free food lightly. At the same time, however, I think we will have a really relaxing five days at home. We are planning to have a big thanksgiving meal with all of our neighbors (I think that should be pretty funny, actually...between my broken Spanish and their tortillas, it should be a colorful meal!), and we're considering staying in a hotel with wireless internet (just to treat ourselves to wireless in bed) and maybe traveling to a nearby city to get a change of scenery and some iced coffee. I am disappointed to be missing out, but I also feel like I made a responsible decision by staying home.

The other thing I'm trying to figure out is my crazy Christmas show. My little students are trying so hard, but we've only gotten through 50 seconds of our ridiculous hodunk country song. I have some serious misgivings about this Christmas show and the way our school is going about running the program. Seeing as this is a public blog, though, I'll just save the details for the people who want to know enough to ask. Suffice it to say that I miss the days of a good old fashioned Christmas pageant with "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger," where costumes are cheap, choreography is minimal, and the glitz and glam of a materialistic Christmas is nonexistent.

I'll post this weekend about my first Honduran Thanksgiving. I think it will be really fun.

uh..

I'm currently sitting at the hotel where we all come to get free internet. We also often eat at the restaurant here, because even though the food is overpriced, it's also good and convenient. So I ate my truly delicious chicken sandwich with platanos, and I was just sitting here, enjoying my internet access, when all of a sudden we heard a really loud squawk come from the kitchen. Then a lady came running out, clutching a black bag. There was no doubt in any of our minds as to what had just happened... they definitely killed a chicken in the kitchen of the restaurant. ick ick ick ick ick... I have so many mixed feelings. The most overwhelming one is that I'm happy I already ate. I'm also seriously reconsidering vegetarianism (I lasted a year the first time, I could do it again!) and I'm also pretty grossed out that 1) there was a chicken chilling in the kitchen of the restaurant and 2) they killed it in there. ick ick ick!

We are currently trying to convince the school administration to give us two extra days of school off before winter break. That would allow me to come home almost a week early. I found out that I can change my plane ticket for free, and I am just really, really anxious to get home and see my family. A year is a really long time to be out of the country, and while I don't exactly feel homesick, I do feel very excited to be home. I miss my mom and dad and brothers so much. I miss water from the fridge and warm houses and consistent internet and speaking english. And while a week might not sound like a lot, it feels like a huge difference to me. I could spend the christmas season with Riory! I really hope it works out.

Planning for Christmas

Well, the school gave me my assignment for the Christmas show. My class has been given a country music Christmas song. Yes, you read that correctly. The song is called, “He was Born in a Barn,” and let me just say… it’s a keeper. To be honest, I’m a little overwhelmed by what they’ve asked me to do. The principal literally handed me an old, homemade DVD of the Tegucigalpa's school's Christmas program, and said, “Teach them number six.” Well, number six is not only a country Christmas song, it’s also filmed with little kids who clearly don’t really know what moves they’re supposed to be doing. So I have no idea how to teach the dance. I hope the school doesn’t take this too seriously, because I think it’s going to end up being hilarious. I’ll post a video of our performance after it happens.

Other than that... we have three more days until our weekend in Tegucigalpa, and then three weeks until Christmas. I am getting so excited to come home. There are some things I just can't wait to enjoy again- central heating, consistently warm showers, grocery stores, fresh fruit and vegetables that don't have to be washed in bleach, non-moldy rooms, rooms without bugs, a significant lack of moths and spiders, good hot chocolate, an abundance of ice, Target, people who can speak English, and American men. Ah, I'm so excited for the holidays :)

Almost thanksgiving

I cannot believe this, but in one month I'll be home. That's crazy to think about. We're given a pretty nice vacation- I'll be home from December 18th until January 3rd. I have no idea what that time will hold for me. I want to see friends and I'm kind of considering going to Ann Arbor, but I also really want to spend as much time as possible with my family. I might also not really want to navigate the snowy roads of the midwest after four months of not driving at all.

Before December 18th, I have a lot of fun stuff coming up! The school is giving us a Thanksgiving weekend in Tegucigalpa. I do not even know how to describe how excited I am about that weekend. They are driving us to Teguc (it's a really big deal for us that we don't have to take the chicken buses) and then they are putting us up in a hotel for the weekend and giving us a Thanksgiving dinner. They have also given us Monday off to travel back. It should be pretty exciting- that's the weekend of the elections, so the capital city is sure to be...hopping. We'll stay safe! (a.k.a far away from all government buildings) It's so nice to have plans for my first Thanksgiving away from home.

The week following Thanksgiving, we are putting on a Christmas show at the school. I am in charge of the second grade dance. I haven't actually seen the dance, but I think the whole thing will be pretty funny. We will probably be practicing a lot between Thanksgiving and December 9th. Then we have one more week of classes before going home! I think the time will fly- it always does.

I still adore it here. Every single day, the magnificence of where I live stuns me. Sometimes when I walk to school, I have to stop to look at the mountains, because I don't really know how to take in their beauty. I have never seen a night sky like we have here- it's like a planetarium. I can look at the sky and literally see galaxies. I just love it here. Even with everything-- my moldy house, lack of central heating and little to no TV and internet-- I am so, so happy.

That reminds me though. This weekend, our neighbors (who are Philippino missionaries) invited us to their house for lunch. It was so awesome! First, when we walked into their house, we were really stunned because they actually have a home. Whereas our houses are like porches with furniture, their house is an actual home! They have tiled floors (I'm so jealous) and curtains on their windows and couches and lots of rooms and a TV! Just for the sake of perspective- when I say "lots of rooms," I mean a small living room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. Haha, anyway, so they invited us in, put on a movie-- "The Proposal"-- and fed us homemade pizza and homemade soy milk. It was such an amazing treat! Then I kind of had to laugh at myself... sitting in a house and eating pizza and watching a movie has never seemed like such a luxury.

That's probably what I'll end up spending my whole break doing...eating pizza and watching TV. Sounds amazing! :)

Parent-Teacher conferences

Well, okay. It's hard to believe, but I've been teaching for nine weeks now, and we had to turn in our grades for the first quarter last week. Yesterday, we had parent-teacher conferences to discuss the children's grades. haha, ah I don't even know where to start. Overall, the conferences went well. They were, however, extremely exhausting. The students left at noon, and the parents could come for conferences anytime between 2 and 6. That's a really, really long time to be sitting at a desk, waiting for parents to come. Every non-bilingual teacher was seated next to a bilingual teacher to help with the translating. That was great, except that we all had conferences at the same time. So most of the times that a parent came over, my translator was already in a conference so I had to do it by myself.

It was then, while I was trying to communicate with parents about their children, that I realized that I have a long, long way to go before I will consider myself good at Spanish. I have never in my life felt so frustrated with my inability to communicate. I thought I was doing pretty well with Spanish. I can pretty much understand what most people say to me, and I can carry on a decent conversation. But I am learning that language is so much more than grammar and vocabulary and small talk. Language has nuances. Different words mean more than dictionary definitions; they have more or less weight, they can imply different things. I love language; I love playing with it, I love being clever and having a decent vocabulary and using language to make implications. I simply do not know the nuances of the Spanish language, and that's a level of language proficiency that I don't know how to attain. It probably would take years to get that. But I feel like until I reach that, I won't be satisfied with my ability to communicate in Spanish.

So that was my disappointment for the night. I really wanted to talk to these parents, and tell them about their children's academic lives and explain to them my excitements or concerns, and I just didn't really know how to do that. There were a couple times when I had to find someone to translate for me. I can't be speaking broken Spanish to the lady whose son still can't count, or the lady whose son might very well be dyslexic.

I only had one or two parents who really gave me a problem. One of them asked me which teacher was in charge of taking care of the students' things. I thought I didn't understand her so I asked my translator to help me. But it turns out that's really what she was asking me. So, I told her that there is no teacher in charge of that, the students are responsible for their own things. So then she got mad because she told me that she had given her son a ruler, and now he can't find it. It took everything in me not to just shrug at her. I said that I constantly remind the children to respect each others' things, and that if I find things floating around the classroom, I always ask who they belong to. I said that I was sorry her son lost her ruler, but I don't have any room or time to take care of 19 students' school supplies. She responded by saying not to worry, but she's going to punish her son when she gets home for not taking care of his things. So I thought, that's great. I'm sure your seven year old son lost his ruler on purpose, and in the future he won't lose it because you spanked him. Does sarcasm translate over blog posts?

I was so tired when I finally got home, I didn't even know what to do with myself. I felt completely dazed. My mind was exhausted from all the Spanish, I was emotionally exhausted and I just felt physically done also. I really sympathize with my students. They probably feel tired all the time from listening to English all day. It must be so hard to go to a bilingual school.

I was really, really ready for the weekend after yesterday. It's doesn't feel real- it's only a week and a half until Thanksgiving, and then less than three weeks after that, I'll be home for Christmas! Where has the time gone? I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving. It kind of blows my mind.

Robbed...again

Why can’t I travel without someone stealing my money? In Europe, Brian Cole duped Alex and me, had us thinking he was a nice English renter when in reality he was a big fat thief. Now, someone at my school is stealing my money straight out of my wallet. I noticed last week that I had 500 lempiras missing from my wallet. It just wasn’t there. 500 lempiras is the equivalent to about $25.00. So, it’s not an obscene amount of money, but a guy in Mexico hijacked my bank card number last month, so I had to cancel the card and I no longer have access to my money at home. $25.00 isn’t a ton of money, but it goes a long way here. And since I only have access to my Honduran bank account, 500 lempiras really is quite a chunk.

Anyway, after my money went missing, I wrote how much I had in my wallet on a small piece of paper to prevent any confusion in the future. I updated that paper on Monday. Then, yesterday, I realized that I was 100 lempiras short of what I had written on my paper. Someone straight up went into my bookbag and into my wallet, during the school day, to steal my money. The same thing happened to another girl at the school- she also realized that she was missing 500 lempiras from her wallet.

I’m pretty sure I know who it is, but situations like these are so difficult. What if I’m wrong, and it’s not the person I think it is? That’s a big accusation to make. I really don’t think it’s any of the students—they can’t unlock my door. I want to catch the lady who I think is doing it in action, but I have no idea how to do that. I tried to be nice, and just say to myself, “well, at the end of the day it’s only $30, and I’m sure she needs the money more than I do.” But after I found out that another teacher had also been robbed…well, it really creeps me out. I feel like I can't leave anything in my classroom now, and I have no idea what to do about it. I talked to the school administrators and their answer was to tell me to "keep the door locked." Does anyone have any good ideas about how to catch a thief in action?

My moldy house

I just want to start out again by saying that I was chased by a cow again today. Why am I so attractive to cows?

Anyway, this week was good. I feel like as long as the weeks follow the routine, they always go pretty smoothly. The only thing I really had to struggle with was my house. The lady I rent it from told me that it was ready, so I went in there to try to clean it a little before moving my stuff. I pulled all the furniture and stuff out of the room (and by furniture I mean the tiny shelf I keep my things on and the mattress), and my room was totally empty except for the bed frame. I decided to try to mop the floor, but the floor is made of stone…the type of stone that you might normally see on a patio or something. As you can imagine, the mop didn’t really do much. Then I realized that there were huge clumps of mud caked to the floor, and I couldn’t get them off. I finally had to get a kitchen knife and scrape the mud off the floor. It was really hard and tedious though, and I finally just plopped on the floor, feeling really defeated. I had no idea how I was going to live there. I couldn’t believe someone would rent a house that dirty to me. I still can’t believe I slept there for several weeks. It's really no wonder that I got sick. I had to stop working on it because my whole body was aching and I felt like I wasn’t making any progress at all. I just had a bunch of muddy water on the floor. I tried to wash the mold off of the wall, and ended up taking off a layer of paint. Just to emphasize how poorly painted this wall was…I used the soft, yellow side of a regular house sponge to wash the walls. It was outrageous that the paint came off like that.

So anyway, I felt really overwhelmed. Yesterday morning, though, I walked to school with one of our neighbors and she told me that she would come over on Saturday and look at the house with me. So this morning, she and another neighbor came over, armed with soap and brooms. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but they opened my door and one of them exclaimed, "Que barbaro!" Which, directly translated, means "how barbaric!" She said that there is no way I should have been living there and that if they don't fix it, I'll keep getting sick. So I watched, fairly overwhelmed, as they sprinkled this soap on the floor, put water on it, and then started going crazy with their brooms. They were literally sweeping the dirty, soapy mud around the floor, and then they swept it right out the door. Then they proceeded to bring all my stuff back in the room and organize it for me. I felt really overwhelmed by how kind and willing to help they were. They totally fixed my room! I just really hope it stays clean, at least for a while. The whole housing thing has just been really exhausting to me, but it's a big relief to know that I have a dry room to sleep in tonight.

Where am I?

Yesterday, I asked my students what they were doing this weekend. Many times when I ask students questions like this, they respond with, “How you say in English….” And then they answer in Spanish. So it’s always questionable as to whether or not I understand what they’re saying. When I asked my students yesterday about their upcoming weekend, one of my littlest students said in a very sweet voice, “How you say in English…vamos a matar las vacas?” So I looked at him, thinking I must have heard him incorrectly, and I asked, “You’re going to kill cows?” And he looked very proud and nodded his head. So I asked why, and he said, “Para comer." (To eat) "Vamos a matar todas!!" (We are going to kill them all!) I asked him, “How are you going to kill them?” -- I couldn’t resist asking. I just couldn’t imagine this teeny little boy killing cows. He responded, “Con cuchillo.” With a knife. My seven year old student is spending his weekend stabbing cows. Where am I?

I had another “where am I?” moment this week when one of my students was allowed to pick from my “treasure chest” because of good behavior. He immediately picked out a tiny box of eight crayons, and looked at me absolutely gleaming. “I never…how you say vida? Yes, life. I never in my life had crayons.” Then he hugged me and walked away. They get so happy over the smallest things. My mom sent me a package this week with stencils in it…they were so, so excited about the stencils. I am stocking up on classroom stuff over Christmas!! Let me know if you want to make any classroom donations. :)

Fiesta Tipica, moldy houses, and other stuff

Every time I get to the internet these days, it feels like a month since I was last here! In reality, it hasn't been that long. But if someone had told me a few months ago that I would learn to exist with internet only once or twice a week, I would not have believed them! There are a lot of things that I live without these days. I can't remember the last time I watched the television. I can't remember the last time I was in a car or a van. I don't frequent anywhere that has windows or central heating. I have completely cut all of the excess noise out of my life, and I can't help but think I'm going to face some serious culture shock when I come home for Christmas.

Anyway, since I last wrote, all sorts of things have gone down. Our school had its annual fundraiser, Fiesta Tipica. I had really mixed feelings about Fiesta Tipica. On one hand, it was a great idea. The school rented out the park for a morning, and everyone dressed up in traditional Honduran clothes and sold typical food and the children performed Honduran dances. Sounds really nice, right?

Well, yeah. But as usual, we (the American teachers) weren't informed whatsoever about what would be going on. First of all, my class was one of two classes excluded from the program. I have no idea why only my students weren't allowed to dance (believe me, the principal will be explaining it to me at the next staff meeting), but they weren't. Furthermore, the Spanish-speaking teachers stopped teaching their classes in the middle of the week in order to choreograph the dances. Okay, I would have been alright with covering their classes if someone had told me that I would have to do it. But what happened was the bell rang, and I thought I would have a planning period. But the teachers never showed up, and when I went to find them, they told me that I was in charge of their classes because they had to teach dancing. So on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week, I had to watch my seven-year-olds from 7:40am-3pm, without a free period. I didn't know what to do with them! Furthermore, there was super loud music playing right outside of my classroom, and I couldn't hear myself over it. I tried to take my students outside to watch the other kids practice dancing, and the principal told me that they weren't allowed to be there. aaagh.

So I was entirely frustrated. On the actual day of Fiesta Tipica, I had three different bosses giving me three different sets of instructions about what to do. Selling food was stressful, because people would just yell what they wanted until they were served. There was no order or manners. It actually made me really miss the USA and how good our country is at standing in line.

But even after all of that, I still really enjoyed the festival. It was so fun to see the students all dressed up in little dresses and shirts. I had a Honduran dress that I wore, which was fun. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was jovial. I just like things to be more organized than they were.

I am still loving teaching, and where I live. I had a little mold infestation in my house, so I have actually been sleeping up in the other house this past week. I got really, really sick from the mold, which was growing on my floors and on the walls. The lady who owns the house put another window in my room, so maybe that will help it air out. I have no idea. Today one of my students brought me the most delicious chunk of cake. I forgot that teachers get presents sometimes! But for anyone who reads this...sucking up to teachers by buying them gifts totally works.

In any case, my complaints about the school and communication and stuff all really pale in comparison to how much I love it here. A couple days ago I actually had to stop on my way to school because the clouds and the mountains were so, so beautiful that I just didn't know how to look at them. I had to just stop and stare. I love everything that I'm doing and I feel so lucky that I finally found something that makes me feel...fulfilled. I can't believe that it's November already...where is the time going??