Honduras: The Good, the Bad, and the Adorable

Wow, I haven't even been here a full week, and I have a lot to talk about. There are 12 Minerva school teachers here, and they are all mostly great. We've been getting to know each other, and going to the school everyday to get ready for students. We have been doing lesson plans and decorating our classrooms, and getting used to life in Honduras. I am teaching 3rd grade, and Julie and Lindsey are teaching 1st and 2nd, and our three classrooms are brand-new. In other words, still being built. So we have been doing more lesson planning and no classroom decorating. Julie is an experienced teacher, and has so far been invaluable to helping us know how to lesson plan.

The students arrive at the end of next week. We kick off school with some kind of orientation day, then a school-wide camping trip. Then the following monday classes start. Yes, I am nervous about having my own class. I also will have the director's son in my class, so the pressure is on!

Gracias is a pretty nice little town. It's very compact, everything is close together. This is convenient, but it makes the streets pretty dusty and crowded during the day. It's hot here, but truly not as hot as Cadiz, also the nights are much cooler.

I've had to wait on getting my host family, all week I've been living in the main room of one the houses full of teachers. It's fun there, and we are all together, but it's a little crowded, so I left a lot of my stuff out on the covered, locked porch. This was fine, we thought, but one night, someone broke into the porch and stole my entire duffle bag and everything in it. I'm still really upset about it, I know I shouldn't have left it out there, but it was locked. In the bag was some clothes, some small school supplies like markers, pens, and pencils, all my medicine, and all my underwear! I wish they had left my underwear. They also stole my sneakers which were sitting next to the bag. I know it could have been a lot worse. All my valuable stuff I had inside the house, and my other suitcase was untouched, which was full of expensive books and school supplies, and fortunately, some clothes. I'm so angry and upset.

But that's the only bad thing that's happened. It's really been mostly all good. We've been exploring new restraunts and places to shop. There's a lovely hotel that I'm at right now, that is up on the hillside and looks out on the mountains and the town, and has free wi-fi. I really like most of my other teachers and am excited about school starting. Stuff is just stuff, right?

Here's what the pictures are in this post:

Me in front of the Minerva school sign thingy. I'll have more pictures of the school in future posts, but it's a pretty good building.

A shot from a bench in Central Park (and I think, the only park), of the 'famous' church and the mountains in the background. The park is really quite nice, it is under construction so there is only a few places available for sitting.

Most of us teachers at lunch yesterday. The girls are, from left to right, Serissa; Nikki Jayne, who is from New Zealand; Bertha, who is from Holland; and Rae, from North Carolina. Rae is married to Matt, who didn't make it into this shot. The other picture has Julie, the great teacher from Texas; Tony, who is Bertha's husband; and Liam, who is from Canada.

Other teachers not in the picture are Bobby, who is on medical leave from the military; and Lindsey and Brian, who are married, and here with their two little kids, Liam, who is about 4, and Emma is 6. That's right, out of 14 people, we have 2 Liams.

Oh yea, and yesterday was big Liam's birthday, so we went in on a cake and had a little party at our house. It was pleasant, although we only have 4 chairs, so we also sat on my bed, which is in the living room.

As for adorable, we've met a couple of our students randomly at various times, and they are adorable. We can't wait to meet our classes, they are sure to be too cute for words.