El Salvador 2009- Suchitoto

The bus ride to Las Augilares was one of my favorites. I had a comfy seat and wasn’t crowded. And in El Salvador, they have much more interesting bus food for sale, and people making elaborate sales pitches for burn cream and advil. When we got to Las Augilares, we got off the bus in a smelly, dirty, busy city and quickly went to the bus to take us to Suchitoto. That was a nice bus ride, too. We rode for about an hour through pleasant countryside, and the bus was quite empty.

Suchitoto
The first thing we had to do in Suchitoto was find a hotel. We went to all the places in the guidebook, only to find they were WAY overpriced. If there is one drawback to traveling in El Salvador, it is that they overcharge for hotels, everywhere. At the last hotel we tried, the 2nd and 3rd friendliest men in El Salvador called 3 or 4 other hotels in the area and asked about room availability and prices for us. We finally found one called Posada del Sol that sounded decent. When we got there, we liked the rooms, and managed to talk them down to a price that was only a bit too expensive instead of ridiculously expensive. We had cable TV, which we wanted so we could watch the elections in Honduras. They had great cable TV, including our Denver NBC affiliate station. So I also got to hear the local news and weather report for Denver. It was cool. The hotel had two pools, which made the kids happy. It was a cute hotel, but we were again the only people in the hotel, and it was really also a family’s house. So the lobby of the hotel was clearly their living room. But it was fine.

We went out to the main square to look around. It was a very pleasant square, with a nice fountain, trees, and benches. We looked around the small handicraft market on one side of the square, and spent quite a bit of time in the church, which was clearly very old. It was also very big. This church was a classic Spanish cathedral, with large columns, and statues lining the outside aisles. We got dinner in a little café on the main square, which was very nice, being able to sit outside and watch people going past and having dinner.

Back to the hotel after dinner, the kids played in the pool, and I relaxed by the pool.

On Saturday, we got up fairly early and went back to the square. We ate at a different café, that served bagels! Then we wandered around the town some more. We went and looked around the Teatro, where they were preparing for a play that night, but we walked around the small art gallery outside the auditorium. It was a really elegant building inside, nothing you would expect in a small town in El Salvador. We also saw the city park, which had lots of trees and places to sit. We decided to walk down to the waterfall that was in our guidebook. First we stopped by the cultural center and had a look around, but it was severely lacking in charm or anything interesting. We started down a dirt road toward the waterfalls, which a friendly woman had said was 15 minutes away walking.

We ran into a tourist police, which is a special arm of the police specifically to help tourists. We chatted with him for a while, he told us all the places in the states where he had relatives, and said the waterfall wasn’t too far to walk. Really we didn’t have much choice, because there were no moto-taxis or anything in the town. We kept walking. After walking for about 20 minutes we were getting grumbly and hot. We kept walking. Finally a truck pulled over and we asked the guy how much farther it was. He was very friendly and said we were almost there, but offered us a ride. We accepted, and in another 2 minutes we were really there. We first walked to the scenic overlook, which was shaded and pretty and looked out over the lake, and it was a very beautiful view. Then we hiked down to the actual waterfall. This was a bit of a stressful hike for Lindsey, because there was no real trail, just jagged rocks sticking out everywhere, so very dangerous to take the kids down it, but we managed. The rocks that form this waterfall, and all around that area are in hexagonal shapes. It is natural, but it looks man-made. It was really remarkable.

After we hiked back up we decided, it is too hot and too far and all uphill. We will sit here and wait for a ride back up. We waited a long time, and one completely empty truck went by, and even though we waved and thought the children looked pretty pathetic, he didn’t stop. But finally a cable repair truck stopped and picked us up and gave us a ride back up the hill. It was the best ride ever.

Back in the town, we had lunch at our hotel, and then rested. The kids went swimming, I took a nap. In the afternoon, we went back out, and happened on another parade, this one much smaller than the one in La Palma. It just happened that this weekend Suchitoto was celebrating their founding day or something, and that night was going to be the crowning of the new Miss Suchitoto, including entertainment and a free play at the Teatro. There was a military marching band stationed in the square, and we sat and listened to them play ‘My Way’ and ‘Let it Be’. Then Lindsey asked a tourist police about a restaurant we had heard about that had art made out of civil war artifacts. The very friendly tourist police man offered to drive us there in the police van. Well, alright!

We went a little ways out of town to see this restaurant, which was neat, and had some interesting artifacts, but actually no art made out of artifacts. Lindsey bought her kids a coke, and the police got a coffee and a juice, and we sat around and asked them questions about the war. We are pretty sure the police that drove was on the side of the rebels, and the other police was on the side of the national army, but now they are friends. When we finished our drinks they drove us back to town, and we ate dinner at one of the sidewalk cafes and watched the preparations in the square for the crowning. A local astronomy group had two telescopes set up to look at the moon, and people lined up to look through. Someone was juggling fire, and there was a bit of a colored light show being projected onto the church. It was great stuff.

When we were done with dinner it was still over an hour before the show was supposed to start, so we went over to the teatro to see if the play was on. It was packed! Lindsey and Brian picked their kids up and let them watch for a few minutes from the back. They said it looked very professional, good costumes and sound and lighting. We went back to the square, but the kids were very tired, so we went back to the hotel before the crowning started.

On Sunday morning, we got up and went out for breakfast. We ate a place that had pancakes on the menu, but when we ordered four orders of pancakes they said they were out, so we said, well that’s too bad, guess we’ll have to leave. Then they found pancake mix and made us pancakes. We decided to go back to the hotel and pack up, but on our walk back, we happened upon a bus going down to the lake, 30 cents a person. We thought, sure, why not, let’s go down to the lake. The ride down was pretty nice, on a nice paved road lined with trees. When we got to the bottom, we found ourselves at a tourist center that we had to pay 50 cents to enter. So we paid. Inside the tourist center was a huge restaurant, 3 artisan carts, and a small playground. There was a lawn leading up to the lake, where guys in boats tried to sell us a ride out to the islands, but we declined. The kids played on the playground, and then we left. It was an entirely underwhelming tourist center.

We caught the bus again, and thought we were headed back up the hill, but we were wrong. We drove down a little bit farther and picked up a campesino and his dog. The dog looked us, and we looked at the dog, and the bus started to back up. The bus backed down a bumpy hill for a long, long time. Finally, after about 10 minutes, it stopped and let a woman off. Then it drove forward up the hill and drove us back to the city center. We got off a couple stops after the dog.

Then we headed back to our hotel and packed up. We caught the bus back to Las Augilares, where we waited in the heat and exhaust fumes, for the bus back to La Palma. Both bus rides were uneventful.

El Salvador 2009- La Palma

On the Thanksgiving holiday, I went to El Salvador with Lindsey and Brian Young, and their kids, Emma and Liam. Our first stop was La Palma, just over the border from Honduras.

La Palma was a lovely little town. Once we got settled in our hotel, we went out to check out the town. All over the town are murals and paintings. On all the buildings, in the park, on lamp posts, walls, everywhere. Fernando Llort, who is probably Central America’s most famous and influential artist, lived here. He invented a particularly colorful style of folk art, and then opened a workshop to teach the people how to do it. Today everything in town is in his honor, even though he now lives in San Salvador. We walked around looking at the wall art, and went to an artisan market, which had all kinds of neat things for sale. We also went through the Central Park. The park had mosaics on its benches and areas of the ground, and it had other artwork throughout. The mosaic benches really reminded me of Park Guell in Barcelona, designed by Antonio Gaudi. It was a great little park. We went to the Fernando Llort museum, which had one room and about 6 pieces of art, but had lots of information about him and what he did.

That afternoon, wandering around, we happened upon a parade. It was a parade for children, really. There was a great little band marching at the front. There was a mime, people walking on stilts, jugglers, and people in costumes. There was a kids’ band, made up of kids with toy instruments. At the very end was an ambulance. It was great to sit and watch a parade go by! It turns out that weekend they were celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Children’s Declaration of Rights.

When it was dinner time, we went back to the Hotel La Palma, where we weren’t staying, and checked out their menu, but decided it was a little expensive and didn’t have anything the kids would like to eat. There was a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant across the street from our hotel, so we went there. It was amazing! They served us enormous burritos and quesadillas, that were cheap and so delicious. We talked about that restaurant for the rest of our trip.

The next day, Friday, we found a café for breakfast, and visited the church, which was the first place that guerrillas and the government met for peace talks during the civil war. It was a quite modern church, but very pretty. We visited the tourist office, where friendliest man in El Salvador gave us bus information and called hotels for us. Then we went back to the art market to look around some more. We had lunch at our favorite hole-in-the-wall, and then got on a bus for Las Aguilares, where we were going to change buses and head to Suchitoto.

Noche Con Jesus

Friday night was a school event called Noche Con Jesus. Any kids who wanted to (though all the students who wanted to were encouraged to attend) came to Villa de Ada, which is the swimming pool/resort here in town, where we held our camping at the begining of the year. Noche con Jesus was just a couple of hours. They had a campfire for the kids to roast marshmallows on, and hot chocolate. One of the members of the youth group at Zita's church (my host mom) told the kids the bible story of David and Goliath, and then talked to them about 'Goliaths' in their own lives. He was very good. The kids were captivated, none of them were goofing around, everyone was paying attention. There were also some little games, and singing. I led the kids in a silly game I remembered from camp, they enjoyed it.

It was a pleasant evening, and the kids had a good time. I liked seeing my students in their regular clothes, since they wear their uniforms everyday to school.

Tutoring

Here's a shot of our classroom, after 3 months. We've been doing some work, and you can see the results on the wall. We have pictures of habitats, volcanoes, mandalas, postcards they created, and maps and the calendar. You can also see their desks with their names on them.

After school on Wednesdays I tutor a few of my kids. Estefany and Diego always need extra help, no matter what we're doing. Diego is a hilarious and cute kid, and I enjoy spending extra time with him to make sure he understands things. Today we were working on times tables up to 5's, and this week's spelling list. Estefany put my sunglasses on, and was looking like a mini-movie star while doing her 5's. I also snapped a picture of Diego, though he is very camera shy and doesn't usually let me get his picture. You can see in the picture he knows 5 times 9!

And then I let Diego take a picture of me and the girls. You can see our solar system on the wall, in both the pictures of Estefany and me and the girls. We've been learning here!

Week before partial exams

Next week is our 1st partial exams. These are basically finals, except we have them four times a year. This has been a long stretch without a break for us. This is the longest partial (semester) with the fewest breaks. We will get Thanksgiving off at the end of November.

So this week we’ve been reviewing and preparing for the exams. It’s a little bit easier, because there isn’t much grading, and a lot of review can be done as games. But it’s more exhausting. When every class is a review game, I get tired! I’m also running out of ideas for how to review material. There are pros and cons.

We have had some successes or just funny things in the room lately.

Reviewing possessives (like laura’s computer or tony’s dog), I had every kid write the name of every other kid, and me, in their notebook. Then they had to go around the room and get every kid to show them something they brought to school and write it down as a possessive. Then when they were done, we wrote them on the board. It was really good practice for the apostrophe s, and I was pleased that I had just thought it up on my own! They loved asking me what I had, and I told each kid something different. They had fun with that.

Something pretty hilarious is happening in my room. I have a book box that I stock with my books or books from the library, that kids can read when they finish work early. Well, my friend Anna who was in the Philippines with me, sent me a care package with various reading material in it. One thing she sent me was the most random magazine she could find in the store (this is something we would do in the Peace Corps), and it happened to be Gold Prospector Magazine. Well, I stuck it in the book box and the kids LOVE it. They are constantly fighting over who gets to look at it. They love the pictures of cool rocks and minerals, and they ask me questions like ‘how much is $200 in Lempira?’ and ‘Miss Laura, do you have a mine in Colorado?’ It’s really funny.

I also had a good laugh today over an assignment. I was so tired after a morning of math baseball, reading jeopardy, phonics tic-tac-toe, and English races. So for science I wanted them do some kind of work in their seat, quietly. So I asked them to write a science test that I would have to take, over any of the stuff we’ve learned this year. Most of them did a pretty good job thinking of questions, and some just copied questions from their textbook, which isn’t that great, but I didn’t say they couldn’t. Diego’s test was the best though. He would sometimes come up and ask me stuff like how do you spell kangaroo? and I wasn’t sure what he was doing, because we have never talked about kangaroos in science. But his test was really as good as he could do, and I’m glad he worked hard on it. Here are some of the questions:

Is kangaroo in Australia? yes or no. Is butterfly in asia? yes or no. Is snake in Africa? yes or no. I like bear. Is bear in habitat?

My favorite is I like bear. Is that a true/false? I took his test, I hope I pass.

Then after science I had to teach art, which is not my best event. I had decided we would make Halloween pencil toppers, and though I had a vague idea how that would go, I wasn’t sure. But it turned out pretty well. I had the kids bring in craft foam, and we made jack o lanterns and stuck them on pipe cleaners that wrap around a pencil. It was a pretty good craft.

So I hope they are ready for their exams next week, cause I am tired of reviewing with them. The tests are really pretty easy, it shouldn’t be too bad.

Mudial Madness

Wow, they are really World Cup Crazy over here! Wednesday night was the deciding night to determine if Honduras would make it into the World Cup or not. Two games that night were important: Honduras had to beat El Salvador, and the U.S. had to beat Costa Rica.

Most of the teachers and I, plus one of the Peace Corps Volunteers, went to watch the game at this open-air bar that set up a big screen. The game was not thrilling. The score was 0-0 most of the game, and on the small TV showing the other game, Costa Rica was beating the U.S. 2-1 the whole time. Honduras scored a goal, and everyone was happy. But then the games were almost over, they were in their extra time at the very end, and suddenly, seconds before the end of the game, the U.S. made a goal and tied with Costa Rica! The bar exploded!!

People were screaming and jumping and cheering and hugging each other and it was pandemonium! They were ecstatic about the U.S. tie, because now they were in the Copa Mundial! It was amazing to watch. Hondurans came over and hugged me, kissed my cheeks, told me ‘thank you!! USA!! You got us in the World Cup!’ I told them it was no problem, of course, it was my pleasure. We were celebrities.

When Honduras wins, people rush out to their cars and motorcycles, and start a parade down the main highway and back up. Everyone else lines the road to cheer and watch. We walked home along the main highway, and it was incredible. Every truck cruising past was stuffed with people in the back, waving flags, screaming and cheering. When a car would pass me, I would scream and cheer and shout ‘Honduras!’ and they would shout back, ‘USA!’ and then 10 seconds later I would do the same thing with the next car. People waved at us and cheered all over. A group of about 25 motorcycles with at least 2 people on each cruised slowly along, and they gave us high 5’s as they passed. The high way is quite long when you’re walking, and it was a very exciting time.

Thursday at school, the madness continued. The director of our school stood in front of the kids and told them that today was a very special day. A day to be patriotic. She had them give three cheers for Honduras, then a cheer for the U.S., then an applause for God. (nice job, God!) She went on about how great it was for Honduras to be in the World Cup, and then they told us that the first two periods of the day would be spent playing soccer instead of having class! The teachers were nearly as excited as the kids.

They played soccer, and then had recess. Much later that afternoon, I learned that most businesses and the other private bilingual school were closed in celebration. I can’t imagine what will happen if they actually win any games during the World Cup!

Cultural Night

Our school held a cultural night last night, Friday. Students sold tickets to friends and family members, who all showed up at the local museum/cultural center for an evening of Honduran culture. Having experienced many ‘cultural programs’ in the Philippines, I wasn’t super excited about this evening, but it turned out alright. I drove there with my host family, which means we arrived 45 minutes after the ‘start time’ of the event. The first part of the program was the national anthem, a short flag ceremony, and introduction of the five nations of Central America. Although it seems weird to feature El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica in a Honduran cultural night, it’s very important to their history, because the five countries used to be one. So Honduran history is also the history of the other 4 countries.

After this, the third grade came out and said the Lord’s Prayer in English. We have been practicing this for about 2 weeks, and they had it down okay, but not great. Then when we all showed up for the cultural night, I discovered that one of my students, who knew his part and was the leader for his group (I split it into three parts to make it easier to learn), wasn’t coming. Well, when the kids got up in front of all these people, parents and guests, the Lord’s Prayer came out kind of funny, with some parts said twice, some skipped altogether, and some words changed for other words. But it was okay, they looked nice, and I don’t think their parents could really understand what they were saying anyway. But one of my girls, who made the biggest, loudest mistake was sobbing on our way off the stage because she knew she messed up. It was sad, and I tried to tell her it didn’t matter, but she was still upset.

The rest of the night was pleasant. Some of the older students did traditional dances, there was a band and a modern dancer, there was a clown/poet, and a speaker, and food. The students were told to dress in traditional clothes if they had them. For the girls, these are big colorful dresses with colorful trim. For the boys there are two ‘traje tipico’: there are bright colorful shirts and pants with the same trim as the girls’ dresses, and there is the campesino look. I think this is really cute, the boys will dress in jeans with big patches all over them, and flannel or other worker-type shirts, with cowboy hats. So this traditional clothing is the clothing of the poor farmer or cowboy.

After the cultural night, the teachers went out, and some of the peace corps volunteers joined us, as did some of our local friends.

Copan Ruinas

This past weekend we had a three-day weekend, with Friday off for Teacher’s Day. (yay!) I went to the Copan Ruins, Honduras’ only major Mayan civilization ruins. I went with Rae and Matt, Julie, and NJ, all other teachers at Minerva. (Rae and Matt are married.) NJ’s friends, Sam and Jess, who were visiting her this week, also came.

We left super early Friday morning, catching the 6am bus to the town of Copan Ruinas. We changed buses in Santa Rosa, which is about an hour from us, and is the big town we go to when we want to buy stuff not available in Gracias. From there we took a nice charter-type bus to the town of La Entrada. I sat next to a Mormon missionary who was eager to have someone to talk to in English. We swapped stories of life in Honduras. When we got to La Entrada, about 45 minutes later, we switched buses again, for the final leg to Copan Ruinas. This trip was a couple of hours.

When we got to Copan Ruinas, we found our hotel (NJ, Sam, and Jess were staying in a different hostel). It was only 11, so we got lunch at our hotel, then set out to sight-see. Rae, Matt, and Julie decided to go to Macaw Mountain, a bird sanctuary just on the outskirts of town. I met up with NJ and Jess and wandered around town for awhile. The town is really cute, but very much done up for tourists. There are lots of little cafes and restaurants, and lots of craft shops. We looked at some stuff, then I headed to Casa K’inich museum, and the girls went back to their hostel.

Casa K’inich is a very fine children’s museum at the top of an enormous hill. As you know, I’m a big fan of children’s museums, so even though I’m technically an adult, and was the only person there, I paid the very reasonable entrance fee ($1) and went around the museum. It is small, but all the exhibits are hands-on and work, which is impressive enough. Every exhibit was also written in Spanish, English, and Chorti, the local Maya dialect. And the English was perfect, not just awkwardly translated Spanish. I learned a lot about the Maya at that little museum. I recommend it if you ever go to Copan Ruins!

When the group got back from Macaw Mountain, we did some more shopping, and went to dinner at a cool place called Vamos A Ver. I had some delicious chicken nachos, it was only a bit strange because we were the only people in the restaurant the entire time. After dinner we all hung out at our hotel awhile, which has a bar and a ‘nightlife’ schedule, but we went to bed before the nightlife really began.

Saturday morning we got up early again, and got breakfast at our hotel, then walked to the ruins to be there by 8, when they opened. It’s really quite a pleasant walk, only about 15 minutes.

The ruins were great! At the ticket window we met these 2 older American guys, and they went in on a tour guide with us. Our guide, Julio, grew up in Copan, and when he was younger, assisted archaeologists on excavating and repairing the ruins. Now he had learned English and had become a tour guide. He was great, and had lots of information to share.

The ruins were really pretty, with lots of green grass, trees, and plants everywhere. The sun stayed behind the clouds all morning, and a breeze blew in off the river, so it was really pleasant and not too hot. The only other ruins I’ve been to were in Chichen Itza, and there were hot, hot, hot. Also at Chichen Itza, there were people everywhere trying to sell trinkets, and lots of tourists. At Copan, there were times when we didn’t even see any other tourists, and there was no one selling anything inside the ruins. It was a great time of day, and year, to go.

Copan had it’s heyday in about 600 A.D. Up to 20,000 people lived in the Copan valley, and these ruins were where the royalty lived, and ceremonies were held. We saw temples and statues, and the ball court where Mayan ball games were played. The Mayan people destroyed the environment and succumbed to overpopulation (a cautionary tale?) and abandoned the area by 850 A.D. There are still descendents of these Maya in the area, but all of the cultural history has been lost. The first Westerners to start excavating Copan came in the mid 1800s, and nobody living nearby knew anything about what the ruins were or why they were there.

After the tour, we went back into town, and had an amazing lunch at a little place called picame. I had a hot bacon, cheese, avocado, and tomato sandwich. Yum!! Of course everything we ate and did and bought in Copan cost about 3 times more than in Gracias, which should be expected, but was still hard to swallow. It’s different when you’re on vacation from a job in the States, because then 15 dollars to get into an ancient ruin might seem like a good deal, but for us it is a lot of money.

In the afternoon, we took naps, wandered around town some more, shopping and looking at stuff. We played cards in the hotel restaurant, and got information about buses back to Gracias in the morning. By the evening, the Central Park was hopping with locals, and I felt more like a tourist than ever, walking through a local party.

Saturday night we had another great dinner at a place called Twisted Tanya, which included homemade carrot cake! Then we went to a bar next to our hotel that was going to have a live band play. We waited more than an hour, then gave up and went to the hotel to go to bed. Or so we thought! Once in bed, the band showed up, and we could hear them well enough to know we weren’t missing much, but couldn’t avoid listening anyway.

Sunday morning, NJ and I took a direct shuttle-type bus from Copan to Santa Rosa, very early in the morning. That was a great little bus, it was worth getting up early. In Santa Rosa we did some grocery shopping then got on a chicken bus for Gracias. I have never seen a bus packed so full. Even the locals were getting irritated. NJ and I got a pretty prime seat, even though were close to being the last people on. We got to sit on the hump between the driver and the door, which was covered with a nice cushion and quite comfortable. Then about 12 more people squeezed in after us, with all their luggage. The bus emptied out as we went, but was still crowded, and we were glad to have somewhere to sit. I got home at lunchtime on Sunday, napped, unpacked, and got ready for school on Monday!

I'll post pictures when I have a better internet connection, or you can check them out at picasaweb.google.com/lauraeley

Dia de indpendencia!

Last Tuesday was Independence day here in Honduras (and I think, the rest of Central America. They used to be one united country, and I think September 15th is independence day for all.)

We didn't have school on Monday, instead we had a parade through town with our school. I guess in years past, all the schools in town march together, but this year it was just us. The parade was uninspiring. The kids dressed nicely and marched in neat rows, and when we got to Central Park, they sang the national anthem and the principal addressed the crowd.

After this, we were free for the rest of the day, and had Tuesday off as well! Viva Honduras!!

We have a picture here of Matt and NJ, two of the teachers, in their nice clothes and floppy hats.

There is also a picture of me with one of my students, Diego. He's a little troublemaker, but so darn cute.

Children's Day

Last week we had Children's Day, a nationwide day to celebrate children. At school, this meant the kids got to wear regular clothes (not uniforms) and we had the whole middle of the day for playing games instead of having class. It was pretty much chaos, but apparently it was better organized than last year...

There was a mission: impossible game with string strung up across a room and the kids had to weave over and under it without touching it. Here is Fernando Jose and Florian racing each other through it.

There were running games and ball games and we watched a movie and had lots of snacks. The last game our class played was passing the sponge, which was a perfect game for a hot day, and the kids had lots of fun and got totally wet. You can see them in these two pictures having a good time.

I also have some pictures of my kids just so you can see them. The girls in my class are all in this picture on the wall: Rosa Carolina, Florian, Estefanie, Nicole, Deisy, Yamileth, Diana, Samai. Stephanie had just gotten hit with a soccer ball a minute before I took the picture, but didn't want to move out of the picture, and didn't want to look up and try to smile, so she is crying.

Some of the boys (probably the ones responsible for hitting Stephanie in the head with the soccer ball) were excited about the mission impossible game. This is Jancy and Jakzzel. And yes, I spelled Stephanie's name two ways. Her real spelling is Estefanie, but she likes to use the American spelling in class, and I find it easier to type quickly. It's pronounced almost exactly the same when you have a Honduran accent.

After the Children's Day activities, we had one class left at the end of the day, art. The perfect class for a day like this. I gave all the kids mandalas to color and we wound down Children's Day.

This coming Thursday is Teacher's Day, which we will celebrate on Friday by not having school! Apparently almost all the professions have a day, someone told me about taxi-drivers day, how all the taxi drivers decorate their taxis and get together for a big taxi parade.

Camping!

Last weekend we went to a camp-out with students from school. It was an overnight event for any kids that wanted to participate, and it was intended to let the kids get to know and bond with each other. We thought it was so we could get to know our kids, but it didn't turn out that way. The people running the camp put all of us teachers in one group, and the kids were in there own groups, and each group did team-building activities and games. It was fun, and we had a good time, but it wasn't what we were expecting. We were the red team, and we put on red war paint in case anyone wasn't sure which team the adult foreigners were on.

The camp was really well run. It took place at this resort near school called Villa Ada, that has pools, a lake, food, open spaces, and is also a hotel. Plan Honduras, which is an NGO, ran the camp. They brought tents and sleeping mats and food was provided. Here is a picture of two of my 3rd graders, Ricky and Enrique, playing on an old swing set.

We played silly games with the whole group, and we had to make up a cheer for our team. Our cheer was in Spanish and was basically 'red team! red team! we are happy!' Maybe not the world's best cheer, but it was the best we could do. There was one game we played which turned out to be pretty hilarious. We had to cross a 'river', and we had only one pair of shoes we were allowed to use to cross it. Everyone had to get across, and each person could only use the shoes once. We tried a bunch of different tactics, and the one that finally worked out (sort of) was three people going across on the shoes. You can see in this picture, Tony has me on his shoulders and Liam is walking on the toes. We got across this way, then Liam went back in the shoes. This strategy would have worked, except everyone but me is too heavy to go on people's shoulders. So we didn't win, but we did give a good shot, and it was very funny.

We did see our kids sometimes. We all had meals together, and here is a picture of me with three of my third grade boys. We are waiting for the food people to come out and feed us. These boys are Julio, Jakzzel, and Fernando Jose. The kids had a great time, too. They got to play, and eat together, and run around. At night we had a bonfire and each team presented a cultural number. We had Nikki Jayne demonstrate her poi (a Maori thing...if you've seen Amarina do it at camp, you know how awesome it is) and Liam accompanied her on the guitar, while the rest of us watched. It was very cultural.

Julie and I shared a tent, and even got some sleep, although it sounded like the kids were up until at least 2am.

In the morning, the kids had calisthenics, which I joined for part of the time, then we had breakfast, played some more silly games and songs, and went home, where of course, I took a shower and slept for most of the day.

School!

Well- We're two days down in the school year! I was really nervous for the first day, but I over-planned my days, so I felt better once I got into the classroom. I have 19 third-graders, and their English skills are very limited. This makes it hard to teach math and science and things, just because you have to teach the vocabulary first, before you can teach the skills. Reading is also a difiicult class for me to teach, because we really don't have books or even a textbook for the class.

These are pictures of my classroom. I got it pretty well set up before school started. There is of course not as much 'stuff' available here as in the States, but there's a lot more stuff and better quality stuff available then in the Philippines. All the kids have their own textbooks (not for every class....but for any class we have books for, we have a brand-new book for each student).

There's a picture here of little Liam and Emma helping me decorate my room. They are the kids of Brian and Lindsey, who are teaching at Minerva too. The kids are in kindergarten and 1st grade, and they're very cute. They were a great help, of course. : )

I teach math, reading, phonics, writing, English, spelling, science, and art. It seems like it should all be more integrated, the reading and writing and English, but they are divided into seperate blocks. The kids also have social studies and spanish and a few other specials classes. The schedule changes everyday. Some days I have off periods in the middle of the day, but everyday I have the last period off, because that's when they have Spanish. It's a nice time to do planning.

My kids are kind of unruly, a lot more like the behavior of kids in the states, more than the quiet super-respect of kids in the philippines. Julie gave us all a classroom management system with green, red, and yellow dots, and each kids name on a clothespin. If they keep doing what they're not supposed to be doing, they move to yellow, etc. All the lower grades use this, and it seems to be working okay so far. It's hard to expect them to be quiet all day, because they are constantly having to work extra hard to understand English, and they naturally shut off sometimes. But overall, they're pretty good kids. Here is a picture of Santiago, who is the brother of our coordinator, Sandra; and Jonathan, who is my new host brother. Santiago is very smart and well behaved, and Jonathan is a pretty good kid too, though he doesn't understand as much English.

It's interesting living with one of my students, because every night I have instant feedback on how the classes were, what homework is too hard, and what he gets and doesn't get. Tonight he brought me his math book and said he didn't understand anything he was supposed to do. So I helped him with his whole homework assignment, but I don't expect any of the other kids will have any idea how to do it. It's a challenge.

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.

Post-Peace Corps Adventure

Hello again. In the year since I last posted, I've had some more adventures. I will briefly tell about my big one, the post-Peace Corps Trans-Siberian Railroad Adventure that Anna and I embarked on in July of 2008.

We met in Japan, where her parents live, and spent a few days there, checking out Tokyo and surrounding areas. Japan was great. Everything was clean, efficient, and delightful. We saw Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. We went to museums and walked through the streets. We had a good time.

Next we flew to Beijing. We did all kinds of touristy things there. We walked on the Great Wall, and went to the Forbidden City. We saw the buildings and things they were preparing for the Olympics. We were impressed with how clean Beijing was, but people told us it was just to get ready for the Olympics. One of our favorite things in Beijing was the astronomy museum, which is a funky little old museum, but it had some very cool old astronomical instruments.

From Beijing, we got on the Trans-Siberian railroad bound for Mongolia. It was a fun train ride. We met an American girl studying in Ulan Bataar, and a Mongolian guy studying in Beijing, and the four of us hung out during the long ride. On the border, they have to change the bogeys, or the wheels, of the train, because the tracks are different. That meant we had to spend a few hours out on the platform at about 1 am. But that was a fun time.

Mongolia was beautiful. We only stayed in the capital, Ulan Bataar, long enough to shower and rest up, then we went out to a national park, and stayed in a ger (yurt) at a family's camp there. There were other foriegn tourists there, mostly Swedish, and we all got along great. Anna and I went for a 2 day horse back ride, staying in other gers, and seeing the scenery and a monastary on the way. We also saw a huge, silver, Genghis Khan statue out in the middle of nowhere, that the Mongolian guides were pretty proud of.

After Mongolia, we got on the train for Russia. Our first stop was Irkutsk, by Lake Baikal. We stayed in a hostel, and went to the lake, we also went to a neat wooden architecture museum.

On the train again, we next stopped at Yekaterinburg. This was mostly just a convient way to break up the trip, but it was a nice city. We saw some museums and memorials and walked around in the rain. We stayed at the Museum of Geology Hotel, which sounds a neater than it actually turned out to be.

Our last stop was in Moscow. Moscow felt very European. Everyone was dressed classy, and things were expensive. We saw St. Basil's cathedral, and the Kremlin, we went to the Russian Circus, and we rode lots of subways, which have a lot of art and history themselves.

It was a super cool trip!