Packages

A shout out to my mom and my best friend Murphy! I traveled to gracias today to pick up mail and there were 2 wonderful packages waiting there for me. I feel very loved and am very excited to break into all my new goodies :)

The Challenges

September 28, 2012 Now that I have really settled in and begun to gain my bearings I can discover the real challenges of living here. Some of these things are applicable when living anywhere abroad and some refer mostly to life here in La Union. The lack of connectivity: it is a challenge just to talk to people at home and communication is very difficult. I miss being able to pick up my phone and connect with a friend or family member basically instantaneously. Instead I have to walk 25 min to school and hope (with my fingers crossed) that it will be working that day or that there is still enough download allowance at the end of the day. In the states I was never one who enjoyed talking on the phone, but here I would jump on opportunity to do just that! The spotty Internet: I can tell that most of the other teachers in different cities have Internet that not only works well but they can even have it in their apartments or houses! It is ridiculously expensive for us to have Internet in our house and probably would be similar to what is at the school. The Internet there is nothing special. Basically we have a limited download allowance and if you use it all in a day the Internet will stay bad for 24hrs before you are allowed back on. This makes skyping and staying in contact with people very difficult. Softness: I have a few things that have not gone through the laundry here and I plan on holding out as long as possible for most of them. Since our laundry is done on a pila it is not easy on or nice to our clothes. They are then hung to dry and there is no fabric softener so basically we get them back very stiff and crunchy. I still have my blanket a sweatshirt and couple of fleeces though to fulfill my need for softness. Availability of goods: It is very difficult to get many things here in La Union. So, while many of the teachers in the big cities...Tegucigalpa especially, are living lifestyles more similar to US we have been thrown right into the Honduran rural mountain lifestyle. I can get pasta and crackers at the store but no common dips or pasta sauces (they have to be homemade) and chips and cookies are common. The only type of cereal in La Union is corn flakes and while I was hoping for plenty of fresh veggies and fruits, it is apparently not as common as one would have thought. I do survive though because I can usually get both snickers and cookies and cream bars... A girl always needs her chocolate :) Showers: I have mentioned it before but it is worth saying again...I miss the US showers. Here it is impossible to get both hot water and high pressure, so you have to pick just one. The water is also not always guaranteed to be clean, see the pictures, and lastly the water might not even be on. Often times they turn it off to conserve. So for those of you back in the states enjoying these things take a moment of gratitude and thankfulness that they have been awarded to you. And also remember me here the next time you enjoy them...and pray I haven't gone crazy from not having them :)

A Potpourri of Information Including the Weekend at the Lake

 September 21, 2012

So I never finished my story from last week about the events that transpired after the Kid’s day events.  When Cassidy and I left the community center made it home in the rain, through the river like streets, we found quite the surprise.  One of the big metal gates at the front of our house was just gone.  We had no idea what had happened and then a man from across the street came over and directed us towards the river.  We looked down using his flashlight and there it was our gate in the river! We went up to our landlord’s house and found his wife and told her what had happened.  She asked if that was all, which was a weird question for us and after we replied no she explained that Alben (her husband) was over at the boys’ house because part of their roof had fallen in.  Apparently the storms were creating quite the fiasco.  We went and got Brooke to show her what had happened and as we made our way down the hill to our house we noticed that a bunch of guys were standing around the area of our house.  We thought everyone was very intrigued by what had happened but after a few minutes and the arrival of a bus we came to realize that it was not our situation drawing all the attention.  Across from our house there was a dump truck stuck in the mud created by the storm.  The bus had arrived to try and tow it out.  This was quite the scene and people continued to check the water to take a look at our missing door.  At one point it began moving downriver and we were concerned that it wouldn’t stop until it became wedged in a spot just below the bridge.  Us girls quickly became entertained by the bus trying to tow a dump truck.  Their attempts thought kept failing and we got bored after an hour so and decided to retreat to our homes since apparently nothing was going to be happening with our gate that night.  At some point they must have relieved the truck from its mud because we heard some cheers and the truck was no longer there in the in the morning.  The boys apparently got their roof fixed for the time being and this has been a problem they have dealt with repeatedly.  The problem is that they have two roofs on their house right now.  One being an outer layer of tin that was put up because their original roof was falling apart and of course it is made of asbestos so it has created many problems.  Our gate was put back on this past week and we are grateful for this because we feel much more secure and safe with some sort of fencing there. 

After that crazy week we were rewarded with a long weekend.  On Monday was Teacher’s Day so we got the day off school.  We took the opportunity to have a long weekend at the lake.  Lago de Yojoa is in the central part of Honduras and is its largest inland lake.  We paid someone to drive us in their pickup truck there so we didn’t have to take the crowded bus system.  It was a very pretty ride and the views of the lake as we drove around it were breathtaking.  The day we were traveling though happened to be Honduras’s Independence Day.  We have been told that it's not much of independence but more of a freedom day because there wasn’t much of a fight since Spain left voluntarily.  This added a few hiccups to our trip.  One such encounter was their version of a parade, which as far as we could tell was more of a show from a marching band.  The director was quite creepy and odd and the show included little kids in hula costumes shaking their butts, which just seemed not right.  We attempted to find an alternate route around the show which was on Main Street and a local gave us directions, but of course this didn’t work and we ended up in a traffic jam on a hill (at least it had a great view). 

Once we got turned around and moving again it was only a short ride and one more turnaround after going to far that got us to our weekend destination.  We stayed at D and D Brewery and Lodge in private cabins and enjoyed the company of other Americans that were staying here too.  It was quite a busy place.  We arrived hungry so we had lunch, I had chicken tenders and fries, which were delicious, and as close to American as I have had.  One thing interesting here though is that the ketchup is sweet instead of salty like in the states, so that has taken some adjustment.  We decided to go into town and check out the local area a bit…we also were looking for an ATM.   Of course upon arrival at the bank, the ATM was not working so we wandered around town and checked out some of the shops and bought fresh mango slices from the fruit stands on the street, which were delicious.  It started raining though so we took shelter in a smoothie shop and had a drink and then hailed a cab to take us back the lodge.  That night we played a few games and had a nice American dinner complete with beers.  The brewery specialized in fruit ales (apricot, blueberry, strawberry and others).  The beers were good, but my favorite was the juicy cheeseburger I got to enjoy, so much so that I had it the next day again for dinner. 

A few of our group members left the next morning but the rest of us stayed, had a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes and then set out to rent rowboats and get to the lake.  We spent the morning out on the lake and even enjoyed a dip.  We had two different boats and my boat had some difficulty with the rowing part and decided to have a guy row for us.  This turned out to be a great idea because he was also a sort of tour guide who knew a lot about the birds, and other wildlife of the lake, including the location of a cold spring within the lake.  By the time we made it back to the drop off point of the boats we were tired, sun burnt and hungry so we at lunch at a comedor in town and enjoyed some great Honduran food. 

Our next adventure started from there, we grabbed a taxi and took it to Pulhapanzak Waterfalls.  This was actual a park of some sort and had trails that revolved around Honduras’s largest waterfall.  We surveyed the options and decided that we wanted to do the behind the falls tour which had been recommended to us by Americans we met on the bus several weeks ago.  It surely was amazing!  We started the tour walking down to the river below the falls and the adventure began in a spot where you could feel the mist of the falls.  We then carefully hiked/climbed along the river leading up to the falls.  This included a jump into a pool of water that had an offshoot of the falls and then swimming across the pool and climbing up the other side.  We then were at the waterfall.  As we went behind and underneath it our tour guide gave us a few directions.  He said, “hold hands tightly in a line, look down, and breathe through your mouth.”  Then we were off, our line began heading into the heart of the waterfall and all you could feel and hear was water pounding, and it was amazing.  I could barely see when all of sudden the guide grabbed my head and tucked my under a cove beneath the falls.  Once we were all here we continued on and made it to a landing where we could look up and see the falls tumbling down on us.  The next stop was climbing into a cave behind the fall where we relaxed for a few minutes and talked about the rush of adrenaline and experience we were getting to enjoy all together and then we began the trek back.  It was similar to the way there except included 1 extra thing.  We jumped off a 25ft cliff into the water below the falls.  I of course was the first of our group to go, right after I watched the guide safely do it of course.  I was beyond excited and it was quite the rush.  It was the perfect adventure for our weekend and when we all made it back to land we were grinning ear to ear excited beyond words with what we had gotten to experience all together.  We made it back to the lodge had dinner and played some catchphrase before retreating for the night.  In the morning we had breakfast, a delicious breakfast burrito, and then waited for our truck to arrive and take us back to La Union.  Unfortunately time in Honduras tends to mean little so the 11-12 timeframe came and went so we headed into town to see if the ATM was working and to get a quick bite while we waited.  We were able to get money from the machine and enjoyed some smoothies and pastries while we waited.  It was a wonderful weekend that was topped off by my choice to ride in the truck instead of the bed because on our way home it started raining really hard and even had moments of hail.  I was very lucky to be inside but my friends in the back got the full experience.  Luckily, there was a tarp they were able to put over them and it saved them from getting to wet.  We were happy to arrive home and spent the evening preparing for the upcoming school week. 

School this week was very interesting! On Tuesday morning I wasn’t feeling well, but figured once I got to school I would be okay…wrong.  I ended up leaving after the first 3 classes and I came home to sleep for a few hours.  Jake then took me to the clinic and they gave me medicine to get rid of the amoeba I had somehow caught from the contaminated water.  It was awful and had similar symptoms to having food poisoning in the states.  I slept the rest of Tuesday and decided to go ahead and make it to school on Wednesday.  I didn’t do much teaching but I was able to have my students work from their books and do practice problems.  I came home and slept more.  On Thursday I was feeling much better just still a little under the weather but of course today was the day one of the directors was coming to observe us.  It isn’t as nerve-racking here as the states though because they wouldn’t ever fire me and send me home or else they would really be screwed without a science teacher.  Of course though, they were going to sit in on my eighth grade class (which is the worst behaved), luckily, though I had planned to play Jeopardy with them to review for their upcoming test.  The students were great and they really enjoyed it.  They even told me the next day how fun it was. 

Friday was a frustrating day though because they took their test and the average was a 57%!  I didn’t understand it because half of the questions from the test were represented in some form in jeopardy and those that weren’t were on the study guide I had given them.  I am still debating what I am going to do with this because it honestly seems like they just didn’t do enough studying. 

This weekend we don’t have very much planned.  We had a little barbeque last night because last week was one of the microfinance guy’s birthdays and this week one of them is leaving for good.  The food was great, but all of us teachers were exhausted and ended up leaving to go to bed a bit early.  They had made a specialty harvest drink though that is corn based and it was delicious.  It had hints of cinnamon and definitely sugar in it and was thick.  It was a good relaxing night of food and fellowship.  Tonight we will have dinner and game night again and then relax tomorrow and plan for the week ahead. 

Frustrations of a Teacher

 September 15, 2012

The week at school went well overall.  Of course there were high points and low points and I continue to remind myself of these daily so as not to get hung up on the disasters.  Many of you ask me about what the teaching here is like and what the students are like so I want to talk about some of the frustrations I have encountered so far.  I should say though that there are a lot of high moments that I can save for another day and remember that if it were only the bad things that I were telling you about then I would probably have already been on a plane home.

My first frustration is about feeling stretched thin.   I feel like I can’t be a good enough teacher and devote my time to the subject matter and development of student learning when I am teaching atleast 6 different lessons a day, sometimes more.  If I could teach the same lesson a few times in a day then I would be able to devote more time to developing it and be sure that it is what will help my students succeed and gain the most from.  Inevitably some of my classes have taken priority and those of course are the ones with subject matter and students that I enjoy the most.  No doubt biology is one of these and my lessons for that class are more valuable and worth repeating than what I can come up with for any other class.  The lack of time to prepare great lessons for each individual class leads me to teach more from the book.  I use only that as a source for their information and often use the questions from the tests and quizzes that are in the teacher’s book to develop their assessment (of course we have yet to receive our chemistry books for this year, so that is an experiment in and of itself).  It is not the curriculum I would use and it is definitely not the order I would go in for any of the books, but going it alone in this situation doesn’t make sense. 

This combined with the lack of resources I have often makes me feel as if I am not being a great teacher for my students.  Often times I will think of something creative, exciting and guarenteed to stimulate student learning, but I realize that the materials are nowhere to be found.  We have a library with about 18 laptops, but the internet connection is slow and our bandwidth and daily usage limits get used up quickly that way.  I also have stepped outside of the technology realm when compared to my student-teaching placement.  There I had 2 screens and projectors, one of which was a smartboard, computer, document camera and convenient ways of switching between technology modes.  It isn’t even the technology though that it is the frustrating part. (Lets be honest, I don’t even have technology in my homeroom class yet).  Teaching without technology takes creativity and that is something I was excited to work on developing while here, but teaching without resources is just beyond my thought processes.  For example, one of my science classes was learning about clouds and I thought they could make some using cotton balls so as to be reminded what they looked like…the problem is there are no cotton balls in La Union.  It was crazy to me that something so simple, that I thought for sure I would be able to find, I mean they’re a basic beauty product, was not present here.  My whiteboard lecturing style takes me back to my biology class and I chuckle that I have turned into the same teacher I had, since that was always a dream of mine.

The rest of my frustrations lie in the students learning.  As we have been through the first round of tests in most classes and multiple quizzes, I have gained a knowledge for how they study and how they have learned in the past.  The hardest thing about learning this…it all needs to change.  They spend their time memorizing the bolded terms in the book and memorizing anything else important.  They don’t truly learn it and can not answer questions that go deeper than the first levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  They wouldn’t be able to relate information to new topics, solve problems with the information they learned or explain anything.  All they can do is regurgitate the information (often word for word) from the book.  My goal over this year is to change that somewhat.  This might be a lofty goal, considering the other things I have already discussed, but I want to teach them how to think even before I want them to understand the principles of science.  I understand why they do rote memorization, I mean could you imagine learning biology, chemistry or other tricky disciplines in something other than your first language?  They don’t have the language skills or time to compare, contrast or problem solve because first they have to figure out what a word means something I have always taken for granted in my learning and education.  For example, in 9^th grade we were learning about air masses and to me they aren’t something you have to memorize because they’re names tell you about them.  A few are maritime tropical (wet and warm), Arctic (very cold) and continental polar (dry and cold).  All of those definitions come from understanding the English word and knowing what it means.   They did not have any prior experience with the word maritime and didn’t understand that continental meant continent (developed over land instead of water so it is dry).  So they’re lack of understanding and experience in the English language puts them at a disadvantage to begin with in learning new vocabulary, so they resort to memorization.

This week I gave the 8^th graders a quiz and I had only one student pass it.  I thought I had written a fairly easy quiz, it came straight from my notes, which are the same ones that I give the students.  As I looked closer I realized several things.  The quiz was not straight definitions it required them to think about how things ineract and to remember things not as definitions but as relationships.  Also, this was the first time I had done two different versions in their class and I actually saw students look to their neighbor and erase all of their matching and write in the opposite…so I once again caught more cheaters.  I was prepared to start from scratch on these two sections of the chapter, but then I realized that the 8^th graders have had terrible behavior, so bad that Mr. Perdomo has been sitting in on some of their classes to remind them to straighten up.  So I decided to use the quiz as a teachable moment.  I used all of yesterday’s class to discuss respect, study habits and good notetaking and then gave them back their quizzes.  I explained to them that it is very possible and probable that most of them will come back from this 1 bad score since it is only quiz and not a test and we discussed not just studying vocab but looking at the larger concepts.  I’m hoping that this will have a positive affect, my only concern was with the culture here.  I had a student who asked if I put the scores in their weekly report and I had.  She began to cry and went on to explain that her dad was going to beat her!  I had heard from Jake that this was fairly normal and was just part of the culture. I couldn’t get over it though, how do I allow a student to go home to their father knowing that they are going to get a belt or firm hand?  I wanted to tell her to stay at my house for the weekend and desperately wanted to call child services, as if such a think existed here. 

I continue to learn a lot about teaching and to develop new strategies to teach my students.  I pray that they will stick with it and continue to learn and not get discouraged.  Sometime I will have to comment on all of the good and smile worthy things that have happened in the classroom.

Dia de los Ninos

September 13, 2012

While this week was technically a short week, it still fell long.  We didn’t have to teach Monday because it was Kids Day.  This is a Latin American/Central American holiday that was celebrated all over on this day.  Since I teach in the secondary I went with about 12 students out to visit the aldea called La Zona.  After returning Jake told me it was one of the poorer aldeas and this did not surprise me.  I had another wonderful pick-up ride while chatting with my students for about 30 minutes.  We arrived at what was basically a one-room schoolhouse.  That may be exaggerating but basically they had 2 rooms plus an area for cooking and preparing things.  The toilets were porcelain stools over the ground with no doors and I automatically made a note to self not to drink water because I was going to have to wait until we returned back to school to use the restroom.  The young students were excited to see us and grateful that we were there to spend the morning with them. 

It was a blessing to get to visit such a humbling place.  The American teachers often have conversations that revolve around all the things we don’t have while we are here and I know that I have pointed numerous of those things out in previous posts, but being in the aldea showed me just how much I have not only at home but here in La Union.  Many students didn’t appear to have bathed, their clothes were either extremely large or a bit of a squeeze to get in them.  They didn’t have adequate shoes for the terrain and it was apparent that many of them didn’t have access to clean water.  This means that most of them experience sickness on a regular basis and have only the rivers (dirty or clear) as a source of water for them.  I have been fortunate enough so far to not fall ill from any of the water, but we also use purified water in all of our drinking and cooking. 

The best part of this organized activity was that I was merely a chaperone to keep things running smoothly, and the students were in charge of running the morning’s events.  They had gotten together and planned numerous games for the students to participate in and even had prizes for the winners.  I was impressed with many of my students and was surprised to see many of them in a different role than student.  I learned that a few of them work really well with kids and seem to enjoy the opportunity to work with the younger people.  Many of the games I had not seen before and some were similar versions to things that we play in the states.  To top all the games off I had an opportunity to experience my first Latin American Piñata.  It was a bit scary at times with kids swinging bats and others diving for candy at the same time.  The kids were so happy though and you could tell they were enjoying a day that was planned especially for them.  To top the morning off the school cooked up Honduran tacos for the kids and us visitors.  After serving them up, which it was obvious that the students were very excited for, we got to enjoy some of our own.  We then said good-bye to our new friends, leaving them with goodie bags and loaded up the truck to head back to La Union. 

It turned out to be about a half day and the teachers had lunch together before retreating to our houses for afternoon naps.  I finally got my first Honduran siesta!  We then met up and went to the community center where the school was hosting a kid’s day event as a fundraiser.  First there were a few soccer games that the students partook in and then the food was brought out.  There were all sorts of traditional Honduran food along with treats like ice cream, chocobananas and tejadas (plantain chips).  Once the students settled in they began the movie Avengers.  Of course this was in Spanish so I quickly got bored and since my help wasn’t needed I made my way home in the pouring rain through flooded streets.  Of course the excitement of the day only continued as I got home, but that can be a story for later J

Bug Horrors

September 9, 2012

I also wanted to share with you a little more about how we are living here.  It’s a quick one, but last Friday night I had gone over to Brooke’s after school where she was going to change and grab some things for us to use to make dinner.  While there I killed my cockroach.  It was hanging out in her living room.  While that is not so bad, we came down to my house (by now it was dark) and I unlocked the door and flicked on the light as I walked in.  To my surprise and the neighbors since I’m sure they heard me scream, there was a giant spider scurrying across our floor.  I have literally never seen a spider this big!  It was approximately 4 inches in diameter and had black fuzzy fur.  After talking about it with others we came to the conclusion that it was indeed a baby tarantula.  After I screamed Brooke followed me and we decided we wouldn’t be able to just kill it because it was so large.  Instead, we captured it using tupperware and then took it outside and threw it off the bridge into the river.  I have no idea if it survived but all that matters is I haven’t seen it since then or any of its friends!

A Mountain of Gringos

September 8, 2012

I really wanted to update the blog this week, but boy was it quite the week.  I gave my first round of tests to the 7^th, 10^th and 11^th graders, and I realized during this time that they were not kidding in orientation when they said cheating is natural and a common part of the culture here in Honduras.  Luckily, I made different tests for my 11^th graders because there are so many of them, my 10^th graders are so few in number that they can be spread all over the room, but then there is the 7^th graders.  I caught 5 of them cheating, they were talking, looking at others papers and even trying to use hand signals to tell others the multiple-choice answers.  Since it was their first attempt I cut them a break; here a failing grade is 65 so I gave them their percentage out of a max of 65.  They were not very happy, but grateful that I didn’t give them a 0 and demerits. 

The week was also full of many rough class periods where the students didn’t seem to show any interest or even worse were very disrespectful.  The teachers spent a lot of time complaining and venting this week, along with the occasional exchanging of strategies to try and get the students motivated and under control.  Every night I came home very frustrated and spent the evenings trying to get my mind away from the difficulties at school.  I spent time reading, watching movies and then went to sleep at a fairly early time.  All of this frustration came to a forefront at our staff meeting on Thursday when we were told that in celebration of dia de los ninos (Kids Day) we would not have school on Monday and that instead the primary goods would play games and have candy and the secondary grades would be heading out to the aldeas to hand out candy to the kids.  While this is fun, my plans were all ready for next week!  So it was back to the drawing board, especially since the next week is also only a 4-day week.  Its entertaining that I have always wished for such a thing as kids day and now that I finally I have it, I am not longer considered a kid :(

After school on Friday Kara and I went to the store and picked up ingredients to cook dinner.  We had invited the 5 10^th grade girls over for dinner after seeing one of them having a difficult day.  They seem like a tight group of girls who are there to help each other out, but since Kara also teaches them we thought it would be good to get to know them a bit more.  We made them chicken rolled in Doritos crumbs, diced potatoes, tomato and cucumber salad and vanilla cake for dessert.  During the week we found out from one of the Honduran teachers that 2 of the girls have probably the roughest lives in all of the school.  They both have younger siblings that they care for because one of their dads is an alcoholic and the other one has a mother that left them to go to Spain and seems to have difficulties with her father.  It was an overall good night, and they seemed to enjoy the dinner and game we played after.  We got to hear more about each student.  We decided it was a good start in getting to know them and can be expanded on from now.

This morning I got up and spent some time cleaning our place after having 10 girls over yesterday.  We also got a spray for bugs and used that all around our place…hopefully the ants will soon be leaving.  I also decided that now I have everything in place and know that I am here for the long haul I would hang up some hooks and make my room my own.  I then went to the church to use the internet and found that my mom had found the perfect spring break option on Roatan.  It was great news after such a long week.  I am excited that my 6 months from Christmas to the end of school will be interrupted with the comforts of home by having my mom and hopefully my best friend come to visit me in a tropical paradise.  I think they will like the resort a lot more than having to experience my living conditions haha.  At 10 all of the American teachers and the Brits met at the church where some of the 11^th grade students picked us up.  I jumped on the motorcycle with one of them, as did Kara and the rest piled into the back of a pick-up truck.  The students had planned this adventure as part of a fundraiser.  We payed them to be guides and to take us to the waterfall and they brought us a picnic lunch to have.  The students are trying to raise money for SAG (student annual gathering), where all of the schools come together and compete with one another in all sorts of competitions including sports, chess, singing, academics and bible.  It got off to an exciting start when just out of town we were stopped by the police.  (Of course they were carrying giant guns, and he even got his handgun out while talking to us!).  Apparently the students driving the motorcycles should have been wearing helmets and were not and most of them either didn’t have their paperwork for the motorcycle or didn’t have a license.  Even worse, the truck carrying the other teachers turned around when they saw the police, but unfortunately for them the police had already seen them.  We were instructed to call them back and once the got back the police told us we could just keep going after the students explained it was a school activity.  After that we were on our way and we made it out to the waterfall after a short stop for pictures where Jake and his friend had taken Brooke and I last week.  After the 20 min car/bike ride we hiked 15 min down to the waterfall and boy was it worth it.  It was beautiful!  We spent a couple hours swimming and then climbing up to the top of the waterfall (yes we made it up to the first drop!).  It was quite the adventure and I had a few moments where I thought I might die, but I survived and am here to tell you about how awesome it was.  After exploring the students served us up some sandwiches, chips, coke, and cookies.  On the way back in the pick-up truck someone going by stopped and in Spanish said that "Thats a mountain of gringos," which really means like thats a lot of white people hahaha.  We were very impressed with how well the students had put it all together.  It was definitely a day for the memory books. 

Days like today are reminders why I am here doing this.  Even though the 11^th grade class drove me nuts all week, they are some awesome kids who spend their Saturdays with their teachers raising money for an event that they love.  For those of you who know me or my bucket list you know that jumping off a waterfall has always been a dream of mine.  While I didn’t get to jump off I did get to swim under it and climb through it to get to the top, I’m considering it a winning situation.  I can’t describe how happy I was all afternoon enjoying my time exploring nature and all that our world has to offer.  The weeks are hard and will probably continue to be that way, but I learn so much on the weekends not only about my students, but also about myself, my surroundings and the people I am sharing this amazing experience with.  Tonight we have paid a woman (actually our landlords wife) to make pizza for all of us.  I’m sure there will be games because of course it is Saturday night!

*As a side note if anyone is ever interested in making material or monetary donations to the school, you can contact me by email and I can let you know what they need and we could figure something out.  The school also uses sponsors to help pay for some of the students schooling and they could always use more sponsors and would be continually informed about your student and their progress.  My email is lorizimmerman12@gmail.com

Santa Rosa Weekend

September 2, 2012

In celebration of surviving yet another week of  teaching, only our second, the teachers took a weekend trip.  We left on Saturday morning and headed by pick-up truck (yes we rode in the back) through the mountains to the town of Santa Rosa. 

The view on the ride out of La Union...we were going through a cloud.

We rode the last hour of the trip on a bus and were greeted by loud music and crazy men as soon as we stepped off at the stop it was a very typical Latin American feel.  It was a bit overwhelming for us coming from La Union and we all decided that was almost sensory overload.  They was so much to look at and so much to hear we didn’t even know where to direct our attention.  We chose a hotel close to the bus stop and the supermarket, but a little away from the town center.  After settling in to a great place we took a taxi into town and arrived at the town square to find the beginning of a parade.  Apparently it was Santa Rosa Day and the festivities were beginning.  Of course our first instinct was that it was some sort of protest or gathering because the picture below is what we saw. 

After getting out of the taxi, this is the sight we saw.

We found out that the colored gas was actually being released by the military as we had thought but it was signaling the beginning of the parade.  The problem with this situation is that the parade was traveling right down the street we needed to cross to get to the bank so that we could receive our debit cards.  Once we made it through the crowd and across the street we were able to accomplish everything we needed to at the bank and everything was in order for us to collect our cards (a surprisingly flawless trip through the bank…a very rare occurrence because they are not very efficient).  Once we had taken care of the business we were able to have a little fun.  We visited a pizza place called Weekends, and the teachers from Gracias met us there so we could exchange stories and catch up with them.  The pizza was delicious and we had all been craving it!  After this we visited the teacher store to grab some materials and even found a miniature department/convenience store where we were able to pick up a few things for our apartments and some beauty products.  Its nice to know that all of these things are available here and I won’t have to go without…they even had a few of my favorite brands.  Once we were shopped out we visited a local coffee shop.  This is a favorite of Jakes because it actually sells local Honduran coffee.  Surprisingly most coffee shops don’t sell the local product but rather imported brands.  I had a wonderful strawberry and chocolate smoothing that cooled me down because it was a hot day.  The coffee shop was a neat area and was located right by the central park. 

The streets of Santa Rosa

After wandering around a bit we went back to the hotel and visited the supermarket.  And as our luck would have it, it was the 5-year anniversary of the store, which means that it was packed and very busy!  We were able to stock up on some of our favorite foods and things we can’t get in La Union.  I actually got some Oreos, tuna, pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese, and Ritz just to name a few.  We were all very excited with our purchases and felt very accomplished so we left our new purchases at the hotel and went back into town to have dinner at a restaurant called Zotz.  It was much like a TGIFridays and even had the same décor…check out the Spartan sign they had.

The food was a good attempt at American, but it fell a bit short of our standards.  We were able to enjoy a couple beers though and after dinner we moved onto another bar for a couple drinks and got the entertainment of a live band and some great dancers!  We were all exhausted though from running around and traveling so we headed back to the hotel. 

This morning we caught a bus back to Gracias and then a different one to La Union.  Both buses were packed and very hot, but it got worse the closer to La Union because more people kept getting on and the roads are terrible.  If you could picture the rockiest roads through the mountains that lead to a small village then you would be thinking along the lines of the bus we took, but even then you probably can’t quite imagine how crazy it was.  We were all grateful to get home, but we were also very happy for the time away and then chance to pick up a few things that we had been really longing for. 

The view

One of my other favorite parts of the weekend was after school on Friday.  Jake and one of the microfinance guys, Mike, took Brooke and I up to a lookout point on their motorcycles.  It was beautiful!  You could see for miles and there was even a storm rolling through in the distance that we could see.  The area was so quiet and it was quite the change from the week at school and all the kids yelling “Miss” constantly.  Jake pointed out some of the aldeas (villages) that surround La Union and we took some time to chat and take in the view. 

I am feeling wonderfully refreshed after the weekend and ready to take on another week with my students.  Hopefully things will continue to go well, and the students will continue to work hard.  It should also be noted that it is now September, which means that I have been here for about month.  It has gone by so fast and hopefully it will continue to in the best way because I sure do miss the people and comforts of home, but for now I know that I have a home here and the students remind me daily of why I am here.