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
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