Frustrations of Teaching in Another Culture

 

The past few weeks have reminded me of the differences in culture and mindsets of Hondurans and Americans.  In the states participating in extracurricular activities is a privelege that students earn by having good time management and leadership.  In other words they have to have good academic standing and record in order to participate in activities.  Here this is not the case.  When outside school activites come up academics seem to take a backseat.  While preparing for fiesta tipica they took students from classes and canceled classes on numerous occasions so they could practice.  While I understand the value in this it seems that other times could be used; for example, after-school or even during PE class.  Now that fiesta tipica is over we are still facing the dilemma because SAG (student annual gathering) is coming in the next 2 months.  At SAG the students compete against the other Abundant Life schools in all sorts of activities including sports, bible trivia, spelling bees, art competitions, singing competitions, crafts and many more.  Our principal has decided that in order to give the students more time to practice for their events they would take out 2 of their classes each day.  So today I arrived to my 11^th grade chemistry class to find out that they didn’t have class because they were practicing.  I couldn’t believe it!  First of all some warning or communicaiton from my administration would have been nice so I didn’t have to find out from the students and second of all they are going to be missing a whole chemistry class each week for the next 2 months.  So much for getting through all the material they want me to.  When I was not happy and went to find someone to ask about it I was told 2 more things.  First off, all of the students participating in sports would have practice before school on Monday and Friday and since they were commiting that time they wouldn’t have to arrive at school until after first period.  I was also informed that the students participating in SAG would be rewarded and have their homework/study load lightened so they had more time to practice.  Basically meaning I have to cut them a break and they would be exempt from some quizzes and tests.  I have never heard of such craziness where academics are so undervalued compared to sports and extracurricular activities.  I am currently trying to creatively come up with a way to handle all of what is happening.  I know that all students will have to take all tests no matter what, for my class atleast, but I am not sure how I am going to handle Tuesday afternoons yet.  My patience and creativity is continually tested here and I am learning a lot about myself and my priorities.  All I can say is I hope all the practice pays off for them at SAG and that they not only have a good time but are succesful in their competitive endeavors. 

Fiesta Tipica

February 26, 2013

2 of my favorite students...they learned English just 1 year ago!

This past Saturday was one of our school’s big fundraisers.  It is a festival that revolves around typical Honduran culture from music and dance to food.  Each grade had a booth that the parents were in charge of running.  The men built the booths and the women were in charge of cooking and selling the food.  I was quite impressed with the booths.  They are called Champas and were built like small huts, made from bamboo, wood and had roofs made from leaves.  The fathers even built small clay/mud woodstoves for the women to cook on.  Since Brooke and I both have small classes our parents worked together to create our booth named La Calabaza (the pumpkin).  Each grade was assigned to cook different types of typical Honduran food and our group had baleadas which flour tortillas with beans and cheese, similar to a quesadilla (they also can have eggs and avocado in them, which is how we generally get them).  We also had oranges and the typical juice called orchata.  The good thing was since Brooke and I had no idea what to do our parents handled almost everything.  The event went great.  Our students had worked tirelessly for the past couple of weeks to prepare a program with classic singing and dancing.  Each grade performed a dance and then a handful of students also sang solos.  The kids did great and they all looked awesome in their Honduran costumes.  The boys wore jeans, plaid or flannel shirts and cowboy hats, while the girls wore the typical dresses that you see in old school Latin American culture.  I spent a lot of time wandering around and talking to students while eating as much food as I could.  It was great to see our students sharing their talents and to spend time with them outside of school.  I am continually impressed with their abilities, work ethic and maturity.  I tried to take lots of pictures so that you could all see what I had the opportunity to experience.  The day was very hot and of course some of us gringas ended up with sunburns because there was no shade.  It was one day that I was very grateful for my usually underwhelming shower, I guess everything has to be thought of in context. 

The 1st graders dancing

Some of the 10th and 11th graders dancing.

One of the 2nd graders

some of the champas

The 2nd graders dancing

The 5th graders preparing to dance

10th and 11th graders dancing.

10th and 11th graders again

Long Weekend Getaway

February 17, 2013
 

Happy Valentines Day!  I know many people had extended weekends recently thanks to midwinter breaks and other holidays.  We were no exception and all of us teachers were very excited to get away from La Union and do some traveling and adventuring.  For one of the first times besides Christmas all of us teachers were not traveling together.  Harriet and Beth ventured towards El Salvador and Guatamela, Kara and Lenny relaxed in Gracias and Cassidy, Brooke and I ventured to Gracias also but we hiked Celaque which is Honduras’ highest point. 

Our sleeping arrangement...all huddled together on the wood floor.

The trail straight up to the top.

We arrived in Gracias by bus and made our way to Hotel Guancascos, where we stayed when we first made it to Honduras and had orientation.  Frony, the owner, had set up a guide for us and transportation out to the national park.  We said our good byes to Kara and Lenny and ventured off.  After the half hour ride, we spent the next 6 hours hiking the most grueling trail I have ever attempted.  The trail to the top is about 5 miles long and covers nearly 10, 000 ft of elevation.  There are 2 camps along the way and we had been informed by previous climbers that the second one is the better option as far as timing and convenience.  When we arrived at the first camp, out of breath and already exhausted our guide, Santos, informed us that the most difficult part was yet to come.  We ate some trail mix and granola bars and decided to continue on.  What we realized was that Santos was not kidding.  Shortly before the second campsite was a section that ventured across a rock face and was nearly a straight vertical.  At this point we were completely exhausted and had no strength left.  I will gladly admit that I may have crawled through parts of this because it was so challenging. 

We finally arrived at our camp though and enjoyed being able to drink water straight from the stream (we didn’t have to have bottled or filtered water).  Santos built us a fire and we relaxed and stretched for the afternoon.  As eveening drew near, another group arrived at the camp which included an older couple from Spain, I was very impressed that they had made it up, a guide and 2 young Honduran men.  They began setting up their tents and as it got darker we all had dinner around the fire.  Then the moment of truth came, they asked if we wanted help setting up our tent and when we replied that we didn’t have one they were all shocked and didn’t know what to say.  The site offers a shelter which we knew about, but shelters here are different than in the states.  Here the shelter was a woodfloor with three wooden siides that had gaps between them and a tin roof.  We were definitely questioning our decision about the tent but when we retired to bed, our sleeping bags under the shelter roof, we just huddled together and it was just fine.  The night was a little cold but we didn’t get wet.  Of course the wooden floor was hard and we didn’t sleep all that much so when morning came we were excited to get a move on.  We climbed for about an hour and a half without our packs to reach the top.  It was a partly cloudy day so there wasn’t much of a view but it was still pretty to be in the clouds and to know we made it to the top.  Santos then guided us back down to the camp and we grabbed our gear and began the hike down.  It took us about 5 hours to get down.  There were numerous parts that seemed to steep going down that I couldn’t believe we made it up.  When we finally made it down our legs were like jello and our feet were very sore.

 

Since it was only Friday we planned on spending the rest of the weekend relaxing and eating good food, so we met up with Kara and Lenny at their hotel in Gracias and got a room.  We were very grateful to have the opportunity to shower which was even extra amazing because it was a real shower (not the kind with the electricity running through them to heat the water).  We all went out for chinese food which was served family style with huge plates.  We greatly enjoyed the food and told stories of our journey, but since we were so exhausted we retired back to the hotel early and went straight to bed. 

The next morning we woke and not surprisingly we could hardly move.  My body was so sore, and still is, that even just flat walking was difficult.  We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then caught a bus to Santa Rosa.  We have been to Santa Rosa before but since it is slightly larger than Gracias it has a few more things to offer.  We had lunch at Weekends, the great pizza place we enjoyed when there before.  We then visited the teacher store and did a little other shopping.  The afternoon was spent relaxing at a coffee shop while it rained outside.  When it slowed down, we made our way to the big grocery store where we found a lot of things that we don’t have here in La Union.  While there we caught up with Harriet and Beth and together we all made our way back to Gracias.  We spent the evening at a restaurant called Café Kalil.  They had delicious wings and bruschetta and even had brownies with ice cream for dessert.  We enjoyed all catching up and spending somet time together again.  Sunday morning we relaxed in bed because the power was out and then once it came back on we had breakfast, watched some TV and then ventured to the grocery store.  We were able to pick up some dairy products, mostly cheese and yogurt, before we headed to the bus station to make our way back to La Union.  The ride went well except that because of the rain our bus struggled to make it up some of the hills.  Of course it was Albin (our landlord and the owner of the buses) to the rescue, he used one of his larger trucks to help pull the bus up the hills.  We finally made it home though and got all unpacked. 

While many people were off relaxing on the beach, I spent the break climbing a mountain, which I severely underestimated.  While it was very challenging and there were many moments of self doubt I am very glad that I did it.  I also got to enjoy a lot of time relaxing and eating great food, which makes coming back to La Union much easier. 

Decisions...

This past week was our deadline to make a decision about staying another year or moving on to new things.  For those of you who know me, I hate making decisions.  Sometimes I just wish that they were made for me and I just had to find a way to deal with whatever choice had been made.  So this was a very difficult decision and I spent a lot of time thinking about it.  My students here are so great and I enjoy the subject matter.  I must say though I also miss a lot of things and people from home.  The comforts here are just nonexistent.  What ended up winning for me was my family and friends back home.  It also didn’t help that the past week or two had been very challenging and that I had felt like I lost some of the passion for the school.  The way the administration had handled a few things and the demands they put on their teachers swayed me toward looking for something new.  In all of my previous jobs I have believed in their mission and enjoyed the people I was working with and under because everyone cared about the company and it success and it was very evident.  For some reason I felt a disconnect with the administraton in Tegucigalpa and our school.  While I am a bit sad about the decision I am excited to see what new adventures life will take me on.  I will surely miss the great people I have met here and become family with along with all my students and the community that has surrounded me. 

Rain, Rain, Go AWAY!

January 26, 2012

Last Thursday the temperature dropped to about 50 degrees and began raining…and it hasn’t stopped!  It has been kind of miserable and makes me feel very unproductive.  Because of all the rain and cold weather, I spent most of last weekend inside my sleeping bag.  Brooke and I watched a couple movies and with a few of the other teachers played some Settlers of Catan.  We were all looking forward to getting out of town this weekend for Beth’s birthday.  We had planned on spending the weekend in Gracias and ziplining on what is supposed to be Central America’s tallest!  Unfortunately, with the cold and rainy weather we decided not to go because we weren’t sure the bus would make it.  Instead we are celebrating Beth’s birthday here in La Union. 

Besides the crummy weather things have been going well.  I am back into the swing of things and the students have been great.  The directors from Tegucigalpa were here visiting and checking on us this week.  We all passed!  They actually didn’t even sit in on any classes but they met with the sponsored students from 8-11^th grade.  They made them sign a contract that asks them to uphold the Christian values even outside of school.  They are also required to do 4 hours of community service every Saturday (except when we are on a school vacation).  The students were not very excited because that started this weekend at 8am. 

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately because it is that time of year where we have to decide about staying for another year.  There are a lot of people and things I miss from home, but I know that what I’m doing here is a good thing and my students are so great.  There is a lot to think about and a big decision head. 

Christmas Break and Becoming a Honduran Resident

January 11, 2012

I never had the chance to write about the week before Christmas break because things were so busy.  Many people heard the stories while I was at home but in case you didn’t I have to tell you how awesome the student’s at our school are.  Our last day of school was Wednesday the 19^th so on Monday evening I got a knock at my door, it was one of the 11^th grade students and he said him and his classmates were all hoping to have a prayer circle that evening with the teachers because one of the fellow classmates was really sick.  I was shocked and of course agreed to go.  When we walked to the student’s house it was dark and out of nowhere all of the 11^th graders popped out and started singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”  It was so nice and they made us chili and tacos and we ate and hung out with them for the evening.  They even taught us to dance some typical dances of the area.  It was a big surprise and such a blast to see the students in their own element outside of the classroom. 

The Christmas Carolers even came to Brooke's house

On Tuesday evening the 8^th graders did a similar thing so we spent the evening hanging out with them and enjoying more good Honduran food.  They even had a bonfire going and we once again listened to some good music.  After this we met up with a lot of the secondary students and went Christmas caroling.  Lenny organized this even with the 11^th graders but many of the other students thought it would be fun so they joined in too.  We stopped at all of the Honduran teachers houses and they loved it! 

Wednesday was the day of the Christmas play.  The students had been practicing for weeks so I was excited to see what the final show would look like.  They did awesome!  The little ones were very cute in their matching outfits and all danced so well.  The older students did a great job acting and one of my 10^th grade students even sang a solo, which gave me goosebumps.  I was so impressed with their talents and effort to put on such a great show. 

One of the closing scenes where a 10th grader sang a solo.

6th and 7th grade Dance

5th Graders Dance

Skiing with Rachel

Christmas break was great.  I got to see a lot of people and spend time with my family.  I also enjoyed the warm and powerful showers, the great food variety, skiing, and the company of some of my favorite people.  It was weird though because by the end I was ready to come back to La Union.  I wasn’t necessarily ready for school, but I wanted to see my students and I wanted to see my fellow teachers which are now a big part of me and whom I consider family. 

Out for a Christmas Day walk in the snow

Upon arriving in Honduras we unfortunately didn’t get to come right back to La Union instead we traveled to Tegucigalpa in order to become official Honduran residents.  It was a long weekend with lots of traveling and few disappointments.  I made it with only 1 minor problem back to San Pedro Sula and took a transfer back to my hotel.  When I checked in for my flight they told me I couldn’t get on the plane because I didn’t have a visa to stay longer than the 90-day tourist visa (my return flight is booked for the end of the school year).  I called Delta and booked a refundable one-way ticket home for some day in January and they let me through.  Once I arrived my mom was able to just call and cancel the ticket and get the money back.  I arrive in the afternoon and then later that evening I went back to the airport to meet Brooke who was flying in from her travels in Ecuador.  I was very excited to see her but she seemed to be missing something…her luggage.  Unfortunately her bag didn’t make it and she would spend the next week or so chasing it down. 

The next morning Brooke and I met up with the Gracias teachers (who didn’t even know we were there) and were picked up by the Gracias bus.  We stopped at the airport and picked up Kara and Lenny along with one of the Gracias teachers and a new teacher for Choluteca.  We then left San Pedro Sula to make the 4 hour bus ride to the Tegucigalpa.  Unfortunately on the way got a flat tire and had to spend some time fixing that.  We arrived late evening into Tegucigalpa, where the rest of the La Union teachers were waiting for us.  We had a reunion, telling stories of our travels and exchanging Christmas gifts and then we all went to bed.  We got up early and spent all of the next day at the immigration office where we all became official Honduran residents.  The original plan was for us to then ride back to Gracias with their teachers and then we would be picked up on Tuesday by a truck.  The Gracias teachers didn’t want to have to get in late and teach the next day so they convinced their administration to let us stay another night in Tegucigalpa and all travel back the next day.  This way we got to spend the evening at the mall and go to Wal-Mart again.  This was nice but it also meant that we bussed the 7 hours back to Gracias with them and then had to ride another 3 hours in a small pickup to get back to La Union.  This meant that now we would get in late and have to teach the next day.  It also meant that we would have to leave most of our luggage in Gracias because it didn’t fit in the truck.  Instead, it was brought on one of the buses the next day. 

We have been back to school for 3 days now and although I felt very unprepared for the week it is going well.  My luggage made it and I was able to give my students their Christmas gifts this morning.  They loved them and have already been eating the Cherry Republic Cherry Sours that were in there.  I was so happy to see them and am excited for the rest of the year and all the fun things to come.  For Christmas I got a book of easy science experiments (hopefully this way I will have the materials for them) and I am excited to try some with my students so they can see some science in action. 

A Long Overdue Update

 December 11, 2012

I know it has been awhile since I have posted any updates so here is what has been happening.  I also must note that after long days at school the last thing I want to do is write blog posts so I apologize that my posts have become so sporatic. 

Since Thanksgiving, I have been counting down until Christmas.  I am beginning to feel a bit burnt out and am ready to see all of my loved ones.  Teaching 6 different classes has really taken a toll on me but I know that challenging myself is the best thing I can do at this point.  The kids seem to also be ready for break because their behavior has been heading down the slippery slope.  Each class seems more difficult to keep engaged and they seem to be putting less effort into their studies.  I am hoping that coming back from they will all be renewed and ready to finish the school with a lot of motivation. 

The 9^th graders have been the best example of this.  Over the last couple of weeks they have begun to consistently talk over me and use class time to discern their social standing with others rather than do their work.  Yesterday it all became too much.  I heard from Brooke that they had been the same way in her class and that she snapped with them in the morning.  She abruptly ended the lesson only 1/3^rd of the way through and told the students to do their homework.  So when they were acting out in my class I figured I would be consistent in punishment and did the same.  I knew this alone wouldn’t fix the problem though so today after their quiz we built a web where we brainstormed what it means to be a good student.  Tomorrow they will write me letters about their behaviors and how they can become a really good student…including what I can do to help them.  I will have to let you know how this turns out and if I see any changes. 

On top of everyone being ready for break we have 3 other headaches that have been plaguing us.  First off, we have not had a copier for over a month now, which isn’t a big deal because we can have them sent out (you just have to be really on top of things and a couple days ahead).  But then last week our printer also ran out of ink so now we have no way to print things to send to the copier.  I have made more worksheets by hand than I ever thought I would have to since I was teaching in the 21^st century.  Although this isn’t the ideal situation we have been making due and have only increased our creativity in our teacher toolbox. 

The second disruption has been a lack of internet.  For some reason our download allowance has been severely decreased.  We have been running out of it quite often and rarely have internet at the school.  Luckily we can still visit the church to borrow those when necessary and to keep in contact with our friends and families. 

The third thing is the Christmas play that the school is putting together.  Unfortunately they started very late and because of that have been trying to make up time.  So they decided to use the last two class periods of everyday to work with students.  Unfortunately communication hasn’t been that great and some classes are needed on certain days while others are not.  This has made planning, which is already a challenge around a break, very difficult. 

These things have really taught me flexibility.  I thought that student teaching had taught me that, but that was just a minor step to what I would eventually learn.  I realized this is a great talking point for future interviews as I know that my experience here will be brought up.  So far my major learning experiences have been flexibility, creativity, and learning about myself. 

I have spent the last couple weekends just hanging out and getting a lot of school work done…making worksheets by hand takes extra time!  Girls nights have increased from once a week to sometimes 3 since our frustrations have also increased.  We have been getting very intrigued by season 2 of Downton Abby and I would suggest the series to anyone, I have heard it is available on Netflix.  The weather has been beautiful here and while I miss the snow that I have heard about and seen pictures of, I am happy to be enjoying sunshine and dryness.  I am sure though that rain is coming this week and we will once again be in a muddy place where I have to wear my rain boots (which now have holes in them) constantly.  Today our laundry was done and since it was so beautiful out most of the clothes dried (which hasn’t happened in a couple months).  I am even more grateful for the fact my sheets got clean, are dry, and smell nice.  I am looking forward to crawling into bed with clean sheets, my book and my Christmas lights! 

I would also like to mention with the holiday season upon us, if anyone is interested in gifting to the school or students I would be more than happy to talk with you.  They can always use materials and sponsors are always desired so that more students can experience the gift of education.  There is also another company here who is a microfinance group that works with coffee farmers.  They do some amazing things here and can always use support, which you can do by purchasing their coffee.  The follow is a link to their main order page…

They are also working with our Abundant Life Christian School on a coffee that is grown at a farm owned by some of the teachers and they are offering to give some of the profits back to the school… here is a link to that page:

I hope you are all looking forward to a special holiday season where we can spend time with our families and take part in the traditions of gift giving.  9 days until I arrive back in Michigan and yes I will be welcoming the snow!