NOTE: This is fairly long (I apologize) but the school is just so different here. And there is so much more to tell. So if you are only interested in my trips, you will probably want to skip this one. Plus there are no photos.
Everyone keeps asking for stories about the school and teaching. You all need to just calm down, take a deep breath, and be patient. Below I have compiled some stories about the school. Hopefully this will satisfy you for now. I am sure many more wacky things will occur.
I am teaching 3rd grade. The students are in class M-F from noon until 5:00pm. Kinda weird but at least I get to sleep in. The day is broken up into 7 periods with a recess in the middle. Each class is 40 minutes. After each period, a bell rings (it has to be manually pushed in the office after each class... so usually it is late). I currently have 21 students. On a typical day, I only teach about 4 of the 7 periods and then I have the other 3 periods free for planning, grading, etc.
Here is a typical day:
12:00 - 12:40 I teach math. Most of the kids are fairly good at math if you stick to computation and there is no reading or word problem involved. We also have no manipulatives to help out.
12:40 - 1:20 The Social Studies teacher comes to my room and teaches the kids (in Spanish). I leave and plan elsewhere. Often on a plastic chair in some shade on the playground.
1:20 - 2:00 I return to the room and teach Spelling/Phonics or Grammar. This is one of the only times I can sneak in actual writing. I guess they don't really emphasize having the kids write. They just use the grammar workbooks so it is all out of context and inauthentic. I try to get them to do some real writing. Their writing is really low, but probably because they never really write. If anyone wants to do pen pals with my students let me know. At least it would create an authentic reason to write and edit to make their writing comprehensible
2:00 - 2:20 The kids have lunch and recess. The kids can buy food from the school "cafeteria". It is really expensive but somehow many kids seem able to afford it. On our salary, Christina and I can never eat there and instead have to eat PB&J sandwiches everyday. There is no refrigerator or microwave on campus so our options are limited. The cafeteria is just a wooden shack that sells pizza, candy, and soda (healthy choices). The kids eat on the playground. The playground itself is very lacking and dilapidated. There are metal swings with giant holes in the seats, bars for swinging that are so high the kids stand on uneven cinder blocks to reach them, some tires half sunk in the ground (for jumping???) and a basketball/volleyball/soccer court in one. Although, the only balls available are small, hard , and plastic with no air inside. The jungle gym is metal but is not placed in concrete, it is just dangerously resting on the dirt. Oh, did I mention the heat?
2:20 - 3:00 The Spanish teacher comes to the room and I go elsewhere to plan or whatever.
3:00 - 3:40 The kids either go to computers (where apparently the teacher shows them how to play solitaire) or they go to P.E .(where apparently all they learn is how to walk back and forth or jump rope). Both of these are taught in Spanish.
3:40 - 4:20 I go back to the room and teach reading. This mostly consists of doing picture walks, me reading aloud the story while the kids follow along. We discuss different parts. They practice reading it individually or with partners. The majority do not comprehend any of the story, even after all the discussions. This will greatly improve once we get all the donated books sorted.
4:20 - 5:00 I teach Science. This is a joke. The textbook is insanely hard for them and we have no resources or money for science experiments or hands on work. This is really the most frustrating time of the day. Luckily I have access to videos I can download from the internet to help some. This period is often canceled for other events though. Like every Friday there is an assembly or for the next 3 weeks we practice marching everyday for the Independence Day parade in the heat (the marching is a nightmare...I can't wait until the parade is over).
The students are very well behaved when I am teaching. They really respond to the slightest bit of positive comments. The other teachers seem to have no classroom management skills at all. During those times, the kids just walk around the room whenever they want, are always talking, and don't really listen to the teacher at all. I am no expert myself, all I do is give them stars on the white board (yep, we have them here too) for good behavior and erase them for poor behavior and this simple idea seems to work extremely effectively with them. I can't really figure out why the other teachers don't have something like this. The other teachers also seem to have a habit of just leaving the room for extended periods when they are supposed to be teaching. I will often find them in the office chatting or they even leave school to run errands... during class!
As with any class, I have a wide range of abilities. I have students that are fairly fluent in English and have a strong vocabulary. These students seem to understand everything I say, can read the textbooks fairly well, and mostly comprehend the lessons. On the other end, my lowest students have extremely limited English, very poor pronunciation, and just stare at me with a confused look when I ask even seemingly simple questions. Some don't even have complete letter/sound recognition. I am very thankful for the donation of books we had shipped here. Without these, we only have textbooks, which would make improving reading very difficult. Thank you again to those who were able to donate. As with most children, these kids really want to learn, it is just a matter of thinking of inventive ways to reach them with the limited resources. Ideas are welcome. The trouble is, at some point, I am still expected to complete workbook pages (yuck!).
Oh, I didn't even mention how no one who works at the "bilingual" school speaks English. The 1st grade teacher is a joke. He self taught himself English and he has extremely limited vocabulary, poor pronunciation, and grammar. The 5th and 6th grade teachers are fluent in English. There is one high school teacher who speaks fluent English. Besides that (and Christina and I) no one else speaks any English at all. No one in the administration or office, no one. So, really, the only times the students are practicing and hearing fluent English is when I am teaching, about 4 periods a day. No wonder the kids have such limited English abilities. At least we will make and impact though, hopefully.
Ahh, there is so much more to tell but I will save it for another time.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Trip to Punta Sal
On Sat., Christina and I went on our second outing as tourists. We signed up with a tour company, Garifuna Tours, to take us. It was about $30.00 per person. We arrived at the boat dock on time at 7:45 am. We paid and waited for the others to arrive. Wow! When the other trip goers arrived we were overwhelmed. It was group of 23 friends from Turkey that are traveling through Central America together. I went on a trip with 9 people and that was overwhelming. Can you image 23? They had to take two boats to fit us all.
Punta Sal is at the tip of a peninsula in the Blanca Jeannette Kawas National Park. Like the park, the school we teach at (BJK) was named after her. She was an environmental activist that was murdered trying to save the land from being developed. The boat ride was about 45 minutes and along the way we saw a few small island inhabited by birds. Then we went on a short hike through the jungle, all 25 of us. Along the hike, some howler monkeys got excited and howled for most of the hike. The sound is creepy, a little like listening to a singer from a death metal band. Roar! 
Everyone lathered themselves with insect repellent and but I chose not to apply any since I have yet to be stung or bitten. During the hike, I witnessed actual mosquitoes land on me numerous times and I was kinda hoping for a few bites (you know..battle scars) but when we ended the hike, I was somehow still bite free. Poor Christina has been covered with bites and itching up a storm for 3 weeks now. Check out those roots: 
After the hike, we rode a little further on the boats to a very nice inlet. Look at that amazing water:
Two families live here to help take care of the park . There is a mud hut they live in. The window in the back had real glass in it. They also had flushing toilets with toilet paper down a walkway behind the huts.
The families also cook lunch for the tourists. They made us rice and beans and fried plantains (like bananas). Oh, and for those who don't mind eating animals, they fried up some fresh fish, too. By the way, they use machetes here for everything: Men cut the lawns and chop down trees with them, children cut up fruit and vegetables with them.
We had about 3 hours to swim, snorkel, and just lie around. The water was nice and clear. I saw large and small colorful fish, coral, sea fans, sea urchins, and a few tiny jelly fish (I swam away from them). Christina, unfortunately, felt a little seasick so she just sat on the beach for awhile trying to recover her equilibrium. She noted that just sitting on the beach and looking at the view was worth the trip though. At about 2:00pm, we had to get back on the boats for the ride back to Tela. 
Some other random things we saw this weekend:
Punta Sal is at the tip of a peninsula in the Blanca Jeannette Kawas National Park. Like the park, the school we teach at (BJK) was named after her. She was an environmental activist that was murdered trying to save the land from being developed. The boat ride was about 45 minutes and along the way we saw a few small island inhabited by birds. Then we went on a short hike through the jungle, all 25 of us. Along the hike, some howler monkeys got excited and howled for most of the hike. The sound is creepy, a little like listening to a singer from a death metal band. Roar! 
Everyone lathered themselves with insect repellent and but I chose not to apply any since I have yet to be stung or bitten. During the hike, I witnessed actual mosquitoes land on me numerous times and I was kinda hoping for a few bites (you know..battle scars) but when we ended the hike, I was somehow still bite free. Poor Christina has been covered with bites and itching up a storm for 3 weeks now. Check out those roots: 
After the hike, we rode a little further on the boats to a very nice inlet. Look at that amazing water:
Two families live here to help take care of the park . There is a mud hut they live in. The window in the back had real glass in it. They also had flushing toilets with toilet paper down a walkway behind the huts.
The families also cook lunch for the tourists. They made us rice and beans and fried plantains (like bananas). Oh, and for those who don't mind eating animals, they fried up some fresh fish, too. By the way, they use machetes here for everything: Men cut the lawns and chop down trees with them, children cut up fruit and vegetables with them.
We had about 3 hours to swim, snorkel, and just lie around. The water was nice and clear. I saw large and small colorful fish, coral, sea fans, sea urchins, and a few tiny jelly fish (I swam away from them). Christina, unfortunately, felt a little seasick so she just sat on the beach for awhile trying to recover her equilibrium. She noted that just sitting on the beach and looking at the view was worth the trip though. At about 2:00pm, we had to get back on the boats for the ride back to Tela. 
Some other random things we saw this weekend:- While going to town for dinner, we stumbled upon a group of high schoolers practicing their band routine for the upcoming Independence Day parade. Their instruments consisted of drums, cymbals, and xylophones. They sounded really cool and had great routines to go along with it. I am getting really excited for the parade. Our school also gets to march in it and we have to teach the students how to march.
- For dinner, I had pupusas, which I love. They are fried, cheese-filled, dough patties which you stuff with pickled cabbage and pickled onions. It is truly heavenly. It is a traditionally from El Salvador but whatever. Oh, and I adore the cartoon kiddie plates that are used in numerous restaurants here. Hi Spongebob!
- We each did our first real load of laundry. It is hard work hand washing your clothes. I am never really sure if I get all the soap out.
- After a hard day of work, we went get a refreshment down the street and unexpectedly found the owners watching Mr.Bean. A T.V. show that can be enjoyed in any language. It was a great cross-cultural, bonding moment.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
An Interesting Market and a Birthday Party
Christina and I decided to go to the market in town. Granted, we have a perfectly good mini-grocery store a block away from our house, but it is small and their stock is very limited. Plus, we predicted (rather correctly) that the town market would be more interesting. So as usual, we woke up at about 6:30am and, after eating our now habitual pancake breakfast, we headed out on our bikes.
Once you get into downtown, you better keep your eyes on the road. Cars come centimeters away from you, the streets are all one way, and there are treacherous ditches inches away threatening your life. I am convinced that before by time here in Honduras is over, I will fall into one and it will not be good for me or my bike. (The ditches are there to help with the annual flooding that occurs during the rainy season. Apparently it floods so much, people have to get around in boats. I can't wait!)
Our first stop was the post office. We wrote letters and postcards weeks ago but they had no stamps so we thought we would try our luck again (since our trip to the post office in San Pedro Sula never came to fruition). The postal employees were very nice and had recently restocked their stamp supply so we were in luck. But first they needed to weigh our mail. The 60 year-old postal employee gently and precisely placed my envelope onto his 1930's scale and announced the need postage. When we asked how long it would take to arrive in the United States, he replied assuredly "doce dias (twelve days)." Yeah...we'll see.
Then we headed farther down the road to the market. At then entrance, I discovered a hotel of my namesake. (Pepsi apparently sponsors every hotel and shop here. All the signs are like this one.)
The market consists of numerous outdoor stands and buildings with stands inside. The first building contains fruit and vegetable stands. Christina and I were very disappointed to find there were no strawberries for sale. We have been craving them for a week. Each stand in this building sells exactly the same things. I am not really sure how people decide which stand to go to. You can find: cabbage, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, bananas (of course), and more.
Just outside are where they sell items that can be scooped such as: dog food, a variety of beans, rice, sunflower seeds, etc.
In between this building and the next, there is an outdoor seafood section. The fishermen bring their catches here everyday to sell so it is very fresh. The fish market is outside and the seafood is just lying in bowls (sometimes they have ice, sometime not). A man stands around whose job it is to swat the flies away with a filthy rag.
The next building is the meat section. You already know I am a vegetarian, so maybe you think I might be biased, but Christina is a meat lover. We both agreed that it was very disturbing and we were both gagging while taking the photo. The meat section is not air conditioned and very claustrophobic. It was actually the hottest building in the whole market. It stank inside. Oh, and watch out below, I had to jump over a few pieces of random raw meat laying on the ground. I have no idea how the butchers work in there all day and then go home and eat meat. Yuck! And what do they do with the meat they didn't sell?
After the market, we walked down the road to the beach to put our feet in. It was another hot and humid day but so beautiful and the water was great. Then we headed back home to get ready for work.
By the way...the next day, Thursday, was one of our worst days ever. We went to the beach and Christina's bike was stolen (the same one she bought about 2 weeks ago). Then we had to get to school for a parent meeting which did not start until 2:00pm but we had to be at work at noon (to sit around and wait, I guess). We dressed our best in our uniforms and even put on makeup. While waiting, I, unknowingly, sat in a chair covered in glue. Great! Thus I had to go home and change my skirt. The parent meeting was one hour, all in Spanish, so Christina and I were quickly bored. After work, we came home at the Internet didn't work all night. Ah, the joys of Honduras. But we like it here anyway.
Here is us in our lovely uniforms (don't we look like sailors?). Luckily we only have to wear them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Here are two photos from a birthday party at my school. For every birthday, the parents make a very elaborate birthday cake (does she even know who Strawberry Shortcake is?).
And my lovely students eating pizza (they have so much more individuality and creativity than the uniforms suggest):
Once you get into downtown, you better keep your eyes on the road. Cars come centimeters away from you, the streets are all one way, and there are treacherous ditches inches away threatening your life. I am convinced that before by time here in Honduras is over, I will fall into one and it will not be good for me or my bike. (The ditches are there to help with the annual flooding that occurs during the rainy season. Apparently it floods so much, people have to get around in boats. I can't wait!)
Our first stop was the post office. We wrote letters and postcards weeks ago but they had no stamps so we thought we would try our luck again (since our trip to the post office in San Pedro Sula never came to fruition). The postal employees were very nice and had recently restocked their stamp supply so we were in luck. But first they needed to weigh our mail. The 60 year-old postal employee gently and precisely placed my envelope onto his 1930's scale and announced the need postage. When we asked how long it would take to arrive in the United States, he replied assuredly "doce dias (twelve days)." Yeah...we'll see.
Then we headed farther down the road to the market. At then entrance, I discovered a hotel of my namesake. (Pepsi apparently sponsors every hotel and shop here. All the signs are like this one.)
The market consists of numerous outdoor stands and buildings with stands inside. The first building contains fruit and vegetable stands. Christina and I were very disappointed to find there were no strawberries for sale. We have been craving them for a week. Each stand in this building sells exactly the same things. I am not really sure how people decide which stand to go to. You can find: cabbage, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, bananas (of course), and more.
Just outside are where they sell items that can be scooped such as: dog food, a variety of beans, rice, sunflower seeds, etc.
In between this building and the next, there is an outdoor seafood section. The fishermen bring their catches here everyday to sell so it is very fresh. The fish market is outside and the seafood is just lying in bowls (sometimes they have ice, sometime not). A man stands around whose job it is to swat the flies away with a filthy rag.
The next building is the meat section. You already know I am a vegetarian, so maybe you think I might be biased, but Christina is a meat lover. We both agreed that it was very disturbing and we were both gagging while taking the photo. The meat section is not air conditioned and very claustrophobic. It was actually the hottest building in the whole market. It stank inside. Oh, and watch out below, I had to jump over a few pieces of random raw meat laying on the ground. I have no idea how the butchers work in there all day and then go home and eat meat. Yuck! And what do they do with the meat they didn't sell?
After the market, we walked down the road to the beach to put our feet in. It was another hot and humid day but so beautiful and the water was great. Then we headed back home to get ready for work.
By the way...the next day, Thursday, was one of our worst days ever. We went to the beach and Christina's bike was stolen (the same one she bought about 2 weeks ago). Then we had to get to school for a parent meeting which did not start until 2:00pm but we had to be at work at noon (to sit around and wait, I guess). We dressed our best in our uniforms and even put on makeup. While waiting, I, unknowingly, sat in a chair covered in glue. Great! Thus I had to go home and change my skirt. The parent meeting was one hour, all in Spanish, so Christina and I were quickly bored. After work, we came home at the Internet didn't work all night. Ah, the joys of Honduras. But we like it here anyway.Here is us in our lovely uniforms (don't we look like sailors?). Luckily we only have to wear them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Here are two photos from a birthday party at my school. For every birthday, the parents make a very elaborate birthday cake (does she even know who Strawberry Shortcake is?).
And my lovely students eating pizza (they have so much more individuality and creativity than the uniforms suggest):
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Lancetilla Botanical Garden
Today, Christina and I went on our first tourist adventure. We decided to ride our bikes to the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens. It is the 2nd largest tropical botanical garden in the world (and the only one in Honduras). It began in 1926 by the United Fruit Company to to research banana plant diseases (I am in the banana republic after all). The garden even has a tragic irony: The founders' wife, also a great botanist, died in 1932 after eating a fruit from the poisonous ackee tree. She is buried somewhere in the garden but Christina and I couldn't find it.
So we start off riding our bikes. It was a short ride from our house to the entrance gate. We even got in for the resident rate (half price: $3) since we are living and teaching here. From the gate to the actual garden entrance was down an insanely long, rocky, dirt road. It was a million degrees. I swear, Christina and I stopped about 50 times along the way to wipe our sweat away and drink our precious water. We thought it would never end. We even had to walk our bikes for half of it because our legs were too weak to get up the hills.
We finally arrived. We were urged to hire a guide for a 1 hour tour but quickly found that they spoke poor English and all we wanted to do was find the swimming hole anyway. Thus, we declined.
We found the bamboo garden and followed it to the Lancetilla River.
And we jumped in. It was a bit chilly but after our tortured ride, it was refreshing. The water was really clear.
The we heard about another bigger swimming hole 2km (that's right kiddies, we get to use the metric system here) up the road. So we checked out some plants and scenery along the way (Gotta turn your head, sorry). (Reina...I think this is the same plant you order from Suriname...very pretty). 
Then we found the other swimming hole. It was a bit bigger than the first but still chilly. So either we melt in the sun or freeze in the water. We decided to get in.
The garden was beautiful. It is much larger than shown here but we were too hot and tired to explore it. When we were ready to leave, we both agreed there was no way we were going to ride/walk our bikes back down that unforgiving road so we got a guard to give us a ride. It was hilarious watching the guards try to shove our bikes in the back of the jeep without them falling out. They ended up using our bike chain to hold them in. At the main road, we got out and rode home. By the time we got home we were extremely exhausted. And it was only 3:00pm. Time for a nice, cold bucket shower.
So we start off riding our bikes. It was a short ride from our house to the entrance gate. We even got in for the resident rate (half price: $3) since we are living and teaching here. From the gate to the actual garden entrance was down an insanely long, rocky, dirt road. It was a million degrees. I swear, Christina and I stopped about 50 times along the way to wipe our sweat away and drink our precious water. We thought it would never end. We even had to walk our bikes for half of it because our legs were too weak to get up the hills.
We finally arrived. We were urged to hire a guide for a 1 hour tour but quickly found that they spoke poor English and all we wanted to do was find the swimming hole anyway. Thus, we declined.
We found the bamboo garden and followed it to the Lancetilla River.
And we jumped in. It was a bit chilly but after our tortured ride, it was refreshing. The water was really clear.
The we heard about another bigger swimming hole 2km (that's right kiddies, we get to use the metric system here) up the road. So we checked out some plants and scenery along the way (Gotta turn your head, sorry). (Reina...I think this is the same plant you order from Suriname...very pretty). 
Then we found the other swimming hole. It was a bit bigger than the first but still chilly. So either we melt in the sun or freeze in the water. We decided to get in.
The garden was beautiful. It is much larger than shown here but we were too hot and tired to explore it. When we were ready to leave, we both agreed there was no way we were going to ride/walk our bikes back down that unforgiving road so we got a guard to give us a ride. It was hilarious watching the guards try to shove our bikes in the back of the jeep without them falling out. They ended up using our bike chain to hold them in. At the main road, we got out and rode home. By the time we got home we were extremely exhausted. And it was only 3:00pm. Time for a nice, cold bucket shower.
More photos of the house and school
Hi, I took some more photos of the house and neighborhood. Enjoy.
The front of the house:
The backyard (with some wires to hang out clothes dry. Only thing is...it rains here every night and this has no cover. Maybe that could be a problem.) The rain is cool. We get thunder and lightening every night. Sometimes it also gets really windy. One night the electricity even went out, but only for 10 minutes. Christina and I really enjoy it, plus the rain cools down the heat a little:
The street leading up to our house (there is a public school on the left, a park on the right, and beautiful mountains in the background). This is the only time I have ever seen the street empty, Sunday morning at 8:00am:
Christina hanging up our wet clothes (inside...safe from the rain):
Here is my classroom at school. Love the 1950's desks. The walls are concrete so nothing sticks to them. The teacher last year just glued stuff to the walls (yep...I said "glued"). So when they painted the classrooms, they had a woman scraping off all the stuff for hours. The worst part is they probably still use lead based paint here. The school has issues with us nailing stuff into walls so basically I can't hang up anything. The posters you see in the photo all fell down by the next day.
On Friday, a student brought a hedgehog (or maybe it is a porcupine...not sure) to school. His dad and him found it on the beach. It was pretty cute but I felt sorry for it. It kept trying to sleep and kids were all poking at it. 
As far as school goes...The kids behavior is fine. They really respond well to even the least bit of positive comments. They do their work (at least so far). The biggest problem is their level of English. All of my students know very little English and have major problems with pronunciation and grammar. Only about four kids participate orally in class and the rest just sit there. I often ask a very literal question about something we just read and the class just stares at me with blank faces. Christina and I are brainstorming ways to get them to have more talk time (but still balance it with getting the ridiculous workbooks done).
The school staff is interesting. Only about 3 teachers at the school are fluent in English. And none of the administration or office staff speak any English at all. The first grade teacher, who teaches in English, is far from fluent and has very poor pronunciation. The fluent ones teach 4th and 5th. They should really switch that around so at least the kids get a good base in 1st grade. I guess I can't go about reorganizing their school when I have only been here one week.
The front of the house:
The backyard (with some wires to hang out clothes dry. Only thing is...it rains here every night and this has no cover. Maybe that could be a problem.) The rain is cool. We get thunder and lightening every night. Sometimes it also gets really windy. One night the electricity even went out, but only for 10 minutes. Christina and I really enjoy it, plus the rain cools down the heat a little:
The street leading up to our house (there is a public school on the left, a park on the right, and beautiful mountains in the background). This is the only time I have ever seen the street empty, Sunday morning at 8:00am:
Christina hanging up our wet clothes (inside...safe from the rain):
Here is my classroom at school. Love the 1950's desks. The walls are concrete so nothing sticks to them. The teacher last year just glued stuff to the walls (yep...I said "glued"). So when they painted the classrooms, they had a woman scraping off all the stuff for hours. The worst part is they probably still use lead based paint here. The school has issues with us nailing stuff into walls so basically I can't hang up anything. The posters you see in the photo all fell down by the next day.
On Friday, a student brought a hedgehog (or maybe it is a porcupine...not sure) to school. His dad and him found it on the beach. It was pretty cute but I felt sorry for it. It kept trying to sleep and kids were all poking at it. 
As far as school goes...The kids behavior is fine. They really respond well to even the least bit of positive comments. They do their work (at least so far). The biggest problem is their level of English. All of my students know very little English and have major problems with pronunciation and grammar. Only about four kids participate orally in class and the rest just sit there. I often ask a very literal question about something we just read and the class just stares at me with blank faces. Christina and I are brainstorming ways to get them to have more talk time (but still balance it with getting the ridiculous workbooks done).The school staff is interesting. Only about 3 teachers at the school are fluent in English. And none of the administration or office staff speak any English at all. The first grade teacher, who teaches in English, is far from fluent and has very poor pronunciation. The fluent ones teach 4th and 5th. They should really switch that around so at least the kids get a good base in 1st grade. I guess I can't go about reorganizing their school when I have only been here one week.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Some Hilarious Anecdotes
Alright, alright...I promise not to write two blogs in one day again but I have some absurd stories for you.
So Christina and I spent all morning on Saturday writing postcards and letters. We biked the 20 minutes into town and got to the post office at 2:30. Well, they closed at noon. Oh well, we will just have to wait until Monday. So Monday comes along. We are supposed to be at work to begin setting up our classrooms at 11:00am. We got up early and rode into town to get to the post office before work. The sun was beating down on us, sweat was dripping all over us, and, of course, there was no shade the whole way there. We get to the post office and they informed us that they do not sell stamps. The only sell stamps in San Pedro Sula or La Ceiba, which are both 1 and 1/2 hour bus ride away. Awesome! What kind of post office doesn't sell stamps? What exactly to the workers do? Why don't they just have a mailbox instead?
So we get back to our house and walked to the school at 11:00am (as scheduled). No one was there except the founder, who speaks no English (but somehow she founded a bilingual school?). She said we should come back at 1:00pm to meet the principal. So we went home and sat around, melting, for 2 hours.
Then we walked back to the school. We were shown our classrooms, which we are supposed to decorate by Wed. and they were being painted. Yeah... so we obviously couldn't decorate. Instead, they gave us the teacher guides and workbooks for each subject and we had to write our plans for the next two months. This basically involved just copying the units titles, lesson titles, and workbook pages onto a sheet of paper. We have to turn it in to the principal but she doesn't even speak or read English so it doesn't really matter what we write. What a waste of time. It is kinda sad, they have no books for the kids to read except textbooks. They just expect the teachers to teach a short lesson and then have students do a workbook page for every subject. The nice things is we only teach for about 4 hours of each day and we get about 2 hours prep each day.
Before heading home, we asked about the red uniform shirts we are supposed to wear each day. We are informed that they only wear those from January to June. From Aug to December they wear white shirts, which the school does not sell and Christina and I have none of. So tomorrow I guess we have to wake up early and go into town before work to try find some to buy.
Just thought I'd let you tase a little slice of our Honduran life so far. Sorry if it was a bit long. And you'll have to wait on those postcards until we get on the bus on Sat.
So Christina and I spent all morning on Saturday writing postcards and letters. We biked the 20 minutes into town and got to the post office at 2:30. Well, they closed at noon. Oh well, we will just have to wait until Monday. So Monday comes along. We are supposed to be at work to begin setting up our classrooms at 11:00am. We got up early and rode into town to get to the post office before work. The sun was beating down on us, sweat was dripping all over us, and, of course, there was no shade the whole way there. We get to the post office and they informed us that they do not sell stamps. The only sell stamps in San Pedro Sula or La Ceiba, which are both 1 and 1/2 hour bus ride away. Awesome! What kind of post office doesn't sell stamps? What exactly to the workers do? Why don't they just have a mailbox instead?
So we get back to our house and walked to the school at 11:00am (as scheduled). No one was there except the founder, who speaks no English (but somehow she founded a bilingual school?). She said we should come back at 1:00pm to meet the principal. So we went home and sat around, melting, for 2 hours.
Then we walked back to the school. We were shown our classrooms, which we are supposed to decorate by Wed. and they were being painted. Yeah... so we obviously couldn't decorate. Instead, they gave us the teacher guides and workbooks for each subject and we had to write our plans for the next two months. This basically involved just copying the units titles, lesson titles, and workbook pages onto a sheet of paper. We have to turn it in to the principal but she doesn't even speak or read English so it doesn't really matter what we write. What a waste of time. It is kinda sad, they have no books for the kids to read except textbooks. They just expect the teachers to teach a short lesson and then have students do a workbook page for every subject. The nice things is we only teach for about 4 hours of each day and we get about 2 hours prep each day.
Before heading home, we asked about the red uniform shirts we are supposed to wear each day. We are informed that they only wear those from January to June. From Aug to December they wear white shirts, which the school does not sell and Christina and I have none of. So tomorrow I guess we have to wake up early and go into town before work to try find some to buy.
Just thought I'd let you tase a little slice of our Honduran life so far. Sorry if it was a bit long. And you'll have to wait on those postcards until we get on the bus on Sat.
Some pictures of our House
Many people have been asking for more photos. Don't worry...I am sure by June you will be very sick of photos and you will feel like you lived here yourself. I took some photos of our house so you can get a better idea of where we live.
Here is our kitchen and dining room: We finally got the propane tank for the stove filled so now we can have hot food. Yippee!
This is the view from our dining room table. Pretty and lush. There is a park right there where usually people are playing futbol (soccer).
This is right outside the back door. It is a sink with a washboard and a tub. This is where we are supposed to wash out clothes. Looks really clean, right? I think we will opt for washing our clothes in the stainless steel sink in the kitchen.
This is my bedroom. I tried to hang up some photos and pictures to make it more homey. We also bought sheets so the neighbors can't see inside. My bed is on the other side and my suitcases are on the floor. Luckily, I also have ceiling fan. 
Here is our lovely bathroom. See, regular toilet and sink, and a concrete dirty shower. It has rocks on the ground in it so we usually wear flip flops. If you look close you can see an electrical outlet hanging above the shower head. The old water heater, which is attatched to the shower head, burned. Real safe. When the shower doesn't work, we turn on the faucet below and fill the bucket and use a cup to pour on ourselves.
One day in downtown, Christina and I found this cool hotel (Maya Vista) with a great view of the town. We had to climb up many steps but the view was worth it.
Other random things we have noticed about noise:
Here is our kitchen and dining room: We finally got the propane tank for the stove filled so now we can have hot food. Yippee!
This is the view from our dining room table. Pretty and lush. There is a park right there where usually people are playing futbol (soccer).
This is right outside the back door. It is a sink with a washboard and a tub. This is where we are supposed to wash out clothes. Looks really clean, right? I think we will opt for washing our clothes in the stainless steel sink in the kitchen.
This is my bedroom. I tried to hang up some photos and pictures to make it more homey. We also bought sheets so the neighbors can't see inside. My bed is on the other side and my suitcases are on the floor. Luckily, I also have ceiling fan. 
Here is our lovely bathroom. See, regular toilet and sink, and a concrete dirty shower. It has rocks on the ground in it so we usually wear flip flops. If you look close you can see an electrical outlet hanging above the shower head. The old water heater, which is attatched to the shower head, burned. Real safe. When the shower doesn't work, we turn on the faucet below and fill the bucket and use a cup to pour on ourselves.
One day in downtown, Christina and I found this cool hotel (Maya Vista) with a great view of the town. We had to climb up many steps but the view was worth it.
Other random things we have noticed about noise:- It is very loud all the time. Cars, buses, trucks, bikes, and people on horses ride by at all hours (even in the middle on the night).
- Many people attach speakers to the roofs of their cars and drive around playing announcements and advertisements through them really loudly.
- Every morning there is man selling hamburgers that walks by screaming "hamburguesa, hamburgesa". He usually yells this from 4am - 6am.
- On Sundays it is very quiet except for the churches. You can hear the music from them blocks away. How loud is it inside the church? Oh, and one of the popular church songs is "You are Wind Beneath my Wings" sung in Spanish.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Write to me!
Here is the address for you to write to me, send me things, etc. It will probably take a month to get here so be patient and don't send anything perishable.
Sara Burgin
Escuela Bilingue Blanca Jeannette Kawas
Barrio Venecia
Tela, Atlantida
Honduras Central America
I am waiting!
Sara Burgin
Escuela Bilingue Blanca Jeannette Kawas
Barrio Venecia
Tela, Atlantida
Honduras Central America
I am waiting!
Friday, August 10, 2007
I am now living in Tela
Hi all my far away friends,
I safely arrived in Tela 4 days ago. I can´t believe it has already been that long. Christina and I had a safe trip and we were met at the airport by our new principal, Vanessa Velasquez. She has been wonderful. She has driven us around the city to get food, internet, bikes, and see some sights.
The ride to Tela (rained a little):
view from our bike ride to the beach:
View of Tela from the beach:
The view from the Tela bridge (p.s. you don´t want to swim in that water...stinky!):
There are many random horses, dogs, sheep, and water buffalo roaming around:
The microwave (¨Hey, Christina, you think it will work? ha, ha¨):
We start teaching next Wednesday and we are both very excited. Christina will be teaching 2nd grade and I will be teaching 3rd. We don´t have internet at the house yet but as soon as we do I can write more and email more. I also made a video tour of the house but the computer is very slow so I will try to send the video later. I miss you all. Write to me (it really helps with the loneliness). xoxo
I safely arrived in Tela 4 days ago. I can´t believe it has already been that long. Christina and I had a safe trip and we were met at the airport by our new principal, Vanessa Velasquez. She has been wonderful. She has driven us around the city to get food, internet, bikes, and see some sights.
The ride to Tela (rained a little):
The entire city is situated in the middle of very tropical, green jungles. There are trees and plants everywhere. The weather has been hot and humid (about 85 degrees F). It has rained occasionally but it only lasts about 5 minutes. We went to the beach to swim today. It was very refreshing.
view from our bike ride to the beach:
View of Tela from the beach:
The view from the Tela bridge (p.s. you don´t want to swim in that water...stinky!):
There are many random horses, dogs, sheep, and water buffalo roaming around:
We were very lonely and a little freaked out our first day but that has passed and we are really beginning to enjoy it. We have been riding bikes all over town. The streets are jam-packed with all kinds of stores and restaurants. You can get almost everything here. We even met a few locals and tourists.
Our house is nice (sort of). We have a beautiful, huge yard with palm trees and green grass. Our living room\kitchen is also quite large . We just got the stove hooked up today so we can finally cook. Our microwave is broken (as you probably guessed from the photo below). We each have our own room with open windows and a fan. We had to buy material to cover the windows so people won´t peep inside. Our bathroom is the most interesting. There is a regular toilet and sink. The shower is a concrete block that has a shower head above and faucet below. The shower head rarely works so we turn on the faucet and fill up a bucket and use a cup to pour water on us from the bucket. It takes a while to rinse out all the shampoo and condition but it does the job. The water is cold, whether or not the shower works. We might get a water heater but the cold is okay for now. Oh, and the shower has an electrical outlet right above the shower head (very safe, I´m sure).
The microwave (¨Hey, Christina, you think it will work? ha, ha¨):
We start teaching next Wednesday and we are both very excited. Christina will be teaching 2nd grade and I will be teaching 3rd. We don´t have internet at the house yet but as soon as we do I can write more and email more. I also made a video tour of the house but the computer is very slow so I will try to send the video later. I miss you all. Write to me (it really helps with the loneliness). xoxo
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