A Holiday, A Princess, and A Parade

As you can tell by the title, this week has involved very little actual teaching.

Monday was Dia Del Nino (day of the child). It is a very big deal here in Honduras. It is supposed to be a big party all day with the kids. As school began at noon, my class played multiplication bingo. Halfway through the game, a teacher came by and scolded me for "teaching". I explained that we were playing a game and he seemed to accept that. We continued on with the game and two teachers began setting up a stereo system right outside my class. They turned it on very loud. My class had to yell in order to finish the game. I quickly realized I should not try to "teach" anymore. I decided to let the kids hang out and dance for awhile. The music chosen by the teachers was what would usually be deemed unacceptable for children, at least at schools in the US (like Fergie's "Lovely Lady Lumps" and some 50 Cent songs). After some dancing, I got the food ready. The students brought in pizzas, cookies, candy, chips, soda, ice cream, and tostadas. They ate all of it!

After eating, we played on the playground and watched a few classes burst open the pinatas that students had brought. Oddly enough, all the pinatas were Dora the Explorer. The we went upstairs for the teacher assembly. Christina and I were told that we had to think of some song or dance or something to perform for the kids. We decided to get them involved so we sang "Down by the Bay" and had them repeat every line after us. We made posters to go along with each line (to sneak in some reading). The male teachers all dressed up like women and had a sort of beauty contest. It was interesting. The most frustrating part of the day is just the lack of communication. We had been told to teach the first two class periods, but then were scolded when we tried to and couldn't anyway due to the music. We also kept asking what time the assembly was and no one seemed to know so it made it hard to plan the day. But I went with the flow and the kids seemed to have fun.

Tuesday we actually got to teach the whole day, except the last hour of school when we are still practicing marching for the Independence parade.

Wednesday we went on a "field trip". The entire elementary school was packed into one bus which we rode to another school in town, Institute of San Antonio (the kids were 4 to a seat and some still had to stand...safety first). We were lead into a giant concrete auditorium to vote for a princess for the Independence parade. Each school had picked one 5th grade girl to run for princess (they pick the girl based on if her parents are well known in the community and if they have money to afford nice costumes). Our princess was a girl named America. The whole beauty pageant lasted from 1:00pm until 4:30pm. Wow!
Each princess was paraded around the auditorium numerous times for her school to cheer for her. The schools would scream as loud as possible, chant sayings, and throw confetti (that part was fun). Then each girl performed a song or dance or speech, and then paraded around more. Some girls had 3 different costumes.
By the end of it our school's princess was announced as the winner! The kids and staff were very excited. (I still believe the whole thing was rigged because they was another girl who was very beautiful and did an amazing dance and she wasn't even in the top 4.)
Then we all crammed back on the bus and rode back to our school with everyone scream/singing "Cual es la escuela mas mejor? Jeannette Kawas, si senor." (which school is the best? Jeannette Kawas, yes sir). Maybe a waste of a day but at least it raised our school spirit a lot.Thursday, also involved little teaching. I gave the kids a math test, we practiced some phonics/spelling, they went to computers, and then recess/lunch. After lunch the students practiced marching until the end of the school day. So they marched from 2:20pm until 5:00pm. I felt sorry for them and kept letting my group sit down and rest. The students are put into different groups for the parade: baton twirlers, the band, pompom girls, honor roll, and then my group of just the left overs. I found out for the real parade I get to march next to the princess! That night in town we watched a band from another school practice for the parade. Click on the link to see them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQl-fJv4ISU

Friday our whole school met at 8:00am at the park at the entrance to town. Our school was #16 in the line-up. The streets were packed with what seemed to be the entire town. Each group had their own uniform. Here are the band and baton twirlers:One boy dressed as a Native American:
The Pompom girls did routines throughout the parade that matched the beat of our band:
The parade route was only about 10 blocks but it took us two hours to march them. We ended up at the central park in town. During the entire parade, the sun was beating down on us. We were all melting. The worst part was that with all the time we wasted for the last 3 weeks having the kids practice marching everyday, the parade was so slow everyone just walked. Let me say that again so it sinks in: THERE WAS NO MARCHING!!!

With the parade finished, Christina and I are now leaving for a long weekend trip. We have Monday and Tuesday off so we are taking a 6 hour bus ride to a lake, Lago de Yojoa. You can rent boats for the lake, go on jungle hikes to waterfalls and swimming holes, and explore caves. We are leaving Friday after the parade and will be back on Tuesday evening so check in next week for photos and stories.