Dislikes

Written September 27, 2010

I know I just posted, but I had two written so I figure I'll post them while I have power.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love living here, but there are some things that are really different and just get on my nerves. Here are some things that I have been struggling with lately:

1) We burn our garbage. It hurts my soul. We take our garbage out into the street, dump it into the road and set it on fire. Plastic and all. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.

2) When it’s hot out the guys here love to just stand around with their shirt pulled up over their stomachs. I don’t think it’s really meant to be anything sexual but it’s just strange. What’s the point of wearing a shirt if you’re just going to pull it up to your chest all the time? And what makes you think I want to see your fat stomach hanging over your pants? Maybe if you were ten years younger and had six pack abs I’d be more likely to stop and look.

3) People don’t use the “tú” form here (informal “you”), even with family. They mainly use the “usted” or formal “you”. It’s really hard to get used to, especially when I’m talking to one of the kids I live with. Sometimes it causes confusion if you don’t specify whether you are talking about someone else in the 3^rd person singular or using the formal “you” form because they are both conjugated the same way. For example, “me dio” could mean he/she gave me or you gave me. Usually it’s not a problem, it’s just obnoxiously formal and different than how I’m used to speaking.

4) The guys will make comments at girls when they walk by. Generally they’ll also call at you like a dog. It’s maddening. I dealt with it a lot in Mexico so I knew it was coming, but it’s worse here. Young boys will follow behind you saying things and grown men will be standing half inside the Catholic church by our house during mass and say things as we walk by. Do they think women will suddenly jump into bed with them because they were called like a dog? I feel more helpless here because I work at a Christian school and it’s such a small town, so if I were to turn around and give them a piece of my mind it would be wildly inappropriate. So I just have to ignore it. It’s the most demeaning feeling ever.

5) The roads here are basically impassable when we get any rain. Sometimes here in La Unión they will just put boulders in the road to block it off because there is just no possible way that your truck will make it through. When you’re driving you really have to be careful that your head doesn’t smack against the window because the roads are so bumpy. And the closest paved roads are about 2 ½ hours away.

Those are just a few of the things that have been bothering me lately. It’s definitely a random list!

Tropical Storm

Written September 25, 2010 (the power's been out a lot here)

Yes, I know there was a tropical storm that came through Honduras. I’m not sure if it ever ended up becoming a hurricane or not, but that’s just because I didn’t care enough to find out. We do have some modern conveniences, like television, so we are able to hear news of the outside world, unless the power is out. We really didn’t get any more rain than usual. We had a lot of threatening clouds but nothing too exciting. In fact, this is probably one of few places I would actually want to be in Honduras during a hurricane. I would be more worried about flooding in the big cities, as well as mass chaos should something ever happen. Also, we’re so far inland and so high up in the mountains that the only thing I would legitimately worry about is a landslide, but even that is pretty unlikely.

The girls and I have traveled for the last two weekends in a row. The weekend of the 18^th we went to Gracias, which is about 3 ½ hours away and one of the closest towns to us. It was nice to see the other teachers at the Vida Abundante School there, including my friend Justin whom I studied with in Mexico and is now teaching in Gracias. The next week was a short week due to Independence Day and Teacher’s Day (yes, I think we actually are appreciated here) so we traveled to the Mayan ruins in Copan from Wednesday until Saturday and then headed to Santa Rosa de Copan for Saturday night. The ruins were fantastic and really made me want to go to Guatemala to see the ruins in Tikal. If I go there I will have hit all the major Mayan ruin sites, which would be pretty sweet. The town of Copan is also really nice, and it was amazing to have clean water for a few days. Also, while I was there I treated myself to a 4 hour private Spanish lesson to refresh my memory on the usage of the subjunctive. I’m not even going to lie, I loved every minute of it. Maybe that’s why I’m considering getting my master’s in Spanish…

Other than that life has settled into a nice routine. Besides getting a lovely amoeba this week everything has been fantastic. I’m feeling much better after visiting the clinic here in town. My principal even drove me there, paid for my visit because I didn’t have enough cash with me and drove me home because he’s pretty fantastic like that. Thankfully, I was not nearly as sick as I was in Mexico. Today (Saturday) I bummed around the house and watched Star Trek with Holly, then we went our student’s soccer games at 12:30, headed to visit our friend Saira who is back home for a visit from college in San Pedro Sula, went to a Christian women’s fraternity meeting and then ate baleadas over at Saira’s parent’s house. After dinner we came back home and watched How to Train Your Dragon, which, by the way, is a fantastic movie. Life here is pretty chill, but I still feel like there’s always something to do. Hopefully I still feel that way in six months!

Vida Abundante

Written August 31st

So the power has been going out a lot here so I haven’t had the ability to update in a while, plus I’ve been super busy. However, I’ll try to give you some more details about my life here.

Vida Abundante is the bilingual school I teach at. I think there are 5 locations; one here in La Unión, Gracias, somewhere in the north of Honduras I think, and two in Tegucigalpa. All are bilingual except one of the schools in Tegucigalpa. In English they are called Abundant Life Christian Schools (ALCS). Our school is the poorest one out of the 5 schools and seems to be considered the “project”, at least from what I can gather. I teach 7^th, 8^th and 9^th grade history and language, which gives me 54 total students. 9^th grade has 29 students, 8^th has 9 and 7^th has 16. All of my classes are taught in English. The 8^th graders have fantastic English, and so do most of the 9^th graders. The 7^th graders struggle a bit, but they’re trying. School starts at 7:20 and ends at 2:40. Each class is 40 minutes long. One thing that is much different here is that the teachers change classes, not the students.

I already explained in an earlier post that classes aren’t held everyday and that the 9^th grade class is the oldest class at the school. They are going to go up to 11^th or 12^th grade but aren’t sure yet. In Honduras students graduate after 11^th grade, but we’re on an American curriculum, so I think they’re still deciding what they’re going to do. My classroom was finally painted and finished the Friday AFTER classes started. I was able to teach in there all week, but it wasn’t finished until Friday morning. Go figure. I spend every morning with the 9^th graders for 20 minutes doing devotionals and then they go off to their other classes. Aside from the core classes they also take home economics, PE, Bible, Spanish language, Spanish civics and art. Also, every Monday the high schoolers (7^th-9^th grade) have an hour long devotional as a group.

Our principal here is really great! Mr. Perdomo doesn’t really speak any English but he really seems to genuinely care about the students and the teachers as well. It’s nice to have a really supportive administration. He believes in firm, strict rules that can occasionally be broken for individual students if it is in their best interest to do so. The other teachers are all really great too. They are really helpful and have answered my billion questions with a smile every time. They really are their own little family and seem to all get along really well. We have 11 teachers for the whole school, which goes from 1^st though 9^th grade.

The students are all really good kids so far. I haven’t really had any major issues with students. I have a few who like to talk a little too much, but I otherwise haven’t had any issues. It’s strange being here where I see my students EVERYWHERE. La Unión is a really tiny town, so I see my students at the store, church, the streets, everywhere. It’s kind of nice to get to know my students on a more personal level and build actual relationships with them. Despite how poor a lot of students are (many of them are sponsored by someone in Honduras or the US for $50 a month) and how many issues they might have at home with abusive or absent parents they really work hard and have done well so far. The curriculum here is incredibly difficult, even by American standards, so they have to study a ton. It’s good though, because it keeps them out of trouble. Before school started I met a few students out on the street or at people’s houses. When I asked them if they were ready for school to start they all answered with an emphatic “yes”. There’s not a whole lot to do here, so most of them actually enjoy being at school.

I really love it at Vida Abundante. Despite some problems such as not having books for the 9^th graders yet, I’ve been really happy with the school. I enjoy working with my students and have been really impressed by their knowledge and determination. The school is definitely the place you want to be if you want to actually make a difference, because given their situations most of these students statistically should not succeed. Also, very few students here graduate from high school in the public schools, and even fewer go to college. I’ve heard number such as out of a graduating class of 15 at the public high school maybe 2 go to college. Hopefully our first graduating class does much better than that.

Last week one of my 8^th grade students asked me if I was coming back next year. I said if everything worked out I would definitely consider it (I hope my parents aren’t reading this, and if they are, Dad, please don’t fly down and kill me). Every day I wake up in awe of the fact that this is my life. I make enough money to live just fine, and I love where I work. I enjoy working with my students and hope to get to know them much better throughout the year. My goal is to become more integrated into the community and really get to know more people. So yes, I honestly would come back for a second year. It’s not all roses and sunshine, but I can look past the lack of power and water a lot of the days because I love what I’m doing. Who knows what this year will bring and how I will feel at the end of it, but maybe I’ll become a more permanent member of La Unión.