Friday we celebrated Father's Day in Honduras. All of the teachers pitched in to make decorations, build a stage, and prepare the food for the day. We had the dads come in two separate groups to make things more efficient. So at eight o'clock all of the dads from kinder-second grade came. Then at ten o'clock all the dads from third-sixth came.
Here are some of my favorite performances from the day...
Kinder B saying the prayer they say each morning with Miss Anne and Miss Claudia:
"Thank you for moms. Thank you for dads. Thank you for Jesus, who makes me glad. Thank you for rain and for sunshine above. But I thank you most for your wonderful love"
Kinder B singing "Sapo, Sapo, Sapo":
Kinder, Prepa, and Primero grados all sing this song. It's so cute!
Here are my little tots singing part of "The Butterfly Song":
I was so nervous for my kids to go up and perform the song. They didn't sing as loudly as I would have liked, but other than that they did a great job!
Here is the one and only Sor Maglys with my counterpart Rosita:
Sor Maglys is the best nun I've ever met. She has this inner joy that's contagious! She seriously reminds me so much of Fraulein Maria in "The Sound of Music". She's always walking down the dirt road to school with her guitar in hand so it couldn't be more perfect. I asked her on Friday if she'd ever seen the "Sound of Music" and she said she hadn't, so I have to find a Spanish copy for her ASAP!
Not only did Sor play the guitar and sing for all the dads, but she busted out her recorder later in the day and performed the Titanic theme song. The woman's a character!
This is a video of some of my first grade girls doing an interpretive dance to "Sólo Tú" by Jaci Velasquez. Solangel (red) in the front was so good. She's one of my scholarship students and she puts 110% into EVERYTHING she does! It brings tears to my eyes to watch her dance because you can see how much she means it:
I'm going to be a wreck in June! I'm already sad thinking about how much I'm going to miss these kids!
On a lighter note...here are some of my boys dancing to a reggaeton song. Little Guillermo (front left) rocked it:
I somehow don't think first grade boys dancing like this in the States would fly.
These third graders knocked their merengue song out of the park. Samantha (front) is a phenominal dancer:
All of the Honduran teachers had their students make Father's Day gifts out of recycled materials. Like this picture frame Kevin is holding up:
Kevin's dad lives in the states as do many of our other students parents. So it was bittersweet for a lot of them, but some of them brought grandfathers, uncles, or even cousins to share the day with them.
Here we all are in our Father's Day bests:
It was a wonderful day!
“Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into” –Wayne Dyer
This past Saturday night we celebrated Mary's birthday at la casa de Kandice y Bridget. I was really excited for everyone to come over -- I love to play hostess!
I blew up some balloons for the event and Anne had the great of hanging them from our close pins outside. They looked very festive and gave the front area a more welcoming feeling. I also had people decorate "Happy Birthday" signs to hang up inside and outside the house.
This is the sign Jeff made for Mary. He was very proud of it!
Here's the birthday girl with Sylvia...
Some of us before the night of dancing ensued...
Check out those cute balloons!
Roomies...
I love this picture of us.
Jeff and I being weirdos as usual...
Anne's been practicing her dance moves and she's getting so good...
I would love to be able to say I could dance salsa, merengue, punta, and bachata by the time I leave Honduras but that would be nothing short of a miracle...
Disclaimer: wait at least one hour after eating before dancing bachata...
or you may get a stomach cramp!
Feliz Cumpleaños Mary!!!!!
Cake time is always the best time :)
I love Andrew's random face in the background of this picture...
Sebastian, Maki, Me, and Andrew
Shiny Happy People...
Oscar, Me, and Jeff
Mary's party was hands down the best fiesta we've had yet! Everyone was dancing and seemed to be having a great time. Dance parties tops my list of things I will miss most about Honduras.
Looking forward to the next one...
"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble" ~Charles H. Spurgeon
Two weeks ago we celebrated Mardi Gras and Jeff's birthday. I didn't have any pictures of the event for awhile, which is why I didn't blog about it right away. Now that I have the pictures I'm in business.
The night started off with some of Andrew's fabulous food...
He made some rico papas with a bunch of different seasonings, fried chicken, and etufe...
Before the dancing got started Dan, Angela, Lacey, Anne, and Carrie played an intense game of liar's dice. By the looks of this picture I'm going to guess Dan is explaining the rules...
Shortly after the dice game I grabbed Jeff's speaker and galloped around the house to "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" -- haha. That song never gets old!
Me, Anne, and Jeff
Then Jeff decided he wanted to burn things. So we grabbed some dried tree branches and burned them in the backyard...
Finally, after hours of waiting, the Hondurans arrived and got the party started. We danced, danced, and then danced some more. After everyone worked up an appetite from dancing we gave Jeff his double layer chocolate and carmel cake, with whipped cream on top and ice cream on the side. YUM!
Tony, Lacey, and Me
Once most of the Hondurans left we decided to go outside and climb things. Jeff, Carrie, Anne, and Tony successfully made it up the tree, but sadly I did not. I tried to jump up to it and before I knew it I was already on my way to the ground. The fall wasn't bad but I scrapped up the back of my leg on the way down. War wound!!
Whoo hoo
Anne climbing to the top
After the tree climbing Carrie and I found ways to wedge ourselves in the door...
My trick isn't as good as Carrie's, but I tried!
Then Jeff and I climbed these poles in the front of their house...
It was a great party!
Anne, Andrew, Jeff, Me, Carrie, Tony, and Lacey
Here are some of my favorite terms from the Redneck Dictonary:
BARD:- verb. Past tense of the infinitive "to borrow." Usage: "My brother bard my pickup truck."
EVERWHICHWAYS: To be scattered in all directions.
Usage:"You should have been there when the train hit attair chicken truck. Them chickens flew everwhichaways.
GUBMINT - (noun) - A bureaucratic institution.
Usage: "Them gubmint boys shore is ignert."
IDINIT: Term employed by genteel Southerners to avoid saying "Ain't".
Usage:"Mighty hot today, idinit?"
PHRAISIN: Very cold.
Usage:"Shut that door. It's phraisin in here."
SAAR: The opposite of sweet.
Usage:"These pickles Sure are saar."
URINE: Opposite of you're out
WHUP: To beat or to strike.
Usage:"OOOEEE!!! Yer mama's gonna whup you fer sayin' a cuss word."
“And thank you for a house full of people I love. Amen” –Terri Guillemets
All of Santa Clara is participating in a school Science Fair. The fourth through sixth grades are preparing individual experiments, while third grade and below are doing group experiments. I chose to do a unit on Motion/Force and Friction with my first graders. Last week we completed our first "experiment". We discussed the Scientific Method in basic terms and then I did a tug o' war demonstration with them. I asked all of my students to watch how I and the other student were moving as we tugged back and forth. Many of them actually said push/pull right off the bat which was so wonderful, and something I wasn't expecting. I have taught this concept one other time to first graders in the States and that group kept saying I was tugging it. I think it helps that my first graders here don't know a lot of English words. They already knew the word push and what it meant and now they understand pull, which is great!
The next day I had them work in groups and rotate around the room to different stations. There were nine stations total and each one contained one object. When they got to the station the group had to figure out all the ways they could make the object move, and record it on their sheets. Before I had them get into their groups we went over ways objects move and wrote the English words on the board. They came up with: push, pull, bounce, roll, throw, and spin.
Knowing this was going to be a crazy experiment with twenty-eight kids and nine different groups I enlisted some fourth grade helpers. For my first class I had four kids from fourth grade come to my room. When I realized what a huge help they were I asked Ms. Susong to send me nine for my second class. That way each of my groups had a fourth grade helper. The afternoon students were much more successful with the stations, so I was very thankful for the extra hands!
Over-all it was huge success and I think my students learned a lot. I love doing anything hands-on with them.
Here they are in action...
Maria Isabel writing down how she got the ball to move
Jose Francisco "throwing" the scarf
Rolando pushing the masking tape
Daniel discussing what he should write with his fourth grade helper
Some of the groups hard at work
The day after they did their Science experiment I busted Omar taking off his socks and shoes. This is how he looks when I've caught him doing something bad...
And this is what Omar looks like when he's trying to explain why he was bad....
Since most of you don't know him you probably don't think this is funny, but it makes me laugh every time, haha!
The highlight of last week was getting to see Rolando meet his sponsors for the first time. When he walked out into the hallway to meet them he gave Donna (the lady in green) a hug. She said later that he just nuzzled his head into her shoulder. After being able to visit with him a few times at school they wrote letters telling him how proud they were of him and that they already couldn't wait to see him again next year. When I gave Rolando the letters and told him Wendy would translate them he just said "Thank You" -- it was so cute! They are wonderful people and it makes me so happy that they love Rolando so much! He's already asked me when he'll get to see them again. So they've made quite the impression on him as well. I'm so grateful that generous people sponsor kids to go to Santa Clara. My classroom wouldn't be the same without little Rolando!
My mom is going to be sponsoring a little boy named Jared (pronounced Hared in Spanish) who is currently in pre-school at Santa Clara. I'll tell all of you more about his story and post some pictures of him in one of my blogs this week. I'll also post a link to the scholarship website in case any of you are interested in sponsoring a child next year.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead
