Picture 55 kids (27 in one group and 28 in the other) throughout the day screaming, talking back, running around the room, hitting one another, stealing various things, defacing my property, and not understanding a word I'm saying the whole time! It's frustrating, it's chaotic, it's emotional draining, and some days it takes every ounce of patient and energy I have to go on...
BUT...
Every morning I wake up I'm excited to go to school. I LOVE my students already and they light up my day. They may drive me crazy 95% of the time, but then there's that 5% when they're doing what they're told. Sometimes a student will understand a certain thing I said or they'll work a problem out on their own and those moments make everything worth it! For example -- I had an insane day at school today. Most of the other volunteers I work with have committed on how crazy my kids are. So I sat down and had a meeting with Peggy on what we can do to stop some of this crazy behavior. I have kids punching one another (a student today had a bloody nose because of it), stealing things from the classroom (which has happened more than once), laughing at me as I discipline them, physically trying to fight me, constantly talking to one another, and just zoning out completely when I speak. My aid is going to make numerous phone calls home, and I'm going to have at least two conferences with different parents. Even though my days are filled with such extreme stress, something always happens that makes me smile. I have been putting numbers up (like my Aunt Karen does in her classroom) to keep track of how many days we've been in school. I have a "star helper" who comes up each morning and leads our calendar time. The same student is the "star helper" for the whole week. The little girl who leads calendar in my second group has not been able to tell me all week how many days we;ve been in school. Today though she started to count the circles we already have up -- "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.." and then she looked at me and said "nueve". I didn't even care that the answer wasn't in English, I just wanted to cry because I was SO proud of her! It's those moments that make me love my job! Children are the most beautiful blessing!
I have so much going on tomorrow, this weekend, and next week...
Tomorrow is "Dia del Nino" (Day of the Child) at school and we are having a huge celebration. I get to sleep in an hour since we're starting our day at 8 instead of 7 :). This is the final schedule that Peggy sent us:
Dia del Nino: The agreed schedule was:
8-9 Desfile practice (this is our practice for the parades we have next week)
9-10 Field day stations/"juegos" (I'm in charge of macaroni necklaces with Jackie)
10-11 food in classrooms (I can't wait to try all of this great food I've been hearing about)
11-12 bailando (yes, we will have a marimba band at school)
12 pm + We will stay to clean up and potentially finish any parade decorations that haven't be finished already.
Next week we have parades to celebrate the Independence of Honduras. This means I only have to be at school from 7-11 or 12 Monday and Tuesday to participate in the parades and then I'm free the rest of the day :). We were suppose to celebrate the "Day of the Teachers" on Wednesday, but the money that was going to be spent on that party is going to buy tables and chairs that we desperately need at school. That means I get a 5 day weekend...WHOO HOO! I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. Some of the volunteers talked about going to El Salvador or going to the North Coast of Honduras. There are suppose to be some pretty sweet beaches to check out. I know whatever we decide to do will be a good time.
Here are some random funny kid stories:
I asked my kids the other day to tell me what their favorite songs were. Most of them said "Baby, Baby" by Justin Bieber (he is HUGE in Honduras), but one little boy said "Waka, Waka" and come to find out it's a Shakira song. I love Shakira! I used to think if I listened to her songs often enough I would learn spanish. I actually use to fall asleep to her music hoping the language would somehow seep into my brain. Obviously that approach didn't work, haha! The other day the song "Waka, Waka" come on in the bus and it's jammin'. It's got these great African beats to it that I love. Then someone told me it was the official song for the World Cup, so most of you have probably already heard it. If you haven't, give it a listen sometime!
This next story was told to me by Jeff Ball (the sixth grade teacher) but it is too hysterical not to share with all of you. Mr. Ball has been doing journal entries with his students everyday. The question today was "If you could travel back in time, or go to the future, which would you choose and why?" Jeff started telling the kids cool things they could see in both places. He said "You know, going back in time could be really cool because you could see dinosaurs and..." At this point one of his students said "Oh Mr. Ball, you definitely don't want to do that!" Jeff told this kid that he needed to wait until he was finished, but then he wanted to hear why it wasn't a good idea for him to go to the past. So Jeff finished his spiel and then asked Charlie why it wasn't a good idea for him to go to the past. Charlie said "Well if you go to the past, as soon as you get out of your time machine a dinosaur could come along and crush it...then you would be stuck! It just isn't safe". Then Jeff says "Ok, so you're going to the future then" and Charlie says "Yeah, it's way safer". HAHAHA. It's funnier to hear Jeff tell it in person, but I just had to share.
There were two birthday's at school this week. Wendy's birthday was on Monday and then Karol's birthday was today. Karol teaches PE at the school. Sylvia (our "dean" of students) is having a party at her house tomorrow night to celebrate. I'm stocked to go out out with the Honduran teachers for the evening. They always make me laugh, even though I usually don't understand anything they're saying. I know the night will be full of eating, laughing, and dancing. After school today someone told my counterpart (Rosa or Rosita) that my birthday was on Saturday. She said she's going to sing to me at the party. and then crack and egg over my head, and throw flour in my face. I guess that's a tradition here. Then she said she was just kidding because she thought I would be mad, but I told her to bring it on! Ha! I think it would be funny! I'll keep you all posted on whether or not I'm egged tomorrow night!
Buenas noches :)
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.”
Monday, September 6, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Grateful
I'm very tired and I should probably be going to bed, but I had an incredible night with the other volunteers and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to write about it while it's still fresh. I have a lot going on in my mind and so many things I want to share with all of you! So, this blog post will be very random, but if you know me you're use to it :).
Tonight we had our first reflection as a group and it was wonderful! But, before I get into all of that... I want to tell you about some random things that have happened in the last week:
-The other day as I was walking down the road a man weaved (in his car) across the street towards me. At first I thought it was a taxi seeing if I wanted a ride, but then I noticed it was a regular car. Well the man rolls down his window and says "You look good" to me in English. HAHA I was cracking up! I mean we get cat calls ALL the time when we walk into town, but most men say something dirty in Spanish or they say "Hey Mame!" It's just funny to hear the few English phrases some people know here. They probably get it all from the television that they do watch or the American songs they listen to. Which brings me to my next little story...
-Yesterday morning when I got on the bus "Slow Hand" by the Pointer Sisters was playing, AHAHA! I get onto the bus and hear the words "I want a man with a slow hand, I want a lover with an easy touch". I couldn't believe that song was playing on a school bus, but then I realize most of the kids have no idea what's being said. Hopefully none of them use that as an English phrase to repeat :)! Some other random 80's songs played as we continued on to school, and then when we were about 3 minutes away "Eye of the Tiger" came on -- PERFECT! That song always gets me so pumped up, so I was definitely ready to start and conquer my day!!
-After school on Tuesday there was a torrential downpour here. It's rained everyday since I've been here, but this was CRAZY! It started pouring around 6 and by 7 the streets were like rivers. There is so much trash and glass everywhere that it was scary to walk through because you had no idea what you could be stepping in. I was out grocery shopping with Michelle, Maki, Jeff, and Andrew and we just starting running home. We quickly realized we were going to be drenched no matter what so we slowed down a little bit and just laughed about it. Michelle, Jackie, and I live the closest to the store we went to, so Maki, Jeff, and Andrew popped into our house for a little bit so we could take a picture of how wet we all were. When we got to the house we saw immediately that it was flooding. We had water coming into our living room and into Jackie's bedroom. Jeff grabbed a broom and just started sweeping water out of the house. Once we got a handle on the water coming in we decided we should make the most of the awesome water pressure and wash our hair. I had so much fun! It reminded me of a time I showered with my sisters in the rain when we were little. After we all got our hair washed Jackie and I went to take some pictures of the water levels. I've been posting my pictures to Picasa because Facebook won't allow me to upload anything for some reason. If you click on my "pictures" tab on the left hand side of this blog it will take you to my Picasa page. You'll find an album there titled 'Honduras'--check it out to see for yourselves how high the water got. We have a side walk that has a decent step that leads to our front pavement area. The water got so high around our house that you couldn't even tell a step was there. CRAZY I tell you! Oh, I almost forgot -- the school flooded too! Jeff, Lacey, and Andrew had to go help sweep the school out. When I arrived at school yesterday morning I had about an inch of water on my floor. That was after a team of about 15 people had been sweeping it out the night before. Luckily by 10 my floor was completely dry again :).
-Maki taught us this hilarious game where you stick a quarter in your 'cheeks', clench onto it, and then waddle over to a cup and try to release the quarter into it. HYSTERICAL!! Maki, Anne, and I were on a team against Dan, Jeff, and Andrew. Of course we dominated! Check out Picasa for the funny pictures.
-Last night we had the cutest little mouse run through our house. I screamed when I first saw him because it scared me to see something small running through our living room. Then I realized how cute the little guy was and I named him Fievel. Michelle was too scared to get down from her chair, so Jackie and I chased him into the kitchen, where he escaped under our back door. Hopefully he won't come back because if he does he's dead -- we put poison down right after he left.
-On the way into town yesterday afternoon I saw a monkey!! Yes, a little monkey lives in top of someone's house. I assume it's their pet, but I can't be sure. I named him Maurice and I can't wait to see him again. I called to him but he got mad and went under the tin roof and starting banging on it with his little hands. My goal is to get a picture of him the next time I see him. I want to look up what kind of monkey he is.
-Today during lunch one of my students said "Prevencho Miss" and just stood at my desk looking at me. I had no idea what prevencho meant and why this girl wouldn't go back to her desk to eat. So I pulled out of Spanish to English dictionary and looked up the word. Come to find out it means "Enjoy your meal". Hondurans say this to each other ALL the time. Someone told me that when I first came here but I completely spaced it. Once I understood what it meant I said "Oh..gracias, prevencho tambien" and she just smiled and said "Thank you miss" and went and ate her lunch. How sweet!! One of my kids offered me her smashed bean sandwich today, which I politely declined. Then five minutes later a little girl offered me a chips ahoy cookie, which I gladly accepted :)! YUM!
Meeting:
All of the volunteers have been having a hard time in their own ways adapting to Honduran culture. Some people discussed doing a reflection/prayer once a week. I really wanted to get that rolling so I asked Jackie and Michelle if we could do it at our house. They both really liked the idea and Michelle even offered to make jambalaya. So this evening we had all of the volunteers and Carlos over for dinner and reflection. It was wonderful to eat with everyone and reflect on how we are feeling so far. It was exactly what I needed! I think the world of the other volunteers here with me. Everyone in our group has amazing things to offer. It made me feel better to hear how hard the transition has been for other people. We talked a lot about bugs, problems at school, and trying to live in a third world country. But the things that stick out the most from the meeting are our support for one another, how much we have all been blessed with in our lives, the support we have from our family and friends back home, the joy our students bring to us, and the things we hope to accomplish this year. Carlos thanked all of us for leaving our families and friends to come to Olancho to teach. He talked to us about the people here and the many struggles they face. We make $200 (4,000 lempiras) a month and the Honduran teachers get 5,500 lempiras -- but, many of the Honduran teachers have two, three, or four kids to support as well as pay their rent. We live in middle income homes without running water, but we have electricity and internet access. There are millions of people in the world who don't have any of those things or even a house to live in at all. When I'm at home I live in such a bubble. I get so swept up in money and I never feel like I never have enough. I don't know if any of you have ever read the book "If the World Were a Village" or seen a video on it, but it's very interesting, I really encourage you to click on this link and watch this short youtube video about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNnbO8x4JAY
We are BLESSED beyond words to live in the United States of America!!! In comparison to the rest of the world I am a rich person! It's hard to remember that when I'm living in my bubble of money at home. I know I'm in debt with my student loans, but at least I had the opportunity to take them out in the first place. I'm happy that God made me able bodied so I can work hard to pay those loans back! Carlos talked to us a lot tonight about education and how important it is. Without education people don't have the opportunity to make better lives for themselves. That is something we don't typically go without in the U.S. But in many countries around the world not everyone receives an education. In Honduras education is only mandatory until the 6th grade and that's insane to think about!
Everything just clicked for me tonight and I know this is exactly where I am suppose to be at this time in my life. God is so extremely good and I should never doubt that he always has a plan for me. I really can't say thank you enough to all of you who support me! It always makes me cry to think about how much I've been given in my life and how much I'm loved. It just blows me away!
THANK YOU!!!!!
"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
Tonight we had our first reflection as a group and it was wonderful! But, before I get into all of that... I want to tell you about some random things that have happened in the last week:
-The other day as I was walking down the road a man weaved (in his car) across the street towards me. At first I thought it was a taxi seeing if I wanted a ride, but then I noticed it was a regular car. Well the man rolls down his window and says "You look good" to me in English. HAHA I was cracking up! I mean we get cat calls ALL the time when we walk into town, but most men say something dirty in Spanish or they say "Hey Mame!" It's just funny to hear the few English phrases some people know here. They probably get it all from the television that they do watch or the American songs they listen to. Which brings me to my next little story...
-Yesterday morning when I got on the bus "Slow Hand" by the Pointer Sisters was playing, AHAHA! I get onto the bus and hear the words "I want a man with a slow hand, I want a lover with an easy touch". I couldn't believe that song was playing on a school bus, but then I realize most of the kids have no idea what's being said. Hopefully none of them use that as an English phrase to repeat :)! Some other random 80's songs played as we continued on to school, and then when we were about 3 minutes away "Eye of the Tiger" came on -- PERFECT! That song always gets me so pumped up, so I was definitely ready to start and conquer my day!!
-After school on Tuesday there was a torrential downpour here. It's rained everyday since I've been here, but this was CRAZY! It started pouring around 6 and by 7 the streets were like rivers. There is so much trash and glass everywhere that it was scary to walk through because you had no idea what you could be stepping in. I was out grocery shopping with Michelle, Maki, Jeff, and Andrew and we just starting running home. We quickly realized we were going to be drenched no matter what so we slowed down a little bit and just laughed about it. Michelle, Jackie, and I live the closest to the store we went to, so Maki, Jeff, and Andrew popped into our house for a little bit so we could take a picture of how wet we all were. When we got to the house we saw immediately that it was flooding. We had water coming into our living room and into Jackie's bedroom. Jeff grabbed a broom and just started sweeping water out of the house. Once we got a handle on the water coming in we decided we should make the most of the awesome water pressure and wash our hair. I had so much fun! It reminded me of a time I showered with my sisters in the rain when we were little. After we all got our hair washed Jackie and I went to take some pictures of the water levels. I've been posting my pictures to Picasa because Facebook won't allow me to upload anything for some reason. If you click on my "pictures" tab on the left hand side of this blog it will take you to my Picasa page. You'll find an album there titled 'Honduras'--check it out to see for yourselves how high the water got. We have a side walk that has a decent step that leads to our front pavement area. The water got so high around our house that you couldn't even tell a step was there. CRAZY I tell you! Oh, I almost forgot -- the school flooded too! Jeff, Lacey, and Andrew had to go help sweep the school out. When I arrived at school yesterday morning I had about an inch of water on my floor. That was after a team of about 15 people had been sweeping it out the night before. Luckily by 10 my floor was completely dry again :).
-Maki taught us this hilarious game where you stick a quarter in your 'cheeks', clench onto it, and then waddle over to a cup and try to release the quarter into it. HYSTERICAL!! Maki, Anne, and I were on a team against Dan, Jeff, and Andrew. Of course we dominated! Check out Picasa for the funny pictures.
-Last night we had the cutest little mouse run through our house. I screamed when I first saw him because it scared me to see something small running through our living room. Then I realized how cute the little guy was and I named him Fievel. Michelle was too scared to get down from her chair, so Jackie and I chased him into the kitchen, where he escaped under our back door. Hopefully he won't come back because if he does he's dead -- we put poison down right after he left.
-On the way into town yesterday afternoon I saw a monkey!! Yes, a little monkey lives in top of someone's house. I assume it's their pet, but I can't be sure. I named him Maurice and I can't wait to see him again. I called to him but he got mad and went under the tin roof and starting banging on it with his little hands. My goal is to get a picture of him the next time I see him. I want to look up what kind of monkey he is.
-Today during lunch one of my students said "Prevencho Miss" and just stood at my desk looking at me. I had no idea what prevencho meant and why this girl wouldn't go back to her desk to eat. So I pulled out of Spanish to English dictionary and looked up the word. Come to find out it means "Enjoy your meal". Hondurans say this to each other ALL the time. Someone told me that when I first came here but I completely spaced it. Once I understood what it meant I said "Oh..gracias, prevencho tambien" and she just smiled and said "Thank you miss" and went and ate her lunch. How sweet!! One of my kids offered me her smashed bean sandwich today, which I politely declined. Then five minutes later a little girl offered me a chips ahoy cookie, which I gladly accepted :)! YUM!
Meeting:
All of the volunteers have been having a hard time in their own ways adapting to Honduran culture. Some people discussed doing a reflection/prayer once a week. I really wanted to get that rolling so I asked Jackie and Michelle if we could do it at our house. They both really liked the idea and Michelle even offered to make jambalaya. So this evening we had all of the volunteers and Carlos over for dinner and reflection. It was wonderful to eat with everyone and reflect on how we are feeling so far. It was exactly what I needed! I think the world of the other volunteers here with me. Everyone in our group has amazing things to offer. It made me feel better to hear how hard the transition has been for other people. We talked a lot about bugs, problems at school, and trying to live in a third world country. But the things that stick out the most from the meeting are our support for one another, how much we have all been blessed with in our lives, the support we have from our family and friends back home, the joy our students bring to us, and the things we hope to accomplish this year. Carlos thanked all of us for leaving our families and friends to come to Olancho to teach. He talked to us about the people here and the many struggles they face. We make $200 (4,000 lempiras) a month and the Honduran teachers get 5,500 lempiras -- but, many of the Honduran teachers have two, three, or four kids to support as well as pay their rent. We live in middle income homes without running water, but we have electricity and internet access. There are millions of people in the world who don't have any of those things or even a house to live in at all. When I'm at home I live in such a bubble. I get so swept up in money and I never feel like I never have enough. I don't know if any of you have ever read the book "If the World Were a Village" or seen a video on it, but it's very interesting, I really encourage you to click on this link and watch this short youtube video about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNnbO8x4JAY
We are BLESSED beyond words to live in the United States of America!!! In comparison to the rest of the world I am a rich person! It's hard to remember that when I'm living in my bubble of money at home. I know I'm in debt with my student loans, but at least I had the opportunity to take them out in the first place. I'm happy that God made me able bodied so I can work hard to pay those loans back! Carlos talked to us a lot tonight about education and how important it is. Without education people don't have the opportunity to make better lives for themselves. That is something we don't typically go without in the U.S. But in many countries around the world not everyone receives an education. In Honduras education is only mandatory until the 6th grade and that's insane to think about!
Everything just clicked for me tonight and I know this is exactly where I am suppose to be at this time in my life. God is so extremely good and I should never doubt that he always has a plan for me. I really can't say thank you enough to all of you who support me! It always makes me cry to think about how much I've been given in my life and how much I'm loved. It just blows me away!
THANK YOU!!!!!
"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
Monday, August 30, 2010
I SURVIVED
My first day of my first year teaching has come and gone...
I survived!!!
It was the longest and hardest day I've ever had teaching. In the states I would go in 45 minutes to an hour early to prepare for that day's activities, then I would stay 2 or 3 hours after school preparing for the next day. In Honduras we ride the school bus with our students and walk into the classroom with them, so there's no time to prepare before the day begins. Then after school, the students start leaving at 2:30, and we have to be on a teacher's bus by 3:30. That gives me about 30 minutes to get things done for the next day, NOT a lot of time!
I get on the bus at 6a.m. and I arrive back home around 4p.m., which makes for a long day. When I arrived at school this morning I had a little line of dead frogs by my door, proceeded by parents coming in and out of my classroom asking all kinds of questions in Spanish (which I of course couldn't understand). When I went to do a final count on desks I realized I still only had 19 desks and 26 kids about to walk through my door. I finally found Wendy and I just wanted to run up and hug her (I ended up doing this before my day was over). It's great to have someone who can help and translate for me!
After we had a brief meeting with the whole school outside we had the students line up and go to the classrooms. I have some of the CUTEST kids ever! I have a little boy in my class named Jose who has the best disposition. He was just as happy as can be this morning. He was telling me all kinds of things and just smiling the whole time. I felt bad that I couldn't understand a word of it, but hopefully my Spanish will improve quickly. After the first twenty minutes the cuteness of the kids started to wear off and my classroom became a complete MAD house! The school is so loud, one volunteer has already almost lost her voice from talking so loud. The kids didn't understand a word I was saying to them and it took every ounce of patience I had to keep going. At one point (as my kids are screaming and I can't regain control) I look outside my door to see other students passing in the hallway and I see all of my fellow volunteers struggling just like me. I saw Anne, who teaches Kinder (preschool in the U.S.) passing by my room with her 26 kids all holding hands to walk to snack. They were just weaving in and out of people, talking, and looking scared of everything. At the end of their line was Anne's assistant Fanny holding a screaming girl in her arms and dragging another screaming little boy behind her. At that point I just had to laugh! The school was in complete disarray today--hopefully that won't be the case tomorrow.
Honestly the day is a blur at this point. Anything that could go wrong did and I just kept telling myself "One day at a time, just make it to 2:30 and everything will be ok!!!" We had a lot of down time today because I didn't plan enough activities and some things that were suppose to happen in the morning ended up getting canceled. I learned from today and I will have tons of different activities planned for tomorrow!
We do something at school on Monday mornings called "Acto Civico". The whole school assembles outside to listen to one of the Spanish teachers and then one of the English teachers give a brief presentation on different values. It was canceled for this morning because there was too much going on, so we're now doing it tomorrow morning. Guess who's first up to bat for the English teachers....that's right - yours truly! AHHH! I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm just going to wing it the best I can. I'm giving a talk on citizenship!
I was talking with most of the other volunteers on our ride home from school today and I said "I know that if I can make it through this year and have a successful classroom I can make it in ANY classroom." I truly believe it! With that said, I'm up for the challenge...
Bring on tomorrow!
Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is you! –Christian D. Larson
I survived!!!
It was the longest and hardest day I've ever had teaching. In the states I would go in 45 minutes to an hour early to prepare for that day's activities, then I would stay 2 or 3 hours after school preparing for the next day. In Honduras we ride the school bus with our students and walk into the classroom with them, so there's no time to prepare before the day begins. Then after school, the students start leaving at 2:30, and we have to be on a teacher's bus by 3:30. That gives me about 30 minutes to get things done for the next day, NOT a lot of time!
I get on the bus at 6a.m. and I arrive back home around 4p.m., which makes for a long day. When I arrived at school this morning I had a little line of dead frogs by my door, proceeded by parents coming in and out of my classroom asking all kinds of questions in Spanish (which I of course couldn't understand). When I went to do a final count on desks I realized I still only had 19 desks and 26 kids about to walk through my door. I finally found Wendy and I just wanted to run up and hug her (I ended up doing this before my day was over). It's great to have someone who can help and translate for me!
After we had a brief meeting with the whole school outside we had the students line up and go to the classrooms. I have some of the CUTEST kids ever! I have a little boy in my class named Jose who has the best disposition. He was just as happy as can be this morning. He was telling me all kinds of things and just smiling the whole time. I felt bad that I couldn't understand a word of it, but hopefully my Spanish will improve quickly. After the first twenty minutes the cuteness of the kids started to wear off and my classroom became a complete MAD house! The school is so loud, one volunteer has already almost lost her voice from talking so loud. The kids didn't understand a word I was saying to them and it took every ounce of patience I had to keep going. At one point (as my kids are screaming and I can't regain control) I look outside my door to see other students passing in the hallway and I see all of my fellow volunteers struggling just like me. I saw Anne, who teaches Kinder (preschool in the U.S.) passing by my room with her 26 kids all holding hands to walk to snack. They were just weaving in and out of people, talking, and looking scared of everything. At the end of their line was Anne's assistant Fanny holding a screaming girl in her arms and dragging another screaming little boy behind her. At that point I just had to laugh! The school was in complete disarray today--hopefully that won't be the case tomorrow.
Honestly the day is a blur at this point. Anything that could go wrong did and I just kept telling myself "One day at a time, just make it to 2:30 and everything will be ok!!!" We had a lot of down time today because I didn't plan enough activities and some things that were suppose to happen in the morning ended up getting canceled. I learned from today and I will have tons of different activities planned for tomorrow!
We do something at school on Monday mornings called "Acto Civico". The whole school assembles outside to listen to one of the Spanish teachers and then one of the English teachers give a brief presentation on different values. It was canceled for this morning because there was too much going on, so we're now doing it tomorrow morning. Guess who's first up to bat for the English teachers....that's right - yours truly! AHHH! I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm just going to wing it the best I can. I'm giving a talk on citizenship!
I was talking with most of the other volunteers on our ride home from school today and I said "I know that if I can make it through this year and have a successful classroom I can make it in ANY classroom." I truly believe it! With that said, I'm up for the challenge...
Bring on tomorrow!
Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is you! –Christian D. Larson
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Un dia a la vez
I met some of my students parents yesterday and OH BOY!!! They were all very friendly and understanding that I don't speak much Spanish, but they expect SO much from me. I had a few parents ask if I could make them a CD to listen to at home that had the English alphabet, songs we'll sing in class, numbers, and any other key phrases we'll be saying throughout the year. Then they want me to create a blog (which I had planned on doing) and put the class spelling and vocab words up. The catch is, they want me to make videos of myself saying all of the vocab and spelling words. Oh my goodness, that's a lot of extra work a week! On top of that parents have asked that I don't give any vocab tests on Friday's because the students don't have long enough to study if I don't present the list until Monday. They told me four days just isn't enough time. Then they asked that I never give two tests in one day. Another parent asked me if his child would be able to read in English by the time he left the first grade. I told him that was the goal, but I couldn't promise his child would be able to read. Right now I don't even have English books yet. I have two groups of 26 children coming into my class on Monday morning and I only have 17 desks. I told myself before I came that I am going to be the BEST teacher I can be. I am going to try to do what the parents ask of me within reason. I'm going to do it with a smile and take this year as a learning experience. I am in a completely different culture and things are not done the same way here as they are in the states, and I need to remember that. It's definitely going to be an interesting year!!
On a funny note -- Rosita, my counterpart teacher who I've never heard speak a word of English said "You are sexy" to me yesterday, AHAHAHA! I was cracking up! Then she went on to say "I can speak a little bit of English, but I just don't practice enough." She is a firecracker and she's going to be very fun to work with this year!
We have to submit plans to Peggy every Monday of what we will be doing for the week. In the next two weeks she wants an overview of where we expect to be by the end of the year. Today will be spent reviewing state standards for first grade (since there are no Honduran standards), finding creative lessons, researching ways to best teach ESL students, writing a letter of introduction about myself, creating a blog for my parents, and submitting plans to Peggy! It's BEAUTIFUL outside today (not too hot, yet) and I'm happy I can just lounge around my house and get things done :).
I did my first load of laundry today. I got up around 7, filled up three buckets of water and got to work. I had the intent of washing my sheets, little blanket, pillow cases, towel, and all of my clothes. After I got to the towel (around 8) my arms hurt so bad I couldn't do anymore. I forgot how much work hand washing your clothes is. I'll have to wash the rest tomorrow and get these arm muscles built up!
Tonight we are going to the "park" (I'll try to post pictures soon) in the middle of town to eat baleadas and celebrate Dan's birthday. Baleadas are a Honduran "snack" but we've had them for dinner a few times now. It's a tortilla with refried beans, onion, scrambled egg, cheese, avocado, and mantequilla (Honduran's call it butter, but it's more of a sour cream...people put it on almost everything). Some have all of these ingredients, some have more, and some are served with just the refried beans, onion, and cheese. I was having some stomach issues my first four days here, so I actually haven't tried a baleada with all of the ingredients. I've only had the egg and cheese. I'm excited to try one tonight--I'll keep you posted on how my stomach holds up!
"One day at a time-this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering" -Ida Scott Taylor
I finally took some pictures of my house, so without further ado ...
1. Our Bathroom
2. My bedroom - there are no sheets on my bed because I am washing them :)
3. Living room
4. The front of our house
5. The gate outside out house
6. Our neighbors down the hill, these are the party people
7. Backyard
8. Street we live on
9. View from my front gate
10. Our Kitchen
On a funny note -- Rosita, my counterpart teacher who I've never heard speak a word of English said "You are sexy" to me yesterday, AHAHAHA! I was cracking up! Then she went on to say "I can speak a little bit of English, but I just don't practice enough." She is a firecracker and she's going to be very fun to work with this year!
We have to submit plans to Peggy every Monday of what we will be doing for the week. In the next two weeks she wants an overview of where we expect to be by the end of the year. Today will be spent reviewing state standards for first grade (since there are no Honduran standards), finding creative lessons, researching ways to best teach ESL students, writing a letter of introduction about myself, creating a blog for my parents, and submitting plans to Peggy! It's BEAUTIFUL outside today (not too hot, yet) and I'm happy I can just lounge around my house and get things done :).
I did my first load of laundry today. I got up around 7, filled up three buckets of water and got to work. I had the intent of washing my sheets, little blanket, pillow cases, towel, and all of my clothes. After I got to the towel (around 8) my arms hurt so bad I couldn't do anymore. I forgot how much work hand washing your clothes is. I'll have to wash the rest tomorrow and get these arm muscles built up!
Tonight we are going to the "park" (I'll try to post pictures soon) in the middle of town to eat baleadas and celebrate Dan's birthday. Baleadas are a Honduran "snack" but we've had them for dinner a few times now. It's a tortilla with refried beans, onion, scrambled egg, cheese, avocado, and mantequilla (Honduran's call it butter, but it's more of a sour cream...people put it on almost everything). Some have all of these ingredients, some have more, and some are served with just the refried beans, onion, and cheese. I was having some stomach issues my first four days here, so I actually haven't tried a baleada with all of the ingredients. I've only had the egg and cheese. I'm excited to try one tonight--I'll keep you posted on how my stomach holds up!
"One day at a time-this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering" -Ida Scott Taylor
I finally took some pictures of my house, so without further ado ...
1. Our Bathroom
2. My bedroom - there are no sheets on my bed because I am washing them :)
3. Living room
4. The front of our house
5. The gate outside out house
6. Our neighbors down the hill, these are the party people
7. Backyard
8. Street we live on
9. View from my front gate
10. Our Kitchen
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Escucha Me, ALTO
I will use the names of the people I volunteer with a lot in these blog posts. Hopefully I will have some pictures soon so you can connect a name with a face. For now here is a list of people:
Dan - return volunteer, California
Mary - return volunteer, California
Carrie - new volunteer, Texas
Michelle - new volunteer, Kansas City, MO side...My roommate (went to Notre Dame for college, so she knows Indiana)
Meagan - return volunteer, New York
Mary - return volunteer, California
Jackie - return volunteer, Chicago...My roommate
Angela - new volunteer, California
Andrew - new volunteer, New Jersey
Lacey - new volunteer, Wisconsin
Maki - return volunteer, Massachusetts (Principal of the middle school)
Anne - new volunteer, California
Peggy - return volunteer, Rhode Island (Principal of the elementary school and the volunteer coordinator. She has a very full plate, but she's AWESOME at what she does!)
Jeff - new volunteer, Idaho
Ginny - returning volunteer, North Carolina
The last two nights Andrew has made us dinner and it was fabulous! The boy can cook! Last night we had some pasta with a vegetable and meat sauce. Tonight we have toasted bread with melted cheese on top...then Andrew made this side salad of green pepper, tomatoes, onion, and cucumber with a little EVOO drizzled on top. He hiked through town to find some stores that carried all of this stuff. I'm pumped he'll be my neighbor for ten months, at least I know I'll be well fed :)! Andrew lived in England for seven years, because both of his parents are from there, so he has this great british accent...I love it! He pronounces things in a very funny way most of the time and we all laugh. He loves to laugh and kid around so it's always a good time when we get a group together!
Three of the volunteers: Lacey, Jackie, and Andrew had to change a few things when they got to honduras. Apparently Hondurans think men with long hair and women or men with tattoos/piercings are in gangs. Well Andrew "had" long hair (he just got a buzz cut today). Lacey has multiple earings and her nose pierced and Jackie has a visible tattoo on her arm. Lacey took out most of her earings and got a bar for her nose. Jackie has to put a band-aid over her tattoo. Well the other day Andrew was walking through town and he was trying to say excuse me, but instead of saying permiso he said escucha me, which means listen to me! He later said alto to a man in the market, which means stop. Since people would already think he was in a gang, we've been laughing hysterically about it. It's just so funny to think of this gringo with his long hair passing by people saying "Listen to me! Stop!"
In other news, I have two machetes sitting on my little coffee table right now. I asked another volunteer why they were there and I was told I would have to use them to cut the grass to keep the tarantulas away, YIKES! Oh, and we saw our first mouse in our kitchen today :/. Now we have to go and buy some rat poising so we can kill it. I wish we could just trap it and set it free, but it would just keep coming back.
I got to spend my first full day with Wendy, my classroom aid. She is so sweet and I am over-joyed to have her helping me in my classroom. I don't know how I would handle 54 kids otherwise!
Oh, I had my first solo Spanish conversation in the street today. I had to use my Spanish to English dictionary to look up every word I was saying. I told a little girl that I had pequeno Lempira's "small money", but I was trying to tell her that I didn't have very much money. I'll learn :)
"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square hole. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." – Apple (Thanks Heath :) )
Dan - return volunteer, California
Mary - return volunteer, California
Carrie - new volunteer, Texas
Michelle - new volunteer, Kansas City, MO side...My roommate (went to Notre Dame for college, so she knows Indiana)
Meagan - return volunteer, New York
Mary - return volunteer, California
Jackie - return volunteer, Chicago...My roommate
Angela - new volunteer, California
Andrew - new volunteer, New Jersey
Lacey - new volunteer, Wisconsin
Maki - return volunteer, Massachusetts (Principal of the middle school)
Anne - new volunteer, California
Peggy - return volunteer, Rhode Island (Principal of the elementary school and the volunteer coordinator. She has a very full plate, but she's AWESOME at what she does!)
Jeff - new volunteer, Idaho
Ginny - returning volunteer, North Carolina
The last two nights Andrew has made us dinner and it was fabulous! The boy can cook! Last night we had some pasta with a vegetable and meat sauce. Tonight we have toasted bread with melted cheese on top...then Andrew made this side salad of green pepper, tomatoes, onion, and cucumber with a little EVOO drizzled on top. He hiked through town to find some stores that carried all of this stuff. I'm pumped he'll be my neighbor for ten months, at least I know I'll be well fed :)! Andrew lived in England for seven years, because both of his parents are from there, so he has this great british accent...I love it! He pronounces things in a very funny way most of the time and we all laugh. He loves to laugh and kid around so it's always a good time when we get a group together!
Three of the volunteers: Lacey, Jackie, and Andrew had to change a few things when they got to honduras. Apparently Hondurans think men with long hair and women or men with tattoos/piercings are in gangs. Well Andrew "had" long hair (he just got a buzz cut today). Lacey has multiple earings and her nose pierced and Jackie has a visible tattoo on her arm. Lacey took out most of her earings and got a bar for her nose. Jackie has to put a band-aid over her tattoo. Well the other day Andrew was walking through town and he was trying to say excuse me, but instead of saying permiso he said escucha me, which means listen to me! He later said alto to a man in the market, which means stop. Since people would already think he was in a gang, we've been laughing hysterically about it. It's just so funny to think of this gringo with his long hair passing by people saying "Listen to me! Stop!"
In other news, I have two machetes sitting on my little coffee table right now. I asked another volunteer why they were there and I was told I would have to use them to cut the grass to keep the tarantulas away, YIKES! Oh, and we saw our first mouse in our kitchen today :/. Now we have to go and buy some rat poising so we can kill it. I wish we could just trap it and set it free, but it would just keep coming back.
I got to spend my first full day with Wendy, my classroom aid. She is so sweet and I am over-joyed to have her helping me in my classroom. I don't know how I would handle 54 kids otherwise!
Oh, I had my first solo Spanish conversation in the street today. I had to use my Spanish to English dictionary to look up every word I was saying. I told a little girl that I had pequeno Lempira's "small money", but I was trying to tell her that I didn't have very much money. I'll learn :)
"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square hole. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." – Apple (Thanks Heath :) )
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