well today we got a surprise day off school due to the hurricane/tropical storm. Here in cofradia, its just a TON of rain but apparently in other parts of the country theres severe flooding. So I´ve just been reading (onto my 6th books since arriving).
anyway, i figured i would use this gift of time to share with you a distinctly central american experience that the other volunteers and i joke around about alot... riding the bus (or as they call them here chicken trucks).
Things you would never do on a bus anywhere but central america...
1. sit 3 to a seat and cram another 30 people into the aisles (literally)
2. be expected to get on and off the bus while moving
3. use the emergency exit as a door
4. use the roof as a seat
5. take the old broken down school buses (not longer legal in north america therefore shipped down) at full speed
6. pass another school bus while climbing a mountain around a corner
7. had chickens loose on the bus
8. had the bus driver stop so a drunk could buy a beer
9. had the bus driver stop so the drunk could take a leak on the side of the rode (x2)
10. had the police search the school bus and not arrest the drunk man who was currently feeling up a woman
11. Had a portable toothbrush salesman give a live infomercial.
12. been sold fried chicken (and a variety of food) through the bus window by people running beside the bus
13. had a man selling pills to make your kids smarter
14 had people buy pills to make their kids smarter
15. get charged more because your white... and yet still pay under 2 dollars for an hour and half bus ride
16. Have someone on the bus transporting their matress.
17. always feel surprise when you actually arrive where you intended safely.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
honduran living
welll.. last week i was teaching grade 4. and yyes they are a handful but i actually feel like i can get across to them more! they are pretty good at math, double digit multiplication, division, addition and subtraction, we´re going the human body in science which i love teaching but english is proving to be difficult. most of them can communicate at a basic level.. and they know a ton of grammar, but forming sentences is an issue!
anway, i feel like im settled in here, as much as one can be. i mean as soon as you think your used to everthing (the culture, disorganization...) something ridiculous takes you off guard! like this week.. i found out our cute little janitor lady, makes runs to the local pouporia (corner store) and smuggles chips in for the grade 5s who then proceed to mark up the prices and pawn it off to the younger kids.
oh and this week the oldest kids decided to throw a fundraiser and show a movie in an unused classroom during classes and charge kids to watch it. (we had no idea, until our kids didnt show up for class but apparently thats how things work around here). anway, an hour later i look up to see 40 grade 2s and 3s chanting MONEY BACK in spanish. apparently the older kids had turned off the movie half way when the kids were loud. anyywa, the whole situation escaladed to the older kids baracading themselves into a classroom and the younger kids forcing their way in (even climbing between the barred windows)... it was a complete riot including a nosebleed due to a garbage can to the face! anway, eventuall it all settled out.
all to say, even though im settled, i dont think i could ever get to the point where things dont catch me off guard!
This weekend, we took a short trip to the lake. it was definatel a much needed break! we rowed (in a jalapy of a boat), wandered to a waterfall, ate amazing food (closest thing i´ve had to food from home) and had hot showers (you dont appreciate them till you dont have them)!
anyway.. back to school this week, and the normal cofrdian life! and im actually pretty excited to see what i can do with these kids!!
anway, i feel like im settled in here, as much as one can be. i mean as soon as you think your used to everthing (the culture, disorganization...) something ridiculous takes you off guard! like this week.. i found out our cute little janitor lady, makes runs to the local pouporia (corner store) and smuggles chips in for the grade 5s who then proceed to mark up the prices and pawn it off to the younger kids.
oh and this week the oldest kids decided to throw a fundraiser and show a movie in an unused classroom during classes and charge kids to watch it. (we had no idea, until our kids didnt show up for class but apparently thats how things work around here). anway, an hour later i look up to see 40 grade 2s and 3s chanting MONEY BACK in spanish. apparently the older kids had turned off the movie half way when the kids were loud. anyywa, the whole situation escaladed to the older kids baracading themselves into a classroom and the younger kids forcing their way in (even climbing between the barred windows)... it was a complete riot including a nosebleed due to a garbage can to the face! anway, eventuall it all settled out.
all to say, even though im settled, i dont think i could ever get to the point where things dont catch me off guard!
This weekend, we took a short trip to the lake. it was definatel a much needed break! we rowed (in a jalapy of a boat), wandered to a waterfall, ate amazing food (closest thing i´ve had to food from home) and had hot showers (you dont appreciate them till you dont have them)!
anyway.. back to school this week, and the normal cofrdian life! and im actually pretty excited to see what i can do with these kids!!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
snow day!
do you remember that amazing feeling of a snow day and a gift of all this free time to do anything (in em and my case to build a snow fort)?! well today i experience that except honduran style!
At 4 am this morning one of the volunteers left to head home and i guess without thinking she locked the door. unfortunately when you lock the deadbolt from the outside, you need to unlock it from the outside. so we (me and 2 other volunteers) woke up this morning to being locked inside our house! literally, our windows are barred, theres no other door... completely locked in! its a very strange feeling to just not have the option of leaving! anyway, i used to time wisely, and moved into my new room, we cleaned, went through and got rid of stuff... and wondered how hectic the school was short 4 teachers. finally about half way through the day, mirna (school director) came down after being forced by the other worried volunteers and let us out!
anyway, i dont start grade 4 until monday.. and as for this weekend, no trips but we´re going to a club in san pedro and at he rocks (pool, bar, restaurant owned by ben, we get everything there for free) they are getting a tv for a canada vs honduras fifa party... which may be embarrassing for me seeing as soccer isent really our sport!
anyway, its absolutely roasting here, i would guess 30 degrees, so before i sweat out my eyeballs im going to go! oh and i am sooo jealous of everyone having a thanksgiving dinner this weekend!
At 4 am this morning one of the volunteers left to head home and i guess without thinking she locked the door. unfortunately when you lock the deadbolt from the outside, you need to unlock it from the outside. so we (me and 2 other volunteers) woke up this morning to being locked inside our house! literally, our windows are barred, theres no other door... completely locked in! its a very strange feeling to just not have the option of leaving! anyway, i used to time wisely, and moved into my new room, we cleaned, went through and got rid of stuff... and wondered how hectic the school was short 4 teachers. finally about half way through the day, mirna (school director) came down after being forced by the other worried volunteers and let us out!
anyway, i dont start grade 4 until monday.. and as for this weekend, no trips but we´re going to a club in san pedro and at he rocks (pool, bar, restaurant owned by ben, we get everything there for free) they are getting a tv for a canada vs honduras fifa party... which may be embarrassing for me seeing as soccer isent really our sport!
anyway, its absolutely roasting here, i would guess 30 degrees, so before i sweat out my eyeballs im going to go! oh and i am sooo jealous of everyone having a thanksgiving dinner this weekend!
Monday, October 6, 2008
weekend at gracias
this weekend was a long weekend, so the other volunteers and i set out on an adventure to a town 4 hours away called gracias. the trip there was ridiculous as always... betwe4en crowded buses, 80s music videos and water pouring from the bus ceiling, quite comical. the first night we got there we wandered the town and headed to the hot springs which were pretty great! they were out of the town, and still pretty natural. And then we hitched a ride back to our cute little hotel that overlooked the town. (hitching rides= getting to sit in the back of a pickup as it flys around corners!)
the next morning we woke up early, to conquer the highest peak in honduras! this part is to make my dad proud! we got up at 5:30 and headed on our way for a 7 hour hike! i for the first time appreciated being prepared with a mec backpack (and even used the hip belt that i begged to cut off do to the lame appearance when first purchased) and mec rain coat. as you ascend you enter a cloud forest which feels like thick fog! anyway, it was really intense and really exciting!
that evening we felt ambitious and decided to grab a ¨half hour bus¨to the nearby village to do this pottery clinic thing. unfortunately, the bus ride was extended, due to stopping for a drunk man to buy beer, to urinate, for the police to search our bus, to catch a loose chicken on the bus... and by the time we got there it was getting so late we needed to get back. desperate times call for desperate measures! so we hitched a ride in the back to a cattle truck (seeing a cow lying down) and soon were crwding in the corners as the unhappy cow moved and slid around, peed everywhere... after being terrified, we climbed out and clung to the back to the truck for the rest of the 45 minute ride. if you know me at all, you´ll realize that this is the kind or retarded adventure that i LOVED every moment of! anyway.. it was a pretty great weekend and im excited for more to come however, back to school today was a draining experience!
With my grade ones.. I have basically given up treeaching them new concepts and am basically working on keeping them busy with activites. And seeing as another volunteer is leaving I asked if I could move to grade 4.. which she said yes! so now im just hoping to survive the rest of this week and trying to motivate myself to accomplish more with the older group! i still am really unsure about what im accomplishing here.. and hopefully this switch will bring about a change for the better! and maybe my new class will give me a purpose to be here more than punishing kids and adventure on weekends!
more updates to come...
and pictures when i go into the city with faster internet!
the next morning we woke up early, to conquer the highest peak in honduras! this part is to make my dad proud! we got up at 5:30 and headed on our way for a 7 hour hike! i for the first time appreciated being prepared with a mec backpack (and even used the hip belt that i begged to cut off do to the lame appearance when first purchased) and mec rain coat. as you ascend you enter a cloud forest which feels like thick fog! anyway, it was really intense and really exciting!
that evening we felt ambitious and decided to grab a ¨half hour bus¨to the nearby village to do this pottery clinic thing. unfortunately, the bus ride was extended, due to stopping for a drunk man to buy beer, to urinate, for the police to search our bus, to catch a loose chicken on the bus... and by the time we got there it was getting so late we needed to get back. desperate times call for desperate measures! so we hitched a ride in the back to a cattle truck (seeing a cow lying down) and soon were crwding in the corners as the unhappy cow moved and slid around, peed everywhere... after being terrified, we climbed out and clung to the back to the truck for the rest of the 45 minute ride. if you know me at all, you´ll realize that this is the kind or retarded adventure that i LOVED every moment of! anyway.. it was a pretty great weekend and im excited for more to come however, back to school today was a draining experience!
With my grade ones.. I have basically given up treeaching them new concepts and am basically working on keeping them busy with activites. And seeing as another volunteer is leaving I asked if I could move to grade 4.. which she said yes! so now im just hoping to survive the rest of this week and trying to motivate myself to accomplish more with the older group! i still am really unsure about what im accomplishing here.. and hopefully this switch will bring about a change for the better! and maybe my new class will give me a purpose to be here more than punishing kids and adventure on weekends!
more updates to come...
and pictures when i go into the city with faster internet!
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