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Published: November 4th 2008
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Andrea and Ramon
Ramon reads from "Catcher In The Rye" while Andrea dreams of grammar. When I moved here to Honduras I made the decision to leave most all my warm clothing at home, in Buffalo. I visited here last December, around Christmas, and the weather was very nice. Usually Honduras is warm during the day and cooler at night time. It is a comfortable cool, sometimes accompanied by a slow breeze. Comayagua tends to be a hotter city than Paraiso, but cooler than Tegus'. However, none of these cities come close to San Pedro Sula. San Pedro can get muggy, being on the coast an all.
Here, in Comayagua, the weather has taken a bitter turn into the mid 70's. I never thought I would say this, but it feels cold. A theme I use with my students, "Nothing is good or bad, but by comparison," applies heavily here. I would say that nothing is hot or cold, but by comparison. When you move from Buffalo to Honduras, you feel that Honduras is hot. When you spend some time in Honduras and the temperature "dives" down to mid 70's... it feels a bit chilly.
Now, I'm not saying I'm cold. Please don't think I "wussed" out here. I remember my roots. I keep
Hidemi
One of our favorite students poses with Lenin, the high school math and physics teacher. telling my students that it isn't cold until your "gripe" freezes. Gripe is Spanish for snot and boogers, it is pronounced "gree-pay." They usually look at me and say, "Oh wow, your gripe can freeze?"
All I'm saying is the temperature here has "inspired" me to wear a sweatshirt. I even bought a denim jacket. Denim jackets tend to be a bit behind the times in the USA, but in Honduras they are the bee's knees... if bee knees are a good thing. Everybody has a denim jacket, people even mix and match different denims. So when I dawn my blue jean beauty I pass relatively unnoticed. There are a lot of things here in Honduras that one can get away with. No one would even flinch at acid wash jeans, denim vests, Zuba pants, high top pumps, scrunchies, sandals with socks, and Bugle Boy clothing is alive and well. In fact, I own a few Bugle Boy polo shirts, seeing as how they are still in business.
The cooler weather, which the Hondurans call "cold," has brought on some very interesting fashion trends. In Buffalo, we spend a considerable amount of time, money and energy on a
Eduin
Front and center, every day. comfortably warm wardrobe. It's not unheard of to spend more money on your winter clothes than your summer clothes... In my opinion, it makes perfect sense. Here it is just the opposite. Here it is always summer, so your cool clothes are top priority. As a result I see the same sweatshirts and fleece hats every day... just on different students. They love to swap clothing throughout the day and often during lessons. They will even trade jackets while answering questions in class. Yesterday, Nour, one of my extremely tall ninth graders was wearing a small pink jacket belonging to Amy, one of my smallest ninth graders.
He stood up, dressed himself in Amy's coat and then proceeded to model it for the class. Forgetting that he was in mid sentence, answering a question about reading class, Nour did a few catwalk moves, turned to me and asked, "Meester, do you like it? I am like a sexy girl, joo know?"
I really wanted to discipline him, but I just couldn't. After calming the class down and swallowing my own laughter I was able to convince Nour to give Amy her jacket back so that he could wear
Sexy Girl
Here is a photo, I took, of Nour. This is an older photo. his own sweatshirt. The same sweatshirt that Jonmark, a thin framed squirmy little wise guy, was currently swimming in. These extra layers of clothing have brought a new zest into the students. Basically they still act the same way, but now they have new toys. They all bundle up for school and when they get to class they complain that it is too hot.
"Well take off your sweatshirt, hat, scarf and gloves... It's only 70 degrees." I say
"But meester, we can't take dem off because den we get gripe."
Its a cruel world. Luckily we find little treats along the way to distract us. Yesterday Josh and I went up to the park for some hot chocolate. He had discovered that one of our favorite restaurant mixes their coco with real chocolate and cane sugar. It tastes fantastic. We spent about an hour sitting outside the cafe, listening to the music and watching people walk through the park. It was very nice. The park is a great place to people watch and if anyone ever visits me I will take them there to do just that.
Despite the cool weather, by that I mean it needs to be a lot colder, things are going well. No lake effect snow in the forecast; who knows, we might get a few snow days this year. People tell me it has never and will never snow in Honduras, but I have my doubts. I tend to bring the cold weather with me when I move to tropical places. Here in the center of America, people celebrate the winter months much differently than up North. They can't go sledding or sit inside to watch the snow... so they blow off fireworks about every fourty three seconds. The house next to our school does it all day, every day. I have gotten used to it now, but it took a while.
Hope all is well up North. Happy election day!
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Damian
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