La Escuela Publica

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Well, it took me long enough, but I finally visited the Public School in Copán. Juan Ramon Cueva. I went with my hermanita (little sister) Saraí. She's in the 5th grade, so next year she'll finish the 6th and graduate from la escuela (hopfully colegio will follow after that).

Anyway, we got up around 6ish, had a breakfast of pinol (like coffee, but made with roasted corn...super good) and pan (a hard roll or cookie we dip in the pinol). Then a bit after 6:30 we headed off, walking the 15 minutes to the school close to the center of town.

Saraí has about 35 compeñeros (classmates). They begin the day at 7am by reciting a prayer and part of the national anthem, then some share their writing assignment homework from the day before.

After a Spanish lesson of prepositions and writing structure, the bell sounds at 8:30 and they have a 20-30 minute recess. The girls in the class thought it was great having a gringa there and were eager to show me around the school. Our little posse made its way by all the classes, past the basketball court and back. We were going to get something at the caseta (like a mini cafeteria), but the bell sounded, so we went in to finish the spanish lesson and then study math.

At 10:30 we have another recess (well...more like 10:45. Their teacher keeps them until she's ready to let them go) and this time Saraí and I get some doughnuts from the caseta. They are delicious! Very doughy and covered in sugar. (I'm not a doughnut fan, but I LOVE these. We had them at the bilingual school too...sometimes chocolate covered.) Saraí get a bag of juice too (they're served in little clear plastic baggies. you bite a hole in the corner and suck out the juice). We stand outside the classroom chatting with the other girls and I'm greeted by several other students. Some go to our church, others are neices of a friend of mine, or Saraí's cousins....it was sweet to have so many friendly faces.

At 11 the bell tells us to get back to class for our final science lesson. It's fun for me to follow along and realize I could totally make it in a 5th grade Spanish classroom! Well...at least understanding everything. To be honest, it would be very frustrating for me to either be a student or a teacher in such a setup. Controlled chaos I guess.

A little before none we lined up outside, girls and boys, shortest to tallest (I was very last in the girls' line). The teacher reminded them of the homework for Monday, dismissed the girls, and then the boys.

And that was my day at school. Oh! Except as we left the school there was an icecream cart...3 lempiras (15 cents) a cone, and a lady selling something like elephant ears (also 3 lemps). I got one for each Sara and I...DELICIOUS!!! So we ate those slowly as we made our way back home, for our egg, bean and corn tortilla lunch, and then to have an afternoon nap.

That weekend I saw a few kids that said, "You were at school, weren't you?? When are you coming back??" Sweet.

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