Blogs from Central, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 26

As one might be able to tell from the title above, my students have a brilliant command of our classroom language, Spanglish. I can't think of the perfect translation of desfilar, but it more or less means to line up and march (i.e. for a parade). Escuela Bilingue Honduras, grades 5-seniors, will be marching in a parade on Tuesday morning at 6a.m. and my students were less then enthusiastic during our 2 hours of practice in the blazing sun. It was rather amusing however, to watch them learn how to march from a cadet in the Honduran army that spent just as much time flirting with thier teachers as he did teaching them how to march. Precision and order just does not correspond with the way things are usually done here, so marching is a riot. ... read more

Mom, breathe...I know how excited this title must make you, however, I have not found anyone who will let me steal thier babies. But I did find a way to borrow them on a regular basis! I forgot to put the most exciting part of my day on my Friday update. Mr. Cesar (the principal) announced that they would be opening a "nursery" class next year for three year olds. AND if I stay, the job is mine!!! Eeeee! Little baby Hondurans! Really, not too much more happened this weekend or if it did, I can't remember it because I was just too excited to write about the little ones. We went out Saturday night dancing again but luckily no one fell asleep this time and Sunday, I woke up late and went to school to ... read more

Thursday, day 4 of the school year. I just have one short story from today. Today, during science, I required my students to get into groups of two or three and come up with their own imaginary living organism and describe how it utilized the 6 life processes, write it down and draw a picture. My favorite was the half-man, half-martian. It gets energy by eating human skin cells and grass (I don't know), uses its energy by running, flying, and expanding, gets rid of waste by vomiting, and my favorite, it reproduces "alone or by 'having relations'". I wish we all had that option :). Oh, one more quick story. In reading we are learning about sequence, so I read them "The Lorax" by Dr. Suess. The loved the story and were great at sequencing. ... read more

And so it is that school has started and I wake before the roosters have a chance to stir me from my slummer and before the sun has peaked its hot, hot head. School begins at 7 and we are to be there at least 10 minutes early. I would have no problem with this except for the fact that I have a particularly awesome schedule. The reasons of which I am not happy about but having as many free periods as I do can only be good. It seems the arts here are not nearly as valued as the sciences. As I was doing my planning I kept planning for a five day week as I am used to. Not so here, English classes are only taken four times a week while science and math ... read more

Saturday was a very chill day. Sarah and I went in search of a shoe store for giants a.k.a. people with a shoe size bigger than 6. However, I was given directions to look on (translated from spanish) commercial avenue. Unfortunately, the streets do not have names here. So, we took a break and stopped at a pastry shop for some cake. With my brilliant command of Spanish, I told the woman behind the counter that I was looking for shoes and asked where could I find them. She looked confused as if to say, "I don't know where your shoes are." What a shot to my spanish speaking confidence :). Turns out commercial avenue does not have a sign. Commercial avenue is where there is a lot of commerce a.k.a lots of stores in a ... read more