January 26, 2010
I haven’t really thought about phonics since I learned it when I was little. But here I am, thousands of miles away from home, teaching it to kids who know no English at all. I am starting with the basic sounds—short sounds of vowels. “A” as in “apple,” “e” as in “elephant,” “I” as in “Indian,” “o” as in “ostrich,” and “u” as in “umbrella.” I am then giving them vocabulary words that make the same sounds, “hat,” “net,” “mitt,” “hot,” “sun” etc. I am using a basic phonics book that has outlined this curriculum. Now, the sounds in Spanish and English are very different, and it has been challenging to get the students to make the correct sounds. But today this challenge entered a new realm. One of the vocabulary words for ‘I” is “hill.” In my class I do a lot of repetition—I say the word and then the students repeat it. Well, the short “I” sound is one my students struggle with, and today, when I said “hill,” my students answered back with “hell.”
Other then the accidental swearing in my ESL class things have been going well. I really need to find different ways to teach world geography to my 9th graders; I am losing them almost every class. I talked with them today about it and I think we are going to do some group projects. Each week a group of 2 or 3 students will be assigned a country, and using the textbook they will create a short presentation about that country. Doing this allows the students to teach each other the content, instead of me giving them the notes. I will do that next week when we start Europe and see how it goes.
Other than school there hasn’t been too much going on. I’ve played Euchre with the girls the last two nights for about an hour and then just hung out and gone to bed. I am starting to get used to the food, finally. Although, I was thrown a curve ball this morning when I had some sweet bread, rice…. and fried chicken wings. That’s right, fried chicken wings for breakfast at 6:30 in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, they were delicious, but I felt like I needed some buffalo chips to go with them (that’s a Buffalo Wild Wings joke for those of you who don’t follow. I always get wings and an order of buffalo chips, sliced potatoes with cheese, at BWW’s). That was fun though. I am really looking forward to this weekend. A group of us are taking the 1.5 hour bus ride to Santa Rosa to hang out. We are leaving Saturday morning and coming back Sunday afternoon. The plan is to find a hostel where we can all crash for cheap Saturday night. It’s going to be nice to do something different and see another town. I’ll take pictures and will let blog about it on Sunday or Monday.
I am finally starting to feel much better. The cough has mostly gone away and I am only blowing my nose every once in a while. Paola, the 4th grade girl whose parents house I live at, has been sick all week with a high fever and has even thrown up a couple of times. I have been taken Airborne all week hoping I don’t get that flu.
Anyway, I am writing this while I am still at school. I am about to give my first quiz at the school, a quiz on Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, the Roman Empire, and Jesus. Hopefully I won’t have to rip up my first test. After school we are going into town and going shopping (like every Wednesday). I brought my camera and since I really do not have anything I need to get I will try and get some pictures of town and then post with this blog entry.
It’s quiz time!
So, I am writing this back at home after a trip to town and a visit to the clinic to see the American doctors I saw on Sunday. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to see any that I know because they were all busy. But I did talk to Anna Blauw, a girl I graduated high school from who is now a nurse working in Honduras. The plan is to still go to the hot springs with them tomorrow night. We did not get into town yesterday for the get together at Hotel Real because the weather was bad. I am looking forward to tomorrow though.
Anyway, I just graded my seventh graders’ quizes. I am so disappointed right now. Although I had one 100 percent the class average, 27 students, was 63 percent. Passing at the school is 65 percent, which means the class average is an F. This is a chapter that both the previous teacher and I taught, but I created the quiz and put a heavy emphasis on the content I taught. It’s very frustrating and I am going to have a nice talk with the students tomorrow.
On another disappointing note, my cameras battery died before I got into town. I did get a chance to take a few before it died so those are posted below.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
To give you an idea of the walk I have to do everyday after school up the mountain to where I live I will use a simple water bottle. If you have a plastic water bottle when you fly and you close it on the ground before you take off and then do not open it again until you have taken off and are thousands of feet above the ground you will notice that because of the pressure change it looks like the water bottle has been squeezed to death. Well, yesterday I filled my water bottle at the school before I walked home. When I reached home I took my water bottle out and it looked like it had been squeezed to death. I don’t know what the elevation change is from the school to my house but it is enough pressure change to do a number on my water bottle.
Oh, and its raining today. First day of rain since I’ve been here. They needed it though, everything was really dry.
That is all.
Oh, and its raining today. First day of rain since I’ve been here. They needed it though, everything was really dry.
That is all.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Today was my first day of teaching. I not only had my history classes but I also met all my ESL students for the first time.
History classes first.
Overall they went very well. I was pretty planned and out and had created handouts for each of my classes to give them some sort of structure as we went through the curriculum. I would have to say my 7th grade World History class was the most fun. We were able to have a pretty good time talking about the death of Julius Caesar and the feud between Antony and Octavian (along with Cleopatra) leading to Octavian becoming Caesar Augustus.
8th Grade U.S. history was difficult. There is just so much content to get through and so little time to do it. I don’t think I mentioned it before but after I had sequenced all my classes (which I did for a typical 5 day week) I found out that I only have my 8th and 9th graders FOUR times a week. So, I lost a day each week, which is no fun when you have half the year to get through three-quarters of the content. Oh well, I can only do what I can. Like I said, I am hoping some of the structure and my content area knowledge will help the students understand the content and get through it quicker then they did with the previous teacher.
Anyway, 8th grade. I had created a fill in the blank reading guide as I discussed the content (Boston Massacre, First Continental Congress, etc.) and the students were able to keep up with me. But I felt like I was still going through the content way too fast and that they weren’t taking it all in. It is hard to gauge how much they understand when their second language is English. Other teachers have said that you can ask them if they understand you, and they’ll say yes, but they are to scared to say they don’t because they don’t want their English skills to be seen as lacking around their other classmates. So, I will do what I can and give them the tools that I think will help them succeed on the tests and really their other classes as well.
9th Grade is going to be tough as well. There is only so much you can do with World Geography in terms of how you present it. And with lack of basic geography materials (maps, globes, etc) it is going to be a lot more difficult. There are only nine 9th graders though and although it sounds like they can cause some trouble, it shouldn’t be too bad getting through the content with them. I’ll always be looking for new and creative ways to present the material.
The ESL class was a riot. I had two 40-minute classes with them today in which I was supposed to work on phonics, which I did. But this included us saying the alphabet, saying the vowels (short sounds to begin with) and going through the colors. We just did repetition for the first 40-minute class period. For the second class period we reviewed what we had gone through earlier and then played hot-potato with the eraser. I played music on my laptop as the students passed the eraser among themselves. When I stopped the music whatever student had the eraser had to come to the front of the classroom and go through the vowels, the alphabet or the colors. Most of the kids loved it, a few I could tell got bored with it (granted the class age range is from 4th grade to 10th grade). It was pretty hilarious because I was talking in all English (with a little Spanish here and there) and when I asked the students what music they like they looked at me blankly. But then I said Michael Jackson the place went nuts. One of the fourth graders got out of his desk and even broke out a couple of MJ dance moves—it was hilarious. Overall it was a lot of fun and teaching phonics and vocab will have its challenges, but it is very unique and will only help me as an educator. I did talk to Mr. Lara today and evidently there is a curriculum on its way for the class—it’ll be here on Monday. So it sounds like there will be a lot of repetition with vowels and the like this week. I have them for four 40-minute periods tomorrow. Game on.
For the record I ran up the mountain today and I am getting much better. Still a long way to go though.
History classes first.
Overall they went very well. I was pretty planned and out and had created handouts for each of my classes to give them some sort of structure as we went through the curriculum. I would have to say my 7th grade World History class was the most fun. We were able to have a pretty good time talking about the death of Julius Caesar and the feud between Antony and Octavian (along with Cleopatra) leading to Octavian becoming Caesar Augustus.
8th Grade U.S. history was difficult. There is just so much content to get through and so little time to do it. I don’t think I mentioned it before but after I had sequenced all my classes (which I did for a typical 5 day week) I found out that I only have my 8th and 9th graders FOUR times a week. So, I lost a day each week, which is no fun when you have half the year to get through three-quarters of the content. Oh well, I can only do what I can. Like I said, I am hoping some of the structure and my content area knowledge will help the students understand the content and get through it quicker then they did with the previous teacher.
Anyway, 8th grade. I had created a fill in the blank reading guide as I discussed the content (Boston Massacre, First Continental Congress, etc.) and the students were able to keep up with me. But I felt like I was still going through the content way too fast and that they weren’t taking it all in. It is hard to gauge how much they understand when their second language is English. Other teachers have said that you can ask them if they understand you, and they’ll say yes, but they are to scared to say they don’t because they don’t want their English skills to be seen as lacking around their other classmates. So, I will do what I can and give them the tools that I think will help them succeed on the tests and really their other classes as well.
9th Grade is going to be tough as well. There is only so much you can do with World Geography in terms of how you present it. And with lack of basic geography materials (maps, globes, etc) it is going to be a lot more difficult. There are only nine 9th graders though and although it sounds like they can cause some trouble, it shouldn’t be too bad getting through the content with them. I’ll always be looking for new and creative ways to present the material.
The ESL class was a riot. I had two 40-minute classes with them today in which I was supposed to work on phonics, which I did. But this included us saying the alphabet, saying the vowels (short sounds to begin with) and going through the colors. We just did repetition for the first 40-minute class period. For the second class period we reviewed what we had gone through earlier and then played hot-potato with the eraser. I played music on my laptop as the students passed the eraser among themselves. When I stopped the music whatever student had the eraser had to come to the front of the classroom and go through the vowels, the alphabet or the colors. Most of the kids loved it, a few I could tell got bored with it (granted the class age range is from 4th grade to 10th grade). It was pretty hilarious because I was talking in all English (with a little Spanish here and there) and when I asked the students what music they like they looked at me blankly. But then I said Michael Jackson the place went nuts. One of the fourth graders got out of his desk and even broke out a couple of MJ dance moves—it was hilarious. Overall it was a lot of fun and teaching phonics and vocab will have its challenges, but it is very unique and will only help me as an educator. I did talk to Mr. Lara today and evidently there is a curriculum on its way for the class—it’ll be here on Monday. So it sounds like there will be a lot of repetition with vowels and the like this week. I have them for four 40-minute periods tomorrow. Game on.
For the record I ran up the mountain today and I am getting much better. Still a long way to go though.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sorry it’s been a couple of days—it’s been a busy weekend. But I have a lot to talk about.
Friday night was a lot of fun. A few nights before I had lost my first Euchre game in a very long time. Not only that, one of the opponents was a rookie. So, with that said, Rachel (my partner from that night we lost) and I demanded a rematch against Julia and Kirsty. The first game Rachel and I ran the score up to 9-0. Even though we lost 4 straight points we won 10-4. We then wonj the next game as well, and decided to do a best out of 5. Well we lost the third game and had to stop half way though the fourth because it was getting late and phone calls home still needed to be made. But either way, it was a lot of fun and a lot of weekend Euchre might be in order in the future.
Saturday was even more awesome—it was finally the day my Mac was coming to Gracias. Now, for those of you who didn’t know, I had brought my older brother’s mini-Dell down here because it would be less expensive to replace if something were to happen to it (compared to my Macbook). Well, after being down here for a couple of weeks, realizing how safe it is where I am at in the mountains and at school, and the pure frustration of once again being on a PC, I started looking for ways to get my Mac down here. Well, my mom knew a dentist, Dr. Wickstra, who was coming down to Gracias this weekend and was going to be here all week. Evidently he and a few other area doctors in West Michigan run a clinic in Gracias, which I had no idea about. Well, my plan was to walk down to Gracias early Saturday morning to not only get my Mac from Dr. Wickstra, who was staying at Hotel Guancascos, but to also run to the bank and do some other errands in town. So, Mr. Bran, Kirsty and myself started down a little after 9 am and made it to the school when we saw three gringos walking towards us. Well it happened to be Dr. Wickstra and two others who had driven up the mountain and wanted to check out the school and also see if they could track me down. Now, this was pretty funny already, walking down the mountain and running into the gentlemen who was nice enough to bring my Mac from the states and deliver it, but it was even funnier when I realized I knew the other two people he was with, Dr. Tom Arenshorst and Mrs. Robert Sterken (Dr. Sterken himself was on his way to San Perdo to pick up another bus load of volunteers), both who are members out at Wuskowhan where I worked for 8 summers through high school and college. Small world? I think so.
Well, the three of them had an SUV that they had driven up to the school and after giving them a quick tour of the school grounds they brought us down the mountain to their clinic and gave us a tour. It was unbelievable. Although the medical equipment they had was not top of the line in the United States, it was better then anything that could be found for miles around in Gracias. They were telling us about some of the work they do down here; from eye surgeries (cataracts) to dentistry work to hand surgeries, all types of things. And what is even more amazing is that they only charge 25 Lempiras for any of the surgeries. The exchange rate puts that at $1.32. It was just really cool to hear what they were doing and that they had been doing work like this in Gracias for over 15 years. One of the other doctors is even building a home across from the clinic so he can come down for a month at a time. It was awesome.
Even cooler is that they said if any of us wanted to come down and help out this week we could, they said they always need more translators and even though I am not to that point yet, several of the girls are and were interested in going down. The doctors and other volunteers also have a week of events planned, including a little get together on Tuesday night and a trip to the hot springs on Thursday. They invited all of us to go, so we are going to join them for those this week as well.
After the tour of the clinic they told me where I could find my laptop at Hotel Guancascos and we went on our way towards town. After running to the bank (and subsequently finding 500 Lemps tucked away in my backpack) we went to the hotel, grabbed my Mac, and went back up the mountain. When we got back we grabbed lunch and then a handful of us went down to Frony’s house (the Dutch woman who owns Guancascos, one of the girls houses, and who originally started the school I am teaching at), which is only a 5 minute walk, and went swimming in her pool for a little bit. Then later that night we all gathered in Mr. Bran’s room and watched a mediocre (and that might be generous) soccer match between the United States and Honduras that was taking place in California. Honduras won 3-1, and it was ugly.
Today I got up and went down to school for a couple of hours to finish some planning and decorating. I took some pictures of my classroom and will get them up soon. After this I went back home, grabbed lunch, and me and two of the girls walked down to the river, which is a short 5-minute hike from behind the girls house. I will eventually get some pictures up of this as well. It was a gorgeous afternoon so we all found our own rock and did our own thing, which for me was read. But I soon got bored and decided to do some rock hopping up stream, with a specific goal in mind: find a place where I can cool myself off. After about 7-8 minutes of going upstream I found a perfect place where there was a small waterfall in a shallow (ankle deep) part of the river. The water was moving fast so I figured it was a perfect place to cool off. Even though the water was cold I took my shoes and socks off, along with my t-shirt, and got myself wet. It felt awesome. I then made my way back down and just hung out until the sun disappeared behind the mountains and the bugs started to bite (even though it was only 4 in the afternoon). I then went back and took a nice hot shower.
To end my perfect weekend in Honduras I was able to watch the NFC Championship game on Fox Sports. How about them Saints?
Anyway, sorry for the long update, I probably should have broken that up into two different days. But oh well. Anyway, I am off to bed, it is my first day of teaching tomorrow! I am looking forward to it. I’ll update you all again soon!
Friday night was a lot of fun. A few nights before I had lost my first Euchre game in a very long time. Not only that, one of the opponents was a rookie. So, with that said, Rachel (my partner from that night we lost) and I demanded a rematch against Julia and Kirsty. The first game Rachel and I ran the score up to 9-0. Even though we lost 4 straight points we won 10-4. We then wonj the next game as well, and decided to do a best out of 5. Well we lost the third game and had to stop half way though the fourth because it was getting late and phone calls home still needed to be made. But either way, it was a lot of fun and a lot of weekend Euchre might be in order in the future.
Saturday was even more awesome—it was finally the day my Mac was coming to Gracias. Now, for those of you who didn’t know, I had brought my older brother’s mini-Dell down here because it would be less expensive to replace if something were to happen to it (compared to my Macbook). Well, after being down here for a couple of weeks, realizing how safe it is where I am at in the mountains and at school, and the pure frustration of once again being on a PC, I started looking for ways to get my Mac down here. Well, my mom knew a dentist, Dr. Wickstra, who was coming down to Gracias this weekend and was going to be here all week. Evidently he and a few other area doctors in West Michigan run a clinic in Gracias, which I had no idea about. Well, my plan was to walk down to Gracias early Saturday morning to not only get my Mac from Dr. Wickstra, who was staying at Hotel Guancascos, but to also run to the bank and do some other errands in town. So, Mr. Bran, Kirsty and myself started down a little after 9 am and made it to the school when we saw three gringos walking towards us. Well it happened to be Dr. Wickstra and two others who had driven up the mountain and wanted to check out the school and also see if they could track me down. Now, this was pretty funny already, walking down the mountain and running into the gentlemen who was nice enough to bring my Mac from the states and deliver it, but it was even funnier when I realized I knew the other two people he was with, Dr. Tom Arenshorst and Mrs. Robert Sterken (Dr. Sterken himself was on his way to San Perdo to pick up another bus load of volunteers), both who are members out at Wuskowhan where I worked for 8 summers through high school and college. Small world? I think so.
Well, the three of them had an SUV that they had driven up to the school and after giving them a quick tour of the school grounds they brought us down the mountain to their clinic and gave us a tour. It was unbelievable. Although the medical equipment they had was not top of the line in the United States, it was better then anything that could be found for miles around in Gracias. They were telling us about some of the work they do down here; from eye surgeries (cataracts) to dentistry work to hand surgeries, all types of things. And what is even more amazing is that they only charge 25 Lempiras for any of the surgeries. The exchange rate puts that at $1.32. It was just really cool to hear what they were doing and that they had been doing work like this in Gracias for over 15 years. One of the other doctors is even building a home across from the clinic so he can come down for a month at a time. It was awesome.
Even cooler is that they said if any of us wanted to come down and help out this week we could, they said they always need more translators and even though I am not to that point yet, several of the girls are and were interested in going down. The doctors and other volunteers also have a week of events planned, including a little get together on Tuesday night and a trip to the hot springs on Thursday. They invited all of us to go, so we are going to join them for those this week as well.
After the tour of the clinic they told me where I could find my laptop at Hotel Guancascos and we went on our way towards town. After running to the bank (and subsequently finding 500 Lemps tucked away in my backpack) we went to the hotel, grabbed my Mac, and went back up the mountain. When we got back we grabbed lunch and then a handful of us went down to Frony’s house (the Dutch woman who owns Guancascos, one of the girls houses, and who originally started the school I am teaching at), which is only a 5 minute walk, and went swimming in her pool for a little bit. Then later that night we all gathered in Mr. Bran’s room and watched a mediocre (and that might be generous) soccer match between the United States and Honduras that was taking place in California. Honduras won 3-1, and it was ugly.
Today I got up and went down to school for a couple of hours to finish some planning and decorating. I took some pictures of my classroom and will get them up soon. After this I went back home, grabbed lunch, and me and two of the girls walked down to the river, which is a short 5-minute hike from behind the girls house. I will eventually get some pictures up of this as well. It was a gorgeous afternoon so we all found our own rock and did our own thing, which for me was read. But I soon got bored and decided to do some rock hopping up stream, with a specific goal in mind: find a place where I can cool myself off. After about 7-8 minutes of going upstream I found a perfect place where there was a small waterfall in a shallow (ankle deep) part of the river. The water was moving fast so I figured it was a perfect place to cool off. Even though the water was cold I took my shoes and socks off, along with my t-shirt, and got myself wet. It felt awesome. I then made my way back down and just hung out until the sun disappeared behind the mountains and the bugs started to bite (even though it was only 4 in the afternoon). I then went back and took a nice hot shower.
To end my perfect weekend in Honduras I was able to watch the NFC Championship game on Fox Sports. How about them Saints?
Anyway, sorry for the long update, I probably should have broken that up into two different days. But oh well. Anyway, I am off to bed, it is my first day of teaching tomorrow! I am looking forward to it. I’ll update you all again soon!
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| Mi Clase |
Thursday, January 21, 2010
So I am feeling much better today. Still a little sick, but my head is clearing up and I can actually breathe with my mouth closed, which is always a good thing…
So, crazy and disgusting story. After dinner last night I took an hour and a half nap and then went up to the girls place to post yesterday’s blog entry and watch an episode of season 5 of Lost with a few of them. Afterwards, I walked back home and decided it was bed time (8:30, probably the earliest I’ve gone to bed in a really long time). I decided to take some Benadryl to help me sleep and breathe better. Well, I put the two pills in my mouth and reached for my bottle of water, and without really looking at it I unscrewed the cap and pounded some water to swallow the pills. As I swallowed the water I had one of the most bitter tasting gulps of water I have ever had, not to mention it wasn’t as, well, as smooth as a gulp of water should be. Yes, I had swallowed some sort of bug that had somehow made its way onto the brim of my water bottle at the exact same time I took a swig to swallow my pills. What are the chances? One explanation is that it was on the side of my water bottle when I grabbed it and it shuffled up to the brim as I took the cap off (I wasn’t really looking at the bottle as I prepared to drink). Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for both of us, when I took my swig of water. A second possibility is that it had somehow climbed into my water bottle at some point during the day when the cap was left off (which, I don’t know, I guess is possible but I usually only have the cap off when I take a drink), and I hadn’t noticed it. Either way, yuck.
The first thing that runs through my head as I have this nasty bitter taste in my mouth is “I hope that thing wasn’t poisonous.” I grab the water bottle and go outside and start drinking water and then spitting it out to get rid of the taste (making sure there isn’t another bug on it). It’s not helping, the taste is still there. I go grab my toothbrush and toothpaste and proceed to brush my teeth. That doesn’t help. In the meantime Mr. Bran and his girlfriend, another teacher named Laura Beth, come down from the girls place and ask me if I am alright. I tell them what I did and just saying that I had swallowed a bug was enough to make myself gag and throw up, right there in front of the two of them. Granted the after taste of throwing up wasn’t much better than the bitter taste of the bug, I was confident I threw up the bug (and most likely the Benadryl as well). At that point I felt so sick (plugged-up sick and stomach sick) I just crawled into bed.
What an awesome night huh?
So, crazy and disgusting story. After dinner last night I took an hour and a half nap and then went up to the girls place to post yesterday’s blog entry and watch an episode of season 5 of Lost with a few of them. Afterwards, I walked back home and decided it was bed time (8:30, probably the earliest I’ve gone to bed in a really long time). I decided to take some Benadryl to help me sleep and breathe better. Well, I put the two pills in my mouth and reached for my bottle of water, and without really looking at it I unscrewed the cap and pounded some water to swallow the pills. As I swallowed the water I had one of the most bitter tasting gulps of water I have ever had, not to mention it wasn’t as, well, as smooth as a gulp of water should be. Yes, I had swallowed some sort of bug that had somehow made its way onto the brim of my water bottle at the exact same time I took a swig to swallow my pills. What are the chances? One explanation is that it was on the side of my water bottle when I grabbed it and it shuffled up to the brim as I took the cap off (I wasn’t really looking at the bottle as I prepared to drink). Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for both of us, when I took my swig of water. A second possibility is that it had somehow climbed into my water bottle at some point during the day when the cap was left off (which, I don’t know, I guess is possible but I usually only have the cap off when I take a drink), and I hadn’t noticed it. Either way, yuck.
The first thing that runs through my head as I have this nasty bitter taste in my mouth is “I hope that thing wasn’t poisonous.” I grab the water bottle and go outside and start drinking water and then spitting it out to get rid of the taste (making sure there isn’t another bug on it). It’s not helping, the taste is still there. I go grab my toothbrush and toothpaste and proceed to brush my teeth. That doesn’t help. In the meantime Mr. Bran and his girlfriend, another teacher named Laura Beth, come down from the girls place and ask me if I am alright. I tell them what I did and just saying that I had swallowed a bug was enough to make myself gag and throw up, right there in front of the two of them. Granted the after taste of throwing up wasn’t much better than the bitter taste of the bug, I was confident I threw up the bug (and most likely the Benadryl as well). At that point I felt so sick (plugged-up sick and stomach sick) I just crawled into bed.
What an awesome night huh?
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I am sick, and it sucks. No idea how it happened—how do you get a stupid head cold at 4,000 feet in such a beautiful place as this? Two awful nights of sleep, eyes watering every 10 minutes, and blowing my nose every 20. Just awful. Hopefully I’ll start feeling better soon.
Other then the whole being sick part things have been going well. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but it has taken me some time to get used to the food down here. I am fortunate enough where I don’t have to cook—the woman whose house I am at makes my meals for me. However, this does mean I am getting beans and tortillas and some other things basically every day—even for breakfast. It is getting better though. I’ve been able to communicate to her things I like, and things I don’t, and it’s much better. We’ll just have to see how I feel about beans and tortillas after 6 months…
So I have sequenced all my classes and have begun to start lesson planning. I have all of next week prepared and I am ready to go Monday (hopefully I am feeling better by then). Since the students don’t have their own history books I have to be creative in how I am able to get the content to the students. With English being their second language lecturing is not going to work, so I have been busy making reading guides and terms and concepts sheets and anything I can think of that will not only help the students understand the content, but allow me to get through it quicker (since I have to do a chapter a week in both of my history classes—again, role eyes for having to strictly follow the book’s curriculum. What sucks about all of this is that I have to make these handouts. But there is only ONE printer for the entire school, and it is hooked up to Mrs. Lara’s computer in the office. So, every time I create one of my handouts I need to put in on my flash drive, walk over to the office, have Mrs. Lara load it on her computer, print it, and then fill out a copy form (teachers aren’t allowed to make their own copies, we must fill out a request form for each item we want copied). It it quite the task, and one I will be doing a lot. I am really tempted to look into getting a printer down here to cut out the whole going to Mrs. Lara process and going straight to the copy form. Probably going to be expensive though… I guess I should be fortunate to have the access to print documents that I create. I am in rural Honduras…
Along with writing up handouts I’ve been busy decorating my room. And by decorating my room I mean cutting out letters and putting a Bible verse on the back wall and hanging up different things I am required to hang up (weekly schedules, cursive charts (yes, all students must write in cursive, and teachers are supposed to as well. When was the last time I wrote in cursive? Your guess is as good as mine…), etc.). along with this we need to decorate our classroom door for the appropriate month. That means Valentine’s Day is on the docket and I have a nice red and white poster with hearts on it. I’ll get pictures up once it is all finished.
An interesting situation arose today which unfortunately allowed me to teach third grade. I say unfortunately because it was an unfortunate circumstance. One of the third grade boys father was murdered last night. Now, before you go “that Honduras country is dangerous” it is a rather popular belief that this boy’s father had a higher up position in the local and even national illegal drug trade. So, as sad as this is to hear, it wasn’t a “random” murder. Because of this situation the third grade teacher and two of the principals went to the father’s funeral and I was in charge of the 3rd graders for an hour and a half. I now know why I did secondary and not primary education. Yes, little kids that age are so adorable, but they are so needy as well. I feel like I am better off dealing with the middle school and high school neediness/whininess then the elementary age neediness/whininess. It was nice to be in the classroom though, and makes me even more so look forward to Monday when I get my own.
I have made the decisions where I am really going to limit the amount of internet usage I have each day. My reason behind this is that I have the rest of my life to use the internet, and I am only in Honduras for 6 months. This allowed me to only check my email yesterday on the itouch I have down here and that was it. Because of this I was able to play some crazy euchre with 3 of the girls last night, something that I am hoping will happen more often. For the record (Dad, Brooke, and Joel), I lost. That hadn’t happened in a long time.
Anyway, the school day is done and its Wednesday which means we are getting a ride into town to buy groceries and anything else we may need. Because of my limiting my internet access I haven’t gotten a chance to look into the comment problem yet. Although Steve, my brother-in-law sent me a document of how to check and see if the settings are right. I just haven’t gotten a chance to do it yet. Maybe tonight.
Adios!
Other then the whole being sick part things have been going well. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but it has taken me some time to get used to the food down here. I am fortunate enough where I don’t have to cook—the woman whose house I am at makes my meals for me. However, this does mean I am getting beans and tortillas and some other things basically every day—even for breakfast. It is getting better though. I’ve been able to communicate to her things I like, and things I don’t, and it’s much better. We’ll just have to see how I feel about beans and tortillas after 6 months…
So I have sequenced all my classes and have begun to start lesson planning. I have all of next week prepared and I am ready to go Monday (hopefully I am feeling better by then). Since the students don’t have their own history books I have to be creative in how I am able to get the content to the students. With English being their second language lecturing is not going to work, so I have been busy making reading guides and terms and concepts sheets and anything I can think of that will not only help the students understand the content, but allow me to get through it quicker (since I have to do a chapter a week in both of my history classes—again, role eyes for having to strictly follow the book’s curriculum. What sucks about all of this is that I have to make these handouts. But there is only ONE printer for the entire school, and it is hooked up to Mrs. Lara’s computer in the office. So, every time I create one of my handouts I need to put in on my flash drive, walk over to the office, have Mrs. Lara load it on her computer, print it, and then fill out a copy form (teachers aren’t allowed to make their own copies, we must fill out a request form for each item we want copied). It it quite the task, and one I will be doing a lot. I am really tempted to look into getting a printer down here to cut out the whole going to Mrs. Lara process and going straight to the copy form. Probably going to be expensive though… I guess I should be fortunate to have the access to print documents that I create. I am in rural Honduras…
Along with writing up handouts I’ve been busy decorating my room. And by decorating my room I mean cutting out letters and putting a Bible verse on the back wall and hanging up different things I am required to hang up (weekly schedules, cursive charts (yes, all students must write in cursive, and teachers are supposed to as well. When was the last time I wrote in cursive? Your guess is as good as mine…), etc.). along with this we need to decorate our classroom door for the appropriate month. That means Valentine’s Day is on the docket and I have a nice red and white poster with hearts on it. I’ll get pictures up once it is all finished.
An interesting situation arose today which unfortunately allowed me to teach third grade. I say unfortunately because it was an unfortunate circumstance. One of the third grade boys father was murdered last night. Now, before you go “that Honduras country is dangerous” it is a rather popular belief that this boy’s father had a higher up position in the local and even national illegal drug trade. So, as sad as this is to hear, it wasn’t a “random” murder. Because of this situation the third grade teacher and two of the principals went to the father’s funeral and I was in charge of the 3rd graders for an hour and a half. I now know why I did secondary and not primary education. Yes, little kids that age are so adorable, but they are so needy as well. I feel like I am better off dealing with the middle school and high school neediness/whininess then the elementary age neediness/whininess. It was nice to be in the classroom though, and makes me even more so look forward to Monday when I get my own.
I have made the decisions where I am really going to limit the amount of internet usage I have each day. My reason behind this is that I have the rest of my life to use the internet, and I am only in Honduras for 6 months. This allowed me to only check my email yesterday on the itouch I have down here and that was it. Because of this I was able to play some crazy euchre with 3 of the girls last night, something that I am hoping will happen more often. For the record (Dad, Brooke, and Joel), I lost. That hadn’t happened in a long time.
Anyway, the school day is done and its Wednesday which means we are getting a ride into town to buy groceries and anything else we may need. Because of my limiting my internet access I haven’t gotten a chance to look into the comment problem yet. Although Steve, my brother-in-law sent me a document of how to check and see if the settings are right. I just haven’t gotten a chance to do it yet. Maybe tonight.
Adios!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
I just got my butt kicked. I was sitting there watching the Vikings rock the Cowboys (yes, satellite television in my bedroom—awesome) and I decided it was time for me to get my rear in gear and go for a run. I put on my new running shoes, grabbed my shuffle, stretched out, and shot up the mountain and into the National Park. Less than a quarter mile later I was bent over, breathing extremely hard but had barely broken a sweat. You have to love running a mile above sea level.
Speaking of getting my butt kicked, I told you I was going to be playing soccer with the other staff and students after school Thursday. Well, I did, and it wasn’t necessarily that I couldn’t play with them, but that my out of shapeness paired with the elevation rocked me. It was a lot of fun and a good way to meet some of my students, but like running up that mountain today, I was out of breath quickly.
Anyway, so again, it’s been a few days and I have a decent amount of things to talk about. The most entertaining however happened at school on Friday. So I was observing the 7th grade math teacher and was standing by the classroom door when one of the principals walked into the doorway and said something in Spanish and shut the door. She then pointed to the courtyard of the school and I thought I was experiencing an Old Testament plague—a swarm and I mean a swarm, of the nastiest looking black wasps was flooding into the courtyard. I turned around and on the other side of the classroom are glass windows. Luckily they were glass because wasps were running into it by the dozens. The wasps stayed in the courtyard and didn’t go into any of the classrooms, but they caused quite a ruckus with the kids. It was incredible. The builders, cleaning ladies, and other workers were ducking for cover as the wasps hung around for about 15 minutes. We still haven’t figured out where they came from.
Friday, as mentioned, I finally got to take a break of sequencing and planning and observed the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade classes. It was a lot of fun but also solidified the fact that teaching is going to be extremely challenging. The kids are very impressive with their English, however it is very hard to understand them at times, and it will be difficult when teaching English because I do not yet have the ability to clarify a point in Spanish. But either way, I am eager to get into the classroom and teach—I start a week from tomorrow!
Yesterday (Saturday) was a lot of fun. A few of the other teachers and I walked the almost 4.5 mile trek down the mountain into Gracias to grab some lunch and do something shopping. I had a hodgepodge of things to get, and so did the girls. We first ate lunch and I had some of the best tacos I have ever had in my life. We then went to the supermarket and the actual market to pick some things up. (I only took two pictures, so pictures of town and the market will have to wait—we go down again on Wednesday) We then stopped at what the girls call the “jar place.” It’s this store owned by a woman who sells all types of things in jars—the entire store is filled from top to bottom with stuff in clear jars. She also makes her own popsicles, which is why we stopped there. Probably one of the best strawberry popsicles I’ve ever had. We then took a taxi back up the mountain because it was really warm and we didn’t feel like walking. We got back and just hung out the rest of the day.
Today was nice and relaxing. I woke up at 10 and got right to work on planning out 9th grade World Geography. This wasn’t that difficult because there is not nearly as much content to cover in this class as there is in the 7th and 8th grade history classes. After finishing this I remembered the NFL playoffs were on and being an American I have to watch the playoffs—especially when it’s “America’s Team” the Dallas Cowboys. Granted I was rooting against them, I watched the game and then went for my run as described above. After that I watched the Everton v. Manchester City soccer match with Kirsty (who is a huge soccer fan, she was born in England). After the match all of the teachers met at the girls’ place where Jackie had made an enormous pot of chili and we all feasted for dinner. It was wonderful.
So, it was a pretty relaxing weekend and I am ready for my first full week of school. I do not start teaching until next Monday, so I will again mostly be observing classes and planning all week. Anyway, I’ll get another update posted in the next few days.
NOTE: it is my understanding that the comment option is not working. I accessed the site from one of the other teacher’s computers and saw it for myself (because the comment option works fine for me). So, I will have to look more into that because I love reading comments. I’ll keep you posted on this in the next couple of days. Since the comment section isn’t working feel free to email me any questions or comments. My email address is tad.vandenbrink@gmail.com.
Adios!
Speaking of getting my butt kicked, I told you I was going to be playing soccer with the other staff and students after school Thursday. Well, I did, and it wasn’t necessarily that I couldn’t play with them, but that my out of shapeness paired with the elevation rocked me. It was a lot of fun and a good way to meet some of my students, but like running up that mountain today, I was out of breath quickly.
Anyway, so again, it’s been a few days and I have a decent amount of things to talk about. The most entertaining however happened at school on Friday. So I was observing the 7th grade math teacher and was standing by the classroom door when one of the principals walked into the doorway and said something in Spanish and shut the door. She then pointed to the courtyard of the school and I thought I was experiencing an Old Testament plague—a swarm and I mean a swarm, of the nastiest looking black wasps was flooding into the courtyard. I turned around and on the other side of the classroom are glass windows. Luckily they were glass because wasps were running into it by the dozens. The wasps stayed in the courtyard and didn’t go into any of the classrooms, but they caused quite a ruckus with the kids. It was incredible. The builders, cleaning ladies, and other workers were ducking for cover as the wasps hung around for about 15 minutes. We still haven’t figured out where they came from.
Friday, as mentioned, I finally got to take a break of sequencing and planning and observed the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade classes. It was a lot of fun but also solidified the fact that teaching is going to be extremely challenging. The kids are very impressive with their English, however it is very hard to understand them at times, and it will be difficult when teaching English because I do not yet have the ability to clarify a point in Spanish. But either way, I am eager to get into the classroom and teach—I start a week from tomorrow!
Yesterday (Saturday) was a lot of fun. A few of the other teachers and I walked the almost 4.5 mile trek down the mountain into Gracias to grab some lunch and do something shopping. I had a hodgepodge of things to get, and so did the girls. We first ate lunch and I had some of the best tacos I have ever had in my life. We then went to the supermarket and the actual market to pick some things up. (I only took two pictures, so pictures of town and the market will have to wait—we go down again on Wednesday) We then stopped at what the girls call the “jar place.” It’s this store owned by a woman who sells all types of things in jars—the entire store is filled from top to bottom with stuff in clear jars. She also makes her own popsicles, which is why we stopped there. Probably one of the best strawberry popsicles I’ve ever had. We then took a taxi back up the mountain because it was really warm and we didn’t feel like walking. We got back and just hung out the rest of the day.
Today was nice and relaxing. I woke up at 10 and got right to work on planning out 9th grade World Geography. This wasn’t that difficult because there is not nearly as much content to cover in this class as there is in the 7th and 8th grade history classes. After finishing this I remembered the NFL playoffs were on and being an American I have to watch the playoffs—especially when it’s “America’s Team” the Dallas Cowboys. Granted I was rooting against them, I watched the game and then went for my run as described above. After that I watched the Everton v. Manchester City soccer match with Kirsty (who is a huge soccer fan, she was born in England). After the match all of the teachers met at the girls’ place where Jackie had made an enormous pot of chili and we all feasted for dinner. It was wonderful.
So, it was a pretty relaxing weekend and I am ready for my first full week of school. I do not start teaching until next Monday, so I will again mostly be observing classes and planning all week. Anyway, I’ll get another update posted in the next few days.
NOTE: it is my understanding that the comment option is not working. I accessed the site from one of the other teacher’s computers and saw it for myself (because the comment option works fine for me). So, I will have to look more into that because I love reading comments. I’ll keep you posted on this in the next couple of days. Since the comment section isn’t working feel free to email me any questions or comments. My email address is tad.vandenbrink@gmail.com.
Adios!
 |
| La Escuela |
Thursday, January 14, 2010
So, sorry it’s been a few days since my last entry—I have been pretty busy getting situated at school. Today was my second day there and I am really looking forward to getting my class. First, because my specialty is in history and social studies, the administration has decided to give me the 7th grade World history class, the 8th grade United States history class, as well as the 9th grade Geography class. However, I won’t be starting until the 25th because that is the first day of the third marking period. This was fantastic news for me because coming down here I was planning on teaching middle school math and science. Yikes. Along with these three classes I will also be helping out with the ESL class. The students I will have in this class are students who will be starting at the school next year, so it is really their first English language course. I will not be the lead teacher (thank goodness), but will only be helping with parts of the class, mostly likely phonics. This is going to give me valuable experience working with English language learners but will hopefully also help me pick up more Spanish. So, it looks like I am going to have at least 4 classes, but possibly more because there may be more than one ESL class. I am just really excited about teaching my content area, even though I have to follow a strict laid out curriculum using the textbook (SoE instructors and cohort friends, roll your eyes here).
So the last two days at school I have been planning like a mad teacher. The principal, Mr. Lara, wants me to outline the rest of the school year with the content—basically showing the sequence of what I will be teaching. I need to do this for both of the history classes and the geography class. Along with this, the teacher who has been teaching the history class has fallen behind, and if I am to get through all of the content I need to teach a chapter a week for all three class. This is going to be an adventure and a challenge. However, at least I know the content. This is going to be so much better then teaching subjects I really haven’t had since high school (math and science).
The weather has also finally gotten nice—it was gorgeous today. It was probably about 68 and sunny, with only a few clouds. The mountains also lost much of their clouds (the national park I am near is the largest cloud forest in Honduras, so daily there are huge sections of the mountains hidden by clouds) and were clear. You can see them in the pictures I uploaded, although, those pictures do not serve the beauty of the mountains justice.
So, I am writing this near the end of the school day in Word because I have “sequenced” both World history and U.S. history in a calendar format and I am all “planned” out. I am excited because I am playing soccer with the other male teachers and administrators after school. We are taking on the students and I am looking forward to getting worked over. Not only because I am the white teacher (Mr. Rodrigo has been calling me Landon Donovan since I told him I play soccer) but because I am also greatly out of shape. I’ll let you all know how it goes in my next entry.
Yesterday after school, as we will every Wednesday after school, Mr. Rodrigo took all of the teachers down to town to do our grocery shopping. I finally was able to go into the market place and it was crazy. It is not an open market place like you may think, it was actually in a large building and was very maze like with stands all over the place. I laughed several times while walking about because everything is a mix of anything and everything imaginable including several American things such as Winnie the Pooh sweatshirts and hats. Funny story, earlier this week when I was at the bank setting up my account with Mr. Rodrigo one of the armed policemen who guard the doors to the bank (yeah, armed to the teeth, shotgun and side arm, some at other banks even have rifles) was wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt… awesome.
I am also picking up a little more Spanish each day. I feel so weird because I just sit there and listen to my host family speak Spanish at night, but the more I listen the more I can pick up, and I hope that this will benefit me in the long run. I need to start practicing more too. I think it will come the longer I am here though, so I am not worried.
Anyway, sorry for the book, I just thought I would give all of you a nice update on what is going on. Feel free to comment!
So the last two days at school I have been planning like a mad teacher. The principal, Mr. Lara, wants me to outline the rest of the school year with the content—basically showing the sequence of what I will be teaching. I need to do this for both of the history classes and the geography class. Along with this, the teacher who has been teaching the history class has fallen behind, and if I am to get through all of the content I need to teach a chapter a week for all three class. This is going to be an adventure and a challenge. However, at least I know the content. This is going to be so much better then teaching subjects I really haven’t had since high school (math and science).
The weather has also finally gotten nice—it was gorgeous today. It was probably about 68 and sunny, with only a few clouds. The mountains also lost much of their clouds (the national park I am near is the largest cloud forest in Honduras, so daily there are huge sections of the mountains hidden by clouds) and were clear. You can see them in the pictures I uploaded, although, those pictures do not serve the beauty of the mountains justice.
So, I am writing this near the end of the school day in Word because I have “sequenced” both World history and U.S. history in a calendar format and I am all “planned” out. I am excited because I am playing soccer with the other male teachers and administrators after school. We are taking on the students and I am looking forward to getting worked over. Not only because I am the white teacher (Mr. Rodrigo has been calling me Landon Donovan since I told him I play soccer) but because I am also greatly out of shape. I’ll let you all know how it goes in my next entry.
Yesterday after school, as we will every Wednesday after school, Mr. Rodrigo took all of the teachers down to town to do our grocery shopping. I finally was able to go into the market place and it was crazy. It is not an open market place like you may think, it was actually in a large building and was very maze like with stands all over the place. I laughed several times while walking about because everything is a mix of anything and everything imaginable including several American things such as Winnie the Pooh sweatshirts and hats. Funny story, earlier this week when I was at the bank setting up my account with Mr. Rodrigo one of the armed policemen who guard the doors to the bank (yeah, armed to the teeth, shotgun and side arm, some at other banks even have rifles) was wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt… awesome.
I am also picking up a little more Spanish each day. I feel so weird because I just sit there and listen to my host family speak Spanish at night, but the more I listen the more I can pick up, and I hope that this will benefit me in the long run. I need to start practicing more too. I think it will come the longer I am here though, so I am not worried.
Anyway, sorry for the book, I just thought I would give all of you a nice update on what is going on. Feel free to comment!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Hola!
So a lot happened today and I will try and describe it all.
First ,after a well needed good night sleep, Rodrigo picked me up this morning, and he was early. In fact I was still sitting up in the restaurant when he pulled up below and had to hammer my black tea and run down to meet him. He took me to the bank to change currency as well as to the Tigo, the cell phone store to get a phone. I officially have a Honduras phone number, which is 8 digits long, 11 if you count the area code. This was a lot of fun. Rodrigo knows only a little English and I know only a little Spanish, so it was quite the adventure. I did talk to a man while in line at the bank who had lived cumulatively 9 years in the US and knew really good English, so that was fun.
After running those errands Rodrigo had to get back to the school so he dropped me off at the hotel. Soon after Mr. Mira called me and said he had a place for me to look at up near the school. It is actually the same place where Mr. Bran, the other teacher who picked me up at the airport yesterday, lives. So I had my first Honduras taxi car ride (picture eventually of the small cars) and took the 15 minute drive up the mountain to Abundant Life Christian School. It is awesome. I will post pictures eventually but it is right on the side of the mountain with a beautiful courtyard with the class rooms, cafeteria, and multipurpose court (futbol and basketball). I also met the rest of the administrators as well as the rest of the teachers.
After taking a tour of the school we hopped in a truck and drove about 5 minutes further up the mountain to the house I was going to look at. It is in the same 100 yard stretch of where the rest of the teachers live. It was a nice home, for Honduran standards, and decided it would work very well. I will have my own room with a full size bed, a closet (portable) a small desk as well as a small tv. The owners of the house already have dish television and it is only going to cost me 150 lempiras a month to get my own box, which is only about $8. Along with my room there is a bathroom, with hot water. The owner of the home will also make breakfast and dinner for me during the week (I eat lunch at the school) and will make all three meals for me on Saturdays and Sundays. All of this for the modest price of 3,600 lempiras, or about $190. So, to that ,I say "score." I guess if I were to have my own apartment in Gracias, which also means I would need to get up to the school everyday, I would be paying around just 3,000 lempiras for the room, and would have to get my own furniture as well as make myself food. So again, I say "score."
On top of these pretty awesome living conditions, the other teachers, who yes, are all girls, live right across the street and up the street. Well today, in fact while I was up there, they had satellite internet installed with two wireless routers, so I will have internet at home now as well. So again, a third "score."
After touring my new room and meeting the girls Mr. Lara drove all of us down to Gracias where we all grabbed some dinner. I am still not sure how to spell what I had, but it was Honduran. It was basically a tortilla with a white type of butter, eggs, avocado and some meat (chicken?) in it. The girls told me I had to try it and it was really good, especially with some hot sauce and some extremely good homemade lemonade.
After dinner the girls went back up the mountain and I came back to the hotel. So, I would say today was a success.
Tomorrow I need to go back down to the bank and open an account. I couldn't do this today because they needed a copy of my passport (which I took care of at the school) as well as a letter of my employment, which I also got at the school. So, tomorrow Rodrigo is picking me up again at 10 am and we are going down there to take care of that. After running to the bank he is bringing me back to the hotel where I will grab all my stuff and we will then head up to my new home. Pictures will be coming. I am working on getting some up of the hotel as well as an overview shot from my hotel of Gracias.
Anyway, with me having internet at my new home I will hopefully be able to blog regularly as well as stay in touch with most of you. Feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment below!
So until next time, take care!
So a lot happened today and I will try and describe it all.
First ,after a well needed good night sleep, Rodrigo picked me up this morning, and he was early. In fact I was still sitting up in the restaurant when he pulled up below and had to hammer my black tea and run down to meet him. He took me to the bank to change currency as well as to the Tigo, the cell phone store to get a phone. I officially have a Honduras phone number, which is 8 digits long, 11 if you count the area code. This was a lot of fun. Rodrigo knows only a little English and I know only a little Spanish, so it was quite the adventure. I did talk to a man while in line at the bank who had lived cumulatively 9 years in the US and knew really good English, so that was fun.
After running those errands Rodrigo had to get back to the school so he dropped me off at the hotel. Soon after Mr. Mira called me and said he had a place for me to look at up near the school. It is actually the same place where Mr. Bran, the other teacher who picked me up at the airport yesterday, lives. So I had my first Honduras taxi car ride (picture eventually of the small cars) and took the 15 minute drive up the mountain to Abundant Life Christian School. It is awesome. I will post pictures eventually but it is right on the side of the mountain with a beautiful courtyard with the class rooms, cafeteria, and multipurpose court (futbol and basketball). I also met the rest of the administrators as well as the rest of the teachers.
After taking a tour of the school we hopped in a truck and drove about 5 minutes further up the mountain to the house I was going to look at. It is in the same 100 yard stretch of where the rest of the teachers live. It was a nice home, for Honduran standards, and decided it would work very well. I will have my own room with a full size bed, a closet (portable) a small desk as well as a small tv. The owners of the house already have dish television and it is only going to cost me 150 lempiras a month to get my own box, which is only about $8. Along with my room there is a bathroom, with hot water. The owner of the home will also make breakfast and dinner for me during the week (I eat lunch at the school) and will make all three meals for me on Saturdays and Sundays. All of this for the modest price of 3,600 lempiras, or about $190. So, to that ,I say "score." I guess if I were to have my own apartment in Gracias, which also means I would need to get up to the school everyday, I would be paying around just 3,000 lempiras for the room, and would have to get my own furniture as well as make myself food. So again, I say "score."
On top of these pretty awesome living conditions, the other teachers, who yes, are all girls, live right across the street and up the street. Well today, in fact while I was up there, they had satellite internet installed with two wireless routers, so I will have internet at home now as well. So again, a third "score."
After touring my new room and meeting the girls Mr. Lara drove all of us down to Gracias where we all grabbed some dinner. I am still not sure how to spell what I had, but it was Honduran. It was basically a tortilla with a white type of butter, eggs, avocado and some meat (chicken?) in it. The girls told me I had to try it and it was really good, especially with some hot sauce and some extremely good homemade lemonade.
After dinner the girls went back up the mountain and I came back to the hotel. So, I would say today was a success.
Tomorrow I need to go back down to the bank and open an account. I couldn't do this today because they needed a copy of my passport (which I took care of at the school) as well as a letter of my employment, which I also got at the school. So, tomorrow Rodrigo is picking me up again at 10 am and we are going down there to take care of that. After running to the bank he is bringing me back to the hotel where I will grab all my stuff and we will then head up to my new home. Pictures will be coming. I am working on getting some up of the hotel as well as an overview shot from my hotel of Gracias.
Anyway, with me having internet at my new home I will hopefully be able to blog regularly as well as stay in touch with most of you. Feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment below!
So until next time, take care!
 |
| New Home...Gracias, Honduras |
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Hola!
After 14 hours of sitting in airports, planes, and cars I am finally in Gracias, Honduras. Other then it being 3 degrees in Detroit this morning and water pipes on the plane being frozen and an hour delay (we actually flew with no water because they could not get them defrosted--I chose not to use the bathroom on that flight...) there were no other hicccups. It was almost a three and a half hour drive from San Pedro (where I flew in) to Gracias. It was a gorgeous drive through the mountains, although it was cloudy and rainy so pictures would have not done it justice. I will get pictures up as soon as I can.
Anyway, I am here safely and had a short meeting with the principal of the school I will be working at--Mr. Lara. I will be staying at a hotel until they can find housing for me, either my own apartment or a family that is willing to host me. I am going to be running around tomorrow doing errands with Rodrigo, one of the guys who picked me up at the airport. This includes exchanging currency, setting up a bank account and getting a cell phone set up. I then have the rest of Monday and Tuesday to explore Gracias. Wednesday will be my first day up at the school, which is a 15 minute drive outside of Gracias.
But I just ordered my first meal here in Honduras--chicken, rice, and veggies. I am looking forward to it.
I'll hopefully get another update tomorrow with more details after I explore Gracais!
After 14 hours of sitting in airports, planes, and cars I am finally in Gracias, Honduras. Other then it being 3 degrees in Detroit this morning and water pipes on the plane being frozen and an hour delay (we actually flew with no water because they could not get them defrosted--I chose not to use the bathroom on that flight...) there were no other hicccups. It was almost a three and a half hour drive from San Pedro (where I flew in) to Gracias. It was a gorgeous drive through the mountains, although it was cloudy and rainy so pictures would have not done it justice. I will get pictures up as soon as I can.
Anyway, I am here safely and had a short meeting with the principal of the school I will be working at--Mr. Lara. I will be staying at a hotel until they can find housing for me, either my own apartment or a family that is willing to host me. I am going to be running around tomorrow doing errands with Rodrigo, one of the guys who picked me up at the airport. This includes exchanging currency, setting up a bank account and getting a cell phone set up. I then have the rest of Monday and Tuesday to explore Gracias. Wednesday will be my first day up at the school, which is a 15 minute drive outside of Gracias.
But I just ordered my first meal here in Honduras--chicken, rice, and veggies. I am looking forward to it.
I'll hopefully get another update tomorrow with more details after I explore Gracais!
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| Hotel Guancascos, Gracias, Honduras |
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