February 1, 2010

Again, it’s been a while since I last posted, and I apologize. I’ll try and give as good of update as I can.

My first full week of teaching went really well. Of course that doesn’t mean it was easy, because it was far from that. But it went well and the kids seem anxious to learn both content and English. I am still waiting on some curriculum for my ESL class. I talked to the principals again today and they said phonics books are on their way and that I should teach vocabulary that will help the students in all of their classes next year. This means I will be teaching math, science, and history vocabulary. So, it looks like I will not have structured curriculum in my vocabulary class, but will have some direction with a phonics book. Other than this the rest of the school week was pretty uneventful. It feels great to be in the classroom again teaching.

As mentioned last week I went to the town of Santa Rosa this weekend with Mr. Bran, Laura Beth, Kirsty and Rachel. We took taxis from our mountain homes into Gracias where we grabbed a quick coffee and went to the bank. We then made our way to the bus stop and found a bus that was leaving immediately for Santa Rosa. Now, the girls were telling me that these bus rides can be quite interesting. You have several different possibilities for the bus, ranging from a 30-year-old school bus to a newer greyhound type bus. Either way, you can be surrounded by some interesting characters and be packed in like sardines. Well, the bus that we caught was fortunately of the newer greyhound variety but when we got on there were no available seats so we had to stand in the back the entire one-hour trip. Now, imagine standing on a bus that is packed full of people going up and down mountains and zigzagging through the mountains for one hour. Seem difficult? Think you might get sick? Well at one point I did begin to feel a little nauseated and so did one of the other teachers. Fortunately no breakfast was lost and after an hour ride through the mountains we made it to Santa Rosa.

When we arrived in Santa Rosa the first thing the girls wanted to do was to go to this coffee shop called “Café Americano.” This is about the closest to Starbucks you’ll get in the area. They had lattes, and mochas, and even some pastries. While we were there we ran into another Gringo who is in the Peace Corps and from New Jersey, or for him, it was simply “Jersey.” We actually saw him the next morning at breakfast as well, he stayed at the same hotel we did. Anyway, after getting some pseudo-Starbucks coffee we hopped in a taxi and made our way towards town. The bus stop was on the main highway outside of town—Santa Rosa itself is on top of a mountain about 5 minutes from where we were at.

The taxi took us right into town. We first started a quest for a hotel. Rachel has a Central American guide book and we were trying to find the hotels listed in the book, but were rather unsuccessful We eventually stumbled across Hotel San Jorge and we got a pretty good deal two rooms for 1400 Lemps (about $74). Each room had three beds and a nice shower (with hot water) and we got a free breakfast. Once we found a hotel we headed into town and walked around the main city park which is located right in the center of town. There was a gorgeous catholic church across the street from the park and we checked that out as well as a cool Gazebo, which was located in the center of the park. Eventually we got hungry and found a hole in the wall place and got some papusas. Papusas are basically two tortillas that are put together with beans, avocado and mantiquila (a butter type substance) put in the middle. They are delicious, especially with a little hot sauce. After lunch we found another whole in the wall place that sold fruit dipped in chocolate. So for dessert I had some strawberries dipped in Chocolate with peanuts. We then went back to the hotel, took a nap, and then went out for dinner. In Rachel’s guidebook there is a listing for a pizza place owned by a Honduran-American. We went their for dinner and the pizza tasted wonderful. We then walked around town for a bit and made our way to an Italian restaurant where we all had an after dinner drink (some incredible sangria) and eventually made our way back to the hotel where we all hung out for the night.

The next morning we grabbed breakfast at the hotel (I had pancakes, which again, were very good) and we then made our way to the bus stop via taxi, grabbed some coffee and Café Americano and hopped on a smaller bus which was pretty empty. We got back to Gracias early afternoon and after having some difficulty finding a taxi made it home.

It was a fun weekend and it felt good to get out and see more of Honduras. I myself did not take very many pictures but the girls took a few. I will try and get them from the girls and post them.