4th graders are cheaters

For starters, here are some long over due pictures of the first day of school in the new building of my fellow teachers and myself..

Other news:

We had a spelling bee on Friday between 4th,5th, and 6th grade. The winner will be going to a Honduran wide spelling be in March. Each class had 3 representatives to compete. When you think "spelling bee" you probably have a pretty normal mental image going on... auditorium, chairs lined up, nice and quiet audience, a microphone for the speller... well thats not how we roll in Honduras. We held it in the only place we could..outside. It was a pretty hilarious set up, but was pretty successful for the most part. A 6th grade student won. My students accused Ms. Colleen (who was in charge) of being a cheater. They accused her of using easier words for her 4th graders. hahaha. They pretty much hated her guts on Friday like she had killed their dog or something. And it wasn't even my students who were in the spelling bee that were fired up... just other kids representing 5th grade with guns a blazin. One kid started slamming books down and another student looked like she might cry. So of course we had an impromptu lesson on how sometimes life isn't fair and we just have to deal. Who knew the world could end over a spelling bee. They of course got over it 10 minutes later with their one track minds. Here are some pictures of the spelling bee...

The contestants lined up, looking nervous. Mine are the 3 middle ones.

The crowd. 4th is in the front and my kids are in the 2nd and 3rd rows. Yes the big boy standing with the "you rock" sign is definitely my kid.

update: Frankie is a goner... at least I hope so. My stomach is back to 100%. So until next time Frankie..

nothin but a champ.

I have now experienced my first doctors visit in Gracias. Needless to say it was a very interesting experience. So my stomach starting hurting Sunday afternoon. Every time I would eat something I would have this excruciating pain in my stomach and it would last for hours. So eventually I just stopped eating on Monday because I'd rather be hungry then having a knot in my stomach. So this morning I went to the clinic. Another teacher, Ryan, joined me to translate. So I had to awkwardly lay on a doctors bed where the doctor, my student Jonathan's dad, dug his fingers around in my stomach with my shirt pulled up while Ryan stood next to him translating… 2 dudes just staring at my stomach. He wanted me to tell him when it hurt, but I'm pretty sure it would have hurt any healthy person because his fingers were all up in my organ's business. So 5 minutes after digging around and head nodding, he decided that my colon was swollen and that I had a parasite and started writing me a prescription. So I'm thinking "Awesome, the girls made their clinic visits seem so awful and I'm getting off easy!" So he hands me the prescription then starts saying something in spanish and I hear the word 'but' in there and Ryan delivers the bad news to me… "He still needs you to poop in a cup to make sure you don't have bacteria in your colon". I wanted to cry. So we have to go to laboratory to get the smallest cup ever and a wad of toilet paper. The bathroom is all the way across the campus where about 20 Hondurans are waiting for the doctor. Of course everyone is staring at me which is a normal every day thing since we are gringos. So I go into the smallest/dirtiest bathroom ever. I decided that I'm not going to leave the bathroom until I get something in that dang cup. About 10 minutes later I leave the bathroom feeling like a champion. I wont get too graphic on you but lets just say this was a very difficult task. I wrapped some toilet paper around the cup so the nosy Hondurans couldn't get a peek. I wasn't even embarrassed walking back thru the crowd of people holding my poo in a cup because I was just so proud of myself… 30 minutes later.. it is a parasite and no bacteria was involved. I named my parasite Frankie and started on my meds right away. I'm sure this is the first of many Frankies that will come into my life and I now feel like a true Honduran.

good times

I really like Honduras. I feel like I'm always talking negative about it, so I thought I'd tell ya about some perks about the "most dangerous country in the world" according to the United Nations…

- I love my students. They are really great kids and most of them love to learn. They pretty much soak up everything I tell them. Of course I have my fair share of jokester/hooligans in the class, but overall they are all really sweet kids. They definitely make my time here worth while.

-I love being able to buy 10 bananas for .50 cents (US money)… what a steal. Most everything here is very, very cheap compared to the US. They have a lot of imported stuff which costs about the same as home, but you can find mostly everything in a off brands that are cheap. So when I go grocery shopping my total is usually around 15 buckaroos.

-I get to skip winter.

- I am forced to eat a lot of fruits and veggies which is always a bonus. When there is a fruit/veggie stand that is a 3 minute walk from your house, you tend to buy a lot of fresh produce.

- I love waking up 30 minutes before school starts. Our new walk to school is only 3 minutes. Can't beat that! And with the limited wardrobe and the ponytail every day going for me… it's quite nice getting ready here and not worrying about looking cute because I'll be sweating the moment I leave the house anyway so I don't even have to worry about it.

- It's always nice to have the excuse "no hablo espanol" in every situation. I hate small talk and here I can avoid it due to the language barrier. love it.

- It's nice to live simply. Living with only the necessities is nice for a change. It's nice to not have to worry about having material things because we just don't have them here. It's humbling to know that I can live like this and be content.

-My fellow American pals are great. We have a lot fun going on weekend adventures, watching movies, cooking dinners, working out, and sitting around looking at each other. Since we don't have a tv or couch, we watch movies on our computers while laying on our mattresses that we pull out into the living room. And on the weekends, we tend to sleep like this sometimes too. Hello 3rd grade slumber parties flashback!

-The scenery is awesome. Our town is surrounded by mountains and there are beautiful views in every direction. We hang out at a hotel/restaurant all the time for their fast internet and it has the best view overlooking Gracias. I never get tired of the view.

That's all I got for now.

Oh and I think I have a parasite because my stomach hurts every time I eat which apparently is a symptom... going to the doctor tomorrow. woof.

feliz dia del amor y amistad!

So we had us a little valentines party at the end of the day. We did a valentines card exchange, ate popcorn and icing cookies, decorated cards, made bracelets and made some silly headbands. We also jammed out to Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. All in all, we destroyed our classroom but it was worth it. I also introduced the 'photobooth' to the kids...they loved it. Here are some photos from our fun party..

Happy Valentines Day from Honduras!!

picture time.

Here are some pictures of my classroom in the new school... please excuse the fact that the cinder block walls make it look like a prison. I've done what I can with my limited resources. I'm just glad to be in the new school. Now every morning when I enter the class, I don't have to hesitate before walking in wondering if there is going to be a cat jumping out of the box from the corner or a frog under my desk... good times.

front wall.

back wall. The kids collect dinosaur bones in their pouches on the poster when they read a book and turn the bones in for prizes. And the word wall for writing.

my desk corner. with all my junk.

our art gallery. The kids LOVE art.

our door.

is this real life?!

I find myself asking the question "is this real life?" at least once a day here. Sometimes it's hard to decide if something is really happening or if I'm just having a hilarious dream. Here are some of my "is this real life?" moments...

- So they built this new school for 4th grade thru high school and we finally moved into it this week. Monday we didn't have classes because there was the inauguration for the new school. Saying Hondurans go all out for events is an understatement… they LOVE decorating, most of the time with tacky taste. So we first had to set up 100 folding chairs, we had to put chair covers on and tie a bow on them.. no this was not a wedding but it sure seemed like it. Oh but we only had enough chair covers for about 75% of the chairs… so some were covered and some were just plain old folding chairs (it looked awesome needless to say). It was supposed to start at 9am… most people showed up at about 10.. go figure. So it finally starts and they are yapping in spanish, the band plays the national anthem, more yapping… then someone comes up to me and says I need to go stand by my door. I'm so confused but I didn't argue and headed to my door. I then notice the priest who had been speaking, coming towards the classes. He first goes to 4th grade then to my class so I just mimicked what the 4th grade teacher did and opened my door for him and let him in not knowing what he was about to do. Dude starts splashing "holy water" around my classroom to bless the room. I would totally be down for the holy water and everything, but he starts splashing my posters on the wall! These posters were just made with markers the day before and are now dripping with bleeding markers. I was livid and couldn't believe what had just happened. "holy water just ruined my decorations.. is this real life?!"

-Waking up to a wild horse naying outside my door over and over.. this can't be real life… especially at 4 in the morning.

- So moving to Honduras made me realize how uneducated I am about dogs and their mating rituals. Yes you read it right, I'm talking about dogs doing the dirty. Okay, back home I have seen dogs humping each other and I guess I just assumed they were mating… Oh no… there is SO much more to it. I wont get into the details (wikipedia it for some good information.. you know you want to) but apparently the dogs get "stuck" together for like 20 minutes. Everywhere you walk in Honduras there are dogs attached. If you have never seen this, just imagine two dogs that are butt to butt stuck together. Sometimes the girl dogs are wailing out in pain.. saddest thing ever. I have seen so many dogs mating here its unreal.

- Every Honduran wants to know if you're married or in a relationship. Totally a cultural thing for people to get married very young here. It seems to be on every persons mind in this country. The guys are on a hunt for their wife and the girls (who live with their parents until marriage) are hunting for their husbands. So even when the plumber is at your house working on your toilet… don't worry, they too will ask you and when your response is 'no' he will have no problem asking you for your number. this can't be real life.

- When I'm awoken by loud banging noises in the middle of night… I shout "whats happening!?" My housemate shouts back"I'M KILLING MOSQUITOS" and then laying back down not giving it a second thought and falling back asleep as if nothing happened. Totally the norm. Real life.. yep.

-At school every time I go to the bathroom I have to carry my own toilet paper with me because they don't supply it at the school… same goes for the kids.

- Another cultural thing is puckering lips. Not in a kissy way. But they pucker their lips and nod their head at the same time towards a direction to tell you where something is. OR if they are agreeing with you. Its the creepiest thing ever. It kind of grosses me out. And I actually caught myself doing it the other day and immediately realized what I was doing and got on to myself for doing it. Not okay.

-As I've said before, they love their cell phones here. So much that they don't know how to turn their phones to silent. So when we are having a teacher meeting, the director's phone, who is talking to everyone, goes off about every 5 minutes. Most annoying thing ever. But it's no big deal to them.. she just silences it and carries on yapping in spanish. Unbelievable.

This is real life for me. daily.