Beach - Tela!

After the parade on Tuesday we found out that there was no school on Wednesday or Thursday, so we could go to the beach right away! We decided to go to a beach town called Tela, which is on the north coast. My town, Juticalpa is pretty inconveniently located to travel anywhere, so you always have to first take a three hour bus ride to the capital, Tegucigalpa. That Tuesday we left to go to Teguc, and then left early in the morning on Wednesday. It was about a 5-6 hour bus ride and then we were there! Found a great hotel with ac, hot water, kitchen and living room in it - all for $8 a person!

The whole trip was really great and relaxing. I spent a lot of time just hanging out on the beach, walking around, jumping off the pier, I snuck into the resort and swam in their nice pool, went down the water slide, and jumped on the water trampoline!

Then one day we took a boat just the nine of us gringos and that was a FANTASTIC day! We went to an island that is across the Caribbean a little bit. Here the water was the perfect color aqua, and the island is a national park so it is protected from being built up and destroyed. I saw two dolphins and a lot of flying fish on the boat ride over! Then I walked around through the rainforest, swam through a cave in the island, and snorkeled on a coral reef. The snorkeling was amazing because there were so many types of colorful fish and types of coral. (Dad you would have LOVED it!) I could have spent hours and hours there, just swimming around looking at everything. After snorkeling we went to another part of the island where we ate a great lunch. The place that cooks the food doesnt even have any type of refrigeration so the fish I ate had to be caught that morning!

The next day I went to one of the world's largest botanical gardens. It was really pretty seeing all types of plants, tress, and flowers. There was a really nice river too that we swam in! Overall the trip was really great and I loved seeing another part of Honduras. It seems like Juticalpa is a pretty strange part of Honduras that keeps to itself. It has it's own culture, like everyone carrying a gun around. That doesn't happen everywhere else. Still it's nice to come "home" to olancho and be back with my kids...

On the island
Bamboo forest -- So cool!!
On the island beach after snorkeling!!

Look at the water color and the mountains!

The boat we took!
BEACH!!

Independence Day Parade

A week ago, we had the Independence Day Parade. There are three days of parades and I guess this is typical for all of Honduras. The first day is just kinder and prepa which is preschool and kindergarten. The second day is for the primary school which is grades 1-6. Then the third day is for high school and junior high.

This parade was really interesting because each school was represented by these groups of kids. So there were some students just in the regular school uniform marching in lines, there was a marching band for each school, baton twirlers, and also a group of kids dressed up like "workers" which could be from any profession.

The parade took us from 7 am until just after 11 a.m. FOUR HOURS! This is in the hot sun and the parade length is actually very short It would probably take you about 15 minutes to walk it normal. The reason is that the point of the parade is to salute all of the officials of Juticalpa and Olancho at the very END of the parade. So you march in the parade for awhile (maybe 2 minutes) and then stop for about 10 or 15. It makes it a very slow process to get to the end!

Caves in Talgua

I visited these caves in a small town called Talgua. It's about 45 minutes or an hour away from here and what makes these caves so interesting is that they are also called the "Caves of the Glowing Skulls" This is because in 1995 two peace corps volunteers and two Hondurans made a discovery of about 30 skeletons that were fossilized and looked like they were glowing. These people are believed to be from around 900 B.C. and no one is sure what type of group they belonged to, very possibly an unknown culture that lived in the mountains. They also found a lot of pottery and ovens for the pottery from around the same time period.

We didn't get to see any of the skeletons glowing because that isn't available for tourist. But, the cave was pretty big and cool to walk around in. Then we went swimming in this river which was amazing! So clean, and almost cold! Also, the view of the mountains was fantastic, as always in Honduras!

This is the entrance to the main cave.

Dia del nino/ Children's Day!

Two fridays ago we celebrated Children's Day in Honduras! It's a day that is meant to celebrate kids and just let them have fun so for school we had a half day (Also fun for teachers!) and we had a party. At first I realized I was a little stressed out because I was hosting and organizing a party in a different country for a holiday that I had never celebrated! haha... so I am really glad I had Lidia there to help tell me what usually happens on these days!

Overall it ended up being really fun, the kids were able to come to school in regular clothes and everyone was dressed their BEST - new shoes, haircut, gelled hair for boys, girls hair was done, girls wearing dresses and some even had heels on. I love seeing my kids so excited and happy. Each student was told what to bring and so many parents cooked great honduran food. Then we played a few games and listened to music (Thanks Dad for the raffi and ella jenkins!)

Some pictures to show the day:

Nails!

I know I posted three times today... but btw look at how cute my nails are!

Lidia's cousin who is 14 did them!

Faces of 1-A

Here are a few photos of some of my kids... I have 36 so this is actually very few. haha (more to come later.

Cute story of the day:

I was going over sight words with my kids in flashcards before the social studies teacher came in. I was showing flashcards and then in their groups they had to say the word out loud. One card said "I" and not that many students knew that word yet. Since they don't speak english yet they dont' know a lot of common words. So after only a few knew it I was talking about how to use I and what it means.

Then one boy raises his hand and tells me in Spanish "verdad que puede decir "I" cuando alguien le golpeo tambien" -- "Also you can say "Ay" (Pronounced "I") when someone hits you"

hahaha....

basically people say "Ay" as a way to scream or say "Ouch" here and so he though "I" could be used the same in English! My kids are pretty cute :)

Zip-lining

So far the writing two times a week hasn't worked out too well... but I'm really trying!

Anyways my weekend was fun last weekend - First off Saturday we did not have electricity from 8 a.m. til 4 p.m. because they were apparently working on the power lines. Pretty much the whole town was without power for that time. The bad thing about not having power is that you also don't have water because the running water works off of electric pumps. (frustrating, I know).

The good news for Saturday is our pool for my group of houses was suddenly fixed and filled with water! So I spent the day lounging poolside and swimming with my other gringo friends. :) It was a nice day and a great way to spend a no electricity or water day. haha After this time in Juticalpa I'm sure I will appreciate water and power more than I ever have before

.

Sunday was an even better day though because I went to this town called Santa Maria de Real

The place I went to is called "La Pita" and it was absolutely gorgeous. The whole place was like a big garden with manicured plants and tons of trees and nature all over. It was a great break from the dirty and dusty air in Juticalpa. Here the air was cleaner and everything just seemed so nice.

If anyone comes to see me we are definatley going to this place because they also have really good food. (Efe we're already going lol) I had this great tasting fish dinner with a pop for what comes out to be about $5.

After eating we went zip-lining... at first I was a little scared because it is pretty high up and this place is not that well known, so who knows how well it is maintained. However, I did it and it ended up being really fun. Basically you just go through all these trees. The views of the mountains were great and sometimes I even thought I would really hit a tree branch if I didn't tuck in my legs. haha.

Here's some more photos of my day-trip:

MMM! Que Rico!

There were pigs! :)

This plant looks like it belongs in a Dr. Suess book!

There I am!

Sam and I ready to go!

Six year olds, Tegucigalpa, and more six year olds!

First off, I am really going to make a strong attempt to update this blog twice a week... That way I wont have SO much to talk about in one post. Also, I tend to not update if I have too much to say, so that's my goal.

I have been pretty busy here in Juticalpa now that school is going on fully and I traveled over the weekend to the capital, Tegucigalpa. The trip was a lot of fun and I got to do american things such as eat at TGIFridays, Burger King, and Pizza hut - all in ONE weekend. LOL Also, we went to the mall, spoke a lot of English with each other and just hung out by the pool. Overall, it was a nice and relaxing weekend and the trip takes about 3 hours so it's easy for a weekend.

However, more exciting I feel like is talking about my class. I really am enjoying teaching them and I am always excited to see them in the morning! ... (I'm also excited to see them go home after 7.5 hours!!) haha. Seriously though the day is very structured, which I love and I know my students like it too, because they know what to expect.

Each day we focus on one letter, we talk about the name of the letter, sound, words that begin with that letter and we sing a song. Then everyone goes to their seats and we practice writing the letter and some words that begin with that letter. My kids are just adorable and they really surprise me with some of the stuff they come up with. I know that they are going to pick up English very quickly because there are always a few kids that can give me words that begin with the letter. However, those words are always words that I say a lot -- so it makes me feel good to know that they are learning. For example one girl shocked me when she came up with the word "floor" for an f word... I use the word all the time to tell them to go to the floor but still it means she was really understanding the concept!

I basically speak in some version of Spanglish all day. I will soon switch over to all English, but right now I am still instilling the schedule and pattern so sometimes giving instructions is helpful to say "saquen sus pencils" because they have learned the word for pencil. Although like I said this is only temporary and soon there will be no need to say that, because they understand basics.

My students still love singing songs and Morning Meetings and Music class are my favorite times of day. :) Usually they just sing really loudly and most of it is just sounds. For example, I have one boy who always sings REALLY loudly but he doesn't know any of the English words so its really funny.

The only issues I have are ones that I can't do anything about. 1 - I have too many students (36 now!) and these are students that haven't gone to full day school before, they are still very young. My 2nd issue is that I think the day is too long for children this young. They are there from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. That's a long day and a lot to expect out of them. However, they do pretty well and the afternoons are much more relaxing than the mornings.

My life here is nice too, I still really like the other teachers and we hang out a lot. Also, I started tutoring Lidia (my aide) and her two cousins in English. They don't know any, but would really like to learn, so it's fun for all of us.

My kids lined up ready to go home after gym class... look at the girl frowning!!

Me at the pool in Tegucigalpa -- it was a really nice pool!!

Me and my roommate Kaleigh at the pool!!

More of my kids --- aren't they cute?!

And to end this post with a great picture!! Last week I was walking home from the bank and it started to rain but the sun was still out. I saw a full rainbow over my house! :)