January 2011

So as I may have mentioned at the end of my last blog post 2011quickly took a turn for the worse after I arrived back in Cofradia.  It was great to see all of the students again the first day of school.  There were hugs (always a lot of hugs!), laughs and overall excitement to be back.  The first week sped by, then on Friday right after school I got a phone call that quickly changed the excitement to pure sadness.  Our Honduran kinder/prepa teacher had passed away from a very long battle with lupus.  I gathered to tell the team and we waited to hear about the funeral arrangements.  We all got up early on Saturday and took a school bus into San Pedro Sula to attend her funeral.  BECA's founder caught a flight from the US and joined us that afternoon to spend time with the family and share in the deep loss.  Back at school the following Tuesday morning we received word that another close family member of the SJBS community passed away.  Two funerals in less than a week.  Three SJBS students left without one parent.  The teachers and SJBS community came together during this time and we all realize that we have a very long road ahead of us working with the students during this loss.

January has also been a time of many visits.  As I mentioned, the BECA founder was able to spend three days with us.  It was great to see firsthand the impact she has had on this community and the impact the community has had on her.  As soon as she left, the family of a teacher came for part of a week (the father was even nice enough to do an afternoon long workshop with us and the Honduran staff).  The family really wanted to see their son/brother as the sister almost got detained (her passport expires in February and she found out the hard way that you cannot travel internationally if your passport will expire within 3 months - everyone check you passport before purchasing international tickets!)  She had to go to Teguc and the US embassy helped her out and all ended well and she got a new passport out of the deal.  Finally, Miss Maureen a teacher from last year spent a few days in Cofradia.  She helped out a lot at the school donated an awesome puppet to the school.

Late last week, we had a general assembly meeting for the school.  I wasn't sure how this meeting would turn out but would say I was pleasantly surprised once it got started.  We needed at least 26 of the 50 members to be present to start the meeting.  Eighteen people were there; so according to the bylaws of the organization, we can start if we wait an hour.  So at 5 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. we started the meeting.  All points presented were passed and it was great to see people (although not many) excited about the possibilities of the school and getting energized about the upcoming year.  To end it all, the owner of El Galopa (a great restaurant a bit outside of Cofradia) invited all those present to eat dinner.  About 20 of us went and had a great carne asada, beans and chimmichurri dinner :)  This was well warranted as we spent the entire day (8-4) without electricity.  I was tired - I walked for 1.5 hours and then was asked to join a group going to a park.  I can't say no but didn't realize that that meant that I would have to play soccer.  I must of looked really funny as I know nothing about soccer and even worse I had to run.  But all in all it was a great day!  And I finally got to wish my mom a happy birthday at 9 p.m.  Love ya mom!

On Sunday, we left for Zamorano (the best agricultural university in Latin America).  We were to be observing classes at a bilingual school on the campus and to meet with the teachers there to discuss questions, concerns, ideas that we have after spending 6 months at SJBS.  I felt transported to another world.  The campus was beautiful - in a valley, so many trees and plants and quite.  All students were very curtious, no trash was thrown on the ground and the food was out of this world.  We had two days of soaking up knowledge, gathering resources and sharing ideas.  We got back to Cofradia last night after 8 hours of travel.  It is good to be home.

Today I was a bit frazzled at school.  Its weird how quickly you get thrown back into things.  We have a married couple coming to volunteer for 5 weeks.  They arrive on Saturday (I'd made all arrangements for Sunday), I'm coordinating all BECA families to come at least once a month to the school to help with projects (we've got the kinder/prepa cleaning area under control, we've cleaned the Bodega (storage area), the computers have been dusted, rugs in kinder/prepa cleaned, etc.), I helped in two classes and took the second grade to the library today.  We then had a meeting after school with parents to talk about the scholarship program for students graduating from 9th grade.  We still need to find two new Honduran teachers by the start of next week (two interviews scheduled for Friday), we still don't have a full time 2nd grade teacher, etc.  You get the point....so I apologize for not updating with more frequency.  I appreciate all that read my updates (my parents tell me who you are - cousin Betty!) 

The next few weeks should be fun.  My boss will be here from Feb. 8-25 and two of my good Madison friends will be here the 18-21 of February.  Many other teachers will have visitors as well.  I'll continue to keep you posted of all SJBS is doing.