End of School Year

Friday, June 3rd was the last day of school at SJBS.  I can't believe that the year is over.  Work is still to be done but I wanted to take some time and recap the month of May....

SJBS had its annual Libros y Familia activity to promote literacy and encourge parents to read with their kids and talk about what they are learning.  Turn out was good.  We had about 30 families attend the event, where we split up the parents and kids.  Parents were in a structured discussion around the book Juan Verdades The Man Who Couldn't Lie.  Kids were in an art class making puppets to go along with the book we were reading.This event was later followed by end of the year performances by each grade, combined with great chicken pastelitos, fruit salad and Jamaica juice.  A great success!

Jamaica Juice!

The women who made the delicious pastelitos

7th graders before their performance

Pre-kinder class right before hitting the stage

Miss Glenda's awesome bulletin board skills.

Carlos from the group Montuca and his SJBS band....they are really good!

In May, I also finished my 62 home visits.  To celebrate and to say thank you to the Becado Reps we had an afternoon of pizza making.  Many wanted to learn how to make pizzas and I love eating pizza so we had some fun.  This also happened to fall on my birthday so began the cake eating train we've been on since then.

Pizza looks pretty good!

Hondurans love to cover your face in frosting

May 20th was middle school science fair.  The judging team took their jobs seriously.

The science fair was very successful as students had to present their projects to three judges and tell us about their hypothesis, the procedures they followed, the results of their data and their conclusions.  Some projects were very simple but others took a lot of time and preparation. 

I then ventured to Teguc to celebrate by bday with two of my best Honduran friends.  More cake and great times!

After my return from Teguc it was crunch time with the beca scholarship applications.  This process was definitely one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do in my life.  I enjoyed visiting all of the families, learning more about their lives, etc. but when it came to the decision making process I definitely lost sleep.  There was a bright spot at the end of the week my cousin Joel came to visit.  We slow bussed it to Ceiba and spent a nice weekend on the beach, catching up and eating great food.  The view from our hotel wasn't too bad either.

He's tall right?  I also found out during those days that I have a job when I return to the states.  I will be moving to Syracuse, New York and working at the study abroad office at Syracuse.  It looks like trips to Spain and Chile may be in my near future.

Last week was exam week and filled with good bye parties and dinners.  Its hard to believe that I will be back in the states in less than one month.  In many ways time here has flown by and in other ways it had dragged on.  I am very happy with the decision that I made to take a year off and come back to Honduras.  Honduras is a beautiful country, has very warm and caring people and is my second home.  I will miss it dearly (especially while experiencing the Syracuse winters!)  The next few weeks will be busy in and of themselves.  We start entrance exams and recuperation exams this week.  Graduation (kindergarten, 6th and 9th grades) will be on June 18th.  I plan to visit Teguc again and venture all the way to Olancho (finally after a 5 year absence).  Then summer camp counselors will be here and I depart.  I hope to post a bit more on here but if not I hope you've enjoyed seeing a bit of what the past year has been like for me in Cofradia.