Photos to go with my last post

Since I have nothing better to do while recuperating here in my bed (more about this in my next post) here are photos that go with my  last post (birthday parties)

Birthday girl with her pinata in the back of the truck on our way up the mountain.

Location of the birthday party.

At the river by the pool



Other teachers at the party



Crazy cake

Typical pinata action s

It's Honduran tradition to push faces into birthday cakes

















Birthday party #2

Pinata and the birthday girl

Another SJBS student and the birthday girl

Ya queremos pastel!

 





Cake in the face again!



March Madness

March madness is one of my favorite sports times of the year. I love watching good college basketball games, cheering on the underdogs and the opponents of Ohio State and Duke, and losing money in the brackets. But this year the words March Madness have a totally different meaning. Madness is exactly how I’d describe the month of March so far and to put this in perspective I’ve not seen one basketball game (though UW-Madison is in the Sweet 16!)


I was caught off guard the other day when the school director called me into her office for an urgent meeting. I felt unprepared and nervous, had I done something wrong? Did I accidently offend someone? Forget to follow through on a task? I sat down nervous. She then pulled small box out of her purse and turned to present it to me with a huge smile on her face. She said I know your toe has been lonely since you lost your toe ring so I saw this at the mall and knew it would make you happy. And I was able to get myself a great ring out of the deal as well. My day was made (and my toe is happy to not be naked again!)

March is a popular month for birthdays. A couple of weekends ago, two teachers and I were invited to a double birthday party (Alexandra in 1st grade and Jeimy in 3rd grade). The weather had been chilly and rainy leading up to Sunday morning. Waking on Sunday, we were all happy to see the sun back in the sky. We got to their house at 10 a.m. We packed the back end of the truck with two coolers, a grill, a piñata, a pot of beans and at least 10 people. We traveled about 30 minutes up the mountain on a very bumpy road to a town called Santa Elena. We stopped at a beautiful place that had a pool right next to the river and a shelter for bbqs. We started off with tamales for a snack and then the three teachers and students hit the pool accompanied by a great slide. Five seconds in the water was enough for me as it was freezing. The water comes directly from the mountains and was cold. I spent the rest of the afternoon looking for warmth in the sun. We had carne asada for lunch followed by a great cake and piñata. It was a great, relaxing day with a wonderful family. We returned to Cofradia at 7:00ish at night – just in time to hit our favorite baleada place for dinner. Great weekend.

Third grade has been learning about baseball in P.E. I convinced the 3rd grade teacher to let me help teach her students. For two mornings last week I hit grounders to third graders. Not going to lie I swung and missed a few times but they didn’t mind as many of them are still confused about which hand the glove goes on; though I was surprised by a couple of players abilities. Baseball will never replace soccer here but it was fun to play my favorite sport again even if it was just for a couple of P.E. classes.

Over two weeks ago a national Honduran paper La Prensa came to school to do a report on our school. They took pictures of the school and interviewed me and the director. Days and a week passed and we did not appear in the paper. Last Saturday while in San Pedro Sula the Director calls me and tells me that the article has finally been printed. I race home to see the paper. The article is good. You can find it here http://laprensa.hn/San%20Pedro%20Sula/Ediciones/2011/03/19/Noticias/Ninos-aprenden-ingles-gracias-a-voluntariado but must be able to understand Spanish (the online version is better because my name only appears with photos of two teachers in action – in the print version there are pictures of the Director and me with quotes. One teacher says I look like a dictator in my photo. Needless to say I’ve taken better pictures). Good publicity for the school though. And an interesting way to get back in touch with the past. Tonight I got a facebook message from a cousin of one of my good friends from my Peace Corps days in Olancho. I gave her my phone number and told her to tell her cousin to call. Conchita did call. It’s the first time we’ve spoken in about ten years. She was so excited as was I. She has a 10 year old daughter I’ve never met. Her house now has electricity and a cement floor. I asked her how she knew I was back in Honduras as we’d lost touch. She said her brother who lives in Teguc was reading the Prensa this weekend and recognized my name and called her with the news. They then found me by facebook and the rest is history.

Two weeks ago our six and ninth grades started their social service projects. We have 75 kindergarten, 1st grade and 3rd grade students from neighboring Vida Nueva come for an hour of English tutoring every Monday. It’s chaotic in the beginning but great to see our students as mentors and how much they enjoy working with the little kids. The Vida Nueva students enjoy the weekly field trip to Cofradia as well (it’s about a 10 minute bus ride but to these kids it’s a REALLY long trip). Since the Harmons came and Mr. Carey began to tutor them with Oscar 1.5 months ago its amazing to see how far these young kids have come and exciting to know that BECA will be working with their school next year.

A week and a half ago we had parent teacher conferences for kinder and prepa. Minutes into the meeting we had a representative of a student have an epileptic seizure and hit the ground hard. The group went into a frenzy and finally an ambulance was called and he was taken to a local clinic. At that moment I was scared and clueless. I know what to do in the U.S. if there is an emergency – you call 911. I had my cell phone in hand but did not know who to call. I did not like feeling useless. The man apparently has many severe seizures and is doing fine.

Yesterday morning, I went to another 3rd graders birthday party. This one was at her house and included some of the best cake I’ve ever eaten. She is the same girl whose picture used to be on the main page of my blog. We’ve stayed close since summer camp. Hard to believe that she’s ten now.

Yesterday afternoon, SJBS was saddened again. Gonzalo, the president of the school board’s mom lost her battle with cancer. Since 2011 started we as a school have been in mourning more times than I’d like to count. It was amazing seeing this close family grieve for their loved one. There were ten children and numerous grandchildren. All were present and sad. The whole community where they live came out to mourn as well. The service was nice with a mariachi band, a nice send off. All of this loss and time for reflection has made me think a lot about my family and how blessed I am. Everyone should cherish their loved ones and live each day to the fullest. I can’t wait to see my family again, hug them and tell them I love them. This funeral was such a change from the visitation that took place last night in the town park. The local billiards place’s owner was killed and there were hundreds of people in the park. This morning it looked like a tornado went through there. Death is an everyday part of life in Honduras it seems. I hear of someone dying or being killed on almost a daily basis. It is starting to wear on me.

Starting tomorrow I begin my long journey of visiting all the SJBS families that applied for scholarships for the next academic year. I will visit 61 houses so if this blog does not get updated in the next month or so you know why. We also recently had the deadline for our 9th graders who’d like to continue to study at a bilingual school next year in San Pedro but may need some financial assistance submit their applications. We received two and they have been sent to the states for review by the selection committee.

The drummer from Montuca Sound System (a Honduran popular band) has been giving music classes to several of our older students all year. He has recently arranged for our students to accompany Montuca on a few shows they are doing at some pricier bilingual schools in San Pedro. Our students’ first concert is April 5th…should be a good learning experience for our students and a time for their musical talents to shine.

Overall, there is a sense of “what next” for most of the teachers. I often hear of people talking about applying for jobs, the fear of living with their parents and being unemployed, etc. I hope momentum stays high through the end of the year and I know that things will shake out for everyone but that it may take time. Belize is around the corner (we leave next week) and I don’t think it could have come at a better time. And my friend Tara gets here in 2.5 weeks – CAN’T WAIT!

I hope to post pictures of the birthday parties, etc. in the near future….until then I’ll be doing home visits!

Monday a day of much needed rest

Monday was great as we had the day off of school and I finally ventured to Omoa, a very small, cute beach town on the north coast.  I got to swim in perfect temperature water, each fish, tajadas, rice, beans and salad as well as soak up some sun (wait I get to do that everyday).  Here are a couple of pictures of the wonderful little fishing town of Omoa.

I got back into town just in time for the Junta meeting and the work week to start back up.  Here's to recharged batteries and the month of March!

Dia Tipico

Today SJBS celebrated Dia Tipico (basically a Honduran cultural day).  Each grade was given a different department of Honduras and they had to build a champa (an elaborate construction - see below) and dress a student up in traditional clothing.  These were the two areas that the grades were being judged upon.  The best part of the day was the food.  Each grade had a menu and several items for sale....my consumption today consisted of (don't judge) a pinol topogigo (frozen popsicle in a bag), a baleada, yuca, sausages, coconut bread, pupusa, a fried desert and blackberry juice.  I left the even very tired, full and HAPPY!  Below are pictures from throughout the day.  Each grade was also responsible for telling the crowd about different aspects of Honduras (meaning behind the national anthym, the coat of arms, the national tree, flower and animal (oddly enough its the white tailed deer - its not native to here either).  Enjoy the photos.

Here's a champa

Decorations in a champa (yes a live donkey)

A beach themed champa

A view of several champas

The winner of the best traditional costume - from the department of Santa Barbara

2nd grade student in Garifuna clothing - she danced punta for us as well.

An Olancho cowboy

Kindergarten boys

Lempiran Indians

A girl from Cortes

Ocotopeque

Discussing the National Flower

8th grade's winning touch for their champa.  Its a carpet made from hand colored sawdust and laid down in the design.  Students had to keep spraying it with water so the design would maintain its form.  This is a tradition from Comayagua where the streets are filled with sawdust carpets during Holy Week.

Pig Islands, Hot Springs, and plantains (lots of them!)

So I said a sad good bye to Mary and Katie today as they got into Don Wil’s battered old pickup truck. It was so great to have them visit and time went way too fast. They were easy travelers and down for some adventure. They were gracious enough to help me cross one of the two places I have yet to visit in Honduras off my list and in turn we found a place that was even more magical.


I met them at the airport on Friday at a little after one. We got them some lempiras and took a taxi to the bus terminal. We boarded a bus to CEIBA and started our journey. We had good snacks on the bus (cheese curds from Wisconsin!!!!), avocado and tomato sandwiches, oranges, plantain chips and cookies. When we reached Ceiba it was raining and we quickly found a taxi to take us to our hotel in Sambo Creek (about 15 minutes from Ceiba by car). I was glad the other two were in the car with me as the hotel was at the end of a long lane and would have been spooky if I was alone. We arrived and got situated in our room and went to the restaurant/bar area where we were introduced to Dante, the owner of the hotel – Paradise Found. Dante is social and a talker. We were lucky enough to meet up with Tony the DiveMaster who was taking us snorkeling in the Cayos Cochinos (Pig Islands) the next morning. Mary, Katie and I caught up over a couple of beers and a light dinner. Then off for a restful night of sleep or so we thought. The hotel owner got the urge to play his guitar and stereo loudly most of the night.

                                                            View from our hotel

The next morning we woke up to cloudy skies and rain. That did not stop us. We had to wake the hotel owners up for breakfast…but worth it as we got beans and bacon! My tummy was happy. We then boarded the boat (it looked like the one in the picture above) and took off for the 1.25 hour ride. We hit some waves and got soaked by sideways rain but soon we arrived to the cayes.

We found out that Italian Survivor is being filmed on the cayes and the staff of the show lived on this boat:

After some snorkeling in murky water due (still nice snorkeling I saw a few types of fish I’ve never seen before) to the rain we visited a Garifuna village on one of the cayes. Here’s a few pictures of this caye and the friend that Mary and Katie made :)

Point of clarification. In the Cayos Cochinos there are two islands and several cayes. The difference between an island and a caye has to do with elevation. To be an island there must be elevation of over 100 feet. I learn something every day.

Our trip back to the mainland was drier, smoother and less eventful. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the main road and beach before a great dinner of garlic shrimp. We then spoke to the hotel owners about setting up our plans for the following day.

After a quiet night’s sleep we again woke the owners up for breakfast (the hotel is a bed and breakfast) and asked for them to call the hot springs and arrange for them to pick us up. We waited and waited and boy was the wait worth it. The hot springs outside of Sambo Creek are amazing. I did not take my camera to all the springs but Katie did so hopefully more pictures to come soon. First, you see the mountain side and some smoke? That smoke is the steam from the hot springs. It’s a little hard to see in the photo but its the bit of grey on the mountainside next to the tree on the righthand side (I had a nice arrow made to go on the photo but can't get it to translate to this blog page).

                                                                               This is the three of us before we got into the hot springs.

There were seven pools of water and many more waterfalls than that. We started at the top where the hot water boils out of the earth and then proceeded down the seven different pools. At pool number 4 we got volcanic mud baths.

We liked to think we were that tan but to no avail. We then ventured down to the last three pools. Here is where the story gets sad for me. Please look at the following two pictures and list the differences you see:

1. You’re all thinking when did Andrea get a pedicure? Me too. That was a year ago for my friend Hector’s wedding. So the nail polish is one difference but not the main one.

2. New chacos. Yes, a big thanks to Mary as she sent me the link and let me send them to her house to bring down to me. They are like walking on air. My feet are very happy (hope that translates in the photo). Also, they are in my color scheme :) But that is not the difference either.

3. In picture two I only have on one toe ring. RIP my beautiful knot toe ring. You served me well for about 14 years. You will be missed. And if I had to lose you anywhere I’d have to say in the hot springs is the best place. Mary took a picture of me as soon as I realized I lost the ring and the sadness shows. I got my foot wrapped up in a weed and got freaked out and then hit a rock which snag the ring and broke it. Off it floated to never never land. I’d do it again to have those warm waterfalls massaging my back and taking my cares away.

Finally, it was time to head back to reality but not before one last picture (thanks Tammy for the shirt).

So we packed up and got Dante to give us a ride to Ceiba where we boarded a bus to San Pedro Sula. Mary and Katie got to experience a chicken bus as the lady next to us in line to get on the bus had a rooster in a bag (not joking –hope Katie will give me a copy of the photo she took). Then they got to experience the Cofradia rapidito. We were sandwiched into the bus pretty good. We got to Cofradia in time to go to Saidy’s for dinner and try baleadas, pastelitos and tajadas. We all enjoyed the food and company of the other teachers.

This morning they got to experience SJBS. They saw acto civico (Monday morning assembly), helped out in the kindergarten class and got to eat a sprinkle covered chocobanana. It was sad to see them leave but I think we all greatly enjoyed the visit.

I also learned more about the stance that teachers and state employees are taking in Wisconsin against Scott Walker. Wish I could be there to take part in all that is going on. Mary and Katie brought several treats – CHEESE CURDS, hot tamales (who knew the valentines editions come in three colors – white, pink and red – can’t wait to try them), rice krispie treats, flavoring for water (it’s getting hot so I need to start drinking water), two shirts – my wardrobe keeps growing!, pencils for the school and books to read and puzzles to do. I also got to try pretzel m&m. All they got in return was a weekend with me, plantain chips and coconut bread. Thanks so much Mary and Katie – miss you already.

Lead Up to Vacation

The night before Katie and Mary arrived was a busy one. I walked students home from music class after meeting to talk about plans for our 6th and 9th graders to teach English to Vida Nueva students to help fill their 100 hours of social service needed to graduate. I then headed to a welcome back party for Mike with representatives of the beca families. We started to talk about the upcoming fundraiser we’re doing for the group. Selling hamburgers. Four women are making around 300 hamburgers from one little kitchen next Monday. I plan to help some. Each beca family will be responsible for selling 5 hamburgers at 20 lempiras a piece. I have to buy the bread on Saturday and then help on Monday morning. Can’t wait to see what this experience will be like.


I then went to a family’s for dinner. Great baleadas and conversation. The father of the family was celebrating his birthday (same day as my dad). So it was nice to celebrate with someone while being so far away from my dad. The evening ended with me skyping with my parents to wish my dad a happy birthday. He was happy as he got to spend the day outside because of the usually warm weather and I was happy to wish him a great day virtually. Love ya dad.

Oh February!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I've eaten enough sugar today to last a life time....tres leches cake, another piece of cake, red hots and a brownie.  Glad another holiday is not on the horizon for awhile.

The first two weeks of February have flown by.  Our visitors are both now in Cofradia, though the Miss has yet to leave the apartment.  She got the cast off but is still learning how to walk on her hurt foot.  The Mister was quickly thrown into developing and leading classes for kindergarten, first grade and second grade in Vida Nueva after observing in SJBS for a week.   The weekend was quite nice.  On Saturday a few of us ventured to El Galopa (a great meat filled restaurant a few kilometers outside of town).  We were able to have a few beers (females don't do this in Cofradia) and play pool (women don't do this anywhere in Honduras) and have fun.  While waiting for the cab to take us to El Galopa we were able to buy some DVDs.  Since then we've watched Black Swan and Love and Other Drugs.  I would recommend Black Swan.  The next day was entrega de notas and the Super Bowl.  Parent teacher conferences/handing out of grades went very well.  We were lucky enough then to have a student invite the teachers that wanted to watch the Super Bowl over to see it.  All I can say is that I picked a bad year to leave Wisconsin football.  Way to go Packers!

I spent two days with Mr. Harmon and Oscar in Vida Nueva last week.  The students there are wonderful and the school is very cute.  These kids and their parents are very dedicated as the school year doesn't start until the end of August and they are sending their kids five days a week until then to get them to the level needed to start school (classes are offered in English, math and Spanish).  This is BECA's first expansion effort and will kick off in full fall 2011.  We went to a kindergartner's birthday party last week.  I always forget until I see them in action how dangerous pinatas are.  But kids sure do love them.

We had last Friday off of school so that the school could fumigate for bugs.  I had grand plans to go to the beach but they were foiled by rain.  So I ended up going with some teachers to SPS and we went bowling.  My Muilenburg relatives can stop laughing now as I was the high bowler (130).  It was a great way to spend a chilly, rainy afternoon.  We followed that up by going to Miss Danelia's (our Honduran Administrator's) house for pizza.  I'm talking all the fixings - pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, peppers, sausage, salami, ham, cheese, tomatoes, etc.  It was really good and topped off with hibiscus tea (my favorite).  On Sunday, I went to the school to cut grass (done in 4 hours love, love, love the lawn mower) and then we had elections for the next school's junta directiva (board of directors).  I was nervous for the elections as I wasn't sure what to expect or what the outcome would be.  Things went very smoothly!  I'm in the process of handing out scholarship applications to families that want to apply for a scholarship for next academic year.  I'm expecting about 100 families to fill out applications, which in turn means that starting the end of March I will be visiting all applicants houses to do an interview as part of the scholarship process.  Needless to say, I will be busy.

I'm happy to say that I'll be seeing two of my best friends this Friday as they come to visit.  We've got big plans to stay in Sambo Creek (outside Ceiba) and snorkel in the Cayos Cochinos (Pig Islands - ironic as they are supposedly very beautiful and clean and one of two places I have yet to visit in Honduras) and visit some amazing hot springs.  I hope the cold front we're experiencing (mid 70s I know I know) is gone and the sun back by this weekend.  Can't wait!

My boss is here for 2.5 weeks so things are busy with meetings and planning for the rest of the year.  We're in the middle of the time where there are non-stop visitors.  After Mike leaves, Laurence from our New York office is visiting with two donors, we have several past teachers coming the next few weeks, and several family members.  Should be a fun ride.