Christmas Program

School Christmas programs tend to be the same the world round: lots of proud parents and lots of cute kids, a few who participate loudly and with pride and the rest not having a clue as to what's going on. I love this picture of the maternal class (2-3 year olds). The tallest boy in the class is also, as you can see, the most enthusiastic singer.

As the ninth grade homeroom teacher, I was reponsible for working with them to prepare something for the program. I asked the other teachers what classes usually do and was told they sing a Christmas song. I get a chorus of painful groans when I ask the students just to take out a notebook or sit in their seats, so I couldn't imagine getting a group of 14-year-olds to sing a Christmas carol in front of the school and parents.

When I asked the principal for advice, she told me she had seen the girls practicing a Christmas dance to "Jingle Bell Rock" so why didn't I have them to that? Both their dance moves and costumes were based on the movie "Mean Girls" and while I did work with them and they kept assuring me it would be great, I still had nightmares of inappropriate dance moves, scantily clad students, and me having to claim responsibility. But like so many other things here, it turned out just fine. The girls practiced a lot (usually during science class, which was fine by me) and we were all proud of how it turned out.

The boys' role was to stand on the side and snap their fingers. Though they didn't do this with too much enthusiasm, they participated and some days you take what you can get. Lots of days in fact.

Right now I'm home for Christmas for 2 weeks. It's been really wonderful to get caught up with family and friends and just be home.

Some Things You Just Can't Get Away From

A few days ago, I was at the home helping some girls with their homework when somebody came into the library, said something in Spanish I didn't understand, and all the girls dashed out. The cause of the excitment turned out to be a box of candy they had opened and were handing out: Peeps. One of the girls offerered me some. I wasn't sure how to say, "My teeth hurt just thinking about those things" in Spanish, so just said no thank you.

And then last night I went to the Mall with some of the other volunteers to watch a student Christmas performance. The kindergarten class recited a poem and one little boy kept grabbing the microphone from the MC to repeat the poem again or just talk. A few of my junior high students played a few songs on the guitar. You could hardly hear them, but the most entertaining part was watching them pluck out the chords with concentrated expressions. The choir sang some Christmas songs, and it brought tears to my eyes. They were stunning, and it finally felt like Christmas to me here.

Aftewards we went to the movies. Nothing looked that good but someone mentioned that The Day the Earth Stood Still wasn't bad. It wasn't until after I bought the ticket that I was told it starred Keanu Reeves. Luckily, he plays an alien, a built an excuse to not have to actually portray any human emotions. And I got to eat my favorite Honduran food, the caramel corn at the movies, so it wasn't a wasted night.

Next Sunday, I head home for two weeks. I haven't been as homesick as I thought I would be here (Thank you Skype!) but I cannot wait to just be at home and with the people I love.

A Few Student Pictures

Here are my 9th grade girls. Last Wednesday Honduras played Mexico in a World Cup qualifier, which meant that students were out of uniform. When the kindergarten teacher was painting the Honduran flag on her students' faces, my students saw and insisted that we all get it done too.


Here's the 8th grade class. All of it. They can be a bit mischievous but are incredibly sweet and funny and want to learn. No matter how crazy my day gets, I can count on them to be a breath of fresh air.

And here's a few snapshots of the seventh graders. They made cell models (just like I did in 7th grade with Mrs. Sunquist!) and then went to teach the 4th graders about cells. I'm not sure either group learned anything, but they had fun.

Día Típico

Last week was Día Típico at our school. This meant school was cancelled for the day so teachers could decorate in the morning. The title Typical Day referred to the traditional dances and food that would be in the evening, but the day with teachers was pretty "typical" as well. At first I was frustrated that we weren't getting much done, and I wonder how long it will take before the phrase "If I were at home...." quits springing so quickly to mind. It turned out to be a really fun day with the other teachers, and I learned another lesson in how to just be with people and not always needing to be busy doing something.



The teachers prepared decorations and also put out traditional clothing and artwork that students had brought in.


Here I am with some of my students who had come to prepare for their dance that night.


I don't have many pictures of the actual event because, as usual, I'm terrible at taking pictures, but here's one I like of some of the preschoolers before their dance.

Pueblo Nuevo

Our Little Roses is building a conference/retreat center about an hour from San Pedro Sula in the small town of Pueblo Nuevo. A few of the volunteers and I recently went out for the Feria, the town fair. It’s a sweet little town in the hills, and it was great to get out of the city for a bit.



We didn’t know what was scheduled, but as we were walking around town we heard a marimba band playing in a building. When we peeked our heads in the door, we saw a band on stage with several older men and a large town hall full of small tables decorated with white tablecloths and flowers. We were quickly welcomed in and spent a few hours watching something similar to a local talent show. The marimba band performed and others would volunteer to come up and sing songs also. Some children performed a few dance routines, both modern and folkloric. One man mimed a routine where he was eating bananas and then had diarrhea while the MC made sound effects with the microphone. The elders of the town were publicly recognized and several prayers were said, including the prayer of St. Francis.

One woman was near tears as she read the names of all their family and friends who were in the United States working to support them. The room grew quiet as she spoke of how much they missed their home and asked that they all pray for one another.

We were served Coke in small plastic glasses (I’ve drank more Coke in my three months here than the rest of my life combined) and served a great lunch. People smiled and greeted us but never questioned why we were there or hesitated even a moment to welcome us.

We had to leave in the late afternoon to catch the bus back to the city but caught a glimpse of the parade which included several classic cars and this truck with children dressed as butterflies titled “A Garden of Light and Love.”

Soccer is King

It’s no big cultural news that soccer is big in this part of the world. More surprising is how much I like watching games. Most likely it’s just because it’s a chance to be with people and feel part of the culture here, but it’s pretty fun, whether it’s watching a big game at the bar, going to a local field, or watching local professional teams at the stadium.

A few weeks ago, a woman named Katie was studying Spanish here. She’s quite connected with a local family, and she invited some of us along to watch a game with them. About ten family members were there, including this little guy and even the six week old baby. I couldn’t tell if she was watching much of the game, but she seemed pretty content.





I’m seated between Katie and her friend Joe, and right below us is Ashley, one of the volunteers I live with who's become a good friend.

Rain Days

When one of the 7th graders told me that school here is sometimes cancelled due to rain, I was pretty excited. Between the number of classes that I have to prepare and teach and the differences in culture, work can be exhausting. I think it will become less so as I understand more of the school system here and continue to adapt, but it’s definitely difficult right now. So when I walked to school Tuesday morning, only to have the principal tell me that the department of education had called off school for the city because of the rain and flooding, I was ecstatic. Remember that feeling you had on the morning of a snow day when you were a kid? It doesn’t feel any less great as an adult.

Other than the inconvenience of near constant rain and occasionally flooded streets that usually quickly drain, our area wasn’t affected much. It wasn’t until I watched the local news and read the paper later that day that I realized the severity of it in other parts of the city and country. The rain has lessened now, but in the past several days, 29 people have died, 14 are missing, and 20,000 moved to shelters. 200,000 people have had damage to their homes. Though the damage has been nowhere near comparable, Hurricane Mitch is often mentioned, and it’s clear how much this country is haunted by the devastation Mitch caused almost exactly 10 years ago. For good reason. Mitch killed 6,000 with 8,000 more missing, left 20% of the population homeless and wiped out most of the country’s infrastructure, an event from which they haven’t recovered.

Don’t get me wrong. I still loved having a day off of school, but I don’t know if I’ll be quite so eager to hope for another.