So it’s been a while. And in that time period A LOT has gone on, but a lot has been the same old same. I feel like I haven’t been at the Hogar in ages and that’s because I have been gone for the past 11 days for vacation time and also because we shadowed classrooms at 2 bilingual schools.
BECA and Amigos de Jesus
For the majority of the week of the 5th I, along with the other volunteers, went to two different schools close to San Pedro to see how they run their classrooms. I think I have mentioned before but the Amigos de Jesus school is partnering up with the BECA program for the upcoming school year. BECA is US-based bilingual education program for countries in Central America. They train native English Speakers to effectively teach in pre-existing bilingual school in low-incomes and impoverished areas across CA. Their teachers volunteers to serve in this program for a minimum of one year, with the option to stay longer. In preparation for the transition for the 2013-2014 school year we shadowed classrooms at 2 schools about 20 minutes outside of San Pedro Sula. The Amigos de Jesus school will be officially opening for the pre-school, first grade and second grade in August 2013, in which time they will be getting a true bilingual education. Half of their classes will be in English taught by native speakers and the second half will be taught in Spanish with native Spanish speakers. The remaining grades (3-6) will continue with the Honduran education system and thus started the official school year two weeks ago.
On Tuesday (Feb 6th) we jumped into the truck and headed off to Cofradia. Half of us went to one school and the other half, to the other school. I along with Chepe and Rachel got dropped out outside the school, which had a 18ft wall around it. I was thrown off because upon entering the gate every child we encountered and a majority of the adults spoke English to us. It was just odd to go from all Spanish all the time to all English by walking through a gate in a small Honduran town…
I think it might be an understatement to say I was impressed with what I saw at BECA, it might be more accurate to say my jaw hit the floor. I shadowed the pre-school and kindergarten classes most of my time there and it was just amazing. Each class, though run a little differently was so well-behaved, well taught and spoke or understood basic English (as for the 8th graders, they’re pretty much all bilingual.)
Watching the classes got me really excited for the new school year though. To see the progress they made in 4 months with these kids has made me so optimistic. The main difference between their students and our students are obviously parents. We have madrinas and padrinos and they work hard, and they do a great job with the kids but nothing can really replace the spot parents hold for a child, especially with education. But regardless, I think the change in the school might spark a change in the Hogar too, for the better 🙂
In planning our first day of teaching Christina and I have decided that we will be adopting the BECA way and teach all in English…the best way to learn a language is full immersion, right? and since we can’t offer that completely outside of the classroom, we will be offering it inside of the classroom. So please send some good vibes our way because that will make some cranky 3 and 4 year olds!
USA vs Honduras – San Pedro Sula
On Wednesday the 7th we, along with about 20 BECA teachers, headed into San Pedro Sula for the USA vs Honduras world cup qualifying match. (did your heart beat a little faster? It should have…just kidding! 😉 ) What sounds better than being in a pack of gringos in a sea of blue at a huge game that helps determine the World Cup qualifiers for the 2016 WC in one of the most dangerous cities in the world? Probably a few thousand things and I won’t lie though, I was a little nervous. But it was one of the coolest things I’ve done in this country. When we turned down the road heading to the stadium it was bumped to bumper traffic and there were people everywhere. Everyone was wearing blue and white for Honduras. Suddenly all we could hear was sirens…which is weird when you don’t hear those in the small town of Posas Verdes. So naturally we all whipped around to see what the big deal was. Chugging along after the police train was the USA teams bus. Everyone in the car suddenly got beyond excited. And we were all leaning out to catch a glimpse of the team. One of the BECA girls waved an American flag out the window, to the bus and we were all yelling. The players noticed and started taking photos of us. Our boys, who follow soccer more closely started screaming like preteens at a Justin Beiber concert. “Thats Donovan! That’s so and so! OMG his head is so shiney! I love youuuu.” It was great. And enter in what seems to be another movielike moment, the bus moved and behind it was the other half of our group on the hill drinking beers. So all got out of the car and joined them. Thats when photographers started taking pictures and some Hondurans even asked for photos with us or at least said hello. We seemed to be the only Americans hanging around and we might have been. When we finally got into the stadium about an hour and half later, our seats had been given away (still 10 mins until the game…awesome) so they moved us from a US section to a Honduran one. We had a row behind us that was completely empty and two heavily armed soldiers stayed with us for the remainder of the game. The Stadium we packed full and you could feel the hum of thousands of people. We sang the national anthems for both teams and cheered them both on. I may have cheered Honduras on more than the US both because winning means more to this country and also because I felt safer hahaha. We didn’t have any issues for the game beyond some name calling (directed at our boys because they were nuts!) and thrown beer…but I’m pretty sure everyone got it spilt on them in the stadium. The US lost the game, good for Honduras, sad for the US, good for our safety. The only thing that irked me all game was the heckling of the US team when they exited the field. Beers were thrown, middle fingers were extended and people were just rude…I was a little disappointed in the spectators. All in all though it was a great experience and I am glad that I went.
Roatan y mis padres
On the 8th I spent the night in San Pedro Sula and made my way to the Island of Roatan the following morning to see my parents for the first time in 7.5 months. It was awesome. I got there a few hours earlier than them and came back to the airport in the afternoon to get them. It was so odd, I have been anxiously waiting to see them (and for some down time) for months and there I was standing on the opposite side of two automatic doors and I could see them getting their bags. When they finally came out I ran over to them because in the 25 people outside that door, they didn’t see me (go figure) and gave them, what I would consider the biggest hugs. It was so awesome seeing them and then I got them all to myself for 7 days! We made our way to the house that we rented for the week and for the rest of the week we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. We spent a lot of time on the beach, swimming and (at least for me) eating good food! That didn’t primarily consist of beans and tortillas. I felt incredibly spoiled all week and I am tan. The best of everything.
It was strange being in the country of Honduras but in a place that spoke both English and Spanish (who knew BECA wasn’t the only bilignual place) because of this I had a sort of reverse culture shock for the first few days. Everyone I encountered spoke English, there was American Cheese, and hot showers and a washer and dryer!!…it was nuts. It took some getting used to but I was able to not feel too guilty about being spoiled and just hung out.
Highlights from the vacation included:
* Swimming with dolphins
* Snorkeling
* Eating awesome food
* Enjoying the worst DVD collection in the history of cinema
* Getting dad to drink not one but 2 alcoholic bevrages
*Driving
* Hot showers
*Sleeping in a big bed
* Seeing two people get married on the beach
Whatever the word would be for the opposite of highlight
* Security confiscated my huge bottle of nutella because they considered it a gel (bastards)
The day I arrived back on the mainland Christina was coming back from the US so I met her at her gate. It was the first day it rained in a week and man it rained HARD. It was hard to see much outside. We sat inside the food court area and waited for our ride to get us. We decompressed about our separate trips and just when we were finishing up our entourage came. We were both pretty excited
Ending to a great week despite the rain and the crummy ride back to the Hogar.
We start school tomorrow! Fingers crossed.
My Adventure in Honduras 