Another week of work completed, well mostly completely minus the ridiculous amount of hours I will spend this week working on preparing our own tests. To all my teacher friends, please never ever take having resources for granted! And when I say resources I mean a copy machine and the ability to print without tallying the number of pages you have printed, let alone a paper slicer. I wish I could say that my artistic abilities have grown since the necessity for visuals is astounding but sadly, I still draw mis-shaped stick figures that only slightly resemble either male of female irregardless of the beautiful triangular dress I attempt to represent the ladies. Good thing I still have a few (8) months to perfect my drawing skills!
This week has been crazy busy but for the most part I truly enjoyed it and have helped me to grow as a teacher and a person.
Monday after school I went to the doctor to find out what my tummy was up to and turns out I had some amoebas in my belly causing slight mayhem. The doctor was an interesting experience for sure, he was very nice man but searched around poking and prodding my belly as it had never been poked or prodded before and asking if it hurts. If my fingers were digging into your innards you would probably think it hurts a bit as well. Conveniently though the pharmacy was located just down a little walkway from the doctor's office. Feeling much better these days! or perhaps its just fear of fingers digging into my intestines either way works for me!
Tuesday, after school the high school students had a dance competition in a nearby town, which I am ecstatic to say that they did a fabulous job and won first place, out of 3. I can't fail to mention the process in which Kate and I went through to actually arrive in Bellin. There was no room in the car of a colleague so Kate and I decided to hitchhike there, I mean porque no? everyone in Honduras does it. Eventually we found a man who take us a bit closer to where we were going but couldn't take us the whole way, so we hopped in the back and held on for dear life as tore down the streets of Gracias, never mind the potholes and speed bumps. At one point we definitely exchanged looks of Oh man what did we get ourselves into.... While clinging to life in the back of this truck we hear a series of honking and turn to realize it was some other colleagues who were on their way as well, unfortunately no room in their car either but they called the bus driver and told him to pick us up. A bag of Doritos, a Fanta, and about 30 minutes later yet another colleague drives by and we flail our arms and flag her down, finally a car with some room. We gladly hopped in and arrived safely at our destination.
Wednesday, Kate and I met with a nun living in Gracias to set up a tutoring session with a family who desperately wants their children to learn English. Then, had a meeting at work which I will attempt to explain the goings ons of such meeting. The meeting began at 6:00 and we walked in to see an agenda on the board which was actually quite surprising and we had high hopes for a short meeting that was efficient and right to the point. Ha ha ha we must have forgotten which country we are living in. The school was nice enough to bring in a guest speaker who is a pastor in Gracias. His coworker had some interesting games for us to play as he set up a power point presentation, quite impressive right? Well these games consisted of standing in a big circle giving each other back massages and tickling, yes I said tickling each other. I go back to beginning of year meetings in HS where a lawyer presents an hour long presentation on how it could be perceived as harassment to compliment each other, he may have had a heart attack if he saw us patting each others stomachs. After some discomfort amongst us gringos we go back to the meeting for some marriage counseling....Finally, we reach the most important parts of the meeting but are all so frustrated and tired by this point that the environment became slightly hostile. After 2 1/2 hours the meeting came to a close and we rushed home to finally relax a little.
Thursday, we met with sister Brenda and the family of the children we will be tutoring. They were the sweetest family and so appreciative of our help. This family has a house but was talking about how hard it is to live here but was even worse working in the US because he couldn't be with his family. This man has worked hard all of his life and it was evident from the lines on his face and the heaviness in his eyes. He wants the best for his children but can't afford to send them to a bilingual school. I had never realized before how much I enjoy giving and helping. I know opportunities to help are everywhere but have never been so in my face. Again I am so thankful for this experience and chance to grow. I am so humbled by living here.
Some things I can't forget to write about:
Remember when....
....I tried playing kickball with my kids and they didn't understand the rules but ran around for 30 minutes having a blast
.....Kate made a comment about a room smelling nice when I then pointed out that the lovely fragrance was in fact Raid
......school meetings encouraged sexual harassment lol
.......when a bat sized moth flew into my classroom and the kiddos ( and myself included) went a little bit crazy
.......the water isn't even safe enough to brush your teeth with
........when our English daily digresses and we have begun speaking Spanglish
......my kids are seriously awesome and I dearly love them even when they lose a tooth and I throw up in my mouth a little bit
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