La Casa Mas Bonita del Mundo

Maybe not the most beautiful house in the world, but it is certainly one of the best houses that I've visited before. Today Blair (my roomate), Farah (school secretary), Suly (Kindergarten assistant), Koali (Sixth grade teacher), and Eva (school cleaning lady) all went up to the house of Eva's mom today. We hiked for about a half hour from Copan to Nueva Esperanza which is a little city nearby. From there we then hiked up into the middle of nowhere and then a little bit further. It was about a half hour hike through the brush and nothingness to get to her mom's house. When I got there I asked her younger sister if they had any neighbors and she just gave me a look like, "are you a freaking idiot?" The house has no electricity, no running water, it's made of tun/aluminum and wooden planks. It's freaking awesome!:) They made us the most amazing chicken and rice meal that I have had in a long time. Then for dessert there just happens to be a million pineapple plants in the area so we had a couple of pineapples. The walk back was quite the adventure as it was misting at the start. It was perfect weather and we had an awesome view of the city from the trail. Part way down though it started to pour down rain! Ok, not pour, but rain, not just a mist. By the time that we got home Blair and I were both fairly soaked to the bone. I'm excited to go back there in the future. Eva has like 7 brothers and sisters. Her younger sister Maria lives at home, she's 23, and has 3 kids! I'm almost 23! I don't want three kids! Ay Dios mio.

Why am I teaching?

One of the teachers has a chart for the first year teacher. There are many stages to being a teacher for the first full year. Apparently the ending step is “victory,” or something glorious like that. In the middle somewhere there’s a stage something along the lines of dismal, depressing, the great valley of doom, maybe not quite that exasperating sounding. Anyways, I’m in that valley of certain doom right now and it’s a really dumb valley to be in. I’m pretty sure that I’m wasting my students time, I think that they all hate me, none of them want to even talk to me, they make fun of me all the time (who wouldn’t make fun of their teacher in middle school?), and I can’t control anything inside the classroom. This week is exams for the second quarter, which is nice. I’m half way there, but nobody told me that the halfway point would also be the valley of doom from which I would never leave. Or at least that’s what it’s feeling like at this point. What ever happened to the library? I’d love to be sitting in the library reading with kids right about now…where for art thou library? Deny thy name, for if thou wilt not be but sworn my books. I would deny my classroom…it’s a modern teachers rendition of Shakespeare.:)
Anyways, this whole stage of dismal depression is getting a little bit depressing at school; I can’t wait for that victory stage at the end. “Chariots of Fire” will be playing in the background, my kids will all have 100% in the class, I will be schooling them all in soccer (not just math), but most importantly everything will be happening in slow motion.

Una semana terminada, millones por delante

One week of classes is down and I’m having a great time back down here in Honduras. With each day that has passed since coming back I’ve become more and more sure that I want to come down here again next year. I just had the 8th graders over tonight for s’mores and a little fire on my rooftop. Don’t panic, we have all concrete buildings here (unless they’re sticks and mud).:) None of them had really heard of s’mores, let alone tried it before. Between about 16 of us we finished about 50 s’mores, I’d say they were a smashing hit.
Here’s a pop quiz…do you know how long a teacher can have an impact on their students academic performance? In a study by the Gallup organization teachers can have an impact on their students academic performance for up to three years. This means that if you have a really bad teacher it may have negative effects for three years. But a really good teacher who cares about the kids may have a positive impact for up to three years on their schoolwork. Is anybody following my line of thought?:)

Whew...

I survived last night and am still making the trek to Copan...this is kinda fun.=)

Just When Traveling was Getting Boring…

I meet a guy named Tim, he’s far from any person that I would just strike up a great conversation with and be best friends. For starters, he’s on the plane to El Salvador and doesn’t speak Spanish very well, that’s strike number one. Strike number two is that he swears quite a bit. And strike three I learned after the flight…he smokes like a chimney, but more like a wildfire. However, he’s nice beyond all belief and I start to strike up a short conversation with him and he asks where I’m staying at. I tell him the name of the place and he says, “maybe we can take you there on the way home.” He tells his wife where it’s at and she says, “oh, the center of town, you don’t want to go there. Why don’t you stay at our house instead? We have an extra bed and would love to have you with us.” So naturally, without thinking that maybe these people are going to rob me, kill me, drop me in a ditch somewhere I say, “That’d be great!” I hop into the truck with Tim, his wife, his 11 year old daughter, and his brother-in-law Milton. Not thinking anything weird still until I realize that I’m with a complete stranger who supposedly works at the US Embassy in San Salvador, married two years ago to a Salvadorian lady, smokes and swears like it’s going outta style, and they’re telling me how you can’t trust people in San Salvador cause they will kill you and take your money.:) Anyways, we get to his house eventually and it’s really nice. It’s in a gated community and his wife just changes the sheets on the bed, sweeps the room, starts the air conditioning, and mops the floor saying, “make yourself at home!” My mom doesn’t mop my floor! Maybe cause it’s carpet…so here I am, and I just found out they have wireless internet in their house…and it’s fast…and free. This is the greatest!

The “Famous” Salvadorian Band

Did any of you hear about this group from El Salvador that was coming up for the Rose Parade but couldn’t raise enough money for the flight so they drove 5 buses up from El Salvador? Well, my mom told me about this group on New Years day and I remember thinking, “Great mom, big deal…it’s cheaper for them to take a bus, big whoop.” Although I really did care a little bit and I thought it was cool that they drove 5 days in 5 buses to get to L.A. for the parade. Anyways, our flight from Houston to San Salvador was supposed to leave at 5:45 but it was delayed to 6:05…we get on the plane at 6 and they announce that we are waiting for 47 students who represented “nuestro amado pais” (our beloved country) in the Rose Parade. I was thinking, cool, this will be fun to have a bunch of little kids on the plane. Well, as it turns out, this was part of the 200+ students that drove up from El Salvador and they had gotten the money to fly back down. One of the girls, Jenny, sat next to me and I got to talk with her throughout the flight. It was super great to get to know her and meet the “Famous Salvadorian Band”! I told her that my mom had told me about her group and asked about them driving up, for her it was her first time flying as well. She just laughed when I told her that they were famous now for making the 5 day drive just for the Rose Parade. I’m so excited to be able to say that I sat next to one of them! They were all over the plane, kids from 14-21 years old she said. She just played the cachiporra which is…I have no idea…I need to look that up. Sounds fun though.:) Anyways, other than that the travel down was fairly uneventful…just me and my famous Salvadorian friends.:)