I Told Him So!

I told him, “If you don’t get at least an 84% on the final exam this quarter, you will fail the whole year. So please, study your butt off now so that you can pass the year and not worry about failing.” I made the final exam for this quarter the exact same problems as the study guide and who came through? That student! He got a freaking 100%! Nobody else in the entire class got 100% on the test, and although the class average was low 90’s on the test, he was the only one with a flawless test. I couldn’t even take off half a point for little mistakes, it was perfect, like what every teacher dreams of.
Now that I’m done with classes and with final exams that means that I’m done with most of the secondary students until next year. There are still recuperation tests this coming week in which the kids who failed the year have a chance to take a test and make up the entire year. I’m making those tests freaking hard cause I feel that if somebody failed the entire year (especially with about half of the grade being homework) then they probably weren’t trying too hard. I notice that kids who do their homework also generally do better on the tests, surprise to everyone!
After recuperation tests next week then we have a much lower key last week and we’re done with the school year! Oh summer can not come soon enough….:)

Solo Faltan Examenes!

Es como salir de la esclavitud de siempre estar encargado de los cipotes. Ok, I’ve been in Spanish mode lately since classes semi-officially ended! I no longer have to teach, however, I do need to give three more final exams and at least 2 recuperation tests for some kids that failed the year in math. It is such a relief to be done with classes, yet at the same time, I already miss it a little bit. I’ve been so busy with classes and classes and classes that now I’m a little bit lost. For now it’s a good sense of loss and I’m feeling great about it! However, I feel like once next week is done I’m going to be a little bit bored and wanting to go back to school. Maybe I’m just making that up to try and keep down my enthusiasm right now.:)
I got to thinking also about the ninth graders leaving in just a couple months and going to far away places to study. Since there is no bilingual school within two hours of here a lot of the kids go to Santa Rosa (2 ½ hours), San Pedro (3 hours), or Tegucigalpa (6 hours). I probably won’t see any of them again, maybe once in a while if they come back on vacation or something, but that’s sad. I’m going to miss all of them, even the ones that get under my skin.:) But for now let’s not think about that, instead let’s think about how we are done with classes for the summer!

The Lights Went

No really they left and went away. At least that’s how you say it in Spanish, “se fue la luz.” Where it went to I’m not sure, but it happens frequently around here, the luz decides there is a better place to be and leaves us alone with the oscuridad (darkness). For example, at school on Wednesday we are in the middle of class and the power goes out. It not really a huge deal. I can deal without the luz, but then the fan in my room doesn’t work. Also not a huge deal, unless it’s around 95 out and quite humid! I actually don’t think I’ve been in weather a whole lot hotter feeling than this here the past couple days. Then there’s the friend of luz, agua, they rarely hang out together because one of them is usually turned off. Today at school we had the pleasure of being without either one. Also not a huge deal for school, we can function as far as class goes. However, the lunches can’t be prepared by the caseta without luz and agua. My eighth graders started a roomer that we were going at 11am due to the lack of our two friends. I went to the office to ask and they had a perplexed look, “no, we’re not leaving early.” Dangit! I wanted to go early, I was hot and tired! Then I went later in the morning, around 9, to try and convince Norma that we should not have class. Once again, I failed…I think that due to pressure from multiple teachers (i.e. everybody) and reasoning the office decided to send us home at 11am! You should have seen the joy, the jubilation, this sense of little school children playing in the mud filling the lunchroom. And that was just amongst the teachers, you should have seen how happy the kids were!
In order to celebrate the canceling of Wednesday afternoon I played baseball with a bunch of kids at school, went home for two seconds, and went to the pool where I found a good place for not only myself, but just about every teacher at Mayatan. We get in for free, but normally you need to pay 50 lempiras. I really think that I need to go there more often, I don’t know why I haven’t. Oh right, it’s like a 5 minute walk from my house, just so far. After I walk a solid 25 minutes to school I just can’t make it those extra five minutes, whew…:) I love when the luz decides to go away…but more so when the agua also decides to leave with it on vacation and we leave school early.:)

Playing Ball

Yesterday I was eating my dinner at a neighbor’s house when the kid who’s about 11 turned to a baseball game. Red Sox vs. Detroit, if that matters to anybody. I was personally sad to see Detroit losing 2-0 in the 3rd, but not as sad as I am to be a Mariners fan.
Ok, all beside the point. I ask the kid if he likes to play baseball and he gives me the most enthusiastic yes I’ve seen from him. It progresses and he goes and gets his glove and a ball. We toss it in the house for a bit (I’m not completely grown up yet) before I suggest going out and playing in the street. I find another old glove lying around the house and take that with me to play catch with him.
At first things seem a little bit boring and then I start throwing him some pop-ups. He gets a little more energetic and starts telling me to throw it higher and higher. I throw it in front of him, behind him, to the side, the other side, and then it hits me…this kid doesn’t have a dad nor brothers to play ball with. He told me that he loves playing yet there’s nobody in his life that he can play with. This made me quite a bit more energetic to play, neighbors were watching us out on the cobblestone throwing back and forth as they ducked a few times for wild pop flies and errant return throws.:)
I remember that when I was a kid I loved playing catch with my dad and I’m sure he knew that cause I asked him to play every 5 seconds. At the end of playing this kid asked me, “so when are we going to play again?” I was so excited that he enjoyed playing ball! I hope that we get plenty of chances between now and the end of this next month and a half here to play. Maybe I’ll have to bring back some baseball stuff when I go home in the summer.
Now, my arm is of course not feeling as excited as my mind. I haven’t played real baseball in years and I don’t think that I’ve played catch for that long since I was in high school. So much fun…

North Coast

Yesterday marked the first time I've ever visited the North Coast of Honduras and the first time that I've ever been in the Caribbean. First off, the water is a delightful temperature! Second off, I do suggest going with Hondurans to a Honduras beach if you get the chance.:)
We left Copan at 5:15am and arrived in Tela around 10:30am. It was a long trek to get there, but so worth it once we arrived. Heck, I took Dramamine and was awake for about an hour of the trip (most of that being our breakfast stop). I got to swim in the ocean for the first time in years! I don't even remember the last time that I fully immersed myself and swam in the ocean...wow, I just thought about how long it's been. Anyways, there's an old railroad bridge thing that goes into the middle of nowhere but serves as a good pier to walk out on and get a good view of the beach in both directions. For lunch we had an amazing amount of choices and I was forced to choose the Tilapia fish (I had to go with fish on the coast). It was the hugest plate I've seen in eons loaded with fish fried in Parmesan cheese, different...but good.
After lunch I didn't return to the water but instead played some soccer with the kids on the trip and read my book in the shade next to the ocean. It was such a relaxing time that we had! We left the beach at 5pm and arrived back in Copan around 10:30pm last night. All the other foreign staff stayed in Tela for the weekend so I got to ride back with a bunch of Hondurans. I sat near Eva and Lourdes and it was great. They're two of the cleaning ladies at school. They have a good understanding of my Spanish ability since I've talked with them both quite a bit and they know when to slow down and when they can talk normal speed. I think that they can read the expression on my face really well to know if I'm completely lost or not. Lourdes then decided that singing along with the Ranchero music would be a good idea and our bus driver Lino apparently agreed. Ranchero is the Mexican style accordion music with pistols shooting off and guys hooting loudly and out of control. Does that paint a good picture for the type of music? It was hilarious to hear them both singing along at times.:)
So there you have it...my first and probably not last trip to the north coast of Honduras. Oh, didn't even mention the best part, all of the trip... paid for by the school! They gave us a 100 lempira allowance of which I even saved 15 lempiras, so I got paid to go to the coast! Now, when you do the conversion, that's only 80 cents, but hey, that's a whole baleada or two depending where I go!:)