One of many differences between Spanish culture in Spain and in Central America (in particular, Honduras), is the use of the word "adios". In Spain they don't use it, in Honduras they do. But what I always found really neat in Honduras was how they use it.
In Honduras, "adios" is used as a greeting, as a goodbye, and just a thing to say in passing. This was always encouraging for me, because "adios" is used to literally say: "go with God", or "God be with you". It is a way for people to communicate love and encouragement in a word. Strangers will say it to you in passing on the street, instead of quietly averting their eyes when walking past, as they seem to do in North America. It is so much more meaningful to me than a hasty "hello" or "goodbye", and I like it because it can mean either one. This is why my last post from Chapter 1 of my travels this year, has to be entitled "Adios"; because the fact that I'm leaving does not mean that it is a final goodbye.
It is not a "goodbye", it is not a "hello", it is just a well-wishing to all back in Cofradia, and a notice that I hope the people I met there can continually meet God in all they do everyday. Dear Grade 3 and all Cofradians: God be with you, see you soon.
Peace.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Update
The ¨We wish you a Merry Christmas¨ song is sounding a lot better. If you wanted to know. The hardest sentence is ¨We won´t go until we get some¨... it often sounds a lot more like: ¨We washa wa we want some¨ (in thick spanish accents). But give us a break, we´re trying. Enjoy the pictures.
Peace.
Peace.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Field Trip! Music!
Friday was a field trip to Copan. If you can even picture how crazy 100 spanish kids would be at school, try to picture loading them onto 2 school buses and bringing them to another private school 3 hours away, and then bringing them on a tour of a bird sanctuary and mayan ruins. Those of you back home that know the size of those tours (anyone from the Crescent trips), know that that amount of children is insane. However, it was really fun to just hang out with a bunch of the kids outside of a school environment and Copan is a cool place. Plus their parents accompanied them, so us teachers left the discipline of crazy students to their mother or father while on the trip.
There were a few lowlights to the trip.
#1: waiting in lines.
#2: The fact that only about half the students from the school could afford to come on the field trip. The mind-blowing thing was that it cost about 8$ to come. For many parents that I talked to beforehand, that was simply a luxery they could not pay for.
#3: Even for the kids that were "rich" enough to come, the visit to the other private school was anything but educational. They would probably have described it as embarrassing. The other school was actually a VERY wealthy school, and seeing their green acres of fields and well supplied classrooms, basically just made our students feel humiliated. 60%-70% or our students can't afford school, so they are on scholarship, and the people that pay full price, pay about 150 limpira (about 7-8 dollars) a month to come. The private school we went to charges about $150 per month to go. But I was proud of our kids. I'm convinced our kids are funnier, cooler, and...more rad. But maybe I'm just biased.
Myself, Cat, Caroline, and Alex all stayed in Copan after the field trip and hung about the town friday night and saturday morning. It's a cool town, so it made for a fun weekend of shopping, eating at cool restaurants, and meeting bearded Central American backpackers that were passing through.
The last bit of this update will just be to tell you all that I have recently been given a whole lot of new music. Katherine(one of my students)'s father and I found out that we are both really into music, and he has proceeded to burn me a whole wack of sweet mp3 cds. Just thought I'd let ya'll know that piece of news. He's a really cool guy too, and I basically go to their house, help tutor Katherine, then talk to him about music and listen to his favourite Neil Young albums (he LOVES Niel Young). Good times.
Peace.
There were a few lowlights to the trip.
#1: waiting in lines.
#2: The fact that only about half the students from the school could afford to come on the field trip. The mind-blowing thing was that it cost about 8$ to come. For many parents that I talked to beforehand, that was simply a luxery they could not pay for.
#3: Even for the kids that were "rich" enough to come, the visit to the other private school was anything but educational. They would probably have described it as embarrassing. The other school was actually a VERY wealthy school, and seeing their green acres of fields and well supplied classrooms, basically just made our students feel humiliated. 60%-70% or our students can't afford school, so they are on scholarship, and the people that pay full price, pay about 150 limpira (about 7-8 dollars) a month to come. The private school we went to charges about $150 per month to go. But I was proud of our kids. I'm convinced our kids are funnier, cooler, and...more rad. But maybe I'm just biased.
Myself, Cat, Caroline, and Alex all stayed in Copan after the field trip and hung about the town friday night and saturday morning. It's a cool town, so it made for a fun weekend of shopping, eating at cool restaurants, and meeting bearded Central American backpackers that were passing through.
The last bit of this update will just be to tell you all that I have recently been given a whole lot of new music. Katherine(one of my students)'s father and I found out that we are both really into music, and he has proceeded to burn me a whole wack of sweet mp3 cds. Just thought I'd let ya'll know that piece of news. He's a really cool guy too, and I basically go to their house, help tutor Katherine, then talk to him about music and listen to his favourite Neil Young albums (he LOVES Niel Young). Good times.
Peace.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
New Volunteer.
Yep, the rumours are true. We have a new volunteer from Canada. She´s also a gap year-er, also from Canada (actually Toronto), and she also happens to be helping with my grade 3 class for the next two weeks...and then we´re taking the same flight home, and apparently we have seats next to each other on the plane. Oh yeah, and her name is Catherine Taylor, and she´s also my girlfriend. weird eh?
So...partly due to a really big surprise this past weekend (the arrival of our new volunteer), I have been doing excellently. Sadly, the time continues to race by with no sign of slowing down. In grade 3 we are furiously working towards the deadline of December 14th (the Christmas performance), for the grand showing of a thirty piece accapella choir singing "we wish you a merry christmas" at the top of their little lungs. But by golly, you should hear the way the sound echoes along the classroom walls when they are at work. Frightening. Glorious. Ebert and Roper give it two thumbs up.
It´s been really helpful having Catherine here to help teach. All the struggling students now have the ability to go out and work with her in small groups, and we also get to do a lot of reading practice in groups outside. The last week or so should be fun...we´ve finished the science project, we´re working on an english project now, and we´ve got some pretty cool games, "science experiments", and final week festivities lined up. Should be ill.
The hospitality of the people here is very very cool. I may have mentioned this before, but I feel that this point needs re-stating. If anyone were to ever plan on going to a country like this to teach kids (or live and volunteer in some way), I strongly recommend getting involved in the community: reaching out to families outside of school (or wherever you are working), and accepting invitations over to their houses for dinner, despite the feeling of "you barely have enough for yourselves, why are you serving me!?". They WANT to have you over, they get so excited showing you their cd collections, serving you their best refried beans, and the parents are more than willing to be patient with a young white guys broken spanish. As amazing as the grade 3´s are, I´m equally blown away by the love and hospitality of so many of their parents and families. I DON´T WANT TO LEAVE.
Peace.
So...partly due to a really big surprise this past weekend (the arrival of our new volunteer), I have been doing excellently. Sadly, the time continues to race by with no sign of slowing down. In grade 3 we are furiously working towards the deadline of December 14th (the Christmas performance), for the grand showing of a thirty piece accapella choir singing "we wish you a merry christmas" at the top of their little lungs. But by golly, you should hear the way the sound echoes along the classroom walls when they are at work. Frightening. Glorious. Ebert and Roper give it two thumbs up.
It´s been really helpful having Catherine here to help teach. All the struggling students now have the ability to go out and work with her in small groups, and we also get to do a lot of reading practice in groups outside. The last week or so should be fun...we´ve finished the science project, we´re working on an english project now, and we´ve got some pretty cool games, "science experiments", and final week festivities lined up. Should be ill.
The hospitality of the people here is very very cool. I may have mentioned this before, but I feel that this point needs re-stating. If anyone were to ever plan on going to a country like this to teach kids (or live and volunteer in some way), I strongly recommend getting involved in the community: reaching out to families outside of school (or wherever you are working), and accepting invitations over to their houses for dinner, despite the feeling of "you barely have enough for yourselves, why are you serving me!?". They WANT to have you over, they get so excited showing you their cd collections, serving you their best refried beans, and the parents are more than willing to be patient with a young white guys broken spanish. As amazing as the grade 3´s are, I´m equally blown away by the love and hospitality of so many of their parents and families. I DON´T WANT TO LEAVE.
Peace.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
That's ROBBERY!/ Teaching news
No...I'm not talking about Roberto Luongo. I'm talking about intruders in our house that were slightly larger than mice, but they decided not to stay, as the mice have happily decided. Basically, we woke up on Wednesday morning to find that in the night, some guys had hopped up on our balcony, come into my/nathan's room (right off the balcony), and stolen nathan's music/video player, and my grocery money and digital camera (with 200 photos on it....dang.) while we slept. The scary thing is that those items were a couple feet from where we slept...so I'm kinda glad we didn't wake up, cuz I dunno what kind of ruckus would've went down...I mean, I would've felt bad for making the thieves have to deal with two burly Canadian boys that late at night.
I find I have no patience when I'm teaching with a big headache. I've kinda been pretty drained in the last week or so, since I had that run in with a bit of illness, and it's really been teaching me all sorts of things about just taking it slow and having patience when I'm teaching. It's definitely hard to appreciate the kids that like to yell in class when you have a headache to begin with. Bah humbug.
But this week has been good, despite being tired. We've had a pretty good time working on a group science project, and writing a letter as a class to Mr. Sean (the awesome teacher that taught these guys last year in grade 2 - he's a teacher in the states now, and after getting in touch with him by email, he said our classes could do pen pals stuff to help the kids practice their writing skills!). So the week has been tiring one, but tomorrow is friday, and I'm realizing that after tomorrow, there's only two more weeks of class before christmas break...and then i leave! And I'm starting to feel like I'm even going to miss the headache-bringers of the class. It's definitely going to be tough to leave.
ALSO! We've started practicing "we wish you a Merry Christmas", because grade 3 is going to perform that song at the Christmas concert...and oh man, it has potential to be one hilarious performance.
Peace.
I find I have no patience when I'm teaching with a big headache. I've kinda been pretty drained in the last week or so, since I had that run in with a bit of illness, and it's really been teaching me all sorts of things about just taking it slow and having patience when I'm teaching. It's definitely hard to appreciate the kids that like to yell in class when you have a headache to begin with. Bah humbug.
But this week has been good, despite being tired. We've had a pretty good time working on a group science project, and writing a letter as a class to Mr. Sean (the awesome teacher that taught these guys last year in grade 2 - he's a teacher in the states now, and after getting in touch with him by email, he said our classes could do pen pals stuff to help the kids practice their writing skills!). So the week has been tiring one, but tomorrow is friday, and I'm realizing that after tomorrow, there's only two more weeks of class before christmas break...and then i leave! And I'm starting to feel like I'm even going to miss the headache-bringers of the class. It's definitely going to be tough to leave.
ALSO! We've started practicing "we wish you a Merry Christmas", because grade 3 is going to perform that song at the Christmas concert...and oh man, it has potential to be one hilarious performance.
Peace.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Typo?
I would just like to apolologize for the massive computer error that apprently deleted some of my last paragraph in the previous post...It's supposed to say this:
"...and friends of Mel and Tobi's who are teaching elsewhere in Honduras, gathered for (American) thanksgiving."
Ok. that was gonna keep me awake tonight if i didn't do something.
I hope everyone who reads this knows how cool they are for reading it. high five to you.
Peace.
"...and friends of Mel and Tobi's who are teaching elsewhere in Honduras, gathered for (American) thanksgiving."
Ok. that was gonna keep me awake tonight if i didn't do something.
I hope everyone who reads this knows how cool they are for reading it. high five to you.
Peace.
A Crazy skit!, parent/teacher interviews, and THREE turkeys.
Oh man. If you've ever been to Boys camp (OPC...whaddup), and seen the "crazy skit" at the campfire, keep reading! If not...keep reading!
Ok, so I've got this new strategy. On friday's during english (the last period of the day), grade 3 does a "crazy skit" to practice what we've gone over in english that week. This past friday was crazy skit #1. For those of you that don't know, basically, I write a skit involving as many members of the class as possible. In class, I read the "skit" aloud, and when a student hears their name enter the story, they have to run to the front and say/act whatever is written in the skit. The skit is ridiculous. The skit is hilarious. And the skit is (hopefully), a slightly educational review of english concepts from the week. This weeks skit featured Victor doing the moonwalk, and Juan continually mooing like a cow. It turned out to be a success, because we did a comprehension thing at the end, and the general plotline of the skit (although very ridiculous) was understood, and the english concepts seem to be sinking in! But holy cow was it funny....The kids were laughing, and I could barely read from the script because of how hard I was laughing.
I was dreading Saturday morning. We were meeting with the parents of our class to hand out reports and struggle in broken spanish and communicate how their kids were doing. Parent/teacher interviews...DUN DUN DUUUUUHHH!!!!!! ("Jaws" theme music starts playing). You see, the thing with grade 3, is there's 30 of them. And despite my efforts, some of them failed the first exams...and some of those kids, still failed the make-up exams...So i was preparing to face an angry horde of parents of the 4-5 kids that failed certain courses. As it turned out, in classic Honduran style, most of the parents didn't show up. Grade 3 had the biggest showing of parents of any grade, at 18...and it went really well! I was blown away by how thankfull the parents were about the work I'm doing, and how supportive and encouraging they were in trying to see how they could help me. It was really cool. I mean, yes there are a couple of parents who are pretty intense and kind of interrogated me about the work their son was doing...or lack of work...and I basically had to be brutally honest with certain parents: Umm... Su Hijo, es no eschucha, y no trabajo en class. Sus Attenta en class, es Muy abaho! (something like that would come out of my mouth...in horrible grammar...and the parents would be forced to consider telling their son to put some effort into Mr. Tim's classes). I could rant for days about how supportive and cool Victors parents were though...they took me aside, and his dad (who is self-taught in english and absolutely brilliant), explained in english how thankful he and his wife were for me. I was so encouraged.
Saturday night was sweet! Every volunteer in Cofradia (all the San Jeronimo School teachers, and Cofradia Bilingual School teachers, as well as friends of Mel and Tobi (American) thanksgiving potluck feast! It was very cool to have such a huge meal...there were over 30 people there, 3 turkeys, and PILES of mashed potatoes and stuffing...quite a non-Honduran meal, but very fun all the same.
Hello to everyone on the global outreach page at crescent!...apparently this is being posted there now!
Peace.
Ok, so I've got this new strategy. On friday's during english (the last period of the day), grade 3 does a "crazy skit" to practice what we've gone over in english that week. This past friday was crazy skit #1. For those of you that don't know, basically, I write a skit involving as many members of the class as possible. In class, I read the "skit" aloud, and when a student hears their name enter the story, they have to run to the front and say/act whatever is written in the skit. The skit is ridiculous. The skit is hilarious. And the skit is (hopefully), a slightly educational review of english concepts from the week. This weeks skit featured Victor doing the moonwalk, and Juan continually mooing like a cow. It turned out to be a success, because we did a comprehension thing at the end, and the general plotline of the skit (although very ridiculous) was understood, and the english concepts seem to be sinking in! But holy cow was it funny....The kids were laughing, and I could barely read from the script because of how hard I was laughing.
I was dreading Saturday morning. We were meeting with the parents of our class to hand out reports and struggle in broken spanish and communicate how their kids were doing. Parent/teacher interviews...DUN DUN DUUUUUHHH!!!!!! ("Jaws" theme music starts playing). You see, the thing with grade 3, is there's 30 of them. And despite my efforts, some of them failed the first exams...and some of those kids, still failed the make-up exams...So i was preparing to face an angry horde of parents of the 4-5 kids that failed certain courses. As it turned out, in classic Honduran style, most of the parents didn't show up. Grade 3 had the biggest showing of parents of any grade, at 18...and it went really well! I was blown away by how thankfull the parents were about the work I'm doing, and how supportive and encouraging they were in trying to see how they could help me. It was really cool. I mean, yes there are a couple of parents who are pretty intense and kind of interrogated me about the work their son was doing...or lack of work...and I basically had to be brutally honest with certain parents: Umm... Su Hijo, es no eschucha, y no trabajo en class. Sus Attenta en class, es Muy abaho! (something like that would come out of my mouth...in horrible grammar...and the parents would be forced to consider telling their son to put some effort into Mr. Tim's classes). I could rant for days about how supportive and cool Victors parents were though...they took me aside, and his dad (who is self-taught in english and absolutely brilliant), explained in english how thankful he and his wife were for me. I was so encouraged.
Saturday night was sweet! Every volunteer in Cofradia (all the San Jeronimo School teachers, and Cofradia Bilingual School teachers, as well as friends of Mel and Tobi (American) thanksgiving potluck feast! It was very cool to have such a huge meal...there were over 30 people there, 3 turkeys, and PILES of mashed potatoes and stuffing...quite a non-Honduran meal, but very fun all the same.
Hello to everyone on the global outreach page at crescent!...apparently this is being posted there now!
Peace.
Monday, November 19, 2007
A water heater and men with machete's!
Approximately 50% of Honduran men carry a machete.
Approximately 100% of Hondurans try to impress you/hit on you/ strike up a conversation with you with their single word, or phrase of english. The Humour comes in when it is not just your classic "hello" or "goodbye" that they know, but something a bit more interesting. The hilarity ensues when it is a man with a machete. I think I did the world's biggest double take when a toothless old, machete weilding Honduran walked past me and gave me the nod and "sup." I was like: "sup dawg....what!?...umm.....ola amigo?"
Also, We made a discovery in our house! (Hence the momentous blog entry!). We found out that Alex's shower (which doesn't work) has a water heater atteched to it. So, as I write this, Nathan (an engineering graduate) is rewiring the heater for Harardo's shower (the only shower...cough....hose in the wall that works)...so we might have warm showers soon! This is epic. This might mean that I might shower more! and then I won't smell bad! and then I'll make friends!...Just kidding, I don't smell that bad...well...people talk to me.
I'm finding that I'm getting more attached to teaching these grade 3's. This has good and bad results. Good: I really enjoy teaching, and I love the kids. Bad: If the slower kids are struggling with a concept, I get more and more stressed/tired out when they continue to be totally apathetic about putting some sort of effort in. Gosh, I feel sorry for some of my math teachers from back in the day...the other bad part is that I'm realizing how much I'm going to miss them all when I have to leave. I only have 4 weeks of teaching left! But exams are done, make up exams are done, and this weekend was the busiest weekend yet! REPORTS!! Luckily I got nice and sick so i couldn't go out anyways, but the brainless drudgery of compiling reports is time consuming and BORING. Exams/Make up exams went pretty well...except for Darwin, who despite 2 weeks of constant review, and 1 week of make up review, managed to fail every exam. DANG. And there were a couple others that decided not to put any effort into certain subjects. I mean, I've gotta be honest, i agree with Darwin: studying is boring, hanging out with friends is fun...but the thing is I WENT OVER EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOING TO BE ON THE EXAM FOR TWO WEEKS STAIGHT! ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS LISTEN AND WRITE IT DOWN ONCE!!!!...gosh golly gee. so there are a couple of parents who aren't going to be too pleased when they read the reports, to say the least. I've already had to deal with a lifetime worth of angry Honduran parents.
Have I actually never mentioned "Mr. Sean" on this blog? Remind me to do that next post.
So I'm definitely learning about patience, people, love, teaching, and a lot of spanish! Thankyou (to whoever is reading this) for your support, comments (I read them all), prayers and thoughts! It's all very encouraging.
Peace.
PS - for those Boys Camp representin' peeps: I'm planning on implementing a weekly "crazy skit" (Ben Stevenson style) in my class. This friday is the trial run. Also, Cofradia Ultimate hopefully starts tomorrow.
Approximately 100% of Hondurans try to impress you/hit on you/ strike up a conversation with you with their single word, or phrase of english. The Humour comes in when it is not just your classic "hello" or "goodbye" that they know, but something a bit more interesting. The hilarity ensues when it is a man with a machete. I think I did the world's biggest double take when a toothless old, machete weilding Honduran walked past me and gave me the nod and "sup." I was like: "sup dawg....what!?...umm.....ola amigo?"
Also, We made a discovery in our house! (Hence the momentous blog entry!). We found out that Alex's shower (which doesn't work) has a water heater atteched to it. So, as I write this, Nathan (an engineering graduate) is rewiring the heater for Harardo's shower (the only shower...cough....hose in the wall that works)...so we might have warm showers soon! This is epic. This might mean that I might shower more! and then I won't smell bad! and then I'll make friends!...Just kidding, I don't smell that bad...well...people talk to me.
I'm finding that I'm getting more attached to teaching these grade 3's. This has good and bad results. Good: I really enjoy teaching, and I love the kids. Bad: If the slower kids are struggling with a concept, I get more and more stressed/tired out when they continue to be totally apathetic about putting some sort of effort in. Gosh, I feel sorry for some of my math teachers from back in the day...the other bad part is that I'm realizing how much I'm going to miss them all when I have to leave. I only have 4 weeks of teaching left! But exams are done, make up exams are done, and this weekend was the busiest weekend yet! REPORTS!! Luckily I got nice and sick so i couldn't go out anyways, but the brainless drudgery of compiling reports is time consuming and BORING. Exams/Make up exams went pretty well...except for Darwin, who despite 2 weeks of constant review, and 1 week of make up review, managed to fail every exam. DANG. And there were a couple others that decided not to put any effort into certain subjects. I mean, I've gotta be honest, i agree with Darwin: studying is boring, hanging out with friends is fun...but the thing is I WENT OVER EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOING TO BE ON THE EXAM FOR TWO WEEKS STAIGHT! ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS LISTEN AND WRITE IT DOWN ONCE!!!!...gosh golly gee. so there are a couple of parents who aren't going to be too pleased when they read the reports, to say the least. I've already had to deal with a lifetime worth of angry Honduran parents.
Have I actually never mentioned "Mr. Sean" on this blog? Remind me to do that next post.
So I'm definitely learning about patience, people, love, teaching, and a lot of spanish! Thankyou (to whoever is reading this) for your support, comments (I read them all), prayers and thoughts! It's all very encouraging.
Peace.
PS - for those Boys Camp representin' peeps: I'm planning on implementing a weekly "crazy skit" (Ben Stevenson style) in my class. This friday is the trial run. Also, Cofradia Ultimate hopefully starts tomorrow.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Exams/The beach!
I think it's weird that I'm down in the Carribean and I just had my first weekend at the beach...but there it was, in all its beauty, the North coast of Honduras. (A beach covered with garbage, slowly being raked away by the wind, and the men with rakes...they worked hard so you could see some of the sand). So it was no five star resort...but I am exxagerating, we did find some nicer parts where we hung out, tossed the frisbee, and read books. It was a very relaxing weekend. We also got to stay at this really nice place for 200 limperas each (basically nothing) which was about half price, because the lady was really nice to us poor travelling wannabe teachers.
The exam marks are in! well....except english....and 11 out of 31 failed the math exam...but, only 3 failed science! that was great news...sort of. This week is basically "make up exam week" at Cofradia Bilingual school, so hopefully the kids get their act together for this round.
Spanish lessons are definitely underway here, and Gaby, my wonderful teacher is helping me a lot! I can actually understand the kids when they complain in class, and i can get by (sort of) on the street! Every monday and thursday i walk up to Gaby's shop in the village and she teaches me spanish and I help her with her english pronunciation, its good times! I met her through Melanie (Aussie teacher), and she is very cool, and a very patient teacher.
Ok, so just a quick one. Hopefully I'll get into a fight with some animal for next time...gotta keep the crowds on the edge of their seats! (Just kidding Mom!).
Peace.
The exam marks are in! well....except english....and 11 out of 31 failed the math exam...but, only 3 failed science! that was great news...sort of. This week is basically "make up exam week" at Cofradia Bilingual school, so hopefully the kids get their act together for this round.
Spanish lessons are definitely underway here, and Gaby, my wonderful teacher is helping me a lot! I can actually understand the kids when they complain in class, and i can get by (sort of) on the street! Every monday and thursday i walk up to Gaby's shop in the village and she teaches me spanish and I help her with her english pronunciation, its good times! I met her through Melanie (Aussie teacher), and she is very cool, and a very patient teacher.
Ok, so just a quick one. Hopefully I'll get into a fight with some animal for next time...gotta keep the crowds on the edge of their seats! (Just kidding Mom!).
Peace.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
The Mouse Hunt
Ok. I couldn't leave the computer without telling this story.
We had a mouse in our house last week. And I, being the only "manly Canadian" in the house, decided I would take care of business. I made a trap that involved an egg carton, duct tape, a cardboard tube and a bucket of water (don't ask), which didn't seem to work. I actually documented the whole experiment/procedure in my trip journal, you can read my reasoning there if you want.
Basically, the day we went to can the trap and start looking for mice poison, I picked up the duct tape and the cardboard tubing, and as i walked to the garbage, something began stinging, and moving in my hand with the duct tape...and unless duct tape has a mind of its own, I soon realized this was no ordinary duct tape...this was duct tape, with a mouse stuck to it! AND THE MOUSE WAS BITING ME!!! AHHHH!!!!!! (oh horror, the audience shields their eyes)....but I, as the "brave, manly Canadian boy", jumped about 5 feet, shook the mouse to the ground (where it lay stunned), and looked at Harardo and Alex (who were in the room at the time) in shock.
Alex quickly put a plastic cup over it, and after some hesitation, Harardo dropped a cinder block on the cup....long story short: no more mouse.
So anyways, this led to a whole scare about Canadian doctors telling me i could get rabies, Honduran doctors telling me the rabies shot was government controlled, and they would only give me a tetanus needle (at the honduras public hospital - an interesting place)...but it turned out that (upon further research from Ms. Jennifer Martin) mice don't carry rabies, and I wasn't gonna turn into some frothy mouthed monster.
Just thought I'd share that story with you. good times.
We had a mouse in our house last week. And I, being the only "manly Canadian" in the house, decided I would take care of business. I made a trap that involved an egg carton, duct tape, a cardboard tube and a bucket of water (don't ask), which didn't seem to work. I actually documented the whole experiment/procedure in my trip journal, you can read my reasoning there if you want.
Basically, the day we went to can the trap and start looking for mice poison, I picked up the duct tape and the cardboard tubing, and as i walked to the garbage, something began stinging, and moving in my hand with the duct tape...and unless duct tape has a mind of its own, I soon realized this was no ordinary duct tape...this was duct tape, with a mouse stuck to it! AND THE MOUSE WAS BITING ME!!! AHHHH!!!!!! (oh horror, the audience shields their eyes)....but I, as the "brave, manly Canadian boy", jumped about 5 feet, shook the mouse to the ground (where it lay stunned), and looked at Harardo and Alex (who were in the room at the time) in shock.
Alex quickly put a plastic cup over it, and after some hesitation, Harardo dropped a cinder block on the cup....long story short: no more mouse.
So anyways, this led to a whole scare about Canadian doctors telling me i could get rabies, Honduran doctors telling me the rabies shot was government controlled, and they would only give me a tetanus needle (at the honduras public hospital - an interesting place)...but it turned out that (upon further research from Ms. Jennifer Martin) mice don't carry rabies, and I wasn't gonna turn into some frothy mouthed monster.
Just thought I'd share that story with you. good times.
Weekend Away/ Exams/ New Volunteers/ trying new things!
So it's been a while! My apologies for the delay, but life has suddenly become very busy down here! This week is exam week, so I've been scrounging to figure out how i can prepare the grade 3's for the exams, and what I should even put on a bunch of exams for kids that range from being basically bilingual, to some kids that make me doubt whether anything I've said in these three weeks has been understood....So I've had a lot of preparing, assigning homework, and marking to do to keep me busy, that's for sure.
We also have 11 new volunteers here! CRAZY! Nathan, our new housemate, arrived last week, and he's gonna be here until the end of the year, and on friday, 10 British volunteers walked through the front gate of the school during last period (which made it excessively hard to keep the attention of the kids - especially the boys, because 9 of those 10 were female). Henry got up on his chair and exclaimed (in a thick spanish accent) "MISS!! MISS, I LOVE YOU!"...to which I had to try desperately not to laugh, while explaining that he didn't actually love any of them...but long story short, we've got reinforcements!
As for trying new things, I've now been in a chicken bus (an expired school bus from the states that gets driven down to central america to be used to carry as many passengers as they can hold from village to village), a village taxi (a three wheeled contraption that stalls...a lot), and a highway taxi (a four wheeled contraption, with a driver that thinks he is James Bond). And I've been really enjoying going to the market on sundays, eating Baleyadas and Pastolidos...and today i went to one of the churches in the village with Melanie, which was quite interesting and cool.
This weekend we also went to El Cajon, which is a really cool part of Honduras where Harardo used to teach...we got to stay there for free and one of Harardo's friends took us on a tour of the Dam there (which supplies 30% of Honduras with its power - IT"S HUGE). It was a fun weekend!
There are pictures below, hope you enjoy!
peace.
-Tim
We also have 11 new volunteers here! CRAZY! Nathan, our new housemate, arrived last week, and he's gonna be here until the end of the year, and on friday, 10 British volunteers walked through the front gate of the school during last period (which made it excessively hard to keep the attention of the kids - especially the boys, because 9 of those 10 were female). Henry got up on his chair and exclaimed (in a thick spanish accent) "MISS!! MISS, I LOVE YOU!"...to which I had to try desperately not to laugh, while explaining that he didn't actually love any of them...but long story short, we've got reinforcements!
As for trying new things, I've now been in a chicken bus (an expired school bus from the states that gets driven down to central america to be used to carry as many passengers as they can hold from village to village), a village taxi (a three wheeled contraption that stalls...a lot), and a highway taxi (a four wheeled contraption, with a driver that thinks he is James Bond). And I've been really enjoying going to the market on sundays, eating Baleyadas and Pastolidos...and today i went to one of the churches in the village with Melanie, which was quite interesting and cool.
This weekend we also went to El Cajon, which is a really cool part of Honduras where Harardo used to teach...we got to stay there for free and one of Harardo's friends took us on a tour of the Dam there (which supplies 30% of Honduras with its power - IT"S HUGE). It was a fun weekend!
There are pictures below, hope you enjoy!
peace.
-Tim
Friday, October 26, 2007
Running, dinners, social life, children!
Well it seems I've settled in to the swing of things a bit here. I have a diet that consists of anything that's not beans (thank God for peanut butter/rice/eggs/bread), I've hung out more with the other teachers, gotten quite a bit of marking done, and I've even adjusted pretty well to the temperature. The latter of course has something to do with it slowly becoming "winter" down here, which is actually quite funny. Basically, we had our first day of it being probably 20-25 (such a relief!) and kids were wearing jackets and toques at school! HAH! The other teachers and I had a good laugh about that one.
I've started going for runs with Tobbie, Melanie (the couple from Australia) and Anita (a teacher from New Jersey), and Tobbie and I have a pretty nice route - it's great to have someone to run with! I've hung out with the other teachers a bunch more, and I've even gotten to know some of the teachers from the other school in the village (Saint Jeronimo School).
As for teaching, it's a whole lot of fun! I'm helping out with grade 1 (and sometimes grade 6) in the morning when the grade 3's have spanish, and then I'm with the grade 3's from 8:45 to 2:10, when school ends. I'm getting used to how things go, and I've got more of a routine now.
ok, funny story: we've been reading a lot of things aloud in class this week, to help the kids work on reading those tough english words like "shout" and "Excitedly". It's really funny doing "repeat after me" type things, because some of the kids don't get when to stop repeating what I say. The best is when someone isn't paying attention when we're doing it, so I'll call out their name...This is how it happened the first time:
"Ok, repeat after me: Shout" (in thick spanish accents): "SHOUT!"
"shout." (getting the pronounciation slightly better): "SHOUT!"
"...Yolanda!" (31 kids turn and face Yolanda): "YOLANDA!!!" (Yolanda almost jumps out of her seat).
I start laughing...the class starts laughing, we all have a good laugh.
oh man, good times.
peace.
I've started going for runs with Tobbie, Melanie (the couple from Australia) and Anita (a teacher from New Jersey), and Tobbie and I have a pretty nice route - it's great to have someone to run with! I've hung out with the other teachers a bunch more, and I've even gotten to know some of the teachers from the other school in the village (Saint Jeronimo School).
As for teaching, it's a whole lot of fun! I'm helping out with grade 1 (and sometimes grade 6) in the morning when the grade 3's have spanish, and then I'm with the grade 3's from 8:45 to 2:10, when school ends. I'm getting used to how things go, and I've got more of a routine now.
ok, funny story: we've been reading a lot of things aloud in class this week, to help the kids work on reading those tough english words like "shout" and "Excitedly". It's really funny doing "repeat after me" type things, because some of the kids don't get when to stop repeating what I say. The best is when someone isn't paying attention when we're doing it, so I'll call out their name...This is how it happened the first time:
"Ok, repeat after me: Shout" (in thick spanish accents): "SHOUT!"
"shout." (getting the pronounciation slightly better): "SHOUT!"
"...Yolanda!" (31 kids turn and face Yolanda): "YOLANDA!!!" (Yolanda almost jumps out of her seat).
I start laughing...the class starts laughing, we all have a good laugh.
oh man, good times.
peace.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Photo Situation
I'm using a camera of Harardo's and one of his cords, and I had to search and download this new software onto this ancient machine, and now the owner of this internet cafe is literally downloading the stuff to his computer and sending it over to the one I'm on (nice guy!)....so hopefully there should be photos! There's some sweet pics of the up and coming Cofradia ultimate team (my gym class), me n' my housemates, and some pictures from around the village.
School was crazy today, I had an almost full class detention, and when Ben (the principal) saw my situation, he came in to yell at the kids in spanish for me...it was quite funny. But I sure was tired when i got home. We had a spelling test today, and I'm not very optimistic about how they did, but I guess we'll see.
That's about it for now. Oh yeah, the weekend!
Went to San Pedro, read, slept, marked/planned for school, took pictures. hmm....it seems I've become the stereotypical teacher with no life. haha!
peace.
School was crazy today, I had an almost full class detention, and when Ben (the principal) saw my situation, he came in to yell at the kids in spanish for me...it was quite funny. But I sure was tired when i got home. We had a spelling test today, and I'm not very optimistic about how they did, but I guess we'll see.
That's about it for now. Oh yeah, the weekend!
Went to San Pedro, read, slept, marked/planned for school, took pictures. hmm....it seems I've become the stereotypical teacher with no life. haha!
peace.
Friday, October 19, 2007
A One Horse Town
Cofradia? Si Senor. Definitely a one horse town...but I like it that way. The power gets shut off by the government about every other day to conserve power for the big cities, so it's kind of the town that gets bullied i guess. In the words of Harardo (My hilarious Honduran Housemate, excuse his language) "same shit, different day."
But it's awesome here. Sometimes you feel like a celebrity as you across the town square, sometimes you feel like an alien with purple tentacles...you never know what you're going to get!
It's crazy to think that the first week of teaching is done. I'd say the main thing I've learned is the opposite of what I was told. Kids respond a whole lot better to encouragement than intense strict-ness. Well...to some extent. But it's been really interesting to see how positive encouragement can not only make kids work harder, but help me build a really cool bond with them. The kids are amazing. Yes I need to yell quite often just to be heard, but what can you expect from 32 (the class seems to be growing) spanish speaking grade 3's. (I don't have to teach grade 1 anymore - the regular teachers i was apparently filling in for returned). To answer some questions: no I don't really have a curriculum, but i was told where the students are at for the most part, and i was given some books that they work out of. I'm getting better at preparing for class ahead of time, which make it a bit easier, but the language barrier is still getting in the way, if you catch my drift.
As for pictures, right now (as always) I'm at an ancient computer (running on dial up) in an internet cafe...and I don't think this one horse town gives me the ability to upload photos...but ill upload them when I'm back for christmas for sure!
finally, I've started reading "Through Painted Deserts" By Donald Miller, and I'd like to take this time to recommend it to everyone who reads this. IT'S GOOD. REAL GOOD.
there's also been some sweet lightning storms...oh, and i think I'm gonna check out the village church...it looks quite beautiful, and I've heard some singing from it on certain nights, so maybe sometime soon i'll saunter over.
ok. until next time.
peace
-Tim
But it's awesome here. Sometimes you feel like a celebrity as you across the town square, sometimes you feel like an alien with purple tentacles...you never know what you're going to get!
It's crazy to think that the first week of teaching is done. I'd say the main thing I've learned is the opposite of what I was told. Kids respond a whole lot better to encouragement than intense strict-ness. Well...to some extent. But it's been really interesting to see how positive encouragement can not only make kids work harder, but help me build a really cool bond with them. The kids are amazing. Yes I need to yell quite often just to be heard, but what can you expect from 32 (the class seems to be growing) spanish speaking grade 3's. (I don't have to teach grade 1 anymore - the regular teachers i was apparently filling in for returned). To answer some questions: no I don't really have a curriculum, but i was told where the students are at for the most part, and i was given some books that they work out of. I'm getting better at preparing for class ahead of time, which make it a bit easier, but the language barrier is still getting in the way, if you catch my drift.
As for pictures, right now (as always) I'm at an ancient computer (running on dial up) in an internet cafe...and I don't think this one horse town gives me the ability to upload photos...but ill upload them when I'm back for christmas for sure!
finally, I've started reading "Through Painted Deserts" By Donald Miller, and I'd like to take this time to recommend it to everyone who reads this. IT'S GOOD. REAL GOOD.
there's also been some sweet lightning storms...oh, and i think I'm gonna check out the village church...it looks quite beautiful, and I've heard some singing from it on certain nights, so maybe sometime soon i'll saunter over.
ok. until next time.
peace
-Tim
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
TEACHING!
I wouldn't call it teaching. I would call it "flying by the seat of ones pants". Also because i love that expression. well, at least thats what it was like on day one. (ill try to keep this one short, but day one was momentous).
Wake up: 5:30 (which weirdly enough felt like a sleep in!).
by 7:15, i found myself thrown in front of 20 grade one spanish students, with nothing but three handouts on how to write "the pencil is blue, the eraser is red" etc, and the school director (Harardo, one of my housemates) saying: "...and try to teach them some math". whew! intense.
at 8:45 i was whisked over to my grade 3 class (they learn in spanish from 7:15-8:45 - so i teach grade ones) to teach them math. oh yes. my specialty. Thankyou Mr. Moore.
after break, it was P.E. (half the class goes crazy, half tries to play soccer...er, football), then english, where the whole class was pretty nuts, however im trying to listen to advice that Alex (my other housemate) gave me - "be more strict than you think you need to be".....then it was science...all i was given was one science textbook with really complex english, so i just wrote "science" on the board, and turned around and said "what is the last thing you learned about in science?"....to which some students yelled (in thick spanish accents) "the plants!"....so i quickly flipped to the pages in the textbook on plants and taught a lesson on how seeds become new plants in soil when they are transported. It was actually really fun. I think i need to work on my diagram drawing skills though.
After lunch was english spelling and reading until 2:10...it was then that i realized i had nothing to read to them...so i wrote "A story" on the top of the board and we all learnt about how to write a story together. as a class we ended up writing a story about how me and Jeff (one of the students) went to the Cofradia school, then somehow ended up in Canada. It was pretty ridiculous, and i think the syntax needed some serious work, but....fun nonetheless!
so there you have it, i somehow got through that day, with 31 grade 3's (easily the biggest class at the Cofradia school!), and i had a blast!
so school is intense, but its going well!...needless to say i came home after school today and yesterday and fell asleep for an hour, both times not on purpose. I've also met a bunch more of the teachers now and they are all pretty cool people, so it should be good times.
More stories to come!
peace
-Tim
Wake up: 5:30 (which weirdly enough felt like a sleep in!).
by 7:15, i found myself thrown in front of 20 grade one spanish students, with nothing but three handouts on how to write "the pencil is blue, the eraser is red" etc, and the school director (Harardo, one of my housemates) saying: "...and try to teach them some math". whew! intense.
at 8:45 i was whisked over to my grade 3 class (they learn in spanish from 7:15-8:45 - so i teach grade ones) to teach them math. oh yes. my specialty. Thankyou Mr. Moore.
after break, it was P.E. (half the class goes crazy, half tries to play soccer...er, football), then english, where the whole class was pretty nuts, however im trying to listen to advice that Alex (my other housemate) gave me - "be more strict than you think you need to be".....then it was science...all i was given was one science textbook with really complex english, so i just wrote "science" on the board, and turned around and said "what is the last thing you learned about in science?"....to which some students yelled (in thick spanish accents) "the plants!"....so i quickly flipped to the pages in the textbook on plants and taught a lesson on how seeds become new plants in soil when they are transported. It was actually really fun. I think i need to work on my diagram drawing skills though.
After lunch was english spelling and reading until 2:10...it was then that i realized i had nothing to read to them...so i wrote "A story" on the top of the board and we all learnt about how to write a story together. as a class we ended up writing a story about how me and Jeff (one of the students) went to the Cofradia school, then somehow ended up in Canada. It was pretty ridiculous, and i think the syntax needed some serious work, but....fun nonetheless!
so there you have it, i somehow got through that day, with 31 grade 3's (easily the biggest class at the Cofradia school!), and i had a blast!
so school is intense, but its going well!...needless to say i came home after school today and yesterday and fell asleep for an hour, both times not on purpose. I've also met a bunch more of the teachers now and they are all pretty cool people, so it should be good times.
More stories to come!
peace
-Tim
Monday, October 15, 2007
Fundraiser update/I'm HERE!
How could a series of 4 days be so ridiculous?
It feels like 5 seconds ago, i was throwing lights, artwork and sound equipment all around with Remy and about 15 (incredible/saintly/dedicated etc.) volunteers...and then somehow, between now and 5 seconds ago, the fundraiser happened (with incredible success - thank you so much to everyone that helped/supported!), i went sprinting across the Houston airport to catch my connecting flight to San Pedro Sula - which i thankfully caught just in time (shout out to Mr. Craig for the running training that allowed me to catch it!), and somehow I am now sitting in an internet cafe in Cofradia!
definitely a crazy few days.
So I've met my grade 3 class, I've been hanging out with my house mates this afternoon, and i start teaching tomorrow! (and im sweating like a pig!)
more updates coming soon!
peace
-Tim
It feels like 5 seconds ago, i was throwing lights, artwork and sound equipment all around with Remy and about 15 (incredible/saintly/dedicated etc.) volunteers...and then somehow, between now and 5 seconds ago, the fundraiser happened (with incredible success - thank you so much to everyone that helped/supported!), i went sprinting across the Houston airport to catch my connecting flight to San Pedro Sula - which i thankfully caught just in time (shout out to Mr. Craig for the running training that allowed me to catch it!), and somehow I am now sitting in an internet cafe in Cofradia!
definitely a crazy few days.
So I've met my grade 3 class, I've been hanging out with my house mates this afternoon, and i start teaching tomorrow! (and im sweating like a pig!)
more updates coming soon!
peace
-Tim
Friday, October 5, 2007
Intro to the trip/Fundraiser Details
Hello World!
Welcome to blog post #1. It's still got that fresh laundry type feel to it...isn't it wonderful?
Anyhow, I'd like to take this time to mention some important details.
Detail #1: "The Trip"
For those that have asked me what I am doing on this whole "gap year" thing over the last year of me planning it. First off, blanket apology for all the lies I told. At any one point in the year, you may have heard that I was planning on going to serve in Ghana, Vietnam, Thailand, Malawi, or any mix of places. The final story is this: I will be teaching in Honduras for just over two months (I leave monday the 15th! SO SOON!), teaching in Nepal for Two months with Remy (starting in January), and then heading to Uganda (and possibly South Africa) to serve in Kampala, Uganda for 2-3 months in the spring (details are still being sorted out). WHEW! A good way to make sure that is actually what I'm doing is by checking this blog to see what I'm up to...Something tells me plans like to change sometimes...
Detail #2: "The Fundraiser"
Remy and I are planning a fundraiser on Saturday October 13th. It will be a night of Art and Music at Little Trinity Church, from 7-10 pm. Details: 5$ or PWYC (pay what you can), there will be a food ticket you can buy for the lovely baked goods, which will probably be 5$, and drinks will be sold as well. There will be an art exhibition, and a series of musical performances. All donations are NOT tax deductable, and all the money that is raised will go towards our living costs for the countries we are serving in (luckily it doesn't cost as much to live in Honduras as it does here!).
Detail #3: "The Fancy Curriculum Thinger That Tim Will Be Working With"
...that's a mouthful. Basically, the school I will be Working at in Honduras uses the "e Teaching Assistance Program", to teach their students. They have a deal with the web-based curriculum company, that whenever they get another family/school/student/teacher to subscribe to the curriculum, the Cofradia Bilingual School (the school in Honduras) will earn a commission off of that cost. And the deal that they gave me, is that whoever subscribes to the curriculum through me, will not only be giving a portion of the fee to the school, but the school will then give a portion of that to me, as a volunteer staff member. SO...basically, if you are interested in a web-based curriculum for your son/daughter/students/school, check out www.etap.org and to support me and the Cofradia Bilingual School, feel free to pay for a subscription, so everyone benefits! So check out the website, and send me an email (timopay21@hotmail.com) if you are interested in subscribing, so that I can take some credit from your decision!
And that's the last of my Ad campaign.
Peace
-Tim
Welcome to blog post #1. It's still got that fresh laundry type feel to it...isn't it wonderful?
Anyhow, I'd like to take this time to mention some important details.
Detail #1: "The Trip"
For those that have asked me what I am doing on this whole "gap year" thing over the last year of me planning it. First off, blanket apology for all the lies I told. At any one point in the year, you may have heard that I was planning on going to serve in Ghana, Vietnam, Thailand, Malawi, or any mix of places. The final story is this: I will be teaching in Honduras for just over two months (I leave monday the 15th! SO SOON!), teaching in Nepal for Two months with Remy (starting in January), and then heading to Uganda (and possibly South Africa) to serve in Kampala, Uganda for 2-3 months in the spring (details are still being sorted out). WHEW! A good way to make sure that is actually what I'm doing is by checking this blog to see what I'm up to...Something tells me plans like to change sometimes...
Detail #2: "The Fundraiser"
Remy and I are planning a fundraiser on Saturday October 13th. It will be a night of Art and Music at Little Trinity Church, from 7-10 pm. Details: 5$ or PWYC (pay what you can), there will be a food ticket you can buy for the lovely baked goods, which will probably be 5$, and drinks will be sold as well. There will be an art exhibition, and a series of musical performances. All donations are NOT tax deductable, and all the money that is raised will go towards our living costs for the countries we are serving in (luckily it doesn't cost as much to live in Honduras as it does here!).
Detail #3: "The Fancy Curriculum Thinger That Tim Will Be Working With"
...that's a mouthful. Basically, the school I will be Working at in Honduras uses the "e Teaching Assistance Program", to teach their students. They have a deal with the web-based curriculum company, that whenever they get another family/school/student/teacher to subscribe to the curriculum, the Cofradia Bilingual School (the school in Honduras) will earn a commission off of that cost. And the deal that they gave me, is that whoever subscribes to the curriculum through me, will not only be giving a portion of the fee to the school, but the school will then give a portion of that to me, as a volunteer staff member. SO...basically, if you are interested in a web-based curriculum for your son/daughter/students/school, check out www.etap.org and to support me and the Cofradia Bilingual School, feel free to pay for a subscription, so everyone benefits! So check out the website, and send me an email (timopay21@hotmail.com) if you are interested in subscribing, so that I can take some credit from your decision!
And that's the last of my Ad campaign.
Peace
-Tim
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