Independence Day

In our previous 2 years in Cofradia, even the thought of Independence Day in Honduras has been enough for us to spend more time in Australia or United States but this year it turned out differently.   The dreadful marching and worst still the drumming practice that had gone on for weeks before the event in Cofradia were all cancelled due to the political coup, the risk of demonstrations and the threat of HINI or Swine Flu.

We were asked to be at school on Monday the 14th of September, the day before Independence Day at 7 am.   We were happy with this because we were to finish at 10am and we had the rest of the week off.   Hardly a soul was at school by 8am and I only had 5 girls and 1 boy out of my 16 students.  We hung around in usual form waiting for something to happen.  

Glenn hanging around under the shade of a tree.

Shortly after 8, action started to happen.   The Pepsi Company arrived with a large tent for shade.  It was already in the 30's in the middle of the courtyard where everyone was going to sit.

The secondary students.

Various students put on presentations about Independence Day, several small students gave heart-rending speeches, the Honduran national anthem was sung and the secondary students put on a short play about independence.  

Miss Independencia

Miss Independencia was announced with much pomp and circumstance while she  paraded in a beautiful long dress and sash in front of the school.  This is something I can't get used to in Honduras as this sort of cattle parade went out so long ago in Australia and certainly isn't an important part of any event.

Miss Calix and the Grade 1 teacher.

The high achievers in each grade on the Honour Roll were presented with their blue and white handsewn badges in each grade.    Each badge was carefully pinned onto the shirts of the children by their class teacher with the help of the director, Miss Calix and various teacher assistants.

Photo Opportunity!

Proud parents captured the badge presentations of their little darlings in Grade 1.

My best students!

Diego was my only successful boy student to get an award.   He came to school with his mother and was totally bored without any of his friends to cheer him along.  All the girls are delightful students but the boys are sometimes a handful.   Nothing very serious though.

                                 Diego looking bored but very handsome!    
                                

A prep student.

The prep boys are the only students to wear these shorts with braces.  I think they look gorgeous, all sweet and innocent in the uniform.    It's a pity they have to grow up!

Here is someone's little brother enjoying the entertainment.

Once the presentations were over, Glenn and I were free to go.  The rest of the staff had to go to another staff meeting to have more discussions about where they were going for their staff luncheon on Thursday.   We were out the door as quickly as possible, to catch a bus to La Ceiba.   We were off to the island paradise of Roatan for 4 lovely days of holiday. 

El Día del Niño

El Día del Niño (Children's Day) was held on 11th September, a significant day in Central America.   A few weeks before there was a special meeting with the parents of each class to decide what food the children were going to have.  In my class, there were promises of cooked chicken, rice, sandwiches, bottles of coke and sprite and of course, a huge cake from parents at the meeting.

The poster at the front gate.

Glenn dobbed me in the day before the event, when Vanessa said no-one in the school could draw and they needed someone to draw the children for the poster.   I spent several painful hours with a pencil in hand and this was the best I could come up.   I drew the children and the flowers which other staff members cut out,  and made the rainbow.  It was a nice team effort!  Glenn found a quiet corner and read his book.

Children's day arrived and school started at 1pm instead of the normal 12.00.  Everyone, including the teachers were allowed to wear free dress.  Only a small proportion of my class turned up with only 8 out of the 16 children, 7 girls and 2 boys.  They came in dribs and drabs along with the food, which was certainly was not the huge spread of food that had been promised.   Not to worry, the kids certainly had more than enough and plenty of drinks, cake and ice-cream that had to be eaten without spoons.  The spoon supplier didn't turn up.

The school clown.

When the children arrived they were greeted at the gate by the clown, Ms Sumaya, the assistant teacher in Grade 1, who took on the role brilliantly.   Please remember that the temperature was in the mid 80's  with a humidity of 100% when you view the photos and the video. Miss Sumaya is standing next to Don Toño, the school guard, whose only role at the school seems to be to stand at the gate.  

After the children had eaten in my classroom, we played 'pass the bottle' and then went outside where Geobany's 'ghetto blaster' had been put to a useful purpose away from our house.  All the attending primary school children joined hands in a large circle and sort of danced.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJE5TjubGE  If you go to this site you can see a video of the children and the clown dancing.  Sorry about the poor quality, I still have a lot to learn about videoing but hopefully it gives you more of an idea of the school and the children.    

                                    Miss Jimenez, Glenn and some of his students.

Seeing I had the camera at school, I got a shot of one of the teachers, Miss Jimenez who is dressed in a red top.   She is the Social Studies teacher and our next door neighbour.   Would you believe it took us 7 weeks to realize she was the same person?  She is very quiet!

Children's Day was a lovely day, low key and great fun for the children who were very well behaved and didn't expect too much.  The children  finished at 3 pm when the staff had a meeting for an hour to decide where they were going to have their staff luncheon.   Nothing was decided, but I had to listen to a lot of Spanish before I discovered that Glenn and I weren't even going to be in Tela on the day.   We were going to the island of Roatan, a much better option!

Just a little addition as I write.   I was sitting at the computer in the front room of the house.  It's 9.30pm and as we haven't any proper curtains the room is well lit up.  Glenn had just gone to bed and I heard these people calling out to me through the fence and rattling the front gate.   I looked out and could see their faces and was rather scared.   Were they going to try and break in if I didn't go to the gate?   Luckily Glenn hadn't gone to sleep and he opened the door to see what they wanted.   It was all completely harmless.  They'd been playing soccer in the field next door and the soccer ball had gone into our front garden.   They were only calling to me so that they could get their ball back!