Garden clean-up Saga!

I've always enjoyed gardening at home, but here it has always been a challenge.   We're really lucky to have grass in our backyard because the alternative is bare soil and dust.   The grass is looked after by the school owners but is doesn't get cut until its up round our knees.   The nature strip down the side hasn't been cut since we've been here.   Everyone drops their rubbish into it and we were lucky enough one day to find a soccer ball which we donated to the school.  ( I showed this same photo in an earlier blog in March on the day of the murder in our street.)  We didn't get the man to cut the grass with his machete at the time and it was even higher than shown here.)

We found this starving animal tied up to our fence another day munching away on the grass.  He hardly made a dent.

Raul took 3 goes at cutting down the grass with  his brushcutter.   It was up in the 40`C during the week so he came at 6.30am each day, but only stayed an hour before the heat meant he needed to stop work.   Our neighbours who have a 2 year old boy were getting worried about the danger of snakes in our nature strip, so they arranged for some boys to cut the grass in the nature strip and cut back some of the trees which were them dumped in our back yard for us to deal with. 

The branches had dried out after a couple of weeks and Glenn always loves a good burn-off as most of our friends already know.   We'd been away for the weekend and when we got back, Glenn thought it was a good time to do a proper clean up.   All the branches were well away from the concrete fence and the other neighbour's banana plants so he lit the fire.  The smoke was going in all directions but the flames were only about a foot high.

Along came the bomberos, the fire-brigade!   We're going to put some water on your fire, they said!  It took a while before they started but eventually one of the firemen was up on the top of truck pouring water onto the flames.

Glenn marched away with the mop and the bucket and our garbage bin and left the firemen to finish their job. on their own.  Sometimes we can't understand the reasoning of people here, the neighbour with the banana plants had been burning off rubbish in his yard all week and there'd been no sign of the fire-brigade, yet when Glenn, the 'gringo,' lights a fire in a safe position they're on to him like a shot.   I wish the authorities could deal with the thousands of people who throw their truckloads of rubbish onto our front nature strip and leave their rubbish in mountains on their beaches.

Science Fair

We knew the Science Fair was coming up and the communication about what was to happen was once again, rather vague.   I was nervous about it, but Glenn was somewhat terrified.   The children, parents and the teachers had to provide everything for the experiments and the display, including large pieces of cardboard, bought at the local hardware stores, as there are no materials left in the school.

The children made themselves comfortable in any space they could find and started work.  All lessons were cancelled from Monday, which was good as it took all of one day to design the borders.   We think the Honduran teachers wanted to do all the work and the posters themselves, but Glenn and I insisted that the children do it all themselves.   The principal and a translator for us wanted to have a student free day on Tuesday as they thought it was going to be 50`C.  We weren't popular because we needed the children at school to get their boards finished by Thursday.  Luckily it only reached the high 30's and the fans worked well in the classroom.

This group loved this egg experiment especially when the eggs broke before they expected it to happen.

On Thursday and Friday, visitors came to the big event.   This is a proud father videoing his son's group.

This group found a mini tornado in the bottle which made this experiment very popular.

This group is being judged by a secondary teacher.   Their leader is trying to impress the judge.  The children all had to wear these white science coats and wear a badge showing their name and class.

In between visits the girls had a gossip!  It was very tiring trying to keep the children in order for a whole week.   They weren't allowed outside except at recess time and there was very little to do in the classroom., especially when all the desks were taken out of the classroom.  There were big speeches, the television crews were there and the children were all hoping to get a prize.

Two out of my 4 groups got 2nd and 3rd places.  The winners were a happy lot.

 The losers were bitterly dissappointed and there were kids sulking and crying throughout the school.  For them to not get a prize meant that they were failures.  They couldn't understand that they had learned so much from the experiments and that they'd done their best.  The medals and presents for the winners were layed out on the tables in front of the huge display board made by the teachers.

Four teachers were chosen for having the best science classes.  One of my students demanded my camera so that she could take my photo.  It was so embarassing to be standing up there, when the children had done all the work.  The teachers were wearing green as it was an ecological science fair.   Glenn and I were exhausted, it had been a long 5 hours starting at 7 am and were relieved when we could leave at 12.     We were going to Trujillo for the weekend, a 5 hour bus ride away and were looking forward to the break.

Saturday in Tela

Sometimes we spend the weekend in Tela.   Here's some photos so you can see why we love the little town of 70,000 people.

The shoe repair man.

The straps on my expensive sandals from home would not stay fastened so we visited this lovely man who sits here on his little stool day after day.   All the tools he needs are on the bench next to him and in one little drawer. There is a working community around him of people selling all sorts of goods and food.    He put on new clips, one sandal is too loose and the other too tight but they still stay on my feet. He's very cheap and sometimes refuses to charge at all, so I can't complain.

Two ladies (maybe mother and sister) who were selling tortillas and chatting to the shoe repair man.

I got these photos printed and took them back to them.   They were thrilled with their present. We shopped for a while and then headed to the beach to watch the sunset and the local sights.

     A Garifuna girl

She would probably be about 15 and has joined the lot of most girls here, pregnant!

This little girl was having such a wonderful time until the lady with the camera ( me!) scared her away.

Glenn patiently waited for me while I kept snapping the camera.

Mariachis (travelling singers)

They walk around in pairs or threes and pester everyone until someone lets them sing.   They know us now and just walk past with a grin. .  This is the Pizza restaurant run by a married Italian couple.   They are really nice people and we often have a chat with them in Spanish.   It's amazing how easily we can understand each other's Spanish.   They are much clearer and slower than most of the locals.

The sun was setting at last and was certainly worth waiting for these views.

  

We then walked to the other end of town to one of our regular haunts, a restaurant called the Bungalow, run by a Honduran who lived for a long time in Houston and New Orleans.    His food is cheap and reasonable.  While we were eating our meal, a man drove his wheel chair up the hill by turning a wheel at the front of his wheel chair by hand and when it got too hard for him, a local as he rode his bike pulled him up to the top of the hill.    It was a lovely moment to end another special weekend.  I'm hope you can now see why we enjoy living in Tela. so much.

Parent Week

We ended up having 3 days of parents coming to visit the classes.   Glenn's day was first and he had 15 parents out of his 17 children coming to watch him teach on the first day, Tuesday.   His session went extremely well and he had a meeting after school telling him how good he was with the children.  That was no surprise to me.  He is an excellent teacher.

I had to wait until Thursday for my big day.  My Western training at the thought of having a group of parents watching me teach, immediately invoked fear in my mind. It was made worse by getting a new boy student on Tuesday which totally unsettled the boys in my class who are not the most socialised boys I've come across.  'I'm not good enough,' was my reaction to having parents watching my mistakes. I even had to take a sleeping tablet last night to help me relax in preparation for the big day.

I can't believe at my age I can react in such an adolescent way. I have no excuses.   As a result I was over prepared for the big event. Five mothers of  my 17 students, turned up for the show and one grandfather. They got bored half way through and started chatting to each other until I told one of my girls to tell them in Spanish to be quiet, much to everyone's amusement as they roared laughing!

I must have done alright because I got no complaints and no feedback at all.   Perhaps it was all a waste of time, but I certainly don't think my normal day is that. It's great to be able to be able to do something in my retirement that I really enjoy and improve my Spanish as well.

Tomorrow is Sports Day.   We don't have to teach at all.   Each class has a Sports Girl who has to parade up and down, waving streamers and gets a vote at the end of the day.  We're only staying for an hour because we're going to another town which is 2 hours away by bus for the weekend.

The Day After!

We were still shaken over the murder incident last night and again this morning.   Last night went out to a meal in Tela and talked to our Italian friend who owns a pizza restaurant.   She said the police had talked to her and the killer was not a danger to the community.   It was an incident between 2 people, probably following a dispute or a drug incident.

The thing that shook Glenn up the most was that he was there within 1 or 2 minutes after the murder.   He rode his bike from the service station to the scene, not knowing that anything was amiss.   The only vehicle he saw in that time was a man dressed as a policeman riding a police bike.   When he arrived at the scene there was no policeman directing traffic or covering the body.  The police arrived nearly an hour later.    From those facts we can only make our own deductions.  

There are constant reports in the Prensa our nearest newspaper about murders with 3 or 4 graphic photos of the blood and gore of the murders.   This murder didn't even warrant a report.   It wasn't newsworthy!

We went on a shopping trip to El Progreso a 2 hour bus ride from Tela today to clear our mind and watched the childrens' movie, 'Alice in Wonderland.'   It was a wonderful release from the churned up feelings we'd had.

Please go back to the posting I did in Teaching in Tela.   There's a video of my students working and you can see why we love being here.

Teaching in Tela

I think this is the best year I've ever had in teaching. I know that's a very bold statement to be making at my age but it's true!

My students are delightful, stimulating and also challenging, making life very interesting for me. I have 3 boys who gave me heaps over the last 6 months but are now eating out of my lap. It just took 3 parent interviews to fix it and now the boys are doing as they are told and not yelling at each other when they feel like it.

The girls on the other hand could not be nicer. There are 6 intelligent girls who do not have hang-ups, love to work and love helping the slower children when they can not understand. It's like having 6 Teachers' aides who do exactly as I ask. All this in a big classroom, with only 16 children and a room that is cooled by 4 large fans. It's nicer than being inside out. To make it even better the weather is cool, in the low 20's and very pleasant apart from the rain and the puddles and wet paths leading to school.

We have an interesting parents' day coming up. It's very serious! We all have to teach the children while the parents hover around watching us work. I have to take 2 lessons and I've chosen Maths and Reading. Miss Calix, the school principal and a lovely lady, explained it all to me in Spanish. She does not like to work too hard and I do not blame her for that either. She works at another school, teaching Grade 2 from 7am to 12 noon and then rushes straight to our school to act as principal until 5 pm. It's good that she does not like a heavy load, Because she's arranged for us to have student free time on Friday from 3.00 till 5.00 to prepare the 2 lessons we are teaching on the open day. I 'm quite happy with that! I can hear you teachers out there complaining that we've got it too easy.

It is so much easier here than teaching in a first world country without the unnecessary stress and paperwork and so rewarding.

If you'd like to see some of my students working please have a look at this Youtube video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9K1NWzIZgs

Excitement in our street!

Glenn had gone off on his bike for the newspaper at 7am, I was catching up on sleep after a late night chatting with our visitors.   Suddenly, I was awoken by at least 12 large bangs.   I thought they were firecrackers, but they seemed louder than usual.  I heard a few words and then silence.  

Glenn came in a few minutes later and sat on the bed looking very shaken.   He'd had to ride past a body of a middle-aged man lying in the middle of the road with three large bullet wounds in his back, his bicycle dropped to the ground by his side, just a block from our house.  It was on the corner of a state school, the students had fortunately started at 7.00 am.   At that stage Glenn said, there were only a couple of taxis stopped nearby and a dozen people standing watching.  Even a mother came with her young child  to see the action.

The crowd gathered.

From our kitchen window, we could see the crowds coming from nowhere, people clambering to get a better view, others just standing watching.  Kids came from the school close by, the secretary and most of the early morning teachers from our school went to join the excitement.  An hour after the shots, the uncovered body was still lying on the ground, . The police finally arrived to divert the traffic.   Two hours later the body was finally removed and life was back to normal.

The nature strip outside our house.

While all this was going on, there was a rattle on our gate.   A scruffy looking man with a machete hanging loosely by his side, had seen our nature strip.   He offered to cut our grass, for a small fee of course!  

St Valentine's Day

JKB Bilingual School celebrated St Valentine's Day in a big way.   

As usual,  mainly because of our barriers in understanding the Spanish language, Glenn and I were in the dark as to what was going to happen on the day.   One of my students told me the day before that the children did not have to bring their bags and that all the girls were to wear pink and the boys, red.   This also included the teachers.  No bags at school meant there were no normal lessons.  School officially started at mid-day but we knew that nothing would happen until at least an hour after that.    It was a really hot day and the sun was beating down on the concrete playground.  Most of my boys insisted on playing soccer in the heat while the sweat  poured off them.   The girls stayed inside and chatted under the fans.

We finally got a message at 1pm to say everyone was needed upstairs in the assembly room which was beautifully decorated with pink and red hearts hanging from the ceiling.

A boy and girl student had been selected from each class to take part in a popularity competitions.  The girls were dressed like beauty queens and the boys in casual clothes.  They all had to parade like models, with the boys blowing kisses to the audience and the girls imitating Hannah Montana and other American soapie stars.   The older competitors also performed dances and sang,  advertising their beauty and abilities.  

This nervous little girl from the Prep class was one of the younger candidates.

This was the Grade 1 beauty introducing herself with the help of the Grade 2 teacher.  

This is the female candidate from my class putting on a dance routine while the previous candidates stood behind and watched.  The older girls were very poised in their parading on the modelling catwalk and had learned at a very early age about beauty being a very necessary part of being popular.

  

All the children had to clap loudly to show their approval of each candidate.  My boys were very impressed with the chosen girl from my class.   The 3 boys in red are definitely as hyperactive and chauvinistic as they appear in the photo.

Some of the onlookers were getting rather bored after a couple of hours of speeches and parading.

The week before the special day, the candidates had been handing out sweets and presents to the students in the playground in true political fashion.   The grade 1 student is handing out sweets to improve her popularity with the help of one of the teachers.

Each competitor had a box with their photo attached and the children lined up to put their vote in the appropriate box.   The rest of the day was spent playing well organized games of soccer and basketball in the incredible heat.   Food was for sale and Glenn and I were given the task of selling cups of coke and ice.

My girls who weren't playing soccer or parading spent most of their time playing Uno in the classroom.  

My own feelings aside, I felt the day was a huge success.  There was a wonderful atmosphere in the school on the day, the children were all very well behaved and had lots of fun being friends with each other.  The winning girl and boy, who are both delightful children, were from the Grade 6 class.   The winning boy had handed out basket balls as his bribe to each classroom the day before the event..

I really like the idea behind St Valentines Day in Honduras.  It's known as Dia del Armistad and it's about friends and caring for each other. 

Sunday was the official day of celebrationg in Honduras and we took Vanessa out to tea at our friend's hotel, Grissy's.   We had been promised a big night with a band and a crowd of people.   Unfortunately there were only 2 tables of guests, our's and another group who weren't eating food.   It was still a nice night out with plenty of wine and good food and lots of gossip.