School Observations & Final Presentations

June 25, 2009
Today we had the opportunity to visit another school in El Progreso. SHH fundraised for this school to receive three new classrooms about 1 ½ to 2 years ago. I had been to this school two times prior, and was very excited about getting to visit again because I had yet to see the finished classrooms. Sam, Christian, and I got to choose which class we wanted to observe, and were welcomed by the teachers of the school. Sam chose pre-k and kindergarten; Christian fifth grade; and I jumped from class to class visiting 2nd-4th grade classes. This week the students had many exams so there wasn’t a whole lot for me to observe before recess. After recess; however, I got to sit in on the fourth grade class. The teacher was very eager for me to teach the students anything I thought would be of use. I taught them how to multiply 9 on your fingers, which I think is one of the most beneficial multiplication tricks I ever learned. After practicing a few times, we applied the trick to one of the problems on the board and it served very useful. I hope that they will remember it because I feel that many of the school curriculums here lack the extended pedagogical methods that we use in the US. After completing math, we sang “Los ninos que bailan” and “Un elefante.” I’m so glad I learned songs while teaching Spanish to K-1st graders this last year; they have been very helpful. After observing all morning, we headed out to Villa Soleada for English class and working all afternoon. English class went very well. This week there are a group of church members from Virginia and they have been participating in our English class, only they have been learning Spanish. We played Pictionary and the gringos had to say the name of the object in Spanish, while the Hondurans had to say the name of the object in English. It was a very competitive game as Kellin yelled at the top of her lungs, “WINDOW!” to which the Honduran crowd cheered. I have a video of it and it’s hilarious! After class, we spent the afternoon working once again. I’m not sure why, but I was so drained of energy that I felt like I was not of any use. I had just finished saying how I needed an energy boost, when it began to rain. It wasn’t pouring; just a nice refreshing rain and we continued to work. Nothing could have rejuvenated us more than the rain and topogigilos, popsicles in a bag. We continued to work filling in the ditches to cover the water pipeline that was below. The past two days BGF has paid for a backhoe to come to the worksite, and the progress is incredible. The backhoe finished digging the trenches for the waste management system, something that would have taken workers four weeks or more to complete, thank goodness for their donation!

June 26, 2009
7:15 a.m. My alarm clock went off and I dragged myself out of bed. I made a full pot of Honduran coffee to wake me up so I could get to work. Tonight we are presenting our final reports to the SHH staff so we set aside this morning to work on our reports. It's funny because at home I am usually the kind of person that works late at night, but since being here, I've become an early morning worker. While I waited for my coffee to brew, I enjoyed a delicious egg and cheese sandwich with a side of yogurt. I'd say this was the perfect way to start my day. My first project was to compile photos and videos from our time being here and make a slideshow of them. It was a nice walk down memory lane as I sorted out photos from our first days here. Time has gone by so fast yet we have done so much every day. As I added the finishing touches to the video, my computer froze, of course. I stepped away from the situation and decided on my next plan of action. I began to write about English classes and Kid's camp. I looked over our beginning goals and ideas from the first few days here and reflected on what we've been able to accomplish. I spent the entire morning more focused than I have been the whole trip. Our reports will be important for future reference by SHH and I wanted to it to be my best. At lunch time we went to Villa Soleada for our last official English class. Attendance was about normal and everyone was eager to get in any last questions of “How do you say… in English.” It was a great game and overall, we feel that we have met our goal of increasing communication between the workers and volunteers that will continue to come. They have the basics, and we encourage future fellows and volunteers to continue building on the vocabulary they know thus far. Next week, we will have a graduation ceremony for our two classes; it may be a little cheesy, but it will at least be recognition of the words and phrases they have learned. After class, we again helped with Kid’s camp. I have really enjoyed working with the third graders at camp. When I think of my future class, I have always imagined myself teaching kindergarten or first grade, but now I think I would also be interested in second or third. I felt like there was enough difference in age that they respected me when I taught them how to do long multiplication and division problems, and at the same time, many of them are close friends of mine. Our final values lesson today was about compassion. Compassion can be a very difficult thing to explain to kindergarten through third graders, so we broke it down into three categories: helping others, comforting someone when they are sad, and being nice/caring/generous to others. For each category we had volunteers show how they can act out each. It was quite adorable and I was so glad I had my camera with me to show the pictures to you all later. When we got home from the day’s activities, we were surprised by a delicious dinner catered by Sopa y mas, local restaurant. I don’t even know the names of the food we ate, but it was delicious! After dinner, we finished our final preparation for our presentation. Everyone in the apartment sat around as we presented about our seven project areas: collecting recipes from the women of Villa Soleada, orphanage visits, school observations, English classes, kid’s camp, information gathered from our surveys, and collecting information on possible souvenirs that members of Villa Soleada could make in the future. Our presentation went well, and at the end we had a Q&A time. One of the questions being, “How likely are you to return to Honduras to continue to work with SHH maybe on a more long term basis?” When I first got here, I didn’t think I could last more than five weeks because at times I feel so much out of my comfort zone, but what’s funny is that outside of my comfort zone is when I feel like I’m being the most real me. I’m ready to come back as soon as possible, and if anyone wants to join me this winter, check out the SHH website to learn about trip dates and cost. This is my calling to serve, and as long as the door remains open to come to Honduras and serve I will; these people are not just a group of families building new homes for themselves, these people are my family.