What I´ve been doing

So, I just realized that I haven’t been writing much about what I’ve been doing here in Honduras. So you may think that I only get bitten by bugs, play UNO and tag and perhaps, sit around on the beach all day eating mangoes and drinking out of coconuts. Not true.

I actually have over 8 hours of classes everyday. After my panqueques and my bucket shower, I start classes at 7:30. I have 4 hours of Spanish classes and 4 hours of “tech” classes. I’m in the Advanced Spanish class, so we have 3 days of actual classes every week and 2 days to go do projects in the community. “Tech” classes are to learn more about the types of projects that we can do in our sites (the communities where we will live for 2 years). We learn about a program, project or topic that we could do in our communities and then the next day we have a practice run in a community or village.

So, so far these are the projects that I have done:

-My friend Anne and I go to the mountain aldea (village) of Trujillito once a week to do recreational and art projects and to teach environmental education and a parenting class. Trujillito has a one-room school with grades 1-6 and only one teacher! There are about 35 students who are mostly relatives. We do crafts with recycled materials, plant trees and play outside games like Ultimate Frisbee, duck duck goose, jump rope, tag, etc. We also do self-esteem building activities. Monday will be our last day there. It also happens to be Day of the Child a HUGE holiday here in Honduras. Evidently, the parents and teachers get together and make a big meal for all of the kids and organize a big fiesta with games, dances and, of course, piñatas.

-Gave self-esteem charla (talk/presentation) to 9th graders in Valle de Angeles

-Taught Business Skills (a Jr. Achievement Program) to 5th and 6th graders in Nueva Esperanza

-Supervised 2nd grade English teacher and organized supplemental English teaching games and activities in Villa de San Francisco

-Gave HIV/AIDs workshop to 9th grade class at high school in Cantarranas. This was a 4-hour workshop. It was actually really fun. We played lots of games and taught the kids about how HIV/AIDs is transmitted and how it is not. There is a huge stigma against people with HIV/AIDs in Honduras. For example, many people won’t rent or sell houses to people with HIV/AIDs or employ them. The problem is that people think that it is highly contagious and is passed by touching people. Also, Honduras is very homophobic and everyone believes that AIDs is a “gay disease” although like 86% of cases in Honduras are from heterosexual to heterosexual contact.

The last part of the workshop was a condom demonstration with plantains. As I had the highest level of Spanish in my group, I got to lead this. In the US, I would probably have been mortified to do something like this, but here in Honduras, which has 60% of the HIV/AIDs cases in Central America, things like this are so important. So you have to act very normal doing it or the kids will sense that you are not comfortable and they will therefore think that they should also not be comfortable doing it.

I felt like we really made a difference in the kids lives. In the middle of the workshop we gave everyone a piece of paper to ask anonymous questions. We received multiple questions about how to use a condom and we received one note that said, “HIV/AIDs is a very important subject. Thank you so much for coming to talk to us about it.” In Honduras sex-ed is very taboo. Birth control pills are extremely rare due to religious reasons and their restrictive cost. Condoms are also rarely used. There are many myths about how to avoid pregnancy and relative ignorance about STIs. I will definitely use this workshop in my site.

-I also do a story hour once a week for children in Cantarranas. In the US, we are so accustomed to the presence of books in our schools, libraries and homes that we don’t even think about what a big privilege it is so have them. In Honduras, books are expensive, so no one reads. Why read a book that costs more than your electric bill when you could watch TV all day long for almost nothing? There is little emphasis on reading materials outside of textbooks in Honduras schools. In Honduras there are libraries, but you cannot check out their books. You can only read the books within the library. Bummer. Most of the books are really old or outdated. The reason that the library doesn’t check out books is because 1. “people might steal them” and 2. “the kids will ruin them.” The kids absolutely LOVE books. No one ever reads them book because no one ever has books to read.

One day, the librarian let me check out books (outside the library!) because I was a gringa and she assumed that I probably wouldn’t steal or ruin the books. That night I read a bunch of books to my brother and sisters and then they started reading them. They were so excited and asked my questions like, “I can touch it, really?” Then we did lots of drawings and stuff.

That’s another thing. Creativity is not valued in Honduras. The Honduran education is based on dictation. The teacher writes something and then the kids copy it off the board. The kids read a reading passage and then they copy answers to questions straight out of the book. Critical thinking and problem-solving are not emphasized. Perfection takes priority over originality. Kids are not supposed to freehand draw because their drawings would be “ugly”. When I first try to get kids to draw they ALL tell me, “I can’t draw. Please draw me something.” Also, if they do draw anything at all, they trace it. Teachers rarely put their students’ artwork on the classroom walls here as they think that it is “ugly.” Often all of the drawings and other decorations around the classrooms are made by the teachers. Also, Hondurans use rulers to draw everything. They would never attempt to draw a line without one. It might be “drawn wrong”. Everything is very black and white and right and wrong here.

-I also do a variety of art projects with neighborhood children such as puppet-making, collages, origami, sidewalk chalk (thanks Mom and Dad!) and drawing. It's really fun! The kids don`t ever get to art projects because they don´t have any arts supplies because they are expensive. The locally available variety are not only expensive, but they are of the worst quality.

-I also spend a lot of my free time at the kindergarten. Whenever we get out of class early or it´s cancelled because of the weather, I go to the kindergarten and help out the teacher. The teacher is really cool, but he has about 40 students between the ages 3 and 6, which makes it a pretty tough job. My job is to help get the kids excited about the activities and to teach them games and songs. And of course give hugs.

-Also I have learned how to organize girl empowerment programs, healthy living programs, sports leagues, etc.

So, yeah, I actually do stuff besides get bitten by enormous bugs and get my cards confiscated by the local police.