Lemme learn ya somethin’

Learning new things. Scary sometimes. Almost always difficult. Many of us have been conditioned to think that the way we learn things is by listening to someone else explain how to do it. And by the same token, we are also conditioned to think that the best way to teach someone something is to explain it to them. Think about it. Think all the way back, centuries ago, when you were in school and you were surrounded by those miserable meatbags each and every day, for hours on end. You know them. Your teachers. Many of them, standing in front of you and spouting gibberish for an hour, expecting you to remember it. Many of them standing in front of you writing gibberish for an hour, expecting you to remember it. How much of it do you remember? How much of what you actually know and apply each day was learned from these people? How much of it did you learn from some other source? I’d wager most of it didn’t come from people talking at you or writing things down for you to copy. You learned from actual practice; usage.

Learning something, anything, takes practice. You have to try it and possibly fail many times before you can truly say that you know it. Think about a baby who is just learning to walk. If the baby was surrounded by people who never walked, but only crawled around, would the baby make any attempt to walk? What if those odd people in her life did only crawl around, but they sat the child down and explained to her the intricacies of walking on two legs, but never showed her and never propped her up on her feet to make her try it. Would that kid ever walk?How should I know? I’m not a doctor. But my feeling is that no, the kid probably wouldn’t walk. Most of us can ride bicycles. Do you think that before you ever got on a bicycle, if your parents had explained to you how to ride one, and then gave you one, you would be able to ride it perfectly? No, you have to get on the bike, fall down and scrape your knees several dozen times whilst being laughed at by the neighbor kids before you can successfully and confidently maneuver a bicycle. Riding a bicycle can’t be learned by reading about it, or hearing about it. You have to get on a bike and make it happen. This same principle applies to learning any other skill.

Reading, writing, dancing, biting, jumping, skipping, swimming, flipping. Can’t do it perfectly the first time. Can’t know how to do it simply by hearing someone explain it to you. The theory is fine. Learning how to play an instrument or learning how to drive a car. Theory comes into place, of course. But true learning takes place in practice. If you want to learn a new language, you will never speak it properly by simply buying a dictionary or phrase book. How would you ever know if you are speaking properly? You have to communicate with someone who speaks that language! Yes, studying from a book is almost necessary to perfect it, but speaking and using the language is the only way to truly learn it.

When I was in culinary school, we would have 2 types of classes: in the classroom, and in the kitchen. In the classroom, we would discuss recipes and ingredients and what made certain things work. In the kitchen, we would put it into practice. What I noticed was that no matter how much I studied a written recipe, it was always difficult to remember it. But once I actually worked with the recipe and made it, I could always remember the recipe. Your mind isn’t the only thing with a memory, as I’m sure you know. Every part of you has memory. And when it all works together to remember something, you’ll never forget. That’s why once you learn how to ride a bicycle, you’ll never forget how to do it, even if you go 30 years without riding one. It’s not just your head remembering how to control a bicycle; it’s your head, your arms, your hands, your legs, and your feet. Everything is used to work the bicycle, so it’s one big memory. One memory triggers another, which triggers another.

When’s the last time you read or heard a word that was new to you? Your reaction was probably along the lines of “Hmmm I did not know that”. But then a week later if someone asked you about that word, would you remember it? Probably not. You didn’t practice it. This applies to learning a new language just the same as learning a new word. Once you learn it, you have to put it to use. Say it out loud, put it into a sentence. Use that word every day for a few days and BAM. You have added another word to your vocabulary. We learn from practice, not simply from listening or reading. We teach by enabling our student to engage in the activity, not by talking at them.  Learning something new can be daunting at first. You start to doubt whether or not you could ever learn how to do that. But of course, you can. Just takes practice. Every habit you have, good or bad, you earned from constant practice. You want to write? You want to know how you can become a writer? Just write. You want to be able to cook? Just cook. Sure you may be terrible at first and send a few loved ones to the latrines, but eventually, if you keep at it, you will improve. Or maybe go to jail. But a skill is a skill. Keep cooking whilst incarcerated – it’ll help pass the time.

Jesus

I saw a clip on the internets recently with two intellectual blowhards having an argument about government and religion. One guy was some leading proponent of atheism, and the other was an iron-faced douchebag who I won’t name. Let’s just call him William Of House Reilly. At one point in their argument, William argued that Christianity was not a religion at all, but was in fact a philosophy. After thinking about it for a while, I started to believe it. Christianity is a philosophy. At first that just seems like crazy talk. Take a look at the world in which we live: the churches, the laws, the religious doctrine. It all points to a conclusion that yes, Christianity is indeed a religion. Of course it is. There is an organized church split into approximately 40,000 different denominations, all with their own peculiar ideas and rules and definitions of what it means to be a Christian, and their own very specific understanding of the Christian Holy Bible.  This group believes this, while the other group believes that. One group says that you should do this, but the other group says that no, you should do something else instead. It can be very confusing.

Should you dance, or shouldn’t you? Should you speak in some unintelligible language, or should you just speak whichever tongue you understand? Should you pray in a loud and boisterous voice, or should you pray in a low whisper? Should women be allowed to speak in church, or keep quiet until they are in the house? Should you drink wine or grape juice for Communion? Should you even have Communion? Should you ask for tithes and offerings, or should you leave it up to each individual to decide if they want to give? Is every single word of the Bible a fact, or is some of it just a story written to make a point? How many commandments are there, truly? Lots of contradictions, lots of questions, lots of confusion. And each sect of Christianity can point to their very own favorite verses of the Bible to defend their beliefs and explain why they are right and others are wrong. Each church has its own set of laws and bylaws and rules and regulations which must be followed to the letter, otherwise the church itself would rip at the seams, and no longer be the peaceful, loving, caring organization it is today. After all, rules are important aren’t they? Isn’t that what Jesus taught? To follow the rules?

Seems to me that for pretty much every Bible verse you can find to support your reason for believing a certain thing, you can almost certainly find another verse somewhere else that completely contradicts it. It also seems to me that if you are going to pick and choose certain laws and rules to follow simply because they are written somewhere in the Bible, then you should follow all of them. How can you take one verse from the book of Deuteronomy and use it in your church laws, but ignore the others? How can you take Paul’s advice on one aspect of worship and church behavior, and still choose to ignore him in other matters? It’s contradictory. But this is not the purpose of my writing. I will leave that to you, the reader, to do as you will.

What I wish to argue here is that at its heart, cut through all the rules and laws and church nonsense, Christianity is indeed a philosophy. Or it would be if the church wasn’t around. Jesus was a teacher, not a preacher. He was a poor traveler, not a rich church leader. And at the heart of everything that he said and did, he had a philosophy. Love God and love your neighbor. That’s it.

The words of Jesus: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others.” – Matthew 22: 37-40

Jesus was a simple man who loved everyone and wanted everyone to love one another. That doesn’t sound too much like the church that exists today. It also doesn’t really sound like “an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god.” To me, it sounds more like “a set of ideas about how to do something or how to live.” Love God. Seek His forgiveness. Love one another. Forgive one another and seek the forgiveness of others. This, in a nutshell, is how you follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Not by setting up laws and regulations designed to exclude certain people and punish certain people for not following some law that was randomly selected from the book of Leviticus. In this, I believe, we can say that Christianity – true Christianity – the belief and following of the teachings of Christ, is a philosophy. I don’t subscribe to religion. I don’t consider myself religious. I consider myself a follower and (trying to be) a practitioner of Christ’s teachings. His philosophy.

I don’t follow the teachings of Abraham. Or Moses. Or David. Or King Solomon. Christianity isn’t named for them – it’s named for Christ. I don’t think that Christ intended for his followers to be divided and fighting one another over laws. He didn’t lay down a set of laws to be followed – he provided a philosophy. Love God, love one another. Fighting others because they don’t believe what you believe isn’t Christ like at all.  Ostracizing people for living a certain way isn’t Christ like. Saying that someone is wrong because they don’t worship in the same very specific manner you worship isn’t Christ like.  We are to trust in God, not in man. Follow his teachings, his guidance, his advice. If we aren’t careful we allow our religion to get in the way of a true relationship and understanding of Christ. I haven’t quoted any other Bible scriptures because that’s not what this is about. Feel free to go and read for yourself. The one bit of scripture that I referenced says it all. It sums up what Christ was about.  Any teachings you receive from any man – any man, should be cross referenced and checked to see if it is in accordance to what Christ said and did. He is the leader of the church, the religion, the philosophy, whatever you wish to call it. I believe in God. I believe in Christ, and I believe in his teachings. I love God, I love others. I ask God’s forgiveness and I forgive others. It’s not easy. But it’s the best way to live life.

Makin’ a pie for your mouth

There’s something about the science of baking that to me is utterly fascinating. Combining different at rest ingredients, adding heat and creating something entirely new, different and delicious is to me a wonder. It’s interesting. It’s fun.

Eggs, milk, flour, sugar, butter, vanilla – that’s enough right there to create something wonderful, isn’t it? It literally is. You don’t really need more than that to create something rich and delicious. But, that’s still a bit plain. It’s really just a base, or a foundation for something much better. Pick and choose other delectable delights to throw in, on and around that base and you have something special on your hands. And eventually, in your mouth. Then your stomach. And then your…well, let’s just move on.

For my most recent contribution to the goofy world of baking and dessert making, I made a coconut custard pie. I know that not everyone enjoys coconut. And I also know that a lot of people don’t enjoy custard. There are even a few weirdos who simply refuse to eat pie. To those people, the thought of a coconut custard pie is simply unbearable. And I respect that. They’re perfectly entitled to their terrible opinions. To the real human beings (and real heroes) of the world, here is the story.

Heat your oven to 350° F/177° C. I cannot place enough emphasis on the fact that your oven must always be properly and thoroughly heated before you insert your custard/roast beef/pizza/stray cat. Turn on the heat, and leave it for at least 20 minutes before you begin baking.

In this bowl there are the prerequisite base ingredients (eggs, milk, flour, sugar, butter and vanilla), plus flake coconut, cream cheese and coconut rum (sorry, Tim). Do you feel yourself getting fat just by reading this? Well that’s ridiculous, isn’t it? This is a custard. It won’t be particularly thick at this stage, but that’s what the heat is for. It’s the catalyst for the incredible, edible metamorphosis.

You need a pie pan of some sort to hold the custard as it takes its final shape. Placing the bowl directly into the oven almost never works. There is a good chance it won’t taste as lovely as it should.

Here is what I used. As you can see, it has been rubbed and coated with an ungodly amount of butter. You can never have too much butter, just as you can never have too much bacon. Just ask your cardiologist; I am sure that he will agree with me. Remember what Gandhi once said: “Mmmmm…butter.” You need this to ensure that your custard will slide easily out of the pan, if for some reason you decide not to just sit and inhale it right out of the pan with your hands.

So now that the oven is heated, the pan is mmm…butter-ed and the bowl is filled with manna from heaven, you need to properly combine all of the ingredients. Here is an idea of what it could look like:

Here is an idea of what it should look like:

Not very thick, not very thin, and not on the floor. That about covers it. Also, here is a common mistake that people make:

As you can see, the bowl is too small to adequately hold her child. If she wants to bake this kid, she will need a much bigger bowl. Using a bowl that is too small is simply asking for trouble.

Once everything is mixed, using either an electric mixer, a whisk, or a stick you found outside, you need to slowly, carefully pour it all into your completely over-mmm…butter-ed pie pan. Be sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape as much of it out as possible, but also being sure to leave a little inside for eating it raw. Here’s how it looks:

Don’t be afraid to fill it almost to the top, but do leave a sliver of space, as the custard will rise a bit as it bakes. The magic of this is that while right now it just looks like a yellow mess, as it bakes, the coconut will separate to the top and sides, essentially creating its own “crust”. I know some of you were wondering why there was no crust, and why the custard was just poured directly into the pan. I know you were. Go ahead, admit it. At any rate, it is now ready to enter the Hell Box of Doom Fire! I mean the oven.

If the oven was properly heated, and if the heat was allowed to consistently stay at the proper temperature (this can be achieved by NOT opening the oven) for the duration, the transformation will be almost complete. Once it is out of the oven, it must be allowed to sit and rest, much like an old man after going out to pick up the paper. It must not be disturbed before it has properly cooled. Here is how it looks fresh out of the oven:

As you can tell, it has risen slightly above the top of the pan, but as it cools, it will drop slightly. Only slightly, though. That is acceptable. Disturbing it while in the oven or while it is resting, much like your angry neighbor, will cause it to throw empty medicine bottles at your face. And you don’t want that. Leave it be, and everyone wins.

Here is a look inside, when it was time fer eatin’. The custard is set up, and the coconut has risen to the top and toasted nicely. And because I used enough mmm…butter to feed a small army of people who eat a lot of mmm…butter, the slices left behind little residue.

A slice, a slice, my kingdom for a slice. Soft, rich, coconutty, custardy, mmm…butter-y, cholesteroly. This is what happens when heat is applied to a simple mixture of eggs, milk, flour, sugar, and mmm… butter. Also, rum is always a good idea. Custard? Good. Coconut? Good. Rum? Gooooood. Science is fun. So is clogging ones arteries. It’s the little things in life.

Imagine a giraffe with a sore throat.

It’s almost as if this blog is becoming a journal to document my various ailments here in Honduras. This time it’s a simple sore throat that plagues me. Today makes a week since it reared its despicable head, and it hasn’t gotten progressively better since its inception. I mean, is there any ailment that is more just plain annoying than a sore throat? It is a fortunate thing that I received 2 bags of lozenges just before Christmas, because they have helped. Today I made a tea of lemon juice, honey and hot sauce, which worked well as I was drinking it (despite the obvious choking fits I had to endure), but soon after finishing it, swallowing once again became quite the chore. Anyway, I’ll give it a couple more days and if there’s no improvement, I shall seek out some antibiotics.

So, we’re back in school after close to 2 and a half weeks off for Christmas break. Fortunately, most of the kids don’t seem to have forgotten everything we were working on, which was a fear of mine. I assigned them all a bunch of work to do over the holidays, and even made a schedule for them to follow so that there would be a consistent flow of learning the entire vacation.  Of course, it turns out they all made it their mission to finish it all in the first 2 days of vacation. The very same kids that have trouble remembering to do homework or copying 3 sentences off the board.

Let me also mention that the school scheduled exams for the week after returning from Christmas break. Where’s the logic in that, you ask? Do me a favor and email me if you can find it, because I can’t. My moaning and whining aside, the kids did relatively well on the exams; though I have no doubt they would have done better with another week or 2 to prepare in class. My class size has also dropped by at least one. One of the kids was taken out of school the last week before break, evidently because they are having financial problems. It stinks that it came down to that, but hopefully they have found a cheaper alternative and placed him there. He was one of the slower kids, so he really can’t afford a long break in his education now.

As for the Christmas break itself, it was rather uneventful. I didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t do anything (other than complete a 750 pc puzzle), and oddly enough, it didn’t snow. I was invited for Christmas Eve dinner at the home of one of my kids, and I spent Christmas day watching Christmas themed movies, so that was entertaining enough for me. The only really hard part about coming off vacation was getting used to waking up before 6am again. It’s not so much the waking up as it is getting enough sleep the night before.

Right now I am in the process of deciding if I wish to stay for another year. A big part of me wants to, but a big part of me is unsure. I still have to find a way to pay for my TEFL certification so that I can get a job teaching English when I’m done here, whether that is this year or next. If nothing else I would like to leave for a couple of weeks at least to get a break and see family, but it’s hard to imagine how that would happen. There is opportunity for a teaching job over the summer right here, teaching adults, and it pays well (for Honduras, anyway), and I could support myself here on that, but it doesn’t solve any long-term problems.

Anyway, I have faith that things will work out as they are meant to. Faith has gotten me this far and I see no reason to despair or worry over things at this point. I just wanted to say that everyone’s encouraging words and support are well appreciated, and I’m happy that everyone understands what it is I am trying to do here. That’s about it for now…take care.

Sports, Weather & Other Important Things

The thing that bugs me about weather is that any sudden, extreme change in temperature is an almost guarantee that I´m gonna get a cold. I mean even if I´m feeling as healthy as I ever have, hopped up on vitamins and minerals daily and dressing appropriately; if the temperature hits a high of 90 one day and a high of 65 the next, I am bound to begin sniffling and sneezing and coughing. But I can´t complain about it because I love cold weather, which is what makes it even more annoying that I get sick whenever the weather turns.

A few nights last week I had to resort to sleeping in long pants. I don’t think I´ve done that since I was living in Dallas, which was quite some time ago. The weather was low and cool during daylight for almost the entirety of last week, then a break on Friday, and back to the cool yesterday. Today the sun has come up, but it´s still relatively cool. The nights have been consistently nice, though…which is nice. Today I got up and decided to go to the Sunday Market and purchase a blanket, which is almost a guarantee that it´s going to warm up again very soon. But no matter. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it, am I right?

So why have I written all this endlessly fascinating information on my blog? Is it to give people an accurate idea of how the weather is here in Cofradia? Is it to complain about getting my 5th cold in 3 months? Is it simply to fill up this blog post with words so that it is bigger than it needs to be? We may never know the answer to that question, but rest assured, I will continue my search.

So I mentioned the decent weather on Friday (aside from some slight drizzles in the afternoon), which was pretty warm. Friday was the day we had the school Olympics. Kids from each grade in the school, along with the teachers and volunteers, are split into 5 ¨houses¨, represented by the colors blue, green, orange, red and yellow. Kids are awarded ¨house points¨on a daily basis based on different criteria. For the Olympics, each house was designated a country, often determined by the nationality of the volunteers. For this year´s event, the countries were: Australia, The Bahamas, Canada, Ireland and Japan.

The kids took part in 8 different events throughout the course of the day. Only 2 were traditional sporting events, those being the sprint and the relay. The other events were the ball toss, limbo, sack race, 3 legged race, tunnel ball and tug of war. Of these events, the volunteers also took part in limbo, sack race, 3 legged race and tug of war. Of course it goes without saying that I fell over whilst attempting the sack race. I am not too proud to admit that I am not adept at hopping around with my legs bound up in a tiny sack.

The kids had a blast, and the day as a whole was pretty fun. The only negative to the day is that even though we don´t know the official results yet, I´m pretty sure The Bahamas team finished no better than 4th overall. Actually it´s not really a negative because honestly it means very little to me, but it was the team I was on, so doing better would have been cool…oh well. Another positive to the day was that I was able to procure a jar of guanabana (sour sop) jam, which is rather tasty indeed. Sorry to say I do  not have any pictures to post at the moment, but pictures were taken, I assure you. Just not by me. If I find some that are worth posting, I will. Otherwise, it´s just a matter of time before they are posted to the Cofradia´s Bi-lingual School page on Facebook, so you can see them there.

So that´s the news for today. My sniffles are slowly going away, but the pesky phlegm filled coughing is still in full force. Oh yea, and there are only 2 weeks left until Christmas break, so if anyone wants to be Santa for me and send me a box full o´surprises to help pass the time while I´m stuck here (mostly by myself because pretty much everyone else is going somewhere), then it would be greatly appreciated. Now that my shameless begging is complete, I will stop typing.

Visa run

So I’ve been sick with bronchitis and a sinus infection the past 2 weeks, and that has, in a word, sucked. I wanted to write a new blog post as soon as we got back from Guatemala, but I just didn’t feel like it. Right now I am still coughing quite a bit and my ears are plugged up, but I am still feeling better than I have in a while. So here’s the update.

All of us had to renew our visas for the next 3 months, and of course in order to do so we needed to leave the country for a few days. Guatemala was the decided destination, so the plans were made and off we went. 2 people went to one area, 1 went to another, 1 went to even another, and the rest of us went to Livingston.

We all took the same chartered bus to the border, which took about 2 1/2 hours, then got into another bus for another hour or so, at which point we split up. I suppose I should mention here that about 10 minutes into our trip, I realized that I hadn’t brought along my passport, and so we had to turn around and go pick it up. Yes, I felt appropriately silly and foolish for doing so, so let’s just leave it at that.

Once we were about an hour into Guatemala, we got off the final bus, and began walking. Our first stop was at a bank to gather some local currency, and then we had to make our way to the docks, in order to get a boat for the final leg of our journey to Livingston. The boat trip was only about 20 minutes, and the waters were calm, so it was pretty enjoyable. I did enjoy the surrounding scenery as well, mountain ranges towering over the waters.

Once we arrived, I was immediately struck by how similar the place looked and felt to Abaco. Long, slim streets, shanty looking buildings, vendors on either side and surrounded by water. I suppose many places look this way, but that was my first reference. The main difference in the environment obviously were the mountains on the horizon; I still can’t take the mountain views for granted.

We stayed at a place called Casa Rosada, and slept in 2 bedroom huts. I call them huts because that’s really all they were; 2 beds, a lamp and a roof. It was perfectly comfortable, though. The food offered at the hotel was tasty, if a bit pricey, and the cappuccino was delightful. Yes, I used the word delightful to describe cappuccino. I don’t care how dainty that makes me seem. They offered high-speed internet which was a great addition, and there was one more thing. The official hotel pet, was this huge, fat black cat named “Peaboo” (or something to that effect). I didn’t see it until the second day there, but once it showed up, there was no missing it. That thing must have weighed at least 15 pounds. I just had to take a picture of it.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and left on Sunday morning. It was a restful, enjoyable time, but the morning we left I was feeling a bit queasy, and that feeling only got worse as the day continued. I still don’t know how I made it all the way back to Cofradia without throwing up, though I did eventually. I had been feeling unwell since 2 days before we left, and as of today I still am not 100% healthy (that’s almost 3 weeks, for those of you keeping score). I’ve been on so many different drugs since then, I would be surprised if I haven’t built up some sort of immunity to medication by now.

Anyway, I’m not complaining, and like I said, I’m feeling ok now, just the lingering cough and plugged ears at the moment. I took a few pictures of the trip, and they are all here for your viewing pleasure. You will note the street vendors, the mountain views on the boat ride, the Casa Rosada, and of course, the Chiquita freight ship. We did pass the Chiquita warehouse as we were walking, but alas, I did not take a picture. If you are disappointed by this unfortunate revelation, then you have my condolences.

My sickness kept me out of school for 5 consecutive days, and for 7 out of the last 13 school days. I returned on Friday, and was genuinely surprised at how much I had missed the kids and the school itself. The kids had made me some get well cards which were very much appreciated, and most of them seemed genuinely happy to have me back in class. I am most appreciative to Becky, Reiko and everyone else who stepped in to take over my classes while I was out.

That’s it for today; hope everyone enjoys the pics.

Ramblings

So school has been going pretty well. The kids are learning and I´m learning as well; it has been rough but a lot of fun. Planning lessons and fun things to do with the kids is challenging, but rewarding at the same time. It certainly isn´t easy to adjust to the different needs of each kid, or to know when to stay on a subject because some kids don´t get it, or to move on. I don´t know how teachers do it year in and year out; it seems like it would be a very stressful full-time occupation.

Cofradia is a great place. I know I said it before, but I really like it here. It´s a fairly big place. but it has the feel of a small town. Pretty much everything you need is a short walk away from wherever you are, and the people are very accommodating. I´m doing my best to pick up key words and phrases to help in most situations; it helps that a few of my fellow volunteers are good with the language.

We were planning to head to a mountain village to spend a long weekend recently, but the days off were moved to accommodate the volunteers need for a long weekend to renew our visas at the end of this month. Hopefully we´ll still get to go at some point. We all have to leave the country for a few days to kind of “reset” our visas for another 90 days, so we´ll do that the first weekend this month.

I´m really glad I decided to bring my router with me on the trip. I was able to give it to a friend of ours who lives very near to our house, and so we all have wireless internet access at their house whenever we want it. At least I can get on the internet whenever I need to for free.

I´m so happy that I have quite a few very bright kids in my class, as it alleviates some of the pressure of getting through to the other kids. Jonathan, Dayana, Axel, Maria, Edwin and Julio are some of the best in my class, and I can pretty much always count on them to catch on to the lessons for each given day. I´ve also come to realize that it´s the kids with involved parents that tend to be the smartest in class. You´d think that´s obvious, but I never thought about it before. Those children whose parents are never seen or heard from seem to suffer in their academic lives, and that is a shame.

That also applies to the kids´diets. So many of my kids have terrible cavity problems. They bring terribly sweet and salty foods for lunch every day, and seem to live on Pepsi and cake. Pepsi and sugary drinks just seem to be more readily and cheaply available than water and other more healthy choices, so that´s what the people go for. An apple here costs 12 Lempiras, which is absolutely ridiculous. Fried foods, fatty foods and sugary foods are ridiculously cheap, though.

On an ending note, me and a fellow volunteer, Becky, have begun a year-long Scrabble tournament. We play a game every Sunday afternoon, and as of now, we are tied at 2 games a piece. We have also had a sort of rivalry on my tablet game called Wordoid, which plays a bit like Boggle. Each time one of hits a high score, the other overtakes it, which is no easy feat. It´s a lot of fun, and helps to keep the mind sharp.

Picture Pages

So I am updating with pics now, hooray! We had 2 parades recently, celebrating various things like education, Independence, so on and so on. Our school was represented both times, and we all marched along with the Hondurans, so it was a lot of fun. I tried to take a lot of different pics to give a decent idea of what was happening.

I also took some pics of the school and some of the kids in my class. I´m not much of a picture taker, so I´m trying to work through that. There won´t be that many pictures of me, either, just because I tend not to go looking for opportunities to have my picture taken. There will probably be some here and there, though.

I made an effort as well to take some pictures of the town itself, but not nearly enough. Those will probably make up the bulk of my next picture update, whenever that is. I have been fighting a cold for the past week and it´s been hard to get rid of it because I don´t get enough sleep. Hopefully it´s on its way out of my system so I can be at 100% next weekend.

The Honduran teachers are taking the volunteers out to dinner tonight at some type of upscale restaurant, and I´ve been told that the food is really good, so I´m looking forward to that. It will be a great opportunity to spend time together outside of school, and I´m hoping we get a lot more opportunities to do so.

In other news, I´m regretting selling my laptop to purchase my tablet. I really thought it would be inconvenient to bring a laptop down here, but most of the other volunteers did just that. I guess that should have been one of my questions when I was making my decision about whether or not to come, but it´s too late now. The tablet works fine for simple things, but the laptop obviously would be better.

We haven´t been able to find another house yet, so it looks like I´ll be staying in the same place for at least another month. I don´t mind though, because I am perfectly comfortable where I am.

Not much else to say at the moment, but my next update will be more detailed. For now enjoy the pics, and please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Viva Cofradia

Ok ok I´m finally here with an update. I meant to keep this blog constantly updated but circumstances, i.e. my laziness, have kept me from doing so. Let me start off with the bad news. No pics. Not yet, anyway. I´ve been so busy since I arrived that I really haven´t taken the time to take any pictures. As a matter of fact, my camera hasn´t even been taken out of its case yet. I will start taking pictures today though, so hopefully the next time I update I will have a few good ones to post.

It really is beautiful here. We´re completely surrounded by lush, green mountains, and I can´t help but stare at them each time I catch a glimpse past the buildings. We´re about to move into a new house which is situated on a sort of hill, and the view from right outside the gate is just breathtaking. The view from just outside the school is also awesome, and it helps make the morning trek to school that much more enjoyable. I know for some people, mountains don´t mean much, and the sight of a pristine beach is more enticing, but obviously for me it´s the other way around.

The town itself is obviously poor, but certainly not destitute. Most of the surrounding villages are, though. Most of the people who live here are very friendly and accommodating, especially for someone like me who isn´t fluent in Spanish. I am managing to get by with my limited vocabulary, and sometimes with the necessary help of a couple of my fellow volunteers who are pretty good with the language. One of the funniest things about this place is that it seems as if it is owned entirely by Pepsi. Everywhere you look, there are buildings and shops adorned with huge Pepsi logos. The story is Pepsi provides free drink coolers to the stores in exchange for letting them paint the logo all over the walls. It´s really quite strange but in any case understandable.

The school (Cofradia Bi-lingual School) is very small, but manages to accommodate the students and teachers adequately. Every day we take a 5 minute bus ride at about 6:15am to get to the school, and we spend a while preparing for the day. Classes start right after 7, and the school day ends at 2:10pm. I teach first grade along with another volunteer (the classes are divided in 2), but I have the first 2 periods free, so my teaching day doesn´t begin until 8:45am. There are some Honduran teachers at the school as well, and they teach a few classes in the first half of the day, during which time the volunteers have free periods.  I´ll tell you, I love my kids. They can be troublesome sometimes, especially since most of them speak virtually no English, but they are great. I teach them English, Spelling & Reading, Math, Science, Technology, Art and we have P.E. twice a week. It´s only been 1 week, but I can already see progress being made with some of them, and I can´t wait to see what the future holds for the class.

There are 11 volunteers altogether, from The Bahamas (me), the U.S., Japan, Scotland, England and Australia. We all get along pretty well which is a tremendous help with our situation and the task ahead of us. 3 of the volunteers have been here before, and their experience and comfortability with the area makes things so much easier.

I mentioned before that we are about to move into a new house. Actually, 4 of the volunteers are already in, and the rest of us are still in the old house, as we are searching for another place nearby the new house, so that we can move out of the house in which we currently reside. Got that? Good. There´s no hot water anywhere, so it´s cold showers everyday. I have no problem with that, as it´s actually quite refreshing with the hot weather. Speaking of which, most night it´s surprisingly cool. Not heavy blanket cool, but comfortable. Most nights. We have no washing machine (most people here don´t), so we have to hand wash our clothes, and of course hang them out to dry. It really teaches you to become self-sufficient, if you weren´t there already. Overall, I´m much more content here at this point than I thought I would be.

As far as money goes, most things here are ridiculously cheap. The monetary unit here is the lempira ($50 US is about 1,000 lemps). I´ve made a couple of trips into the main city of San Pedro Sula, which we call San P for short. They have a couple of malls, movie theaters, and pretty much any American fast food place you can think of. I was so shocked to see Popeye´s and Church´s chicken here! I never realized how much Hondurans love fried chicken! In the city, the prices are a bit closer to those you would find in any other major city in the U.S., but you also find a lot of things you can´t find in Cofradia.  Fruit is readily available everywhere, so that´s what makes up most of my diet. I´ve learned that you have to haggle with the fruit vendors, though. If they don´t know you and can see that you aren´t a local, they will raise the prices to try to fleece you. I´m learning, though. The food provided at school is delicious, but so unhealthy! Me and one of the other guys have been working on bringing some fresher, healthier ideas to the school´s menu, for the volunteers, and hopefully eventually for the kids as well. The food here is always good, always cheap, always available. They have some different names for things here, though. What I mean is, what they call a taco, I know as a tacquito. What they call a burrito, I know as a quesadilla. Speaking of which, the ¨burrito¨ I had the other night was so delicious I dreamt about it the next day. I´m limiting my red meat intake, so I may not get another one for a while.

What else is great about this place? Vendors. Just sitting outside the house, or laying in the hammock (!) outside the house, I see people walking by selling fresh hot corn with butter, homemade doughnuts, drinks, all sorts of goodies. The other night a guy was passing by with a guitar in hand, and he just stopped outside the gate and played and sang for us for like 20 minutes. Where else does this happen?

I´ve also had a small breakthrough idea. Hopeful about it. If this year goes really well, and I become comfortable enough with the idea of teaching English to non speakers (I´m considering taking a job on Saturdays teaching English to adults in the city), I may pursue a certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL). With these certifications I can go anywhere in the world that pays people to do this, and make a living doing it. But, that will be determined by how this year goes. I really hope it goes extremely well so that I feel strongly about pursuing it as a career.

That´s about it for now. I hope by reading this you feel as if you have an idea of the place I´m in. I´m happy and comfortable, and confident for the future. As always, your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. Feel free to leave comments and tell me what you think!

Volunteer

I think I’m looking for purpose. Or maybe fulfillment. Or maybe I just need to get lost in the middle of nowhere for a while; you know, fall off the map? If that’s my reasoning, is it a bad thing? Just head down to a hot, dirty country where I don’t speak the native language, I don’t look like the citizens, and it will be assumed that I am a rich tourist. Should be easy enough to fall off the map there, don’t you think?

Here it is. I’m moving to Honduras for at least 10 months, to volunteer at a bi-lingual school. I will be teaching young kids English mostly, among a variety of subjects. I barely speak Spanish. They barely speak English. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a Mexican sitcom! It could be called “Los niños del gringo”, and I would play a hapless English teacher at a Mexican high school who gets into zany situations with his pupils. They would play practical jokes on me and every time they called me “gringo”, I would give an annoyed smile and say “That’s Señor Gringo to you, muchacho!” and the audience would burst into applause. Or maybe not.

The point is, the opportunity arrived when, in all honesty, I never expected it would. I had thought about volunteering many times over the years, and put out feelers here and there on the interwebs, but never got very far with it. Then one day I came across this one particular site, sent an email, and shockingly, I got a response. Before I knew it, I was having a Skype conversation with one of the other volunteers. All of a sudden, everything got real. The emails continued, and before long I was checking out the cost of a plane ticket to Honduras. I checked out the typical travel websites, and could find nothing cheaper than $375 one way, and $755 round trip. Somehow it never occurred to me that the cost of the plane ticket would be that high. The doubts crept in. Maybe this is a sign I shouldn’t be considering this. If I’m this concerned over just the cost of the ticket, how am I going to manage 10 months at a volunteer job?

I was directed to the Spirit Air website. Holy guacamole. One way ticket to Honduras: $125. Can’t beat that with a stick, can I? So, there goes that excuse. Of course then, I had to quickly come up with other, more in-depth excuses as to why I shouldn’t go. I’m leaving a moderately comfortable existence to lead a moderately uncomfortable existence. For a whole 10 months. That’s almost a year, you know! I would be giving up one, or possibly 2 jobs in a very poor economy where some people can’t find any job anywhere. “What am I thinking?”, I often thought to myself. Oh yea; that’s what I’m thinking. I knew I had to make a decision. It wouldn’t be fair to leave the other volunteers hanging, wondering if they needed to look elsewhere or not. I was also sure that whatever decision I made, I had to be 100% committed to it. No turning back, no changing my mind. Especially if that decision was to go; it wouldn’t be fair to the kids if my heart wasn’t truly in it. I spoke to my friends and family about it, and it was mostly encouraging. Seems like a great opportunity, and at the very least, I get 10 months of teaching to add to my resume.

I’ve always had a problem figuring out what I am supposed to be doing with my life. I’ve never had a real clear direction; a passion for any particular career. That sucks. It really does. I envy the people who know what they want to do, and are doing it, and have absolutely no desire to ever do anything else. I think that would make my life so much easier. But alas, I don’t have that. Teaching is something that’s always been on my radar, but never really seriously considered. Volunteering to teach English around the world has been on my radar for quite a few years; but again, I never put much effort into pursuing it. What if I try it and hate it? What if I am a complete failure at it? Then what? But you know what I wasn’t thinking? What if I try it and LOVE it? What if I find out I was born to do it? THEN what? The opportunities are there;  just have to go for it. This is a door that’s opened when I never expected it to do so. Can I just slam it shut and forget it? Can I live with myself if I say I didn’t even try?

The kids. I’ve always gotten along well with children. I think it’s because I’ve never been afraid to get down to their level, and see them eye to eye. Maybe I just never really grew up. Maybe I didn’t want to, or was afraid to. Perhaps I see something in children that I don’t see in myself, and all adults, and I envy them for it. Not in a malicious way, but a “good for you, kid” kind of way. The kids at the school. They need people to help them. They need guidance, love, support; they need a chance. If I could help give that to just one of them, if I could change one kids life for the better, man, that would be something special. Not just to the kid, but to me as well. It would mean I changed someone’s world for the better. I improved that kid’s chance at succeeding in life. Life in this world can be a bitter, joyless, unbelievably depressing place. But at the same time, it can be wondrous; it can be magical. If you get the right breaks, it can be awesome. I’d like to be one of those lucky breaks for someone.

So, I’m gonna do it. I know all the negatives, all the things I’ll be missing; the conveniences, the closeness of family, the comfort of familiarity. But I also have hopes for what I’ll be replacing those things with. Purpose. Fulfillment. Meaning. Maybe it’s selfish. I’d like to think not.  But if helping someone else is what I need to help myself, and that is selfish, than that’s what I am. I’d like to be like Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap, only instead of changing the past, I’ll be changing the future. for these kids as well as myself. I’ve made a lot of poor choices in my life up until now, and lived with a lot of regrets. This is one decision that I think is right. God I hope so.