Fuego Shakers, Site Predictions and Ending FBT!

Hola!!!!!!!
I can't believe this is our last week of FBT here in Talanga.... holy moly did that go by fast.

Last Friday we had a fieldtrip to a place with a pool, to go over everything we've covered these past few weeks, and to just... hang out. I bought a coconut from a man who chopped it up with his machete!

This week we made compost piles and little garden... ohhhh manual labor, how you've found me again... Oh! But a man from a tv station walked by and filmed up, and supposedly we made it on the Honduran news! Literally it was a man with a camcorder, meandering around the streets of Talanga, looking for something interesting.

We are wrapping up our self directed projects, next Thursday is the big parade in El Rosario! We are showcasing their masks, instruments, banner, singing abilities and potential dance abilities. Last week Margarita and I were in charge of making FUEGO SHAKERS!!!!


I have 2 more story hours next week- this past week i read a book about a boy who gets made into a pizza, and then we all decorated paper pieces of pizza! They had to draw their face in the middle, then they could decorate it however they wanted.... i made a model with my face, and about 3 kids gave themselves red hair, freckles and glasses... one of them actually drew an exact replica of my face.

Site announcements are Wednesday! We had our last interview this past week, and from that i gathered that I am being sent to a BIG site. AHHH!!! It will be ok... I mean... I had hoped for a small site, but there is a reason for everything. It's more about the work than the site, anyways. And it sounds like I will be doing some pretty awesome stuff. I am assigned two counterparts, one at a youth center (which I guess requires a lot of energy, as they told me even though i would have preferred a small site, i was the only one with enough energy to handle this youth center), and the other is at an infant center with little little ones. The second is paid for by the government, and is for extremely poor families. On Wednesday I should get more details! But given what we know already, and some internet research, I am ALMOST positive i know where i am going... but in case there are any Peace Corps rules about disclosing information, I won't say...

We had a lovely gathering last night at Alicia's house, everyone came! We celebrated Stacie's upcoming birthday. It was so much funnnn... I am going to miss everyone so much! It's weird to think that in just two weeks we will be dispersed all over Honduras.

Ohhhh we were taking some group pictures, and someone decided we should do one of them Honduran style... which means you don't smile and just stare... I dont remember whose camera it was taken on but I will try to snag it off of facebook to share with you all!

Thanks for following! I will leave you with a picture of my Spanish class.... And stay tuned to find out where I will spend the next two years of my life! ABRAZOS!!!!
love, lisa

HOLA!

This is a test... can you see the picture? Let me know! I feel that my last blog entry was naked, as it lacked photos, but the photos seemed to be causing the previous problems.

Huelgas, Catrachas and Brushing your teeth!

I can’t believe its August… more than halfway through August at that… I wore my bathing suit for the first time this summer yesterday when we went to visit the MuniD site (we picnic’d at a pool). I keep forgetting its summer since it’s not summer here… The school year goes from February through November… And we’re not near a beach!

We have three more weeks of training in Talanga and one week in Zarabanda before we all, hopefully, get sworn in as volunteers. LOCO!

What’s been going on… lets see….


Our El Rosario group gave mini health classes (health was a topic that the parents wanted us to cover) so we split it up between the 4 of us into washing hands, exercise, healthy food and brushing your teeth. I did brushing your teeth…. And made up a song to teach them!! It goes to the tune of Far-e-sha-ka (pardon the spelling):

Cepille los, Cepille los (brush your, brush your)
Dientes… Dientes (teeth, teeth)
Yo hago cada dia (I do it everyday)
Despues de la comida (After the food0
Sonrisa, Sonrisa (Smile, smile)

I POSTED A VIDEO ON FACEBOOK IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT IN ACTION!


We also made an AWESOME BANNER to carry in our parade! The big day is September 2nd. Whooooo! Thanks to Margarita's mom, for the daises! I'm having blog problems so i will hopefully post pictures later!!


Last week we did Dental Hygiene training, and then went and gave a class on it in a school (we threw in my song!). Peace Corps does a program with Colgate, and Colgate donates toothbrushes and toothpaste to kids if we work with teachers to carry through with the program. We talk about basic hygiene, cavities, healthy food and preventative measures… the kicker is getting the teacher to hold up her end of the deal and get the kids to brush their teeth at school (they get one toothbrush for home and one for school). Dental hygiene is a huge problem here... dentists are hard to find, and when you find one, they are too expensive to visit... a lot of kids have black spots on their teeth, which can only be removed by dental tools, and are caused by food/bacteria that was never removed. I feel quite strongly about the Colgate program given my recent dental fiasco... baaaahah..... if only someone came to talk to me about flossing during those 8 years I abstained from the dentist.....


We’ve also gotten training on TEAM, Teaching English and Methodology, which is a program to teach teachers how to teach English. They say that pretty much every YD volunteer ends up having a TEAM class. This week we have a two day training on HIV/AIDS.


This week marks the second week of the latest teacher strike… This is one of the challenges of youth development volunteers, as much of our work is scheduled around schools. It’s just the public schools that go on strike. There are also some private ones (which, as you’d imagine, they cost a lot of money that most people don’t have), and there is another kind of school that doesn’t get funding from the government to pay the teachers (though they get resources, like text books/materials) so every parent pays a little bit to pay the teacher, and since the government is not paying those teachers, they don’t go on strike (we did our dental hygiene class in one of those schools).


Despite the strike, the kinder I'm doing my individual project in has remained opened... some teachers (very few) have chosen to continue classes, just out of good conscience and devotion to their students (as they are the ones suffering the most)... it's a sticky situation because the teachers that continue to give classes during strikes are usually targeted by their colleagues. Buttttt I've had my story hour the past two weeks! We read a book about a puppy who didn't want to eat his dinner and got sick off of caramelos and made puppy masks (adorable, sadly I forgot my camera that day). And then today we worked with numbers and we made number necklaces! One of the teachers was so impressed, and the kids were so excited (yes, about NUMBERS!) that they got to take home their necklaces. Fun activities are lacking like whoaaaaa.


Oh! A kinder. That's like... a mix between preschool and kindergarten... its kindergarten aged kids, but there isn't much of a preschool system, and the kinder day is shorter, AND it is usually separate from the schools...


We had another interview this past week with the YD director and the Training Director, where we talk about our strengths and interests, and concerns about where we will be placed…. I got them to admit (kind of) that they know where they are sending me, butttt I’ve got to wait until September 1st to find out what Honduran community needs Lisa the most…. a community desperate for arts and crafts???


Friday was cultural day…. We all had to make a typical Honduran dish with our families to bring, and then each Spanish class gave a presentation on an aspect of our culture in the United States. One class did Thanksgiving, one did Football, one did Hollywood, one did the four seasons, and my class did the melting pot. There was quite the array of food… my host mom and I made Catrachas, which are deep friend tortillas topped with refried beans and cheese (a heart attack waiting to happen)… the word Catracha is actually another term for Honduran, and the connotation has a lot of national pride in it, so these little friend tortilla things are one of the national foods of Honduras.



OH! So. One of the aspirantes (trainees) met a man who wanted help in his english class.... so a few of us signed up to help last weekend... a few went in the morning, and Margarita and I went in the afternoon... The teacher thought we would stay until the school closed, and come back all weekend (8-5)! We went thinking we were going to meet with the class and talk about something that they wanted to learn but we went in and were assumed to be teaching the class... so, we gave an impromptu intro to English course.... I explained that we had other commitments and could not come back all weekend, but would return for an hour... I'm not sure why this happened... The teacher just... wanted us to teach his class... but this is probably going to happen an awful lot when we get into site... The problem is that it's not sustainable if we just pop in and take over.... But since we are just here for 3 more weeks, we'll just... teach some numbers and colors. It was such a weird situation.... hahahah we had said we had to leave at 4, and hour after we got there, and it was about 5 of 4 when we were asking the students (three 17 year old boys) the kinds of things they wanted to learn next time, and the teacher stops me and says we still have 5 more minutes of teaching left to do... WHOA! Tranquilo, budddy, tranquilo.


Annnnd.... Anything else? We've been having our dance classes.... i gotta say... i am not too graceful on my feet... Thats all i really have to say about that.


Thanks for reading, sorry about the technical difficulties, i really don't know what's wrong! Miss and love you all, take care!

Huelgas, Catrachas and Brusing Teeth!

I can’t believe its August… more than halfway through August at that… I wore my bathing suit for the first time this summer yesterday when we went to visit the MuniD site (we picnic’d at a pool). I keep forgetting its summer since it’s not summer here… The school year goes from February through November… And we’re not near a beach!

We have three more weeks of training in Talanga and one week in Zarabanda before we all, hopefully, get sworn in as volunteers. LOCO!

What’s been going on… lets see….

Our El Rosario group gave mini health classes (health was a topic that the parents wanted us to cover) so we split it up between the 4 of us into washing hands, exercise, healthy food and brushing your teeth. I did brushing your teeth…. And made up a song to teach them!! It goes to the tune of Far-e-sha-ka (pardon the spelling):

Cepille los, Cepille los (brush your, brush your)

Dientes… Dientes (teeth, teeth)

Yo hago cada dia (I do it everyday)

Despues de la comida (After the food0

Sonrisa, Sonrisa (Smile, smile)

I POSTED A VIDEO ON FACEBOOK IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT IN ACTION!

We also made an AWESOME BANNER to carry in our parade! The big day is September 2nd. Whooooo! Thanks to Margarita's mom, for the daises!

Last week we did Dental Hygiene training, and then went and gave a class on it in a school (we threw in my song!). Peace Corps does a program with Colgate, and Colgate donates toothbrushes and toothpaste to kids if we work with teachers to carry through with the program. We talk about basic hygiene, cavities, healthy food and preventative measures… the kicker is getting the teacher to hold up her end of the deal and get the kids to brush their teeth at school (they get one toothbrush for home and one for school). Dental hygiene is a huge problem here... dentists are hard to find, and when you find one, they are too expensive to visit... a lot of kids have black spots on their teeth, which can only be removed by dental tools, and are caused by food/bacteria that was never removed. I feel quite strongly about the Colgate program given my recent dental fiasco... baaaahah..... if only someone came to talk to me about flossing during those 8 years I abstained from the dentist.....

We’ve also gotten training on TEAM, Teaching English and Methodology, which is a program to teach teachers how to teach English. They say that pretty much every YD volunteer ends up having a TEAM class. This week we have a two day training on HIV/AIDS.

This week marks the second week of the latest teacher strike… This is one of the challenges of youth development volunteers, as much of our work is scheduled around schools. It’s just the public schools that go on strike. There are also some private ones (which, as you’d imagine, they cost a lot of money that most people don’t have), and there is another kind of school that doesn’t get funding from the government to pay the teachers (though they get resources, like text books/materials) so every parent pays a little bit to pay the teacher, and since the government is not paying those teachers, they don’t go on strike (we did our dental hygiene class in one of those schools).

Despite the strike, the kinder I'm doing my individual project in has remained opened... some teachers (very few) have chosen to continue classes, just out of good conscience and devotion to their students (as they are the ones suffering the most)... it's a sticky situation because the teachers that continue to give classes during strikes are usually targeted by their colleagues. Buttttt I've had my story hour the past two weeks! We read a book about a puppy who didn't want to eat his dinner and got sick off of caramelos and made puppy masks (adorable, sadly I forgot my camer

a that day). And then today we worked with numbers and we made number necklaces! One of the teachers was so impressed, and the kids were so excited (yes, about NUMBERS!) that they got to take home their necklaces. Fun activities are lacking like whoaaaaa.

Oh! A kinder. That's like... a mix between preschool

and kindergarten... its kindergarten aged kids, but there isn't much of a preschool system, and the kinder day is shorter, AND it is usually separate from the schools...

We had another interview this past week with the YD director and the Training Director, where we talk about our strengths and interests, and concerns about where we will be placed…. I got them to admit (kind of) that they know where they are sending me, butttt I’ve got to wait until September 1^st to find out what Honduran community needs Lisa the most…. a community desperate for arts and crafts???

Friday was cultural day…. We all had to make a typical Honduran dish with our families to bring, and then each Spanish class gave a presentation on an aspect of our culture in the United States. One class did Thanksgiving, one did Football, one did Hollywood, one did the four seasons, and my class did the melting pot. There was quite the array of food… my host mom and I made Catrachas, which are deep friend tortillas topped with refried beans and cheese (a heart attack waiting to happen)… the word Catracha is actually another term for Honduran, and the connotation has a lot of national pride in it, so these little friend tortilla things are one of the national foods of Honduras.

OH! So. One of the aspirantes (trainees) met a man who wanted help in his english class.... so a few of us signed up to help last weekend... a few went in the morning, and Margarita and I went in the afternoon... The teacher thought we would stay until the school closed, and come back all weekend (8-5)! We went thinking we were going to meet with the class and talk about something that they wanted to learn but we went in and were assumed to be teaching the class... so, we gave an impromptu intro to English course.... I explained that we had other commitments and could not come back all weekend, but would return for an hour... I'm not sure why this happened... The teacher just... wanted us to teach his class... but this is probably going to happen an awful lot when we get into site... The problem is that it's not sustainable if we just pop in and take over.... But since we are just here for 3 more weeks, we'll just... teach some numbers and colors. It was such a weird situation.... hahahah we had said we had to leave at 4, and hour after we got there, and it was about 5 of 4 when we were asking the students (three 17 year old boys) the kinds of things they wanted to learn next time, and the teacher stops me and says we still have 5 more minutes of teaching left to do... WHOA! Tranquilo, budddy, tranquilo.

Annnnd.... Anything else?We've been having our dance classes.... i gotta say... i am not too graceful on my feet... Thats all i really have to say about that.

I will leave you with

a picture of our awesome El Rosario group!

Thanks for reading, sorry about the technical difficulties, i really don't know what's wrong! Miss and love you all, take care!

Technical Difficulties?

I have received several notifications from several people that my blog was encountering problems (thank you for your concern, and continued support!). This is a test entry. Can you see me? Can you see my prior blog posts? I posted one over a week ago with some awesome pictures, including some fabulous masks we made in El Rosario. I will upload it again in case it was lost.
Let me know if you can see my previous entries! I've got more to say but want to make sure everything is showing up first.
The thing is, everyone in Honduras can see the updates no problem... which makes it hard to determine what's wrong.
Love you all,
Lisa

COMO ESTAN??? MUY BIEN!!

WOW in one month I will know my site. I can’t believe how fast training is starting to go by, it’s flying now that we’ve gotten our projects started!

For our self-directed projects, Team El Rosario is taking over that little aldea! We are having so much fun, our kiddies are fantastic! Asombroso, if you will! It’s the school that has 2 classes, and both teachers are phenomenal, they are so excited to have us. The first day we went, we talked with the kids to see what they wanted to do with us, then we played some games outside. Over the next 5 weeks we will be doing projects that will lead up to a parade we’re going to have through the town. We went yesterday to make masks and it was a hit for sure. At first the kids seemed to not know exactly what to do with themselves, but after a bit they got into it. One girl had glitter all over her body (no, it wasn’t me) and I’d like to be her friend. We will go back and make instruments, teach them a song in English, and some sort of dance.

I started my individual mini-proyecto and the kinder- its basically going to be a story hour and activity with 2 classes (separately). I am still going to find a way to incorporate puppets, but the age group is a little too young to teach a theme to other kids (I think). This week my story is about how every child is special and we are all individual. I made a big world, and had them color little people to put around the world, showing that “Aunque somos diferentes, podemos vivir en paz.” (Even though we are different, we can live in peace). I’m changing the other class’s project just to spice things up a bit (same story/theme)- They will decorate little stars to glue onto a big sky that says “Con todas las estrellas diferentes, encendemos el cielo.” (With all the different stars, we light up the sky).

The school in El Rosario is in a rural little community, without many resources. They did not have their own pencils, crayons, or any sort of art supplies. In contrast, the kinder I am doing my other project is here in Talanga, a more urban setting with more access to resources, and each student has her/his own little container of crayons. It’s unbelievable to see the difference between the schools here. In the states, access to resources depends on the school district, but

I think most schools have a least a box of crayons to share.

Anyways, though it’s slightly overwhelming, as we are busy with other parts of training and sometimes there doesn’t seem like there is enough time to plan, it is definitely worth the practice. Also, it had been almost three months since the last time I was in a preschool and it felt so nice to be back with my people!

This past weekend we trekked up a hill to find a cave…. We found bats inside! Very cool. Sadly I didn’t bring my camera, as I’d heard some horror stories and decided I wasn’t ready for anyone to rob me of it just yet… thankfully we didn’t come across any ladrones or creepers.

Religion. My host mom is Catholic, and my host dad is Evangelical- This is a crazy scenario here in Honduras, because you are either super super super Catholic or super super super Evangelical, and the two groups do NOT intermingle. It’s kind of like society’s reaction to interracial marriages 50 years ago, a “taboo” but people know it shouldn’t be so they just ignore it and talk behind your back about it. Anyways, both my host mom and host dad are extremely involved in their congregations separately, and the kids bounce back and forth to both churches. I think it’s cool. They’ve both kept an important part of themselves, do their own thing, and now the kids are exposed to both. I’ve been to the Catholic service both Sundays, and it is exactly like Catholic mass in the states, just in Spanish. This weekend I went to my host dad’s Evangelical church (out in an aldea) which involved much more singing and shouting, AND in the middle of the service, the pastor noticed me, made me come up to the altar, gave me the microphone, and had me explain to everyone why I was there, where I was from, and what my deal was.. T

hankfully I know Spanish and could do that- I would have peed myself if I didn’t. As it turns out last November, that pastor was visiting Boston- his comments were that it was enormous, and cold.

My host mom thought my 2-year-old host sister thought my name was Hola. Every time she sees me, and then every 3 minutes after that she says “Hola!” But we’ve cleared it up. She knows I’m Lisa (e-sha).

Last week was Ronaldo’s birthday (Youth Development Training Director) so we celebrated by making him two pinatas and cake! One piñata was a big peace sign (go figure), and the other was his head! Actually, it was one of the language facilitator’s birthdays as well so one side was Ronaldo’s face and the other side was Jose Louis’s face. Unfortunately, Jose Louis could not celebrate that day because he had malaria and went home. Thankfully he’s back now, and all better, but he did not get to enjoy his birthday piñata.

HUELGAS. Those are strikes. The teachers have them all the time. I haven’t even been here two months and there have already been three. Public schools close for a day, two days, or several days…. There is so much corruption in the government, and a lot of times the teachers go on strike when they don’t get paid. A valid reason, but as it is the education system is rocky…. So not only do kids get out of school at noon (if not earlier), but rarely do they have a full, 5 day school week. And when they’re not at school, there are little to no extracurricular activities, clubs or organizations (Enter, Youth Development project). Today marks day three of the most recent huelga... we´ll see if i get to do my kinder project this week!

Que mas! Things have been busy… OH we are starting dance classes this week! After we expressed interest, Ronaldo found a teacher who’s willing to meet with us two nights a week to teach us Honduran dance… Wooo!

And, one of the language facilitators hosted a movie night at her house.... Juno in Spanish, with English subtitles.... let me tell you, the jokes do not translate quite the same (Example, "Your eggo is preggo = Esta embarazada).

Dad! I would like to bring one thing to your attention. Last week we were playing basketball at the park, and another trainee Stacie said I was CARRYING our team! Imagine that! (For anyone who doesn’t already know, I played basketball for about 4 years before I ever scored a basket.).

TOILET PAPER ROLLS! SAVE THEM! If you live near my parents, drop them off (I’ve asked them to leave a box in our breeze way). In the fall, once I’m settled at my site, my mom is going to send them down (and will hopefully be able to send them here and there over the next 2 years). They make for PERFECT craft projects! Fire crackers, microphones, maracas, kaleidoscopes, reindeer (thank you, Bright Beginnings)…. Thanks!

On that note, I will end this entry. Everything’s going swimmingly here in Talanga…. The Youth Development group is lovely, and equipo El Ro

sario a force to be reckoned with. It’s hot, and rainy sometimes. It’s not uncommon to be stuck behind two giant bulls pulling wood in the middle of the road. Everyone sells things from their homes. And juice is sold in bags.

Miss and love you all, abrazos para todos! Oh one more thing, as I am typing this up in a word document on my laptop, I am watching Peter Pan in Spanish.

Love, Lisa