Whirlwind update of the past month!

Things have been busy out here in Gracias! I can’t believe May has come and gone… before I know it, it will be August and I will be boarding a plane in San Pedro on my way to BOSTON!!!! Yay!!!!

What have I been up to? Good question! We finished up Yo Merezco/Yo Tambien Merezco this past week with the 5th and 6th graders at one of the bilingual schools. It’s such a great program, I can’t wait to start it with another group, but I might hold off a little bit so I don’t over-do it. To re-cap, incase you are a new reader- it is an abstinence based sex-ed/self-esteem class for pre-adolescents, that is separated into a girl’s manual and a boy’s manual. I think what struck me the most about facilitating this class was when we got to the menstruation chapter with the girls- they were SO beyond thrilled to ask all the “is it normal when…” questions because they’ve never had the opportunity to talk about things like that before.

My TEAM (Teaching English and Methodology) class started with a group of 19 teachers….. the Peace Corps has partnered with the Secretary of Education of Honduras to create this course (so far 3 levels have been elaborated) to improve basic English education and methodology in the primary schools. The teachers who enroll in the course are suppose to teach English at least once a week, implementing the new methodology they learn. Why should they been teaching English, you ask? Is it that important? Aren’t there more important things they should be focusing on? Well… yes, of course, in a country where the vast majority misspell common words (llegar—yegar; quiero—kiero; merezco—meresco… I could go on and on) it seems wasteful to put so much energy into teaching an entirely different language. BUT, teachers are mandated by the government to teach English, and they don’t receive any training or education in the subject. Essentially they are teaching poor English via rote memorization, and the students aren’t learning. The Secretary of Education approached Peace Corps Youth Development program a few years ago asking for help, and that’s how TEAM started! I agree that it shouldn’t be a priority given other more urgent needs that communities face in Honduras, BUT given the circumstances, I am happy to do it. I loved the English class I gave when I first got here, to the youth center volunteers, and have been itching to get TEAM started. And so far, my students (the teachers) LOVE it! The methodology is dynamic and participative, two things they are not use to. I was wrapping up class on Friday and had a song planned to teach them, but it was almost the end of the class so I doubted anyone would want to stick around to sing it, but I asked them, and they all stayed, and we sang this color song about 10 times!

We are still brushing teeth, reading stories and learning how to read at IHNFA. As of late, I have been doing a lot of number identification games with them…. You have to do something when 5 and 6 year olds can’t distinguish number 1 from number 4. This coming week I will finally be giving toothbrushes to the three kinder teachers nextdoor. IHNFA supposedly serves 50 kids but on any given day, by the afternoon when I do my colgate class, there are between 10 and 20. All of the kids have their preschool classes at this kinder that is right there, along with 50 other kids who are not enrolled at IHNFA. I will set up each of the three teachers with toothbrushes so they can do the colgate program in the morning, and the kids that also go to IHNFA will brush twice a day.

Earlier this month we had our last Youth Development in-service training in a program called Joven a Joven (youth to youth) which is a course for high school kids about job orientation, figuring out skills and aptitudes, how to prepare for an interview, writing a resume and a cover page, etc. It’s a really detailed, well put-together program but the prep work is intensive. The counterpart that came with me is doing an internship right now with World Vision and she wants to start soon, so we can complete the entire course during the time of her internship…. Hopefully we will start planning this coming week... OH! And during the workshop we made a music video to a song that fellow volunteer Melissa wrote about using condoms and preventing AIDS! Once it is done being edited I will be sure to share it. AND on the last day of the workshop, the hotel gave us a CAKE (photographed here). How sweet!


I also recently set up another blog to use as part of the World Wise School program, which is a peace corps program that sets up volunteers with classrooms in the states. I'll be writing to my sister's special ed class! The year is almost over but she runs a summer program too, so it will carry over. I'm sharing the link to that blog on this blog, but not the other way around :) We haven't officially started but G said this week she'd introduce them to it.
http://www.wws-lisa-pchonduras.blogspot.com/

An update on safety and security in Honduras….. 6 volunteers are being evacuated from their sites and moved to new ones due to a rapid increase in random/intense violence in a certain area of the country. Volunteers living in and right around this certain city will officially have new homes by this Friday. YIKES! I wish them all the best, I can’t imagine what it would be like to move to a new site and integrate into a new community so far into your service. Please keep these volunteers in your thoughts. (Pictured to the left is me with Juan Carlos our safety and security officer).

Also, ex-president Mel Zelaya, who was ousted in the coup in 2009 and has been hiding out in the DR, came back into Honduras this weekend.... I was expecting to hear horror stories about what happened in the streets of Tegucigalpa, but so far everything's tranquilo. He has a LOT of supporters, but also what seems to be an equal number of "enemies" (for lack of a better word).

Random story of the week: I was walking down the street and I hear someone shout something in English… I keep walking, assuming it was someone being rude, saying gross things to me in broken English (I am not being bitter, it is literally just part of a typical day). But then I realize the English is not broken so I turn around. It was a group of young men outside one of the Evangelical churches, on a missionary trip from the states. They come down once/twice a year and always partner with the same congregation. They were so nice, and they all gathered around me and prayed for my safety and well-being (and then they gave me a bible in Spanish). It was so kind of them, I nearly cried.

Annnnd of course, more goats :)

Thats all for now,
lots of hugs from Honduras,
love, lisa