"You got it dude!"- Michelle Tanner

Hello! It’s been a busy few weeks filled with a forth of July party at the lake, observing my teachers, planning new projects, hanging out with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and celebrating Dia de Lempira (Honduras’s big national identity festival). And before I know it (17 days!!) I will be heading home for a visit that will be filled with family, ice cream, weddings, beach, Red Sox, grad school interview, etc. And then back to Gracias to power through the second half of my service!

Observing my TEAM teachers: As part of the class, I am suppose to observe each teacher twice through the duration of the course during their weekly English class at their school Some of my teachers work right here in Gracias, and some work in small, rural communities outside of the “city.” I’ve been doing the first round of observations and I am so proud of all of my teachers! Even the ones who struggle in the class are doing a great job teaching their own students! They keep it basic of course, but they’re using more dynamic methodology and singing the songs we sing in our class. And living in a “bigger” community, it’s fun for me to go out to these smaller places where the kids literally stare uncomfortably because they’ve never seen a foreigner. Well, fun and sometimes really awkward. The schools in Gracias have separate classes for each grade because there are a lot of students, but in these other places, the schools will have 2 classrooms, one for 1st, 3rd and 5th grade, and the other for 2nd, 4th and 6th grade. If the kids want to continue after 6th grade they need to travel daily or move to the closest place with a high school (for a lot of these communities, that place is Gracias).

I just started a second English class with a group of youth- I really wasn’t sure about the idea since it’s really not sustainable unless they apply themselves and study every day to learn. But they were asking, and I feel a sense of loyalty to the Youth Center, as it has been a great counterpart. What I decided to do, to please them and make it easier on myself, is essentially replicate the course I have with teachers with the youth since I am already preparing all the materials. And to add a piece to make the course a little bit more meaningful I am mandating that the youth teach to any group of people (friends, family, kids, my kids at IHNFA, their church group) three times- then at least they are being productive members of their community.

Our school spelling bee will take place this week! I set it up with the 4th, 5th and 6th graders from the elementary school. Thursday, each class will do their own rounds, and the winners will compete on August 4th in a school-wide bee. A few volunteers are working on getting funds to hold a national spelling bee in October, where all of the winners from each community who’ve participated will get to travel and compete against each other. Hopefully we’ll get funds! If it falls through, I am going to see if I can do it with a few more schools in surrounding towns and they can have a local spelling bee together. It’s a really good way to promote study habits, and get kids to realize the importance of spelling things correctly. And some of them are PUMPED! Since I visited all their classes last month, so many kids have ran up to me in the street telling me they’ve been studying the words, and then continue to give me some examples.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen! For real! Let me start from the beginning. One of my teachers works at a school in a small community called Consolaca, about 15 minutes outside of Gracias. I was there observing her, and she told me about this big shoe donation that was coming that weekend. She was explaining the organization that was coming, and I put together that it was TOMS shoes (for each pair you buy they donate a pair to a child in need). She invited me to come to the event, and I said sure! I know of TOMS shoes and thought it would be really cool to see them in action! Unbeknownst to me, MK and Ashley recently started collaborating with the company (designing patterns for the shoes I think), and happened to come along for this donation! They didn’t invite any press, and I was the only person at the event who knew who they were. They were nice, down to earth, and seemed to genuinely appreciate the dances and songs that the kids preformed for them. I really wanted to get my picture with them but I was so nervous that I told them that my 7 year old friend Suani wanted us to take a picture with them. They were so nice, they said “Of course!”- I mean, who would say no to a little Honduran girl? Still when I think about it now I freak out a little…. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in the middle of No-wheres-ville, Honduras?! What are the chances!?

Dia de Lempira, July 20th, every year- It’s the celebration and honoring of Lempira’s death (the national hero, an Indian leader who fought the Spanish during colonization). And Gracias is where it all happened, so it’s quite the event! People spend the entire month of July preparing for reenactments, parades, concerts, and India Bonita contests (the girl who has the “best” traditional outfit- they resemble child beauty contests and make me slightly uncomfortable). People come from all over the country to Gracias to take part in the festivities, I have never seen so many people here! I got to march with my kids from the kinder at IHNFA! Some dressed as Indians, others as the Spanish- it was adorable. Normally the parents work hours and hours to make their child’s costume perfect so I was expecting the kids from the most impoverished families to come without a costume, but thankfully the kinder has extras. The celebration overall was great- it was nice to see Honduras take so much pride in their indigenous identity after so many years of being ashamed. There were still a few bizarre things, like seeing cotton candy stands and cheap "circus" prizes for sale (I am pretty sure they didn't sell cotton candy when the Spanish invaded Honduras), the child beauty pageants (they remind me of those shows at home!), and chicha, a fermeted pineapple drink that is the traditional drink of all festivals in Honduras.

With the preparations for Dia de Lempira, a lot of my work has been slow, with few people showing up to classes or meetings. A lot of the girls in our group, Las Jovenes Revolucionaries (The Revolutionary Youth) haven’t been able to come because they’ve had parade rehearsals. But now that it’s over, I think things will go back to normal. And next year, I will not plan much for July.

After my trip I should be starting another Yo Merezco (abstinence/self-esteem) class with a group of girls from a church group I’ve been working with. I just did two trainings on Job Orientation and Preparation for the Workplace with the older kids, and the religious education director seemed excited for Yo Merezco. I’ll bring the manual by to go through it with her, and we’ll decide logistics. The complication is they only meet on Saturday mornings, but we can make it work, it just might take longer to finish, but that’s certainly not an issue, I’ve got another 12 months!