Graduation

Last night I had the pleasure of graduating at el Centro Marie Poussepin.

As most of you know (for those who don´t), I graduated a semester early and finished my undergrad in December. This past Sunday was Stonehill´s Class of 2011 commencement ceremony. Since I´m here in Honduras, I was unable to attend with the rest of my classmates and good friends. It was difficult to be so far away and disconnected from it all.

The weekend passed as normal, and I wasn´t expecting any sort of celebration. I was able to have a family party before I left, so I felt that my graduation was behind me. Last week we were told that we would be celebrating Sister Teresa´s birthday but that it was a surprise.

So at 6:30 the bell rang and everyone gathered under the mango tree. I went prepared with my card for Sister Teresa, signed by all of the tutors. Matt called everyone´s attention and then turned to me and told me to go change. Andrea guided me into the back room to put on a graduation cap and gown. After trying to collect myself from such a surprise and stop laughing/crying, I came out to find the girls lined up, creating a pathway leading to the gazebo. Some students were decked out with confetti and bubbles for when I passed by. When I finally reached the gazebo, it was lit up in glow sticks that said Bienvenida. The lights turned on and it was decorated with Felicidades and in Stonehill´s purple and white.

Everyone gathered in and Sister Teresa said a few words and said a blessing. Then Andrea and Matt both spoke. I was really moved by what Matt shared with everyone present. It was an excellent opportunity to reach out to the students, to show them the connection between education and personal development, that schooling is more than just memorizing from books. He talked about the values that each of us had learned from Stonehill and are now sharing our gifts with the students. I hope that they were able to take something away from what he said, to value an accomplishment such as a graduation, and to be motivated to complete their studies. Chris then made it official by handing me my diploma, which was artfully crafted by Matt and Andrea. It seems pretty legitimate, even signed by Sister Teresa and Father Craig.

As if that wasn´t enough of a surprise, Sister Teresa had thought the whole time that the celebration was just for my graduation! So then the board was turned around, changing it from a graduation hat to party balloons. Everyone sang and laughed as Sister reacted, quite surprised. II Bachillerato sang a song for each of us, about endings and new beginnings, I Ciclo danced, and the rest of the grades had made quite beautiful cards.

I was asked to share my words with them before we ate the ice cream that was to come. I was still so overwhelmed that I didn´t have many words. But I mainly shared that although I was far away from my family
and friends, I was glad to be celebrating with my family here.

Then the dancing started. The girls normally have an hour of silent
study time, but instead the Sister let them dance until bedtime! They
seemed to have a nice time, and it was good to see them have fun and
relax.

Matt and Andrea had been working over the weekend and all day Monday on decorating and organizing everything. It was a really nice thing to do for Sister and I. (I even found my tassle from my cap tied onto my bike this morning.) It was such a nice night. As Andrea was guiding me in back to put on the cap and gown, she said- this will be a graduation you´ll never forget. And boy, was she right.

Felicidades!

Congratulations to Stonehill´s Class of 2011!

I hope that you all have enjoyed Cape Week and the other senior celebrations. : )  I miss you dear friends and will be thinking of you today as you take the next step in your journeys!

Guaimaca

Our small town of Guaimaca is just under two hours outside of the capital, Tegucigalpa. The city itself is only about 12,900 or so. With its13 aldeas, the population comes to about 20,000. (stats thanks to Wikipedia)

The center of town is built around the Catholic church and the park. Sometimes on weekends I´ll bring a book or my journel and find an empty park bench under a shady tree. There´s always a lot of action in the park during the day- people from the aldeas with their pickup trucks selling produce, people waiting for buses, or just sitting and chatting with friends. Surrounding the park you´ll also find a bank, ice cream shop, and some corner stores. About a block away is the main market, where we buy the fruits and veggies  that the farm doesn´t produce. The supermarket that we frequent is just a couple blocks from there, and it´s one of the few where you can walk up and down the isles. With the others, you have to order at the counter. There are a lot of things that we´re used to having easy access to (olive oil, chocolate chips, brown sugar, just to name a few) that we aren´t able to find here in town and can only be bought on trips to the capital.

From the house to the Center is about a five minute bike ride (we each bought our own bikes to get around town. mine is even decked out with a handydandy basket!). By now I´ve memorized the potholes, manholes, and speedbumps (believe me, there are a lot of these obstacles) on our route. I´ve also grown accustomed to saying goodbye to our neighbors when they´re out, seeing the man outside sweeping in front of his shop, and greeting the banana lady outside her pulperia.

On almost any street you´ll find lots of people walking or riding bikes, stray dogs, garbage (and the all-to-common pile of burning garbage), and trees loaded with mangos, plantains, or coconuts.

The house on a quiet dirt road right off of the main road. (Every now and then a pair of horses or an entire herd of cows pass by our house. Matt and I have tried to feed them some carrots, but they wouldn´t come near us.) It´s a place that I´ve certainly come to call home over the past four months. Since we´ve arrived, we´ve been able to add homey touches here and there. We´ve added a comfy hammock on the side porch that we and the neighborhood kids enjoy, added to the varied book collection, collected different games (including Risk!), hung our house covenant on the wall, and plastered our rooms with cards and notes from home. We even have our own collection of recipes (that our temperamental oven sometimes destroys) from our families and neighbors.

In our side yard we have our own mango tree and lime tree. I´ve really enjoyed watching the fruit grow and ripen. The mango tree was in bloom when we arrived and the mangos are just ripening now. We´ve made some delish mango salsa, mango marmalade, and mango smoothies. It´s glorious being able to snack on fresh mangos off the tree. The neighbors frequently ring our doorbell just to ask for mangos-they´re that good.

In back we have a pila which serves as our washing machine. It´s hard to describe, but it´s basically a cement contraption that holds our water, with an area to scrub our clothes on a ribbed surface. It´s a lot more work that throwing clothes into the washing machine, but I enjoy the therapeutic qualities of its labor.

Luckily we are able to compost our food scraps, thanks to our connection with the farm. They have a large-scale compost system that we add to, ending up as organic fertilizer.

The water in the house isn´t potable, so we take water from the wells at the Center (which have been tested to be clean). Most families in town are forced to buy their drinking and cooking water.. for those that can afford it.

The rainy season has certainly arrived. We´ve had several storms in the past two weeks, accompanied by strong winds, thunder and lightning. Yesterday I sat on our front porch to journal and watch the storm and also saw our neighbor´s roof of their shed get ripped off. I can´t imagine how many homes are flooded or damaged. And at the farm a good number of crops were killed by the acid rain. We´re pretty lucky with only a few leaks around the house.

I hope that gives some insight to my lovely house and hometown. And I´ll try to be better about updating in the future! :)

Felices Pascuas

Easter is not only an important week for the Church, it´s quite busy! I didn´t expect to be spending so much time at church, but was happy to be part of the Easter celebrations. Thursday night I went to mass where Father Craig washed the feet of several parishioners. Friday morning was Via Cruces, the re-enactment of the Passion. We processed through the town, following the youth of the parish who were dramatizing the Stations of the Cross. At each station there was an alfombra, an image made out of dyed sawdust. Each image was distinct and went with the station. They were also varying in size-one was big enough to cover the width of the front of the church!

On Friday I took part in two other processions through the streets. The first was led by a group of men carrying a glass casket decorated with flowers that held a statue of Jesus. We walked from the church to a cemetary, singing and praying along the way. The second procession was later Friday night, and traditionally only women were allowed to go. It´s meant to be a time to accompany Mary in her suffering, so we said the rosary and stopped at a few altars along the way. It was touching to see how many people were involved and willing to set up an altar in front of their home.

On Saturday night I went to the fire blessing, held a block down from our house. It started with a blessing of the Easter candle. After lighting the candle, we each lit our own individual candles and then processed through the streets to the church. When we arrived, the church was left in darkness, but lit up only by our individual candles. It was quite moving to see the symbolism, that each of us carries the light of Christ and in the end, people are what give life to the church. We listened to a few readings from the Old Testament while in the dark and then the lights went on, we sang, and listened to readings from the New Testament (at least I think that´s what was happening). It was a nice ceremony, and a beautiful way to welcome Easter day.

On Easter we went to mass in the morning, with the church decked out in green and white. When we went home, we did a treasure hunt! Tori had put clues throughout the house that led us to an Easter basket hid in the mango tree. She made us each a cross-shaped cookie accompanied by a mango bunny. (My favorite clue was: I´m a very expensive paperweight. It ended up being my crap computer. Haha) I was excited that we were able to have our own kind of Easter celebration, and one that reminded us of home. It was hard being away, but we were kindly invited to dinner at Father Craig´s with the Sisters. It certainly wasn´t the same as home (or Gram´s cooking), but was very nice to share the meal and holiday with such good company.

Overall, it was a lovely holiday. Towards the end of our break, I wasn´t sure how I felt about going back to school. It was nice to have time to ourselves and relax, and I was getting a bit spoiled. But over the weekend I saw a couple students and was filled with joy. I was so excited to see them both. It reassured me that I was ready to tackle another trimester with the students.

Every trimester we change classes, so after this review week and tests next week, we´ll be starting fresh. We won´t find out our exact assignments until tomorrow, but the main classes are English, Math, Psychology, and Economics. I´m looking forward to teaching something that I know well, instead of material that I have to learn first and then teach (like Spanish grammar or an analysis of a Honduran legend).

Hopefully I¨ll be able to post some pictures of the trip and of Semana Santa, but don´t hold your breath!

¡Nuestro Primero Viaje! Our First Trip!

This past week was Semana Santa (Holy Week), an important time of year for the Church. Pretty much everything shuts down that week and everyone heads to the beach or nearest swimming hole. My housemates and I travelled to San Pedro Sula (the industrial capital) for a night and to Copán Ruinas for three nights. In San Pedro we were lucky enough to meet up with one of the psychologists that we met the previous week. She brought us to some neat places in the city including a cultural museum and a fast food chicken restaurant that she was very proud of (I really threw them off when I ordered rice and beans without one of the fifty different chicken options).

Then we headed to Copán, home of Hondura´s only site of Mayan ruins. It was a pretty touristy town and a lot safer than what I´ve been used to in Guaimaca. So just getting away on its own was a bit liberating. I enjoyed venturing through the cobblestone roads, visiting a photo exhibit, and even just sitting and reading in the central park. The ruins were pretty interesting. We were able to climb up the steps of the temples and touch sacrificing stones (equipped with slots to let the blood of the sacrificed run down). I also went on a really beautiful nature walk and saw some truly grand trees. I do wish that I had put down the money for a guide, but it just wasn´t in our budget. There wasn´t much information out along the paths, but it was still neat to witness the grandiosity of a civilization that flourished so many years ago.

The next day we ventured to Macaw Mountain. It is a bird park that accepts birds from captivity. From there, they breed them and set the youngins out into the wild. It´s mostly an educational park and it afforded us the opportunity to get up close with the birds native to Honduras. They were quite brilliant.

Possibly the best part of our trip was stumbling upon a small brewery run by a German man on the outskirts of town. Let me explain my excitement. Since our first month here, I realized that one of the things that I would miss most (talking food-wise) is good quality beer. Honduras has about three options, and they’re all watered down… the best of all being Corona. So sitting down at this brewery, being able to truly enjoy a cold wheat beer was marvellous. So this German man had settled in Copán fourteen years ago and now has a family and his own brewery. He was so passionate about his work that he gladly showed us the brewing process and his equipment. It was quite neat.

We returned Wednesday night of Holy Week so that we could be back for the Easter services. Coming back to Guaimaca made it feel even more like home…even though the electricity had gone out. 

La Resistencia

There has been unrest among Honduras’ educational system for decades now. Teachers unions are almost always on strike. Students are supposed to attend something like 240 days of schooling per year, but with all of the days off (thanks to the strikes), they spend about half that in the classroom. It’s no longer surprising for me to hear our neighbor’s excitement because she can stay home from school. There haven’t been classes for the past three weeks, and there’s talk of the students missing the majority of the year.

The teachers who are a part of the Resistencia are on strike for an increase in salary. That said, some believe that the teachers are just out for money (since they already get a decent salary).  There are a number of teachers that weren’t paid for all of last year because of budget shortages. Others blame the oppressive system/government. If teachers aren’t receiving the support that they need, then they should be speaking up and demanding better conditions for themselves. It's hard to tell what's really going on when everyone has their own opinion (including the newspapers that are owned by influential families).  

But it’s not that simple. There is a lot of political rage behind all this: ever since the coup d’état (when Zelaya was removed from office in 09), the Zelayistas have spoken up.  This past week in Tegucigalpa there was a busload of teachers loaded with rocks, throwing them at passersby.

There’s talk of the country wiping the teaching staff clean, suspending classes for six months, and completely rehiring. Apparently there are a lot of certified teachers available to replace the current staffing. President Lobo threatens that if classes don’t resume this week, then teachers will start to be fired. We’ll see what really happens.

What better way to oppress a country than to destroy educational services?

Even within the universities there is a lot of corruption among admissions and content. If you’re well connected, it doesn’t matter what you score on the entrance exam (or if you take it at all). And if you’re not connected, you’re out of luck: you might have to take the test several times.

There’s no way to improve the quality of the students’ education if the teachers are only available for half of the year and aren’t receiving the support that they need. There’s no investment in the youth. (For this, among other reasons, I really appreciate everything that the sisters are doing at the Center. Life continues as normal, regardless of the political situation.) 

Educacion en Honduras

The country requires that each student receives an education up until 6^th grade. That said, Honduras has had some of the lowest rates of access to education in all of Central America. For those that do have access, education may mean a one room schoolhouse, equipped with one teacher for all six grades. Books are a rarity, so class time is mostly spent copying the teacher’s book or information from the board (just another example of how memorizing is engrained in their educational structures).

When I started teaching the 22 seventh-graders, I was shocked to see what was for me an unruly classroom. For example, they were unfamiliar with the concept raising their hand to participate (something that I learned from a young age). Instead, whoever knew the answer would shout it out and then the rest of the class would follow and repeat the answer. Since I wasn’t allowed the opportunity to call on students, it was difficult to make sure that not just a few people were answering all of the questions. (Now that several weeks have passed, they’ve become more accustomed to raising their hands and being called on.) In a classroom in the aldea (where these students had been educated up until 6th grade), it’s probably pretty easy for students to fall behind without individualized attention.

At the end of each semester the students take a state-written final exam for each subject. I’ve looked at the Spanish exams and they’re pretty pathetic. They require no critical thinking (surprise, surprise) and are a mere two pages… mostly multiple-choice. Did I mention that the exams are worth 70% of their overall grade? If the students fail the first time, they can take it a second time right away, and then a third time at the end of the year. We’ll see how it goes this year, but last year there was a good number who had to re-take the exams. 

So needless to say, there are a lot of differences within education and it's been challenging to get used to.