Waterfall - La Tigra National Park, Honduras
•
Check out the Mundane Diary pages for the exciting and not so exciting illustrated daily grind
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
We leave for MN tomorrow and are really excited. We spent the day just relaxing and went to Valle de Angeles looking for a gift for 2003 that we wanted to buy, but they didn't have what we were looking for. I'm anxious about going home and am not sure what to expect. It seems really weird going back. I've known Spanish, and the Honduran "outback" for the last year and a half and don't know how I will react to being home. I don't think it will be too big a deal. I'm just concerned about being overwhelmed with everything. To read about my day to day experiences go to month 14 of the Mundane Diary Pages for details of the trip.
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
We finished teaching English classes today and gave our final exam. The kids did pretty well, but the experience has left me rather sour on the whole educational system in Honduras. There are some major deficiencies here especially in attendance and actually having classes. In total, including the 5 days lost from them getting out of school a week early the students have missed 96 days of school due to strikes, unscheduled holidays, rain or the threat of rain, teachers having to leave to go get their pay checks, and a dozen other reasons. It has been sad to see how much these kids miss out on because of the "oh well that's just the way it is" attitude of those around them.
Our work in the cooperative is slow going and we are working on developing basic computer skills in the workers so we can incorporate some more advanced technology for managing inventory and saving and loan procedures. We have located a software program that should greatly help us the all the processes that happen in the store, but I haven't seen how it works and am reserving my excitement for when we actual have it up and running and people who know how to use it properly. Jen and I have also been talking about weather or there is justification for the program since is is kind of expensive and we are trying to figure out what the benefits would be.
Monday, August 26, 2002
We started teaching English classes today and I can already tell it’s going to be interesting. We had 4 classes scheduled and due to a long morning program we started our first class 45 minutes late, the second class was only 10 minutes long, and the third was cut short by 15 minutes by another teacher who held our class to take a test. The fourth class never happened as everyone got out of school early today because the oldest kids had a party to celebrate finishing their classroom work. Now they will go into the community (mostly the department capitol) and work in a business for practical experience in the business field. Two of them (there are 15 in total) will be working at the cooperative in town. On Thursday and Friday the teachers have planned on a strike to protest their low wages. The have one of the only organized labor unions in the country, and uses it regularly to perform work stoppages to protest their wages. As a result the kids only get about 4 days of school a week, which wouldn’t be terrible if they didn’t have classes for only 4 ½ hours a day. It going to be very interesting to see how this works.
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
We went to the "Muestra Cultural" (Cultural Demonstration) this morning. There were several speakers, dancers, and musicians who performed. It was interesting, however the planning and execution was rather poorly done. Jennifer and I spoke at length as to the need for a better organized person running the whole thing. Overall things went OK, but there is much room for improvement especially in the area of technical and timing matters. Jen and I were in agreement that they needed a coordinator to keep everything on track. It was obvious after the first two hours that the kids who were made to stand out in front were getting tired and the special guests were getting board.
In the afternoon I went to see more bull riding after being promised that today's show was going to be even more exciting. It was the same, but afforded me the opportunity to take some more photos.
In the evening we attended the crowning of the queen of the fair who just happened to be one of my students from my computer class. She asked me when I showed up if I would take video of her procession. Some how she got it in her head that I would do a much better job than her sister would. This worked out rather well as the procession ended in the dance hall with the first dance of the queen of the fair along with the princess and others. Since I was videoing Jennifer and I didn't have pay the $10.00/couple cover charge, and expensive proposition. We danced for about an hour and a half and then headed home. I could have danced longer, but the music was so loud I would feel it resonating in my chest and head and it just wasn't all that fun.
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
We graduated our first class of computer students today. After 5 months and about 60 hours of class time Instituto Rafael Heliodoro Valle now has 15 students who are certified to use the basic functions of a computer and use Microsoft Word and Excel. This has been a very exciting and interesting experience in that most of the time I didn't think they were listening or understanding what I was telling them. There were many days I was just ready to quit because there didn't seem to be any progress made in their comprehension of what we were doing. In the end however they were very attune to what were doing and all but one student scored 80% or higher on the final exams. I was thrilled by this as we did exercises that were impossible for them to do 3 months ago with out me telling them exactly step by step what to do.
For the graduation ceremony we had words from the director of the school, one of the students, the sub-director (who talked about the importance of patriotism and had the kids swear an oath to the flag), and me. The director said how proud she was of the students, the students thanked Jennifer and I for teaching them, and I talked about how proud I was of the students and how they now have the basics they need to go on to do pretty much anything they would like with there lives. We then passed out certificates, which from Peace Corps are apparently pretty valuable here, watched a video slide show we put together with photos of the kids, our field trip to San Marco de Colon, and the teachers; and finished off with cake and sodas.
Over all it was an excellent experience. Jen and I even got a present from the kids. A big green ceramic wall hanging that we are going to put in our living room or patio when we get back to the states. This experience has made it worth being her.
Monday, May 20, 2002
I was pretty depressed when I woke up this morning. Jennifer is still in the states (she was sent there 7 days ago to be evaluated for a knee injury that happened 8 months ago and never got better), the window in our bedroom which was supposed to have been completed a month ago is still not finished, I'm running out of clothes to wear, all of my tomatoes are dead or very close to death due to in infestation of something called "mosca blanca" or white fly. It is a tiny little bug that looks more like ash then insect, and destroys tomato plants. I was not very happy with anyone or anything. I also think that my arrival the night before to a town where the electricity was out added to my depression.
I talked to Jennifer and nearly started crying thinking about how much I missed her and how much I didn't want to be in Concepción de Maria and would have rather been in Washington D.C. or any other place with drinkable running water. She calmed me and told me everything would be ok. She reacted perfectly to me and lifted my spirits. It made me miss her even more, but at least life seemed a little more manageable.
I made my self some coffee which seemed to help quiet a bit and went to the high school to try to send some e-mail, and see if we would be having computer classes today. Unfortunately, the telephone at the high school was not working, because they are about three weeks behind in their phone bill. I was told that the government has failed to pay the school's for things like telephone, supplies, and in some cases salaries for the teachers. With that I have effectively been cut off from the internet, however that has not been paid in almost a month and service was cut off some time ago.
I had class with my advanced students, which was very frustrating as they're not advancing very quickly. Due to the techniques better utilize within the classrooms here in Honduras, it is very difficult to do conceptual teaching. The teaching style here focuses on wrote memorization. This means that information is assimilated within the minds of the students. They have no idea why they're learning what they're learning, and have not learned the ability to utilize that information in practical application. This makes computer classes very difficult as most all of computer use is built on concepts, and although memorization is also key to successful computers it is the concepts that must be memorized not the exact manner in which to do a particular function. this has created much frustration as the students are trying to memorize exact steps for doing everything, and are not grasping the concepts. The frustration comes in that they expect to be told every step of the way what they are to do. The lessons that I'm teaching build upon one another and reinforce previous lessons by utilizing skills within the current lesson, and in order to the current lesson I have to give instructions on what the new task is. However, I have the expectation that they will be able to perform quickly the previous skills that we have learned. The problem is that in giving directions for the new task and having them do the old tasks they are not able to make decisions, execute previously known tasks, or create the logical sequence of steps that is needed to complete a task, and expect me to give them to step by step directions on how to complete tasks which we have done dozens of times before.
As frustrating as this was, I now have some more help in the classroom in the form of an experienced assistant who will hopefully take over the teaching of the class when I leave. it seems that are absence for two weeks has created some concern among the administrators within the school as to the sustainability of the teaching project. It was our contention at the beginning of this project that before the end of the year we would have several teachers trained in how to teach both the basic computer courses as well as the advanced.
In the evening I went to Spanish classes, and my teacher, Sandra, was kind enough to invite me to eat dinner with her family. I got home around 7:30 PM and was able to start on my journal and before the electricity went out again. This is the second night in a row of rain and of no electricity. I don't mind is so much, but without electricity a fan doesn't work. Having had rain in the evening and hot sun in the afternoon has made it very humid, it would be much more comfortable to be able to sleep with a fan at night.
Tuesday April 16th, 2002 - Last week was a difficult week. The week before last we went to Costa Rica for a vacation with Jennifer's sister, her friends and two others. We had a great time and the photos from the trip at on our Vacations Photo page under Costa Rica. We took a bus from Honduras to Costa Rica, which usually takes two days. It took us three due to the Easter holiday weekend. No one was working on Good Friday when we were supposed to be traveling, including our bus driver. We spent two nights in Managua, Nicaragua. Which is nicer than Honduras, but not really a tourist town.
After arriving in Costa Rica we stayed at a large beach resort called Punta Leona. Which was nice, but way too big. So we moved after one day there to Manuel Antonio. Manuel Antonio was beautiful. The beaches were wonderful, people friendly, food excellent, and the accommodations outstanding. Everything was very fun.
The week after we got home was a bit more difficult as we returned to hot, dusty, dirty Honduras. Our first night back Jennifer and I went for walk and some guys said some rather rude things to Jennifer. I missed the civilized nature of Costa Ricans. I never heard one remark towards a woman or anyone else while I was Costa Rica.
Things are kind of back to normal although we have been running into obstacles in most of our projects. The mayor of the town is never around to work wit, one of our librarians has quit and my attempt to help the tax collector to improve the way he does his job has fallen on deaf ears. We will continue to hack away at the vines of oppression though and attempt to help the people here have a better life.
Wednesday January 30th, 2002 - After the last two days my attitude and enjoyment of being in Honduras are changing. Up to this point I have been somewhat cynical about our ability to do anything worth while here in Honduras. I have been enjoying my time here, but only because it has been a change of pace and very relaxing.
Everything is quickly changing. We have been waiting for three major events to take place to start working: for the change in government, the start of school, and the construction of the library to be completed. As of the beginning of the week the government has changed hands and the library construction is finished. School starts next week, and we will have to start putting in at least 8 hours a day to keep up with the amount of stuff that we are going to have to do.
Jennifer talked to the new Alcalde of the municipality who said they have cleaned up my office and are really excited about me coming to help them with the development of their new government. This makes me a little nervous as I could just barely do the kind of consulting they need in English, much less Spanish (which is improving, but still needs lots of work). I am excited to work with them though and I think there is some really great potential with in our little town. Not only in the Alcalde, but also in in the library. The 3 volunteers that we are working with are very excited and very motivated and I think they are going to be a key asset in the success of this project.
After this week I am very excited to be here and am really looking forward to all of the fun adventures and work that we have to do here.
•