Introducing: La Escuela Jose Cecilio del Valle

Almost ten months in and just as I'm about to say goodbye, I thought it was time for you all to get to know my school and my students! I imagine everyone says this but the kids really are the best part of the year, they make all the hard days worth it (even when they're the reason why it's a hard day in the first place) and never fail to put a smile on my face.

Kinder (Prepa) 

Prepa is the year of Kinder before they start primary school. Sometimes they can be tough. There are some very strong spirits in this class and often come in very restless and as I see them first thing on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays I have the challenge of settling them. I use games, channeling their energy into running from flashcard to flashcard, we sing songs all day long and occasioanlly we just sit on the floor and practice our numbers. I have sung If You're Happy and You Know It so many times this year that I ever want to hear it again. We also Wind the Bobbin up a lot and put our right arm in, our right arm out, our right arm in and shake it all about.

First grade - Profe Norma

These little guys used to be Amy's prepa class in Kinder but are now all grown up and have joined us in the big school. While their attention span isn't brilliant (but then whose was at age 5?), we have some very bright kids in this class, very keen and quick to pick things up. They are big fans of drawing and singing, with their favourite songs being our months of the year macarena and the days of the week song set to the tune of Chris Evan's Breakfast show!

Second grade - Profe Aminta

We have seen a lot of changes in this class over the past year. Those that were cheeky monkeys last year and struggled to focus are now very attentive students. They participate more, their writing has improved and so has their ability to retain what we teach them. They are a very kindhearted bunch too, always ready to ambush us at the door when we arrive to smother us in hugs and our walls and their jotters are full of drawings and notes saying thank you to us and that they love us.  A lot of the little girls take a great deal of pride in their jotter work, drawing lovely borders, using their best handwriting and making sure everything is perfect.

Third grade - Profe Marina

Once again, we have seen some big changes in this class. When we arrived in August they were a young and wildly immature second grade class that we had to fight to control and even had me on the brink of tears once. Now they are a stellar example of how we wish all our classes would be! They listen, follow instructions, are climbing over each other to participate but will settle down when we need them to. Not that they don't have their bad days, when chatting is rife and concentration is hard to find. I have a lot of love for this class, partly because of how far we've seen them come but also because of their continued hard work and effort. Their favourite game is a mix of chinese whispers and splat the board where they pass a word down their line and then have to touch the right flashcard on the board.

Fourth grade - Profe Rosaura

This a very lively class - they can be very loud and energetic which makes them a lot of fun to be around but difficult to reign in. They like to play games but at times their energy overflows the space that we have available in the classroom. Progress is slow going but whenever we revisit a topic, I usually have a smile on my face because they are good at remembering. They are at an interesting age in their education - a kind of make it or break it point. If they're interested in English now, I believe it's an interest they will carry with them. All I can do is try and light the spark and I'm doing my best!

Fifth grade - Profe Doris

The opposite has happened with this class than has happened with many other classes. As we've spent more time together, the noise levels have slowly increased as have some of the cheeky comments but it's all well natured. I feel very comfortable with this class, they are all great kids and I get on well with all of them. As with most classes there are some students who have a natural knack for English and others that struggle but the common denominator in this class is the hard work. The absolute favourite in this class is without a doubt X y O (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) with hangman a close second.

Sixth grade - Profe Lucia

How do I describe sixth grade? A brilliant class, brilliant behaviour, brilliant work. I have never had any problems with this class and that is not an exaggeration. They are bright and eager, always do their best and are truly a joy to teach. What's helpful too is that their teaches appreciates the value of learning English for them and is a big help to me in class and very encouraging to them. They have a new favourite game that I introduced them to recently, Heads Down, Thumbs Up.


And now for the grand tour!

This is our Kinder, it is approximately a 45 second walk from our house. We work here every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8-8.45am. There are two classes - Pre-K which is the younger class that Amy teaches this year, full of 3 and 4 year olds, and Prepatorio who will be next year's first grade.

 The grand entrance to La Escuela Urbana Mixta de Jose Cecilio de Valle! 

The school buildings are spread over three levels - this is the top level that houses the director's office, 1st-3rd grade, both 5th grade classes and my 6th grade as well as the bathrooms down at the end.

The middle level of the school has the salon (basically the assembly hall), a spare classroom, the library and my 4th grade class. At breaktime they have a someone selling crips and sweets through the bars of the salon.


 

The salon during a school meeting

Next to the middle level is this construction. I think it used to be a kind of lunchroom but isn't really used it anymore. We've seen it used once to make tamales at the start of the year.

The lower level has Amy's 4th and 6th grade classes.

A football pitch next to the classrooms - mostly used by 6th grade boys

On the other side of the lower classrooms is this little play area. The seesaw and monkey bars are new but the swing set is deadly! I'm surprised that no one has ever gone flying off and into the river!

These tables line the playground on the top level of school and is where the kids get their provided snacks at breaktime.

And this is an example of a classroom, specifically my 6th grade. All the classrooms have tin roofs which can make them extremely hot at times but they also have fans which helps. We use the whiteboards to teach but don't use any technology.

And there you have it, a little insight to my everyday life in Candelaria. The kids here are so special to me, even when they're driving me crazy! Leaving in two months will be heart wrenching but I know I'll be back one day.

UNICEF Day for Change

Some of you may remember that as part of my fundraising I celebrated the UNICEF Day for Change by with working with my old school, Newton Primary, and Belle, a returned Honduras volunteer. As part of a Global Citizenship award that volunteers can receive as part of a year abroad with Project Trust, you have to celebrate an international day and I've known from the start that I wanted to take the UNICEF Day for Change with me all the way to Honduras.

And last week, that's exactly what I did! With only 45 minutes with each class at a time, I decided to take a whole week. Each class had two lessons - one looked at differences between Scotland and Honduras and another that concentrated on ways we can look after the world - with the overall focus being on the concept and ideals of Global Citizenship.

Teaching first grade about the Scottish flag

With 1st-3rd grade we used an inflatable globe to figure out where Scotland is and just how far away it is from Honduras. Next we learnt about all of Scotland's emblems, like the flag, national animal, bird, flower and tree. We were able to use our knowledge of colours in English to help us describe the flag but the kids were shocked when none of the animals they know in English were right and even more shocked when I told them that the national animal of Scotland is a unicorn! I bet there's a few people reading this that didn't know that either!

First grade working hard

Juan colouring his Honduran flag

Each 1st and 2nd grader then got two little bits of paper each, one for the Scottish flag and one for the Honduran flag so we could make some bunting out of our flags! With 3rd grade, we did something a little different. I had brought with me some packs of cut outs of little girls and little boys. With a little modification, the girls were ready to be drawn into the traditional Honduran dresses and the boys were ready to wear some kilts. It was great to see the care and creativity that went into the design of the dresses and especially the kilts. There were no cries of outrage from the boys in the class about the fact that they had to draw boys in skirts either - in fact they were all clamoring to get one!

Very proud

Jamie from 1st grade

Karen from 2nd grade

Third grade with their amazing drawings

With 4th-6th grade we ramped it up a bit. As well as looking at the flag and emblems, we talked about school and hobbies and homes and even threw in a bit of ceilidh dancing! 

Gay Gordon-ing it out

For their second lesson we looked at the problems that our planet faces. Together we came up with superheroes that could combat these issues and we had some great ideas! My favourite was hypnosis that could make everyone friends so there were no more wars but we also had laser eyes to destroy any rubbish and the power to breathe in dirty air and breathe out clean air to deal with air pollution. But unfortunately these superheroes don't exist so instead we had a think about all the ways we can save the planet instead.

SUPERHEROES!!!

Sharing this day with the kids was so much fun - it gave me a chance to talk about home to every single class, break into even more of a sweat than usual while ceilidh dancing and pretend to be a superhero (at least for 45 minutes!). We covered some very important topics that the students showed some brilliant consciousness of. They are aware that they have to be part of the worldwide effort to save this planet and I hope they will take that with them into their futures and try and share what they know to be true.

Seize the Day(s)

It often feels like a week doesn't go by without there being some kind of celebration in Honduras. With Hondurans being a mostly Christian, many of these are religious holidays, though there are also a large number recognising social issues.

While they can sometimes be extremely frustrating, especially in September when it feels like you never get to see your classes, but it's also a great insight into the country I'm living in. I have compiled below a list of the many celebrations and holidays that have been observed in our time here and that we will experience before we leave.


Día de la Bandera (Day of the Flag) - 1st September
This is when things all kicked off for us after arriving in Honduras. Independence Day is in September so the month is laden with celebrations leading up to the big day. I honestly don't remember too much happening on this day apart from a parade to the central park and singing the national anthem. 

Día del Niño (Day of the Child) - 10th September
This was a really fun day! It actually started the day before for us, with a visit to the school from some clowns to entertain the kids. More clowns for the main event (Honduras is not the place to come if you've got a phobia) and then a big lunch in their grades with games, dancing and a piñata!

Día de Independencia (Independence Flag) - 15th September 
The big one! The build up to this was huge, marching practices, drumming rehearsals, poster making, everything! All the primary schools and high schools from the municipalidad of Candelaria paraded through the town, with us proudly waving the Scottish and British flags (they couldn't find an English one) and marching with Escuela Urbana Mixta de Jose Cecilio de Valle. The rest of the day inlcuded performances from various war bands, traditional dancing, singing and speeches. 

Día de los Maestros (Day of the Teacher) - 17th September
I enjoyed this one and felt very deserving after just over a month of being on the job. We joined all the other teachers living in Candelaria at a dinner hosted by the mayor where there was a performance from and El Salvadorian singer, party favours and cake! There were also a few party games like a mini pageant and a balloon relay race (we played, we lost).

Día de la Biblia (Day of the Bible) - Last Sunday in September
We were invited to these celebrations by some of our friends from the Evangelical church. The night before the main celebration which was, of course, a parade and speeches, we went to a church service. The one service we had been to previously was hard work as we didn't understand much but this one was more enjoyable, both because of our improved Spanish and the amazing family band that was performing.

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) - 2nd November
A day known for it's celebrations full of sugar skulls and dancing in nearby Mexico is a much tamer affair in Honduras. Amy and I headed down to Erandique, a town about two hours away from Candelaria where Jaime, our host dad, is from. This day is all about family, above all else. It's a day to spend with them, a day to remember them, a day to honour them. In Erandique we went to the cemetery where Jaime's parents and some of his siblings are buried where we cleaned the graves and left some flowers.

Navidad (Christmas) - 25th December
With Honduras being a religious, Christian country, Christmas is kind of a big deal. Some traditions vary from home and some are the same. Instead of a turkey on the dinner table you will find tamales, corn parcels filled with rice, vegetables and sometimes chicken or beef though you will still see Christmas trees filled with ornaments and lights strung everywhere. Most celebrations happen on the 24th, though the official holiday is on the 25th. Many people will attend church on Christmas Eve and spend the rest of the night with their families, leading up to the insane fireworks that take place at midnight.

Nuevo Año (New Year) - 31st December
New Year is celebrated in Honduras much like in Britain, with parties on New Year's Eve, lots of food, time spent with family but also with some interesting traditions. As the clock strikes 12am, you must eat 12 grapes, one on each stroke of the hour, to make sure you have a sweet year. If you're looking for luck, love or success, wear your best pink, red or yellow underwear, respectively.

Día del Padre (Father's Day) - 19th March
Not as big a deal as Mother's Day (see below) but there were cards made, presents given, hugs passed out.

Día del Amor y la Amistad (Day of Love and Friendship) - 14th February
Honduras' version of Valetine's Day celebrates platonic relationships as much as romantic ones was marked with a show at the high school that had singing, dancing and a hilarious drag fashion show! 

Día del Agua (World Water Day) - 22nd March
Unfortunately I recovering from being ill so we didn't take part in the (you guessed it) parade but we did watch a few speeches from the shade, which included one from a representative of Water First, an American organisation that supports our water treatment plant, Cocepradil, who organised the parade. 

Día de la Garifuna (Garifuna Day) - 12th April
This is the day the Garifuna people arrived on Roatan from St. Vincent. The biggest and best celebrations are in Punta Gorda on the island of Roatan and we were lucky enough to be able to attend. A large group of volunteers and their families were on holiday on Roatan that week anyway and PT have a project there too. There was a lot of Punta music and dancing and we got to hear the story of how an American man discovered he was Garifunan.

Semana Santa (Easter)
Semana Santa is the week leading up to Easter weekend which is when the whole country of Honduras goes simultaneously crazy and silent. Want a last minute booking in one of Honduras' tourist spots, like Roatan or Copan, for this weekend? Think again. At the same time though, don't try and go anywhere on Good Friday. You won't find a bus or ferry going anywhere, trust me, I tried. Celebration wise, painted wooden carvings of religious images walk through the town and in some places the streets are carpeted with dyed sawdust designs and illustrations, the most famous being in Comayagua.

Día de la Tierra (Earth Day) - 22nd April
We were out of Candelaria this weekend but we heard there was a photo competition and a screening of The Lorax in the park and when we got back there were signs all around Candelaria encouraging us to take better care of the planet.

Día del Trabajador (Labour Day) - 1st May
Coinciding with the May Bank holiday, this is basically just a day off. No big celebrations, nothing fancy, just a day of rest for the many hardworking people around the country.

Día de la Madre (Mother's Day) - Second Sunday in May
And that's today! Or at least the celebrations at the primary school were today. Each class presented something from poems, singing, traditional dancing, dramas and my favourite, a faux boy band performance! 

Día del Arbol (Day of the Tree) - 30th May
This is primarily an educative holiday, to educate schoolchildren on the importance of looking after the forest. There are special tributes to Honduras' national tree, the Mexican yellow pine. I've heard there are plans for a school trip to somewhere near Gualcinse for the day with the primary school. 

Día de Lempira (Day of Lempira) - 20th July
The Lempira referred to here is not the currency but the Lencan hero who fought against the Spanish in the 1530's. Hondurans, and especially those in the Lempira department, where I live, are extremely proud of Lempira ans this day is very important to them.

Ferías (Fairs)
At various points during the year, different in every town, there is a fair, almost like a bigger, more vibrant and bustling version of our weekly Sunday market. There are the usual food, clothes and homeware stores, there are carnival-like games and if you're (un)lucky the rickety, diesel-smelling Ferris wheel.

Survival Guide: Teaching

The past three months have sped by and I can't believe it's already time for another one of these! The idea that the next three months might go at the same time pace terrifies me. At the same time there are things I'm am looking forward to about going home but I'm not ready to say goodbye to Honduras just yet. 

With the next three months mostly taken up by teaching and that being the purpose of the year (despite what my Facebook photos make it look like!) this anniversary blog post contains some top tips for making it through teaching in general and especially in Honduras.

Survival Guide: Teaching

  

• Take every opportunity for a day off - the kids aren't the only ones that get homework in this job so it can take its toll at times 

• Be prepared to learn from them - this can be by them teaching you knew everyday phrases in Spanish to the games they like to how they learn best. Whatever it is, take note. 

• Sometime no matter how hard you try no learning is happening today - kids are fickle beings and have short attention spans and sometimes they are just not in the mood so on these days there's no use in running yourself ragged trying to force it to happen.
  

• Wear outfits that go with an inordinate  amount of stickers - if I don't come away from a day of classes without at least a couple of stickers, something's wrong. 

• Don't be ashamed to wing it - it's something we've all done. If you didn't have time to plan a lesson, if the lesson you did plan isn't working, if your class needs some unexpected revision, all are perfectly good reasons to just go with it. 

• No one is too old for If You're Happy and You Know It or Sara Says - personal favourites of mine they are perfect fillers for the last five minutes of class when 

• Give up all concept of personal space - between the mountain of hugs at the start and end of every lesson and their favourite game (a version of peekaboo mixed with guess who) there are always little sticky hands grabbing at you. 

• Don't let exam results get you down - you can be the best teacher Project Trust has ever had but at the end of the day some kids are not made for exams. Especially in the primary school, it's easy to forget how young they are and at this age, as at any age, test results are not the end of the world.

• Don't be alarmed when a kid brings a machete to school - machetes are something that you get used to quickly in Honduras but the first time you come into a class where every student has one under their chair, that's still a bit of a shock.

• A full week of teaching is a rare thing - classes are cancelled, teachers are off, there's a holiday, the list goes on and on but in the whole 9 months we've been here there has not been a week when we have taught every single lesson we are supposed to.

• Take pride in the small victories - sometimes the fact that your class can sing the alphabet without any help from you or that they answer the question 'how are you' without repeating it or that they are excited to see you when you walk into class is enough to make your day.

• Have fun with it - sometimes a lesson full of games is what everyone needs.

• Reduce, reuse, recycle - Reduce your workload by reusing old lesson and recycling ideas. Also beg, borrow and steal from other teachers, volunteers, anything you can get your hands on. 

When Home Came to Honduras

Thank goodness that's over! The last two weeks have been the hardest yet in Honduras. I have had to  translate everything into English, endure complaints about eternal bus rides from hell, find food that doesn't include refried beans or tortillas and worst of all, put up with being parented again! Jokes aside, it has been quite the experience having my dad and Kirsty here for the last two weeks, as I'm sure it was for them.

It started with picking them up from the airport in San Pedro Sula (thankfully with all their bags, Lucy's family weren't so lucky). Kirsty was understandably on edge, being in the murder capital of the world, even though that is technically now Caracas in Venezuela, but we were only there for one night and then started the all day journey to Candelaria.

With Amy's mum, Penny, and gran, Sue, in tow, I eased the newbies into Honduran bus rides with a nice minibus ride from SPS to Gracias, only to turn around and take them on the four hour chicken bus ride along bumpy, unpaved roads. In my dad's words - "It was four hours of us torture. I shouldn't have to sit there and try to convince myself that it doesn't hurt!"

Heaven in the form of a bus

Moving quickly onward, we spent the next two days in Candelaria where they got to see all of my classes, experience their first taste of traditional food (they weren't big fans) and get over their jet lag in 35 degree heat. It was definitely a tough start to their time but I think they enjoyed meeting my kids and seeing me in action.

Enjoying breaktime

Feat. fried chicken

On the Wednesday, we took Candelaria's only mini bus out to San Juan where we changed buses to go to Gracias. The luxuriousness of Guancascos was welcomed after an early start, especially the fresh passion fruit juice (my dad) and the strong wifi (Kirsty). It took a while for me to be able to drag them away but eventually I got them out to Fuerte San Cristobal, home of the best views of Gracias you can get without climbing a mountain. To end our first day we headed out to the Aguas Thermales, where my dad got to enjoy his first ice cold Honduran beer.

This was not candid, Kirsty was hiding

Kirsty blending into the fort

Los Aguas Thermales

Day 2 in Gracias saw us head to La Campa to do the highest zipline in Central America. Kirsty very bravely got through some nerves to do the first two ziplines accompanied by one of the guides and the rest by herself and my dad even more bravely offered to step back and take pictures. My hero.

Our next stop was the Copan Ruinas, a first for me too. We only had one night here so had to make the most of it. After we had some delicious lunch in Casa de Cafe, next to our awesome hostel, La Iguana Azul, we went to Macaw Mountain, a scarlet macaw sanctuary. It was brilliant place with an amazing array of birds and you even get to hold some of them!

Yes we can!

The main attraction at Copan, as the name may suggest, are the ruins. Alongside our excellent tour guide Virgilio, we wandered around the remains of an ancient Mayan civilisation. I have seen a fair few Mayan ruins recently and I have to say that Copan might possibly be my favourite. Not only is it in Honduras making me a bit biased, it is incredibly well preserved and a very compact site, making it easier to imagine what the city would have been like back in the day.

No rest for the wicked as we were off to San Pedro again for a night before hopping down to La Ceiba for the boat to Roatan. Let the holiday really begin! I know this was the bit Kirsty was really looking forward to and I have to admit some R&R sounded good to me too.

It seemed like half of the PT volunteers were on Roatan that week which meant that wherever we went, there was usually a lot of us! Over our four days in Roatan we sunbathed, swam, snorkeled and went for a ride on a catamaran, among other things. We also went out to visit Calum and Tom´s project in Punta Gorda and to celebrate Garifuna Day with them. Garifunans are the people that live in Punta Gorda and arrived in Roatan from St Vincent.

Stay cool Roatan

Before you ask Amy, I don't know what fish they are!

Just cruising

The whole crew in Punta Gorda

My two favourite parts of the week were visiting the sloth sanctuary and our night dive. How many people can say they have been clambered on by a monkey, dive bombed by a macaw and hugged and kissed by Sid the sloth all within half an hour?! And then seeing as we were back at Honduras' reef we decided that we might as well make the most of it. But why not mix it up? And that´s how we ended up doing a night dive and seeing bio-luminescence and strings of pearls. It was the most magical experience, like swimming through the night sky, even when we got lost in the dark!

The monkey wasn't my best friend...

But I loved Sid!

We had to fly back from Roatan to San Pedro as we were leaving on Good Friday and there was no public transportation. One more night in San Pedro Sula before heading back to the airport, two weeks after they arrived. I would like to say that it was a tearless goodbye but I'm afraid I can't. 

Proof of my dad in Honduras seeing as he was behind the camera most of the time!

After this visit I really feel like I'm on the homeward stretch, a feeling that excites me and terrifies me at the same time. Having part of home come here has made me realise just how much I've missed it but the thought of leaving Honduras makes me want to cry at the same time. I guess I've still got a few months to come to terms with it!