love.love.love.

I fell in love this past week. Real, honest love. This love is certainly not perfect, and often times I am driven insane by my loves, but I really love them all the same. I speak of the little beasts in second grade. Now that I love them with this unconditional love they are a source of inspiration. They make me feel good about myself as a teacher and impress me everyday with their newfound abilities. I want to do nice things for them and plan interesting lessons that will make them enjoy learning. A couple highlights of the week.

The Spelling Bee.

On Monday at Civic Hour we were told there would be a spelling bee on Friday. I was under the impression it was just for the older kids until Khalila decided that half of the second grade students would be able to participate. When I told the second graders this, they were stoked. I have never seen them practice their spelling words quite like this. On Thursday we had the class spelling bee. Only eight of the 16 kids would be able to participate the next day in the school’s spelling bee, so we had to narrow it down. They spelled and spelled and finally there were eight of the best spellers. Some of them were suprises to me. Carlos Anderson (who cracked his head open earlier in the week and received 3 stiches) made the top eight and he is the lowest student in English. Also Kelvin, who tries really hard but is just off the mark most of the time, spelled his way to the top. Of course Carlito (Carlos Cruz), Kensy and Hector were in the top….they are the smartest kids in the class. Even Dafne, who did not make the top eight, charmed me with her made up spelling and was excited for her classmate who were going to the school’s spelling bee.

Friday was a buzz all over school with children spelling away. Any break we had students would ask us to question them with spelling words. Excitement was in the air. The second grade was just competing against themselves, but they didn’t flinch when they had to spell these words in front of the whole school and their parents. Rabbit got out about half of them, Kelvin couldn’t spell Friday and Hector had a hard time with roots ( I think he got nervous at that point…it was down to him, Kensy and Carlito). Carlito eventually won by spelling Wednesday correctly. Their classmate who weren’t participating sat silently in the audience and sent good vibes and cheered at their successes and were compassionate when they got out. I have not ever been so proud of a bunch of little kids in my life.

Una Sardina y tortilla con quesillo.

At recess everyday we are given breakfast. I like to sit and eat mine on the only bench in school that is next to the cafeteria line. Wednesday I was joined by Carlos Anderson, Hector, Jonathan and Erick. We sat and ate our tortilla con quesillos while singing a repeat after me song: Una Sardina, Dos Sar dinas, something else in Spanish that I just mumble along, Chi Chi ti wa wa, Wa Wa ti chi chi. Something else I am unsure of, pregunta _________(inset name of someone). The boys were into the fact I was playing with them and singing their song. For the entirety of recess we sat there and sang this little song and enjoyed our desayuno. Not one boy bothered another boy, not one boy hit another boy. It was a beautiful moment.

Dafne’s Breakdown

Dafne often freaks out. She is the absolute oposite of graceful, speaks her mind, and doesn’t have the manners that some of her peers have. This comes from the lassez faire upbringing she receives from her grandparents. Her mother is stuck in the United States and her father is M.I.A. Friday, Dafne’s nerves were on edge probably because of the excitement of the Spelling Bee. She was in a volitle mood and the boys gradually pushed her over the edge. All the boys except Erick that is.

Erick is the most hyper active boy in the second grade. He can’t stay in his seat, rarely finishes his work, is often caught pegar-ing or molest-ing (hitting and bothering respectively) his classmates. While he is very naughty he has a good heart and on this particular day when Dafne’s mood was on edge he was full of good intentions.

We started a game of LINGO (a UNICEF game from my childhood - BINGO but with farm animals, fruits, vegetables and grains). Erick and Dafne were partners in the game and Dafne was being a little brat about playing the game. This was causing Erick great distress as he wanted to play the game but couldn’t with Dafne’s bad attitude. Erick came to me and I pleaded with him to give Dafne one more chance before he freaked out as well. Sure enough, Dafne came around and the two of them had a fine time playing the game.

Forty-five minutes pass and we are using the clocks we made earlier in the week to tell time. Hector comes to my desk balling his eyes out as Dafne has punched him numerous time in the neck. I call Dafne over to apologize and explain herself. Hector was being bothersome (not too suprising) and she had simply had enough. The little badass in her let him have it. Of course violence is not the answer and I explained to her she can’t hit people like that and needs to try using words instead. Maybe she understands what I am saying, maybe not, but she looses it. She sits in my chair and cries and cries ancd cries. She doesn’t stop until Erick comes to my desk and in the most gentle and genuine manner asks Dafne to come back to her seat because he wants to stit by her and work with her again. He calms her down and she eventually makes it back to her seat next to Erick. Bless their little hearts.

Dafne needs lots of extra love. She goes home and doesn’t receive hugs and kisses. Nobody is there to brush her hair and put it up in fancy hairdos. Nobody helps her with her homework. I can give these things to her. Just getting five hugs from me everyday has shown Dafne that I am here for her. She knows she can climb under my desk and have herself a little breakdown. I feel like my being here in Honduras is important for Dafne, if for no other reason. I hope to give Dafne the academic confidence she needs to continue excelling, and the love she needs to feel content and cared for. I can’t call this playing favorites because Dafne needs this from me and she is so naughty that favorite seems like a strong word. But I guess I always like the naughty ones the best.



Outside of school life has been okay. I am slowly getting a sence of the culture. My friend Oscar is getting married in three weeks and I find it strange that it has taken him months to tell me this bit of news. And still he does not want to talk to me about it at all. Now I can’t be too sure if everything he has told me is fabrications of the truth or not. This doesn’t stop our good conversations of geography, science, history, joke making and music talk. Married or not, he can still be my friend. Luigi is also opening up more and is interested in showing Quinton and I the cool things to see in the surrounding area. It's nice hanging out with Luigi at the pizza place on Saturdays while we wait for our laundry. He is full of stories and jokes and sometimes reminds me of my Dad in respect to the stories he comes out with. We have also made friends with a woman named Morgan who works half of the week in Sigua and the other half of the week in San Pedro Sula at an AIDS clinic. She is from Atlanta and is cool as hell. We went to a comidor for pupusas and then for ice cream in the parque the other night and just shot the shit about life. Friday she came over to our house for dinner and talked some more. In January we are planning to go spend a weekend in San Pedro with her and finding one of the two sushi restaurants in this country.

Winter break is in two weeks and I will be left alone. Julie is going home for good, Quinton is going home for Christmas and New Years and Olivia is traveling with her father and sister who will be visiting. I am considering going to San Pedro, Guatemala for a week of Spanish class. Classes are much cheaper in Guatemala plus I really want to check out Lake Atitlan and this active volcano on the shores. The week of Christmas itself, I’ll hang out here with Khalila and Karla and their families. I won’t be too alone and it will be fun to experience Honduran Christmas.

Signing off….love to everyone.