Week 7: Heading back to Copan and student brithdays

Day 43 September 19
Tammi and I got up at about 6:10 so we could hit the town by 6:30. The guys wanted to go walk 40 minutes to a castle, look around, and walk back before out boat tour down the Rio Dulce to Livingston left at 9. However, it was raining, and so they had all gone back to sleep (we were in separate rooms, so we didn’t know.) Tammi and I had a nice long, fruitful chat until 7:30 when we decided to wake them up and see what was going on. I had picked up pb & j and bread to supplement my eating since I was out of money and mooching my way back home.
Chris, Tammi, and I went out for a bit while the other guys packed up and then we all headed to the docks. We were separated on the boat, but it was only an hour or so down the river. The tour took us by a grove of trees growing in the water that housed their beautiful black waterbirds, though I could see where a couple had gotten hung up in fishing line and died. There were some nice mangroves and egrets as well.
Next we were taken by a beautiful grove of lily pads. There were a few birds walking across the tops and lots of blooms. A few children in dugout canoes were stationed there to try to sell tourists (us) whatever they were selling (the boy was selling crabs, I don’t know about the girl, but she was in a beautiful dress.)
We took a half hour stop at some hot springs and caves. Of course, my flashlight was not accessible, so I was reliant on Chris’, though he kept leaving me behind. There weren’t as many bats in this cave, but it had some beautiful formations. I often used my camera to see what was around me. There were many chambers and tunnels, we had to kind of guess and hope we’d remember how to get out, but the short time frame helped us not get lost. We turned around shortly after Chris spotted and unidentifiable running animal. I did not want to come across it without even a light.
We got back out and followed a path to, what do you know, a second cave! This one was a natural sauna. And there was a shallow pool at the bottom with shrimp. There were red crabs all around, running away from us too. The water prevented us from going far, but it was pretty cool.
We looked around the tourist shop in the restaurant before getting back on the boat to finish the trip to Livingston.
On the last leg of the trip, I saw the Caribbean for the first time and a pod of dolphins off to the right of the boat. They were far enough off I don’t think anyone else noticed them, but I pointed them out to Chris. We just saw fins and a couple tails.
As soon as we docked, there were tourist hustlers on us, trying to get us on this bus or in that hotel. One latched on to us and followed us for a while, trying to give us all kinds of information about the town. Subtle hints like, “We were here a week ago, we don’t need any help” did not work on him. We finally ditched him (he was going to want to be paid for his ‘serviced.’ they met him last week.) when we stopped to get food, but he found us again later, when we just told him to leave us be.
We got a pretty nice room, much nicer than the night before, and went out for some food and a stroll along the beach. They knew of a nice café where we could walk out on a dock and hang out in hammocks, so that’s what we spent most of the day doing.
We did some tourist shopping, Tammi and I got earrings, and enjoyed the cultural differences from here to the mountains of Guatemala, which are immense.
We got dinner at a Mexican woman’s restaurant, which was very good food. She was a fun hostess and then we walked around town more, enjoying the last evening of our vacation.
We were getting drinks at an outdoor shop and witnessed a machete fight. A man, I assume an ex-pat, was slapped twice with a machete by a young black man. We got out of there quickly, but the young man was chased off by the large woman who ran the place. No idea what happened there. Shortly after I went to bed.

Day 44 September 20
We left the hotel at 6:10 to catch our 6:30 boat out of town. We went to a town they were apparently stuck in for a night last week, and they were not fans of this place, but the street food at the docks was good.
We caught a bus to Chiquimula, which was about 4 hours. I was next to two Guatemalan girls, Maria who is 14 and her 6 year old cousin. We talked a little bit, though the cousin was very shy. They were enamored with the conch that Theo bought in Livingston. As the trip went on, the 6 year old fell asleep in Maria’s arms, who was simply not big enough to support the girl comfortably, so I moved my bag off my lap. She moved the girl onto me and then started to fall asleep herself, so I patted my shoulder and said “sueno tambien?” She said yes, and put her head on my shoulder. Her aunt, the other girl’s mother, looked back at us periodically and seemed amused and glad that I was not annoyed at all. Theo and Tammi were sleeping in front of me, and the looks on their faces when they saw the girls was pretty awesome. Theo was beside me and he took a couple pictures, as it was simply precious. They nicknamed me “Motherly Sarah.”
About an hour from our stop, an older man got on and insisted on sitting on our already full bench, forcing the youngest girl up front to her mother’s lap and separating me from them both. I was sad. I then had to switch buses for the last half hour, and was standing on the small shuttle, which was pretty uncomfortable.
We had five minutes or so at the bus station for a quick bite to eat and bathroom stops, then we got a pretty nice bus to the border.
We got through the border quicker than expected, and for a moment thought there would be troubles, but we got through just fine, and then had to wait 20 minutes for the shuttle to take us back into town.
It dropped us off right at the guys’ house, which was nice. I got home, unloaded my smelly bag, changed clothes and headed to the internet to try to call J on his birthday. He was sleeping when I called, but I took the time to upload 148 of the 250 pictures I saved from the 375 I took on the trip. Trigger happy much?

Day 45 September 21
It was weird trying to get back into the swing of things when I knew that just yesterday morning I was on the Caribbean. I got up and headed to school, which didn’t feel like such a climb after all those caves.
My kids were surprisingly good, we had a lovely “morning meeting” about things we, as a class, can improve on in the future and they really went to town on making a list. We got to talk about our favorite trees, and I told them about magnolias and how I like to climb them (picture included, and then of me falling out because someone suggested it. They dictated a few details like “more hair!” and “you need a skirt!” and for the falling picture “upside down hair!” It was probably one of the better ‘lessons’ for their English usage and comfort thus far.)
By the last period they were a wreck, but that’s pretty common. They have lunch and then two of the Spanish teachers, so coming back to me for a mere 40 minutes is almost impossible. The whole time is “Time to line up now?” I was pretty tired by the end too, but I was impressed with how it went considering we’d just had 5 days off.
I had a quick meeting with Beth and Megan about reading time tomorrow and then headed home. I had plans of cleaning the house, doing some cooking for tomorrow, and heading to Casa Villamil, but that did not pan out.
I was sitting on my bed, doing some school work (the mindless stuff), watching some TV episodes that Sierra brought from the States, and killing ants that were all over my bed (the boric acid took care of the roaches and it got the ants off the floor, but now they’re just on the walls, dresser, and bed more than before. Yay!) Sierra came in and asked if I had heard the news, which I had not. The president (or ex-president) was back in the country and the whole of Honduras was under a 4pm curfew, it was 4:20. I never really got details about why he was back in, if he was being reinstated, or how the general population felt about it, but I decided I would just stay in.
We did go to Picame to talk about school, our trips, and the politics over a smoothie (amazing) but that’s not even really outside our roof. The news was on, but I could understand none of it. They were just taking callers, so I couldn’t even watch lips move, which I find very helpful with comprehending Spanish. Kelvin and Allan were over, braving the curfew, and so I showed off some Guatemala photos and did the cleaning I had planned to do (de-anting the bed, sweeping out the left over boric acid, as I didn’t want it on my feet, doing a ton of smelly laundry from the trip, and folding my clean clothes.)
I was in the middle of my laundry when we heard a lot of commotion outside. I wasn’t really looking to go on the streets, so we went to the balcony to look out at a parade of cars with both blue and white flags and red and white flags (apparently Valeya had wanted to change the colors.) They were saying something through mics, but I couldn’t understand it. Many others were on the streets to watch too. I came back into my laundry, but almost immediately the power went out (perhaps to dissuade the parade?) I finished up to candle light.
As I finished reorganizing my room in the dark, I could see the shadows of my near-invisible ant friends. I took some spray and sprayed along my window, the perimeter of my dresser, and my bed. I noticed as the ants walking on the walls came to the lines of spray they panicked and turned around—a small success. Then I saw it: the main colony, it was behind my door. I sprayed it, possibly more than need be. I came out to tell/show Abby and Allan (Kelvin had left) when we saw what I had done.
The rest of the colony had come out into the hallway and was pouring into Abby’s room (which, she also had a minor infestation of them.) We sprayed all along the holes in our walls as the ants took eggs out and they died. Many a dead ant, but hopefully a long-term success. I later found a small group headed to a hole behind my bed and I took care of that one too.
With intentions of getting up way too early, I went to bed around 9.


Day 46 September 22
I got up and cooked my breakfast and lunch for the day to candlelight. Thank goodness for the gas stove, that I can cook when the power is out. I showered in the dark too, and headed out with Sierra, the early walker, at 5:45.
The day went pretty well. The road was suffering from last night’s rain, so the kids had to be dropped off before the hill and walk the rest of the way in. Mud ensued. My cursive handwriting lesson went out the door, but I just had students who were there and had their books (some of my students were instructed to leave their backpacks behind and then they somehow ended up in my classroom again, I’m still not sure what happened there) to practice and won’t penalize those that weren’t able to do it.
My twice weekly reading stations with Megan are getting smoother and smoother. A lot of it is that I’m getting better at preparing work for their independent stations (work on their level that they’re comfortable enough to do without assistance) and getting better at prepping them in advance for what is going to happen during stations. Having Megan there is very helpful.
From the homework, it looks like math is finally improving for most of them. And science vocab is getting easier (though today we had to learn what a “fact” is, and no one asked even though it was key to their assignment. We finally understood each other when I realized I could say ‘information’ which sounds muy similar to ‘informacion.’) We had a good time in the computer lab using Encarta for Kids to learn about animals. I have a really hard time not going into way too much detail about each type of animal.
We also got better at being very quick with homework notebook set up, which means I can actually start using that period for wrap-up lessons instead of dedicating 40 minutes a day to setting up homework notebooks. Today though, I just let them go nuts. We sang songs and I let them draw on my white board for 1.5 minutes. I yelled “terminan!” when it looked like they might start trampling each other. It was fun, a good time killer, and accomplished pretty much nothing, except classroom spirit. I’ll go with that.
I walked home very shortly after the staff meeting. I got to walk with Nash, which was nice. He’s a lot of fun to talk to, reminds me of some friends back home. I did some menial things around the house and went to Casa Villamil to finish typing up my updates from the last week and give folks my schedule.
I also checked up on the Zelaya situation. I’d heard different rumors all day. That the curfew is for all the time, that it’s from 4pm to 7am, that it’s from 7pm-7am, that it’s at 6pm, that no one in the country had work today, that we shouldn’t expect milk and bread for a few days because trucks won’t be on the road because of the curfew, and that we may or maynot be going to the game against the US, depending on how the general population is feeling about Americans at that time.
The only thing confirmed, was in my US Embassy e-mails and that is that a 6pm curfew is in affect. And that all large gatherings and road blocks should be avoided.
I left Casa Villamil at 7:30. It was already dark and I heard that the police were now in the streets. The only people I encountered were children playing in the street and I could see 7 police officers down at the corner where I turn to go into school. A couple of the other teachers were going to go out for a couple of hours but I was tired and even if I wanted to go, I see no reason to agitate any part of this situation. I have not felt a threat of danger, but I am aware that possibilities are greater now than they were before and so I will continue to play it safe.
It was a quiet night in, and I got some work done as well as some reading, but I heard no commotion outside and the power didn’t go out, so it’s already calmer than yesterday (which was pretty calm.)

Day 47 September 23
I was up and out early again. I was more tired than the day before, but made tea in the morning before rushing off.
My kids and I had one of our best behavior days yet. Except, of course, the last period which is just impossible to keep their attention for the last 40 minutes when I’ve not been teaching them for the last 2 hours.
In the morning, one of my kids gave me an invitation to her birthday party (she turns nine tomorrow) and it was the coolest invitation I’ve ever seen. Overwhelmingly Japanese, the invitation folds up into a box with a lid. They put a chocolate kiss in the middle, and all of the art was bright and adorable. Once unfolded, I realized I was being invited to her party (at first I thought it was just a gift for me, but the words “Te invito a mi fiesta” led me to believe otherwise.)
I started planning for next week, and looked over my grades (of which I have a ton, apparently most of my coworkers don’t have many grades for this first part of the year and mid-quarter grades are due next week.) I hope the mid-quarter reports will be a wake up call for some of my parents because I’m really trying to grade tough in the beginning of the year so they know we have work to do. Last year my students were being taught from 1st grade text books, and this year they want me to teach them from 3rd grade textbooks. It’s a school wide change and I think it’s going to be rough on everyone.
I got home and took care of some chores in the house, then headed to the post office to drop of a letter (for mommy and daddy!) but they were closed. I went to Casa Villamil for research on Grad school options and Teach for America. I had really liked the idea (you know, for about a week) of TFA, but not everywhere take TFA teachers for certified and I’m not feeling up for a 2 year commitment. Grad school just seems so unappealing right now.
I did get to talk to Coach, which was really nice. We gave each other pep talks to help get through the beginning of the year. She said she feels like she’s speaking Greek half the time to her kids, so she can’t imagine what it’s like to have a real language barrier. Ultimately, though, it sounds like teachers face the same sorts of issues no matter where in the world they are. I called her ‘Coach’ without even thinking, I imagine I always will, but I hope it didn’t hit too hard since this her first year without the team.
I left around 6:30 and stayed in to take care of more school stuff and sleep as early as possible, which was around 9 (not early enough.)

Day 48 September 24
I had a really hard time getting up in the morning, and ended up leaving 15 minutes after Sierra. I also had a disappointing morning. Halfway through boiling my water for tea, and as I was preparing bread and cheese for grilled cheese…the gas in the gas tank ran out. Word on the street is that we have to call someone and pay them 200 lemps. They’ll deliver the gas and hook it up. Don’t wanna deal with it. Of course, we still haven’t paid our electricity bill (we still aren’t sure how, no one has given us a straight answer.)
I got to school, which had no coffee, and commenced with a trying morning. My kids seemed to do well, but I found out later they had accomplished very little. It was reading stations with Miss Megan. One station is with her, one is with me, and two are independent. They have 20 minutes at each station and then we rotate. The assignments at one of the stations did not get done. I had 3 kids finish it and several who wrote nothing more than their names on it. When I went to grade them, I was not happy.
We had a nice talk and made them finish the work at the end of the day. I went by to each of the kids who had actually done their work and told them that I was not upset with them at all, and was in fact, very proud.
I stayed after school to made up a Science test and a Math test for next week and then headed home for Andrea’s birthday party (she asked me several times during the day if I was coming, I also gave her a special birthday candy treat.)
The party was really awkward for me at first. It was strange to me, that the party set up was mostly men drinking and maybe three of her friends. That is apparently pretty standard. They had two piniatas and a very angry little boy who just whined and cried and screamed and beat things and tried to beat the dog (she was sitting by me, so I stretched my legs over her.) Everyone else ignored him completely, so I’m not sure why he does it. No one caved to his demands, but also no one punished him.
I saw a flock (?) of vultures circle over the valley and land together for a roost at dusk. It took me a moment to even realize they were vultures. It was beautiful. I was thinking about getting ready to live, though not sure how, when one of Andrea’s second cousins (or something) started talking to me. He’s a tour guide at the ruines and speaks 5 languages, including English. The conversation ranged all over but was very interesting. I was glad to have someone to talk to. He was also very supportive of my Spanish so the conversation slipped in and out of Spanish and English depending on what I could keep up with.
The food there was great, and they certainly kept me well fed.
I went home and headed for bed after chatting with Abby and Sierra who had completely rearranged our living room (it looks so much better and we’ve started decorating the walls with pictures from our students. Awesome.)

Day 49 September 25
School was tiring since I was up a little later than I’m used to. The day went fairly smoothly, but Fridays always seem to be louder and longer than other days. The kids are anxious, and I am too.
When the day ended I headed home to take care of some cleaning and get ready for the evening. I went by to see Tammi (who had been in bed all week with broken ribs from our trip to Guatemala. No fun for her.) She decided she was up for a dinner out after 5 days of bedrest. We went to Carnita’s, which is Cathy’s husband’s restaurant (also the family of Andrea and all the folks I had met the day before.) A lot of the festivities for the Harley Davidson convention would be around there. We went and it was noisy, but the food was great. Tammi wanted to get away from the noise and her ribs were starting to really hurt again. I walked her to where Nash and the guys were before heading back to the convention with Caroline.
There were three bands in town and it was a lot of fun. We danced and met a lot of bikers from Guatemala.
Unfortunately, and this didn’t really sink in until later, my mom had to call with the news that my friend Will Pettus had died of a heart attack. He was only 35. It only processed as “everyone in my family is okay” for a while. Only a couple days later would it process as anything else, like, “Will is gone.” I was very grateful for Sarah and Jessica who were kind enough to think of me while they were mourning. It was because they contacted my mother that I found out through her and not online.
I stayed out, to be with people, but really only told one person. I wasn’t ready to think about what it meant.
The night went on for a long time, and being with Caroline meant I met all kinds of new people which was fun. It was probably the latest I’ve stayed out since coming to Copan.