Day 57 October 3
This morning I woke up and met up with Christopher, Sierra, Caroline, Peter (tourist friend of the weekend), Ever (from Casa Villamil), and Beth to get on a bus to Santa Rita. We rode over and followed ever to the river.
The first set of water falls were not far. The path was steep, but full of beautiful vegetation. The waterfall was in a cavern carved out of limestone. We didn’t bring much with us, like cameras because we were warned that this can be a dangerous place if you have valuables and a small group, but we had nothing of worth and were seven strong. So, I have to describe it. The cliffs on either side were 30-40 feet high. Vines hung off of them. The water from the fall swirled into a circle shaped out of the stone. We swam in and always got pushed by the current. I would swim at the waterfall but never made it all the way. As soon as I stopped swimming, the current always took me back to the same spot on the back wall, which had a nice hand and foot hold.
I had tossed my shorts and shirt beside a rock on the sand, and when I went back to them I discovered I had dropped them onto a colony of ants. As I’ve mentioned before, the ants here are not like the ants at home. A bite hurts, and they are aggressive. Depending on the species, there can be some pretty severe swelling involved. I was bitten by a few. I tossed my clothes in the river and continued to do so until there were only a few ants left. I didn’t trust them enough to put them back on for about an hour.
We left there and hiked back up the path to a roundabout way that took us to the top of the fall. It was huge. Looking down really showed the power of the waterfall. We continued on, sometimes rock hopping, sometimes wading, and sometimes walking on paths. We stopped part way for a quick snack (which some people had thought ahead to bring, but I had eaten a big breakfast of left over pasta and vegetables) and Ever found a bright pink fruit that many of us tried. The seeds were surrounded by a sweet tasting goo. It felt weird to eat, but wasn’t bad. We’ll see how it sits later on.
We came to a deep crevice in the rock. We went up the slope, while the river stayed below. There was maybe 5 feet of space separating the cliffs of limestone. The rock we walked on sloped back down, but was very slippery. We had to be careful because the current was quick right there. We got through, and just a few bends later, we were at the next falls. These falls were through several bends with winding cliffs on either side of us. The rock formations were fascinating.
Beside the main waterfall, was a nice formation with fallen rocks in it that were secured enough for climbing up into it. However, to get on top, you had to shimmy up this narrow, foothold-less, straight up passage. It seemed impossible to me. I decided to stay down with Beth and Peter. We watched everyone help each other up and then they disappeared above the waterfall.
Almost immediately after, I decided I did want to go with them. However, I had lost my chance at help, and the waterfalls make it impossible for you to hear someone unless they are very close to you. So, I took more than three times as long as they did in this tiny, straight up passage, with no footholds. I had to brace with all four limbs and work my way up slowly. It was intense. When I emerged at the top, they weren’t so far that they couldn’t see, and were all impressed. I was pretty proud.
We climbed up several more falls until we came to one that I simply could not pass, and Caroline and Sierra did not attempt (mostly for fear of how to get back down.) I got up as far as I could and then each of the boys took an arm and pulled me up the rest of the way. I banged up my knee pretty badly here, but it just had a beautiful welt on the shin. The boys and I continued for a ways, until we came to one that I couldn’t even start to go up and couldn’t imagine any way of going down. I turned around and went back to the girls. The guys started back as we tried to figure out the safest way down the fall. Ever went first, and Caroline just caught him at the bottom. Chris tried to help stabilize me at the top, but I couldn’t get far enough down and still be in reach of him, so I just had to slide down until she caught me, which was terrifying. I started down the second part of the falls as Chris came down.
We continued on our way back, which was much faster and just as adventurous as on the way there. Ever yelled for me part way and pointed up a tree saying there was more of that bright pink fruit. I couldn’t see it, but he started up the tree. The first set of branches only went up 20-25 feet, but that didn’t stop Ever. He must have gone up 50 feet to this clump of what seemed to me to be dead materials. He used the vines that were growing on the tree to get up there. It was so impressive. Then, without any support from branches, he cut off the fruit and dropped them down to me. When he got back down, he was covered in biting ants. They were just hanging off of his shirt, and when he took off his shirt, they were hanging off of his body. He brushed them off and we spent the rest of the hike back picking them off of his shirt.
We got back to the deep crevice where the rock we walked on was above the river. We ventured down the river and came back up like an amusement park. Chris explored the deepest section and found that he could not find the bottom anywhere. So, starting on the rock nearest (maybe 3 feet above the water) we jumped off into the river. Then we climbed back on top to where we were 10 feet above the water and jumped, still never touching the bottom. And then a few of us jumped from 15 feet up. I was able to convince Ever to jump from 10 feet in I jumped from 15 again.
As we passed by the first waterfall, I went to look for my watch, which I had left, but had no luck. I caught up with the others and instead of rock hopping across, I took the wire and rotten-wood bridge (not using the wood, just holding onto the wire above and stepping on the wire below.)
We caught a bus back to Copan and got lunch together at a restaurant where no one had been before. There were some touristy items on the walls for cheaper than I had seen anywhere yet, so I picked up a small one.
I then headed home and started my laundry soaking while I went to the store to pick up some things around the house. When I got back I did my laundry and headed to Casa Villamil.
I had a particularly productive day on the internet. Several good conversations were had, including getting to Skype with my Grammy and Grampy and Uncle Steve who are visiting my parents.
When I got home, Peter the tourist came by and we got dinner at Picame before heading to Tun Club to meet up with the rest of the crew for ping pong. Only Sierra showed up because everyone else was too tired from the hikes. I stuck around for a while, but was very tired, so I headed out early, as per usual.
Day 58 October 4
Shockingly, when I woke up, I was very sore and covered in bruises and abrasions. The marks of a well spent Saturday. I got up and started my morning routine of cleaning and laundry. Sierra came down and we started talking about the larger things in life. It was a full and much needed conversation. I walked with her to get Peter’s (the tourist) shoes from Chris’ house so he could pick them up at our place before he left and then we went into town to do some shopping.
It was very productive. I got some great deals on new flip flops (As mine had holes in the heals) and I also noticed some very nice, but expensive, shoes I could wear around town. I also got a watch to replace the one I lost at the waterfalls. It is analog, so I can’t time things like I could on my old one, but at least the band won’t smell bad. I also went into a fabric shop and got a nice bag to carry things in so I don’t always look like such a tourist and while I was there I looked at his traditional fabric stuffed animals. Of course, the orange elephant caught my eye, and I was thinking of buying it when he pulled out more elephants and what do you know…a blue elephant. I was sold. The elephant and bag together were about $10.
Sierra picked up a hammock of many colors and we began discussing how to rearrange the living room to put our hammock dream into action, this was later realized.
I went by the market, and since it was a Sunday, all the local growers from the aldeas were in town. I didn’t even have to go into the market to get great vegetables at a great price. I got potatoes, tomatoes, plantains, a huge papaya, and some green vegetable I’d never heard of before that the woman said was good in soup. I figured 5 lemps was worth a good experiment. When I got home I friend the plantains and headed to worship, in which I felt better than I have since I started going.
When I got back, I headed back out and picked up a few more food items and a tea pot (good price, frees up out other pots, and it whistles!) I went home to make tea and soup.
My mystery-vegetable soup, turned into a many-vegetable soup in chicken broth. It was pretty good, though probably too salty. My tea pot whistles, as it should, so that was exciting for me.
I used the Picame internet from my stairs and researched some graduate schools. With a connection as slow as this, though, I mostly just sent out feelers. I do love my hook. “I’m a May 2009 graduate….currently teaching on a volunteer basis as a third grade teacher at Mayatan Bilingual School in Copan, Honduras…interested in pursuing a master’s…” I mean really, how can you ignore that? Right now, I’m seriously considering ODU, but I need to get a lot more information. I also did some research on being an outdoor educator, but I think I would need much more training before I could even be considered for a job like that, as much fun as it would be.
Chris came by and drilled a hole in our concrete wall for us to hang up a hammock, once we have all the necessities. Shortly before I went to bed, Sierra came in with her phone and said it was for me. Luis, who has been trying to get me back into Spanish classes for weeks had gotten me to agree to start classes again. He was calling to get me to agree to tomorrow at 3:30, which is an hour after tutoring ends at the school, so I should have plenty of time to get home and get to my lessons.
Day 59 October 5
Getting up after a three day weekend was no easy feat, and I lost track of time so I almost wasn’t ready in time to walk with Sierra. I was feeling pretty refreshed from the weekend, so the walk was nice.
Mondays are one of my two easiest days, so I took time to grade a little extra and gave them their spelling words (which I’m a little worried about since we have a lot of pairs of verb conjugations like started and starting, cried and crying, planned and planning.) After recess, they have Musica, so I sat down to make sure they’d spelled all the words correctly (can’t have them studying the wrong spellings!) when Megan came in with the great news of my very first, and surprise, parents-teacher conference!
Since I’d sent home their grades last week, I knew I’d have some concerned parents. These two were the parents one of my most difficult students. They were pretty upset, and in fact and his mom was asking what good the school has done for him at all, since his language skills are so low. Megan translated for me, when necessary, but I actually did a miniscule amount on my own. I talked to his parents about how when I sit down with him, one on one, and just read it outloud, he does so much better and figures it out on his own. The problem seems to be with reading, confidence, and focus. He gets further and further behind because he doesn’t listen (because he doesn’t understand) and he doesn’t ask questions (when I ask him if he understands his homework, he says yes, but when he goes home, he’s lost.) Since so many kids had done poorly on the science test, I offered to do a redo for the class and she asked for a translated sheet with the information we give the kids so she can help him with the material. They said they do everything they can from home, but see little improvement. We worked out a couple things, and she seemed a lot happier when she left. I left just in time to pick up my kids from Musica.
The rest of school went pretty smoothly, oh wait, except that Francis punched one of my other students in the stomach. I sent him to the principles office and he got an office detention. He’s usually rambunctious, and I usually still laugh at his jokes, but today I told him that nothing upsets me more than when someone hurts one of my students and that I needed to see him making a kind effort toward Daniel. It seemed to work, but I’ll be watching him during the next few days very closely.
Also, during my break, while I was grading in the caseta, I watched a girl trip and fall. All of her friends flocked to her and she seemed reluctant to let them show me her hand, but once I realized there was a serious problem, I insisted. She had completely dislocated her middle finger. I told her how brave she was being and took her to the office (we don’t have a nurse, we have a phone with which to call parents.) That hand was terrifying. But now we have a new, and very real, horror story to tell the kids about why they shouldn’t run.
After school I had tutorias, but I had handed my only list to Marisol and couldn’t remember who was supposed to stay. I have 5 boys, one of which wasn’t supposed to be there, meaning I was missing two people who were supposed to be there. We read some things, talked about meanings, but were mostly joking and silly. I think that’s how I want to run them. It can be a fun time to practice English and math. It doesn’t have to be as serious as class usually is. We’ll see how it goes, though. I do need them to accomplish something, so if I have to reign them in, I will.
I heard a rumor (Ooooo!) from Tammi, that Nash, who has been teaching for several years, said that he’s impressed with my ability to readjust. That I had a lot of false optimism in the beginning, but as soon as I realized it wasn’t just shifted gears and kept going, both faster and more smoothly than he’s seen in most first year teachers. Score! (If you couldn’t tell, I’m desperately latching on to any hint that I’m doing this job well, because I just can’t tell for myself.)
After school I headed home and changed for class, for the first time in a month and a half. Class with Luis is so much smoother than class with Dunia. I really enjoyed Dunia as a teacher, but Luis is also my friend and so I’m more comfortable talking about more. He hasn’t heard me speak that much Spanish before, because he only sees me in a group, when I’m all clammed up, but I think he was glad to see that I do know a little. He’d told me in the past he was worried about my lack of Spanish, because this is my best opportunity to learn it. I agree.
Homework from him is also more fun than homework from Dunia. It’s more personal, it’s more things I would talk about anyway, and I’m less worried about sharing too much. I felt rejuvenated after class. I’ll try once a week this week and maybe bump up to twice a week next week. We’ll see how practicing goes at Isaac’s house (since I’ll be paid with dinner) tomorrow.
I’ve learned that if I sit really close to the wall, I can sometimes get Picame internet from the house, but it always fades out after 5-10 minutes and is just in and out after that. Always at the most in opportune times, but I can at least check from the house if there’s been enough activity online to head to the café for a real internet check up.
At 6:20, I headed to the guys’ house to meet up for dinner with the crew. We went to this small little place that had two options: baleadas or tacos (Honduran style, not Mexican. They’re in a rolled up hard shell. Also, most small restaurants, unless they cater to tourists only serve two dishes. I got one of each and they were tasty.
Day 60 October 6
Since my students have been having a hard time at independent stations recently, I told them that if they didn’t behave very well during reading stations we would not go to computers. (also, I had not planned for computers, so I’d need to come up with something on the fly, which is easy to do for computers.) They were not so great, so I had to come up with work for them to do. I feel really bad for the kids who behave so well, but it’s so difficult to find ways to reward them AND be able to monitor them appropriately.
After school, I had my first math tutorias. I decided to keep them fairly relaxed like on Monday, but I might have to tighten up in the future. My kids felt too relaxed and wouldn’t listen well. We went over number families and did some extra practice. I insisted everyone speak in English, but next week I will have to start docking points for the following day if they don’t follow my instructions.
After tutorias, we had a staff meeting…which went on for some time. I was watching my watch because I had my first in-home tutoring at Isaac’s house and I didn’t want to be late. I had decided I would actually take the bus they always have for us after staff meetings to make sure I got home in time…but of course this was the one time they didn’t get a driver to come back for us. I got a ride with Kathy instead and made it over there in time.
The one on one tutoring went well, and I was able to practice Spanish with his mom for about 5 minutes. I was a little sad that my food option was not with the family, but ordering from her restaurant. The food was good, but it meant no Spanish practice for me.
Tuesday nights we usually throw a Spanish-speaking pot luck. I made it home just before that was supposed to start and cut up my giant papaya. When Chris arrived, he got our hammock set up with a temporary fixture (which will probably stay like this until it fails us.)
Toward the end of the evening Frankie and Norma (the parents of my student, Nilvio.) They were fun to talk to, but, as always, the Spanish went faster than I could keep up with. I did my best, but fell behind quickly.
After everyone left, I cleaned up the house while Sierra and Luis continued practicing Spanish and chatting in the living room. I went to bed as soon as possible.
Day 61 October 7
I didn’t sleep well, but got up okay and headed to school with Sierra. At school, I had the joy of a surprise parent-teacher conference. The parents arrived and waited for my planning period when I had to find a translator for our meeting. Norma, the principal, was available, so she helped me out. I had luckily had my grade books in hand when they found me. They came in upset, but I apparently have a knack for parents, and they left pretty happy.
It was a long day, and I had a pretty retched headache, but when I got home I was able to go to Casa Villamil for some internet time. I was in a very talkative mood, so I called Lucy C. for her birthday, which was just lovely. After, I tried to call Oliver, but my internet was in and out. I could hear him, but he couldn’t hear me at all (what a sketchy phone call. It says unavailable on a cell phone, and then when he picks up he can’t hear me.) I left him a message saying I was the one who called and asked Jason Farr to let him know. A while later, I called Adam and talked to him for a while. It was really nice to catch up.
While I was talking to Adam, I got a call from Tammi, but I decided I would call her back when I was done with my Skype call. Shortly after, Chris, who was sitting across from me, received a call from Tammi. When he got off the phone, he told me I might want to go home because water was pouring out of my front door. Always good news. So, I hung up with Adam, paid (telling Ever very briefly and with aweful Spanish, that my house was flooding), and went home.
As I walked up to Picame, I could see the water running through the restaurant and down the street. Always a good sign. There was, in fact, water pouring out of my front door. Sierra had used the toilet in Abby and my bathroom, which needs to be toggled after use or it continues to run (not usually a problem, other than wasting water, but apparently our shower is clogged also, so the overflow valve never registered the flow and the shower filled up and the water over flowed from there, in about an hour.)
Chris had come with me, and he called Sierra after I had toggled the handle of the toilet. Estibon gave us a squeegee to help and we got to work. It took about two hours, and the water had flooded the big upstairs room, Sierra’s room, Abby’s room, and part of my room before heading down the stairs and out the door. We hung out Abby’s rug and I picked up some wet books from her floor (she had left for the States today because she’s in a wedding.) My room was pretty much okay, my shoes were wet, but nothing else was on the floor. Sierra’s room was covered with papers and clothes, so those all had to be taken care of.
We just pushed the water into the hall and down the stairs. It was a big mess, and definitely cleaned the floors. After more than an hour and a half, we took a break and got some food from Picame. I took pictures of the flood, which only really showed up because of the dripping. None of the standing water showed up.
As soon as we were done with cleaning up the water that had repooled during our break, I went to sleep.
Day 62 October 8
Shockingly, I had another surprise conference at school. This one found me while I was walking to get water during my planning period. Luckily, I had already finished most of my grading. She asked me if I knew where she could find Miss Anna the third grade teacher. I told her Miss Anna teaches second grade. She said, “No, Miss Anna for third grade with Maria Jose Rios.” My student. I introduced myself and she insisted on speaking very quickly and continuously as I tried to find a translator and had already explained I didn’t understand most of what she was saying.
Norma translated again, and we learned that Maria Jose had been forging her mother’s signature and not taking home any of her books. This mother had come unhappy with her daughter and left in about the same state. Maria Jose hasn’t been turning in much work of her work, has a 30 in Science, and if she doesn’t have at least an 80 in all of her classes, she loses her scholarship. Oofa.
I left school shortly after 2:30 and, as per usual, went to Casa Villamil. I talked to Ever about the flood, using only Spanish and hand motions. I know it was very broken, but floods are a bit out of my Spanish language experience. I was proud that I had explained it without any English though.
I Skype called Mike and Kayleigh, which was glorious. I figured it was only fair since she has sent me so much in the mail. Yesterday’s calls were September birthdays I had missed, or in Lucy’s case, an October birthday I was getting.
I left and headed home to pick up my vegetables before going to the guys’ house to make dinner with Chris. He taught me how to make empanadas and they were very tasty. Talking was always good and I finally took something to ease my several day headache.
Day 63 October 9
I didn’t get to bed until 10 last night, but I slept really solidly during the night. At school, I handed back their make-up science tests (which had both grades and the best grade circled. Most of them did better, one went from a 4/20 to a 14/20 which was my biggest improvement, but most of them still did poorly.) We had a lesson on test taking skills, but it felt like they were all tuned out.
I also did a lesson on how to copy things correctly. My students cannot copy something correctly when it is written right in front of them (which apparently is a problem even in offices and government facilities where it is people’s job to copy things and record them.) I had them copy a paragraph from the board and then switch with someone else for correcting. After I collected them, I wrote how many mistakes each student had made, while copying something from the board when the assignment was to pay attention to detail and copy exactly what they saw and I wrote each student a note with how many mistakes they had missed when they corrected someone else’s paper (we had gone over it character by character, punctuation mark by punctuation mark.) I have no idea if it made an impression.
For the first time, my kids earned a fun period (barely.) I had some games planned for the last period of the day. I think it was a disaster (probably an overstatement, but I am disinclined to give them another fun period. They would not follow directions, they were running all over, getting too loud and too close to other people’s classes. I found a frog, and caught it, which caused all the girls to scream. I told them screaming was not okay and that you have to respect life, that the frog was scared and noise like that was not good for it. Maybe I just need to do things differently, but I told them that if they won’t even follow my directions for games, I can’t trust them to a fun period.
I headed home immediately after school, instead of waiting for 2:30. Sierra had been planning a birthday bash for Luis at our house, and I went shopping with her for supplies. We got the ugliest piñata we could find (as a joke) and a little bit of candy to fill it with. We got string and balloons, Sierra had made a cake. I cleaned up the house and headed to Casa Villamil. I asked Ever and Gladice if they were planning to come (in Spanish.) Gladice was down and ready, as soon as they got off work and Ever wasn’t sure because they get off work so late. I assured him that the party would still be going on, as it wasn’t even starting until 8 and they get off work at 9:30-10. He said he’d come.
I went home and cleaned up more. I put out my tasty sweet bread from two nights ago and made some grilled tomatoes with cheese (which were a hit.)
Once the balloons were up, the house was ready to go. It was fun being a hostess again. I was running around serving food, keeping things ready to go. We had hoped to have it on the roof, but with the rain, we just set everything up inside. We had no where to hang the piñata, so Sierra stood on the table and held it (possibly a little risky, but no one whacked her with the stick.) Caroline and her guy left pretty early, which made Gladice think the party was over, so she went home. We called Ever around 10:30 to convince him to come, which he did.
Eventually we moved up to the roof. Tammi and I moved over to the far side and Nash and Ever joined us. Nash fell asleep and Tammi and Ever sang Spanish songs for a long time. They were sweet and they sounded good, but I didn’t know the words. I enjoyed listening. Ever went over to the hotel roof and picked a flower for Tammi and a bud for me (which blossomed in the morning.) I practiced my Spanish and Ever practiced his English, Tammi spoke in whatever language we were working on at the time.
Around 2, folks decided they wanted to head home, which was okay with me. I’d had fun, but it was very late. I was told that Luis said it was the best birthday he’d ever had, which is awesome.
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