First day of teaching

Mon, 4/25
Today was my first day of teaching! No one showed up for the 8:00 class (attendance is low after a week off, plus regular school wasn’t in session today), but 6 kids showed up for the 9:00 class, including one new girl. The topic this week is rooms of the house, so we started with them brainstorming rooms of the house in Spanish and then translating them – I was impressed that they already knew a few of them! Once we were done with that, we went through them and pronounced all of them out loud, the kids wrote them all down in their notebooks, and then we played a game. I stuck the words on a wheel that’s on the wall, split the kids into two teams, and then they came up one at a time to spin the wheel and translate whichever word the arrow pointed to. After that, Anna and I drew items that would be found in different rooms and had the kids come up, choose an item, and write in English what room the item would be found in. Most of the kids are so eager, which is great! Juan and Sahori wanted to know when we’d have the next test, and I told them I’d have to talk to Iris, but asked them if they wanted a test (thinking they’d say no), and they responded with “yes! Yes!!” What I found most challenging today was that there’s one student who is incredibly slow – the sweetest boy, and a great hugger, but just painfully slow at writing, and things just don’t sink in, so it’s hard to balance that with the other kids who catch on so fast, because I don’t want him to get left behind, but also don’t want to make the others wait or get slowed down by him. Overall, though, it ended up working ok – I think the first day of class was a success!
After class, I went to Super Mini Funez, a couple doors down from the store to get a little food. I talked with the owner, Oscar, for a while – when I told him I’m from Seattle, he commented on how COLD it is there and how snowy it is. It’s funny how people here tend to think that Seattle is really snowy – I guess it’s a lot colder than it is here, but I tell them that we don’t get much snow, though it does rain a lot. It was great to meet him - he’s really nice, and I’m always happy to get to talk to my new neighbors! Anna and I then headed over to the hotel (aka Nic’s) to use the internet, and then went over to Turicentro El Porvenir, a restaurant right on the El Porvenir river. The owner, Mario, is really friendly and always commenting that he’s going to go back to England with Anna when she leaves. We had veggies and rice – always nice to get veggies, as many things here are starchy and/or fried (though I got to buy a ton of veggies and fruits this evening). And it was only $2 for lunch, which is also great!
After lunch, we hung out at the house for a while, and Daniela, Lester, and Estefani came to visit. It was my first time meeting Estefani and they thought it was so cool that we have the same name – so loved it when I told them that my name is Stephanie Danielle – Estefani Daniela – so share a name with both girls! Then we walked to class with them and helped out with Iris’ classes. Kids in both of her classes wanted to say chicken instead of kitchen at first – and then laughed when we said, “¿¿¿Anna está en el pollo???” At the end of the second class, we took three of the kids into the other room to review the words for parts of the body – we drew people and then labeled parts.
I headed over to the hotel to send a couple of emails, and then went back to the house to meet some of the girls to go grocery shopping in Ceiba. We were waiting for one more, so missed the bus, so ended up having to hitchhike there. I know it’s dangerous with the crazy roads and drivers here, and I’ve tried to avoid it – and have avoided getting in the back of a truck so far (got a ride with a couple other people before, but in the cab of the truck, so at least safer [as long as they’re not a murderer;)]), but broke down to peer pressure and took a Pepsi truck to the edge of Ceiba, and then a pickup to mall. Thankfully we got there in one piece! I got some apples – from Washington!!! All of their apples were from Washington. Heide said she once tried a Honduran apple, and it was terrible, which makes sense in this climate. They also had Kirkland Signature soy milk, which I got. Picked up some Lipton tea, too, so I’ve got a few things from home  Plus some tasty things that are better here, like avocado and mango. We took a taxi back to the house, which only cost $2 a person since there were four of us – safer and pretty much necessary with how many bags we had! As soon as we got home and unpacked, I had one of the apples – not quite as good as they are at home (understandable with how far they have to travel), but still delicious!! I’m looking forward to class tomorrow, and working on planning a trip to Copán and Guatemala (Antigua and hopefully also Lake Atitlán, or somewhere around there). Another teacher is arriving next week, so I’m hoping to be able to get others to teach my classes for a week if I cover theirs another time, so I can go the week after next while Anna’s still here so we can go together.

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