The Arrival of December

December arrived , bringing a busy schedule with it.  On December 1, I taught my first English class to a group of 20 students.  These students are all around the same age, 12 years old, and going into 7th grade which is the first year of high school in Honduras.  They do not teach English in primary school, and then in secondary school most of the students fail the English classes because the Honduran teachers do not actually speak English and do not know how to teach it.  [To fix that problem, I am going to teach an English and Methodology class to the teachers, but that won't begin until the school year begins again.]  With the help of the municipality in my town, I put up notices saying I would teach these first year students during the months of vacation (until February) in hopes that they could have a head start in their first high school English class.  The students who care about getting a head start signed up and showed up on the first day which went really well!  We covered very basic material and the students participated a lot.  For the most part, none of them know any English, but a few students know random phrases like "My name is..."  This meant that a number of students were VERY shy about speaking in English in front of their peers.  I tried to explain that my class could be a place where they don't need to have fear, where it is okay to make mistakes, where we all learn together.  After all, I make loads of mistakes every day when I speak Spanish.  This message got through to some of the students who definitely gained confidence with my praise, but it will take time for everyone to get comfortable with English.  It will be interesting to see how the class progresses.

This is my classroom, the big meeting room in the municipality.

I forgot to take pictures of my "classroom" but this is a view of the church in the center of town.

And this is a group of old men who play cards on a rock in the park every afternoon .

That same night, I went into Santa Barbara with my family because the town feria begins on December 1.  We went to watch the coronation of the Queen, who is about 16 years old.  It was a neat experience, but I didn't really have that much fun.  It was very cold outside, the streets and park were packed with people, and of course the event did not begin until 9pm even though it was supposed to be at 7pm.  I have never been very interested in things like this, pageants and such, so I just was not really interested in what was happening, as much as I tried to pay attention.  Following the coronation at about 11pm was a carnaval in the street, which would have been more fun but my host-grandmother was exhausted by that point (as was I) and wanted to go home.  There will be events of this sort every night, and all day long, for the next two weeks.

A giant blow up beer bottle that a bunch of rowdy youth kept trying to knock over.  They finally succeeded and then set off fire crackers into it, sending people screaming in different directions.

The Queen's castle

The Queen and her princesses.

The next night, Friday, December 2, was Leti's high school graduation.  This is a very big deal in Honduras since a LOT of people quit school after 6th or 9th grade.  But if they continue on 10th-12th grade then it is kind of like college in the States.  They receive a license in their major and are able to obtain a real job at that point, at age 18, without going on to the University.  The university to them is kind of an equivalent to grad school in America.  Leti graduated in Business Administration and wants to continue studying in the University in Santa Barbara.  The ceremony was a typical graduation, long and a little bit boring.  It was supposed to start at 4pm, and started at 6:10ish so we all got very hungry by the time it ended at almost 9pm.  We also got very cold because the auditorium of sorts only has a really high tin roof on pillars, there are no walls, and it started to rain during the ceremony.  Interesting experience over all and afterwards we went out to eat hamburgers with Leti.  That was an experience in itself.  No food is the same in Honduras, even if it has the same brand name, it is not the same.

Getting ready at 5:50 for a graduation that started at 4.

The called their names one at a time and the graduates walk across the stage shaking everyone's hand at this table.

They receive their diplomas from across a table.

Leti and Xiomara, after crying.

Leti and my host-parents.  Her mom was sick and couldn't make it.

Xiomara, Leti, and me

Me and Leti

Yesterday Xiomara and I began to put up all of the Christmas decorations in the house, and I also helped Leti put up the decorations in my host-grandparent's house.  People go all out here, also in a different way.  For example, the Christmas lights that Leti and I put on the porch were those spinning disco balls that people use at parties... they were not traditional Christmas lights.  People also cover their doors, top to bottom, in Christmas paper.  Being an elementary school teacher, I happen to be very good at decorating doors, so Xiomara, Manuel and I spent hours on our front door.  While decorating, we started to smell a lot of smoke wafting down the street along with the noise of fire crackers which do not usually create that much smoke.  My brother David went to investigate and reported back that it was Dia de la Chimenea.  This is actually a 3-day long event in the beginning of December which essentially means make a fire out of trash in the street in front of your house, and set off fire crackers using the trash-fire to light them.  It smelled kind of bad, like burning trash, but it was fun to see kids running around with fire crackers all up and down the street.  Probably a little bit dangerous, but it was one of the those nights where everyone in the community loves each other.

Omar, David, and Manuel playing a video game... with a glimpse of our Christmas tree!

The first time Omar has played this video game, his car crashed sooner than mine did!

Making a fire in the street with trash.  Technically it is recycling, but they don't have recycling here so cardboard boxes are trash. 

A fire cracker named Volcano

A firecracker named Mariposa (Butterfly) because it flies up and all around in crazy directions, while it makes loud noises. I didn't realize it would fly around so much and it startled me which is why the picture is bad.  Definitely not the safest fire cracker.

Manuel throwing various fire crackers into the street.

Lighting fire crackers from the trash-fire.

A safe sparkler.  I actually don't mind setting off fire works, but everyone is really protective of me here.  They think it is too dangerous for me to set them off.

Manuel working hard at helping me and Xiomara decorate the door!