Two months...

First of all, I want to write a little disclaimer: I feel as if I have been neglecting you.  I haven’t been posting as often as I did at the beginning of my trip.  This is for a couple of reasons: (1) things aren’t really new anymore, (2) I do pretty much the same thing every day, and (3) classes started this week (I will discuss this more later), so a lot of my what once was free-time is spent lesson planning for English class.  So, sorry for not posting as often, I will try to post something at least once a week, but am not making any promises.  That being said, this post is probably going to be a little long, sorry about that, too.

As of today, I have been in Honduras for two months!  Although I have often thought about going home, what I will do when I get there, what foods I miss from home, what my first meal will be (yes, I have started a list of foods!); I can’t believe that I’m two months in.  I’m going to be here for five and a half months… and before I got here, I really thought that it would feel like a really long time (and some days it does), but I have a feeling that the rest of the time I have here is going to fly by before I know it. 

I am finally becoming more confident speaking and listening to the Spanish language that is constantly around me.  And although I still frequently need to ask for clarifications on what people are saying to me, I now typically get it after the second time (or sometimes it takes three times) – instead of me just staring blankly at people or nodding because I think they are sick of trying to tell me the same thing.  I still haven’t dreamed in Spanish… but at the same time I don’t typically remember my dreams – and I still have three and a half months to accomplish that feat!  Additionally, I am finally finding a place with the girls.  They were always welcoming, but the language barrier definitely made it difficult to interact with them, usually I would just sit near them as they talked and occasionally would try to join in the conversation, but a majority of it went over my head.  Now, I can actually participate, and it has made a world of a difference as to how they interact with me! 

Okay, now for stories:

Classes have started!  Yes, classes started this week.  And although I was freaking out a little bit before they started, my English class is actually going really well – we are currently learning the present tense of the verb “to be” as well as how to change sentences into negatives and ask questions using “to be.”  The girl’s first quiz is going to be tomorrow, and I wrote it and the copies are currently sitting on my bed (I think it will be easy).  After class today, I was a little concerned about how they would do, but I was sitting with some of the girls during their free study time working with them on English.  One of the girls, Jossely, always seems to have trouble with her homework… whether it be English or math (as I mentioned previously I tend to help some of the Primer Bachi girls with their math)… didn’t understand how to change sentences such as My mother is tall into the negative My mother is not tall and into a question Is my mother tall.  However, after giving her formulas as to how to change the words around (where to put the subject/verb/and what follows the verb – and explaining to her what a subject and verb are) and doing a couple of examples with her, she finally started getting it.  While I never really had any desire to be a teacher, and still don’t want it to be my job when I get back to the states, I now completely understand the joy that teachers get when they successfully teach something… I understand why someone would want to become a teacher.  I actually almost started crying (almost…) when Jossely really GOT it, and realized that she got it… she was SO excited!  Some other girls came around too to ask for some help which then led to pronunciation practice (something we don’t get a whole lot of time to work on), and I’m pretty sure that at least the internas won’t fail my quiz – and in fact will do very well!

My trip to La Entrada!  On Sunday, Thalia and I were told that some psychologists (10 of them, and we still have no idea why they were here) were coming to stay at the school for a couple of days… and since our room was the biggest, we had to move to a smaller room for a couple of days.  So we packed everything up, and relocated (I actually really like the room that we moved to, and although it is smaller than my freshman year dorm room - and we don’t have the option of lofting our beds), I think I’m going to ask if I can permanently move rooms when Thalia leaves and it is only me.  Anyways, my trip to La Entrada… Profe Exor and I traveled to La Entrada to pick up four of the Psychologists… but the truck would not start.  After about 20 minutes we got it started, and I learned a new way to “jump” a dead battery… let me explain it to you:

1.       The truck wouldn’t start, so Profe Exor called over Profe Marvin.

2.       Profe Marvin instructed Profe Exor to get a group of girls to push the truck (while it was in neutral) up the driveway hill, and then move to the front of the truck to push it back down… he then tried to start the car as it was gaining momentum down the hill… it didn’t work.

3.       The girls once again pushed the car forward… this time on flat ground… and Profe Marvin slammed on the breaks and tried to start the car… to no avail.

4.       We continued to push the car around the courtyard about 5 more times until… IT ACTUALLY STARTED… apparently this method works!

However, now I am planning to drive to a town that is about two hours away with a car that I think is going to stall out at any moment… SCARY!  Needless to say, we made it to La Entrada and back – and the truck only stalled out once… and we were able to start it in two tries.  The funniest part of the trip; however, was: when we got to La Entrada, we found out that the Psychologists had already left for Santa Rosa… so the trip was for nothing… but Thalia and I now have a new teacher friend… who is willing to show us around Honduras when he has time!  (On a side note, during our trip, Exor asked me how old I am… and was astounded when I said 21… he thought I was only 16 or 18!!  Apparently I look VERY young for my age according to the people here.)

No hay luz!  The past two days we have not had power during the day… the city turns it off.  And while it is not difficult to live without power during the day (we often don’t have lights on because everything is at least partially outside anyway)… sometimes you have to be creative with how to get things done.  Generally, the power comes back on before it gets dark.  However, last night, the power didn’t come back on until 6:00 which is dusk… and then it went out again around 7:30… which meant that we got mood lighting with candles for dinner… and the girls who were eating in the cafeteria screamed for at least a minute when the lights went out until the sisters could get flashlights/flood lights to them.  Additionally, recess after dinner was completely dark, and we really only had one flood light to use… so there was a lot of sneaking up on people and scaring them.  Bedtime was facilitated by the phone lights of the sisters, and the light of my iPod.  Another interesting thing that I noticed… Thalia and I used the lights from our various electronic devices to light our way… the sisters used candles… and asked if we needed them, but we opted for no.  In case you were ever wondering… candles give off more light than iPods. 

Well, that’s all for now… I know it was a lot.  Thalia and I are traveling to the Copan Ruins this weekend!!!  Which is SUPER EXCITING!!!  As we are actually traveling which is something we have been talking about for a while and seeing the Ruins.  But also slightly daunting as it will be quite the adventure by bus… so prepared to see pictures and hear all about our adventure into the unknown in the next post!