Miscellaneous

Getting back to school reminded me again of why I am here and why I am really enjoying teaching.  The kids and I were excited to see each other and we really hit the ground running in class.  I hope the good behavior isn’t just a symptom of the first week back and the kids will continue with this streak.  We have been getting a lot done and I have been pouring the work on them.  I am starting an ambitious program of both grammar and vocabulary lists.  The kids will be attempting to learn 50 vocabulary words biweekly in addition to their grammar lessons.  No one has complained yet which has been great.

My roommate Oscar got in a serious accident when coming home from La Ceiba after break.  A dump truck filled with sand had a problem with its breaks and collided head on with Oscar’s bus.  There were a few random injuries on the bus, but nothing critical.  A motorcyclist was involved and was sent directly to the hospital with the driver of the dump truck.  The sand carried by the dump truck hit some of the passengers in the face and it apparently hurt like hell.  The front end of the bus was completely smashed, as were most of the windows.  Oscar got out without injury through the emergency exit.  It was definitely a close call.  It kind of explains why death by car accident is one of the leading causes of death.  Oscar had a stomach bug this week and wasn’t able to give classes.  So, with the car accident and illness, Oscar has had a rough week. 

Leche is getting huge and is exclusively an indoor dog at this point.  I lay a towel on the floor and he either curls up and sleeps on the towel or sleeps on our makeshift couch in the living room.  He is starting to become a teenager, chasing after the girl dogs and getting in street fights.  I think it is because he is going through puberty and the male hormones are starting.  We just don’t really have the resources to get him chopped.  One of the “Rugrats”, the street gang that hangs out on my corner, wants to breed Leche with a Dalmatian.  Leche is literally famous around down.  He is more famous than us.  The entire town knows him by name.  If he ever got lost he would be brought right back here.  We think Leche is at least part Dalmatian because of his milky white complexion with black spots that are just really starting to show.  He gets in trouble a lot during the day, but he has been such an integral part of our lives abroad.  We are so lucky we found him.

It is starting to get tough for us to have a good diet.  If we aren’t cooking pasta at home, we are eating fried tacos or fried chicken.  The whole food situation is getting pretty annoying.  We all need to watch out for our nutrition because it is easy to fall behind and damage our immune systems.  In order to go to a grocery store like we have in the U.S. it is a 40 minute ride on the Olanchan public transport system.  It is definitely a daunting task for any sort of weekly routine.

June 25^th marked my halfway point in Honduras and I can’t help but think that this was a great decision to come here and that it will be a defining point in my life.  The work I am doing right now has really given me purpose on a daily basis, which I had been seeking for so long, thinking I would never find it.  I think that in order to represent myself and my nation well in a world that gets smaller by the minute, it is imperative that I learn all that I can about the nations that surround us; and do what I can to educate and enhance cross cultural exchange.  Through education, and education alone, I believe that we can fix the big problems that plague our world; because an educated nation is a prosperous nation.