On the ground and running...

My first week in site has been very exciting. I've met most of the staff members at school. My counter part did a great job of hosting me. He had a group of students waiting for me with flowers Monday morning. Plus, the principal introduced me at Friday's staff meeting. Unlike most schools we had class Thurs. & Fri. after the parade. My favorite was participating with the school's Cuadra de Honor (Honor roll students) and Cuadra de Danza (Folkloric dance group) in Weds. Independence Parade. We walked through the main parts of town and it kinda serves as my introduction to the community as a whole.

Work consists of me helping with the English course for 1st year students (equivalent to 10th grade). I see each group once a week....we have 10 groups of about 45-50 students each!! Yeah! Talk about oversized language classes. The goal is that I focus on pronunciation, conversation, incorporating manipulatives, class projects, dinamicas, games, songs, etc. into class. Classes are only 40 mins long...yeah can we say challenging....so I try to model all aspects of teaching. So far the students have been great!! They love to say "Bye teacher" as I walk through the hallways. The campus is huge and on the outskirts of town...we ride the bus in at 6:30am and return to town at 3:00pm. El profe even got me an oficina that I hope to decorate this week.

My other counterpart is totally cool! She's been visiting almost daily. I haven't done much with the project. I've toured the facilities, the home (for abused girls), and observed yesterday's activities. They handed out a large donation of toys to the most needy kids. The toys were provided by a local construction company. We also visited a local orphanage for el Dia del Nino (Children's day). The statistics of the kids we work with are scary. She estimates that 7 out of 10 girls have been sexually abused and most of the kids live in domestic violence. Most of them do not attend regular public education and look malnourished. A few of the girls are warming up to me. Wish I had more time to work with them.

I finally had my first baleada at La Princesita...yeah, I ate the entire thing. It is definitely my favorite Honduran food.....hand made flour tortilla filled with beans, fresh cream, eggs, avocado, fried plantains....mmm! It's a must if you're in town!!! (Not to mention free wireless internet)