My trip back home was great. I love the fact I was excited to see my family and very excited to return to Honduras too. My trip started with a nice surprise...my friends picked me up at the airport with a welcome home gift. I spent that first weekend getting spoiled by mom with her home cooked meals...mmm! I ended up making the family baleadas...let's just say they weren't as excited as I was. LOL My sister, mom, and I ended up at the salon one morning. It felt great getting pampered. My brother, sister, best friend, and I ended out dancing one night....first time the siblings had been out together in years. In fact, it had been over three years since the whole family had been home together. 
After dropping my brother off at the airport, the rest of my family and I drove down to LA for the next weekend. I tried balancing between hanging out with my family and visiting friends. I had way too many delicious meals with great company. One of my favorite moments was our visit to the LA Griffith Observatory and my Saturday brunch at the Cheesecake Factory.
After my trip, (and after way too many hours of travel), I arrived in Valle de Angeles for PCYD Reconnect. The workshops were tough to get through the first few days. We had seen a lot of the same material during training. We later understood those days were focused on our counterparts. I loved watching my counterpart come alive in discussions. She is definitely going places. The YD group had a lot of catching up moments. Over all, I think most of us were feeling pumped after Reconnect.
I met up with el Profe each day for planning. Transportation is always a headache to/from my site and my worksite so our days came to an end early. We worked out a lot of details in our planning but we were left hanging in so many other details. The school to this day has not held one teacher meeting. The Secretary of Education released the school calendar last week (2 weeks into the school year). Our campus admin handed out schedules this past Thursday (mind you they have to be re-done as most of them have major errors). To top it off, we had two school student take overs in the last two weeks and will have no classes this coming Monday due to the teacher marches. Yes, just another school year in Honduras.
I did my best to stay positive this past week, but I will admit it was especially hard. I was feeling down and very unmotivated (which only made me feel worse) with all the work issues. I almost forget to mention the Safety/Security meeting this past week. Although I appreciated the staff's efforts to support us, it is never easy to digest the information we receive on volunteer incidents. I keep reminding myself as we were told in that meeting...we are here because it is tough work.
With that said, I want to end on a positive note.....I am very excited to announce that one of the girls from the hogar...the one with the greatest learning needs, she doesn't know how to read or write....was saying she likes to write after hours of working with her. Yay! I've decided to focus on her learning needs as my little Saturday morning project. Day 1: build confianza and generate an interest for learning....CHECK!
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| My childhood "mentee"...one of the newest PCV trainees (Guyana, 2011-2013)...congrats! |
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