Things continue to move along.
I told Cosmo the other day, I think that the key to appreciating Honduras is to embrace uncertainty. I make lists and lesson plans and I leave myself time, but some days life just has other ideas for you.
--This is for my mom - I have begun my own Super Scoops for the elementary school class -- I call it the PARTY JAR. Right now the kids have earned about 3 percent of the dry beans they need to fill the jar and win an English Party. Good stuff. -- Another idea I´ve implemented, upon noticing that the kids often only get attention when they act out in a bad way, is that I´ve created a Super Wall to put up the artwork, tests, and accomplishments of the kids. All of them really need positive reinforcement in their lives, something which the previous tutoring staff at Copprome has been kind of sort of okay about.
I have a general format worked out for the classes - For the elementary school kids, I put on a song in English for about 2 minutes as they kids are rustling and shuffling and fighting and by the time the song stops they are ready. Then I do a review, a bonus question for the kids who are ahead of the curve (which they can work on when they finish early), a lesson, a dialogue, some hands on activity (bingo was a big hit), then a review.
For the high school kids, I enlist one of them to find the other ones and get them all in the same place (about 15 minutes). Then I write a quote (example: ¨Dialogue cannot exist without humility.¨ - Paulo Freire). Then they translate it. Then I do a grammar lesson, a dialogue, and a fill in the blanks. Then I put on a song in English using the grammatical structure we just studied and have them copy down the applicable part of the song (example: the other day we did contractions and listened to Jorge Drexler sing ¨Don´t leave me high, Don´t leave me dry...¨)
The kindergarten kids are fun - I love working with pre-literate kids because they trust their ears a lot more. There´s a lot of Gouin series work here, a la Professor Arries, and a lot of art projects. I´m trying to get the Copprome staff to read them books more, because they are an amazingly rapt audience when a story is being read.
The English class for the staff is coming along, but they´re always busy busy busy. It´ll be a cool way to build a working relationship with them, though.
On the administrative side of things, we´ve installed the computer lab and we will have internet access there today. I worked together with the staff to create rules for the computer lab, so that we can be fair and consistent and hopefully these computers won´t be destroyed by this time next week.
I´ve been very tired this week. I need to get better at delegating. I´m going to meet with Pati and Mary and the other staff in a few minutes to try to better define their tasks so that they can just roll with it and don´t have to check in with me. It´s amazing what people are capable of doing when they are given agency over a project outcome.
Grego´s flying in tomorrow in the morning (which with TACA airlines means some time before Sunday). I´ve got loads of work ready for him with the Sp. Ed kids... mwahaha.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Qué Golazo
Last night was the first actual factual soccer game that I´ve played since... oh, seventh grade, give or take. I joined into a game in the canchita that backs up to our backyard. I have no foot action and it´ll still take a few games for me to be able to read the field, but I scored 2 or 3 goals. I like playing futbolito because it´s kind of like AND-1 soccer.
By the end of the game it was lloviendo harto and there was standing water on the field so we ended up all taking off our shoes and splashing around like ducks. I´m going to try to hone this skill and get Shinaldo to take me into his tutelage.
Fútbol is the world´s game.
I´d also like to get into basketball here because I´m the tallest mofo in this country. I have to duck when I walk into doors, under umbrellas, into buses, etc. I could be the Larry Byrd of Honduras.
By the end of the game it was lloviendo harto and there was standing water on the field so we ended up all taking off our shoes and splashing around like ducks. I´m going to try to hone this skill and get Shinaldo to take me into his tutelage.
Fútbol is the world´s game.
I´d also like to get into basketball here because I´m the tallest mofo in this country. I have to duck when I walk into doors, under umbrellas, into buses, etc. I could be the Larry Byrd of Honduras.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Empezando la segunda semana de clases
COPPROME update.
I now have Pati Zaldivar working with me as the co directora of the Centro Educativo. She´s great! She grew up in COPPROME herself and is studying psychology at the uni, and is taking the semester off right now. She and I have been working together to crank out a program budget. She works wonders, especially with the high school girls, and she´s in charge of special programación. We´re planning a talent show for the high school girls, since in their individual interviews a lot of them said they are interested in dancing-singing-acting-etc on stage. On Friday we finished charting out their grades and making files for them. We got the cotización done over the weekend and the tutoring schedule is now established. Soon we´ll be putting up job descriptions for volunteers to replace us in time. For now, we´ve got a couple of international volunteers who for some reason or another are at COPPROME. More on them later.
The vision for this new centro educativo is going to be a sea change for COPPROME´s educational offerings and so far this change is causing less tremors than I had anticipated. Up until now, the only ¨profe¨the kids had was someone who barely held a high school degree, who had been reported on a few occasions for being too physically or verbally rough with the kids, which I see partly as a problem of lack of training and understaffing.
I´m working to try to make the area more accessible to the kids and to get more support for the staff and the center. The computer lab will soon be set up, which will require a good deal of oversight.
Conociendo Honduras.
Over the weekend I went out to San Pedro Sula and saw an awesome rock show at a club called Klein Bohemia. The owner, Chele, is pretty much the dude. The first band was an otherwise so-so punk band whose singer had an awesome heavy metal shriek. The second band was a funk rock band with a certifiably good bass player and a 15 year old drummer who could out rock just about any drummer in Honduras or otherwise. He did a 10 minute drum solo. Saturday we were back in El Progreso, where the Carnaval came to town. Por casualidad, it seems I´ve arrived during a season of feriados - pretty much all month there´s some kind of holiday or something.
OK I´ve got to go to COPPROME soon, but les dejo con esto-
How to speak Honduran
maciso - lindo
de pinta - very niiice
de miedo - the bomb diggity
sipotes - chavales, cabros chicos, muchachos
nombe - no way, man
¿va? - used like the Canadians say eh, eh?
cheque - kind of a space filler
common nicknames - chinito, peludo
vaya pues (baya pueh) - said at the end of conversations or kind of like ¨demás¨ in Chile
Hasta la victoria siempre,
Charly
I now have Pati Zaldivar working with me as the co directora of the Centro Educativo. She´s great! She grew up in COPPROME herself and is studying psychology at the uni, and is taking the semester off right now. She and I have been working together to crank out a program budget. She works wonders, especially with the high school girls, and she´s in charge of special programación. We´re planning a talent show for the high school girls, since in their individual interviews a lot of them said they are interested in dancing-singing-acting-etc on stage. On Friday we finished charting out their grades and making files for them. We got the cotización done over the weekend and the tutoring schedule is now established. Soon we´ll be putting up job descriptions for volunteers to replace us in time. For now, we´ve got a couple of international volunteers who for some reason or another are at COPPROME. More on them later.
The vision for this new centro educativo is going to be a sea change for COPPROME´s educational offerings and so far this change is causing less tremors than I had anticipated. Up until now, the only ¨profe¨the kids had was someone who barely held a high school degree, who had been reported on a few occasions for being too physically or verbally rough with the kids, which I see partly as a problem of lack of training and understaffing.
I´m working to try to make the area more accessible to the kids and to get more support for the staff and the center. The computer lab will soon be set up, which will require a good deal of oversight.
Conociendo Honduras.
Over the weekend I went out to San Pedro Sula and saw an awesome rock show at a club called Klein Bohemia. The owner, Chele, is pretty much the dude. The first band was an otherwise so-so punk band whose singer had an awesome heavy metal shriek. The second band was a funk rock band with a certifiably good bass player and a 15 year old drummer who could out rock just about any drummer in Honduras or otherwise. He did a 10 minute drum solo. Saturday we were back in El Progreso, where the Carnaval came to town. Por casualidad, it seems I´ve arrived during a season of feriados - pretty much all month there´s some kind of holiday or something.
OK I´ve got to go to COPPROME soon, but les dejo con esto-
How to speak Honduran
maciso - lindo
de pinta - very niiice
de miedo - the bomb diggity
sipotes - chavales, cabros chicos, muchachos
nombe - no way, man
¿va? - used like the Canadians say eh, eh?
cheque - kind of a space filler
common nicknames - chinito, peludo
vaya pues (baya pueh) - said at the end of conversations or kind of like ¨demás¨ in Chile
Hasta la victoria siempre,
Charly
Friday, September 14, 2007
An update after the first week
Bueno, para ponerles al dia...
This week we've had a load of meetings. We found out that the town council and the mayor and vice mayor of El Progreso have signed a "Punto de Acto" and it's on the books that the terreno for Siete de Abril will be provided to SHH in order to start construction on the new houses SHH will build for 72 families. Yesterday Shin and Cosmo went to Tegucigalpa with Super Marcio and a lawyer to meet with national legislators - Marcio as always was amazing and charmed everyone into helping us right away.
I've been setting up the Education Center in Copprome for the past few days. There is a LOT to do here, so we're going to do it paso tras paso...I'm getting what in the States would be called IEPs for all the kids with special needs so I can get them translated and filed... etc. Also I found out at the beginning of the week that most of the high schoolers hadn't even read Cien Anios de Soledad or anything by Isabel Allende, or Honduran poetry, so I've been finding them some novels when I can - they devour books. They are all wicked smart.
Anyone who wants to volunteer as a math tutor, computer lab instructor, special ed teacher, english tutor, etc. contact me. We'll soon have a program description up for the different positions. Copprome is getting the internet in a few weeks. The cable guys came and put in a tower for wireless access there. We should be getting more computers installed soon too. Shin knows a guy. Hopefully we can network them within the next week or two and install Rosetta Stone and other educational software on them asap.
Tomorrow is independence today, so today and tomorrow in El Progreso (actually a few blocks from our SHH office here) there are marching bands and desfiles (parades) going by with kids in their school uniforms. Tomorrow the streets will be packed and we'll just hang out Progreso-style.
Yesterday I found the one actual book store in town, an awesome izquierdista place that's also an internet cafe - they sell all the great latin american novels and loads of books by Honduran authors. They show independent movies for free every Thursday night. Also, I found the Palacio de Fajas (the Belt palace), an awesome store that looks like it sounds - they're special ordering me a big ole Honduran flag belt buckle.
I'm loving El Progreso - everybody here treats me like the BFG (Big Friendly Gringo) and just walking to the office I meet like 5 new people each day - i'm always meeting people's cousins, moms, friends, etc. I love what a close-knit community it is here. I also like the Honduran sense of time - there's a sort of generally accepted flexibility of about a half hour in most situations, which goes well with me.
oh, and I have a cell phone here now, so if you need it send me an email y te lo mando.
Hasta la victoria siempre,
C.
This week we've had a load of meetings. We found out that the town council and the mayor and vice mayor of El Progreso have signed a "Punto de Acto" and it's on the books that the terreno for Siete de Abril will be provided to SHH in order to start construction on the new houses SHH will build for 72 families. Yesterday Shin and Cosmo went to Tegucigalpa with Super Marcio and a lawyer to meet with national legislators - Marcio as always was amazing and charmed everyone into helping us right away.
I've been setting up the Education Center in Copprome for the past few days. There is a LOT to do here, so we're going to do it paso tras paso...I'm getting what in the States would be called IEPs for all the kids with special needs so I can get them translated and filed... etc. Also I found out at the beginning of the week that most of the high schoolers hadn't even read Cien Anios de Soledad or anything by Isabel Allende, or Honduran poetry, so I've been finding them some novels when I can - they devour books. They are all wicked smart.
Anyone who wants to volunteer as a math tutor, computer lab instructor, special ed teacher, english tutor, etc. contact me. We'll soon have a program description up for the different positions. Copprome is getting the internet in a few weeks. The cable guys came and put in a tower for wireless access there. We should be getting more computers installed soon too. Shin knows a guy. Hopefully we can network them within the next week or two and install Rosetta Stone and other educational software on them asap.
Tomorrow is independence today, so today and tomorrow in El Progreso (actually a few blocks from our SHH office here) there are marching bands and desfiles (parades) going by with kids in their school uniforms. Tomorrow the streets will be packed and we'll just hang out Progreso-style.
Yesterday I found the one actual book store in town, an awesome izquierdista place that's also an internet cafe - they sell all the great latin american novels and loads of books by Honduran authors. They show independent movies for free every Thursday night. Also, I found the Palacio de Fajas (the Belt palace), an awesome store that looks like it sounds - they're special ordering me a big ole Honduran flag belt buckle.
I'm loving El Progreso - everybody here treats me like the BFG (Big Friendly Gringo) and just walking to the office I meet like 5 new people each day - i'm always meeting people's cousins, moms, friends, etc. I love what a close-knit community it is here. I also like the Honduran sense of time - there's a sort of generally accepted flexibility of about a half hour in most situations, which goes well with me.
oh, and I have a cell phone here now, so if you need it send me an email y te lo mando.
Hasta la victoria siempre,
C.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Nuestro humilde narrador llega a Honduras
I've arrived in Honduras!
Friday night I set out to try my luck on TACA airlines- they were the cheapest tickets I could get ahead of time and they were really nice about switching my flight what with the hurricane. My flight transfer got delayed (read as: I spent 6 hours in the airport in San Salvador walking around and getting to know my fellow demorados pretty well - one lady named Irma talked to me for about 4 and a half of those hours and showed me pictures of her grandkids - 4 people asked me if she was my mom, which is funny because we didn't look alike at all) but it was overall a good airline experience.
In the airport I reunited with Shin and Cosmo and don Marcio (aka SuperMarcio aka the Coolest Guy in Honduras) and we moved into the house together. It's much bigger than I through and it's right in the centro in El Progreso within walking distance of our office.
I met up with the COPPROME kids last night and it was AMAZING! Olvin and Ivancito have gotten so much bigger! All the high school girls played a fun (not fun) game called "do you remember what my name is" - I passed though. Phew! We're setting up a tutoring schedule soon.
On the way in from San Pedro Sula, marcio showed us where the water level had risen when the then-tropical depression came through: it had flooded to river to about 15 feet above its normal level, almost to the top of the arch under the big bridge that the Japanese built as a gift to Honduras. A lot of the houses I saw near the river were on stilts already, but some of them were flooded nonetheless. There were displaced people livinb in the middle of the highway divider with tarps for roofs and walls, being guarded by policemen with automatic weapons (apparently there were a few murders so they're trying to keep them safe). It was fortunate that the rain didn't cause more than the somewhat isolated lowland flooding we saw, but it was also a quick reminder of how there's always something more to do.
It's amazing to be back in Honduras, to smell the smells, to see deep green leaves and dusty roads and giant banano groves and mango trees and bodegas with open store fronts, the KFCs and Pizza Huts mixed in with fruit stands and BALEADORAS!!!... to feel the thud of a reggaeton backbeat coming out of a pickup truck, to see people stop on their way and shake hands with their cousin's friend's little brother and ask how they're doing... I don't know quite how to explain the full sensory experience - it takes me back but, more than that, it takes me forward to all the things to accomplish and things to come. Tonight we're going to take it relatively easy: visit the kids at Copprome, set up a schedule for the coming week, and plan what we're doing tomorrow to celebrate the national holiday Día del Niño - we're going to put together something for the kids in Siete de Abril and of course the Copprome kids.
"Mata ne" y hasta la próxima,
Carlos
(porque parece que he vuelto a ser conocido como Carlos)
Friday night I set out to try my luck on TACA airlines- they were the cheapest tickets I could get ahead of time and they were really nice about switching my flight what with the hurricane. My flight transfer got delayed (read as: I spent 6 hours in the airport in San Salvador walking around and getting to know my fellow demorados pretty well - one lady named Irma talked to me for about 4 and a half of those hours and showed me pictures of her grandkids - 4 people asked me if she was my mom, which is funny because we didn't look alike at all) but it was overall a good airline experience.
In the airport I reunited with Shin and Cosmo and don Marcio (aka SuperMarcio aka the Coolest Guy in Honduras) and we moved into the house together. It's much bigger than I through and it's right in the centro in El Progreso within walking distance of our office.
I met up with the COPPROME kids last night and it was AMAZING! Olvin and Ivancito have gotten so much bigger! All the high school girls played a fun (not fun) game called "do you remember what my name is" - I passed though. Phew! We're setting up a tutoring schedule soon.
On the way in from San Pedro Sula, marcio showed us where the water level had risen when the then-tropical depression came through: it had flooded to river to about 15 feet above its normal level, almost to the top of the arch under the big bridge that the Japanese built as a gift to Honduras. A lot of the houses I saw near the river were on stilts already, but some of them were flooded nonetheless. There were displaced people livinb in the middle of the highway divider with tarps for roofs and walls, being guarded by policemen with automatic weapons (apparently there were a few murders so they're trying to keep them safe). It was fortunate that the rain didn't cause more than the somewhat isolated lowland flooding we saw, but it was also a quick reminder of how there's always something more to do.
It's amazing to be back in Honduras, to smell the smells, to see deep green leaves and dusty roads and giant banano groves and mango trees and bodegas with open store fronts, the KFCs and Pizza Huts mixed in with fruit stands and BALEADORAS!!!... to feel the thud of a reggaeton backbeat coming out of a pickup truck, to see people stop on their way and shake hands with their cousin's friend's little brother and ask how they're doing... I don't know quite how to explain the full sensory experience - it takes me back but, more than that, it takes me forward to all the things to accomplish and things to come. Tonight we're going to take it relatively easy: visit the kids at Copprome, set up a schedule for the coming week, and plan what we're doing tomorrow to celebrate the national holiday Día del Niño - we're going to put together something for the kids in Siete de Abril and of course the Copprome kids.
"Mata ne" y hasta la próxima,
Carlos
(porque parece que he vuelto a ser conocido como Carlos)
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
from hurricane to tropical depression
So the hurricane is down to a class 1 hurricane (low wind speeds) now that it's on land but there's still a lot of rain, or so I hear. It's passing over most of Honduras tonight and early tomorrow.
Shin and I are moving our flights forward a few days to make sure we're in the clear. All other things equal, I'll be arriving in Honduras on Saturday after Felix has passed through. I got all my vaccinations done today and got my last supplies (including some stuff to teach myself Japanese).
A brief rest will be good. So far, everyone down there seems to be all right. Just keep on keepin' on... I just heard that within the next 24 hours Felix will be downgraded to a 'tropical depression'. Buena onda.
--C.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNpSrosp_pI <--I learned to say 'Sore wa nan desu ka?' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlkd45W4TWU&feature=dir <--Yeah, I just like this.
Shin and I are moving our flights forward a few days to make sure we're in the clear. All other things equal, I'll be arriving in Honduras on Saturday after Felix has passed through. I got all my vaccinations done today and got my last supplies (including some stuff to teach myself Japanese).
A brief rest will be good. So far, everyone down there seems to be all right. Just keep on keepin' on... I just heard that within the next 24 hours Felix will be downgraded to a 'tropical depression'. Buena onda.
--C.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNpSrosp_pI <--I learned to say 'Sore wa nan desu ka?' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlkd45W4TWU&feature=dir <--Yeah, I just like this.
En el ojo del huracán
So, some of you may have heard that Hurricane Felix just went through Nicaragua and is currently going through Honduras. This is true. So far my flight isn't cancelled, so I'm still packing up. Yesterday I sold my car (hooray!) and then went to visit Shinaldo to pick up the air conditioner we are going to love so much while in Honduras. I asked him what's up with the hurricane and, in typically awesome Fujiyama style, he said that our job description might include hurricane relief efforts depending on where the storm goes today.
It's a fast-moving and compact storm, and it peaked at 160 mph winds yesterday. I heard it's type 4 (out of 5). By tonight or tomorrow it should have passed through Honduras. So it goes.
For now, seguiré empacando mis cosillas and getting my vacunas. Rock.
Nos estaremos viendo,
C.
"We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them." - Epictetus
Shin was interviewed for DC's Fox 5 yesterday:
http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=4250479
Hurricane Felix: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Felix_(2007)
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