I just got back from Tegucigalpa where we had the MCC Honduras team meeting. There are 11 of us working here and we´re all from the US or Canada. So we all speak English and mostly spoke English while we were together. It was really nice to be able to get my point across easily and be able to converse on a higher level than I´m able to do in Spanish. We stayed at a retreat center that MCC has worked with located in the mountains above Tegucigalpa. It was nice to get some cooler weather and out of the heat and humidity that I´m going to be dealing with daily here in San Pedro Sula. While we were together we visited some local partners of MCC in Tegucigalpa, had team meetings, and also hiked in La Tirgra (a national forest). The team is a fun group of people and I´m looking forward to working with them.
Yesterday I moved into my new house for the year, visited the office I´ll be working at, plus met some of the church youth. It was a whirlwind of a day and I´m still adjusting. The house I´m living in is a simple house. I have my own room with a big bed, dresser/closet, and a window that has no screen to prevent mosquitoes or other bugs from coming in. The bathroom next to my room has a shorter door and I have to remember to duck when I pass. Also, I´ll be taking bucket showers this year. The family is great, very friendly and welcoming. I live with a mother, father, and sister. There are 2 more children that are my age or older but they do not live at home. They also have many pets: two dogs, a parrot, and a pregnant cat that will probably have kittens sometime very soon. The house is about a half block from the Proyecto M.A.M.A. office which is connected to the Mennonite church.
The place where I work is a cement room with 11 computers (10 on mobile desks for students to use). I have air conditioning which is nice because it gets pretty hot and humid during the day. I´ll be teaching up to 4 levels of difficulty to students, if more kids sign up. So far there are only 6 students enrolled in the beginner’s class, but the previous schedule has 20 students enrolled with people in each of the 4 levels. Classes don´t start until next Tuesday, and it´s a little nerve wracking that I´m supposed to teach in Spanish in a week. I feel like I need to do lots of study and prep work before then.
Last night my host sister brought me to the youth group here at the Mennonite church. There were about 15-ish youth there. It was a good atmosphere, they liked joking around with each other but you could tell it was all in fun. They took turns introducing themselves and one of the youth mustered up an English welcome and everyone was impressed when I said that I understood him. The group then tried to convince the pastor to try English also but he would not be persuaded. Then I introduced myself and I jokingly asked if they wanted English or Spanish, they laughed and not surprisingly they chose Spanish. They´re pretty forgiving about my poor Spanish and seem like an entertaining group to get to know and be around.
My Spanish is improving daily and time it takes for me to hear something and understand it is getting quicker and quicker. My Vocabulary is still very limited and slows me down. It looks like this year could keep me
plenty busy, for sure until I can speak more naturally.
Now I need to figure out how to plan a lesson.
