Free Time

I've been spending a lot of time hanging out with some of the younger kids in the neighborhood. Normally I get home from work, put on my mud caked pair of shoes (only for playing soccer) and grab my soccer ball. All I have to do is step outside and start kicking the ball around, and Tui (neighbor kid about 6 years old) will show up. He has a sixth sense and always seems to know when I have a soccer ball and will come running yelling "let's play, let's play." Soon other neighborhood kids show up, all about in the 6-11 age range. When we play an actual game, we use rocks for goals and play with two person teams because the road in narrow. We have a rotation system where the scoring team stays and the team rotates off. Often though, we will play some form of keep away or just pass the ball around a circle. I'm teaching them how to juggle the ball. Tui will sometimes keep the ball in the air past three kicks and then get so excited he forgets to keep going.

Another cool thing I've been up to, is teaching these kids how to through a Frisbee. About a week ago I went to the store and found a cheap Frisbee. I went and bought a cheap one because I had a hunch it might land on someone's roof on the first or second throw. So I brought it out one evening and showed a couple kids how to throw it, and we passed it around for a while. And then sure enough one of the kids decides he wants to throw it high and it goes straight onto the neighbor's roof. I figured that was the end of that, since I've noticed that things tend to stay up on the roofs. But then the other day a two of the kids were up on that roof, I think they were after coconuts in the nearby tree, and they retrieved the lost Frisbee. We have now played a couple of evenings without losing it to any more roofs, progress. Another interesting thing is that some of the girls that are usually too intimidated (or uninterested) to play soccer will come over and throw the Frisbee with us. I would love to teach these kids ultimate but that might be a bit too advanced, we'll see.

This evening I was tired and took a nap in the early evening. My host mom later told me that a couple of the kids came asking for me and she told them that I had left for the US already. She then told me that their eyes got big and they asked when I was coming back. So she told them that I was just visiting my family and would be back later that same evening. While my host mom was just joking around with the kids their reaction reminded me that I'm not the only one who will go through a transition when I depart.

This week I climbed way up in our mango tree to get one of the last mangoes on the tree, maybe it is time to start thinking about coming home.

Also in case you have muddy shoes in need of cleaning, playing soccer in the rain doesn't work quite as well as you might think it would.






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Where did the kitchen go?

I've talked about my host family rearranging things around the house before. Here's a post from back in October in case you missed it. I spent last Sunday doing something similar.

This story starts with a needing to move a couch. The couch is in a room that has been used as storage since I've been living here, but is now going to be turned back into a pulperia (a corner store). But first the floor needs to be re-cemented. So this couch needs to find another place in the not-so-big house. Since the living room is quite small and full as it was, the logical thing to do is to move the living room to a bigger room. Continuing on this train of thought, the plan ended up being that the living room would move to the kitchen, the kitchen packed up and relocated to the parents bedroom, and the parents settling into what was the living room. Basically rearranging the whole house.

I woke up on the warm Sunday morning, to the sounds of hammers pounding outside my door. As an added bonus, the power was out all day which means no fans and also no running water. While eating breakfast I realized that all my host siblings conveniently had other stuff going on that took them away from the house. It was pretty fun to spend the morning with just the parents, joking around, and solving the puzzles of getting the front of the house moved to the back and vise versa. In this process I learned that they had switched the configuration of the house about a month prior to my arrival and we were now moving rooms back to their original locations. In that move they had moved doors around, switching one with a window and the other they bricked up. And this move means that those doors changes will have to be undone... Learning of this earlier change up cleared up some things for me, like why the light switch to the porch was located behind the fridge.

When we finished for the day, we had the 3 rooms rotated. We hadn't started punching out holes to move the doors yet, so for now the front door leads into the parent's bedroom. We must have tried 16 different configurations for the kitchen before deciding on the one we tried first. And I convinced my host sister, only for a second, that we had decided to move her room into the small storage room. A very Honduran style of approach to moving a couch, which looks like it still might not have a place to fit in the house.




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1st Soccer National Championship of the Year

Only a couple of months left in Honduras. MCC is beginning to encourage us to start to think about how we plan to wrap up and say goodbyes. It’s probably healthy, but it’s strange to think about planning goodbyes and leaving. Throughout my time here I continually keep achieving new levels of comfort. For example when I learned my first bus route, it was a small accomplishment but brought a lot of freedom. I feel like something similar has happened in my ability to make connections with youth. I don’t know if it is a language improvement but I’m feeling less like “the foreigner who lives down the street.” Everyone said that a year is about enough time to get comfortable, and then it’s to go back home.

The weather is helping me not get too comfortable. The rainy season has kicked in again and we have been getting regular rain about twice a day.  I generally like rain but living with mud roads is the price. The rain tries to help cool the temperature down, but I think it really just makes it mad. It cools off when it rains, but about 5 minutes after it stops the heat comes back stronger but with high humidity.

This last weekend was the Super Bowl of Honduras, meaning the national soccer championship. Marathon from San Pedro Sula played Olimpia from Tegucigalpa. I adopted Marathon as my team since Christmas when I was given a jersey as a present. My host sister, Bessy, is a big Olimpia fan. I gave her a hard time, about how sad she would be when Marathon won, in the days prior to the big game. Now, Olimpia is like the New York Yankees of Honduras soccer, they’re the team with money advantage. I tried to reason with Bessy to get her to switch and root for the “good guys.” At half time she decided to become a Marathon fan, if they became champs. But then Olimpia slipped in a lucky goal in the second half and ruined all my hard work…

Work is interesting because I’m having fun with the more difficult classes and having more difficulty with the easy ones. I have a class of beginning kids and I have to keep reminding that they are starting from scratch and that I need to explain everything down to how to use the mouse. I have also been performing surgery on computers. Sometimes if you add three dead computers together, you get a descent working one.




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Learning Tour

So I've been busy having fun again. Two weeks ago we had an MCC Learning tour visit Honduras. They were in the country for about 10 days, and had people representing Kansas and Texas. I got to catch up with a good friend from college, Caley Ortman who was the group leader. I was able to travel with the group to Ceiba which is a north coast city. We spent a couple days in Ceiba which included a presentation on the history of Mennonites in Honduras, stubed our toes playing frisbee (ok, maybe just me), and getting to hear from some local organizations that are working in Ceiba. One of the days was spent visiting a community that is located right up against the city's dump. It's amazing to be comfortable living in a poorer community for the last 8 months, and then to still be shocked by poverty living situations. We were shown around this community by a guy who had lived and worked in this community. He was able to point out challenges and signs of hope he saw in the community.

The last day in Ceiba was spent at a wild life reserve named Cuero Y Salado. We took a guided boat tour up a river to see birds, monkeys, Mangrove trees, bats, crocodiles, and a possible manatee sighting. After, we took a quick swim in the Caribbean and brought out the frisbee once more before heading back to San Pedro. The following day the group came out to 6 de Mayo and I got to show them where I work and explain what I do. We had a piñata for almost 100 hyper kids, It was out of control.  Picutres

I've got my final round of classes going, which will keep me busy up until I leave Honduras. The classes are going well and having lots of repeat students is helpful. Speaking of, I should probably get some lesson planning done before my classes tomorrow... Also, looking forward to a team retreat coming up later this week in the Tegucigalpa area.



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Clausura

This year has not been all fun and games, but you might not get that impression from this post.

I just recently wrapped up the second round of computer classes. So it was time again for a graduation party for my students. Last Friday afternoon I had 13 students graduate and celebrated with a short program and cake. There has to be cake. Most of the kids signed up again for the next level of classes. One kid’s father joked that I should just stay and get my girlfriend to move down here. I posted some pictures of the event.

Then on Saturday I got to check something off my list of things to do in Honduras. I was invited to go to a professional soccer game. A rivalry game no less, between Marathon from San Pedro Sula and Motagua from Tegucigalpa. It was awesome to be in a stadium full of people who are really into the game, something I hadn’t experienced in the States before. We sat next to the Marathon section that was constantly singing team songs, chanting, or just making noise. Unfortunately Marathon lost. Hope to get a chance to go again.

This week I will be registering students for my final trimester. Plus working on the seemingly never ending list of computer problems to solve.


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Semana Santa

I got to play tour guide for my family who just left to return to California. Mom and Dad brought Tyler down to Honduras for a week. We fit a lot of things into a week so I'll share some of the highlights.

For people who are interested in a map of where we traveled, I'll put one here.

Their plane came in after dark on Saturday March 31. The airport was packed with people picking up visitors who were arriving for the Holly Week break. The next morning we went to pick up the rental car that Dad reserved for the week. The first challenge was to navigate San Pedro since I mostly just know bus routes. But we made it out to my house and introduced my Honduras family to my American family. I showed my parents where I teach, go to church, play soccer, the important stuff. Then mid-afternoon we headed out for Tela.

Tela is a town on the north coast.We stayed in a tall hotel on a hill with an awesome view of the town and ocean. We spent 2 full days at the coast. The first day we explored the town and found a good spot along the beach to throw a Frisbee, jump in the warm Caribbean water, and drink some coconut. The second day we went on an adventure and took a tour of Punta Sal. Punta Sal is a peninsula of protected land and about  45 min by boat from Tela. On this trip we got soaked, hiked, saw monkeys, tried to avoid poisonous spiders, swam through a tunnel that connects 2 bays, snorkeled, and ate a traditional lunch. Intense day and was exhausting but a lot of fun. Then that night an unseasonal storm passed through (we're in the dry season) and cooled and reduced the humidity in the air. Which made our last morning at the coast very pleasant to be outside.

Our next destination was a small town called San Jose. This small town is where my host parents grew up. It's back in some gorgeous mountains, surrounded by corn and sugar cane farms. Sugar cane is ripe this time of year but we didn't get to see cane being processed since everyone was on Easter vacation. We only got to spend a short afternoon in San Jose but it was cool to show the family around.

The last day we went to a city called Comayagua where they have a popular Good Friday tradition. Different groups paint sections of the street with colored sawdust to make what they call carpets. My understanding is that they start making the carpets around midnight of Good Friday and try to finish them before the mid-morning processional walks over them. This is a tradition that is done in various cities in Honduras but the carpets in Comayagua seem to be the most famous.We arrived early enough to see some groups putting on the final touches, some finished and being misted with water (help preserve them), and some that possibly would not be completed before the parade came by. It's a very colorful tradition that attracts a lot of tourists. Some people put a lot of work into a piece of art that has a life expectancy of only several hours.

It was a really fun and exciting week. It was interesting to watch my Dad's driving become more and more Honduran as the week went on. We lost a camera during the trip but I have a few general vacation pictures.

Also I have found out that I'll be getting back into Reedley on the 24th of July. Feels so close yet there is a lot to do between now and then.

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Father's Day Gift

I received my first Father’s Day gift this last week.

Before people infer too much I should make it clear that I’m NOT saying that I’m a father. “Dia de Padre” passed by about a week ago, I don’t know if it is the same day as in the States. (If it was, happy Father’s Day Dad) The week before the day, the ladies of the church made tacos as a fundraiser to fund a Father’s Day meal. So I was a little confused when the day came and passed without any acknowledgement, but then it wouldn’t be the first thing that I didn’t understand. A week later I came back from teaching and there is a bunch of food in the kitchen. The celebration had been postponed and was tonight apparently. I went to my room to read or something and soon I was told that diner was ready. I ate by my self since only my host mom was home and she seemed busy. She told me about how busy she had been getting ready for the celebration.

Judging by the fact that I was just fed, I assumed that the meal was a Fathers only party but I asked to be sure. When she confirmed that it was, I stopped worrying about changing out of my falling apart athletic shorts that are not presentable. I offered to help carry the food over to the church since the party was supposed to have started by now. I was assigned the 5 gal juice container and I make it all of 3 steps out the gate before another youth helps me despite my protest. He took the container from me and since I now was carrying nothing, I turned to go back to the house as the gate is being locked by my host mom. “Vámonos Miguel” she insists making a head nod that says I’m to come along. So I find myself at a Fathers only party.

Since we were only 30 min late, we arrived before most. It wasn’t awkward at first when people were gathering since people either know me or are interested to talk to me, but I felt underdressed. Then the celebration officially started with some of the women, who put it together, saying some kind words. Then they passed out some gifts that they had gotten for the men. This is when I started to feel a little uncomfortable, hoping that they wouldn’t give me a gift to avoid hurting my feelings. They skipped over me while passing out the gifts and I breathed a sigh of relief. I decided to slip out to avoid more of what I just went through. But as I stood up to leave, wishing the Fathers a good time, I was told to sit down by Jose (friend who lives next door). I said that I had things I could be doing and he just kept saying “No Miguel.” So I sat down, partly to avoid a scene but mainly because I now felt invited.

I passed on the giant plate of food, explaining that I just ate but still got funny looks. They made sure that I took a piece of cake though. I thought the party was kind of interesting because it mainly consisted of being served a meal. And I thought it was funny that this is probably how meals are the rest of the 364 days of the year. It is rare to see men in the kitchen. As the party was winding down the pastor disappeared and then returned with an MCC humanitarian aid box. From inside he pulled newspaper-wrapped objects and set them in front of the guys, and I got that uncomfortable feeling again. As he passed he set one in front of me. I have been lectured by a Honduran about the rudeness of not accepting things, and the context of that talk was denying a bag of chips. So I didn’t make any attempt to try to explain that I’m not a father. I made sure to thank him, and now I have a sweet coffee mug to remember the whole experience.

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