Fighting Jews and Saving Lives

I totally thought we would be updating our blog far more often than we do. As it turns out, we have internet far less often than I originally anticipated! We have a computer center in our site with about 10 or so computers, a copy machine, 2 printers, a paper cutter and some other basic office services. The center is part of a government program to provide rural communities with computers and internet access. The computers work just fine as does the copy machine, what doesn’t always work is the internet. We are not quite sure why and we usually ask the woman who works there why the internet is not working and she always tells us that there is a problem in Tegucigalpa. What the problem is, we don’t know, but it happens a lot. So we do not always have internet access in our little town of Colomoncagua. I can’t complain too much because we have cell phones (which I didn’t think we would have) and they generally work!

Work update! Brian and I are giving a charla (a little talk/presentation) on Thursday to a high school class about immigration in the United States. We are going to talk a little bit about the impacts immigration has on the US socially, economically, and culturally. We are also going to talk about the current immigration policy and the presidential candidates views on immigration. We are thinking of including some info about immigrant rights in the States as well as rights they do not have. We also have future charlas planned about religion, remesas (money sent from family members working and living in the States to their families here), and voting & voting rights (here in Honduras). For our immigration charla we are not going to tell students that they should or should not go to the States illegally or legally. So many of them want to go to the States for various reasons and we just want to give them some general information about immigration in the US. Also, the principal of the high school asked us to do it!

Starting in the middle of April we are going to work with 5th and 6th graders on a 5 week ‘project.’ We are going to meet with the classes once a week and do creative competition projects each week. Our plans are to split the classes up into groups of about 5 students where each group with come up with a team name. Week 1: the groups will be given several toilet paper rolls and other such objects. They must make the tallest structure possible. Week 2: the groups will be given several random objects in an envelope (including paperclips, straws, string, yarn, sticks, leaves, a tea bag, a pipe cleaner, a pencil, and tape). They must create the longest object possible and it MUST stay together. Week 3: the groups will be given 4 life savers, 3 straws, tape, and a sheet of paper. They need to make a ‘car’ or a ‘puff mobile.’ Then the groups will race their ‘puff mobiles.’ Week 4: the groups will meet, discuss, and begin to design a carrier for an egg for an egg drop competition. The students will have a week to come up with their own materials for their design. Week 5: if all goes well the students will build their designs for the egg drop competition. If they need more time the competition will be held in week 6. I think this will be a lot of fun and will be quite educational for the students! They are not really given much opportunity to think outside of the box or really to think critically or creatively in the classroom. I feel that if the teachers participate actively as well it will be a wonderful learning experience for all involved. If this works out well we hope to do this in more elementary schools in the area. We are still not quite sure if we like week one – so if you have any suggestions please send them our way.

Educatodos started on Monday – since we still do not have the books we started teaching the English portion without them. This way at least we do not fall too far behind. We really would like to finish the year in November!

Brian is working with a local bank to calculate interest and keep their account records on Microsoft Excel. The bank holds accounts for individuals, but also runs accounts for the local ‘banks’ located in rural communities. These ‘local banks’ are generally just run out of someone’s house and only open twice or so a month. He is going to go out into the communities with a woman from the main bank to help people better organize their banks and keep better bank records.

I have been in contact with the Meet the Masters program in the US. Currently I have been corresponding with a man from the company and he seems very interested in helping me out. We talked a little bit about what the needs of the schools are and possibly what Meet the Masters can offer. He can definitely give me the actual teaching material and other resources as well as possibly some art supplies. He asked me if I would need the materials in Spanish and I have told him yes, I would be teaching the program in only Spanish. So, we will see what happens – he might help translate the material (which would be awesome!) and hopefully he can really give me the actual curriculum. I am feeling pretty good about this! I really hope to either train several teachers in this art program or train one teacher (or volunteer from the community) that will continue using the program without me here. Art is such an important aspect of education.

Enough about work – the fun stuff! This past week was Semana Santa. Basically, this means that there was no school and no one did any work for a week! It was spring break Honduran style!! So, crowded crazy buses, tons of people visiting family in our little town, day trips to the beach in El Salvador, and the Jews fighting in the streets – you know, normal stuff like that. The traditions in Colo for Semana Santa are to go to the beaches in El Salvador (everyone went on Wednesday – not us though), eat tortas (some kind of fish pastry – haven’t tried it yet), and to watch the Judeos fight in the streets (the strangest tradition of all). Basically, people here do not even know what it means to be Jewish, so please no judging. J The tradition is that the men dress up in scary masks, wear capes, wear really loose or really tight pants, have wooden machetes, and brawl in the street. Thursday night at around 11pm the fighting started at the entrance to town – the men who were fighting met at the top of the street and a ‘master of ceremonies’ called for the fight to start. The guys basically jumped around (like a mosh pit) grunted and yelled and hit each other’s wooden machetes. Then they would stop, some discussion would go on, and then they would proceed down the street doing the same thing. The observers follow behind the fighting and people carrying a Jesus statue (I think it was Jesus) and some other saint. There was also some lady singing religious songs. This all happened again, during the day though, on Friday. Also on Friday there was a marching band playing that followed the fighters. I asked my host mom what this was all for and what it meant and she started to explain it to me. Then she said to me “You know what – Fijese que – I don’t understand this tradition and I don’t know what any of it means. I just come out to watch.” Last year her son was a fighting Jew, got hit with a wooden machete on the head and was bleeding. He fought again this year. PS teenagers and adults (like old men) participate, and there were even some little kids too!

A few weeks ago we had a wonderful opportunity to work with a medical brigade from Missoula, Montana. They come down with a non-profit, Missoula Medical Aid, and work here in Honduras with Save the Children. I worked mostly in the pharmacy and fitting people for glasses (old glasses donated from people in the States – like the bins in Target!). Brian translated for one of the nurse practitioners and signed people in. We mostly saw people for cough, head and body aches, and the common cold. The people with the brigade were just amazing to work with – they were a lot of fun (just an extremely outgoing funny group of women) plus they were donating not only their services, but they all paid their own way to get here and were losing two weeks of work. Plus, all of the Hondurans that work with Save the Children were super nice and great to hang out with! It was so cool working with really dedicated people.

And the future… Nader and Teresa are coming to visit us in April! Woo Hooooo a PERFECT birthday present! We are so excited we can’t stop talking about it. They are totally coming to our site for a few days and then they are headed to the north coast. We so wish we could go with them! Then at the end of May my mom and sister are coming! We are headed to Copan Ruinas for a few days and then to Colo. Our host family is really excited to meet my fam! We feel so lucky to be getting visitors we know it is hard to come down here…but we do hope to get more!! Honduras is a really beautiful country!

Abrazos!

Jessica