Coninuing

I am finally back on track with my writing. I know it's been almost 3 months since my last post, but i have been very busy with teaching and just generally, settling down, that it to some extent, has discouraged me from putting anything down on paper. I feel like today is a good day to resume my blog and start bringing consistency to my writing.

So, just to catch up on things. Since my three months in Honduras, this has happened:

1. I began teaching 9th grade writing, 10th grade English, 11th grade English and 11th grade Psychology.
My students can be a little too much sometimes, incessantly screaming "mister, mister!" in my year, but they mean good. The difference in culture has a lot to do with heir classroom behavior.

 My classroom. The room has an open ceiling, so it gets super hot during mid-afternoon. We don't dare to turn on the fan. Also last week we found a family of racoons living in the corner of the roof. Unfortunately our discovery was during the class-period. You can guess how that lesson went.

2. I've settled in my one room kitchen/living room/dining room studio apartment, made friends with the house gecko, fought off waves of festering ants and cockroaches, got used to cracked pots, frequent water and power outages, and sleeping though various external noises (like my humming refrigerator) during the night. On a week day, it gets dark quiet yearly, so i go to bed around 9pm and wake up at 5:30. Or more like, i get awoken by local roosters, birds and the hustle of an early-bird city.

3. I've made friends with the city and countryside of Copan; the cobblestone streets, the red rooftops, the magnificent view of the mountains. I am a gringo, but the people in town know that we (teachers) are here to stay, and treat us differently from tourists.

The cobblestone streets of Copan

Lonely Planet writes about Copan Ruinas: "It feels as if all roads lead to this charming hill-perched colonial town just 1km northwest of Honduras most famous Mayan site."And indeed it is a very charming, hill-perched and colonial. The town itself has a very small population, of about 10,000 people, making it the perfect place for local gossip and 3rd cousin intermarriage. My experience in Copan so far has been positive. Having lived in Chicago and Moscow, two big metropolitan cities in the world, I think Copan offers me something that i have not experienced yet before, a quiet yet scrutinized life in a small town. Kindheartedness and friendliness here are common. Everyone greets you with a big smile on their face, usually followed by a row of missing teeth, but a good smile nevertheless. Power and water outages are very common and happen as much as one time a week. So it's better to get used to taking a shower either at someone else place or keeping a bucket of clean water to wash yourself at night.

 The mango season has just come to an end. It's unfortunate because i love mangoes. I will miss not being able to get (or make) a delicious mango smoothie for a while.

The valley of Copan as seen from La Pintada

We were by a corn field

The last month has brought heavy rains. We are entering the rainy season in Honduras, and the fact that the town is in the valley of high altitude mountains, doesn't really help the situation. It rains almost every day. The rain pours hard and fast, flushing the dirt out of cobblestones on the road. Last week we lost a whole school-week, because the killer rain washed all of the bus roads in town. Despite the promises of the local politicians (which we met during a sort-of protest), the roads are not finished and have not been fixed to where we can take a normal bus ride to school. So we have been walking to school with our children, pretty much escorting them for 20 min up the hill. I need to buy rain boots to stop getting my shoes so dirty.



4. Two months of school have flew by. I like teaching here, but with constant holidays and unexpected events, that either disrupt the flow of school or make us loose days in general, it has been frustrating trying to keep students focused and productive. I think that this week has been the only week in two months when we had an actual full, five-day, school week. The students have just returned from their unplanned holidays (due to the washed-away road) and they are stubborn to do any quality work. To be honest, so am I. But I know that this new week will be different.