Thursday, September 15, 2011

Independence Parade

Today we marched in a parade downtown Siguatepeque to celebrate Honduras' Independence Day. We arrived downtown at 7am for the parade which was scheduled to start at 7:30. The parade did not start until 9am and we were done marching by 9:30. A lot of waiting for a little bit of marching. We did get to be on local television, though, as we marched through the downtown square with our students.
Pretty cool, not many people can say they have been on Honduras television!

Here are some pictures of each of the grades in our High School.




Here is our School Sign, the lovely grade nine ladies holding them and a few of our flag team.


Getting ready to march!

Grade 7



Grade seven dressed in traditional Honduras clothing and represented some of the 18 departments of Honduras.

Grade 8

Grade eight represented peace. Each student carried a white balloon throughout the parade, and when we arrived at the main square they released their balloons to fly away.

Grade 9 & 11


Grades nine and eleven paired together to represent a value for each couple. The values were written on the ladies' sashes. And of course the master teachers for their grades, Mr. Darrell and Miss Robin.


Grade 10

You can't miss grade ten in their bright green shirts, or their master teachers Mrs. Karen and Profe Marisol.

"take care of our environment to maintain its natural beauty"



All of these animals are native to Honduras and are endangered.

Some other schools and their floats.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Dia del Ninos!

Children's Day was filled with fun, excitement, and many pinatas. Darrell spent the day with the Elementary kids watching their kids program, eating delicious food, and manning the four or five pinatas. Lots of fun and lots of chaos, but the kids loved it!

Karen traveled with the High Schoolers to a community just up the mountain from Siguatepeque called La Tigra. We brought one pinata for each grade, cake (tres leches), and homemade nachos for the kids there. Their school was only two rooms and a makeshift soccer field, but the kids had so much fun playing games with our students, getting piggy-back rides, listening to Bible stories, and of course busting open a pinata.

Karen was so impressed by her tenth grade students. They really took charge and ran the whole day since her Spanish is not very good, and the kids there did not speak any English. They organized many fun games for the kids, manned the pinata, and shared Bible stories with them. They made Karen so proud to be their teacher. She also enjoyed spending time outside of the classroom with her students.

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We took a bus to the community of La Tigra, don't worry we had an actual bus driver.

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The kids there were so excited to spend the day with us, we sang silly songs and put on a skit for them before breaking into smaller groups.

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Grade 10 went with Karen. We played lots of fun Spanish games, gave them piggy-back rides, balloons...

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...and of course a pinata!

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After games and the pinata, we served the kids homemade nachos for lunch.
Grade 7 (top right) also had a good time at La Tigra.



Candy, one of the grade 10 students, brought stickers to give to the kids and it was a huge hit!
Karen got lots of practice asking the kids which color sticker they wanted, she definitely knows her colors in Spanish now.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

School Has Started!

School Started on Thursday, August 25th. The first two days were just getting to know our students and telling them about ourselves. The second week was spent getting into our routines and explaining the routines to our students. Our classes are great and we are so happy to be working here, but are very busy making lesson plans and getting our materials ready.

This coming Friday is children's day in Honduras, so we are taking the High School to a community called la tigra to volunteer at a poor children's school; we will play some games with the kids, do a Bible study, and of course have a pinata!

The following week is Honduras' independence parade. That means three full days of marching through town with first our kinder program, then our escuela (elementary), and finally our instituto (high school).
Lots of fun things to look forward to!

Here are a few pictures of our school, more to come later with our students too!


Here are the first two things that you see when you walk in the gate. Our school sign and mural.


The Elementary part of the school.


These are the five High School classrooms, the computer lab, and of course the soccer field.