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.

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.

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.

Getting Settled

We have now been in Siguatepeque for 11days. The first few were a bit overwhelming as everything was new, but we have adjusted. We have spent our time setting up our home, meeting our fellow teachers and staff, and planning lessons. After many phone calls back and forth, the internet guy finally came and set up our internet today, hooray!

The rest of the teachers arrived last night and we spent today touring the town and getting some logistics taken care of. Tomorrow is the beginning of our orientation. We will be spending the next week and a half learning the ropes of the school and preparing lessons.

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~ ~ ~~ Our Front Gate ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Our Apartment is the top story

Our home here is a "three" room apartment. There is a kitchen, a dining-room/office, a living room (complete with futon and hammock), a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small balcony. This place is bigger than our apartment in LA was, or at least it seems that way since we have less stuff. We are the top floor of an apartment unit, on the same plot of land as the house which our landlords live in. The house and apartment unit are surrounded by tropical foliage and pine trees and encompassed by a 10ft wall topped with barbed wire. We live about a 5min walk from the school along a dirt road. We are about a 20min walk from downtown and the grocery stores.

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The stairs to our front door

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~ ~ ~ ~ Our Kitchen ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Our Office / Dining Room


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Our Bedroom

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Our Living Room and Balcony

Our team seems really nice; there are 10 English teachers from the States and Canada. Everyone seems very excited about working at the school, and what the year has in store for us. We are looking forward to getting to know everyone better as well.