Reasons why I love living here

Well, yesterday I taught three sessions of computer classes. I worked with women from our Microfinancing program, and taught them how to turn on a computer, type, move a mouse, etc. and created a Skype account so they can be in better contact with the loan officers in the US. Then we had an absolute downpour that began the second I walked into my house, and that lasted a full hour. During this time I ate left overs from a fantastic restaurant in town called Las Tejas, with limes and avocados that my friend Fran found in the village. Then we walked back and the second we got back in the building another downpour.
Class turnout was much smaller this time but I was glad to see I had a full class. This was perfect, everyone got their own computer, and were able to take their time with the class. I then gave an extra class to the students who went to Walkers English class first.
It is just great to be able to put the Education Center to use while we are still working on getting it started.

So how did this morning go?
I woke up and was greeted by my cat. I had missed the water since I woke at 7:30, so I couldn't shower, or so I thought, but it was actually late.
Washed my dishes in the BLAZING morning sun with day old water.
Ran after my cat all over the place since she likes to go on morning adventures when I do the dishes.
Then I tried to go do work in the Ed Center, but since our Internet signal is a repeater off of a neighbor in Las Brisas' Internet tower she still hadn't turned it on.
So I went home and Fran came by. He was making insecticide and asked if I wanted to learn. HECK YES I DID. I hate not understanding anything about agriculture, so I'd asked him to teach me a bunch of things. Not only was it easy to make, but it was completely safe. The most toxic thing we used was laundry detergent!
Then I had to come into town to pay for things all over the place and Meylin, the mother of many children I love and the wife of my friend Nain comes and tells me that she is having contractions and was wondering if she could get a ride to the hospital to have her baby.

This was just the morning. The rest of my day was fun, driving everywhere, paying for things, getting hit on at the gas station for the hundredth time. It is flattering usually, and I know it is going to be something I will miss once I move back to the States.

Last night we went out to Tela for 2-for-1 pizza night. Worth the drive.

Some photoes

The kids working on their garden. One of the first programs from the Ed Center and the new Director Sergio.















This was the view from Mico Quemado














The August Birthday's at Kids Camp!






This is my cat Sophie! She is crazy and cute and a kitten. Walker and I have adopted her into our home.




pretty :-) this was from a botanical garden Guillermo Mahchi

Ask and you shall receive

So work has started to pick up. I am excited. I have been in the Education Center all day Monday, Tuesday, and today working on emails, and with the students.

Monday night I had my first scheduled computer class. It is really difficult to have a computer class when we only have seven computers, and usually at least 2 are not working, and I have at least 15 people show up for the class. I had three different sessions of class.

Tonight I will run my second class. We shall see how it goes. Right now I am running the class for anyone who wants to come. Walker runs an English class in the library room next door. I do not want to take students away from his class so I will run a session after he finishes his class as well for those students who wish to.

I hope that the world spreads, and more adults come to my computer class. I love working with kids, but it is difficult working with mixed ages, and the reason we have classes at night is to make it easier for adults with their work schedule.

Maybe I can find a time during the day where women/mothers can come take the class. It is difficult for them to get away form the house at night because they have to feed the family, take care of the kids, ready everyone for bed, etc. The ideal would be to have a class of just students 16-22 years old. I think. If they could learn to use a computer they would be able to get a job at an office, or bank. We shall see.

We also got a kitten today. And by got I mean I was at the pila (see picture)

washing our dishes with the water we get for about an hour in the morning, and two little kittens walked up. We took in the one that had more of a personality, and his orange boring brother went to play with the kids next door. He have named her Sophie, and she is super sweet. We will have to train her, but I like her a lot. I hope she catches the mouse in our house.

Viviendo en Villa

So I moved out to our project in Villa Soleada this past week. It has been great! Much more tranquilo than in the center of town ("Centro") and surrounded by kids and families that I love being with.

Work has been slow. Students will start responding to emails hopefully once school really gets going, and the back-to-school fever dies down.

Anyway, things are going well here! I have been having blast! I have geckos, ants, spiders, and a mouse somewhere in my house. I take bucket showers, we only have water 3 hours of the day, kids or adults come knocking at our doors and windows at around 7 every morning, and we have dogs and roosters going at random hours throughout the night.
It is wonderful.

Today we drove our neighborhood soccer team to the mountains to play Mico Quemado. This is a mountain community that was even further up in the mountains than where these families used to live when they were at Siete de Abril. Getting up and down the mountain was an adventure in itself. I got to see the most beautiful view of the valley including the entire city of El Progreso. Pretty amazing.
Then I walked up to the pulperia (tiny grocery stores in peoples homes), and when I say up I mean UP. At least 45 degree incline in the blistering heat, for about 20 minutes. I learned from my friend that this was the route the kids used to take every day to school. It would take them an hour to walk to school, and by the time they got there they were a sweaty mess, and usually pretty dirty. No wonder so many kids don't finish schools. They aren't great to begin with, the teachers go on strike constantly, and its a battle just to get there.

Can't wait to see what comes next.

So far

Well I've been here for a little over two weeks. So now I have decided to start this blog that I promised some people I would do. This is going to be a quick backblog of the past couple weeks

August 3rd

We have been having a lot of trouble with our cars. This is a problem when we want to get around, which obviously we do since A. our house is hot and B. we didn't want to move down here to sit in our house all day
anyway, we drove out to Villa Soleada today, just me and my roommate Bobby. It was pretty good, really relaxed. It has been raining pretty much for the past week, so there wasn't too much activity. We went to the Education Center where two of the quickest kids in Villa came to use the computers with us. I found some online math games for them, and had them "play" for an hour before they were allowed the treat of playing racing games online.
It is crazy how quickly they learn how to use the internet, and the computer. Some faster than others. I think it is largely based on how your brain works. If you work in a logical fashion a computer can make sense.
The most interesting thing to see is these kids learning how to use a mouse and how to use a keyboard. I have to show them how to put their hand on the mouse, and the best way to hold your elbow, where your fingers should go, etc. They'll get it soon. I am trying to think of ways we can get the kids to learn how to type.

In other news, out of no where a circus has popped up in the field across the street from us, so far I have only seen a lioness, and 2 ostriches.

August 2nd

a rat died in our "backyard" which is about the size of my bedroom. anyway, it was my turn to get rid of it.
i tried throwing it in a field, but it slipped (that alone was too gross for words) and then i basically skipped the rat across the dirt road in front of my house

whatta day

July 29th

Well, went to go see the kids again, and they told me that they haven't had classes since last Tuesday, when they celebrated the Indians. The teachers have been on strike.
The teachers are ALWAYS on strike. I cannot wait until this Education Center is up and running. There needs to be some stability in their educational lives.

July 24th

Today it was so hot the power went out in most of the city.

which made waking up this morning at 9 a real sweaty and gross treat, after going to bed around 4 AM because we went out dancing at a disco until the wee hours.

in other news, yesterday I got to teach a computer class quite unexpectedly. it was so fun, and I ended up teaching 4 sessions of a 20 minute class where I taught the kids the different parts of a computer, how to turn a computer on, how to use a mouse, the basic functions of a keyboard, how to open microsoft word and type a few sentences, how to exit a program, and how to turn off a computer.
im not gonna lie, it was really difficult to do.

now im off to dinner at a friends. shes cooking. I had no idea she could cook. i hope its not just beans and rice.

July 19th

Went to the school in Las Brisas where I taught last summer. Most of my class remembered me, which was really good for the ego ;-) but seriously made me really happy. It was "El dia del indio" where they sell food, and wear face paint and feathers, and one boy and one girl from each class dresses up like a Native American. They introduced me to their new teacher, and showed me their hut where they were selling food. They spent the past week working on this hut, and then will be spending the next few days celebrating "El dia del indio" which obviously only means good things for the education system of Honduras...