Trip to Lago de Yojoa and Pulhapanzak Falls

Two weekends ago, Faith and I went to Lago de Yojoa, a huge lake near San Pedro Sula, and then to Pulhapanzak falls, a 43 meter waterfall. Here are some photos!!

Lago de Yojoa

Pulhapanzak Falls

Faith and me at the falls

Backpacking through the water

Standing on the edge of the falls, looking down. ah.

Some kids I will miss...

Now it's less than two weeks, and every day is a little bit stranger. To think about leaving. Faith and I went to the theater to ask about taking the kids to Shrek, bad news: Shrek is only coming to San Pedro Sula, not to Progreso. And the only one we could take them to would be Spiderman, but it is in English. So the movies are a no. So instead we are taking the Las Flores kids to the pool and having a barbecue at La Montana for those kids. It should go well I hope.

Here are just a few more photos of Las Flores kids...

Me and Mario, he has the coolest laugh

Coloring on the floor, Daniel with the strange face to mess up the photo

Benjamin, the most fun kid. We were picking berries

Daniel, picking berries

Darwin with a berry


Enemias, after making his egg drop project

Almost done

So it's June now and I only have weeks left here. It's a bit strange because I've been counting by months for so long, when people ask how much time I have left... it was always four months, two months, now it is so strange to say, "three weeks."

Still with three weeks left, I'm already getting quite emotional. I'm really excited to see everyone at home, sad to leave Pronino, nervous about fitting back into things at home...

Faith and I are hoping to be able to take the kids from both centers to see Shrek 3 as our going away gift. Most of the volunteers have a little party at whichever center they worked at before they go, with cake, soda, and a pinata. But the kids just love going out on little trips so much, I hope that we can do that for them. There's one little movie theater in Progreso, that shows one movie a week, and hopefully Shrek 3 will be there in two weeks. We're just hoping that it is dubbed in Spanish, not with subtitles, otherwise the kids won't all be able to read them.

Three more weeks!!

Carnaval in La Ceiba

Last weekend, we went to Carnaval in Ceiba, on the north coast. It's supposed to be the year's biggest party in Honduras. It was mostly what I think Mardi Gras would be like, a lot of costumes, beads, music, street parties, and beer. The parade was really impressive, with elaborate floats, bands, and dancers. Here are just a few photos:

Teatro La Fragua

There's a small theater in Progreso, Teatro La Fragua, that I have been wanting to take the kids to. This month they were showing "Honduran Folktales," so I made plans to take 15 kids from La Montana. The theater was nice enough to give us a discount for the kids' tickets, and my mom and grandparents donated the costs of the tickets.

I told Francisco to choose fifteen kids who have been behaving well to go with us on Friday at 10 AM. So Thursday I biked to the theater to buy all of the tickets...for ten in the morning. Then Friday morning went up to La Montana to make sure the kids were all ready, in nice clothes and got the bus ok with Francisco, Matthias and Laura. Then I biked back to the theater to wait for them there.

When I got there at 9:45, there were at least 100 other school kids there. 100 middle school kids in their white, white, ironed shirts, navy pants, and black shoes. Who came as a field trip with their school, came in their own buses, in taxis, in private cars. All standing in line outside the theater. But I thought, no problem, because we have tickets, obviously they wouldn't sell more than could fit inside (it's quite a small little theater, with wooden benches along three walls).


At ten, the Pronino kids still hadn't come. I walked down the street, looking for them. Faith was holding a spot in line for them. And I was getting nervous that the whole thing was going to fall through, that maybe they took the wrong bus, didn't have enough money for the bus...

Then at 10:20 (the line was just starting to move into the theater), Faith said, "I see some colors." And our kids came right in, lined up at the end of the line, after all the white and navy kids. In their randomly put together clothes, but clean clothes.

We finally got to the door of the theater and the director told me that he had thought we were coming at 7 that night and that there wasn't any more space. I told him that no way could we come back tonight, that we had to see the show now. So he let us sit on the floor.

The kids were so well behaved, they loved the show. Even the tough, hard ass ones were laughing so hard at the silliest jokes. I just wanted to watch their faces for the whole show.

Daniel and Armando from San Pedro Sula

Two weeks ago, Faith, Laura and I went to San Pedro Sula to see a futbol game. After the game we were looking for baleadas and ended up in the center. We found a little baleada stand and were eating when Daniel walked past. Daniel was at Pronino when we got here in January, moved up to La Montana, stayed for maybe a week there and then ran away. We had heard he was living with his family, but apparently he wasn't. We yelled for him, but he ran off.

A bit later, Laura found Daniel again and Armando, who was in Pronino last year but I'm not sure when he ran away. Armando was really excited to see us and willing to talk. He wanted to go back to Pronino, but not Daniel. Daniel was so tough just to talk to. I'd take a step towards him, he'd take two steps back. I had a few sips left of an iced tea and kept trying to get him to come closer for that. But he wasn't having it. And by now, there are a bunch of people around trying to convince Daniel to come talk to us, to go with us. Raggedy old men from the street telling him that this is no life for him, to stop being afraid to talk...

So eventually we got both Armando and Daniel to come with us to eat something. There was another kid with them who wanted to go to Pronino, but he'd never been there before and he needed his custody papers from his mom (he had already tried to get into Pronino the week before). We bought them all baleadas and sodas, and all of a sudden four more street kids appeared. Two had been in Pronino, but were out of opportunities to come back. And there went more baleadas and sodas...

We kept talking and talking with them. Trying to find some magic words that would make Daniel want to come back. Armando was all set to go back with us, he was no problem. But Daniel was being tough. His feet were black, solid dirt and they were both so skinny.

An hour later, the plan was that they would both meet us in the morning at 7:00 at the corner in front of McDonald's. We told them we would buy them breakfast and then take the bus back to Progreso and get to Las Flores. I knew Armando would come, but was so nervous Daniel wouldn't show up. I told Armando to make sure he brings Daniel too. But if Daniel didn't want to come with us, there was no way we would be able to make him.

We got to the center at ten minutes to 7 and waited. The cathedral bells started ringing seven times, and from behind the cathedral came Daniel and Armando. Ready to go with us. We bought more baleadas and juice, and a pair of sandals for Daniel. Walking to the bus stop, I was still thinking they were just going to run away from us, decide not to go back. Then we got on the bus and Armando sat by the window, with Laura next to him and Daniel sat next to the window with Faith next to them. And I sat in front of the four of them, a bit relieved and glad that the two of them were between Faith and Laura and the windows...not closer to the aisle to just get up and off the bus.

Now they're both at Las Flores, Armando being really good, Daniel being difficult. And I feel a bit responsible for them both. Everyday when I get to work I look for them, hoping they're still there.

Switch to Las Flores

At the beginning of last week I switched from working at La Montana to Las Flores. Las Flores is the first center the kids go to when they come to Pronino. It's been nice to change up the routine a bit and get to know the kids at Las Flores. But it's also tough because the kids at this center aren't used to me, I'm not used to them, they don't know what to expect of me, and I don't have their respect like I had at La Montana.

The schedule there is completely different, too. At La Montana there is an hourly schedule- with classes, sports, and the times when groups of the kids go to school. At Las Flores, none of the kids ever leave and the "schedule" is really basic and almost always the same every day: Eat breakfast at 8, play futbol until 10, shower, have a charla (with interesting themes like stealing and hygiene) until 11, make a craft until 12, lunch, chores, free time, and "classes" until 4. The classes are the toughest part for me. For example, I have second grade...which is four kids. The youngest is 11 and the oldest is 14. Two of them can read, only one can write well, and their math is all over the place. Planning and thinking of something to do with all of them together is tricky. It's hard to find something that will hold their attention and is at a good level for each of them.

Plus...I've no idea really how to teach kids, on top of that teaching in Spanish. Hm. We will see how this goes.

Cayos Cochinos

Last weekend, I went to Cayos Cochinos, a group of little islands off the coast of Honduras. They are beautiful, really unbelievable. So here are just a few photos!

A Tuesday at Pronino

April 17

Today was insane. It started out as such a great day, I got to bed early, it wasn’t steaming hot at night, I slept so well and dreamt of having a coffee with my mom.

Tomorrow is Gerardo and Margarita’s last day at Proniño (they are a couple from Holland who come every year for two months to volunteer), so I thought it would be nice to have the kids make cards for them. I thought…we can use some paint and make handprint cards and that will be nice.

One of the projects Gerardo and Margarita and I did last week was paint two of the classrooms at La Montana. It was a lot of work, and they look really nice. So the handprints seemed appropriate, yeah?

So in the morning I got everything together outside the school. The first group came up for English class and I told them we were doing the cards first. Then Osiris, one of the educators at the center (who’s first day back from vacation was today), came up to the beautiful, newly painted, cleaned, organized classrooms and starts taping and gluing all sorts of Pooh and cartoon foam things on the walls. And I tried explaining that we are going to paint pictures on the walls with the kids, like they had done at Las Flores

PICTURE OF LAS FLORES PAINTING

But she hasn’t seen that and she didn’t care. I tried telling her how much work scraping off all the old glue was, how hard we worked on the painting. But no. So I was frustrated about that, and then came out to start the cards with the kids…to find that they had knocked over both, big, half full cans of bright red and yellow paint. It’s flowing like giant lakes of ketchup and mustard, mixing together and pouring down the steps of the school. And the kids are playing in it, swirling it around, stepping in it, walking all over in it, smearing it on each other, on clothes, on the water tank…

And I’ve no idea how to clean up ½ inch deep of wet paint off cement stairs. So I start scooping it up with my hands and dumping it in a bucket. The kids who are usually such willing, tough workers are not helping and think this is the funniest thing they’ve ever seen.

Even while I was so frustrated, so fed up, while I was scraping my hands against the concrete, I was thinking… sometime soon this will be funny.

So my new Proniño strategy is: The hours and the days that I am the most frustrated, most angry, fed up and ready to quit…if it is not funny after twenty four hours, then I can cry. But everything makes me laugh the next day.

Semana Santa in Guatemala and Mexico (Will put photos up soon!!)

Have had a busy few weeks, and have been terrible at writing here. For Semana Santa, I went to Guatemala and Mexico. I had to renew my visa (it’s only good for three months at a time)…and you need to renew it by leaving the country (but then it can’t be El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua…the closest ones you can renew it are Mexico, Costa Rica or Belize).

We (I went with Tess, who had come through Mexico and Guatemala before coming to Progreso to volunteer) went by bus from San Pedro Sula to Guatemala City, then from there to the border, then to San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico. We left San Pedro Sula at 2:00 in the morning and arrived to Mexico at 3:00 in the morning… such a long trip. But it was strange to have crossed between three countries in one day. I could have still been going across Pennsylvania in that time…

The border between Guatemala and Mexico was also a bit strange, literally a metal bar across the road that we just ducked under. Bienvenidos a Mexico.

San Cristobal was a really nice town. Very relaxed and clean, so much cleaner than Progreso, so different. And so cold! I bought a wool sweater there for $12 and slept in it most of the nights. San Cristobal de las Casas is close to a Zapatista community and there is a huge culture of Zapatista art and social movements. There are little shops that sell books, videos, art, and even small dolls of indigenous women with the Zapatista black cloth around their faces. We watched a film in a small café about a bit of the history.

The people seemed very politically motivated. Everywhere on the walls in the streets was graffiti about current events, leaders, etc. Even this interesting portrait…

After Mexico for a few days, we traveled back down to Guatemala, to Lago Atitlan, a beautiful fresh water lake that was formed when a volcano collapsed in on itself. It’s surrounded by other volcanoes, too. We stayed in San Pedro, another relaxed, small town full of European backpackers and people claiming to be learning Spanish at one of the schools there.

From the lake we went to Chichicastenango, supposedly the largest market in all of Central America. However… apparently it is not the largest market in Central America during Semana Santa. What we saw on Thursday was a bit smaller than I had expected, but still plenty to buy and choose from.

And the colors of everything were beautifully surprising the entire time in Guatemala. The people’s clothing is a work of art. All handmade, colorful and determined to be practical.

After Chichi, we went off to Antigua for Friday and Saturday. All the while riding these beautifully painted, incredibly crowded old school buses from the states. Full of colors, bags, chickens, mangos, babies, old men, school kids. And me trying to watch my bag above me, hold another on my lap, squeezed against a woman and her toddler, while an old man with his hat falls asleep on my shoulder.

And I was glad to have only brought a backpack and a small bag, that the drivers always let me keep with me on the bus. Otherwise, it would have been thrown on top with all of the other things…

We arrived in Antigua on Good Friday. A half hour after we set our things down where we stayed, a procession began on our street. One hour of people in black marching past, with the stations of the cross, floats, incense, and a complete band. The people pay to be in the procession and then their black costumes cost a lot of money as well. First the men went by, then the women with their float, but always there were children; tiny replicas of the adults in their black suits.

Photo of Procession (these two were taken by Matthias...

my camera doesn't take such nice photos)

Little girl with her giant can of coke

The processions continued until Sunday, when we left. At every time of day…in the early morning, afternoon, evening, the middle of the night…never stopping. Sometimes we had to go the most backwards way to a place only because we couldn’t cross the streets. It was at once inspiring to see their faith in their religion, and ironic in the ways they processed with their cell phones and iPods and the money they had to pay to do it in the first place…

Left Antigua at 7:30 in the morning and finally arrived back in Progresso at 8:00 at night.

Such a trip.

Here are some other photos...

Fruit vendors in Antigua

One of the floats in the processions in Antigua

Lava from Volcano Pucaya in Antigua...five yards away from us

Clases de Computación

At La Montaña, I teach a computer “class.” There are 10 old desktops, seven of them usually work. The kids start with MecaNet, a typing program. But some of the computers don’t have the program, so those kids have to type a page in a Word document. The typing program is so lame, very boring looking. I’ve asked my mom to mail me a different program for the kids, hopefully that will come soon.

The first week I ran computer classes by myself was madness, total chaos. The kids love the class, because after they do their work they can play games… really old games…like Mario and something I’ve never seen before called Prehistorik. You’d think that their favorite class would be the one they behave the best for. No way. The computers make them lose their minds, they go crazy. Besides that, I didn’t have the words to tell them what I wanted or to make them listen to me, they just ran circles around me.

That first week, by Friday, I had lost my mind. No one would leave when the time was up and no one would do their work. On Friday, after chasing one of the boys around the room and pulling him out from under the table, I locked myself inside the classroom and had a frustrated cry.

Then on Saturday I bought a poster for the class and made up a program for them. If they behave during class—listening to me, leaving when it’s time to leave, and doing their work—then they get a Spiderman sticker on the chart. When they have four stickers, a prize. Prizes are really cool things like pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners. But they will do anything for a prize. And I will do anything to get them to behave. So we understand each other now.

Some kids I love

Alex, who needs pages and pages to do him justice. An unbelievable kid, sincere.

Rigo, after climbing up the wall of the bathroom.

Laura with her biggest fans.

Panaderia Pronino

Last week, they opened a bakery at La Montana. Laura painted the lettering on the building and the Pillsbury Doughboy that they wanted (strange?!).

The bakery is going to make bread for both of the centers and eventually sell some in town. The opening was a big deal, the kids all getting dressed up for it and the news channel coming to interview George, Luca (the director of La Montana), and ALCOA, the company that donated the money and materials.

Here are just a few photos from the day!

Tornabé

Last Saturday afternoon, I left for Tornabé with Faith and Laura. Kevin, the volunteer coordinator and Brenda, who works in the Proniño office, came too. It was so hot this weekend, so the beach sounded really nice.

We took a bus most of the way, which cost 24 lempiras, about $1.25. The buses are old yellow school buses from the States and are almost always packed full. They make so many stops too, so eventually we found seats for most of the hour or so ride.

At Tela, we took a taxi to Tornabé. George Mealer, the director of Proniño, is nice enough to let the volunteers use his house there once in a while. The beach is gorgeous, so relaxing and almost empty. I truly did nothing until dinner, laid around and swam a bit. The Carribean is so clear… definitely no Lake Erie. And it was perfect, not freezing, but cool and really refreshing.

A little kid was hanging around the house the whole time we were there- Agostino. He climbed up a tree and got us some coconuts, then cut holes in them for us to drink the water. It sounds like a cool idea, really tropical and exotic, but tastes kind of weird.

For dinner we walked to a restaurant in the town called Nady’s. Tornabé is a Garifuna community. The Garifuna are an ethnic group in Honduras with communities mostly along the Caribbean coast. The guidebook I have writes about how they are of both African and American indigenous heritage. The little restaurant was one little room with a thatched roof and three or four plastic tables and chairs. The menu was mostly seafood: lots of fresh fish (grilled, fried, “sweating”?), soups (crab, conch, fish), shrimp, and typical Garifuna plates.

I was hungry before we got there… and two hours later, our food was ready. I ordered grilled fish “entero” (whole)…and there it was, head, tail, bones, scales, fins, the whole fish. But the best fish I’ve ever had.

On Sunday, before we left, we bought pan de coco from women who bake it fresh every day at 3:30. We bought it right after and it was so fresh, so warm. Laura, Faith and I got 16 little rolls of it, for 5 lempiras each (25 cents). Soooo good. Food has definitely not been a problem for me!

Tornabé was such a nice little vacation, but now back to work on Monday… And we just got our bikes on Saturday, so now we will be riding up the mountain to work. Ah, so far… so out of shape…

Mi Casa!

The house from the front.

La Montaña

So far, I will be working at La Montaña, the second phase for the kids. Right now the kids are on school vacation until February, so there is a lot of free time where we are just playing with them. The kids seem to be really patient with how frustrating the language problem is. But the other day, one of the kids got mad at me and said "Understand my language!" And I really wanted to say to him- You're right, I should know your language, but now I am here and this is just the way it is going to have to be. So I really am trying. Laura, Faith and I have Spanish time at home and try to tell one thing from the day in Spanish. A two minute story takes us maybe 15 minutes to get through... sooooo painful!!

On Friday at La Montaña, a group came to talk to the older kids about HIV/AIDS. They were really good, with a lot of interactive little games... like freshmen orientation icebreaker things. They did a skit about what HIV does to your body, and how it handles other infections then. It was really good. Laura and I were sitting in on it and participating in some of their activities. But then the organizer asked for volunteers to demonstrate how to correctly put on a condom. And Laura says that she didn't know what they were asking for, but she volunteered and went right up to the front. The man handed out condoms and then brought out this wooden, varnished penis. So I am sitting in the back of the room watching Laura look so cool and calm...and trying so hard not to laugh out loud. Because the kids were generally very serious and dead silent. (Like as young as 11, and they were very serious about it... I don't know how that would go with 11 year old US kids). Anyway, Laura took her turn putting the condom on the wooden penis and was very cool about it. Then we ate "Felicidades!" cake with the kids.

The whole experience seemed so ridiculous at the time, like how did we get to into this. But thinking about it, it's sad that there's such a need to do presentations like that. The group showed statistics about Honduras...the county in Central America with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS. It's so great though, that they do come in to talk to the kids about it though. It was a very honest, very realistic presentation about it. But so strange, that a half hour before that presentation I was helping one of those kids with his really basic math that he couldn't understand. Such an irony.

Neuva gringa

Hola!

I got into San Pedro Sula on Saturday night and got settled in the volunteer house in El Progreso. It is a nice place with a stove, sink, outside washer, warm shower and the three of us each have our own room.

These first couple days have been exciting and very overwhelming. Adjusting is tough and spanish skills would have made it a lot easier. It is very frustrating not to be able to communicate with anyone, or always need someone around to translate. Right now I know that I am a lot more of a hassle than any help at all. But hopefully, I will catch on soooooon!

I spent yesterday at Las Flores, the first stage for kids who come off the street. It was nice to see some of the kids still there from last year, and a lot of them have moved up to La Montaña, which we went to today. The difference between the two places is huge, you can really tell the .difference between the kids who have been in the program long enough to get to La Montaña.

Still haven't exchanged any money, gone shopping, or tried to make a phone call yet. There's just so much going on right now. And getting places is very scattered. It's bus, or walking, or bike, or taxi.

Well I have to get going for now. (We can use the internet for free at a hotel next door to our neighborhood, which is really nice!)

Hasta luego!!