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…