A Night at the Movies!

The group from Palm Beach invited the girls to a night at the movies yesterday. The movie screen - white with film boarders - is painted on the wall of the compound. As you can see, the girls sit on the ground - it's a rubber mat over concrete - or on chairs that they bring out from the chapel. The feature film was "My Big Fat Greek Wedding!" complete with Spanish subtitles and English subtitles when they were speaking Greek. It was a lot of fun! There was a lot of high-pitched screaming when Tula and Ian were kissing - and they kissed a lot!!

As I sat on the ground during the movie one of the younger girls, probably five years old, timidly approached me. When I smiled at her she smiled back! I guess she decided I was okay because she started to touch my hair. I'm not sure if she was interested in the short or gray hair or if she has aspirations of becoming a hair stylist, but she eventually got a clump of my hair and put a rubber band around it! "Bonita" - pretty!

Outing to the Supermercado

After lunch Belkis and I went to the grocery store - supermercado - because I wanted to buy some fruit and she needed to buy some candy bars. The girls are being taken on a field trip by the group from Palm Beach, FL who is here for the week. I will tell you more about them later. The candy bars are for the box lunches that will be taken on the field trip. I have been invited to join the field trip too!

Here's a photo of the outside of the supermercado and a photo of the candy aisle. In addition to Skittles and other Hershey's candy there were candies that I did not recognize.












I bought a t-shirt at the store for the field trip. We are going to the Pulhapanazak Falls and I understand that I'm likely to get very, very wet!

During class today Belkis took me around the campus so I could describe what I saw to her using the indefinite article or the Spanish equivalents of "there is" and "this/that thing". It was good practice putting vocabulary together with the indefinite article!

Since I don't have class tomorrow I have a lot of homework - mucho tarea!

Mi Maestra

This is Belkis, my teacher, mi maestra. Belkis has been at OLR for 4 years as a teacher and tia' (aunt to the girls). She is very nice, patient and funny!

I am really enjoying my classes with her. She covers a lot of material in 4 hours, even though she is moving at my pace. Today, for instance, we started with regular verbs and covered 'ar', 'er', and 'ir' verbs. She probably wrote the congugations on the board for 25 verbs after I said the congugations for each of them. Then I read aloud and completed several exercises in the workbooks she uses. We covered time/frequency words, i.e. siempre - always, todos los diaz - everyday, por poco - nearly, etc. And we did some more exercises in the workbooks.

Then we moved on to interrogatives; more exercises in the workbooks and rounded out the morning with words to describe people - their physical characteristics and their personalities. I have homework (tarea): write a paragraph describing someone I know - their physical traits and their personality and write 10 sentences using verbs I learned today. More later after I finish my homework!

My Studies & Classroom

There are many post-it notes around the apartment with my new vocabulary on them! Here's a table setting that is on the kitchen counter.

plate = el plato

glass = el vaso

fork = el tenedor

knife = el cuchillo

spoon = la cuchara
cup = la teza

Here are some pictures of the classroom where I spend 4 hours every day from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM. It's a very comfortable room - light and airy. Today, because of the heat, Belkis turned on the air conditioner.

My homework last night was to learn the alphabet. So today I wrote the spelling of words on the board as Belkis read them to me. At least you write from left to right, not like Hebrew - the last language I learned!

Well, that's all for now. I need to get to my homework!

1st Clase

Hola! Como esta?
Bien Gracias. Y tu'?
Muy Bien Gracias!

This was the lesson covered in the 1st 5 minutes of class. We covered lots more during the next 3 1/2 hours! I have 4 pages of nouns and verbs! Now I need to put post-it notes all over my apartment to identify each piece of furniture and item. Belkis (pronounced Bell-keys) is a very nice and slow teacher - perfect for me!

We took a break around 10AM to go in search of coffee - cafe. Finally we found some - my first coffee in Honduras. Very strong and good - even without milk.

In case you hadn't heard of Our Little Roses, which was started by the wife of the Episcopal Bishop of Honduras, I'm including a link here. http://www.ourlittleroses.org/

From the website: "In Honduras where the plight of abused and abandoned girls was once ignored, the ministry of Our Little Roses home has become an oasis of hope and opportunity for the girl child at risk. God has truly blessed this ministry shown in the transformed lives of once destitute girls. It began with a vision given to Doctor Diana Frade of hope with life-changing dimensions for physically and emotionally abused girls as well as orphans."

The sounds of children laughing, playing and singing is such a joy to hear! The Bilingual School includes boys and male teachers which was a surprise for me today having only seen girls and women yesterday on my tour, except for the guard.




San Pedro Sula is in the northwest part of Honduras. It's the 2nd largest city behind Tegucigalpa.



Now it's time for me to study! Adios!

1st Day of School in Honduras

Buenos Dias. It's 6:30 AM and I've already missed breakfast. The girls, 61 live at OLR, get up at 4AM and have breakfast at 5AM so they can leave for school by 6AM. Belkis told me I could get breakfast at 6:20 - she was being very nice - but when I went to the dining room it was locked! Good thing I brought some granola bars and peanut butter (thanks Robin and Lauren!). I will find coffee when the Admin office opens (I hope). I haven't found a coffee maker in my apartment yet.

I haven't slept in a bunk bed for decades! Decided for a lower bunk as I didn't want to fall from the top as I heard one girl did the other night. The roosters started around 2AM to greet the world!

More later. I need to get breakfast.

The Mall

Belkis and I took a taxi to the Mall for dinner and to walk around. I now have 2 - 500 lempira bills. Nineteen (19) lampiras are worth one dollar. We ate in the food court at "Go Green" - salads. Many of the stores were the same or similar to stores in the states.

On the taxi ride to the Mall Stephanie, the 5 year old daughter of our driver, talked to me (in Spanish). She was sweet and I understood about 1 in 20 words! Hopefully by the end of the week I'll know more!

Buenas Noches!