Casual Monday

Today an interesting conversation took place.

Student #1: Miss Lacey, you're really white.
Miss Lacey: Yes, I am. I am a white girl.
Student #1: But you're really white.
Student #2: Like Snow White! Except you speak English. (Apparently the only Snow White they know speaks Spanish. And maybe a little Italian.)
Miss Lacey: Well, Snow White speaks English too.
Student #1: *Shaking hand to signify more or less
Miss Lacey: Yes, I'm pretty sure she speaks English too.
Student #2: But she doesn't put on jeans. Just dresses.
Miss Lacey: Well, maybe she does if she wants to be casual.
Student #2. Yeah. Casual.

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You

I would just like to state here in writing how much I love my class. I've had other classes and students that have touched my heart and I love all of them (even you-know-who and that-other-one that made my life a living hell for 9 short months). But this class is so special and I'm already starting to dread the day when they'll leave me for 4th grade and I'll have to train some new ones. And the 2nd grade class is a little out of control, I might have to break their little spirits to get them to behave. Just kidding. Sort of.

As I've said before teaching English Language Learners is awesome. Things I take for granted or things I assume they know surprise me on a daily basis. Like this week a few of them started using air quotes and they totally used them correctly. A ha! If they have learned nothing else, it is to use sarcasm!

Or today, when Eduardo was trying to speed up the group he says, "We don't have all the day!" Well, it was true. We indeed did not have all the day.

I love the expression in their voices. I love their accents. I love the way they take care of each other and also give each other a hard time. I love their nick names for each other. I love that they'll work for stickers and praise. I love that they have accepted me and show me what it is to love and be loved every day. They are my family here. And they rock!! Like, for real.

Gringas take Tela

This past weekend we had a four day weekend. Entonces...Dee Dee and I went to Tela. Again. This is our second trip to Tela. The first trip was in September and we took an 8 hour bus ride to get there. Well, we've grown up a little since then. THIS TIME we rented a car and drove ourselves there. Awesome!! Until you get pulled over by la policia. In fact, right before we got pulled over by la policia, I was remarking just how awesome it was to have such freedom.

Everything turned out ok, but it was a little scary at first. As we are driving into Tela, we are trying to follow the directions that the hotel gave us. We have stayed there before, but as I said before last time we took a bus. Apparently Tela has a lot of one way streets. That information would have been helpful BEFORE driving in at 11:00 pm. Oh well. No sooner had Damaris said, "I think this may be the one way street they were talking about" did we get pulled over. Sort of. I almost drove right past them. A car/truck vehicle pulled out of nowhere going the opposite way and people in black starting getting out. I thought they were just parking or something. Then we realized we were actually getting pulled over. No one really gets pulled over here, so we didn't have any schema for this. The people in black were la policia. And they were not happy.

So first it's a dude cop. Then a lady cop comes over to help out because obviously he needs back up. They proceeded to speak very fast Spanish and I'm all, "Si! Si!". I hand them the license and registration plus my residency card. They kept telling me how I did a bad thing by going the wrong way. A very bad thing! If I knew better Spanish I would have said, "Yeah. Because everything here is so organized and well marked?!" There was really no way to know it was a one way. Sometimes there are tiny arrow signs in black and white.

I guess she thought we didn't understand the severity of the situation and at one point, I swear to God, she pantomimed handcuffs and said "infraccion!" That's when I started to get worried. Really? This is worth arresting me? With my limited comprehension and her limited patience, this could be bad.

Now all this is happening with Damaris trying to translate, but even she is having trouble understanding what's going on. They are telling me how they need to keep my residency, TX license and card for our rental car. She kept saying how we could get it in the morning and go to the bank to pay the ticket. I was like, I don't think so! I am not giving you my only identification and the only piece of evidence that says I didn't steal this car. At one point I just say, "Por favor! Ayudame!" Like just give me the ticket and let's get on with it already.

Finally they tell us to pull over, they talk it out and decide it's not worth it. So instead of a ticket we got a police escort to the hotel. I guess they thought they better to get us off the road. God forbid they have any more foreigners driving sensibly (minus the wrong way on a one way street). Well, that's one way to find your hotel.

The trip to Tela was awesome. We did exactly the same two tours we've done before. Not to mention the fish. The fish! Needless to say we got our fill of seafood.

Day 1: Garifuna village beach. Totally different vibe than mainland Honduras. It was nice. We were the only two people on the beach. The waves were a little rough, but it was so relaxing. When we got back into town we stopped in to see some animals from the visiting circus. It was actually really sad.
Triunfo de la cruz

Zebra. It's the same in English and Spanish.

One of these guys actually got out of it's leash thing. We didn't tell anyone.

Day 2: We saw some monkeys, blue crabs, and monster waves in Punta Sal. No really, the sea was angry that day. Monster waves. I still feel like I'm on a boat.
Two hundred year old coral

Monkey friend

Fish friend


Day 3: We got to do some amazing snorkeling in Cayos Cochinos on a barrier reef and meet some amazing jelly fish (agua malas). Ok, the jellies not-so-amazing. Yet another Garifuna village and more fish. We even made some little friends that proceeded to ask us for money and ate off our left over apple cores. Too cute.




Island life




Amigos

Feliz Dia de San Valentin...even in Honduras

So tonight when I went on my regular nightly jog I ran into one of my students and his mom. They live down the street from us. He couldn't wait until tomorrow to give my Valentine's gift. It was so cute. So here I am standing in the street with my Valentine's. But wait! I just started my jog. I couldn't just leave the Valentine in the street. The ants are brutal (and fast) here. And I couldn't very well jog with it. Well, I guess I could have but that would be a little like bragging to all the other people who didn't get an early Valentine in the street. So I went over the big house to drop it off where I knew it would be safe until I was done jogging. Totally love that I got an early Valentine gift in the middle of the night. I heart this place.

This same student decided last week that he would now be called "Richard". His name is "Ricardo". Or actually to his mom he's Andre. Somehow all kids here have two names and the one their families call them is never the one I call them.

I don't have any idea where he learned that Richard is Ricardo in English, but good for him. And how did he tell you that he wanted to change his name? I'm glad you asked. He just wrote Richard on his paper. Like, "There. That'll do it. I feel more like a Richard. It's official. I wrote it on my math paper."

This kid also goes by "Chino" cause he has small eyes and that's what all the big kids started calling him. And to Hondurans anyone even resembling anything Asian is chino. At first I wasn't sure he liked it, but I asked him and he was cool with it. At one point he was writing "Chino" on all his papers.

I think the lesson here is: let the kid be who he wants to be.

The birthday party of Andre

So once you've been teaching English Language Learners you start to take on some of their habits. Like instead saying "I'm going to the bathroom" I'll say "I go to the bathroom". Or I'll say, "Today we had the birthday party of Andre" instead of correctly stating "Today we had Andre's birthday party". I really have to watch it and check to make sure that what I'm saying makes sense in English. I think it also comes from speaking Spanish to parents then switching back to English with the kids. We're all sort of hearing our English get worse. I can only imagine what's going on in Kinder.

Although I'm losing my English, I still got it for the most part. It's awesome when they actually get my jokes. Like, actually get them and not just uncomfortably laughing because I'm laughing. They are understanding more and more English. I'm so proud.

On another note, I have a student (who is probably the least proficient English speaker in our class) who loves to have me say Spanish words that are difficult to pronounce and then laugh. It's all in good fun. But sometimes I want to tell him that people that live in "low English proficiency" houses shouldn't be throwing Spanish words. Just sayin'. Not that he'd understand that or that I'd stoop to my 8 year old self. It would be funny, though.

I go relax now. Happy weekend!