Honduran ways

So tomorrow is our last day before our three week winter vacation. This week started off with a party and tomorrow is our last hurrah before break. Soooo not like my last school and I'm soooo ok with that! Let me break it down for you.

Monday: Acto Civico. That's our morning meeting where we sing the national anthem of Honduras and then say the pledge. The whole school gets together and we have announcements, etc. This Monday on the way to school our new director informs us that we have a party then for our old director and her husband who are leaving. We're told that it should take about an hour. Sweet! So we had tamales, juice, sandwiches, cookies, and milk. The whole school together. There were gifts and lots of hugs to say goodbye. And that's how our week started. After the party that's when I decided my lesson plans of actually teaching would go out the window.

Tuesday: I was informed by my students that we were having a party on Wednesday afternoon. Oh, and it's at a student's house off campus. Oh, and it will take all afternoon. Oh, and could you collect the money for it? I know right, nice notice. I was pretty peeved but then realized this is Honduras and this is how we roll here, so get over it and go with it already! So yeah, let's all go to the party. And here's the money I collected.

There was also a rumor floating around that we may only have a half day of school on Thursday. Fingers crossed.

So I was thinking about how I always read Polar Express to my class and we watch the movie. When would I ever do it with all this partying? Right now, I guess. So we watched it during Math.

Wednesday: Party day! Party day! And P.E. Plus we had crafting centers with our kindergarten buddies before lunch. You wanna know how to stress out a teacher? Have crafting centers with your kindergarten buddies. Rough patch in my day. Then it was off to lunch. We all piled in the cars of the moms and were off to the house of Sofia (that's how they all say it because they're English Language Learners-how cute!). The party was a huge success with more tamales and lots of other treats. The only incident was we almost had a small meltdown with Andre (no pun intended) over climbing the slide with our ice cream. You wanna know how to exhaust a teacher? Have a 3 hour party at someone's house where none of the other adults speak English. My brain was on fire from all that Espanol.

Remember that Thursday half day rumor? It was true! Score.

Thursday: Half day! Half day! But, you won't be having your specials because we have to practice for our assembly on Friday. So...you'll have your kids all morning. Aye, aye, aye! It had been awhile since I had them that long. Third graders really like to call your name. All. Morning. Long. It's ok though, because I won't be seeing them for 3 whole weeks. We practiced our "I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas" song on stage. If you haven't heard a bunch of English Language Learners say "hippopotamus" or "hippopotamuses", you should! It's awesome. After school it was off to Chicken Run for some plato tipicos and some cervezas. I finished off the night at another parents' house having snacks and fruity cocktails. Nice.

Friday: I'll keep you posted!

P.S. Do you see a pattern here? We kind of never really know what's going on. I guess it's a blessing and a curse. Like the school is so small you really have a say in what's going on. But things can change really fast and sometimes people forget to let you in on the plans. Oh well! Everybody just calm down and go with it. Hilarious.