Erin vs. The Heat & Chicken Bus

Friday had finally come and gone. I met with the parents of my students and it went very well. Jake translated for me which I was so thankful for! I wish I was able to speak to the parents…all I can do is look at them and give the most encouraging smile possible. I keep telling myself, a smile goes a long ways.

Friday night the girl teachers all came over to Gayle and my house. We wanted to have a feast since we were absolutely starving. Of course cooking here takes 10 times as long as cooking in the United States, so we weren’t eating our homemade salsa and TORTILLAS until 9PM. They were nice and floury tasting.

On Saturday we planned on taking the chicken bus to Santa Barbara to set up bank accounts. As my family and friends know, traveling and I don’t always mix the best. I almost always get car sick, it isn’t rare for me to not be 100% ok. I prayed a lot the night before I would be ok for this upcoming day-trip.  We crammed onto the bus at 7AM with 1/3 of La Union (well at least that’s what it felt like). Jake and I shared a 1 person seat for the 2 ½ hour bus ride. I was not jealous of all the people standing in the aisles. The view I am blessed with here is indescribable. While driving through mountain passes, goose bumps cover my arms from God’s amazing creation.

After 2 hours or more of driving on unpaved, rocky roads we finally hit a paved road. AHHHHHHHHHH it felt so good to be on smooth pavement!! We were finally in Santa Barbara. Walking out of the bus I was feeling a bit shaky. A drive like that can make anyone carsick, and I am the farthest from an exception. I thought I would just need a good meal and something cool to drink-that can solve most problems, right? Before I could do that we stopped at the bank to set up bank accounts. I sit down in a designated area and they start looking at my passport and making copies of my visa. They had big discussions about my visa since when I filled in out on the airplane I must have written too softly, it is barely legible. When they made copies of the visa absolutely no writing showed up. Apparently that means they need to call the bank in Tegucigalpa to get permission to open an account, but that bank is only open during the week. Too bad so sad. I don’t think I’m going to try and plan or count on anything ever happening here. Always a maybe. Since the bank account was the only reason we went to Santa Barbara, I had a few hours to do what I wanted before heading back to La Union. We filled our stomachs up with food and lemonade and went out to tour the town.

Gayle and I decided to go to the super market. We walked in with our mouths hanging open, they actually had AISLES in this store! Our pulparias are only one room filled with items on a few shelves. We were quickly disappointed to see they didn’t have much more to offer than our little La Union. I did buy some cereal since La Union only has Corn Flakes, and we got a few more spices. But there was no peanut butter, cheese, yogurt, ….I could go on and on but I won’t. Thanks to my father I’m addicted to cheese and I haven’t had it since the day I left the U.S. My mouth waters just thinking about cheese. Some day…

Gayle and I shopped around for a few other necessities. We found the town park which we decided would be a good resting spot. Santa Barbara was HOT. Coming from Iowa I understand humidity and heat since ours is crazy during summertime, but this heat is different. You can’t escape it, the heat surrounds you. There is no air conditioning you can cool yourself off with. I took my backpack off to Gayle laughing at me since my entire backside was soaked with sweat. Thanks dad for your sweating gene. I couldn’t stop. Sitting, sweating. Sitting, sweating. I started to not feel good at all. I thought if I just ate something again I’ll feel much better. Gayle, Eleanor, Ana and I found a restaurant and got a quick bite to eat. The minute I took my last bite a wall hit me. I felt so dizzy and weak. My head was pounding, and I thought I was going to throw up. I laid my head down on the table for awhile. It was time to head back to the bus station. I started walking and the closer to the bus station the worse I was feeling. When we arrived I looked at the bus and knew I couldn’t get on it. Jake could sense I wasn’t feeling well so he took me to some shade and got me a chair to sit on. I sat there for twenty minutes trying to convince myself I was going to be ok on the bus. The longer I waited the worse I felt. I was so hot and couldn’t cool down. I walked over to some bushes and started gagging but nothing was coming up (sorry, graphic). I was so light headed. I walked over to Jake and he made the call: I was not going back to La Union with the other teachers. Luckily my principal, Mr. Perdomo, was with his family in Santa Barbara. Jake phoned him and they came to pick me up.

The next few hours were a bit of a blur since I was feeling quite ill, but I’ll try to explain as much as possible. While driving to their aunts (?) house Mrs. Perdomo asked me at least 10 times if we needed to stop so I can throw up (Mind you this is all completely in Spanish). Their children (Nimrod and Sara) both go to the bilingual school so they were trying to translate. I got to the aunts house and I was ushered by 8 people into this bedroom. They were all speaking in rapid Spanish but I was too sick to try and respond. I went straight to the bed and laid down. There were people moving tables around the room, trying to set a fan on it, positioning it perfectly so it could blow air on my face. A couple more people were working on the air conditioner. Two ladies were sitting on the bed with me feeling my legs and forehead asking questions I couldn’t even begin to answer. Another person was in the bathroom getting a wet cloth to put on my forehead. There could have been more people in the room just watching me, I’m not quite sure. I fell asleep while they were all in the room. When I woke up I was alone and still so hot. I tried sitting up but felt too dizzy. I laid in bed for a couple more hours.

When I started to feel better all of the Perdomos and relatives swarmed into my bedroom. They all were deeply concerned for me and were happy to see I was ok. I tried speaking a bit with their relatives and the Perdomo kids translated for me. They offered my baliadas (of course) to eat for dinner. I felt rude turning them down so I said I would have just one. Mr. Perdomo looked at me as if I was crazy and told his sister-in-law to make me three. My eyes about popped out of my head and I told her solo una por favor!! She made me two. I really didn’t feel well but didn’t want to be rude so I ate both. The Perdomos then took me to their other relatives’ house where I was introduced to another bunch of people who don’t speak English. They all spoke to me in Spanish and when I didn’t know how to respond they just stared at me and smiled. Language barriers are the worst. I hung out with the kids for most of the night. They showed me the town park, I watched them play futbol, and I even had a race with one of the boys (yes I won). The Perdomos stayed the night at this other relatives’ house, while they put me in a truck with all the people who know absolutely no English. I rode to the house I slept my sickness off in, trying to have a conversation with a boy around my age. We both ended up hysterically laughing because we are two adults not able to even put a full sentence together in each other’s language. Well at least that’s why I was laughing.

I stayed overnight at this place in the air conditioned room. Mr. Perdomo told me we would be leaving at 9AM the next morning. I don’t know why I thought he actually would be there for me at 9AM. I didn’t leave my bedroom until 10 the next morning. The aunt gave me lucky charms with sugar on top for breakfast. Lucky charms obviously doesn’t contain enough sugar already, it’s the blandest tasting cereal out there.

The house I slept at was a Machismo household. Machismo is when the women do all of the work inside of the household. It is there job to cook, clean, do laundry, take care of the children etc. That is the sole purpose of the women. The men and boys are held at a pedestal. They have the final word in all decisions, they superior to all women. It was apparent in this house. The aunt and her daughter in law were slaving away in the kitchen, doing the laundry and cleaning, while the men were sitting in the living room not having much to do. Whenever the 2 year old boy was misbehaving the men would call over for the women to take care of the naughty child—they didn’t deal with it. The aunt’s husband also arrived at 11:00 that morning, completely wasted. He was obviously just arriving home from the night before, he could barely even walk. The aunt kept on with her day as if nothing even happened. The aunts grandson just explained to me (in Spanish) that his grandpa just liked to drink beer. Such a different culture.

Finally at noon the Perdomos picked me up and brought me to the house they were staying at. They fed me some lunch, and then we were on our way out. The entire family (probably 20 people) got up to say goodbye to me giving me hugs and kisses. Even though I couldn't speak to many of them, I felt blessed to have met them. I hopped in the back of the truck with Nimrod saying “Yay! Time to go to La Union!” He looked at me and said, “No, we’re going to our farm now.” ………………………………………………. And that’s what I felt about the situation.

All I can say about the drive to the farm is that I can’t believe the truck made it up the mountain or three we climbed, and I will never forget the amazing things I saw. If I haven’t said it enough, IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL HERE!! So we finally get to the farm. They fed me all kinds of food there which I didn’t really want to eat, but also didn’t want to be rude. They were interesting foods! I finally said no to the milk they milked from the cow in the front lawn that was ten feet away from me. (Although side note: a few days ago I did drink milk straight from the cow and it was pretty good!)

Finally after a few hours at the farm we were on our way to La Union. Home never felt so good. I hadn’t showered in over 24 hours. I was still wearing my clothes from the previous day that I had filled with sweat multiple times, and from the car ride I was completely covered head-to-toe in dirt. The shower was amazing. I got ready for the first day of school which was the next day.

I don’t think I’m in any condition to write in detail about my first day of school yet. For a taste of how it went: today is the second day of school and I explained for 20 minutes what the word "say" means. They still don't understand it. Tomorrow I'm going to try the word "repeat". Please pray for my first week at this school. Not only for high tolerance on my behalf, but also patience for my students. It is hard to keep your students under control without hurting their feelings when you can’t speak the same language. Thank-you for all your support, I can feel it every single day! 

Plan, Plan, Plan

Last week I officially finished decorating my classroom. It definitely doesn’t look like any classroom would in the United States, but I’m proud of it. I set up a reading center in the corner of my classroom, now I only need books to read to my students! I brought a small selection of books (about 15), so we’ll see how long that lasts me. The school doesn’t have a library, so my options are very limited. Wish there was a place where they sold children books…ahh in my dreams.

                                                                    My reading corner

Now onto lesson planning this week. The school in La Union is extremely poor so when it comes to buying curriculum we usually get the leftovers or donations from churches. In my classroom there is a curriculum to follow, which we are told we cannot waver from, but the set is not complete. It shows you what lessons to teach on which days, but the lessons tell me to refer to other books…which I don’t have. For example for my phonics lesson it tells me to use all of these charts and other books. It tells me the page number and everything which is very nice, except I don’t have those charts or books. I don’t even know what they consist of..so I can’t even begin to guess what I’m supposed to be teaching my students. As of right now I’m thinking I’ll have to make up my own curriculum for a few subjects since I don’t have it. I am teaching the 8^th grade science, and I was told we don’t have any curriculum for it. Instead I can just look at the student textbook and hopefully make up some kind of lesson from that. This wouldn’t be so difficult if I had other resources such as the internet or library…but I don’t. That is false, we DO have internet at the school but there is limited time to use it. 

Also the curriculum for the students is all in English at a third grade level, but the students are speaking English at a first grade level at best.  I don’t know how they are going to be able to read the directions in their textbooks. I keep thinking of what my professors said before student teaching, “It seems impossible right now, but once you get started you’ll realize it is all ok. Your education has prepared you.” I reaaaaaaaaaaaallly hope the same is true for teaching at a bilingual school where there isn’t a full curriculum to base off of. I keep telling myself to rise above the frustration and get the work done. I really will need to lean on God for some strength! Definitely cannot do this on my own.

Tomorrow is Parent’s Orientation Night! All the parents will be introduced to me and my classroom. I have already met a couple of my student’s parents and they are the kindest people. I can tell they want to have a conversation with me but we don’t speak each other’s language. So far my favorite part about La Union is the community I’m surrounded by. Everyone is so generous and they all want to help. I am more than thankful to receive it! It is comforting knowing people are watching out for me. Gayle and I made friends with a man who owns a pulparia. For the past few days we have gotten free bananas from him. :) With a little bit of work on my Spanish, a little bit of love, and a little bit of faith, by the end of the year I may have some amazing friendships with the Hondurans. Can’t wait! 

Average Day in La Union

FYI: This was written yesterday (Monday evening).  Enjoy.

My roommate Gayle moved in last Wednesday. It is so nice to have a roommate—especially one I like so much! She is from Michigan where she studied Political Science and Spanish. She knows Spanish and I “know” how to teach. We are planning to help each other out!

Just for kicks and giggles I want to share my last 24 hours. I hope it makes you laugh because I find my life a little humorous right now.

Yesterday the teachers all went to the 2 hour church service; I probably understood 6 words that were said. I have to remember to bring my Spanish-English dictionary next time! Then it was lunchtime and we made green beans, scrambled eggs, and sautéed tomatoes. We found the only pepper in the entire town last Thursday so our food has a little kick to it! In the afternoon we went on a run; sooooo not easy. Either you are running uphill or downhill. No in between.  Also during the day people have nothing to do so they literally sit or stand on their porches staring off into space, so while we are running by the men in the town are watching our every move. Ladies if you ever want to boost your self-confidence, just try running in the streets of Honduras! You might feel like the prettiest girl alive... or violated—either one. If only my dad was running with me here, he would give them one look and they would probably not look at me again for the rest of their lives!

Towards the end of our run it started to rain, so we quickly got home and took showers. I wanted to shower before there was a thunderstorm—when it storms our water turns brown. All the pulparias in town closed down because of the rain so Gayle and I had to be creative for dinner. We ate a whole cantaloupe and mini-cookies dipped in peanut-butter. Healthy and filling!  While we were eating a huge thunderstorm rolled into La Union and our power shut off. We shuffled to our rooms to retrieve our handy flashlights. Pretty soon we heard a knock at our neighbor door.

[Quick explanation: We live in a house connected to another family’s house. An older lady lives on that side and I think she is a little bit crazy! Gayle speaks excellent Spanish and can barely understand what she is saying. The only thing separating our houses is a door in our hallway, which is locked from our side. So I’ll call that the neighbor door.]

I opened the door and there are 5 little Hondurans speaking rapid Spanish to us. They brought us into their house and handed us candles and matches (so sweet of them!). I took the candles and matches back to our half of the house and the crazy Grandma is following on my heels. She starts grabbing everything out of my hands and talking to me in a Spanish accent I can’t even pretend to understand so I keep telling her, “No comprende Espanol!” Gayle came out of her bedroom to rescue me and thankfully figured everything out with her. The Grandma returned to her side of the house and we ate our dinner by candlelight..so romantic. Turns out it wasn’t ridiculous of me to pack a candle..(ahem..mom!). Electricity was on and off for the rest of the night, which didn’t bother me since I was sleeping by 9PM. Loving the early bed-time!

Today I woke up on my own at 6:50 not even tired. I think I’ll be a morning person by the end of this year. Can you believe it? We made our hike to the school which always ends with me sitting on a bench near my classroom catching my breath and wiping the sweat off myself. Today was hot. All I did was sit in my classroom writing lesson plans and sweat. When I decided I had enough stress for one day, Gayle and I wanted to check out the running trails that are near our school. They are quite the “trails”. Basically it is running up and down steep stairs for a mile. Despite the intense workout, the trails take you above the entire school giving you breathtaking views of surrounding mountains. I will never get sick of this view. 

On our way home, we stopped at the Manuel pulparia to get groceries for dinner. We found some vegetables there—big purchase! We think it may be squash, so we’ll see once its cut open. We came home to find our kitchen being overtaken by fruit flies. We made a homemade trap with vinegar and hand soap, but to no avail. We wanted to wash some of our dishes from lunch, but couldn't since the water from the sink was mud. I thought instead I would try to take a shower, but the water in my shower was mud as well. I figured smelling like sweat would be better than showering in brown water.

To pass some time, Gayle and I hiked over to the church to use the internet. Buttttt of course the internet wasn’t working there! The internet at the church has a cap on it, so when too much internet has been used throughout the day it doesn’t work anymore. The moment Gayle and I realized checking e-mail would be impossible we turned to each other and said, “Now what?” Too many options of things to do here it’s difficult to choose. That is when I decided to come back to my house and write a blog post, and where my 24 hour story ends. Until next time..Adios!  

Starting Off

I have officially moved into my FIRST apartment ever. I am in the town that I will be teaching in, La Union. The past couple days I’ve been trying to think of how I was going to describe this place to you..and I’m still running stuck. I can’t find words to express how rural or remote this town is. I will try my best…

On Saturday morning we drove a truck straight into the mountains. I rode in the bed of the truck and sat on the ledge so I wouldn’t get car sick. Honduras may have been a bad choice for someone who gets car sick in hour drives on straight roads.  But once again, it is completely worth it. For the first 45 minutes we traveled on paved roads, then the next 2 ½ hours were on extreme curvy and dirt/rock roads. We actually literally drove through a decent sized river with the truck. The road was barely wide enough to fit two cars so passing someone along the way was a bit terrifying. The drive was literally climbing a mountain which gave us amazing scenery to look at. Along the way we got stuck behind cowboys moving their herd of cows. At that point a couple of my fellow teachers and I started laughing at our situation. Not out of disrespect—I understand this is normal lifestyle for people to live and it’s all they know; but sometimes when you’re in culture shock the best thing to do is laugh it off. Honestly I have extreme respect for people who are able to live this lifestyle, since as I have learned in the past few days it is not easy.

We finally arrived in La Union and it is a very small small rural town. Yes I’m from Iowa but I have never been this rural in my entire life. Horses or motorcycles are the best way of traveling since the streets are just about too rough to drive on. I made a goal that by the end of the year I would not look down at the street while walking. As of now I’m praying every step I take doesn’t end in disaster. The majority of the houses here are mud huts. I’m fortunate to be living in a cement building with a closed roof over my head. I am all moved into my little house and it is so great! It is very spacious and I even have my own bathroom. There is a couch, chairs, kitchen table, and even a stove with an oven below! I’m very thankful to Jake for finding this place for me to live. My roommate, Gayle, will be coming in a couple days. I’m eager to meet her.

Obviously a very nice house here is a lot different than a nice house in the U.S. I doubt I’ll have hot showers very often. Actually right now the head of my shower is gone (I think they are fixing it?) and today my shower water came from a pipe jutting out of the wall. And yes my water was ice cold. The windows in our houses don’t close all the way so bugs are very welcome into my humble abode. I have a shoe with me at all times ready to kill! I have already smashed many spiders and honestly the bug I killed seconds ago I have never seen anything like it before. All I know is it was MASSIVE. Also a downside of not being able to close my window is the impossibility to block out sounds. The Catholic church across my street rings its bell every hour. What the hour is, is how many times the bell rings. Midnight is a rough hour. I cooked in my kitchen for the first time tonight! I was so proud of myself. A pulparia is about ten steps away so I am able to purchase some groceries there. I was going to cook potatoes so I started to clean them in the sink. The water that came out was dark brown…so I decided against the potatoes. Omelets were great without them!

 Roosters usually wake me up in the morning. They start crowing at about 4 AM and don’t stop until early afternoon. If it isn’t roosters, the gangs of dogs that have fights right outside my open window are great alarm clocks. As I’m writing this it’s 10:00PM and dog kingdom is going quite strong.  I know I will end up loving this place, but I’m definitely going to need a little time to get used to it. Finding out things like the only way to get rid of trash is burning it on the side of the street slightly overwhelms me.

Today I was able to start decorating my room! It makes me very anxious to meet my students and see how the year progresses. I love how every time I am in a classroom it confirms the fact that it is what I’m called to do. I have so much passion for this and I’m praying I can be the best teacher for my students. Our school is on the side of the mountain which makes it possible to oversee the entire town of La Union and the mountains beyond it. The view is breathtaking; I think I’ll be able to handle it for the next year.

I just finished Skyping with my friend Brittany, and then my ENTIRE family (minus Laura, Thomas, Joel, and my Dad) and it was pretty hard to see them all over a computer screen and not be able to hug and kiss them all. God blessed me with an amazing support system of friends and family—it’s hard to be away.

Well…told you I didn’t really know how to describe this place. It is hard to imagine the picture in your head unless you’ve been here. Your welcome to visit anytime, my door is usually open! Literally. 

Arrival

I have made it! I am very safe and having an amazing experience so far. I arrived in Honduras on Tuesday morning. We didn’t arrive to our destination (Gracias) until 5 that evening. It was a long but beautiful bus ride. This country reminds me a lot of Guatemala (but safer mama don’t worry) so it doesn’t feel completely unfamiliar!

The first few days have been a little bit overwhelming. I don’t understand Spanish and I am definitely going to need it. Jake (the guy who administrates all the International teachers) keeps telling me that it’s great because then my students will be forced to speak English since I will have no idea what they are saying. Haha! He also told me he can’t wait for the first day because I am the first English teacher they have ever had so they will be staring at me in complete silence. Can’t wait!!!

Another reason it’s overwhelming is because I will not be living here in Gracias. On Saturday I am taking a 2 hour ride on a pot-hole filled road to my town, La Union. But most of the teachers that are in Gracias for orientation will be staying here. They are getting explained how to “use” the markets, what streets are safe, good places with good prices, when the bus picks them up for school, etc. None of it really applies to me—so here I am trying to understand everything when in just two days I will get thrown into an entirely new environment.

Even though there is a little bit of stress it is well worth it. This place is amazing! I keep thinking ‘do I really get to live here for a year? I’m blessed!’ I am ready to get into my hometown, especially since I found out where I will be living. I am going to live right next to the town’s park in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom house with 1 other girl. Both of the bedrooms are master suites which will be very nice! Our house is supposedly fully furnished with couches, tables, and dressers. I bought my first purchase today for my house—a fan! I walked into the store San Fransisco, looked at the fans, told her I wanted one, paid her cash, and carried it out of the store. There are no “display items”. The items on the shelf are the exact items you take home! And I carried it 3 blocks down to my hotel. Quite a spectacle I’m sure. :)

Today we had orientation for school, and it will continue until tomorrow. If anyone is interested in getting involved with the school you can financially support some of my own students! It is $50.00 a month. Something very unique about this is I will be able to hand pick the student that you will be supporting and directly give you information about your child. If you are interested in this OR if you have already told me you would like to do this, please e-mail me at erin.vndyk@gmail.com to confirm it. I have deep appreciation for those of you who are supporting in this way. :) THANK-YOU!!

Sorry this is so long! I will update again soon once I am in La Union. I am a little sad to leave Gracias since I will be leaving my friend Kiley here and we’re not sure how often we will see each other. Please keep me in your prayers and know you ALL are in my thoughts daily.