Slow and steady...

I´ve been here for two weeks, and there have been ups and downs.  Right now I´m sitting at the internet cafe, which is definitely going to be important for me in my two years here.  Although it isn´t always open when it says it will be (At least 3 of the times I´ve tried to come, it´s been closed), the internet´s pretty fast, and IT´S AIR CONDITIONED!  Which is super awesome because it´s really hot here, and technically we´re still in the´´winter,´´ which really just means that it rains sometimes.  Apparently in the summer it doesn´t rain at all and it´s just really hot.

Things are still going pretty slow, but there are a few highlights that have kept me going:

• Every time I walk anywhere, kids are constantly calling out my name and saying hello to me.  Sometimes I´m not sure whether they actually know me, or if they think I´m the volunteer that just left a few months ago (her name was Sarah also), but it´s helped me to start to feel like a part of the community.  It also is refreshing, because the other people who say things to me while I´m walking down the street are usually creepy guys who yell, ´´I love you,´´ at me. It´s really refreshing to hear the kids yelling my name and saying hello when I´m walking around town.
• Things at the elementary school are going well.  When I did my master´s year internship in Hartford, I worked with the reading teacher to do reading interventions in small groups.  The schools here have classes that are way bigger than class sizes in the U.S., barely any resources, and they spend very little time in actual classes.  I´ve screened a bunch of kids and I had my first few reading groups last week.  The kids really enjoy it-- in fact, kids that know how to read are claiming they can´t, just so they can work with me.
• The other part of my work at the primary school is to teach English to the 5th and 6th graders.  Because the school year´s almost over (It´s done at the end of November, and then the next school year starts up at the beginning of February), I´m going to help out these two grades until the end of the school year.  Then, starting in February, I´ll be teaching a TEAM (Teaching English and Methodology) class to all of the teachers at the school and helping them to implement the English lessons at the school with their students.  In this way, the project will be more sustainable because I´ll be equipping the teachers with the skills to keep teaching English even after I complete my two years here.
• Another highlight for me has been the baseball team, which actually really surprised me.  The coach is awesome and great with the kids, and I have a lot of fun at the practices.  We´ve had 2 so far.  At the first practice, it started pouring rain as soon as it was about to start.  We played a game with a soccer ball to warm up, and then it started raining even harder.  We waited it out, and then it slowed down.  Some of the boys went to go get the equipment, and they forgot to grab the separate bag of baseballs.  So, we couldn´t really play with just gloves and bats.  Instead, we played almost kickball...I say almost, because we were hitting the soccer ball with a bat and then running around the bases, ankle-deep in mud.  We got super dirty, but it was a LOT of fun.  In our second practice, a lot more girls showed up, which is something I´m excited about.  A bunch of the girls from the primary school have decided to give baseball a try, because they know I´ll be there.  It´s hard though, because as much as I´d love to have tons of kids get involved, we really have limited resources.  We have about 15 baseball gloves, 7 baseballs, some catcher´s equipment, a few mini wiffle balls, 2 or 3 bats, and that´s about it.  I´m hoping to find a way to get us some more stuff so that we can expand and give more kids a chance to play.

As I´m sitting here typing this in the internet cafe, all of the teachers in the entire municipality are in a meeting to decide what action they are going to take in the upcoming weeks.  There are a bunch of teachers at the high school level that haven´t been paid throughout this whole school year.  Honduran teachers are notorious for going on strike, and I´m keeping my fingers crossed that they don´t.  The only counterpart that I have that´s not a school is the baseball team, and that can only keep me occupied a few hours a week.  Let´s hope I don´t have to worry about that.

Also, a lot of people have been asking me about sending snail-mail.  Although most of the people here say that a post office does exist in this town, no one seems to be able to tell me anything about it or where it is located.  I´m going to keep trying to figure it out, and hopefully I can get you an address soon.  I´d love for people to send me pictures and things to hang up in my room.  In trying to fit everything in my 2 suitcases, I decided not to bring any of that sentimental stuff, which I now wish I had.  I have pictures in my computer, but it´s just not the same.

Miss you all, and enjoy the cool fall weather that I´m sure you´re having.  Take some pictures of the pretty New England trees for me!