Dia de Difuntos

Today is a national holiday, Dia de Difuntos or Day of the Dead. Today, Latin Americans make elaborate meals and decorations and bring them to the cemetery's burial plots in order to honor their loved ones who have passed. Everyone is out and about in Juticalpa, playing music, visiting neighbors and carrying bouquets of flowers. Jessica and I went to church early this morning.

It's nice to have this day off, after completing the fifth week of school. My students are still a pretty rowdy bunch, but poco a poco, I'm training them to be calm and respectful. It's a lot more work than I imagined, but we're having fun. In English class, we've learned lots of new vocabulary words and this week, the students interviewed one another and began writing each other's biographies. In Math, we've drilled and killed numbers in English and are practicing place value in the hundred thousands. In Religion, we're working on a project about the Beatitudes, and in Agropecuaria, we have hoed, weeded and planted our own tomato garden. In Science, we're learning about microorganisms and have succeeded in growing mold on tortillas, potatoes and various other food particles. The students love Science!

Last Friday, my roommates and I hosted a teacher party at our house and entertained everyone with chicken salad, fruit bowls, popcorn and cake. It was much better when the other teachers added the baleadas, chismole and tortillas. On Saturday, the fourth and fifth grade classes of Santa Clara marched in a parade to commemorate Human Rights Week. It was a strange feeling to be the lone rubia, celebrating the Honduran civic week, marching in a sea of locals. On Sunday, our friend Wendy came over and taught us how to make pupusas and later, I took my first run through the streets of Juticalpa. I definitely got some stares on that little escapade. The whole run felt like a dream. How in the world was I running at dusk, through a Honduran valley surrounded by mountains, down windy dirt roads, listening to Enrique Iglesias? Again, sometimes I can't believe this is me, and this is where I am. That's a pretty cool feeling.