Month 3 in Honduras. We worked with Olancho Aid Foundation, which supports several schools in the area in and around Jutacalpa; a bilingual elementary and high school, Nazareth- a school that serves students with special needs, water purification projects in the surrounding communities, an orphanage, nursing home, also a ten month volunteer teaching opportunity to teach English in the bilingual schools. Our team served in the elementary school for the month, teaching classes, building shelves for and organizing the library. We spent one day building a roof for a structure that will house the most recent water system in a neighboring town.
The school we served was Santa Clara Elementary and it had a beautiful campus. I really enjoyed my time in this school, and was able to help out in many different areas. God used the school, classroom, and the people of Honduras to really encourage and challenge me this month.
Students have lunch and a snack break every day and for being 3 & 4 years old they need quite a bit of help during these breaks. While opening snacks and food items I got hit with hot sauce on my first day, but learned quickly how to negotiate those homemade sauce containers. I opened countless cookie packets and juice bottles, I also tried homemade tacos and sampled interesting cookies as shared by those sweet kids. I got to race around during recess and played like I was a kid again, so free.
It is winter in Honduras right now which means it rains almost every day. With that said, recess can be a muddy experience, especially if you’re young and insufficiently coordinated. So another of my duties was to change a few tearful, muddy kids into clean clothes they brought from home at the beginning of the year for such occasions. We also had a little guy throw up twice in one day, two days in a row, and yes, I cleaned that up too. The day to day, nitty-gritty that preschool entails was never anticipated but I really enjoyed being a part of it. The students were so cute, sweet, and had endless patience for my Spanish abilities, or lack thereof.
To be honest I didn’t love it at first. The first 2 days I wanted another assignment for the month, get me outta here! But this was our ministry and serve I would. Those first days I was over whelmed by the chaos of a system that was different than my own experience or expectations of what a classroom should be. On my lunch break the following week I talked with Kerry, one of the volunteer teachers who taught multiple grade levels and had a really good perspective. There is no expectation to put in a ton of overtime and take the burden of work home, working crazy hours and putting the job above everything is not how they do things here. It’s a healthy view of life; teachers here are parents, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, friends, and they live to work. They work then they’re here and then they go home.
Here again, my expectations controlled my attitude. How the class went, if kids were listening or behaving, that’s not my gage for success, or it shouldn’t be. In letting go of what classroom management looked like my markers for a “good day” changed completely and I was able to embrace the classroom experience and enjoy it fully. I’m realizing I tend to assume responsibility for things that I have no business taking on. So much learning!
Thanks for reading and sharing this journey with me. Love to you all!
Manda
