Some of you may occasionally look at the weather in Honduras. Currently Hurricane Rina is just off of the northern coast of Honduras. It is a Category 2 hurricane (1 being the calmest and 5 being the fastest winds) that looks like it will be heading towards the Yucatan in the next few days. I just want everybody - coughMomcough - to know that we're going to be well out of harm's way here in Ahuas because we are far enough inland. The only bad weather we've had was the last five days have been rainy. Today is actually so nice that I took a 2.5 mile run at 5:30am, got to watch a beautiful sunrise, AND got some laundry done.
Please pray for those in the way of the storm, but know that I am/will be just fine.
One last quick note. I've gotten some questions regarding where I get my quotes. I get most of them from brainyquote.com
"For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is
no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms
which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously." - George Gissing
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
About Last Weekend...
Well! Last weekend was quite eventful! Thursday afternoon I flew to La Ceiba to get my residency all figured out. However, once we got there, we found out that we had to go all the way to Tegucigalpa to turn in our paper work. We bought tickets that day and took the 35 minute flight to Teguc at 7:30am Friday morning (side note: the flight attendants still somehow managed to pass out drinks and snacks and collect garbage before we landed). When we got to the immigration office, we were bumped from line to line. We finally got to the right place, but then we were told that we needed two 5cm by 6cm photos. So, Uda (the Norwegian girl staying at the base) and I took a cab to the mall to get our pictures taken at a photo studio. But, when we got there the guy said they can’t do 5x6s, only 5x5s, but maybe the place downtown could do it. Unfortunately we were starting to run low on cash and time. We spent the next ten minutes trying to communicate to the man if he could put a 5x6 on to a bigger page and then cut it. Eventually, he said he could but he had to make four of them which is why he didn’t offer it in the first place but why wouldn’t you be nice person and just ask that in the first place!!!
Deep breaths, Kristian. Deeeeep breaths.
Anywho, we got the photos turned them in and everything turned out just peachy with our residency. We just have to wait a few weeks until our residency cards are ready. We headed to the airport to catch our 2:30pm flight back to Ceiba. But, I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Ding! Ding! Ding! That’s right - our plane was two hours late.
Well we finally made it back and flew back to Ahuas Saturday morning. Sunday night, normally a restful, relaxing evening, ended up being the conclusion of the eventful weekend. As we were wrapping up dinner at the Hofstad’s Yngvild got a phone call from one of the girls at the base. Remember when I mentioned that if something isn’t bolted down or locked up it tends to disappear? Well there are a couple hundred boards for the new house that are kept under the base that has no fencing. The girls called because apparently someone was trying to steal some boards - something which had previously happened a few nights earlier. Hearing the news Jarle, Scott and I grabbed bicycles and headed down to the base. Unfortunately I was stuck with Benjamin the 5th grader’s bike which was too small so I had to stand up and bike the entire time. To add on to that, to be sneaky, we turned off our flashlights, but with this being Ahuas, I couldn’t see a darn thing. I’m amazed I didn’t run into a cow or just wipeout on the dirt. When we got near the base, Jarle flipped on his flash light and twenty feet in front of us were two guys, each walking away with a 10-foot long board on their shoulder. They didn’t even flinch until Jarle yelled and chased after them. We didn’t catch them but we did recover the two boards. The next hour was spent nailing boards to other boards to make them secure. Well, Jarle did the nailing. I held the flashlight.
Needless to say, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. Toooo much excitement.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” - Helen Keller
Deep breaths, Kristian. Deeeeep breaths.
Anywho, we got the photos turned them in and everything turned out just peachy with our residency. We just have to wait a few weeks until our residency cards are ready. We headed to the airport to catch our 2:30pm flight back to Ceiba. But, I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Ding! Ding! Ding! That’s right - our plane was two hours late.
Well we finally made it back and flew back to Ahuas Saturday morning. Sunday night, normally a restful, relaxing evening, ended up being the conclusion of the eventful weekend. As we were wrapping up dinner at the Hofstad’s Yngvild got a phone call from one of the girls at the base. Remember when I mentioned that if something isn’t bolted down or locked up it tends to disappear? Well there are a couple hundred boards for the new house that are kept under the base that has no fencing. The girls called because apparently someone was trying to steal some boards - something which had previously happened a few nights earlier. Hearing the news Jarle, Scott and I grabbed bicycles and headed down to the base. Unfortunately I was stuck with Benjamin the 5th grader’s bike which was too small so I had to stand up and bike the entire time. To add on to that, to be sneaky, we turned off our flashlights, but with this being Ahuas, I couldn’t see a darn thing. I’m amazed I didn’t run into a cow or just wipeout on the dirt. When we got near the base, Jarle flipped on his flash light and twenty feet in front of us were two guys, each walking away with a 10-foot long board on their shoulder. They didn’t even flinch until Jarle yelled and chased after them. We didn’t catch them but we did recover the two boards. The next hour was spent nailing boards to other boards to make them secure. Well, Jarle did the nailing. I held the flashlight.
Needless to say, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. Toooo much excitement.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” - Helen Keller
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Whiteboard Schedule
 | ||
| The Whiteboard |
And I do realize the OCD-like nature of the color-coding but it keeps me organized.
Ah, who am I kidding, I just like the way it looks.
Official Teacher Stuff
I feel like I’m probably a bit overdue to talk about my how my class with the three boys is going. Some of my Gustavus professors read this so I figure if I don’t talk about the aspects of my teaching soon, they wouldn’t be too happy (this one’s for you, Jane Schuck). Although there are many different parts of teaching here that are challenging and/or exciting, today I will just focus on one concept which all teachers have to deal with: motivation.
From research and experience, I’ve found that motivation can be developed in the following ways: make a positive connection with the students; let students’ interests and prior learning guide planning to give lessons relevancy; and give students some control - a sense of autonomy - in what they learn. Some of these I do better than others, but I want to show all of them so you can get a sense of my teaching.
It might not come as a surprise to those who know me that developing a relationship with my students comes relatively easy for me - probably because I still feel like a kid most days. With Ben, Tobi, and Peter it was even easier because I eat meals, play games, watch movies, and generally interact with them more than any regular classroom teacher can. Being their friend as well as their teacher, sometimes they do get a bit too relaxed but they do understand that I know what I’m talking about and respect me as a teacher (and they know that if they screw around too much I can just tell their parents at lunch). Because they trust me as a friend and a teacher, they are more willing to complete tasks that may not interest them as much and work hard almost every single day.
Because my curriculum is so mapped out and dense, it is hard to plan individualized lessons. However, I do make a conscious effort to connect their new learning to prior lessons. I also try to relate the subjects to their lives. Even doing little things, like using one of their names in a sentence explaining participle phrases or using a movie we just watched to explain themes, goes a long ways to keep their attention and keep them interested in the subject matter. That’s half the battle right there!
Even with the curriculum, I’ve found that giving the boys autonomy has been tricky but easier than I expected. First of all, I put their entire weekly plan on a white board and divide up the days so they can see what they have to accomplish. Every morning the boys take a look at what they need to get done and pick what they want to work on. They know their strengths and weaknesses better than anyone so I figure they should be able to plan their days. Giving them control within the curriculum has been more difficult but composition has been a great creative outlet. They often get to choose the subjects, characters, or themes to write about. Peter has wrote a short memoir about his first time to camp, Tobi just finished an autobiographical piece on his trip to Denmark, and Ben is currently working on a research paper on Concorde, the first supersonic passenger airplane. Ben got his subject a couple weeks before because the history channel had an hour-long piece on the Concorde, which really piqued his interest.
Obviously, Ahuas is very different from most teaching jobs. However, the philosophies that I use in my classroom are similar to those of “regular” classroom teachers.
Sorry for the length of this. I just had to make sure people didn’t think my job was all soccer games and swimming the river. I’ve got a rep to protect, knowwhatimsayin?
“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” - Raymond Chandler
From research and experience, I’ve found that motivation can be developed in the following ways: make a positive connection with the students; let students’ interests and prior learning guide planning to give lessons relevancy; and give students some control - a sense of autonomy - in what they learn. Some of these I do better than others, but I want to show all of them so you can get a sense of my teaching.
It might not come as a surprise to those who know me that developing a relationship with my students comes relatively easy for me - probably because I still feel like a kid most days. With Ben, Tobi, and Peter it was even easier because I eat meals, play games, watch movies, and generally interact with them more than any regular classroom teacher can. Being their friend as well as their teacher, sometimes they do get a bit too relaxed but they do understand that I know what I’m talking about and respect me as a teacher (and they know that if they screw around too much I can just tell their parents at lunch). Because they trust me as a friend and a teacher, they are more willing to complete tasks that may not interest them as much and work hard almost every single day.
Because my curriculum is so mapped out and dense, it is hard to plan individualized lessons. However, I do make a conscious effort to connect their new learning to prior lessons. I also try to relate the subjects to their lives. Even doing little things, like using one of their names in a sentence explaining participle phrases or using a movie we just watched to explain themes, goes a long ways to keep their attention and keep them interested in the subject matter. That’s half the battle right there!
Even with the curriculum, I’ve found that giving the boys autonomy has been tricky but easier than I expected. First of all, I put their entire weekly plan on a white board and divide up the days so they can see what they have to accomplish. Every morning the boys take a look at what they need to get done and pick what they want to work on. They know their strengths and weaknesses better than anyone so I figure they should be able to plan their days. Giving them control within the curriculum has been more difficult but composition has been a great creative outlet. They often get to choose the subjects, characters, or themes to write about. Peter has wrote a short memoir about his first time to camp, Tobi just finished an autobiographical piece on his trip to Denmark, and Ben is currently working on a research paper on Concorde, the first supersonic passenger airplane. Ben got his subject a couple weeks before because the history channel had an hour-long piece on the Concorde, which really piqued his interest.
Obviously, Ahuas is very different from most teaching jobs. However, the philosophies that I use in my classroom are similar to those of “regular” classroom teachers.
Sorry for the length of this. I just had to make sure people didn’t think my job was all soccer games and swimming the river. I’ve got a rep to protect, knowwhatimsayin?
“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” - Raymond Chandler
Monday, October 10, 2011
Carpentry 101
My project for last week was a bit of carpentry. Just about every house in Ahuas is raised about nine feet off of the ground by posts. The area underneath the house is large enough to walk underneath and is often used for storage. However, in Ahuas, if items are not bolted down or locked up, they tend to disappear. So, people that would like to have a storage space must fence it in and include a door with a heavy lock.
Anyways, Scott - a fellow Minnesotan - asked if I would lend him a hand in replacing the fencing around his basement. I willingly agreed to help because I figured How long could it really take? A few hours, tops? We only needed to do three sides because the forth was securely covered with wood. And I was right - it only took us a few hours... per side. The project ended up spanning three days. It took so long because it was so darn tedious having to pull off boards, pull out a ton of tiny cramps that held the fencing to the wood, cutting the fence, attaching boards at the top and bottom to seal it, and finally putting new cramps back on.
After we were done and had a tall glass of cold water, I turned to Scott and said, “I better make this whole teacher thing work because I have got to be the worst carpenter ever.” Looking at the fence you can track my path of destruction by following the cramps and nails that are bent and mashed to all hell. I don’t think my hands (and especially thumbs) have been this sore in quite some time. Fortunately, there is a new house being built at the base so hopefully I redeem myself. We are also starting to hand-make cement bricks for the new school house as well. We have 54 done. We need 5,000. That is my after-school project for the foreseeable future.
"I'm waiting for the time when I fail - because we all fail - and I'm ready, I'll take up carpentry." - Adrian Edmondson
Anyways, Scott - a fellow Minnesotan - asked if I would lend him a hand in replacing the fencing around his basement. I willingly agreed to help because I figured How long could it really take? A few hours, tops? We only needed to do three sides because the forth was securely covered with wood. And I was right - it only took us a few hours... per side. The project ended up spanning three days. It took so long because it was so darn tedious having to pull off boards, pull out a ton of tiny cramps that held the fencing to the wood, cutting the fence, attaching boards at the top and bottom to seal it, and finally putting new cramps back on.
After we were done and had a tall glass of cold water, I turned to Scott and said, “I better make this whole teacher thing work because I have got to be the worst carpenter ever.” Looking at the fence you can track my path of destruction by following the cramps and nails that are bent and mashed to all hell. I don’t think my hands (and especially thumbs) have been this sore in quite some time. Fortunately, there is a new house being built at the base so hopefully I redeem myself. We are also starting to hand-make cement bricks for the new school house as well. We have 54 done. We need 5,000. That is my after-school project for the foreseeable future.
"I'm waiting for the time when I fail - because we all fail - and I'm ready, I'll take up carpentry." - Adrian Edmondson
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Soccer Game Pictures
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| The row of spectators, a.k.a. the out-of-bounds markers. |
 | ||
| Team Clinica (in orange) vs Team Rosa |
 |
| The wooden goal posts with the Clinica goalie (yellow) and two spectators. |
 |
| The ball got kicked up into the top of the tree directly above the man in white in the center of the picture. The tree is a good 25 feet tall and very skinny. What you can't see in this picture is the kid all the way at the top, getting the ball out. |
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Ahuas: A Whole New World
I’ve been going to church most Sundays. Unfortunately I can’t really understand anything because my Spanish is quite limited still and the speakers switch back and forth from Spanish to Mosquito, losing all hope for me to follow along. I keep going mostly to reflect and listen to the music, because they do a multitudinous amount of singing. They have drums and the occasional guitarist but they always have someone playing the keyboard, which is hooked up to a speaker system. Like most keyboards, it has some sample songs programmed in where you can just press a button and let it go.
Well, this past Sunday, the service ended and as I was walking out, someone turned on one of the songs and wouldn’t you know it, “A Whole New World” from the Disney movie Aladdin started blaring through the speakers. I figured someone might turn it off, but nope, I heard it resounding through the church as I made my way back to the house. I’m still not sure if it was on accident, someone being funny, or what it was.
The version of the story that I like to think is true, is that someone felt that the song could be interpreted to mean that God can “show you the world” and all its “shining, shimmering splendor” and that the “Princess” represents the people and that we must “let our heart decide.”
Yeah, probably not.
"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit." - Khalil Gibran
Well, this past Sunday, the service ended and as I was walking out, someone turned on one of the songs and wouldn’t you know it, “A Whole New World” from the Disney movie Aladdin started blaring through the speakers. I figured someone might turn it off, but nope, I heard it resounding through the church as I made my way back to the house. I’m still not sure if it was on accident, someone being funny, or what it was.
The version of the story that I like to think is true, is that someone felt that the song could be interpreted to mean that God can “show you the world” and all its “shining, shimmering splendor” and that the “Princess” represents the people and that we must “let our heart decide.”
Yeah, probably not.
"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit." - Khalil Gibran
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