Flying Rocks and Fire

My kids know how to keep me on my toes. Just when I think I´m getting better at the whole class management idea, my kids show me that I have not!

The other day while 8b was taking their literature test two things happened to make me quite mad. First, I caught a student cheating and had to take away his test and suspend him. When most the students were finished, they were standing outside the door looking at the primary level playing during lunch. When someone got the bright idea to through paper at the kids below. Well one boy from 3 grade decided to wrap a big rock in paper and through it back. The missile came sailing into the class room and missed me by a couple of feet. That did not make for a great day.

Luckily for me, two days later in 8A, I was to have another experience to try my patience. While I was writing on the board, I heard the girls giggling. I turned around to find someone had light a piece of paper on fire. Oh the headache they give me! So the counselor and I had to investigate who was the culprits. Eight girls confessed so that one wouldn´t get in trouble. So for their punishment they had no recess and had to pick up garbage during lunch. Picking up garbage is the worst punishment for them.

Today we have parent teacher meetings all day, so I don´t expect any rocks or fire. But you never know!

Bribes in school

So my kids are always asking to go to the bathroom. Usually they disappear for 10 minutes. I almost always deny them permission, except when it looks like they are going to pee their pants. The other day, my 9th grade students were not wanting to do their work. Several asked if they could go to the bathroom. I said no as they could wait 5 minutes to the end of class. When they persisted I said it would cost 5 lempiras. They bargained with me and I conceded to let them go the bathroom for 3 lempiras. I ended up making like 18 lempiras almost a dollar on bathroom passes in the last two minutes of class. With that money I bought prizes for the game I played with my kids.

So I did feel mildly guilty, but not guilty enough. I´ll probably charge them again.

Christmas Vacation

The past three weeks have been full of adventure and fun as I spent my vacation wandering around. I won´t bore everyone with the all the details and will go straight to the interesting stories.



I started my vacation with a trip outside of Honduras to the lovely country of Belize. I had been there before in my six month trip through Central America and it was one of my favorite countries. I took the boat from Puerto Cortez to Dangriga, Belize. Even though the ocean was calm and the boat pretty empty, I got horrible seasick. Just as I about to send my inside out the window a guy told me to come sit in the back of the boat where it was open. That helped greatly and I didn´t throw up. As matter of fact, I ended up falling asleep with the ocean spray on my face.



I spent my time in Belize visiting Mayan ruins, hiking in the jungle and canoeing. I did go on a canoe trip into a cave. There were the best stalagites and stalagmites formations that I´ve seen. I also got see a skull of a Mayan sacrifice and some pottery in the cave. It was quite the canoe trip. I spent a couple of days at the lodge in the jungle and enjoyed the tranquility before heading back to Honduras.



The trip back was definately more exciting then coming to Belize. I ended up running out of US dollars and Belize dollars. So I had to trade my lempira with some gringos heading to Honduras. Finally I had my ticket and my passport stamped to leave the country. The only problem was that the boat was too full and we had to wait for another boat. I was put in the other boat. At first I was annoyed but in the end it was a good thing as there was plenty of fresh air and wind to keep me from being sick. About half way back, the other boat started to get water in it. So the boats got side by side and five more people got in ours. Needless to say after all that adventure, I was very glad to be on solid ground!



Christmas Eve brought excitement in another form. I got an infection and had to go to the doctors. I don´t really like going to the doctor and I especially don´t like needles. I had to get an IV of antibiotics. In theory it shouldn´t be that bad of an experience. Unfortunately, my phobia made it all the worse. I started shaking, hyperventilating and turning blue. The doctor was very nice and kept patting my head and holding my hand. It didn´t help. It took me about twenty minutes from when they took the IV out till I was calm enough to sit up. I spent the rest of the evening watching Christmas movies while laying in bed.

My best friend, Krissy came down for a week. We had a wonderful time together. While in La Ceiba we went rafting. The river was so much fun. It had several drops and small slots. It was like creeking in a raft. The guides were amazingly good too. I enjoyed myself even though I wasn´t in a kayak. Another highlight was the Copan Ruins. They were pretty cool, especially going in the tunnels to see the buildings underneath the ruins. Unfortunately our time in Copan was cut short when we found out that the buses weren´t running on the first. We quickly packed up and got the last bus to San Pedro Sula. There, we spent New Year´s Eve locked in our hotel room. We watched the ball drop and then had to wait a hour before it was a new year here. During that time a siren went off. We both looked at each other not knowing what to do. Just as we were about to leave our room, it stopped.

After dropping Krissy off at the airport, I headed home. School has started again and its good to be back to a regular schedual. Five more months and then I´m DONE!!!!