"Healthy is Happy!"
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
34
59
Trip End
Jul 16, 2008
Cofradia,
Honduras
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Monday night I made some amazing mango chutney for dinner since mangos are cheap and plentiful here. So much so that they served the leftovers on Wednesday
night!
Tuesday nights I am still going to my Honduran family´s house. I tutor Katherine in English and then we read books, practice Spanish, play games, paint,
etc. We cook dinner and eat a big meal together too. I enjoy my time with them and it is very helpful with learning Spanish. On Thursday, I went to Mary´s
sister´s house (Digna) to tutor her children, Jeff and Andrea. They are in 3rd and 5th grade, respectively. Their family owns a tortillaria which means
that they make and sell tortillas. Her and her husband make 3,000 corn tortillas everyday. They have a hand crank that makes uniform tortillas and a big
flat top stove to flip them. 18 local pulperias (small quick-stop shops that sell everything from soda to diapers to eggs; It seems as if every other store
is a pulperia. They´re EVERYWHERE!) buy packs of their corn tortillas and sell them in packs of 15 for a whopping 7 lempiras (.35 USD). They also sell them
to a couple local restaurants. They want to save up to buy a huge oven that would elimate the need to flip them but this special oven costs somewhere around
1,500 USD! If they can find the money to invest, they will be able to produce 3,000 tortillas per hour instead of per day! Anyway, they are a great family
and I spent 4 hours there on Thursday working on my Spanish. I will go there every Thursday from now on. I also continue to play soccer every Tuesday and
Thursday at the Mormon church.
Due to the heat, we only have half days of school now! I am done at 12:05, they serve us lunch and then I usually stay for an hour or two to get caught up.
My kindergarteners leave at 11:20, as always, and then I go on to teach 5th grade. Honestly, I strongly dislike teaching 5th grade. They do not listen,
they do not care, they think everything is boring, and there are 22 of them... plus, the classroom is connected to three other grades divided only by
bookshelves so it is very loud even when they are being good. Sometimes it is hard to tell if they are making the noise or if another grade is making the
noise! I teach them English but as of right now I don´t have much of a choice but to give them vocabulary words, reading comprehension, and grammar
worksheets which I realize IS boring. However, until I get them under control I can´t effectively do fun activities with them.
In kindergarten, we have been focusing on food and nutrition, my fave! Most of you know that I have a degree in dietetics and aspire to be a Registered
Dietitian after I complete my internship and graduate school for public health. Needless to say, I am very excited about the opportunity to do a little
nutrition education with the kids. First, I have been trying to simply teach them the names of different foods, especially fruits and vegetables. The other
major thing that we do everyday is point to foods and say "healthy" or "unhealthy". We use smiley faces and thumbs up for "healthy" and I have them saying,
"Healthy is happy!" We use frowny faces, thumbs down, and a deep, sad voice for saying "unhealthy". I do not know if they fully comprehend what I am trying
to get across but they are at least learning to associate positive feelings with healthy foods. At first is was almost commical to see what they thought was
healthy, such as ice cream, lollipops, and cupcakes! Now, everyday at recess (they eat a snack that is usually the size of what we think of as lunch) they
run up to me with an item of food and give me thumbs up and say, "Healthy!" They have started pointing to items and asking if it is healthy or unhealthy. I
love their inquiring minds! I have also been trying to get them to try some new foods. I took a risk and brought in a huge bag of cut up carrots, hoping
that I could get them to try at least one bite of a raw carrot. They LOVED them!!! After they finished one I would give them another and another and
another until my whole bag was empty! Another day we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because although PB is available in the grocery store, most
kids had never tried it. Most liked it, but not all. I decided to start a new tradition called "Fruit Fridays" where every Friday I will bring in a
different fruit for the kids to try and also invite them to bring an extra piece of fruit if they wish. This week I brought in pineapple and they were so
excited!
On a side little Honduran note, I finally met the elusive Terry, the Vietnam vet that owns the house where Ben has the pool. So I guess he technically owns
the pool. This man is quite the character, but probably a pretty typical ex-pat. Terry has long white hair that he wears back in a ponytail, a big pot
belly, yellow teeth (but only on the bottoms), tatoos to Indian jewlery around his neck, a dragon up his head, and a pot leaf on his arm... he is quite the
site. Terry has had a lot of health problems so most of his stories end with, "If I´m still alive." He has Hep C which could have either come from the
vaccines in ´nam or more likely from decades of injecting mystery drugs into his arms at Dead shows. American doctors put him on full disability due to his
mental status and he spent some time in a padded room before getting his medications stabilized. Now he laughs about it. There is a point to all of this...
Terry makes $2,600 every month from disability which is a small Honduran fortune. With this, he was able to find a young, cute Honduran girl willing to
MARRY him. She is probably no older than 30 (he must be around 60). Right off the bat, he told me that they had a "financial agreement" but that they loved
each other in their own ways. Not to mention that he does not speak Spanish and she does not speak English... so on Monday they went up to the mountains to
a Justice of the Peace and tied the knot! Wow.
I am spending another weekend in Cofradia to relax and get caught up. The whole small house is out of town so it is just me and my brothers. We went down
to the San Jeronimo house on Friday night and played Scattergories. It was so much fun! Last weekend we played Monopoly. I have also become a big
batgammon player because Alex is always looking for a partner.
