Spent some time this morning with a group of Spanish teachers who teach math to students in grades 1 -6.  It was the first time they had used pattern blocks (thanks to Trevor Brown for donating a class set plus enough individual baggies for each teacher at the session!!!)  You could see the lightbulbs going off as they explored the concepts of fractions and perimeter with math manipulatives for the first time!

The librarian, who had been kind enough to translate some of the problems and concepts into Spanish, was also there, and joined us later in a Grade 3 classroom as we went to try out our new tricks with real, live students!

A teacher came up to me in the schoolyard this morning with a follow-up to yesterday’s workshops:  “I was inspired to change my class seating arrangement around”, she exclaimed!  “Now the students can see each other more, and interact.  Also, we incorporated movement into the spelling lesson; I had some students act out the word, and the others had to guess what it was, and spell it!”

The boys spent the morning in a Grade 1/2 classroom while I worked with some of the math teachers through a Spanish interpreter.

While Mommy facilitated workshops for teachers on Monday, the boys got to hang out with Dave, one of our hosts -- they had great fun, as you can see from the photos below!  Click on the first one to begin a self-navigated tour with captions.

A big lesson for me today about considering the schema of your audience when preparing appropriate analogies to illustrate a point!

This morning's rooster symphony did not reach my sleepy ears until about 4:15 a.m., and was closely followed with the arrival of Alex and Simon in my bed, at 5-ish, who had discovered the Valentine's gifts I had left out for them in their room.

In Honduras, Feb 14 is "Friendship Day".  I am happy to be appropriately spending this day amidst new friends.

In less than an hour, we'll be heading out to the retreat centre to set up for today's two sessions, one on Brain Compatible Learning, the other on Assessment for Learning.  Last night we snuck into the school to pick up a few items such as chart paper, which I did not want to haul down from Ontario, and to visit the library (Alex and Simon pulled out a few items to take with them to the retreat centre today; poor Dave is on babysitting duty all day, so we wanted to pick up a couple of things to help him entertain the two little ruffians!)  It was also a good time for the boys to see the school building where they will spend Tuesday and the morning of Wednesday in a Grade One and Two classroom.

The church we attended runs from roughly 3:30-ish until 5:30 p.m.  (Many things are approximately timed in Honduras, I am discovering!)

The service runs in Spanish, in translated into English in one corner of the room, and then into sign (ASL) for a group who sit beside the English interpreter.  So, it’s a trilingual church!  Children are invited downstairs about halfway through the service, first to sing in a large group, then to separate into smaller, English and Spanish groups.

Today’s lesson was about the miracle of the fishes and the loaves.

As the boys completed crossword puzzles, colouring pages and fill in the blanks on this scripture passage, I reflected on the story's poignancy for me…

Who would have thought that I could raise the funds in such a short time, to travel to this country for this particular adventure?  Who would have thought that 40 children (see blog entry IX below) could each have their own shower between lunch and dinner time?  Who would have thought that two six-year-olds could get up at 3 a.m., take a car, two planes and a truck to a foreign country, stand in three long customs and security line-ups, and arrive happy and sociable?!

Who could have thought that five loaves and two fish could feed 5000+?

As Marcellino D’Ambriosio writes, “Our financial resources, talents, and holiness are clearly inadequate to meet the needs of a hungry and confused world.  But what else is new? This gospel commands us to offer these resources anyway, trusting that He will multiply them.”

I have been in Honduras for only two days, and already I have witnessed the miraculous multiplication of inadequate resources.

God is good!

This afternoon we had a chance to visit the childrens' home where Esther and Dave do some work.  40 children aged 9 months - 18 years live there together with four adult caregivers (two on day shift, two on nights).

Alex and Simon were a little shy at first, but were quickly drawn into a rousing game of UNO, which turned into a bilingual marathon with input from all angles!

Click the triangle at the top of the photo below to start the slide show....

The boys also delivered a suitcase of toys/school supplies and about 22 letters from a Grade Two class in Peel.  Approximately 7 children at the home also attend the school where Esther is English Director, and so they quickly set about translating for their Spanish-speaking "siblings".  A few other older girls began writing responses to their letters; we hope to bring some back to Canada when we leave on Wed.

Remember when you learned in school never to play with electrical devices near water?

Many households in Honduras do not have running water.  Those who do most certainly do not have hot water in the home.  Esther showed me the shower this morning... it is an interesting set up to get a warm shower:  A little cord connects a small box from the shower head to an electrical outlet on the wall inside the shower stall.  This heats water, which is added to the existing cold water, for a nice, warm flow, according to personal adjustment of the one faucet. 

Dave calls it the widowmaker!

The song of the roosters begins shortly after 3 a.m. in Seguatepeque.  Sometimes it is accompanied by the barking of stray dogs, of which there are many. 

By 5:30 a.m., both boys had crawled into bed with me, and we lay snuggling until about 6 a.m., at which time I gave them strict instructions to SILENTLY get their socks and sweaters, and meet me downstairs where we would hopefully not wake up our still-sleeping hosts.

Colouring happily at the large dining room table now, they are - like me - enjoying the bird symphony which began about 6:15 a.m., and which is (in my opinion) far more melodious a cacophony than that of the noisy cocks!