At Copan

I apologize for not posting anything during the past five or six days. I couldn't get onto a computer at La Ceiba.

All of the travelers are well and rested after a great night's sleep at the nice hotel we are staying at outside of Copan. We had steak, eggs, beans, tortillas, and orange juice for breakfast, so we are definitely not roughing it. We are heading to the Copan ruins in a few minutes, so I just wanted to check in to let everyone know we are okay.

I think everyone enjoyed their stay in Ceiba with the families of our translators. We met each day for activities -- the first day at a park owned by Standard Fruit that was beautiful. It connected to the National Park at Pico Bonito, and we were able to hike and see some amazing waterfalls. The next day, we met at the Golf Club swimming pool and hung out most of the day. The kids went to parties each night at the home of one of the translators where they danced and talked for much of the night. When we left Ceiba, there were many tears. We are hoping that some of the translators can come to Asheville to visit.

The bus is loading for Copan, so I will leave for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on the Internet again before we leave.

John

"1000 Year Secret Waterfall" and Home Visits from Students at the Colegio

Hi everyone, this is Zach Evans. I'm having a great time here in Santa Lucia. The camaraderie we have developed with each other and the La Ceiba students is unbelievable. It is good to see so many people devoted to helping others simply to make the world a better place.

Home Visits
Today the group of students I am working with: Jimmy Willis, Olivia Paige-Pollard, MacKenzie Murphy, and three La Ceiba Bilingual school students, went to visit three homes of students who attend the local colegio in Santa Lucia. Colegio is basically the spanish word for high school. There are kids who range from ages 12-20 at the school that we have gotten to work with on this trip. We have found that although the colegio isn't the most needy, it could use some work to make it a better learning environment. Three students from the colegio were selected to show us their homes this morning. One of the teachers at the Colegio took us around and showed us the homes. It was a very good experience to see these houses because not only did we get to meet the kids on this trip; we got to see how they live as well. The first house was up a hill and was the home of two students at the colegio. One kid was twelve and one was nineteen. This house was very small, but the mother of the household devoted her time to keeping it in shape. The second house we visited was toward the outskirts of Santa Lucia. It made us all very sad to visit because the mother of the house told us a sad story. She has had ten children over the course of her life, but five of them have died. The son she has that attends the colegio is sixteen years old. His sister works in La Esperanza to help pay for him to go to school and help him succeed. They were very poor. The third house we saw was on the edge of Santa Lucia in a barrio called Cincinnati. The mother of the house had seven kids and two of them lived at home. One child attended the colegio. This was the nicest of the three houses we visited. Each of the families of the three houses said they had nothing to change about the colegio, but one requested more discipline. I was kind of upset that one of the heads of school came with us on the house visits, because it seemed that the families kept their thoughts reserved in fear of criticizing the colegio in front of the teacher. The home visits were a great experience and I hope the other groups got as much out of it as we did.

"The 10,000 Year Secret Waterfall"
Last night, our group of CDS and CBS students had a meeting with Professor Rene. We talked about what we have seen on our trip and what we are planning to change. At the end of the meeting, he invited us on a hike to a waterfall that he claimed to have been kept secret to the public for 10,000 years. A group of us jumped on this opportunity to see something so incredible. The hike was relatively tough; it included climbing through barbwire fences, walking through fields of cow poop, hiking through heavy brush, and scaling small rock faces up and down the mountains. Once we got to the main part of the falls, we were all amazed. It was very pretty, but it was shocking to see all of the garbage and sewage that had floated down the river and to the pools of the waterfall. The trip back was much better because it is easier to climb up rocks than down rocks. It was definitely worth the hike.

We will leave for La Ceiba on Friday morning at 4:00 AM. I am excited to see a new part of Honduras and I think we all are looking forward to being in a big city again.

Candice Olsson- San Francisco

Hey everyone ! Today was a pretty laid back day. We started off the day by arriving to the schools at about 8 a.m. and interviewing teachers and students on ways that we could help them improve their school. As you all know a kindergartener died about two days ago so when we went to the school today there were fewer kids than there usually are. Molly and I taught the kindergarten their colors in english, and we also taught them body parts such as mouth, arm, eyes. They started to catch on after a while ! After school we broke up into three groups and we all visited some of the houses of the students. The first house that Molly, Eddy, and I visited was right up the street from the school. We spoke with the mother and asked her questions like, "What major improvements does the school need?" and "Does their child enjoy going to school". She really had no clue about any of the needs of the school, but she did know that her daughter absolutely loved going to school. The next house we visited was further up the road and we spoke with both the mother and the father. We asked them the same questions and they have ten children so they had a better idea of what the school needed. They said that they need clothes nd shoes because when it rains outside the clothes that are left to dry outside get all wet they no longer have clothes to wear to school, so they do not go to school after a big rain. The next house we visited was an elder woman that had sixteen children ! She said the exact same things about the necessity for clothes and shoes, and also for there to be a scholarship program for children to get an allowance to buy school supply because they have no money to support all sixteen children and buy the younger ones school supplies.
After we all visited the houses we met back up and compared responces from the different households. Everyone agreed that the children need clothes and shoes and a scholarship program because without the bear necessities the kids cannot focus during school. We drove back to the clinic and ate lunch and then someof us went on a hike to waterfalls. They were georgous from what I heard. The rest of the day we are baking cakes and desserts for the schools tomorrow because they are throwing us a good bye party and we would like to contribute so they dont feel the need to feed all of us. We will also be dividing up the supplies we brought down tonight so that each school can receive what they need from what we brought down. We have all been having a great time !
Hasta Luego!

Soccer Match (by Tyler McDaniel)

Today my school, San Fransisco had a soccer game scheduled against another school in the area. We left in the morning to meet the kids at a local park. Here we learned that one of the kindergarteners at our school had passed away last night and so a lot of students were at his funeral. It was shocking to us how this happened so unexpectedly. We had never seen the child, apperantly he was already ill, but still it was a tragedy. There were only about 30 or 40 kids that did come from San Fransisco and all of them fit into one pick-up truck to go to the other school. The translators and americanos got into another pick-up truck and followed them. We drove over mountains, rocks and rivers, and finally arived at the other school. There the teachers exchanged gifts and the children had a gum eating contest before they sung the national anthem. It was interesting to me that all this celebration was being done over a soccer game. We drove a little bit farther to get to the soccer field, which actually had some grass! We watched a girls game and a boys game, and saw some very good soccer, especially for elementary schoolers. At the end teachers set off firecrackers and the sounds resonated off the surrounding mountains. I was happy to get to see a honduran soccer game, and witness this great tradition.

Riley, June 21

Today was the second day of our school visits. The school I visit during the week is up a really really, long, rocky, and bumpy road. To get there we have to ride in a truck, and since there is not enough room in the cab for every one some have to ride in the bed of the truck. It is actually really fun when you get over the fear of falling out. I visit a school called San Pablo. It is a one room building without electricity that houses about 23 kids ranging from grades 2 to 6. There is only one teacher for all of the grades. The teacher starts the day by taking roll. Of the two days I have been to the school no students have been late or absent which really suprised me. The teacher begins teaching second grade and slowly makes his way up. Some grades are taught at the same time. While he is teaching one grade the other grades are given problems in their workbooks to do. Some kids do not have workbooks because the education board does not send enough books to San Pablo for every kid to have one. The kids then go to recess after about an hour of classes. At recess we play soccer on the cracked pavement by the small school. Other kids play with marbles or trompos ,which are tops, that they wind up with a string and then throw. Trompo looks really easy, but I quickly found out that it was nearly impossible for me and the other gringos to do. The kids laughter proved my point. The kids are really willing to help us learn and greatly enjoy playing with us. Tomorrow we are going to teach a lesson in English to help give the students a head start on the English they will be taught next year. We are also going to visit the houses and families of all of the students. I am really interested to see the conditions inwhich these kids live. When we visit the houses we are going to ask the parents what they believe their kids need to be motivated to stay in school. We have already asked the teacher and we have asked a few students. We got out of school early today so that every one could watch the world cup game between Honduras and Spain. It was really funny to see a mass of chairs surronding the small TV in our dorm. The bilingual students all had their Honduras shirts on. After the game the rest of the day was really relaxed. many of us, including myself, took naps and walked around town. It started to rain hard with out warning around 2 and has not stopped. I am really looking forward to the visits tomorrow and being able to play with the kids.

More News from Honduras

This is McKenzie writing. Yesterday, Sunday, we walked to the closest town to go to the market. By the time we got there the sun was blazing and everyone was uncomfortable. But once we started to go through the market, everyone was excited to see what was there. Some people sold fruits and vegetables, and there was a lady grilling something delicious. There was even seafood- huge bowls of shrimp and small fish. As we walked around, music from the World Cup was playing in the backround at a stall that sold many cds and dvds. Mulitcolored hammocks were everywhere and little dresses were hanging. There were mountains of shoes, some selling for as low as a dollar. There were a few Machetes lying on cloths too. One old man was fixing shoes, and he let me come up and watch him and take his picture. A few people incuding me bought mangoes to eat later. It was a fun experience. Later, back at the clinic, a few guys decided to buy machetes. They are now safely in the care of Mr. Douglas.
Last night was our first fundraising meeting. After dinner we all met in the library to discuss how we can raise money for our schools. There were many good ideas, such as baking cookies, having a concert at the orange peel, making a small movie to send to friends, and much more. Everyone is excited about raising money and we will continue to meet and talk about what we should do. The translators from Honduras also had some ideas for us, like selling artwork to raise money. We also will try to interview some of the kids at each school for our video, ranging from kindergartern to highschool.
Today, at the highschool, we had the opportunity to teach an English class which was fun for us and the students. We also met with the teachers to talk about what they want for the school so we can decide what we will try to raise money for. Today school got out early so that everyone could watch Honduras in the World Cup, which is playing right now. Everyone at school was excited and cheering for Honduras, and hopeful for victory. I will end the blog here so I can go watch the game.

Hike to the River - Alex Paschal

Since today was Saturday, we could sleep in a lot later which I definitely took advantage of. After breakfast, we had the option to either go on a hike to the river outside of Santa Lucia, or we could just hang out, relax, and play cards. Half of the kids chose to stick around, and the other half chose to go to the river. The kids who wanted to go to the river packed their lunches, put on bathing suits, and were off. The hike was very nice. We passed through the middle of town, took some turns here and there, and before we knew it, we were surrounded by beautiful scenery. After two miles of climbing and running down hills, we made it to the river. When we got to the river, it did not take us long get in. Some of us (like me) ran into the water waist deep, while others dipped their feet in. We had lunch on the bank, and enjoyed the shade. There were other locals who also enjoyed the river. Some of them were swimming at the foot of a bridge where there was a small waterfall. I went over to the pool and jumped in. The kids seemed surprised to see someone like myself swimming in the water with them. I spoke all of my spanish vocabulary (I'm a French student) when I said "HOLA!" and grinned really big. The kids were climbed up a little fall, and then jumped back into the pool. I started copying them, and I had SO much fun. There weren't any other people in the group swimming with me besides Tyler McDaniel, so most sat, watched, and talked. After the visit to the river came the hard part. We had to back track all the way to the clinic. It seemed way hotter, and more steeper on the way back. We were all getting a little tired, and we were all excited about getting to the clinic. After two more exhausting miles, we finally made it. Even though we were all dripping with sweat, and panting like dogs, I think everybody had a blast, and we all got some great photos. GREAT WEEKEND!

Chris Travis, 18th

Today is the first day we go out and visit our schools in our assigned groups. But before going out to the schools, i went with a small group on a morning hike to the top of a mountain, by a radio tower. We got up real early in order to make it to the top before the sunrise. We ended up not making it before the sun rose but it still was an experience full of beauty and excitement. It was a tiring hike, and by the time we reached the top i was drenched in sweat. We left for our schools after we returned from the hike, showered, and ate breakfast. The school that i was assigned to is called San Marcos. It is a small school with 35 students. The teacher teachs all the levels from 1st grade to 6th, moving from group to group throughout the day. The children at the school seemed shy at first, but once we began playing with them at recess they opened up and it was alot of fun. I am looking forward to seeing them again Monday.

day three - jenny sims

Hey parents!
All the kids want to say thank you for this AMAZING opportunity. I feel like my outlook on life has already changed and i know i can probably speak for most everyone. These kids, we are finding out, are just like us. We find similarities in everything and can comunitcate without speaking english , which is great cause most of us struggle with our spanish!! haha. Well i visited an elementry school and have been assigned to that school for all week. I am so excited because the kids at the honduran school and the group of kids from the clinic bonded so well. This is exactly what i wanted to do here, bonding with the kids and attaching myself to thier lifestyle and seeing what it is that they need. We found out today that the school, San Fransico, needs furniture, a new room for the kids, a new teacher (because one teacher teaches both the sixth grade and the third grade), also the hygene of the kids is very poor. We see that the Honduran kids have many decayed teeth and we are working to get them tooth brushes and toothpaste. This school was in the poorest region but the spirits of these kids were so rich. It is the first day with these kids but anyone can fall in love with thier smiles and big brown eyes and i know i have. To these kids we were celebrities who had come, but we were told it was very important to humble yourself and let them know that we were there to become thier friends. We became very fast friends and what started with the kids just starstruck looking at us , as we did to rihanna in the airport, ended with the childern unable to let go of our hands and pushing and shoving to hug us.
We are all ok and looking forward to doing everything to help these schools. (we have already began to plot out what we are going to do)
I love you family!!!
-Jenny Sims

First School Day

Santa Lucia, Intebuca
June 18, 2010
3:00 PM

Hola!
Wooh what a day. This is Molly Brazil, today was our first day at the schools and boy was it busy! My group went to a local elementary school called San Fransisco, where the ages of the children ranged from kindergarden to sixth grade. The group was me, Jenny Sims, Seth Highly, Candice Olsson, Tyler McDaniel, Mr. Douglas and two translating students from La Ceiba- Edgardo Irias, and Mercy Trochez. We arrived this morning around 7:45 to a quiet, curious group of students who seemed to be very shy. We observed all of the different grades and classes and took mental notes of what the classrooms needed, (pencil sharpeners, desks, and screens for the windows), are just a few of the many things. As funny as it sounds, many of us found that sitting in on the first grade class actually helped us improve on our Spanish! After about 2 hours of observing the lunch bell rang and everyone scampered outside and ate. After we took 2 or 3 pictures we quickly caught on to the fact that the children LOVED posing and then seeing themselves afterwards. We all have some great photos to share when we get home. The kids finally started to warm up to us as Jenny, Candice and I began chasing them around the different buildings (don't worry, moms, we sanatized our hands afterwards) haha. Seth and Tyler played soccer with the boys (big hit). Our Spanish improved slowly but surely today as we spoke bits and peices to the kids. It amazed us all to see that a game as simple as tag could make those kids as happy as they were. As we drove off (in the back of a pick up truck) the kids crowded out into the streets waving good-bye and yelling "Hasta Lunes!" (see you Monday), it was great seeing their excitement and hopeful spirits for the next school day. Right now (3:15) we are all just hanging out in the clinic, playing cards and watching the world cup! Today was rewarding and inspired us to really make the lives of these kids the best they can be. Talk to you soon!
-Molly Brazil

Santa Lucia -- Finally

Santa Lucia, Intebuca, Honduras
Thursday, June 17
7:45 PM

Yeah! We arrived in Santa Lucia, site of the original Shoulder to Shoulder Clinic and where we will be living for the next few days. I won't go through the last two days of travel woes, as they are now living in the past. However, I will say that all of the students were incredibly flexible and positive in dealing with the delays and luggage issues. We are supposed to get all the luggage in tonight or in the morning. The folks who work for Shoulder to Shoulder have been fantastic at helping to find solutions to our problems. We are quite grateful to them. I wish I could convey how nice all the Honduran people who we have met have been to us -- it has been amazing.

When we arrived in Tegucigalpa, our nine friends and translators from the La Ceiba Bilingual School were on the bus. It did not take long for the students from each country to share music and stories with each other. Jimmy's IPAD that he brought has served as a great ice breaker and a fun diversion. The La Ceiba students have incredible English abilities and take their responsibilities as translators very seriously. They often come to Santa Lucia to serve as translators for the US medical students and doctors who rotate through the clinics.

We just had a welcome dinner where our students met with the directors of the schools that they will be working in over the next week or so. We will go out to four different schools in the immediate area tomorrow and begin our work, which largely consists of making relationships, assessing the needs of the schools, and playing with the students when appropriate. The food has been excellent. The dinner tonight was pasta, steamed vegetables, and homemade tortillas stuffed with melted cheese.

The clinic is quiet now as everyone except for me has gone to the local high school to play or basketball or hang out. It will be great for them to release some of their energy and travel stress.

No one has had any ailments of any sort.

To the parents out there -- your children are amazing. I'm so happy to be traveling with them and working with them. We are having a blast!

Hopefully, I will be able to get some students to make posts over the next few nights to talk about their experiences during the day.

John

June 15
11:25 PM

Surprise, we are not in Honduras. After sitting on the tarmac for two hours in Atlanta waiting for a thunderstorm to pass, we missed our flight in Miami. We are flying out tomorrow morning into Tegucigalpa, and Shoulder to Shoulder is picking us up there.

Fortunately, American Airlines picked up the ticket for our dinner and hotel.

We have some awesome travelers. No one complained about anything, and everyone was flexible and calm.

Hopefully the next post will be from Honduras. I am going to bed!

John

Testing 123

This is a test!