Today is hard to describe. For the second time I went to a church called The Rock, where a small school was recently started. There's 24 kids that meets in a one room cement building. They are grades K-6 and there's 3 teachers. The three teachers are recent high school grads, who attend the church.
Two weeks ago, another teacher and I met these three teachers and gave them a lesson on how to teach. We didn't quite know what to expect and prayed that the Lord would give us the words to use. We covered lesson planning, creating objectives, assessment, Bloom's Taxonomy, multiple intelligences... it brought me back to my Education classes at Calvin! We did a lot of thinking on our feet for 2 hours as we tried to guide them in their first teaching job. They were friendly and excited to learn.
Today I went back with two other teachers to teach English to the adults and the kids. There were about 15 people there. It was fantastic! Most of them didn't know any English so we started with the basics: hello, how are you, I am well, what's your name, my name is ___, etc. After a bit, we split off. Jon taught the teachers, Elizabeth taught the teenagers and adults, and I taught the younger kids. We sang songs and played games in the small area outside the church. It was rocky and uneven, with trash in the corner of the walled yard, but we had a blast! Over and over we sang "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes," walked hopped, ran, and played Simon Says. And best of all, I got more hugs than I could count. :)
What has impacted me significantly about Honduran life is the stark contrast between lifestyles of people. Here I was on the other side of Tegucigalpa and working with people on the opposite end of the socioeconomic ladder. Most people in this area are under educated, unemployed, underfed and unsaved. I fear that up here on the mountain, where the students come from the upper middle class, we risk becoming disillusioned. And I'm not just referring to Honduras by any means. In America it's the same, when we're born into middle class and live in middle class, associate with middle class, are educated in middle class... we fail to see below. We keep looking up, trying to get higher up the ladder. In Honduras, the contrast is drastic. The socioeconomic jump from lower to upper class is wide, with a gap in between where the middle class is relatively non-existant. I come from teaching in a school that is well equipped, where the students have maids, and seventh graders have blackberries... and I go to a place where kids are covered in dirt from head to toe for lack of available water, their parents dig through dumpsters to survive, and their favorite toy is a worn out volleyball with the cover stripped off that they use as a soccer ball.
What's impacted me just as much, is the similarities. Kids are kids. They love to get dirty, play hard, and laugh. Laughter comes so freely to a child. Even if you've just reprimanded them for misbehaving, once they get back into the game, they've forgotten about how sad they were two minutes before. Today, the kids laughed as they listened to our English and tried to repeat it, they laughed as I hopped around in circles with them, they laughed when they toppled over from their statue poses, and they laughed as they ate chocolate chip cookies before we left.
I praise God for the opportunity I have to touch the lives of these people. I praise God for the education I've received, that I may use it to glorify Him. And I praise God for these precious children who have already touched my heart with their innocence and their love.
Good night, God Bless.
