Heartbreaking disparity

Honduras is a country of such stark contrasts. Breathtaking hills of green vegetation serve as backdrop to absolute poverty and destruction. The children that play in the streets paint a deceptive picture of love and family while the majority of them don’t know their fathers and are barely offered an upbringing by their mothers or grandparents… after all, it’s difficult when they’re one of six, each with different fathers. The abstinence that is taught by the many Catholic and Christian churches that fill the streets with their music into the late hours of the evening is clearly disregarded early on as many of the girls here are pregnant by 18. Little is expected of the men, however, besides contributing to the high population of impoverished children and passing along the deadly virus that has marked San Pedro Sula as the AIDS capital of Central America. Most of them take absolutely no part in their children’s upbringing even when they live as nearby as across the street – many don’t even claim them as their own. The social gap that characterizes the majority of Latin America is more prevalent here than ever; there is absolutely no middle class, and I’ve seen very little of the upper class besides those wandering the mall in San Pedro Sula. At the school each day, rotted smiles grin at me from my 1^st-graders’ cherub faces as they spit lies and deceit. Never have I seen such dishonesty, theft, and violence starting from such a young age. Stealing from one another, stealing from us, lying about nearly everything, fighting with their classmates, chucking rocks at one another, mocking the pain of their so-called friends… it’s sad to see how quickly these kids have learned the behaviors that seem to characterize their country.

Despite the terrible behavior demonstrated by the 200 students at Cofradίa Bilingual School, I fear that leaving them is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m sure it’s every teacher’s lot to be plagued by the question of “what ever happened to…?” Not to belittle the experiences of the teachers at home, but the questions that overshadow my daily experiences go so much deeper. What will happen to these children in the years to come? How many will actually stay in school? How many will escape the poverty that plagues their country? How many of the girls will learn that there is more to life than raising children? Perhaps some will be lucky enough to leave Cofradίa and make it to San Pedro Sula? Maybe even one or two will make it out of Honduras? But, and this is what haunts me, how many won’t? How many won’t finish school? How many will never realize their potential? How many will never escape Cofradίa and the poverty that festers here? How many will become another murder or AIDS statistic? What will happen to them? And what’s worse: I will never know.

This teaching business is so much more work than I ever imagined it would be. I have gained a renewed respect for the teachers at home. I come home exhausted every afternoon from a full day of giving everything I have to help these children land on the positive side of my aforementioned question. As such, I repeat: leaving may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

A brief update of what I’ve been up to: As you know, I took the GRE Chemistry Subject test in Guatemala City last weekend. I won’t know for six weeks how I did, but now I can finish the rest of my applications. My goal is to finish them in the next month so that they will be done when I leave for my incredible Christmas vacation in Costa Rica with my brother!

Jeremy and I are splitting the first grade class nearly in half for two hours every morning. I am working with the remedial children on their Math and English, or, more appropriately, number and letter recognition. And my most exciting development: I’ve changed the colegio Reading class to a Chemistry course! The kids actually asked for it! Some of their siblings are learning Chemistry in high school, so it’s more appealing to them than a Reading course. By then end of the week we will have covered matter and its basic properties, and next week we will begin on the periodic table. Thanks to Mikey, I have a book of simple labs that use easily-attainable materials, so I’m able to do some labs with them. Thanks, Mikey! :)

This weekend I’ll be testing out the dance scene in San Pedro Sula. One of the temporary workers at the Rocks is leaving to work on a cruise ship in a matter of weeks, so she and I as well as a few others are going to go dancing Friday night. Fingers crossed that there are some good dancers in the city! Then Saturday night casa pequeña is hosting a farewell dinner in her honor. We found out yesterday that we need to submit report cards by Friday in preparation for parent-teacher conferences Saturday. So, all things considered, it’s working out to be a full weekend! I’m looking forward to meeting some of our kids’ parents. We’ve been trying to assign homework, and I’m hoping that I can convince some parents to work with their children on their assignments. After all, they can make so much more progress one-on-one than we can two-on-twenty-one.

Well, I suppose that’s about it for now. I hope that this posting finds you all well and much, much colder than me. Haha. ¡Besos y abrazos a todos! ¡Adiós!

P.S. To those that are still wanting to contribute: it’s looking like the best mode of contribution will be monetary. There’s a rather heavy tax on packages. So, if you give money, we can go into San Pedro Sula to purchase some of the many things that we so badly need. Jeremy and I really want to purchase workbooks for our kids — teaching from the board is completely futile when working with first graders. If there’s something in particular you’d like to get for the school, just let me know how you’d like us to use the contribution. Feel free to email me at briana.flaherty@gmail.com if you’re interested.