Below is a blog post from SHH Volunteer Greg Teich (W&M, 2007). With his permission, we have posted it on our website. He is currently working as a Special Ed. teacher in Hawai'i with Teach for America. Greg's knowledge and insight as a teacher was extremely helpful for the staff at the Copprome Education Center. We all hope he comes back soon!
Honduras was a wild ride. I am currently flying back to Hawai'i. I can't describe how wonderful my trip was. I have been to some very amazing places, but nothing compares to the orphanage at Copprome. The children I worked with have left me with the distinct impression that I will never be able to forget them, or leave them. I know this is a bit mushy for my generally upbeat and comical emails, but this is what my trip was, so this is what you get to read. Since I got out my mushy piece, I'll finish up with this weekend at the beach, and the highlights of the trip.
Last time I wrote, I had left out some fun (read: interesting?) pieces of information. One, Marcio, the awesome bus driver that is friends with Cosmo, Shin, Chuck, Anna, and the like came over. This was about last Wednesday, he has two adorable kids that literally beat me and chuck up. They just climbed all over us. The interesting part was the story of his day. I'll make it brief for you: some guys held up his bus, robbed everyone on it including him, and held a gun to his head and threatened to kill him. He made it out alive and his response was to change his bus route, and make his bus look different. He is a great guy, made up of nothing but love for his children, and strong as rock.
Also, there had been a 15 year old girl that was living with at the house for a couple nights, because she didn't have anywhere to go. Her name was Vanessa, Vane (pronounced Vanni) for short. She is a bratty 15 year old in the most adorable way. She used be at the orphanage but through a complicated story isn't anymore… anyways we all took care of Vane well she was there, and it was wonderful. At one point she was dying her hair black while just chuck and I were home, we were going to make sure the three of us got dinner. Well my little Vane got hair dye all over her face and it wouldn't come off. Think of the bad sitcoms where there are two clueless males, and one unhappy adolescent teenage girl, and add that one of them can't speak her language. It was to say the least, comical. So what to do about dinner with a 15 year old that won't walk outside? Needless to say I walked down the main drag going to three fast food places and a gas station to get food and drinks for the three of us. You should have seen the looks I got walking from PizzaHut, to BK, to KFC, to Texaco carrying with me food to feed a small army just so this 15 year old would stop pouting at the house. I'm going to be a good uncle.
Then the weekend rolled around. Too much happened to include all the details (those of you who like brevity should be excited to hear me say that) but Shin and Cosmo got sick, and didn't come with us to the beach. Anna, Chuck, Pati, Danny, Vanessa (different Vanessa), and Alicia all went an hour north to a beach town on the Caribbean called Tela. Vanessa and Alicia run a special education school I went and observed at and tried to give them some help. They are wonderful people. Anna is my new best friend, she is the one who lives with Cosmo, Chuck, and Shin. She rocks. Anyways, we all stayed in some beach Cabana's, and it was more picturesque than the most beautiful postcard. It was unbelievable. I also went to a national park where I saw among other things: a Boa Constrictor, Monkeys, and huge Aguas Malas (Jelly fish). I also ate a termite, and snorkeled along a reef. It was an awesome time at the national park, and a lot more could be said about it, but I feel like you get the idea. Then I went back and got my hair braided, so for the past day and a half I have had my hair braided, I like the way it looks, but we'll see what my boss thinks.
There is so much to say I wish I could say more, but alas, I'll save some stories for when I talk to you all. Please keep writing, even if I'm not sending these fun emails out, and thank you to all those who responded even if it was just an "I read it all!". Also, thanks for all the well wishing about the stomach thing, I feel fine now. If it is a parasite we're living in harmony for the time being, and if it was some other bug it has flushed out of my system.
Just some food for thought. I may have affected more children's lives in 10 days than I have all quarter at school, not because I haven't been affecting change, but because the lasting impacts of some of the systems I hope to have started (which will hopefully continue) will change these kids lives. Also, in 10 days I have eaten more fast food, than I have in all my time in Hawai'i and all of it was not my choice. Honduras like U.S. of Americans chain fast food way more than U.S. of Americans. Further, there is a dunkin donuts down the street from me in Progresso (where I stayed in Honduras) but I can't find one in Hawai'i. Things seem so backwards sometimes.
