Today, the whole Alison Bixby Stone School went to El Picacho in Tegucigalpa. El Picacho is a popular place in the capital that has a zoo, a museum, and a park with the El Cristo Statue (yes, like the one in Brazil). As always, I stuck with the sixth grade class. I was really excited for today because it was a chance for me to talk with the kids and get to know the kids outside of a school environment. They were also really excited to go and had really high energy. We rode 3 buses to El Picacho because there are 140 students in the school. The whole bus ride was super rowdy and the kids had to constantly be told to sit down. I think this was pretty normal for this age group. The energy is high and it was a 2 hours bus ride to the destination.
Once we got there the kids were starving so we took a snack break for the kids. During snack, my teacher gave me a Baleada. This is a traditional Honduran dish that Hondurans eat quite often for any meal of the day. The food is eaten by everyone in Honduras. There is no distinction between the poor and the wealthy by eating this. A Baleada is an all around food. Basically what it is, is a flour tortilla (there are two types of tortillas: a corn tortilla and a flour tortilla in Honduras) with smashed black beans and a runny and creamy sour cream sauce. This doesn't seem like much and not too interesting, but it is probably the best Honduran food I have had so far on this trip.
After snack time, it was time to go into the zoo. The zoo was not at all what I had imagined it to be. I figured the zoo would be something quite amazing since is was in a wealthier part of Honduras as well as being in a tropical place. However, this zoo was the most run down zoo I have ever seen. The animals lived in shacks and the only thing that surrounded them was a fence that you would see at a baseball diamond. They had almost no room to run around either. It honestly made me super sad to see this gorgeous, wild animals locked up in such a horrible environment. There were some animals that they had that were a little different than our zoo's back in the states. There were no elephants or giraffes, but they had pigs, monkeys, goats, deer, lions, tigers, snakes, a ton of birds, and an anteater. Even the animals seemed a little odd to me. It seemed like a cross between a farm and a zoo. I did get to see a Peacock that was pretty cool though because I have never seen one of those in person. The kids overall seemed to really enjoy the zoo part and always asked me how to say the animal in English. 
After spending about 2 hours at the zoo, we went to a park area close to the zoo. The park was a completely different atmosphere than the zoo. The park was absolutely breathtaking and amazing. The view from up in the mountains and looking down on the city was absolutely amazing. For the kids and staff, it was like second nature to them so I bet when they saw all the Purdue students and I freaking out about the view, they may have thought it was a little odd. In the park, we ate lunch with the kids. Many ate their normal rice and beans or tortillas and a bag of chips. I tried a chip called Ranchitas which was really good as well. It was like a really spicy dorito chip. I'm going to have to get some to bring back to the states. For lunch, we had barbecue chicken (the chicken fell straight off the bone), white rice with corn, potato salad (the sauce was definitely not made from mustard), and cactus, broccoli, and carrots. There really isn't much to say about the food. It was delicious as always.
After the park, it was time to head back to the school with the kids. On the ways home I got to the see the U.S Embassy which was cool. There was a HUGE line though in front of it. When we got back to school, the kids got picked up or walked home and then we all walked back to Zomorano. I got pretty sunburnt today so I basically just laid on the bed and read some readings until dinner. We ate dinner (honestly couldn't even tell you what we ate) and then from 6-8 was class time. The class discussion went really well today. We talked about the Palm Oil Oppression and about the culture of Honduras from the book "Don't Be Afraid Gringo." I really enjoy hearing everyone's opinion and experiences. The classes and readings are actually enjoyable, as school should be. Overall, this field trip today really got me to connect with my students and see them in a light other than school. It didn't matter the knowledge of the student or having to get things done. I was just able to see them be kids and be a kid again.
"The fact that I despise those who even try to look into my eyes
To see what I am thinking, that dream is over you, gotta sink it in,
And I tell all of you like I told all of them,
What you say to me is just paper thin."
"Paper Thin" By Astrid S
No comments:
Post a Comment