Today was the annual “Day of the
Child” celebration all across Honduras.
I have been hearing about it since the first day of in-service, but I
never really received details about what we were celebrating. Well, today I learned – it truly is just a
day to celebrate children. We celebrate
by doing things all children love; we played games, ate a lot of super
delicious sweets, took our turns at a piñata, and laughed a lot.
When I
arrived at school we immediately went to the church and as a school we started
the day in prayer. It was awesome to see
teachers being thankful for their students and students being thankful for each
other. From there, the secondary
students boarded a bus to go to a public school in a less fortunate Aldea. We brought snacks and piñatas with us. Since I’m the homeroom teacher for 8th
grade and teach all of the upper grades, I got to go with them.
After a 30-minute bus ride up the mountain
filled with teenagers being teenagers (singing along to the radio, eating
snacks, and chatting away) we finally arrived at this beautiful little piece of
land with 6 small, garage sized, buildings on it. Each building had two classrooms in it, fully
equipped with chalkboards and desks. It
was such a beautiful school. My heart
longed to be there every day, serving these students who struggle to make ends
meet.
Quickly, I
learned that God has placed me at the ICB for a reason and although my heart
longs to one day possibly teach at a school like that, I am blessed to be where
I am. The language barrier was jarring
to me. All of these beautiful brown eyed
children ran up to me and my students, expecting me to know what was going
on. I greeted them “Hola!” But that is
where my Spanish and international game ideas ended. I know a TON of games to play with children,
but I didn’t know how to communicate ANY of it in Spanish. Luckily, I am blessed to have amazing
students who saw me struggling and stepped in to help. Carlos immediately being leading a game of
“Mar y Tierra,” and the children laughed and laughed. I loved seeing him be a leader as my other
students quickly stepped up to help him.
Aaron stepped in to help be my translator as I talked with the other
teacher from the Aldea. I am so grateful
for students like Carlos and Aaron. They
are so willing to help others and are great examples of what it means to have a
servant’s heart.
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| Aaron and Gustavo leading the kiddos in a game! |
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| Carlos leading "Mar y Tierra"! |
After playing a few different
games, my class rounded up all of the little ones we were in charge and we
shared a delicious cake, a ton of cookies, and some pop - a prayer first, of
course. The smiles on the faces of the
children and the laughter between my students and the kids were such a joy to
see. After everyone had their fill of
sugar, we went back outside for the much anticipated piñata!
It was my
first experience with a piñata here in Central America and we had 3 for our
group! It was awesome watching as they seamlessly took turns and counted each
persons number of hits. Everyone got a
chance and each time candy rained down on them they shrieked with joy and
scurried about collecting their fair share.
After we were done with the piñatas and cleaned up, we went back to
school.
When we arrived, the elementary
students were playing. The elementary
students stayed at school all day and had their own celebration. There was
bounces houses and a clown! The kids were all wound up because they ate so many
cupcakes, cookies, and pizza all day long.
My students started playing soccer and included the little one that wanted to play. Everyone was just relaxed and
having fun until the busses arrived.
Overall, it was a wonderful day with many, many blessings! My students are awesome and I would have been so overwhelmed and unable to function without them. It was amazing to see God working through them to share joy and love with those that are less fortunate then them. God is good!
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| Gustavo, Carlos, Aaron, and Hector - 4 of my superstars for the day! |
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