After exceeding pressure from my extensive network of followers (pronounced: Mike Levene and Rachel Short), I realized it was time to give a little update about the year and how things are progressing here in Honduras.
I have finally hit the meat of the year. Mike, BECA's director, told me at the beginning of the year not to become too involved in every little thing. He very clearly and frequently explained that the job is work enough and not to overextend myself before it got harry. I didn't really see it at first. School was slow, not much work to do every day. I worked my way through classrooms freely and with little stress. That was until the first of the month came up.
Bills to pay, people to pay, expense reports to fill out, and...the becado meeting. It was like a giant wave emerging from nowhere and hitting me dead on. The work had finally hit me and has hardly slowed down since.
Over the past few months there have been a number of instances in which I have been surprised by what responsibilities fall under my purview. It is not so much any one particular thing, but the summation of a number of small things. In some ways this is a nice way to work. On days where there are a bunch of little things to do, I often feel a greater sense of accomplishment. I saw something through from beginning to end, even though it was only making a schedule for something. It is all the little things that have made me incredibly more organized about my schedule. I finally realized I can no longer relay on my memory to complete everything. Not that my memory is bad, but because I actually think it is impossible for someone to remember so many little things. Not to mention half of them are asked of me in a different language.
The real work comes with the big stuff, what I am caught up with right now. Planning for the becado meeting, planning the visa renewal trip that I am not even going on, planning the trip that I AM going on, and planning a month in advance for a professional development trip in the beginning of October. Not to mention, it was the first of the month.
It has been a great experience so far, including some of the more difficult points. I enjoy the responsibility of having larger tasks to do and I am managing my time better. Admittedly when I accepted this job I relished the idea that once I left school my work would be finished. That has hardly been the case.
For me the crown jewel of it all is the work I get to do with Hondurans. Working with the scholarship families, coordinating with the other Honduran administrators, shooting the shit as often as I can with parents at school, it all is a cultural experience I felt I didn't get as much of last year and a way to improve my Spanish. About two weeks ago I went with our principal, Ms. Amarilys, to her house way up in the mountains. I picked corn with her husband and made fresh, blue-corn tortillas with her in-laws. After that weekend Amarilys gave me the nickname Semi, Semi: Semi-gringo, Semi-Catracho (the slang term for Hondurans).
In a few weeks I am going back to the mountain to pick coffee as the season is coming up. They are going to pay my salary in food. Amarilys' mother-in-law wants me to milk cows with her, but waking up at 4AM just doesn't sound that appealing to me. I will be sure to write about that adventure once I return. Who knows, you may stop by a Starbucks one day and drink a freshly brewed coffee picked by me. A long shot, but someone is going to drink it.
For now, that is my update. This weekend, while the group is traveling to get their visas renewed, I will be heading over to Copán, near the Mayan ruins, to present for BECA at a conference of the NGO's working in Honduras. Then it is off to Guatemala for a day or two to get my own visa renewed.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for the push Mike.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The Blurred Line
Things have finally slowed to a normal pace here. School started two days ago, we are down to our permanent group of 18, and everyone is settled into a workable living routine. This was a welcome change of pace on my behalf as juggling the constant visitors and deviations from the norm was very confusing while trying to get a handle on my job and what to do.
I have spent much of the past two weeks organizing. Namely I feel I might pursue a job as a locksmith or the more lucrative option: professional lock picker. I realize we are short on resources down here in Honduras, but can someone please explain why people feel the need to save old keys. If you would have stepped into my office or apartment in the past two weeks, odds were that I was sorting keys or figuring out which ones still worked. I am almost done with this task and I do feel a little sense of accomplishment.
But that is hardly what my role is as administrator. It just had to be done.
The more pressing and stressing challenge I have faced recently is that of becado (scholarship) families who have fallen upon hard times. Our agreement with the school and our goal as an organization is to provide 25% of the students at our schools with financial assistance. This mainly comes in the form of direct scholarships, but varies on how much a scholarship a particular student may receive. It all boils down to getting a half or a whole. Some of these families legitimately need the whole, others can provide enough to cover half of the costs and therefore have a responsibility that is half that of a full-scholarship family.
Last week alone I had 3 different families come to me telling me that they could not afford to send their child to school this year unless they received the other half of their scholarship. Three families, all wanting the same thing, all for different reasons, and all with different financial realities. For some it is a matter of using their money more wisely in order to have enough to pay for their child. For others it means weighing whether to send both children to school or put food on the table. My role in all this is to explain to them that we have no more scholarships to give and brainstorm other ways to send their kids to school. I have to explain financially why we cannot do this while expressing my desire for them to continue with their child's education. Worst of all, one of these students in danger of not being able to continue at our school is one of my former students' brothers, and also one of the smartest 2nd graders I know.
His family owes 5 months of late monthly tuition payments from last year which must be paid before he can start this coming school year. The payments are roughly L650 per month (or $35), but his single, working mother only makes L3,000 a month ($159). As you might imagine, putting food on the table and sending her kid to school this year would be impossible in one single payment. But it gets more complicated. She would also have to pay the one-time-a-year matriculation payment of L550 ($30) and begin her new monthly tuition payments ($17).
So just to get started this year, his family would need roughly $200 at which point she can carry on the rest of the payments herself. So why I am telling you this? Because this kid matters.
It is really hard to understand the opportunity BECA gives to its students when you have never seen the school in action or the conditions some of our students live in. Our system does not work for every kid in Honduras or even Cofradía, but it does work for some. This 2nd grader is one of the ones that would otherwise be lost in an overcrowded public school mess. This 2nd grader is going to grow up, go to college and do something great for his country. You might say it is too early to tell, but this is a kid who has an older brother who is equally as committed to look up to.
BECA's model does not allow for people to make earmarked donations for particular students, so I am asking you for a bit of trust and one less $15 meal out, 12-pack of beer, pint of Haagen Daaz ice cream, or trip to the movies. I want to help this kid but I can't do it alone. If you can, paypal me as much or as little as you can. I will pay for the cost of his back payments and rest will go to BECA.
josh.balser@gmail.com
www.becaschools.org
I have spent much of the past two weeks organizing. Namely I feel I might pursue a job as a locksmith or the more lucrative option: professional lock picker. I realize we are short on resources down here in Honduras, but can someone please explain why people feel the need to save old keys. If you would have stepped into my office or apartment in the past two weeks, odds were that I was sorting keys or figuring out which ones still worked. I am almost done with this task and I do feel a little sense of accomplishment.
But that is hardly what my role is as administrator. It just had to be done.
The more pressing and stressing challenge I have faced recently is that of becado (scholarship) families who have fallen upon hard times. Our agreement with the school and our goal as an organization is to provide 25% of the students at our schools with financial assistance. This mainly comes in the form of direct scholarships, but varies on how much a scholarship a particular student may receive. It all boils down to getting a half or a whole. Some of these families legitimately need the whole, others can provide enough to cover half of the costs and therefore have a responsibility that is half that of a full-scholarship family.
Last week alone I had 3 different families come to me telling me that they could not afford to send their child to school this year unless they received the other half of their scholarship. Three families, all wanting the same thing, all for different reasons, and all with different financial realities. For some it is a matter of using their money more wisely in order to have enough to pay for their child. For others it means weighing whether to send both children to school or put food on the table. My role in all this is to explain to them that we have no more scholarships to give and brainstorm other ways to send their kids to school. I have to explain financially why we cannot do this while expressing my desire for them to continue with their child's education. Worst of all, one of these students in danger of not being able to continue at our school is one of my former students' brothers, and also one of the smartest 2nd graders I know.
His family owes 5 months of late monthly tuition payments from last year which must be paid before he can start this coming school year. The payments are roughly L650 per month (or $35), but his single, working mother only makes L3,000 a month ($159). As you might imagine, putting food on the table and sending her kid to school this year would be impossible in one single payment. But it gets more complicated. She would also have to pay the one-time-a-year matriculation payment of L550 ($30) and begin her new monthly tuition payments ($17).
So just to get started this year, his family would need roughly $200 at which point she can carry on the rest of the payments herself. So why I am telling you this? Because this kid matters.
It is really hard to understand the opportunity BECA gives to its students when you have never seen the school in action or the conditions some of our students live in. Our system does not work for every kid in Honduras or even Cofradía, but it does work for some. This 2nd grader is one of the ones that would otherwise be lost in an overcrowded public school mess. This 2nd grader is going to grow up, go to college and do something great for his country. You might say it is too early to tell, but this is a kid who has an older brother who is equally as committed to look up to.
BECA's model does not allow for people to make earmarked donations for particular students, so I am asking you for a bit of trust and one less $15 meal out, 12-pack of beer, pint of Haagen Daaz ice cream, or trip to the movies. I want to help this kid but I can't do it alone. If you can, paypal me as much or as little as you can. I will pay for the cost of his back payments and rest will go to BECA.
josh.balser@gmail.com
www.becaschools.org
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Back in the Saddle: Cofradía Round 2
Many people asked me if I would continue the blog for a second year and at the beginning I was very hesitant to do so for a number of reasons. Most notable of the reasons was that the name of my blog is "My Year in Cofradía." Beyond the obvious lack of creativity in the title, the name is now false advertising and I could not bear defrauding my readers. But lucky for you all, I have a Jewish grandmother who, in all her wisdom gave me some sage advice, "Well, Josh, just change the name."
So I intend to do just that, the only problem is my creative juices are not flowing and I do not want another weak title so I am leaving it up to you. Think of it as a contest. You can submit suggestions for names of my blog and the winner will..well...be the name of my blog.
Again my intention here is inform you of the goings on here in Cof and attempt to entertain. I cannot guarantee any frequency of posts or shout outs. All I can hope for is that you enjoy another year of my posts and that maybe, just maybe, you will think of donating to BECA (www.bescashools.org).
After a short stint in the US, I have returned to Honduras and to San Jeronimo Bilingual School to serve another year for BECA. This year, however, I will not be racking my brain to come up with lesson plans or grading papers. I am not teaching again, instead I have signed on as the Program Administrator for the 2011-2012 BECA team. This year I have the unique experience of being team leader, overseeing BECA first year expanding into a new school, liaising between BECA and the SJBS board of directors, and managing the scholarship program that sends 35% of our students to school for free. My responsibilities are more varied, will at times be more demanding, but overall, I feel, a better match for my skills and career goals.
Having already been here a week getting to know the new job and the new team, I can only imagine the confusion of filling my post having never been in Cofradía before. I know the town, I know the school, and most importantly I understand how everything works, as crazy and backward as it may seem at times. It does feel good to back to something familiar and run into familiar faces again. I know few people who can walk into a mall in a different country and have two little girls wearing matching dresses run up and hug them screaming, "Mr. Don Josh!" Not that this has happened to me or anything. Just saying. While there is so much I do miss from home, I like to think that now I have a little home here. I have yet to go a day without seeing someone and getting a hearty "welcome back!"
I will just share one quick story about my Sunday morning before leaving you wanting more. The scholarship programs works by having families earn points to maintain their scholarship and give back to the school as they cannot financially afford to do so. Earning points can be done in a variety of ways, one of which is mowing the lawn at school. However, this is not done with your standard lawnmower, though we do have one that helps out a lot, but rather a machete. Generally speaking about 8 people show up on their assigned day and work for a few hours cutting grass and doing some basic landscaping. Today only 3 people showed up and as administrator it shows some solidarity to show up and play a part. So from 7AM until Noon today I was in ankle high to knee high grass chopping a way with a machete. I am quite surprised at how slowly it moves and how resilient grass can be. Not to mention there were only 4 people there trying to cut about an acre of grass, probably more. I can already feel how well I should sleep tonight but it did come at a cost. If you ever try this at home, wear gloves. I have about 5 blisters and am struggling to type.
All in all, I think I finally have my technique down and can work at 1/5 the pace as the regulars. I am already practicing to do it again in 2 weeks.
Until next time, check out the BECA website and donate if you can. And don't forget to submit new blog titles.
Adios.
So I intend to do just that, the only problem is my creative juices are not flowing and I do not want another weak title so I am leaving it up to you. Think of it as a contest. You can submit suggestions for names of my blog and the winner will..well...be the name of my blog.
Again my intention here is inform you of the goings on here in Cof and attempt to entertain. I cannot guarantee any frequency of posts or shout outs. All I can hope for is that you enjoy another year of my posts and that maybe, just maybe, you will think of donating to BECA (www.bescashools.org).
After a short stint in the US, I have returned to Honduras and to San Jeronimo Bilingual School to serve another year for BECA. This year, however, I will not be racking my brain to come up with lesson plans or grading papers. I am not teaching again, instead I have signed on as the Program Administrator for the 2011-2012 BECA team. This year I have the unique experience of being team leader, overseeing BECA first year expanding into a new school, liaising between BECA and the SJBS board of directors, and managing the scholarship program that sends 35% of our students to school for free. My responsibilities are more varied, will at times be more demanding, but overall, I feel, a better match for my skills and career goals.
Having already been here a week getting to know the new job and the new team, I can only imagine the confusion of filling my post having never been in Cofradía before. I know the town, I know the school, and most importantly I understand how everything works, as crazy and backward as it may seem at times. It does feel good to back to something familiar and run into familiar faces again. I know few people who can walk into a mall in a different country and have two little girls wearing matching dresses run up and hug them screaming, "Mr. Don Josh!" Not that this has happened to me or anything. Just saying. While there is so much I do miss from home, I like to think that now I have a little home here. I have yet to go a day without seeing someone and getting a hearty "welcome back!"
I will just share one quick story about my Sunday morning before leaving you wanting more. The scholarship programs works by having families earn points to maintain their scholarship and give back to the school as they cannot financially afford to do so. Earning points can be done in a variety of ways, one of which is mowing the lawn at school. However, this is not done with your standard lawnmower, though we do have one that helps out a lot, but rather a machete. Generally speaking about 8 people show up on their assigned day and work for a few hours cutting grass and doing some basic landscaping. Today only 3 people showed up and as administrator it shows some solidarity to show up and play a part. So from 7AM until Noon today I was in ankle high to knee high grass chopping a way with a machete. I am quite surprised at how slowly it moves and how resilient grass can be. Not to mention there were only 4 people there trying to cut about an acre of grass, probably more. I can already feel how well I should sleep tonight but it did come at a cost. If you ever try this at home, wear gloves. I have about 5 blisters and am struggling to type.
All in all, I think I finally have my technique down and can work at 1/5 the pace as the regulars. I am already practicing to do it again in 2 weeks.
Until next time, check out the BECA website and donate if you can. And don't forget to submit new blog titles.
Adios.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Not as Much Blood as I Thought
It has been 263 days since I first stepped off the airplane in Honduras. It has been 262 days since I first set out to kill a chicken.
Being a carnivore I felt that is was necessary for me to justify my eating habits by being able to kill what I eat. That and the fact that I walk by a chicken farm 2 times a day, 5 times a week and I am in Honduras, I thought that the time was right and when else would I be able to go out and hunt me own meal.
For 262 days I have made my intentions known to the group but sadly they had become the brunt of a joke.
"I'm going to kill a chicken this weekend guys. Jose told me I could."
"Ooookkkkkaaaay Josh, whatever you say."
Admittedly, I had talked a big game but never actually came through in the end. That was until recently...
One of my students, Reina, has a number of chickens at her house that she cares for because they lay her eggs. Lately those chickens had been laying eggs elsewhere and therefore they had no more need to keep the chickens around. Reina came to school 2 weeks ago and told me that her family planned to sell the chickens, including one known as El Asesino (the assassin) for having killed one of the other chickens. Reina's family knew my intentions and so I forbade them to sell El Asesino and that instead, we would kill him. Well, they listened and Reina showed up to school this Monday without even saying hello. She only had one question:
"Don Josh, will you be there Saturday?"
"Saturday? What are you talking about?"
"To kill...El Asesino"
"YES!"
I awoke this morning because my nerves were jumpy...I was to commit murder and then celebrate the killing with a feast. Earlier in the week I contracted Norah to accompany me to bare witness and prove it to the group and to document, via camera, the slaughter.
40 cents later I was at Reina's house standing over my prey, helpless and shackled to a plastic chair. Preparations did not take long. I reviewed the procedure with Mirian, Reina's mom, where she walked me through every step and handed me the murder weapon - the smallest, most blunt knife you could imagine.
Removing the chicken from the chair and tightening the ropes around its "ankles," we hung him upside down from a nail in a cement column allowing the blood to rush to his head. Brandishing my weapon, El Asesino began to shutter, making one last attempt to hold on to life and escape to the empty lot next door. His attempts were futile and he resigned to death.
Holding its head back with my thumb I slit its neck and left it for dead, watching as its nerves sputter until falling into a never-ending sleep. At last the movement stopped. Hanging motionless and limp, El Asesino has gotten his just punishment. He who kills shall be killed.
All in all it was not as much blood as I had hoped for nor as emasculating as one would think. But still I killed a chicken. Now it was time to eat.
First you pour scalding hot water over it to remove the feathers. We worked rapidly as to not allow the skin to cool and make it more difficult.
After all the noticeable feathers are removed, you suspend the chicken over a small fire to remove any remaining feathers or hair and to remove the skin from the feet.
Next quarter the chicken and remove the stuff you can't eat, cleaning each part as you go.
Finally, throw it all in boiling water, cut up some veggies, add a little chicken consommé and let the soup run its course.
Less than 3 hours after I killed the chicken, we were all sitting around the table enjoying a nice bowl of chicken soup, rice and corn tortillas.
I can now say officially that I have killed my own food and feel satisfied that I regularly enjoy chicken sold in sealed packages.
Being a carnivore I felt that is was necessary for me to justify my eating habits by being able to kill what I eat. That and the fact that I walk by a chicken farm 2 times a day, 5 times a week and I am in Honduras, I thought that the time was right and when else would I be able to go out and hunt me own meal.
For 262 days I have made my intentions known to the group but sadly they had become the brunt of a joke.
"I'm going to kill a chicken this weekend guys. Jose told me I could."
"Ooookkkkkaaaay Josh, whatever you say."
Admittedly, I had talked a big game but never actually came through in the end. That was until recently...
One of my students, Reina, has a number of chickens at her house that she cares for because they lay her eggs. Lately those chickens had been laying eggs elsewhere and therefore they had no more need to keep the chickens around. Reina came to school 2 weeks ago and told me that her family planned to sell the chickens, including one known as El Asesino (the assassin) for having killed one of the other chickens. Reina's family knew my intentions and so I forbade them to sell El Asesino and that instead, we would kill him. Well, they listened and Reina showed up to school this Monday without even saying hello. She only had one question:
"Don Josh, will you be there Saturday?"
"Saturday? What are you talking about?"
"To kill...El Asesino"
"YES!"
I awoke this morning because my nerves were jumpy...I was to commit murder and then celebrate the killing with a feast. Earlier in the week I contracted Norah to accompany me to bare witness and prove it to the group and to document, via camera, the slaughter.
40 cents later I was at Reina's house standing over my prey, helpless and shackled to a plastic chair. Preparations did not take long. I reviewed the procedure with Mirian, Reina's mom, where she walked me through every step and handed me the murder weapon - the smallest, most blunt knife you could imagine.
Removing the chicken from the chair and tightening the ropes around its "ankles," we hung him upside down from a nail in a cement column allowing the blood to rush to his head. Brandishing my weapon, El Asesino began to shutter, making one last attempt to hold on to life and escape to the empty lot next door. His attempts were futile and he resigned to death.
Holding its head back with my thumb I slit its neck and left it for dead, watching as its nerves sputter until falling into a never-ending sleep. At last the movement stopped. Hanging motionless and limp, El Asesino has gotten his just punishment. He who kills shall be killed.
First you pour scalding hot water over it to remove the feathers. We worked rapidly as to not allow the skin to cool and make it more difficult.After all the noticeable feathers are removed, you suspend the chicken over a small fire to remove any remaining feathers or hair and to remove the skin from the feet.
Next quarter the chicken and remove the stuff you can't eat, cleaning each part as you go.
Less than 3 hours after I killed the chicken, we were all sitting around the table enjoying a nice bowl of chicken soup, rice and corn tortillas.
I can now say officially that I have killed my own food and feel satisfied that I regularly enjoy chicken sold in sealed packages.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
A Day with Nando
To describe Rigo would be nearly impossible. He is the spacy, bothersome, low-ability, short-tempered scapegoat of my class. Rigo is also hilarious, silly, has more personality than most students, a soccer fiend, and loves his parents more than anything else in the world. Rigo is a never-ending nightmare in class but one of my absolute favorites when he is out of school. It really is hard to put into words the strange amalgamation or negativity and slapstick comedy that is Rigo. You just have to see it to understand--4 months of observation should be enough.
In part because Rigo is such a difficult student, I have had the pleasure of getting to know his family over the course of the year. Well, that and Samira lived with them during her homestay, so we go over there a lot--just to go. They are a warm, welcoming family and eternally grateful of the service we are providing them, mainly because the parents never had access to this type of education. I even get to call Rigo by his nickname, Nando, when at their.
Rigo's family is also one of the poorest families at our school but only with in the past 2 years has it gotten so bad.
Don Rigo, Nando's father has been sick about 2 years. In the past 24 months there has been a growing mass on his prostate that has caused him unmanageable discomfort to the point that he has been using a catheter for a few weeks now. However, it was not until this year that the pain has completely taken away his ability to work and provide for his family. This has put an unimaginable financial strain on the family. And on top of it all he required a very expensive surgery to remove the growth.
This past Thursday Don Rigo received his surgery by virtue of an anonymous donor and his personal efforts to lower his blood pressure so that they could safely perform the surgery. This surgery had been pending for the past month and a half and has been a constant worry for his family.
Rigo (Nando) however, had not seen his father or mother since last Wednesday. So on Saturday Samira, Andrea and I took Rigo on a little field trip to San Pedro to see his dad. Above anything else Rigo absolutely adores his father, even more than soccer, which is really saying something. But upon reaching the hospital (about a 2 hour journey in the sweltering heat and many bus transfers) Rigo was not allowed upstairs because he was too young.
He didn't show it, but if you knew Rigo you could tell that he was very upset. So he waited downstairs for an hour while we met with his dad and made jokes about how he didn't want to eat another cucumber for the rest of his life. After visiting hours were over we went downstairs to meet Rigo and take him back to Cofradía. This last part was a bit of a surprise to us as we had plans in San Pedro, but we couldn't leave him in the lobby of this hospital until his cousin went home.
Nando looked pretty hungry and depressed but it was hard to tell which was worse. But we had to cheer him up and also get some food in his body. So we decided that we would take him to eat first and then go home.
I have never seen a child identify a Pizza Hut stand in a mall food court faster than Rigo did on Saturday. There was not a shadow of a doubt that he wanted pizza and nothing was going to stop him. But it was at the counter that I realized this little 10 year old boy could not have been farther out of his element. He was not sure what to do when the woman asked him for his order and when he went to retrieve his food, he completely missed the pickup spot. But he definitely knew what to do with his slices and his iced tea.
After that Rigo wasn’t so quiet. Samira and I talked it over for a little and realized that he must still be pretty bummed about not seeing his dad. Since we were at the mall, we thought it a good idea to check the kids’ movie times to see if there was something playing.
The decision was made in about .9 seconds:
“Rigo, is there anything else you would like to do while we are here in the mall?”
“No.”
“What about a movie? Would you like to see a movie?”
(head shaking furiously in the affirmative.)
And there you have it, I saw a dubbed version of Rango with one of my students and got more enjoyment out of listening to him giggle and watching him squirm with excitement than the movie itself. But now I kind of want to see it in English so that I know what happened.
Rigo would never admit it, but despite not being able to see his dad, I think we turned his bad day into a pretty good one. It was also a great opportunity for me to spend some time with him and show him that even though I get mad all the time for the way he acts in class, I still care a lot about him and his family. Whether he understands that, I will never know. And chances are he is going to take someone's pencil tomorrow and everything will be just like normal.
But that might not be so bad.
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