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.
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