It is hot. Really hot. Every shady spot along the street is crammed with lawn chairs, occupied by mothers fanning squirming toddlers and grandparents waving flags. Vendors walk the winding paths, hawking their offerings of cold drinks and patriotic paraphernalia Teenagers roam in packs with no real destination in mind, eying their peers of the opposite gender. The parade moves haltingly down the main street in the glaring sun, public officials flanked by military personnel. The high school band follows in full uniform, pounding drums, blasting “I Will Survive” while staff members towel beads of sweat off their brows. Is it the Fourth of July in September? No way. Happy Honduran Independence Day (and every other Central American country)!
While I am often surprised and puzzled by the plethora of holidays Honduran government sanctions, I must give them some appreciation for bunching them all together. Within a week, we celebrated the Day of the Child, the Honduran Independence Day, and Day of the Teacher. Translation: about a week and a half of special programming, parties and vacation. Here we go!
The festivities began last Thursday with the Señorita Independencia contest as part of Month of the Patria, sponsored by the city of La Ceiba. A hybrid of a geography bee and a beauty pageant, almost every school in the city had a senior class representative in the competition, 20 participants total. Dressed in flowing, sequenced gowns adorned in jungle motifs, the ladies gave speeches and answered trivia questions pertaining to Honduras’ past and the students future aspirations for themselves, their school, and their country. They also struck their favorite poses, a la Project Runway for the cheering crowd. Performances of pop hits, ethnic Garifuna drumming, and Christian rock music filled in between events.
It was a well run event by all accounts. The only issue was the timing. The entire secondary school attended the event to support our contestant (it was required). So did every other school, which meant that there were easily 700 people packed into a gym with no air conditioning or fans at the hottest time of the day. The snack shop, which made an absolute killing on the day, ran out of cold drinks in the first half hour. Needless to say, I spent most of the day playing bounty hunter, trying to find the students who decided they had had enough of the spectacle and took off. Probably would have been a better evening event instead of losing the entire school day, but why would the government want us to have school?
Day of the Child, celebrated on Friday, was another resounding success at Holy Trinity. Instead of just throwing a party for themselves, the students planned a party and brought it to a less fortunate community. The 10th grade did such a great job last year that we expanded the program to the entire secondary school. The 7th, 8th, and 9th graders returned to the squatter community along the old Standard Fruit rail line known as La Linea. I joined the 10th and 11th grade to the Clinica, which is a Trinity sponsored health center that provides medical treatment for local families at a reduced cost. The majority of their patrons are poor teen mothers with young children, and those were the kids who came.
The students were on the ball serving a snack and organizing activities as soon as the kids arrived. Everyone then gathered outside for the inviolable smashing of the piñata. We found some shady trees and I climbed up to set the string. This particular piñata was super reinforced to the point where even after every kid beat on it with all their might, it had minimal damage. Hoping to avoid mixing young children, free candy and a violently unpredictable broom handle, I elected to climb the tree again with the piñata and do the much safer “rain of candy”. The added benefit was I could control the flow and distribution so that the less aggressive children got a good haul of sweets. My climbing of the tree produced plenty of laughs and pictures and resulted in a minor splitting of my pants. All part of the job.
The party continued for another couple hours and included musical chairs, steal the bacon, cake and coca cola and a dance-off where I was properly “served” by a precocious ten year old with more dance skills in his right pinky than I have in my entire body. It was hilarious. I was happy to see the students taking initiative and connecting with the children at the Clinica, dancing with them and encouraging participation in the games. We returned to school where the students busted open their own piñata then took off for the weekend, a job well done.
Monday was another party day, this time celebrating the Independence Day (don’t we have vacation for that?). Every class put on a skit for the school that celebrated Honduras’ folk and literary heritage, which I found educational once somebody explained to me what the heck was going on. I never get tired of watching the elementary children dress up in cowboy hats and long skirts and dance with each other. They are too cute. Thanks to the 10th grade, I learned that Honduras has its own version of the headless horseman tale, which is especially entertaining when the “horse” is covered in globs of ketchup (blood?) and the horseman’s head is a pineapple. I also learned the folk tale of the witch, “La Sucia”, a woman jilted by her lover who haunts the riverbanks in her wedding dress. One of my 8th grade boys played a very convincing witch to the delight of the primary students. Following the assembly, the students had a traditional meal of boiled yucca and fried pork skins with ketchup (not in my top ten). As for class, neither the students nor the faculty seemed particularly interested so I folded my tent and enjoyed the company, while discretely avoiding the food.
Tuesday classes were cancelled to celebrate the Day of the Teacher (Ironic? I agree). The administration sponsored transportation and food for an all day barbeque at a local park for the staff. It was a great opportunity for everybody to mingle and relax in a beautiful environment, which had a stream full of fish flowing through the middle and was a short walk from the ocean. There were tons of trees heavy with fruits I had never seen before that many of the teachers picked by the bag to take home. The grilled chicken and pork were accompanied by tortillas, refried beans, salsa and lots of soda. A true feast. Most of us retreated to the river and the beach to avoid the burrowing flies that were chasing everyone from the shade. From the beach, we watched an afternoon storm system crash into La Ceiba, while we remained completely dry. My favorite highlight of the afternoon was throwing bits of fruit rinds into the river and watching the fish ferociously swarm and fight over them. It was like vegetarian piranhas feeding. A great trip to bring the staff together.
September 15th, the actual day of Central American Independence, was the first day of the five day vacation. Most schools participated by marching down the street in their school uniforms, walking in a sort of shuffle step and performing coordinated salutes whenever the parade got backed up (Trinity got a reprieve this year but will be on the march next year). The public high school band played an eight song repertoire without music in sweltering heat and looked like they were having fun. I was so impressed that I followed it all the way to the downtown. I checked in at Holy Trinity on my way home, and enjoyed one more round of Honduran barbeque to support their fund raiser.
After a relaxing week, I am excited to get back to school on Monday and begin the second half of the first term. While I have enjoyed the break, it will be nice to not have to worry about which holiday we are celebrating and how many of my classes will be disrupted. Hopefully, my students will return to class refreshed and motivated and not quite so dramatic when I assign them homework.
It is encouraging to see so much pride in a country that has many daunting challenges to confront. I have loved seeing the students participating in the celebration but hope they can take that enthusiasm and harness it productively as they pursue their education. I am optimistic that the students of Honduras will carry their country toward a better economic and political future. I will keep working to help them in every way I can.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
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