Happy Children’s Day, Independence Day, and Teacher’s Day! In Honduras, the month of September is chock-full of holidays. It’s been really fun to see how these holidays are celebrated here and join in the festivities.
Whereas in the U.S. Independence Day is celebrated for one
night, or maybe over a weekend, in Honduras it’s celebrated throughout the
entire month. Independence Day was on September 15th, but the school
has been celebrating since the 1st. Each Monday, the students
participate in what they call a “civic act”. They march in with the flag, sing
the national anthem, say the pledge of allegiance, and read patriotic poems and
essays. Each class has been working on decorating their room with streamers,
signs, banners, maps of Honduras, pictures of important historical figures; the
list goes on and on. I’ve really enjoyed learning more about the country
through my students. Did you know Honduras is home to the second largest coral
reef and the second largest botanical garden in the world? And the botanical garden
is only 7 km from Tela! As a community, Tela celebrates Honduran Independence
with lots of parades. Just about every school, including Holy Spirit,
participates in some way. Now I can check ‘March in a Honduran Independence Day
Parade’ off my list. I must say, that’s an experience I never thought I would
have!
Two other holidays that we’ve celebrated this month are
Children’s Day and Teacher’s Day. In Honduras, Children’s Day is celebrated on
September 10th. It is a day where children receive gifts, candy, and
cake. It’s almost like Christmas Day in the U.S. The children still came to
school, but we only had a half day of classes. The festivities began after
lunch. Under the covered court during a thunderstorm that took out the nearest
transformer, the high schoolers (7th through 11th grade) lead
the elementary school students (Preparatory through 6th grade) in
games and activities. It was really fun to watch the older students interact
with the younger students. After games and dancing (when the power came back
on) the school provided cake and popsicles to all the students. It was such a fun
day!
Teacher’s Day, September 17th, was celebrated in
true teacher’s style – with a day off. Between the Independence Day holiday and
Teacher’s Day, I ended up with a 5 day weekend! I took the opportunity to visit
Claire Harkey, the other YASC volunteer serving in Honduras. I took a two hour
bus ride last Saturday to “Gran Central Metropolitana”, the largest bus station
in San Pedro Sula, where Claire met me with a taxi. It was a fun and relaxing
weekend. We basically went shopping at the mall (it’s so big!), went to the
grocery store that sells U.S. products, and watched a few movies. I made it
back home to Tela safe and sound on Tuesday afternoon feeling refreshed and
excited to eat Greek yogurt, couscous, Hershey’s syrup, and turkey sandwiches.
My three day work week flew by, and now here I am on
Saturday again – no exciting adventures this weekend. However, I am enjoying
having a day to get caught up on cleaning the house and doing my laundry. Later
this afternoon, I think I may watch a movie and celebrate seven weeks in
Honduras!
