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| "Pulapanzak" in Honduras. It is 112 feet tall. I swam behind it! |
2. I learned how to make pupusas, baleadas, and pastelitos by hand.
3. I had two intestinal parasites, discovered I have an abnormality in my ear canals, and got malaria.
4. I sang and played guitar with 42 middle-schoolers in a performance with Honduran rock-band Montuca Soundsystem.
5. With the help of Miss Andrea and Miss Amy, I directed a musical with 18 1st-6th graders.
6. I watched a group of teachers get robbed at gunpoint at 645 am on our walking route to school.
7. I went to a Honduran funeral, 2 welcome parties, 6 birthdays, and 5 going-away parties.
8. I drank more Pepsi this year than I have every year of my whole life combined… and I never really enjoyed it.
9. Two SJBS students’ parents were murdered (this year). Prior to this year, I had never known a person whose family members were murdered. Now I know 4 of them: all students
10. I discovered how precious hot showers are to me and how I can survive without them.
11. I mastered the art of the bucket shower.
12. I was punched in the kidney by a doctor, I peed in a baby food jar at a medical clinic and paid less for medical care for the whole year than my monthly health insurance payment in the states.
13. I read 9 books. Don’t judge… this is a big step for me.
14. I rode in the bed of a truck approximately 73 times (this is an estimate).
15. I almost spent the night in a Honduran jail for not carring my ID. Lesson learned.
16. I made dinner with a team once/week for 14 people with $11.
17. I discovered that pretty much anything could be sold in a little plastic baggy.
18. I taught a whole year of science about topics that I had never learned in school.
19. I ran a science fair.
20. I was amazed by the depth of middle schoolers in a discussion about the necessity of art in our society. They actually came up with the concept that art can be used as a healing technique. Wow.
21. I gave 9 falta menores (detentions) and 2 Falta Mayores (“major dententions”)
22. I taught in pants in a classroom without A/C on numerous days that weather.com marked the “feels-like” temperature at 113.
22. I taught in pants in a classroom without A/C on numerous days that weather.com marked the “feels-like” temperature at 113.
23. I met Dina. This one is special.
24. I paraglided over Lago de Atitlan in Guatemala with Amy Marie.
25. I missed down comforters, leafy greens, farmers markets, my puppy, specialty beers, my friends, my family, and my bird. In the process, I came to appreciate them so much more.
