Word of the Day Wednesday

Atajo

(say ah-tAH-hoe)

atajo = short cut

Example:

*as we pull off of the highway onto the sidewalk and down a dirt road, I see bums and buzzards gathered around the banks of a dirty river. and obviously start to panic. my taxi driver sees my face in the rearview mirror and he says, "Don't worry, Hannah, it's just an atajo to your school."

and fyi, it obviously (hellloo, I'm alive and writing to tell about it!) was a short cut and it saved us about 20 minutes in traffic. he's the greatest!

"Dear Lord, help us f@$%-us"

Like I said, my new job is in a bilingual school targeted towards lower income families. Monthly tuition is probably less than you spend in gas each month. Therefore, the teachers aren't held up to quite the same standard as say, the American School.

And so I get to correct English grammar and pronunciation all day. And. I. LOVE. it.

I am a stickler for poor grammar...and bad vocabulary. And when speaking to people that speak English as a second language, I've always wanted to interrupt and be like, "oops, you mean you taught it, not you teached it." Or, "hey lady? I think you mean, excuse me miss."

Well, now it's my job to do that. !!

My favorite correction so far has been the mispronunciation of the word "focus."

"Meees," yes, all of the employees call me Ms. but pronounced Meeees, "how do you say this word?" *shows me a piece of paper with the word focus*

"How do you think you say it?" I asked.

"My English professor in the university says you say it like this - f#$%-us." (okay, hint, it rhymes with duckus)

I tried to hide the horror on my face. (helllloooo, this is a Christian school!) "No, it's definitely fOH-cuhs."

And so last Friday I did a pronunciation workshop and spent two hours going over the pronunciation of the 40+ English sounds. Like the difference between in the /th/ sound in thy and thigh. No, not die and die....which is what they kept repeating to me. Or the difference between the /i/ and the /I/ in heat and hit. Which, in case you were wondering, is not heet and heet.

:) This is so. much. fun.

reason # 1 why I love my new job

Last week, I attended one of my first staff meetings. Violeta, the owner of the school, came to the meeting and told us a story about Douglas (a teacher in the school). He is an excellent teacher and employee. And he has been dating a girl for several years. They want to get married...but they can't afford it. Sure, they could go down to the alcaldia and have a judge sign the papers, but Douglas told Violeta that every little girl grows up wanting a real wedding with a white dress, and he doesn't want his girlfriend to get married at the alcaldia because she deserves her dream wedding.

"I think we should give him a surprise wedding. Do you want to help?" she asked.

I glanced around the room, and the response was overwhelming. Everyone was raising their hands.

"We could decorate the courtyard of the school and have it here!"

"My grandmother makes really good food, she can cater it."

"I make really pretty flower arrangements, I can do that!"

"I can play the piano!"

"To pay for the supplies," Violeta explained, "we all need to chip in a little bit of money. How much can you each give?"

Keep in mind that this is a school targeted to lower income families. Most teachers there make the minimum salary of L. 5,500 (about $290/month).

I was expecting everyone to say 50 lempiras, or less. To my surprise, everyone, all 25 of them, started shouting "L. 100! L. 200! No, that's not enough, let's give L. 300 each!"

As soon as the meeting was over, I walked outside to call my husband. I told him the story with tears streaming down my face. "I can't believe we are actually stressed that we can't buy a second car. That we can't buy a house. That we can't travel back and forth to the US whenever we want. And here is this nice couple...They are not asking for a house, or a car, or money. They are asking for a simple wedding. A marriage! And my coworkers are offering up significant portions of their paychecks to throw a wedding for them! We are so blessed, Jose. And we should be more thankful for what we DO have instead of complaining about what we don't. Because we have a good marriage, and we have each other."

English skills and US degree or not...I am getting so much more out of this job than I'm putting in.

Thank you to my new friends for showing me that there are good and decent people in Honduras. :)

what's happening in Honduras?

I've been getting this question a lot because of the current political crisis. So here goes...

Things in Tegucigalpa (I can't speak for the rest of Honduras) have been mostly normal.

The city is covered in mostly pro Mel graffiti like "fuera golpistas" (get out coupsters) and "urge Mel" (hurry, Mel). (I've also started seeing anti Mel graffiti that says "Mel Narco Ladron" (Mel drug dealing thief).)

There are a lot of protests, but they are mostly peaceful. Sometimes they break windows at the fast food restaurants that are owned by a so-called golpista company. And they always spray paint walls/houses/buildings, etc, etc.

And then there was the exceptionally violent protest last week, where the Zelayistas burned a bus and a Popeye's restaurant. You can see a video of all of that here.

But, like I said, things have been mostly normal....for Honduras. And then today, out of nowhere, there were TWO marches in front of my store. One was around noon, with walking protestors.

The other was around 4:45, and lasted for hours. It was car after car after car full of protestors (and you can't help but laugh when you see all of these latinos fulfilling the stereotype with cars of 10-15 people piled in...haha). They were all laying on their horns and being incredibly annoying.

I saw one guy get out of a vehicle and spray paint the wall of a business across the street.

he is writing "fuera golpista"

At one point, the people in the backs of the trucks turned their yelling towards me, and for the first time since I've been back from the US, I was really scared of them! They saw me, obviously gringa, taking videos with my cell phone from the balcony, and started yelling "golpista, fuera golpista!" I ran inside my store and hid for the rest of the protest. ;)

And I just keep asking myself.... what's the point of all this? All they are doing is creating nuisance and chaos. Is driving through the city in a line of hundreds of cars going to convince the opposition to change their minds? No. I'm pretty sure it's just going to piss them off.

Word of the Day Wednesday

Malcriado/a
(say mAHl cree AH doh or mAHl cree AH dah)

Malcriado = bad-mannered/rude

Example (a real conversation that I had with my taxi driver yesterday):

taxi driver - That's a nice place. How much do you pay in rent?
me - You shouldn't ask that question. It's malcriado!
taxi driver - You're right, I'm sorry.

Hahahaha.

Word of the Day Wednesday (on Thursday) ;)

Futbolísticamente

(say fOOOt-bohl-leest-eek-a-mehn-teh)

I learned this new word last night while watching the Costa Rica vs. Honduras soccer game (which Honduras won 4-0, btw). I was intrigued by this word when I heard the announcer use it, because I couldn't think of an English equivalent.

After consulting my go-to online translator, and studying up on my grammar, again...I finally discovered that I was right....there is no exact translation. So, let's break it down...

futbol-ística-mente

-the first part of the word is obvious, because futbol is Spanish for soccer
-ística is an adjective that basically means "in relation to"
-and finally, mente, which is basically like adding an ly in English (creating an adverb)

So, finally, we have a sort of definition (forgive me if I'm completely butchering this word, and if you know of a better definition, please share it!)...

Futbolísticamente is sort of like saying "in relation to soccer."

Example:

Honduras es mejor, futbolísticamente.
Honduras is better, in relation to soccer.

Geez what a long Word of the Day Wednesday, haha. Only the language of a soccer-crazed culture would have a word like this...

What Book Got You Hooked?

I have always loved to read.

And so I got a little nostalgic when I came across this website: What Book Got You Hooked? "'What Book Got You Hooked?' invites readers everywhere to celebrate unforgettable books from childhood and help provide new books to the children who need them most. First Book asks visitors to share the memory of the books that made them readers and then vote for the state to receive 50,000 new books from First Book, helping to get more kids hooked on reading."

The book that got me hooked was Matilda by Roald Dahl. I read it for the first time probably close to 20 years ago. It was one of the first chapter books I ever read. And I really don't remember WHY it got me hooked, but I remember it being the first book that I was just not able to put down.

Over the years I've found a lot more books that I just couldn't put down... from the "Face on the Milk Carton" books and the "Babysitter's Club" in elementary school; to practically all of Oprah's Book Club books through high school and college; and today, to the Twilight Saga (of which I am currently obsessed).

What was the book that got YOU hooked on reading? Click the link, share the memory of the first book that made reading fun for you and then help get more kids hooked: vote for the state to receive 50,000 new books for children in need. If you don't have a state to cast your vote towards, choose my home state of KENTUCKY. :)