Mi grandmother tener pulperia

This blog post will be devoted entirely to the cute things Honduran kids say. Most of these are from my own students, but a few I stole from Michelle's stories of her third graders. We have lots of time (an hour on the bus in the mornings) to swap silly stories of our crazy kiddos. Also, in tribute to the love of Santa Clara kids, check out one special kid who needs a sponsor to continue to attend school. Sponsor Hector!

From week 1:
“Ah! I have ants! I have ants!” says Oscar as he flings his lunchbox around the room and swats at it with both hands, all his food containers on the floor.
“Oscar! Put the lunch box away. You are in fourth grade. You should know. If you have ants, go outside with your lunch box.” –Ms. Susong. On adjusting to teaching in Honduras.

“Meez, Meez! Meez!” I am now serenaded with this sound throughout the room all day.

When the kids don't like what you're telling them to do: "Awwww.... but MEEZ...!"

When they are finished: "I FINISHED, MEEZ! FINISHED!" and they run to my desk, where I shoo them away and tell them "Sit in your seat! Raise your hand!" It is very hard to re-train habitual behaviors.

“Meez, you have girlfriend?” one of my boys asked the first week of school. “No, I do not have a boyfriend.” You figure out quickly what they meant to say, and learn not to skip a beat in the response.

“One time?” Leo asks about how many times he should complete each spelling word for practice. “Yes, just one time.” “I, 5 times!” So glad I have at least one over-achiever!

One morning a child asks me at random, "What is the name of your mother?" I launch into a humorous discussion of the different uses of formal address in English- Miss, Ms. and Mrs., and how I can be Ms. Susong while my mom and both of my sisters-in-law are all Mrs. Susong. The kids thought this was hilarious and very confusing. Then I told them my mom is coming to visit in October. To which the kids immediately replied, "Oo!! She will bring us chocolate!" Apparently this is what American mothers do when they visit Honduras. Or so my students think. Mom, are you packing the chocolate yet?!

Michelle insists that her third graders must be trying to dumb down their Spanish for her benefit when trying to tell her something. They don't conjugate the verbs: "Meez, mi grandma tener pulperia." It certainly is odd... either they think Ms. Byrne needs help understanding them, or they are forgetting how to actually conjugate verbs in Spanish.

From month two:
Some early finishers are helping me prepare question cubes for an English lesson. After cutting for several minutes, Angie Marcela sees me folding the paper into cubes and realizes what I am making. Her eyes get really wide and she claps her hands together, "Oh Meez! I am exCITed!" Amazingly, this is the very lesson we will be doing... conjugating to be verbs in the present tense! Love it when the lesson is a hit!

I am hurriedly counting out stacks of 20 cards and stapling together vocabulary books for the kids to fill in for homework. Jason walks by my desk, observes my quick-dealing, and says, "La Meez debia trabajar al banco." (The Miss should work at a bank.) LOL, I wish this was money!

A near daily routine in my morning class: I enter for the first time, with the students, as we all rode the same bus together to school. A child runs to my desk: "Meez Sooo-song, Meez Sooo-song! Sapo muertó!" to which I reply: "Go get Edwin." Edwin is my designated dead-frog remover. He gets some toilet paper and picks up the shriveled, dried frog and carries it outside. Then he shows up at my desk and holds out his hand: "One ticket, miss!" This is his payment for dead-frog disposal. I am so grateful for Edwin.

It is October 1st and I'm explaining to the students that October is a big month for American kids because Halloween is at the end. My students who have lived in the U.S. are eager to share their reports of this kid-centric holiday. Oscar relates: "OOO! Halloween... una feriada que rico! You.. you... dress up and you get candy!" The kids are super excited that I said we can celebrate by carving watermelon and papayas into jack-o-lanterns. There are no pumpkins in Honduras. They have been so inspired, that every day at recess a new jack-o-lantern drawing with the phrase "Halloween is comin" appears on the white board. Today I even graded a spelling test with Favio's Halloween doodles, which included the regular pumpkin plus a ghost. Jason even asked how Halloween got started. I may have to do some research for this lesson! In the U.S., kids are happy with the candy and don't ask too many questions.

Today we sang Happy Birthday to Rafael, and at the end the kids broke into their usual Spanish nonsense birthday song afterwards. Something about "quieremos pastel..." that ends with "para los viejitos café! y el pan para diez!" to which they love to add "para las maestras café! Para Miss Susong café!" The kids get cake and Coke, and the old people get coffee. Amused at their culture's version of "and many more, on channel 4...", and not being able to understand the entire song since the kids shout it out together 20 at a time, I asked the class to each tell me one line of the song and then translate it into English while I wrote it on the board. Something was lost in translation, because I realized after several phrases and the recess bell that they were just thinking up random sentences for me to write and then translating them. It does make an interesting sort of song though, and I think most of the sentences are true about each student's dad:

Mi papá come pollo
Mi papá come pizza
Mi papá fue a Japón
Mi papá es peludo - this one got lots of laughs. It means "My dad is hairy."
Mi papá es alto
Mi mamá viajó a España
Mi papá es electrista
Mi mamá es dentista

This Monday was my turn to give the English translation of the valor of the week at Acto Civico. This week's value was "Solidarity", a hefty term for 1-6 graders. I made a big emphasis on the helpful and loving nature of solidarity, and how we can show solidarity to teachers, doñas, and students at school, asking for examples from the students. The 6th graders actually understood me, along with my own students, and had many examples to share. Ever since, a few of my boys have made a huge deal out of carrying my bags for me to the classroom each morning. I may be living in Honduras, but for the 2-minute walk from the front entrance to my classroom in the morning, I feel like a queen! Thanks David, Miguel, and Alex! This morning, Alex got held back at uniform inspection (if the kids wear the wrong color shoes or type of pants to school, they have to sit in the library to do their work until their parents bring them the proper clothing. Don't ask. It's Honduras.) Several of my students ran up to me to explain, "Meez! Alex. He is back there. He- the shoes. Your backpack!" I had to walk back and retrieve my backpack from the sheepish-looking Alex, standing there in his white shoes (on a black shoe day) and tell him thank you very much sweetie, for carrying my backpack, but I need that for class. If that's not a mixed message... Good grief!