There's not a lot of soap at school

And by not a lot, I mean that I haven't seen literally any.

I went to school on Tuesday, the morning after my arrival. I got up at 6am, which wasn't real ideal. My initial impression of school? Crazy - kids running around and yelling and hugging me and touching me and sometimes attempting to speak English. It wasn't bad or anything, but it also wasn't the easiest situation to enter into as a 17-year-old in a completely new country, running on very little sleep. But I have to admit, getting hugs from five-year-olds who didn't even know my name was a little cute.

After having now been at school for three days, I'm getting so much more used to the level of chaos. So far this week I've been teaching with Amanda, who was covering my classes until I got here. And after watching her teach and manage a classroom, and after listening to the volunteers, I've come away with my first major observation on education here: teachers must constantly yell and use extremely loud voices to command the attention of their classrooms. While in part this is due to a cultural response to loud authority, it also owes to the fact that the classrooms here are not built to absorb the sounds of screaming children - rather they amplify the noise. So in order to be heard, one must yell, and the rooms are never ever completely quiet. After teaching both kindergarten and second grade today, my voice was hoarse. However, I am able to see the kindergarteners learning about sunshine versus rain and hot versus cold, which is actually good. The second graders, on the other hand, have no main English teacher, but rather an assortment of teachers covering their classes until another volunteer can come down. They are completely insane and don't seem to be learning a whole lot right now. I tried to teach them about the eye and pupil dilation today and only a few of them grasped the whole "less light, bigger pupils" idea. So if anyone is looking to come volunteer with me, second grade will love you.

But back to the soap issue. It's no secret that I'm sort of a germophobe. I really don't like sharing germs and I really like staying clean. Thus, the whole no soap in the bathrooms or anything is kind of getting to me. Especially with kids all over me all the time. But I've decided it will be good for me, even if only by toughening my immune system.

I think that the bagged drinks will probably also toughen my immune system, along with basically everything I eat ever. The food at school is extremely salty and the meat is somewhat sketchy and unidentifiable. None of the food is by any means bad, it's just not the organic whole grains and vegetables that I have spent 17 years consuming. Plus, the two meals each day at school are free. I am expanding my palate by putting avocado and scrambled eggs (two foods I'm not super into) in the breakfast baleadas, a sort of Honduran burrito. I've heard that baleadas purchased outside of school, as well as other Honduran food, is really good, but I haven't yet ventured out to purchase any dinners. I've also found that most Honduran food is fried, and that there exists no concept of health here. 

I, along with the other volunteers, plan to survive on rice, beans, and fresh produce. That's what I can afford to purchase for dinner and it is the cheapest food that exists here. After realizing that I had to begin grocery shopping and cooking for myself, I went to the market and bought a fairly random assortment of food that I felt could sustain me at least for a little while. Somehow I ended up with a large bag of milk, and I really don't like to drink milk. So we'll see how that goes. I've eaten rice, cucumber, and tomato for the last two nights. Tonight I got a little adventurous and added hot sauce as well. I'll learn to make beans this weekend. And I'm really starting to appreciate inventions such as the rice cooker and crock pot that enable me to feel like I know how to cook back home. 

Tomorrow I'll start teaching lessons even more on my own. We'll see how that goes. Worst case scenario I'll give up on teaching English grammar and I'll start a school-wide health campaign. It'll be pro-vegetables and anti-germs.