Feria de Sociales

So I'm fairly certain that I can safely say I have a favorite day here in Honduras and a best day yet (cause' obvi more are to come...but anyways....). Friday was the feria de sociales at school followed by Honduran Halloween. It's a pretty great combo and each deserve their own spotlight so I'll post about both separately. Also, blog post logistic, check out the link on the side for videos of what I'm about to describe!

So Friday we didn't have regular school, instead we celebrated the school's first feria de ciencias sociales or Social Studies Fair. In the most simple explanation one could liken it to a cultural/heritage day in the US or a country diorama presentation day. I've essentially done the project before--4th grade create a representation of what it was like to live in the prairie during the 1800s or 6th grade celebrate Greece with Greek day or cook a dish from your family's heritage or United Nations Day. Essentially it was your typical day to celebrate your country, learn about its traditions and cultures and share it with the school, family, and community. It's been done before, but as I knew I could expect, there are no representations, models, or short-lived presentations. I've decided that Hondurans don't believe in posters or dioramas, I mean why go through the work of building a model when you could just do the real thing? So that's exactly what they did.

Honduras has 18 departments. So the departments were divided among the grades so that each had roughly 2 departments to portray. The students worked tirelessly to learn abou their department--the environment, culture, people, food, history, culture, lifestyles, clothes, animals, plants, music, you name it--they knew it. Then they worked in class, at home, and with their parents to develop a champita. A champita is I guess what we would call a hut in the US, or a very simple, traditional home. So all this week parents from each grade level showed up at school and legit built champitas. They nailed the wood together, covered it with leaves, bamboo, straw, etc. and essentially built life-size huts. It was insane the amount of time and work that must have gone into building those. From there they spent hours decorating each champita to represent their departments.

champitas

My students did the departments Paraíso and Francisco Morazán. One of the best parts of this day was that it was a huge learning experience for me. I got to learn, live, and experience Honduran culture around the country. I learned a lot! Francisco Morazán is where Tegucigalpa, the capital is. It's the most like business-focused area of Honduras so the students decorated the inside of their champita with mannequins sitting at a desk working and dressed in suits. They also had plants from the departments, spices, herbs, animal representations, and a marimba. In the champita for Olancho the students had a fire going with somebody making tortillas and coffee. In the champitas for the more tropical departments there were live parrots and turtles. They also had people to braid hair.

Turtle action

In addition to the champitas there were presentations. We built a large performance stage, which terrified me. It didn't exactly seem safe or secure, but what do I know. On both sides of the stage there was seating for the kids, families, and judges. Each class was responsible for defending their departments. So about 8 kids per class got up on stage and shared a memorized speech with everybody about the history and culture of their area. I was amazed that even the 4 year old Kinders did this! I felt so bad for them, some of them were so scared and completely forgot what to say, others left the stage sobbing. Poor kiddos. One girl in prepa, cried through her whole speech, but she did it! I was so proud of her that I started crying as well. My students did a really good job. I was super impressed and happy to watch them present.

I was so proud of David speaking here, because he can really struggle in school, but he did it!

Their parents were right there to coach and help them through as needed. One of my girls (always an overachiever) had some sort of graph and beans visual aid to help with her speech. I was incredibly proud of their confidence and speaking skills. The older grades had even more elaborate presentations with styrofoam posters and visual aids. Overall all the kids did a fantastic job sharing information and talking about their research.

In addition the expositions, there was a contest for the India/o Bonita/o del 2011. So one girl from each grade dressed up as an Indian and walked the runway. Three boys did it too.

Then they each gave about a minute long speech to the judges explaining their costumes and how it represented his or her department. Lineth went for 1st grade. She was beautiful! Well, she always is. But she was wonderful, her costume was great, and her speech was so slow, careful, and honest. She was the winner for the Kinder-grade 2 contest.

For the older grades, the winner was a 4th grader and HOLY COW did she ever deserve to be the winner. Even though a grumpy Honduran behind me was complaining that she doesn't have any legit Indian blood in her, she by a landslide had the BEST costume. She was stunning, complete with a Peacock headdress and shoes and just ever tiny little detail.

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My class also performed a lovely traditional dance. They each wore a traditional white dress or pants outfit and had a partner. They were so cute and did a really great job with it. They did so well that the crowd asked for an encore. Hooray 1st grade!

Andres and Lizzy--dancing partners.

The best part of it all though was the FOOD (obvi a huge part of culture and representing a place). So each champita also had a ton of food for purchase. I can't even begin to recall everything I ate, but I can certainly tried. From my 1st graders I had horchata, tamales, and a corn rice soup with a banana and brisket-esque meat (reallllly good). I also had arroz con leche, tableta de coco, fried fish, ceviche (a cold fish soup), a sweet plantain and meat soup, plantains, yucca, chicharron, pan de coco, squash with honey, salad, and much much more. It was so good.

The only downside of the day was that the speeches, dancing, beauty contest lasted a good 3 hours. It's just very different from home. Here, I'm told, longer is always better. So the length was a positive thing. But it's also okay to talk, play around, get up and buy food, hang out in the champitas, or with your friends during said presentations. Personally I would have preferred shorter performances in which everybody is listening, than longer, more elaborate ones, in which most people are playing around, but chalk that up to cultural differences.

Marimba band!

I think that the best part of the day though for me was that it was just the best school event I'd ever been to. It was the PERFECT mix of fun, learning, hands-on, teamwork. I've never seen such dedication from students, parents, and teachers to make an event come together. We stayed after school late some days to prepare for this day. Parents attended meetings, came after school, spent days building and cooking, making costumes and practicing with their children. The kids learned SO much about the departments and were so proud and willing to share their knowledge with you. When the judges came by to judge our champita, each of my students presenting stood with their parents and showed the judges. I watched Alexa and her mom talk about the traditional foods. It was great to watch them explain them and then offer plates to the judges. There was positive collaboration between the Spanish and English teachers. Somebody mentioned how one of the parents said that they loved this day because they had the opportunity to learn so much. I learned, the kids learned, the parents learned, I worked, the kids worked, the parents worked, I had fun, the kids had fun, the parents had fun. It was a day filled with such positive country pide too. In a country that is so poor and where I often just hear thoughts of, well I just want to go to the US, it was great to see the kids talking about the great things Honduras has to offer. I am just amazed by the positivity, energy, enthusiasm that was present from all the people involved. I felt like a truly united team with my Spanish counterpart, my students, and each of their parents. It was one of those days where I was like, this is what school should be like, this is what learning is, and this is why I teach. (Plus 1st grade won :-) ) hahah.

"Now i realize what we all are, and if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people they are all walking around shining like the sun."

-Thomas Merton