Another Grad

We are definitely enjoying the buzz of excitement around another group of students completing a grade of studies. Monday saw 70 students receive certificates. Yeni, Edel, Manuel and the CPI Honduras Board organized the whole event. It went without a hitch so kudos to them all.

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

A number of observations:

 Maria Elsa, Gabina, Elin Banessa and José Erbin all took three Grades in our program. In less than eighteen months they completed three years of study.

It was also encouraging to see the way in which this educational opportunity has affected the self image of our students. Maria Elsa and Elin, especially, were very shy and retiring when they began. They even dressed in a very quiet way so as to make themselves invisible. As they have progressed in their studies, their dress and mannerisms have changed. It was moving to watch these students speak confidently in front of over 150 people.

A year of Junior High may not seem like a lot to people in some countries but here it is obviously something of great import. Notice the extent to which many of the students dressed up to celebrate their achievement. To be honest, I wore my best as well ... but certainly achieved nothing as spectacular ... sigh.

Two of the Grade Nine grads are planning on entering a Teachers’ College in January (Gabina and José Erbin). Less than two years ago, these two were looking at a rather bleak future. Now they can imagine and achieve a career as professionals. (Quietly do the Wave as you spin in your office chair.)

There were several groups of students who graduated because of the efforts of community members who were concerned enough to organize a learning centre in their homes. For me, this is especially exciting. When communities begin taking responsibility for organizing their own education, rather than waiting for the government or some other outside group to step in, everyone in the community benefits.  We had students graduating from twelve different communities.

Trinidad, from Las Delicias (and its setting of green mountains is truly delicious) has twenty students who meet in his home for studies. He has desks and computers for them to work at.  His wife teaches in the community kindergarten and has the school decorated with colours, cut outs and hand crafts.

Trinidad is a life long learner himself and is constantly studying new ways to grow crops, new plants to try and ways to value add to the crops they harvest. He has timber trees and fruit trees planted for long term income potential. He has over 2,000 coffee seedlings in place with hundreds more in his nursery. His house is surrounded by many unusual types of flowers.  It is exciting to talk with him because he knows so much and is able to grasp new ideas and mesh them with practical experience to come up with better solutions.

Elsa is a primary school teacher in La Barca. She helped organize almost thirty students and made space in the unused computer classroom in her primary school so that we could install four computers and give those students a chance to study. Yesterday I noticed one of the students over two kilometres from the school walking to her home.

Santos and Esperanza have a nursery and a knowledge of plants that is incredible. It is hard to walk through the nursery without filling the truck with plants. They organized a group of students in their community and encouraged them to continue studying.

Lydia in El Cipres opened her home for children to study and studies herself.

We are so pleased to have these and others contributing to the success of our students. It is interesting to note the confidence that this act of self-determination has given these people as well. They are beginning to take charge of their own future.

I think that is enough. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

TTYL

BB

P.S. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Latest Grad

Seventy students completed a grade yesterday. The staff organized a wonderful graduation ceremony. My part was basically to show up and look like a director. I did bake and decorate 20 round cakes. Since I have a toaster oven and a turbo cooker, that took a few hours. But, they all got eaten so that is good. I will write more later this week. Suffice it to say, for most of our students, this opportunity is huge and the extent to which they dressed up for the occasion illustrates this. Of course, having to get into pictures with the students is just part of the trials I go through in this project.

TTYL
BB

Projects

Keisy and Caminda Cooking Up A Treat

Satisfied Customer

And Another

We are having a number of students completing their work for a grade level. We may have over 60 ‘graduating’ in two weeks – fantastic news. Part of the requirements is to participate in a project which contributes to the welfare of their community. This week has seen three days of frantic activity to fulfill this part of their work. Two groups went to give presentations on the value of green leaves and to give cooking and tasting demonstrations as part of their talks. Yeni was their supervisor and she worked hard to help them have a colourful and informative presentation. A number of families are now aware of the potential of green leaves. They were able to try five different varieties of leaves in various ways. I am so excited about the potential of this project. As a very general rule of thumb, a half cup of cooked greens will provide a nursing mother with 50% of her calcium, all of her Vitamin A and C as well as a good portion of iron and some protein. Not a bad deal in my books.

Seda Presenting

A second project was talking about hygiene to two primary school classes. The students prepared coloured pictures of various hygienic practices, talked about them and left a copy of the pictures for classroom decoration. This project is also exciting because we are the only school program at this level that is having our students help out in primary schools. As well as being great from a learning perspective, it was also very good advertising.

Victor Presenting

Alejandra, Carla and Delvin

Glenda, Alejandra, Delvin, Ignacio and Leslie

Alejandra, Teresa, Carla, Leslie, Delvin, Glenda and Ignacio

Today we spent three hours on a third project. We planted seventeen different varieties of edible leaves in the school compound. Chaya, Moringa, Chipilin, Juniapa, Sweet Potato Vines, Mint, Lemon Grass, Spinach, Amaranth, Beets, Nasturtiums, Stevia, Native Cilantro, Leuceana, Cassava, Radishes ... I’m missing something ... but you get the point. A number of these are bush/tree type plants so they will provide a few layers of growth. It was the first time these students had handled these plants and, surprisingly, the first time to plant small seeds. We used cuttings, seeds and seedlings so they got a full lesson in ways to plant. Once we started writing down all the species, even I was surprised at how much we accomplished.

A note about the Vetiver grass we planted a couple of weeks ago. Most of them are sprouting so we should have a solid line of the plants in about three months. We have some Sikuma Wiki (a type of collard) with dinner plate size leaves. Manuel had two for lunch yesterday as a type of salad. He realized that one would have been more than enough. I hope they will go to seed so I can get some more planted.

Dennis, Victor and Felix

Reina, Karin and Suani - in planting mode

Manuel supervising Manuel, Felix and Dennis

Monday we should have another group working on edible plants. They will plant some chives and transplant some Sikuma Wiki and Amaranth. In another week, we should have some Malabar Spinach plants nearly ready for transplanting. I have about twenty here in Santa Cruz in bags and they have just germinated. Another thirty are growing in Santa Rita so that bodes well. Nutritional reports rank this plant as a ‘must have’.

Not all good news this week. We have a staff member who is a petty thief and so we now have to track down the person and get rid of him. That is so frustrating as it puts suspicion on all the staff. We hope to have an unofficial visit from a police person to do some interviewing on Monday.

TTYL

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