On Wisconsin!

Friday, March 20th, 2009


If you only get to catch the Wisconsin Badgers on TV once from San Pedro Sula then this was probably the game to see. Its March Madness (trademark: NCAA) time and that means Honduras actually gets to see some college basketball on TV. ESPN in the States has the bball all winter long, but surprisingly (not) its not a big ratings draw in Latin America.

No matter though because this is the time to be a fan. Down 12 at halftime to Florida State, the #12 seed Bucky forced overtime against the #5 seed Florida State. Fortunately/unfortuantely Trevon Hughes had the ball in his hands near the end of overtime and (surprisingly) hit the game-winning shot.

Even though he's probably the last person I want to see with the ball with time expiring (see Texas, 2008) I was pleased with a Wisco "W."

Oh and I think Michigan did something positive too (for once).

- Dan

Homesick Remedies #4645 (click here to comment)

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Homesick happens. Its just a fact of living abroad. There's not necessarily rhyme nor reason to it. For Anah and I, its just been a particularly rough week at work.

How each person respond to homesickness is as varied as what prompts it. Anah usually calls her parents and that makes her feel better. Not that a good call home doesn't help me, but I tend to bury those sort of feelings altogether. Tough guy persona, you know....

At the end of the month two of our friends Amy and Craig are getting married in Austin, Texas, and despite our best efforts the timing (the weekend before spring break) and the cost ($600 per ticket to Houston... Chicago is only $300... WTF!!?!??!) was terrible. It was going to be classic. Many of the wonderful people that graced out own wedding will be out in force at Craig and Amy's and it would have been another opportunity to be on home soil with some of our favorite friends.

With those friends in mind, Anah and I cured just a little homesickness with a quick photo project. Its surprising how quickly one's spirits lift up when the ones you care about most are looking over you.


Just for the record... family pictures are on the fridge.

- Dan

Sunday Morning Sunrise (click here to comment)

Anah and I joke that San Pedro Sula is only beautiful when you look up and at no time was that more apparent than this morning as the sun rose.

Photo Sharing (click here to comment)

Honduras gives Anah and I a lot of great stories, but just as important are the pictures that we get down here. Always looking for something new to do with the blog I'm taking our "photo of the day" feature and throwing it up top.

Rather than write a post each day I'm going to upload the "picture of the day" to the slideshow part of the blog at the top of the webpage. Each day will feature a new photo from our adventures abroad. You'll be able to click a link to see the picture in full or explore the rest of the gallery.

Missed a day? That's OK... just click the arrows and it will take you to the days past pictures.

As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words" and if that can get me out of writing... I'll do it!

Fancy Pants

The time between Christmas Break and Spring Break is always a long stretch for teachers.  At this point you feel like you've been working with your students for such a long time, but yet, you still have so far to go until Summer Vacation.  You've been with them long enough that you feel like WHY AREN'T THEY BEHAVING??!?  but in their little minds they've been with you long enough that they feel like WHY IS THIS LADY STILL MAKING ME BEHAVE!?!?!?!?  And part of you feels like you really can't blame 'em...I'm a little sick of the sound of my own voice echoing off the walls of the classroom.  Bueller... Bueller?

So, in an effort to get that echo out of our heads and regain our sanity, we took off to Tela, a nearby beach town (yes, we've already been there). 

 We were joined on our travels by another couple, Sarah and Sava.  Sava is Dan's teaching partner in 7th grade and Sarah is the Middle School Guidance Counselor.  They are actually both from Madison, so many of our favorite places are places they also know well.  Originally we were going to stay in a budget hotel, as we normally do.  The budget hotels we tend to frequent are clean and have beds, but that's about it.  However, when we went to check-in we were surprised to find out that they were all booked up, as was their neighboring hotel.  Not knowing of many other options we did a team huddle, and came to an agreement- we were going to go fancy.  

Walking down the beach in search of paradise

Down the beach is a giant resort called TelaMar that looks like it was airlifted out of DisneyWorld or some such idyllic place, and plopped into the 2nd rate beach town of Tela.  We were a little wary of the cost, but decided if we shared a room with Sarah and Sava, it would be about the same price as if we had chosen the budget option and stayed in our own room.  As we paid for the room in the Main Building we were still a little nervous that the room may not live up to our ever-growing expectations. 

A little different than our normal "Habitaciones"

But, in a few moments we had our key and as we opened the door to our 3rd level paradise our expectations were surpassed.  The room was spacious, replete with two giant beds with firm mattresses (not the saggy, worn ones to which we've grown accustom) and covered by fluffy, clean, white comforters.  The wall was adorned with actual artwork, as well as a gigantic flatscreen TV.  Best of all, was the balcony; a large ceramic space which overlooked the 3 giant pools of the resort, bringing to our attention that one of the pools featured a "Swim-up" bar.  We had indeed gone fancy, and were happy that we would not have to go back for another day and a half.

Our travel partners in front of the luxurious pools

Swim on up...

In a typical blog post at this point I would fill you in on some adventure we had the next day.  But, there were no adventures to be had on Saturday nor Sunday- just pool time, drink time, card playing time and humongous flatscreen TV time.  And it was spectacular, every last fancy minute.  It was just what we needed, and today as we headed back to work we felt a little more tolerant and ready to face our days.  We'd gained back that last drop of patience that we just might need to get us through until we get recharged in full during our Spring Break.   

"Our Photos" of-the-Day (click here to comment)

Monday, March 9th, 2009

From Gracias

San Cristobal Fortress, Gracias, Honduras

The city of Gracias was founded in 1536 by Captain Juan de Chavez and the
original name was "Gracias a Dios". Apparently the Spanish conquistador had
spent several days in this very mountainous area looking for a place to
establish a city, and when he finally found an area flat enough to build such
city, his first words where "gracias a Dios que hemos hallado tierra llana"
(thank God that we have finally found flat land).

Today, the fort has old Spanish cannons that were donated by the Spanish
government and the tomb of Honduran governor Juan Lindo. From the fort you can
Gracias' three churches, the cemetery, and the Montaña de Celaque (in Celaque
National Park... where Anah and I spent a gruling day hiking) located behind the
fort.

"Our Photos" of-the-Day (click here to comment)

Friday, March 6th, 2009

View of the "ball court" at the Mayan ruins of Copan.

Copan is an ancient Mayan city that survived during the 5th to 9th centuries. Among the more famous sites of the ruins is the "ball court"

From the Mayans to the Aztecs, virtually all known Mesoamerican urban centers contained at least one ballcourt. The ballgame's rules are unknown and, oddly, ballcourts' shapes and sizes vary greatly. You can barely see two stone parrot-heads that served as ball-reflectors.  They are shown close up on the attached page of ballcourt sculptures. 

One of the facts known about the ballgame is that players were never to strike the ball with their hands or arms; the hips seem to have been principally used. It is widely believed that the losers of the game lost their lives, but evidence for this among the Maya is slim indeed.

"One of Our Photos" of-the-Day (click here to comment)

Thusrday, March 5th, 2009

Church of San Francisco (Antigua, Guatemala)

The order of the Franciscans in Guatemala dates back to 1525. In 1540 they had a simple monastery with five monks in Cuidad Vieja. In the new capital the monastery grew in number to eighty monks. By the end of the 1600’s, grounds owned by the Franciscans were very extensive.

Apart from the usual areas of the main monastery, there was also a hospital and clinic, and above all, its facilities for scholars.

The library was one of the most complete of its time; it had a productive publishing house, the second one to be established in the city; and the order founded the San Buenaventura School for theological and philosophical studies.

Destroyed in 1773, most of the ruins of this huge monastery still remain, and even some part covered with modeled stucco and traces of painted murals have been conserved. Its fountain is found today in the courtyard of La Merced in Antigua.

Apart from a chapel restored in the early 1800’s to shelter the remains of Pedro de Betancur, the church of San Francisco was not really restored, but rather reconstructed.

This aroused much controversy and vigorous criticism from historians and architects who want to see colonial monuments conserved in their original form.

The church was built by Diego de Porres and inaugurated in 1702.

"One of Our Photos" of-the-Day (click here to comment)

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Two errie, face-looking anafre (pronounced: "ah-NAH-fre") pots.

Factiods!!!

In Honduras, anafre is a traditional appetizer served before the start of a meal. Essentially, anafre is a refried black bean and cheese fondue, served hot over coals in a clay pot. Often, peppers and/or chorizo can be added. Tortilla chips accompany the anafres for dipping.

Each "Photo of the Day" is from our collection of our time down here in Honduras. Check out more photos in our Picasa Web Albums.

Honduran Specialties #2: The Irony is Rich (click to comment)

Friday, Feburary 27th, 2009

We meant to post this right when we got back from our weekend trip to Lago de Yajoa, but forgot. We visited an nature park near the lake, but took the long route walking to a town a few miles away and then catching a taxi to the park entrance.

On our way we pasted the town dump, which besides being just gross (it was immediately on the side of the road and RIGHT next to a river) was also funny as all get out.

For those of you who don't speaka-the-Spanish (me included) the sign in front of the dump roughly reads, "don't throw garbage here."

Wari's Wall (click to comment)

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Wiersema has never been an easy last name to pronounce.  I'm not even sure I say it right and it was probably pretty unfair for me to drop it on Anah when we got married....

But to force my students (this year and all years previous) to get it right is down right torture. While Anah (by virtue of teaching first grade) can get by on a first name basis (Ms. Anah, Ms. Tatiana... which is hard too), I've got to stick to my older-grade-teacher-formality.

I do give the kids the option of skipping the Mr. Wiersema part by going with Mr. W, but the letter "W" is a mouthful too so they don't save a lot of breath.  They can also call me "the greatest teacher living or dead," but surprisingly that hasn't caught on.

What has caught on is Mr. Wari (waaaa-reeee) which if I cared is probably less "respectful" in terms of formality that Mr. Dan.

Either way, apparently Waaaa-reeee-saaam-ma (as the whole name goes) is a brand or slang name for a machette, which are big around these parts.

Besides my "cool" nickname I've developed a odd cult following of students who create self-potraits of me during the "less exciting" parts of my class (I know! Even I can perform 24/7!). At first they were pretty disappointing, but since I started accumulating them as a collection the real artists have come out of the woodwork to grace the back wall of my classroom.

The whole beard-shaving has re-ignited the drive to capture my image.  I even have a student who does a daily drawing of my.  She labels each one "this is what I look like today." Clothes and everything.

Without further adu, "Wari's Wall":

- Dan

Classroom Wall Mural! (click here to comment)

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

I don't remember if I ever mentioned this, but earlier in the school year I asked our lovely art teacher Ms. Caitlin O'Neal if her activity period "Mural Club" would be interested in painting a world map on the open wall in my classroom.  She gladly agreed.

I've always wanted a giant world map in my room.  Those pull-down ones are nice, but mine blocks the white board when I use it so having a wall-sized map is super awesome.

After a bit of time (it was pretty much done a few months ago) it is now done!  Recently, I checked the painting for geographical accuracy (a few mistakes here and there when middle schoolers are tracing borders and coloring countries) and Caitlin put the finishing touches on the mural this past weekend with a protective laquer coat.

The colors are wonderful and it has already been a great resource to use when I'm talking about countries around the world.

My hope was always to use the giant map not only as a place to point out locations, but to attach pictures and current events to in order to show that the "world tells a million stories;" that the globe is less about location, but about places, places that have unique stories connected to them. Geography gets a bad rap from some people as being too boring, but I think that a lot of people either learned geography or teach geography as some sort of mindless memorizing of countries and capitals, but geopgraphy teachers have a responsibilty to teach the human side of the world as well.

I've kept a small file of interesting stories that I've read over the years, but anticipate adding many many more to the wall as I come across them.

Two stories highlighted in the above picture:

(Top photo) A picture from an article in "The New York Times" about the success of schools in Mali.

(Bottom photo) A picture from a photo essay in "Sports Illustrated" about the Handicapped (victims of land mines, war, accidents, etc) World Cup held in Ghana a few years ago.

Right now with only a few entries on the wall its easy to post the pictures, but in the future I'm going to have to make small "pin-points" that will lead the students to a file of stories and pictures from around the world.

If anyone ever comes across interesting global stories and pictures (they can be from the U.S. too) don't hesistate to cut them out or e-mail  them to me.

- Dan