President of Congress

Last week the President of Congress came to our school and I didn’t get the chance to write about so here it goes… a week late.

All the teachers and the two principles meet together at 7:20 to pray before school starts. September 5, when we arrived Mr. Lara said that we needed to be prepared for the Congressman to be landing his helicopter in our soccer field and that under no circumstances should we let our kids leave the class to watch it.  Of course while he was at our school, we were suppose to keep our kids under control, yada, yada.  He was to arrive at 9:20.   At 9:00 Mr. Lara came to my class and said the Congressman wanted to see an American teacher speaking English and teaching class so they had selected my class for him to visit.  I was very honored that he thought enough of me to bring a guest to my class but….lots of pressure!  22 kids that I barely have under-control when I am speaking Spanish but now I am suppose to teach the entire class period in English and get them to behave, all in front of the big whig and a television crew.

Since the most important thing to kindergarteners is potty time, I decided we would do that before the guy arrived.  So I quickly lined my kids up and off we went.   However, the Congressman arrived early while some kids were still in the bathroom.  Just imagine for a moment that you are a 5-year-old boy and a helicopter starts landing about 100 yards from where you are. What do you do?  You take off running to it… regardless of whether you’re finished peeing and regardless of where your pants are.  Yes, that is exactly what happened to the boys in my class.  Particularly one who took off running with his pants around his knees and his whole “package” showing.  This was really not the first impression my principle had in mind I’m sure.

After this incident though, the rest of the day went smooth.  The congressman walked around the school and then came to my class for a while.  I would say that I am famous, but I was so nervous that I just pretended he and the TV people were not there. So, all they videoed of me was my back…. So my back was on TV here in Honduras.  Yea me!  Mostly though, they videoed the kids repeating me in English, counting, etc.  All the kids were very well behaved, I was very proud of them.   And then, when the guy took off we stood on the sidewalk and watched the helicopter.  I think the kids cared way more about that than meeting the congressman.   Over all, an exciting day.