-ING

This last week everybody in Tocoa has become accustomed to the toques de queda (curfews). On Monday and Tuesday, I was forced to push my night class back to 4 PM, because the toques started at 6 PM. But by the Wednesday the curfew had been pushed back to 10 PM, so I could hold class during regular hours. This week we had begun working on the present progressive verb tense. I am eating, you are sleeping, we are studying, etc. The students had a rudimentary grasp on how the verb tense functioned, but they needed practice on combining the “-ing” with the infinitive, as well as conjugating “be” with the corresponding subject.

I found this game online called Harry Potter. Basically you make one quarter of the group Voldemorts and the other three quarters Harry Potters. The Voldemorts chase the Harry Potters around outside until the Harry Potters are tagged. The Voldemort orders the tagged person to do something (“eat!” “run!” “sleep!” etc.) And they have to perform that action in place, until another Harry Potter approaches them, tags them, and asks, “What are you doing?” The frozen HP tells them, “I am running!” then they are unfrozen, until tagged by another Voldemort.
We’ve played this game for a couple of days as a warm up activity. The kids absolutely love this game and are disappointed when it’s not on the schedule.

A couple of Fridays ago we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I don’t usually show movies in class but this day was an exception. The series is as popular in Honduras as it is in the States, though there is no movie theatre in Tocoa. The place you need to go to see a new movie is in San Pedro Sula, and that is 6 hours away!

Sunday was largely a rainy day. I passed some of the day watching Spanish Fast and the Furious. During a commercial break there was an ad for a cell phone plan with TIGO, the local service provider. They were offering a “Gringo Plan” for people to call the United States. I thought it was pretty funny.

I went to the TIGO center in Tocoa to renew my internet service for July. There was some confusion on my account, and long story short I ended up talking with the branch supervisor. She said she understood the situation I was in but could not help with my account, like how I could not help her get into the United States. It was an interesting exchange of words after that.