Music to my Ears

Wednesday, February 23^rd was a turning point…well, somewhat. On Maki’s suggestion, I tried playing music in the art room while the students were working. It is said that music soothes the savage beast, well I can tell you that it most certainly does! I know find myself able to breath during my classes, and I come out with half the amount of grey hairs! True, half my students STILL don’t bring in their art and activities materials (I’ve started sending them to the consejera to have their parents called about it,) but at least they are somewhat controlled in the art room. The only problem now is that I don’t have all that much music on my iTunes. Looks like I’ll have to go to the Esso one weekend and use their Wifi to go to the iTunes music store.

Wednesday night proved to be just as bizarre as my calm classroom. The other volunteers and I were invited to the house of one of the parents of a kid at the elementary school. He also happens to be the shofar for the Bishop of Olancho, who lives right here in Juticalpa. He was also invited. So by 8pm I was sitting next to the bishop, drinking 12 year old bourbon with him, and listening to a live marimba band (I swear I have never seen a xylophone that big in my life!) The food was fantastic, and we all went home in high spirits (and full of spirits…although not TOO full, as it was a weeknight.)

On the following Saturday, myself, Angela, and Dan were invited to go out of town for the day with another family of one of our students (as you might be noticing, such practices are common in Honduras. You have no choice, you ARE a part of the community.) We drove north for about an hour before parking on a dirt back road next to a cow pasture. A short hike brought us into a small grove of trees nestled at the base of some quite spectacular mountains. Upon first entering the tree line, the first thing I noticed was the river flowing down from the mountain. I have NEVER seen a flowing river so crystal clear before. I could see in perfect detail the red and green rocks lying on the riverbed, standing out sharply against the white sand.

As we walked deeper into the woods the terrain rose up, until we were scrambling over massive, moss-covered rocks. The air was cool and fragrant, and I drank in every breath, savoring it after weeks of breathing the dusty city air. We finally reached a point where the ground rose up into a steep cliff. By now the trees rose high above us, and we could see strangler fig vines, buttress roots, and tropical bromeliads adorning the massive tree trunks. Here we made base camp. The parents set about building a fire amongst the rocks to cook lunch (carne asada, home-made tortillas, frijoles, and chizmol) while he kids disappeared down to the river.

Now, we had been promised caves on this little excursion, and we were not to be disappointed. Following two of the kids, we scrambled up the lower slopes of the cliff to the first of three cave entrances. There were no guards, no path, no entrance fee, just the sandy floor of the smooth stone tunnel, disappearing into the gloom. We had one flashlight between us, but it was enough. We ventured in and spent the next hour or so exploring. It was truly breathtaking.

And yet the best was still to come! Upon scrambling even high to the second cave entrance, we saw an owls nest, complete with two massive owls! We had a great time showing the kids the owl pellets we found at the cave entrance. It felt wonderful to have students who actually wanted to learn for a change. When we got fairly deep into the second cave, we sat down and turned off the flashlight. It was utter darkness, and complete silence. It was beautiful.

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. We left the cave and climbed back down to get lunch. We had worked up quite an appetite with all our climbing, and the food was delicious. After lunch the kids convinced us to tame a swim in the river (after digesting a little of course). When we ventured down to the water, however, we were amazed to discover exactly why it was so clear. The river was flowing directly out of a third cave! And this was no small tunnel either, the ceiling arched high above us as we swam deeper in, and was easily wide enough to fit in a small raft (which I am now determined to find and take back there!) We swam deeper and deeper into the cave, but it just kept going! We finally had to turn back on account of it getting too cold.

It’s experiences like these that get me through my classes lately. I really want to take my students on a retreat to those cave though. It occurs to me that they have probably never heard absolute silence in their entire lives, and I would love to see what effect it would have on them