The day started with another panel. This one talked about education. Presenting was Hector from the NGO Fé Alegria. This organization promotes education in communities, not just in individuals. He talked about the different eras of Honduras starting with the 80’s and 90’s where teachers were being killed for being “communists”. Then in the 90’s to early 2000’s there was a neoliberal move to privatized education. Lastly we talked about the Coup in 2009 that reconfigured the whole education system.

Next he talked about the identity crisis that the students have to face. They are stuck debating if they fit the role of rural farmer or urban citizen. This occurs especially when families move. Teachers need to have the mentality of whom they are teaching to. Also in terms of identity there is a religious, ethnic, and political divide.

The reality is that being a teacher in Honduras is a difficult job. Hector says it’s easier to be an assassin than to be a teacher. Although teachers by law make a minimum of 430 dollars a month, in many instances they are not given this age or have to wait an entire year to get paid. There also aren’t enough positions for teachers; so a teacher may stay in a bad condition just so he can keep his job. Less people are studying to be teachers because things look bleak; but out of every ten students that graduate high school only three have the economic means to go to college. We learned so much that it’s just too much to write so be sure to ask us more about the education system of Honduras!

The team with the recycling barrels

Go team!

Next we split up to continue working on campaign and mural projects. The campaign students used their stencils they made to decorate their trash barrels. Then we took a field trip to go get art supplies. Next we worked on our poster and joked around. It was a really fun day and we got a lot accomplished.

Adding stencils

Making progress

Emily’s handprints

The mural team made really good progress. We got the “Arte la Calle” stenciled on as well as the UW Oshkosh logo. There was a lot more progress on the globe as well. Emily had a lot of fun learning Spanish words from the two scholars Paolo and Wendy. Emily had the scholars put their handprints on her shirt.

Playing soccer!

To end the day both teams met up at a fantastic park to play soccer. The park contained a train museum so there were old train cars all around the park. We split into four different teams; two American teams and two Honduran teams. We played on a small concrete futsal court. It was really fun! Some of the scholar students brought siblings and we also got to meet the people that run the sports program. The American teams did surprisingly well but there is some suspicion that they went easy on us. After playing we had some tamales that some of the scholar’s mothers made and taught more scholars the wobble.