Snickers, Stickers and Kickers

My eyes comb the room like an eagle stalking its prey. It’s 8:20 a.m., early enough that the heat hasn’t yet devoured my energy. Heads bow low over desks. A cacophony of sounds filters through the classroom, pens tap on desks, students shriek and laugh outside, birds and insects chirp and sing. I glance out the door at the gray concrete of another classroom and instead direct my gaze back inside. It’s amusing to think that just four and a half years ago, I was probably sitting at a desk taking a similar language exam, except in Spanish.

To think that learning Spanish would turn out to be so helpful. I wish I could convey that to my English students. Language can take a person so many places. I’m completely immersed in Spanish, sometimes so much so that I feel like I am drowning.

There are three things that help me maintain my sanity: Snickers, stickers and kickers.

Snickers. On a diet of oily rice, beans and bread, I am frequently craving sweets. Days off usually include a trip into town. There I reward myself with a Snickers bar. It does not matter to me that the chocolate is melted to the wrapper. I savor the richness with each bite and avoid looking at the calorie count on the label.

Stickers. I used to store stickers in a secret box in my room. When it was time to write a letter to a pen pal, I would slowly pull out the box and dig through piles of Lisa Frank’s blinding creations. I still have a special place in my heart for stickers. A sticker on a letter says, You’re special, You’re worth extra. My students love stickers too. They plaster their notebooks and desks with them. I’m not exactly sure how it began or how it begins, but it has become a trend. A student will approach me, reach up and slap a sticker on my shirt. A mass migration quickly begins to the front of the classroom. Students are prying stickers off of books and papers and proudly rushing to display them on me. It becomes a contest. Who will bring the biggest sticker or the most? I leave classes looking like a walking sheet of stickers. This also happens with other trinkets. I am often given cookies or treats from their lunch boxes, pictures, flowers, and any other thing they can scrounge up. It almost makes up for the screaming in class.

Kickers. I’m all about soccer. It’s refreshing to be in a country where the people take the sport seriously. It’s impossible to go anywhere without seeing at least 10 people sporting the national team jersey. While I haven’t played nearly enough since I’ve been here, it’s still fun to support “la H” [the national team] along with the 100 por ciento Catrachos [Hondurans]. I’ve even purchased a jersey to wear, which was met with mixed reactions. But when it comes down to it, I’m still 100 percent for my team, England. I could never bring myself to support some of the other famous teams like Argentina ;)