Seth and Kesia began school in August after a short summer vacation.  Part of their vacation they attended the Pablo Menzel School, the private Christian school run by the Evangelical and Reformed Church of Honduras, in order to help them to learn Spanish.  The public schools in Honduras, and most of the private Spanish schools, have a different calendar than US schools, beginning in February and ending in November.  Their school, a private bi-lingual school, has the traditional US calendar. 

          This year we feel better prepared in understanding the school system.  We know where to pay the tuition bills (at the Ban Pais bank), where to get the uniforms and pocket patches, how to get a parking sticker, and where the store is to buy the books for the classes taught in Spanish (Spanish and Social Studies).  We know how to sign up for after-school activities, how to keep track of homework, and what to do if (when) one of the children has a problem at school. 

          Seth and Kesia are much better prepared, too.  Seth is able to communicate readily with his friends and is no longer in remedial Spanish class.  He works hard to keep up in the Social Studies class with his 5th grade friends where they study Lempira and Francisco Morazan and other heroes of Honduran history.  He is working on creating an album of the national symbols of Honudras.  (Although, living in Iowa, we wonder why the white-tailed deer is their national mammal when we haven't seen one the entire time we have been here). 

          Kesia is not as fluent as Seth and continues with a special Spanish class to help her catch up.  But she is making a lot of friends and can say important things like "¿Quiere jugar conmigo?" which means "Do you want to play with me?"  and "¡Ya!" which means a lot of things but which she uses a lot with her brother to mean basically "Knock it off!"  She is anxious to sign up again for her traditional Honduran dance class.