...where chapels and assemblies are nuts

Yesterday we had an afternoon assembly schedule (for the record, none of the first 5 weeks of school promise to have a normal schedule - we have half days, assemblies, independence day long weekends, spiritual retreats, or any combination of those, each week. We'll see about the 6th week.) for an "acto civico," or civic actions - pledging allegiance, singing the national anthem, the like. Being Monday, we also had chapel.

During those two things at the end of the day, I did, in front of everyone, the following:

• tried for 60 seconds to throw a flash card into a halved watermelon, and
• ate sopa de mondongo, or tripe soup, blindfolded.

25 minutes of "chapel" was spent by various people attempting stunts inspired by the TV show Minute to Win It. I participated in the card-into-watermelon stunt. The remaining 5 minutes or so was spent on the message.

After settling everyone down at the assembly, lining everyone up, turning to face the flag, pledging, and singing, there was a good 40 minutes left in the hour long assembly. How to fill this time? By playing "traditional" Honduran games (we were focused on heritage, after all) like...Tug of War? Stilt walking? Sack race? Jumping rope? I was surprised they didn't break out the Honduran Greco-Roman wrestling. Then, to close everything off, they brought up 4 North American teachers to blindfolded taste test traditional Honduran cuisine. Starting of with the baleada was good, but when I found myself with cow intestine/stomach in my mouth, I was done. Blech.