Author: Paul and Laura Manship

Even with the situations that life has offered us in the recent months, we continue moving along. Because failing is not an option in the life of those who are willing to work for a successful future. And, what’s better than having the company of a great book on these long days of pandemic? Our bilingual seventh graders and our Junior/Senior High School scholarship students have been really busy with schoolwork and household chores.  Yet even with all they are doing, they still make time for reading.READING CONTEST

Living in a country that is not ready for virtual teaching and learning makes it complicated to complete all the activities we would like to achieve.  Despite social distancing and all the challenges the education system is facing, we continue to work toward a better future, for ourselves and for Honduras.  Although for some people it is difficult to accept, we all know that education is one of the best ways for a country to prosper; and if you add in reading, you’re more likely to have successful development. Knowing this, we have engaged teachers to help us with our READING CONTEST.  Some teachers are even giving their students extra credit for reading.

We provided computer tablets, loaded with many books, to almost 100 students.  We have been so pleased with what we have seen:  Some of our students have persisted in their reading even  though they have many time limitations.  Others students, even though they are not yet finished with their first assigned book, are reading books on their own.  Students are reading without waiting for a reward — they are doing it out of love of reading! Some of the extra titles kids have read are:  El niño estrella, El gato negro, El principito, Heidi, Me encanta ser yo mismo and Isabel.

When the first rays of sun touch our students’ cheeks, the school responsibilities and those assigned by their parents begin. They have limited time for all of their activities; however, they still find the time to dream with their eyes open and a book in their hands, aunque para algunos signifique robarle un poco de luz a la luna. 

This year, Shoulder to Shoulder is again undertaking the challenge of supporting students in acquiring pieces of knowledge through the Legos Robotics project. Yet, getting these pieces has been a very difficult road. In the past two years, we have bought Lego kits in the USA, but it has been complete chaos trying to get the kits to Honduras.Each school had a team of between 25-30 students – even though the instructions say that the maximum number of students per kit is 2-4! It was clear that some students didn’t even have the chance to touch a piece, much less build the robot. They just observed how their teammates assembled the parts. It was a really sad situation not being able to provide the needed tools to enrich all students’ knowledge.

As a response to this hunger for technology, we started looking for some possible options on the ground. We started looking for online stores, cheaper ways of shipping equipment from the USA, educational stores, and even asking for help from the people in town. We found kits within Honduras, but they cost four times the cost in the US. Finally, after many calls and emails, we found a store that sold robotics equipment at double the US price. We decided that this was reasonable, given our problems getting Legos into Honduras. The kits were in the capital city of Tegucigalpa — seven hours away from the little town Camasca!

We found someone willing to drive and he purchased 4 kits for us – so that each team could have one more kit. It was a great happiness to know we had solved the issue that was giving us nightmares. It was incredible that we now had in our hands the equipment needed for the kids to get new pieces of knowledge. The knowledge of coding, using computers, working in teams, and using strategies will equip them, not just to complete the challenge, but to be competent in life.

We are using small pieces to build a big world!