March was a long month for SJBS-ers. No three-day weekends to travel around, third parcial exams, and the same day-in, day-out of teaching. Luckily, we got to celebrate Dia Tipico and break up the monotony, as well as drink lots of jamaica juice, eat some yummy (and not-so-yummy Honduran food), and watch some excellent folkloric dancing.
Dia Tipico is an annual celebration put on by the parents of SJBS. Each grade receives a department of Honduras and decorates a champa, which is a mix between a wooden hut and a tent, and prepares typical food from that department to sell. It is all a competition between the grades and this year Comayagua took home the prize, thanks to the beautiful alfombra (a carpet made of sawdust) they made on the lawn. Atlantida, a coastal department, came in close with an inflatable pool sent up in their tent.
As teachers, we received a ticket to eat lunch at our grade’s champa, which meant some people lucked out on a fried fish and others ate things like fried pork rinds, yuca, pork chops and baleadas. There were portable stoves set up and mini-fires burning: the parents took this competition seriously.
Another part of Dia Tipico was also a series of presentations by the students, put together by the Spanish teachers, celebrating the history of Honduras. We had dancing Indians and 7th graders interpreting Polache’s hit, “Sopa de Caracol,” which is worth a listen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqG3vCLxME0). Each grade had an indio, or a student who dressed up like a Maya. The younger kids also dressed up in traditional clothes and danced for everyone, which was followed by professional dancers from San Pedro who did beautiful folkloric dances for us.
While it was a short Sunday morning, Dia Tipico was a nice way to break up the month of March, spend some quality time with our students and their families, and experience a lot of Honduran culture packed into a tiny space. The returners from last year really hyped it up as one of the best celebrations in the school year and it definitely lived up to that hype. It also had a very important, lasting effect on the school: we left up 7th grade’s Santa Barbara champa for the school guachiman who now uses it as his base for keeping his eyes on the school.
