I was sitting at the very large table in the back of my classroom reading a book with a small group of students and attempting to monitor the behavior of the rest of the class when I heard a commotion outside of my classroom. Children were running and screaming (which is actually nothing new for our fifth grade classes...) and being quite disruptive. Then I heard them scream the reason for their excitement. It came out in one very unexpected word.
"Micheletti!!!"
"What or who is a 'Micheletti'?" you ask?
Oh, that's right. He's the current president of Honduras.
When they arrested their president for violating the constitution, and kicked him out of the country in his pajamas in the middle of the night last June, this is the man that was sworn into office just hours later...
This is the same man who stood up against the Organization of American States and pressure from the Obama administration to step down and reinstate the ex-president.
This man is now a huge part of Honduran history.
And he came to our school today.
One of our third graders has a parent who is some sort of government official. This parent arranged a field trip for the third grade class to visit the presidential palace. They visited this Honduran equivalent of the White House yesterday, but the president was not there. How did he make it up to the kids? By visiting them at school the next day, of course!
At first I didn't believe it, but when I saw the guards and men in full military uniform standing around strategically, I realized that the screams and cheers were justified.
As could be expected, my students were hard to contain after hearing that the president was somewhere nearby. They all darted for the door when I told them to line up for PE. Of course, being the mean teacher that I am, I sent them all back to their seats to "try again" to walk to form a line. Along with that, I tried to impress upon them the proper behavior that should be shown to a person in a position of importance. I attempted to remind them that silliness and hyperactivity were not the best way to greet a president, and I even threw in, "Don't embarrass your parents!"
While they were in PE, I went with Erika to basically become one of those annoying onlookers who stand around the outskirts of a frenzy and just watch it all happen. At that point, he was in the third and fourth grade building signing autographs and taking pictures with kids and teachers. All of our administrators were there, looking overjoyed. They knew he was coming all along. They just didn't tell the teachers!
Because of the wild popularity of the idea of meeting the president, they arranged for him to walk around the school visiting classes and taking pictures with students. I feel like he shook the hand of, kissed the head of, or patted the back of half of the elementary students at Pinares today. It was obvious that it turned into a publicity event, but it was exciting for the students to meet someone that they called a "national hero" before he hands the office over to the newly elected president.
Our entire grade was arranged in picture formation outside as he finished in the kindergarten building and approached our end of the campus. (I secretly and sometimes not so secretly enjoy seeing others deal with and struggle with our students. It reminds me that it's not just me...) The students cheered wildly as he rounded the corner and came toward our group. He greeted everyone and shook my hand. Then he lead the children in cheering "Viva Honduras!" and he climbed into the middle of our group for the photo-op. He requested that the teachers also step into the center of the group to stand with him. That was awkward because the students were packed together so tightly. As the people with cameras stepped back to prepare to take the pictures, I assume that someone told the kids to my left to scoot in more. All I know is about fifteen kids got pushed closer to the center, and I (being the same size as a typical fifth grader) also got bumped and had to catch myself from falling literally right in front of the president. He said, "Be careful."
I didn't have my camera with me today, but I will try to get copies to share...
After the pictures had been taken, and after he shook my hand again and kissed me on the cheek (the traditional Honduran greeting) our students started swarming around him to hug him or shake his hand - anything to touch the president, and I went into bodyguard mode, pulling them off one kid at a time saying, "Go! Go upstairs! Leave him alone..."
Of course, with a class that is often uncontrollable on a regular day, there was no hope of getting them to re-enter the classrooms and return to their desks. The entire grade lined up along the railing of the second story of our building where our classrooms are located and proceeded to cheer the entire time that Micheletti took pictures with the sixth grade class on the blacktop down below. At one point, Kirsten and I were just shrugging our shoulders and smiling at each other when some of the kids from her class started yelling a Spanish word down the line to the other students. Neither Kirsten, nor I, had any idea what they were saying until we saw it in action... Essentially it was,
"THE WAVE!"
Yes. That's right. The fifth grade did the wave in honor of the president.
And then they sang the national anthem. Many of them don't actually know the words yet (because it's sooo long) but they sang with gusto.
And what did he do?
He looked up, waved, and put his hand over his heart as they sang...
It pretty much made their day.
It also provided a wonderful teachable moment to talk about famous people and the temptation to idolize them... Our class had a good discussion about the acknowledgement that it was a huge event to meet and touch a man who has made so much history in Honduras this year but to remember that he is just a man... It would even be okay to wash our hands again after touching him... :) Then we reflected on our hypothetical reaction if Jesus came to school tomorrow. Would we scream and cheer and dance? Would we rush to touch Him? Would we sing for Him and do the wave?
Just some questions to ponder in fifth grade... :)
