Build up to Thanksgiving

Hello everyone,

Although it’s mid – November now, and getting colder, it still feels like summer here, as the trees are all green and it is still hot and sunny most of the time. We are in the full swing of thanksgiving preparations, and next week turkey headdresses will be made and my kids have to sing a thanksgiving song  in front of the whole school (which I’m slightly nervous about).

We also begin working at our secondary project, which is a daycare for children of poor families in the area that don’t go to school.  We had asked what we were going to be doing, and a fairly vague answer was given about helping out in the classroom, playground e.c.t. We turned up on Monday, only to be handed the marker, in true Honduran style, and left to teach a lesson for two hours! We muddled through the lesson, but hopefully next time we will be a little more prepared. There are about 30 kids in the class, and they range from about 2 to 6 years old. There is also very little recourses – they don’t even have paper for the children to write on, however, the staff are all lovely and very glad to have us there, and teaching the kids some English. The atmosphere is much more laid back and friendly and there are no requirements for what we have to teach. After the lesson we play outside with the children for about an hour - just generally having fun with them and giving them some of our time and attention.  The kids are all really cute, and on our first day they took our hands and showed us around the building, then played some duck – duck – goose and after we gave them all piggy backs.

We also got some really positive feedback from the school this week, which is nice to hear. Also, next week Erin and I will also start teaching phonics to 1^st – 3^rd grade after our kids have gone home, which will mean more work, however I am quite looking forward to teaching the different age group. Preparations for the Christmas play – which will be the Grinch  - are also underway, and Erin and I will be helping out with it, starting with the auditions on Tuesday. All and all we are very busy! 

The rest of October

So last weekend was the Honduran folk law celebration day. To celebrate each grade had to make a stall to represent a different region of Honduras. Luckily our kids didn’t have to do one, so we didn’t have any work to do, we just got to sit back and enjoy the day. So each “stall” made the traditional food from their region to serve to us, wore their traditional clothes, and did demonstrations of the dances from that region. Now I put stall in inverted commas, because the word doesn’t really give it justice. Most were made out of bamboo, and almost house – like structures, that took days to prepare. One grade even planted corn because their region is involved in farming and brought in a horse for people to ride! All in all it was amazing day, we ate loads of great traditional food, and it was just so impressive the amount of effort that was put in to it all. It defiantly put school fairs at home to shame.

One day, me and Erin were at the post office when three massive red royal mail boxes were brought our to me. We looked pretty ridiculous walking through the streets with them, and inside was a treasure trove of games, posters and resources for my classroom sent to me by my grandma - who used to be a teacher herself, and whose tips have so far proved invaluable. We now have puzzle days in maths, and the games have proved a great incentive for my kids to finish their work. Thank you so much grandma!

So unfortunately in Honduras Halloween is not celebrated. It is seen as a bad day where actual witchcraft and devil – worshiping is practiced, and just to be skipped over as fast as possible. However, we managed to negotiate a “fun dress up day” for the Friday which despite the lack of witches, vampires, pumpkins (which are the emblem of a satanic sect here) and anything vaguely Halloweeny, there was still cake, sweets and a dancing competition and all in all it was a good day. I also had a bag of very yummy Halloween chocolates that my mum had sent me, so Halloween wasn’t all bad, as me and Erin sat huddled in our rooms, munching away and watching the Halloween TV on the one English channel.

More exciting news, on Wednesday we went to set up our secondary project. Project Trust recommends after spending some time in the country volunteers go out and look for a project in the community they can get involved in, in their spare time. After a lot of asking we went to see this daycare, that looks after children aged about 3 to 7 who can’t afford to go to school and whose parents go out to work, so there is no one left to look after them. They also get a meal while they are there, and get lessons to help them get a basic education. You could tell that the children had very little and they were all desperate for our attention, so I’m really looking forward to dedicating time to them. All the staff were really nice and very happy to have our help, and starting on Monday we will spend two days a week helping out from 1 – 4pm. I’m sure it will be a lot of work and very tiring especially after a full day of classes, but I’m sure it will be worthwhile.

Congratulations on making it to the bottom of what was a very long post! That’s you all filled in (perhaps next time I will write it in more bite – sized chunks).  Hope everyone is well, and feel free to email me or write to me at:

Ellen Morton

Del Sol Montessori Bilingual School

Apto. #  194

Siguatepeque

Comayagua

Honduras

One of the stalls

1st grade in their traditional dress

My Halloween goodie bag!

My new games shelf

The boys dressed up for the party

The girls dressed up

Cowboys on culture day 

Football and the lake

Hi everyone!

You might not know but on Tuesday the 15^th Honduras had its world cup qualifier match. The day didn’t start off great when after snack one of my kids threw up on the floor. However this is not an unusual event, and I was just telling the others to move away and not jump in it when a second kid was sick. As I was sheepherding them to a dry corner of the class another threw up, then another, then another. I just stood still, trying not to get splashed by it, and dodging out the way if someone looked like they wanted to throw up in my direction. 7 of my 14 children had been sick, 7! I then had to jump over the puddles, and lift the kids over the bit next to the door so they could go play outside. The day only got better as, in my last class of the day, when we were outside picking flowers I spotted one of my kids walking towards another classroom. When I got there I found he had pulled down his pants and done a poo on the floor. Not a good day for our poor cleaner either.

However, I was still in good spirits because it was football day. Unfortunately because it was a 7pm kick off we didn’t get the day off school, however the Honduras flags were taken out and plastered all over the school, a speaker played music in the hall all day and classes were interrupted by older students coming in to paint the national flag on everyone’s faces. After school me and Erin headed down to the market to seek out some Honduran football shirts, and feeling fully prepared we headed to the Del Corral with Nicole and David to watch the match.

In the café part of Del Corral massive screens were erected, blue and white balloons blown up, and as many people pilled in as possible. The deal was this: to qualify Honduras had to beat Jamaica. However the odds were in our favour because even if we lost or drew to Jamaica, if as either Panama or Costa Rica won their matches we were also in. The game was off to a quick start as two goals were scored – one for us and one for Jamaica – in the first few minutes. It was then pretty equal until we scored another goal, just before half time. Now when Honduras scored, everyone went absolutely crazy: balloons were popped, fireworks let off outside, everybody screaming their heads off. Things were looking good, not only were we one goal up, but Costa Rica was also leading in their game. However, things soon took a turn for the worse. Not only did Jamaica equalize, but Costa Rica started loosing their game, and Panama were yet to score. It was a very tense second half, but luckily in the last few minutes Panama scored, and won their game, meaning we were in the cup! The spectacle that unfolded was one of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life! Everyone pilled out of their houses and into their trucks, or onto the street. The streets that had been eerily empty just minutes earlier were suddenly blocked up from all the traffic as people sat in their trucks beeping their horns and screaming as loud as they could. Everyone   else went to the streets running and shouting as loud as they could. Fireworks were set off  and such noise continued for at least a hour. I will never forget running through the streets  with the rest of the town, national flag on my face and my Honduran football top on screaming “HOOOOOONDUUUUUURASSSSSSS!” at the top of my voice. May I remind you we didn’t even win the match.

The next weekend we went to Lago to yajoa, the biggest lake in Honduras, to meet up with some fellow volunteers. The lake is only about 30 minutes away from us, however we forgot that  89sq km is actually pretty big and while it takes 30 minutes to get to the nearest bit of the lake, the big where our hotel was, would maybe take considerably longer to get to. We ended up getting off the bus at the wrong bit, but we called the hotel and in slightly confused English he told me it was only a 10-minute walk. We happily set off along the highway, however after 20 minutes of walking we figured they may have been a mistake and so called one of our friends, who told us it was in fact at lest and hour’s walk! Luckily, we managed to wave down a bus, and finally arrived. There we met up with Kate A, Kate B, Rachel and Hope, and took a boat out on the river for the expense of 40p each! We had a lovely evening of catching up, and then the next day we went to see the waterfall.

Now when I saw waterfall, I mean waterfall. It was the biggest waterfall I have ever seen in my entire life. We decided to do the waterfall tour, which started off with us walking down to see it, being constantly splashed by the spray. When we had to swim through a pool of water in a massive rock to continue, I knew it wasn’t going to staying dry for long. We walked right up to the waterfall, so we were right next to the huge sheets of water pouring down. The next bit of the tour was walking through the falls . Clinging onto the rock and each other’s hands we shuffled along, you couldn’t see anything but blurry water, you couldn’t hear anything but the roar of the fall, it was difficult to breath because of all the water in my mouth. Two of our friends headed back, but we pressed on. Despite all the difficulty it was so amazing and overwhelming, just to feel the immense power of the water crashing on top and around you. We then crawled up a hole, so we were inside of the waterfall itself. The dark and silence was such a contrast to outside, and we just sat in awed silence. I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences in my life, and I felt such a feeling of accomplishment as we walked away and I looked at this immense natural wonder that I walked under, through and sat inside of.

Exhausted from the morning’s adventures we decided to take a nice leisurely walk after lunch, through the nearby archeological site. It was great to chat to the other volunteers who we hadn’t seen since we arrived in Honduras, however we lost track of time and before we knew it night had fallen. We realized we had wondered over to the other side of the river, and now had to get back. We took a road and managed to get to exactly where we wanted to be, only one thing – there was a river in the middle we needed to cross. There were no bridges to be found and thick forest on either side. We asked a local if there was anywhere to cross, so he grabbed his machete, and his English – speaking daughter and we hacked our way through the forest, getting bitten alive, to the nearest bridge, and not long later we were home safe and sound.

Caught in the rain again!

The Waterfall

All in all, it was a great weekend, and we bid our farewells on Monday morning, as we headed back home.

Us at the waterfall

So the internet is being very slow today, so you will have to wait for the rest of my post ...