Volunteering in Honduras with Project Trust: 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.