Volunteering in Honduras with Project Trust: 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