Goodbyes

So time has flown by and here I am, on the last day of school, trying to contemplate that after today I won’t be coming back. Tomorrow we are heading off for six weeks of traveling around Central America, and although I am so excited for this, it is going to be tough saying goodbye to my life here in Sigua.

The past month has been pretty busy with exams and making sure all the children know everything they need to, so they are ready to go into Prep next year. I was a little shocked to hear my 4 and 5 year olds would be having exams as they are so young, but the Honduran school system relies heavily on exams and lots of focus of rote learning and copying. Luckily the exams for my children weren’t too intense, and I’m proud to say they all passed.

I also held a grading, or exam for my Karate kids. I’m so proud of how far all of these kids have come, from my naughty little 1^st and 2^nd grade boys, to the 4^th grade girls who come to my room asking everyday asking for me to teach them a new move or kata. I will really miss spending my Wednesday and Thursday afternoons doing karate rolls on the grass or running around with pillows getting them to duck, dodge, jump and block. They all passed a Karate grade, from the younger ones getting red belt (1^st Mon), to two girls who worked really hard to get white belt (3^rd Mon), which is fantastic considering we only started before Christmas. Thanks to Dominic Fletcher and Koko Dojo in Portobello, I had some lovely medals and certificates to give them. The kids were so amazed to have real medals, as the closest thing to a medal they had ever seen is a chocolate coin glued to some string. One of the boys Daniel is sleeping with his medal under his pillow every night. They have been such a great group of kids, and all worked incredibly hard.

Saying goodbye in general has been really tough. In 2^nd grade one of the girls came up to me last week and said “Miss, I will miss you very much on vacations” I realized that I hadn’t told them I was leaving. When I did, they all rushed up and gave me a massive group hug, and two of the girls started crying. It was so touching. I have grown to love these kids so much, and love teaching, and I just don’t really want to stop.

But saying goodbye to my Kinder kids was the hardest. I have been with them 8am – 12noon every weekday for an entire year. Not only that, I am completely responsible for them at all times when on school property or at school events. I have taught them to write their names, to count, eat food with a fork (still a challenge for a few who use the fork to scoop the rice into their hand, then put the hand in their mouth) to go to the toilet by themselves, not hit each other, not kill insects, put rubbish in the bin e.c.t. Each and every one of them has come so far in their behaviour, I am so unbelievably proud. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with out those little people running up to me each day, giving me a big hug and shouting “good morning miss!” I will miss all of the singing and dancing and silly jumping we do in class, and of course all of the great funny little things they say and do each day that make me laugh and smile.  I’ve been trying to convince Erin to let me take all 14 of them traveling round Central America with us, but she’s not buying it!

On the last day of school, I sat my class down in a circle and explained to them that after today there would be no more school for a long time. After that they would be moving to Prepa and have a new miss, and I would be going back to Scotland and not be in Honduras any more. This is all quite difficult for these little ones to grasp, but I think they got the idea, and I few said “no” or “no quiero un nuevo miss, quiero usted” (I don’t want a new miss, I want you). It was so sad, but I told them I loved them all very much and there was lots of hugs and goodbyes, and then it was time for them to go. It’s so hard knowing that I probably won’t ever see them again, and I just feel so empty without my little band of children making wobbly lines behind me, telling me how they are going to be transformers when they grow up, and singing “if your happy and you know it” at the top of their voices.

Yesterday one of the teachers Miss Megan, organised a farewell party for us at her house. All the teachers had clubbed together to get us these lovely purses and they had made us each a card, filled with lovely messages. It was so lovely to spend one final evening with them all talking, laughing and singing Spanish karaoke.  I have made such great friends here in Sigua, and all the teachers have been so welcoming and kind to us.

When you hear about Honduras, all you hear about is murder rates, gang wars, drugs and guns. What you don’t hear about is how friendly people are. You don’t hear about how “mi casa es tu casa” (my house is your house), what’s mine is yours. Possessions aren’t the center of life here, people are. Family is more than just your mum and dad, it includes a big extended family with aunts, grandparents, second cousins and family friends. People don’t spend their free time sitting staring at computer screens but they spontaneously turn up at friends and family’s houses and spend hours just sitting and chatting. It doesn’t matter how poor you are, you brush your hair, wear your best clothes and put on a brave face. I have found so many people here to be warm and compassionate, and I feel so lucky to have called this amazing country home for a year.

Guest Blog: Family visit to Honduras - by Sarah Morton

Geoff, Ishbel and I arrived in Honduras after a long journey with a stop off in New York where it had been a cold and drissly 6 degrees. The heat was apparent on the runway, then a fairly short but excitable trip through passport control and customs, knowing Ellen was waiting for us. And there she was holding up a home made banner saying welcome- thinner and browner - it was strange after not seeing each other for eight months. 

The family back together!

In order to see the real Honduras, Ellen thought we should take the 'chicken bus' to her town Siguatepeque (Sigua to the locals) in the middle of the country, half way between San Pedro Sula, where we landed , and the main town, Tegucigalpa. We took a cab to the bus station (cabs do good business in the murder capital of the world where it is too dangerous to walk around) and Ellen impressed us by ordering tickets in fluent Spanish. Someone guided us to the bus, and we squeezed into some of the empty scruffy seats and headed off on the three hour journey to Sigua. The bus toots at each corner vying for trade, and letting hawkers cram on walking up and down offering water, coconut water, fruit and yucca- all in slightly dodgy-looking sweaty plastic bags. I think only two or three of the 20 or so sold anything during the whole journey - a hard way to make a living. It was sweltering, and the green, lush landscape whizzed past the window, with small huts, children carrying bundles of wood on their backs, stalls selling melon, honey, ceramics, then fish near a large lake, then finally into the dusty dusk in Siguatepeque.

The guide books suggest there is no reason to stop in Sigua -it is a rural market town- scruffy with one paved road, and the rest dust. As a rural town it has a great market, with a whole range of stalls, from full fruit and veg, to some people just selling one or two goods, like tomatoes or fruit.  It is Ellen and Erin's regular Sunday outing- helping to make their modest wages last for a month.  

The road to market

A stall-holder preparing oranges with salt

Ellen and Erin's street

On Monday we visited Ellen's school and helped out in her class. The school sits on the edge of town, in a cooler and breezy spot, with views across the mountains. the children come from kindergarten (Ellen's class) to the end of school age 18. It is officially a bi-lingual school, but with a shortage of teachers in Honduras, not all speak fluent English, making Ellen and Erin all the more valuable.

Welcome to Kindergarten

The view from upstairs in the school

Ellen's kid eating a snack - they have learned to sit down and not to steal each others food!

Erin and her parents at breakfast break

They are working very hard. Ellen has a class of 14 4-5 year olds, so it is pretty full on from when they start at 8am until they leave at midday. Ellen teaches a class prior to them arriving (from 7 to 7.45am ) and phonics in the afternoon. Her only respite during the morning is if the class has another teacher for music for 45  minutes- otherwise the kindergarten is her responsibility, including during break time. 

Ellen's kids 'happy' face - by getting them to make faces they have learned what happy, sad and angry mean

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Singing

Kindergarten it is not like a Scottish pre-school classroom - no water, sand, reading corner or home corner, so Ellen has to keep them busy with lots of ideas and activities with minimal resources. I think she has a real advantage on the bi-lingual front having been a volunteer at the Gaelic primary school in Edinburgh last year, in the P1 class, seeing the teachers keep talking Gaelic whether or not the children understood, and using prompts and visual clues to help. She has become very resourceful with lots of different games, songs and lovely posters on the walls. She has also had to get these small people to learn to listen, do as they are told, sit down, eat with cutlery, go to the toilet and all of the other elements of orientation to school that happen in the early years. This has been more difficult for some of the children who have very little structure at home, and to start with ran out of the room, bit each other and fought. Ellen is also a really fun teacher, and her class is now a happy little band, with lots of laughing and smiles, singing, and jokes as well as hard work. I'm really proud of what she has achieved with them, and how well she has risen to this really hard challenge. 

Some of the games sent over by grandma

We helped out playing some of the games my mum has sent over- she has been really helpful- as an ex nursery teacher she has been finding useful resources and sending them over (at great expense!) over the year.

 We returned to school on Friday, and had a little ceilidh with me playing the fiddle. We taught the kids some basic dance moves and had fun with them all dancing and counting.

 The following week was school holidays, semana  Santa- a big deal in Honduras. We went to Roatan where Ellen has a well-earned rest. She was really quite exhausted for the first few days, but probably set her up well for her final 6 weeks teaching before she heads off traveling in Central America before coming home.

A good few months

Hello everyone, I’m sorry it has been so long since my last blog post.

I’ve had a really good past few weeks at school. My kids are always saying the funniest things. Last week we were outside practicing writing the alphabet with chalk outside when they found a bug. I reminded them that the insect was our friend and not to kill it. They followed it about for a bit, and I suggested we give it a name. One child was insistent on “dragon” while another was set on “Henry”, so our new friend was christened “Dragon Henry”. However, while everyone was thinking about his name, no one noticed Dragon Henry sneaking off, and suddenly he was lost! My kids were very upset, so I suggested we all make little cards with pictures for Dragon Henry so that when he came past the class he would know that’s where his friends were. Without even thinking about it they managed to copy the words “Dragon Henry” off the board (score!) and the cute pictures are now adorning my classroom door.

I’m also really happy with their progress in English, numbers and letters. Most of them can now identify all of the letters of the alphabet, the silly actions I have made up for each letter, and I even started getting them to read some three-letter words. It was really touching last week when one of my parents came up to me and said she was really happy when her little girl said “mum, water please” all in English. I was so proud of her, and it’s just little moments like that, which make teaching so worthwhile.

I am less happy with the football practice at our school. Every year our school hosts the Montessori Cup in April, where all of the nearby schools will come to a big football tournament at the school. There is quite a lot of hype about it and classes will be cancelled for all of the matches. At first I was really excited, as I like to watch football at home, and even helped coach a girl’s team for a while. However, I was outraged when I found out that my girls won’t be allowed to participate. The older girls can play but apparently because the little girls don’t know the rules, they will have to cheerlead while the boys play. I find this ridiculous – it’s true they don’t know the rules but that is because no one has told them, and for me the logical solution would be just to teach them the rules because otherwise how will they ever learn them. So now, every day my boys get to practice football in P.E, while my girls just have to sit at the side and watch. I did manage to take them off and have a girls only practice one day, but unfortunately I usually have classes at the time they have P.E, so I can’t normally do this. It’s so unfair, but I just tell my girls to keep practicing and make a point to take them outside to watch when the older girls are playing, and hopefully they won’t be put off the sport altogether.

In other sports news I have finally started my karate club. There was a lot of excitement when I announced that there was going to be a karate club for the 6 – 10 year olds, and I was completely astounded on the first day when about forty incredibly hyper kids showed up at my classroom. I marched them all out to the basketball court (not ideal, but it works) and we played some games, learned some Japanese and I taught them some basic punches and kicks. It was a success, if slightly overwhelming and I have since limited the class so I now have about ten regular kids, which is much better as I can give them lots of individual attention. We now have classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays and if nothing else it is really fun just to run about on the field with them, playing games, doing karate rolls and having a good time. In particular I am really pleased by the attendance of two particularly difficult 2^nd grade boys who are nightmares in class, but who come along every week and work hard. It is nice to be able to congratulate and reward them instead of telling them off all the time.

My camera has run out of battery so all of these lovely pictures are Erin's

At the end of February the Honduran government announced a surprise “spring break holiday” which meant four days off school! We decided to go to El Salvador with fellow volunteers Kate, Rachel and Nicole. Despite its bad reputation El Salvador is a beautiful country all the locals are very friendly to travelers and keen to recommend their favorite places to visit. After a slightly hectic first night as we discovered none of our Honduran phones worked in the country, we finally managed to meet up in San Salvador. We decided to rent a car for two days, which gave us so much freedom and meant we didn’t have to rely on the famously unreliable chicken busses to get everywhere. Neither Erin nor I can drive but luckily Kate and Rachel are both really good drivers. It was still a little nerve wrecking when we first set out on the other side of the road, surrounded by famously reckless central – American drivers, however there were no major incidents and we only got lost once, and only for about five minutes.

Being on a road – trip was so much fun (once or twice we did get stuck behind a heard of cows) but just driving through the beautiful scenery with our friends and our Spanish radio fading in and out, made me so happy.

Our first stop was El Tunco, one of the famous beaches on the country’s Pacific coast. We had a great time relaxing, swimming and we even tried our hand at surfing. Needless to say with my sense of balance I wasn’t very good, but it was lots of fun anyhow. We then rode a truck up into the mountains and went on a hike to get to these spectacular waterfalls.

After the beach, we headed up to the “ruta de las flores” or route of the flowers, which is a trail of beautiful little artisan towns. All the towns were covered in murals, from the typical women and flowers painted on a wall, to murals on rubbish trucks and elaborate murals depicting the candidates for the next election. You can’t really picture people painting murals for David Cameron or Ed Milliband at home, can you? We wandered about the various cobbled streets for the day, just enjoying the sun and the peacefulness.

It was not long before our holiday was over. We had a very eventful journey back to Honduras involving our chicken bus breaking down and stranding us in the middle of El Salvador! That and some trouble in immigration meant it took us over15 hours to get back to Sigua, but we got home in the end, safe and sound.

These are all Erin's photos too

The cathedral in Comayagua

Last weekend we traveled to the nearby colonial town of Comayagua with our friends Jenny and Jos who are volunteers in an orphanage near El Progresso. Comayagua is a very tranquil town, and we went to visit the cathedral, climbed up the bell tower and I even got to ring the bells! We spent the rest of the time walking around, getting a feel for the place, enjoying the sun and we also managed to befriend some street children. It was great to catch up with Jenny and Jos and hear about their project, which we hope to go and visit soon. On Monday they came into school with us and met all the kids, which was great fun.

Last week was our school beauty pageant  - practice round. Although it was a strange idea to us, a school beauty pageant, and I wasn’t too sure about it before hand it did turn out to be a lot of fun, and although I’m not to sure about the older girls with all the makeup and reveling dresses, the little ones did have great fun dressing up as princesses and having everyone cheer them and throw confetti.

We also had our sports day on Friday, and although it was a lot more chaotic than at home, the kids all had great fun. A track was made with sprinkled flour around the field and there was running races, crawling races and a long jump. It made for a great break from classes and all of the kids were ecstatic when they all got a chocolate medal (made by the teachers the night before gluing chocolate coins to ribbons). Here, there are so few recourses, if you want anything the teachers have to make it themselves, but when you do put in the effort the kids appreciate it so much it is worth all the hard work.

That’s all the news for now, but we have a very exciting few weeks ahead of us. Our Project Trust Desk Officer is flying out to visit us at the beginning of April and then a week later my parents and sister are coming to visit. I can’t wait to see them after being away for 8 months (and am also very excited for the goodies they are brining – we will be introducing our host family to nutella, rich teas and bagels among other things.)

A Christmas like no other

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and new year and those of you going back to work and school aren’t suffering too much. I had an absolutely amazing time traveling; it was hands down the best two weeks of my life. I’m a little sad going back to school after having such a great time, but it was lovely to see my kids again after the holidays and I also have another five weeks of traveling to look forward to in July, so I really can’t complain!

We started our trip early with a 6am bus, to get to our first destination – Copan. The bus was typically Honduran, that is to say it was squished to double capacity whist various people hopped on, stood up at the front and gave sales pitches on anything from smoothies to increase your sex drive to pamphlets to teach your children English. We also had two clowns do some sort of a show for 15 minutes. By far the most enthusiastic of those to come on board was a very lively preacher who gave an hour long sermon at the front of the bus which involved lots of shrieking, jumping around and shouting something about god’s blood. Despite the crowding, the heat and the noise bombardment the scenery made it quite a pleasant journey, as we drove all the way up in to the mountains near the Guatemalan boarder. 

We finally arrived at about 4 o’clock and my first thoughts were how beautiful the place was. Surrounded in mountains, the town itself has quiet cobbled streets and a strong tradition of arts and handicrafts. We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering the streets going into visit the numerous shops selling all sorts of multicolored clothes and fabrics, lovely straw dolls and various Mayan hieroglyphics on necklaces or blocks of wood. One of the artists took us into her studio where she makes all of her crafts: all of the walls were painted different colors and various prints on fabrics were hanging out to dry, it was all very inspiring.

Our lovely hostel - Iguana Azul

Erin's lovely photo of one of the artist's studios

 The next day we went to the Mayan ruins which the town is named after. The Mayans were an ancient civilization that pre – dates the Aztecs. It was so incredible. The main remaining structure is the courtyard where the entire civilization would assemble to hear sermons and to witness sacrifices. Also standing was a large ball court where prisoners would be forced to play a Mayan ball game, and the loosing team was sacrificed! My favorite structure was this gigantic staircase with hieroglyphics all the way up it. Instead of using a book, the Mayans carved their entire history into the 63 steps that make up this stairway. There were 16 kings in the Copan dynasty, all with fantastic names such as Smoke Monkey or Moon Jaguar. Why don’t the British royal family have names like that? When Copan was toppled by war, famine and rebellion some of those left fled to the forest, and as a result nowadays about 20% of Hondurans are from Mayan decent.

That afternoon we went to Macaw Mountain, which is a bird sanctuary for scarlet macaws. Scarlet macaws are so beautiful and now hands down my favorite animal. Red, yellow, green and blue, the closest thing they resemble are what I would imagine a phoenix would look like. We got to feed baby toucans, and have huge macaws stand on our heads. We also learned about the sanctuary, which does really good work rescuing the many macaws that are kept in captivity, educating the local children about the birds and releasing the babies into the wild. We actually had some wild ones fly over our head when we were out walking the next day.

The ball court - looser gets sacrificed!

Some Scarlet Macaws

Erin having a chat with her new friend

Erin's picture of me a blue Macaw on my head

Erin's pic

After Copan we headed over to Utila. After a long bus ride and prettily sickly boat journey (I won’t go into details) we finally arrived on the island. Utila has to be one of my favorite places on the planet. From the Caribbean men playing dominos furiously on the street, to all the people I met from all over the world. There is an atmosphere were nothing is done in a rush, and you can spend all day chilling on the dock, leaning a new card game, playing volleyball or walking on the beach. It was lovely to see all of the other volunteers as well, and hearing about their experiences in their projects across the country.

I also learned to scuba dive, which was amazing. We swam through corals and saw all kinds of beautiful fish – some an array of rainbows colors, others all black with one white stripe through them, or camouflaged in with the coral so you had to strain your eyes to spot them. There is a whole world underwater, that you are never even aware of until you dive, and suddenly you are swimming alongside a shoal of fish in this huge underwater city. It is so relaxing, just focusing on your breathing and taking in all the life around you, and diving really alters your perspective when you surface, it really makes you think about how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things.

On New Years Eve, we all went out for a meal at this lovely restaurant called Neptune’s, as it was of the other volunteers, Ione’s birthday. To get there you have to take a boat through a mangrove forest, and it was so peaceful, gliding along the river with my friends, the sun setting behind us. After a delicious meal, we watched the midnight fireworks off the dock. The other Scottish volunteers and I lead a rendition of Auld Lang Syne and then we went to the beach and danced the night away.

We were very sad when the time came to leave Utila, to say goodbye to all of the amazing people we had met, and of course the other volunteers who make up our Hondi family.

Jenny and Jos took this picture of the Utila sea

Trying on some Honduran hats

The Girls on Hogmany

Erin and I on Christmas morning

The family on New Year's

Erin and I then headed up to the little town of Gracias for my birthday and to meet up with Kate and Rachel, two fellow volunteers who had spent the past few days in Guatemala. They had bought lots of lovely wares – including a waistcoat and some flutes. We had good catch up with them, and then decided to visit Gracias’ famous hot springs. However, it turns out that there are two hot springs, and we went to the less famous, and generally worse of the two. This being Honduras, everyone was fully clothed, while we, having just been on Utila, were in our bikinis. We sheepishly shuffled over to the “more” private section of the springs, but even so we soon attracted a staring crowd. I have never felt more like I was an exhibit at a zoo! Despite this, the springs were still really nice and the closest thing to a bath I’ve had since we’ve been here.

After a slightly hair-raising journey home where we managed to get stranded in a small town in the middle of no where (due to misinformation about the bus times), and had to take taxi ride home over a very badly maintained road, in the dark. We did make it in the end, and finally we were back in Sigua.

It’s a bit depressing being back, especially as it is much colder and rainier here, than it was on Utila. However, it was great to see my kids again and I defiantly did miss them. We are approaching the six-month mark now, which is a very frightening prospect, knowing we are half way in to our year. Despite all of the challenges of living here, Honduras has really become my home and I can’t think of what it will be like to leave the dirt – track roads, multi – colored houses and street sellers which have become the backdrop of everyday life.

Erin wearing ALL of Kate's Guatemalan purchases