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.
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| The family back together! |
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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.
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| The road to market |
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| A stall-holder preparing oranges with salt |
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| 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.
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| Welcome to Kindergarten |
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| The view from upstairs in the school |
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| Ellen's kid eating a snack - they have learned to sit down and not to steal each others food! |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
