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.