Parades and Tela

Hi everyone, lots to report.

So we went to the parades the Friday before last, and were amazed and astounded when we got there. The first parade was the one for the pre – school aged kids but just because they are so young no less effort was put into their costumes. We defiantly felt underdressed in our (compulsory) beige trousers and blue blouse. Each of the children were given a special part to play, from banner bearers and flag holders to the five girls representing each of the central American countries and the boys playing toy drums at the front of the high school band. My role was to get the four flag – bearing four – year – olds to march in a square, and the one boy with the Honduras flag to march in the middle. This was no easy task. The boys were immaculately behaved, however their ability to march in a square was seriously limited and as a result I basically ran about the supposed square pushing different children into place. It was good fun though, and we made Honduran TV!

The Sunday high – school parade was less fun, mostly because we had to wake up at 5.30 to get there for the 7.00 start. However, this being Honduras, we then had to wait on the hot road for THREE AND A HALF HOURS until anything happened. Not impressed we finally set off at 10.30. While there were some fantastic costumes and every school has a samba band, which are all so good, it was soooooo hot and soooo long I didn’t enjoy it half as much as the Friday one.

However, we had the trip to Tela to perk us up. We hopped on a bus after the parade and we were off! The journey was amazing, the coach was practically empty and the views were great. It was just so nice to get out of Sigua for the first time since we’ve been here and see somewhere else. You could tell as we were getting closer because the air was getting more and more damp, and you could start to smell that wet, green, plant - like musk of the rainforest.

We woke up on Monday to rain. In a slightly bad mood we set off to find the tour we were planning on going on which took you to a national park. Firstly. the hotel where it was based had changed addresses and when we finally found the correct place we were told we needed 5 people to go on the tour. Slightly disheartened, we decided to set off in search for the botanic gardens, which the guidebook had recommended, however when we finally got there it turned out to be shut. Third time lucky, we set off for the Garifuna (a Caribbean ethnic group who live around the Honduran coast and on the islands) Villages. We were greeted by a man in a tuk tuk who offered to show us round the community. We went out on a lake in a canoe, had the best seafood soup I have ever eaten in my life (and probably ever will), made by our guide’s aunt, walked along the beach, saw the local radio station, and saw how the Garifuna boys fish. Exhausted we went back to Tela and spent the rest of the day on the beach. It’s the first time I have ever seen the Caribbean sea, and it is so beautiful (and also very warm).

On Tuesday we decided to go and see fellow volunteers Meryl and Rosa, who live in Tela and had just gotten back from their holiday to the Mayan ruins in Copan. It was great to catch up with them and then we went to the botanic gardens (which were open this time) with them and the American volunteer they live with, Luis. Now, when I heard botanical garden, I envisaged Edinburgh botanic gardens, but hotter. It was quite different, was more like wandering through the rainforest than anything else, the trees and plants were so cool and we were the only ones there. Afterwards we sadly waved goodbye and hopped on the bus home.

Then yesterday we participated in a 6k fun run through town. It was extremely well organised (for Honduras): each runner got a number and every finisher got a piece of corn (yum!). It was really tough because it was so hot and quite hilly, and we haven’t managed to run since we’ve been here. It was good to do some proper exercise, however, and the views were absolutely stunning. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing at the pool with Ione, Michaela and Katie.

Next weekend we have the Monday off, so guess what – Tela again! This time Ione, Michaela and Katie will be coming too, and it will be nice to have a group of us, and maybe this time we will manage that national park!

Our school's band

My flag boys

Our Garifuna guides: Jose and Marcos

Garifuna boys fishing

Fiestas, fishing and host family fun

Hi everyone!

Us at the pool with fellow volunteers Ione, Michaela and Katie

Like many countries Honduras has an Independence day, but Honduras being Honduras the celebrations go on for an entire month, the month of September. Flags are draped everywhere – in school, in the supermarket, over the phone wires in town – and everywhere you go you can´t escape the national anthem, and pictures of the national flower, national tree and the county´s founders.  At school we are preparing for the parades this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in which every school in Siguatepeque and the surrounding area is taking part. Preparations are in full swing and everyday there is band practice, baton twirling practice, flag carrying practice and marching practice. They even got a guy from the army into the school to help them with their marching technique. However my kids being four years old, marching practice mainly consists of the older kids trying to make them stand in one place, and running around the school after them when they don't. It’s nice to have someone else chase after them for a change. Then after the weekend of parading we get our first holiday! Unfortunately it´s only two days so we won´t manage to make it to the beautiful bay islands like some of the other volunteers, but we plan to go to the beach town of Tela. The only issue is that the busses might not be running, we have asked loads of people but no one seams to be very sure, but fingers crossed we´ll make it.

Tuesday was Children´s day in Honduras, which pretty much means a day where there are no classes but instead fun and games. We celebrated it on Friday, which was so much fun! We had a bouncy castle (and yes, I did have a go myself), musical chairs, a pass the parcel and best of all the Piñata. It was a little scary handing some of my kids a big wooden stick, however there were only a few injuries and after about 20 minutes they managed to crack it open. They them proceeded to stampede and all rush and grab as many sweets as they could. Quite a frightening sight. They then got chicken nuggets, chips and cupcakes and it was hilarious watching them all get the icing EVERYWHERE (some examples: in their hair, on their feet, behind their ears). All in all it was a great day, most of all it was just nice to have a chance to just play with my kids and be nice to them instead of shouting at them or trying to get them to sit down all the time.   I do feel that I have gotten to know my kids by now and although they try my patience all the time, I do genuinely love each of them. Day to day it is a real struggle and I can´t wait until 3 o´clock when we can go home, but there are some great moments like when I have the whole class giggling and singing wheels on the bus with me, when one of my slower kids manages to do a whole piece of work right, when someone learns to write their name or when my special needs kid learnt his first word in: banana.

The first time we got soaked

As for the weekends we have decided to try and do some more interesting things instead of just lazing around in our house all day. Last weekend we decided we would try and do some horse riding. We texted the head teacher to ask if she had any recommendations and she text back two hours later telling us she had everything arranged and we should go into the school at 10 tomorrow and someone would pick us up. But this being Honduras no one showed up until 12, when some distant relative of someone at the school turned up to take us. We went  to his farm and while we waited for them to get the horse ready we were handed a piece of wood with a fishing line wound round it and a hook on the end and told we could fish for a bit while we were waiting. I´ve never been fishing before but it was so much fun and I managed to catch nine Tilapia fish! After about 2 hours of fishing the horse appeared and we went off into the forest for our ride. It was so beautiful and misty but after about 30 minutes it started raining. And in Honduras when it rains, it rains. After about a minute in the tropical downpour we were soaked but the thing is you get so unbelievably wet you just stop caring. The ride back was amazing; we were drenched but riding a horse through the forest where all I could see was trees mist and rain, is something I will never forget. We them went home  with the family we  gutted and cooked the fish we had caught and we all ate Tilapia for tea. It was great to have some fish because you can´t buy it here. All in all a great day.

 

Then on Monday we came home to find there was no power in the whole of Sigua. At first we were a bit annoyed because it meant we couldn't cook and we had no light at all but we soon perked up when we realised it also meant we couldn't possibly do any of our lesson planning.  So we went for pizza with the family and then came back and had an Adele sing a long (as it seams to be the only British music they have heard of). By about 7 it was pitch black and we only had two wind up torches. That's when the fun begun. We invited Nicole and David (the 12 and 15 year olds who live with us) to play a bit of hunt the torch which is where you hide the only source of light and all fumble about in the dark looking for it, which was hilarious (and miraculously we managed not to beak anything).  We then played a bit of hide and seek which is also much more fun when you can see nothing at all and then played a game where you have to sneak up and hit each other with pillows. However, the best game of all we played at the end. We didn't really understand at first when they were explaining it to us, but the aim was for me and Erin as a team to try and scare David and Nicole more than they could scare us, and whoever managed to scare the other the most would win. The first round they won as Erin and I didn't really understand what was going on until they ran at us with Piñatas over their heads. The second round turned out oddly as David and Nicole ran around the room with sheets over their heads while me and Erin creepily sat in the rocking chairs murmuring hubble, bubble, boil and trouble and the like. I actually got quite into the role, but it ended in a stalemate. The final round was the most dramatic with Nicole and David wearing zombie makeup however, they could only stand there stunned as me and Erin came out in our sunglasses, flashing our torches and singing Greece Lightning at the top of our voices. The whole night ended with us all dancing about, and then, at 11.30 the lights came back on. A fantastic, if a little crazy night but it made me so glad that I am living with a host family, and one with kids that are so up for a laugh.

That's all for now, tomorrow and Sunday we will be marching and hopefully I'll get some pictures of that (and of our holiday in Tela too!) Meanwhile here are some pictures of my kids at our party on Friday.

Erin's pic

Erin's pic

The teaching has begun!

So, on Monday we started teaching. I had all of my things prepared for the seven kids I was expecting: materials, name places, crayons. Then 14 kids turned up. 14! As you can imagine chaos soon erupted as I ran round the classroom trying to get them to draw various things as I only had enough stuff for seven kids to do the planed activity, while trying to figure out the names of all of the kids and if they were actually meant to be in my class! I think its fair to say the first day was pretty much a disaster. However, things got better the second day and I can now keep most of the kids in their seats and on task. I also have a hang of who is meant to be in my class, so when random children come wandering in I can tell them again that this isn't their room and redirect them. Apart from one or two trouble makers, my kids are lovely and I'll try to get some pictures up soon as they are very cute.

Last weekend we went to the pool with Ione and Michaela which was very nice and we spent a day sunbathing (coated in factor 50 of course) and swimming which was nice apart from Ione managing to tear all the ligaments in her foot jumping in. She's okay now though and her and some other volunteers are off to see the Copan ruins this weekend. Unfortunately we couldn't go as we have to plan our lessons for the next three weeks and make numerous sets of flashcards.

Another exiting thing we have been introduced to is the Sunday market. A teacher at the school took us and it is amazing. There are so many fruits and vegetables which are so yummy and so cheap. For under £4 we got two salted oranges (which are green here), 6 guyabas, 10 sweet potatoes, a bag of 20 lychees, 5 passion fruit, a squash and a melon! We can't wait to go back tomorrow. The smells, the colors and the general busyness puts us in a great mood for the rest of the day.

Thats all for now, I'll let you know how the second week of teaching goes, and any other news from Hondieland!

This is our dog called Mi Nino

My classroom, which has a sesame street theme

The school

Erin in the playground

My class mascot, Smiley Tiger, on the swings

The road home from school

The pulperia or corner shop near school

Hi everyone,

So I've arrived! On Friday night we got in to San Pedro Sula. The hours of flying were not so bad, the hour waiting at Honduran passport control after being awake for 24 hours was a little more trying. However, after we got through we were greeted by a thunderstorm lighting up the whole sky. Pretty awesome.

The next day we got picked up by one of the teachers at our school and driven to our project. The drive was incredible, everything was so green and I can't describe how beautiful. We then stopped at the side of the road to buy some bananas, which the lady chopped off with a massive knife. They like their big knives here. We then got taken to our accommodation which wasn't an annex as we had been told but a room in a family's house. However, there was no one around who spoke any English to explain things to us, and when we found someone who did speak English they didn't really know what was going on. The next two days were so tough. We were tired, we were homesick, we didn't like the food, the dogs outside kept us up all night and we didn't have a clue why we were in a house and if this was where we were going to be staying for the year. We ventured out for a walk and everyone stared at us, whistled at us or hissed at us. It was pretty scary.

However, on Monday things improved when we went up to the school and got to meet Nidia and Cesar who are the people in charge of the school. Nidia explained everything to us, and we are staying in the house, to help us integrate more. I got told I am teaching the Kinder class who will be about 4 and Erin is teaching Preparatory class who are about 5 and Nidia herself will be teaching the 3 year olds. Together we are the pre-school team and we have been spending the past week preparing for when the kids start a week on Monday. It's really exciting.

I'm also getting used to things here. The fact we don't have a shower but a big bucket of water and a smaller bucket which you use to scoop up the freezing water and pour it over your head. I like walking down the street now, and I don't mind random people talking to me, and I say hi back. We often go on walks with the family and the other day we went to the town's cinema to see World War Z. Me and Erin spent most of the movie clinging on to each other with pure fear.

We are cooking for ourselves, and although we burnt the onions last night, it hasn't gone too disastrously. We cook outside on the fire, and there is a wonky hob inside if we need to cook two things. We also had a go at making tortillas which was loads of fun. You take the dough have to spin it into a kind of circle and then put it on top of the slate above the fire. Needless to say our tortillas were quite holy which the family found very entertaining.

More somber news and I woke up this morning with a cockroach in my bed. Yes in my bed. However, we should probably count ourselves lucky as most of the other volunteers have been sick.

It's Erin's birthday on Sunday so were meeting up with two other volunteers to have lunch in Del Corral, which is a supermarket but supposedly the best place to eat. Despite all of the mishaps and disasters so far, and missing home I am enjoying Honduras and I can't wait until we start to teach.

Not long now

Hi everyone,

Lots of news since my last post. Firstly and most exciting I have finished all of my fundraising. A massive thanks to everyone who helped and we managed to raise over the £5,400 target.

Other news I have been given the details of my project. I will be teaching at Del Sol Montessori bilingual school, which is a Spanish - English bilingual school. I will be living in the small city of Siguatepeque in an annex with my partner. Our large host family lives downstairs and don't speak any English which will certainly be a challenge but should really help my Spanish. The city itself is the rural capital of the country and is surrounded by mountains. It has a population of about 75,000 and is only two hours each way away from the major cities which will be great for travelling.

Last week I also went on my training course. It was a lot of hard work but good fun and I got to meet the other volunteers going to Honduras and my partner. I was quite worried about meeting my partner in case we didn't get along, but when I met her I knew this wasn't going to be the case. I also learned more about Honduras, how to stay safe and probably most importantly how to teach.

So, I fly out on the 2nd of August and after almost 24 hours of travailing and we arrive into San Pedro Sula. Its under two weeks away which seams unreal and I'm just trying to get everything that I need together and also try to squeeze in some Spanish practice.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me get this far, 

Ellen

Sigua from above

The central square

A typical Sigua road

One of the classrooms at my school on a dress - up day

Sports Day

Thanksgiving celebrations at the school

Spring Fundraising

Hi, hope everyone had a great Easter,

I have to say a big, big thank you to my mum’s friends Helen and Jacqui who between them have raised nearly £400 for my trip over the last month. Helen held a coffee morning in her house, with beautiful little cakes, plus fudge, lemoncello and chutney for sale. This raised over £180. Jacqui held two craft sessions, one for kids, and one for adults. She is also a talented botanical artist and she did a series of beautiful watercolours of fruit and flowers which she has been selling. My Grandma got one for her birthday last week which she loved. In total Jacqui raised £190.

So along with a few more replies from trusts (including £500 from the Lynn Foundation yesterday) I have raised almost £4000, well on the way to my £5400 total. We are planning a Honduran evening in the local wine bar Skylark soon.

I am also holding a Zumba event with my friend Kirsty (who is going to Chile with project trust) this Tuesday at 4pm in the assembly hall. Its only £2 for students so if you go to Portobello, come along. Tickets can be bought from the office, Ms Smith in Modern Studies or me and Kirsty who will be outside the hall at break tomorrow and Tuesday. You can also buy them on the door. I think it will be very good fun, and we will have qualified Zumba instructor Ms Smith to lead it.

 I've included some pictures of the cakes Helen made :)

Festive Period

Hi, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and new year.

I would like to start out by thanking everyone who gave me a donation over the Christmas period. Also to everyone at Portobello High School, who went to the Christmas concert where I raised over £100 for selling cakes. The next school bake sale is on Tuesday, which is the 26th, so more baking for me this weekend!

I also have a massive thank you for Jacqui Pestell who held a fundraising event for me last week. Crafts and prints were made, and it sounds like everyone had a really great time.

I've also had four more positive trust replies this month - I'm very grateful to the Cray Trust, the Allan and Nesta Ferguson trust, the Alchemy foundation and most of all to the Churchill University Scholarship Trust who donated a huge £500. That means I've already got £1,200 from trusts alone.

I'm putting my total at about £2,700 at the moment, which means I'm about halfway. Just another £2,700 to go!

I've also got some very exiting news about a zumbathon in Portobello. Me and my friend Kirsty who is fundraising to go to Chile with Project Trust are hoping to run a zumbathon in Portobello High School hall on the 12th of March. It's not yet confirmed, but I'll post all the details soon.


Thats all for now,

Ellen