OHHH YEAH

Hello guys... Sorry it’s been so long since i last wrote...only just over a week though! So much has happened since i arrived here, i don’t know where to begin!
I arrived in San Pedro Sula airport, and the travelling day seemed to take ages... Like i said, i didn’t sleep on Friday night, so i ended up sleeping the majority of the flights which was a relief, they went by pretty fast! At least i know what i need to do for the return flight to make it go a bit faster haha :) We arrived in San Pedro Sula and we were collected by Donny and some of the family. We stayed with Javier and Damaris who were very caring! The poverty was particularly apparent in San Pedro, even within a relatively ‘well off’ family. Our room had a double bunk bed with a single above it, and a single bed beside it. In the family there were 6 members...Javier and Damaris, the parents...and Javier (16), Fernando (14), Damaris (12) and Debora (10) were the children. The two girls slept in the single bed beside ours, and the single bed above ours was unoccupied, covered in clothes etc. When we were heading to bed, i noticed in the parents’ room that the two elder boys were sleeping without covers, pillows or sheets, on the tile floor. I was so shocked and part of me felt so disgusted with myself that the family felt so respectful and responsible for me and Emma that they gave up any form of bedding, so that we could sleep comfortably... though one thing i’ve realised, and am beginning to accept, is that some things cannot be changed. Do not dwell on them, just get on with making the things that can be changed better.
The parents worked during the day for long hours, so we were being looked after by the 4 children. Javier, the eldest child cooked for us some pretty amazing meals! He looked after us really well :) another thing about Honduras is that there are so many tv channels with dubbed british and American movies to watch...and on our first day we were BLESSED with the opportunity of watching Love Actually... for those of you who have seen that movie i’m sure you can imagine that the airport scenes were not particularly what we wanted to see on our first day after leaving our loved ones for 10 months. Still, a good cry did us both well haha...
The 2 nights that we stayed with Javier’s family, we went to a little cafe a few blocks up from their home. It is run by Lourdes, another member of the family (not quite sure who though...we think she’s Damaris’s mother). The first thing i ate that was typically Honduran was a poposa. Thick tortilla with cheese in the centre, deeeeeeply fried. Everything is really really fattening here, and i’ve been informed that i will return a bit chubbier than i left which i am NOT okay with. The food is incredible, but so fattening and full of carbs. They really have barely any fruit around here which is another nightmare. Another local delicacy was pig’s trotters. I couldn’t dare touch them, especially not on my first night, they looked thoroughly unappetising haha... anyway, the little cafe i am referring to was literally a concrete reclangle with a tin roof. They had a mini hifi inside it though, and all the little friends that we had accumulated came in to dance with us to such classic hits as ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyonce, and ‘Boom Boom Pow’ by the Black Eyed Peas. After you have heard these songs on repeat for a week on end they really drive you nuts. Then some traditional Honduran music came on called Punta...the mother Damaris taught me how to dance the Honduran way... basically shake my hips and bum as much as possible and wave my hands around in the air. Seemed to go down pretty well if you know what i mean ;) kidding on i looked like a right idiot but hey, i’m here to learn a culture and if i have to look like a fool to integrate myself then so be it :)
We travelled from San Pedro Sula to Lepaera on the Monday with Lourdes, she came to help us on our journey (and thank GOODNESS she did...Honduran buses are nothing like ours...there are no bus stops, you literally get on and shout at the driver when you want to get off, so we would have had no idea what to do if it hadn’t been for Lourdes). It was a nightmare figuring out what to do, so we just followed Lourdes’ lead as much as possible which was the best thing we could have done. I still don’t understand how Holly (another volunteer staying in Gracias on her own) managed to get from Gracias to the Bay Islands using only public transport on her third week or something! Beyond me.
Anyway, we arrived in Lepaera and met Laura, a volunteer who came for 3 months to teach English at the school we are currently working at, outwith Project Trust. She is from Manchester so it was nice to hear some proper English (even if it’s not the accent i’m used to). We met Mercedes who is one of Damaris’ sisters who runs the bilingual school here that i work in. Mercedes is very good at speaking English so it’s a relief to have a decent translator. We are staying with one of the richest families in Lepaera...they own all kinds of stuff including a liquor store a minute away from the house...which proves to be a tad scary when one is coming home after dark (which happens around 6pm) due to all the drunks who are either passed out on the street, or swaying precariously and muttering foul Spanish words to themselves. However they are usually too drunk to either notice us, or make it over to us in one piece before we have locked ourselves in the house. So no need to panic haha... (i wrote this blog in the house there, came out and i am now checking over it in Mercedes’ house with Laura... the thing is, i left my house alone there to take the 5 minute walk down here, and as soon as i came out the green metal doors onto the street i looked to my left and literally a foot away from me was a drunk man sat down on the ground, swaying onto his knees, and round onto his back... i was so panicked trying to close the gate (which is a right biatch to close, never mind in a hurry) while this drunk Honduran bloke sways in my direction. Was not a pleasant sight experience but i made it down here without him even being aware that i was anywhere near him. Probably couldn’t have said his own name if he was asked to, never mind use any of his limbs).
Anyway, our house is one of the only 3 story homes in Lepaera, and the top floor is ours. We have a large room with a toilet in it, and 2 double beds. There is a huge lounge area with curving corner sofa, the biggest hifi i have ever seen and a huge widescreen tv. One of the things about Honduras is that people do not tend to prioritise very well... the walls are cracked and peeling and stained, the sockets hang off the walls, there is usually one toilet per household (which is not too bad but when there are about 8 people staying in one home it can be a little bit of a nightmare...especially when they run out of toilet paper. Another point to add is that the toilets cannot deal with toilet paper, so ... yeah, it has to go straight in a little bin beside the toilet when you’ve used it. Not to mention when the water runs out in the house and you can’t flush the toilet. Me and Emma have made a pact that we do NOT use our toilet for anything but a number one, should we need something else we go down and use the family’s toilet hahahaha. It’s working well so far for us :P ). Yet they feel it is their obligation to own the biggest car on the planet, the hugest hifi and tv and a new computer. It’s ridiculous.
Annnnnnyway, our first day of teaching was on the Tuesday, the day after we arrived in Lepaera. It was horrible because i was shoved in with the preper (the tiny ones, aged 4 with basically no English, and no concentration either). That proved to be disastrous, though i managed to keep them under control, i don’t think they learned very much. Mercedes and Laura said it wasn’t so bad because they will have learned something, and the wee ones just tend to run away and do something else most of the time. Hondurans are incredibly lazy but in a way that is spurring me on to make them more proactive...so yes mum, i’m not quite as lazy as i was at home, honest... so that afternoon when lessons had finished i spent the whole time interrogating Laura as to what each year group knows now, what they need to know, and what they are like in terms of their ability and work ethic. So Wednesday’s lesson turned out to be miraculously AMAZING. I had prepared my lessons, some worksheets for the classes, a few things for the kids to do when they’d finished their work or they were refusing to concentrate... i was so happy at how it had panned out. I know that Tuesday was not supposed to be a good day...nobody had told us anything and we just had to turn up and teach! Emma didn’t teach the preper for a good few days, and as soon as those lessons ended she looked like she was about to explode, which made me feel better about myself seeing as i knew it wasn’t just me that found them to be a nightmare. Even Laura can’t put up with teaching them for any length of time and she teaches the equivalent to Primary One in Manchester!
So teaching is going pretty well at the moment, preparing each lesson at the end of the day works well for us, as we can all pick up from where we left off :) we take turns teaching the 3 age groups. Preper has 5 kids, Pre Kinder has 2 kids, and Kinder is supposed to have 4, though usually there are only 2 kids... the reason there are so few children at the moment is because the school year has finished, and this is just a type of English summer school that we are running just now. Mercedes is opening up another school on Wednesday in San Juan and she said there would probably be around 25 children in the year groups. She wants me and Emma to move there and teach them, though she is suggesting that one of us stays here and one moves there. Emma is horrified by this idea and i am not very comfortable with it either. Hopefully we won’t have to do that, we’re supposed to be going there tomorrow or Wednesday to figure out what the plan is, though we’re just going to tell her that we’re not separating.
On Friday we planned to go to the nearest big town, Gracias for the weekend. We stayed for free in Hotel Guancascos which is owned and run by Fronny, a Dutch woman who has lived in Honduras for 22 years and is involved in the PT web. There is an American Peace Corp volunteer staying here in Lepaera for 2 years called Darren. He’s a friend of Laura’s and he is fluent in Spanish, so he came with us to help us cope with the buses and locals! We arrived there and as we were walking down the street in Gracias we heard someone shouting Emma and Jen... it was Holly coming back from work and she just happened to see us which was really lucky! She’s complaining about having put on 10 pounds since she’s been here and i don’t blame her...i think ive put on a couple already too :( she came for dinner with us, and told us a bit about what life was like for her, and how her trip to Roatan went. It all sounds pretty amazing, and hopefully we’re going to go to the islands before Laura leaves in 2 weeks time (yeah, Laura’s stay is almost over which is a bit of a shame, hopefully she’ll be coming back in February we think). We ate dinner and sat in the hotel room chatting and listening to music for ages which was nice, then we took holly home. She only lives a 4 minute walk from the hotel!
The following day we went to the natural pools just outside Gracias, just the 4 of us though, Holly had things to do. The weather was kind of grey, which was good because we didn’t want to get burned, nor did we want the place to be too busy. It was lovely, all the naturally heated pools, and very few people in them! It was lovely and we had a great time. When we were done we went to the cafe and sat for a little while, when suddenly a horrendous TORRENTIAL TROPICAL DOWNPOUR started and we knew we were buggered. We were in the downpour for all of 30 seconds and we were soaked through, denims completely drenched back to front. We had to trek uphill from the pools for about 20 minutes in flip flops that didn’t fit, on an uneven dirt track. By the time we reached the top we were soaked through, contents of our bags included. It’s a miracle my electricals made it out alive! We got to the top to wait for a bus and thought it would be better to start walking in the direction of Gracias, torrential downpour still in full force. By this point the main road had turned into a river. We walked along, me, Laura, Emma and Darren, completely soaked and hoping for a hitch on the flatbed of someone’s truck. After walking for about 5 minutes, a car pulled up and we bolted through the downpour and clambered onto the flatbed, no questions asked. This truck’s flatbed did not have a back to it, it was open and we literally could have gone flying out the back as soon as he took off, but i slid a little and grabbed the side of the truck. After i sorted my placement out we were off. It was AWESOME, the driver must have been going about 70 mph and we arrived in Gracias in about 5-10 minutes...the downpour had drizzled out during the car journey and we trekked the 15 minutes from the hospital where he dropped us off, to the hotel.
So that was our experience at the springs, it was awesome!
Now i apologise for the length of this blog...theyre probably all going to be about this length, but this is all the gossip i’ve got for now (you’ll be glad to know). Will update probably in another week or so when more exciting things happen on my Honduran journey :) We’re going to head to Roatan in a couple of weeks so look forward to some great snorkelling chat and some goss from the guys on Roatan!
Speak soon, missing everyone terribly though it might not look like it from this... i’m trying to keep myself as preoccupied as possible to stop myself going mad :( i’m having an incredible time but its true that i’m missing people a lot. Another point to add is that these months will go by pretty fast... as Darren put it so eloquently when i asked him how he felt about being here for 2 years, he said ‘the days go slow, but the weeks go fast’ and that is the most accurate description i could ask for!
See you in some short weeks!
Love, Jen xxx