YEEEhaa!

Hey!
About time i wrote another one...
Well school is still really fun...though lessons have ended now. We’re in the middle of planning and rehearsing for the Christmas show, this coming Saturday! The kids are going to do some dances and sing English speaking songs...like Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas... and Barbie Girl – Aqua and The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson! Haha its funny, the girls are doing Barbie Girl, and they’re strutting their stuff so brilliantly, I’m so proud of them! The boys are doing the MJ song, and i’ve been trying to teach them how to moonwalk, though they’re not really getting it. And yes, i CAN actually moonwalk, and it’s not because they have a crap teacher, thank you very much. So we’ve been singing a bunch of Christmas songs, we’ve been teaching them the words in English and i swear... i have never heard a group of more TONE DEAF people in my LIFE! They are absolutely horrendous. As a nation, Honduras is pretty tuneless it has to be said... It’s soul destroying! I love music, and i love singing, and for all these kids to be so utterly CRAP at singing is painful to more than just my ears. It’s hilarious, i tried getting them to sing a scale, i started them all off on a starting note, and not one of them could hit any correct notes...it’s a lost cause, but it’ll be fun to watch on Saturday. I’m going to try and film what i can of it, but i don’t have any camera battery life left, i’ll see if i can use Emma’s to film it...
Into the bargain... i have been teaching them the Gay Gordons! I’ve got some Scottish music (thanks Stephen) and i’ve been teaching them how to dance, i am SO EXCITED and i have to film that...you should see them. They’re fantastic! In their little pairs (the girls are all bigger than their partners of course ahah...) and they got the hold correct, they know how to twirl their partners, and our major achievement of today was that they learned how to polka! Emma is my partner (she’s the man, i know technically i should be the guy cos i’m taller, but Emma didn’t know how to dance either part, so she picked up the man’s part pretty quickly haha) and i taught her how to polka all the way around the campo (a pitch near the school that we’ve been using to teach them how to dance). Eventually we got the kids to follow suit, twirling their partners beautifully like little twirling pairs, all over the field :)
We then sat down on the stands, and put one couple on the pitch and we watched them dance the full Gay Gordons with no help, and then i corrected their mistakes. The wee boys just loved dancing with Miss Jennifer because she knows what she’s doing haha! Okay i’m joking, they were bright red all the way through it, just like the boys in my year when they had to dance with the teacher :P
It’s going really well though, they picked it up really well, and some of those girls are naturals! Punta is the style of dancing specific to Honduras, and that involves a lot of hip waving and bum shaking, so the girls are all pretty good at that, as they’ve been showing off during the Barbie Girl rehearsal. I’m so proud of them!
We’ve been to Gracias every weekend since my last blog – it’s keeping us sane, and i managed to send off some letters, so you’ll get them soon (it cost me A LOT OF MONEY so my apologies if you didn’t get one, but please write to me and i will write back). We are supposed to be paid 1500 Lemps a month (equivalent to about £70) but we haven’t seen it yet, but when i get my allowance that’s going towards sending letters out to people :) but please write! The address is 2 blogs previous to this.
Gracias is so good, we stay with Holly, and every morning we have yoghurt and alpen and fresh fruit and it is just AMAZING. So refreshing and healthy. Yolanda still loves hanging out with us, she’s so sweet, but she can be SO annoying sometimes. She reminds me of me, making a racket and dropping things. I’ve had some kind of homemade ice lolly called paletta... those little white plastic cups are filled with fruit juice and bits of fruit, or they are filled with milk and cereal, or any flavour that takes the cook’s fancy!... my favourite paletta is milk with fruit loops haha..that multi-coloured cereal. Its pretty yummy!
We were sitting munching these ice lollies in Guancascos, the hotel in Gracias with the free internet ;) when 2 American travellers popped in and sat with us, chatting to Holly and Emma. The girls had gone up to a fort near the hotel previously, but i had to stay behind and do my washing so i didn’t go, but while they were there, they bumped into these 2 guys and had casual chit-chat about Central America and so on... so the guys sat with us (they were hilarious... camp as a royal tent!) and started telling us a story of what happened when they went back to Gracias. They decided to go to a barber shop in town, and ended up chatting away to some Honduran local for a good 20 minutes, when all of a sudden that guy just jumped on a passing bloke and started battering him with his pistol! Meanwhile the 2 guys bolted into the supermarket next door to take refuge. They heard gun shots, but apparently he was only shooting at the ground (no bloodshed thank goodness). Then the police came and took the weird bloke away. We’re warned ‘don’t go out in the big city late at night’ when really the safety advice should be more along the lines of ‘don’t go out in the day to the barber shop in a small town.’ Haha...
We returned from Gracias for another school week, before our rehearsals for this Saturday’s show. The bus we get back is literally a people carrier...and from time to time, they can get VERY FULL. It was packed, and everyone was literally sitting on one another. There were a good 25 people in the teeny wee van, it was no wonder my knees were under my chin!
We headed to the campo for football (Mercedes had gone to La Esperanza, a town nearby so we were all alone) and it was awesome. Jorge (sounds like Horhay) is amazing at football and was showing off his skills, meawhile the girls were heading off in pairs to sit on the stands, because they didn’t like playing (who could blame them, it’s a hooligans’ game!) There is a water pump at the corner of the field and the boys headed over and started having a water-fight which was definitely a challenge to calm down!
While we were there, there were 2 mini-caravanas...but the peope were all so SOLEMN looking, they didn’t have anything to celebrate...and Jordy turned to me and told me in French that 2 people had died, and this was the funeral. I was shocked! I asked Mercedes about Honduran funerals, and they are basically an excuse to drink and eat in excess apparently! Pretty much like home then eh? Kidding on, but the people do literally get completely out of their box here, the cafe was FULL of people who were so so drunk...as Mercedes said ‘if you want fed, go to a funeral!’
There is a a wee dog that lives at the hotel where we STILL live... and when i first moved in, he was proper terrified of humans, like he just bolted away as soon as i went near, but gradually he started coming closer until i could stroke him. He now bounds towards me every time i go into the hotel! The first time he did that, he had his gums pulled back over his teeth, and i was absolutely terrified, though no growl came out. I just ignored him, he could have taken my hand off! But every day he did this, and i stopped ignoring him and he just wagged his tail all around the place and i realised he was SMILING! He now just loves me to bits, and walks the 15 minute walk to the cafe with us, sits outside for 45 mins while we eat, and then walks all the way back with us in the night, protecting us all the way up the road :) he came to school with me a few times (cos i couldn’t stop him, he’s out the hotel faster than we are!) but Mercedes didn’t like it. i’ve named him Homey... like ‘ma homey’ as in a friend. I suppose somewhere inside i was thinking about ‘home’ when i named him, seeing as he is from the hotel, and that pretty much is our home. Come tomorrow, we’ll have been there for a month :|
We’re supposed to move into the house hopefully before the end of this week (we’re going travelling so we don’t want to leave our stuff in the hotel over Christmas and New Year). I am so looking forward to it, though i don’t have my hopes up, we were only meant to be in the hotel for a week or ten days, and we’ve been ‘moving into the new house’ for the past 3 weeks, according to Mercedes. I’ve learned the need to see something to believe it here...
We’re going to Roatan this Sunday, to spend Christmas there :) i think we’re going to the port – La Ceiba, on the mainland to spend new year, its seeming the party city. We’re going to stay with Ian, one of the volunteers from PT, he’s from Scotland, his partner is currently in England, and will be back on the 22nd. YES HIS PARTNER CAME HOME blooming heck! I don’t know if i’m jealous... i don’t want to come home just yet... this experience is too precious to leave right now, and i would have a hard time leaving the kids even now! Anyway, we’re going to Roatan to hang out with Ian for a few days cos CaseyAdam are away travelling to renew their visas... they wont be back til the 23rd, so we’re going to hang out with them then. All of the Honduran PT vols are going to Roatan for Christmas, so it will be nice to hang out with everyone during the holiday period! Better than spending it alone away from home anyway, 2 people isn’t really much of a party it has to be said haha.
On the bus to Gracias on the Friday there, i had a pretty fun journey, there was a wee boy sitting in the row infront of me, and he was adorable, he had big black curls in his hair, and huge brown eyes as per usual here, and he was so sweet. He was playing with my hairband, putting it in his hair and calling it a corona (crown) and giving me high fives and fist punches! It was so cute :)
That evening, we went out to Cafe Kandil, a wee bar type place, with such a cool atmosphere! It was mainly gringos there, but there were a few locals. They played loads of English music...KINGS OF LEON and TRAVIS were involved too! It was so much fun, and we played uno (the card game?) for ages, and Holly kept winning. I never won :(
One of the American teachers, Natalia was there (she’s kind of our Gracias friend...she’s dead nice. i bumped into some gringas on the bus one time and just got the balls to say hi...turns out she lived in Gracias and when we went to Kandil the first time she recognised me and we’re pretty much friends now!) and she told us about another bar type place called Bohilo where they were playing live meringue music. We decided to take a look...BAD MOVE. It was full of horrendous drunk Honduran men, and as soon as we walked in (it was literally a shack, no doors no nothing, more like a kinda outdoor tent thing) a man shoved so hard past me, and went straight to the bar and grabbed the barman by the collar of his clothes and started screaming in Spanish at him... it was bad. We retreated into a corner, and then basically RAN from the place as fast as we could. Natalia got a mouthful for that i can tell you! She forgot to mention the part where you go at around 7-8pm...not 1am...LEARNING CURVE MUCH!?
We were going to go to San Pedro on Saturday to see New Moon in the cinema, but Natalia has mentioned that you can buy it off the street in Gracias for L35... and i was TOTALLY up for that, instead of wasting a mass amount of money going to the city. So we bought that and it was a WRECK. A lot of people were going to the toilet, it was dubbed in Spanish, and there were NO subtitles hahaha... could it have gotten much worse?! Luckily i knew exactly what was going on (cos i’m obsessed of course) so i was telling Emma (who had also read the books...not quite as avidly as me) and Holly (who understood everything that was said because she speaks very good Spanish) exactly what was going on... i enjoyed it despite the quality drawbacks! SOMEONE SEND ME NEW MOON ON DVD AS SOON AS IT COMES OUT PLEASE. I still prefer Edward by the way, none of that crap about Jacob being the new fav...PUHLEASE.
But that was an enjoyable Sunday night...Saturday was spent sunbathing in the extreme heat on the driveway of Holly’s home... it was awesome heat (my back was burned but hey it’s gone brown now) and Holly and I helped wash the dog...with clothing soap :| we felt so bad about it so we conditioned him afterwards hahah! And we used the hose to soak each other cos it was proper boiling. Initially we were somewhat concerned this would be ‘socially insensitive’ but the family joined in and were having a great time too! So we didn’t feel so bad...
We headed up to the carnival part way up the mountain that evening. There were LOADS of stalls, people selling perfume/beauty products, toys, authentic bracelets and bags, flip flops, sweets, food, jewellery...all sorts. I bought a pair of really attractive elastic flip-flops which i love, but that was all. I’m becoming VERY money conscious i should let you all know. I will return to Glasgow stingier than i left!
There was a ferris wheel, a magic carpet, and some kids rides. I wouldn’t have minded going on the wheel, but this is Honduras...it would very probably have fallen apart the time I went on it... so i avoided that at all costs. There was supposed to be a dance type thing, but we heard that they locked the doors once you were inside, and didn’t let people out til 5am! We had a look and it was bogging, so we ran back out before they could lock us in!
Sunday, we spent at a rodeo! It was a tiny circular stand made of wooden planks which were a HORRENDOUS health and safety hazard. I could have fallen straight through the gaps and that is NO exaggeration. My camera has run out of battery cos i have no charger, so Emma is the photographer – she got a lot of awesome pictures (check facebook over the next few weeks). No one was mauled, unfortunately, and they all rode bulls, not horses, but a few horses were being shown off by old experienced riders., the horses were hopping, dancing, side stepping, walking backwards, bowing, and LYING DOWN one man actually stood on the horse’s side as it was lying down in celebration of ‘man over beast’. I was just waiting for the horse to get annoyed..i would have been on the horses side! It was really fun though a great experience, as i can’t remember the one we went to in Dakota all that well...
We headed to the Chinese again (as per) and it was good, but there were 3 drunk guys...one of which was MINGING and hung over my left shoulder talking to us, asking for our numbers on repeat for 5 minutes, not accepting no for an answer. Holly put a fake mobile number in his phone and as he turned to walk away he planted a kiss right on my shoulder. I just focussed on not vomiting into my plate, Emma and Holly thought i should have slapped him but that was worth too much hassle. He left eventually, and i washed my shoulder repeatedly with antiseptic. I didn’t catch anything thank goodness hahaha...
So that was our experience! That evening was spent with the terrible version of New Moon, and we headed back to San Juan this morning, with the whole family. Andrea, Ernesto, and Scarleth have returned from San Pedro, and came back with us this morning to San Juan, so it’s nice to have more people around again...might spur Mercedes to move us all into the new house?!
WISHFUL THINKING.
Will keep you informed as things progress...hope all’s well!
Love, Jen xxx

2nd new post in December

Hey there everyone :D
Okay so now to talk about all the things that have happened lately! We had a parents evening in the school to discuss whether the parents would register their kids with Mercedes’ school for the new school year, starting in February and they all said yes...so it looks like we’re stuck in San Juan til the bitter end...
Mercedes is a fountain of gossip, it has to be said. She’s pretty ruthless with it...
We have 2 pupils, Daniella and David, and their mother tragically had a miscarriage quite recently. The children have said that their mother is constantly crying, and the sadness of this situation is that it is having a very negative effect on the kids. They are constantly upset, to a greater degree than your typical 5 and 8 year olds. It is true that suffering is present all over the world, and it affects everyone the same way. A family in New York could be going through exactly the same thing, as could a family in Zimbabwe. It’s shocking, yet incredible to see the degree of sadness that goes on around the world on a daily basis, and just how strongly that implicates on the people around that sadness. Daniella and David are going to have a difficult time getting over this experience, i can tell it’s going to stay with them for a long time, they are too young to appreciate the depth of emotion in a situation like this, they are just aware of their mother’s constant grieving. I wish there was something i could do, but there is not, and i have to accept that. It’s just so sad that these kids have far less support around them than i would if i was them, back home. It’s tougher on them, there’s no Samaritans here, there’s no guidance councillor, there is no mentor...they have nothing but their ill equipped family in this situation, as none of them are educated in mental or emotional support... and the same goes for their mother, she will be struggling through this with far less support than someone at home has the option of. I guess this has opened my eyes to worldwide suffering... it’s awful.
Just to add to this cheery subject (it is rather funny, now that some time has passed), one of the older pupils, a girl called Irma, came to the school for just a day or 2. We were sitting at lunch in the cafe, and Emma and i had had a pretty tough day, the kids were misbehaving, we were tired, and just needed to lay low for a bit...when Mercedes (has to be congratulated on her timing, EVERY TIME) just throws into the conversation ‘Oh, Emma, one of the girls has accused you of hitting her with a ruler. Hmm.’ Indeed, Emma was like so shocked and insulted...there is not a ruler to be found in Honduras, never mind the school! We discussed the subject for a while, as there was NO WAY Emma would ever do something like that, and the girl was lying because she didn’t want to come to school anymore, cos she was ashamed of being crap at English. The other pupils in the class were asked about it, and they all stood up for Emma saying ‘there was never a ruler in sight, never mind the fact that Miss Emma would never hit one of us anyway!’ It was just shockingly bad, and i was so upset on Emma’s behalf, not to mention Mercedes admirable discretion, throwing that into the conversation in a crowed little town cafe, full of local eavesdroppers who took it upon themselves to chip in! The bottom line is, the girl is a little liar, Mercedes has no subtlety, and Emma would never hit anyone with a ruler!
Aside from all this, i’m learning a fair amount of personal insight since arriving here and teaching... there are a few pupils who have SO MUCH potential, and it kills me that they will probably not fulfil that potential, because they haven’t got the resources at all. And a couple of the kids are putting less and less effort into their classwork which is so devastating, because they have so much to offer, the ability to learn so much! I feel so strongly about it...and yes, it’s opened my eyes to how everyone around me felt when i gave up on school, when i threw my potential down the pan. It’s spurred me on to make the most of what i have, and pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. I’ve written a letter to the uni to seek as much advice as i can...we’ll see how it goes down! It’s just amazing that almost 6 weeks into this, i have already seen so much, and learned so much about the world, and about myself. It’s fantastic!
Okay, what’s pissing me off MAJORLY at the moment is Mercedes constantly asking us for money to cover her expenses. “Oh...there are no board markers, you’ll have to buy some EMMA AND JEN. Oh sorry i’ve got no money to buy bread for breakfast, you’ll have to buy it yourself EMMA AND JEN, and why don’t you get some for us while you’re at it? And no, don’t be silly, you’re not supposed to get paid from me at all, no money for you!” Oh contraire, Mercedes, we’re owed 1500Lemps from you pal, each, as pocket money...i look forward to taking that smugly from her. Bad Jen, don’t relish in other people’s failed attempts at being dogmatic.
So last Friday, Holly called us from Gracias to say that she wasn’t teaching, and she was going to pop round to San Juan to see us! She came over and we talked a fair bit, bitched about our projects, and talked about the good things...it was fun, and we watched 3 movies in a row! She stayed with us in our hotel room, and the following day we decided to go to Gracias with her.
We heard that the bus was at 1.30pm so we headed out for it, but we’d just missed it, we saw it driving up the road away from us, so that was a bit crap. We stood there, not really knowing what we were going to do, when a car appeared with a flatbed full of people, with bars on it. It was headed to Gracias, so we jumped on! There were up to 16 people on the flatbed at some points, and it was just amazing, standing in the sun, flying through the countryside and the hills and the little towns...just awesome :) not to mention how it cost us 5 Lemps less than the bus did, each haha ;)
We arrived in Gracias and went through some of the shops, bought some fruit and yoghurt and alpen to have for breakfast, and i bought CiniMinis...little square cinnamon cereal... my second favourite in the world, only to apple and cinnamon Cheerios ahah! We sat in Holly’s room drinking some mad antiseptic tea which was soooo yummy and Emma was obsessed with it, and if we left it to brew too long, our tongues went numb haha! My cup said JAMMIN MON! On it which was sooooo funny i thought haha.
The following day was the Honduran elections...There was a lot of concern over what was going to happen in the towns and cities here, as there were a good few problems during the last elections... So we decided to lay low in Holly’s home on Sunday. We were invited up the mountain to hang out with some American teachers from Holly’s school, but we couldn’t be bothered going in the end haha. Stupidly, other PT volunteers went to Tegucigalpa, of all places, during the elections! Tegucigalpa is the capital of Honduras, and it is particularly dangerous in general, or so we’ve been informed, so for the 2 girls to go there was just so stupid i think. I haven’t heard of any PT deaths yet this year though, so i think they’re fine haha.
Anyway, we spent Sunday hanging around Holly’s place like we said, and the weather was beautiful! I’d brought a few things to Gracias to wash using Holly’s pila (or something like that). That was the first time i had handwashed anything since i arrived here, and it was...an experience shall i say.
Basically it’s a big massive bathtub type thing, full of water, and one half of it has a concrete slab over it, with a ridged metal board stuck to it. The soaps are cylindrical shapes, and place your item of clothing over the metal board (pila, i think), and rub the soap up and down over the garment. Then you rub the clothes up and down over the pila and it scrubs one side of them, creating a soapy lather. Then you turn the garment over and do the same on that side! Once you feel you have scrubbed it sufficiently, you get the mini bucket, scoop up some more water from the bathtub thing and pour it over your clothes, rinsing them, til they are not soapy any more. Rinse and repeat ;) ...over and over again until all of your clothes are clean! It was good fun i have to tell you, and it’s mindless, like ironing, so you just think and think and think about everything that’s happened to you that day, or what you’re planning to do the following day. It was a cool experience, and i won’t mind doing it in future, just have to save my dirty washing for a sunny day and away i go!
We also spent Sunday baking a cake (fail) for someone’s birthday the following day, with marshmallows and chocolate icing and flakes and coconut sprinkles! Haha it wasn’t too bad, but the cake collapsed in the middle, so we ended up filling the centre with marshmallows and stuff, and called it a bunt. They were fooled mwahaha...
Emma and i have come to the agreement that we’re going to lose a fair amount of weight when we go home, because our bodies are working on overdrive here to keep us from getting fat on all this grease and salt and fat and sugar. When we go home it’ll be like a MAJOR detox. I could be so wrong about this theory, but it’s keeping me going through this... i was just imagining walking through the gate at the airport to hear a mutual inhale from everyone present at the amount of weight i might have gained by then...just made me think of the story of my mum coming back from Australia to be greeted by her sister saying WOW YOU GOT FAT. I don’t want that to be me, thank you very much.
So that evening we headed to a CHINESE RESTAURANT in Gracias, and little did we know that the dishes are big enough for 3 people to eat from...so we had a LOT of food. We decided to agree to eat ALL of it, finish everything that was put infront of us. It was a major challenge, and we had to take a couple of food breaks, it was hilarious (and yes, i am aware of what the previous paragraph said, and how hypocritical this one is in comparison. Bog off).
We came home and used Holly’s ipod dock and pranced about like complete idiots. It was HILARIOUS, and just reminded me of how much i miss going out dancing :( i took a video of it on my laptop, but it’s far too humiliating of some people for me to dare put on facebook haha... perhaps youtube, who knows ;) ive got a couple of videos to put on youtube, like the morning i woke up to the hotel blasting a whole load of Honduran crap music at top volume (something to do with elections). I made some videos of my complete rage at the situation, but in hindsight they’re rather boring haha. I’ll chuck them on youtube (if the internet is up to it) and you can judge that for yourself hahaha. How embarrassing.
Monday, our day off school because of the elections, we spent in Gracias again. This was a pretty fun day, lots of stuff happened... I ate the last of my CiniMinis (yes, i finished an entire box of cereal in 3 days) and then i had some yoghurt, raisins, grapes, melon and alpen! It was a refreshingly healthy breakfast! We hopped in a mototaxi and headed a tiny part of the way up Mount Selaki (the biggest mountain in Honduras) to go to a friend of Holly’s for lunch. The ride up the mountain took about 20 minutes in the wee rickety mototaxi, and the ground was basically big boulders and rubble, so we were fearing for our lives a little. I was wedged between Emma and Holly though, so if either of them fell out the taxi, i was still fine haha...yeah, there are no doors on the thing.
We passed Holly’s school, it looked amazing. It had basketball courts, a beautiful outdoor dining area with roof, and a really nice play area, nothing like ‘New Land Bilingual School, San Juan’ that’s for sure... The family we went to see were called the Laureles family. They were both teachers in Holly’s school, and they had a beautiful son who was running about, looking very happy and cute! A few more friends of Holly’s arrived, another teacher called Mrs Lopez, she was cool. She had a strong American accent, and her English was almost perfect...i thought she was American...but no. She was Honduran! It was a shock because she was so convincing with her American accent! Her kids were there, and it was her daughter’s 8th birthday that the cake was for (no one died from the ‘bunt’ cake, i assure you. it actually tasted pretty good with rum and raisin ice-cream haha). Before the cake, Mrs Laureles had cooked some amazing stuffed fish (full fish, eyes, scales, bones, tail and fins included...), rice, and a pork dish. They are a Filipino family so the food was incredible, there was ginger all through the pork dish, with a rich soy sauce marinade and loads of vegetables.
It was no shock to me when they said Grace before the meal, as soon as i had walked into their home, the biblical references on the walls had informed me they were Christians. I was completely open to the bible study group which followed the meal, but no matter how hard i try to understand and question and inform myself, i just found myself frustrated again. Mrs Laureles was clearly concerned for me, and called me into her room...she gave me a bible, a King James one...full of difficult old language. I asked Emma about different parts of the bible, as she’s a Christian, and i read over some bits in it, but i still found myself feeling so frustrated and wanting to put it down. I spent the whole of last night having a MAJOR discussion with Emma about religion and Christianity. My thoughts on the subject remain the same. I am so open to hearing about it and trying to learn, i just feel it’s not for me (i hope this doesn’t put off any readers of my blog who are religious...i’m just sharing my experiences and this one was pretty poignant).
So the visit to the Laureles family’s home was really lovely! I had such a nice time and they were very welcoming, and of course it raised a lot of question in my mind over religion...but no questions i’ve never asked before. We decided to walk down the mountain, rather than take a mototaxi back down, and it was about a 50 minute walk, during which we discussed life a lot obviously haha... we arrived back at Holly’s home (which is joined to a pulperia – a little shop) to another cup of antiseptic tea, to hear A LOT of cars honking their horns and people driving around the streets standing on the flatbeds of cars cheering...we soon realised that the elections had finished and Pepe had won (i should really have researched who Pepe is, but i think he’s the national party or something...i’ll look into it later). The people of Gracias were having a caravana... its where loads of people hop into their cars and trucks, drive around the streets in a line shouting and celebrating!
So the owner of the pulperia, Suli, her husband hopped in his car and we jumped on the flatbed. So me, Holly, Emma, Suli, Yolanda (another woman who works at the shop...she’s can’t read or write, and she can barely speak Spanish, such a shame, but she’s a funny happy little woman!), another shop worker, some really old wrinkly woman who worked in the kitchen, and some random old man who was just walking down the street, ALL jumped onto the flatbed of the husband’s car, and away we went! Yolanda and I stood up, leaning on the roof of the car as it drove through the streets and out of Gracias...there was a major traffic jam heading into Gracias as we were leaving...or so i thought. Turns out, that was the queue for the caravana hahaha! The whole way down to the end of the queue, we were shouting and honking the horn and celebrating and shouting “PE-PE, PE-PE cambio ya!” which means ‘Pepe, change is coming’ or something along those lines. So we were all celebrating and shouting, and music was blaring and horns were honking, and we waited in the queue for about 20 minutes til it started moving... and then we were away. Holly, Emma, Suli and the other kitchen worker hopped up and they all held onto my jeans waistband to stop themselves from falling over when the car started moving each time. We flew through the streets, which were PACKED full of people, full of cars...at one point, we were at a crossroads, waiting. Coming over the other side of the crossroads were about 60 motorbikes and quadbikes, all flying Pepe flags and honking their horns! It was a sight to behold! And we just whizzed through the streets, smiling at the pedestrians and waving...so nice when they waved back at me :) that was a really amazing experience, but the sad part was that we had just run out the house last minute to hop into the car, and no one grabbed a phone or camera to film or take photos :( still, the memories are in my brain so that’s good!
It was SO communal and patriotic, and i was just imagining if something incredible happened in Scotland how we’d go about celebrating...i reckon the Scots would all just get really drunk and sway merrily, chanting ‘Oh Flower of Scotland’ in a very drunken manner ahaha...bless. I’ve decided that if Scotland ever wins a world cup or something, i’ll call everyone i know and start a Glasgow caravana! Haha...
That evening, there was a street party, and they had set up an open air disco with massive speakers, and multicoloured lights. Holly, Emma, Me and Yolanda went, and loads of people asked for dances from us. I didn’t really want to dance like an idiot with some sweaty guy so i refused everytime, but Holly found a cutie to dance with, and Yolanda and Emma found... guys of sorts haha. Funny thing was, the men asked me first and when i said no they moved onto the others HAHA...okay, kidding.
I was standing dancing to myself with Emma and Holly, when someone tapped my shoulder and i turned round, ready to say no thanks for the dance...and i honestly couldn’t believe my eyes. It was the HORRIBLE CREEPY PERVERT FROM THE BUS. Remember that creep who wouldn’t stop blowing kisses at me and stroking my shoulder? Yeah, that horrible *insert swear word* was standing grinning drunken and toothy at me and i didn’t realise how rude i could sound, even in another language. I had obviously been smiling and stuff from being with Emma and Holly and dancing, but as soon as i turned and saw what was looking at me, this horrendous glare appeared on my face, i could feel it, and i just said ‘no, ADIOS’ with so much conviction, i couldn’t tell whether he was thoroughly offended or just had his pride hurt. But it was like i lost my mind for a moment, i just remembered what it was like on the bus, what he had done and my disgust for him was so apparent, i don’t even know if he recognised me as ‘that gringa’. I could have been any gringa. Ufft. So that put a downer on the dancing for a moment, and when i spotted him staring at me from the other side of the road i was just so annoyed, but luckily he disappeared after a bit.
So i was still partnerless, when suddenly a little woman came along and started dancing beside me! I thought she was tiny, like properly tiny, up to my chest pretty much... and then i realised NAW JEN, ITS A CHILD. So i realised the tiny woman was actually a little girl who had come to dance with me, she was so funny and she taught me some Honduran dancing, bless her. And there was this tiny wee boy who was with her too, but i think he was a little scared of the giant gringa so he left. This wee girl was so funny, and at least she stopped the other men asking me to dance. That cheered me up, she was having so much fun :) then Yolanda came over and we had to go home, so we all headed back up the road towards Holly’s.
We were walking along the road, and a wee dog crawled under someones garage door, and was trotting along beside us, and Yolanda did something to upset it, and the dog came RUNNING AT US barking. I mean, it was so small if it started attacking one of us we could have kicked it away like a football (i’m not into animal cruelty, don’t get me wrong, but the possibility of an animal, rabid or not, chewing on my ankle is not pleasant thanks). So we ran from this dog, it calmed down, and when we looked back to see where it was, it got all pissed at us and came running after us again. Eventually we got rid of it and arrived home...exhausted, and Emma and i had to get the early bus back to San Juan the following morning!
Anyway, i’ll write more soon... this is a really long blog again, i do apologise. I think they’re getting longer and longer...
Thanks for reading, talk soon!
Love, Jen xxx

new new NEW

Okay so the last time i updated this, we had just visited the little house with the 2 rooms in it, the Canadian woman, and Mercedes’ soon to be house. We after all of that, we decided to opt for the 2 rooms, but OH NO that didn’t actually happen. The next day, we moved into a ‘hotel’ about 10 mins from the school... a little room with a double bed, a single bed, and a toilet. I got the double cos emma wanted the wardrobe thing for her clothes...yes mine are all over the floor again. JOKING they’re in my suitcase. It’s supposed to be temporary accommodation because we were meant to move into Mercedes’ new house in ten days... i can’t see that happening. I refuse to empty my rucksack and pack a dirty rickety metal bar ‘wardrobe’ for just 10 days (though i should really know better by now...we’ll probably be located in the hotel for a lot longer than ten days, now that we are fully aware of ‘Honduran time’. So we were a bit disappointed at moving into the hotel we hadn’t even seen, when we explicitly got back to Mercedes within her time limit saying we wanted the 2 rooms... that failed. We’re cramped in a hotel room now, oh joy, for goodness knows how long. We were meant to have a TV, Mercedes claims to be paying for one, but one has not arrived in our room yet. Our shower was broken for the first 3 days because the tap just spun round, it was not attached to anything... and so the man came to fix it one night at like 9pm...claimed he would be back tomorrow with a new tap for it, and the woman said she’d come back the next day with our TV. So far none of these things have happened paha. I hate this disorganisation, how do people survive?!
Anyway... the last blog i posted was over a week ago i think, when we dropped into the internet cafe here in San Juan for the first time... it broke down prematurely so the photos are still not on facebook unfortunately. I’ve got loads though so keep watching! I’ll try and put some of the better ones on this too :)
Wednesday evening, we came back to the hotel, and i tried to get to sleep with no luck. A fever developed from nowhere, i was shivering and sweating, my head felt like it was going to explode and i was vomiting from both ends... :( i didn’t get any sleep that night and so i couldn’t teach the next day, i kept hyperventilating too which wasn’t so good... we thought i might have malaria, but the following day i took a good few paracetamol and my temperature dropped. I didn’t eat anything so the bodily expulsions stopped too, but all the other symptoms persisted. Its Saturday now, and i had a bit of a pot noodle last night, which was a bad move, and then i had an apple this morning cos i was soooooo hungry. Haven’t eaten anything else and its 3pm but my tummy keeps growling at me... i feel exhausted all the time too. Meanwhile, Mercedes has bogged off to Gracias for the day so i can’t get a hold of her to check me out, she just keeps telling me to rest. I need someone to blooming diagnose me alright its day 3 right now and i’m not feeling significantly better! My only consolation is that i’m getting slimmer at an alarming rate considering i’ve not eaten for 4 days. Joy, cos its all going through me too. Any thoughts? I’m really tired all the time too cos i’ve got no food for energy, cos it just comes right back out one way or another (i apologise for the amount of information, but this is all part of the fun of my Honduran experience, just wanna share it all with the masses...).
Anyway, hopefully things will get better in the next few days. I was gutted i couldn’t teach on Thursday or Friday, i had a great lesson planned as well! And another positive thing that has changed while we’re here, Mercedes’ daughter Andrea is at the school with us now too, so she’s taking one of the year groups... we’ve got more students now so Mercedes has split the students into 3 year groups, and we teach each one for an hour each day :) its good that way, and my favourite are still the eldest ones. There are 2 boys, Jordy and Kevin (AAHAHA what names, never expected them here, but the names are pretty funny...there is a Jennifer, an Emma, a Jerry...) who speak French fluently so they’re pretty good to chat with midway through the class, especially if someone doesn’t understand something. You can just say it to them in French, and they will translate it into Spanish for the class... saves me and Emma embarrassing ourselves with poor Spanish accents taking words straight out the dictionary haha :) the thing that pisses me off now, is that Mercedes has decided that because Jordy is only 11, he has had to be put down into the middle grade, with the wee kids. That really annoys me, because he is the most intelligent student in the school, he was top of the eldest class (which you have to be 12 for, according to Mercedes...) and i regularly have to run through to the next class to ask him something! He’s a brilliant kid :)
What do i do in the afternoon here? Well we teach until around 12ish, then we casually take a stroll down to the cafe (well, i did before i got sick...) have our lunch, and wander back either to the hotel or the school. If the weather sucks we go to the hotel and watch a movie on my laptop or something, but if it’s nice then we come to the school and sit at the back and tan while listening to music or whatever. We then plan our lessons for the following day, and wait patiently for dinner time. Then we stroll down to the cafe, get our dinner, and depending on whether Andrea/Ernesto/Mercedes/Sergio is energetic enough they’ll come with us too, if not, we bring back all their food as a takeaway haha. Oh well that’s just how it is. The evenings...we go to bed so early (which i was initially gutted about because i just never went to bed before like 2am back home, so here, going to bed at around half 9 seems SO early, but then again we’re up before 7 here for school... so it makes sense, and i feel pretty good for the amount of sleep. Emma sleeps SO much as well haha...) and we might watch a movie or something (our supply is dwindling rapidly. Bittorrent in Honduras is not fast enough to provide us with enough new movies either...what on earth will we do in this boring place when we run out of movies?!).
This does sound particularly boring...the day goes reasonably fast i guess, but it’s definitely boring, nothing like the Bay islands. The boys can just go for a swim WHENEVER they want, they can play beach football if they want, they can walk Bingo the stray dog, or hitch a ride to the pool bar...but here we have pretty much nothing to do :( I’ll have to ask Mercedes about what ‘attractions’ there are here. i’ve spotted a kind of games arcade... about 8 tvs with some form of games consol attached (haven’t checked what yet, probably SegaMegaDrive...) but like either of us will go there... its kinda frustrating. We’re contemplating what we can do at the weekends... i think we’re supposed to be going to Lepaera next weekend for ‘graduation’ ahhaa... yes, it’s a bit of a farce, it’s like moving from p2 – p3 deserves some massive celebration. So that’s what we’re doing next weekend i think. The following weekend i think we’re going to head down to Gracias to meet up with Holly for a bit, might stay over at Fronny’s hotel again which will be nice :) We’re going to plan our Christmas and New Year holidays... think we’re all going to try and get down to Roatan again and just chill there for Christmas, then maybe go back to La Ceiba (the port on the mainland) to celebrate New Year. We’ve heard that La Ceiba is the party city, so hopefully that will be good fun! And there will be a big group of us too so that’s good :)
Our days off are just Saturday and Sunday. School is weekdays from 8-12, so that’s quite tiring, and its nice to relax at the weekend, would be nice if we could find more to be doing though. I’ve decided i’m going to try and paint a mural on one of the school walls because its sooooooooo boring looking. Just grey walls inside, they need some colour! That will be a nice secondary thing to do, i might even paint more than one mural. And my goodness my artistic skills have improved significantly since arriving here, you’ve got to draw millions of little objects for the pupils so that they can associate it with the Spanish word. I can now draw cheese more expertly than i ever thought possible.
As for Spanish, its going alright i guess, i’ve kinda hit a brick wall because we don’t have enough resources. I’m going to write to some people still at school and get them to forward me some of their Spanish stuff cos i need the equivalent of what we did in French, but in Spanish, for me to learn more. WORKSHEETS please :)
And on Roatan, yeah, the water goes deep from the dock, and progressively gets shallower til it reaches the reef, then obviously gets deep again. We didn’t have a snorkel or goggles at the time unfortunately so we didn’t see anything, and i didn’t go too close to the coral because i could have sustained a major injury, i already got a few cuts and stings from the sea which was annoying but hey.
[Point to add... i’m sitting on one of the beds in the school, the back door is open, and i can see through the curtain of this room out into the garden, i’m the only person in the school, and all of a sudden a MASSIVE golden thing comes into my eye-line through the curtain... i sneak out to the backdoor to look at it... A BLOOMING BOY COW HAS BROKEN INTO OUR GARDEN TO EAT OUR GRASS. I was contemplating closing the back door in case it wanted to come into the house, but i got near the door and it saw me and gave me such an evil eye. I was freaking out because i retreated into the casa again and realised there are no doors at all so if it does come into the house i’m screwed. Remember those wee primary tables you get, the ones that are lower than your knees to the ground? They are my only weapon against ‘man cow’. Luckily Emma has just returned and the cow is down the bottom end of the garden now. I feel safer now haha... shall keep you informed of the cow state of play as the story progresses...]
Stephen obviously doesn’t read the blog well enough. The local men wear cowboy hats and dirty jeans and suit shirts that are also dirty. The women just wear like t-shirts and long swishy skirts, and they do actually carry baskets on their heads, it’s quite a skill! I’ve been trying to find an opportunity to take a photograph of a wee wrinkly Honduran lady with a basket on her head as some authentic image, but they’re always surrounded by people who have the strength to rob me haha. Guess i’ll just have to wait for the right opportunity!
As for gadgets and stuff... if you are a white person walking around, you are already conspicuous (unless you’re on the bay islands in which case there are millions of gringos...) but on the mainland, white people are few and far between, ESPECIALLY up in the wee mountains where some people have never even seen a white person. So if you walk around waving a mobile phone, even if it’s the most old fashioned brick in existence that any Honduran would be ashamed to be seen with, it still makes you even more conspicuous, and a higher target for robbery. They don’t really have iPods... a lot of them have sony ericsson’s so they put their songs on that and plug earphones in, but only on the long safe bus rides (without stops...direct buses). Everyone has mobiles, i’ve only ever seen 2 phones with any resemblance to blackberry’s or iPhones, because the majority of the mobiles are old bricks without colour screens, mono ringtones, and the original snake... we just have to be more cautious because theft and muggings are common enough as it is, without giving anyone an excuse to rob you!
[point to add: another cow has joined him and they are both eating our grass. I’ve chosen to ignore them.]
A luxury item in Honduras... probably a bath tub. Hot running water is definitely a plus, and a washing machine is like WOOOOOOOAH. TVs are completely staple, everyone survives on TV up here in the mountains, which is partly why Emma and i are so rage, because our hotel hasn’t provided us with ours yet, and we’re bored out our boxes. I suppose jewellery would be luxury, but i have not really seen anyone with any one, apart from Mrs Araselli (the woman who owned our house back in Lepaera, the rich one). We walked in on a pampering session in her lounge, she was having her hair re-dyed, her nails painted, the full shebang. We didn’t know where to look, but it was good cos we got our nails painted too :) oh how i miss that house :( alcohol is most certainly not a luxury here. not really heard ANYTHING of wine, in all honesty, never seen anyone drinking it. Up here in the little towns, its pretty much unheard of, a woman buying alcohol. In the bigger towns and the big cities its not a big deal, though the alcohol is just hideous. You can get Bacardi but you’re gonna pay a lot for that. Plata is the name of the cheap, minging rum that pretty much makes you hallucinate! So alcohol is really not a luxury. I’d say freco is a luxury (coca cola). A house that doesn’t leak is unheard of too, i think. I haven’t really witnessed any luxury other than our wonderful home in Lepaera. We’re going back next weekend (getting clothes washed much?) so that will be nice hahaha ;)
Why is one exclamation mark never enough... i don’t have a clue why the Spanish insist on putting and upside down question/exclamation mark at the start of the sentence as well as the regular one at the end... maybe its because they don’t really have questions, they say statements and add a raised inflection at the end to imply it is a question..so i reckon when its written down you can’t read it’s a question, so they introduce it as a question at the start with an upside down symbol, and then incase it’s a really long statement they remind you again that it’s a question by adding another symbol. That is probably completely false but it’s my theory.
I have not seen any Indian/Korean/Japanese food here (but at the same time, i’m stuck up a mountain so its a lot harder to reach anything universal from here...) but we did get FRIED RICE for dinner one night. it had prawns and chicken and beef in it, and it was definitely from a Chinese takeaway. We got it in Lepaera, our family just whipped it onto the table and we sat mesmerised for a good minute trying to figure out if we were hallucinating or not...but nah there is not really any takeaway food. We did go to a Chinese restaurant the other day, in Gracias which was AMAZING. The food was served in portions enough for at least 3 people... we were so full and i could barely move. Because we decided to see if we could eat ALL the food on the table... we managed but it was sheer gluttony! There is a pizza hut in San Pedro Sula bus station which has our custom every time we’re at the station. YUM.
[and now the cows have left, clearly satisfied. What a relief! I didn’t want my cause of death to read ‘massacred by hungry cow’...]
Sport? Are you kidding? Ahaha... yeah i suppose soccer is a big one, Honduras is in the world cup so they’re all celebrating after each friendly match. I couldn’t sleep one night in Honduras for the amount of music blaring. Laura was here the night Honduras made it into the world cup, and she said everyone just jumped into their cars and sped around the town calling out and stuff! Would have been a sight to see! More to add on that later ;) At least we’ll be around for the world cup. Funny thing is, Honduras were knocked out by Northern Ireland one year, so Emma is keeping her head down at the moment haha... oh we shall see. What a miracle it would be if Honduras made it to the final PAHAHHAHAHA.
There is seemingly a cinema in Santa Rosa de Copan. I don’t know if that’s a city or a town, but it’s big. It’s got one, and i presume the cities all have cinemas, but NO CHANCE would i find a cinema in San Juan or Lepaera. The nearest thing i’d get to a cinema is some wee woman with her front door open and her tv playing a movie with uk subs, charging a lemp on entry (which doesn’t happen incase you were wondering).
As for entertainment, i made that pretty clear earlier on, NADA. Nothing.
Am i getting a tan ;) well yeah it’ll be good by the time i come home. I’m going a nice bronze colour which makes a nice change from being pale. It reminds me of my childhood, brown face, red cheeks. Attractive.
Okay, as for the postal situation... i live way up in the mountains and we do not have a post office, nor do they deliver up here. The mail is delivered to the post office in Gracias, so i can send mail from there, and receive it. It takes about 4 weeks to arrive anywhere...(BAWZ). I have managed to get my hands on an address though so feel free to send a wee package out or a letter if you get the chance, it would be REALLY nice to get a letter...things are so bland around here sometimes.
Jennifer Hepburn
Rdo Magdalena Martinez
Casa 1
Barrio Marielena
Gracias
Lempira
Honduras
CA
What do i miss from home ... :(
I miss people A LOT. I miss mum for her nagging that actually gets stuff done. I actually have to do it myself here, and i’m still finding it difficult (especially with the current financial crises i have found myself in, where the bank has frozen my internet banking, and my card so i can’t get a hold of any money at all, and ive run out pretty much). I’ve been calling on her day and night (via internet) to help me try and sort this out seeing as i can’t afford to call home :(
I miss stephen’s cooking, and his witty banter (though i’m getting a decent sized dose in the emails i receive from him, which is...refreshing haha). I could murder a roast chicken dinner SO BADLY. Oahahahhdheiofkdd YUM.
I miss Tom’s cheeky hilarious banter, and i’m gutted i’m missing out on white russian’s with Matt!! :(
I miss Molly, my grandma’s kitten which a) wont remember me when i get back and b) wont be a kitten when i get back. I miss Grandma and going with her to Uncle Bill and Aunt Anne’s for the most amazing spag bol and salad ever.
I miss Jilly because she’s so fun and keeps me happy when sad things happen, and she’s really amazing to hang out with when i’m just wanting OUT and somewhere happy and safe and relaxing :) i don’t miss her empty fridge (teehee).
I miss kirsty and Katie who are miles away in Edinburgh. I miss Louisa, though her photo album is AWESOME and makes me very happy :) i miss Kirsten’s hilarious banter, though i’m getting a good amount through facebook which is a relief! I miss all the girls.
I miss Kev cos let’s be honest there’s no one like him ahha. We have the same ridiculous sense of humour which is so refreshing when you’re used to the same CRAP everyone comes up with. ‘Mate, why you going to the House of Commons? Cos you’re COMMON AS MUCK!’
I miss too many people to put in this. I shouldn’t have mentioned anyone cos you’re all gonna get your niknaks in a twist at not being mentioned, but i’ll get y’all on facey, HAVE SOME UNDERSTANDING FOR ME PLEASE. I miss everyone, but i’ll be with you soon enough :)
I really miss being able to download awesome music FAST. I miss not being able to see New Moon in the cinema. I miss not being able to make a tuna sandwich whenever i want, and i miss seafood pasta. Infact, i just miss seafood! I miss pasta pesto, sushi, and a massive pizza.
I miss a permanent residence. I’ve lived in someone elses house for 2 weeks, i lived in a school for a week, and i am now living in a hotel. I want my own room and my own bed. I want to look out of my window over Highburgh Road and people watch, and laugh when i see so many people i know passing my window in such a short space of time. I miss walking up to Ashton Lane. I miss going to Sauchiehall Street. I miss all the people i have fun joking with. I miss going to gigs. I miss live music that isn’t cheesy poppy crap that they play in Honduras with 4 chords for every song, played on the keyboard. I miss my guitar. I miss the view of the Cottiers church steeple from the skylight in my room.
I miss decent shopping, and i miss fashion. I miss being able to get dressed up at night and go out dancing and enjoy looking pretty. I miss looking at the memories and pictures stuck to my wall. I miss the twinkly lights at the end of my bed. I miss being able to pick up my mobile and text anyone i want, or call anyone i want and meet them just because i want to, because i’m bored, because i need to talk. I miss getting the 44 and hopping off the stop after the rock, to go to my house.
There are so many things i miss. But at the same time, i am not sad.
I might feel a bit gutted from time to time that i wont be getting any of the things for another 8 months or so... but my happiness at what i am gaining by being here, and experiencing everything i am completely outweighs my sadness at missing out on life at home. This is a dream which i have made come true. I wont ever detract from the experiences i’m having here, because even the bad ones are teaching me to be a better, bigger person! No matter what i face, it will always result in a positive learning curve after it has passed...
Anyway, i hoped this would be shorter as it’s only a couple of days since my last one, but hey. Sorry if this one is crap but i thought i’d answer some questions :)
Take care and we’ll talk again soon :D
Love, Jen xxx