Adopting Americanisms, Christmas and ¼ of the year gone already

At the end of November we experienced our first Thanksgiving, a holiday we have both decided to adopt as of this year as it is another excuse to eat good food, and why wouldn’t anybody want to celebrate that?

I had a fun time making i-i-indian hats with my first grade class and teaching them about Pilgrims and Indians, and that’s about as much as the class could handle and about the extent of my own knowledge about Thankgiving!

(My first Grade Class Mid Salute "YES MISS WEICHWL)

We experienced two Thanksgiving meals, one with just our teachers cooked by Mrs Valdez (2^nd) which was incredible. She not only prepared food for 20 people- a feat in itself – but the electricity was off for a large portion of the day and in the morning we had a panicked Mrs Valdez because the Turkey hadn’t yet defrosted! The second meal was in Tegucigalpa, which was an opportunity for us to catch up with the Vida Abundante teachers from Gracias, Catacamas and Choluteca. The meal was prepared and hosted by the Superintendents of the school in Teguc, and was in a league of its own. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and the all important pumpkin pie. The setting was stunning, we all dressed up and it was weird to be in such a beautiful house after four months in our little windowless room and hall...I mean it had a proper roof and everything!

(Our La Union Family) 

We have started preparing for the Christmas Pageant, a mere week and a half away, and I have managed to end up being responsible for my own dance (8^th and 9^th Grade girls) and helping Rachel (5^th) and Mrs Soto (1^st) with their own dances! I can tell you now that every grades has some movers and shakers and I’m so glad to be dancing again, even if it’s only a little bit!

As we move into December, we’re both having a hard time accepting how quickly time is passing, Kate’s denial of our time left of “37 what? 37 pieces of cheese, yes pieces of cheese” being one of the most memorable! Our Christmas holidays are quickly approaching and it’s a bit surreal that our return home (La Union) will mark our 5^th month here…before I left I battled with the reality of how long a whole year away from family and friends would be, but I’m quickly realising that it’s really not that long at all, and if anything I wish time was going slower. 

Three Months In

In many ways it feels like we’ve been in Honduras longer than three months; La Union, and this country have surprisingly quickly become our home. For both Kate and I, this is the only place we have ever lived other than our homes back in our respective countries, which is a strange thought really.  

Flying around like popcorn in the back of a pickup yesterday made me realise how much I love this country already. The ease of everything; rules are there but very weakly enforced, if electricity goes out, you just wait for it to come back on, if water is off then you all smell equally as bad as each other so everything’s fine! Other than the obvious difference of skin colour (although even this is becoming less obvious as the months have passed) we fit in so well here, the community and the school have welcomed us as ‘the Europeans’ and it’s so nice to feel so welcome. We have had many conversations about how lucky we are to be where we are, La Union may be in the middle of nowhere but it’s truly stunning and we get to experience the real Honduras, something we are both so grateful for

On the other hand, I can’t believe three months has gone so quickly. We have had many adventures up until now and we’re only ¼ our way through the year!

Just writing this post has made me realise that I have already gathered up a lifetime of stories to tell people, and I’m sure when I get back home my annoying catchphrase will be ‘This one time in Honduras’ so I apologise in advance for this, but if you love me you’ll deal with it!

We have started planning our Christmas Holidays, a scuba diving course on Utila - one of the bay Islands in the Carbbean, and a possible jaunt over to Guatemala! It’s hard to think that this trip will mark our fifth month in Honduras…time really does go fast when you’re having fun! 

Travelling

We’ve almost been in Honduras for three months and in that time, we have not done badly with the whole travelling thing. Getting out of La Union is compulsory every now and again, and if we didn’t take every opportunity given to us (long weekends) to leave, then we would certainly go loco! The only issue is that La Union is the epitome of the ‘arse of nowhere’ and getting out and to the nearest big town is three hours away by bus, despite the fact that it’s only 44km away.. THAT is how bad the state of the roads / bridges are! 

We have been to Copan twice; once for my birthday and again at the beginning of October for a three-day weekend.  It’s a beautiful city with brilliant food and enough things to do to occupy yourself for a few days. Macaw Mountain is definitely a must, which we have done twice now. The ruins, obviously, have to be done, which is the main reason we returned to Copan, as our first adventure there was too short a visit to get a chance to see them. The first time we went, we found two guys who were studying in Imperial College London which was very strange, and the second time we made friends with some teachers from San Pedro Sula, so it’s a very sociable place, provided you stay in Iguana Azul! Amazing hostel, amazing breakfast and just a nice place to stay!

La Ceiba: We did Cayos Cochinos, an island hopping tour in the Caribbean sea which was amazing! Definitely one of our famous ‘Kate/Rachel, just..look where we are’ moments. We snorkelled in the sea which was more the temperature of a bath than what we are used to at home, saw some of the Garifuna communities that live on these remote islands and even had some fresh- straight out of the sea – fish that was just amazing. Definitely also try the coconut bread that they offer you, and maybe buy some hand made jewellery there as well! We also did some white water rafting, and named our team ‘The Vampire Bats’ due to an eventful night before in ‘La Cueva’….definitely a ‘you had to be there’ kind of event. However this picture pretty much sums it up!

Our most recent excursion was a visit to Lake Yojoa, the largest natural lake in Honduras. Here we met up with some of the other Project Trust Volunteers, completely coincidentally, which was really really nice! D&D Brewery is definitely a good place to stay if you want good food and is a great hub for other activities in the area. We all went to the Pulhapanzak Falls, and walked THROUGH, UNDER and INSIDE the huge waterfall! Absolutely amazing near death experience, and all for £4..what more could you ask for! The wife and I also rented a Kayak and voyaged into the centre of the Lake, and just simply because we like a challenge, continued to paddle to the other side!

We now have to wait until Thanksgiving for our next long weekend, which is 5 WEEKS AWAY, the longest school period that we’ve undergone so far..wish us luck!!

Honduras 2 - Rachel 0

 I have been here less than three months and have already ended up in the clinic twice!

On both occasions I have required both pills and a jab of some sort. They generally don’t tell me what it’s for, but they seem to work so I don’t question it!

The first time was because I had Gastritis, an inflammation of the lining of the stomach, which is referred to here as Gringo Fever. We, the white people are the gringo’s and generally we all suffer Gringo Fever now and again just because of the change in diet and the dirty water.. .

The second time however, was completely down to my own clumsiness.. I was playing with some of my first Grade Students down by the school ‘canteen’ where they are currently in the process of development. In Honduras when things are being built there are often sticks of metal poking out of the ground and these are responsible for maintaining the structure of the buildings etc.. so me being me, of course I ran over one of these and did this beauty to my leg!

They have given me lots of pills, creams and gauze to protect the cut for a few days and also gave me a tetanus shot. STOP WORRYING MOTHER!

I have been in the doctors more times in the last 3 months than I have been in my entire life, but I have to say I think I prefer the Honduran clinic experience to being at home. The doctor nor nurses speak English and so I have to take a translator with me, they always ask me to speak Welsh and laugh at me. Yesterday we compared scars from previous injuries and it’s just a much more relaxed setting to the doctors at home. I already have two pages of doctors notes and I’m sure there will still be more to come.. 

I have sacrificed a limb so that the students of my school can now play in peace without fear of having a similar injury because as soon as I was sent to the clinic they put plastic casing over the metal poles.. so at least that's one good thing to come out of this!

I’m publishing this post to prove that sometimes injuries happen abroad, and some that could potentially be really really dangerous, for example scraping a valley in your leg using a rusty metal pole...but there are trained people around who deal with the issues just as well as doctors at home would! 

September

The month that we got our very own kitchen… complete with a kettle two mugs, a cup of sugar, a bottle of Gatorade with milk in it and 1 spoon! This, I feel is the epitome of a British Kitchen, this is all we need! 

This investment resulted in many Saturday morning’s watching films, drinking tea and eating biscuits in bed…aaah the simple things!

September was also the month of our epic adventure. It had began as nothing more than a harmless dog walk with Darwin, one of the twelfth graders, and ended with us covered in bites, cuts, scrapes and mud and an epic story to tell! Ever, Darwin’s brother joined us when he realised that we hadn’t taken any water. He also brought a machete, which we later used to hack through a green forest. After hacking through the dense forest we arrived at a cliff face about 10ft tall or so..we couldn’t go back so..Ever found some long vines to tie into ropes and lift us up the rock face.. Then came the real issue…the dog. This problem was solved using belts and the lead as a harness and brute strength to lift Spikey up. Safe to say the dog didn’t like us much by the end of this trip. We finally emerged from the forest and found ourselves at one of the highest points in La Union..it was an awesome view, but as per usual photos don’t do it justice! 

We also got to meet our Rep Vegas. He’s an awesome man whose lived in the country since 1987 so, parents, we’re definitely in safe hands if anything goes wrong..not that it will of course! We met him in Gracias and went to the hot springs and ate lots and lots of food! Vegas, if you’re reading this, thank you for the food, you have no idea how much it meant to us! On the way home he took us via Las Playas which is a river that you have to cross..we spent some times there chilling in the sun and gathering some petrified wood before returning home for another week of school

This is just a picture to prove that we still love each other 2 months in, and I have also held a dog! Go meee!

This for anyone complaining about their uni digs.. this is our 'shower' after it has rained a bit too much, we're not sure if that's Kate's tan line or a dirt line..