I can't get any money out because my mum isn't here to take me to the bank!

I actually said these words out loud today, I didnt even realise what I was saying until it was too late and then I felt shocked at myself for just how dependent i have become! There are some things you just dont expect from a volunteer experience abroad and losing your independence is one of them!

Here is a nice photo of a view of Tegucigalpa which has nothing to do with anything i'm going to talk about:

Last weekend was an interesting one. On friday night I went partying and had an ok time but not good enough to make up for the following hangover! Oh my goodness, I cant remember the last time I felt that bad! So bad that I have decided to stick to weak beers for the rest of the year! ...with maybe the odd margarita or two ;-) What?

It was unfortunate that I was ill on Saturday because Maddy, another English volunteer who had been working in Mexico, came to visit me for the weekend. In fact she will be getting on a flight tomorrow to go back to England, im a little jealous i have to admit! She doesn't have a mobile so we had arranged to meet in central park at 11, anyway there was no way I was going so Carlota had to go for me to find her. When she still wasnt there at 11.30 we were a bit worried, however not having many other options left Carlota kept waiting and they eventually found each other about 12ish! Phew! I had planned for us to go to Santa Lucia that day where I have a few friends at the blind centre and was really looking forward to a nice lunch too. But alas it wasnt going to happen and it was already late by that point. However I did have a good day doing the only thing I could, chatting, and catching up with Maddy. Was fun to hear about her experiences and how Mexico and other central american countries differ from here. I was still in my pajamas at 5pm that day! Luckily I felt better that evening and Maddy and I went out to Ruby Tuesdays with another volunteer here that i havn't seen since the beginning. She's from England too! We chose to talk in English although we probably could have got by in Spanish, just its nice to have a break once in a while. So that was fun.

On Sunday Maddy felt a bit ill so we stayed in the house again chatting and interneting and watching Grey's Anatomy which I refuse to become addicted too! HA!
She left Monday morning and I went off to work, only to find out that there would be no English class because there was no electricity in the building! Boooooooooooooooo! It was the same for Tuesday aswell so I have a slightly above average level of frustration! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It's because there has been a dramatic change of weather here this week. These days it is hot and sunny in the mornings and big dramatic thunderstorms in the afternoons with torrential rain! Now I see why everyone drives these big 4X4's, to drive through the puddles!

Since there was no english yesterday I went with the others to the city centre, never quite sure what we're going to do till it happens here! Anyway there was a big anti-smoking protest, (or should that be smoking protest?), and although we weren't getting involved with that we used to opportunity to collect signatures from the hundreds of people there. The signatures were in favor of facilitating the use, production and distribution of the emergency contraceptive pill, so that victims of sexual abuse etc would be able to terminate their potential pregnancy. Now imagine trying to explain that in Spanish, now imagine they dont agree and you have to try and persuade in Spanish! ummm yer so i'l just look after the bags then shall I? I might have had a chance if i'd been briefed beforehand but as it was I was I felt completely useless! But it was still interesting to watch! What i found really funny was that after the crowd had dispersed three of my colleagues lit up cigarettes!! HAHA! Honduras.

Today we were preparing for another activity we have tomorrow in celebration of World day for action of women's health or something like that. I designed an information leaflet which looks very impressive until you start to read it! I left them making alterations to it this afternoon as i went to visit Chi. Carlota is away with work this week so I have had to amuse myself. while going to visit an 80 something year old might not appeal to everyone I really like Chi and our conversations. Plus I think she was really pleased that i'd made the effort to see her and not just because Carlota was going to see her! I had to leave quite early though to catch a taxi before it got dark.

So tomorrow I will not be in the school but in the city centre handing out my leaflets. I can only hope no-one has any questions!

So thats the week almost over and almost the end of May! So nearly time for Wimbledon I'm thinking? Wonder if I can follow it here so I feel like I know something about whats going on back home. Wonder if they have pimms here? Oh wait no I forget im only allowed beer and margaritas! hmmm wonder if that will last?

Mixed Emotions; the Honduran cocktail

Once again I am living the roller coaster of life.

On the one hand everything is great and I feel really happy here now. I'm still really happy with my home and 'school' life, but I'm also now much happier at CEMH teaching English. My Spanish is getting better all the time and I am planning exciting things to do in the coming months so everything is looking pretty good.

On the other hand so many bad things are happening to people around me and I am worrying for them and slightly too for my safety.

However life in Honduras will go on, and then so must I!

Last thursday I saw sandra again (the lady from the school) and we spent a (weekday) afternoon (LOVE IT!) making cakes and then took then back to the school in the evening for all the children. Was really cool to be there in the evening, was alot more exciting than the day and it was only the children that actually sleep there as the day lot had gone home. However I found out a couple of sad stories. One of the young girls there, who is only there because her brother is blind and needs looking after, her dad died when she was really young and her mum died whilst giving birth to her baby brother! She is so lovely though, even Dave thought so! Im going to get a photo album for her and print some photos before I leave I think. The picture above is of her with her brother, and the other boy is called Christian. Also there's another girl who is blind and has trouble with mobility, she was found one day in a box left outside the school gates, at about 3 years old too! :-(

The lady who cooks in our house, also called sandra, made me porridge for breakfast on saturday! and even added vanilla pods to it! Although it was a bit runny for my liking and lacking in raisins, but it was delivered with the best service so I will go back to that restaurant again! hehe

Finally made a skype call to my parents so got to see them for the first time in 4 months! Was really good...once they got the hang of the new age technology! ;-) hehe love you really!

I booked my other return flight to Honduras (because i am coming back to UK briefly for a wedding in sept) so I will be leaving Honduras for good on the 19th of December and arriving in UK on the 20th! Just in time for the much missed christmas roast dinner! hmmm.

We have sorted out the dilemma of how to get me to the centro de capacitacion to teach english now. They changed the dates of the computer course to be the same as the English and so Gustavo, the son of my 'boss', drives there and I can go with him. Phew thats a relief, and he's a good laugh.

And finally I found out that they dont have guinea pigs here, no-one even knows what they are even after being shown photos on the internet! So Cousin AL, if you're reading this, i can safely say that what you told me about Honduran's eating guinea pigs is NOT TRUE! Hmmm unless all the guinea pigs have been eaten and there are now none left? But it would have to have been several generations ago for the memory of guinea pigs to be completely forgotten! Probably the Mayans. Guinea pig sacrifices. I need to get some sleep now I think!

The Post Holiday Blues

(See also post below about the holiday)

When Dave left life was hard for a couple of days. But things improved by Friday becuase it was Honduran Mothers Day and we had celebrations at the school. So we danced and sang and ate alot of food and there were presents for all the mums. I got talking to one of the mums, called Sandra, and she was really excited by what I was doing and where I was from etc that she wanted me to go to her house and meet her family and everything. So that afternoon we went to her house, very nice, and she said I could use the internet and act as if it was my house but genuinely meaning it! Strange! Then we went out to meet her husband at a clinic because he's a doctor and he was really fun as well, then we went to have dinner and I didnt get back to the house until gone 9pm! Its amazing the things that happen when you're a volunteer, so many experiences and opportunities.

This week my English classes started for CEM-H so I have been busy. I have to say they went surprisingly well and I even enjoyed the second class! I am now teaching one class on a monday and one on a tuesday with different groups of women (young and not so young) for 12 weeks provisionally. It depends how they go. Its great to finally feel like I'm doing something to help at last! I knew 6 months wasn't long enough in a country - the volunteers who are leaving in August only have about 7 or 8 weeks of work left! If that was me I'd feel frustrated because its not long enough to really be of help. However there is a slight problem with the location of the clases because they are in a centre which is outside of Tegus and to get there I have to take a bus, a public bus, and alone. Anyway Carlota really really doesnt like this as she says its dangerous so we're trying to figure out what to do. For the mean time her son is going to acompany me there but he has university so its far from an ideal situation. I spoke to the other volunteer at CEM-H and she says its always a problem with the host families but they have to realise that i work as a volunteer in a charity to help underprivilaged people and in its very nature its going to involve working in potentially dangerous situations. Lots of the girls from CEM-H take the bus alone to the centre and say its absolutely fine nothing to worry about. I think its probably alright too and its not as if it's after dark, but then I have to accept this is Honduras and I left 'indepence' and 'freedom' behind in England.

So tomorrow I plan my next class of English. I hope there are no tricky grammar questions!

THE Holiday

Hello,

I apologise to all my subscribers (hehe, heard you were worried about me!) that I havn't blogged in a long time. I was on holiday for two weeks with Dave, then since i've got back things have been really busy and frankly i've been putting off writing because I knew it was going to take an AGE to write.

Dave arrived in Tegus on April 20th and it was a very happy day for me. It was also quite funny because there were 6 of us to meet him at the airport, me, Carlota, Chi (Carlota's aunt), Berta (Carlota's friend), Berta's daughter and neice. And loads more people wanted to come to see him too but couldn't and were quite disapointed. One of the family members wanted to have a party for him! But we were only in Tegus for 3 days really and all weekdays so couldn't happen unfortunately. I think he was a bit overwhelmed with all the people and all the crazyness of Tegucigalpa and the Spanish, he even spoke French at one point! haha! I can laugh because I did the same at first too. We did the usual trip to the mall and the bank, not the pharmacy which was surprising because we seem to live in the pharmacy sometimes! On our way back to the house we happened to bump into some of the children from my school on a little walk with one of the teachers. So we said hello and they came crowding round the car 'KATHARINE', 'KATHARINE', 'KATHARINE', hehe they are cool children.

The next day we got up super early to get the bus to Copan Ruinas. We really liked Copan Ruinas, its a small, safe, pretty town with plenty of places to buy cocktails, whats not to like? Well Dave aparently doesn't like Honduran mantaquilla as we had to leave for the hotel pretty quickly that night!
We went to the archeological park to see the ancient Mayan Ruins. They were really impressive and the Lonely Planet Guide taught us alot ;-) Smoke from a nearby fire hung around giving it quite a forboding atmosphere. Well I think I mean forboding, not too sure. Anyway it was definately worth going to see and there are other volunteers in Copan that we met up with too so it was fun.
Also in Copan we went on a tour of a coffee plantation place thing, was cool but bit weird as there were only 4 of us. Strangely enough it was a couple from London! They get everywhere the English!

Our next stop was Tela on the north coast. Very nice hotel (apparently no room was on the same floor/level) and there were hammocks which I was really excited about, Dave not so much. The beach in Tela was great with good waves, dont think i've stayed in the sea so long since I was a kid, with good reason probably because afterwards I was buuuuuuuuuuurnt! The town not so great but not horrible either, we mainly stuck to the sea front.

Next we went to La Ceiba. Hmmmm we did NOT like La Ceiba. Probably a combination of the fact that it was a sunday and nothing was open, there was a very dodgy guy on the beach who spoke to us and after eating pizza hut I was violently ill for the whole night and wasn't properly better for 3 days. I was even sick in the street! haha, not so fun times. Anyway because of that we decided not to go on a canopy tour but to head straight to the island of Roatan, a very wise decision I think.

The boat journey to Roatan would have been horrific if it wasn't for Dave's travel sickness pills! I have never been on a boat journey soooo rocky and with members of staff rushing around giving out sick bags and paper towels but looking like its something they do everyday. Which they obviously do!

Roatan was pretty amazing. It wasn't luxury but it was still idealic. The beaches, the hotel, the restaurants, the fruit smoothies, the sunsets, the lizards, the snorkling, the DIVING! All was amazing and even though I spent a day and a half in the hotel ill I still had an awesome time. But it was over way too quickly and we had to go back to the smelly, dirty, dangerous and crazy city I call home.

We had a whole day in Tegus so I took Dave to my school to meet the children and we ended up spending a long time in the public hospital because one of the girls had to take her brother and didnt want to go alone, bet Dave didnt expect that! Then we went to the city centre and got covered in 'polvo' or dust in English.

When we went to the airport to say goodbye to Dave it was horrible, I was really upset and I still am sad but I'm much better than before. It wasnt as bad as leaving England in January because I was leaving everyone for a whole new situation, at least I know where I am this time and what to expect. Its not so bad really. ;-)