Yet to have a 'normal' week...

Jade, Me and Oscar out the weekend before last

A view of the mountains outside Tegucigalpa

So you have probably all heard that Manuel Zelaya is back in the country and causing further disruptions and chaos. And he appeared on my first day back in my project!!! It caused the children to acuse me of bringing him back myself! haha as if. Although I have tried to see the point of view of both sides, I am definately going with my family here that we are better off with Mitcheletti until the elections in November. That is as long as Mel isn't here causing mayhem!

So anyway I didn't go back to work again until the Friday last week. Tuesday and Wednesday we had an ALL DAY ALL NIGHT curfew, the WHOLE COUNTRY!! Can you believe it? I definately couldn't. Since then we have had a regular night time curfew which is especially annoying at weekends! When all this finally resolves itself the country is surely going to be the poorest in the whole of Cental and South America!

Having said all that I am happier here now than I ever was before, possibly also because I know I only have 12 weeks left to appreciate it. No-one should worry about me honestly I am fine and safe and I have contacts if it gets too dangerous. But hopefully I wont have to use them.

I have slowly been giving out my presents from England. Carlota loves her London teapot, must remember to take a photo some time. And the kids liked their sweets from 'England' which were actually from the States, but they dont know that :-S. I was very excited to see Chi again last week, she really is lovely we can talk for hours. She bought me back a shell necklace from her holiday on the north coast the other week.

Andres, my brother, is due to start university next week here in Tegus which will be good because he is getting very bored being at home all day. He is going to study Business Administration, same as I did. But is still thinking of studying in Sweden so might change after a year or so.

I did go to the cinema the other week to see 'Amor y Frijoles'. It was really good actually and I understood it all. Obviously not every word but enough, plus it was easier because its very typically Honduran, the slang they use and everything. Really want to buy it to show people back home. No-one buys real dvds here though they are all copies bought from the street. Even though its illegal the defence is normally 'we do it to help the youths, you know they have to pay for their studies and everything'.

Nothing else that I have done has been amazingly interesting, and sadly it might not be until the curfew is lifted. I have spent alot of time watching the news and talking with people about the situation and hearing the latest gossip, 'oooo the protesters are going to do this or that or the curfew is going to be at 6pm tonight' etc. That is what it is like here at the moment. I wonder how long this can continue? Well I'm certainly not expecting a breakthrough anytime soon.

Goodbye England and Wales, Hola Honduras!

(Photo: Dave and I sightseeing in Cardiff)

So I'm very sorry about the lack of blogging action whilst i was in England (and Wales) but the truth is that a) there wasn't much time, I seemed to occupy my time quite nicely and b) I feel a bit weird about blogging of my life in England, since most of you readin this would then be reading about yourselves, you might sue me for disclosure of classified information or something!

But as you probably already know, I had a fantastic break from Honduras and it was amazing to see everyone again and to see two of my closest friends get married. There were parties and people moving houses, film sets, trips to London, Cardiff and Snowdonia and lots of cake, beer and margaritas. :-D Perfect.

That said I am now back in Honduras and find it amazing how quickly I seem to have adapted to be being back and how comfortable I feel here. I dont know whether i'm in another 'culture shock' cycle again and this is the intial 'euphoria' stage to be followed by a 'crisis' but I definately feel the next 3 months here or 14 weeks are going to be amoung the best weeks of my life! Of course I will still be pleased when the time comes to go home but for now I'm going to make the most of being here.

I was met at Tegucigalpa airport by Carlota and her son Andres (who I hadnt met before as he was in Sweden), by one of the ICYE crew and by my friends Oscar and Jade. It was a really nice welcome. Once outside I realised I had completely forgotten about the heat! It was HOT!!! I am really not looking forward to the dramatic climate change when I arrive back in London in December! The Spanish was a little slow at first but that soon came back to me, at least once I had got over my jetlag and could concentrate properly.

Things are not completely back to normal because this week there is no school due to this Tuesday 15th being Honduran Independence Day but I am looking forward to starting back on Monday. I also have many people still to see because they have been away this week on holiday or staying with family.

The highlights so far have been
* Going to the national stadium on Tuesday to see the Independence Day march. Including people parachuting in from helicopters, and guns, horses and smoke (not necessarily together though!) I found out later that only the people who are against the old president Zelaya went to see this and all those in support of him marched around the city wearing red and black - the colours of Chavez apparently.
* A birthday party for one of the girls living in the house in the mountain.
* Going back to the familiar mall and pharmacy that i'd grown to know and love.
* Eating 'frijoles' and drinking 'banana' and also a 'granita de cafe'
* Ringing friends to say that I am back in Honduras - some of them apparently doubted I would be back!

We are also supposedly going to the cinema tonight to see a Honduran film 'Amor y frijoles' Love and beans literally. Its set in a town where I have actually been so should be good.

I shall leave it at that for today, hopefully you will hear from me again soon when I am back at the school with my children - who I have to say i've missed alot! Bye x