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

Back in England

Bye bye school...

Well I can definitely say I didnt expect to be blogging from home in England on the 28th of July! Alot earlier than expected! It all happened so fast really, one minute I was settled in Honduras, a bit bored for the curfew but nevertheless enjoying myself, and the next I am back to cold gloomy weather, fillets of meat and smooth road surfaces. Its a very strange feeling. I have two completely different lives now and to think that I can swap between them in just 14 hours is too much for my mind to take in!

I made the decision to come home after a series of conversations between my parents, Carlota and my security dude who works for the same company as my dad but in Honduras. They were all fairly worried about me being out there due to the current political situation. Not because I was in danger at the time, things are still going on more or less as normal - in actual fact normal in Honduras is still dangerous if im honest, but no its because of what might happen and the small possibility of a civil war. Neither side appears to be backing down so something has got to happen right?

I feel quite sad at leaving alot of people I love in Honduras particularly Carlota, and I kind of feel like I let myself down by giving up early. At the end of the day it was me who made the decision I wasn't forced to leave. But I already had flights to go back on the 12th of September after the wedding so I dont lose anything by going back on this date and finishing my year returning late December. So as long as the political situation is more stable and as long as I feel I am emotionally strong enough to go back (after living in England for one and a half months its going to be difficult) that is what I intend to do. ICYE have said that if I return to finish as planned they will still count it as a year because my leaving was only 'temporary' and I had good reason to leave. So im happy with that.

Although the whole situation is very very weird and I still dont know what to do with myself here everything feels wrong, I am very happy to be back with my parents, boyfriend, friends and family. Now I can even go to another wedding, one of best friends too, which I was going to miss so I am really excited this is now possible. As much as I tried to tell myself its more important to be there for the whole marriage rather than the one wedding day, I have to admit I wasn't convinced. Plus Dave is coming too so its even better!

My last few days in Honduras were very action packed so I barely had to time to think about going home. Andres's grandad died, Mary in our house had to go to hospital and Mina downstairs fell over badly hurting her knee. It wasn't the best time to leave really as it meant Carlota had to rush around to help them and take me to places to organise everything for going home. It was really sad to say goodbye to the children at the school and unbelievably easy to my other project. Needless to say when I return in September, it makes sense to work in the school full time until the end. It will be more helpful to them and more fun to me. Its weird because its not the reason I chose to go to Honduras in the first place, however it means I have changed as a person and gained experiences I would never have got from staying in England. The only bad side is that I'm still nowhere closer to figuring out what I want to do when I return for good, in fact I think I now have more options than before! I guess this is actually good because I know graduate jobs are in short supply at the moment :-(

So for now I will continue speaking English and make the most of the time that I have here. I'm sure I will be back in Honduras before I know it and regretting that I didn't do this or do that or eat enough Cadbury's Dairy Milk etc...

My 23rd birthday, 6th month in Honduras, and definitely 1st piñata!

So the last few weeks havn't been very eventful as far as work goes. I am now back working at the school but I've basically forgotten CEM-H exists! I do appreciate however that the team I was working with last, at least ring me up occasionally to let me know whats going on and oh that they still dont have anything for me to do. Its because they are doing things relating to the current political situation and all other things have been put on hold. I am not allowed to go to the place where I teach English as it has been deemed to dangerous at the moment, and some people think its never safe!

Luckily I have been kept busy as Carlota has holiday at the moment and so I have been helping her run errands and havn't been stuck indoors all day! Plus it was my birthday and last Saturday I had a party! Because of the curfew we had to have it in the daytime and with the piñata aswell I was only one party bag away from being a 9 year old again! Despite the fact that my friends and family teased me, even they have to admit that they enjoyed the piñata and it was a great day. I enjoyed it anyway. You can see from the photo above that it was a finding nemo piñata! I did want Spongebob Squarepants but those ones looked really ugly in the store, well I say store but we actually bought it from the street, where we also bought the cheese......? Random I know.

As far as the politcal situation goes the country seems to be almost running as normal, definitely outside of Tegucigalpa anyway. Here in Tegus we still sometimes get caught up in marches and have to be diverted. The graffiti which currently lines the streets is due to be cleaned up this weekend by a group of volunteers. Most of the shops and restaurants have replaced thier broken windows and look shiny and new again. We are making progress I feel. However the situation cannot get completely back to normal until something is resolved with the ex president. Whether thats for him to be in prison or reinstated as president i'm not sure but something has to happen before we can move on. While I have to admit I do feel quite excited and privilaged to be able to be here and witness it I am now truly bored of it all and just to get on with things. Thankfully with the curfew lifted I will be able to go out dancing again! yey!

As July is going by I am starting to think about my trip home at the end of August and all the things I need and want to do before then. For example if I bring back the hammock now then i'l have more room for other stuff in December. I have yet to buy a hammock but its on my list - IN PEN. hehe.

I've also been thinking more and more of the possibility of working in the school full time as of September when I return back after my trip. Everyday I spend there is alot of fun, laughing and smiling and then when I think of sitting in the office in CEM-H, bored and sad. Theres really no contest is there?

¡VIVA LA PAZ!

(First of all sorry to confuse you all by the date above - this is actually when I started to write this blog entry and for some reason I cant change it!)

So this whole story has been so up and down, everytime I think things are returning to normality something else happens. I hope you've all been following it and know about the President being forcefully removed from power and from the country - thats the most objective way of saying it I think. We now have a new acting President, although the rest of the world refuses to acknowledge him. The media are reporting what they want to report, which im not surprised about but really the BBC? I expected better! There have been a few protests in the city by supporters of the ex president but thats really only a small group of people, the vast majority of Hondurans DO NOT want him back, including Carlota who works at the supreme court so no surprise there. I understand what they're all saying about him having to be reinstated because of the precident that it would set otherwise but I fear that that would then lead to more protests and unrest in the city, this time by the large majority of people. I know I dont want to be around when that happens! So really no-one knows whats going to happen. At the moment there is a strange calm in the city, I guess everyone is anxiously waiting. Supposedly the ex president is back on saturday. Hmmm. We have also had a night-time curfew which is a really weird experience, I mean when would that ever happen in a normal lifetime?

So needless to say I havn't been working this week but fortunately I managed to get out last Saturday. We went to the mall to see the new Transformers, which was good but loooooooooooooooooooooong. In the evening we hit Ruby Tuesdays for cocktails and then a disco called Jaguar, was the last time I will see alot of the volunteers :-( some people got VERY drunk but I've been very good ever since that horrible horrible tequila hangover a few weeks back.

Sunday morning I was awoken by fighter planes screaming over the city the day that the President was taken. I dont know what was more of a surprise, that the President got taken or that I actually woke up, normally I sleep through these things!

Monday and Tuesday have blurred together as I was stuck at home, I might have been able to go to work but CEMH were protesting or something and its actually illegal for foreigners to partake in this kind of activity, so I couldn't join them. This makes me wonder if what I did a few weeks back marching through the streets saying 'Yes to the emergency contraceptive pill!' was actually illegal too? If it was then oooops! ;-)

Yesterday I sneaked out to go to Santa Lucia, without telling ICYE! hehe. But outside of Tegus everywhere is normal so it was peaceful Santa Lucia as usual. It was Marie's leaving do, shes another volunteer here who works at the blind educational centre. Was really sweet as everyone was saying how much they'd miss her and how she'd always be welcome back whenever. Then some of the blind teachers, who also teach at my school, played keyboard and sang, very well I have to say. Unfortunately Taunya from Canada got news that a family member had died so she's leaving today or tomorrow, :-( I am sad today as it seems everyone is leaving, leaving, leaving and I'm not! Its also worse because I am at home and have time to sit and think about this fact over and over.

There are some benefits to being at home though, I have been studying Spanish and yey because it helps to improve, I have been helping Sandra make tortillas and can now make them with my hands as opposed to the machine that makes perfect round flat ones, which is actually really difficult! I have been keeping up to date with the news and also generally relaxing. And I get to do all that without feeling guilty or like a bum because its really not my fault! There is a political crisis and we have to deal with it, so I am. Now, where have all the biscuits gone?

Special Announcement

The President of Honduras: Manuel Zelaya Rosales

I must say the Katie Clarke inside of me really does not want to post this blog today because of the inconsistency in unevenly spaced postings - not very asthetically pleasing! But it is a special day so I think we can make acceptions?

Just after I posted my blog yesterday about having a mundane week, I find out some news to completely change that! Ok so im all packed and ready for the camp, I go to sleep and am woken up at about 11.30pm by my phone ringing, in my usual half asleep state I just keep cancelling the call because all I can think about is that I want to sleep and its annoying! A bit later Carlota comes into my room and wakes me up properly to speak to Elly on the phone from ICYE. She was cancelling the ICYE camp and advising me to stay in the house for the next few days as its potentially too dangerous to go outside!!! Umm what?? So I dont fully understand this because A)I was half asleep, B) its about politics and C) I cant find any news about it in English. However what I understand is this... there has been alot of tension in Honduras the last few days because the president wants to do something with the military, that has something to do with Venezuela, but the courts are saying its actually illegal! Exactly what I have yet to understand! There is going to be a vote or something on Sunday but last night the big people in power of the military resigned, thats the heads of army, navy and airforce! I also want to say that it might have something to do with socialism? Dont know, anyway this has caused even more chaos, confusion and arguments and no-one knows what the outcome is going to be. So thats why I have to stay at home until further notice! I think ICYE are being a bit overprotective because Carlota has still gone to work as usual and the nurses are still coming to do thier shifts!

Oh well I shall just study some spanish and eat lots of biscuits no doubt! Well I did go to the gym last night!

a mundane week

Photo: This is where I teach my English classes - yes the whiteboard has still not been attached to the wall but hey, least I have one! And there were more students in the beginning but there are now only about 5 or 6 regular students on both mondays and tuesdays. Maybe one day i'l get a photo of my teaching too!

So after alot of talking and weighing up pros and cons I still dont know what Im going to do when my english classes finish in August in terms of what project. However things are perhaps looking up a little in CEM-H because I've now moved to another department -political women as opposed to -young women. Me and politics do not mix well but the ladies who work there are soooo much more friendly and they actually look for things for me to do. Im only working with them when im in the office which only equates to 2 days a week but its already much better than before. I've been busy :-O

In the school its been more of the same but its good fun. The other day the older students had a class on hygiene, I felt bad because the proffessor kept asking what I do or how many times I do stuff and I kept replying with the wrong thing! For example I said I shampoo my hair twice but she then told the kids its better to do it 3 times! Haha Im clearly not a good example! In my defence we never had classes at school to teach us stuff like that! My mum didnt tell me how many times either! :-(

Last weekend I went with two other volunteers for a trip to Valle de Angeles but this time we stayed over in a hotel! They dont speak much Spanish so we were speaking English the whole time, but I refuse to feel guilty! I dont feel so much pressure to speak spanish now that I already pretty much can. I did find out some interesting things though. One of the girls says that the anti-malarial drugs give her night terrors, I was a bit sceptical at first because im on the same thing and im fine. I sleep pleasantly even through earthquakes apparently. But the saturday night I woke up to find her crying her eyes out after experiencing yet another nightmare! I really feel sorry for her, they must be pretty strong drugs, oh and im on them for a whole year woo!

And I dont think theres much else interesting to talk about this week, seems to have gone past pretty quickly. Have been to the gym and few more times and went to extend my visa today - had to do all my fingerprints and everything! Oh and the lady taylor made me a little top, love it!

I have the ICYE mid-term evaluation camp tomorrow for 3 days....in spanish too, so better go pack....