Ziplining at Sunset and Tequila Sunrises

I can now tell you a 6am, four hour long bus ride over bumpy roads with three people crammed onto each seat is totally worth it for a weekend in Gracias. That was how we traveled from Candelaria on Friday morning, arriving in Gracias relatively early but still after Jesse and Lucy, the volunteers from Tomalá. 

Starting the weekend off right - with frozen margaritas!

Friday was a very chilled day, making full use both of the sandwiches served at our hotel, Guancascos, and the hammocks outside our room. We also did a bit of shopping and hung out in Gracias' gorgeous central square. On Saturday we were joined by Siobhan and Anna, the volunteers from La Union, and Grace and Hannah, the volunteers from Yamaranguila. Poor Hannah only arrived on Honduras on the Friday and was straight into Gracias to meet us!

After some lunch we headed out to La Campa, a nearby town, that is home to Central America's highest zip line! In true Honduran style we had to wait a while after we got there to be taken up to the start point but La Campa is a beautiful town and while waiting we had the best baleada I've eaten since I arrived in Honduras! (A baleada is a big tortilla with refried beans, cheese and mantequilla in it.)

Bienvenidos a La Campa

 Eventually we got up to the start of the first zip line. Yep, that's the first one, because there are actually six zig zagging across a valley. It was an exhilarating experience that I'll never forget and the views were stunning, especially in the golden sunlight of late afternoon. I would definitely recommend it if you ever happen to be in the area! 

Yep, we threw ourselves off that...

The only way the day could have gotten better was with a big pizza and a frozen cocktail... Which was how it ended, celebrating Grace's 18th birthday a few days early. We were all up bright and early on Sunday morning to walk the short distance to the San Cristobal Fort that looks over all of Gracias. It's quite small, with not a lot of information about it but the views were the main attraction.

Some wise words from ex-President Juan Lindo

Simultaneously enjoying and being the view

Half of the group left later on on Sunday, leaving Amy and I with the Tomalá girls to grab a Chinese that left us in a food coma (there is not a single Chinese restaurant in Honduras, and there are a lot, that has a grasp on the concept of portion control). We spent the evening starting to plan our Christmas holidays as we all work in schools that use the Honduran rather than American system so will be traveling together for a few months over December and January. 

After another four hour long bus ride over bumpy roads with three people crammed onto each seat, only not at 6am this time, we are now home! No English lessons this week because of tests but I'm sure we'll find something to fill our time with!

Scotland vs. England

Buenos dias! It's been a wee while since the last update but the last two weeks have been a bit quieter as we settle into a routine here.

When I say routine, our teaching can still be a bit sporadic. Last week we only taught two days, this week we had Friday off and next Monday too. Next week is also an evaluation week where the kids are tested so we've spent some time creating the English tests for each grade.

It hasn't rained here since Sunday, meaning that it is almost unbearably hot and humid, though I'm still wearing jeans, mostly to avoid adding more mosquito bites to my impressive collection (more than 15 on one leg!) 

Despite the heat we've been very active! We played volleyball with Victor, the host of our project last week and while we were both rubbish and dragged our team down a lot, we loved it! Also, after saying in my last blog post that I don't like football, we now regularly play in the late afternoons before dinner with whatever kids from the escuela (primary school) or colegio (high school) are there. It's a lot of fun, a good way to get some exercise in and we now have more than one friend over the age of 10! Progress. It can turn quite competitive though, especially when Scotland and England go head to head...

We've experienced the full range of power cuts that Honduras has to offer recently, ranging from lasting for more than 24 hours to the lights turning off for five seconds then back on and repeating every few minutes for the next hour. One evening during a power cut, I finally got my ukulele out for the first time after lugging it across an ocean and then most of Honduras!

On Saturday two girls that we teach appeared at our door, trying to tell us something. With our halting, though improving, Spanish we eventually figured out that they weren't asking us about our run but telling us that we had mail! (The word for both is 'correo' in Spanish, you can understand our confusion!) We immediately followed them down to the post office where we gave the post mistress our phone numbers for the next time any mail comes in for us and paid 20 Lempiras, or $1, for my first package from home!

While I was expecting most of what was in because I packed it before I left, there were some surprises, including some lovely cards from my family and an advent calendar each for Amy and I. Looking forward to the next one *hint hint*!

If anyone feels like sending me a letter or a postcard or anything else (mosquito spray is always welcome!) feel free to send it to:

Sara Morrison 

+50495776655

Candelaria

Lempira

Honduras

Centro America

And that's pretty much what our last two weeks have been like! We're now in Gracias for a long weekend with some of the other volunteers

Just chillin'

Some of my pupils having their merienda (snack)

Recreo. My lack of hula hooping skills is a constant disappointment to 1st and 2nd Grade...

Feat. El Salvador

A very busy first weekend was had here in Candelaria! On Saturday we were finally able to have a lie in after getting up at 6am every morning! It's fine though because I've taken to having naps when we get back from school, before we have lunch. The heat really does tire you out!

After a relaxing morning and some lesson plans we went out with our host mum, Saida, her daughters Daniela and Jamie and their cousins Yeverson and Justin to go and see their cows. We were looking forward to getting out of Candelaria for a bit and seeing more of the stunning scenery which we had front row seats for from the bed of the truck we drove out in!

We were only able to see the cows from afar because they'd gone wandering but we did get to go and pick fresh beans and eat passion fruit straight off the tree! We also got to see the hills of El Slavador, as we're pretty close to the border here.

El Salvador in the distance

We started our Sunday morning with an early run (what was I thinking, trying to run in this humidity?!) and while it was hard, it was actually pretty nice to sweat with a purpose for once! The market was back today, which we were aware of from 3am when they started to set it up, so after breakfast we went for a wander around and bought a few things each.

This is how you cross a border right? I'm obviously not sure

In the afternoon we headed to Mapulaca, a town about an hour away though the distance is only 15km, to watch the football between Candelaria and La Virtud. The football wasn't actually that interesting for me (anyone that knows me knows that I'm not a football fan) though don't tell anyone I said that because football is a big thing in Honduras! What was pretty cool was driving to the border with El Salvador after the match as Mapulaca is only five minutes away!

Apparently people here like the EU more than in Britain

After having yesterday off because the other teachers had a meeting we found out that we weren't going to have classes today either or on Friday I think. I guess we'll just have to save our lesson plans for later! We were also supposed to start our adult classes this week but they've been postponed until next week. We've spent our days off doing a bit more lesson planning to stay ahead of the game, relaxing, exploring more of the town and now blogging!

Some pictures from while we've been exploring the town - 

 

 

Has It Only Been A Week?

Santa Rosa de Copán

Estamos aqui! It took a eight hour car journey to get from Gracias to Candelaria that took is out of the department of Lempira, into Copan and Ocotepeque and then back into Lempira (it doesn't actually take that long, we had lots of stops for our driver to pick up and drop off things). At first the road was really good, lovely and smooth but then came the potholes and after we passed Tomalá (hi Jesse and Lucy!) it was down to a very rocky dirt track. However we were distracted the whole way by the unbelievable views. The mountains don't look like the mountains at home - it looks as if they have been carved out of the earth, raw, awe inspiring and difficult to capture in a photo from a moving car!

When we arrived in Candelaria, we were greeted by Victor Cruz, the host of our project but not our host family, and found out where we are living for the year. We are living with a teacher in another school nearby, Saida, and her family. She has two adorable children whose new favourite song is 'If you're happy and you know it', thanks to a book that Amy brought. 

The view of Candelaria from my school

We arrived on Saturday and had the rest of the weekend to relax and settle in before an orientation on Monday and teaching on Tuesday. It's the middle of a term here so there's been no rest for us! We each have a Kindergarten class, I have the younger ones, we share the first, second and sixth grade class and we have our own third, fourth and fifth grade class. 

La Escuala Urbana Mixta de José Cecilio Valle

So far I love teaching! The kids all seem to really enjoy English and they love us. We can't walk anywhere in town without constantly having them call out our names or run up to us and when we walk into school at the start of a day we are greeted by a small mob, all trying to hug us. What I don't like is lesson planning but I suppose it's a necessary evil. 

We've only been in Honduras for about 10 days now and in our projects for less than a week but I already feel like I'm adapting to life here. The food is very different (I'll tell you more on that in a different blog post) but I just accept now that whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner, there's going to be tortillas. Time is also more fluid here and some times other things get in the way of English class - for example, today we didn't have our fifth grade classes because they were helping to pick the maize that grows next to the school and then sixth grade was late to start because they had to finish eating their corn before we started (it was fine though because they shared with us!) 

The only thing I've yet to adapt to is the heat!

Una merienda (snack) of flame grilled maize with lemon and salt

Piles of maize in sixth grade

Gracias Gracias

27 hours, three flights and one tropical storm later, I've made it to Honduras! 

I left Edinburgh at 7am and met up with the rest of the Honduras group at Heathrow before flying to Miami. It was all going rather well until we landed in the States where baggage problems made one girl almost miss the flight! Luckily for her but unluckily for pretty much everyone else the flight was delayed for two hours. 

Most of the Honduras crew

Eventually we made it to San Pedro Sula where we were met by our country rep Vegas and torrential rain! At this point the 17 of us had to split up, with some heading straight to their projects and the rest heading to two different hotels in San Pedro. 

Our ride to Gracias

After a long overdue sleep the seven volunteers at my hotel were picked up by Jake and Rachel, the hosts for one of the other projects, in an old school bus to take us to Gracias for some more teacher training. We've now been here for a few days now, got some really helpful books for teaching with and even made a trip to Gracias' famous hot springs (that I'd never heard of before!). 

So far I'm absolutely loving it! The food is delicious, with lots of gorgeous fresh fruit, I've already found a bright orange, banana flavoured fizzy drink that tastes almost exactly like Irn-Bru (which I don't even like but hey, it tastes like home) and the weather is finally starting to clear as Hurricane Earl moves away from the Carribean. I'm really looking forward to finally getting to my project tomorrow and being able to unpack my bag at last!

The view from the hotel in Gracias

See You Later!

It's finally here! I've spent the whole day packing, sorting things out and generally rushing around in a last minute frenzy! But I'm pretty sure everything's packed and everything that needed done today has been done (apart from this but I'm actually going to try for a quick blog post today - I know, unheard of!).

It's been a weird few weeks, coming to terms with the fact that I'm actually leaving now. Slowly but surely the goodbyes have been building up, a few here and a few there until my goodbye party on Thursday night and then my best friend tonight and the family tomorrow morning at the airport. Most of the tears so far have actually come after saying goodbye, when my mum asks me if I'm ok!

I'm not sure it's properly sunk in yet that I'm actually going to be away for a year. Most of you probably know that I spent a month in Costa Rica last summer and it almost feels like I'm just going off to do the same thing (though my rucksack is a bit heavier this time!) It might only be when I get past the month mark that I realise that I'm there for the long run.

Anway, having just said some goodbyes and still feeling a little bit emotional (though it's not like I can leave tear stains on a blog post is it?) I'm going to move on to the practical things. I leave tomorrow bright and early at 5.15 to catch a 7am plane before arriving in Honduras three flights later at 7pm local time (or 2am our time).

While I'm away you can keep up to date with this blog, my Facebook page - Sara's Year in Honduras - and if anybody wants to write to me (or send me chocolate, that would be much appreciated) you can address them to:

Sara Morrison
c/o Victor Cruz
Candelaria
Lempira
Honduras

If this changes or updates I will let you know as soon as possible. 

Before I go as well I just want to say a final, massive thank you to every single person who has made this possible, either by donating or helping me out in any way. THANK YOU!!!

I'm not sure what the wifi will be like for the first couple of days or whether I'll be updating for the first few weeks I'm there so this may be it for a few weeks. See you in Honduras!