David in Honduras

School Photo

2008-07-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

Lucy sent me this lovely photo...

I know England had an earthquake but...

2008-04-11T13:06:00.001-07:00

When I went to Antigua, I joined some of the other volunteers on a trip to the Pacaya volcano. There are several active volcanoes around Antigua. This was just after the earthquake in England. The group that I went with took you up in the evening so that you have sunset by the volcano. Afterwards, we had a picnic on the mountain, we all felt terribly cold and piled on the fleeces. The conversation in the group turned to the recent earthquake in England. The english guys (including me) expressed regret about missing the earthquake but the lady from San Francisco pulled us up by reminding

us that we should be careful what we wish for. Very true. She had been through two earthquakes and does not want to repeat the experience. Anyway, I doubt if you can get this close to a volcano in the western world, close enough for sticking marshmallows on the end of a stick. What was also surprising, was the number of people who were going to camp on the mountain. Some people expressed surprise with all the noxious gases around. Anyway, all in all, it is very impressive.

End of Visit

2008-04-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

All good things have to come to an end. I had these plans for my last week in Copan but they came to nothing as I went down with a stomach bug on Monday evening. It certainly knocked me over, so much so that I was in the local clinic on Wed afternoon attached to a drip. As I was planning to start my trip home on Friday at 12 midday with a 6-7 hour trip to Guatemala, this was not a good sign. However, David can be quite determined at times and with the boost from the drugs, I had made a good enough recovery to make the trip. Indeed, I also managed to get a tuk-tuk up to the school to say goodbye to the kids. The 20 minute bumpy ride in a suspension free vehicle certainly tested my delicate constitution. It was certainly a different way to leave in a tuk-tuk with the kids waving goodbye. They had made me a wonderful farewall card and lovely get-well cards. Lucy was very kind and gave me a bag of San Rafael coffee (it was on my souvenier shopping for the last week which did not happen) and a SalvaVida T-shirt.

My fragile state was probably ideal for the 13 hour plane journey to Madrid(via Panama) which seemed to pass OK except that my bag did not appear on the carousel at Heathrow. Iberia delivered it the following evening which was great.

Now that I am back in England, I am delighted and yet I also want to be in Copan. I think I left more than the contents of my stomach in Copan. I know the kids have many volunteers who teach them (Darcey has taken over from me and I hope that she has a great time with them also) but I like to think that they will remember me in the future.

I may have some photos taken by the others that they may well post to me when convenient (fast internet connection) so I may update the blog if and when these arrive.

To all that I met in Copan, thank you very much for your love and my sincere best wishes for whatever you do in the future.

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Tree of life

2008-04-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Lucy and I decided on another project. We would make a tree to show the things needs for life but each of the kids would have a leaf. We would print a thumbnail picture of them and get them to write three positive words about themselves. Charlotte was always emphasising that we need to boost their self-esteem. Besides, we want more Art to decorate the walls!

Market

2008-04-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

Caroline has to get fruit for the school every day (sometimes every other) so we have call at the market just as it opens. This is the stall we use. The fruit always looks so tasty.

As we are early birds, the market is opening when we get there _________________________________________________________________________

Sunday night is movie night.

2008-04-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

Every Sunday at Cafe ViaVia they show a current movie. I think it is a lovely spot on a terrace under palm roof with a gentle warm breeze and I have seen some good movies there.

No Country for Old Men
Let there be blood
Juno
Sweeney Todd
Before the devil takes you
Mosquito Coast

I must watch more movies when I get back.
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Climbing a hill

2008-04-02T13:56:00.001-07:00

This is tallest hill around Copan and I decided to

get up one Sunday to climb it. I did not know a route but there is a road that runs along the bottom so I walked along and looked for a track. I followed a route parallel to the ridge and it was steep, when a stone was knocked, you could see it roll down so it was quite exhilirating.

Of course, when I got to the top, I found there was a track on the other side that led almost to the top so I took that back down.

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Dead head

2008-04-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

You always find something going on in Copan. I was walking home one day and I met this guy(Jesse) outside his house. I asked him what the noise was in his house. He almost went through the roof, muttering how I could describe Grateful Dead as noise. I asked to be educated and was invited in for a beer where I could see that the whole house was a Grateful Dead tribute.

We chatted about music and he followed the Dead around the world, I think I got some merit when I dragged up the name of Hot Tuna from the past.

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Alfumbra completion

2008-04-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

In the morning, it was stunning.

On the evening of Good Friday, there was a procession which went over the alfumbra and afterwards the work was swept away on Saturday.

I was very impressed. There were also others made elsewhere in the streets but these were single elements. In Antigua, I am told that there are many more alfumbras.

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Alfumbra preparation

2008-04-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

On the evening of Maundy Thursday, there started work on a big community project to create an Alfumbra(carpet of sawdust) in one of the roads by Central Square.

The first step is to make a fill in the cobbles with a base layer of sawdust.

The next step was to draw grids with string and then to use cardboard boxes with a template cut in them. Coloured sawdust is then used to draw an outline.

The next step is then to fill in with different coloured sawdust.
and then the all important touching up.

They kept going all night, I decided to return at 6:00 am.

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Sunset on Copan Street

2008-04-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Arty image....

and Solar lighting...

Livingston

2008-04-02T11:30:00.001-07:00

Livingston is a two hour boat journey down the Rio Dulce where the river meets the Caribbean. Livingston is a Garifuna village which are people descended from slaves deported from islands as the British and Spanish fought over the Caribbean.

The journey is very beautiful and pictures do not show the beauty of the trip.

Birds are all over the place.

I would like to live in this house!

Lilies in the river.

Livingston has a buzzy but lazy feel. We ate lunch in a restaurant overlooking the harbour where we watched the supplies being unloaded. All supplies have to come in by boat.

It was a bit of a cliche lunch, listening to Bob Marley and eating fish stew.

The beach at Livingston is not much to write home about.

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Fishing at Rio Dulce

2008-04-02T11:22:00.001-07:00

There is a busy fish market, the local speciality fish is Snook

The poorer locals fish from a canoe for themselves, it looks precarious to me especially when throwing out the net.

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Howler Monkeys

2008-04-02T04:36:00.000-07:00

The hotel offer a trip, meet at 5:30 am (no problem for us as School starts early), to go in a kayak to see the howler monkeys which you can hear in the hotel. Julie and I were in one kayak and Lucy and the guide were in the other. Lucy and the guide powered on ahead and we gently made our way across the lake to the monkeys.

Lucy photoing me photoing her.

Although we saw plenty of monkeys, there are not any good shots, dark monkeys in dark trees in the early morning light. However, I did record their sound, sorry not much action going on visually as I was concentrating on the sound.

Press the arrow to hear....

Hacienda Tijax

2008-04-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

This is our hotel, we splashed out a bit but the girls assured me that their budgets were OK with this. The hotel (www.tijax.com) is really only reached by water, and as we arrived at Sunset over the water, it was a perfect arrival.

The arrival to the jetty.

The rooms are bungalows and cabins in the grounds. A view from our balcony.

My room.

and must not forget the hammock, spent many a pleasant hour reading in it.

Rio Dulce is famous for its bridge which is claims in the longest in Central America, here it is at night.

Rio Dulce - to go or not to go?

2008-04-02T02:31:00.000-07:00

In Honduras, Easter is known as Semana Santa (Holy Week) and school is closed for this week. This is the big national holiday and the whole of Latin America is on the move to see family, to the beach etc. We had decided to go away for a few days also and had arranged to stay at a lovely sounding hotel in Rio Dulce which is in Guatemala.

I arrived to catch the shuttle and there was Lucy and Julie already waiting but so were all the other volunteers. Strange I thought but once I arrived, Caroline said that as well as wishing us well for the trip that she was there in an official capacity. She had to inform us that four Belgian tourists had been kidnapped in Rio Dulce yesterday. It later turned out that the Foreign Office were only advising essential travel only. A quick discussion amongst ourselves revealed the following thoughts, that the place was likely to be swamped with Army and Police and probably be pretty safe and we liked an adventure so we were off.

The minibus shuttle took us as far as Rio Hondo and from there we had to catch bus to Rio Dulce. We ended up with a 90 minute wait at Rio Hondo and then to stand on the bus for a couple of hours before we could get a seat. While I was waiting at Rio Hondo I took this picture of the food vendors selling refreshments to the passengers on the bus going in the other direction.

Anyway, you may be wondering about the kidnap. The background is that there is this guy Sr. Choc who is either a fighter for indigenous rights or a money grabbing extortionist bandit depending on which side of the fence. Anyway, he has been stirring up matters for some time claiming the land belongs to the indigenous community (we also have the same debate in Copan). He was arrested last year and his supporters have been agitating for his release. They had kidnapped some police for a couple of days earlier this year. There was a rally the weekend before and the police arrested Choc supporters. The Belgians were kidnapped with the demand for the supporters release. There was some negotiation and the Belgians were released 48 hours later while we were in Rio Dulce.

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Teaching in the State School in Copan

2008-04-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

I have restarted Spanish lessons but for one week Gaby was ill so Maria stood in for her. She teaches at the Juan Ramon school in Copan in the morning and when she found out I was working as a teacher at San Rafael I was invited to visit her school which I gladly accepted. There are 850 pupils at the school, grades 4,5,6 are in the morning and grades 1,2,3 are in the afternoon. At the weekend, the secondary school pupils attend. Class sizes are typically around 35 children.

When I arrived at 3:35, it was break time. I met the teacher Sara and the girls wanted to take me away to play. They took my hands and led me to playground where I felt I had to entertain them. This was where I had a sudden panic as I tried desperately to think of something so I did "Round and Round the Garden(Jardin) like a Teddy Bear" and that was a great success. Soon I had many hands being thrust at me and more kids rushing over to join the ruck.

I enjoyed it so much that I went back the following day with Lucy. When I saw Lucy being led away by the girls, it so reminded me of the shots on television you see when people are visiting places in Africa. On the second day, I organised with Lucy's help the kids into a circle and we had seventy kids doing a version of the Hokey-Cokey! I felt a sense of achievement at that. The only problem was that the kids decided that going into the middle was a reason for pushing over and all the boys ended up on the floor. We had to curtail it before it got too violent. Lucy took the girls aways and she had them in a queue for "flights". The boys were now excited, we decided to play Cat and Mouse, I was the mouse and when caught they all charged in and despite my best efforts, I was toppled over, lots of arms, bodies, legs all over the place. I was wondering where the teachers were but if they had noticed then they at least were thinking, he can look after himself.

When break was over, I thought that was it but Sara told me to teach the class. One the first day, the kids sang me a song and as it was the same grade, I gave them sums to do and taught them English words for head,nose,mouth,eye,ear so we could play Simon says. On the second day I was more prepared and Lucy and I repeated a lesson from San Rafael in the morning.

Here is the class - you can see my face drawing on the board.

I keep being asked by the kids around the town to come back.

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Classroom Control

2008-04-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

Erica has a "clocking in" system for the kids. When they arrive they turn their sea creature around and when they leave they do the reverse.

Soccer

2008-03-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

Much excitement in Honduras as they have just qualified for the Olympics in Beijing and they won the Concaf qualifying tournament beating US 1-0 in the final. Typically, I watched the match until the 10 minute of extra time in the bar and then retired, only to be greeted by shouts of Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 30 seconds after I left!

Come on Honduras!

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Cleaning the classroom

2008-03-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

At the end of each day there is a rota for sweeping out the classroom. I do think it is a bit of a perpetual circle as we sweep it out for the kids to bring back in on the following day.

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Art at school

2008-03-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

We decided it was time for another project, so we decided to make a tree and each child has to make a leaf. They can paint one side. Charlotte was very keen to boost the kids self esteem so the other side of the leaf, we put on a photo of them and they had to write positive words about themselves, happy kind pretty loyal caring sporting and so on. This is the kids working hard, Lucy then got the glitter out.............

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Lack of text books

2008-03-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

Since we do not have enough text books for the class, we have to improvise. We had to do a lesson on things with and without life. Lucy and I drew this for the class discussion. We were quite proud, (we are easily pleased!)

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Morning mist

2008-03-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

The great thing about being up in the mountains early in the morning is that you do get stunning views.

Classroom in the sun

2008-03-23T17:09:00.001-07:00

I also like this shot of the empty classroom with the sun shining in through the window at break.

The view to School

2008-03-23T17:05:00.001-07:00

I find this view very poignant. Every morning we come round the corner to find boys playing in the road outside the school, or we leave while they are still playing. As I am now thinking about leaving, I do feel a sadness.

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Skipping

2008-03-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Of course the girls at school just love skipping even if they do not always have great finesse

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I am looking forward to....

2008-03-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

A bath, I know it is a cliche but it is has been three months without lying in hot water.

Real Beer, I do hope that the Tite still serves good beer.

Real Cheese, here there is only one type, a crumbly cheese that is quite good in small doses but seems to be part of every meal along the beans.

Proper Sausages, the ones here are an abomination of the name!

and since we are on a theme, good Crusty Bread.

I would normally say a cup of tea but I have managed to make a passable cup of tea in my room but the milk is UHT so a I want a long glass of cold milk.

I think I could go on but on the other hand there are many things here that I will miss also

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A walk in the hills by San Rafael

2008-03-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

As part of the deal with GVI here, I am allowed a free hike in the mountains with a guide. One Saturday morning, Kimberley and I met Alberto at the Spanish school. It was quite a chilly day for Copan which was ideal weather for walking. We walked up into the hills not far from the school in San Rafael and indeed the plan was to end up at the hacienda at the bottom of the road to San Rafael for a coke.

We stopped to admire the view and Kimberley spotted two children playing at the nearby house who go to our school. They were SO excited and took us into their house. This is typical of the houses in the mountains, made of mud etc. Alejandro greeting us!

We had coffee that was warming in their fire. I did not put any flash on the photos so you can see the gloom that they live in. The mother makes clothes for the community and so she has her sewing machine by the door for the light.

and the wildlife wanders in and out.

but the kids were all smiles. The simplest toys still make them happy.

We continued our walk, through large areas of coffee plants. Picking the coffee is the principle source of income for the communities in the mountain. Of course, the coffee is competing with the rest of the "jungle".

We came upon some birds that make wonderful nests hanging from the branches that swing in the wind.

We saw some cows in a pen and when we walked over to investigate we found one of my class with them. Joel has been in a lot of pain with his tooth so it was good to see him smile.

His father suggested that we go left out of the pen and from that point onwards our guide, aged 52, (lived in Copan all his life) was lost. Well not really lost as you know that Copan was at the bottom of the hill. In our journey, we came across this wonderful stile.

And we came across this lying in the path. We are told that it is good to eat but we declined.

Anyway, it became more of an adventure as we eventually had to go from community to community to get directions to the way down. There was one house we stopped at casa that had a wonderful sign to indicate who lived there.

All in all, the walk was meant to take four and a half hours, but it took six and a half hours. This is Honduras.

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Mosquito spraying

2008-03-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

There has been a truck going around the town spraying insecticide from the street onto the houses. You needed to be inside or move away.

Streetproud in Copan

2008-03-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

The ladies in Copan are always out sweeping the street in front of their houses or throwing water to dampen down the dust. Here is a view down to my house.

Antigua

2008-03-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

Some shots of Antigua, although it was pretty I did feel much happier to be returning to my home in Copan, it was like spending a weekend in London, exciting but it is always great to get back to the country. Charlotte is now based in Antigua so she was my guide. The market there is vast and full of many tiny stalls selling everything.

Antigua is famous for its alhumbras in the build up to Easter which are drawings on the floor of churches or in the street made out of sawdust. It REALLY is made out of sawdust which is dyed and for the ones in the street, they make it again every day.

The volcanoes around Antigua dominate the skyline.

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Shoe shine man keeping up appearances

2008-03-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

I went to Antigua in Guatemala, it was the old capital of Guatemala hence the name of the town but was damaged by earthquake in 1773 so the government moved the capital. It is also a beautiful town like Copan. GVI in Central America is based there and they run two schools for the communities in the mountains. These schools have over 300 pupils.
Like all these towns, the central park is a great place in the morning to people watch and to take in the flavour of the place. I liked watching the shoe shine man making his shoes were first class.

Many volunteers

2008-03-11T19:42:00.001-07:00

There are now 8 volunteers at the project, this is the most ever. To think that I spent the most of January as the only volunteer also. It is now a bit of a squeeze in the back of the pickup.

From left to right,
Carol / she is from Aberdeen and is here with her mum who is sitting in the front of the pickup. They are working in the Kindergarten and are enjoying it. They have also bought along many toys and have bought many useful items such as lockable storage cupboards from money they raised from donations from local companies such as Walkers shortbread and Whisky firms.

Adam is in front, he is 19 and from Montreal, a french canadian. He can be a bit crazy.

Caroline is hidden behind Adam and she has taken over from Charlotte. She came back because she has an Honduranian boyfriend.

Lucy is sitting on the floor.
Julie is sitting next to Lucy, she is 20 and has taken a break from her job in Watford in Sales Admin for company selling PC components, she says to get away from boyfriends. She is travelling onto Equador after she leaves this project.

Kimberley is 19 and from San Francisco. She behaves exactly as you imagine such a person would behave!

Adam at the back is from Devon and works for Otter Brewery during the summer in charge of events. He is pleased as he has just got the contract for doing the bar at Bestival 2 *a rock festival). He was working at another project in Guatemala before coming here.

Scabby Doo

2008-03-11T19:28:00.001-07:00

I think it is probably typical of all Central American towns but there are many dogs roaming the streets here in Copan but they are not in packs. They are not really a problem as they are generally nervous of people. There is one dog which we have named Scabby Doo because much fur has fallen out, covered in goodness know what, spends all of its time licking itself. One person who saw her when I first arrived expressed the opinion that the dog would not last the week. Whenever, we go down to the central park we do keep an eye out for her and relieved to see her. She often follows one of us home also and sometimes runs with us when we go in the pickup track. As she can run with us for a mile of so, we reckon that there is a lot of life in the dog yet.

Here she is photographed from the pickup.

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Teaching

2008-03-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

We have been teaching Maths, Natural Science, Spanish and Social Studies now. I am quite happy with doing the Maths and enjoy it. I felt an imposter with the Spanish (Español) though. The course text we were following meant that we were teaching pronunciation rules about which syllable is stressed in a word. The kids who speak Spanish all day clearly had different ideas from the formal presentation and I as an English speaker was trying to tell them that they were wrong. I did mention this to Charlotte last weekend when I saw her, her advice was simple. You are the teacher so you are right, the are the pupils and if they disagree then they are wrong. I fully understand this but it still does not feel right.

After three weeks of following text books for the subjects, we have been told to follow a different text books which is also frustrating for me and it is doubly frustrating as we do not have enough text books for every child which means the kids have to share. Again, I can quickly adapt to the different text book for maths as it is essentially the same topics. However in Spanish, it is now more "creative", we did a story yesterday and the kids had to come up with a spell for some magic as the story was about a witch. They really did not have a clue, the text seems much more suited to kids who watch television etc which I guess is fair but in our community there is no electricity and so it is difficult to expand their imagination.

In Social Sciences, we were discussing family and neighbours and courtesy etc but now we have been trying to explain conciousness which I think I would find difficult to explain to year 2 in England so I really struggle with the Spanish on this subject. But hey, let´s look at this as a challenge.

Science also has a new text book but that is essentially the same text but dressed up better. We have been doing the parts of plants and the cycle of life, you should really see my drawings of chicken and egg on the whiteboard. The kids decided that they were ducks.

Anyway, teaching is still a challenge, I think I enjoy it but it certainly keeps me on my toes.

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Am I brown?

2008-03-04T18:41:00.001-08:00

You decide. Diane was reckoning that I probably was....

Clean fingernails

2008-03-04T18:35:00.001-08:00

Every morning before class, the children have to line up to have their hands inspected. I am glad that I am no included as I am not sure that I would always pass. When they enter class, Erica the teacher leads the class in a daily prayer, then the kids says the National oath and then they recite a national "poem/hymn".

Erica has been a great help to us and is always smiling. She certainly has more authority over the kids than us.

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Number line

2008-03-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

I thought it was important to have a number line for teaching arithmetic in the class. Here is my effort with a little inspiration from Mr. Chapman. The kids thought it was great fun to trace their feet and to cut it out afterwards!

My house

2008-03-04T18:20:00.001-08:00

I did not really get around to describing my host family. This is the front of the house, it is a pupeleria which is a small shop that sells the basic basics.

From the shop there is a small corridor that leads to the kitchen. Cory and Oto, my host mother and father in the kitchen. Kevin is sitting on the steps from the corridor into the kitchen, he stays with us during the week as he has a job in Copan and returns to his family at the weekend.

They have been very nice to me and the food is great which is very important.

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Charlotte

2008-03-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Charlotte left to be the project coordinator in Antigua, Guatemala. The school there is run and staffed entirely by GVI unlike here in Honduras where GVI work with the state school, albeit adding extra facilities. The school in the community outside Antigua is much larger 150 pupils so it should be a "promotion" for Charlotte but she did not want to go. Honduras was her baby and she has worked very hard to establish the secondary school that GVI now run in the afternnoon. My spanish is not that good to teach to secondary pupils (phew). The secondary pupils range in age from 13 to 24 as there are some young adults who want to take the chance to improve their education. I am glad that there is somebody here to give them that opportunity. Anyway, back to Charlotte. I will miss her as she was a good friend as well as my "boss". I will always remember her mantra to me, "you will be fine" when talking about teaching and I guess she was right. Anyway, she always proved to be rather elusive when it came to photos so about the only decent shot I have is of her contemplating leaving or her split ends!

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday there was a total lunar eclipse that was visible in Copan. I tried some shots with my new camera. The first one worked OK as there was still light from the full moon but you can see that the moon is being covered in the second.

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Copan Garage

2008-02-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

If the car needs inspecting here, then you simply drive it on two planks out over the edge of the hill.

I am sure there are different standards for health and safety here.

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Lunch at the school

2008-02-26T18:31:00.001-08:00

Now that proper school has started, there is still fruit in the morning but at about 9.30 a bowl of rice and beans with tortillas is served. This is essentially the basic meal around here. There is a rota of mothers from the community who cook and the teachers or volunteers serve it up.

As always, there is one queue for the boys and another for the girls.

The children grab a space where they can outside to eat. The roaming dogs and chickens will pick up any food that is dropped which since they eat with their hands the animals do find pickings.

Cockfighting

2008-02-26T18:23:00.001-08:00

Just outside Copan there is a building which I am told is used for cock fighting. It is certainly kept clean and looks to be in use.

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Boys being boys

2008-02-26T18:20:00.003-08:00

I wanted to take a photo from the carcel(prison) in Copan which has at the top of a hill and has views over Copan. These two boys climbed up the tree so as to get themselves in and shouting foto foto!

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Mayan version of Angels.

2008-02-26T18:14:00.001-08:00

I noticed that the Mayans also had their version of Charlie's Angels when we visited the ruins at Copan again.

We reckoned that it was Audra on the left, Elise in the middle and Lucy who has lost part of her head.

Sadly both Audra and Elise have returned to the States. I guess that is one of the problems staying a long time in one place, people come and go.

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Walking in the air.

2008-02-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

While we were in La Ceiba, I was perfecting the act of walking in the air. I am ready to take on Snowman parts this Christmas.

Actually, we went White Water Rafting but I do not want you to think that I am having fun.

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Charlie's Angels

2008-02-26T18:03:00.000-08:00

A group of us made the trip to La Ceiba for the weekend. As it was me and three girls, it was decided that they were my Angels. What do you think?

Lucy, Audra and Elise.

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Bigger class

2008-02-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

Lucy and I have now completed our first week of teaching with all the kids. Our 23 kids are sharing a class room with two other grades who are at the other end, here you can see our class and Lucy with the others at the other end.

This is of Lucy reading out words from a text book for the kids to write down, the emphasis is on understanding the syllables. We are still finding our feet with the local teacher but generally it is going well. Erica wants the kids to do copying of lines for homework but both Lucy and I want to encourage the kids to be creative in their writing so we will try to change this next week. At the moment, we are revising with the kids the work they last year in the first grade.

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Prisoners in the dungeon

2008-02-16T13:19:00.000-08:00

At school, there is a clear boy - girl split. At break, the girls do skipping and the boys play cards or play this game, there are different names around the world. Two teams and when a person is caught, he goes to the prison, here it is a tree. If there are more then they hold hands. They canbe freedby being tagged by a free person in their team so the other team post guards.

Here the captives are looking for rescue while a guard keeps watch.

Back to school party

2008-02-15T15:13:00.000-08:00

It is traditional in Honduras for birthdays and other festivities to have a Pintada which is a doll which is filled with sweets. The birthday boy-girl hit the pintada until it splits open and sweets spill out. They think it is great fun. Note there are different one for boys and girls.

The lady on the right is Erica, who is the teacher for 2nd (our), 4th and 5th grade. We are all in the classroom behind the girls, we have one end with our 23 kids and the other two are at the other. There is only 15 of them combined.

Of course the tall person had an important job to make sure all the sweets fall out.

Shoeshine boy

2008-02-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

When you sit in Central Plaza in Copan there is always something going on. Here I am getting my walking boots cleaned (they were so dusty) by a boy with a toothbrush and soapy water. He did a good job too and I am eating the local fast food, mango slices in a chilli sauce, yummy.

Jonathon

2008-02-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

My homestay has several rooms. Recently Jonathon has been staying there while he did Spanish lessons before he left on a three month tour of Central America. He is an experienced traveller. It was good to spend some time with him even if he always did win the card games.

here is his blog:http://copan2mexico.blogspot.com

Pottery

2008-02-05T18:25:00.001-08:00

I am currently sharing my homestay with Jonathon and we went to a local village for Pottery. Here are our efforts, not very good.

under a watchful eye. We had coffee made from beans picked in the garden, bread from maize from the garden and a banana picked from the tree.

Even the cat was not impressed. Guess which one is the teachers?

One she made earlier...
Jonathon leaves on Thursday for 3 days in Tela. He has been warned. He is spending the next four months travelling around Central America.
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Copan Car Wash

2008-02-05T18:21:00.001-08:00

It is simple, you take the car to the river....

However you do need to pick your spot with care as 500 metres from here a 4 x 4 was being towed out which was entertainment for 30 minutes!

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Respect for the teacher

2008-02-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

Lucy asked the kids for animal impressions so I had to join in, this is what happened when I did a horse.

The little Red Hen

2008-02-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

Lucy and I decided that we would set ourselves a challenge! I had decided to follow the suggestion from Diane to make masks and then we decided that we should have a theme and then we decided to stage a play. Well, the kids were going to act out the story whilst Lucy read it. I was to be the "Stage manager"

It was a great success.

Here is the little red hen sweeping with her baby chick and three amigos.

Here is the miller with the corn on the floor ready to be milled.

Lucy reading the story...
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Adventures in Tela , botanical garden

2008-02-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

On the Sunday, I took a taxi to the Botanical Garden. This is situated down a 2 km track from the main road about 4km out of Tela. This was a research centre into Bananas established in the 1920s for looking at new varieties and avoiding disease. The founder of the site also had the vision to establish other plants so there are many species of trees from all over the tropics. I had a guide Anna and it was a chance to practice my Spanish.

We had a very pleasant conversation walking around the grounds. There are many highly toxic trees there. There is one tree whose fruit contains cyanide when it is closed but is safe to eat and apparently popular in Jamaica when open (or the other way round as my spanish is not that good). Anyway the wife of the founder, ate a fruit and sadly died. She is buried in the grounds. A sobering thought that even the experts are not always right. I think I will pass on the next fungus foray!

After my tour, I then spent a pleasant time wandering around the grounds. I finished at 10.30 in plenty of time to get back to my hotel to check out and then to get a taxi to the bus station for 12.00.

By 10.50, no taxi had turned up, indeed there had not been any other visitor. I recalled that I had only seen two other groups while walking the grounds. Very peacful but clearly not the most popular place. So I went up the office and asked for the telephone number of a taxi firm as I was getting concerned. I was told to wait, there would be a taxi. I was not sure if they made a call. At about 11.10 I heard a car coming and as it came round the corner I could see that it was white which is the colour of taxis in Tela. But as it drove past, I could see that it was not a taxi. I waited a little longer and was about to set off walking when a 4x4 came by coming from within the grounds. I tentatively stuck out a thumb. It stopped. I said A Tela?. He said 20 Lempiras. I said Si. With great relief I got into the back seat which had a broken window that had been covered with brown plastic.

We set out along the track. I was doing the sums for the times in my head and thought that it would be alright. Suddenly an animal slightly larger than the size of a badger scuttled across the road. The guys in the front looked excited and produced a pistol and aimed at the animal. They stopped where it had ran across the road hoping to see it with pistol aimed.

At this point I realised that I was sitting in the back of a car and there were pistols being brandished in the front. I also remembered in the risk assessment that Charlotte gave when I arrived that hitchhiking was a definite no-no. Ooops I thought. Maybe not so OK. But all was alright. The car moved on and breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the main road.

Charlotte gave me a severe look when I got back to Copan.

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Adventures in Tela a beer on the beach

2008-02-03T14:34:00.000-08:00

After my trouble with the buses to Tela, I found in the hotel room a magazine with all the bus times. Yippee. With this I worked out that I could get an executive back to Copan via San Pedro Sula but the change would be in their own exclusive terminus so no problem there. I went an bought the ticket on Saturday afternoon after I had got back from Punta Sud. At this point I thought I deserved a beer so I went to a bar on the beach. After I had got over the price (45 lempiras instead of 25 in Copan, there are 36 lempiras to the pound) I settled down to watch the sun disappear. I suddenly noticed a guy who was cleaning the beach (The ticket office was at a resort) running over the sand and shouting. I saw he was shouting at a girl say about 10 to 12 running into the sea with a rubber ring. I looked out to sea and everything seemed to be OK, there was nobody on their own or further out to sea.

The girl was about 100 to 120 metres away. There were also several groups of people in the water near the girl and I could see from the fact that the bathers in front of at the same distance from the sea were standing that the depth was at least OK for adults. So I concluded that the girl had taken the rubber ring to play with her friends and I sat back with my beer to watch the cleaner and other guy in a resort uniform pointing and remonstrating. After about 30 seconds a lady joined the two guys and there was some discussion. I was wondering how they were going to persuade the kids playing to return to the beach.

Eventually a couple of other people joined up and as always on a beach when something happens some other people joined over but they were all standing on the beach. I then saw a couple of guys step into the water and start pulling at a rope or something like that. I then started to think that maybe it was a little bit different. A large crowd started to gather and a group eventually emerged from the water. Now, I was thinking should I go over and join the crowd but gawping is not something I feel comfortable with. But on the other hand, the guys playing football on the beach were carrying on and the swimmers in the sea in front of me were splashing about so I stayed to finish my beer. A guy then come running over to the bar with some message and then another guy ran along the beach with his hands in front of him in a pushing down motion. A pickup truck then drove onto the beach and by now there were many people in the crowd. After about five minutes, the pickup drove past the bar. I could see there was a man lying in the back with another bather beside him. There were also two other guys in the back who I took to be from the resort. As the pickup went by the bather crouched by the man looked up at the bar. The image of the the fear in his eyes is seared into my memory. In the distance, you could hear the sirens.....

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Adventures in Tela Punta Sud

2008-01-31T18:39:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning I signed up for a trip to Punta Sud. This is a national park which is only accessible by boat. It is part of the reserve named after Jeanette Kawas who worked for many years to try to establish wildlife reserves in this area. There was great resistance to her work from some of the land owners and she was murdered defending the park. However, it is accepted now.

I went for a run but while I was having breakfast, the heavens opened. What I had not realised is that the North Honduran coast receives 150 inches of rain per year and it does not fall as a drizzle either. The meeting time was 7.45 at the tour office which was 3 blocks away from my hotel. I joined the throng gathered at the hotel door waiting for the rain to stop at 7.40. At 7.55, the rain looked as though it had slightly eased and being English, I ran for it. Even though I was wearing my waterproof from walking holiday I arrived absolutely soaked to the bone. As a burst in through the door, I could see a group of Germans who were absolutely dry, immaculate and looked at me as I was something the cat dragged in. We were joined by two honduran groups who arrived in cars. So I was feeling a bit out of place to put it mildly. Anyway, the rain stopped and off we went to the jetty to catch the boat.

The guy in charge (Ramon) said that we would have a 45 minute boat trip to the resort. The Germans confidently put the sun cream on whilst I hoped to dry out a little.
As we were leaving the wind got up and then the rain lashed down. I was sat at the front of the boat.

As we made our journey accross the sea, we were definately getting wet again, the boat hit the top of a wave and we were then in the air. The ladies screamed and the guys groaned when we hit the sea. When we landed in the water, it felt like being hit by a charging Rick Yapp at football. We had 45 minutes of this and it was great fun. I now see why JetSkis are popular. You were never quite sure when you were going to take off or plough on through so we all laughed when the screams petered off.

When we arrived at the reserve, we were taken on a hike. Now this was in theory to see the monkeys and other wildlife. All the wildlife was taking shelter and we saw one solitary monkey up a tree about 30 metres away. Of course, by now the Germans had joined me in being absolutely soaked. They did have a sense of humour though. While a lady took this snap of me, her husband was setting up a position to film the rest of the group trudging along looking pissed off as it would be great for his movie!

However, as it typical of the area, the storm blew over after an hour or so and our hike ended at the beach. Here we could lay out our wet clothes on the banana leaves, have a dip in the Caribbean. There is one family on the beach and they supply the visitors with a lovely lunch of fish. I had a steak from a King fish, yummy with fried plantains(banana). So as you can see, turned out alright in the end.

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Adventures in Tela (1)

2008-01-31T18:10:00.001-08:00

Tela.
This is the remains of the jetty at Tela which is now used as a fishing point. The boys tie up their canoes to the remnants.

Well now that you know about Honduras and bananas, I can tell you about my visit to Tela which is on the North coast of Honduras. It has the Caribbean lapping at its beaches so sounds perfect. Tela made its fortune with Bananas but lost its position as the preeminent port in the fifties.

I had the Friday off as school was closed because the kids were off to do something with the "programa" which is another charity involved with the community.

I set off on the Friday morning on the seven oclock bus to San Pedro Sula. This was a nice bus with airconditioning and the trip took three hours. San Pedro Sula is the equivalent of Crewe Railway station in Honduras, all routes seem to go through this rather than the capital Tegus. So the bus station we arrived at is enormous, Victoria would fit into several times. You get off the bus and you get hustled by people wanting you to take a taxi or bus to their destination. It is a free market here and every bus company has their rep trying to get you to catch their bus even if it is not to where you want to go. The other problem that i had was that noone believed I wanted to go to Tela. Conversation went

Tela,
La Ceiba *the popular tourist resort*
No, Tela
La Ceiba
No, Tela
No intiendo

I could not find any signs for Tela as each bus company displays its name and not the route. I guess the locals know who goes where. Anyway, I eventually get a ticket and board a bus. On this bus, the air conditioning was opening the window. This bus certainly had a lot more character, I was the only gringo on it. There were many food sellers who get on the bus. I was surprised at how hygenic they applied themselves. Plastic bag on one hand for handling the food and the other for money or the food was wrapped in clingfilm. Anyway, I was given a sample of a tasty pastry.

We arrived after about two hours at a place called Entrada de Tela so I thought we would soon be there. However after a further 10 minutes, and with a quick consultation I determined that the Entrada was actually as near to Tela as the bus got. You were meant to get off there and catch a taxi into Tela! Needless to say that I did not know this. So I got off the bus and with a quick basic conversation I established that I could catch a bus back. At the moment, I discovered this, the old lady pointed and there was a chicken bus to Tela. The chicken bus is how the locals travel and is an ancient US school bus. So a quick dash and I was aboard. Twenty minutes later and I was in Tela. My hotel was on the beach so it was easy to find but I approached it via the back way so I did not see its best side, which after the hassles of the trip did not put me in a positive frame of mind.

Now this is why I find Americans irritating as a species. When I learnt Spanish from the CD, you were taught to ask for a room with shower(douche) or bath(bano). As I do not have a bath here in Copan, I wanted a bath. Over here, because Americans use the word bathroom for toilet then asking for a room with bano is asking for a room with a toilet so I was back to having a shower.

Anyway, when I finally unpacked, I began to appreciate the hotel and Tela did have some charm. The position of the hotel directly on the beach meant I could go for a run first thing in the morning. Indeed the runs were quite exciting as you also had to wade through a river as well as splashing along the wave edges. The hotel restaurant was recommended for its sea food and I had Conch as in the shell. I thought it was like snail then I remembered that the alternative options were for Conch with garlic or Conch with butter, just like snail.

I also booked for the following day to go onto a trip to Punta Sud so after the journey over, it had turned out fine in the end.

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2008-01-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

I think it is time for some education on Honduras and bananas.

The Standard Fruit company was founded in 1899 to plant and ship Honduran bananas to compete with the United Fruit company monopoly based in Costa Rica.

The banana companies cleared land and drained swamps. Port facilities were expanded and rail lines extended to bring fruit to the ports. As there was nothing in governmental services, the banana companies established their own medical and social benefits. Immigrants were attracted for lanour and Lebanase and Syrians became established in Honduras. Research centres were established to study new crops and diseases.
Honduras became the largest exporter of bananas in the 1940s. However, the plantations started to suffer from Panama disease and it was only with proper rotation and planting of new strains and pesticide that saved the industry. Honduras share of the world market has declined and the banana companies have diversified into pineapples, palm oil and cattle but it remains the countries economic engine.

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My class

2008-01-29T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well, here are pictures of my ninos. They are my class until "proper" school starts on Feb 11 and then there will be more kids but the current plan is that I will continue with them. They are first grade but to go into second grade they need to do sums with one carry and borrow and to be able to write a simple story and read well. Some have already been in this grade for than one year already. Of course I already love them all and want to bring them home with me.

JoseLouis. We think he is dyslexic so his reading is not good enough to move on. I certainly do not have the skills to change this so it is sad. He is 10. He is the cheeky person but sadly he thinks it is cool to be the big person in the class even if it first grade.

Oto. He is the best at doing the sums but his writing is small and spaces between the words are nonexistant. Sounds familiar to me. He wins most times when we play pairs as he has a good memory. He often says No Puedo (I cant) but I have to say Si Puedo.

Delsi. She is very studious and also is determined.

Elsa. She is quiet but loves to giggle. She is not bad at her sums also.

Daniel. He is a bit shy at first but when he settles in he can be a bit of a handful. He does like a cuddle though. We spend most of today's recreation throwing and catching a ball. Because they do not get enough play when they are small, some of their coordination is a bit off.

Ada. She is an enigma to me. She gets absorbs by certain books and loves to keep looking at them. They are books with big detailed pictures. Her reading is poor and I need to work on that and she does not have a clue with sums, 3 plus 1 gets her guessing. When the class did a difficult word search she was totally absorbed and kept getting it out to do when I was trying to get her to do her sums.

Elsa number 2. You can imagine the confusion with two elsas and a delsi in the class! Like all the rest she is charming and irrestible.

Well then, thats my class. I expect I might get boring and start writing about individual children so at least you can put a face to the name.

I am planning on printing out the pictures so that they can draw their self portrait and write some positive adjectives about themselves and they can take this home with them.

I think I am the lucky one to be here.

My first week teaching

2008-01-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

Well that is my first week done of having my own class. I have to say it is pretty scary having 16 eyes looking at you and not speaking any Spanish. There is no chance that I can make it up as I go along so I have to prepare the lessons thoroughly and if there is something I need to explain then I need to script it out as well. And when I write something on the board and I spell it wrong Delsi will come and correct my spelling! I am not sure who is teaching who! Anyway, one of my plans for next week is to take a photo of them all, print them out and get them to draw a self portrait so I will upload photos of them then. Yesterday, I had a girl and it was her very first day at "big school", so there were some tears. I now find I am wondering around trying to think of ideas to entertain the kids and to introduce literacy and numeracy as a by product. Well, it certainly is a big chance from having drs software matters cluttering up my mind.

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Los Sapos and my guide on the hills.

2008-01-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

LOS SAPOS. Spanish for frog , toad as a rock here looks like one.

As I enjoyed my last walk, I decided to do another walk. This time it was to Los Sapos which is a collection of rocks and I sussed out the route to do on my own. When I got to the rocks, there was a guide giving an explanation. The rocks are so small that I could not help to overhear so I had the English problem of not wanting to butt in. All was solved when the guide beckoned me over. Anyway this was the Mayan birthing area. The lady lies in the gully in the rocks above, incense is burn on the flat area on the left and the baby is delivered on the flat rock at the front. Various other offerings are made to the gods. It was very interesting as otherwise I would have thought it was a pile of rocks.

When the others had left, there was me and a dog. Normally you stay well clear of dogs in Honduras but this had a collar on and looked well fed. So I said to him La Pintana which is the name of the nearby Chorti village that I was planning to walk onto. Anyway the dog trotted off so I thought I would follow and he led me there. After about 15 minutes of walking around the village and he was bossing all the other dogs there, we set off back but he wanted to go a different way. I went on a lovely walk by a stream, saw more exotic birds and ended up back at his home, the Hacienda where I had a relaxing drink and lunch.

My guide making sure I go the correct way at a footpath junction.

Here are some more snaps from the walk, I enjoyed cooling my feet off in the river. You can certainly see how fertile the land is around here and why the Mayans settled here.

The tastiest oranges.

2008-01-20T13:17:00.000-08:00

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Yesterday at School, the guy in the next door plot (this means a shack, it is really poor, but photographs of the community are not allowed so you will have to use your imagination) told the kids they could climb up the tree in his "garden" and shake the tree. You could tell they were used to this by the speed they disappeared up and soon the others were quickly gathering up the oranges. The oranges had a partial grapefruit taste and they were so tasty. In the picture above the kids are peeling the oranges (JoseLuis is squeezing his) around the tap but there is no running water at the moment so water is drawn from a well half a mile away.

Copan Ruins

2008-01-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

As I have been in Copan for over a week, I really should go and see the famous Mayan ruins here that give the town its name. They are a pleasant 1 km walk out of town and I went early in the morning when I hoped it would be quieter. The entrance to the ruins is made by walking through a grove that is covering up an old airstrip. It must have been something to land by the ruins. I was not really certain what to expect but when I walked into the Great Plaza, it certainly took my breath away. You could see why this is a world heritage site. What was also better, was that because it was so quiet, it felt very spirtual and had that spooky eerie feeling of following many such people over the ages. If you are ever nearby, you should go.

I was planning to take a guide which everybody recommends but I went straight to the entrance. It did not matter as I found that wondering around with a good guide book worked well as it increased the feeling of awe rather than somebody telling me the facts. I am planning to return because it is so good and I will have a guide next time.

Here are some snaps.

This is part of the residential area. There are other ruins around Copan of more residential areas. There were 20,000 people living in Copan during the reign of Smoke Jaguar *he was followed by 18 Rabbit* this was around 680 AD.

Another temple.

Looking down from the Acropolis on the Grand Plaza.

this is of the ball court which was a Mayan game with a rubber ball. There are several remains of ball courts in Copan vicinity. It is alleged that losers were decapitated as there was a ritualistic aspect to it. Maybe I should bear that in mind for Sunday night football.

Yes, lots of temples. The big feature is the heirogryphical staircase which is the longest writing in the Mayan world. However, it is protected from the elements so you do not get a good picture.

pictures of the school

2008-01-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

There are three classes (but only two teachers)

First day in School

2008-01-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

I was certainly nervous. It has been a long time since I started a new job and also to have a boss. Charlotte does not like to be decribed as the boss but she cannot come up with a better word. Anyway, it was meet a 7.15 to get into the pickup for the journey into the hills. The roads are the same as in Costa Rico, so it is bumpy.
My fear was very much of the unknown so I was vas anxious when we arrived. There were no children there. Charlotte had explained that it was not proper school time, that starts in February, so she was running Summer School. After the gates wwere opened, two smiling children came down the road. Holas all round and we then started to sweep out the classrooms, the dust is amazing and the leaves were all over the playground. There is no glass in the windows so everything can blow in. The chickens from the houses next door were happily pecking around.
After that we set down to read some books. It is also important part of the project that the Children get fruit each day so Charlotte had bought plenty of fruit so at the end of the day, Rosa and JoseLuis went home with a melon each. They are as delightful as Charlotte had promised as you can see. I felt as though this was not really the first day so I am still anxious.
On the second day there were five children, we now had Otto, Carlos and Samuel also. We did a world map jigsaw so they could see where England was and we played a card game Go Fish. I still feel as though I have not started work but I guess that will not happen until Feb when the proper school starts. there are pictures of Rosa and JoseLuis from the first day above

By the way,they get their school uniform from another charity.

Pictures of Copan

2008-01-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

The road up to my room, it reminds me of the Hovis advert everytime that I walk up it which is usually twice a day and a picture of Copan from the hills above. I had taken a hike up into the hills. I can see my room in the picture (trust me)

Learning Spanish

2008-01-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

Clearly anybody who knows me knows that I do not speak Spanish and on next Monday I will be teaching a class of 7 to 9 year olds in Spanish. So I have been studying with CD in England before I came out but because of work pressure, I do wish I had done more as I did not complete the CD. The organisation I am with has also included forty hours of Spanish lessons at the Guacamaya school in Copan Ruinas(http://www.guacamaya.com/). It is a lovely school. I am doing twenty hours this week from 8 to 12 in the morning and it will be 10 hours in the afternoon for the following two weeks as I will be at the school in the morning. My teacher (maestra) is Gaby and we have lots of chats about family, we got into sharing medical problems this morning as I was not moving well after the horse riding and she told me that her heart is on the right hand side. Anyway we played a game called Busca (Stop) which reminds me of the games we used to play on camping or on ski holidays. There are categories of words (names of things in the school etc..) and we take in turns to choose a letter and then think of words beginning with that letter. Not surprisingly, I lost. Gaby´s score was 42 so I explained that this was a famous number in England which I think I did quite well with the explanation. Gaby said that 52 was a popular number in Honduras as it signifies the weekend = like 24-7. Anyway I have to go now to do my tarea (homework).

This is Gaby.

Clearly anybody who knows me knows that I do not speak Spanish and on next Monday I will be teaching a class of 7 to 9 year olds in Spanish. So I have been studying with CD in England before I came out but because of work pressure, I do wish I had done more as I did not complete the CD. The organisation I am with has also included forty hours of Spanish lessons at the Guacamaya school in Copan Ruinas(http://www.guacamaya.com/).

It is a lovely school. I am doing twenty hours this week from 8 to 12 in the morning and it will be 10 hours in the afternoon for the following two weeks as I will be at the school in the morning. My teacher (maestra) is Gaby and we have lots of chats about family, we got into sharing medical problems this morning as I was not moving well after the horse riding and she told me that her heart is on the right hand side.

Anyway we played a game called Busca (Stop) which reminds me of the games we used to play on camping or on ski holidays. There are categories of words (names of things in the school etc..) and we take in turns to choose a letter and then think of words beginning with that letter. Not surprisingly, I lost. Gaby´s score was 42 so I explained that this was a famous number in England which I think I did quite well with the explanation. Gaby said that 52 was a popular number in Honduras as it signifies the weekend = like 24-7.

Anyway I have to go now to do my tarea (homework)

My room

2008-01-08T14:44:00.000-08:00

The family I am staying with are very nice. The lady of the house is Cori and the head of the house is Otto. They are old hands at having people stay with them, you feel it is a well run machine. Otto has shown me the photograph album from previous guests and the photographs that they send to him when back home. I was pleased to understand from my limited Spanish that an earlier volunteer had celebrated Nov 5th by making a guy and mini bonfire in the gardin. However, my explanation of how Henry 8th had six wives came out the following day that thhere is a religion in England that allows many wives. Do not ask me how we got onto such subjects. The garden is lovely and they have two budgies in a cage in the garden which I think is a shame but at least it is larger than many other cages I have seen.

My room is quite large and I was delighted upon arriving that I needed something that Sam had bought for me for Christmas. It was a plug. Gladly I have not needed the water purifying tablets yet as all the water is bottled.

Cori had me making tortillas but I was useless, apparantely I did not have enough water on my hands and then my hands were too wet. As I write this a large firework has exploded which seems to happen regularly.

Journey to Honduras

2008-01-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Hi

I am still not certain about this blog, is it a diary where I write down my deep thoughts and give profound pronouncements or is it more of a journal. I feel the former may lead to embarrassing Ellen Macarthur moments but we shall see where it goes.

Anyway, it was an early start, 3:15, for the trip to Heathrow. Naturally I gave Matt, Sam and Ollie farewell hugs the night before. Diane very kindly drove down but it was all a bit quiet naturally at that time both inside and outside the car. I thought I had a good deal at the checkin when they promised me an aisle seat in the emergency row but it was not to be when I got on the plane at Madrid but too late to do anything about it then. It was eleven and a half hours flying from Madrid to Guatemala and it certainly dragged. I first looked at my watch and only 2 hours had gone by. I have to say that Iberia seem to have a wierd policy on music playing at take off and landing. Leaving London it was a sort of house music and on the Madrid flight it was children sing songs such as Jingle Bells. Very irritating both times.

Anyway, the time passed by with the help of Will Smith and Jackie Chan and arrived at Guatemala where immigration went smoothly. At the airport, I met Charlotte the project manager and Graham who had also flown on the same flight. It transpired that Graham leaves in Carterton and sometimes works in Enstone. That was a surprise and we chatted about floods in Witney where he works as a parttime postman.

We were taken to Antigua which is a pretty town some 30km outisde Guatemala where GVI also have a project. The hotel was very pretty with candlelight corridor but that was also practical as electricity was erratic.

In the morning, a good breakfast cooked by Rufus who was also coming to Copan. Rufus is a mason and Graham will be spending his week working with him making stoves. I will put in a link to stoves later(http://www.gvi.co.uk/pages/expeditionDetail.asp?page=moreinfo&expedition=111) but essentially they use only a quarter of firewood which is good also for the environment and smoke is ventilated outsde, the number of people having smoke related illnesses is phenomenal and also allow cooking temparatures to better regualted and reduce risk of burning and fires.

The journey to Copan was mean to take about 6 hours but our driver did not have a brake or a break and we made it in four and a half hours. Then it was to meet our host family. Graham had a lovely room looking over Copan. I was further down the hill, he can through a stone onto my house. Again I have a room which iin the house which I will cover in the next post as Diane is on Skype to me.

New Year's Day

2008-01-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over so the excuse for inaction is over. The day of departure is now close which was made all the real by starting the anti-malarial tablets and they did taste foul.The field manual from GVI has been scanned several times and a shopping trip made to get all the missing items. I have decided that I would like to listen to CDs so a portable player for under £10 was bought and I burnt copies of my favourite CDs. I had to stop when I realised I had made 23 Cds and still had more to do.
I am meant to get more detailed instructions from GVI but that has not turned up yet, strangely that does not concern me as it adds to the sense of adventure. These days with the internet / email nowhere is out of reach. I have a sense of envy of the days when you sailed over the horizon and you were gone. It has all changed so quickly I realised when I watched the TV documentary on the first rround the world race. The tragic hero (Brian C..) realised that his boat would not survive the Southern Oceans so he pretended he had radio problems, and spent 3 months sailing off Brazil so that he could rejoin the race in last place. These days he would be detected straight away. Anyway, I digress.

It is amazing how the time passes by, I spent a whole morning packing my bag and rucksack to see if it would all fit and how much it would weigh. Despite the time taken, I was pleased to find that it all fitted and will just be under the 20kg limit.

It was nice to get the hugs and wishes from everybody at the New Year's party and I am writing this while U2 are playing "New Year's Day" on Paradise. I am listening on one of my treats / Christmas present to myself, noise cancelling headphones and they are good.

So to any readers, a happy 2008.

Pre-Christmas Rush

2007-12-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

Hi
It is getting a little bit hectic, finishing off at work, general pre-Christmas activity and getting ready for Honduras. One of my many tasks is to find how to make a blog and so I am hoping that this works.

Is it :) or (:,
Let's see....