Christmas Plans

Lots of people have been asking me my plans for Christmas and so it's easier to tell you all on here! We finish school on Wednesday 19th (hurray!). We finish at lunchtime - 11.15am. Then in the evening we have a big Christmas concert. All the classes are doing something, either playing recorder - they're very good - or singing Spanish songs. I have my Grades 1 and 2 singing in English too. Grade 1 are singing Little Donkey and are amazing, perfect pronunciation and sounds gorgeous. I am amazed at them as they had never spoken English in August when I met them! Grade 2 are singing Away in a Manger - just the first verse. They are horrendous which is very funny! The class has 16 boys and 6 girls and sadly the boys seem to be tone deaf and yet enjoy singing loudly a.k.a. shouting! I am playing my guitar with them in a bid to help them along or a least drown them out if not!
So...after Wed I am staying in Sigua. Noel has gone back to Canada for the hols, Amanda is going to Roatan to meet her family for a hol and so it's Mark and I holding the fort! Actually we are both going to stay with Sue and her family!
Then on Christmas eve all the Gringo families (white, mainly American!) are meeting up to sing Carols and be a bit 'traditional'. On Christmas day I will still be at Sue's and we will have lunch and then in the afternoon she has invited all her Honduran friends and neighbours, which will be lovely - and a chance to practise Spanish.

The best part about my plans starts onthe 27th Dec. We have just booked flights to Costa Rica. We were going to go by bus but that would take at least 18 hours on the bus and although I travelled like that in Uganda I know how tiring it is, and how coming back would ruin the relaxing effect of a holiday. So we looked at flights....and managed to get a return flight for £85. Including taxes! What a bargain!!! Amanda and I will find a beach somewhere and then go and look at a volcano and a National Park and see monkeys and birds. Mark is coming and will go off surfing and then we will meet up for New Years Eve. We fly back to Tegucigalpa on 2nd Jan and will spend a day or 2 there and then come home. Term starts again on 7th Jan.

Sounds like a perfect and sunny holiday to me! It is still the rainy season here but much improved. It has been drizzly today but on Saturday it was 34C. It is generally warm and sunny again - good for maintaining the Tela (and soon to be CR) tan!

Not many photos to add today. Here is one of the new, never seen in Sigua before Christmas tree, and then one of me and Noel - we were wearing the same clothes somehow?! White shirt, brown jumper! More pics to follow after our concert.

Poverty in reality

Living in the centre of Siguatepeque it is very easy to forget we are in a 3rd world country. It is very influenced by the States in some ways and walking around you don't see such stark poverty, even though you can see it around you. Our school is a bilingual school and so runs on a different calendar system to the local Honduran ones. They have finished for the year as their school year runs from Feb to Nov. Being a bilingual school, our kids pay much higher fees and therefore come from more influential families. What has meant the most this Christmas is discovering that we have a link with a very poor, rural school in the hills about 15 mins from here. As an Elementary school (as opposed to the High school here who do something diff) all our kids had to bring in a bag of toys and clothes to donate to the children in this other school. Our kids bought in loads, it was lovely to see.
So...yesterday we piled 70 children in a 40-seater bus and went off to deliver our presents. It was very moving because our kids gave the presents to the other children. These children came down from the hills when the saw us arrive and filled the church. Our school children looked so posh and well dressed in their school uniform. It was just moving to see a different side to Honduras and to see how much it meant to these rural kids to get presents.
So...some photos....

Getting ready to go:


All of us piled in the bus singing Spanish songs as we go!



Everyone sat together:



Queuing for clothes:




Here are lots of the children from the community and then when they were receiving clothes etc (they really do have the most beautiful eyes!):










Going home with all their new things:

Staff Christmas Party

Well, Wednesday saw our staff Christmas party. The members of the Board came along and most of the staff were there. This year was very different from last year (apparently) and was very informal. We had a camp fire and sang Christmas carols around it in Spanish (same tunes), watched fireworks, had sparklers and toasted marshmallows in the fire. Actually, we had some games too involving passing soft toys around, my kind of staff 'do'. Then we had dinner - typical Honduran style, with cake and ice cream to follow. It was perfect! A good chance to practise my Spanish too, talking to the other teachers and board members. It was such a laugh, they really are lovely people!
Here are some photos of the evening.

Here we are singing round the campfire (I loved it!!)



Party games and sparklers...



Here are some of the Elementary teachers I work with. This is Xiomara and her family. She is my Spanish counterpart - teachs Spanish to Grades 1 & 2.


This is Gladys and Laura. Gladys teaches Spanish to Grades 3 & 4 and Laura teaches them English.

Elves...

Thought you'd like to see what my boss Silvia emailed me for Christmas....

Click on this link..(Dad, if you can't click on it then copy and paste it into the address bar at the top of your internet page!)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1300499942

House Christmas

Last night we had our 'First Christmas'. Noel is going home to Canada for Christmas at the weekend and so we decided to have our own House Christmas dinner before he goes. We have a staff one tonight (songs around a fire in the school grounds!). But last night was lovely. We each gave presents, which actually turned out to be ok! We are so lucky that we get on so well and can do things together. I think that is something I will always appreciate throughout the year(and miss next year when they have left!)

Weekend getaway

It's nearly the end of term, we're all exhausted and so decided that we needed to get away for a weekend. The good news is that now I have a car the world is my oyster - so to speak- and so we piled in the car and headed for Tela. It took just under 2.5 hours to get to my newly favourite retreat - the Caribbean Sea! The 4 of us from the house went and it was very good for us to spend time together away from the school. Somehow the 4 of us have never actually been away together. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach. Tela is not the nicest, cleanest beach but it is a beach and it is the Caribbean so who is complaining?! It was just what was needed, relaxing in the sun. We all came away incredibly sunburnt which isn't so great - but the tan to follow was!!
I was amazed at the difference in colour of the Honduran people. The coast is home to the Garifuna people, who are much darker than Hondurans around us. They look far more 'Caribbean'.
The best part is that our hotel on the beach cost us £15 for 2 nights - I love this country sometimes!!!

DIY Entertainment!

Last week we found ourselves putting on a Murder Mystery dinner. It was hilarious! We were invited to it by our friends Peter and Myleen (American) who wanted to get to know us. However, at the last minute they couldn't make it and we found ourselves having it in our house and hosting it for ourselves. There were 8 of us in total and we found it most amusing getting dressed up in fancy dress in our own house just for ourselves! It was a 1895 Victorian setting (carefully selected by me so I didn't have to worry about putting on an accent!). So everyone spent the evening trying to put on a British accent. We all got very into it and had a 3 course dinner to make it even better! Who needs tv?!
Not got great pics, I may try and add some more when I get Dave's!

Pete's Visit

Sorry I haven’t kept this up to date for so long, as usual things have been flying by! Last week Pete came out to visit for the week and it was wonderful! He stayed up with Ken and Sue and so was able to have company whilst I was working in school – he even came and joined in my Grade 1 class and Esther’s Grade 11 class! I think Pete had a great time, I know Dave loved having some company up at the camp.

My plans for showing Pete a Honduran week didn’t really happen, but he did experience a fully North American week instead! During his stay was American Thanksgiving and we were all invited to a huge dinner at the Hagler’s house (one of the American families). It was amazing – I think England should have Thanksgiving too! At least Pete got to meet absolutely everyone I know in one go!
Everyone at Thanksgiving Dinner:


And having my car meant we could go and visit new places too. Amanda and her friend (who was visiting) went off to Copan for the weekend and so Pete, Mark, Noel, Dave, Esther and I used our day off (thanks Americans) to go to the lake. Wow it is so beautiful there. We visited various places around it and were just amazed by what we saw – truly stunning scenery.

We also got to go to the caves on the way to the lake which was good fun.

On the Saturday we stayed in Sigua and went up to the camp and in the evening had a ‘Life of Brian’ evening! Then on Sunday, Pete, the boys and I joined Ken, Sue and the kids on a trip to a National Park, went to a waterfall and climbed a mountain (I’m going off this whole mountain climbing thing being surrounded by such speedy climbers – whatever happened to a Sunday afternoon stroll taking in the scenery?!), however it was just beautiful and I got to take photos of humming birds etc.






I did more that weekend then I have since I’ve been here! Pete can come again! It was lovely having him around – and having some British input again! He even brought some reminders of England for my housemates! I was so pleased everyone got on with him so well, when he left Mark and Dave were missing having him around as well as me!
A big thank you to everyone who sent stuff with Pete – I really appreciated it. Especially the chocolate and the tea bags – and Pete bought me out a teapot and so it is even better!