Tegucigalpa Aeroplane Museum - what a day!

I am getting into this blogging lark! I do have to write about my trip with Grade's 1 & 2 to the plane museum in Teguc. What a bizarre day and a day in which I was only to speak in Spanish!

So the day starts by being told to meet at 6.20am so we can be ready to leave at 6.30am. That's a joke! I was the only teacher there at that time - with very few children. But by 6.50, Xiomara (my Spanish counterpart) had arrived and by 6.55am we left - no headcount, merely a case of we're late so we're leaving whoever is with us. Now when I thought of a class trip I thought back to Chesswood...teacher ratios, counting the children, general organisation. I should have had a clue to my day when I look back and realised no-one actually told me about the trip until I read the letter (in Spanish) that I handed out to my G1's with my name on it!!!

There were about 40 children that came, and on the bus were 15 parents too - along with Profe Edit (Director), Xiomara and me.

Not too many parents I thought - how wrong could I be?? We had a toilet stop half way into our 3 hour journey and suddenly about 10 cars pull up behind the bus, a whole load of parents jump out, pile onto the bus and give their children a drink! Even a Grade 5 girl came too, her sister is in G1 and so she came along for this family day out! Hilarious! So...there were lots of parents with us, only about 12 children came unaccompanied! When we were ready to move on again the parents piled into their cars and we were off. We got to Teguc and the driver got lost but eventually we found the museum! It was a pleasant surprise indeed.

It was the military school base and we went to a field of old (and apparently very important) planes. We were given a talk as we were taken to see every plane and told all about it. I was very pleased I could understand it all in Spanish. The children - and adults - were allowed onto the last plane and they could go into the cockpit etc. All the planes were very old and broken by the way - historical!!

I just like this picture!

Then a quick play and we were off to lunch. 2 hours in the museum and we were done. Lunch was then to be a whole new experience!! Not a packed lunch as we would have done at home...oh no!!

The children had been given 3 options for lunch which they had to choose (supposedly) before coming. Now, here is where the day started to fall apart slightly. Some children had paid for food in advance to Profe Edit, others hadn't, some had their parents with them and some had not decided. Profe Edit looked at her list, divided up the children and we split up between the 3 places next door to each other. Edit took 4 children to a chicken place, Xiomara took 3 to Burger King, and that left Profe Norma (was there as a parent) and me with the other 30 and their parents in Pizza Hut! It was hilarious, some had paid and yet others hadn't, some had paid but their parents had come and so their parents ate but didn't order for their kids! It was absolute chaos trying to work it all out - and I was having to do it all in Spanish to boot! I thought we'd order the slices you can buy, but oh no - we were ordering full on meals! There was a play place there so at least the very hungry children were occupied. We eventually got it sorted, and then Pizza Hut didn't have enough of the very small pans for the children and so we had to order large ones, but there wasn't enough for all our kids. By this time, other parents had driven to Teguc (in a car about 1.5 hours) to meet their children for lunch!!! Utter chaos prevailed!

However, we muddled through and I think everyone ate something! Then came getting back on the bus. Some children went with their parents back in the cars - some taking cousins and neighbours. There was no list of who was where and so when we thought we had everyone we left! No counting children!

3 hours there
2 hours in the museum

2 hours in Pizza Hut
3 hours back

This really was a trip with a difference!