Car Update....Hair update....Burning questions about life...bored yet?

On Friday, my car finally went to get it's exhaust/muffler checked. There were no holes which was good, but the very loud noise was coming from the fact that there was no muffler/silencer/catalytic converter - whatever you want to call it! So the men at the ironwork/welding garage simply welded one on for me! It is soooo much quieter now it's untrue. I paid for it mind you!! Obviously today the electric window stopped working and so tomorrow it is going to the electrical mechanic (whom I bought it from) to have the windows and the horn mended (the horn has been broken a while and it's actually quite dangerous to drive here without one as you need to get the cows and dogs to move off the road somehow) Soon it will all be fixed - until we have to start again! Oh well, it might be ok for a bit. Dave and Esther's car is still having major problems and last night was their turn for the radiator to leak and have steam and hissing coming from their car. It is not an easy country to keep a car in good condition in!

Anyway, Saturday turned out to be an adventure of sorts! I have finally had my hair sorted out. It has been a mess of late due to the highlights growing out and therefore leaving a serious root issue! Amanda had tried to sort the problem with dye from the supermarket but it was a disaster. So having had it like this for weeks I found a wonderful hairdresser in town (who it turns out is owned by a lady who lived and worked as a hairdresser in the States for 11 years) who took 6 hours to do it! Yes 6 hours, 6 very long Spanish speaking hours! This was the laborious process:
1. Dye all the hair back to it's natural colour (they found the colour perfectly)
2. Wait
3. Wash it
4. Dry it
5. Highlight it again
6. Wait
7. Wash it
8. Dry it
9. She decided she wanted the colour slightly different so went ahead and dyed it again lighter!
10. Wait
11. Wash it
12. Intensive conditioner due to all the dying!
13. Wait
14. Wash it
15 Dry it!

Soooooooooooooooooo long it was crazy. All this happening in Spanish too don't forget. But...it does look soo much better now! No photo - sorry! So by the end of 6 hours I'd got to know them all, they were bringing me drinks, chatting etc. Good practise for my Spanish!

We've had Jen staying this weekend too. She doesn't live in Sigua but another part of Honduras. She stayed with the Vissers the same time as Pete. It was good to see her again.

Finally, this weekend has been a time for broadening my horizons, awakening my mind, questioning life around me....and trying to work out what is pooping on my kitchen worktop!? Having studied the poop at length - and shown it to anyone standing still long enough - we have narrowed it down - each with our own opinions! It is either mouse/rat poop or gecko poop!
I personally think it is gecko poop - as does Enoc, whilst some of the others and Marlon think it is mouse. So this week we are going to buy traps to find out. But....in my mind...if it is not gecko, where DO they poop? And if it is, where has he pooped before and why is it now on my worktop? Burning questions eh? I didn't study philosophy at uni for nothing you know!

Have a good week everyone - Barbara I hope going back to school isn't too horrible!

Dia del amor y la amistad

This is somewhat of a delayed blog entry, but Valentine's day was apparently a big thing here! Here it is a day of love and friendship (hence title of blog). In school it is more about a day of friendship. I got presents from all my children, and because the parents complained we weren't doing anything to celebrate, each class had a party - excuse for vast amounts of sweet food to make the children vomit! I got Proffe Edith and Gizele (no idea how to spell her name!?) to come and help me deal with the over-excited Grade 1's ,but it went off with no problems! I've never had so many presents and cards on Valentines Day before!

In the evening a group of us went to Jessa's house for a Desert party to celebrate it once more! Can't complain eh? Although to be honest I'd seen so much food during the day I couldn't face eating much!

Since then, life has gone on fairly uneventfully. I had to meet the Grade 1 parents today for the Mid-Parcial grades, but they all seemed happy - phew!

I've started Spanish lessons again with a wonderfully lovely lady. She is starting again from the beginning and it finally makes sense - she is telling me things no-one else explained so is wonderful!! Finally, there is hope!

As for my photography (I'm just a teacher with a camera, it's crazy!) I have apparently got some places to go and photograph in the mountains and by the lake - we shall see!!

As I write this there is a total lunar eclipse outside. It was at a very civilised hour of 9.30pm here and so I have been out with my tripod every 20 minutes taking photos!

Oh Barbara!

Who'd have thought there would be a surge in comments from Barbaras on my blog?! Since I wrote a big thank you to Barbara on a previous blog, who comments and reads my blog faithfully, there have been many Barbara's appearing and commenting. No doubt hoping to claim some of the thanks for themselves!

There have even been arguments about who the real Barbara is?! Who indeed? I have to say I like the comment about the campaign - The New CRB check - 'Campaign for Real Barbara'. I whole heartedly support it!!

Thanks Barbara (s)!!

Moonlighting!

So, school rumbles on much the same. The Grade 10's and 11's had a Science Fair today. I'm so glad I dont teach High School science - it was all soo impressive, they each had to come up with experiments. Very technical. The amazing thing was that they explained it all so clearly to my Grade 1's and 2's as we went around.

Exciting news is that I'm becoming somewhat of an entrapronour. Who'd have thought? My friend Jessa has found me a good little photography business. I was offered teaching English in town to adults at a local language school, but didn't want it and so offfered it to Jessa who took it. In return, she managed to get me a photography job for her friend Luigi, who runs the local pizza restaurant in town! He wants photos of town for the website he is launching for Siguatepeque. He is going to pay me for these - amount to be discussed this weekend. He is then going to put my name under every photo so that if anyone else uses them they have to ask me/ pay me (yeah right) or they can ask me to take photos for them! The plan is that local businesses are all buying pages of the website for advertising and when they do I will go and take photos for them and get a percentage of the money Luigi gets!! Something like that! If nothing comes of it at least I have had fun taking photos of town in the process.

The plaza in town (was opened shortly after we arrived here)

We confidently walked into a hotel and went up to the roof to take this photo! No-one noticed!

I have also had a good chat with Alfredo, who runs an orphan project called Providence World Ministries. I was asking how I could become involved and help..(more on that in the next blog). He is such a visionary, he has plans for the next 20 years. To cut a very long story short, he was saying that he wants his staff to be bilingual. All the staff from the orphanage - House Parents to the secretaries and architects. So I casually offered to teach them English. The next day, Rocio in my Grade 1 class was very excited to tell me that I am going to teach her Daddy English! It appears Alfredo has taken up my offer and already told the people. Not sure when it all starts, but I may be getting paid for this too!! I am looking forward to it, as I can get to know lots of local people and along side me helping their English they can help my Spanish! It will be good, and give me useful things to do with my time.

Today, we had our Staff Training day. I have to admit I was none too impressed to have a training day at 7.30am on a Saturday! But, despite the morning being a repeat of things I already know it wasn't too bad. In fact, the day got much better as it went along. At lunch, it came about that they wanted everyone to sing their National Anthems. So the 5 Canadians stood up and sang, then the 2 Americans ...and then me! God save the queen indeed! Was hilarious. Then we got all the Hondurans to stand and sing their N.A. - all 7 verses and choruses - took a while but was very funny. The next hour preceeded to consist of the Honduran teachers singing all their National songs - each town has one - and we even got to see some of the dances and songs to flirt with people. Highly random and I was even wondering if something was put into their rice water as they relaxed so much! Was great to see everyone getting on so well. Too well at one point as Noel and Fernando decided I should marry a Honduran so that I stay in this country, at which point the jokes all turned upon me, seeing who I should marry! Was very embarrassing indeed as Fernando offered his brother etc. So, what started out as tiresome became quite rowdy! My kind of staff meeting!

You can't complain about skies like this outside your front door in the evenings! This is the view from our house -across to the High school and the hills behind!

Finally, may I just say a big thanks to all the many Barbaras who are now appearing on my blog comments!

Superbowl party

This whole blogging thing is starting to get out of control now - am getting very into it!!

So this evening was the Superbowl party. We went round to Jennifer and Alfredo's house, along with lots of other people and it was great. I managed not to watch a single second of the game - impressive! However, I did get to play with all the children to help out their parents. 4 hours of playing with 3 and 4 year olds and 4 month old babies!! Beats Superbowl in my book. Actually, I enjoyed spending time with babies and children - it reminded me of home. I've offered to go and visit and babysit for the familes now that all their children know me. It gives them a break and me something different to do! Bonus. Sorry to say I can't tell you anything about the Superbowl - other than that Tom Petty played at half time. And who the heck is he??!
No photos this time!

Murder update...2 more people shot yesterday in a shop in town. Yet again, nothing for us to worry about - we're truly safe!

Peter, John and Caroline - if you're reading this then please write something!!

Memories of 'Motormouth'

Another good week here at the funny-farm! Yesterday was a 'Parents Evening' at school where we gave out the Report cards and the parents could ask us questions. Sue was my translator thankfully and there were no major problems. Then later in the evening we all went and had a party at Dave and Esther's house (they are back living there now and we are home again!). It was a good laugh and a very good way to relax after the busy week.

Does anyone actually remember that fairly hideous Saturday morning children's ITV programme 'Motormouth'? When I was about 13 John took his youthgroup or something to appear on this TV show and I joined in and went along. My TV debut! The gist of this being that on the show we were flipping beer mats and catching coins from our elbows with the world champion! Not exactly impressive but that's not the point! I became quite good at the beer mat flipping...and yesterday strangely enough we found ourselves flipping cards and catching coins from our elbows (if you know what I mean?) Brought back strange memories! Who needs a TV eh? Home-made entertainment is the way forward!! We played various games - I haven't played Spoons since Dragonslayer days - it is as violent as ever and alas I didn't win! There was another game that quite frankly I should have won but there was clearly a conspiracy against me!! Thanks for that Mark!!

We then went out for a camp fire, it is hard to believe it is February when you spend your days in t-shirts and flip-flops!! Hurray for the start of the dry season! Having said that it did start to rain and so we returned to more games inside! I do love my life here!!

Today we went to the dedication/official opening of the Providence Children's home. Calling it a children's home does not do it any justice. It is a house that will home 8 children, looked after by a couple who will bring up and treat all 8 children as their own, thus giving them stable family life. That's it very briefly in a nut shell. It is a site where they are building 11 of these homes, a school, a clinic...you name it. It is in the early stages still, but Alfredo (heads it up) has amazing vision and it is just a matter of time.

Life here always brings something different and 2 days are never really alike. For example, yesterday afternoon, well sometime before school finished, there were lots of police and soldiers about 5 minutes up the road, cars were lined along the street. Amanda had seen all this and was telling us about it. We later found out 4 people had been murdered, well shot and I presume dead. Fun eh? Nothing for us to be scared about at all though, so panic not. It was all drugs related and they knew who they were after, it wasn't random. Exciting stuff.

Living with North Americans is also an education for me. Today is apparently Groundhog day (happy Groundhog day any Canadians/Americans reading this) and tomorrow is the Superbowl. What the heck do I know about Superbowl??? Absolutely nothing and nor does it interest me! Never-the-less, tomorrow I am going to Jennifer and Alfredo's house to a Superbowl party. Surely I should be watching the rugby?!