Best foot forward...

Well, I was going to blog and tell you all about the National Football Final we went to last week at the Comayagua Stadium. It was somewhat strange to find myself at a National Final - but good fun!!
However...I will get round to that next time when I can add Dave's photos! For now I will tell you about this week's adventures....

Firstly...I went to the bank ATM machine here to withdraw money from my UK account to pay the mechanic and...it gave me no money! By that I mean it gave me a receipt and charged/took the money from my account in UK (hurray for checking online banking!) but didn't actually give me the money! The machine had apparently run out! Meribel from the office has been helping me by calling the banks to see what to do. I have very little chance of recovering my £140 - this makes me very sad as I dont have enough to lose!!!

Secondly....I went to a foot/ankle specialist at the hospital today! I have been having trouble walking with pain in my achilles tendon for some time now, but never mentioned it to anyone. However, I mentioned it to Sue just as she had found out that a foot/ankle specialist from the USA was coming to the hospital here to help for a few days!! So, this morning I was up at the hospital at 7am to wait to see the dr. They work on a first come first served basis so we had to get there early. Sue took Josh, and Dave needed to go too - was like a small party as we met lots of people we knew there too!!

Anyway, I apparently have Achilles Tendonosis. Not to be confused with tendonitis - is different! I tore my achilles tendon at some point (it has hurt for a long time!!) but it did not rip completely and then did not heal well and so it has a knot in the tendon and lots of scar tissue. I thought everyone had a lump there!!! Unfortunately I am in the wrong country to wear the air-heel shoe thing I need as they dont have them here! However, I'm not allowed to walk up hills (oh shame!!) or walk much for 4 weeks and then I need to look at it again! He didn't seem overly concerned! It was fascinating - I have 10 - 15 degrees less movement in my left foot than my right!! Apparently!! Good thing we only have exam week next week and then we're finished!! I still have lots to do in school - but without the children! Please pray it heals as I dont fancy the operation he described to fix it if it doesn't! Was not nice sounding!

It really isn't much to worry about, I can still walk etc - just hurts a bit! I now have it strapped up and is much better. I'm going to behave and do all the right things with it. I'm just grateful I got to see an American specialist!

Next Friday ( a week tomorrow) I am moving up to Sue's for my 3 month house sitting duty and when I'm there I'll not want or need to walk anywhere - it is like paradise compared to here! So is good timing all round!

The foot count so far.....

• Noel was in hospital for his feet, because when they get bitten by insects they swell up and he looks like he has elephant feet.
• Amanda burnt her feet in the hot springs.
• Megan broke her foot in Guatemela.
• I have Achilles Tendonosis

Mark??? He has 2 weeks left here........wait and see!!

Prince Caspian

On Friday night we went on a 2 hour drive to Tegus to go to the cinema. Obviously I had car problems to sort out before I could go - but that is just par for the course! Who doesn't want to sit for 2 hours chatting to random Honduran men in a garage on the highway???!!! er....Me!!!

Anyway, movies come out here in Tegus the same time as in the States and so Narnia, Indiana Jones, Iron Man etc are all out. I went to see Prince Caspian with Amanda and Marlon; and Enoc, Jorge, Mark and Noel went to see Indiana Jones.

I think everyone should ignore some of the negative reviews and go and see Narnia when you can - it is fantastic! It is very different to the first one - far funnier! There are lots of jokes and in our cinema it turned somewhat interactive with people ooohing and aahhhing - was hilarious! I enjoyed it! Go see it!

Sigua - the place to be!

Since the eventful Tegus weekend, things haven't stopped at all. Last weekend (not the one we've just had) we said goodbye to Quinton - a friend who teaches at a school just out of Sigua. He has finshed his year and has to head back to the States to start his new job. They hired a Mariachi band and had a farewell party. I think that was the start of people leaving!

Amanda, Olivia, Quinton, Charles and Mark

The band

That weekend also included the Day of the Pine Tree - the national tree. (By the way does England have a National tree, and if so what is it? Oak?) It turned out there was a big carnival in town and so we ventured down on Saturday afternoon to take a gander. It was the same as the other parades we have been to - army shooting guns etc. Was a nice change to a Saturday though.

More guns

Watching the Parade

We had Dave's birthday and so went up to their house for a party on the Sunday evening and a bonfire - was so lovely and relaxing up there with my friends. I will definitely miss Dave and Esther when they go!

Dave, Enoc and Jorge

View from camp of Sigua - through the trees and the High Ropes Course

This week we went to the cinema on Friday night to see 310 to Yuma - which I promptly fell asleep in (after the reel snapped and had to be mended!). Saturday we went to lunch with Profe Marisol, then went to Enoc's birthday party in the evening. That was quite lovely indeed and just what I needed! To relax in his beautiful garden and chill out and chat - perfect - thanks Enoc! Sunday was lunch with the leaders at the camp, followed by games and chatting at the Haglers house, which we then left to go to Israel and Holly's house for a Karaoke party for Bessie's birthday! Too much!!

All good fun, but by the end of Sunday evening I was shattered and peopled out! I have turned out to be quite the social butterfly!!

This is a very brief run down of events and doesn't really do life here any justice at all. But, needless to say I am loving it!!

The weather here has reminded me I live near the Caribbean - it has been SO hot! Last week it was in the high 30's all week apparently. In some bigger, lower lying cities it was low 40's. Gorgeous here as it is not humid - but it does not make me want to stay in a hot classroom with sweaty children! After school, Amanda and I would go along to the pool for a swim to cool down - pretty perfect actually!

So...there are officially 3 weeks left of school, including this week. I need to get the curriculum finished by Frday, next week is revision week and the last week exam week. The children dont come in after 6th June but after that we still have to do recuperation exams and re-enforcement lessons for the children who fail any exams. Officially our term ends at the end of June - but a month without children makes it more bearable!

Also quite excited about the fact I am going to see Prince Caspian at the cinema on Friday!!

From the 7th June I move into Ken and Sue's house to house sit for 3 months. Their dogs have just had puppies (last week) and they are adorable - so adorable I am having 2 of them!!!! Labradors! Oh so cute. But it means that when I house sit I will have 2 dogs, 5 puppies, 5 turtles and a cat to look after! Amanda will be with me for the first 2 weeks before she heads back to Canada for the summer.

So.....that's it really. Just wanted to say I'm still here! Loving it!

Here are some links to more of my photos (for those who haven't seen them on Facebook!)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115548&l=45dfe&id=876635272

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115459&l=22a40&id=876635272

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115447&l=393e1&id=876635272

Weekend on the beach??? Ummmm...no!

So sorry that I have not updated this for so long - life has just been crazy busy and the internet has been playing up....ummm no more excuses!

So....I will give you a brief summary of what has been happening since I last wrote...

El Salvador or London?? Turned out to be Tegus and not a beach in sight! Having toured around Sigua trying to find things for my car, I took it in to the mechanic on the day we were supposed to leave just to have a strange clanking noise checked out....well it turns out a piece of tubing that is in the engine, to do with water getting somewhere (my Spanish vocab is increasing slowly - but doesn't help that I would have no clue in English either!) had rotted away and was very dangerous and thus the car would not have made it even close to El Salvador. Thank you God for that one! He mended it for me and said the noise was safe and he would deal with it after the weekend for me! How kind. So I got into the car, drove 100m down the road and there was a huge clunking sound, the front of my car lifted up and as I looked in my rearview mirror there was my spare tyre lying in the road behind me! The chain holding it under my car had broken, so I lifted the huge bloomin thing into the back of my car, went back to the mechanic and asked him to help me. He just laughed and said the chain had broken. I explained that to go to El Salvador I needed to get 6 people into my car and so 1 had to go into the boot/back with the luggage. However, there was no way he could fit the tyre chain thing and so the tyre had to stay in the back of the car - so no room for a person, plus bags, plus a tyre for 6 hours!!

So after lengthy discussions - far too many people to make a quick decision around here - we decided it was ok to drive to Tegus (the capital) and that I was not happy to drive it out of the country! So, Mark, Deb and Noel caught a bus from Tegus to El Sal and Amanda, Megan and I stayed in Tegus for the weekend.

It was just EXACTLY what I needed and was great. We stayed with Marlon and met up with Jorge. On the Thursday night I gave my car keys to Jorge and he drove us around Tegus to see all the sights by night. It is a city built into the mountains and so we went up one side and looked down on the lights of the city, then went up the other side. Really beautiful at night - not so much in the day! It was a hilarious midnight tour of the city.


Me, Megan, Marlon and Jorge

Whilst in Tegus we went to various places, some beautiful, some not so much.



On the Friday night we went to the National theatre to see "de MONSTRUOUS y PRODIGIOUS. La historia de los CASTRATI." We were to see a Mexican cultural production, with singing and dancing....or so we thought! We got there late, were sat in the front and proceeded to laugh the whole way through. In fact I was crying my eyes out with laughter. I dind't understand a thing - not because of the language so much, it was just so random. The history of the castrate - apparently historically accurate, about a group of singers who thought they could sing higher if they were castrated. I shall say no more! Hilarious, haven't laughed that much in a very long time.

Before heading back to Siguat, we stopped at Pricemart - we know it as Costco in UK - oh my goodness.....you can get everything here that you can in the States! Was amazing! Then went on to Office Depot....where I was in my element! At least we now know what you can buy in this country!

Pushing Megan with her broken foot around Pricemart - not sure where the others got to but we ended up with the wheelcair AND the trolley!

All in all a great weekend!