Where to begin??!

Sorry for the lack of communication recently. The internet here is so slow these days I tend not to bother using it! However I thought I'd give it a try now as I have so much to say. The good news is we are changing servers next week to a faster provider so hopefully things will improve! Now....where to begin...

Ok. On the 10th September we had 'Children's Day' which turned out to be fun. Lots of pinatas and therefore children with sticks, but it was good. Profe Edit came and helped me in the class as I had Grade 1 and so the party was best in Spanish. It was very Honduran, the parents provided the food but we ate in an interesting order - ice-cream and cake, followed by crisps and biscuits, followed by sweets and then finally chicken and rice - which they obviously were too full to eat. It was a good day,although the children were high as kites!

Then on the Friday we had our Independence Day March through town. The other schools mostly had marching bands (Samba style) but we had a float with children dressed as animals on it!!? The theme was environment and health. We weren't so much marching as going for a gentle stroll I think. As we started Profe Edit came and told me not to dance!! The drums and the Smaba rhythm made that slightly difficult for me I have to say. We 'ambled' along the streets and as we got closer to the main stage where the schools stopped to salute to the mayor and dignitaries Mark and I were suddenly stopped by soldiers who tried to push us into the crowd. Some of the parents rushed over to explain to them that we were teachers and were supposed to be the children but they weren't having it and as the soldiers had big guns we had to leave the parade!! We were allowed to catch up with the school a bit later on. It was amusing though as all the others were allowed to march!!
The next day was actually Independence Day itself and the High School was marching so I went down with them which was impressive to watch. Some of the other school bands are amazing to say the least.

I will include more photos shortly!

Pictures of School at last!

Ok, those last pictures turned out quite small! Here are pics of my school, it is basically a square. As you enter the school you have Kinder and Prepa in front of you, my house and Elementary on the left, High school on the Right and in line with entrance you have the offices, the Commidore (hall thing) and a few more High school classes.
Here are the photos. On Monday we have 'Dia del Nino' which is Children's Day and so we have parties. High School are all going out to a poor rural school to take them food and play games with them. My class will just have pinatas and party day, the parents are all bringing food etc. So more photos then. Then on Friday we have Independence Day March through the town. All schools are marching, we have been practising evey day and are fairly rubbish! I am at the back with a group of naughty boys and so it's hilarious - they just can't get it right and salute in the wrong direction!
I am at Sue's today looking after the 3 kids as she and Ken go to the airport to pick up her parents. Hurray - Uncle Ken is coming!!!!

The computer is still messing up here, but the photo with the pink bourgonvillia (excuse spelling!) outside is my house!! The 3rd pic down is the elementary building!

The opening of the Plaza.

Well last Saturday was the grand opening of the Plaza in town. They had the President there and there was a big parade to mark the occasion. I was in my element! There was a group of us in town, and Amanda and Marlon stayed to watch the parade with me; and Noel went back with Aldo to watch a film (he missed out big time!) As we were waiting, I made friends with 2 little village children who were selling corn. They seemed quite attached to us and so we gave them my water etc. I was also very taken with the 3 large ladies sat chatting on the bench opposite me. They were very obliging and posed for a photo for me!!

The army was there, shooting blanks at the crowd as part of the 'show'. I was standing on the back of a bench watching and somehow found myself cheering very loudly, as I was enjoying the parade so much. Therefore unintentionally drawing attention to Amanda and I (as if we didn't stand out enough as the white girls standing on a bench!) Whoops!! I was told quickly to be quiet!!
Here are some photos... Some of the photos are above this blog as they went in the wrong place and refused to move!! There are some of town but it looks strange as the traffic was stopped for the day which is unheard of, it is usually chaotic.

Hurricane Felix???

Well, as I said yesterday, we had the day off school waiting with great anticipation fo Felix. By about 2pm the rain started - but nothing impressive. It was meant to hit us by 2am Wed morning so we went to bed with the windows all closed, torches ready etc. The whole town was on red-alert.

I woke up to...a cloudy sky. Felix was pathetic by the time he reached us. In fact he changed course and totally missed us! Obviously we had another day off school just to make sure! Ironically, yesterday as we waited for the hurricane, Sue got sunburnt doing her gardening Today we have been out killing the leaf-stripper ants in her garden! It is cloudy here due to the Tropical Depression, but it's not even raining! I have to say I was incredibly disappointed, though needless to say relieved that vast numbers of people weren't klled, but still disappointed!! Very bizarre we had today off school! But who am I to complain about that??!!

I've been up at Sue's house all day which has been great to get away from school for a day, I'll stay here tonight and return to school with them in the morning.

So..it appears I was right - it is a safe place to live! Oh one other thing...Esther here (and Richard in Worthing) searched Google for info on Siguatepeque and the red alert ofr Felix and the first website to come up quoted my blog!! SOmeone had found it and used it! Not overly impressed by that bit but it made me look like a hurricane expert, which is very funny. It said "Katharine Marrow, who lives in a safe mountain town in Central Honduras" and then it went on!!!

Fame at last!!

Hurricane Henriette isn't supposed to come near us - I can but hope for more time off school though!!

Felix Update.....

Well, Hurricane Felix seems to have changed his mind about which direction to take and has decided that heading straight through the centre of Honduras is the best route. SO that is what we are waiting for! By tomorrow (Wed)a.m we should be in for some big winds. He has gone back up to a category 5 but should in theory be a Tropical Storm by the time it reaches us!

School has been cancelled today as the heavy rain is expected to start this afternoon and there will probably be no school tomorrow either (hurray!) It's weird though as the sun is shining and it's peaceful, the band are practising near by ready for Independence Day parades. A bit too peaceful in some ways as people are just waiting for devestation. It's an eeary feel in school. The teacher's are here working - needless to say I am not!!

I'm off now to buy a few more candles just in case and some milk! At least our oven is run by a gas canister so we will be able to eat!!

Not much else to say....will let you know what happens! If you watch the news we're not close to the coast which will be hit badly!!

Hurricane Felix

Yes .... there is a hurricane heading to Honduras....and yes...I am in Honduras!! Good news is that it will most likely miss us here. Siguatepeque is right in the centre of Honduras and the safest place to be as it is so central and in the mountains. We are expecting it to be a bit windy(!?) with heavy rains, flooded roads, mudslides etc. But nothing as dramatic as the coast is going to be. We are praying it misses us - but it would be exciting!!!

On Saturday I went into town to the opening of a Plaza. It was very impressive as the President of Honduras was there and there was a carnival/parade. I loved it all. I am trying to resize all of my photos at the moment so that I can get them all on this blog - they are huge as they are! At least I now have photos and so you will be seeing them very soon!!

I'll keep you informed of Hurricane Felix (and Hurricane Henriette who is due north of us eaerly next week!!)

What have I let myself in for??!!!!

I am sorry I haven't blogged for so long - life has been hectic, yet again. So....I will try to fill you in and keep you up to date with everything. Firstly - the repulsive, dirty, spider ridden kitchen. There was so much cleaning to do that we actually hired a cleaner!! She works from 8am - 4pm on Wednesdays for £2.50 - which is an average wage. I am soo grateful to her as she cleaned all the cupboards and swept out huge amounts of dirt and soil - I was too scared to put my hands in there. The cockroaches have made their way back into the cupboards but the house is just so much cleaner now it's great. I am much happier in it. She speaks no English and so we have lots of sign language! She sweeeps and mops for us, which is vital in the dust. We are very lucky! Not to mention we divide the cost of paying for her!

I went to visit a Children's Home last week. It is a permanent home for these children, who have come from horrific backgrounds. One child was found in a bin in the streets, others left malnourished and infested with mites, bites etc. They were very sweet children. I am looking forward to going to the bigger Orphanage soon, especially as I have some from there in my class.

The weather has been very hot but cloudy, so no great pictures of school or town - I haven't forgotten!! We have had lots of rain too, was torrential last night, I haven't seen it fall that heavy before, in fact Amanda's bedroom celing started leaking!

School started this week which I shall come to shortly, but before that we had 2 weeks of meetings which were translated for us - mostly. They were generally productive althogh there is still so much I don't quite understand! There was one rule they came up with which drove me insane, we were trying to work out a whole school discipline procedure. They decided that if a child did something wrong you would ' Call them to attention', if they misbehaved again they would be given a yellow card which had to be taken home and signed by their parents. If they got 3 yellow cards they would have a red card and get a detention, which was just missing 20 mins of lunch ( a Chesswood QR). IF they had 2 red cards we had to call the parents in. BUT....if they were good you gave them a green card (which had to be signed) and if they got 3 green cards you gave them a blue card. If they got 3 blue cards in a term they got a party!! Have you ever heard of anything so crazy, confusing or just work inducing?? I went to Silvia in the end as it was driving me crazy and she agreed it was mad. AND stopped it!!! Since then we now have a set of vaguely sensible rules for Kinder/Prepa, ELementary and High School. SO there is at least consistency. A mad time.

On Friday night there was a big meeting for all the parents so they could meet us, hear about our teaching methods, how we will grade them (everything has to be graded, given a pecentage etc - I dont strictly get it!). Anyway, I was dreading it a bit as I ave been brought in to change teaching methods, revamp the English programme in the Elementary School. I had Sue there to translate for me - the parents don't speak English. They were all really lovely and Sue was great! My 'Boss' Silvia came in and told the parents the school has a new dream for the English department to make it truly bilingual and that I was the answer to her prayers! No pressure there then Silvia!! I just wish I could speak Spanish so I can talk to the parents. Generally things went well and they didn't ask me too many difficult questions.

This weekend I stayed at Sue's house with her youngest son Theo (6 years old). Sue went to San Pedro Sula for the weekend as she had to pick up her husband Ken from the airport. Josh and Hannah went with her to buy school shoes, but Theo is a nightmare shopping so I stayed at the house with him and the dogs. We got the house decorated to welcome home his Daddy! I did my Mary Poppins impression and we did baking, painting, all sorts. I get called Mary Poppins here on account of being British and teaching Grade 1! It was lovely to get away from the school for a while, although exhausting as he never stops and I was cleaning the house a bit for Sue too.

Then school started yesterday. Oh my goodness....what have I let myself in for??? Can you imagine anything worse than sat in a class of 25 6 and 7 year old children who speak NO English what-so-ever???? I struggle to pronounce their names!! I have an Itzel and an Axel which sound just the same when they say it!! The Grade 2's understand minimal English and Grade 1's understand NOTHING!! I speak to them in English and they reply in Spanish. I am learning Spanish quickly now!! Yesterday was hideous, they didn't have a clue. Today was slightly better, I think I had got over this shock slightly. It is going to be a very tough year!! Though at one point my Grade one's were sitting quietly working when I heard a tapping noise. I looked under my desk and their was Josue sat crossed leg bouncing a ball he had found!! Is a shock to the system! A class of Kane is almost preferable! THey are incredibly cute though - most of them. Amanda and Noel teach High School and so have various lessons off - not a privilege of ELementary - I am stuck with them all day. I have Grade 2 in the mornings and Grade 1 in the afternoon!! Is just really tiring as school starts at 7.30am but the children in my class who come from the Orphanage arrive at 6.45am. Hmmmmm - they are cute though!!

I will let you know how it goes - it can't physically get any harder! Stuk in a classroom all day with 25 children who don't understand you and only speak in Spanish when they talk to you!!! Oh I nearly forgot. The weirdest thing is that at lunch time a lot of the parents come in to feed their children and bring them their lunch. Is bizarre, they all hover about my classroom and then go and sit in a corner outside somewhere feeding their child. After lunch they go home again!!

I really have to go now, am sat on porch writing this and it is raining and so all the mozzies, and other creatures, are all around me eating me!!

Keep in touch, am not sure this made sense as I am very tired!!! I have tried uploading the photos of the orphanage, but the internet connection is too slow today and I keep timing out. I'll have to try another day!!