Doctor's Visit and School Fair

I've done really well healthwise until now, but have now succumbed to another dose of bronchitis which I suppose comes with the colder weather we've been experiencing.  It's been getting down to 21`C at night.  'Oh, no!'  I can hear the Tasmanians crying.  ( facetiously of course!)   Still something good and interesting always comes out of all problems.   I was taken to the doctor's last night at a clinic called El Buen Samaritan.

Vanessa was very kind, borrowed her brother's car and drove me into Tela.   The clinic is lovely and clean and reminded me of the doctor's surgery in the early 60's in Tasmania.   It's was all clean and bright and open, no televisions and brochures to make more money for the drug companies and the female doctor was so sweet.   The nurse took my blood pressure with an antique machine while the rubber pressure bulb using for inflating the band around my arm kept coming off.  Finally she managed to get a reading, which of course was very good.  

The doctor was wearing a pink apron with pictures of Marilyn Munoe all over it in keeping with the era.  She diagnosed a throat infection and a lung infection by looking down my throat with a good flashlight and using the stethoscope decided I had laryngitis. Not much money in pathology testing here!    I had to have one injection which was bought from the chemist outside and given in my buttock by the nurse.   ( It was a clean needle and syringe, I promise.)  I was also prescribed some antibiotics and some more cough medicine, the same as I had before which had no effect whatsoever.

I'm not feeling much different today but coughing much less.  I just can't talk much with such a crackly voice.

We are having an Honduran travel expo at school.  It's being called 'Feria', which means festival to make, firstly, the school look good and then the Hondurans love their country, second.   Any presentation like this involves total neglect of all school discipline, everyone is encouraged to make as much noise as they can and more, including the teachers.   All normal routines go out the window. 

I've had to sit in with the Spanish teacher who spent 2 whole 40 minute Spanish sessions organising the food for the day which the children are going to eat while the boys yelled, slid around the room, made paper planes and giggled.  My evil looks did nothing to change the situation and the boys just continued their behaviour.   Every now and then I would hear my name being mentioned and the kids would tell me what I had to do in the artline, but I couldn't do anything because there are no materials to use.   The children have to go out and buy whatever we need with money they get from home.

We are into the second week of preparations now, the first week was only noisy in the Spanish lesson, now it's noisy everywhere in the school and all lessons have ceased.   I was only at school on Monday when it rained all afternoon, Tuesday, I went to school and found I had a new student, a boy who's been deported from USA.    When the other boys were poking each other with umbrellas and running around the room and I could hardly get a sound out of my throat first thing in the day, I decided it was time to go home. 

Glenn came home early on Tuesday and Wednesday to keep and eye on me and today, it's been decided there's no school for the children while the staff continue preparing for the fair. The children take all their work home and get their parents to do it better. Glenn and I just couldn't get any information on what we had to do with the children for the fair and the more questions we asked the more we got ignored or fobbed off with very unhelpful answers.   We're definitely in the way.  It's really hard and stressful for us to stand back and watch the Honduran teachers work their butts off while we do nothing.

Tomorrow is the big day, starting at 7 am, finishing at 1 pm.  It's going to be a big event with the local television channel coming to photograph the students being tourist guides in their classroom dressed in traditional clothes.   I do hope all the hard work makes it a great success for the school.

Punto Izopo

We decided to have a quiet weekend in Tela.   We wanted to go on a boat ride to the beautiful beach of Punta Sal but as there was the possibility of a hurricane and rough seas we decided to go kayaking in a mangrove swamp at Punto Izopo.    Our guide Mark proved to be great fun and full of jokes as soon as he picked us up in his mini bus for our tour.   We were the only people in the group.   Fortunately the mini bus was a four wheel drive because the road was really rough.     The guide kept apologizing because the had to walk part of the way because the bridge was down.  It didn't worry us and added to the adventure. We walked passed a huge mansion and a half finished high wall.   The owner of this 'beach house' is now being challenged in the Supreme Court by the Garifunas, the indigenous people in the area for stealing their land. 

Tracey's the fit walker in front.

                                                                     

 These two Garifuna girls  rowed us across the river in a very leaky rowing boat for a small fee.  

Next we stopped at a hut belonging to the National Park where we saw a photo of Jeannette Kawas, ( the name of our school).   She is famous for saving the large national park, Puntal Sal to the east of Tela from developers, who wanted to clear the forest and  build holiday apartments   Sadly, she was murdered before she got a chance to see the results.  Kawas was a friend of the owner of our school, Graciela Bueso.

This was beautiful calm river, the starting point of Glenn and my first kayak trip in 42 years of marriage!

Tracey shared her kayak with Mark, a very experienced kayaker.

We got a really close look at this baby alligator and then another one further into the swamp.   As Mark said, 'Where there are babies, the mother will be waiting close by.'   He also gave Glenn and I careful instructions on how to paddle under branches and not sway to the side.  He warned us how the kayaks can flip over so easily.

                                                            

We followed Mark into narrow streams where the water was so black you couldn't see the bottom.   Mark told us how he'd watched a jaguar come right out onto the edge of a branch of one of the mangrove trees and the English tourist he was with didn't even have a camera with her.   I was so glad I had my small camera with me tied to my bouyancy vest so I wouldn't lose it and could get so many good photos.  It was amazingly beautiful and peaceful and so quiet with only the sounds of the paddles and birds.

Here we are getting really good with the paddling.  Mike then told us we had to go under a branch that was less than a metre above the water.  He went first with Tracey showing us how to do it without leaning to the side. I leaned back as far as I could and then....

...disaster struck!   The kayak flipped, I went in first and Glenn next.   All I could see was blackness.    Tracey didn't care.   All she did was take photos!

Here's the offending log we had to slide under.

The mangrove roots made a good resting point.  Here I am soaking wet, but warm.    The water was so black you couldn't see a thing.   I lost my hat which I didn't like, my prescription sunglasses stayed on my head, my cheap watch survived the drowning but my camera, inside my vest was saturated and hasn't worked since.   I got some lovely photos which were still on the memory card.   Luckily the aligators were too well fed by the bass which we frequently saw jumping out of the water.    Mark told us only  3 of his customers had ever flipped into the water.   

We finished off the day at a little Garfina village, Triumfo del Sol by the beach where we had a fish lunch  and  were entertained by these delightful children.  There were no hurricanes all day and it didn't even rain, but it was great adventure.  And Glenn and I are still talking to each other.

A typical day in Honduras

This news is now a month old but I thought I'd put it on the blog anyway.

October 12th

The day started well.   Tracey was being very positive about her ear infection and was keen to go for a swim, using my swimming cap and ear plugs to keep her ears dry.   I stayed at home for some alone time and Glenn and Tracey went off to the beach on their bikes.   Glenn took his backpack for his towel, hat and sunglasses and Tracey her new bag from Guatemala.  I had a lovely restful morning until 11am when Glenn came rushing in the door, mumbled something very quickly and told me how both their bags had been stolen from the beach.   They'd left their bikes locked together around a pole on the beach.

Unfortunately Tracey had been watched as she took a couple of photos and put her new camera into her bag. before she had a swim.   

Glenn and Tracey came out of the water and sat on the beach for less than a minute.   When they turned around their 2 bags had been stolen!

There was no-one to be seen on the beach and the only signs left by the thief were footprints.   Tracey lost a special pair of track pants ideal for teaching dance at school, her  new camera and bag and my ear plugs, Glenn lost his new prescription sunglasses and the key to the lock for the bikes.   A couple of men nearby were very concerned about the theft and insisted they would look after their bikes until they came back.   That meant a frantic taxi trip to the house to get the key.  Luckily their bikes were still there when they got back.

We decided to go out to tea after the shocks of the day and joined the crowds in Tela.   It was the night of the big soccer games.  United States was playing Costa Rica and Honduras was playing El Salvador.   If Honduras won against El Salvador they could be in the World cup but only if United States beat Costa Rica.   The suspense for the Honduran players must have been horrendous and they beat El Salvador by only 1 goal.   They didn't find out that Costa Rica had drawn with United States until they finished the game.    This meant they were in the World Cup.   After all the horrible publicity there'd been with the political situation, there was at last some good news for CNN to report about Honduras.   Tela went mad with excitement with long lines of cars filled with supporters carrying banners, trumpets etc and very emotional people driving erratically around the streets of Tela.    Apparently in Tegucigalpa, the capital, the crowds were very emotional and grown men were crying in the streets. 

The next day was declared a national holiday for all of Honduras.     It was the first time Honduras has reached the World cup for 30 years.   Meanwhile the political situation continues to be ridiculous.   The American government has been against the ousting of Mel Zelaya all along.  President Obama has supported Mel all along, even though he's a good friend of Chavez from Venezuela, both leaders with communist beliefs.    The United States senate party, after 6 months of condemnation against Michelletti, has now come out into the open and stated that Mel was replaced legally, he had committed crimes and misused government funds for his own purpose.  

Meanwhile there have been no tourists in Honduras for 6 months and most of the hotels are empty.

A Hospital Visit

Yesterday, we met our friend, Tracey, pilates teacher and housemate at La Ceiba.  She'd just spent a week at Roatan enjoying paradise and scuba diving.    This morning at breakfast she happened to mention her blocked ears once too often and as Glenn and I both needed out blood pressure checked this was a good time for all of us to visit the local hospital where we could see a doctor.  I dragged Tracey and Glenn screaming behind me to the nearest taxi and we started on our journey for the day. 

It was quite a hastle driving through the maze of witches' hats and blocked gates to enter the hospital grounds but the taxi driver managed to get through with the help of all the attendants sitting, watching and calling out directions and we were dropped off at the front door of a reasonably modern building in much need of a paint job.   It was 8.45am in the morning and all the seats in the air-conditioned waiting room were taken up by a mottley selection of at least 30 poor people all in much more need of attention than us.   However, we joined the queue lined up at a glass and barred window where there was a sign that said we needed birth certificates or some form of identity.   Tracey was the only one of us who even had a credit card, we'd left our passports at our house and we had fun spelling out our names and giving details in Spanish to the 2 people at the desk behing the bars. When we couldn't remember the correct word they would throw in a few English words to help us out.   We returned to our seats and as I observed the dirty floor I was very hopeful that none of us needed serious medical care.

We then found a chair to sit down, expecting to have to wait hours but it was only half an hour before I was called in to have my blood pressure checked.   Meanwhile we observed the other patients.   There was beautiful couple in their mid-fifties, the man in a terrible amount of pain who couldn't sit or stand for long.   His wife soothed him, massaged his back while he held onto her like a baby.  He was probably a worker who'd injured his back while working. The love and care she showed him was wonderful to observe.

I was beckoned into the surgery of a young female doctor who checked me very efficiently and found me to be in good health with no blood pressure problems.   Glenn was prescribed antibiotics to clear up a cough he'd had for 3 weeks and Tracey was also prescribed antibiotics for the start of an ear infection.   Tracey had both Glenn and myself as interpreters but also managed very well with her Spanish after only 2 weeks of intensive study in  a language school in Antigua, Guatemala.   Our doctor had studied English and could read very well, wasn't happy about speaking the language but gave us the Spanish words we didn't know.   It was a lovely, friendly visit.

We were then sent outside the building to an office, where they asked our ages, to pay the bill and then to the chemist, still in the hospital grounds who turned out to be the father of 2 of my students and was very pleased to see us.   As he chattered away to us, Tracey muttered, I hope he's concentrating on those tablets he's putting into that bag.   None of us were charged for the visit because Glenn and I were 'third age' patients and it was too hard for them to work out a bill for Tracey even though she is young enough to be our daughter.

We then scrambled into another taxi and were back at our house in Venecia by 10.30 am in much shorter time that we would have taken in any medical clinic in Hobart.  Both Tracey and I were sorry that we couldn't take any photos to record the experience even though we both had our little digitial cameras in our bags!

Independence Day

In our previous 2 years in Cofradia, even the thought of Independence Day in Honduras has been enough for us to spend more time in Australia or United States but this year it turned out differently.   The dreadful marching and worst still the drumming practice that had gone on for weeks before the event in Cofradia were all cancelled due to the political coup, the risk of demonstrations and the threat of HINI or Swine Flu.

We were asked to be at school on Monday the 14th of September, the day before Independence Day at 7 am.   We were happy with this because we were to finish at 10am and we had the rest of the week off.   Hardly a soul was at school by 8am and I only had 5 girls and 1 boy out of my 16 students.  We hung around in usual form waiting for something to happen.  

Glenn hanging around under the shade of a tree.

Shortly after 8, action started to happen.   The Pepsi Company arrived with a large tent for shade.  It was already in the 30's in the middle of the courtyard where everyone was going to sit.

The secondary students.

Various students put on presentations about Independence Day, several small students gave heart-rending speeches, the Honduran national anthem was sung and the secondary students put on a short play about independence.  

Miss Independencia

Miss Independencia was announced with much pomp and circumstance while she  paraded in a beautiful long dress and sash in front of the school.  This is something I can't get used to in Honduras as this sort of cattle parade went out so long ago in Australia and certainly isn't an important part of any event.

Miss Calix and the Grade 1 teacher.

The high achievers in each grade on the Honour Roll were presented with their blue and white handsewn badges in each grade.    Each badge was carefully pinned onto the shirts of the children by their class teacher with the help of the director, Miss Calix and various teacher assistants.

Photo Opportunity!

Proud parents captured the badge presentations of their little darlings in Grade 1.

My best students!

Diego was my only successful boy student to get an award.   He came to school with his mother and was totally bored without any of his friends to cheer him along.  All the girls are delightful students but the boys are sometimes a handful.   Nothing very serious though.

                                 Diego looking bored but very handsome!    
                                

A prep student.

The prep boys are the only students to wear these shorts with braces.  I think they look gorgeous, all sweet and innocent in the uniform.    It's a pity they have to grow up!

Here is someone's little brother enjoying the entertainment.

Once the presentations were over, Glenn and I were free to go.  The rest of the staff had to go to another staff meeting to have more discussions about where they were going for their staff luncheon on Thursday.   We were out the door as quickly as possible, to catch a bus to La Ceiba.   We were off to the island paradise of Roatan for 4 lovely days of holiday. 

El Día del Niño

El Día del Niño (Children's Day) was held on 11th September, a significant day in Central America.   A few weeks before there was a special meeting with the parents of each class to decide what food the children were going to have.  In my class, there were promises of cooked chicken, rice, sandwiches, bottles of coke and sprite and of course, a huge cake from parents at the meeting.

The poster at the front gate.

Glenn dobbed me in the day before the event, when Vanessa said no-one in the school could draw and they needed someone to draw the children for the poster.   I spent several painful hours with a pencil in hand and this was the best I could come up.   I drew the children and the flowers which other staff members cut out,  and made the rainbow.  It was a nice team effort!  Glenn found a quiet corner and read his book.

Children's day arrived and school started at 1pm instead of the normal 12.00.  Everyone, including the teachers were allowed to wear free dress.  Only a small proportion of my class turned up with only 8 out of the 16 children, 7 girls and 2 boys.  They came in dribs and drabs along with the food, which was certainly was not the huge spread of food that had been promised.   Not to worry, the kids certainly had more than enough and plenty of drinks, cake and ice-cream that had to be eaten without spoons.  The spoon supplier didn't turn up.

The school clown.

When the children arrived they were greeted at the gate by the clown, Ms Sumaya, the assistant teacher in Grade 1, who took on the role brilliantly.   Please remember that the temperature was in the mid 80's  with a humidity of 100% when you view the photos and the video. Miss Sumaya is standing next to Don Toño, the school guard, whose only role at the school seems to be to stand at the gate.  

After the children had eaten in my classroom, we played 'pass the bottle' and then went outside where Geobany's 'ghetto blaster' had been put to a useful purpose away from our house.  All the attending primary school children joined hands in a large circle and sort of danced.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJE5TjubGE  If you go to this site you can see a video of the children and the clown dancing.  Sorry about the poor quality, I still have a lot to learn about videoing but hopefully it gives you more of an idea of the school and the children.    

                                    Miss Jimenez, Glenn and some of his students.

Seeing I had the camera at school, I got a shot of one of the teachers, Miss Jimenez who is dressed in a red top.   She is the Social Studies teacher and our next door neighbour.   Would you believe it took us 7 weeks to realize she was the same person?  She is very quiet!

Children's Day was a lovely day, low key and great fun for the children who were very well behaved and didn't expect too much.  The children  finished at 3 pm when the staff had a meeting for an hour to decide where they were going to have their staff luncheon.   Nothing was decided, but I had to listen to a lot of Spanish before I discovered that Glenn and I weren't even going to be in Tela on the day.   We were going to the island of Roatan, a much better option!

Just a little addition as I write.   I was sitting at the computer in the front room of the house.  It's 9.30pm and as we haven't any proper curtains the room is well lit up.  Glenn had just gone to bed and I heard these people calling out to me through the fence and rattling the front gate.   I looked out and could see their faces and was rather scared.   Were they going to try and break in if I didn't go to the gate?   Luckily Glenn hadn't gone to sleep and he opened the door to see what they wanted.   It was all completely harmless.  They'd been playing soccer in the field next door and the soccer ball had gone into our front garden.   They were only calling to me so that they could get their ball back!

More on the Political situation

Here is an update on my view of the Honduran political situation.   It's difficult to interpret the Honduran newspaper reports at times and it takes ages to translate the Spanish version into English but it's a big incentive to improve our Spanish when it's something we want to know about.   

Mel Zelaya, flaunting his white cowboy hat and dashing moustache is still having a wonderful time in the Brazilian embassy where he has been allowed to talk to his supporters through the fence and give them the thumbs up to riot and loot at their will.  However the Honduran military were very mean and used  tear gas to quieten down the rioters outside the embassy, which unfortunately went inside causing some discomfit to the the inhabitants and Mel.    Somehow the power and electricity got cut off as well.    It's such a pity as the Brazilian embassy had been so kind giving  Mel a home in Honduras when he needed it.   (all 'tongue in cheek' of course)    Politics, particularly in Latin America definitely works in strange ways.

The newspapers tell us that Brazil doesn't support the behaviour of the present president, Micheletti but continues to keep its Honduras embassy open.

El Salvador was also very kind to Mel by giving him a ride from Nicaragua to El Salvador in its private jet so that it would be easier for him to get a chauffered drive across the border through customs and then into Honduras without anyone knowing about it.   Apparently he had to walk for about an hour, surely he didn't need the exercise!  (  Again 'tongue in cheek'!)

Curfew in Honduras

The political crisis continues here in Tela.    Tuesday was an interesting day as the curfew went all day until 6pm.  We've never seen the streets so quiet, only an occasional taxi and a few people on bikes passed by.   It was quite eery, not even any loud music.   Our school was closed so we had a day's rest which we didn't really want.   We saw one ute drive up the street with several policemen standing up in the back with their rifles, just making sure that everyone was doing the right thing.

At 2pm we ventured out on our bikes for a 20 minute ride to the nearest ATM.   It was nice having the whole road to ourselves, even the horse and carts had stopped work for the day.   Many of the bike riders on the street greeted us, it was a friendly trip.   Even the boys were obeying the law and not playing soccer, we saw a group of them huddled under some trees next to the playing field while a few others ventured  into the centre with their kites.  

We decided not to go swimming on the beach as we thought we might be targets for attack with very few people around.   Altogether it was quite a boring day but I spent a lot of time reading Spanish newspapers on line which of course was good for building up my vocabulary and Glenn wrote up some lesson plans for school.

Cows in the Street

We were entertained when these cows took advantage of the curfew and the empty streets and chewed at the hisbiscus hedge along our fence and continued their way down the highway. 

At 7pm when it had cooled down, soccer had resumed in the field next door.   The sounds of the cheering etc made a welcome change to the silence of the day.

Wednesday, this morning the curfew still continued because a crowd of Zelayist supporters created havoc in the shops in Tegucigalpa last night, looting supermarkets and petrol stations, and throwing stones in the streets.    However, at 11 am the curfew was stopped again so that people could stock up at the supermarkets and draw money out of the banks.     A local bus drove past our door with the driver blasting the horn to let everyone know he was back in action.    We had a phone call from Vanessa to let us know the school would still be closed even though the curfew was over, in case there were any more problems in Teguc.

                                                              The road to the beach.

We  made the most of the rest of the day by going for a 20 minute ride on our bikes along a very rough road for a swim at a  new beach we'd discovered last weekend. The water was only 28`C, in case anyone was wondering about the temperature.   Glenn and I were the only swimmers in the water apart from one young boy in the water and no-one on the beach.   It was so nice!  

                                                                    Grissy's Hotel

After the swim, we called in at Grissy's hotel just off from the beach and had a very interesting time talking to a delightful family of African- Jamaican, Hondurans from New York.   The grandfather had lived in New York for 33 years and had only returned to Honduras last year to set up the hotel.   His daughter and son-in-law had their wedding at the hotel last Sunday which they'd celebrated with 50 family and friends, mostly from New York.   When we arrived, they were waiting around for the airports to open again before they could fly back to New York.     We  will certainly return to that beach and Grissy's Hotel next weekend.

It now looks as though tomorrow we'll be back to normal and off to school again while the rest of the world tries to solve the problems of the Honduran political crisis.    But one ever knows, things could change completely overnight!

Political Problems today!

I was sitting at a little desk outside my classroom at 3.30 this afternoon, minding my own business and trying to think of something to do while my class had a Spanish lesson.   The Grade 3 teacher, Feisal came up to me with a very worried look on his face and told me in English that Zelaya, the ex-president of Honduras was back in the country.   Apparently today he'd crossed the border of Honduras from Guatemala in a car and is now residing comfortably in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.  The present president, Micheletti was being extra cautious and to avoid any riots etc called a curfew for the whole country to start at 4pm.   

The school director who takes her job very seriously, was going into each classroom explaining the situation  to  the children telling them they all had to go home at 4 pm, the school was being closed.   At this stage I still wasn't sure of what was really happening as I received most of the news in garbled Spanish and was feeling a little anxious myself.   One of my boys, Alexis, was running around saying 'he didn't want to die,'  some were looking a little worried and others were just ignoring the whole situation.   One of Glenn's students was doing a very serious rendition of Buddist meditation, squatting on the floor with his eyes closed and his hands stretched out in front of him.  He was joined by Alexis.

I turned to see a Grade 3 student being carried to a chair outside her classroom ( away from the very efficient fans in the classroom) where she was shoved upright while the director fanned her face with the nearest exercise book.   The child looked as though she was going to pass out at any moment and her heart and lungs were working on overtime.   Glenn finally went over to the crowd that had gathered around her and quietly suggested she should be lying on the floor with her legs elevated . Fortunately someone actually listened to him and took her back into the classroom  where she was layed on the floor according to Glenn's first aid suggestions.   The little girl was having a panic attack caused by the hysteria of the children.

Gradually the children were taken off to their respective homes leaving the staff apart from those who'd already left in a panic, sitting outside, relaxing and chatting about their lives etc and at 10 to 5 we were allowed to go home.   Just before we left, the owner of the school, Graciela, was asking how I was.  'Is everything good? ' she said  I told her I was a little worried about the political situation.    She is a candidate for the same political party as the ousted president and is hoping to be elected next November.   'Oh don't worry about that. Nothing will happen in lovely little Tela, it's all only happening in Tegucigalpa, 4 hours by car!  Tela is peaceful she said.'

I was feeling totally confused by now, especially with the school being closed.   I thought that it must have been an emergency situation. We listened to the news later in the safety of our home with our outside gate and doors locked.  The TV announcer talked about a phone-in newspoll that had been conducted by the television channel vote to see if the Honduran people supported Zelaya being back in the country or not and 85% of the people are against him being here.  

It's now 8.30pm and everything's going on as normal, traffic is going past our house, a soccer match ( much more important than politics and curfews)  is playing on the oval next door and Glenn is asleep in the chair.

Nothing changes in Honduras and that's why we love being here!

I forgot to put on the electric blanket!

Dammit!   It's 9.04pm.   We've finished a bottle of wine and I've forgotten to put on the electric blanket. 

Not to worry, I'll pick a number out of a hat to find out what  the temperature is.   We're not sweating, the fan is keeping us cool and I'm wearing a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and bare feet.  I guess it must be about 32`C!
We won't need the electric blanket after all.

Our friends from Tasmania and England will totally understand the gist of this bizarre piece of writing.  ( I hope.)

A Bit about the School and my Students.

Photos of the school grounds taken from both ends of the soccer ground which takes up nearly all of the playing area.

Glenn is teaching Grade 5 with 17 kids and I'm on Grade 4 with 16 students so far.   Our classrooms are next to each other behind the goal post and next to the toilets, which on days when the water has been cut off, get very stinky. The school day starts at 12am, we have a break for 20 minutes recess at 2pm and finish at 5pm.  

The day is divided into 40 minute lessons and a hand pressed bell signifies the change-over.   We have 3 to 4 lessons a day which we don't have to take and it works out really well.  It gives us preparation and marking time and generally we don't feel exhausted at the end of the day.

      

Here are my 16 delightful children.    

The girls are gorgeous and the boys are scatty but are easily encouraged to do the right thing.   They are dressed in the sports uniform.   I'm wearing the mandatory blue pants, white shirt and a red scarf.

.

Some of my students eating their lunch in the classroom at 2 pm. 

 

It's so hot outside but inside the classrooms the four fans in the ceiling keep the room cool, so the girls and the non-soccer playing boys, eat inside for the whole of the 20 minutes Recess break.   Some of the parents arrive at the door with their hot meals on plates.  Plenty of food shows both love and wealth to these people.  The soccer players arrive back inside dripping in sweat at the end of recess.

Attacking the Mosquitoes!

Glenn was tired of me complaining about all the mosquito bites I was getting in our home both day and night, even when I was sleeping.     There were gaps in the walls  above the windows where you could fit your fist and the mosquitoes where flying through in swarms.   We spent hours filling up the gaps with newspaper and and then covering holes in the flyscreens with grey electrical tape.

Glenn, hammering flywire over the front screen door.     

Glenn went off on his bike early one morning and found a shop nearby where they repaired flyscreens and a man called Melvin, who turned out to be Vanessa's cousin, ( they're all related) followed him back home the same morning before 9 o'clock to see what we needed and gave a price of $30 for 6 new screens. 

He brought a young boy with him and they took out all the delapidated flyscreens, ripping out all the grey tape from the gaps. I stood by with my mouth ajaw feeling devestated after all the work we'd done with the tape, remembering our experience with our window in Cofradia. ( That took a weekend to get fixed and we were left with a huge hole in our bedroom wall for 2 days!) 

Melvin promised he'd be back with the flyscreens in an hour.   He returned very close to the time and his boy, who worked while Melvin talked, had them replaced in a very short time.   We found another screen that needed repairing which the boy then carried back to the shop on his bike.  The next day he and another boy arrived to  fix our back flywire door  and replace the other flyscreen for $8.   That included putting aluminium round the frame of the door to cover up the gaps and a new latch .   We've now replaced the grey tape around the other gaps in the windows and the door now closes perfectly keeping out most of the mosquitoes( except for those that sneak through when we open the door.)  

 The two young men measuring up the aluminium on our kitchen floor. 

They were very happy with  several drinks and some watermelon and a tip of $1 extra a day.  Their income would be $25 a day normally for their work.

I'm now sleeping more easily at night with far less mosquito bites.  I'm only attacked by mosquitoes in the classroom now and I keep those away with my bottle of Australian Rid!

Our visit to the post office

The postal staff.

 

These two men loved having their photos taken.   The man with the cap ran away when he was asked if I could take a photo, but he returned with his special Honduran soccer team cap.  The post office is in a shocking state with paint peeling off the walls and bars across the counter but the friendliness of the staff made up for all of that.  We thought the boxes would never arrive but they'd been sitting there for 11 days and no-one had bothered to tell us.   We'd been hanging out for these boxes, specially for all the worksheets from Regina's wonderful collection.    I hope she's reading this blog, if not could someone make sure she does please?  She's an angel in disguise.  Thanks everyone else for their donations.   They're all so special and soooo useful.

Noise!

It's always noisy at our house.   There's the music from the bike shop which varies from soft to deafening, there's music from the pizza restaurant immediately across the road, but last Wednesday morning we heard an even louder noise of music, horn blasting and cheering!    The taxis from Tela were part of a parade, waving Honduran flags etc, driving past our house for about half an hour.   There must have been at least 300 taxis in the line. Nothing here seems to be very well organized but this support for the Honduran soccer team was obviously very important.   In case you didn't know, Honduras beat Costa Rica in the elimination game for the World Cup by 4.0.   This is a first for Honduras, an incredible achievement.   The next game is on September 5th and everyone's talking about it.   Hope you can view my video on Youtube.  I only manged to video the last few taxis but it does give you an idea of the noise.  Please put your speakers on full to get the full impact!  Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2hoN8RZDwI  ( You may need to cut and paste this address to gain access.)

Getting set up for living in Tela

The first morning we woke at 5.30 am to bright day light and at 6.30am  were 'entertained ' by deafening Latin American music.  Glenn and I couldn't hear each other speak and were wondering how we were going to find a postive thought about the noise.

Vanessa arrived later in the day to help us buy our bikes at the bike shop across the road.   The owner of the shop was a young, cheerful black Caribbean, who turned out to be the owner of the stereo.  He made up our really good bikes from new and second hand parts for $30. Vanessa negotiated with him to turn down the music which he did..   However, the negotiations only lasted for a few days and the music is still loud.

                                                        Geobany working on my bike. 

Geobany and I completing the contract.

When he'd finished my bike we pretended to shake hands for the photo,  he wouldn't give me a proper handshake because he said his hands were too dirty.   We said goodbye to Geobany a few days later as he told us he was going to United States to work.    He was back the next morning working in the shop as cheerful as ever, customs wouldn't give him a visa to go to the United States.  Never mind, we quite like his lively Caribbean dance music and he's still there to fix our bikes when he's needed!

                                            

                                                               

                                                                            Getting the keys cut.

Another job we had to do was get some keys cut for our house and front gates.     The key shop was next to the Billiards Hall where the locals drink and play billiards.  Woman are definitely not to be seen drinking in this establishment.

                                                  

                                                 

                                                         

                                                                    Parking the bikes.

The most common form of transport for the local people are bikes, motor scooters or motor bikes.    These bikes are parked in one of the drains which are in all the main streets in the centre of Tela.   Some of them are a metre deep and have been built to drain away the water in the heavy tropical storms.   They really are just a traffic hazzard as you can see in the next photo.

An accident waiting to happen!

I took this photo for a couple of reasons.    Just behind the man in black trousers are about 20 people lifting a car out of the ditch.   The car came around the corner too quickly and the inevitable happened.   Immeditately people gathered to help, a thing I love about Honduras. They had it out in about 2 minutes.  I couldn't get close enough in time for you to see the car being lifted out of the drain, but it does give you an idea of some of the streets in the centre of Tela.  ( double click on the photo to get it larger.)

                              Glenn and Vanessa waiting for lunch on the beach.

After all the help Vanessa had given us to set up our house we took her out for lunch.   She suggested a beach restaurant in a Garifuna village.   The Garifunas are a dark race of people who live on the coast of Central America from Honduras to Guatemala and Beliz.   They originate from African slaves who were left on the island of St Vincent in the West Indies.   They integrated with the indigenous people on the island and now speak their own language as well as Spanish.   They are keen fishermen and are famous for their freshly cooked fish.   We had a tasty fish meal, of soup, crab and prawns cooked in butter and garlic, very oily but tasty and served with fried platanos ( bananas).