El Doce de Abril.

The 12th of April, out here is a very important date for all Garifunas because it marks the anniversary of the date that the Garifunas first arrived in Honduras and this year was their 215th anniversary. This day calls for a parade through the village and a great big festival and party all day long until the very early hours of the morning! It is even more special for the people of Punta Gorda because it was here where they first arrived. Punta Gorda was the first place that the Garifunas saw of honduras.

So Ally and I got up fairly early and headed down to see what was happening in the village already. We had heard that the parade was starting at 8, so that meant in Honduras it was going to start at 9.30 ish. However being british we still turned up at 8. There were still a load of people about, people from all over the island and many schools from other towns had come to learn about the Garifuna (or Garinagu in their native language) people. Of course all of our students were also there for the day so we sat and talked to them for a while and then we suddenly heard the beat of drums coming from afar and we raced to go and see what was happening with the parade so that we could go and get some good pictures of this annual event. The rest of the day transpired with us just enjoying the festivities, sampling some of the many different types of gorgeous food which had been prepared by some local women in the village, which varied from fried chicken, plantain chips or ‘tajadas’, ‘pastelitos’ and even some lovely ‘tapado’ which is basically a coconut based stew loaded with plantains, onion, garlic and in this particular case, fish. All of the village had come out to celebrate today so we met up with some of our friends, like Yandra (who had come back from the mainland for the celebration) Ziggy, Dioxy, Audrey, Nora and Michael. Prof Lee also turned up and had brought with him a huge volleyball net and a bag of balls so Ally went to go and help set up a little tournament for the kids to get involved in, whilst I watched the procession of ‘Little Miss Garifuna 2012’ with Yandra in which many of the girls involved had to partake in a dance competition. One of the crowd favourites was a girl who probably was no older than 5-ish, who had been taught to dance at a very young age and who was working her stuff doing a very ‘hip popping’ version of the Punta dance, was very good indeed.

Halfway through the day, our dive instructors Pol and Ingrid showed up to see what was going on and we all went out for a beer at a local restaurant so that we could have a bit of a catch up and also say a goodbye as they were moving on to another country in about 4 days so the likelihood would be that we would not see them again. So after saying farewell to Pol and Ingrid we all headed to church for their special service that they had planned for today, with plenty of music and dancing and shouting praise. Sadly Ally was feeling a little under the weather and so went outside to go and get a drink and this in when all hell broke loose ....

I lost him ...

I know what your thinking, lost?? but Tom you never lose anything ... how could you lose a person? ... I know, I know. Well to be honest it was both of our faults as we both went looking for each other but in completely different directions and both kept on moving when we should have been staying in one place. I went back to the house thinking that Ally had maybe gone back there for a nap as he was feeling unwell, but I had given my key to Ally earlier that day so that he could go and get some swimming shorts so I couldn’t get into the house and so I soon headed back down to the beach (after sitting in the hammock for a while thinking that he would return) to enjoy the rest of the party. So I sat on the beach and watched the concert for a little while and listened to the great music whilst pondering what to do and where to go and look for Ally. Thinking that some time had passed and that Ally must have thought to go back home, I went to go and check again but sadly no, still no Ally. We had been looking for each other for a good 2 hours by now and I was absolutely dumbfounded that we hadn’t crossed paths in this tiny village in that time. So I was walking back down the road, down by Mary Lou’s house and lo and behold there was Ally at the local ‘pulperia’ (like a little hole in the wall shop type thing) buying some Hair dye with one of his students because Derrian wanted to paint his hair black so that he would look more like a local!

Anyway, we then went to go and chill on the beach a little more before heading to Mary Lou’s for dinner, which was lovely as always, and then I headed home, as Ally went to Derrian’s house to go and get his hair dyed, and sat down to watch Toy Story 3, nursing my sun burn from a whole day standing in the sun ... my poor little nose. 

Overall it was a fantastic day, even though it was very long and very draining, but it was amazing to see the whole village come together for something so important for them. It was so good to be a part of something which has been happening for 214 years!

Hope you enjoyed this post, sorry I have been a bit slack lately, I do promise to try and keep up!

Till next time,

Ciao!

Oh that's a nice breeze ...

So there I was waiting in the airport on Roatan, standing right next to the arrivals door, legs jittering, not being able to stand still, finished coffee cup on the table behind me when out walks Megan. We lock eyes, her bags drop to the floor as she runs into my waiting arms. Whilst hugging my sister who I haven’t seen for 9 months, over her shoulder I see my parents walk through the door, hear my mums gasp as she sees her son for the first time in nearly a year and see her eyes glisten over with a beautiful mixture happiness and tears, just like mine are doing as I see both my mum and my dad hustle towards me to greet me and me greet them.

That moment when I saw my family for the first time on Roatan was so special and I knew that it would signify an absolutely great week ahead as both Ally and I spent the easter week with them in their villa that they had rented for the week as they came to see where I had been living for a week. This week was absolutely amazing, it was also really weird just to spend some quality time with the family again, calling out ‘Mum ... Dad?’ in a house and hearing them reply was one of the oddest experiences of the week. It was really great to show them the island where I had been living and I even managed to bring them up to Punta Gorda for a day and show them the school, our house, and our village. I think I can say that they enjoyed it as well, and loved to actually see the house rather than just pictures and stories of it so that they could really get a feel for how small it is. Although we did come up to Punta Gorda a couple of times (once to show them the village, and once when they dropped me off due to me having to work the next morning!) we spend most of our time in West End, the really touristy section of the island in a really lovely villa which was so much fun for Ally and I, because we were able to live in luxury for a week or so, drinking, chilling by the pool or on the beach, nibbling and eating a lot of great food in some of the fantastic restaurants in west end. Of course whilst in West End we went over to West Bay a few times and showed them the nicest, most pristine beach on the island, with some of the best snorkeling I have ever seen, for example, literally about 30 metres out from the beach me and Ally saw a pretty size-able sting ray ... on one of the most populated beaches ever! 

The first trip we took to West Bay however, the weather wasn’t perfect, it was quite windy so the waves had picked up a little so there were kayaks out to stop people swimming too far out, however, Mum and Dad managed to get a little bit of snorkeling in and this pretty much convinced them to go and try a Discover Scuba Diving Course, which they decided to do the next day at a great dive shop called West End Divers, where all of the staff were really friendly and really helpful. The Discover Scuba Diving Course is basically the first of five chapters of the Open Water PADI Course and is just a starter course where the students get to do a few vital skills and then later go out for a full complete dive, which is where Ally and I joined Mum and Dad, after having breakfast with Megs (becasue she didn’t want to do the Scuba Course) as we had never dived in West End before. We went to a site called Turtle Crossing which is a place where you are guaranteed to see some turtles .... not one bloody turtle at TURTLE Crossing, although I wasn’t too disappointed as it was also a beautiful dive and I was so proud to see Mum and Dad diving along side of me. As well as that dive Ally and I joined them on one more the next day at a dive site called Seaquest where we did see a turtle, a really big hawksbill which was just so beautiful to see in the wild, even though it did have two bloody great remoras sucking on its shell. It was honestly one of the greatest moments in my life (so far!) and was made even better by the fact that I was diving with my parents and showing them this amazing activity!

So the rest of the week was spent just chilling out really, at either west end, the pool or west bay. We even spent a few evening at the beginning of the week with Eleanor’s family, her parents, Alastair and Leslie, and one of her younger brother Innes. They were all so lovely and I was so pleased to meet them and again show all of them, including Eleanor the island where we had been living for 9 months and it was also great to be able to show our project to the first hondie to visit. Sadly we were too busy to take Cat and Sarah (who arrived on the wednesday) up to Punta Gorda as we only had a limited time with my family. We had such a good time with everyone and I really cant thank them enough for making that week what it was. It was absolutely magical to see my family and be able to speak and laugh an joke with Mum, Dad and Megs. However it was also really sad as I knew that as much as they wanted to come, Josh (my brother) and his girlfriend Chloe (practically a sister) they couldn’t, so my love goes out to them and I hope that they have a great time in Barcelona, not quite a caribbean island but hey ....

To Mum and Dad especially, thank you ever so much for making that holiday of yours possible and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to show you the life I have been living for nigh on 9 months now! I really hope you enjoyed it (even though you were stuck in the Roatan Airport for about 2 days, and so missed out on your trip to New York) and again it was great to see you and cannot wait to see you again at Heathrow Airport in august, which is now only about 3 months away! :O

Till next time,

Ciao!

The fridge where we stayed in West End ... filled with goodies from england!

Eleanor and her brother Innes.

Me and my lovely sister Megan.

Ally and Megan in the sea at West end, was a very nice and calm day .... as you can see!

The Family at our school!

Hondies Spring Round-up

Last week Jen arrived in Honduras and started her tour around all of the different projects with Vegas. They had also contacted us a few weeks ago to see if we were game to meet up at Lago de Yajoa for a bit of a get together, which of course we were.

On the friday morning we got up pretty early and caught the various ferries and buses all the way to Tela, to go and meet Sarah and the recently returned Cat. It was great to see them as always and as we got there at about midday, we even had the opportunity to go and watch them teach for a little while. We saw Cat teach a social studies class to her 8th grade, which involved talking about the Czars and emperors of russia throughout time e.t.c ... all in english btw! We couldn’t believe it, most of our kids can barely even say russia, let alone talk about it. We then saw Sarah teach a 3rd grade class about object and subject pronouns which was very impressive. After that Cat was then free for the afternoon but sadly Sarah still had to teach a little, so Ally, Cat and I headed to the beach and to explore Tela a little bit as we had to go and buy our bus tickets for the next day. The beach in Tela is really great, it is so long, gorgeous sand and waves!! We don’t get waves here in Roatan as it is mostly bays and the coral reef stops them from ever reaching the shore anyway, so it was so much fun playing around in the waves, doing a bit of body surfing racing and other such wave related activities! That night there was also a charity Fashion Show being put on at one of the girls favourite watering holes so we decided to head to that and see what all the fuss was about, turned out to be a very good night and the fashion show was pretty good, even including some of the students from the girls’ school covered in gold paint and wearing only boxers and angel wings ... :S

Anywho, the next morning we awoke at about 7 ish to catch a bus at 8 to take us to San Pedro Sula so we could then catch one all the way to the Lake. The journey was relatively simple and easy going and we arrived at D&D Hostel at about midday where we were greeted by everyone else, including Jen and Vegas and all of the other Hondies. It was so great to see everyone else once again and it was even our first time meeting the two new hondies called Kate and Ruby who live and work in Santa Barbara, who are both really lovely and sem to be settling in to Honduran Life with ease, much like everyone else! Later that afternoon we all decided to go up to the canal and rent out some oars so we could paddle to the lake. Myself and some others pretty much jumped in right away and were going to swim along but it was quite a long way to the lake so Cat and I found a log on the side and just played around that before going back to the lodge to see if I would be able to skype the family as it was my dad’s birthday on the sunday so felt I needed to contact them, and I also hadn’t spoken to them for about 6 weeks! Throughout the rest of the day we just chilled around, played cards, used the internet while we had the chance, and just caught up with each other, and soon enough dinner time came around and we all ordered some lovely food and Vegas and Jen even bought a round of margaritas for everyone which was lovely, and of course with drinks, come drinking games. Cat introduced us to this great one called ‘Circle of Death’ which involves people taking a card and each card having a side effect like snake eyes or question master e.t.c. After this Vegas brought out a great big cake that he had bought for everyone and revealed that it was his birthday that day as well, a fact which none of us knew, not even Jen! So we were all a bit surprised and incredibly happy that we were there to share it with him.

The next morning, we all awoke and decided to meet for breakfast at 9ish before Eleanor and Anna had to go off to Tegucicalpa for a school trip, so that morning we were all just chilling again while Jen gave some of her ‘interviews’ to different members of the group. Me and Ally took this opportunity to hit up youtube for some much needed music (I think we were downloading music for over an hour) and also get to know Kate and Ruby a little more.

At around 12.30 ish, we all piled into Vegas’ van as we headed to this restaurant he loves to go and meet Annie and her parents as she couldn’t make it to the Lake, and also have a bit of lunch before a few of the Hondies said goodbye to Jen for the last time before debriefing back in Scotland. This restaurant was incredible, most people had to go up to the freezer in the kitchen where they had to choose their fish and also choose how they wanted it cooked. For a few others, (me included) as we weren’t in the mood for fish opted for a beef option which was lovely and the portions of everyone’s dish were massive! 

From here Ally, Sarah, Cat and I caught a bus to La Barca, where we were lucky enough to catch a hitch all the way to El Progreso, passing this broken bridge, which Jen had told us collapsed a few years ago, and the police didn’t mark it off or anything, so late one night a bus was driving, believed the bridge was there and drove straight into the river where everyone on the bus sadly died. Anyway, from El Progreso we caught a bus to Tela and had a very chilled out afternoon playing in the sea, and then a nice night watching ‘La Columbiana’ (an absolutely amazing film) while Cat also died my hair a nice dark mahogany colour (I love it!). Ally and I were gutted that we couldn’t spend more time with the Hondies before heading back to Roatan, but luckily for us we will get to see quite a few of them in a couple of days as they (and also my family =D   ) come to roatan for Semana Santa! Cannot wait to see everyone and also show them our project and where we live!

Till next time,

Ciao!

When the Community thought I needed dance moves ... please ....

This saturday (17th of March) turned out to be a great day. We had been invited to Prof Lee’s house for lunch and to go and watch a few basketball games that he was refereeing. We have recently become really good friends with Lee, the P.E teacher. He speaks fluent english and is just such a nice guy and his food is to die for!

He had previously cooked this typical beef stew for us a couple of weeks ago which was amazing, packed full of flavour, spice and vegetables, however today he was cooking his ‘famous’ chicken tacos for us. So we got up early and headed down to Coxen hole to use some free wi-fi for an hour or so before we headed to his house a few hundred minutes away. Using the internet is always fun as you get to catch up with all your bessies and family .... when they are online ... c’mon guys it was prime time! It was 4 on a saturday afternoon (your time) and yet none of you were online?? Double ewe tea eff! (hehe) anyway, I still managed to had a brain wave and hit up some websites to download some new music as we have been listening to the same songs for like 7 months now ... needed some new toonz! (Downloaded a few Nicki Minaj ones ... HELLO!!).

Anyway, after that we headed to Lee’s house and had a fantastic lunch and then played with his son Tommy for a while before watching a film for a while. We then headed out down the road to go and watch the basketball, however the team from Santa Elena (another island off the end of Roatan) were running late so we had to wait for a little while, which wasn’t so bad as we could watch the Oak Ridge Earthquakes practice for a while/do a bit of oggling! ;)

The game was really great and we were pleased to see the Earthquakes win as they were clearly the better team (not just because they were on time), we had to leave early though, so we couldn’t watch the second game like planned (however Lee told us on Monday that is was boring), due to it being Mary Lou’s birthday that day, she had asked us to go and pick up a pizza for her to bring to share with some people later that night. We got back to Punta Gorda at 6 ish, dropped the pizza off and then headed out to this church service that we had been told about which was being held by the school’s equivalent of the PTA for Dia de Los Padres, for some reason fathers day is a lot earlier out here. After the service Mary Lou told us to come back to her house for some food with a few of her relatives and friends. She served up some gorgeous chop suey and pizza, along with some soda. A little bit of an odd mix but it seemed to work.

After we had finished eating some of Mary Lou’s friends were asking us if we were going to ‘Shake our bodies’ at the beach party which was being held for the same reason as the church service, of course we went along aiming to show the community out stuff ... however ... it evolved that they in fact wanted to show us their stuff. After being dragged onto the dance .... sand? floor? area? ... by some of our students we soon got the hang of it and enjoyed the evening thoroughly. Even after a few beers, Mary Lou admitted that she didn’t want to dance before, but now after drinking a few, she felt ready to party, good ol’ Mary Lou!

We headed back to bed a little while later as we were both absolutely shattered and went to lunch the next morning to find both Rolando and Kiomy fast asleep after dancing most of the night away, obviously both had a lot of fun. We also got a few compliments on our dancing from some of our students on the monday when we returned to work.

All in all a great day and it was so great to see everyone enjoying them selves and even Mary Lou said it was one of her best birthday’s.

Till Next Time,

Ciao! xx