Although it's barely been two weeks since I last posted, we've been very busy here and I feel I should blog about it before I blink and something else happens.
I have settled in well and am really enjoying my work at both Miqueas and the school where I have the freedom with both to choose my own curriculum and topics to teach. Although I think anyone who works with children would be able to agree that daily there are frustrations, it's also very rewarding and when a well planned lesson goes to plan it's a great feeling! At Miqueas I teach small groups of children English through games and activities which I really enjoy planning and I've covered a range of topics already including months of the year, weather, colours, shapes and animals. I have also been in touch with a teacher at my old primary school and both myself and my bilingual homework group of 7-11 year olds are excited to start exchanging letters with some of these pupils! (Thanks Chris!) Letter writing starts on Monday!
This week at Miqueas I also became the teacher with the sore throat who has to plead with the class - 'I need you to behave today because i can't raise my voice' - which we all know goes straight in a pupil's ear and straight out the other. Saying this, becoming the adult in the room has been an interesting transition and everyday I find myself echoing my teachers, parents and even my football coach.
At the school I have moved onto teaching the subject of 'in my free time' this week after completing 'body parts'. As we only teach at the school once a week, we have been lucky enough to have the full-time teachers present in the classroom for all our lessons, which I hadn't fully appreciated, until my 3rd grade teacher wasn't there last week. This almost immediately led to an outburst of bad behaviour from 4 boys, to which I realised I would need to crack down on discipline. With their names on the board, they got sent to face the wall at the back of the room. however trying to teach whilst they continued to distract the rest of the class, at one point they started rolling balls and a car tyre (why this was in a class room I have no idea) towards me, was very tricky. At the end of the lesson, their names were written down and handed to the headteacher with lines to write, will they have learnt their lesson? We shall see.
This Thursday morning I returned to the school, hoping all the teachers would be there but knowing a challenging morning may lie ahead. However, as soon as we walked into school we were told that there were classes that day had been cancelled because it was 'día del niño' - Day of the children! Did anyone else ask their parents on Mother's or Father's Day, why there wasn't a children's day and get the response "every day is children's day"? I did, but excitingly in Honduras they do celebrate it! At the school this meant a big birthday party-like celebration with decorations, lots of cake, sweets, multiple piñatas, games, presents and it was a really interesting and enjoyable morning to experience. It included: playing some football; organsing skipping games, being taken under the wing of some girls from the high school who had come to organise activities for the children (who told me in Spanish they learnt English at school but the only word they appeared to know was 'selfie'); playing a bizarre game with a balloon tied to my ankle and properly managing to converse in my somewhat iffy 'Spanglish' with some of the teachers and parents. It was only later that I learnt from my host Jacob that the day is held to promote the 10 basic rights of the child - something that hadn't been mentioned at all that morning in the midst of the excitement and I'm guessing has to some extent been lost in the (over?)-commercialisation of the event. At one point in the morning a machete was brought out in the classroom to cut a piece of string and I couldn't help but think what would happen to the teacher if it had been a Scottish classroom! 
September is a big month in the Honduran calendar and many celebrations are held throughout the month (including dia del niños) as on the 15th the country celebrates it's Independence day. This Tuesday will mark 194 years of independence from Spain and we are hoping attend a parade in our nearby town of Progreso.
Last Saturday morning after football training with the Miqueas kids, we headed into the town to watch one of the boys perform in a dance related with these month-long celebrations. Not quite knowing what to expect, we watched both teenagers and young children perform traditional Honduran folk dancing in very colourful outfits (boys at home i would like to see you try) at what appeared to be an event promoting social justice, immigration and human rights within the country. We felt like proud parents as we watched Christian perform - he did a great job and it was also rather amusing as his partner was significantly taller than him and he couldn't reach to spin her. We were invited to write 'Paz' (peace) on our arms and write messages of hope on a mural, and there was also a memorial for people who had died in relation to gangs, drug trafficking or human rights abuses. It was a very interesting morning, both culturally and socially, and it was good to see people addressing some of the biggest problems which face the country today. 
On this trip to Progreso, Innes also tried to persuade us to buy a dog...which admittedly was cute, but Gaby and I had to drag her away before she could make the business deal...
Sunday dawned bright and far too early with a 5am start, to make it to Tela for a boat trip we had booked with 6 other volunteers. Myself, Gaby and Innes met with the Project Trust Tela girls, 2 other teachers at their school and the 2 Project Trust boys from San Juan who we hadn't seen since arriving. The boat tour set off in high spirits across the bay towards the national park of 'Punta Sal'. Here our guide Ricardo led us on a short jungle walk where we ate edible termites, competed to climb jungle vines, saw a toucan (such gorgeous birds), howler monkeys and learnt about Garifuna culture. This was followed by another trip on the boat, swimming through the 'tunnel of love' and snorkelling with blue, yellow and orange fishes. A particular highlight of the day was when Ricardo revealed to us on the trek that we were looking at a beach filmed in Pirates of the Carribean! We had fried fish for lunch with tajadas (chips made from green banana) cooked by garifuna people (a Honduran tribe of sorts) who live in a collection of huts on the beach. After sunbathing and some more swimming we returned to Tela, very content with our adventurous day out! 
Hugh shows us how it's done!
This weekend we also moved out of our host's house and into our own house, which is really nice. Although we've been told several times since arrival that it's supposed to rain here every afternoon because it's 'rainy season', it's hardly rained this year, leading to a drought across the country. Melody and Jacob have a seperate water tank to the rest of the village so until a couple of days before moving out we had reliable running water there. However in these last few days, the water was off there too and we took our first 'bucket showers'. Most of the Honduran houses in our village have a 'pila' (basically a concrete bath in the garden) which fills up when the water is turned on at night. In our new house we have one of these and use the water for cooking, clothes washing, flushing the toilet and showering as the running water is only on (sometimes) at night and even then is sketchy at best. At home I'd always taken running water out of the tap for granted and even with our different situation here I realise all over the world people have it far worse! 
Determined to get to know more people in our local community, Innes, Gaby and I attended our local church for the first time last week. The service was made up of an hour and a half of lively Christian Spanish songs, followed by a 45 minute speech from the pastor. The songs started off slow but people were soon on their feet, clapping, swaying, jumping, making rings and dancing in the middle and even making conga chains. A little perplexed by what was going on, Innes and I shrugged our shoulders and joined in the dancing! We were having a brilliant time and our initial confusion had just faded only to be replaced by shock a few minutes later when some of the people around us started to collapse on the floor unable to get up, a few stumbled about seemingly out of control whilst a friend or parent tried to keep them from falling, some were crouched down banging their hands and head off the floor and others crying or wailing whilst bent over the church stage. Innes and I had never seen anything like it, my explanation can't do the scene justice as the people appeared to be completely overcome by emotion! As soon as the songs finished, the people got up and returned to their seats as if nothing had happened, it was truly bizarre. The pastor gave a really nice speech and introduced us although we struggled to follow much of the following sermon in Spanish. We were somewhat disappointed when we returned to the church this week and there was only 3 songs and the rest of the service was speech, so we're hoping for more singing and dancing next week!
The past 5 weeks have been brilliant so far and I feel like I have learnt so much already - from housework (mum and dad you would be proud) to organisational skills to increased independence and the importance of lesson planning and keeping kids busy! Tia Ruby has even shown me how to cook beans like the locals! I'm not letting myself take this opportunity for granted, I am really so thankful for everyone's support in enabling me to spend a year in this fantastic country! We are currently planning our next adventure - a 3 day trip to Belize to renew Gaby's visa. This is proving a little tricky as we want to make the most of the short time we will have in the country without spending all our time travelling. I will let you know how we get on!
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