Leaving Guatemala and off to the Carribean!

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  Tula, Honduras
Monday, January 22, 2007

Finally an entry not written from the Spanish School Interent cafe in Antigua! I left Guatemala on Saturday morning. The last two weeks of school flew by and then the end of last week there were so many goodbyes- to all the kids, the family at the school, the family I stayed with and all the other volunteers. At the school when saying goodbye the kids all line up to hug you goodbye. It is really cute, but really tough saying goodbye to the kids in my classes.

Last week we had some cool lessons, a reading comprehension with a wolf and 4rabbits and a machete weilding mummy rabbit. It was only when I was half way through translating it I discovered it wasn`t entirely appropriate but the kids loved it and wrote their own stories with wolves eating princesses, teachers and dogs. Lovely. I also taught them fractions, which actually seemed to sink in with a few of them, or else they just enjoyed colouring in half of circles and on my last day I even did some arty stuff with them. Out of choice! All in, a pretty great last week. The morning of the last day turned into just myself and Richard taking 60kids up to the sports field. Its funny that this had become a normal way to spend a morning, skipping, passing around a rugby ball, playing football, rolling around in the dirt and dust, chucking the little ones up in the air and trying to stop the kids from leaping off the cliff edges! I really enjoyed the Fridays when we just got to play with the kids. When the little ones faces light up with delight its really great. Made it all worthwhile!

It was funny leaving Antigua, I suddenly realised how settled I was there and had a nice but very busy routine going on! I am so glad I did the project and stuck it out. After the first 2 weeks I thought they were mad to give me classes to teach in another language and complete freedom to chose what I will teach. It still is quite amazing that they let people do this and takes some explaining to people but I managed it. I`m sure I took more from it than I could possibly give although the kids definately know what verbs are now. When I mentioned Verbs at first I got blank faces, last week I got groans, so something made an impact!

Anyway, I am on my travels again, crossed the border to Honduras on Sat, stayed in small town over the border called Copan Ruinas and met up with Caroline a volunteer who runs a school in Honduras, but had been in Antigua for Christmas. Visited some Hot springs which was lovely, like a huge hot bath and combined with an entertaining journey in a open top truck through lush jungle and with a short break down on the way home. When I got back about 11pm, I went to see Caroline who suggested we go out for a drink. Went with her and few locals she knows, in the bar they sat down the biggest bottle of rum I have EVER seen, a bucket of ice and bottle of coke and announced that the three of us were not leaving until it was finished. Needless to say I got back to the hotel at 4am, and the next mornings trip to visit Copan Ruins, beautiful mayan ruins was an effort. Maybe not the best way to enjoy them fully. Today I am travelling towards the coast and out to the Bay Islands for a week of diving and relaxing. Its super hot too, which is taking some readjusting too but I hear there have been storms at home so no complaints from me!!