La fin de semana.....

The weekend is here….and it means two days of no school. Given that I have  a lot I want to see this weekend I have combined both days in this one blog.

I was still up early on Saturday. Scrambled eggs, toast and fruit was on the menu. Afterwards I headed in to town to post  Friday’s blog over a café latte. First, I checked out the local produce market;

Then it was off to the school to meet the director Enrique who was taking myself and a couple of other students to the Parque de Aves (Macaw Bird Park). The school provides a free excursion every week and this was the trip for my first week. It was a great morning. The park rescues the birds from people who sell them illegally, who can’t keep or don’t want them anymore. The park has a total of 170 birds presently spread over 23 different species.  Included in the ticket is a guide.  Although we asked for a Spanish guide he also spoke good English. I am happy to say that I understood much of what he was saying and he only had to translate a few times for me. We seemed to fly around the park (no pun intended) and at the end I wanted to go around again. I decided to stay and get a tuk tuk back when I was done. The park was very quiet with few visitors…one of the effects of a poor season…although this is still low season. I finished my self guided tour then sat at their café for a little bit of studying. My trusty knapsack with books goes everywhere with me. There is always a few minutes here and there to learn a new word or practice a verb conjugation.  I don’t think there is much point in saying much more about my visit there and I’ll let the photos do the talking;

                          Scarlet Macaws;

Scarlet and a Golden Macaw;

 Keel Billed Toucan;

Parrots;

Good looking birds everywhere;

                                                  

Baby Owls;

                                         Who's a pretty bird then?

Once I got back in to Copan from the parque de aves, I considered going zip lining They have, from what I hear, a really good one on the edge of Copan. It was pretty cool and overcast today so thought I would leave that for another day. Instead, I walked in to town for lunch and a beer over some homework. I then spent an hour or so looking through some of the small local stores. I’m glad I did as I had a couple of good conversations with two of the store owners. It’s a great way to practice my Spanish. It was a little sad as one told me that she is closing her store on Monday. There just haven’t been enough tourists to keep it going. She will be selling her goods on the street from a table like many of the other artisans. Both store owners said they had a lot of frustration. Many tourists have stayed away because of the political instability in the past year but in reality especially here in Copan, it remains untouched and tranquil.

I took a different route home as I have always been taking the main road and wanted to see a little more of Copan.  After dinner I headed in to town. I made a quick pit stop at Ellen’s house to hear the very sad news that she had had her dog put down. He’s the one I wrote about the other day. He was getting worse and there was nothing left to do for him. As Ellen said his last few weeks were spent being cared for and loved;

I went in to town to see a fiesta that was supposed to start at 8pm. By 8:45pm I gave up waiting and headed home for an early night. I still haven’t met anyone who was there so don’t know if I missed something worth seeing or not.

Sunday morning dawned cool and overcast like the last couple of days. I was off horse riding with a friend of Ellen’s. We rode up the mountain to a village called San Rafael and then stopped at one the Haciendas (Hacienda San Lucas) for a coffee on the way back. Beto, the horse owner speaks no English and even when Ana and I were alone she offered to speak Spanish with me as she knows that’s why I’m here. It was a great morning and after dropping Ana back at her house Beto and rode through a couple of the areas in Copan enroute back to my house.  I’m hoping to ask the school director this week if I can go horse riding again as my excursion this week as the school also uses Beto. I would like to go to village called La Pintada where the Mayan Chorti women make dolls out of corn husks. It supposed  to be a beautiful ride.

Beto the guide;

Beto showed us these structures hanging from the walls of some of the houses - Any guesses as to what they are?

Beehives made from old pieces of wood.

After lunch of quesadillas I headed to the Mayan Ruins which are about a one kilometre walk from Copan. I decided to hire a guide which was a little pricey as in reality I probably understood about  a quarter of what she said. I must have got something out of it though as I certainly know more about the Mayans now than I did earlier today.  Although she spoke fast and rhymed off dates quicker than I could process them it was great to hear her speak and her pronunciation. I also heard a lot of vocabulary that is very new to me. I spent about an and a half with her then wandered around on my own for another house or so. Take a look:

Remind you of anyone (hint-my husband???)

After walking back in to Copan I headed home where I am now. I’m watching a movie in Spanish as I type this. Although this TV has some channels in English with Spanish subtitles, I have been very good about only having Spanish TV on when I’m in the room. After dinner I will head in to the centre to post this and do a little homework. On a side note there are two students arriving tonight…mother and daughter. I believe they are from the states. I hope their Spanish is better than mine as I find that pushes me more.

I may only post every couple of day this week as I won’t have much time for anything else. I start 6 hours of class each day this week. Yikes;

Saber es Poder!

Chilar and Chickens.........

This morning  (Friday, February 11th), after a breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit, I had time for some studying before Ellen and Marel arrived to pick me up. We were headed for a brief trip to the village of Chilar. PSS is in the process of building a granja for the school. As we were heading out on the road  we passed two little boys carrying a chicken. A couple of marbles later they were happy to pose for a picture;

There are chickens on the side of every road, even in Copan, but they are particularly more prevalent in the countryside. They seem to be everywhere...chickens, cockerals, baby chickens and birds that I'm not even sure what they are.

Approaching Chilar;

Arriving in Chilar, we were greeted by the children and then the dogs. The children were excited to see visitors I think, but especially happy to see Ellen and Marel. The dogs have figured out that when the truck arrives there is often a handful of dry dog kibble courtesy from Ellen’s bag. I have to mention that I think this bag must be bottomless.  In every village she has stickers, marbles, pony tail holders and dog food that she keeps pulling out. The kids were so excited and raced over to us. They were helping the teacher get the classroom ready for this semester. They were very willing to chat with me and more than happy to show me their classroom.  Marel also showed me their toilets and pilar (basically a sink) that PSS is trying to finish. They have the shells of the bathrooms constructed as well as the pilar but it will take another $300 or so to finish it completely. You'll notice in some of the pictures, the blue and green wigs. We've got a lot of mileage out of them so far and this kids just love them.

A warm hello;

The kids in front of their school. The kinder is just up the hill;

Lining up to get a sticker;

The nearly completed bathrooms...

I then visited the kinder class. All three of the teachers seemed really nice and Ellen spoke highly of them. The kinder at Chilar is one that benefits from the pediasure and vitamin program supplied by PSS. Unfortunately funds don’t permit for this program to be extended beyond the kinder program yet it painfully obvious with many of these children that it is desperately needed. This seemed to be one of the poorest communities I have visited with PSS. Even the teacher explained to me that he has a lot of trouble keeping the children’s attention. They are malnourished and hungry and trying to get them to pay attention in class under those circumstances is hard. I learnt about one little boy that has fainted in class from hunger. He was taken to the doctor and his tests paid for courtesy of PSS. They found 600 worms in his stomach. Even the clinic couldn’t believe this. The children were so adorable and my heart went out to them. Many of them had no shoes and live their life running around in bare feet. One little boy had green runny gunk coming from his eyes and nose…he was bare foot to boot. Yet all the kids, with typical childlike innocence seemed oblivious of their situation. They have absolutely nothing, but had the biggest smiles on their faces. They ran ahead of me and excitedly showed me their “granja para los pollos" (chicken farm). This is a project by PSS. The children will learn to care for the chickens, learn about having to pay for feed against the production of eggs etc and be able to gain some nutrition from the eggs the chickens at the same time. The granja is just about finished and all it will need then are the chickens;

It was hard again to leave Chilar. How can you leave these little faces;

This little girl from the kinder class loved one of the toys we had brought;

Like Boca del Monte, the children in Chilar were so much fun and less suspicious of me. I had taken again a few things but it wasn’t much. I left with a feeling that I wish I could have done more. I should put a word in for the dedication of the teachers in the campos. The teachers in Chilar live in Copan and have to take a tuk tuk as far as the road permits everyday…and that is often dependent on the weather. They then walk the rest of the way in to their respective villages. Once at the school their battles have just begun. They work with few supplies, non-existent assistance from the government and periods when they don’t even receive their pay. Yet they show up day in, day out and are an integral part of the community they serve.

After leaving Chilar we headed back to Copan. On the way back I saw  woman plucking a chicken. Hope for the chickens sake it was already dead! Then a man riding down the road towards us with a chicken tied upside down by the feet, one hanging from each side of his bicycles handle bars.

One of the mud houses typical in the campo;

Once back in Copan, after a quick look at the stands in the market I headed home. There wasn’t much time before lunch then it was time for class.

I arrived home after class to find the house a hub of activity. Sara and some ladies from her church were getting ready to cook tamales to sell tomorrow. This is a fund raiser for their church. The tamales are rolled in banana leaves and will be cooked in the morning for about three hours on the fire;

Banana leaves;

Meat for the tamales;

Sara had made me spaghetti for dinner as I had told her I liked when we had been having a conversation the day before about food.....how nice! I will have tamales for my dinner tomorrow....

Not much else. Tomorrow morning I am of the the Parques de Aves (bird park) and then Sunday morning will go horse riding...

Hasta mas tarde....

Third Times a Charm........

And it really was a charm…..wow, what a day! I arrived at Ellen’s to get the good news that Boca Del Monte was a go. It was the best part of the morning as so far I had woken up to still no electricity which meant cold water for a shower if I wanted one. I decided I didn’t want one. We jumped in to Marel’s truck and headed off to the equivalent of I guess Home Depot. After much waiting around we were loaded with rebar which we were taking with us as it is needed for the construction of the bridge. Because the road to Boca is bad and Marel was going to have to shift gears constantly, I jumped in the back of the pickup with Hugo, the builder (sorry dad).

Home depot

Rebar galore;

Travelling the Honduran way;

The road to Boca is stunning. Along the way Ellen pointed out a Ceiba tree. This was not the biggest one we saw but I thought this one made a good picture. If you notice the road to the left that goes to the village of Chilar (where we are visiting tomorrow) and the one to the right is the one we took to Boca.

Ceiba Tree;

Gate access to Boca del Monte;

Arriving in Boca we went to drop off the rebar and then to inspect the river. It’s not much to look at now as the water has subsided. About half the children who go to school in Boca Del Monte however live on the other side of the river. As I mentioned before, especially in the rainy season the children either wade or swim to cross the river or simply don’t go. The bridge will be an unbelievable addition for the children;

Hmmm…where to build;

The river;

We then hit the school and I had such a fun time. The kids were so excited to see us but especially Ellen.

Rushing over to say hello;

PSS has repaired the roof, painted the school (with the help of volunteers and the children) and provided much needed supplies.

I grabbed a few things from my bag and the kids went nuts for a plastic rugby ball, Frisbee and skipping rope. We had an awesome time playing ball. This is of course is the time that I would post a great video, which of course I have, but technology is failing me tonight. If I figure out the problem I will post it at the weekend. When I had arrived in Copan, I had given Ellen $200 from a friend (thanks Doug). He is part of a small group of guys that run a yearly golf tournament in support of various charities. He had kindly given me $200 from their funds and Ellen had used it to buy back packs. The children have to walk to school and have nothing but cheap plastic bags for their things. It’s especially hard for those that live up the mountain. Ellen sorted out with the teacher which ones didn't have packs and they were told to go to the truck. The kids went nuts as for most of them this will be the first time they have had something new and for themselves.

A few of the happy children;

I have to post the picture below of the old lady. She was lovely. She kept thanking me…I had given the teachers just a few toys and school items but it was really very little. Her gratitude was quite overwhelming and made me wish I could have done more.

This little boy, like all the children, thought the wigs I had brought hysterical;

 I was sad to leave Boca….out of all the schools so far, the children here steal your heart. They had great fun being chased by me and were less timid. A couple of children even asked me for help in tying the straps on their backpacks. What a breakthrough for this gringa.

I returned to Copan, dirty and dusty and was glad to see that the electricity was back on at my homestay. After a much needed shower and lunch I was off to school. I arranged with the director, Enrique, to take an extra four hours of class next week.  My schedule will be Monday to Thursday, 8am – 12 am an 1:30am to 3:30pm. Friday will be a free day unless I decide to take a class. It won’t leave me much time to go on trips with Ellen but I still have week three and I have to make the most of the school while I am here. Most of the other students are from Quebec and it is so funny to hear them speak Spanish. Their French accent is very noticeable and it’s hard for me to get past that. We don’t have opportunity to converse much as we all have private lessons but when we do it has to be in Spanish. Even if we are on our break the teachers are quick to correct us on our grammar. Today’s class was on prepositions and reflexive verbs. My teacher Delmy is very strong on the grammar and keeps me on my toes. I will have a different teacher next week but in some ways that is good as it gives me the opportunity to hear different pronunciation.

I returned from school and during dinner with Sara I thought for the first time that I conversed without trying to think of every word I was saying. I am also much more aware in conversation about using the right form of a verb and can hear it more easily when I overhear a conversation or if I have the TV on in the room. It’s not that I didn’t know it before but the revision and the fact that you hear Spanish 24/7 is definitely helping. Onwards and upwards I guess!

Hasta tarde…..