Finally caught up!

5/31
Today in class we reviewed and learned the verbs “to get up,” “to brush,” “to take a bus,” “to take a taxi,” and “to ride a bike.” After we learned the new ones, we played dominoes where one side of the domino is a word or a short sentence in English and the other side has something in Spanish, and then they have to find the corresponding ones and match them up – ending up with a big circle of dominoes.
After class, my Tigo worked for about 15 minutes and then just crapped out and didn’t work the rest of the day (didn’t work at all yesterday, either)…so frustrating! Lola says the internet here tends to not work around the end of the month – so maybe it will start working better later this week?
A bit later in the afternoon, some of the kids from the public school came over while they waited for the bus (they all wait for it right outside our yard). Somehow our lock reappeared, and I asked who brought it, cause I was happy that it was back, and they said that one of the boys found it on the ground – strange, since we looked around before, but good to have it back nonetheless!
At 1:00, I went to meet with Iris, Martyn, and Eddie about implementing the snack program. We worked out how we will try to make it within the budget, and figured out who will buy what, since we have to buy things in Ceiba to get them for a better price, and transporting enough melons, pineapples, and bananas for snacks for 30 kids for 4 days a week isn’t easy. We decided to only do M-Th (or at least try to do 4 days) since Friday is already a fun day and then we can (hopefully) make it under the budget. So – when I go to Ceiba to get groceries, I’ll be the crazy girl buying 35 bananas! (let’s hope they have enough – the selection of fruits is pretty hit or miss)
Went for a walk today out to the main road and back, since I feel like I don’t get much exercise here, and when I go to the beach, I always get sand fly bites. It was ok, but only took me about a half an hour to go there and back. Not sure where else to go, though!
We tried to go use the internet, but it’s still out at the hotel and wasn’t working at Eddie and Amy’s.
Rolando came over this evening to work on reading, and said he can show me another place to walk tomorrow if he doesn’t have to work, so that might be good!
Tonight we played a game, and then as we were getting ready for bed, Heide said for us to go in the bathroom and look because there was a cockroach under her toothpaste. She said she thought it was dead, and could just see the antennae sticking out…so I went in there, and saw that they were not antennae, but scorpion legs!! So there was a big fat scorpion in our house!! Lola sprayed it with Raid, which didn’t seem to do much except maybe slow it down, but then Koldo was able to smash it in two using the bottom of the Raid can. So, we can now add scorpion to the long list of disgusting things that live in our house! Makes me wish I could put up my mosquito net to assure myself that I’m not sharing my bed with a scorpion, but I tried before and it doesn’t really work with this bed.
As we were going to bed, it started raining really hard but didn’t last long…I’m hoping it starts back up again, as it would be nice to have some rain to clean things off and get some more water in the rivers, as many of them are all dried up!

5/30
Had 8 students in class today, including two new ones. We went over always/usually/sometimes/never, the verbs “to go,” “to study,” and “to wash,” and then made sentences using the new words and verbs. Before class started, we heard a bunch of drumming, and went outside to see that there was an Arbor Day parade with kids from a bunch of kinders from the area.
Iris came over a little before noon and talked for a while. We talked about how we are going to implement the new snack program, and decided to have a meeting with the other two volunteers tomorrow at 1pm. She told me about the history of the English program, and about their interactions with the director at the elementary school that’s kitty corner from our house – apparently she was not open to having classes in the school, and quite rude with Iris, so going there to recruit students isn’t an option. The other option that is a possibility is offering classes to high school students. She also told me about one of our neighbors who is having a hard time – she’s pregnant and already has a two-year-old, and they’re living on about 100 lempiras (~$5) a day because she’s been working as a teacher since last year and still has yet to be paid, and her husband works half days in the pineapple fields since there’s not enough work for him to work a full day. Apparently the public school teachers here usually make more than private school teachers, but don’t always actually get paid. Iris also said that she tries to take the bus and not ride her moto from La Unión because the road between there and here is really dangerous not just because it’s dirt so harder for motos, but because there are a bunch of robbers just waiting for people on motorcycles and robberies are common. That makes me even more impressed that some of our students come from there for the evening classes!
During the adult class, we reviewed and then learned different drinks and how to combine that with foods to say “what would you like to have?” “I want a salad and a cup of tea” and things like that. Then we went over shapes and combined those with colors (which we covered a while ago) to play the cup game.
After dinner, we watched “Tamara Drewe” and saw a mouse again…so gross! I couldn’t fall asleep and was hungry, so got up to get some crackers but didn’t eat much since I was afraid of seeing a mouse and screaming and waking the others up…I did see a huge cockroach, but managed to kill it without making too much noise.

5/29
Feeling much better today – I think the antibiotic is working! The power went out at 8am, so Heide, Lola and I read and played cards for quite a while, and then around 1:30 or 2 decided to go to La Ceiba and get our grocery shopping then since there was nothing else to do. We found a taxi before we got to the main road, and went to the mall. Since we had lots of time to kill, we looked around for a while, and tried to find new sandals, but without any luck. We went upstairs to get coffee and something to eat, but the power went out while I was trying to get coffee, and they didn’t have ice anyway, so we ended up getting a chicken burger since the power came back there before the coffee place. In the food court, they were doing karaoke (VERY loudly!). We saw a bunch of the people that went to Cayos Cochinos at the food court, so ate with them, and then went and did our grocery shopping. When we got back around 5:30, the power was back and I made dinner. I worked on catching up on blogging/photos for a while, and then got to Skype with Pauline :)

5/28
Slept in late this morning and then walked over to the clinic that’s a couple blocks away. I took a list of how I felt/what happened each of the days since I got sick in Guatemala, and the doctor thinks I am probably still sick from the food there since others at the hostel got sick, and the other volunteers seem to be ok brushing their teeth with tap water here. He said that here they have found that Cotrimoxazole works better than ciprofloxacin here (cipro’s the one I brought), and that taking Imodium is a bad idea because instead of solving it the problem, it just stops the diarrhea by stopping the muscles from moving, which just keeps the infection in. He checked out my stomach and could hear that on the right side, things are moving, but the left, everything is just stopped and sounds more solid (so that was the first and last time I ever take Imodium!). He gave me 5 days worth of cotrimoxazole, and said to also take one omeprazole a day and one tums tab after each meal to help protect my stomach, as being sick like this is hard on your stomach and taking those will help prevent developing gastritis as well.
Stopped at a pulpería to get some Gatorade (I’ve been mixing a little Gatorade with water and trying to drink a lot to keep hydrated and help get rid of this!), and then ate a little breakfast and took the first dose of the antibiotic. Talked to Mom and Nana on Skype for a little, and Derek called – hadn’t talked to him in quite a while, so that was good!
Went and took a nap for a couple hours (after all, I’d been up for nearly 3 hours! ;)) and then spent the day just hanging out at the house, working on catching up on blogging and chatting with Lola and Heide. Already starting to feel better (let’s hope the trend continues this time!) and had some spaghetti for dinner. Watched “Hereafter” with Lola, Heide, and Katlyn, who came over for the night since she was the only one at the beach house this weekend. Twice while we were watching, we saw a mouse run across the living room…so gross! So now I know that not only are we living with cockroaches and ants, but mice, too! I will definitely be glad to be back in a house that is not shared with disgusting creatures!!

5/27
Went to class this morning – feeling ok, but not great. Since today is Friday, we went to el campo (the soccer field) to play, but I sat and watched while the kids and Eddie played – I felt ok, but didn’t think I’d feel so great after running around in this heat. After class, Lola, Heide, Koldo, and I walked to find a taxi to Sambo Creek. They have Fridays off since they volunteer at SOS, so we thought we would all go enjoy the day at the hotel in Sambo Creek, and Amy, Eddie, Anne, and Thibaud would join us later in the afternoon. The plan was for Heide and Lola to go home at night, and then the rest of us would stay there for a night and then take the boat to Cayos Cochinos the next morning, with some people from the beach house. Unfortunately, even before we got there, I wasn’t feeling well, so sat in the pool for a little bit, and then went and lied down. I was afraid to get up cause I felt like I’d throw up as soon as I stood up, so stayed there for a while, and then Heide came over to check on me and said she’d walk with me back to the room so I could take a nap…but unfortunately, only made it a few steps before throwing up a bunch. After that, I actually felt a lot better – but then it just went back to that sick to my stomach feeling. I ended up sleeping most of the day, and then went back to Porvenir with Lola and Heide in the evening, and went straight to bed when we got home. It’s frustrating because I’m hungry but can’t keep anything down – not even water or ginger ale! When we got back, we also found that the gate on our lock had been stolen – someone must have left it open on the gate so someone was able to take it :(

5/26
Made it to class this morning. After class, slept for a couple of hours, and then got up and had a piece of toast and half an apple (and of course, watered down juice and ginger ale!). Feeling much better than before…not 100%, but definitely better. It’s difficult because it is soo hot here… the weather for La Ceiba Airport, which is near here, is “91/feels like 104” with about 70% humidity.
Spent most of my free time today trying to catch up on blogging and uploading photos.
Luckily the lights didn’t go out this evening, so we got to have class :) Only 6 guys came today – not sure why attendance dropped, but maybe because people don’t want to spend the time/gas money to get here and then have the lights go out and not be able to have class – the guys that came from La Unión today said they got all the way to the high school yesterday and then turned around cause the lights went out (the high school is really close to us). I found out today that we also have students that come from El Pino, another town that is about 20 minutes away. Today we reviewed and then went over “Where are you from?” and nationalities (“I’m from Honduras. I’m Honduran.”), and then foods and ordering food in a restaurant (“What would you like?” “I want/I would like…” “Here you are.” “How much is it?” “It’s __ lempiras.”) After class, we played a game with little colored balls where we each got five of one color (to tell which were ours), sat around the front tables, and had to make them into cups – kind of like beer pong but sitting down and with sand in the cups instead of beer. We’re going to have class on Monday next week as well since we missed a day this week (and last week) due to the power being out.
Had some real food this evening – didn’t get back from class til quarter to 9 or so, and Lola and Heide let me eat some of what they had left over from dinner – boiled potatoes, chicken patty, and broccoli…so good to have substantial food and not feel sick afterwards!

5/25
Sick today. Got up and showered to get ready for class, and just doing that tired me out so much that I went right back to bed. I talked with Eddie yesterday to say that I might not be able to make it to class, and gave him my keys, so he was able to take class for me with no problem. Stayed in bed til about 5pm, just went out to a pulpería to get some Gatorade and ginger ale. By the evening I was feeling a bit better, and spent some time skyping with Mom and Nana and then got ready to go to the adult class. At five to 7:00, the power went out, so no class, unfortunately. What timing! We all went over to Amy/Eddie/Anne/Thibaud’s house for dinner and I had some rice and a couple chips, and some lemon water… was feeling a lot better until later in the evening, so went back to go to bed.

5/24
Right after class this morning, I went home and slept, as I had a horrible stomachache. Had horrible diarrhea, so took some Cipro (antibiotic), which has gotten rid of that! Stomach still feels terrible, so spent most of the day in bed and just had a little rice and a banana for dinner. Koldo said he was at Funez’s talking to Danny about this coming weekend at Cayos Cochinos, and Danny’s brother, who is a reporter, came by and said that he’s here to do a segment because they found a dead body with five bullet holes in its head on the beach. They said it’s possible that it wasn’t killed here, but in Ceiba, and then thrown in the water and washed up here. Koldo asked when it was found, and it was when he was swimming at the beach – good thing he didn’t find it with his foot!

5/23
Juan and Sahory came over this morning at about 10 to 8, and said they were there early to clean up the classroom. They said they were going to clean it up really well so they could get a prize, and then make a schedule so someone would clean it every day. Turns out last week they cleaned it really well, so Eddie gave them a prize, and they thought that meant that anytime they clean it, they get a present…so we had to clear that up when Eddie got to class. We ended up giving them a prize but saying that from now on, prizes are only given out when we say so – we can’t be giving them out every day. The class was pretty small today. We went over “What’s wrong?”, “What’s the matter?”, and responses like “I have a cold,” I have a fever,” etc.
Martyn came by and asked if we could take his 10am class, too, so he could go to Ceiba, which was fine. We only had 2 students!
After class, I had lunch and did a ton of laundry. Martyn ended up not showing up for his 3pm class, either, so Eddie and I took that one as well. There were about 8 in that class, and they definitely have more energy than the other ones! But they’re a good group of kids, and learn pretty quickly.
After class, when the SOS people came back, Carlos, their driver, took us all to La Posta, where some of them caught a cab, and Heide, Lola, and I caught a ride with a couple in a HUGE pickup. The inside was HUGE (it was a Ford, but not sure which #), all leather, etc..the guy spoke English and said he lived in the States and likes American cars. When we were getting into Ceiba, he stopped at a feed store, and was like, I need to buy something, it’ll take about 10 minutes, do you want to wait? So we said, sure, if that doesn’t bother you. He bought a TON of the barbed wiring that people put around their houses here, and then brought us all bottled water…very nice! Then they took us right to the store we were going to – El Paiz. When we got back, the other girls went to use the internet and I had dinner and a shower, and got to Skype with Nana for a few. After Heide and Lola came back and ate, Heide had me youtube a couple of songs that she’d been singing and no one knew, and then an old Spice Girls song…quite funny watching them sing along! :)

5/22
This afternoon Heide, Lola, Koldo, Amy and I went to the rodeo that is at the fair by the Ceiba airport. It was definitely an interesting experience, as I’ve never been to a rodeo, though I don’t think it’s one I will be repeating! Amy and I left early as it got too difficult to watch the way they were treating the bulls. In addition to that part, though, they had a segment where they showed off some really nice horses. When we got back to El Porvenir, Amy came over so we could email a couple of places in Sambo Creek about staying there Friday night. When I went out to the patio, Nigel (the cat), had caught a gecko, so I picked him up so he’d drop it…which he did, and then the chicken proceeded to eat it while it was still alive! The worst part was the crunching sound as the chicken mashed it up with its beak! In the evening, we made lasagna, which turned out pretty well!

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