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GVN Home > honduras > diaries

Meredith Fulp writes

...about her experience while volunteering in Honduras.

Day 2 - 18 May 2006
I arrived in Honduras yesterday and had a quick lunch in Tegucigalpa before catching a bus to La Esperanza. It was a 4 hour bus ride, but the mountain scenery was gorgeous and they had futbol on TV (and I slept half the ride).

My family in La Esperanza is very nice. There is mama, and 3 of her 4 children: her 19 year old son and her daughters who are 15 and 18. The papa is working in Maryland. My room is very simple: 2 metal frame beds, a plastic table and chair, and a rack for some of my clothes. It has been a little difficult for me to get used to the bathroom situation, there is one bathroom that is shared by the family and there is no door, there are curtains in front of the shower, a toilet stall curtained off, and a stall with a door. The food that I have been served is good. I had some kind of stuffed tortilla for breakfast and chicken enchiladas for dinner this afternoon.

My Espanol is holding up alright. I can get through one-on-one conversations and tell people what I need, but can't really follow the Hondurans when they are talking to each other. No one here can pronounce my name, it's been funny listening to them try over and over again.

I went to the school today where I am going to teach and they gave me a schedule. I sat and watched the recess; the children were very interested in me and very talkative. They have big eyes and big smiles. There are 9 grades, I will teach grades 7-9 3 times a week and the lower grades only once a week. Each lesson is supposed to be 45 minutes and I am expected to come up with the material myself. So this will take some planning....

Funny story: I hitched a ride on the back of a truck with some of the teachers from the school back to La Esperanza. In the area of the city where I am staying, the streets have no names, and the houses have no numbers, so this is a disaster waiting to happen for someone such as myself who has no sense of direction. Since I came in last night in the dark, all I knew of the city was the brief glimpse I got in the morning when I was taken to the school, and that I had been told my house was near the Save the Children office. So the truck let me off in the city and the driver gave me directions to the office, which I found, but for the life of me could not find the house, I only knew it was nearby. So I wandered around for a while and then the same driver came by and picked me up again. We rode around for 10 minutes with him asking "where do you live" and me saying "I don't know". He was very nice and patient and stopped and asked people if they knew my mama until we found the house. Turns out that I had walked right by it earlier....

Day 5 - 21 May 2006
I've spent the last couple of days becoming more comfortable with my surroundings and hanging out with my Honduran family. Friday I taught introductions and numbers to grades 1-3. The younger kids are so precious, they will just come up to me and stare and smile. The first thing they asked was for me to take their picture, they love seeing it on the camera. After they got comfortable with me, they wanted to show me everything, their book-bags, dolls, etc and tell me what color they were. Teaching them is a little hard, they have short attention spans and I have to keep things very simple. The older kids like to practice their English with me, I start their lessons next week. I looked through one of their notebooks to see what they have already learned. I bought poster size paper and colored pencils and markers for making visuals. I guess I will do some internet research on subjects to teach, I want to do a good job, but I feel kind of clueless.

Friday night I went out to a bar with 'mi hermano honduran', it was nice. There are only a couple of places in the city to hang out. He showed me a place where you can climb the side of a small mountain and look out over the city, its very peaceful and beautiful. It's a little colder here than I thought it would be, turns out La Esperanza is among the highest of altitudes in Honduras. And it is the rainy season now, so it rains almost every day in the afternoon and evening. The roof on the house is metal and sometimes it rains so hard that you cannot hear anyone speaking. Makes it a little hard to sleep. That and the 50 dogs that live in the neighborhood and insist on barking all night. There is some creature that insists on attacking my window every night and scaring the heck out of me. And of course, there are the roosters that start crowing at 5 in the morning. But I am getting used to it.

I have spent a lot of time just hanging out with the family, it has been very nice, they are so friendly. Everyone looooooves futbol, the family cheers for the olimpia honduran team, and they played last night, there was lots of energy in the house. Mi hermano and I are getting along very well, he listens to as much American rock music as he does Latin, and he likes Spongebob Squarepants, who they call "bob esponja". Adios for now!

My weekend away! - 30 May 2006
I took a couple of days off school and went to the coast for the weekend with a couple of other volunteers from England.

Our first night was in San Pedro Sula, where we did nothing to talk about, it's just a large metropolitan area.

We bussed to Tela on Friday and spent the day at the beach, it was absolutely gorgeous. Clear warm water, palm trees on the beach, with mountains in the background... It's a relatively quiet beach, not much tourist activity. Our hotel was fabulous, great oceanside view and pool. We hung out on the beach and went for a ride on an inflatable banana, lol, which everyone must do once in their life... At night we hung out at the couple of beachy restaurants and bars. It was very hard to leave the next day.

Saturday, we arrived in La Ceiba, the third largest city in Honduras, known for its nightlife. We stayed in a dorm style hostel for the night, it was very cheap and nice. We had dinner at a tree-top restaurant with an ocean view called Mango Tango, it was beautiful. Then we went to a bar, La Palapa, which was basically a bamboo hut with a straw roof, and great atmosphere.

Sunday morning we literally rode in a tank up into the Pico Bonito National Forest. We got a tour guide and went into the Rio Cangrejal. We waded through the river and climbed huge rocks and then jumped off into the rapids. At first I was really scared, sometimes we were a good 20 feet up, but I got used to it. Then we floated downstream for a bit and got our rafts. The river was kind of low because they apparently haven't had rain in 2 months and the raft got stuck in rocks sometimes.... But it was still a lot of fun, we went over 1 class 5 rapid, a 5 foot waterfall. We went back to the lodge and lounged at their riverside pools, the jungle scenery was so beautiful. I got to take a little siesta in a hammock tied amongst the trees, it was very relaxing.

We spent the night at the lodge there. The forest was quite loud at night...and hot...and dark, but it was neat. In the morning we hiked into the forest and went on a canopy tour. They have a course of zip-lines secured from tree to tree, and you just kinda fly over everything, right by trees and over the river, it was really fun. The website with pictures: http://www.jungleriverlodge.com/

Then I bussed it back to La Esperanza, it took 7 hours with 1 bus change, and I got in right as it was getting dark, so it was perfect. The bus ride was long, but beautiful. Especially near the coast where there are tropical fruit trees everywhere. The entire country has so much life, with green expansive farms, colorful flowers, and livestock.

A Typical Day - 1 June 2006
So I just realized that I haven't really described a typical day for me down here, so here goes...

I get up in the morning to the sound of roosters, dogs, or cats attacking the roof of the house. I usually get up around 7.30 or 8. I get ready and pack up my stuff, and Mama makes me breakfast. Breakfast can be fruit, homemade pastries, cereal, or tortillas and beans, it's always a surprise. Then I walk about 5 min into town and wait at a corner for trucks passing by that are headed up the mountain. Sometimes I only have to wait 15 min, sometimes an hour, it's unpredictable. I jump in the back of the first one that comes by and sit/stand/cling on for the 20 min ride up into the mountains where the school is located (Chiligatoro). Sometimes the trucks are packed and the ride is a little uncomfortable, but when it's not and you're not fearing for your life, the ride is very pleasant, the mountains are gorgeous.

Monday-Wednesday I teach from 10-12:30, grades 7-9, 45 min each. Thurs (grades 4-6) and Fri (grades 1-3) I teach from 9-11, about 30 min each. The kids all live in the mountain community, they are mostly farmers and very poor. The school is assisted by Save the Children Honduras and the younger kids get a free lunch of tortillas, beans, and bananas. Most classes have 30-40 kids, and there are 2 sections of the 2nd and 3rd grade. The older children are of course easier to teach, they pay attention and take notes, some of them write in English in one color and Spanish in another. The middle grades are a bit of a handful and it's hard to tell if the young ones understand anything. I usually hang out and watch their recess, which is always soccer.

So then I walk back to the main road and wait for a truck going down the mountain. My afternoons and evenings are kind of scheduled around the rain. If it is sunny, I can't stand to be in my room, because the metal roof makes it like an oven in there. I like to sit in the backyard and read, or watch TV with the kids in the family. I usually go into the center of La Esperanza once a day, it's about a 15 min walk from the house. There is a little park and a couple of restaurants and the internet cafe that us gringos hang out at. There aren't many other volunteers here at the moment, but we try to meet up once a day to hang out in the afternoon or go to dinner and speak some English.

Mama serves my dinner around 5 and it is very good. It's usually a platter with beans, fruit, egg, lettuce, tomato, meat, and tortillas. They blend fresh fruit into the water, like coconut or raspberries, and it's delicious. I get a shower (freezing cold!) in if the water is running, sometimes you just have to wait until the next day. The electricity is kind of spotty too, it usually goes out at least once a day for no reason at all, and the whole city screams, but it's usually just for a minute. If I'm not out with other volunteers I usually plan my lessons for the next day after dark while half watching the crazy telenovelas that Mama likes. And that's it, I'm usually in bed by 11.

Time is really flying by here. Life is simple but happy. Thanks to everyone who is emailing me and sending love, I miss you all very much!

One more day in La Esperanza - 8 June 2006
I can't believe I only have one more day of teaching, I am not ready to leave, time has flown so quickly. I feel like I'm getting much better at teaching. It's hard coming up with basic subjects that the kids haven't done already. I have a book but it really isn't a lot of help. Some of these kids come to school every day in the same Christmas and Halloween sweaters, obviously donated from the first world. After school, they return home and help out around the house. Many do not have electricity or plumbing. These kids don't go shopping at the mall, they don't worry about what they are going to wear to the party Saturday, and they don't go on vacation.

I've spent the most time with the older kids, which has advantages and disadvantages. On the good side, they will take notes for an entire 45 minutes; I don't have to entertain them. Some of them are very excited about learning English and I have been impressed at how quickly they grasp the new vocabulary I give them. On the negative side, 15-16 yr old boys are very difficult. If there is not another teacher in the room they will test me by wrestling or shouting out the English cuss words they know.

At first I had a lot of trouble with the younger kids, but things have gotten better since I decided to shorten their class periods. Originally they wanted me to teach for 45 minutes, but I've shortened it to about 20 min, and this is much more effective. The kids are so cute, they will copy down what I write and then show it to me for approval, and I put a little check or smiley face on their paper.

Today I had the brilliant idea of walking home from the school. I think I was just very excited that the sun was out, it has rained non stop for the last 4 days. It took me 2 hours, and my legs ache right now. But I did it.

Life at the homestay is going well. One of my sisters here has been on a scary movie kick and I have unfortunately been subjected to them.

Goodbye to Honduras - 11 June 2006
My last day in La Esperanza was Friday, it was very sad, I almost cried when I said goodbye to my family. I had one last night out with the volunteers, we went to dinner and a couple of bars, it was a lot of fun.

Things I will miss from La Esperanza:
-Mama. She always sang in the kitchen while she cooked. And her cooking was great. It was a little different at first, but now I love frijoles and plantains.
-The people. Everyone was so nice, they said "Adios" when passing in the streets, and I was told that I was beautiful more times by people I met (men and women) in the time I was there than I have in the US in the last 5 years. This is encouraging when you are walking around in the same clothes day after day with no makeup and your hair going 5000 different ways...
-The streets, the mountains, the scenery, the music, the soccer...
-The other volunteers. I met some fantastic people from all over the world. And not just from GVN, but other organizations. An instant bond forms when you meet a new volunteer here.
-And of course the kids, the whole reason I came here. I'll always remember their smiles.

I've spent the past couple of days on the north coast of Honduras, it's a nice change of scenery but it's hot. It's a little weird to be traveling by myself, but I feel comfortable. I'm staying in Puerto Cortes, the main port of Honduras. Today I took a day trip out to Omoa, a small fishing village, very cute. I was a little disappointed that the beach is so dirty and there was no swimming or lying out, but I got to tour a cool old fort.

I feel like I can't truly convey my entire Honduran experience to you, and that my pictures won't do it justice either. It's really the people that make the experience. The poverty here is striking: 50% live in poverty and 30% cannot read or write. To read facts is one thing, to see life here and to talk to people here is completely different. Earthen shacks on the hillsides with naked children running around outside with the chickens, hungry people begging for you to buy something, drunks passed out in the street, child prostitution: middle aged gringos frolicking on the beach with girls that can't be older than 13, children who haven't seen their father in years because he went to the US for work, the smell of filth on people that you pass... Watching or reading the news here is a must; you see a lot of issues from a different perspective: the growth of AIDS in the country, kidnapping, protests and strikes over working conditions, international affairs... This is the ugly side of Honduras, but it cannot be ignored. And in spite of this, I do not have one complaint. I got my fair share of harassment in the streets, but I never put myself in a bad situation and I never felt threatened. I really wish I had more time here, there's so much more of Honduras I want to see. I am very glad I decided to volunteer here and would do it again in a second. I would encourage anyone thinking about volunteering in another country to do it; put yourself outside your comfort zone and learn about the world.

OK, off my soapbox...

Tomorrow I head off to Belize to meet my mom!!! I'm very excited. I'll be taking a large motor boat from Puerto Cortes to Placencia in Belize, takes about 4 hr. It costs $40 instead of $300 to fly and I'm cheap... So everyone keep your fingers crossed that I get through customs, it doesn't storm, I don't get sick, and we don't get attacked by pirates...