Honduras

I read this quote today and it inspired me to write this blog post:   “the only adventure you regret is the one you didn’t take”   Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if I didn’t take that leap of faith to go to Honduras. I wouldn’t have the best friends I have now; I wouldn’t be as educated in culture; and I believe I wouldn’t be as appreciative for everything.   During the Summer holidays whilst in Honduras I had the opportunity to further broaden my horizons and travel around Central America for two and a half months. Their holidays are middle November to beginning of February, so my friends and I wanted to make the most of living on that side of the world and take the bus around the continent!   Now, I could write a whole book on my travelling experience, so I am just going to highlight my favourite memories. First stop was Placencia, Belize. We had a few different stops in Belize and oh my goodness it is beautiful, and the locals are so lovely so w...

Welcome back to another blog. I’m sure if you are back you read the last line of my previous blog and are wondering what this crazy story is all about.   To set the scene… Flossy (my roommate and best friend) and I had just arrived back to our host family’s home after attending a quinciñera (which I sang at). Our host mum called us to the kitchen as there was someone she wanted us to be introduced to aka ‘the future President of Honduras.’ Now I didn’t really know what to say in response to this apart from shake his hand and be internally confused. A funny part of this story, which I’m sure Flossy won’t mind me mentioning, is that she misheard what my host mum said and thought she said ‘future president of Tomalá.' For those who aren’t familiar with Honduran geography, Tomalá is a tiny village in the mountains of Honduras, so Flossy excused herself to go to sleep. We both find this hilarious to this day as she literally didn’t realise just how important the person was in front of u...

The first thing we did when arriving in  Tomalá   (our village for the year) was play dobble with my host family. If you don’t know what dobble is, it is pretty much like snap but with pictures. However, do you know how hard it is to play dobble in a different language. My roommate and I playing in half English and half Spanish whilst everyone else is just shouting random words like “tree” in Spanish.  Anyway, that was just to set the scene of my first few minutes in  Tomalá . In this blog I am going to give an insight into my typical day in the life at the school and with my host family. I would like to add no day is ever the same in Honduras, one minute I could be teaching at the school and the next I am being driven by my host mum to another city to attend a wedding! But this will give you a rough idea. All the children were so excited to finally meet me just as I was so excited to meet them. I taught from kindergarten to 6 th  grade (4-12) and getting to kno...

  Honduras  Now, after telling many of my friends that I was writing this blog, their initial reactions were “of course you are writing a blog about your gap year!” Yes, I am  that  girl whose personality trait is now her gap yah, but I’ve just accepted that this is the way it was meant to be. I set off when I was 17 years old to travel to a completely different country, experience a completely different culture and language with completely new people and it was the best year of my life! I stayed with a Honduran family who spoke no English and only Spanish to teach primary children English between the ages of 4 and 12 for one whole year (which ended up being 8 months as the pandemic had to ruin it   ). My village Tomal á, Honduras To begin, I have a question for you all to think about: what is the first thing you think of when I say Honduras?   Is it the lush greenery flowing down the mountains which surround hundreds of quaint little villages with cobbles...