I was stuck in Honduras during the Pandemic!

Welcome to my final blog and in my opinion, this is definitely the craziest thing that has ever happened to me. 

 

It was very bizarre seeing Covid-19 slowly take over the other side of the world I wasn’t in, until it hit Honduras. Flossy and I were in our host brother’s hometown when we received the phone call to head back to the house immediately and (which was a 2 hour bus journey away) pack our bags as we were being sent home due to the pandemic. I began to cry as the pandemic became a reality and I was going to be leaving my host family and all of my students behind. I remember that whole journey back to our host family’s house Flossy and I just sobbed.

 

We told the news to our host mum, and she was very upset. We packed our things ready to go and then headed to church, wating for our lift. As soon as we left church, my host mum says, “oh no, the government have locked down the whole country, not allowing anyone to leave or enter the country for the foreseeable future!” I started to panic as I thought when will I get to see my family, will I be going to university in September, how long am I stuck here?

 

The schools shut down in Tomala, everyone started wearing masks and nobody allowed to leave the village and huge tree logs had been barricaded. As the days passed I just hoped that we would have news about going home. Project Trust were pushing and waiting for a government official document to allow us to travel to the capital , Tegucigalpa, for a flight to leave Honduras, but everyday it was declined- for one month!

 

Finally, the day came where we were picked up by the security team to escort us out of the country and driven to the capital. I was told to leave some bags behind and jump in very crammed the car for 11 hours. At every village and town, we were stopped by the police for our documentation from the government allowing us to travel. Not only that but they would spray down the car, our bags and US in disinfectant- I was soaked by the time we reached the capital! We checked to the hotel and the following day was our first flight. The only way to get us back was a private charter flight to Mexico with 20 of us volunteers. We had a handwritten plane ticket which was cool too. We took off and after an hour stopped at a location in Mexico for Covid and drug testing. Then we flew for another hour into the VIP terminal at Mexico City airport, which was very serial. There were 8 big white blacked out cars with men with earpieces waiting for us to drive us to the terminal where our British Airways flight to London was. I was still so anxious as I didn’t know if this flight would be cancelled, and I would be stuck in Mexico for the foreseeable! Fortunately, luck was on our side, and we boarded the plane, it took off and before we knew it we were in the UK.

However, I still had to get a flight to Glasgow. The airport was like a ghost town in Heathrow but even more so in Glasgow airport- it was just our flight! But I made it home eventually and was reunited with my parents and sister which was a moment I’ll remember forever.

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog, I had to shorten the story quite a bit as driving to the capital was so chaotic. If you would like to read a BBC article written about myself and Flossy, here is the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-52097813