Retirement Lunches, Elections and an Exciting Visitor...

Update time :))

School has been pretty full on during the last few weeks and a lot of exciting things have been taking place in our little Candelarian bubble! Izzy and I were invited to a retirement lunch for two of the more prominent primary school teachers, Profe Lucia and Profe Armando. You are probably thinking that a retirement lunch isn't the most riveting thing but such a small village, this was like the event of the century, for the teachers and us anyways. It was held at 'La Finca Don Jorge', the new restaurant and pool on the hill we recently visited for Josue's birthday, and it was a lovely afternoon and so sweet of them to invite us. School finished early that day, and the wonderful Profe Aminta picked us up from our front gate in her massive 4x4 and we headed off up the hill. The ceremony was almost exactly how I had imagined it would be; the open air restaurant space was decorated with balloons and streamers and all our fellow teachers were there, ready to greet Profe Lucia and Profe Armando with a big billboard display they had made at school which had the two soon-to-be retirees faces blown up on it. Like every other Honduran celebration I have experienced, the afternoon consisted of A LOT of singing which was, of course, accompanied by overly emotional PowerPoint slides of the lyrics which meant that everyone had to participate - much to Profe Sonia's displeasure.

Lots of prayers and speeches followed, some of which Izzy and I were asked to give; after an initial moment of feeling like a deer in headlights as we had not been warned about this part, we both managed to stand up and say something special (and hopefully understandable), a true testament to the Spanish we have learnt so far. Profe Lucia and Profe Armando were each gifted a framed certificate recognising their hard work and commitment to the school as well as a garden chair which, to me was a rather strange retirement present, but they were very pleased with their chairs, especially Profe Lucia who spent the rest of the afternoon commenting on how she was going to spend the whole of her retirement in that one chair. So, they really hit the nail on the head with the presents, which made me laugh. After taking hundreds of photos and plenty more singing, we sat down to lunch and cake which was followed by relaxing in the beach chairs by the pool - which appealed greatly to Profe Lucia due to her newfound appreciation of lounge chairs - as we watched over Profe Aminta’s grandson Yefrin who had tagged along so that he could splash about in the water. A wonderful day to say the least, and also can we appreciate how good Izzy and I have become at 'adulting'? I mean, does it get anymore 'adult' than attending retirement lunches and discussing the weather and politics with our new friends who are the same age as our parents? I didn't think so ;))

Something else which recently occurred at school was the school election. According to my sixth graders, this happens at the beginning of every new academic school year, and oh myyyy was it a big deal. I have to say, the voting process for the new student council positions was savage, and so I have to give it to the kids who put themselves up for those roles. It was not an easy process to watch.

The way it started was with the handful of students from each class who had put themselves forward to represent their grade standing on the stage in the hall, in front of the rest of the school - school assembly style - and from here, the voting process commenced. Despite having just attended his retirement lunch, I couldn't help but laugh as I watched Profe Armando waltz up to the stage, microphone in hand, assume all authority and take charge - one week into retirement and it looks like he's already itching to come back, just couldn't stay away! Then, once everything was in place, the teachers of each grade worked their way down the rows of students, asking their classes to raise their hands in accordance with who they wanted to nominate from their class.

The nominee could then decide whether to accept or decline the nomination. Once the final group of nominees had been selected, they walked up to the stage and the teachers then pretty much repeated the process; they headed to their grades and collected votes for each nominee, reporting back to Profe Armando who then drew tallies next to the nominee’s names on a huge whiteboard at the front, keeping count of the votes.

Jeison very proudly heading up to accept his nomination :))

Absolutely nothing about this voting process was kept secret; everything was out in the open, meaning you could see exactly who had voted for who. As a result peer pressure played a vital role in the final outcome. however I was pleasantly surprised to see watch numerous occasions where a student went against their class vote, despite the booing and pleading to change their mind from their classmates; sometimes the pleas were so desperate you would have thought they were voting for something much more serious than just a school council election. For me, the best part was watching my first graders try and make up their minds on who to vote for, their hands shooting up and down every few seconds, changing their votes after discussing what to do with friends, their desperate decision-making often resulting in them casting multiple votes in the same round, bless them.

On the surface, it may seem as though this was just a simple primary school election, however in reality it represents something much bigger; it reflects the problems that Honduras and its political system faces on a daily basis. Corruption is one of its biggest issues, so teaching kids the importance of political transparency at such a young age is extremely important. Later that day, we spent the afternoon with Lety asking her about the school election and how it related to the Honduran voting system. We are very fortunate that Lety and Victor have always been very open and easy to approach regarding questions about politics, and have always been more than happy to sit down and explain things to us. She went into depth about why corruption is so prevalent right now, explaining how the current Honduran government's methods of ensuring they achieve the results they want and come out on top, time and time again, include bribery and acts of instilling fear in the opposition, forcing the hand of those who are in no position to argue. Scary stuff.

The second stage of the school elections involved the students lining up outside the hall and entering one by one to cast a ballot at the handmade polling station, monitored by my sixth graders. This time the question of 'who voted for who' remained anonymous, however the vote itself was publicised and Evelyn held the piece of paper above her head, presenting it to the crowd before the result was then written on the white board. In an attempt to maintain order during this final stage, only one student at a time was allowed inside the hall. Everyone else had to wait their turn outside; they watched as friends cast their votes, desperately crowding outside the hall and grasping the metal bars, frantically yelling at each other in hopes of changing minds one last time.

The day the winners were announced school was cut short and we took Genesis and a few of her friends down to the river for a swim which was lovely.

Some other special days which have happened recently involve Fathers Day which was adorable. Lety dressed Samuelito up to look like Victor which left us all howling in delight at the impeccable likeness between the two; the cherry on top was when she drew a beard on my 5 year old host brother with her eyeliner pencil. Incredible.

In other exciting news, Dania’s nephew was born! This was so exciting, and as soon as we found out that he had been born in Candelaria’s hospital, we ran off down the road to meet him.

When I say hospital, what I actually mean is a small, shabby building on a street corner which is made up of a few rooms and is very, very basic, a far cry from the hospitals we are familiar with; the medical beds are very and far between, there is a severe lack of sanitary precautions, the lighting is dim with the bulbs surrounded by buzzing mosquitoes which have been allowed in due to the very obvious absence of mosquito nets. Nevertheless, Dania’s younger sister was healthy and smiling, albeit exhausted, as we walked in to say hello. Dania's mum, another amazing woman I have been lucky enough to meet, introduced us to baby - who became Orlin Josue when he was named a few days later - who was only 12 hours old and already had my heart.

That little boy is going to grow up surrounded by the love and affection of not only 4 biological aunties, but also that of two extremely enamoured English volunteers who will love him forever :))

Now, last week was another good one, but for a very different reason - I had someone very special come and visit me. Unfortunately my family will not be able to come out to see me during my year out here, but I don't mind so much as I can face time and call whenever I want, given there is electricity that day and I have worked out whether the 7 hour time difference means I won't be calling them in the middle of the night. Having a visitor gave me the chance to welcome someone into my Candelarian bubble and show them my life here. To be completely honest, it was slightly scary bringing someone from the outside in as I couldn't imagine how my two different worlds would integrate, yet in reality, I really had no reason to worry. My host family absolutely loved having him around, and the fact that they could communicate with him in Spanish left Lety rather impressed and Victor beyond ecstatic. School was no different; my students had a ball of a time getting to know him, especially the boys who were overjoyed to have a big boy guy to play football and basketball with in the evenings, while I was happy to chill on the sidelines with my younger students participating in seemingly endless thumb war competitions.

I felt so unbelievably proud to be able to show him around Candelaria, taking him to my favourite spots and introducing him to friends we passed on the street, however being able to introduce the people I love to each other was a truly amazing thing. While we planned to spend the week in the village and at school, we were headed to Gracias - a city about 4 hours away - to meet up with the other volunteers. So after the family said their goodbyes to him and waved us off, Victor's hug and parting words of 'adios mi hija hermosa' making a little emotional even though I was going to be back in two days time, we hit the road.

Our weekend away was the perfect way to round up a pretty flawless week, and the fireworks at the fort of Fuerte San Cristobal wrapped it up perfectly.

Arriving home late on Sunday night after a long and tiring bus journey from Gracias, Izzy and I were greeted with the shockingly puffy and busted up face of our young host brother Josue. It turns out that over the weekend, he had fallen off his motorbike in attempt to avoid hitting a dog. Stray dogs run rampant around here and often just lie in the middle of the road, out for the count due to heat exhaustion, right in the way of cars and motorbikes. As the roads here wind haphazardly around the mountain sides, there isn’t a lot of space to swerve in avoidance of a dog or rogue rock, therefore Josue should be counting his lucky stars that he didn’t end up flying over the road ledge. Either way, that week I was feeling emotional and he was exhausted and in recovering mode so we spent a lot time together just relaxing and napping, watching videos and listening to his favourite English music, one song being ‘hot girl bummer’, much to my

Oh also, just the other day I was helping Genesis sort out her clothes when she causally mentioned something about local kidnappings. She dropped it into conversation so casually that I almost missed it, but once I picked up on it, we spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the recent goings on in the nearby village of Gualcince. After a lot of online research I failed to find anything substantial about these supposed kidnappings and Lety doesn’t seem to believe there is any truth to the rumours, however Dania explained how only the other week a child was snatched in Gualcince by men in a dark-coloured 4x4 (which isn't very helpful as only narrows it down to almost every car in Honduras). However, something like this is not to be taken lightly, and so as a result, they have upped the security at kinder and there is a woman who stands inside the locked gate at all hours as if on the lookout. Unlike kinder, the primary school doesn’t lock its gates during the school day, and in theory anyone could just come in if they fancied a poke about, however because Candelaria is such a tight-knit community, no one has ever felt the need for extra security measures.

Honduras is a dangerous country - there is no doubt about that - however the people here, especially in small villages like this one, are some of the kindest people I have ever known and they will always go out of their way to look out for one another. Everyone knows everything about anything and so if there were any strange cars or men in town, you would know about it almost as soon as they arrived; nothing goes unseen. Therefore, after our in depth discussion in the bedroom, Genesis Dania and I came to the conclusion that while we would keep our wits about us, we shouldn't spend time worrying about what we had heard. Nonetheless, I am going to make an effort to be more aware and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary for the next few weeks, and will make sure to walk home as many of my students as possible, just to be on the safe side.

That's all for now. Izzy and I have been keeping up with the news recently, especially anything regarding the COVID-19 situation which seems to be getting more and more serious by the day so I will post an update about how that will start to affect us here in Candelaria, which I am sure it will.

Here are some extra photos from the last few weeks which make me smile :))

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