I have decided that there are two types of people in this world: those that can learn a language at the click of a finger, and those that stumble, struggle, and mispronounce their way to something that slightly resembles a coherent sentence. I very much fall into the latter category and despite some noticeable advances in my Spanish speaking abilities (thanks mostly to our intense and enlightening daily lessons and some of my Spanish speaking and oh so patient fellow volunteers) I'm still a long way off where I would like to be.
As I come to the end of my time in Honduras, I think back on the last nine months I’ve spent in the country and working on the ICS programme with Progressio. These have been the most varied and challenging nine months of my life, through which I have learnt so much and have fallen in love - with another part of the world.
As we come to the end of our 10 weeks in Honduras, we have been reflecting on our experiences as team Yamaranguila and as individuals. Collectively we have made improvements to the local community centre, run four entrepreneurial skills workshops, held three events at the local school to promote a culture of peace, spearheaded a community clean-up, run an entrepreneurial recycling workshop, and contributed to the construction of an eatery business for the local youth network.
I have the right to... play, have water, food, security, education, healthcare, shelter, and freedom of expression.
If you were to walk past the local school near Yaramaguila, Honduras, on 19 August you would have heard approximately 120 excitable children aged 4-13 shouting in both English and Spanish 'Tengo el derecho a...'/I have the right to...'.
Every morning, I sit looking out my host family’s front window, onto the busy street in the centre of La Esperanza. People bustle by: rushing to work, selling vegetables door to door, or just walking around town. In the mornings the buses from the rural communities stop outside our house; they are the old yellow school buses sent from the US, which are crammed with people from the nearby mountains on the inside and toppling with huge bags of produce on the roof.
Moving into a new home, with a new family, who don’t speak any of your native language, is always going to be a daunting experience. Pulling up to the shop of our family, with the house behind, and the family stood out in front, was no exception. The members of the family we met first were Jenaro, the dad of the family, Joaquina, the matriarch, and Gerson, the 13 year old son. All had welcoming smiles on their faces and seemed overjoyed to have us.
As part of our project, which focuses on livelihoods and entrepreneurship, we have been finding out about the employment situation in our local area by conducting surveys and talking to members of the community. From the conversations we have had, it is clear that there is a lack of employment opportunities in the area. Therefore our project, which includes the building of an eatery business in our community to provide employment, for the young people of the youth network and teaching entrepreneurial skills, has life changing potential.
Unsurprisingly, one of our main topics of conversation at dinner time with our host family is food, what we like, what we don't like and what types of food are typical to our countries. After one particularly in depth conversation about our favourite foods at home, our mum said jokingly... "So when are you going to cook for us?!"
She immediately began to laugh, but to her surprise, we replied "How about Saturday evening?" She seemed a little ambivalent to let us loose in her kitchen, but agreed to let us have a go cooking for the family on her traditional Honduran ‘chiminea’!
We are currently under the impression that our relationship with the local community is very positive with regards to sports. Numerous young people in the area have come under the influence of our campaign to increase awareness of and engagement in rugby where we are currently living in Honduras, which has involved passing drills and games with youths ranging in age from five to 13 in the area. This has resulted in a palpable enthusiasm for the sport despite our lack of resources.
Over here in sunny La Esperanza we have been lucky enough to be working alongside a group of wonderful national volunteers, both from the local community in La Esperanza and the capital Tegucigalpa. Working with the national volunteers over the last few weeks it has struck me how their volunteering experience differs from ours. In our 5th week now and we UK volunteers still have much to learn about this alien culture, we are still getting used to a diet of refried beans and continue to battle daily with the depths of Spanish grammar.
