Participants Blog

Entering into an entirely new world - Honduras 2011

After arriving in Honduras and settling into my host community, I had very mixed first impressions. The country itself was absolutely beautiful as well as my host community, which was rich with lush fruit trees and gorgeous and colourful scenery in every direction I looked. A part of my initial reaction after arriving here was that I had been dropped into the middle of paradise. However, that feeling was very quickly replaced with confusion and uncertainty about the people in my community and their way of life.
I was very nervous when I stepped off the plane in the nation¨s capital, Tegucigalpa. My mind was literally going in a million different directions because I was so confused as to how I was supposed to feel at that moment.
After an orientation camp which lasted 3 days, I was feeling much more at ease and a lot more comfortable with idea that I would be staying in Honduras for 3 months. In those short three days I was introduced to a lot of new information about Honduran culture and it made me excited for what was to come during my stay. It truly felt like an adventure that I was about to embark on, and at the time it seemed that I would have an easy road ahead.
Arriving in my host community was both exciting and also very emotional for me. The journey to the village called San Fransisco de Yojoa, took approximately 4 hours. We travelled a large portion of the way on a narrow and bumpy dirt road, leading me to think that I was about to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere, away from what I thought was normal civilization.
I remember thinking to myself when I first arrived here in San Fransisco that it was a really beautiful place. It seemed very quiet and less frantic than the city and the people seemed very happy and welcoming. Even though it might sound terrible to say, the people here were not as poor as I expected them to be. Or at least, didn´t seem poor, the way that I expected them to be.
When we pulled into my host family´s home, at that moment I remember being so overwhelmed that I really can´t even describe what it was that I was feeling. My family rushed outside to greet me and my very first interaction with any of them was with my host mother, Enma. She gave me an enormous hug and a very warm welcome in Spanish. I met her three beautiful daughters and I remember thanking God when I found out that the oldest could speak English. The house was small but much nicer than what I had pictured in my mind. I really had no idea what sort of living conditions I would be living in and so it was a suprise to see what my life was truly going to be like for the next three months.
My host family was extremely kind to me when I arrived in their home. Despite the immense feeling of being overwhelmed, my family truly seemed like they were a very special group of people.
One of the strongest moments of that first day was when the father came home after I had arrived. I went to greet him and the first words he spoke to me were “welcome to my home.” I remember feeling so happy because I knew that the family truly wanted me to be here and that they were just as excited to learn about me and my culture as I was to learn about theirs.
I was very unsure about how I felt when it came to the role of my hostmother and of my hostfather. Enma is a housewife who does all of the cooking and cleaning for the family. The father, Santos, is a salesman and so he is essentially the ´breadwinner´ of the house. My entire life I have been taught that men and women should share the roles of the household and that women are just as capable of doing work outside the home as men. My first impressions of my family in this way were more negative because I felt that Honduran society was not as advanced as it is in Canada and so therefore the people may not be educated properly on how men and women should lead their lives.
Fifteen chickens running around the yard, insects the size of my hand, people always running late, family members dropping by the house everyday, not allowed to flush toilet paper, 40 degrees Celcius weather, cold showers, lazy afternoons - just to name a few of the adjustments I was making. Needless to say, definitely NOT in Canada anymore!!!
The first day at my placement was unforgettable. I am working at a kindergarten class teaching english. The teacher that I work with had found out that it was my birthday a couple days before I arrived in San Fransisco and so she planned a beautiful welcome/birthday celebration for me. The children were all lined up outside the school to welcome me and took turns giving me hugs and introducing themselves. There was a cake and a piniata and all of the children´s parents were there taking pictures. I felt so blessed because they were so happy to have me. A part of me was worried because I was afraid that I might not live up to their expectations as an english teacher at the school. How much english can you teach to a kindergarten class of almost 30 students in 3 months?? 
I instantly fell in love with the kids, and I was happy to discover that 3, 4 and 5 year olds in Honduras really aren´t that much different from children of the same age in Canada.
Since the town where I live is so small, all the people knew who I was and what I was doing here. It was nice because the people were all extremely nice to me and very welcoming. I was truly overjoyed by the acceptance and appreciation of the people. My first impressions were definitely more on the positive side, however, my time here has never been easy. Right from the start I knew that this was going to be the most challenging experience I have ever embarked on in my life. I am so pleased to be able to say that I have no regrets and that I truly am having the time of my life.