A bacon roll. If only.

So after being out of Honduras for 2 weeks me and Mali were seriously missing some Baleada action. Now let me explain what Baleadas actually are. They are flour tortillas, much like the ones you have with fajitas, but these are handmade. And it is something else to see the women make these. they literally spin it out of a tiny bit of dough into this perfect circle, with a perfect thickness. It almost like pizza base throwing in its art.Once you have the tortilla base you then add the home made, freshly prepared refried beans, sour cream and salty cheese. This may not sound wholly appealing to everyone but there's just something about it that makes you come back for more, and more and even more. You can get a variety of different fillings to you Baleada. Egg, onion, chimol, meat, hot sauce, spicy veg. It really depends on where you buy them.Here in Trinidad we have an abundance of street vendors who sell they're Baleadas and they're all different. One lady does particulary good ones with spicy veg and hot sauce, another with a nice bit of pork and another who does baleadas sencilla (simply beans, cheese and cream). We have so many to choose from we spend our weekends eating the Baleadas from the different street vendors.  Anyway, to get to the point of why we were missing them so much.. It seems to be that only in Honduras can you get Baleadas. If you try to ask in any other country you simply get laughed at, or given an incredulous look and asked 'what are they?'. So for the two weeks that we were in Nicaragua, while the food there was amazing (I had some of the best street food ever in Leon. Definitely going to make a trip back there someday!), we couldn't stop thinking about Baleadas. So the moment we stepped foot back into Honduras we went in search of Baleadas. For the next two or three days I think we had Baleadas for lunch and dinner, and it was brilliant. We definitely satisfied our craving. 

After having sutffed ourselves full on Baleadas it was time to get back to work. We arrived in school to find we had been nominated to paint the classrooms and so began a week of painting. I seached out my scruffiest clothes, my already paint covered barcelona shorts and a dye covered top (washing done wrong... ). The outfit was topped off with a blue headscarf to protect my hair from paint, where it's an absolute nightmare to get out. Safe to say I looked ridiculous. I looked even more ridiculous at the end of the day when we walked home, covered from head to toe in white paint. No matter how hard I tried I never managed to keep my body paint free. Our first day was interesting.. There were two young guys from the college painting the outside of the school and Tato arranged for them to show us how to paint. I've done a bit of painting before, but it was amusing to watch him demostrate as though we were the idiots we looked like. Our lesson consisted of showing us how to pour the paint, get the paint on the rollers and actually put the paint on the wall. 'Suave, suave' was repeated over and over again. Meaning smooth or smoothly. After a week of painting 'suave' and coming home looking like a ghost we finally finished. And man I was glad to have finished. I think I consumed enough paint fumes that week to last me a lifetime!

Getting our classes for next year was a good moment for me. I've been given Science class for grades 3,4,5 and 6.  I love Science and I love teaching science, and I feel that I can put much more enthusiasm into it!

And this makes my classes and the actual teaching more fun. To be honest I was getting pretty sick of the grammar and phonics teaching... So far it's been great and I haven't had too many problems with awkward quiestions. Although I do start teaching human reproduction next week to 5th grade so any hints or tips are very welcome.

In ht eprocess of teaching my 6th grdae class about evoluntion and our ancestors, I've come accross a few interesting answers and I'd like to share one of them with you:

An answer from one of my students to the question 'How are people different to animals?'

'Mainly because the Holy Spirit inhabits their heart. Humans through the Holy Spirit know the differnece between right and wrong/good and evil. Humans are able to share the love of god with one another. Humans have a never ending desire to seek out and know god better.'

This answer highlights, to me, the difference that religion has had on these children's beliefs compared to what it had on my upbringing and this in turn highlights the complete difference in culture between these two countries.

Of course everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and this is a challenge I have to deal with when teaching a class of 12 who believe that God created the world in 7 days. I had an interesting discussion with this very same class about beliefs and cultures in different countries. I was explaining that there are many religions across the world and there are also people who did not believe in a God. They then asked the obvious question that was 'do you believe in God Miss?' My reply was honest and I said no. They looked shocked. One girl pointed outside at a tree and asked me, 'well then Miss, who made the trees?'. This conversation continued as I tried to explain my view that the world evolved through science. And the best thing about the conclusion of this lesson was that they didn't disregard this point of view. It helped them understand that there are many beliefs in the world and everyone should be entilted to their own point of view.

Unfortunately for the past 3 days I've been laid up in bed with a pounding head, body aches, joint pain and a fever. And to top it off I lost my appetite. After day 2 of lying in bed with a scarf over my head trying to sleep and wishing the horrible pain away I was sent to the doctor. After a thorough examination and lots of questions (all in spanish, my medical spanish is getting better!). He was concerned I might have dengue fever. Dengue fever is a viral infection that is transmitted by mosquitoes, is particularly nasty in those under 15 and just generally not nice. It causes flu like symptoms and there is no treatment apart from painkillers and lots and lots of fluids and time. Severe cases can result in hospitalisation. Unfortunately dengue is a big problem in my area, so this was a logical conclusion to my illness and my symptoms fitted. As a precaustion I was given painkillers and rehyration fluid and told to go home drink lots of fluids and rest. And to call the doctor if I got worse. If I wasn't on the mend by the next day he wanted to send me for a blood test to see if I did have dengue. After an absolutely terrible nights sleep. Where I slept for about an hour, uncomfortably trying to ignore the pain in my body, tossing and turning with a fever. I woke with a reduced headache, my body didn't ache quite so much and I didn't have a fever. I was on the mend! So now today, I am completely back to normal, no headache, body ache or fever. I am dengue free, rehydrated and starving. Craving a nice bacon roll. If only.