A Year in Honduras: Getting wee'd on is all part of the day...

It's crazy to think that I'm nearing my tenth month here in Honduras and that I will be home in 2 months, I'm also coming up to my fith week here at the new project Miqueas, but it feels like it's been so much longer. It's been a great 5 weeks, I will even say that it's been the best five weeks of my year so far. At first I thought it would take a while to get settled into things here, with the project being so different to what I had been doing before, and also that I really didn't have that much experience working in a social care enviroment other than babysitting a few nights for parents friends, and that was for 2 or 3 children. Here I am responsible for up to 15 children, aged 1 1/2 to 4 at a time with the help of two other nannies (or tias as they are called here), that, for anyone who couldn't quite manage the math, is 5 children each. Which is challenging and demanding. The kids want your attention at all times, and you have to be cleaning up pee (we're going through a potty training stage at the moment), watching they don't eat objects like crayons or bugs, making sure they eat their food and not throw it across the room or to the monster under the table, keep them from making a bid for freedom through an open door/window, changing nappies, washing hands, keeping an eye on the mischevious few who like to cause all sorts of trouble and, of course, keeping these wonderful children entertained and happy. Because they are, they are all wonderful children. And I know that might sound a bit soppy, but I don't care. They are actually some if the nicest, funniest and friendly children I've ever met. And there's a lot of them. There are so many little characters among them, from Jessler, who likes to sit on your knee and fart, whisper 'gassssss' and shoot this cheeky little grin, to Juan Jose who always greats me with an HOLA, and then at night when I put him to bed he whispers in my ear, 'hasta manana!', to Jefferson, the most mischevious of all, who when caught doing something wrong he drops everything, puts his hand behind his back and looks at you like the most guilty person in the world trying to act innocent and then there's Carmencita, with her anglelic looks and curly hair, who loves to sing 'Incy wincy spider' about 100 times everyday, she's so cute, you don't even mind singing one song with her for a whole afternoon.

So two weeks ago was a week of firsts, I attended my first Baby Shower, my first Bridal Shower and my first Honduran wedding. All here at Miqueas 6.8. So the first Baby Shower was for on of the tias, Tia Ruby, who was leaving to have her second child, a wee baby boy. We had a chinese for lunch, drank lots of fresca (coke), watched as she recieved her gifts and wished her well, and she was off. Here in Honduras woman have a month before the birth and then 40 days after the birth. All unpaid maternity leave. It's not a lot, and so lots of women have no choice but to return to work very, very soon after they have had their child. A lot of them will barely take the 40 days because they simply cannot afford it.

The second first was the bridal shower. Another of the Tias, Tia Bertha, was getting married that weekend, so we threw a surprise bridal shower, with dinner (fried chicken, fries and rice!), games (make a wedding dress out of toilet roll) and goodbyes. Bertha who was the mission's first nanny, was leaving altogether. Her husband-to-be lives about 6 hours from La Colorada and that's just way too much of a commute! After much hilarity with the toilet roll dresses, there was a more sombre moment as the goodbyes were said, all of them were very touching, and you could see that Bertha was a tia that was well respected and going to be greatly missed. One of the girls, Madison, said a very sweet goodbye to her, she started crying and very soon after the whole room was too!

The third, and final, first was the Honduran Wedding. The wedding was taking place at the Miqueas Misson as Tia Bertha wanted all the children to be able to attend, imagine trying to take 38, 2-14 year olds to a wedding, and keep them surpervised and (semi) out of trouble, and try to enjoy the wedding. IMPOSSIBLE. So Bertha decided to have it here, in the big upstairs hall. I had the job of organising outfits for all the children and so I spent the week before, sweating it out in the upstairs bodega, rummaging through all the boxes of donated clothes to find outfits for the 38 children. The girls were relatively simple, early into the rummage I found a box full of party style dresses of various colours, shapes and sizes. All I needed to do was find enough of the various sizes and make sure they fitted. After that it was onto the boys, I needed shirts, trousers for all, and then ties and waistcoats for others, finding all this stuff, and then sorting them into wearable/matching outfits was a challenge. I spent a good few hours trying to figure all this out. For the younger kids it didn't really matter, but the older ones have suddenly become fashion concious, and wanted to look just right.. So as the time for getting ready approached, I had all the outfits on hangers in the various rooms. Trying to remember which was for which child was the biggest challenge, having 38 outfits and 38 children of all different sizes, trying to remember exactly which was for what child took a lot of thinking. The girls went smoothly, and they headed off to get their hair done by some other volunteers, and then came the boys. After theit showers they were sent to me. underwear had to be found, socks put on and then finally thier clothes. 'I want this one, I want that shirt, but these pants.. I don't like this colour.' was heard a lot. After many changing, and mixing and matching the boys were ready to go. Almost. They still had to get the lathings of hair gell and the spray of aftershave. Then they were really ready. This gave me approximiately 5 minutes to get a shower, and change out of my sweaty, minging leggings in time for the wedding. A rapid shower and a qucik change and I too was ready to roll.

As for the wedding, I didn't really see too much of it. We were sitting at the back with the children, and as it was one of the Tias getting married all the other Tias wanted to see what was going on. Which, after all, is fair enough. I didn't mind letting them watch their friend and collegue get married while I was clambered upon and chasing misbehaving children. The bride did look beautiful in her, extremely frilly, white dress, the hall was very nicely done up in a red and cream design and all the guests looked lovely.

It was a busy introduction to a Honduran wedding, but a nice one.

So now, we are two nannies down. I have become a replacement for one of them in the afternoons, which means that from 2pm until 7pm I am with the toddlers. Feeding, playing, changing, telling them off, bathing and putting them to bed. It's hard work. 15 toddlers and three nannies, and boy do these kids wear you out. But I love it. They never fail to make me laugh at least once every 5 minutes, they endless changing (kids just seem to attract dirt and food to their clothes) becomes a game, dinner becomes a lesson in not to through food at people, and bedtime is a time for hugs, kisses and 'hasta mananas'. I have been working as the replacement nanny for about 2 weeks now, and I've been peed on a least 6 times. It happens when you least expect it. And it's usually just after you've asked them if the need to go 'pee pee'. There's a vigorous shake of the head, and then, you feel a warm, wet patch on whichever part of your body the are sitting on, be it your knee, leg, hip.. And you know, you're going to have to change yourself and the child. There are a few repeat offenders here, but unfortunately they seem to be the two cutest children in the world. And so you can't help but to pick them up, and eventually get wee'd on. I suppose it comes with the territory. And hopefully they will be perfectly potty trained, by the time I leave.....

I have yet to be poo'd on, although I know it's only a matter of time. I had a close shave the other day, I lifted up the youngest of the children, a boy called Olvin, put my hand on his nappy and was about to place him on my hip, when 'splatttt' poo just flew out EVERYWHERE from the sides of his nappy. All over the floor, all over his shorts, but thankfully it managed to miss me comepletly. Lucky escape. Very lucky.