A Year in Honduras: Honduras, farewell for now.

My lovely and faithful blog audience I would like to thank you for reading and keeping up with my blog throughout the year, you followed the highs and lows of my year, and it's always nice to see that people are actually reading this blog, and returning to it on a weekly basis, even though my blogs most definitely have not been that regular! So as a last blog I thought I would just share with you guys a little of what I've learned.

But before I do this, I would like to again (I say again because I have said this before, but it was a year ago, and well, I'd like to say it again) say thank you to all the people who helped me out with my fundraising, and I mean every aspect of my fundraising. From the people who donated money to the people who gave me lifts to school with a car full of home baking, the people who organised events for me to the people who spread the word. Many people did many awesome things and THANK YOU. Because without the help from you, I wouldn't have been able to come out here for a year, and have an amazing and (slightly clichéd I know but..) life changing experience, in the fantastic country that is Honduras. I say life changing because it is. When you move to a country on the other side of the world at age 17, you're going to come back a little different. I experienced things I had never encountered before and deal with situations that left me miles outside my comfort zone. I've had ok days, bad days, terrible days and then days that make you want to cry, I've been sick, I've been so tired that I feel that I can't go on, I've had all of my valuable possessions stolen but never once did I want to go home, because once that bad/terrible/made you cry day is over (and after a good old cry), another begins and it has a world of possibilities in it. Throughout this year, I've had so many good days, so many brilliant days, that it puts your ok/bad/terrible/crying days into perspective. And you move on from those days, you don't let it spoil those days that are to come and you certainly don't let it spoil those wonderful days that you've had and the awesome memories you've made.

When I first decided to go and live in Honduras for a year people asked me 'Why?' apart from the volunteering placement and the overriding feeling I had to help people, I was never really sure of the answer. I could never put my finger on why I wanted to go and live in a small country practically nobody had heard of, that has the highest murder rate in the world, is very dangerous and anyone that had heard of it didn't have anything good to say about it. And I suppose I can answer it now, it was for the challenge. I wasn't ready to go to University. And I wanted to do something that would challenge me, something that I had never done before, somewhere somewhat obscure that I hadn't really heard of and be able to learn and help other people learn. And after a year, of living, learning and loving it. I feel that I have done the right thing. I feel that I have completed my challenge.

So what have I actually learned this year. To say 'a lot' would be an understatement. I've learned (as the Scots so eloquently put it) 'hunners'. I now have a pretty decent grasp of Spanish, a little more work on some verb conjugations and I could potentially be fluent, I am an ace mosquito killer, I can sew and make clothes, I am advanced Scuba Diver, I've become an english teacher and a nanny, I can now barter with even the toughest of traders, I know when someones trying to rip me off, I know that crying can be a good thing, and that laughing is the best cure, I can wake up at any hour and be ready to work (no matter how little sleep I've had), I can travel around Central America without getting (that) lost, I have learned how to save as much money as possible without starving, I know that wherever you go in Honduras baleadas are the safest bet if you don't want to be sitting on the toilet for the next week, I can sing the national anthem and tell you why there are 5 stars on the Honduran flag, I learned to live independently without mum, dad or grandparents to tidy up after me, I can now make the dirtiest of white shirts gleaming white, I can almost count to 10 in Welsh.

On a more serious note, this year has taught me a lot, I've learned a lot about myself, about my limits, what I can achieve and that I don't give up easily. My motto as a small child was always 'I do it self' and I suppose that this has been relevant this year, but I also learned that asking for help isn't always a bad thing and sometimes you just need that extra hand. I learned a lot about a new culture and fell in love with it, and the people, their personalities and histories, I've learned, firsthand, how people live in poverty, and get by. I've learned that education is key, education is the way forward and if you can promote and help with education wherever you go, be it, at home, on holiday, in your job or as a volunteer, you're doing a good job.

If I've changed, looking back at myself at the beginning of the year, it's that I've become more confident, more independent and more mature, more adventurous, I feel that I can do anything if I set my mind to it, as some people say 'the world is my oyster'. I try everything that's thrown at me, be it to draw a 6ft spongebob or an interesting local delicacy.

Even though I've been up for trying new things I still have a serious aversion to eggs, which unfortunately are abundant in this country, and I still hate mushrooms (they're not as popular..). I've fallen in love with the food here, with various combinations of refried beans, torillas, avocado, chicken, plantain, rice. Sounds simple, but nothing can beat a plate of Honduran fried chicken with tajadas, cabbage and yellow sauce (mixture of mayo and mustard..) or a baleada with avocado.

I'll be missing a lot of things from here, food included, you just can't get fried chicken like that in Scotland. I'll miss the climate, where in the wet season it rains for an hour every day at 4pm, in the summer it reaches over 40 degrees, and the winter where the coldest it gets is 20 degrees, that I can jump on the bus and go away for a weekend of diving in the Caribbean, the music - who doesn't love the mixture of reggae and country music that blasts from the houses and buses at all times of the day, the people that you meet along the road, some of them friends for life, the little patches of paradise that you plan to come back to, the people I've been working alongside that couldn't be more welcoming and helpful, but most of all, I'll miss the children I've been looking after. They have a place in my heart and always will. When you spend 8 hours or more a day with the kids, you learn so much about them, you can't help but grow attached and start to love them. They make me laugh everyday, every hour, sometimes every minute. Even when they misbehave you can't help but be reminded of things that you did as a child. You become part of your life and them part of yours. So when I leave Miqueas 6.8 tomorrow morning for the last time, you can bet I will be crying. But as everything, things must come to an end and there are other volunteers ready to move into Miqueas to start their year.

But I will be looking forward to coming home. It's been a year after all, and I suppose my family would want to see me. And, of course, I wouldn't mind seeing them too. And my friends. I have my homecoming meal all planned out (scallops, sirloin and New York cheesecake), and a list of things I want to do; having a bath, drinking water from the tap, eat dad's food, wear a wooly hat (without overheating and dying, although I've been hearing that home is pretty hot right now, just my luck that it will be back to normal as soon as I land in Glasgow!), eating bacon, having a warm shower and cycling my bike. Just simple things that I haven't done since I left home.

So Honduras, farewell for now, I will be back. You've been a blast, and definitely nothing like I thought the 'murder capital of the world' would be.

Scotland, I'm coming home, be prepared. I'll be seeing you soon, in the rain.