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| View of the reef. |
March 13, 2013
The first day of the trip! Our flight didn't leave until late in the evening, so I worked all day and then was in a mad rush to find 2-piece bathing suit that fit. I was able to find one around 4:30pm and booked it home to pack, as I hadn't started yet (oopsies). I picked out everything I wanted to bring and set out all the donations I intended to bring and set to packing. When I was almost done I realized that the suitcase I was using had a GIANT hole in it, near one of the wheels and it was beyond repair, especially since it was almost 7pm and I was leaving for the airport at 9pm. I wandered around the house and finally found a bag of Matt's that would work. Unfortunately, this bag was a bit smaller than the one I originally packed so I had to leave a bunch of my stuff behind, as I wanted enough room for the donations (school supplies, toys, vitamins, etc). Long story short - finally got everything sorted and got picked up by Karisa, whose sister Stefanie is one of my best friends and was coming with me to Roatan. We made it to the airport,checked in and met up with the rest of our party (6 others - Holly, Mike, Corey, Ron, Selina and Leslie), boarded the plane and slept most of the way to Houston.
March 14, 2013
Landed in Houston exhausted and hungry after a long flight. It was about 5am by the time we landed and just after 6am when we made it through customs and security. We ate breakfast in the airport and Stef and I ventured away from the others in order to find a place to nap. We overlook two benches so we could spread out/lay down and nap. We boarded the plane to Roatan at 1040am and made it to Roatan at 1230pm (it was a 3 hour flight, but there was an hour time change). Landing in Roatan was interesting - the airport is so small (especially compared to Houston's massive airport) and as the plane was coming down all I could see out of my window was water and I kept thinking "Is there going to be a runway here soon, or....??" but GOOD NEWS! there was a runway and we landed safe and sound on the ground. We were all so excited to be leaving behind Canada, the cold and the snowstorm that was blowing in as we were leaving and then as we stepped off the plane...it was raining. But, it was still 30 above, so of course no one was complaining (also, because of the lovely humidity my hair immediately began to poof and I looked like Diana Ross before we even got out of the airport).
After
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| The Bungalow Stef and I shared |
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| Two of the West Bay Lodge Parrots |
March 15, 2013
Woke up this morning to more rain - but again, at least its warm and its not snowing! Stef and I hung out around the hotel, making use of the hammocks on our deck.
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| Hammocks on our deck |
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| View from our deck |
We had all decided that we would go to a Rotary Club fundraiser (for polio eradication) that night, so back to the hotel we went to clean up and get ready. We headed to Flower's Bay for the Fundraiser, which was a wine and cheese tasting (I think I tasted more cheese than wine) and a raffle. We wound up eating supper at the restaurant it was at, but Leslie was the only adventuresome one and tried conch (I stuck with chicken). After supper we headed back to the hotel and went down to the beach to Bananarama to have a drink. It was nice with a light breeze coming off the water - and then it started to pour, so we called it a night.
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| Stef and Holly and Bananarama |
March 16, 2013
Today was our first volunteer day and the sun was shining. We all went to the Sand Castle Library and Education Center, where they lend out books and materials to home-schoolers, teachers and non profit organizations for FREE and also offer FREE classes to the kids on the island who can't afford to go to school for various reasons and there is a homework club for the kids who do go to school. Adults have the chance to learn English at the center, but have to pay a fee for classes. We did some cleaning up, some minor repairs and a few of our more creative party members built a miniature golf course using palm fronds, rocks and coconut shells to use with the kiddos for fun and to teach some math concepts. It was amazing! The whole area used to be a resort, but due to the recession and lost business the owners closed it down and opened the Library/Ed. Center. They run mostly of donations (of time, materials, money) and do so much good for their community. We took some pictures while we were there and the owner mentioned they were looking for a camera. Selina, Ron and I put some stuff together and wound up donating a camera, a new memory card and some rechargeable batteries with a charger to them.
After a long day in the sun we headed back to the hotel to clean up and then we went back down to the beach and had some pizza and drinks at Bananarama.
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| Chatting at the library at the end of the day |
March 17
Today was a lazier day for Stef and I. We had breakfast and went for a walk on the island while the rest of our group went and looked at more properties. It was so hot out though, we soon gave up and headed to the hotel pool where we lounged and swam for most of the afternoon. The chairs we were lounging in were underneath a tree (I can't remember what kind) that had seed pods growing on it. I was laying on my stomach reading my book when I felt something scurry across my back. I immediately freaked out telling Stef that "something was on me" and asking her to "get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off". She assured me there was nothing on me and we soon figured out one of the seed pod things had fallen out of the tree and had bounced off my back and that was what I felt. Two of the parrots were nearby the pool and jumped down off their perch while we were swimming and walked towards us. We didn't think anything of it as we assumed they were going on to the roof (as they usually did) until Stef pointed out that they were eating my purse and her flip flops. We had to scramble out of the pool to shoo them away from our things before they did too much damage.
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| Lounging at the pool |
In the evening we went back to Bananarama again where they were having a charity bonfire night. They have hermit crab races, fire dancers, live music and a bonfire (duh). You can 'buy' a crab (I got #52) and there are 3 crab races and whomever's crab wins gets a prize. The money raised goes towards the HIV Clinic on the island to buy formula for babies whose mom's have HIV/AIDS in order to prevent transmission of the virus from mom to baby (through nursing). The clinic started this project 12 years ago and the transmission rate was 49%, but for the last 3 years it has been 0%! The crab races were entertaining and after each race all the kids loves picking the crabs up and putting them back in the buckets.
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| Crab Races |
March 18, 2013
This morning started with another run-in with the parrots. Stef, Mike, Holly and I were eating breakfast when one of the parrots climbed onto our table and started to eat our watermelon. After it was done that it moved on to my plate and wound up taking 1/2 a piece of french toast right off my plate (despite my efforts to shoo it away) and ate it.
In the afternoon we loaded up a bunch of school supplies (both that we had brought and that other guests had left with the hotel) and headed to one of the schools on the island. Once we got to the school we separated all of the supplies into 7 groups (one for each class, Kindergarten to Grade 6) and divided them up among the teachers. The school was tiny and cinderblock with open ceilings/roof to get air flowing through it. It was amazingly hot in the school and people would wander in and out as the day went on. There were also people just standing around outside, as well as pigs and chickens walking around outside the school. I can't imagine trying to learn in that atmosphere, but the kids were pretty good. Grade 4-6 attend school from 7am-12pm and K-3 attend from 1pm-5pm. The school had one main room, with two smaller rooms (one of these was more of a closet) that were used for classes and a bathroom. The closet-type room was used for Kindergarten and the room was so small that the teacher sat in the doorway as there wasn't room for her in the 'class'. After we sorted through the supplies we then split up to help the teachers. Stef and I wound up teaching Math, Reading and Spelling to the 3rd graders. We were both worried that we wouldn't remember how to do math in front of the kiddos, but we were fine and the kids seemed to enjoy it. We were both surprised they actually got us to teach the kids anything - definitely thought we would just have to clean or organize or walk around and offer help to the kiddos that were struggling (we did that too).
In Roatan 1 in 4 kids go to school, and out of that 25% only half go past 6th grade. Currently, on Roatan, if you completed 6th grade that qualifies you to teach up to 6th grade.
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| Mike donating school supplies to 2nd grade. |
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| The School |
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| The main room in the school. Two grades share this space. Notice the oscillating fan bolted to the wall on the right. |
After we got back to the hotel we went down to the beach to swim and cool off (it was a 40* day). After a swim in the ocean we cleaned up and headed back down to the beach for movie night. They had set up a projector in the sand and a screen floating in the ocean and we got to watch The Amazing Spiderman while sitting on loungers on the beach. It gets dark around 6pm there so it wasn't too late by the time the movie started.
March 19
Today we went on an Island Tour. We rented a van/guide and drove all over the island seeing many things. I took 2 gravol in hopes of not getting motion sick (for once) and was okay for most of the day. We ended the tour at the iguana farm, where 4000 iguanas live out in the open. We got to feed them. It was terrifying.
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| Holly, Mike, Ron, Selina, Me and Stef in the van ready for our island tour |
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| Traditional Roatan house, on stilts |
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| Me and Corey feeding the iguanas. My toes are curled under as I'm terrified I will lose them. |
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| My view feeding the iguanas |
March 20
Woke up this morning around 5am, brutally hot as the power had gone out and the fan was not working. Stef, Holly and I went back to the school in the morning to work with the older kids. We read them stories and watched them learn a song they were working on for Father's Day, which is in March on the island. We were all surprised by how much quieter the older kids were, and shared this with one of the teachers. She informed us that they weren't that quiet (they were - they barely made a sound) and that she preferred to work with the younger kids, but had to work with the older kids as she has another job in the afternoon. This woman works 7am-930pm everyday, and they say that teachers are one of the highest paid positions on the island. We went for a walk in the area and explored a bit and found a vet vaccinating dogs under a tree.
We were standing outside the school waiting for our ride back to the hotel in the afternoon and one of the students said that they liked my tattoo. Another student poked his head out of the window and said "yeah, that's nice, I have one too!" and seeing as this kid is maybe, maybe 14 we laughed thinking he was just being funny, but sure enough he had a tattoo on his arm. I really didn't know what to say after that.
We spent the afternoon/evening taking it easy and relaxing.
March 21
Stef and I had a lazy day again, alone as the other 6 in our group had gone to the mainland to tour the Copan Ruins. Stef and I thought that since we get so motion sick it wouldn't be worth the trip for us as we wouldn't be able to enjoy it. We lazed around on the beach and went swimming and went for a walk. We also spent some time at the pool as the beach was very busy with lots of people as there was a cruise ship (or 4) in that day.
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| Beach |
March 22
Stef and I spent the morning at the spa at our hotel - we got massages and pedicures and had an aromatherapy treatment. In the afternoon we went snorkeling and saw a lot of really cool fish. I saw a leopard eel and immediately panicked and swam as fast as I could in the other direction. For my first time snorkeling I think I did okay, only swallowing two mouthfuls of seawater!
The rest of our group returned and we spent the evening having supper, visiting and hearing all about their trip to the mainland. Turns out it was a good thing we didn't go as it was quite the rough ride and Holly assured us we never would have made it without being super sick. It was our last night together in Roatan, so we packed up a bit as well.
March 23
Today was a sad day - leaving day. Stef, Leslie Corey and I headed down to the beach for one last snorkel before packing up and shipping out. It was great and since Corey knew what he was doing (or was good at faking it) Stef and I decided we could be a little braver and go deeper in the water. It was really cool and we saw a lot more fish and other things.
Our flight left Roatan at 330pm and we landed in Houston at 730pm, where we spent the night and hit up Target (making the most of our time).
It was a really great trip and I really enjoyed the volunteering and working with the kiddos, and, as always, it was great to travel with Stef - first trip we didn't have to share a bed!
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| Stef and I |
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