Time has gone really fast since I wrote the last report and a lot of things have changed. I have changed Host families as we both thought it was a good idea. Due to my long hours I was unable to spend much time with my host family and I was always very tired when I came home. We had different expectations of living/hosting and there were also some cultural difficulties which although we tried to resolve it was agreed it would be better for me to move homes. I moved to a temporary host home until something more permanent was found.
For five weeks over the Christmas and New Year period I was living with my friends family from the project. This was an amazing experience and they were always telling me new things about Honduras and I felt really included in the family. Over Christmas we visited various different family members houses and celebrated with food, kareoke, food, games and more food! We even peeled potatoes and watched The Simpsons like my family always do on Christmas day in the UK which was very nice.
For New Years I went to an island off Honduras with the other volunteers. I actually got a bit of culture shock as the island is full of foreigners. As soon as we stepped of the boat we were bombarded by people trying to sell us diving lessons. Not one of these people were Honduran and we were hearing accents from Australia, the States, Canada and the UK. I thought it was quite sad that a beautiful island had turned into a place where a lot of people go just to get drunk. For New Years there was obviously a party so of course we went. It was hours of electric music which resulted in a Happy new year!! No fireworks and very few Hondurans. By the end of my time there Id wished Id stayed with my friends family in Tegucigalpa for a traditional Honduran new year.
After the festivities we returned to the project, I moved to a new host home and within a month the psychologist (my friend), the teacher and the physiotherapist left the project. The project is in the process of making a lot of changes and decided it would be best to employ new staff. Al lot the assistants also changed. The project is like one big family, (only six of the residents see their birth families) so when people leave here its like losing a family member. There were tears and as a lot of the staff had worked there for over 10 years, for the residents they had lost their mother. It was hard for them to adapt to new staff and new ways of working and some of them refused to go to appointments. Also some of the remaining staff were resilient to change so didnt encourage the residents to go. For three weeks I had total responsibility of the physiotherapy whilst they were looking for someone else. I spent a lot of this time on my own and not speaking to many people which felt very isolating. Once the new therapist was appointed we changed the timetable so I now have more freedom and wont be helping with therapy as much.
The level of education here varies a lot. In the past there were more teachers but as the organisation changed there were less staff. There also used to be three nurses whereas now there is only one. Now the phycologist has two students to help her and the physiotherapist one. I am now sharing my time between therapy, helping the nurse and the teacher. Some of the residents go to a vocational collage in the village to learn how to make things that they can sell. Other residents go to classes here. As there are a lot of people here with severe disabilities the aim for them is to do things that will stimulate their minds and their senses. We have been working together for them to hold pens and follow lines/draw basic shapes. Although they cant talk you can see in their faces and the way they communicate that they are proud of what they have achieved and that their confidence is growing. There are also more advanced students which now as there is a new teacher have been able to go to classes and are improving every day.
The mission of the project is to ensure that the residents can have as much as an independent life as possible. They are in the process of developing individual life plans for every one which is to include the possibility of going to school/college and getting a job. We have given some people more responsibility with the cleaning and the care of the less independent residents and they have been given an individual time table to follow. Some people have also got jobs working in the village.
The last few months have been a period of change and hopefully we can continue to improve the lives and education of the residents here.
