Jamie Blaikie is just back from a year in Roatan, an island just off Honduras. He’s been teaching in a village school and has done it all with bucket loads of enthusiasm and dedication. He has also formed some fantastic friendships along the way. Great to hear Jamie!
By Jamie Blaikie
I have returned home after my year in Honduras!
I am writing this to give thanks to the support you gave me to help me reach the country in the first place. The year was brilliant in many different ways and I would love to think it has helped me and will continue to help me as I go through university and onto later life. I have gained leadership skills and have become more independent which I feel is incredibly important as I prepare myself to go off to university down in England and live by myself.
Last lessons in Punta Gorda
The last few weeks in Punta Gorda were incredibly fun and we used them as an opportunity to really just enjoy it and make the most of being around the people we go to know so well throughout the year. It was a fantastic way to end our year.
In terms of teaching in the last few weeks we tried to enjoy it as much as we could so we would remember our send off in the best possible way. With the kids we played games, watched movies (with Spanish subtitles) and sang. It was a lot of fun.
On one of the last days all of the kids gathered around outside and class by class they came up, sung us a song and then all mobbed us and said Bye teacher!!, that was a lot of fun and a lovely gesture from the teachers to organise an event like that for us. To add to that day, in the evening after classes the teachers whipped us up into their cars and took us to one of the really nice restaurants along the seafront in Punta Gorda for dinner.
Back to Scotland
I am still keeping in touch with some of the teachers and kids in the village that we were especially close to. I hope that my link with them will last a long time and I would love to think that we made an impact on their lives and they will continue to think about us now we have left the village.
Coming home was a ridiculous experience. I was in a strange limbo between 2 lives for the couple of days it took to arrive back in Scotland. And when I finally did arrive home to see the family, it was incredibly strange. Immediately it felt like I had never even been away since I was only really away for a year, and when you come home to the same people that you know so well, very little has actually changed. It was a lovely feeling seeing everybody and even now a couple of weeks after coming home I am still meeting people.
Catching up with Project Trust
This weekend I am going to Coll to the Project Trust centre to meet everyone I was in Honduras with (as well as those in India so it will be fun to hear how it was for them) to talk about our experiences, but mainly to have a good time with everybody together for what could be the last time in a while since university is so close!
Thank you very much for your help for the past year! If there is anything else you would like me to do just let me know in a reply!
Jamie Blaikie.
