Gracias 1

Well flying from Santiago to San Pedro Sula was of course an event in itself, The night before I hadn't slept properly as there were some incredibly drunk guys in my dorm room crashing and bumping into things and pissing on themselves and the guy in the bunk below!!! So I got up earlier than I would have liked, and of course I was trying to have a skype with you. The night I left Santiago there were student riots in the streets and the smell of capsicum spray caught in the back of my throat making my voice as hazy as my mind, I arrived at the airport early where they assured me my bags would be checked all the way through to San Pedro Sula. I happily boarded my plane and pretty much snoozed on and off all the way to Mexico where I discovered that even transit passengers have to queue (in a really long queue) and get a visa, tired and grumpy Mexico was rapidly becoming not my friend! Then the immigration chappie said I had to claim my bags and pass them through cusoms, so i looked about the carousel, no bags I waved my baggage claim ticket under the nose of the lady standing there, she assured me they had been checked through to San Pedro.
So I board my next plane, which incidently is smaller than some of the mosquitos I had seen in the Amazon only a week earlier, I am quite happy to watch the sun rise over Mexico city as I fly out, the flight is beautiful and I arrive in Honduras where the brief walk across the tarmac to the arrivals hall is pleasantly warm and tropical, my mind is humming slightly with the lack of proper sleep, immigration is a breeze and then I wait for my bags on the carousel, and wait... the plane was small, it doesn't take long to realise my bags aren't on the plane. I fill in a lost bag claim but have no address or phone number, apparently my bags were more taken with Mexico then I was and have decided to extend their stay there (or so I must conclude), I leave the immigration area to discover no reassuring person from the school with my name on a placard (as promised) now my life is unravelling fast.
I am in a strange city with no luggage, no local currency, no little dude to greet me, no map, no guide book, in short no fucking idea! (Oh I love these baptism of fire arrivals). There is of course no internet, I find an ATM, oooooooh money! I grovel a map from the rent a car people, I find some tourists and borrow their guide book, I catch a taxi to a hostel with internet my life is starting to come together again. An email is waiting for me apparently Hector (who was supposed to meet me at the airport has managed to be 4 hours late! He comes to the hostel to get me and I go back to the airport to meet another 2 girls we then sleep in town and head to Gracias in the morning, as soon as we arrive I choose my room, a nice sunny if somewhat small one and head back to the airport in an attempt to retrieve my luggage.
four hours later we get to the airport and in deed my bags are there and I merrily claim them as Hector thrusts the sign for the arriving folk in my hands and disappears off on some errand. Anyway the folk arrive but by the time we get back on the road to Gracias the weather has closed in there is of course no such thing as street lighting, the steam hissing up off the black top create such an ethereal mist that the headlights on the car are almost useless, and did I mention that Hector the driver is one eyed and drives like a nutbag even when it's daylight... it takes about 6 hours to get back to Gracias, I am thankful to have survived the journey at all, I am ecstatic to have reclaimed my baggage and I sleep in a real bed of my own. (yay).

The next day I met my colleagues and see the school. Gracias, first impressions, this place is seriously no where, it's beautiful but it really is the middle of nowhere.
Gracias for a town of it's size has an incredible number of foreigners, two bi-lingual schools, a large contingent of peace corp volunteers and two other volunteer organisations The school is a small collection of ramshackle buildings, Chandy the English co-ordinator has wide eyes a fresh smile and a bubbly people persona.
Bertha and Toni are from the Netherlands, Laura is from Colorado and she is ex peace corp. Liam is Canadian and ex volunteer for some organisation in Rawanda, Bobby is also American and ex-military. Matt and Rae are from Carolina, Julie is from Texas, Lindsay & Brian have brought two young children with them from Washington state and rounding out the crew is Sarisa from Chicago. It's lots of personalities and teething at the moment, if you've had puppies you know what I mean by teething. Well, I've met the kids and the are so cute, we camped all weekend, and today I saw a cow going through the trash, like a dog, this is a weird country!
Love N.J.