As soon as we touched down in the hazy Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa we were whisked off into the mountains for a week of in-country orientation, training, informative talks from guest speakers and tons of training with our fellow British and Honduran volunteers.
We were greeted at our temporary home of Villa Gracia with a lovely song from the Honduran volunteers. We all felt really touched to have such a warm welcome to Honduras but unfortunately the sentimental feelings were short lived as they subsequently proceeded to mercilessly wipe the floor with us in a football tournament!
After licking our wounds over excellent Honduran coffee and a slice of fresh banana cake, we cracked on with the hectic training schedule for the week ahead.
The week whizzed by in a flash; our schedule was jam packed with important security briefings, reviewing detailed project plans, discussing workshop ideas and receiving intensive Spanish/English classes – with the occasional break for football of course!
We were also lucky enough to receive lectures from two talented guest speakers. The first was on the National, Economic and Social Context in Honduras from José Martínez and the second was on Gender Inequality in Honduras from Maria Esther Artica. These informative talks provided us with a comprehensive view of Honduras in the 21st Century and also afforded us the opportunity to discuss the issues facing the country with two experts.
As our bus departed Villa Gracia on Friday to make the journey to our host homes in La Esperanza and El Carrizal, we felt well informed, prepared and overwhelmingly enthusiastic to commence work on the projects in our respective host communities.
Written by ICS Team El Carrizal. Photo by Noel Specowius
