Today was my first day of school, with actual children in the classroom!!

Today I had just 9 children, which is a nice size, but apparently children carry on getting enrolled right up until the end of August so I won't know exactly how big my class is going to be for a while, although they don't normally take more than 20 students per grade. Lessons don't start until next week, so for these 3 days we get to play games and get to know each other (so they think im the best teacher ever!!). Although there are only 9 of them they have a very wide range of English language skills, which is quite difficult for me as I don't want anyone to get left behind/bored, hopefully by the end of the year they will all have improved somewhat! J I have to talk to them in English all the time, and no Spanish is allowed in the classroom so they should get better quite quickly…Anna and I are getting noticeably better at Spanish by the day. We have mastered:

I need the key for the cupboard - Necessita la llaves para una bodega

Can I have the glue - Tienes la pigamento

Paper? - Papel?

And a few other useful school phrases, we try to have a word of the day everyday so that we learn the most useful words.

The kids were loud and hyper all day, obviously very excited to be back at school and to have a teacher all the way from England!! Its amazing how much noise 9 8-year olds can make (Mum, no comments about me making lots of noise when I was little/all the time :P) I have 3 especially naughty boys, and a whole day of them has tired me out no end!!

On another note, we told Vanessa (our host) about results tomorrow and so she has lent us her internet USB thing, we are planning on staying up until 1 o'clock Honduras time (8 o'clock English time) so that we can see whether or not we got into university!! We are going to make a celebration/commiseration cake while we wait, we're both nervous now!!

Also I think you'd like to know that we have renamed our little bungalow 'Gecko Corner' as the house is filled with geckos. We're very happy to have the geckos as they are really cute and and eat cockroaches, we really don't want any cockroaches!! We have also begun to name the geckos: Pequeno - the baby gecko, Fransisco - the gecko that lives behind the fridge, Gecky and Gracie - the bathroom geckos, and many, many more! J

P.s Half of this was written in the 'staffroom', basically an unused classroom of the top floor and I am 99.9% sure that I can hear rats running around and fighting in the ceiling above me…yes RATS. Vanessa actually found a rat in her desk draw when she went into her classroom for the first time last week, she screamed the whole school down!!!!

NOTE: Before you read the last bit of the post I want you all to go on the internet and look at the temperature and humidity in Honduras at the moment…

ITS CURRENTLY WINTER…..yes that's right WINTER!!! The look on mine an Anna's faces must have been hilarious when Vanessa told us that we were currently in winter "and it doesn't really get hot until March time" as she almost burst out laughing!! We couldn't believe it, I dread to think how hot its going to be come May. The humidity is the worst at the moment, it's about 70% all the time and it really drains you!!!

Lots of Love

15th August