Hi everyone Hope you are all well. My final two weeks of Honduras began with total culture shock. I had seen the thousands of slums in Tegucigalpa (the capital city) but I wasn't prepared for the incredibly low standards of living in Chiligatora where I was building a house. I was building a house for a young family, who currently live with the son's parents in the house next door. The house I was building was really tiny for a whole family, about the size of my bedroom at home. However, it will allow the family to have more space and privacy than they currently have in the parent's home. To give an example of the level of poverty in Chiligatora, a return hitch from La Esperanza (where I was staying) up to the building project in Chiligatora (there are no buses only pick up trucks) is the almost the same price as a whole days wages for the family - approx one pound thirty pence. I stayed with a family homestay in La Esperanza, which is in the western highlands of Honduras. I imagined my homestay to be similar to my one in Guatemala - wrong! The accommodation was VERY basic, and several days we didn't have any running water - yep that includes no flushing the toilet for 24hours - nice! Most days we only had water in the evening, which meant that after I returned from building I had to stay covered in building dirt until around 7pm. My typical day was so different to the one I described in Utila: In Esperanza I woke around 6.15, walked to a football pitch where I met the other volunteers and caught a pick up to Chiligatora. A pick up is an open truck, where the driver crams as many people into the back of it and then drives at the speed of light on unpaved roads - a bruised bum is part of the package! I started building around 7ish and stopped at 11.30. During my time on the project, I hoed the ground, shoveled dirt, dug holes, levelled the ground, carried logs ( I was totally useless at this task - far too puny!) and stripped logs with a machete. In the afternoon we had free time, which I mainly used to email, eat donuts in the bakery or play cards in the one and only bar in the town. In the evening all the volunteers went to the bar, where they made really fresh blackberry juice - yummy! One day I was feeling a bit sorry for myself - mainly because the food in my house was pretty bad and I hadn't had a wash in over 24hours, but as I wandered round the town I discovered a store selling good chocolate and Spanish Vogue - and I was happy again! Last weekend, Laura, Caroline and Simon (all building volunteers) and I went to Copan to see the Mayan ruins. Copan is a really pretty town, with a beautiful central square. We stayed in a really funky hostel that had running water and a powerful shower - hurrah! I enjoyed seeing the ruins, although they were not as impressive as those at either Tikal or Chichen Itza. In the afternoon, we did some shopping and I bought a pretty belt and purse in typical Mayan design. Later on we hiked into the surrounding hills to watch the sunset. I had such a fun day with everyone and topped it off with a yummy dinner followed by chocolate brownies and ice cream - yay! The next day Laura, Caroline and I traveled back to La Esperanza, but got stranded in a small town called Gracias. As there were no buses back, we decided to try to hitch, but the town looked totally deserted. So we stumbled across the local police station, were we persuaded two officers to help us hitch. They drove us to the main road - my first time in a police car! And then blew their whistles to pull over the pick ups going passed to ask if we could hitch a ride! Unfortunately, even with the help of the police, we still couldn't get a ride so had to stay the night in crummy Gracias and travel back the next day. I spent this weekend in Tegucigalpa with Laura and Caroline, where we did a 5 hour hike in La Tigra national park which is a cloud forest. It was a pretty hike, and by the time we reached the visitors centre we were all really tired. Unfortunately we didn't realise that we had another hour long walk to the bus stop to catch a bus back to Tegucigalpa - luckily a really kind man gave us a hitch to the stop and then decided to take us all the way back to Tegucigalpa and give us a cake each all for free - yay! In the evening we all went to watch the new Orlando Bloom movie - here its called Crusader, but maybe Kingdom of Heaven in England? Followed by dessert in TGI Fridays - mmm cookie madness! On Sunday, Caroline returned to the building project and Laura, Vicky and I decided to hit the cinema again. Little did we know that the film didn't start until 6pm and we arrived at the modern mall at 1pm. So what could we do, but kill the time drinking cocktails in TGI Fridays! Love you all Lindsx