I've only been here a week. It feels like a month!

I wasn't going to set up a blog, but I think it'll be the easiest way to communicate with everyone after finding that post takes between 3 and 6 months to reach the UK, and having experienced first-hand the sporadic tendencies of the local internet access.

Anyway, here's what I've been doing for a week:

My flight was long, but I arrived in Miami nine hours after leaving Heathrow having watched 3 films, having eaten lots (boy do they feed you on British Airways) and read through the whole of my beautiful leavers book (twice). Thank you so much for everyone that put effort into making it, it made me smile, laugh and cry! We flew over Miami and the swamps around it. Miami looks strangely like a car park from the air, all square and ordered, with very little greenery. We were in Miami airport for 3 hours and we went through security with Jeremy Clarkson - I have a picture of the back of his head! Jameel got taken away and searched, returning to us hours later and only just before we were due to board our next flight to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This flight was breath-taking! We flew over what I assumed were the Florida Quays (or Keys?) and many other tree covered islands, one of which was huge, so we thought it must be Cuba or Jamaica. As it was getting dark we started to descend. We landed in San Pedro and got through security within an hour (unlike Miami - we vowed to never return... until this time next year at least.) My host Vanessa was there with her husband and chatterbox son waiting for us with a sign that said "Anna and Alix" and big encouraging smiles. We said good bye to the other Project Trust volunteers and started our adventures.

I nearly fell asleep on the way to Tela, but the road was so potholey I jolted awake every time we went over one. It was only an hours journey to Tela and soon we had arrived at the "volunteer's house." The house is a little pink bungalow with an iron gate and an overgrown garden, which is still waiting to be cut.

The next day we were moved to our host family - a woman and her 8 year old daughter who goes to the school. It made me happy to think that the community valued us so highly as volunteers that our host family whose whole house could have fit inside my lounge and who only on occasion had running water (that we couldn't drink) was happy to have us live with her for a whole year. She spoke no English, but we soon learnt to understand her anyway. She taught us some Spanish, how to sort beans, her daughter taught us how to chase pigs (one tried to get into the house one day) and to never eat "Chicheron" (Pork Scratching) in soup - worst nightmare in a bowl. Unfortunately it didn't work out at our host family, so we moved back into the Volunteer's house after a couple of days.

While we were with our host family, on one of our first nights there was a code red hurricane warning (hurricane Ernesto for anyone following the news.) Alix and I couldn't sleep for most of that night because we were scared the sky was falling in. The thunder was the loudest thing I think I've ever heard!! There would be the sudden flash of lightening followed within a second by the crash and rumble of thunder. All the while the constant drumming of rain providing a steady backing track. We woke up the next morning to waterlogged fields and ragged trees, but we were alive and the sky was still there, so I can now say I have survived hurricane.

I am sat now at our kitchen table having had coconut bread and yogurt for dinner (we allow ourselves one good meal every two days to save money until we get paid - this was not one of those days.) Coconut bread is one of my new favourite foods though; it's really dense and a bit sweet. We've named our house Gecko Corner because firstly, it's on a corner (surprise surprise) and it's full of geckos!!! We've named some already: Gecki - it was our first day, we were tired and unimaginative, he lives in our bathroom with his daughter Gracey who only has half a tail. Then there's Wallace who lives in the wall and Celia who lives in the ceiling - wow we're good at naming things! We also have a big dark-looking one called Francisco who lives mostly behind the fridge, although he scuttles out sometimes to let us know he's there. And Pequeño, the littlest gecko who crawls in and out of the empty plug sockets. We encourage the geckos because they eat cockroaches and other bugs.

Mosquitos though, geckos don't eat them. This morning in the shower (it's a tap, a bucket and a bowl - fill bucket from tap, fill bowl from bucket, pour over head - simple yet extremely effective, I might get one back at home) I counted my bites. I had 76!!! My legs and feet look like a warzone. My ankles look warped and my feet are swollen. It actually looks like I've caught the plague. I use bug repellent every day and we spray our bedroom every night. Honduran mosquitos are tough bugs. They don't care how much repellent you have on, they still eat you up like a baleada on a hot day.

Baleadas - they are good too - a flour tortilla with refried beans and cheese (and egg if you want, which I very much don't.) Sometimes they put sour cream, chicken or guacamole in them as well. There's a lot of street food here. People set up stalls to sell corn on the cob, baleadas and tajadas. Tajadas are a bit like nachos. They are fried plantain crisps (plantain is a like green banana) with shredded raw cabbage and some sort of meat and/or beans and topped with cheese. Vanessa our host has told us not to eat from the street vendors regularly, but it's hard when everything smells so good!

Alix and I have spent most of the weekend and the last two days planning lessons, organising our curriculum for the first two "bimesters" (terms) and decorating our classrooms. I am the Fourth Grade homeroom teacher, which means I teach fourth graders (they are aged 9 or 10) reading, spelling, grammar, maths and science, all in English. It's strange being on the other side of the education system here, having been a student only a few months ago.

Talking of school, I get my final A Level exam results tomorrow. I am nervous, but probably not as nervous as some of my friends back home. The pressure is slightly off for me you see, because I already know what I'm doing with my year, and if I don't get into Uni I can just reapply. I really really really hope I get in though. Like really really.

Alix and I went exploring on Saturday. We went into Tela and wound up at the beach at the Hotel Colonial which is run by my host's family. We had liqudos which are like smoothies back home only more refreshing, sweeter and so much tastier. These are another of my favourite things - I can imagine Charlotte singing that line, I'm not sure why, she must have sung it to me once.

Tomorrow is my first day with the students. I don't start lessons until Monday, so these next few days are just getting to know the kids, playing games, decorating the classroom and so on. I can't wait to meet the children I'll be teaching for a whole year, I'll know them so well by the end. I've planned lots of activities mostly inspired by year 7 drama lessons and my training on Coll a couple of weeks ago. Bingo, Simon Says, Chinese Whispers, Pictionary and Duck Duck Goose will all be making appearances.

Sorry this has turned into such an essay.