ben alright mom, things going ok out here, had about 8 hours sleep in the last 54 hours but its to hot to sleep hit 55 degrees. Not doing anythink new still doing the same patrols listening to bombs go off in the street next to you and getting bricked. They have got me driving the warriors again. Didnt really have a choice our i wouldnt be doing it. Half the blokes go home today out of my platoon so hopefully get a little more rest. Let me know when leave dates our and ill try and get a flight if theres a reasonable one. speak to you later

maryam Hello! how are you,hope you are well. Im sorry for not writing earlier as ive been decorating. hope to hear from you soon.

Paula Hola! Its been a very long time. Thanks for the message Helen. Still no photos!!! Sorry all but I have been busy studying and of course I have to party too!!!! Mock exam tonight and the real thing next week. spanish oral GCSE.and my lap top is in for repair so makes it more difficult. Can you believe that they think it is the only model of its kind in the country!! sounds like a good way to sting me a bit more. As you can see I am playing on the internet instead of revising so obviously not too worried. Easter... Well, for those who don't know the saga, Hannah found a really cheap flightto Cancun, so as it was too cheap to pass up i said i'd meet her there. Booked a flight through expedia but they will omly send the tickets to the address that the card used for payment is registered to which is my dads address. The tickets arrived at his and he forwarded them on via data post,( damned expensive too) and they lost them!! Of course they showed up after I returned. The flight cost me more than Hannahs!!! no refund either, the tickets could not be cancelled. Anyway, Omar, bless him said he would drive me, all 24 hours, so off we went. Cost nearly as much in petrol and tolls as the flight. Well as much actually, but we met up, Sam (her boyfriend) got a flight too and the 4 of us ended up having a really good time. Omar ended up staying the 2 weeks, aided by a foot injury which with a tiny bit of exageration meant he couldn't drive home!! we stayed a few nights in Cancun, which has fabulous sea and beaches, the most beautiful colour, but is a mega tourist destination for Americans, and at Easter there were millions of them. Shame but still. We went to chichen Itza from there for the spring solstice which results in the illusion of a giant serpent crawling down the steps of the main pyramid there. Quite impressive!! We also stopped off in Valladolid which is really nice. Hannah and Sam also went to a water park and swam with dolphins. Omar and I stopped off in Merida overnight on the way down. He has family there and in cancun. His cousin in Cancun was meeting H and S at the airport but their flight was diverted because the airport was closed because it was struck by lightening. From Cancun we went to tulum, which is stunningly beautiful. It really is exactly like all the pictures i had seen and comparable in a way to tikal. we visited Coba from there also and several cenotes or sink holes, a welcome relief from the heat. We stayed in cabanas on the beach which we liked so much we kept booking an additional night. this was despite the tarantula and the ants nest!!! That only left time for a night in Playa Del Carmen before the long drive home, but we managed to take in Campeche again and villhermosa. Then back to work. Stll a lazy week next week with a teacher day, sports day up in the mountains and the day of the child. A weekend in Acapulco and then a 3 day week before the next puente. maybe doing a trip to the rivers then but don't know yet. Additional news!! Ben is now in Iraq for 7 months. I think thats all folks!! Love to everyone of course. Melissa I have a book for you about the pyramids and sites in Mexico and I will do your CD VERY SOON!!!

Helen just seen the last message... belatd happy birthday!!! Just read all your xmas adventures and can't wait to hear more about Easter!! speak soon, Helen!

Jeff Happy Birthday Paula. Love and kisses from everybody. Hope you are celebrating in style. XXXX

Norah Norrie We heard about your teaching in Mexico from your father and Jo. You seem to be having a fantastic time, and a great adventure. Your father and Jo were here for Nana's funeral on 25 January. She died very peacefully in her sleep aged nearly 102. Do you remember her? She had been living with us for over 16 years but had become almost immobile in recent months, and we will miss her very much. Your father and Jo looked very well. I bellieve they now have a motor bike and side car, as well as their Austin. We are quite stick in the muds, but have been very tied for the past few years. Robert's wife, Marilyn, in Manhattan Beach, CA, had a bonny baby boy, Lachlan, in July, so now we hope to go out to see him in person. Katherine is now taking the PGCE after 8 years looking after Rosa, 8, and Liam, 6, and is at present teaching at Dulwich College. She seems to be enjoying it, particularly teaching sixth form maths. There is a chronic shortage of maths teachers in the country, so if she does decide to teach, she should get a job fairly easily. John is up in the far north, in Aberdeen. He is Director of Clinical Trials at the University, and Gillian, his wife, is in the second year of a medical degree. Jack is 5, and Francesca is 4. They have a hectic life, but seem to be coping well. June and Keith were here at the funeral and it was great to see them and to catch up with the news. All their clan seem to be doing very well too. Hope the situation in Iraq eases now that the elections have taken place. The tsunami has gone out of the news somewhat now, but the people must be suffering dreadfully, despite the marvellous international response with aid. Bye for now. Warm wishes from Norah (and Bill)

Niki Hiya Paula Great to hear from you. What a fantastic time you have been having. Really missed you this Christmas, Jeff and I have taken lots of photos of our Christmas. I'll send them in a couple of days, really nice ones of Ben & Hannah. Our Christmas was not half as exciting as yours. We had Dad, Jo and Shaun Christmas Day, then went to Dad's Boxing Day. Ben & Hannah came, we had a quiet time but lovely time. Then we spent everyother day for the next week eating at someone elses house!! As you can imagine Matt had loads of pressies inlcuding 5 DVD's, but all he does is watch the same one "Garfield"! I think he knows it word for word now. Cheeky monkey wags his bum now "saying kiss my bum" - this is what Garfield says. You probably know Molly is up here for a while - she looks great, she got Matt playing chess! Anyhow Matt calling gotta go. Catch up again soon. Take Care. Niki

Paula Having a nice day. today is a big celebration in Mexico, it is in fact the main day for giving and receiving presents so we only have 12 children between 2 classes. i don't really know why school is open today, apparently it hasn't been for the last four years. There is a custom here where special bread is eaten. there are plastic babies hidden within it which represent baby Jesus. if you get one you have to prepare Tomales,( corn meal cooked in leaves) for everyone who was at the cutting of the bread, and this is to be eaten on the 2nd of Feb. On this day, baby dolls rpresenting Jesus are dressed in new outfits and taken to the church to be blessed. I will have to find out more about it. Anyway, to carry on briefly from my last message. After palenque we travelled to the Guatemalan border, where there was no immigration officials in the little hut because it was Xmas eve. We were walked, with our rucksacks through some trees and down a steep dirt bank to the river where a very small boat was waiting for us. This would have held abot 12 people max. (no life jackets of course but we figured thatwas ok because we'd probably be eaten by the crocs anyway if we sank.)we travelled across the river for about half an hor and scrambled out the other side. There our passports were stamped in a little shack and we went on the oldest bus I have ever seen down a track for about 2 hours before we hit a proper road. it was all very bizarre. I felt like an illegal immigrant being smuggled in. At least it was daylight. We were about 10 hours in total travelling to Flores, which is asmall island reached by a causeway and is the main area for hostels etc about an hour from Tikal which we went to on xmas day. We wewre very tired however when we arrived so after a meal we went to bed for a couple of hours and then got up to go to mass at midnight, then back into bed to rest before a 4am start to Tikal. this is an amazing place. the pyramids are not heavily reconstructed and many are still uncovered. the entire place is in the depths of the jungle and we were delighted to see many howler monkeys swinging thriough the trees, toucans and numerous types of parrot. Excellent experience. The photos don't really do it any justice at all but I will post them of course and I've no doubt that any pictures you've ever seen of Mayan temples will include those at Tikal. we climbed some pyramids and you can hear the expressions of amazement as people reach the top and look out across the jungle. it really is magical.From there we had to take the overnight bus to Antigua. This is a beautiful little town surrounded by volcanoes, a couple ofwhich are currently quite active, bt it is remarkably touristy. Whilethere I studied some Spanish and climbed Volcan Pacaya. not huge but the last section is very deep volcanic ash and incredibly hard going, many people gave up at this point. it was great to look into the crater of an active volcano but it was also a little disappointing. we couldn't see very much because there is so much steam coming off which stings your eyes. we did however see several rocks spurting out on a few different occassions. there would have been so much to see there but we just didn't have the time. Definately a place to go back to. Coming home was a nightmare. 1 hour to Guatemala city, 8 hours to Tapachula, just inside Mexico and then a really gruelling 18 hour bus trip back from there. Overall impressions. Wonderful. the people are so remarkably friendly. I have seen the most severe poverty that I ever seen and yet they are incredibly happy, genuine, sincere peopel who take enormous pleasure in their lives. it is really very humbling. This is especially true in Guatemala where ther are a majority of indiginous peopel from many different tribes. They have the most amazing textile products there. I came home with several examples. You see pictures of little huts where people live in central America, it really is like that. Not just a small number of people but most live like that, with a few chickens scratching around outside. Many wash their clothes and bathe in the rivers and a vast number actually collect thier drinking water fro+m streams and rivers too. the fabulous clothes you see in pictures are real too. Not just for torist photos. this really is how people dress and go about their everyday lives. I have seen a completely different Mexico to what I have previously seen. Children again. still only for half an hour and then they have an hour of Spanish. Speak to you all soon. Lots of love. Happy new year.-xxx

Paula Hi there. As promised an update. I can't remember now what I was doing last time I posted a message but i know that before i get on to Xmas hols and posting those photos I have some pictures of the day of the dead to organise and some of the butterflies. The butterflies were a few hours north of here. There is a sanctuary where Monarch butterflies migrate to every year before flying back to the USA and Canada. The best time to go is apparently January but there were still many thousands of them when I went, although in recent years numbers have declined considerably.When we got there it was still quite early and the butterflies were still in the trees. In some of the pictures you can see big clumps of them in the branches. As the sun came out more and more of them started to fly around. it looked like all the leaves were falling from the trees. A sight worth seeing. Crimble. iw was vertainly a strange time for me being my first time away from the family and all my friends and I wasn't really looking forward to it very much at all but once I got away I had sort of accepted it and got my head around it and we ended up having a really good time. We started off the day after finishing school by travelling 14 hours to San Cristobal de la Casas in the southern most state of Chiapas. Like Mexico City it is very high up and so it is still pretty cold in the mornings and evenings but very pretty. I went with Karen and David, Rob and Renee arrived on a different bus a couple of hours ahead of us and had organised accomodation for us all which turned out to be great. The following morning we went on a horse ride. 4 hours!!! Was still suffering a week later. Lots of laughs though. Delphine and Richo arrived later that day. the next day I went on a tour of some caves and lakes with Rob and Renee. it was good to see more of Chiapas but it was another long and tiring day. Next stop was 6 hours later. we arrived in Palenque quite late and had difficulty finding somewhere to stay. We ended up in a tremendous dump but at least there was some hot water and some good views from the roof.

dawn Paula, sorry not to have contacted you earlier, but we received news a few weeks ago that we have ofsted on Jan 10th.....so as you can imagine AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH.......You certainly timed things well. Hope you are well, will write at length as soon as I can. I'm a teacher.....GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! love dawn

Helen hey there, typical flight problems, plane is delayed due to a flock of birds (don't even ask!!) sat in Newcastle airport, showing my mum some of our adventures! sent you an email yestereday, got your ecard too - thank you! hope your well, speak soon, Helen and Hele's mum xx

Paula Hello everyone. Thank you for your messages. Back at work again!! I hope everyone teaching in the UK had a good half term and are well rested and raring to go again. (Well somebody might be) What have I not told you about since I last posted a message. I have been to see the Bolshoi perform Giselle, (might have said that already, it was a little while ago) Went to a wedding and I have been to a traditional Rumanian christening, a few parties etc. I'm still recovering from my trip to Patzcauro. We travelled overnight on the Friday and then spent all Monday caught touring some of the villages around the lake all of which have slightly different customs and then caught the ferry across to Janitzio to visit the cemetry there, got back at 6 in the morning, so I,m still trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost. Wasn't helped by an all night party this weekend. Anyway, I have loads of photos to sort out, some from Halloween which was a big thing at school and from the Ofrendas(offerings) which were made at school (to someone who has died) Then of course there are all the Patzcauro ones. It will take me a while before I am able to post them on the site but I promise I will get to it when I can and I will let you know by email. Very briefly, The day of the dead is a big celebration and public holiday here. It is when families honour family members who have passed away. They decorate the cemetries with candles etc, favourite things and meals of the deceased and burn incense. The families may then have parties in the cemetry and sleep there for the night, in some cases the bells are rung all night to call the souls back down to earth for the celebrations. The night I was there was mainly to celebrate the lives of children who had died. toys etc are left for them, and bread is baked into the shape of toys. the following night is for the adults. This tradition is not widely practiced anymore except in Michoacan, which is why I went there. here the population is mainly of Perpechua Indians and they still live in quite small communities and each village has differnet trades which is a main source of income for them. It felt very intrusive being there but families didn't seem to mind, some people were offered drinks and food and chatted to the families there. it was really quite beautiful and I saw some families singing and having a really good time. it wasn't so nice on Patzcauro though. it was so ridiculously busy that people were climbing over the graves and family members sleeping on the ground. Anyway, Spanish lesson is calling so I will say goodbye for now. great to hear from you. thank you. I will try to send some personal emails and get back on top of replies etc. i haven't forgotten anybody, honest. Love you all. xxxx

Benjamin Hi mom, everythinks ok work still been ass holes but managing to keep a bite of my tonge. So not got into trouble yet. Dont know whats happening yet. Keeping out of trouble as always. Car is a mess needs a new engine after the meachanic messed it up and i paid him. so instead of getting him to look at it again ive took it to ford. will be getting money back off him! dont ask, hope everythink is ok flat dosent look that bad didnt look at any others didnt look very exciting. dont know when i will be writing again. try and make it soon

maryam Hi Paula Hope you are fine and in the best of health I thought i'd email you as i havn't done so for a while due to Ramadhan. We finish fasting soon(saturday or sunday) and hope to email you more often. Hope you are keeping well and hope to hear from you soon. MARYAM

Michaela Hiya! Have you got nothing to do Jeff?! Hope you're all well, Hi to Nicky and Matthew and Jack as well. Alls well here, if manic as usual. I'm going to go to one of these specialist travel agents ,Paula, cos I've been looking for flights but I can't seem to find something cheap. Hope you had a fab weekend, call you soon! mx