Tuntuntarra

Hi i've been in Tuntuntarra for two weeks now. No internet here, no electricity [alex thanks i finally get to use your solar mobile charger], and the toilets and showers are outside. Its a boat ride from Puerta Lempira which is the biggest town in the Honduran Mosquita area. I live with two guys from Tegucigalpa who are working on a community centre for Tuntun tarra and the villages around it, a school for teaching farming techniques, processing and also to be used as a emergency refuge when the surrounding areas flood in the wet season. All the houses in the village are on stilts and the families can be huge. One guy who works on-site has two wives and 17 children, the wives are sisters. Sometimes the families have as many as 20 children, mucho amor. What have I been doing all my life I ask, although theres no TV here.

The construction starts at 6 with a prayer from the local pastor, and usually finishes at 5. But that depends whether there are materials because they all have to be carried from Puerta Lempira, and then transported by foot (or bike) a mile to the site. Its usually the women who carry the materials because the men plant crops and go fishing in the day. Its about 80 cents to move a bag of cement. Theres not much experience in concrete constuction here, which is why Miguel and Josue (the guys from Tegucigalpa) were brought over. They treat me like family and we have a chef that cooks all our meals at the site. The Mosqitas here have a very limited diet and its very poor so they mostly eat yuka, which is kind of like potatoe if you fry it. There are abundant coco trees which I've sampled but I leave the tree climbing for the locals.



Bug city here. Theres little red bugs that are rapid, and go for delicate areas. Their bite burns like fire. Mosquitos of course and malaria are a major problem, thats why I came back today because Miguel has got ill with Malaria symtoms. Chloroquina is the anti-malaria stuff that im taking, which gives the crazy dreams sometimes. Here, there is also another disease known as grisky sikiness i.e. crazy sickness or loco, and is only found in the Mosquitan peoples. The symptoms are obvious, being crazy for a while, and only local witchdoctors can cure it. There are witches here but also a lot of churches and I can wake up on a Monday,Wednesday, Friday and Sunday to beautiful Mosquita harmonies from the nearby church. The popular Mosquita music here takes some getting used to, one singer Roncar i think his name is, wails Sandra, Sandra, mi amor. But im starting to appreciate it.

awesome storms theres a story of a lightning strike in Puerta Lempira that killed 10 people when it hit a football field.

In the local Language mun means you in Mosquita, which i guess is similar to Jamacans get to saying mun at the end of sentences, Bob Marley mun. grisky whit mon is crazy white man and tahti is pronounced tattie as in Scotland and means potatoe. Also beautiful is bohni pronounced bonny also as in Scotland. The mosquitas where in fact given there name because they worked with the Brittish Empire to fight off the Spanish armada in the past. The Brittish gave them muskets and they became known as muskitos or mosquitas. Pirates also used the coast to raid passing spanish ships laden with Gold from south america. Maybe there were some Scottish pirates to influence the language too. In the community I've become known as Powny (which means red) because im always getting burned on site and an old lady kept on laughing at me and shouting powny, powny one day.



Theres some free time in the evening so I've started teaching engish to two of the workers from the site. Isais and Kelly come [most] nights, the first night 15 people turned up at the house, thankfully they were only curious and only the 2 wanted lessons.



One of the main organisers Osvaldo visited the site with a frech ambassador the other day, so I finally got to meet my uncles contact.My uncle was here for 3 months with students on a Tearfund sponsored project. The french woman was quite funny, she didn't like beans (which you have every meal here), and when she tried some local bread she remarked "this isn't bread!", no bagettes here luv. . It was payday for the laborourers [all women! almost] and one of the office workers from Mopawi asked me for my paperwork, which was quite funny. So i went up to the pay desk in the bodega with my drivers licence and asked for my pay. . grisky whit mon .

Traje de Escocia - men in skirts

Finally some internet This is what ive done the last few days.

LAst week was easter, which means several things in Guatemala. You either stay in town and partake in the religious festival, or you go to the beach. I would upload a video but internet is turtle speed here;

Most of the shops are closed and the transport shuts down so all you can do is eat ice-cream in the parke central, watch processions and go to church. I however was feeling homesick, or as a side affect from anti-malaria pills [going to Mosquito coast this week] decided to make a kilt. I borrowed a machine off a friend and bought 4 yards of fabric [the instructions i found on the internet were in imperial] and with help from American Irish/Scottish immigrant Susan made a (non-traditional) kilt. I wanted some guatemalan fabric in there as it is reknowned for textiles. Although all I could find was a tea-towel so I cut that up and sewed it under the pleats,which looks awesome. Joanna a friend in Xela says shes gonna upload a photo for me tomorrow

Heres how its done if anyones interested. I have a lot of respect for kilt makers now!

Measure yourself and don't lie about the rump mesurement

Buy the fabric, Velcro, and thread - [yes velcro, also used for stripper trousers]

Wash the fabric because it shrinks

Quick-iron the fabric, always with lots of steam

Cut out the fabric

Iron it all flat again

Sew on half the Velcro [strippers take note]

Mark the pleats with chalk [I measured it on a tiled floor which is great for lining up at right angles to fabric] 4 yards seems like a lot but box-pleats take it all up.

Sew down the hem.

Sew the pleats from hem to the bottom of the fell (the lower 2/3rds)

Fold up the kilt, taper the pleats and iron the pleats [this helps if you have two people]

Sew down the fell/upper 1/3rd of the pleats and taper them [this is hard!]

Attach the other half of the Velcro

Make belt loops and attach

Strut

If anyone wants the instructions I can send them. It took about 12 hours of marking the fabric and power sewing. This was WAY better than my attempt to make haggis for community lunch. I got some laughs from the women and whistles from the men but generally people thought it looked good i.e."que guapo!". El Nuhal is a Mayan district nearby and the men wear skirts there too. So it wasn't completely out of place. Mucho aire! I'll get someone to upload a picture for me because internet is quite slow here.

This week ive been travelling mostly. I put the prices in brackets to see the travel costs.

After leaving Xela on monday mording. I got a lift(free!) with wonderful Gabby one of the guatemalan volunteers [whom i borrowed the sewing machine off to build the kilt] to Guatemala city, there we stayed overnight with one of her friends in the city and ate at taco bells twice. Gabby left the next day and I stayed with gabbys friend again and made him and his sister dinner [pinnaple stir-fry and rice, is easy and tasty]. They gave me a lift to the station at 4 the next morning and I got a bus($40) to la ceiba [half way across guatemala and most of the way across honduras]. There I stayed the night in a hostel dorm($5) and the guy who stayed in the room told me how to get to Belen.

That wednesday night I had a few drinks with girls I met at the station and played cards til the bar shut, which was early thankfully as I had to get up at 4 for the bus to Tocoa. I parted ways with the english girl who wanted to learn spanish [80 hours for basic grammar and vocab I said and she looked daunted] and the norwegian who couldn't deal the cards until I finished my beer [I think its was OCD she had].

Then more travel the next day, along the North coast of Honduras. On the chicken bus($4) to Tocoa I met some nice women who were going in the same direction and I basically followed them. Tocoa to Bataya was a mental pickup truck ride($20) along roads initially, then dirt-tracks, and finally flying along the beach in a truck with 12 people staked full of luggage, bikes and two mattresses strapped to the top.

Bataya is a Garifuna community of mosty african descendents, so it started to feel like the CarribIean about here.

Thursday afternoon I took a to Belen ($10) that kept stopping because the petrol had been watered down and the guy had to empty the tank completely to get it runing properly. I got to Belen hoping to find a Mopawi charity worker there but he had gone away for semana santa so I stayed in some sweet Ecotourist accomodation for ($10) a night. It was here I realised that I should have bought all that stuff I had made a list of before travelling, insted of just half of it..no machete,no water puro pills,no pan for heating water etc.. and no food. I only had oats and some candy that was similar to tablet that I bought in the gas station. I had only brought $100 dollars and had to get to Puerta lempira, $$? worth of travel away..there are no banks for miles..duh. I had my hammock though. i spent friday there talking to some people and reading and not eating much but a pear that looked like an apple and a green mango (I prefer then when the're ripe).

Saturday I got some more boats Belen - Bruz($10), Bruz - Awaz($15), Awaz - Puerta Lempira($20). And had distinctly not much money when I got to Puerta Lempira. But at least the powerboat ride through the jungle was awesome. Of course the bank was shut when I got to town, and I started to worry that I might have to crack open my prized nicaraguan cigars to sell. Not to worry because the guy from the boat I talked to offered some awesome Mosquitan hospitality and I went to his barrio to stay with his family there.



The house was a little crowded, 5 people in a wee house but I set up my hammock and went for some food with remaining $10 [phew]. Bought me and the guy Bustillo some dinner and then went in search of Mowapi workers. I knew the one girl Debora Sanchez, but hadn't told her when I would arrive, and didn't know her number or house. Some asking around with help from Bustillo we located her and now Im staying in a nice hotel on expenses, feel a bit bad about that but thats built-in Scottish guilt. This is sweet.

Here its very expensive because everything is brought in by boat or tiny plane. No more watermellon for me, because they come from Nicaragua and cost at least 100 lempira each, and no more rum smoothies. They have a new Tax to fund the new government, as the last one was totally corrupt and ran away with all the money. So this week everything is gonna get more expensive.

tomorrow im going to help build a school in a nearby village where theres no electricity and lots of mosquitos. Adios