Tortuga - Time to Say Goodbye

26/07/09-07/08/09

So the time has come for us to move on from Tortuga and the four weeks we have spent here seem to have gone by so quickly! The biggest and saddest piece of news that we have to share with you, is that the teacher, Dennis, who was absent for the whole of our second week, sadly passed away on the weekend following his absence. A neighbour stopped by at the house on the Sunday evening to tell us what had happened, and afterwards we all made our way to his house for a vigil, where his coffin had been placed ready for the funeral the following day. Half of the village must have been there. We stayed until 2am but several people were there until the morning. We returned again the following afternoon for the funeral. Although most of the village are Evangelists, Dennis was a Catholic, as are all of his family, so a priest came to give mass. It was incredibly sad and even now it is hard to believe. After the service, one of his brothers gave a nice speech, and even mentioned me and Vic, as we were the last two people Dennis had met in his life. He had often told us during our first week how much he appreciated the volunteers who came to teach English, and he always made sure his students made the most of the opportunity to learn. He will be greatly missed.

Before the news had been broken to us, we had spent the day fishing for shrimps in the river. Although there were eight of us, we only managed to catch three shrimp, of which only one made it all the way home. Vic and I didn´t manage to catch any. They were way too quick for us, and we had enough trouble just trying to keep our balance in the water :) On the way to the river, we also stopped to visit the local mill, which we had been told about a few times. Both of us had imagined a big windmill and we were looking forward to seeing it and learning about the milling process, but we were disappointed to find out that ´the mill´was actually just a hand-operated machine, which wasn´t even working that day, so unfortunately we didn´t get to see it in action.

Back at school, the day after the funeral was very difficult for everyone, but especially so for his class and the other teachers, one of whom had worked with Dennis for 21 years. The headmaster asked if we would be able to take over his class for the rest of that week, as a new teacher wouldn´t be available until the following Monday. We were of course happy to do whatever we could, so along with our English classes and Vic´s history classes, we also began to give three classes a day to the primary class (Spanish language, Maths and Social Studies). There were no classes that Friday, although Vic had to give one final History lesson before the exam the following week. I went along too and afterwards we all watched The Patriot with Mel Gibson (one of the topics they had seen had been the Independence of the United States). Before leaving for the class, Angelica, with the help of a relative, had killed the largest of their three pigs, and Vic had watched most of it, and taken a few photos and videos. I did go out for a quick look at one point, but I couldn´t bear to stay and watch. It was awful!! Vic has put a photo below. By the time we got back from watching the film, all that was left was some bags of meat and a pot of crackling sizzling on a fire. We didn´t eat any of it, as we could not bring ourselves to eat the animal who had been living among us for the past three weeks. It didn´t seem to bother them at all, but then again, I suppose they are used to it.

We spent our final weekend in San Juan del Sur, and we had so many things to do that it literally flew by. We had to prepare two English exams and a history exam and get all the photocopies done, we had to buy treats to take into school on our last day, buy farewell presents for all of the family, buy a birthday present for Ismael and a birthday cake for Angelica. We cut it very fine but we managed to get everything done and all the presents wrapped before checking out of our hotel and catching the bus back to Tortuga. That day was Angelica´s birthday and I think the birthday cake came as a big surprise. We bought candles as well, but it was so windy that they would not stay alight long enough for Angelica to blow them out :) But the cake went down well, especially with the kids.

Our final week at school was taken up with the exams, which achieved mixed results, but we still managed to do something a bit different on our final day when we taught them a tongue twister and the 'If you´re happy and you know it clap your hands' song. We also brought in the treats we had bought in San Juan and you wouldn´t believe how quickly they were gone! After the class, a few of the students presented us with presents on behalf of each of the three classes, and we also got given several thank you messages. Afterwards a group of us went to play football for a while (bare foot on very spiky ground), until it looked like it was going to pour down, at which point we decided to make our way home. That evening was our last one in the house, and several people were there to celebrate Ismael´s birthday, which had been the day before, and also Vic´s birthday, which was the following day. Ismael had been given a small piñata (this is one of those colourful figures that are filled with sweets and coins that you have to beat with a stick until the contents have fallen on to the floor - a lot of fun to watch). They even surprised Vic with a birthday cake and this time there was no wind, so he got to blow his own candles out :) We had given our presents to the family the evening before, as Thursdays are the only day of the week when the whole family is together, and on our last evening, they also gave us a small gift each, which was completely unexpected but very much appreciated. During that final week, we also finally got to go to La Flor, which is the best-known place in Nicaragua to see turtles. It took about 40 minutes to walk there, as by the time we left home it was already dark so we were walking with torches, and we stayed on the beach for about 6 hours, without even catching a glimpse of a turtle :( Luckily, Hilario was going back home that night so we didn´t have to walk back.

We have had the experience of a lifetime in Tortuga and we are so grateful to the family for having shared their home with us for the past month and for making the effort to show us so many different things. We will miss them a lot and will remember them always. Although it is sad to be saying goodbye, we are very much looking forward to carrying on with our journey and to all the experiences it still has in store for us. We will obviously keep you updated :)