Life in and Around Cofradia

Cofradia (pronounced Coh Fruh DEE uh) has a population of approximately 40,000 Friendly residents, colorful homes, brilliant flowering hedges, towering palm trees and dusty, littered streets with wandering chickens and dogs characterize the community. The residents of the town come from all socioeconomic backgrounds, and some families are truly destitute. Cofradia is surrounded by green mountains and tropical cloud forest, and experiences sunny, hot weather most of the year. The rainy season is July- November, when there are deluges almost every evening.

We are approximately 40 minute by bus from San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city (and "Industrial Capital"), and about 1 hour from the Caribbean coast. Our volunteers spend many of their weekends exploring the beach communities of the coast where there are traditional Garifuna communities, the nearby tropical cloud forest of Cusuco national park, or visiting the Mayan ruins two hours away in Copan, among many other interesting destinations. We have a number of longer holidays during the year, where volunteers have up to two weeks to explore the neighboring countries of Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador if they are feeling adventurous!

The day usually starts to the chorus of chickens around 6:00am. After a quick group breakfast, the volunteers walk 20 minutes to school for the 7:00 am bell. It is often possible to hitch a ride with a student or hop in the bed of a pickup truck a courteous passerby. The school day consists of about 8 class periods with a recess in the morning and lunch in the afternoon. We have Spanish teachers who teach 2 periods of the day, then the rest of the day is divided between Science, English, Math, Art, Physical Education, and Computation which are all taught in English.

After school there are occasionally extra lessons which can be taught at the student homes. This is an unforgettable way to become culturally immersed. Families will often have volunteers over for dinner. This is an incredibly kind gesture as some of the homes have only 3 rooms with 14 residents (not including the cats and dogs) Other times after school volunteers will head to the internet cafe or take a swim at "The Rocks".

San Pedro Sula is only 45 minutes by bus where volunteers will head on the weekend to catch a movie in one of the new high tech malls or eat some western food. San Pedro also has a boisterous night life and plenty of shopping.