So anyway...many of you may know, but for those of you that do not, I'm back in the US. I got sick post-Celaque with some mysterious illness. I stayed first in the hospital in Tela, then in La Ceiba, and finally in Tegucigalpa. Those hospital stays probably merit a blog of their own, as I'm sure many of you are curious about third world hospital adventures...Anyway, the doctors in Honduras couldn't come up with a definitive diagnosis for a variety of symptoms ranging from extremely low blood pressure, the rash covering my body, fainting, bloody noses, abnormal blood test results, etc. I was 'medically separated,' which means that the higher-ups in the Peace Corps world didn't think it was safe for me to remain in the country. Devastated is probably the closest word I can find to describe how I felt when I heard this news, but it was so much more than that. Although I was only in the country for 6 months, I feel like I gained a lifetime of experience. It is an opportunity that I would go back and do all over again in a heartbeat (illness included) and definitely plan on living and volunteering abroad in the future...whether that be with the Peace Corps, I don't know.

The hardest part of the experience was collecting my belongings and saying goodbye to my host family in Tornabe. They accepted me as part of their family in an indescribable way; I know that my acceptance and success I had in the community were absolutely due to their help. It was hardest to break the news to my host-sister, Denia. She had been trying to convince me to live with them for the remainder of my 2 years and helped me emotionally as well as physically within the community; she introduced me to friends, cooked me meals, took me to community events to introduce me, and generally accepted me as her own sister. When I arrived home from the hospital and told everyone I had to go back to the US, the family was shocked. After packing my belongings, I went to say my final goodbyes. Denia had left; her husband told me that she couldn't say goodbye to me and didn't believe I would ever come back. It was pretty tough to walk away after that, but I know one day I'll be back and she'll know that I wasn't just giving up on the community.

Anyway, I wanted to give those of you out there in blog world an update. I'm not dead!

One last thought...for anyone out there thinking about applying for the Peace Corps or any sort of international experience, particularly in an underdeveloped country, I say go for it. The experiences you will take back from it can't be gained in a classroom or any job within the US. The challenges I faced and overcame made me realize not only how spoiled we are on so many levels, but also how adaptable humans can be in any situation. You'll never realize what's out there unless you make an effort to see it.

Long time no update...perhaps because I've been in the fine capital of Honduras for almost 2 weeks now. My time in Tegus has been quite the unique experience. Anyone who cares for more info, send me an email and I may or may not give you more details.

Also, for those of you who've sent me packages, Thank you!! I have 3 waiting for me at my mailbox in Tela. I'm still not sure when I'll be able to head back to the coast, but I am looking forward to whatever is inside!

I have free access to email here at the Peace Corps office, so if you guys email me I'll be able to write back fairly rapidly.

A mouse ate a hole through my mosquito net and other random tales…

As I’ve previously mentioned, I have been sharing my bed with a mouse (or mice) for the past week or so. I’d hear it scurrying around at night, and at one point I was sure it was trapped in the mattress. While I was gone, it must have chewed its way to freedom because there was a small hole chewed through the bottom of my mosquito net. I repaired it (with duct tape) and hope that is the last evidence I will see of my little friend.

Yesterday, I received a text message saying only, “Ana por fabor comuniquese con Ma Theresa por su cartera.” [Anna, please communicate with Maria Theresa for your wallet.] Well, I don’t know any Maria Theresas, but recently did have my wallet stolen, so of course I was quite perplexed about the message. Turns out, a commercial sex worker who has been involved with one of the AIDS prevention programs I’ve worked with somehow got a hold of my wallet. Inside I had a list of all the phone numbers of my Honduran counterparts in case I ever lost my phone, and the person recognized the organization and turned it in to the police. I went to the police station today, where I was received much more warmly and with more help than before (may have something to do with the fact that there were no soccer games on TV today—less distractions). Anyway, one of the officers showed me a video tape of two men they had caught recently as well as a collection of things they retrieved from the suspects. Unfortunately, I did not recognize either of the guys nor were any of my belongings there. They decided I needed to go to the main police station, so they called someone to come pick me up. Another officer showed up on the police ‘moto’ (a golf cart-looking thing that is used frequently here—some people even have them as taxis in their towns) and drove me to the main station. Once there, I was swarmed by a friendly group of young officers looking to end their boredom hearing tales of the gringa’s robbery. Once I got my wallet, they said I would have to fill out another form and identify one of the robbers they had caught if I wanted to try and get money back. Although I would have loved to pinpoint the little shit that grabbed my wallet, I only saw his back and therefore could not ID anyone. Nonetheless, I got back my wallet, which still contained my credit and debit cards as well as my Honduran resident ID card. Also, the head officer gave me his cell phone number and said if I ever had any problems again, or if my friends and I ever needed a ride late at night, he would help us out. Although this final step was a bit overly friendly, I was relieved at the way they helped me with the situation.

I also had my first visit to the Tela clinic today, although it was for skin rather than stomach problems. Last night, I noticed a few small red, itchy splotches on my face so I took some Benadryl before going to bed. When I awoke this morning, I discovered half my face was swollen to the point that my left eye couldn’t completely open. If any of you have seen the movie ‘Hitch,’ where Will Smith eats shellfish and he develops an allergic reaction, that’s pretty much what I looked like. Anyway, I freaked out and took Benadryl as well as an allergy/sinus medication (I think it is like Alegra) and called the Peace Corps medical officer. She told me to take Benadryl and go to the clinic in Tela…much easier said than done. One thing I’ve noticed about Hondurans is that no one will ever directly say they don’t know where something is—even if they’re only visiting a town and have no idea where anything is. So, as I wandered through town looking for the Hospital y Clinica Cristiana (who’d have thought there would be dozens of Christian Hospitals and clinics in this religious country??!), asking random strangers on the street, security guards, taxi drivers, and other clinics where I could find my particular doctor. The Peace Corps has a deal with this particular doctor, so I couldn’t be seen at just any old clinic. Directions I got from people ranged from, “si, si, la clinica esta alli, no mas” (the clinic is there, no further-while pointing in an ambiguous direction), “esta clinica queda arriba, arriba, bien lejo” (this clinic is up the road, very far…although later I realized I was only one block from where it was), etc. Anyway, as pleasant as it was to walk around in the blistering heat while my symptoms grew from swollen face to red shoulders and itchy back, I finally called the clinic and got better directions (I had been avoiding this because I hate phone Spanish).

Once at the clinic, the nurse took my weight and blood pressure and I got into to see the doctor. Clearly, her medical training was top notch as she immediately was able to diagnose my malady—“Sunburn,” she said simply. I paused a moment, assured her that it was not sunburn and my face does not normally function as though I have Bell’s Palsy. She took a closer look and began leading to another diagnosis.

After inspecting my mouth and teeth, she decided I had a bad tooth. Again, I patiently explained that I don’t think any sort of oral infection could have developed in a 24-hour period that would cause my eye to swell shut, not to mention the rash on my neck, shoulders, and back. I told her I had taken some Benadryl which hadn’t seemed to do much. She then got out her prescription pad, wrote something, and handed me my fate proudly as if she’d found the cure for cancer. “”Benadryl,” she wrote. Amazing! Finally, I asked her to give me something topical and got out of there as soon as I could. As long as my rash isn’t the first signs of hemorrhagic dengue, I think I’ll turn out ok. I’ll keep you posted.

Tomorrow I’m going out with the auxiliary nurse from the Centro de Salud to distribute ARTs (anti-retroviral therapy—medication for treating HIV) in the rural Garifuna village of Miami. This town is about 1.5 hours walking or 40 minute by truck on a sandy road down the coast. As of yesterday, the nurse was still unsure if she would be able to get enough medication for everyone, so we’ll see how the trip goes. I am also anticipating a visit from the head of USAID in my area sometime soon. I’m not exactly sure what this will entail, but USAID basically controls most AIDS education/prevention programs (funding) here, so it should be interesting.

Finally, I’ve been contacted by a RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteer) who is now working on his PhD in Rural Development and Population who is interested in information on Garifuna populations. As I am one of two volunteers here in Honduras living with the Garifuna, he was given my name as someone who can help. Eventually, he will come down to my site and has asked me to help organize interest groups of Garifuna in my area. I’m really excited about this opportunity because work has been a bit slow going, so this will give me something else to focus my time on that is still pertinent to health in the region.

...I wrote this blog last night. The aforementioned mouse I thought I had gotten rid of bit me last night! Not a pleasant thing to wake up to. Hopefully I don´t get the plague

After a nearly a week out of site, I have made it back home. As I was finishing my trip, quite the voyage involving 3 buses (all yellow school buses from the US that would no longer be permitted to carry people up there) and 2 taxi rides, I’ve made it home. Interestingly, I found myself getting more and more excited as I approached my site. This may sound strange, but I was leaving the comforts of being around other gringos, one of whom had her own house where I was able to stay, only to return to my town with no gringos and living with a host family. Anyway, more on my trip…

Last Wednesday I left my site and traveled to San Pedro Sula, where I was meeting up with my closest Peace Corps friend up here on the North Coast. San Pedro is notorious for being the most dangerous city in Honduras, which is quite the achievement for a country considered the most dangerous in Latin America. Anyway, in preparation for my first real visit to the city, I took off all my jewelry, hid most of my money in my bra, and tried my hardest to avoid looking like a tourist. Well, the bus arrived and I went to meet my friend in the Central Park--about a 4 block walk. The city of San Pedro surprised me—much, much cleaner than the capital, well-organized, and seemingly more convenient. Of course, I stayed in the better, more policed areas of the city, but the experience was not nearly what I expected. My friend and I then hopped on a bus to Santa Rosa de Copan, which is a colonial town about 3 hours from the Guatemalan border. The trip is about 2.5-3 hours, depending on how many stops it takes (unless you pay extra for a direct bus, the buses will generally stop at any point on the trip if someone flags them down from the side of the road). In general, there are a large number of volunteers in the west of Honduras. In fact, the Peace Corps only began putting volunteers on the North Coast a few years ago due to violence and drug trafficking problems that has since decreased, thus allowing us lucky volunteers to have homes on the Caribbean. Anyway, due to the large numbers of volunteers in the West, there is a Peace Corps house located in the city of Santa Rosa. It’s basically a frat house, where volunteers can stay for only 50 lempira a night if they need to come in from smaller sites to get groceries, use internet, etc. My friend and I stayed there for the night, where we relaxed and took advantage of the Peace Corps book exchange there. Being in Santa Rosa felt like being in a completely different country compared to being in my site. The town is well-developed with many foreigners living and working there, as well as many amenities like restaurants, real grocery stores, coffee shops (with wireless internet!!), etc.

The following morning, we hopped on a bus to Gracias, in the department of Lempira, Honduras. It was a beautiful bus ride in the mountains. We arrived in the late afternoon, and met up with my good friend that lives there. She is living in her own place with another volunteer in a large 5 bedroom house. In her giant house, she has a TV with cable and a stair-stepper exercise machine—not things one might imagine in a typical Peace Corps house (nor can afford on the Peace Corps salary), but to each his own I suppose. We explored the town, and I was continuously amazed at my ability to not only walk around without sweating, but be comfortable in jeans and a fleece—the climate is quite a bit different than what I’ve become used to in the North.

The following day 2 other volunteers from our training group met up with us in Gracias, and we made preparations for the following day, when we were to begin our hike to the highest peak in Honduras in the national park of Celaque. Luckily, one of our friend’s host-country counterparts had climbed the route several times before, so we did not have to hire a guide.

We set out at 6AM the following morning, beginning with a 30 minute jalon to the base of the mountain. We began the actual hiking around 8am, and it was rough going. I thought I was in decent shape, but running on the beach is not enough to prepare you for walking/climbing/pulling yourself up a mountain. We started at 1400m and made it to the peak around 4:45PM at an elevation of 2400m. After a full day of hiking, we paused for about 5 minutes to take pictures and had just began to put up the tents when it starts POURING. My friend and I shared one 2-person tent while the 4 guys shared a cozy 3 person. We all hung out in the larger tent, cooking dinner and hoping the rain would let up. Around 8PM, my friend and I headed back to our tent only to find it had about an inch of water in it and all our stuff was completely soaked. We salvaged our sleeping bags and whatever warm things we could, and sheepishly went back to the guys tent, hoping for a place to sleep. With no other option, the 6 of us crammed into the tiny tent, where we spent a few uncomfortable hours trying to sleep (we actually couldn’t all fit unless everyone was on their side, so every hour someone would call out ‘rotate’ and we would switch to the other side). I forgot to mention that this whole fiasco took place with our Honduran guide, who spoke no word of English and I think was pretty confused at why we were all trying to cram into his tent. Anyway, around 1AM the rain let up and we managed to get the rain out of our tent enough to be able to sleep comfortably for a few hours. Unfortunately, this coincided with when my body decided to punish me for drinking river water (we figured we were high enough on the mountain that the water source couldn’t have been contaminated by anyone above it) or eating old fish (which I had done the day before) and I stayed awake most of the night with an upset stomach and fever. We woke up around 6:30AM, and after a quick picture taking session and breakfast, we set off down the mountain. Initially, I had dreaded going down because I had images of losing balance with the weight of my pack and falling off one of the many drop-offs, but it was actually quite fun and I only fell 4 times—once on a giant jagged rock that left quite the bruise on my butt. We made it down around 3:30PM with my knees feeling like there was no cartlidge left and my legs almost as sore as when I ran the marathon. I forgot to mention that I completed this long day of hiking without eating anything, because I was concerned the state of my stomach might punish me with numerous bathroom breaks in precarious positions on steep cliffs. Anyway, the trip was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from my site.

Pictures from Celaque:

Bright, smiling faces at 6AM...

Me and my friend in the back of the pick-up, en route to base

Top of the mountain in the cloud forest

Me on top of Honduras...

Now, I’m happily back in my site and so excited to be able to enjoy all the goodies sent by my mom. The chocolate held up quite nicely, and the tea is the perfect thing to wake up to. Drinking a cup, it made me realize the little things I miss-like waking up in the morning, drinking tea and doing the crossword puzzle. Also, I shared some peanut butter and apple with my host fam here-they love it!

I’ve also just found out my boss (the person in charge of Peace Corps Honduras health project) has placed a transfer volunteer (formally in Paraguay) to Tela, which is the city nearest me. She is replacing the girl that I was in training with who decided to go back early to the US. Anyway, I will meet her tomorrow in a lunch meeting with my boss and an evaluator from Peace Corps headquarters. The evaluator will then travel to my town and talk to my counterparts about the work I’ve been doing, how the Peace Corps is/can help, etc. I also may be lucky enough to visit to a Honduran medical facility. Since I’m no longer in training, I don’t get to see the Peace Corps medical staff right away. As a volunteer, I have to go to a regular Honduran clinic, see a doctor, get treated by him/her, and if it doesn’t work, the Peace Corps pays for my trip down to Tegus to see a Peace Corps doctor. Although I’m a bit skeptical of this process, I plan on saying ‘no’ to any sort of shot (most Hondurans don’t believe their illnesses will be cured unless they get some sort of shot, so most doctors will take the pills that would ordinarily treat someone, crush it up and make it into a solution, and inject it) and I think I’ll be fine. We’ll see how my stomach feels in the next few days…

Final news…just signed the contract with my landlady for my new place! All the other volunteers from my training group are moving in to their places July 1st, but I’ll be waiting until August 1st. I’ll try to take some pictures soon, but am very excited about the prospects of having my own place. It’s on the main road of my town (really the only road), right next door to the house of the patronato (similar to the mayor), so it should be safe. It has one large room, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom. Right now, there is no ‘kitchen’ per say, but I bought a hot plate and a small refrigerator from a soon-to-be former volunteer, and there is a pila out back (a multi-purpose water source with a faucet where most people wash their closes, dishes, etc), so that should do. We do lose electricity pretty often here, so eventually I’ll probably have to buy a gas-run stove, but the basics should do for now.

Here´s a few other random pics...

I give private English classes to a girl in my site in exchange for braids. I was too lazy to take out the most recent batch, left them in for a week, and nearly had dreads. I would say I lost about 10 handfuls of hair trying to get them out...lesson learned.

You´d think in a beachfront house, one might desire a vacuum to get all the sand off the carpets. Well, apparently these are hard to come by, so I´ve devised my own method of ´vacuuming´ my room...

Also, if anyone is sending any packages and has any small, old (clean) towels, it´d be great if you could stick them in. I use them as sweat rags, but buying new towels is pretty expensive here. Thanks!

Here are some photos of both my town, and of the city of Tela, where I spent last Saturday with some friends...

The rainy season has begun...here´s a photo of a storm rolling in.

Here´s a pic of the main street in Tornabé, complete with a gimp pig that drags it´s 2 feet behind him to get anywhere. I think it should be put of out its misery, but apparently not.

This is the house I was supposed to live in, right on the Calle Principal (main street)

This is the front view of my disco that I chose to live in...don´t worry, the piles of cement make great fun for the kids to play in. Plus, the back side of the house is the Caribbean, so you can´t beat that.

The following are all views of Tela from the sweet hotel we stayed at...

And finally, signs I put up for my English classes in town .For those of you Spanish-speakers, you can´t comment on the errors...they are signs for English classes anyway!

I´ve been able to be on the internet more often the past few days because I´m helping my project director organize a capacitation for volunteer counterparts, which requires me to come into Tela to use the services here (printing, copying, faster internet, etc)

Hope everyone´s well!

So..apparently Fed Ex can´t deliver to my lovely North Coast home, so if any of you want to send packages, may as well do it via US Post Office. This method is cheaper, anyway...just don´t spend anything expensive in case it doesn´t make it through customs. (This message does not go for you mom...you can Fed Ex my bday package to the PC office in Tegucigalpa and I´ll find a way to get it...maybe you can even give me the bus money to go down and pick it up as an extra bday gift. It´s a whole $16!)

Last week I had a chance to help with a capacitation for people living with HIV/AIDS in my community. It was a great opportunity because eventually I hope to help start a support group for PLWHA (People living with HIV/AID) in my community, so it was nice to meet people and sort of build a foundation. It also gave me some confidence in my knowledge on the subject. A group of facilitators from Tegucigalpa from the NGO Vision Mundial (World Vision) led the capacitation, but it was something I could have easily done on my own, which suprised me. During the capacitation, the group shared ways to stay on schedule with their meds, how to alleviate and deal with side effects, as well as how to take on social stigmas, etc. I added my input as much when I could, and hope to develop similar capacitations for my own support group in the future. So far my main objectives in the next few months are to begin a project called Encargada de mi Vida (In Charge of My Life), an HIV/AIDS prevention program for 5th and 6th graders in the school in town, begin laying the foundation for a support group in town, possibly start something similar to Encargada de Mi Vida with some of the kids from the orphanage (focused more on leadership and nutrition rather than HIV prevention, because some of them were born with it), and begin applying for a Peace Corps grant to get a home/school built for the kids. The way Peace Corps grants work is that the community has to be willing to donate a certain percentage of the money, whether it be in labor, materials, etc. The Peace Corps helps with the rest through a variety of grants, but it is a difficult process, so I´m not sure how it will turn out.

Last Saturday, 2 of my PC friends came to Tela (the city nearby), where we spent the night in an amazing hotel. They gave us a discount for being poor volunteers, which was great. It was up on a hill, with amazing views of the city of Tela as well as the Caribbean. I´ll post pictures tomorrow or later this week.

The rest of this week and next, I´ve been asked by a church group from Canada to help them give charlas on Nutrition and Hygiene in the communities around my area. Mostly I´ll be translating, but it will be good to get some information from them and travel more about my area.

That´s all for now.

Happy (late) Anniversary Mom and Dad!! and

Happy (late) Birthday Laura!

So apparently third world computers are just as clean as third world water, third world food, etc. I had been writing blogs, uploading pictures, etc on my laptop and saving them on my USB, then bringing that to internet cafes to get everything done more quickly. Apparently most of the computers in the internet cafes have a ton of viruses (I guess I should have figured that), so I got one on my USB, and apparently transfered it to my laptop, which is completely useless now. Every time I turn on the computer, a screen pops up that says ¨Muerte a Israel, EEUU. Libertad para Palestina, Irak y Afganistan;¨ which basically says ¨Death to Israel and the United States. Liberty for Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan (pretty obvious). So, now my computer is worthless until I find someone that can fix it...not sure how that will work. That means no pictures or long blogs for you guys, and no ipod, music, or DVD watching for me :(

Here´s some more pics I´ve found. I sort of look like a beached whale in the hammock one...maybe I´ve got a bloated belly from all the worms in my gut...or maybe it´s just too much pan de coco (Coconut bread, a Garifuna specialty). hmmm...

I was looking through my friend´s website and discovered some pics that I thought I´d share. By the way, if you google ´Peace Corps Honduras blogs´and go to the link that says Worldwide Peace Corps journals, (or something like that), you will get a list of a lot of blogs of volunteers here in Honduras, including many from my training class. I think it´s pretty cool to check out every once in a while, so I thought I´d mention it.

Here is a picture of our group...49 people as of swearing-in (although it´s down to 48 now). I´m in the back left-hand corner.

This is a picture of some friends and I the evening of swearing-in. We had a competition of sorts between each project of Hondu 10 (what the Peace Corps calls our training group). The health group (my project) beat both the Water and Sanitation and Business groups that have been going through training with us. I won´t reveal the game, but it did include all of us health girls wearing side-ponytails, as you can see in the picture.

And here is a photo of a giant tub of spaghetti that my friend Aaron and I made for our going-away party from La Paz (our last training site). The two of us made spaghetti for about 100 people...and after what felt like 3rd degree burns, 35 boxes of pasta, and steaming facials of pasta water, we fed everyone and had half the vat o´spaghetti left over. It was quite the ordeal.

Now on to pics from my site. The other day I was relaxing in my hammock when I heard some kids talking about me from behind the corner of a house. All of a sudden about 20 of them came out with various (homemade) instruments and put on a little show for me. I don´t know if you can tell, but the kid with the missing patches of hair (anyone know what that might be from? It´s not fleas...) is one of my favorites. Everyone calls him mulatto because he is mixed...in fact it took me several weeks to find out his real name. Anyway, here they are:

A Day in the Life….

Many of you may be wondering what your atypical Peace Corps volunteer does (I say atypical because, as you may imagine, most volunteers are not placed on the Caribbean coast, living in a disco). I’ll let you in on the chaos that is my life during these first three months, what the Peace Corps likes to call “community entry.”

8AM: Wake up. Upon opening my eyes I 1) Thank God we have electricity and that the fan is still on (and on days it is raining and we lack electricity, I get annoyed and try to go back to sleep, but can’t because I am beginning to sweat. Although usually on rain days, I am awakened the second it starts raining because we have a tin roof, and it sounds like bullets are being fired in rapid succession when the rain hits). 2) Wonder why the hell I’m sleeping inside a giant net, then realize it’s just my mosquito net. I pause to examine all the dead bugs lying on the top of the net, and am glad that there exist great chemicals like the DEET that is impregnated in my net, to allow me to sleep bug-free.

8:30: Go to the kitchen. Greet my host-brother Edicson and his wife Denia, who are lying on the couch watching telenovelas. I make breakfast. Recently, I learned that just because the tap water cooked with oatmeal gets pretty hot in the microwave, it does not mean that it is actually making it safe to consume (Using tap water, however, implies that the water bill has been paid, thus that we have running water. I’ve found out this week that is not always the case). I sit down to breakfast and enjoy a few bites before a mouse runs across my foot, or across the wall, etc. I lose my appetite, but it doesn’t matter because at this point, the ants have overtaken my food.

9AM: Apply vigorous amount of sunscreen and bug spray, making sure to stand in front of the fan so that 1) I am able to stop sweating long enough for the sunscreen to absorb and 2) Create a breeze so that I don’t inhale toxic amounts of bug-spray chemicals. Now ready for the outside world, I get my umbrella (used more for sun protection than rain, thus far), and head to either 1) Centro de Salud (Health Center) 2) Oficina del Patronato (Similar to the mayor’s office) 3) Wander around chatting with random people 4) to Tela (the city nearby).

I spend the morning hours talking about various projects that are already going on, projects they would like me to help with, and projects that I would actually like to do. Because we are recommended during “Community Entry” to support current projects rather than begin our own, I am left with quite a bit of wandering around time

12PM: Return home. Usually there are a number of people hanging out in the champas (wall-less huts made from palm leaves) near my house. When I’m lucky, someone gives me a lunch…usually consisting of an entire fish (brains, eyeballs, and bones included) deep-fried, and accompanied by a portion of rice appropriate for a sumo wrestler, and some deep-fried plantain chips. One special day I got a can of sardines in tomato sauce. However, I can’t complain…food is not included in my rent and they actually do give me some really great stuff. Whenever people cook special Garifuna foods, they usually bring me a taste. My favorites so far have been pan de coco (coconut bread), a soup with fish, mashed plantains and coconut milk, cassabe (a tortilla-like thing made from yucca) and any kind of fish. Surprisingly, I haven’t gotten sick from eating random food. I don’t say this as an insult, but there are definitely different manners of hygiene here. I usually eat with my hands, and although I have not picked up these habits (yet), it is common to pick your nose, spit any and everywhere (including on the floors of houses/buildings), and for guys, to fold up your shirt and to get air on their bellies (I actually have started doing this…it’s such a nice breeze!)

Afternoon: Back on track…In the afternoons, unless I have a meeting or am trying to meet a specific person in the community, I typically hang out around my house. Sometimes, I work on charlas that I will eventually give. The charlas I will give are basically an interactive style of lecture. The Peace Corps calls them ‘non-formal education techniques;’ I see them more as a lecture broken up by a few games. I also trade English lessons for Garifuna lessons, and have picked up quite a few words. I feel that my Spanish level has reached a plateau here, so I’ve really got to work on improving that while I try to pick up some Garifuna. Everyone here speaks both Spanish and Garifuna, but will speak Garifuna in most situations unless I am involved in the conversation. Some people also claim to speak English, but it is not a form of the language that I am familiar with.

Around 2-3PM, I head out for a run. I’m not sure why I always choose the hottest part of the day, but it feels pretty damn good. My house is at one end of Tornabe; the town’s other boundary is a lagoon. My typical run (actually the only run I can safely do) is from my house to the lagoon and back, anywhere from 4-10 times. It’s about 1K each way, but it’s unsafe to run outside of my community (for now), so I’ve got to stick to the same route. I run barefoot on the beach, with the waves crashing at my feet. My calves were so sore for the first week after sand running, but I love the workout. I run in my swimsuit, so as soon as I’m done, I hope in the ocean to cool off (although the water is not much cooler than bath water). If there aren’t too many people in the disco, sometimes I use it to do a Bikram yoga workout after my run…I thought people stared at me just walking down the street, but it was nothing compared to the reaction of people watching me do yoga!!

After running, I shower (assuming there’s water), using a hose that is stuck through a small hole in the wall in the bathroom, connecting it to the outside. Of course, there’s no hot water, but I wouldn’t use that anyway, so it’s very refreshing. I think there is a mouse habitat situated under the (non-functioning) washing machine in the bathroom, so they occasionally dart out. The other day, my host brother asked if I had seen any mice. I confirmed that I had in fact seen a few mice, he responded, “When you see them, don’t get scared…you need to stomp on them!!” Not exactly the reaction I was anticipating, but an interesting way to handle it nonetheless. I would suggest perhaps putting traps or poison around the house, but that might harm the pet rabbit we have that roams freely throughout the house. The rabbit, however, is an excellent pet. He eats all my mango, banana, avocado, and various other peels, and because he spends most of his time outside, there isn’t a lot of rabbit shit in the house.

Around 4PM, the neighborhood kids start coming around. When I’m up for it, we get a game of soccer going on the beach. Other times, I hang my hammock under 2 coconut trees, and spend a few hours reading (and by reading I mean explaining to curious passers-by that I’m not studying nor reading the Bible…leisure reading and reading in general is pretty non-existent here, probably because most people don’t have more than a 3rd grade education).

I’ve also begun having lessons in Garifuna from a guy I met about a week ago. When I met him, he offered to show me some native fruits growing near by house, called ycacao (I have no idea how to spell it). Next thing I know, I’m on a horse-drawn cart galloping through the jungle on a non-existent road. We filled a giant bag with the fruit and collected about 25 coconuts he had retrieved from the tops of the trees (I’m becoming addicted to coconut water). Anyway, the guy shows up at my house a few days later with the Holy Bible, in Garifuna. He tells me that I’m going to learn Garifuna, and that this particular Bible is one of the few books that exist in the Garifuna language. The only problem, he says, is that he can only borrow the book for 15 days. His interesting solution is that I should begin copying the Bible into a notebook. Although this was one solution, I wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about the prospects of copying a book (the Bible, nonetheless) in a language of which I understood not one word. Instead, we decided to begin with the most important words and continue from there.

Once the sun sets, I head inside to escape the wrath of mosquitoes and jejenes (sand fleas). I usually cook dinner for myself. Sometimes I’m lucky and my host-brother’s wife is making tortillas and she gives me some. They are amazing. So far, I haven’t gotten too fancy because I don’t have a lot of foods nearby me. I taught myself how to make beans (not from a can!!) and they are slowly improving. Another thing I’ve discovered here is licuados. It’s basically frozen fruit and milk blended together (without ice, like a smoothie). They are really good, especially when it’s so hot and I don’t want a heavy meal. I haven’t ventured out to buy fish from the fishermen yet (their boats pull up right on the beach and people rush out to buy…at times they even start swimming towards the boats before they hit land), mainly because I don’t know how to clean the fish and am not too sure how to cook it. I’m sure after two years here, I’ll be a pro.

Anyway, after dinner, I hang out and talk with my family and whoever else happens to be around. We have a TV (actually 3) which I occasionally watch just for the news. I also read a lot, and head to bed around 9 or 10PM (unless it’s a disco night).

So, there’s a typical day. As you can see, the “community entry” process is extremely rough, but I guess I’m handling it pretty well (sarcasm, if you can’t tell. Something that does not exist in Latin American countries, which makes it very difficult with my sense of humor, at times). The truth is that I’m slowly getting accustomed to my new home, just as everyone here is getting used to the random gringa sticking around longer than a few days like the tourists they’ve seen. I’m really looking forward to getting into more meaningful work, but right now, I realize the importance of getting to know as many people as possible in the community and gaining their trust. It just so happens that my community is on the Caribbean, and meeting people requires me spending several hours a day on or near the beach.

Another update…had a change of plans this weekend. Was thinking I would head out of my site for a bit of anonymity, break from being surrounded by people all the time, etc. Instead, I went to Carnival, in the city of La Ceiba. I still haven’t quite figured out why they have Carnival, complete with Mardi Gras parade, beads, etc. in May, but I think it’s better not to try to reason a lot of the things that go on here. Anyway, 100,000+ people from throughout Honduras and Central America flock to Ceiba for parades, reggaeton bands, carnivalitos for the kids, and lots of dancing in the streets. I left my town Saturday morning around 8AM via taxi to the closest city, Tela. From Tela, I hopped on a bus for La Ceiba, although I got off at my friend’s site about 2 hours from here. It was interesting to get out of my site and into a more typical Honduran community (not Garifuna). We hung out in her site for a while and then hopped in the back of her family’s pick-up for the ride to Ceiba. It was a scorching hot 30 minute ride with the afternoon sun baking us in the back of the black pick-up, but we made it. We watched the parade for awhile…complete with Garifuna dancers, floats, bands, etc. It was a lot of stuff I had seen on a smaller scale at my town’s fair, but it was still fun to see. The streets were extremely packed with people, and there was a fair amount of other gringos there. In fact, we were voicing our jealousies of some gringos we noticed on a 3rd floor balcony overlooking the parade when we recognized them as fellow Peace Corps volunteers. We then got the invite up, and were able to watch more of the parade in the luxury of an air-conditioned apartment from a prime viewing spot. After a while, we decided to leave and meet back up with my friend’s host-family, who happened to be at Pizza Hut. When we got there, there were at least 75 people trying to rush into the place…a complete madhouse. Apparently, Pizza Hut is a happening place during Carnival. Anyway, we finally got out of there, headed to a carnivalito for the kids, and watched some Punta dancing while the kids played around. We headed back to my friend’s town later that night, happy to get out of the madhouse of Ceiba. Under different circumstances, it would have been fun to hang around and see how crazy the night gets, but I was glad to get the experience and get out of there this time around…there’s always next year! This morning, while trying to get back to my site, I was warned that the buses would probably be filled with drunk/hungover/barfing/smelly people who had been up partying all night. Sure enough, as I flagged the bus down to the side of the highway, I noticed that it was already filled with people standing (meaning all the seats were taken). In the US, most long-distance buses would sell tickets for the number of seats available, but of course that does not happen in Honduras. However, being a gringa does have some benefits. I got on the bus (from the back emergency door, because people were packed in so tightly in the front), and the ayudante (the guy that helps the bus driver and collects all the money) got me a seat despite the dozens of people standing that probably needed to sit more than I did (not elderly or pregnant, just hungover). I happily sat down (I don’t feel as guilty about this gringo advantage because of the many gringo “taxes” we have to pay, as foreigners), and promptly shut my window. I learned this trick soon after coming to Honduras…although it’s hot, it’s an excellent way to prevent vomit from flying back into your face if someone in front of you has not been feeling too great.

…Interestingly, I learned this trick from a personal experience I don’t believe I’ve revealed on my blog. A few weeks ago, my friends and I hopped on a bus one afternoon because we needed to go into the capital. I was not feeling so well, and in fact predicted that I would get sick on the bus. Unfortunately, I got stuck with an aisle seat, but I thought I could will myself into feeling better (it was only about a 1.5 hour bus ride). About 20 minutes into it, just as I was going to start searching for a plastic bag, a window seat opened up. I quickly moved and stuck my head out the window in preparation. I realized it would be rude to throw up without giving any warning, but I didn’t exactly want to yell to everyone behind me that I was going to barf. Instead, I spit a few times, thinking that anyone that gets hit in the face with spit would prefer that than vomit, and would probably shut their window. Anyway, after that, I just couldn’t help it, and I got sick, rather inconveniently, while the bus hit a cruising speed of about 60 mph. Miraculously, I did not get any barf on myself, but I’m afraid I can’t say the same for the people behind me. After the vomit, I heard several windows slam shut, which makes me think they didn’t catch the spit warning. Needless to say, I was afraid to look back, so I’m not sure how many Hondurans I doused with splatters of Gatorade-red vomit. The funny thing was that my friends on the bus had no idea I threw up until we got off and I told them; they were obviously sitting on the opposite site. So remember…when traveling by bus, particularly in 3rd world countries, keep your window shut! You never know what could fly in and hit you in the face!!

Sorry if that story grossed you out…but my fellow volunteers appreciated it so I thought I’d share.

My new address is:

Voluntaria en el Cuerpo de Paz

Anna Walburn

Apertido Postal 20

Tela, Atlantida

Honduras

Don´t worry if you already sent stuff to the Peace Corps office in Tegucigalpa. I will still be able to receive that mail, but because th PC office is 7 hours away, it´s just more convenient to have my PO Box in the city closer to me.

I know it may seem far away, but here´s my birthday wishlist...

Audio Bikram Yoga CD that you have to order from the Bikram yoga website

Citronella Oil

Headphones that don´t have the thing going over the head

Extra Gum (I prefer flavors Green Apple and Watermelon)

Dark Chocolate (the darker, the better)

Natural Peanut butter (At Target they have the plastic jars of it..prob at Wild Oats, too)

Colorscience Sunforgettable SPF 30 Sun Protection in Powder Refill (I know this sounds very particular, but it´s the only powder sunscreen that I found and it helps a lot when I´m constantly sweating in the Caribbean heat and humidity!)

BOOKS! (I prefer non-fiction, but at this point, anything would be great)

Any magazines or old DVDs that you don´t care for anymore

Crossword puzzles

That´s all. Hope everyone is doing well!

Not much new in Tornabè City. The town has died down quite a bit since the feria ended yesterday. All that remains are the mountains of trash scattered about...suprisingly, there is a group of people that attempt to pìck up the litter here, but I´m sure the majority of it will end up in the ocean, or being burnt with the rest of the trash. For those unaware, the trash problem down here is huge. I got accostumed to this in Ecuador, so I wasn´t too shocked by the amount of trash in every corner of the country, but it is still disappointing.

I met today with the office of the Patronato here. It is similar to a city government, but typically much stronger in the Garifuna communities. I discussed with them what sort of projects are already going on, and what they may want me to help implement. A major concern here is a huge development project the government is trying to get going right on the coast, basically right in my town and the surrounding area. Although most people I´ve talked to are against it, they realize it is probably a lost cause. Because of this, many are interested in learning English so they will be more employable at the resorts that will inevitably be coming. The patronato´s main hope is for me to teach classes to interested people in the town. Before coming in, I realized that there would be a desire for this, despite the fact that I have no English-teaching training and just finished 3 months of training in health-related issues. So anyway, I´m going to start some classes because I realize its importance in the community...but in no way will it become my main project or something that I invest a huge amount of time to.

Something I am more interested in is helping with a group of orphans here in town. Tomorrow I am meeting with a Pastor that is in charge of the 80 or so kids, most of whom their parents have passed away from AIDS. I also am trying to find out more information about a support group for People Living with HIV/AIDS here in town. I´ve been getting used to the way things work here in Honduras...people not showing up for meetings or showing up hours late, apathetic attitudes (a common saying is ¨Si Dios quiere,¨ which means ¨If God wants...¨) etc. I´m hoping to have steady and useful work going within the next two months, which I have been told by some is wishful thinking. We´ll see...I suppose it´s better to have goals than to adopt the Honduran attitude (although I do have a pretty spectacular spot for my hammock where I could pass the next two years...).

Oh, and for those of you wondering, I have not yet purchased a horse. I´m thinking it´d be helpful to find my own place to live and make sure I can afford a bed and various other necessities before accepting responsibility for another living being.

Finally...I´m at my site, settled in, and discovered an internet place with relatively fast connection which allows me to use my USB thing (it´s about 40 minutes from my town by bus, longer in the rainy season, so don´t expect a ton of pictures).

Here´s my house:

And the view from my house:

And a view of the Disco, inside my house...

And just one of the various friendly insects living in my house (we also have mice, with names, and giant cockroaches)

Here are a couple kids who were hanging out at my house...I guess you could say your typical Garifuna kids/babies:

Here are some pics of Punto Sal, where some friends and I went camping last weekend.

So, anyone want to visit me?

Finally I´m here, sworn in as an actual Peace Corps volunteer, and living in the site I will be at for the next 2 years. For the first 2 months, I am living with a family, which actually couldn´t be better. It will be nice to have my independence, but for now, I really am enjoying my place. It is right on the beach, and on Saturday and Sunday it is a Garifuna disco. I explained about the Garifuna in my other blog, so I won´t go back in to that, but it´s a pretty interesting place. Yesterday, I traveled to La Ceiba...I can´t find the parenthesis on this computer so I´ll have to use the ... anyway, Ceiba is about 1.5 hours by car, 2=4 hours by bus. I left my site around 7AM, got there at about 10. I met up with around 15 other PCVs, none of whom live within an hour of me. Nonetheless, it was good to meet everyone and hear about the different projects going on.

More about my site...So far, I have met with the head of the Centro Basico here...it´s the only school in town and has all grades, up through high school. I also met with the nurse at the Centro de Salud here. She is my main counterpart, and is really nice. There is no doctor in town, and the Centro provides support for our town as well as another Garifuna town further down the beach. Interestingly, the nurse is an auxiliary nurse, which means she does not have any university education. I am known as Liscenciada, which means I have my bachellors degree, but is very highly regarded because not many people have continue their education past 6th grade here. I am looking in to several different aspects of the population to work with. For the 1st three months, Peace Corps recommends that we don´t do too much more than get to know our communitees, gain trust, etc. However, from what I´ve seen and heard, there´s a lot of work to be done. I met with the nurse today, who really wanted me to get to work in the school with sex education because it is an area that is extremely lacking. There is also a support group here for people living with HIV that has been struggling to stay together. I´m hoping to get to know some people in the group and maybe eventually help them come up with ways to strengthen the group. There is also a pastor in town that runs a program for kids ages 5=18, most of whom are orphans, many living with HIV and have parents that have died of AIDS. He wants help developing a nutrition program for all the children, particularly those who are on ARVs, in order to keep them healthy and getting the right vitamins. I´ve also come up with some ideas of my own. There is a large population of Garifuna men who live in the States and return here every so often...for example during Semana Santa or the town Fair...and sleep around and spread a lot of disease in the community. I´m thinking of trying to get some women in the community to meet with me in the disco once a week and teach them about how to be safe, protect themselves, and how to encourage this throughout the community. I think the disco would be a great place...it´s only open Sat and Sun...because it´s more of a casual environment and people would be more likely to come. I have also started teaching English in exchange for lessons in Garifuna. It´s a lot of fun. After a while, I also want to look into a secondary project of getting together a Garifuna cookbook. Their food is unique and amazing, and I think it could be a great way to make money for the community if I could find a few women to help me get it going.

Anyway, that´s an update. I have a ton of amazing pictures, but the internet here is slower than anything I´ve ever seen before, so I´m going to wait until I go into the city and buy some groceries. For those of you thinking of planning a trip, the nearest airport is San Pedro Sula...about 2 hours away. The Bay Islands, with some of the best scuba diving in the world, are an hour boat ride from me after a 2 hour car ride. Also, I live in a national park, and this weekend I´m going to pay some local fishermen to take me out to a protected area only accessible by boat.

I found out my site!! I will be living in a Garifuna community on the North Coast (Caribbean), in a town called Tornabe. It's about 15 minutes from Tela, which is a pretty touristy beach town. My site has about 3,000 people, of which 95% are Garifuna. The Garifuna are an Afro-Caribbean ethnic group here in Honduras, so I will stick out like a sore thumb moreso than I would anywhere else. However, I could not be any happier about this site. There will be a lot of challenges with this particular site...my project directer was hesitant to place me there (I am one of only a few other volunteers in Garifuna sites)...but I will get into these details later. On Thursday, I will be traveling there for the 1st time, so I'll give a big update with some pictures hopefully later on this weekend.

Headline from the paper today:

SPS, temperatura subira a 43 grados...Es el ano mas caliente de la historia.

For those of you that don't speak Spanish, that says it will be 43 degrees Celcius, and that this is the hottest year in history of Honduras. In Fahrenheit, this means it will be/has been about 110 degrees. Keep in mind that is with no air-conditioning, few fans, little shade, and water that comes to my house every 8-10 days. It's actually not that bad...once you get used to heat above about 90, I don't think it can get much worse. Thankfully, I don't have a fever anymore, so although I'm hot and sweaty all the time, it's not as miserable as it could be.

A better update soon, I promise!

I just wrote a very long blog, with great pictures and everything, and it got deleted. Instead of re-writing it, I'll leave you with this picture of me and my friends from this past weekend to reassure everyone that I've survived my recent bout of illness....more updates to come

*A note on the pictures...you may want to click on them to enlarge because the way they show up on the page cuts some of them off

Just finished a pretty exciting weekend…went to Comayagua on Saturday afternoon. Three friends and I took our first trip without family members. I played tour guide because I had been to the town last weekend. We didn’t do a whole lot but it was still a nice getaway from La Paz. Saturday night I hung out with my host family for a while then met up with some other aspirantes. We started out at a restaurant close by …the owner speaks English and encourages us to go there and hang out, so we do.

(We're actually a lot happier than we appear to be. We were trying not to smile for the camera, and apparently we took it a little too far. These are a couple other health volunteers here in La Paz with me.)

After a while, we went to the house of a Peace Corps volunteer whose site is actually in La Paz. He is here doing work in municipal development and has a super nice house (A lot of volunteers say that a person’s project impacts his/her living situation quite a bit. I’ve heard that business and municipal development volunteers, and the Water and Sanitation engineers enjoy a higher standard than those of us in health and youth development while the Protected Areas management volunteers get sites with the least amenities.) Anyway, after enjoying that for a while, a group of us headed to one of the discos that are here in town. We were all pretty tired, but it was a great time.

Sunday morning I met up with some friends and headed to the cockfight. Later in the afternoon, we went over to another trainee’s house to watch a movie. The father of his host family is American, and he lives in a house nicer than I ever have in the States. They have hot water (with pressure!!), TVs, computer with internet, a treadmill, etc. It felt a little bit like I was back in the States (except that the house seems a bit like a compound, as it is surrounded by giant cement walls with barbed wire on top).

I also forgot to mention that my family has set up a giant swimming pool in our backyard area for Semana Santa (Holy Week). Because we haven’t had water here in about a week, my family paid some guy with a water truck to come over and fill up the pool for only 400 Lemps. I think my house will be pretty festive this week. The whole country is basically on vacation…today I had about 15-20 people at my house just swimming and drinking beers. It should be fun once I can join them (Peace Corps only gives us vacation days on Thursday and Friday). A tradition during Semana Santa is the creation of alfombras, which are giant designs made with colored sawdust made in the streets. People work all night to make them, then in the morning religious processions walk through the streets and ruin them. A friend of mine asked if I wanted to help in the process of making them, so I’m hoping to get some good pictures. On Friday, I think a group of us are going to a lake sort of thing nearby (it’s called aguas thermales, but I’m hoping this isn’t the case because hot springs are the last thing I would want in this weather), where there apparently are jet skis, big rafts, and other fun stuff to rent. It should also be a good time, but if Hondurans drive jet skis similar to they way they drive cars, it could also be quite challenging as well. Here are some more details of a couple things:

-Pelea de Gallos…

…AKA cock-fighting. Yesterday my friends and I decided to witness this aspect of Honduran culture. The basics: We heard about it through the grapevine from some people in the community. Around 10:30, men start gathering at the cock-fighting ring, where all the roosters are housed in cages. Beer is sold, and the entire event is an all-day activity. It cost 50 lempira to get in (one day’s wages!!). I showed up with another girl friend of mine, and we were 2 of 5 girls that were crowded around the ring with about 60-75 Honduran men. It was SO hot, and everyone was packed in tightly around the little ring. Of course everyone is sweating, which mixes with the odor of blood, beer, and cigarettes to create a lovely atmosphere. The roosters are fitted with hook/blade sort of things that are put on their feet to aid in their fighting. Some owners also put Vaseline on the birds’ backs, so that it will smear into the other birds’ eyes. They are also fed a special diet that supposedly makes them meaner but I’m not sure what that entails. I’ve also heard that some people put poison on the hooks of their roosters to speed up the process, although all the fights I watched, the hooks were cleaned with alcohol before the fight. The actual fight: Each owner holds his bird, and they start out with 3 in the ring. They test them in pairs to see which 2 of the 3 seem to have the most animosity towards each other. After this is decided, the two chosen birds are set down in the ring and it begins. It appeared that most birds get in about 1 minute or so of pretty intense wing-flapping/pecking type of fighting, and they start losing a lot of blood and get disoriented. The rounds are 20 seconds long, and in between the rounds, it got really interested. Each owner would pick up his bird, put its head in his mouth, and suck the blood out of the rooster’s mouth so that it wouldn’t asphyxiate…basically it looked like they were giving it mouth-to-mouth. The fight lasts until the beak of the losing bird hits the ground, so it basically has to die. The 1st fight I saw was very fast, about 20 seconds. One of the roosters got the other with his hook, and he was out. It appears that the owners have a pretty special bond with the animals (they must…after sucking blood out of its mouth!!), because once their bird dies, they kiss them. The cock-fights are a pretty ‘manly’ event. There were no Honduran women there, and the men seemed pretty amused that we showed up. They get really into the fights, yelling and betting on their favorite rooster. Most of them were very nice, and gave us a play-by-play of what was going on. We left pretty early on, which I think helped us avoid dealing with a big crowd of curious men after they had gotten a few beers in them. Needless to say, it was quite the experience. I would probably do it again, although I would try to pick a day not quite so hot.

-Baby-weighing

Malnourishment is a huge problem with children under 5 here in Honduras. One of the biggest problems is that kids get diarrhea and are unable to get any nourishment from the food they are eating. There are also a lot of beliefs here that do a lot more harm than good. One is that mothers shouldn’t give babies anything (breast-milk, any sort of food, etc) when they have diarrhea. Problems with hygiene also create a cycle of diarrhea and the resulting illnesses. The government counteracts this problem is with a project called AINc. The program utilizes nurses that go to the rural areas and weigh babies once a month. They track the weight on graphs that use a lot of visuals so the mothers can understand. If it appears that the babies are not making enough progress in weight gain, the nurses provide counseling to the mothers and try to figure out what’s causing the problems. We were trained on how to use the scales (it was a lot of fun) as well as how to provide counseling if we found there were problems with the kids. This is a useful skill to have as health volunteers, because nurses aren’t always able to get to the more rural areas for the baby-weighing program. The place we went to (called an aldea, which is like a tiny town outlying a large city) was about a 40 minute drive up a mountain. We travel in Peace Corps-owned Land Cruisers, so we probably looked like a small battalion entering the village. On the way back down, one of the Land Cruiser’s brakes stopped functioning (it was a STEEP mountain and there was some issue with lack of engine breaking…I didn’t really understand) but they managed not to fly off a cliff by using the e-brake.

And finally, here's some random pics...like coffee beans drying and clothes hanging.

Here is my room in Santa Lucia

Finally...

Here is the nest of bugs that I murdered in my room in Santa Lucia, after which I nearly suffocated from the fumes of the bug spray

Here's a view of Santa Lucia from the mountain where we hiked a lot

This is a view of the capital, Tegucigalpa AKA the forbidden land, from Santa Lucia

All of the following are taken from the diarrhea charla we gave during a training session (It was supposed to be about upper-respiratory infections, but my group got a little off topic)

All the photos above were taken during training in Santa Lucia. Now, I'm living in La Paz, where we've had more opportunities for hands-on experience in the community. Last Friday, we went to the Police Academy for a session on Men's health. This is an important topic in Honduras because of the machismo...men rarely go to the doctor, and lack opportunities for education about many health issues. We split up into several groups, and gave charlas to groups of about 25 each. The guys were between the ages of 18 and 30, and were a really interesting group to work with. We utilized a lot of non-formal education techniques, which is why a lot of these pictures look like we're just playing games...

This photo is of another aspirante instructing a session with the cadets. It was pretty funny...before we went, we were told to ask them all to remove their guns because we were going to be playing a lot of games that involved running around, and it was unlikely that they had the safety on. Fortunately, our group did not have any guns

It's a fact of life!!!...not sure if this picture is too clear, but if you can see what they're doing, I'm sure you can imagine the comedy in the situation.

Anyway, that session was a lot of fun. This week, we traveled to an aldea (a small community outlying a larger community) where we visited the Centro de Salud (health center). Friday, we are going to another community to have session on baby-weighing and maternal health. From the sessions we've had so far, I definitely think I have more interest in working with people living with HIV,AIDS, and with the Men's health program...I'll find out in 4 weeks what I'll end up doing!

Here's a couple pictures of my house in La Paz. I love it. As you can see, I have a giant mango tree right in front of my bedroom that provides shade for the awesome hammock underneath. Unfortunately, a giant, horribly mean pitbull lives underneath the hammock, so I don't think I'll be spending a lot of time there. Nonetheless, it's a great house and an awesome family that has been helping me out a lot.

As you can see, I have a TV in my room, with cable. I also have a stable supply of electricity, so am able to charge and use my laptop frequently. It's quite luxurious.

Next week is Semana Santa. It used to be an important religious holiday in Honduras, and still is in some parts. However, most people use it as a chance to go to the beaches, rivers, or basically anywhere they can swim and get wet. We have training Mon-Wed, so I'm not sure what will go on the rest of the week. We're still not allowed to travel, so I'm sure it won't be too exciting of a time.

PS Thanks for figuring out how to post the pics, Caroline

So...I just looked at the blog as it appears for you guys and realize that the texts do not line up with the pictures. I'm sure you guys can all figure out what's going on in them. This was a trial run, so hopefully now I'll have an easier time getting them up.

So I have my USB thing here, with pictures on it...only problem is I don't know how to get them on the blog. Rather than waste my money trying to figure it out online, I'll ask around and see if a friend can show me. Or, if anyone reading this has any idea, please email me. Thanks

I arrived in La Paz yesterday. It´s a great town, from what I´ve seen so far. The bus dropped us off at the city center, where we then had to lug all our bags around town looking for our host families. Luckily, my friend lives nearby, so he dropped off his stuff and helped me with mine. My house here is amazing. The people of La Paz appear to have more money, in general, than in Santa Lucia. My house resembles a hotel...you walk through a living room and kitchen to get to a common area outside, where there are 2 giant hammocks to lounge around on. My host mom is amazing, although it will be difficult to work on my Spanish with her...she has a cleft palate, so her speech is a bit slurred. The house is sort of like a boarding house. There are 10 Honduran students living there in addition to the Japanese JICA volunteer. The students are from all over Honduras, and are in La Paz to go to the Normal, which is a school to become a teacher. My mom also has a glorieta at the Normal, which is like a kitchen-type thing that serves snacks and stuff. My host dad works in Tegucigalpa, which means he takes a bus 2 hours each way, every day. The house is huge, so they must be doing pretty well with the jobs. In addition to the 10 students, my host mom´s daughter lives in the house as well. She is 8, and has been helping me understand when I can´t make out what her mom says. I forgot to mention that in my room, I have a TV with cable (yesterday I watched Dukes of Hazzard dubbed over in Spanish) and my own bathroom. Pretty luxurious! Strange thing is there are no mirrors whatsover in the house, so I have no idea what I look like when I leave the house...it´s a nice change.

Yesterday we all went to the Supermarket here, and I told her all the foods I like and dislike. She had no problem with my vegetarianism, and I think she will be an awesome cook. We have an hour and a half every afternoon to go home for lunch. Today I had fish (I´ve been eating this occasionally because I don´t see any reason to turn it down), which was interesting because it was the entire fish (head, bones, everything) fried, with rice, tortillas, and a salad. I have no complaints.

The weather here is much hotter than Santa Lucia, but not unbearable. For those of you wondering about pictures, I have them, but have not found a computer with internet that has a USB port. There are several other internet places in town, so I´m sure eventually I will find one that will work. I´ve also discovered there´s a gym here. It costs 300 lempira a month (about 17 dollars) and has a lot of weights, bikes, and elliptical machines. I may not be on the internet much after I join, because I will be spending the majority of my wages for the next few weeks on the membership. There´s no ATM here, so once I´m out of cash, I´m out for a while.

Other than that, I don´t have much else exciting going on. For those of you that have been texting me and not getting a response, it´s because I don´t have any more minutes left on my phone. The way phones work down here is you buy a card with a certain value, and once you use that up, you have to buy another one...which I am still deciding if I can afford, at the moment. However, even if I don´t have minutes, I can accept calls for free.

I´ll try to post pics sometime this week!

So, my time here in Santa Lucia is coming to an end. Tomorrow, all of us in the Health project are moving on to the city of La Paz. This is a much bigger city (it has a movie theater!!!) and the weather is a bit warmer than our current location. I will be living with a family who has a mom, dad, and 2 kids. I can't remember the ages, but my mom runs a restaurant, which I'm excited about. I will also be living with a JICA volunteer, which is the equivalent of the Peace Corps, pretty much, but from Japan (and they make A LOT more money than us)...so it should be quite an interesting cultural exchange. Initially, we were going to have to take all our stuff (for me, this would mean carrying my laptop, a giant medical kit we received, my yoga mat, my large backback, and a giant duffel bag) on the bus to Tegucigalpa, then get to the bus station to take us to La Paz, hop on that bus, and then we were expected to find our host families given only a map of the town and no addresses. My training class found this rather interesting, seeing as how we are not allowed to travel to Teguc for the day, yet were encouraged to go there as a giant pack of gringos carrying all our belongings. Needless to say, we rented a bus so we'll have less of a hassel with the traveling, but are still expected to find our families given only a hand-drawn map of the town. I'll let you all know how that works out...

I had my second language interview this week. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but you have to test into an Intermediate-Medium level of Spanish in order to swear in. When I got here, I tested in at Intermediate-Low (+), and now I'm at Intermediate-High. I'm glad I don't have to worry about the swearing in, but now am aiming to get much more fluid in my speaking. Friday, during our Health training, we learned about Respiratory Infections in children (the leading cause of child death here in Honduras). Afterward, we divided into small groups and were supposed to give charlas (basically just a general talk) about a topic of our choice. My group decided to talk about diarrhea (a popular topic amongst us trainees), and we had some great posters. I finally got my camera cards, and have some pretty sweet pictures, so I'll get them up ASAP. As I preview, I'll just share that the posters included the terms ¿Tiene pupu explosiva? and ¿Sangre en su mierda? Our trainers got a kick out of them, but unfortunately they will not be appropriate to use in the campo.

Oh yeah, I sprained my ankle the other day...turns out running on slippery, uneven cobblestone when the sun hasn't come up isn't such a good idea. It's not too bad though, a few days rest and I should be fine.

Apparently to call me from the States, you have to dial 011 504 9817 2471. The 504 is my country code, and the last 8 numbers are my actual number. In response to Caroline's comment, the number is 8 digits because for some reason Honduras recently switched to 8 digit numbers...it's not a black market carrier, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Let me know if anyone figures out how to call me!!

-My host-sister had her baby last Sunday AM at 2:15. She was home by 3 in the afternoon. Ironically, she delivered at the same hospital where my health project was visiting on Friday morning. If she would have been a few hours earlier, we may have seen her, as we were also in the maternity ward!

-I went to a soccer game here in town last Sunday, the semi-finals of 2 teams from Santa Lucia. It's amazing how much intensity and excitement there is with the fans and the players. On several occassions, fights had to be controlled. Interestingly enough, a lot of times it was the players stopping the fans from getting out of control. I can't wait until I'm able to see the national teams play in Tegucigalpa.

-Funny story...last Monday was a pretty rainy day. I hung out with my family, ate some dinner (Beans, homemade tortillas, spinach with onions, eggs...Oh and have I mentioned the popularity of manteca (lard) among Hondurans, and my family? The other day, my host dad gave me a breakfast of fried plantains with a heaping scoop of lard on top. It was pretty sweet. Unfortunately, I haven't reverted back to my childhood eating habits, so I put it all in a napkin when he wasn't looking. Ironic that I used to do that with my vegetables when I was little, and now that's what I want the most of!!) Anyway, after dinner, somehow the barrier between my host-parents' room and the chicken coop outside collapsed, and I spent quite a bit of time chasing roosters throughout the house...Picture two 65+ year-old Hondurans and the gringa (white person, basically...me) running around, in the dark (because apparently it's easier to catch them this way). Finally, they were apprehended, and the noise they made when caught can only be described as what it might sound like if a cat in heat were run over by a car, repeatedly. it was awful, but hilarious.

-My trip to the North Coast was canceled last-minute because there had been a ton of rain in the area, so roads were washed out because of landslides, etc. Instead, I went with my friend Laura (another trainee) to the departamento (equivalent of US state) of Santa Barbara, to a tiny tiny town called Concepcion Sur. We visited a Health volunteer who is finishing her service in 3 weeks. Her town was very small...she lived in a large house, by herself, with 3 extra rooms. It seemed like it would be a relaxing, slow-paced lifestyle but made me realize I would like my placement in a slightly larger area. One cool thing was that a family from her community invited us to have dinner with them Friday night. I would guess there were about 10 people living in the house, and from what I could see, there was only one bedroom area. This was a family considered pretty well off...they had a TV and a refrigerator, which most people in the rural areas do not have.

-When we arrived back in Teguc yesterday (we have to go through there for basically every bus transfer to get anywhere in the country) we went to a mall there to look for cell phones. In the area, there was a Baskin Robbins, TCBY, Burger King, Popeyes, Church's Chicken, Sbarro, Pizza Hut, Quizno's, Subway, TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesday, Dunkin Donuts and probably other American restaurants I am forgetting. It was a bit disappointing to see all the American crap food so popular in the mall, but not very suprising. It is very expensive here, though. Most people cannot afford to eat fast food the way Americans do, so McDonalds, etc here have security guards, very friendly service, and are super clean (This is what I've heard...I haven't eaten there).

I guess that's all for now. I have one week left in Santa Lucia, then all of us in the Health project will be moving to La Paz, in the departamento of La Paz, for 6 weeks of Field-based training. After that, we'll have one week in Santa Lucia, and then we'll find out our site placement for the next 2 years!! I can't believe how fast training is going by.

Oh yeah, I got a cell phone. The number is: 504 9817 2471

Another week has quickly passed, although it feels like I´ve been here a month and known the other trainees for longer than that. I´m still in good health, although I got a flu shot for the first time in my life today and did not feel too fantastic for a while, but I think I´ve recovered. The exciting news of the day is that I´ve found out where I´ll be going for my volunteer visit, which is next Thurs-Saturday. I will be going to visit a Municipal Development volunteer (I´m a Health volunteer in case you didn´t know) in the departamento of Atlantido in a pueblo called El Porvenir. I won´t say much about this until after I get back, for now all I´ll say is that you should be jealous. My site is probably one of the furthest that any of the trainees will be visiting (they say about a 6 hour bus ride, so I´m anticipating at least 7 or 8), but it is right on the Mosquito coast (it´s called that because of the indigenous group that lives there called the Mosquitos, not because of the insect...) which is also known as the Caribbean. I´ll let you all know how that goes while all you in the US enjoy your cold weather, snow, etc.

As for this weekend, I don´t have any big plans other than probably hiking in the mountains and avoiding my house on Sunday (it´s intestine soup day). Tomorrow the Health project is going to a hospital in Tegucigalpa to learn about the Ministry of Health in the country, as well as visit the maternity ward, etc. It should be pretty interesting.

Other than that, I don´t have a whole lot to update. Our group started our malaria meds last week, so we´ve begun to compare details of the strange and vivid dreams that are a side-effect...I´ve already noticed a difference after taking them for a week, so I can´t imagine what it will be like when I´ve had it in my system for 2+ years!!

Love,

Anna

Oh yeah, I haven´t taken any pictures. For one, I don´t have a memory card yet for my camera and I also am just getting a feel for appropriate/safe times to take my camera out. I´ll try to post some soon, though, because it´s beautiful here