Sorry for the lack of blogs recently. As you all could probably guess, we have been very busy! In short, this is what we have been up to since the New Year: Soaking up our last few days in Trinidad – including several delicious home cooked meals with Lourdes; a farewell lunch with some our [...]
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There’s only one week left in Trinidad and, naturally, I’m feeling a bit emotional about our impending departure. Peace Corps is one of those rare experiences in life (for a million reasons) but mainly because throughout the entire experience you always know when it’s going to end, down to the date. The first few months [...]
There is a wide range of people who read our blog – information-hungry Peace Corps hopefuls awaiting invitations and departure dates, former co-workers and acquaintances, random folks with an interest in Honduras, and of course our families and friends. Those in the last category most likely already know the latest news but for those who [...]
A couple weeks before Kristi and I head home for Christmas we traveled once again to the department of Copán. Generally, our trips to Copán combine a few work meetings with a bit of relaxation. This trip would prove to be much more than we usually get ourselves into. Through one of our work counterparts, [...]
It’s that time of year again… Chimeneas Gigantes brings artists and tourists from all over the country and beyond to Trinidad for a crazy festival that includes street music and performers, local food, crafts, and the wild customary torching of the chimeneas. This year the theme seemed to be something about violence, exploitation of natural [...]
When we were lucky enough to have our friends Paul and Clare visit us (read about that here and here) we did a lot of chatting about our life in Honduras compared to life in the US. We tried to explain cultural nuances (when we actually noticed them) but we weren’t exactly sure what our [...]
One of the more recent projects that I have been working on is a chlorination program in the municipality of Trinidad. While our friends from the States, Paul and Clare, were here we visited the community of San Francisco about 20 minutes outside of the town of Trinidad. Our intention was to go over the [...]
The last leg of our adventure with our friends Paul and Clare put us in Tela on the north coast of Honduras for a couple days. Kristi and I had been to Tela a couple times previously, but we had never been to the eco-park situated on the peninsula just to the west of town. [...]
This year for Thanksgiving we had two great friends as guests, Paul and Clare! David and Paul have been friends since high school and we became couple friends around the time of Paul and Clare’s wedding in 2007. Unlike our first visitors (read about David’s parents visit here, here, here, and here) we had a [...]
This week David celebrated his 28th birthday – our last birthday in Honduras! There happened to be a medical brigade in town (for the past two weeks) so we’ve been helping them out when we can including on David’s b-day. Fortunately the clinic that day was held in Trinidad and was only a half day, [...]
USAID is a US government aid agency that funds and manages development programs in poor countries all over the world. Currently USAID is implementing a series of programs in the western region of Honduras related to various themes such as watershed protection, drinking water quality, wastewater management, and solid waste management. In the municipality of [...]
This past week David and I had the opportunity to travel to Puerto Cortes (on the North coast) to translate for a medical brigade. This brigade of doctors, nurses, a pharmacist, and other helpers is mainly from Arizona but also included members from Virginia, Maryland, Nebraska, and Alaska. We translated for this same group in [...]
…is wet. Even so, Kristi and I decided to meet our friends Mark, Eyal, and TJ in Antigua for a long weekend. The road conditions in Central America are notoriously bad due to rock and mudslides and poor construction and maintenance. This can be exacerbated during the rainy season which runs from October to about [...]
We’ve been busy lately with various projects but nothing has really deserved a blog. I’ve been coordinating with the municipality of Trinidad to do a couple of water system studies for two small communities, but so far they haven’t been able to get the rights to use the water sources. We went out to do [...]
Our biggest accomplishment of September involved a second ceramic drinking water filter project in an isolated community in the mountains near Trinidad. This project followed the same model as a similar project in La Fragosa only the new community, Tascalapa, is a shade more populous. Kristi and I and our chauffer/friend, Juan, delivered 41 ceramic [...]
This month we had a chance to get to know some of the other married volunteers in Honduras at our bi-annual MARV (MARried Volunteers) meeting. Peace Corps worldwide sponsors various “support groups” therefore we receive a small amount of funds to meet twice a year. About this time last year I inherited the MARV coordinator [...]
Based on our blog it would appear that we’ve adopted the “Cuerpo de Pasear” lifestyle. In Spanish, Peace Corps is translated to Cuerpo de Paz. A common saying among some PCVs is Cuerpo de Pasear which basically means the Backpacker Corps. This would be a dig at volunteers that are routinely traveling, rarely in their [...]
We ended our fabulous week with the parents in Utila, one of the 3 Caribbean islands that make up Honduras’ Bay Islands. If you are the cruising type then perhaps you have heard of Roatan, the biggest and most developed of the 3 islands, where several major cruise lines dock. Utila is smaller, less developed, [...]
For the third installment of the Parental Adventures, we took the Lee’s to Copán Ruinas (the archeological site). Kristi and I had been before but it was still freakin’ awesome. After touring the ruins we went to the museum that is near the site. Many of the more important stellae and carvings were moved from [...]
–Insert sarcastic commentary here about navigating Honduran roads in the tiny car. Summary: We left Trinidad and 3 hours (a million potholes, and countless speed bumps) later we arrived without incident at our next destination.– On the next leg of our trip with Ma ‘n’ Pa Lee we visited the city of Copán Ruinas. Copán [...]
After months of anticipation our very first guests, David’s parents finally arrived in Honduras! Several months ago I took some time and planned out the whole trip with the hopes of including a good selection of what Honduras has to offer. The idea of making the in-laws endure the crazy bus rides of Honduras was [...]
While David was off playing in the woods with Glen, Patricia and I were busy in the campo kitchen. (Please excuse the terribly antiquated gender role stereotypes). To refresh your memory, Glen and Patricia were PCVs in Honduras in the 70s and are back for a few weeks to work with a local NGO. Unlike [...]
Flashback several months: Kristi and I like to go for walks around town in the evening when the heat of the day has subsided. On one of these walks we ran into a fellow American staying at a local hotel. Usually you can assume that bearded gringos are probably just loony expats cruising around Central [...]
You may have guessed from the lack of blog activity in June that we were away on vacation! We took a little break from Honduras and spent 11 days in North Carolina and Virginia with family and friends. As always the time went by too fast but we had a blast catching up with everyone [...]
When you live in a small town the day-to-day can get a little monotonous (and in Trinidad, a little hot) so when Kristi and I need a break we usually hop on a bus and take a little two-day trip. Our latest of these mini-vacations was to the city of Santa Rosa de Copán in [...]
Last week we decided to have a little shopping day. Nothing like the marathon day we spent at the mall in San Pedro, but rather a day in and around the city of Santa Bárbara buying vegetables, craft supplies, and gifts to bring home on our upcoming trip to the States. When we first visited [...]
After a long week of hard work, the EWBers decided it was time for a little relaxation…and we agreed! The group planned a day trip to the semi-nearby Pulhapanzak waterfall and graciously invited us along. We have been wanting to visit the falls for some time but it is a bit tricky to get to [...]
The Engineers without Borders – Lehigh University chapter made its first official visit to La Fragosa on their most recent trip this month. This group last visited in March to finish up another engineering project in the town of Pueblo Nuevo and made an unofficial trip up to Fragosa where they completed some preliminary social [...]
Occasionally Kristi and I have to go out of town for business and on most of these occasions business takes us to Marcala, La Paz to meet with the Honduran NGO, Agua y Desarrollo Comunitario, and our friend and project counterpart, Fred, from International Rural Water Association. On our most recent trip we also had [...]
For many months Kristi and I have been working together with the community of La Fragosa and the NGO – Agua y Desarrollo Comunitario (ADEC). Implementation phase (constructing the school water treatment system or CTU and delivering the ceramic water filters) is complete and currently we’re in the education/monitoring phase of the project. With this [...]
Somehow it’s been 2 weeks since our last post! Semana Santa (Easter week) is a huge deal here and the country was literally shut down – meaning no office access and no internet cafe. After our recent beach trip to Sambo Creek we decided to bunker down in Trinidad in an effort to avoid the [...]
After a busy start to 2011, all of a sudden it was April, and we hadn’t taken a break from our project work since Christmas. Although we’ve traveled plenty in 2011 on work-related stuff, it was time to go relax somewhere and get recharged for the next few months. With a change of clothes, our [...]
Anyone who has traveled in developing countries has probably noticed the high instances of rotten and missing teeth, especially in young children; unfortunately, Honduras is no exception. It is very common to see children with black spots on their teeth or teeth that look like they are broken off at the gums and black, especially [...]
In May, we’ll have been living in Trinidad, Santa Bárbara for one year. There have been many work-related and personal highs and lows, but we both agree that this has been a highpoint in our lives that has helped us grow individually and as a couple. While there are a lot of topics that we [...]
We hope to have new posts up at the end of next week. We’ve been out of town and/or busy and unable to post… Sorry!
Leaving the security and comfort of our newly fortified home in Trinidad, Kristi and I set out on a weeklong trip that included stops in Tegucigalpa, Zarabanda (volunteer training grounds), and Olancho. Invited by the PC training staff to present on US cultural diversity to the newest PC training class (H18), we joined several other [...]
One of the most common questions we get (especially from our families) is, “Do you feel safe in your town/Honduras?” The answer is yes. The reality, however, is that Honduras is a dangerous country (petty theft is common as is drug related gang violence). As part of our Peace Corps training we were educated on [...]
The ceramic water filter project and school water treatment system have been a great success so far in La Fragosa! Even though this project will have significant health benefits for the community, what they still greatly need are sanitary latrines and a permanent potable water system. This type of project requires tens of thousands of [...]
Kristi and I have been tied up with doctor appointments and other administrative tasks lately, but we should have a new post up by the end of the week! Excuses for not posting: Kristi: Dangerous skin disease on face that required a doctor visit in Santa Bárbara, another in Tegucigalpa, and laboratory visit for blood [...]
This week, after 4 months of planning and organizing, we finally delivered the ceramic filters and CTU tanks to La Fragosa! By this point you’ve read all about the project so I’ll let the pictures do the talking… So there you have it! In the end, 29 (of about 35) families ordered filters! We padded [...]
We’ve been really busy since the New Year and the next couple of months look to continue the trend. Here is a bit of what we’ve been up to: La Fragosa: One of the unique aspects of our work here is the involvement of local government (in all things) and the rather unobstructed access we [...]
I could just go to the park and buy a fake Rolex, but why?
As I’ve written about in a previous post, we’re lending support to an NGO called Agua Para el Pueblo who will be constructing a gravity-powered water treatment plant in Atíma, Sta. Bárbara. On a recent trip, Kristi and I completed some topographic survey work they will need to finish their final plant design. The survey [...]
Our site Trinidad is one of many coffee-towns in Honduras. Café is the most important agricultural product in Honduras and is the dominant source of income in Trinidad and the surrounding communities. Typically grown in mountainous terrain, as higher elevation usually equates to a higher quality bean, every mountain farm around Trinidad grows coffee. From [...]
**Sorry in advance to non-PC readers – the following post is very PC specific** Three weeks from now a new class of volunteers will be arriving in Honduras. Before departing for Honduras, David and I read every Peace Corps blog we could find, especially when it came down to what items to bring and what [...]
Despite what you may think, an electric shower is not a new interrogation strategy but rather a blissful end to cold showers for David and I. You heard me…no more cold showers! After 11 long months of suffering we finally bit the bullet and installed an electroducha. (An electroducha is a large shower head attachment [...]
One of the NGOs that Kristi and I have been working with recently is called Water for People (WFP) and is the international development “arm” of the American Water Works Association (AWWA). We are assisting WFP on a project in the community of Tulito, Chinda, which is about 30 minutes by mototaxi from Trinidad (Two [...]
For the past several months we have been working with the Honduran NGO, ADEC (Agua y Desarollo Comunitario) and IRWA (International Rural Water Association), on a potable water project in the community of La Fragoza. Our biggest accomplishment up to this point has been organizing and training the JAAS (read about that here) and getting [...]
Many Central American towns and cities are fortunate to have an abundance of water sources located in the surrounding mountains. So a lot of times the challenge is not getting water into the homes but rather cleaning that water so that it can be safely consumed by the people. Nearly every medium-sized town (2,000 to [...]
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