It’s been two weeks back in the US. Where have those fourteen days gone? I feel like I’m in some sort of time warp,paradigm shift or anything else like a sense of altered reality. I definitely know I’m in LIMBo. – lonely,isolated, misunderstood, bored. At theall volunteer conference in Tegucigalpa,we were told by the psychologists to expect certain feelings and that acronymwas the one that really stands out. However, I’m getting ahead of myself. For the longest time I’ve been writing my blog recap style and there’sno reason to change now.

We last left off with lagringa spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with friends in Guaimaca. It was a beautiful holiday full of theHonduran traditions and food I love. Aspecial Christmas Eve church service with a program put on by the children, rosquillas en miel, pierna, nacatamalesand staying up ‘til midnight to setoff fireworks.

Shortly after Christmas my parents, this time my mom andstepdad, arrived in Hondurasfor a vacation that’d been planned for months. Instead of it being an opportunity to see what my daily Honduran lifewas like and get to visit my host families it became the opportunity to seewhat my daily Honduran life had been like and going to visit my host familiesfor the last time to say our good byes. While most volunteers who stayed in Hondurasover the holidays were on Standfast and not allowed to travel, I’d been grantedpermission from our Country Director because my parents had rented a car and wewould not be on the oh-so-dangerous public transportation. My parents trip ended up being great timingdue to all that was happening because we were able to get my dog, Frijoles, tothe vet and cleared for entry to the US and they were able to bring back anextra suitcase full of my stuff – which makes my grand total for pieces ofluggage coming back to the US three, while I only arrived in Honduras withtwo. Weird, since I left 95% of myclothes there.

The first few days of January were the cliché emotionalroller coaster as I started really packing up my house (my home), sayinggoodbye to friends in Guaimaca and faced the reality of the end. January 8th was my despedida both with my favorite hostfamily and my best friends in Guaimaca. At one point there were about twenty people in my small home. It was stressful trying to manage the twogroups who didn’t know each other, while individuals from each wanted to buyfurniture from me and have other things gifted to them as recuerdos. I didn’t handlethe situation well at all and my best friend from Guaimaca ended up not gettingsome of the things I had promised her beforehand. Later that evening when I was sitting in myhouse with nothing left but a small foam mattress she texted and said she wasupset with me because of that and also that I’d neglected to give anything toher daughter. It hit me so hard – Itried to call her to talk about it and explain myself, but she didn’tanswer. However, things were resolvedand I think it just came down to her trying to deal with her feelings of myleaving by trying to start a fight.

January 12, 2012was the last day I woke up in my home of Guaimaca. My favorite taxi driver had offered to takeme to the neighboring municipality where Peace Corps was picking us up in abus. I spent the morning dreading hisarrival to my house and doing my last minute errands in Guaiamaca. The waterworks started when I went to saygoodbye to the one little girl I’d spent the most time helping personally –giving donations to her and her family. I’d spent very little time with her in comparison to other people, butshe was very attached to me. As soon asshe saw me she burst into tears and it broke my heart. I had also spent the night before writing agoodbye note to mi pueblo. There are three local news stations and one radio,which was run by a neighbor, so I left my notes to be read on air thatafternoon or evening. It was the bestway I could think of to express my gratitude to the people of mi pueblo for welcoming me home fornearly two years and treating me like one of their own, while also sayinggoodbye to those I’d missed in person. Finally, the hour arrived and I walked my beautiful dusty streets onelast time, passing the chickens pecking away, hearing the niños kicking a soccer ball around and breathing the ever presentsmoke wafting heavenward from the fogonesheating café and tortillas. Waiting atmy back door was my best friend with her little girl. Two of my favorite people, not only in Honduras,but the world. They watched as I packedmy last minute things – laptop, cords, chargers, phones and camera. My vision was already blurry with tears andheart so full of pain – I felt the impact as my friend punched the wall inanger and despair crying, “Que cabrona!” It was the hardest day of my life. The taxi arrived and I sought out my cat,temporarily left behind with her young kittens, burying my face deep in hersoft black fur and sobbing the pain out and trying to wash some of the sadnessfrom my soul. I gave my landlady lastminute instructions on the cat’s habits and how to feed her, praying that Iwill actually have her back here with me in the USsoon as planned. I hugged the kids whoselaughter and greetings had been the soundtrack to my life. I thanked my landlady for everything and heraunt who lived near as well. Then I tookthe ride out of Guaimaca. The clear blueskies, wispy white clouds and sun shining even in the middle of January. I soaked up the views of mountains, valleys,pines and creeks as we neared the next stop. The whole morning will forever be etched in my memory.

Almost as soon as all the pain hit, it was eased seeingother volunteers in Talanga, where the majority of people from our region werebeing taken into Tegucigalpa metup. Seeing twelve or so people goingthrough the exact same thing helped immensely. We went to the very luxurious Hotel Maya and spent four days there goingthrough an excruciatingly painful COS (close of service) conference. Meetings all day from 8-5, in English with punctual Americansand no permission to leave the hotel. Weird. They were fun filled days,trying to pay attention in the important meetings, collecting last minutesamples of bodily fluids for medical testing, enjoying the amenities of thehotel and surviving on little to no sleep as we squeezed all we could out oflast minute time with friends soon to be scattered all over the US.

We finally flew out of Hondurason Monday, January 16, 2012. It was another really hard day as all threeof the US boundflights out of Tegucigalpa carriedPCVs back to the unknown. On the bus tothe airport I heard from a PC staff member that after the incident when thevolunteer got shot on the bus PC Washington had wanted to evacuate us from thecountry within THREE DAYS. She told methat our amazing Country Director stood up to PC/W and told them to not makesuch rash decisions and convinced them to let us volunteers stay in Hondurasuntil a later date. I was so shockedthat PC/W had thought the situation was that serious because it wasn’t and felteven more appreciation for our Country Director whom I already had so muchadmiration for. She’s an amazing lady! Finally at the airport there were yet moregoodbyes with the PC Honduras staff who had helped us through so much. The last goodbye that was hard for me wassending “Bessie” along on her flight. Her short three months in Guaimaca made it so much more bearable for meand I knew I was going to (and already do) miss her tons. At least it’s easy to visit people aquí en los EEUU.

I spent my last few minutes in the airport using all my saldo and calling friends and familybefore boarding the plane. Tons moretears shed and a heart warming moment as a random American monk noticed andcame over and handed me a wad of napkins. Random acts of kindness are always fun. Then we were whisked away to Miamifor a night of layover fun.

Continue on to part 2 to see what it’s been like back here stateside.

It’s Christmas Eve in Honduras. Today is the day most people gather tocelebrate with family here. In a littlebit I’m going to take to the city and go visit all my friends. However, this holiday finds me with a heavyheart and while it’s Christmas Eve, we’re on the eve of something else here in Honduras. As most of my faithful readers will know, Idon’t usually post until the end of the month. However, this month has been a topsy, turvy roller coaster ride forPeace Corps Honduras and I feel I need to do my part to keep people abreast ofwhat’s happening here. Basically, myPeace Corps service is coming to an end soon, unless I get really lucky.

The Back Story

I’ve kept mum about this the whole time I’ve been here. I don’t like people worrying about me andPeace Corps always did an excellent job of keeping us informed about how tostay safe. What I knew from the firstday I got here in February of ’10 is that this is a dangerous country. The drug trade is alive and well. Drug traffickers are above the law. The police and military are heavilyinfiltrated with corrupt personnel. Thepoverty rate is high, so along with that comes much petty theft – lots of beingheld up at gunpoint for cell phones, cash, wallets, purses, etc. Due to all this Hondurasbecame the country with the highest murder rate in the world in October of ’11(where there is not a war being fought). Further, unrelated to all this is something that seems to plague PeaceCorps – many victims of rape. For whateverreason an unfortunate number of female volunteers suffered this here in Honduras. So, Peace Corps has been facing a lot ofnegative stuff for as long as I’ve been here, 23 months, and it has morehistory than that still.

The One That BrokeThe Camel’s Back

On December 4, we had an incident here in country thatfinally made someone say, “OK, we’ve got to get these kids out of there.” Around noonon that Sunday, a bus was assaulted by three armed men on a major highway. One robber held the bus driver at gunpointand made him keep driving as the other two fleeced all the passengers. A passenger on the bus decided to try hishand at vigilante justice and opened fire on the robbers, which resulted inmany shots being exchanged. One of theinnocent bystanders who took a bullet was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Thankfully it was not a fatal shot. This whole incident put us PCVs in a frenzyas we started buzzing about what this would mean for our future. That very same week we talked to PCV peersfrom each geographical region who reported back to PC Honduras staff about whatour thoughts and feelings were given this incident. General consensus was that we all feel safein the sites we live and work in, but are more fearful when traveling on publictransportation.

The DecisionMaking Process

As it turned out our Country Director was going to a meetingto discuss the security of Hondurasand other Central/South American countries the week of December 11. We heard that week that one of the majorissues on the agenda was the future of Peace Corps Honduras. We volunteers got a summary of the results ofthat meeting as soon as our CD got back to Hondurasthat Thursday, the 15th. Shetold us the situation in Hondurashad been extensively discussed and Peace Corps Washington, DC (HQ) was nowanalyzing the information and we would have a statement from them soon. Each day we waited for news was a carefulexertion of patience as we were all full of nerves waiting for an answer as towhat was coming our way (no one likes their future being out of their control). Finally, on Monday my site mate and I satdown together and wrote up an email to send to our CD. We expressed our frustration with lack ofknowing and asked what Peace Corps was waiting for before closing the post. Did it have to come down to a volunteer dyingin Honduras? My site mate, who has onlyserved for three months, expressed her lament for even being brought here to Hondurasto serve because Peace Corps has known all along how dangerous it is here. I expressed my ambivalence to the fact thatwe may soon close this post because I’m so close to being done. Within half an hour we had a reply from ourCD telling us we would have an official statement from PC/Washington by thefollowing day. The popular questionswere: What do you think the decision will be? What should the decision be? Whatdo you want the decision to be?

The Decision

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 we got the email we’d all been waiting for and knew wascoming. Peace Corps had made thedecision to suspend operations in Honduras. Effective immediately was that our securitylevel was updated to Standfast. While onStandfast we cannot leave the communities we live and work in without expresspermission from the CD. The message toldus that all volunteers currently in Honduraswould attend an all volunteer conference in mid-January after which we would besent to our respective homes in the US. During this time in the US, at least 30 daysand up to 45, Peace Corps would be reviewing the situation in Honduras anddecide whether or not to keep operating in the country. If the decision is made to stay in thecountry it will be on a much smaller scale, they will consider moving thecentral office out of Tegucigalpaand restricting volunteers to a more specific geographic location deemedsafest.

The Aftermath

This is all affecting me and my emotions immensely. After receiving the email Tuesday I cried alot. Despite having told our CD that I’mambivalent about an early departure, I’m clearly not. Sure, when it comes down to work and projectsI am because right now I’m not in the middle of anything and didn’t plan onstarting anything new. What I’m not ambivalentabout is my community and the people here – my friends who are amazing, the girlsI’ve worked with, the small business owners whom I’ve helped, my neighbor kidswho just made me a ton of extra special mud pies for Christmas. For emotional as I was leaving home nearlytwo years ago, I feel the exact same way now: I’m leaving home all overagain. I think I may even feel a littleworse now because I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back here and life isa lot more volatile here. Maybe PeaceCorps will let me come back and finish my service until May as planned,although I highly doubt it. I knewleaving was coming, but having it come up and be beyond my control in less thana month’s time is not how I wanted to go. I wanted to have going away parties with my friends, start some morework in the high school next school year, get the Chamber of Commerce openedhere in Guaimaca. It makes me so angrythat the handful of bad people in this country ruins everything for themajority of the good people who need us here. I’m angry because these selfish people are ruining their country andmaking life for the good people miserable. (Ugh, sorry I’m too emotional still. My best Honduran friend just now called me and as I updated her oneverything she started crying and got me going again.) I’m frustrated because I don’t feel unsafehere even though my odds of being an innocent bystander or robbed are very high(when outside of Guaimaca). I’mfrustrated because this is happening so fast and Peace Corps isn’t going tohelp us make sure we volunteers with pets can get them home to the USsafely. I’m excited to be back in the US,because well, it’s freakin’ awesome. I’mnervous to be back in the USbecause life is so different there. Inthe blink of an eye I’m going from being a self supported adult with meaningfulwork back to living with my parents and without a job. I can’t start grad school this fall because Iwasn’t planning on being home until May. Now I’ve got almost a whole year and a half back in the USto pass before I can get into a program. Basically, I’m a whole jumble of sad, angry, frustrated, nervous andexcited amongst others. Never did Ithink it would come down to this. However, one thing that comforts me a little right now is my belief thateverything happens for a reason. I don’tknow what it is, but I know God has His plans and I’ll be ok, just like Ialways have been. A little sliver ofpeace despite all this other tumultuous stuff going on right now.

The End

Will this be my last blog from Honduras? Perhaps. My parents are coming to visit next week and will leave after the NewYear, so I probably won’t post again this month. I may try to post again from the States whilewe’re there so people can get that insight of what it’s like to be a PCV onAdministrative Hold. I know that what’shappening here in PC/Honduras is the right thing in my head. But, what I feel in my heart is completelydifferent. It’s a disconnect thatcommonly occurs. I think this is thelast struggle of my Peace Corps service where I will have to stay positivedespite adverse conditions. For now I’mgoing to enjoy Christmas with my friends here and make it all that morespecial.

Hasta yo no sé cuando…

Well, another month comes to an end in the27 months of my Peace Corps story. Ifeel fairly certain that for the first time in my 18 months of being avolunteer this is the first month in which I’ve done zero reportable work formy VRF (volunteer reporting form – what every Peace Corps volunteer fills outworldwide and is sent back to Peace Corps HQ in Washington DC). So why is it that despite not working at allI still had a great month? There are somany reasons!

The first five days of the month my bestfriend from the US was still here visiting and it was great to have a friendaround with whom I have a history – someone with who I can use names whentelling stories about people back home, laughing over old inside jokes andreminiscing on all the good times we had in college. It was just amazing to fall into that oldfamiliar groove.

Having been here for 18 months alreadymakes me quite a veteran of Peace Corps service. Where we go on six month cycles of one groupcomes in and another leaves, that now makes my group, H-16, the oldest groupstill serving here in Honduras. In the department of Francisco Morazán thereis only one other H-16 volunteer and it’s a guy – therefore I’ve dubbed myself“The Matriarch” and him “The Patriarch”. That being said I decided to make a Welcome Party happen for our regionof the country, since in my 18 months there hasn’t been one in FranciscoMorazán. I opened up my house to hostthe party, not just for our three new girls from H-19, but the rest of us aswell. The party was a ‘Stace Bash’ themeso everyone was rocking facial hair or made a mustache out of duct tape. It was a great time and Amor and Frijoles (mycat and dog) loved all the attention!

As everyone knows November is also themonth of Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday! The Peace Corps tradition is that a few volunteers across the countrywill host a dinner and other volunteers will show up – and the food is usuallyreally close to authentic to that of an American Thanksgiving. There was not a shortage of options thisyear: a pig roast, a dinner on the island of Amapala, a dinner withorphans in not one, but two cities, and yet another where a girl had beenraising two turkeys to kill. Having doneone of the big dinners last year, I just wanted to stay close to home this yearand spend the day with two of my besties in PC: one being my new site mate andthe other my H-16 girl who lives about 10 hours away by bus. It was easy to get my site mate on boardsince she’s new and their group has crazy travel restrictions. Then, after some talking her into it andconvincing her how much cooler it would be, I convinced my H-16er to come downto Tegucigalpaas well. It was by no means atraditional Thanksgiving, but one of the best I’ve ever had for that veryreason (much like the Thanksgiving I spent with two friends at Disneyland back in college). Once at our hotel in Tegus we downloaded newmusic, movies and shows and watched a little bit of the NFL games. After watching the sunset and enjoying somegas station hors d'oeuvres on the hotel roof with the two H-16ers (veterans)and the two H-19ers (newbies) we headed to dinner at TGI Fridays. A turkey plate was on special for the day andwas supposed to come with a carrot cake dessert (which they had run out of bythe time we got to dessert and I was ticked!). It actually wasn’t half bad for being TGI Friday’s version ofThanksgiving dinner. As we were wrappingup our dinner we noticed some other Americans sitting across the restaurant andthey noticed us as well. It was ahodgepodge mix of guys who were Marines, ex-Marines and State Departmentworkers who were also missing a good old fashioned dinner with family backhome. So, what did we decide to do? Go dancing! With the suggestion of some locals in Tegus we found this club thatseemed to play lots of old 90s music, in English! The throw back was a blast and it was a goodway to dance off those Thanksgiving dinner calories. :) Friday we had brunch at Denny’s and thenheaded to the mall where we watched Breaking Dawn. It was a great American couple of days.

So, I’ll admit it: I may not havereportable work, but I’m constantly working here. There are three goals of the Peace Corpsafter all. The first being thatinterested parties in the respective countries get the help from educated menand women, the second is that host country nationals learn more about theAmerican people and our culture, and the third is that the American peoplelearn more about the culture and people of the country where we serve asvolunteers. Yes, I’m lacking in my goalone work – but my community has to play their part, which they frequentlydon’t. Goal three I’m doing right here –blogging: getting my story of Hondurasout to other people. The Saturday afterwe got back from Thanksgiving I went to a sixth grade graduation ceremony withmy best friend in site. She teaches in avery small community about half an hour outside of the main part of town. As we were waiting for our ride out there shehad me explain what Dia de Acción deGracias (Thanksgiving) is. I gaveher the brief history of pilgrims and getting to America, how they killed theIndians and later felt bad – is this even right?? – then decided to have ashared dinner being thankful they’d made it across the ocean and repenting for havingbeen mean to the Indians. Then she askedwhy we eat turkey and I couldn’t tell her! Can anyone help me? Anyway, so weget to her school and it’s a one room school and she has about 30 students fromfirst through sixth grade. I’d had theprivilege of working with her in that community about three times: twice withthe students and another time doing a presentation for the parents. Due to my experiences in the community sheinvited me to form part of the mesaprincipal, or table of honored guests is the best translation I can giveit. She graduated six kids and I got toturn the diplomas over to two of them. For years to come I’ll forever be in the photos hanging in thesefamilies homes and it’s such an honor. At one point my friend, the teacher, opened the floor up to the familiesto share special words with the kids. Asone parent was speaking, she pokes me in the ribs and asks “You’re going to saysomething, right?” in a way that wasn’t so much a question as a statement. I tell them it’s been a pleasure to work withthe kids and parents, that I always feel very welcomed in their community andtell the kids that they can achieve anything they want to – even up to studyingin college. The sad part is, that’s justme being very optimistic and having a positive outlook on things. The truth is most of the six kids won’t evenbe able to afford to come into the city here next year and continue with their7th grade education. However,I reminded them that, “Sí, se puede”– “You can do it.” I’m not thebest motivational speaker, but hey here’s hoping someone takes it to heart.

Aside from my few amazing days the otherdays I just pass here at home or hanging out with “Bessie”, my site mate (that’snot her name, just a nickname we have for each other). She’s a great girl and I’m glad I got someoneso awesome here in town after the last equally awesome girl had to wrap thingsup. Bessie was musing just the other dayhow quickly you can become really good friends with someone in the Peace Corpsand asked me if I could believe it – I just smirked a crooked grin and noddedas she realized who she was talking to. The friendships we make in Peace Corps are special, amazing and powerful- both with fellow Americans and HCNs (host country nationals). While some of my work projects will fail, Iknow that my relationships won’t and that is probably the very thing that keepsme going through this difficult endeavor. So, to touch on giving thanks – I’m so thankful for the special peoplethat are in my life here: who will laugh with me, cry with me, commiserate withme, celebrate with me and love me no matter what. Thank you Lord for brining these people intomy life. It’s been a real blessing forme!

And since this is perhaps the longest I’vewritten in awhile, I’ll wrap it up now. Thanks for reading. Just fivemonths and eleven days to go as a Peace Corps Volunteer! OMG…

Hastala proxima vez…

Since it’s already November 7, I’m having ahard time getting motivated to write a blog for October. However, I’ve been pretty consistent thus farand can’t get behind now.

The beginning of the month was filled withmuch anticipation for what was to come later and just getting by with day today work things. Working with one of theteachers in my counterpart high school we finished up a series of classesteaching kids about personal strengths/weaknesses, how to adapt skill sets tocertain career paths, communication skills in the work place and ultimately howto prepare a resume and prepare for an interview. We gave this class as what Peace Corps calls“teaching of teachers.” It basicallymeans while we were training the kids themselves they will give the class nextyear as a senior project to other students in the high school. Here’s hoping it’s successful since I’ll onlybe around for the first three months of the school year before my service endsand with all the teachers’ strikes here it’s hard to tell what next school yearwill be like.

I also spent some time working outside ofGuaimaca with a woman who I met at some workshops last year. She is the kind of person I wish lived in myown community so I could work with her more easily. This woman is motivated and realizes whatresource she has in me here, so she’s taking advantage of it. It seems to me people here in my town havenever realized this, which is why I got so into my Chamber of Commerce project– they can go there and get all the help they will need once they realize whatthey lost in my two years here. Anyway,this woman has worked with other Peace Corps volunteers in the past and is onher game. She’s aware of the fact thatChristmas is coming up and as a small business owner/jewelry designer she’sdoing all she can to earn some decent money right now. She and I discussed some options of how todeal with uncooperative members of her cooperative and I also did some graphicdesign stuff for her (ok, more like creating signs with MS Word). I’m hoping to work with her some more in myremaining months here and maybe get her in contact with a volunteer who livesnear her.

So, why does the title refer to the bestmonth ever? Because it’s my birthdaymonth and two friends came down from the States to visit me. It was epic! The actual Wednesday of my birthday some of my counterparts from thehigh school took me out to eat, which was very nice of them. One of the teachers I work with even gave mea card with L. 200 init! I was so impressed. After that I came home to a fun evening withthree other PCVs here at my house. Justsome good ‘ol fashion gringo fun –speaking English and all. Thursday wegot up and headed into Tegucigalpabecause there was a soccer game we were going to. Now when I say we, it’s grown to about 34people. The Los Angeles Galaxy of theMLS came to play Club Motagua, one of the two teams from Tegucigalpa and also the team I’ve chosen tobe a fan of. Since I could care lessabout soccer in the USor the MLS, I was supporting Motagua. This game was so crazy and exciting for various reasons: 1) The sheernumber of volunteers that went to the game – I really think 34 was our finalcount; 2) David Beckham who plays for the LA Galaxy and had been rumored to notbe coming showed up in TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS and played; 3) The Peace Corps’greatest Safety and Security Director, JC, who recently had his last day withus, attended the game with us; 4) The U-S-A chant – oh yah, we did it! It was so great to finally see David Beckhamplay because he was still playing for Real Madrid the year I lived in Spain,yet I missed him there and since he’s been in LA I’ve never bothered to makethe drive down south to see him. So youbetcha I went to see him when he shows up in Honduras. Friday I enjoyed some Americana, Honduras style with great shoppingand international food and closing the night off with dancing at a Spanishtapas bar called Nox. Who ever saidgetting older is no fun? Life is whatyou make it and I’m making mine fabulous! Starting the new year of my life with a three day birthday celebrationis just how I roll.

Saturday was the day I had been countingdown to for about three months. Jen andAsh arrived to Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpaand I was so stoked! Now, Ash and I goway back to 4th grade and the last time we had actually hung out waswell over two years ago. Jen has been mybest friend since college and she had actually made the trip out to CA while Iwas on my visit home back in May. Havingthem both here was so much fun and something I was really needing. The first few days we came back to Guaimacaand they saw how I “rough it” here. Theyexperienced my cold showers, hand washed some clothes in the pila and saw first hand what it’s liketo be harassed by strangers as you walk around town. My town is not the best of what Honduras has tooffer, so I took them to the town of Copan Ruinas, which is in the Western part of the countryonly 12 kmfrom the Guatemalan border. There westayed in the Blue Iguana Hostel, which is really nice and owned by greatpeople, and was actually voted as one of the top 10 hostels in the world. (Yes, I like it that much I’m giving themfree advertising on my blog!) We spentthe first evening at a fellow PCVs’ house as he hosted a great dinner party andhe cooked some amazing Indian food. Wealso visited the archeological site of the Mayan ruins and learned some historyabout them, which was really cool and something I had skipped the year before. We ate a fabulous dinner at Hacienda SanLucas – an absolutely amazing property overlooking the small river valley, townof Copan Ruinasand the ruins themselves. At thehacienda they serve a five course meal always by candle light and the food isamazing. For only $28 it’s definitelysomething that must be done when in Copan Ruinas. We spent a relaxing Saturday at the thermal hot springs with the twoPCVs who live/work in Copan Ruinas. Itwas seriously one of the best days I’ve had in Honduras. There was even one pool where they set outmud for masks and you can get a great facial while sitting there. Part of the package we paid for included themost amazing spread of food too – fresh fruits, artisan cheeses, fresh rolls,spreads, some roast pork, and hard boiled eggs which were amazing with thisgreat rock salt on them. That eveningwas the infamous Halloween party which used to be the event of the year forPeace Corps volunteers. However, due tonew rules, which are really strict, no one is allowed to go anymore. Last year it was packed with at least fiftyPeace Corps volunteers in great costumes enjoying the opportunity for some gringo time. This year there was a motley crew of peoplehoping to see all the costumes the gringosput together only to learn of the sad news. Sorry to disappoint Copan Ruinas. Maybe if Hondurascan get its act together Peace Corps could relax the rules a little bit. But yah, about that… Sunday was our last day in town, so we didsome souvenir shopping and visited the beautiful Hacienda San Lucas again forlemonade and coffee. We had one lastdinner with my fellow PCVs and another friend down on vacation and reflected onwhat an amazing weekend it had been. Idoubt either of the PCVs I’ve referred to here will read this, but if you guysdo, thanks again so much for an epic weekend! You went above and beyond of what it is to host someone in your site andalso made great impressions on my friends.

After our jaunt to Copan we visited Valle de Angeles, one of myfavorite places in Hondurasand spent a few more days in Guaimaca. Taking my friends back to the airport was sad and eventually made itreally hard coming back to an empty house. At least my pets were here waiting for me and I’ve got plenty to lookforward to on my social calendar for the month of November. Work? Well, we’ll see what happens with that since it’s “summer break” hereand also the holiday season.

Thanks again for reading and staying up todate on my super exciting Honduran life…only slightly sarcastic! ;)

Hastala proxima vez…

I wished my remembrance of the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001 was something moresomber and adequate to the horrible tragedy that passed that day. However, I was passing a normal Sunday herein Honduras. You know, washing some clothes in the pila, cleaning the house and runningaround the corner to the pulperia(small neighborhood market) to grab some eggs and rice for lunch.

As I came back into the yard I saw my dog, Frijoles, andcalled her to come as per the usual when I get home. She ran over and immediately fell to my feetwhining and crying. Completelybewildered as to what her problem was I noticed she was keeping her left eyeshut. The eye was very watery and wasstarting to have some weird discharge gathering. Due to this event I recently learned howstrong I am in my own crisis. I’m a rockwhen it comes to helping others out, but seeing Frijoles suffering and upsetwas killing me and I nearly panicked.

My first call was to another Peace Corps friend whose doghad died after eating poison. By thispoint I’d put some eye drops (yes, the kind for humans) in Frijoles’ eye andbrought her inside. She’d gotten verylethargic and was just lying there whining and had also begun drooling. When I finally got my friend on the phone Istart crying and asked her to tell me the story of what happened when her doggot poisoned, even though I’d heard it multiple times. That helped to reassure me that Frijoleshadn’t been poisoned. My friend was withone of her Honduran friends and his advice was to give her milk. Frijoles simply ignored the milk I put infront of her, which worried me even more, since she usually goes crazy for any“human food”.

My next call was to my stepmom since she’s always had dogsand I figured she’d know what to do. Luckily she was at home and was able to find information on homeopathicmedicine for dogs on the Internet, something I can’t do from home here in Honduras. At first she’d thought it was possibly parvoor distemper, but Frijoles has been vaccinated against both of those. With those ruled out and having theinformation that it was an eye problem the best information was to make asaline solution and flush Frijoles’ eye.

I set water to boil and then called my friend who had givenme Frijoles. She passed me on to her momwho also suggested a saline solution. Two for two with the saline solution, so I knew I was on the righttrack. My friend’s mom also said Ishould visit the “vet” (who, as far as I’m aware, hasn’t actually studiedveterinary medicine but has dedicated herself to the care of animals) Monday,since naturally everything is closed on Sundays here in Pueblo-ville, Honduras. I thanked her, finished making the salinesolution and flushed Frijoles’ eye. Thatwas all I could do for the day.

First thing Monday when I checked Frijoles’ eye it wascompletely covered by a white layer, very much resembling a cataract. “She’s gone blind in this eye,” I toldmyself. Putting her on the leash andtaking her to the vet, she confirmed my thought and said, “She’s lost thevision in that eye.” It made me sad tothink my poor Frijoles would live the rest of her life one eyed, but at leastshe was alive. The vet gave Frijoles aseries of antibiotic shots (which are more common than pills here) and as Itook her home I passed by my friend’s house, the one who I’d called the daybefore. They looked at the eye and said,“You need to make a solution of urine and honey and put drops of that in hereye. It worked for Jorge’s dog out in San Marcos.”

Willing to give it a shot, I started running around towntrying to find natural honey and a dropper. The urine…well, that was another story. My friend has a two year old kid who is potty training so, I thinkthat’s how we got that ingredient. I takethe honey to my friends and ask if they could also happen to watch Frijolesthat night since I was heading into Tegucigalpato catch the Raiders on Monday Night Football (they won, so it made the triptotally worth it). They said sure and Itook off for the capital.

Getting home on Tuesday morning I picked Frijoles up alongwith the new honey/urine solution and the instructions of giving her a fewdrops twice a day. In the two and a halfweeks since her incident, I think I’ve given Frijoles the drops maybe fivetimes. However, every time I see myfriends and they ask if I’m still giving the drops I tell them I am. Frijoles eye is also almost back to 100%. As to what happened no one will everknow. There is one small white spot onthe bottom edge of her iris, but aside from that the white cover is nearlygone. Maybe it was a bee or wasp sting,maybe she actually ran into something, maybe a toad or tarantula spit somevenom at her. I’ll never now, since ithappened in the ten minutes I was gone to the store. And what’s made it better? Maybe it was time, but maybe there issomething to be said for that home remedy of a urine/honey solution. I’ll also never know since I didn’tadminister the drops according to schedule.

While the whole thing is full of mystery, I’m just glad my‘ol dumb girl, Frijoles, is almost back to being perfectly healthy again andher sweet natured self. Hopefully shelearned her lesson to stay away from whatever it was that got her in the firstplace. Go figure, I try to take goodcare of her and something like this happens. I’m sure I’ve mentioned our saying before, “Honduras always wins.” It’s true; Hondurashas racked up a ton of points against me, but when she starts messing with mydog that’s just not cool. Not cool atall Honduras!

Frijoles on Monday, Sep. 12 - the day after her incident

Close up of her bad eye looking like she'd lost her vision

Normal eye also Moday, Sep. 12

Frijoles today - Friday, Sep. 30

Close up of her bad eye also today - Friday, Sep. 30. Almost all better!

On a side note October starts the seven month countdown forfinishing my Peace Corps service. It’s alittle crazy to think I’ve got twenty months behind me, but that’s the truth ofit. To anyone who’s been a faithfulreader all these twenty months, thanks so much!

Hasta la proxima vez…

What’s for Dinner?

When I was drawing a blank as to what to post for July and August, I decided to document my food for a day and share it with you. Delving into the culture a little more, I also decided to give making flour tortillas from scratch a go. I also documented that process and have pictures to show the process.

Now, what I’m going to share in pictures makes it looks a little more exciting than what I usually eat. I won’t lie – I’m lazy and cooking for one is not frequently on my list of things to do each day. Many times I just have a bowl of cereal (corn flakes, because their cheap and so am I) in the morning and make a pot of rice at lunch that lasts until dinner. (Oh, I know my carb intake is ridiculous…but I take my multivitamin to get some good stuff in me.)

I like to incorporate fruit into my breakfasts. Today I had an apple, a banana and a yogurt. Other times, like in my photo I really love a smoothie. From time to time peanut butter is available in the grocery store and a peanut butter/banana smoothie is so good. Other times peanut butter is scarce, so I’ll substitute yogurt. This is not at all a typical Honduran breakfast and very much what I have brought with my experience from home.

Some of what I put in one of my smoothies - Milk, yogurt, a banana and some ice. Yummy!

Thanks to my dad for sending me down some Raider stadium cups, I can still rep the team I love!

Lunch and dinner tend to have many of the same components. I try to incorporate more veggies during the later meals of the day. Just now for lunch I had some rice, beans and a chicken breast – well most of one, I like to share with my dog and cat. In the photo is a fairly typical Honduran lunch. Red beans, scrambled egg, a hunk of semi-dry cheese, mantequilla (which I’ve explained before – it’s like a mixture of sour cream and butter, but with a consistency of a runny sour cream), chicken bologna (my own addition because I try to get additional protein where I can and my grocer didn’t have any decent chicken cuts that week) and tortillas. Obviously, no meal is complete without a good dousing of hot sauce. I put it on everything, since I don’t even bother trying to season my food.

Almost a ''plato típico''

And then I tried to make tortillas all by myself. I had previously assisted my host mom once and she gave me the recipe. Another time I helped form the tortillas and cook them with a friend here in site. I figured all that was left was to put the two parts of the process together and try it myself. My end results were not bad for my first time. I experimented A LOT with the dough and kept adding flour and vegetable shortening until I got a consistency that seemed somewhat near correct. The first part of the process is combining the ingredients: flour, water, baking soda, shortening and a pinch of salt. I did it the true Honduran way and just made room on the countertop to make the dough there. It’s a little tricky creating the crater of dry ingredients and preventing the water from making a mess once you start the mixing. After the dough is made, it needs to set for about an hour. I don’t really know why, but I was told to leave it be. Once the dough has set for awhile it’s ready to make the tortillas. Start by balling the dough and then flattening it. Here some people are good with their hands and are able to do it just by palming the dough, not this girl. I used the trick taught to me by my host sister. Use two pieces of plastic and flatten the ball of dough using a plate. After that the raw tortilla can go on the heat to cook. Here many people use fogones (wood burning stoves) and the tortilla cooking process is quite fast. I don’t have a fogón in my house and just used my skillet on the stove. It took me forever to cook the tortillas, but I finally finished about two hours later. My end result was a little thicker and bread-i-er than tortillas normally are. I still give myself a good grade because they tasted good, just with a new texture!

The dry ingredients with the crater made, waiting for the water to be added. And my pot of beans cooking in the background.

The dough as I mixed it all over my fancy concrete countertop.

Letting it sit for awhile.

Ready to start pulling off chunks to make each tortilla.

So, these got out of order - this is the last step of cooking the tortilla.

Putting the ball of dough between two pieces of plastic to flatten it with a plate. The plastic prevents sticking.

Ready to cook.

And enjoy! (I have no vanity and no shame of posting unflattering pictures of myself anymore. Thank you Honduras!)

And that my friends was a little glimpse into the culinary side of my life here in Honduras. Thanks for reading!

Hasta la proxima vez…

I must apologize for my slacker-ness in keeping my blog up to date. As July was ending, there was nothing that seemed worthy of writing about and August seems to be heading for the same fate. None the less, I feel a sense of responsibility to this ridiculous medium and the handful of people who choose to read it. Yet again, I will hit you with the ever popular recap and summary of what’s been going on.

I kicked off July with another trip to Roatan in the Bay Islands, which is one of the most beautiful places in the world. A fellow PCV/really good friend’s family came to visit, rented a house and I got to tag along for the week. The most exciting part was learning how to SCUBA dive and getting my Open Water certification. Not to say I did this all fearlessly. I freaked out during our initial sub-surface practice and could have easily stood up and been out of the water. It proves how powerful an emotion fear is and how it completely takes away your sense of reasoning. Other skills such as removing your mask while underwater, swimming without the mask and pretending your tank is out of air and using a buddy’s air source are scary, yet necessary. Overall, I’m glad I did it and look forward to diving more in the future. Just maybe not off my native Pacific Coast in that cold, murky water… It will never compare with the warm, clear waters here and the tropical reef, which is second only to the Great Barrier of Australia.

Work has been just a lot of charlas in the high school the last two months. One of the teachers and I have been giving a series of classes to the “seniors” about the importance of developing skills which are important in the work place. After finishing with the seniors we started with “sophomores” with the idea that they will have to teach the class to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders next year. That way it’s more sustainable, the main goal of Peace Corps work – I’ll be gone, but the information will perpetuate and benefit more people in the future.

This week is the last week of service for the group that came in ahead of mine, known to us as H15. That will make my group, H16, the most seasoned veterans of Peace Corps service here in Honduras. So many cliché statements come to mind, but the truth is a cliché – I can’t believe it’s gone by so fast! An H15 volunteer who lives near me will be passing many of her belongings on to those of us who will still be here in country for awhile. I’m so excited to be inheriting her double bed! For the last six months I’ve been sleeping on a twin size bed that my landlady is loaning to me. It will be nice to feel like an adult again and not like I’m back in the college dorms.

There was an anecdote of an experience yesterday that I wanted to share. On a more personal level the Peace Corps is humbling experience and I’m frequently reminded to get off my sassy horse. After traveling into the capital, Tegucigalpa, for a dental appointment Monday afternoon, I was told my crown wasn’t in from the lab yet and would have to stay over night (luckily Peace Corps picks up the tab on hotels). Having not brought a change of clothes, I sucked it up, stayed the night and got my dental appointment in the next morning. After the appointment I headed to the part of town where buses bound for my town are. Arriving at 11:45, I learned one bus wouldn’t leave until 1:30. Being very impatient and loathing that bus terminal, I headed to the one around the corner where I was told the mini-bus would be leaving at 12:30. Sweet! I thought I’d scored and was stoked to get back home sooner. Well, time ticked by and 1:00 rolled by, then 1:30. Sure, I was frustrated…but of anything I’ve learned in Honduras it’s that schedules are not to be followed and you better have gallons of patience. As it was approaching 2:00, I was getting angry and imagining how I could tell the office manager how horrible they run their business, how disrespectful they are of people and how I would storm out to take the other company’s bus at 2:30. Trying to keep my cool, I again asked what time the mini-bus would leave, “Pronto, dentro de quince minutos” they told me. Not believing that it would be neither soon, nor within fifteen minutes, I checked the time on my phone – almost 2:30. My anger diminished and I felt like a real fool. The words twelve and two sound very similar in Spanish – doce and dos. The man had told me 2:30 when I first arrived, but I heard 12:30 and created all that anger and resentment myself. Luckily, I hadn’t made a fool of myself by doing any of what I’d conjured up in my mind. It was just another lesson in humility and realizing, for the “umpteenth” time, that things will rarely meet my expectations here and I need to just chill out. To further illustrate the point, the mini-bus got a flat tire on the way back home and we were delayed another half hour. All I could do was laugh at myself and appreciate the lesson that was being taught to me.

Well, with all that in mind – I think I’ve put together a decent post for those of you reading. I appreciate you paying attention to this, thanks mucho!

Hasta la proxima vez…

I’ve been back in Honduras for 16 days since my trip home to the US. In that time I’ve wanted to blog and tell a little about my trip home and compare some of the things between the US and Honduras. Why did I wait so long though? Well, practical reasons such as being busy with work and having to take multiple trips to Tegucigalpa for a root canal. But, also reasons such as having to wait to soak in Honduras again instead of how I felt upon first returning from the US, basically getting used to it again. Thank God this time only took a few days instead of a couple of months like last year when I first got here.

On why I love America…

My trip to the US reminded me of what I love about America: variety and freedom. I know for a fact I’ve mentioned variety before and will preach on it again now, but it’s what makes the US so amazing. From my first moments back on US soil in the Atlanta airport trying to find food to eat I could see the variety all around. The first food I ate was a falafel pita followed by vanilla yogurt with fresh blueberries and strawberries for dessert. Nothing I would ever find outside of Tegucigalpa. Wandering the gates looking at all the destination cities reminded me of how huge the US is and how each different city is unique and has something to show for its culture and history. Skipping ahead to a few days into my trip, shopping for groceries where you can buy it all in one place and every item has its price posted, trips to Target when they were closing in half hour’s time (definitely NOT enough time) and restaurant menus (knowing it’s all available, whereas here in Honduras you will frequently be told a menu item is unavailable). The options made available on a daily basis in the US are truly overwhelming.

When I say freedom, I’m not talking the whole America, “Land of the free, home of the brave stuff.” None of the freedom of religion or speech stuff either – although extremists both liberal and conservative tend to abuse such freedoms. Of course I love all that, but that’s without saying. No, when I say freedom, I mean personal freedom. Freedom to live your life as you choose without other people interfering or judging (ok, they do it, but we don’t care in the US what people think about us). Also, freedom to go and be mobile. In Honduras I am under constant surveillance and scrutiny. Some local people gossip about me, which in the times I’ve been aware of it, has been malicious and fabricated. In the US we call people who try to bring you down “haters” and are told not to pay them any attention. It’s how we live and we do so without shame. I love that in the US everyone is too busy caring about their own life to not care about mine. That’s exactly how it should be.

Obviously, the best part of being home was seeing family and friends. From being accosted by the surprise attack of my best friend as I exited a SFO restroom to sprinting across the Denny’s parking lot to wrap my mom in a huge bear hug after seeing her for the first time in 15 months, the excitement of seeing friends and family was more than words. Having friends want to spend as much time with me as possible while I was in the US was the best feeling ever. It certainly made being at home feel like it was a billion times better than Honduras, instead of just the actual million that it is. Seeing my three- and five-year-old nephews go from being shy and ignoring me to fighting for my attention during a tickle war brought tears of joy to my eyes. I had feared their short memories would have erased me. The way everyone was vying for my time and attention made me feel so loved and wanted after spending time living without any family and great friends who are good people, but still people I can never have a good connection with like my US friends with whom I share native language and culture.

Coming back to Honduras…

While I was in the US I frequently caught myself saying, “When I get home…” referring to Honduras. People would catch it as well and seem to be surprised that I called Honduras home. The truth of the matter is that for the time being, it is my home. This is where I have my own house decorated and furnished (more or less, based on budget restrictions) the way I like it. My work is here. Like I mentioned in previous posts, I know I’m not saving the world and maybe not even changing lives, as I’d hoped, but I am really enjoying the work I have right now. I’ve found my niche here in Guaimaca working with youth and more specifically young girls. This “job” of being a volunteer is the best. It’s like being an entrepreneur with much less stress and responsibilities.

Don’t believe coming back wasn’t one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I have no contract with the Peace Corps. If I choose to end my service today, I could call someone right now and tell them as much. If that were the case I could probably be packed and out of the country within four or five days. However, besides the fact that I’m at a point where I’m really enjoying my work right now, I’ve got a lot of pride and a stubborn streak that won’t permit me to back out on my word of having made a two year commitment to the people of Guaimaca. As we approached the Honduran coast on the flight from Miami to Tegucigalpa and the pilot announced we would be landing within half an hour, my heart started an irregular rhythm and I couldn’t fight the urge to cry. As we circled the mountains and landed in Tegucigalpa I cried like a baby. I’m not entirely sure why. I can hypothesize that it may be because the awesomeness of a great trip back home was officially over and I was heading back to a life where I make so many sacrifices to do a job that sometimes isn’t as appreciated as I wish it were. Walking into the customs hall and standing in the ‘Honduran Nationals’ and ‘Residents’ line where I was checked back into country quicker than all the do-gooder short-term mission trip “gringos” by the customs agent that happens to be my friend’s mom helped me feel good about being back. I called a taxi driver I trust and he took me to the bus station which would lead me back to Guaimaca.

That whole process made me feel a different sense of freedom not like what I feel in the US. I am able to navigate this country and know how to do so safely, because of all the experience I’ve gained from living here for 15 months. That element of routine and familiarity is what made coming back to Honduras feel good. I got back to Guaimaca and fell into the groove that I had left a few weeks before. For the time being this is where I’m supposed to be and it feels right.

And it comes down to this…

My life in Honduras gives me responsibilities never before had in the US. Working with youth and shaping their future for one that will hopefully be different is very rewarding. In comparison with my US work, this is a million times more important. Brewing some coffee or making copies, which I did in my two previous jobs in the US were merely sources of income and didn’t have much importance as it’s something anyone can do. I’m an ambassador to the people of Guaimaca and it falls on me to do the US proud. I do all this work as best I can while teaching and trying to change stereotypes: both of Americans and what the future holds for a Honduran youth.

My trip back to the US was a very romanticized version of what life there is truly like. Friends and family were vying for my attention because I’d been gone for 15 months and will be gone for another 12. Day to day life in the US doesn’t have people clamoring for my time like that. People aren’t always willing to treat me when eating out on a normal basis in the US. Treating the poor Peace Corps Volunteer is something I will only be able to enjoy on that trip home. Being able to sleep in and do whatever you want for two weeks without any obligations is also very unrealistic of what my real life in the US would be like. OK, so sure the US far outshines Honduras for many reasons, but those for my trip home being amazing are highly exaggerated and I realize that if I were to up and leave Honduras, life back in the US would soon get back to the stressful, competitive, rat race that it is.

For the meantime, my home and life is in Honduras. I have work that’s meaningful and important not only to me, but others. My house is mine and I feel at home here. I have friends and work partners that help me navigate the difficulties of the culture and its ups and downs. My two pets are here and they are my babies right now. I have people who come to my front gate selling a bag of roma tomatoes for L. 5 ($0.26) and Couch Surfers from Texas, Poland and Sweden whom I would never meet in Modesto, but sure can in Honduras and share not only about the US, but Honduras as well. There is a friend who is willing to drive 90 km from Tegucigalpa to Guaimaca so that I can help her improve her English and she will help me improve my Spanish. I have the opportunity to travel to some of the world’s most beautiful islands and second largest coral reef to get SCUBA certified. Mayan ruins full of history await my visit and fresh mangoes and avocadoes grow in my backyard. Sure, I have to spend two hours hand washing my clothes each week, I’m lucky on the days I wake up to running water, I can get stuck on a bus for an extra hour because the tire blew out and the one they replaced it with is bald so we travel about 55 mph the whole way back, I always have candles on hand for when the power goes out and my house may or may not flood each time it rains, but this is home now and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

Hasta la proxima vez...

Ten things I have learned after being a Peace Corps Volunteer for one year.

1) I am in control – Peace Corps is probably one of the only jobs where you have complete and total freedom in the work place. If you want to work you will, if you don’t you won’t. The equation is no simpler than that. Any time I feel like I don’t have work it is my own responsibility. I am the employee of no one but my own mind and effort. If I don’t put forth the time and effort IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. The outcomes that you want will only come if you push them.

2) I am NOT saving the world – I never really had that mindset to begin with. However, I certainly thought I would be welcomed with open arms and all my ideas would be eagerly accepted and immediately put into practice. I am the educated American after all. Such is definitely not the case. Hondurans are a ridiculously proud bunch and at the same time the majority is accustomed to hand-outs. In two years I will not single handedly break their pride nor wean them from their ‘poor me’ mind set.

3) The children are the future – In the past year, I’ve felt the best working with youth and children. They make up the future of this country and for them it’s not too late. I soak up every minute I’m with them. They’re still impressionable and I can actually impart some wisdom on them. I can teach them the value of hard work, thinking outside the box and planning for the future. Blowing kids minds with new ideas and killing the stereotypes is definitely the most rewarding part of this job.

4) Respect the culture and accept it for what it is – There is no delicate way of saying this. The culture here is culprit for many of the pitfalls in the society. Women aren’t respected, neither is education. A society that doesn’t respect all members doesn’t respect itself. I’ve come to terms with this. The culture here is male dominated, women are second class citizens and men rule. Fine, I’ll mind my business and you mind yours. Until the women here decide to stand up for themselves and demand equal treatment, the culture and country will stagnate as it is. Education is purely at the whim of teachers when they decide to give classes and not be on strike. Kids are taught they’re not worthy of receiving a decent education and therefore not worth much. What do kids get at that age besides an education anyway? Just another issue that needs to be addressed.

5) Platonic may as well be another planet – Men and women cannot be friends in Honduras. To say otherwise is a complete lie. In the past year I’ve been burned by three men who were merely friends. My crazy American mindset was just far too forward thinking for the machismo male. I am fully aware of the definition of insanity – doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. In my second year I am not even talking to a Honduran male unless he is an employee of the business I am visiting, a relative of a friend or happens to be in one of my classes. Life is easier that way.

6) Home is where the heart is – Living on your own in Honduras makes life a million times easier. My first ten months of service I lived either with a host family, in a small studio room where I had to use my landlady’s kitchen, or with a family sharing a room with my future landlady and her five year old daughter. Essentially I’m an only child and for the majority of my life I’ve had my own room with my own space. Living in a different country where the culture is repressive is hard enough without having your own space to escape to at the end of the day. The last two months of living on my own have been amazingly refreshing and have given me an entirely different outlook on life in Honduras. You can take the girl out of America, but you can’t take the American out of the girl!

7) Study aboard is not sufficient to prepare you for Peace Corps life – Sure, I lived in Spain for nine months. They were the best nine months of my life. I lived in a dorm, had my meals in the cafeteria each day and was always surrounded by other people experiencing the same thing as me. Studying to better yourself is nothing like trying to convince people to better themselves by following your ideas and advice. The only thing that can truly prepare you for Peace Corps service and its challenges is living life as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

8) Gringos are my life support – Unlike the study aboard program, I’m on my own in this town. Sure there are approximately 200 of us volunteers here in Honduras, but that’s across the whole country. Without a doubt they are what keep me going. Parties, texts and phone calls with other volunteers brighten my day, encourage me to keep up the fight and are my outlet. No one in the world knows exactly what I’m going through besides another Peace Corps Volunteer. More specifically due to the challenges of this country, a fellow Honduras volunteer. Venting, sharing ideas and positive outcomes of our peers is the best life line for us. If I were truly alone in this, I may have thrown in the towel months ago.

9) I know who I am – My entire school life, from the age of 5-23, I was in Adventist schools. The other kids had similar backgrounds and beliefs. Being vegetarian was normal and observing the Sabbath was what we did. I’ve finally broken out of that bubble and have met people from other backgrounds, religions and beliefs. It’s refreshing hearing their stories and respecting them for who they are. I still know where I come from, what I believe and why. My beliefs are now stronger than before because I’ve discussed them, tested them and debated them with people who would otherwise write them off as ridiculous. It’s refreshing and rewarding.

10) It’s just two years – I chose to serve in the Peace Corps. Honduras was not even a county on my radar of possibilities. When I got my letter inviting me to Honduras, I was disappointed. I had hoped for other countries. Now that I’ve lived here for over a year, I still feel like I got the short end of the stick at times. A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in both Honduras and Bolivia said Honduras is “Peace Corps Light.” The country is close enough to the US that all culture is influenced by the North and the Honduran Dream is getting to the US to make big bucks. The culture tries to emulate that of the US. In Bolivia they are hardly aware the US in a country. Sure, they’ve probably heard of it, but they could care less about emulating the culture and ever dreaming of going there one day. It’s sad to say, but I feel Honduras may never overcome its status of developing country. Heck, they’re still recovering from Hurricane Mitch which passed in 1998. When the country suffered a coup two years ago their GDP was severely affected and many organizations failed when international aid was temporarily cut off. So, in its 50 year history here in Honduras, I don’t know that Peace Corps has been all that great. Sometimes I think we’re just perpetuating the seeking hand out mentality that the people tend to focus on or creating dependence on an educated, motivated American being around. All I know is that in my two years I will focus on making a true sustainable difference where the people I choose to work with will be able to perpetuate the good work even after I’m gone. And I probably won’t tell Peace Corps to replace me with another volunteer. Can’t create dependence for one thing and besides that I’m just too hard an act to follow!

11) BONUS! – Variety is not the spice of life, it is the very essence! The variety of the US is dizzying compared to lack there of here in Honduras. Many things here are either/or options. Catholic or Evangelical. Nationalista or Liberal. Montagua or Olimpia (Real Madrid or Barcelona). Pepsi or Coke. The lack of variety creates a huge divide and strain on the culture. People are always arguing about which is right or better. I miss the US and its variety, acceptance and open mindedness. There are more religions than we can count, there are more sports than just soccer and each league has around 30 teams, trendy brands of water are more popular than soda and well, sadly the political situation is about as lame. The US is just an amazing place and I am so thankful for all that it has to offer.

Hasta la proxima vez...

Let me preface this blog by saying I am not superstitious. The whole idea really strikes me as ridiculous. Black cats, stepping on cracks, breaking mirrors and Friday the 13th – whatever. Yet, my Friday the 13th turned out to be a real nightmare this year. Read on, if you dare!

The day was great. I prepped for the charla I give on Saturdays, hung out with two of my friends, made banana pancakes and even figured out how to finish the project I’m helping finish for my friend who left me in charge of an important project. That was until the evening when I came home.

Now, it’s summer here and summer means rain, heavy rains. I had just gotten home and it was around 8:30. Then the rain started and came down hard. I was trying to do my Zumba workout which I couldn’t even hear due to how loud the rain was pounding on my aluminum roof. Doing some perfectly performed Samba-like move, I danced to the side and noticed my back room was flooded. I paused my video and ran to check for a leak from the roof. Nope, nada. Instead what I saw was Hollywood-esque special effects of water surging in from under the wall via the soil. Really?! I have the back room papered in an effort to train my dog, so I thought, “OK, more paper!” I laid down a few more sheets of newspaper and tried to continue with my workout. Yah, it was like that saying, “Trying to put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.” In a few seconds the sheets of newspaper were being carried away by the running water. I panicked – my house was quickly filling with water and I was short a couple sand bags.

Having to do something to save my few precious possessions, I began getting all my things off the ground. Suitcases and pack on chairs and tables, guitar on the book shelf, colchonetas suspended between two chairs and external hard drive up on the table and off the floor. Knowing that my belongings were safe, I called my land lady. The noise from the rain was so loud she couldn’t even hear me. I was just yelling “Hay agua en la casa!”

She hurried over and assessed the situation. Then she disappeared as I was fretting over the rising water. Turns out she was outside moving the old terra cotta roof tiles away from the outside wall of my house, in the tropical torrential downpour. Having to act like I was trying to help I quickly changed out of my New Balance and grabbed my flip flops. It was classic: drenched, throwing the tiles aside while trying to not break them and pleading with God that any creatures hadn’t decided to take refuge there we were in the rain just trying to save our house. (Mine in the meantime and hers in another year.) After all the tiles were moved my landlady found a hoe and started making a trench for so that the water had somewhere to flow to, besides under the bricks and into my house. All that hard work resolved the issue of the water entering the house.

All that was left to do was deal with the water that had already made its way into the house. My bedroom, kitchen and living room were all under a couple inches of water (and mud). But, before I continue my story I have to explain that my house is sunken. As in you have to step down upon entering. In many homes someone could just take the broom and push the water out the front door. Well, not in my house. My landlady and I set to work with my five gallon bucket, a small pail and a Gladware container, scooping water and filling the bucket, team lifting it to dump outside and starting all over again. I’d say we filled and dumped it about fifteen times (around 75 gallons of water). My landlady mopped up what little was left and we called it a night after about a two hour ordeal.

So, that was the story. Not let me point out a few things that would have made the situation a lot worse. 1) Thank God I was home when this happened. Had I not been here, or had left for the weekend, my stuff would have been ruined and no one would have found out until later. Being here I was able to save all my stuff. 2) Thank God Honduran homes don’t have carpet. It would be ruined and clean up that much harder. 3) Thank God there was light. Many times during the heavy rains the power goes out. Last night the power had actually gone out for about 15 min. and when that happens there’s no saying it won’t happen again. Doing all that clean up by candle light would have been just perfect. 4) Thank God my landlady lives about 100 ft. away. Otherwise, I don’t know who I would have called and who would have bothered to come so quickly.

Anyway, that was my event for Friday the 13th. Below is the video I took post clean up so everyone could check out the aftermath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_hGkhxxUIg&feature=channel_video_title

Hasta la proxima vez…

I honestly have no idea where the time goes down here in Hondu. It really was just this time last month where I was in the same position of trying to get a blog post on the last day of the month just to say I got one out for the month. Unfortunately, this month will be the same thing of just a summary of my month as opposed to some witty funny anecdote of Honduran life.

Yo Merezco - This is a Peace Corps Honduras project created a few years back by the Health project. It is designed for girls age 10-15 and teaches about abstinence, self esteem, health relationships, HIV/AIDS, human rights, menstruation, anatomy and puberty, amongst other things. I started this project with a group of around fifteen girls. We meet Saturdays and I change their lives and blow their minds. OK, not really…but I do try to get the good messages across to them as best I can! :)

Chamber of Commerce – Things are continuing along with this project. We had a second meeting here in Guaimaca with some representatives from Tegucigalpa with a better showing of people this time around. Still not exactly the numbers we had hoped for, but they say the turnout we got was actually a good number for Guaimaca… Something about motivational problems here. The afternoon and days following the meetings we took to the streets with a team of five people from the Teguz office doing a survey. The survey was essentially asking to see if the local businesses would be interested in having a Chamber of Commerce here in town and what the benefits would be for them as business owners. We didn’t get as many respondents as we hoped for, however after speaking with the central office, things still look good. I should be hearing from them on Monday to know what decision they’ve made and to learn the survey results.

Showing ‘em the ropes – For a few days this month a couple of Trainees came to visit me. These are the people who are here and will soon be sworn in to be the next crop of brand new Peace Corps Honduras Volunteers. They sent two young women my way and they got to see my work for two days. It’s a really good tool that Peace Corps permits the Trainees to visit current Volunteers to get a feel of what life here is really like. The conditions during training and living with host families are much different from our day-to-day life as Volunteers.

Semana Santa – Or Holy Week to my English speaking friends. Holy Week here in Honduras is essentially Spring Break. Most institutions are closed for the whole week and many people get to escape to the beaches. Here in Guaimaca both the Alcaldia and high school I work with took the whole week off. I followed suit and enjoyed some time with friends and relaxed. It was AMAZING and a much needed vacation.

Amor y Frijoles – This is the title of a Honduran movie which was filmed in the town where I lived during most of my training last year. It was pretty much my first taste of Honduran culture, or at least holds a special place in my heart. With having my new house, I decided to fill it with pets to make it a little homier. I was gifted a dog and a cat from two different friends. Both are all black. My dog, which I got first, is a mutt but looks like a Lab. I’m glad about that. Oh yah, her name would be Frijoles. My cat has green eyes and has just joined us at home about three days ago. She is Amor and I’m hoping she grows fast since she’s not the cutest right now…

So again, those are the highlights of a month flown by. I’ve made another Cribs style video of my house since I’m finally all settled in and everything is in its place. I’m going to try to include the video here for everyone to see.

Thanks for reading!

Hasta la proxima vez…

Well, as per usual I’ve been AWOL from my blog for quite some time now. I apologize, but March was a hectic month, kinda. I try to get at least one blog out a month, so this is my last ditch effort to not let March pass me by! The best I can do is summarize what I did this month.

New month/new house: After waiting for many months and having been told that my house would be ready by January I finally moved into my new place on March 5! It’s great for just me. It has a good size living room area which is long and narrow. I’ve designated one side as my work area where I have my computer and the other side is my chill out zone – my hammock and string lights make it quite relaxing. There is a kitchen, which I’ve got stocked with mini-fridge, two burner stove, blender, rice cooker and espresso maker. I don’t believe in roughing it in the Peace Corps! Off the kitchen is a small bedroom, which is just perfect for one person. Off the kitchen on the other side is where my pila (large water storage tank) is and beyond that my bathroom. I’ll try to make another “Cribs” type video and get it posted soon so you can see it for yourself.

Vacation!: On March 12 my dad, stepmom, stepmom’s mom and stepmom’s aunt flew to the beautiful Honduran island of Roatan. I met them there by way of ship from the mainland and we spent an amazing week relaxing and having a blast. We rented scooters to toot around the island on, zip-lined, met some monkeys, went golfing, snorkeled, went deep sea fishing, did some parasailing and of course ate plenty of amazing food – lobster gnocchi, seared tuna, lobster tail, etc. Of course the week flew by too fast and it was sad to say good-bye all over again to family and leave the easy island life.

Work/More vacation: Prior to leaving for vacation I was supposed to have presented two charlas at the local high school and the students were going to have started their own microempresas already. The week after coming back from vacation I was also going to start a coaching volleyball at the high school. That was until the teachers and government decided to all throw a temper tantrum because they can’t work out an agreement. I’ve heard the government is claiming to have overpaid the teachers at some point along the way and is now asking for the money back, up to L. 45,000 in one case I know of. So, yes of course this is unfair. However, the teachers union is ridiculously over powerful and they can pretty much strike when they want and for as long as they want. This is the third whole week without classes and they were various days between February 14 and March 11 when classes first started that the teachers weren’t giving classes. The sad part is no one can see the bigger picture and see the long term effects this has on the country. Uneducated masses leads to the problems that abound here, but no one cares to see it that way.

Aside from the school, my other counterparts in the Mayor’s office wanted me to help them write a grant to have a day care center here. I was all ready to start it and get rolling, since they’ve been asking me since December. The day I head in to work with the vice-mayor he tells me that the Mayor just got some funds from elsewhere and it may or may not include money for the day care. So, since they can’t get their act together I really have no way to help them.

Therefore because both of my assigned counterparts are very ineffective right now, I’m taking off on my own projects. We’re still making great advances in the process of bringing a Chamber of Commerce here to my town. We went to Tegucigalpa on Tuesday for a meeting with the main office and our next meeting will be here in Guaimaca after which they will leave a group doing a survey of local business. On Saturday I’m starting a project called “Yo Merezco”. This is a Peace Corps Honduras project created by the Health project a few years ago. “Yo Merezco” means “I deserve” and is designed for young girls between 10-15 years of age with the principle goals of the program being abstinence, self-esteem, leadership, smart decision making, learning about healthy relationships and essentially lowering cases of teen pregnancy and STDs.

Puppy: I was given a puppy on Wednesday. She is a mutt and all black. The people who gave her to me are not quite sure how old she is, but assume the litter was born around March 1. When I brought her home and gave her a bath, with the special dog shampoo, I was shocked at the number of fleas she had. Poor thing, I don’t know how being so little she could even survive with that number of fleas. I also got about four ticks off of her. Anyway, I’m taking good care of her with her vaccines, vitamins and trying to train her. Yes, she has a name, but I’m keeping it under wraps until I pick up my kitten, which was also born recently. They’re going to form an amazing duo, so I have to present them together.

I think that about covers it for the month of March. As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for future updates. I’d like to give a ‘shout-out’ to Quinn who was here in Guaimaca with a group awhile back working with the Catholic church. I hope you’re able to follow your dreams and go make a difference in the world some day! It was great meeting you and the entire group.

Hasta la proxima vez…

So all my faithful, unfaithful, and new readers can see that I do work from time to time, I plan on updating you on the latest and greatest in the 9-5 department.

Being a Business Adviser to a town of 34,000 is a daunting task. I would love to say that my being here has made a big impact when I leave at the end of two years, but let’s be honest. In the long run my impact will have only been important for a handful. To maximize my impact I’m doing what I can to bring in long term help in the form of a Chamber of Commerce. It just so happens it was an idea I came up with after assessing the needs of the town, but when I talked it over with the vice-mayor he said it was something the mayor had promised in his campaign. However, due to huge political divide here he wasn’t very successful. Enter la gringa with no political ties and I’ve got the ball rolling!

My first step was calling the main office in Tegucigalpa to request information on what kinds of things need to be done in the process. Within a week we had an appointment in Tegucigalpa. You would have thought they were trying to sell the idea of the Chamber of Commerce to us here in Guaimaca, based on their presentation. It was great and definitely sounds like something that will be a huge help here. Two weeks later we were having a meeting here in Guaimaca to inform the business people here what would be the benefit for them. Unfortunately we had little turnout. We had invited around 80 people and maybe 30 showed up. It was disheartening, but one must always stay chin up in Peace Corps work. Nonetheless we formed a new committee to help spread the word. The committee and I had made an appearance on local TV to discuss the idea and share what would be the benefit to local business. Based on the calls to the program that evening, people seem interested and excited. However, my biggest challenge now is getting in contact with the Tegucigalpa office again. They have not responded to my e-mails in over a week now. I just hope they know I won’t give up and will go back into Tegucigalpa again if they try to ignore me.

One thing I love about the Peace Corps is that I am my own boss and can do whatever work I please. The Catholic church here in my town is a great connection to the US and they bring in many volunteer groups for various projects. A few weeks ago I was able to meet some Engineers Without Borders from the Boston chapter and I will be helping them give trainings about how to properly use latrines and conserve water once the water system is fully operational in a few months.

Last week I was a full time translator. The church had brought in a medical/dental brigade and was attending to patients morning and afternoon for four days. Translating for the medical part was easy enough as I already knew most of the vocabulary for common medical conditions here in Honduras such as: high blood pressure, diabetes, and allergies. Translating in the afternoons for the dentist (same guy as the doctor!) I learned some interesting new vocabulary: sit up straight in the chair, filling, and baby teeth. It was nice to have a week of actual 9-5 work for awhile, since most of the time my schedule is all over the place. The group of medical professionals who came down were a great team to work with and I really enjoyed getting to meet them all. So guys, here’s hoping one (or all of you) is reading and I will shout you out as promised. Bill, Dina, Steve, Noreen (Doreen?), Nicole and Jade you guys are amazing for dedicating your time to the people of Guaimaca and I hope you get to come back again! Thanks for letting me work with you. :)

I still have a long term goal of creating a Sister Cities relationship between Guaimaca and my home town in California, but it’s a difficult and lengthy process. Sister Cities International suggests beginning with linking things such as local Lions Clubs and high schools, so I’m starting there. Americans are generally open to international aid, so I addressed my Guaimaca Leones and asked if they would be interested before even trying to contact the club at home. Sure enough, they were interested and even passed a motion for me to become an honorary member. I think that means they won’t make me pay dues and I have to go to their meetings every Thursday. All I really want is to encourage them is to be more active in the community. Here’s hoping.

What I’m really looking forward to is on the horizon. The Honduran school year just began this week and I’m really excited to be working with the youth again. In a couple of weeks I will again be teaching the kids about marketing, production and how to write a business plan. After that the teachers will assign them to groups and they will form their own micro-businesses. I’m hoping to also start a girls’ volleyball team and some sort of mentoring programs. I’d also like to start a program, based off the successful project of another volunteer, where the people are taught how dangerous burning plastic is, plastic is instead collected and later recycled for income. So, mostly ideas for now, but I’m going to do my best to get them to reality. Again, here’s hoping!

Anyway crew, in future posts I’d like to do some brief ‘supporting cast’ profiles about the important people to me here in Guaimaca, so you can get to know who I know a little bit!

Hasta la proxima vez…

(I was just trying to write this all in one blog and realized it was getting to be around four pages. In an effort to respect the overly busy American of my target audience, I will make these two posts. You can thank me later and read each of these at your convenience!)

I have TONS of down time here in Honduras. Believe me. Today I felt successful because after sleeping in ‘til 9:30, watching old TV on my computer until 11:00 and finally leaving the house by 1:00, I was able to visit three people in the community and score an invite to the Lions Club meeting on Thursday. Compare that to what I would call a successful day in the US and comparatively I did nothing. (Side note: I’m hoping to form a “brotherhood” between the Lions club here in Guaimaca and at home in Ceres, CA. My ultimate goal is to form a “sisterhood” between my hometown of Ceres and current hometown of Guaimaca. According to Sister Cities International, linking organizations such as the Lions is a good starting point.)

With that delightful anecdote of my day, it’s safe to assume there’s not much to blog about in my present life. Rather I’m going to elaborate a list that I’ve had going for some time now to share some cultural difference between the US and Honduras.

Don’t drink the water. Such sage advice is essentially cliché for anyone traveling outside the US. Who even drinks tap water in the US anymore? Where I currently live, I don’t even have a sink. (You know that if you saw my YouTube video “My Current Digs.”) Suffice to say I have to bring my five gallons in from a safe source. Guess what my safe source is? Some underground spring located under the vacant lot behind the gas station across the street, which the locals claim has been tested and is 98% clean. The craziest thing of all: it’s free! About every two weeks when I need a refill, I simply carry my five gallon-er across the street, saddle it up to the nozzle, flip it to ‘on’ and fill ‘er up. I’ve never gotten sick from it and we’ll see if I have any parasites at my 1-year of service mark in May when I journey to Tegucigalpa for medical check-ups.

This may be redundant for my faithful readers. However, showering here is also quite an experience. Water has one temperature: COLD. Thankfully we’re just starting to come out of winter here, so the cold isn’t quite as COLD as it had been. In the colder months here we had days where the high probably hovered around the mid- to upper 60s. Taking an early morning shower in those days was painful and masochistic. I couldn’t change my OCD American personal hygiene habits of daily cleanings of my ENTIRE body, to the frequent adopted arm pits, butt and “privates” and feet. I mean after all, my knees, scalp and elbows would get jealous. Gotta make sure they’re all equally loved, or uh, washed! Anyway, in the HOT summer months the water isn’t COLD or even cold. It’s fabulous and refreshing.

Many products which we’re used to seeing in large, gallon size, plastic bottles in the US frequently come in small (one liter or less) bags. Purified drinking water, bleach and milk are ones that have made my list. Initially it’s a frustrating conundrum trying to drink your half liter of water in one long swallow, place the bag of bleach just-precariously-enough-so-it-doesn’t-spill, and fold the top of the milk bag over just right so it doesn’t spoil. I’ve come to terms with all these things after being in country for nearly a year now. You really do drink your water quickly or pour it into a bottle which you’ve got left over. Same goes for the bleach – either have a big cleaning day and use it all up or find some random discarded bottle to store the remains. The milk (usually) doesn’t spoil. Just make sure to use it within five days of opening it!

For having poor plumbing, clogged toilets are very rarely an issue here. After all, toilet paper doesn’t go in the toilet. Nope, it is neatly (if you’re lucky) discarded in a trash can that is beside EVERY toilet in this country. Many brands of toilet paper marketed here are scented and most people take trash out frequently. I’m sure the prissiest Americans back home are thinking how gross that is and that it must stink. Eh, you get used to it and it actually doesn’t, surprisingly. Also, taking your trash out here isn’t like taking it to your big rolling bin beside the house which you place on the curb weekly. No, no, no. If you’re lucky to live in a city, like I do, there is trash pick up – minus the rolling bins. Trash still goes on a weekly basis; however some poor city employees simply pick up the small pile in front of each home along the route. For the po’ country folk the only way to rid your life of trash is to burn it. Many homes here have a familiar black spot in the backyard where they burn their trash. It does wonders for the air quality here. That and all the vehicles that come from the US circa 1980 and would never pass SMOG in the US. (I now understand why they made such a stink to double check that I didn’t have asthma before being accepted.)

Basic manners between the two cultures are different too and I’ll admit; I miss the American ones and sometimes the Honduran ones bug me. Typical American manners include forming lines and waiting patiently. Well, for a culture where people show up to meetings an hour (or more) late, they sure are in a hurry when in the stores. Here the loudest and pushiest gets served first. My large American personal space is frequently invaded. I’ve learned boxing out techniques and use my backpack (which I wear on a near daily basis) as a buffer zone. Cell phones and talking during meetings are also not frowned upon. Well, I feel there is the tiniest, tiny bit of progress being made on this, but nothing at all like the bad manners it is considered in the US. Put my cell phone on vibrate, but why? Not take a call during the meeting? Please, why would I make someone think I’m busy?! The ringing phones, calls being taken in (not) hushed (enough) voices and no one saying anything about how distracting this is severely annoys me. Admittedly, I’ve taken this culture difference to my advantage. In a boring meeting I will gladly take a call from a PC friend and not feel a least bit of guilt.

Honduran manners which are not practiced in the US, while friendly in their intent, also annoy me at times (because of my American culture). When someone enters a full room, be it late, invited, welcome or not they will loudly say, “Good _____ (insert time of day here.)” Everyone in the room will say it back. OK, so imagine if you will being in a meeting with a dozen people having already commenced and in come three people late. Instead of trying to quietly and politely find a seat they will not simultaneously, but one by one say “Good morning.” The dozen people in the meeting will stop what they’re doing and greet them. See what I mean? It’s with the best of intentions of being polite, but with my American background it drives me nuts and makes me yearn for timeliness, coldness and being guilted into silence. Same goes with eating. I’ll be eating out (which I do nearly every meal right now, for not having a kitchen where I rent) and people who enter will say, “Buen provecho.” It’s incredibly nice to be wished a good meal by a stranger, but if I’ve got my mouth full of food and have to throw out a “gracias”, it can be inconvenient. Oh sheesh, I just realized how dumb it is to complain about this stuff. Oh well, I went through all the work to write it, not editing it out! :) The last Honduran manner is the greatest. Anytime you visit someone’s home you will be offered something. In the US it rarely goes beyond something to drink. Here, you aren’t offered water, because it’s cheap and people like to show off their “affluence” and their ability to buy coffee or soda. After being brought a glass of something (many times without being asked whether it’s desired or not) you’ll be given something to eat: bread, cookies, etc. Basically, if it’s got carbs you’ll be given it! If you also happen to visit around meal time, you’re getting a free meal. The other day I visited my soon to be landlady around 8:30AM and she gave me coffee and bread. After that I paid a visit to my friend who was recently laid off from the Mayor’s office. She happened to be cooking breakfast for her son, so naturally she had to cook for me too. Mind you I had actually eaten breakfast that day and without having asked if I was hungry, she sat a plate in front of me and said, “Buen provecho”. I love the generosity and it’s always from the people who seem to have the least to give. Sometimes I just wish I could turn it down.

There are many more pick-ups on the road here. The reasoning being you can cram more people into the bed of a truck than you ever could in a four door sedan. Duh, why on earth buy a four door sedan where you can cram maybe seven to eight people when you can buy a pick-up and have up to twenty people in the bed? Yes, that is the reasoning behind buying a car vs. pick-up here.

Because people here have very little personal space, they often don’t realize that they deserve more respect. For example, when traveling on buses, the seats will quickly fill up. Rather than denying anyone a ride, people will fill the aisle and be forced to squeeze together as tightly as possible. The ridiculous part of this is that, standing people have to pay the same fare and people let themselves be yelled at by the bus “helper” to move back and stand back to back in the aisle to make more room for more people. Whenever I climb aboard a standing room only bus I refuse to cram myself into ridiculously small places. I’m sure they think I’m a rude American, but I merely realize I don’t deserve to be smashed into someone’s back for two hours while paying the same rate as someone seated comfortably. Now, if only I could teach this to the locals, or better yet teach the bus companies better business policies.

Despite a lack of safety laws in the sense of an overcrowded bus, there is a helmet law for motorcycles. Is it enforced? Um, kinda. I see people on motorcycles all the time without helmets. There are those that wear normal motorcycle helmets that would actually protect them in the event of an accident. Then there are those, which are still abiding by the law, which wear hard hats or bicycle helmets while riding their motorcycles. I’ve never read the law, so I don’t know if that counts or not. However, it’s just a little ridiculous to see and I just pray I never seen a motorcycle accident in which the driver was wearing a hard hat. “Red Asphalt” in Driver’s Ed was bad enough. I don’t need a live version.

Many times when eating at a friend’s house my plate won’t have any utensils set beside it – just a stack of corn tortillas. Here you eat with your hands and use pieces of tortilla to pick up your food from rice and beans, to avocado and eggs. The Hondurans are real experts at knowing how to measure their tortilla allotment to food on plate ratio and will finish perfectly the last few beans on the plate with the last piece of tortilla. I, however, do not have years of practice and frequently require many more tortillas or simply have to ask for a fork. (Although there’s been times where I’ve eaten my plate surplus with my fingers.) It brings up the subject of different manners again, but instead of over thinking it, I just go with it and enjoy the chance to feel a little kiddish again.

There you have it. A list of some of the biggest differences I experience here. Luckily, it’s nothing that bad. My patience has definitely grown thick (as opposed to thin) and I frequently remind myself that I will experience crazy culture shock when I go home too.

Stay tuned for updates on my latest work projects coming soon!

Hasta la proxima vez…

Christmas in Honduras isn’t much like Christmas in the US. Well ok, families get together to eat and celebrate, but that’s about the only similarity I noticed.

Most big Christmas celebrations here happen on Christmas Eve. Leading up to the big holiday I wasn’t asked what I was doing for Christmas but rather the 24th. It was most annoying having to tell multiple people, that no, I wasn’t going home for the holidays and explained that yes, the other two volunteers who live nearby were indeed in the States. Oh well, 2012 I’ll be home for Christmas!

I left my site on the 23rd because I wasn’t sure that the buses would run on the 24th and people had told me it’s better to get there early. Arriving to my first host family’s house is always exciting because we’re all super excited to see each other. (They’re the only family I ever had a real bond with.) Waking up the morning of the 24th everyone gets down to work. There’s the house to clean and all the typical Christmas dishes to be made: tamales, torejas and rompopo.

Rompopo is eggnog and torejas are very similar to French toast, so I won’t go into detail on the elaboration of those things. However, Honduran tamales are much different (and better, in my opinion) than Mexican tamales that many may be familiar with. The first step of the process begins with the mixing of the masa. This is a mixture of a corn meal like substance, spices and seasonings and water.The masa with water, pre-cooked.

The masa with seasonings and spices. This would be the green masa.

The masa fully cooked and ready.

As the masa is cooking the banana leaves, used to encase the tamales, are boiled so that they are malleable and clean.Banana leaves boiling away - note the small stove which is wood burning.Whilst the masa is cooking and the leaves are boiling, they prep the meat – in this case pork. (They are sometimes made with other meat or chicken, but pork is special for Christmas.)

My host dad, Victor, cleaning and prepping the meat in the same pila where dishes and clothes are washed and also where teeth are brushed.

After the masa is cooked, it’s time to prepare the rice and potato mixture.Rice and potatoes cooking next to the chicharrones (pig skin).After thoroughly and meticulously wiping down each banana leaf (done by yours truly), it’s time to assemble the tamales. First place a generous dollop each of the red masa on the cleaned banana leaf. Followed by a spoonful of the rice and potato mixture. Plop down a piece of the pork. Sprinkle on a few raisins and finish it off with a dollop of the green masa. Voila, you now have a raw tamale!My host mom, Merlin, showing off her yummy creations.With the raw tamale you fold the banana leaf so that it’s well covered. Then tie it up so it doesn’t come undone while cooking. Throw them in a huge pot to boil. To what extent I didn’t find out. All the pots boiling away on the stove top.Once they are done cooking you can unwrap the banana leaf, add some hot shot if you so choose and enjoy!Christmas tamale - ready to eat! After all the food is prepped everyone has time to shower and get ready for the family to come over. The big tradition here is to stay up ‘til midnight and run around hugging and kissing everyone as you wish them Merry Christmas a la New Year’s Eve.

Until the clock strikes 12:00 there is eating and, of course, dancing. No Honduran party is complete without dancing! Put on the reggaeton hits of 2010 and you’re ready. Now, the music is not my favorite and I really miss having good conversation and playing games at parties, but you know when in Tegucigalpa…To the littlest girls...

To the grown ladies...and the awkward gringa dancing solo. Haha!And that’s about it. The point is to stay up as late as you can and just dance. I think we made it to about 3:00AM.

December 25 no one wakes up to presents. There really aren’t presents here. Everyone just buys what they need for themselves or their families and use it in the month of December. I gotta say, the not gifting thing is kinda sad.

So, that’s about it – my Honduran Christmas. Surrounding myself with the people I love here helped take away the sting of not being able to spend the holiday at home with my own family. It was also nice to call Christmas Day to the States and talk with everyone who was gathered for Christmas.

I’m not sure what next Christmas will be like, but if I have to be here in Honduras again, it won’t be so bad. At least, now I know the ropes!

Hasta la proxima vez…

(Author's note: The other day I had to idea to write a Christmas letter and actually mail it out from here in Honduras. However, I realized that A) it would never make it to the US until after the New Year and B) that would be a lot of money on postage. So, I'm putting on my blog where no one will probably read it anyway!)

As I was cleaning up from a meeting this afternoon I had many a Christmas carol stuck in my head and was whistling oh so merrily. It cheered me up and made me feel Christmas-y for the first time this year! That being the case I thought to myself, if there were ever a year when a Christmas letter was in order, this is it. The whole of 2010 was consumed by some part of my Peace Corps experience. Beginning the New Year knowing I would be coming to Honduras, making last minute preparations, leaving home in February, getting to Honduras and meeting new friends – both American and Honduran, having three months of training and finally getting to my site – home for two years.

My work experiences have been varied. Some were very fulfilling, while others (beyond my control) got deserted before we were even able to help. Teaching marketing, production and how to write a business plan to high school kids has been my favorite experience thus far. I’ve taught accounting basics to rural women who make art from pine needles. Getting these products into the Capital and the US has been trying, but I’m still working on it. We’ve started a weekly market in the central park where small businesses can have a chance to sell. If anyone wants something designed in Microsoft Publisher, I’m called upon because they think I’m genius at it. My works include business cards, brochures, flyers, programs and information sheets. I was asked to be part of the local committee of Special Olympics, but declined offering to help whenever they have events. (I can’t take the position that a Honduran should be filling.) Our not so successful events included trying to get micro savings and loans started up in many rural communities who don’t have access to banks. We tried too many, too fast. It’s hard to get to these places without transportation and convincing the people their money is better off in savings than hidden in their home is very difficult. I also worked on giving HIV/AIDS prevention presentations to kids from the age of 10 – 21 all throughout the month of October. It’s a global Peace Corps initiative and I never imagined myself doing the whole condom on a banana bit since it’s nothing I ever had to do in school, but it’s so necessary here (teen pregnancy is out of control – and this is considered a Catholic country). And as with any good professional, learning is always encouraged. I’ve been to more workshops than I can count – Women’s Social and Reproductive Rights, Training Trainers, Effective Communication, Health Issues Concerning Women and Basic Business Skills. Future work plans include writing a grant to fund part of a community day care center – either building materials and construction or furnishing, depending on what my community partners want. I’m also trying to make the proper contacts to bring a Chamber of Commerce to my city. My ideal to do list will also include my working with the high school a lot more (since I really like the youth so much!). I want to start coaching volleyball, create a Camera Club (similar to what I was working with back home before coming down), and create a green house business where the high school students in Ecology and Commerce can each flex their skills. Ideas are always changed when talking to community partners though, so we’ll see.

Nuances of daily living in Honduras include cold showers since water heaters don’t seem to exist in this country. While welcoming in the hot summer months, my showers have gotten progressively harder to deal with since about mid September. It’s not exactly cold here, but it’s not warm either. I think today may have been in the mid 60s. Now, take into account that where I live homes aren’t insulated, are made of cinder blocks and have tin roofs that don’t exactly meet the walls at all points – and add in a cold shower. It’s pretty bad. Yet, I do it – daily. Due to the aforementioned building codes (or lack thereof) I’ve seen my share of geckos, cockroaches that could double as small rodents, actual small rodents and even a tarantula all in my living quarters at some point in time. It’s definitely not a daily, nor even weekly basis and the fact that we’re in winter now helps, but I’ve certainly seen more of those things than I ever had in the US. Variety of food is lacking and my favorite food is a baleada – doubled over flour tortilla filled with refried beans, a sour creamy/buttery/slightly salty dairy product and queso seco. A good one will cost 8 Lempiras. Oh, in case you’re wondering what I make here it’s this: L. 5,953.60 per month. Based on an exchange rate of roughly L. 19 to $1, I earn about $313.35 a month. That is more than sufficient for a single person to live on in this country. Well, here where I live – and that’s exactly what Peace Corps bases it off of. There are pay grades based on which part of the country you live in. Walking and public transportation are the only forms getting from point A to B. It’s like living in a big city in the US, only here the people don’t have cars because they’re poor, not because it’s inconvenient. Oh yes, my Spanish has gotten really good. I suppose I could call myself bilingual, but I still feel that’s a stretch. Some people still talk too fast and have horrible accents, which I doubt I’ll ever understand. Hondurans also have way more slang than any other group of Latinos I’ve been around, which makes getting really good hard. Yet, until I ever know how to say words like turkey baster, dip stick, coolant, nozzle, eyelash curler, or mesh in Spanish, I’m not going to proclaim myself bilingual.

I know I’ve already made some lasting relationships. The first host family I lived with for the shortest time of just under a month was by far the best and I’ve been back to visit them many times. A large family of both parents and four children: two sons 23 and 19 and two daughters 18 and 11 along with the oldest son’s wife and its one big happy family. My closet friend here where I live is a 24 year-old, on again/off again single mother of an amazing little 2 year-old girl. She’s an elementary teacher and used to drive a motorcycle. The coolest of my Peace Corps friends is a Jewish girl from Oakland. Due to our last names falling in line alphabetically, we were roommates our first few nights in Miami, lived near each other the first few weeks and have kept each other sane through many stressful moments living and working in a third world country with a different culture.

Sorry, I couldn’t sum up 12 months in a single page like some people do. It’s quite obvious I’ve had some amazing experiences. Of course, there have been some challenging and stressful ones too, but we don’t focus on that stuff at Christmas, right? :) I’m so thankful for this experience, learning about myself, getting outside my comfort zone, meeting new people I wouldn’t have normally met, challenging myself in ways never imagined and living my dreams! I wish you all the best this Christmas season and hope your years have been as rewarding as mine. May God bless you now and always!

Merry Christmas!!!

Hasta la proxima vez...

Similar to an American couple getting their marriage license signed on their big day, a Honduran student’s diploma will not be conferred upon without the signatures of two witnesses. They use a much cooler term than witness here – padrinos. Yes, the godparents.

Madrina, the graduate and padrino - her older brother. The past Friday I was the madrina for my 18-year-old host sister who was graduating with general studies and a degree in computation. My duties officially began on Thursday when we had to go to the high school and wait in line to sign the two official documents as a hired photographer snapped memories of the momentous occasion.The beautiful graduate! The grand ceremony was held Friday evening at the local community center. (Gymnasiums or large auditoriums are not part of many, if any, Honduran schools – elementary or high school.) Rather than neat rows of chairs there were tables set up throughout the whole room which had been decorated by each graduate for their family and friends. The important people up on stage weren’t just teachers and the principal. Oh no, also in attendance were the mayor, chief of police and fire chief. Things are serious here!

The ceremony began with a rendition of the Honduran national anthem. Now, this is something that is part of the general curriculum in the Honduran education system. Kids are tested on it at the end of 6th grade, high school AND college! Knowing the national anthem generally holds more importance than other basic fundamentals such as spelling, basic math skills or writing a decent essay. That being said I could not believe how quiet an auditorium full of Hondurans singing their national anthem was. A conversation at normal decibels would have been louder than the singing coming from that room. Later when one student performed a popular song karaoke style, her audience participation was greater than that of the anthem.

Certain members from the “We’re important people” table shared some words and encouragement for the graduates before they took their oath. That’s right, an oath: right hand raised, repeating what the principal says and left hand on the Honduran flag. Oh yes, if you screw up here, you’re failing your country. No pressure, really.

Getting ready to take the oath.There was a special presentation in memory of a classmate who had recently been kidnapped, raped and murdered. Yep, that’s the truth of it. Just short of graduating this small class of 19 kids had to deal with that kind of loss. I remember how tight knit my senior class of 28 was and couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like losing someone right before graduation. It was quite sad.The special presentation for the fallen classmate.

Following the oath and special presentation came the handing out of diplomas. Pretty similar to what you’d see in the US. Names are called, hands are shaken, the awkward smile is forced for too long while the photog takes his pictures and everyone goes on their merry way.

To wind down the official ceremony all graduates were sent back to the tables with their family and friends for a champagne toast. There were a few tense moments there as a roomful of people who usually never touch champagne set to the task of uncorking the bottles. To my knowledge there were no cork related injuries that evening. Crisis adverted. An 18-year-old serving champagne!

See what I'm talking about?!

And of course, no Honduran event would be complete without dancing. The night wound up with dancing to the DJ’s best reggeton compilations and plenty of awkward couple moments and aftermath of the girls who like to dance but are, more or less, prohibited by jealous boyfriends/husbands who don’t like to dance.At least I had a good time dancing!

It was even fun to get 'little sister #2' out on the floor! It was a great time, a new cultural experience and I got to see my favorite host family for a few days in one of my favorite Honduran towns. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back in another six years when my other “little sister” graduates!Congratulations to the grad!

Hasta la proxima vez…

The excitement in October didn't stop just because my b-day had passed, by no means!

Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen to me in my whole PC experience thus far. My amazing friend Stephenie came and paid me a visit! Arriving on a Friday morning, I threw her right into the authentic Honduran experience as we headed into Comayaguela (the bad part of Tegucigalpa, where all the bus terminals happen to be located) and boarded a bus to Santa Rosa de Copan. There we stayed in pretty much the nicest hotel I've seen in Honduras. Until a few hours before arriving it was unbeknownst to me that some of my Peace Corps colleagues where there for a workshop. Hence how we ended up in the nice hotel. Peace Corps splurges when they host work shops. (Your tax dollars hard at work!) From the first night Steph got to meet everyone and see a little bit how the Peace Corps life is!

The following morning those of us how were headed on to Copan Ruinas (Mayan ruins) boarded a bus and headed to La Entrada. At La Entrada we were immediately herded onto a mini bus by the guys seeing $$$ as a small herd of gringos came at them. On a mini bus that was already full, they somehow managed to shove in six of us and haphazardly tie all of our bags on top. (Oh, how I would have loved to take a picture of this spectacle.) Before we took off Stephenie pointed out that there was 20 people in the mini bus, in which by normal standards would seat about 12. Sometimes Hondurans get kudos for the complete lack of compassion for people and the personal greed of just making more money. (And here I thought the US was supposed to be full of greedy capitalists!)

After surviving this "only in Honduras" ride we arrived to the beautiful town of Copan Ruinas. Amazingly touristic and clean. It seems the only time a city is well taken care of here is when it's a tourist attraction, otherwise no one cares. The town essentially becomes Peace Corps HQ during the weekend of Halloween every year. There is a Belgium (I think...) ex-pat, who has capitalized on the number of PCVs in this country (nearly 200) and every year turns his restaurant into Halloween HQ. It's a great costume party and great reunion with everyone. The costumes this year were amazing. I went as the host of a Spanish language dating game show, Penelope of 12 Corazones. It's the greatest show ever! My friend Lauren who works as a Health volunteer and teaches a lot of HIV/AIDS-reproductive health stuff went as Sex Ed Miss Frizzle (of the Magic School Bus). Other great costumes were the girls who were dead on Lady GaGas. One guy dressed in all black and carried a candle as "Se Fue La Luz" - an ode to the frequency of power outages here in Honduras. Overall a great turnout and great creativity on behalf of everyone!

We spent the rest of our short trip to Copan Ruinas enjoying Mexican style burritos, a great pizza joint where we caught a World Series game, Americanized Italian style coffees and just hanging out in our very impressive hostel (seriously, it could compete with some of the best hostels I've seen in Europe). We did some souvenir shopping and less than 48 hours after arriving, we were on the next bus Tegucigalpa bound. I had been teasing Steph the whole time that she hadn't seen the real Honduras and she would be shocked on the next leg of our trip.

Once we finally got to Teguz we taxied and chicken bused our way to Valle de Angeles (where I had lived for my first three weeks in country). We made our way to my host family's home and stayed with them a night before heading to another hotel where I had a workshop (aka, waste of time). My host family's home is very authentic to the real Honduras. Fogon (wood burning stove), bucket baths, and an outdoor toilet. Steph dealt with it all very well - from bathing out of the bucket and also flushing the toilet by pouring water down it! I was so proud.

We spent a few more days in Valle de Angeles while I was in my workshop and Steph got to spend her time in another touristy town for being on her own. After the workshop we came back to my site, Guaimaca, and Steph finally got to see how I live and work on a day to day basis. From my small and humble room I rent to the Alcaldia where I work and even meeting my best Honduran friend. Steph got the total experience!

That about wraps up this time around. You're basically caught up on my life at this point. With all the history behind us I hope to get some more interesting blogs done about the particulars of Honduran living and not just mere recaps of what I do. Here's hoping!

Hasta la proxima vez...

To fill you in on the best month ever is going to take a little while. I hope you’re ready! Why was October the best month ever? Mainly for personal reasons, the biggest and best being that one of my best friends from the US came down and paid me a visit! The second reason being that it was my birthday month and if I count right, I think I celebrated my b-day about four times. Who said life after 25 was boring?? Then, on the work side of things Alicia and I were in full blown, HIV/AIDS charla mode. It was a great month!

One of the largest goals of the Peace Corps on a global level is to deal with the prevention of HIV/AIDS. (Honestly, I didn’t want anything to do with this. I even said during my initial interviews, I don’t want to go to Africa, because I’m sure that’s what most the work will be dealing with.) Being a Business Adviser, I thought I would get off without having to touch this subject. But, of course there is always something that happens, takes your plans, throws ‘em out and you are forced to change your mind. That is certainly what happened in my case. When Alicia first got to site her counterpart and her had some different ideas of what work was to be done and she seemed a little stressed out. I too was feeling a little down because my work had slowed down, so I suggested we do a whole month and just dedicate it to the HIV/AIDS charla. That way we would both have work to keep us busy, we would both be practicing our Spanish and she would get involved at the schools she may work with anyway as a Youth Development volunteer.

To get ready for this we had to brush up on our “Ya Te Diste Cuenta” (Loosely translated: Have you already realized? Don’t ask me about the name…I didn’t translate it to Spanish!) manuals about how to teach the charlas. (Because this is a global PC initiative we’re all required to give the charla during our training. I did mine back in April and Alicia’s had been even more recent.) It was only slightly confusing because they had issued an updated version of the manual between my training class (H16) and Alicia’s (H17). Being the highly intelligent college graduates that we are, we were able to figure it out. Having the differences straightened out, we sat down made a list of the materials we would need and how to get them. Luckily the mayor’s office has a fund for HIV/AIDS education and we were able to request the funds from him. We bought sheets of large poster paper, markers, masking tape, construction paper, had copies made and were on our way. After taking about two days to prep the materials and practice up on the Spanish specific to the charla, we were ready to start.

Our first day we were going to the high school where I’d already given my business charlas and were scheduled to present to the III de Ecologia. As we got to the school and spoke with the director she informed us things had changed and we would instead be giving the charla to the III de Commercio. That was super exciting news because those were exactly the kids who I’d worked with before and they’re a great group! I was right, the charla went very well, the kids were well behaved and we even modified the presentation to have Q&A at the end instead of a game that’s normally played. Day two was presenting to another class, this time about 40 of them and they were little demons, but I think it’s a numbers thing. The following week we were at the elementary school working with five classes of about 40 6th graders. Due to that age we went over the course of three days and did an hour a day with each class, therefore five hours a day! After the 6th graders we went to work with some junior high kids at yet a third school and taught the 9th and 8th graders. Our last day was scheduled to be with the 7th graders, but that was before the teachers went on strike again. So for all those presentations we taught around 300 kids. Needless to say that in a city of at least 25,000 we’ve still got lots to do next year, but this year we did pretty well I’d say!

Now on to the social life and why October was truly AMAZING! My birthday fell in this month and all the new friends in my life made it truly wonderful. The coolest of all is that my friend (and fellow PCV) Lauren came down to visit me all the way from the North Coast. This is so special because she pseudo-surprised me and traveled really far (about 12 hours in bus) to get here! Showing my site to another PCV and having her meet all my in site friends was really exciting. Everyone got along and it was a grand ‘ol time. While Lauren was here my local friends threw me a birthday party in typical Honduran style, carne asada and tajadas (plantain chips). Oh, and they made me dress up. Hondurans are very into clothes and looking good. It kinda cramps my own personal style, but when in Rome…While Lauren was here we went into Tegucigalpa to visit the mall and I was able to pick up a graduation gift for my host sister who is soon graduating high school. We enjoyed some US style food and coffee then came back to my site again. The actual day of my b-day was almost crashed by a call at 10AM from my counter part telling me I needed to be in a meeting that no one had told me about! I had to go and suffer through until lunch when I was able to explain to them that it was my b-day and I had friends from out of town visiting, sorry no can do! My counterparts being amazing, completely agreed and sent me on my way telling me to stop back by the Alcaldia (City Hall) at 5PM for cake. I’m loved! :)

I showed up for cake at the Alcaldia with Lauren and Kathleen in tow. (Kathleen is a Protected Areas Management volunteer who lives in a rural community about an hour from my town. She’s also awesome!) Typically for birthdays in the Alcaldia we all pitch in and buy a cake that way. I have a feeling they used petty cash or the Vice-mayor just bought the cake for my b-day since he was the one who told me to make sure I was back by 5PM for the cake. (See, really loved!) Honduran tradition, like many Latin countries, involves trying to smash the b-day girl’s face into the cake. Most people realize that these days, so it has morphed into swiping the icing off the cake and proceeding to smear it all over the b-day girl’s face. Needless to say, they got me in the Alcaldia. Not too bad thank goodness! Honduran frosting is different from that in the US. It’s not light and airy. It’s denser and much stickier. Post cake at the Alcaldia we went to dinner at my friend’s house and took the leftover cake to share with them. When we got to round two with the cake my Honduran friends were not as forgiving with the frosting as my colleagues in the Alcaldia had been and at the end of our battle I was literally wearing a mask of frosting. Oh well, I suppose the more frosted you are the more loved you are, right? ;)

The last b-day celebration for the month involved a special dinner in Tegucigalpa with three of my other Peace Corps buddies, two of which also had b-days in October. We splurged HUGE and went to an amazing sushi dinner. For four people we dropped about L. 1,400 on this dinner. If you convert that to USD it turns out to be around $73. Not too bad for a sushi dinner for four people back in the US right? Let me briefly explain how much a typical Honduran meal out would cost here in my site. For example, today at lunch I had two baleadas (tortillas with refried beans, eggs, queso seco and mantequilla[mantequilla is like an odd combination of sour cream and butter, when heated is liquid and cold is about sour cream texture, slightly salty]) and a liquado (milkshake) for L. 38 ($2). Just analyze that for a little bit and you can see how much we really splurged on that meal. It’s also interesting to see that some people in this country live in Tegucigalpa and eat like this regularly, while most are poor and live in the areas us PCVs are in and can’t even afford to eat what I did at lunch today. Anyway, random side note. I also used that time in Tegucigalpa to buy the ingredients for my Thanksgiving dish: green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup and French’s fried onions! (Yes, Tegucigalpa really is mini-America in the good part of the city.)

I believe this post is sufficient for my b-day. I’ll include the details on Steph’s visit and Halloween in my next post!

Hasta la proxima vez…

To retro date this a little bit, I’m going to take us back to September. About an even two months to be exact, just about the time my computer crashed the second time around.

As I’d mentioned in a previous post I got a site mate in mid September. There had been talk of it since I got here and that was in May. All I knew is that it would most likely be someone from the Youth Development project and I was hoping for a guy, ha-ha (sorry Alicia!). After our Reconnect I was anxious to get into site and meet her (I had already found out it would be a girl. The ratio of girls to guys in the YD project is about 3 to 1.). I had to do some research to find out who they had placed her with as a host family, but that wasn’t too hard. Everyone knows where the gringas are in town! So, on a Sunday afternoon in mid September I met Alicia and we are now the coolest girls in Guaimaca (ok, I’m slightly biased…)

The Honduran Independence day was September 15. Exactly the same as Mexico’s. Pretty much exactly the same as most of the Central American countries. Just part of the story as to why independence has still yet to be achieved here. The day was filled with parades, kids doing skits in the park and I’m not really sure what else. September is the official month of Patriotism here. Boy, are they brimming with it! (More on that later.) A few days after the 15th they celebrate the day the Mexican version of the Declaration of Independence arrived to Honduras and was ratified here. This date was really special to me because the teacher of half the kids I gave my business charlas to had to start micro-businesses and set up shop there in the park. Seeing kids putting to use what I’d taught them was an amazing feeling. Yet, in retrospect, getting off my high horse, they only did it that day because they were assigned. What would be really cool, would be if they were to keep selling long term. Oh, well!

As September drew to a close I was beginning to feel a little depressed/stressed out. My work had slowed down and not having anything to do in this country is fatal to many in terms of service in the Peace Corps. Not wanting to become a statistic and drop out, I made plans with Alicia to kick off our “HIV/AIDS Tour 2k10”! We got to work planning it, requested the funds from the Mayor, made all of our materials and set up dates with various schools in town.

Hasta la proxima vez…

This may seriously be one of the hardest things I set out to do. Trying to catch my blog up on the last couple months of my life will be intense. Late August the “newbies” (H17) swore in and one of them became my site mate! Then October my site mate and I started what we dubbed our “HIV/AIDS Tour 2K10”, in which we taught approximately 300 kids how to protect themselves (abstinence is the only manner 100% effective!). Naturally, October brought my birthday, same as every year. My friend Stephenie came for a visit and then there was Halloween. There were two back-to-back workshops and a Farmer’s Market I’ve been planning since getting here is finally getting started! Thanksgiving and Honduran graduation season is just around the corner and then there’s Christmas and New Year’s. To keep up with my cliché filled writing: Time is FLYING!

(Side note: I’m pretty sure I never bother to tell anyone that my computer crashed a second time. This time it was about two weeks after I had just gotten it back from the US with a brand new hard drive installed. I have no clue what it is about Honduras that makes computers just want to die, but they do. I now have a brand new one that my parents so graciously bought for me [after my insurance refused to cover my other computer]. Stephenie brought the new one with her when she visited and took the old one home. Luckily I bought it at Costco, so hopefully they will take it back! I’m just trying to not be too cynical and hope this new one lasts me the next 18 months.)

Anyway…due to slow Internet and multi-tasking on nearly a dozen different things, I’m just going to leave you with this for tonight. Look for the other updates soon!

Hasta la proxima vez…

Watching TV in English, enjoying free Wi-Fi, a night at the movies and Pizza Hut.

Welcome to Tegucigalpa! Capital city of Honduras, where you have the whole spectrum of rich to poor and a, slightly smaller than usual for-a-big-city, international population that is mainly made up of volunteers serving here. Being here is often a culture shock. As you drive through the poor barrios filled with trash, skeletal stray dogs and dilapidated houses you realize just how poor the country is. A short cab ride across town lies mini-America. A mall the size of multiple football fields, all the finest in American cuisine (TGI Fridays, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and Applebee's; just to name a few) and $200 a night hotels (extremely pricey for Honduras). These two extreme contrasts create quite a culture shock every time I come into Tegucigalpa. Yet, I enjoy it nonetheless.

I'm currently here in Teguz with two of my fellow PCVs staying the night before we head back to our respective sites tomorrow. We just spent most of the week at a workshop they call Reconnect. (More on that later.) The hotel they put us up in had no Wi-Fi, so we spent the afternoon taking advantage of that before heading over to mini-America. A dinner at Pizza Hut, a first run movie in English (Inception) and an iced coffee. Oh, and tomorrow a shower with hot water. Life is good in Teguz, but I enjoy getting back to my site with my people.

Reconnect was this four day workshop in which every PCV from the Business Project gets together and shares ideas, creates various task force groups and learns a few new things as well. Not to mention it's like a huge reunion for all of us because it's the first time we've seen many of these people in a long time. I won't bore you with all the details. I think what surprised me the most about La Esperanza, where the workshop was held, was how cold it was! They say La Esperanza is fresco, which normally by Honduran standards, I would say they consider temperatures in the 70's fresco. However, it was just straight up cold there, I'm saying it hit the 60's and maybe even upper 50's over night. I had taken a hoodie I have, which is the warmest clothing I brought down, and it was not cuttin' it against that cold.

Tomorrow when I get back to site my primary goal will be to track down my new site mate. She is from the H17 training class which just swore in yesterday. I hope she's fun and we will have the opportunity to work on some projects together in the future since she is a Youth Development volunteer. Anyway, off to further enjoy this free Wi-Fi and TV in English.

Hasta la proxima vez...

Hey everyone!

GREAT NEWS! I am writing this from my very own laptop, which I have been without for nearly 3 months now! Thank God it made the trip between Honduras and the US twice without being stolen (and maybe some fibbing on the customs label), but hey, I have all my old music, pictures, movies and documents. Everyone knew I got my computer in the mail today because they said I was basically beaming.

So, as to barely make the cut for getting a post out to you guys for August I will post what I had prepared back for you the first week of June, the week my computer crashed and I also met the President of Honduras. That post was titled, "What A Week!"

So, enjoy the retro-post and let's all hope and pray that this hard drive lasts me the remaining time here, so I can keep you all updated.

Here it is:

What a week!

This week is off to a good start. Monday night and I’m ready for the weekend, in a good way!

Monday was spent in the office watching the city get spiffy-ed up for the visit of the President and members of his cabinet. I scoured our Business DVD (this huge folder full of 7 gigs worth of information on all things business in Honduras that has been passed to all business volunteers) for information about how to teach basic accounting to women who have a microempresa (I’m scared to death of accounting. I figure may as well tackle it and get comfortable with it!) Got to chat with the Business project director and seems like it will be ok for me to go on a trip to the North Coast in the beginning of July (even though we’re not technically supposed to leave until after two months in site, which would be July 15.) I passed the afternoon learning and playing bocce. Bocce in Honduras? Yep, I’m starting to work some with the group at the local center for people with disabilities (mental and physical). This team is training to go to the local Special Olympics tournament in a few months. How awesome is it that I get to work with them?!

Tuesday brings the big day when I get to meet the President and other important government officials. Wednesday, I’m taking off for an aldea about two hours away to give the aforementioned accounting charla. I’ll get to see the PAM volunteer who lives out that way again…pretty excited about that! Thursday I’m giving a charla to the group from the center for disabled people who are starting a microempresa also. This time about team work…sounds like a motivational type thing to me…also kinda nervous! That afternoon, some of the teachers from the high school are taking me to lunch and I believe from there on, I will really be looking forward to Friday and the weekend! We’ll see how it goes.

Tuesday – Mission Accomplished! I wasn’t exactly given an opportunity to meet the President; instead I had to make it happen. Since I was one of the “invited guests”, I got to sit in the nice chairs set up for the meeting. It was basically a meeting of the president and the members of his cabinet held outside the capital. I sat with the director of the local school board and she explained to me who all the different ministers were. Then came the announcement that the president would be arriving in five minutes. Five minutes turned into about 15, but he showed up with little fanfare. Oh, yah…he did arrive in a helicopter! It landed a few blocks away though in the soccer field, so it wasn’t that huge a deal for where the people were gathered. After he entered the tented area he started greeting everyone and shaking hands…yah, I shook his hand, but he was just making his way down the line, so my chance for the photo op, was yet to be had. They had their meeting, pretty basic government/politics. I found one part funny (as in ironic); the minister of environmental affairs mentioned how things need to be done because Global Warming is a factor affecting Honduras. Why is this funny? Many people burn their trash and there are no emissions standards whatsoever for vehicles. Until, they tackle these issues, they can’t really deal with the issue of Global Warming at large. Anyway, the meeting wrapped up with a tree planting, so Señor Presidente was on the move. One of his aides had taken a liking to me (I’m quite the popular gringa here, believe me. If I were interested, I could have my pick of guys. Notice I said IF…I’m not.) Anyway, I used this to my advantage and said, look homie…I need a picture with the president. He helped me get through the crowds of people, until we were up to the line of firefighters who had made a human chain to help the president get to his waiting car. One word from the aide and they broke the chain to let us through. However, there were still people talking to the president and I had to wait. One guy finished his talk with the president, so he turned towards his car to leave. I felt my chance slipping away and I wasn’t gonna waste this opportunity. I yelled out, “Señor Presidente!” and it worked! I got his attention, so I pushed my way past the people between us, threw out my hand for a shake and said, “I’m a volunteer in the Peace Corps and I would like to take a picture with you.” He chuckled, asked my name and we snapped the picture. I made sure he knew it was a pleasure to meet him and he thanked me for my service and that was that. (Yes, I spoke with him in Spanish even though his aide said to talk to him in English.) The whole thing probably lasted about 30 seconds if that. But, like I said…MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! :)

Hope everyone is doing well at home...most of you I have contact with on Facebook, but for the rest of you, leave me a comment here so I know things are going well.

Hasta la proxima vez...

This is just a HUGE thank you to those of you reading who are so kind as to send me things from the wish list I posted! Honestly, it makes me day when I pass by the Post Office and Patty (the woman who runs the small 6x6 room PO here) yells at me I have mail. I've gotten CDs and DVDs from the father of another PC volunteer in the Health project from the East Coast and another case full of CDs from an old Army buddy of my dad's, whom I don't think I've seen in years. I'm sure more will come in the future and I just thank you all very much. I do, truly, appreciate it!

And while posessions are nice and I love the goodies, the best thing yet came in the mail today. It was one of those greeting cards that plays music and you can also record your own personal message. My sister and two nephews recorded a note and hearing their little voices broke my heart! As I teared up and got a little misty eyed, Patty had no clue what was going on. I told her how much I miss my two little men and then she understood. So, thanks Vera, Cade and Reed! I love you all so much and miss you too!

Oh and one last update on the computer. It actually arrived to my mom and stepdad. However, they said it did get a little external damage, so we're mot sure if Costco will take it back. Also, still trying to save my files off it. We'll see...

Hasta la proxima vez...

Happy 4th of July to all you back in the US!!! I hope you celebrate my favorite holiday right and also take time to remember the true power and meaning of the holiday. Take it from me, as someone who has lived in two other countries, the US truly is an amazing country and we take so much for granted. I wish I was back home poolside, with the grill sizzling, sun shining, kids screaming, ice cream melting and radio blasting ''I'm proud to be an American...'' But, I have to remember that what I'm here for, is the hopes that someday the rest of the world will be able to be as stable as the US. Talk of the American Dream won't be necessary because people will have the same opportunities in their own homeland and won't have to leave family behind to work a minimum wage (or less) job in the US. Here's hoping...

Anyway, my laptop arrived home! Can you believe it? My mom said the box was pretty beat up, but the computer is ok...minus the condition I sent it in. Still hoping my info can be saved and I will have a new laptop (or the same one) back soon!

So, the main point of this is to share about my trip to the North coast. I traveled with about 55 high school ''seniors'' (the Honduran equivalent to seniors) and all of 2 teachers from the high school. I don't know that I counted as a chaperone... Tuesday, there was a parent meeting, which I went to. All of 2 days before the trip. The two teachers were there and the school principal. The teachers said they hadn't made the hotel reservations yet. When one father asked if any male chaperones were going, I wanted to slap him, but that's not the point. The principal explained that the two (female) teachers going were the two with the most expereince in thew hole school and then somehow got off on a tangent about politics in Honduras. (I already dread meetings with Hondurans. It seems there is a competition of who can get the most off topic for the longest time. It drives me insane!)

Thursday we were supposed to leave at 5AM. I think we actually left by 5:30, which isn't too bad. Before we even made it to Teguz, 90 min away, we already had our first pit stop, in which nearly every girl had to use the bathroom...with one toilet. Of the 55 students I think it's about 80% girls...so yah, that took forever! Traveling on Honduran highways is an experience in itself. The highways are derserving of a 3rd world country...in great need of repair, more potholes than decent paved lanes. That takes forever to traverse, then throw in the random department of transportation roadblocks, which are just scams, I believe, your trip takes FOREVER. So roadblocks: Supposedly these guys are department of transportation of the police, but as far as I can tell they're part of the corruption issue down here. Most big rig trucks and buses get pulled over. The guys act like they're doing something important, but they just want a bribe so they can make a little extra money along the way. They make up some lie, about the papers don't have the right info, or some garbage and they can call the police or the driver can slip them 100 lempiras. Obviously, most people will slip them the L. 100. It's ridiculous and I wanted to yell at every guy who did this 'Look retard, you're part of the problem with this country.'

I remember that when we traveled on buses during school trips, we had to keep the noise down, stay seated and respect others. Not on Honduran school trips. It seems as if the kids are encouraged to make noise. They yell, play their annoying reggeton music on their cell phones w/o headphones, walk up and down the aisle, stand on the stairs by the door of the bus, sit on the dashboard and talk to the driver. Safety...what's that?!

Oh and the driver...I think he may have been seriously mentally handicapped. We get to San Pedro Sula, the other big city besides Tegucigalpa, where there are a few interchanges and he goes, 'I've never been to Puerto Cortes.' He basically says, he doesn't know how to get there and admits he didn't bother to find out before hand. Hello dummy...that's your job! So, they bring up one of the kids who used to live in that area and together with one teacher, they read road signs to the bus driver and tell him which roads to take, since he apprently can't read (which is a possibility, but I would think a licensed driver should be able to read). You think that the way home would be easy right? Just backtrack. No, we pass right under a sign that says Tegucigalpa with an arrow to the right and the dummy goes straight. The teacher yells at him, ''Joel, pay attention!'' As he does a 3 point turn in the middle of the road. Ridiculous!

Anyway transportation differences aside, I had an amazing time. The high school kids are pretty fun to hang out with. Our hotel was right on the beach and there was a pool. (Yet agagin, the amazement factor of me being able to swim came up.) I only had to share a room with one of the teachers because the other had taken her husband and son. I enjoyed a nice double bed and AC for two nights. Livin' the high life! We visited a fort in a town called Omoa, which was built by the Spanish. Brought back all the good times of Spain. The port visit wasn't all that interesting, but it's very important for the country. On some list, it's the 3rd. I don't know if it's biggest, most traffic or what. I'm going to try and research it. We also passed by Lake Yojoa on the way up north. We stopped for lunch along a strip of nearly 2 dozen restaurants and ALL offer fried fish and tajadas (fried plantain chips). Product differentiation is seriously lacking here. Welcome to my world as a business advisor! Anyway, for 30L we took a little troll on the lake and it was nice. At the beach in Omoa there were 2 fishing boats towing what they called 'The Banana'. It was basically a banana shaped raft with two smaller tubes on the sides to stabalize it. Along the top are straps to hold on. You basically straddle the middle raft, kinda like riding a horse, hang on to the strap in front of you and hold on, until you get thrown off when the boat makes a sharp turn. It was so much fun! The kids all paid 20L a ride, but the weird Honduran dude rockin' his jerry curl, let me ride for free, since I was 'the teacher'. I told him, I will most likely be back with my gringo friends, because it was a sweet beach and I saw a backpackers hostel just up the road from the beach.

So, that was the trip. A good chance to get away and refresh. In a couple weeks, July 15, will be my two month mark in site. At that point we are allowed to use what they call Whereabouts time. With that we are allowed 2 nights and 3 days out of site, without having to use our annual vacation leave. That first weekend I plan on returning to visit my first host family (who are still my favorite, after all 3). Then a few weeks after that in the beginning of August, I will head back North again to visit some other PC friends. Got enough travel to keep myself grounded. No matter how much I love my site, I'm the type who has to be on the go! Anyway crew, take care back home!

Hasta la proxima vez...

Status update on my computer: In the mail on the way to my mom and stepdad, wrapped in my favorite Raiders sweatshirt, taped many times with a shipping label reading ''clothes and books''. I am praying it gets there in the same condition and not worse.

Work has slowed, not as many charlas with the high school kids. Going out to the rural communities more to do the caja rurales thing. Today, I haven't done anything more than be online...well I hand washed clothes this morning. That's gotta count for something!

Later this week I'm going on the field trip with the high school kids to Puerto Cortes on the North Coast (Atlantic). I'm excited to get outta town and see some more of the country, visit the beach and hopefully get to see a PC friend who is kinda near there. We'll see.

Anyway, just wanted to get a quick something for everyone out there, so you know I'm still alive down here...haha.

Hasta la proxima vez...

Hi friends!

I just wanted to update everyone on the status of my computer. It has decided to take a sabatical, without my permission. AKA - Windows has died and I´m working on the computers in my counterpart´s office these days. My blogging will be on hold until I can get things fixed. (Who knows what that timeline will be like down here...)

Other wise things are great! Work is good - still giving classes at the high school, went to an aldea to work with the women`s group and also working with the local center for people with disabilities (and getting to help with their Special Olympics team!). Next week I will travel to another aldea to help women who have organized a caja rural (micro credit union)...kinda excited! Social life is good too! World Cup is in full swing and it`s exciting watching it in a country where people actually care about football. Tomorrow at 5:30AM local time Honduras has their first game against Chile. Everyone will be an early bird tomorrow...myself included! I spent the past weekend enjoying my host sister´s quinceñera and another b-day party for my friend`s 2 year old. The beginning of July I get to go on a field trip with the students and staff from the high school to the North Coast. We will visit the port there to learn about transportation and the likes. I`m just excited to see the ocean!!! :) Oh yah, I did meet the President of Honduras last week. I`m hoping to save my computer because I had written an amazing blog about it.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can salvage my computer so I can keep you guys up to date!

Hasta la proxima vez...

(Whenever that may be...)

The title of this blog refers to the third goal of the Peace Corps; that us volunteers can educate the people in the US about the people of the country in which we serve. Today, you’ll get a little more insight to Honduran life through the eyes of a foreigner living within her borders.

Let’s start with a list. There are a few things that Hondurans ask me about/find out I can do and are amazed/awed/shocked/surprised/flabbergasted (you get the point). They are:

- Swimming – For a country that gets ridiculously hot, there aren’t many pools and therefore a lot of people never learn to swim. They just know how to wade in their local river, if they’re lucky to live close enough.

- Shuffle a deck of cards – By shuffling, I mean closer to the casino dealer style. Most Hondurans I’ve played cards with do the two hand loose shuffle, there’s no adequate way to explain this, sadly. Anywho, when I shuffle cards and then do the bridge to close the deck again, it’s like I just did an amazing card trick. Yes, I’m that talented down here!

- Driving – Also in a country where most people don’t have cars, a woman who can drive is slightly astonishing.

- Riding a bike – I don’t think this is up there on the list, but I’m asked a lot about my ability to ride a bike. Don’t we just assume in the US that everyone can ride a bike?

Now, this list has an opposite too. These are things I’m asked if I can do/like to do. They are:

- Washing clothes by hand – Yes, I hand wash my own clothes here. Am I good at it? Not so much. I’ve learned the trick is to use less soap, so it’s easier to get a clean rinse. I just hope that the sloshing I make in my 5 gallon bucket of cold water and detergent does the job almost as well as my washing machine back in the US. I’ve become quite the optimist. (Dry sarcasm, in case I didn’t convey that well enough.)

- Cooking – I’m asked this only by my women friends/counterparts. Every Honduran woman knows how to cook. When I explain that I don’t really cook either because: a)I’ve never really had to, b) I don’t really like to, or c) I’m just kinda lazy, it’s quite a shock. I explain that I serve a killer bowl of Corn Flakes (pretty much the national cereal of Honduras), fry a mean egg and make an even better sandwich, but they fail to see the humor in this. Heaven forbid I can’t make a tortilla or refried beans. I know they’re worried I’ll be a horrible wife someday.

Which leads me to some other things, which don’t pertain to skills or lack thereof, rather things that are other FAQs.

- Are you married/Do you have a boyfriend? – No/No. I often follow this response with “and I’m ok with that.” Mainly because people feel it is then their right to find someone for me to marry. And for which I have another response of, “I don’t want to get married.” Which is partly true, but 100% true in the terms of marrying a Honduran. The old school gender roles in this culture make me sick. I really wish that the women here would stand up for themselves, but I don’t see that happening.

- Do you ever wear skirts/dresses/heels? – Sometimes, but there is absolutely no need for that here. I already get enough attention and highly annoying cat calls for being a white woman here wearing gender neutral clothes (jeans, polo, tennis shoes). Am I really gonna dress up and make it a million times worse?

- You are Christian, right? – Luckily for me, this isn’t an awkward question. I am and the people love it. I even tell them I’m Adventist and most of the time they know what I’m talking about. They then proceed to invite me to their church, which here there are more than just Catholic churches. Lucky for me, because I got over the whole Catholic experience with my first two host families (no offense to my Catholic friends, but it’s just not my preferred church experience). So far, I’ve taken one friend up on her invite (declining invites is a tricky situation here), but I’ve also found the small (about a dozen people) Adventist group, so I’m a happy camper.

- You like chili? – AKA hot sauce. Every Honduran dining room table has a bottle of hot sauce on it. I’m not sure why, because I’ve rarely seen any Honduran use it. However, when I proceed to put a generous amount on my food, you wouldn’t believe the shock this causes. I explain it to them by the fact that I’m from California. Much of our cuisine is influenced by Mexican food and I tell them, “I’m pretty much Mexican.” Not true at all, but it gets the point across to them, that yes, I can handle my food spicy because they know that Mexicans like spicy food. And this reminds me of another thing about food. So many Hondurans are amazed that I eat their beans at most meals. Either refried beans or just normal beans, not yet refried. I again use the Mexican reference. I eat lots of Mexican food back home and they too, eat beans. They like that explanation.

Aside from the FAQs, most Hondurans are pretty blunt in what they ask. Today, a teacher of one of the groups I’m giving the business charlas to invited me to the school because they were having a soccer tournament. I quite enjoy hanging out at the school when I’m not teaching. It gives me a chance to get to know the kids better, so I’m not as nervous when I’m up front fudging my Spanish and praying they learn something from me. The staff at the school is great too. Anyway, the teacher (a woman) says as we’re walking along, “Emily, you’re taller than me?” Um, well…I guess I am. “Emily, you’re also more gordita than me.” Hmm, trying to not take offense to that I said, well yes, that’s obvious. And she finishes off this string of randomness by saying, “Emily, I’m also more triguena than you.” (Meaning her complexion is darker.) Now, all of that is kinda insulting to your average American woman. Minus the height thing. (Hondurans are pretty short. I’m certainly taller than most women and am eye level with many men. I’m 5’4” for those who don’t know.) Anyway, no American woman likes to be told she is pale and chubby. I’m certainly aware of these things, but sheesh. You just gotta roll with it down here though. And yes, this teacher phrases many of her questions/statements with my name at the beginning even in the middle of a conversation. It makes me slightly uncomfortable, yet I’m not sure why. I guess it’s just weird to hear my name so much.

And as if one awkward conversation wasn’t enough, there was one that got me heated and I had to keep my cool. Sitting in the office having a conversation with two male staff members we somehow got on the subject of the difference between Honduran and American relationships. One of these guys has spent time in the US, so he feels he is an expert on both cultures. Anyway, he was sitting here, telling me, an American woman, that Honduran women love their husbands more because they take care of the home and children. American women can’t love their husbands that much if they go out on their own each day and leave the household. He was trying to be somewhat tactful about it, but I knew what he was getting at. He had started with the bit about American women and then as he was explaining why Honduran women were better he was kinda beating around the bush, so I jump in and say, “You think Honduran women are better because they don’t do anything all day but cook, clean and care for the kids?” He and the other guy both had to agree that’s what they meant. My response? “And that is exactly why I won’t have a boyfriend here for the next two years.” The sick part is, they don’t even realize how insulting that was. Now, it’s not to be said that there aren’t Honduran women in the workforce. However, if they are they just work on top of still having to do all the work in the home. My friend invited me to her house for dinner last night. After she cooked dinner for us, she had to fold the clothes she had hand washed that morning before leaving for work, chase around her 2 year old son and then when “the father of her son” (that’s how she introduced him to me) got home she had to go cook him dinner as he sat on the couch and watched TV. This was all after she worked 8-5. Like I said earlier, I really wish these women would put their foot down and demand some equality.

Yet, Honduran women are really generous, even if they have very little. It’s part of the culture, that whoever throws out the idea of getting ice cream, coffee, whatever has to pay. (This is a really hard thing for me to adapt to, because on my income here I can’t invite to do much and anyone who knows me, knows I love to get out and do things.) Anyway, there’s one girl in the mayor’s office that I walk home with because we live in the same barrio and she’ll buy sodas, ice creams, paletas, churros, whatever on the way home. Then yesterday, I mentioned I was craving something sweet, so another girl in the office says, “Let’s go to the corner store.” As, I’m digging through my backpack for money, she’s like, “No, I invited you.” It’s pretty awesome, but I miss the days of going dutch and not feeling like I owe something to someone.

I hope you feel enlightened now! It really is a different culture down here and I’m trying to deal with it the best I can. They say we’re supposed to adapt, but quite honestly, I only want to adapt so much. It’s certainly possible to live here and still be respectful while holding on to my beliefs/views. Anywho…

Hasta la proxima vez…

For those asking, I´ve finally put some thought into it and know what I would like should anyone feel like sending me a care package!

1) Magazines - Cosmo, People, Newsweek, ESPN, Rolling Stone, Women´s Fitness, or other ones along those same lines.

2) Food bars - as in ODWALLLA; CLIFF; AND OTHER BRANDS THAT I can´t think of right now.

3) Cinnamon gum - my fave brand is Dyntene Fire, but any would do!

4) Burned CDs and DVDs - I love music and the selection here is lacking, burn me CDs of what´s currently on the radio of any genre or even classic stuff. And DVDs, well they may be illegal, but I´m already sick of the horrible dubbed movies in Spanish. It´s like they purposely pick the people with the most annoying voices ever.

5) Easy microwavalbe food - instant oatmeal, cream of wheat, easy mac, whatever you just need to add water to, I´m ready to cook and eat it!

That´s all I can think of for now. Thanks guys!

Perhaps the drug reference isn’t the best comparison for my Peace Corps service, but I’m on such a high I don’t know how else to describe it! Before coming down, I only looked forward to volunteering every afternoon. It was what gave purpose to my life pre-PC. Now, I’m living that high on a daily basis, 24/7.

Picture this if you will: Yours truly in front of a class of 27 students giving a presentation on marketing, SWOT analysis and market research in Spanish. Yep, today was my first real act as a PC volunteer. Up until now, I’ve been getting acquainted with my new town and building relationships with my counterparts (which has been ridiculously easy, because they’re all amazing people). Now, it wasn’t exactly as PC as you would expect. I made a Power Point presentation and made handouts for the kids and everything. This isn’t JFK’s Peace Corps anymore! Admittedly, I had an assistant who is a compañera from the alcaldía. Doris is just two classes away from finishing her Bachelor’s in Business as well and she wanted to help me (I think mainly to get out of her normal work…). I somewhat reluctantly agreed because I wanted to do it on my own and really make my mark, but at the same time I wanted to collaborate with a Honduran and see how they work. It was a learning experience for sure. I would say she spoke more during the presentation than me. Maybe it’s my nature or the American culture, but Hondurans like to talk a lot and give a TON of examples. I felt bad for the poor kids at times. Although, maybe I bore them with my bad Spanish, few examples and mainly reading the slides (which I know is a horrible way to present, but I’m making do in my second language). Anyway, this isn’t just a onetime thing. Over the next few months I will be giving a series of charlas to the kids about other business basics and eventually they will break into small groups and create their own small businesses. After teaching them I will be able to act as a business advisor and help them (hopefully) sustain their business. Oh, and I forgot to mention that my local high school does not have traditional hours. Most Honduran schools have two sessions, morning or afternoon and kids go to one of the other. Well, as my luck goes, the high school where I’m working has no morning classes. Instead the classes are afternoon and evening. This means that today I gave one charla in the afternoon, had a few hours to kill, then went back and gave the same charla to the evening class kids. Therefore, I imparted knowledge on to 52 Honduran youth today. It is such an amazing feeling to stand there and have the kids repeat the information that you taught them. I sincerely hope they are all successful in this small assignment but can later turn it into something positive for the good of their country.

Besides that, I feel things are going really well and the people I’m working with are glad I’m here. The teacher from the high school and my compañera were really boosting my ego the whole ride home (it’s a five minute drive…ha). There was another PC volunteer here about a year ago for medical reasons, this wasn’t actually her site, and apparently her Spanish wasn’t the best, she was pretty shy and not very social. According to my two Honduran counterparts I’m about the complete opposite of her and they predict our next two years will be good. Believe me, it’s a HUGE encouragement to hear these things.

Well, better wrap this up. I just KNOW I will be super busy next week. I’ve told everyone that I will start helping them with their projects in June and I’m sure come Tuesday, June 1 my phone will be blowing up like crazy. Time to work with the women’s groups and the caja rural (micro credit union), along with planning my next charla for the kids. Oh, which reminds me! They invited me to go on a field trip with the kids to the North coast at the beginning of July to do some sort of business study on the port up there. I’m stoked! Anywho, you know the drill…thanks for reading and…

Hasta la proxima vez…

Here I sit swatting and flicking who knows what kind of bugs as they insist on trying to join me in my bed. My can of OFF! lays cast aside as I wave the white flag in defeat. (Where are the geckos that normally hang out in my room when I need them?!) At this point it’s better to save it for my sacred skin then keep sweeping the room with it. It is a precious commodity after all. Eventually, I will run out of everything I have come to site with and have to buy my own, unless I can get the PCMOs to hook it up. Seeing as how I’m so close to Teguz, it certainly seems possible. I can live with that.

It’s only Wednesday of my first week in site and I feel so blessed. My work situation could hardly be better. My primary counterpart, vice-mayor Victor, is completely helpful, polite, respectful and goes out of his way to make my life easier. He has done great work to introduce me to everyone in the office, who are all amazing as well. It’s obvious all the people love their city and want to do their best to see it succeed. This actually makes my job easier. Lack of support is one of the biggest challenges PCVs face. I don’t get a creepy, chauvinistic vibe from any of the men in the office, which is also amazing. This little Honduran town (city really with a population near 20,000) is very progressive for a third world country, moreover Honduras. It almost seems unfair that this is considered PC service thinking about what some other volunteers have to deal with.

Monday I decided to not take the Cuerpo de Paseo route and show up to the office at 8AM. First day, gotta make a good impression. In typical Honduran style, I beat everyone there except one of the house keeping employees. Within the first few hours of the day I had been interviewed three times by local radio and TV stations (twice on camera, once on tape recorder). Referring again to how progressive this city is, Monday was the town hall meeting to review what the city had down in the first trimester of the year (lots of corruption here in Honduras, so this town has a civilian run transparency committee). I was invited and introduced to the community members who had opted to come. This first day I was presented with the idea of helping form a Farmer’s Market, helping people add value to their products to better market them and assist women’s micro businesses with the basics (accounting, marketing, production). The afternoon I got to see even more beautiful country side as I went out to an aldea to meet a PAM (Protected Areas Management) volunteer. She was very excited I’m living in her vicinity and it will be awesome to hang out and work together in the future. (This is the girl with whom I can develop eco-tourism in the local reserve.)

While Tuesday was a mere 24 hours ago, I can absolutely not recall the majority of the day. Victor took me to a school in the community where they have a lunch program for ultra low income kids (I use ‘ultra’ because most are generally low income). In the same compound is the city library and a mini escuela taller (a trade school). People at both the library and trade school feel I could help them with certain projects. I spent the afternoon reviewing the city’s strategic development plan which is over 100 pages long. Seriously, progressive.

Today, I was at the office all day. For the first hour and a half I just sat around in the waiting room with the Mayor’s secretary and chatted with her and people waiting to see the Mayor. It’s a great way to get to know people. After getting bored I headed to the “post office” next door, which is a small room of maybe 5 ft x 5 ft. Patty is the only one who works there and it’s a pretty common hang out spot. I got my daily dose of chisme (gossip) from Patty and another woman before heading to yet another community meeting. This time around the meeting consisted of a couple hundred people from all the surrounding aldeas (small outlying communities that the Mayor also presides over, there are 50). They were the chosen leaders from their communities and were being sworn in. Again, I was introduced in front of all these people. I’m getting amazing exposure in this town! Funny, I’m coming here as a business volunteer, but I’m working so much with the municipality and political leaders that I may see my future take a different path. Anywho, post meeting I met with a women’s group who came from 45 minutes away to meet with me, no one else, me. (It’s insane thinking I’m in such a position of high esteem considering my past work experiences.) They make these super cool baskets, burn guards (to place under hot dishes) and other things out of pine needles. These things are very well made, smell amazing (hello, pine needles!) and actually look cool. Now, I know snobby people, like my beloved sister (love you! :]) would not like these things, but there is certainly a market for them. That’s part of what they need help with. They need helping finding where to sell their product, getting their materials (besides the pine needles) and setting up basic accounting books. I couldn’t be more excited to start working with them, but I requested that they give me a little more time to settle in, adjust and make a game plan to tackle what they want. Today, I was also approached by a local teacher who wants to work with young girls in the aldeas to educate them more on reproductive health and sex ed. Unfortunately, she said there is quite a high rate of the young girls getting pregnant and then, they don’t have proper pre-natal care. I told her all PC has taught me is a simple HIV/AIDS charla. I did tell her that I have friends in the health project who are better prepared for this and in July when we’re free to mobilize we could bring some of them here to work on this and learn from them. It’s a double win for us PCVs because we get to see each other and hang out, while it doesn’t take vacation time because it’s for legit purposes! While Victor left me his office and computer again this afternoon to do research on basic accounting (I seriously gotta brush up, if I’m gonna teach these women!) another gentleman from the community stopped in to speak with me. Yes, he too had come just to find me in the city offices. (Weird, I’m telling you!) He spoke very fast, very passionately and very intently. I didn’t get all of what he was saying, but he was able to convey to me how much he loves this town, how much he wants to see it succeed and how dedicated he is to that purpose and also helping youth to reach those goals. He said he had seen/heard me in one of my aforementioned interviews and liked what I had to say. (I’m guessing the one where I said something along the lines of this is my home now and I want to do all I can to improve the quality of life here.)

I’ve got more to say. I had a great experience on Sunday evening and have some updates about my new host family. Those will have to wait I guess. This is almost spilling over onto the third page of my Word document after all! Thanks, again, for reading. :)

Hasta la proxima vez…

Hey friends and family at home!

I just wanted to tell you guys I updated my address, which is now my permanent address. It´s over on the right side of the page under the JFK qoute and some other stuff. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take the time to write me a short note, post card, long letter or even put together a care package. I will love you forever! :)

More posts coming soon about my first few days here in my new home, Guaimaca...stay tuned!!!

Hasta la proxima vez...

The last two days have been very long and extremely tiring. If I don’t wake up sick tomorrow it will be a huge victory for my immune system (added to the fact that I brushed my teeth with ::GASP:: tap water!). Friday was the culmination of nearly three months of training. Starting at 7:30 we met our counterparts (the people we will mostly work with for the next two years) and were in meetings with them all morning. After lunch we loaded up some buses and headed to the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa. The day before we had been told to bring nothing that day except our cameras. Now, to me nothing means nothing. However, it should have meant “Yes you dumb gringo, you do need your residency card to gain access to the US embassy even though I’m telling you not to bring anything.” Well, luckily I wasn’t the only dumb gringo who didn’t get the memo. There were six of us without our residency cards who weren’t originally admitted. Luckily the PC office is close to the part of town where all the embassies are and someone from the office was able to bring copies of our passports. Luckily for the six of us they graciously accepted the copy of our passports as sufficient ID and we were permitted to enter after all the anxious waiting. The ceremony was pretty short and sweet. We heard two gringos speak some pretty bad Spanish and heard a pretty good speech in Spanish from a colleague of mine who started off at a novice level of Spanish. We raised our right hands, swore to defend the Constitution, do some other good stuff and so help me God was at the end. Riding back on the bus was bittersweet. We were returning as Peace Corps Volunteers, but with numbered hours. Along the way people got off at their respective stops and each time was a long line of hugs and good-byes, as we probably won’t see each other again until August. Each time the bus pulled away from a stop there was a good number of us hanging out of the windows waving and yelling last minute love and will miss yous. Now, I know what it feels like to go to summer camp for three months instead of a mere week. I had been very preoccupied worrying about the having to catch the bus at 4:20AM Saturday morning. The mayor from my new town who had been sent to pick me up (and is not my actual counterpart) was under the impression that we had to catch the bus that early, even though where we live is about an hour away and he had his own car. Now, my Spanish is pretty good at this point (I’m officially an Advanced Low – two levels from bilingual on the Peace Corps scale) and I had tried to explain to him, this ridiculously early bus is only for people who are going far away and DON’T have their own cars here. The bus didn’t get back into my community until nearly 6PM and I did not want to have to pack and go straight to bed. Turns out, yours truly lucked out and Sr. Mayor came to his senses and realized we could leave later and called to tell me as much. That made my day, let me tell you! I happily ate dinner, had a photo shoot with my host family (whom I LOVE to death), left my packing for the morning and headed over to my amiga Lauren’s house (my host cousin, through our host moms being sisters) and hung out with her as she packed. Let’s just say she is a better packer than I. Either that or the Health volunteers don’t get as many hand outs as us Business volunteers. I came with a large rolling duffle, a backpacker’s pack and a large tote carry on. I’ve now arrived to site with the three aforementioned items, a normal size backpack, a messenger bag, a Peace Corps issued medical kit, and another bag full of books. Don’t even ask how I’ve acquired so much stuff in the past 11 weeks. Due to my previously mentioned luck, I set my alarm for 6:30AM (two hours after the bus was supposed to leave, so that was a sweet victory) and proceeded to wake up at 5:15AM because that’s what time I’d gotten up every other day that week. I’m amazed at how fast my body adapts. I packed and waited for the mayor to call me when we said he would, and after a morning of calling back and forth and saying, “Oh, I’ll be a little later,” I finally left my town around 11. I had a tearful goodbye with my host mom and little sisters. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is about them, but after living with them for a little over a month, they mean so much to me. More than my host family with which I lived for seven weeks. I think it’s mostly that the girls are 11 and 17 versus 3 and 8, which makes those relationships a lot more meaningful. Anyway, with promises of calling, visiting and attending graduation in December I went on my way. The drive to my new home was through some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen: mountains, pines, blue skies and huge fluffy clouds. It was on this drive that I finally felt that this experience is real. For the first time I was on my own in Honduras. No more fellow gringo or Peace Corps staff safety net. I’ve had some challenging experiences the last few weeks and it just made it all so much sweeter to be in the moment and let it sink in. This is real and I’m really doing it! After getting into my new town, we went to the city offices, where my counterparts both work and met the vice-mayor. He and the mayor treated me to lunch at the restaurant right near our office. It was a little awkward at times. Having to remember your best manners while lunching with the mayor and vice mayor with whom you’re going to work with for two years, trying to make small talk in your second language and being a women in a chauvinistic society puts a little pressure on a girl. It turned out cheque though. After lunch I came to yet my third host family. Turns out, my host mom was in the middle of her b-day party, so I got to join in on the festivities as soon as I unloaded my mountain of luggage. One of my host mom’s friends works at the local high school and is also involved in an absurd amount of volunteer work involving people with disabilities, both mental and physical. She mentioned an income generation project for one group and it sounds amazing and told her I would love to help and support in any way I can. I’ll definitely be seeing more of her in the future. I spent the evening at my host mom’s ice cream shop, where I need to stay away from because I could get free ice cream daily if I wanted! While there a “friend” of my host mom’s stopped by. I’m not sure of my host mom’s age, but this girl was only 22. Her and I chatted a bit and she seems really cool. Probably someone I’ll get to know better over the next two years. And now, I’m here in bed writing this as a Word document, because yet again the Internet sucks. My little studio isn’t quite what I expected. The toilet leaks, my room is the storage room for doors and windows that will be installed in the new home my host mom is having built and there is a lack of dresser/closet. But, look at what I’m complaining about…I have an indoor toilet that flushes and my own studio, so I’ll get used to it. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. These first few weeks/months in site are the hardest for us as new volunteers dealing with a whole slew of new experiences and stresses. I have a great support system from the friends I made during training, but it’s still not the same as before when we were all together. I know it will all turn out ok in the end; anything worthwhile is not without a challenge. Thanks again for reading! Hasta la proxima vez…

Finally, after months of waiting and wondering what I would be doing and where, I finally have an answer, more importantly for myself, but also important to all you back home! :)

My new home for the next two years will be Guiamaca, Francisco Morazán. F.M. is the department (or state). I'm just going to excerpt the rest from the information booklet that they gave me.

"Guaimaca is a large town within a big municipality in the department of F.M. with a total municipal population of approximately 20,800 people, with an estimated 12,400 living in the (main city) and the rest of the population in the outlying (communities). Since this community is located on the border between F.M. and Olancho, there are some communities in Olancho that are closer than Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa is approximately an hour and a half bus ride, Campamento is a 20 minute bus ride away and Juticalpa is about an hour away.

Guaimaca is located in the easternmost part of F.M. The main highway from Tegucigalpa that goes into Olancho passes right through the town. There is a Mennonite community living within the limits of the (main city), they have a restaurant and small grocery shop. There is also a Baptist church and hospital in Guaimaca; so you have a sense that despite being a medium sized town, they're used to having Americans living amongst them and to religious diversity.

The (main city) area is rather flat and hillier as you go into the (surrounding communities). There are two natural reserves within the municipality; Misoco in the North and El Chile in the southern part of the municipality. The average temperature in Guaimaca is rather warm, 85-100 degrees F. During the rainy season, it rains with frequency, cooling the temperature a little.

The population in the (surrounding communities) works in agriculture, mostly corm, beans and coffee. To a less degree, cattle farming is also part of the local economy. The (city) of Guaimaca has timber as another source of income; there's a major lumberyard that operates in town and that generates many jobs for locals. Inside the city there are many private businesses such as clothing stores, grocers, Internet cafes, etc; public services such as lawyers, dentists, private clinics, pharmacies, and of course there are many carpenters."

The following is more about my work description.

"Your primary community partners are the (local women's office), which operates within the authority of the (other city offices).

This office is currently collaborating with (larger national women's initiatives) to support several groups of women who operate and own micro businesses. They will look to you for support there groups by training them in business related topics, such as marketing, basic accounting, packaging and commercialization. There are several (small micro credit unions) currently operating in Guaimaca, they will look for you to support them by helping them in being able to identify and generate income generation projects in their respective communities. This office also works with people in the (surrounding communities) in assisting them to develop their ecotourism potential and artisan groups.

The (local city government) has developed and is in the process of implementing their (city wide economical development plan). Their (plan) is the result of the analysis that the (city government) and other community stakeholders make of community's political, cultural, industrial, socioeconomic, demographic, geographical and environmental resources. Their (plan) has been recognized on a national and a regional lever as being very strong; in fact other municipal governments have visited Guaimaca to familiarize themselves with the document and the process that led to its creation.

Your other main community partner will be the (local high school). This high school offers several different options to obtain a high school diploma. The (school's) leadership, both the director and the sub director , share a vision in which they want to promote entrepreneurism among their students, to do this they want to develop and incorporate into their curricula methodologies and tools to train the students on business plan creation and other important managerial/business topics like marketing, accounting and commercialization.

You'll find that the (high school) will also call upon you to strengthen the IT curricula that their students receive in their computer classes. Some important topics that they want to cover are web research and how to use simple applications to improve the way that a small business is ran."

So there you have it!! You all know about as much as I do about my future home and work. This Friday we head into the capital to be sworn in at the US Embassy as official volunteers. We take off early Saturday mornings to our new sites and jump in.

For now, I'm just enjoying time with the friends from the other two projects of Water/Sanitation and Health who I missed the past seven weeks. This week is already flying by and it's hard to stay focused...believe me! I will post again soon with info about my new site and host family. Thanks for reading!

Hasta la proxima vez...

Hey guys, I´m trying to get a better feel to my blog with more stories and less reporting, thanks to some other blogs I read and have been inspired by. I guess that´s my writing style though, one of my old teachers called my style "folksy." Whatev...

Yesterday 11 of us took a trip out to the Painted Caves, as they´re called in my friend´s Lonely Planet. It´s probably about a half hour drive if you have a car. We don´t. First you wait for one of those old school buses in the town center to roll by. Then you wait as it passes through town and people will make it stop every 100 feet to get on instead of there being a bus stop. (Even our Honduran teachers have said Hondurans are lazy when it comes to that, but I´m just saying make your own conclusions!) So we hop on the school bus which has been pimped out with some air brushed paint all over the inside roof featuring an American flag and a Confederate flag, with the loudest sound system ever blasting 90´s rap and hip hop. In our short ride we heard Bone Thugs N Harmony, old skool Dre and Snoop and even some that I didn´t recognize. Now, mind you 11 gringos hopping on the bus causes quite a few looks. Imagine what happens when at least 3 of those gringos start singing along with all this music quite loudly. Yes...it really was hilarious and yes, Hondurans have NO SHAME in staring, so we were watched pretty much the whole ride.

Once we got to La Cruce, which is the Central American highway 5 towards Teguz or the South we hopped off the bus and started walking towards the caves. According to one friend who had been shown the way they were only about a mile down the road. Well, we started walking and 20 minutes later, we still hadn´t gotten to the point to enter the caves. She said it seems a lot closer when you´re in the car with our director who drives about 100mph. Anyway, at that momemt a nice Honduran gentleman stopped and offered us a jalon, which is a free ride. Four of the guys jumped in front of the twin cab pick-up and the other seven of us piled into the bed. Yes, it´s not the safest thing, but it´s probably the most common way to travel around down here and when you make about $3 a day, you do what you gotta do to save money.

Once at the site of the caves there was some confusion on which trail to follow. Our director had said always stay right, yet the group of Hondurans we passed had said to go left. After wandering about (no, we weren´t lost!) for maybe half hour we all decided to stop and have lunch. I feasted on the amazingness that my dad had sent me in my last care package. Salmon from a pouch on Tabasco Cheez-Its. Yes, it was amazaing and one of the best things I´ve eaten since being down here! After refueling we made a game plan to split up (insert scary movie reference here) and try to find something. Luckily, one guy encountered a Honduran who showed him the caves and then he was able to show us.

The caves were greatly underwhelming. They were more like big holes in the side of the mountain. Despite the disappointment, it was still really fun to get out and do something. We did find one cave that went back maybe a couple hundred feet only to dead in and it was quite small so we had to do the duck walk all the way down...and yes Mom, you would have freaked out! :) It was dark and those of us who brought our headlamps-flashlights got gold stars!

Post caving we got a few more jalons and didn´t take a single bus. We got dropped off closer to Santa Ana, which is the town just before Ojojona and did have to walk that little strectch, but it was well worth it when we were followed by the conos van. That´s the Honduran version of the ice cream man. Here it´s this really sketchy van, where one guy sits in the back and scoops cones from a big ice chest while his friend (aka co-worker) drives. It´s only 6Lps for a double scoop, neopalitin cone of goodness which is about $0.50. It´s definitely one of the most amazing things Honduras has to offer.

We proceeded into town to stop at Don Ricardo´s house, who is probably the richest guy in Ojojona and he lets us chill at his house most weekends. More on him and his house later...

After a stint at the Don´s we went to the circus that´s in town for 25Lps ($2.25). It was ok. The clowns were more of a comedy act and they talked really fast. I think I got maybe 30% of it. The "ballerinas" were basically girls dancing like girls would dance slutty at a club in nothing more than a bra and boy shorts. It seemed quite inappropiate for the number of young kids there. The oddest thing would be the circus mascot of a buzzard which flys-hops around uncoltrolled during the show. He spent most of one clown act attacking them, which in itself was more annoying than funny. I do have to give props to go woman who did some Cirque du Solei type stuff on a metal ladder to Hotel California by The Eagles. It was the most interesting.

So, there you go guys. I hope this is a little better chance to see what I do in some down time instead of the previous boring recap of what school type stuff I did in three weeks time! Next Wednesday, May 5, we find out what our sites will be, so everyone keep your fingers crossed for something good and pray it´s somewhere I´ll be able to do good work in two year´s time! Thanks for reading!

Hasta la proxima vez...

Wow, what happened in the past 23 days?! I know things have been super busy down here being in class from 7:30AM - 5:00PM every day, taking overnight trips to learn about tourism in Honduras and in two days: hearing a four hour HIV/AIDS charla, having four hours to prepare to give charla and then the next day having another four hours to give the charla to another group. In the meantime, the first free month of time on my modem expired and on these pay as you go systems, it's not the easiest thing to get money on. Besides that the version of Microsoft Office I had expired, which took my Word with it. (I usually type my blogs out first and then copy and paste them to the Internet.) So, as you can see there are bastante reasons that I haven't had time/been able to/felt like posting any blogs. I'm going to try my best to tell you what you need to know and sum up the past 23 days at the same time. ¡Suerte!

To start the month off we had some time off from classes for Holy Week/Easter. Like most Latin countries it's a mostly Catholic country and there are processions and old school practices galore. The thing here is making alfombras, basically rugs made from sawdust of different colors. I didn't learn the history behind it, but it's quite involved and intricate work. Myself and some others helped make a few on Good Friday. Here's some pictures:

After Holy Week and some time off it was back to work. That week was Business Plan week. We shadowed a business Monday, did a little learning Tuesday, went back to check in with the business on Wednesday and then we had until Friday to turn in an 8+ page business plan with about a 15 min. presentation included. These were individual projects. My business was a restaurant but turned out to be the restaurant/pulperia because I had a hard time tracking down the restaurant owner. Kinda typical I think. We're seeing that most people don't take business ownership very seriously down here. Our work is definitely cut out for us.

Post Business Plan week we got to take a more in depth look at tourism in Honduras. It was definitely the best week thus far! Naturally, with my background I'm interested in tourism and it's got huge potential to do major things for this Honduran economy. To get the full experience of the tourism market we took an overnight trip and got to camp on the beach on the southwestern side of the country. It was quite warm...ok straight up HOT, but besides that it was a great trip! Here's some pix:

(I take that back.) This is slower than dial-up and I just waited about half hour to have not a single picture upload. Moving on...

After the tourism week we are up to date with this week. This week we had some classes on micro-finances here in Honduras and also got the HIV/AIDS charla like I mentioned at the beginning. We got the charla Wednesday from some current PC volunteers. Wednesday afternoon we were broken into groups and had time to prepare to give the charla ourselves. Thursday we gave the charla to a group of kids who may or may not have been interested. It was an interesting experience to say the least. HIV/AIDS is something I personally don't worry about and part of the reason I told my PC recruiter that I didn't want to go to Africa. It's a huge problem I realize, but it's not my problem, nor area of expertise. Luckily, as Business Advisers we don't have to give this charla later on down the road unless we want to, so I may not be dealing with this material again.

So, here and now I'm sure everyone would like some more "meat" to this, but I'm about ready to pass out I'm so tired. It's nearly 2AM and the last time I was up this late may have been New Year's... Thanks for reading and I'll try to do better from here on out, now that I know the drill of getting some money put on my modem.

Hasta la proxima vez...

So, I'm still getting used to this whole Blogger formatting and it's nearly impossible for me to go back and insert text between each pic, so you're just gonna have to scroll and read as you look at each pic. Sorry! 1) This was from the first culture day we had at the main training site. Our teachers set up 8 stations representing the 7 indigenous populations of Honduras and included the Mayans. It was really interesting, they had obviously put a lot of work into it and we got great food and drinks at each one! 2) L-R: Claire, myself, Lauren. This was one day we walked into a park from our old community. Us 3 girls were pretty tight in that community. We were all also "related" through our host families (cousins). We rode these horses for 20L, which is about $1. Sadly, the 3 of us each represent a different project, so now we're all apart. :( No more primas!

3) L-R: Claire, Lauren, my 1st host mom Merlin, myself

4) Myself and my new little host sister, AnaEli, 8 when we were out at the beach last Saturday

5) Some of my fellow business project members as we were playing an exciting game of Tic-Tac-Toe to reinforce some of the information we'd just been taught. (I'm not in the picture.)

6) Those little red pods are coffee. Our teachers host mom has the plants in her backyard and one day we made coffee that had been picked about 2 days earlier. She had already removed all the shells and roasted it, but we got some amazing fresh stuff and got to see the whole process from plant to cup. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen!

7) One Honduran woman got really into the game of Dodgeball. It was GREAT!

8) Some of my fellow BZ people and a few Hondurans teaching/learning the Electric Slide.

OK guys, now that's really it for tonight! Gotta get to sleep before my hike tomorrow. Just wanted to get you guys a good fix, since this may be it for awhile!

Hasta la proxima vez...

OK part 2:

I broke it up just to give you a little reading break. I realize that last one was a doozy, but you're still not entirely up to date and I know everyone wants to know my every move, so I will oblige.

First, I believe today has been 1 month since I bought my modem and therefore my 1 month of free unlimited usage is also up. Expect, connectivity on my end to be even less.

We are now in Semana Santa (Holy Week) here in mostly Catholic Honduras. Most of the country has been shut down this whole week, but we just got today, Thursday and Friday off. Today instead of morning Spanish classes we presented an American Culture day to our host families. There was a teaching of the Electric Slide (to Lady Gaga), the teaching of dodgeball, cheesy American pick-up lines translated into Spanish, songs sung and more. Guess what I did? Yah, I sang in front of all those people. A) I'm not a performer. B) I don't sing in public. C) I don't sing well. D) I sucked it up and sang with the two guys in my group who both played the guitar and sang as well, which sufficiently drowned me out...I have video proof! :) We sang this song called Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show. Look it up, pretty sweet song! I will try to share this video with everyone once I get a decent connection speed and can upload a 3 min. video. After all the presentations we had some great food. The afternoon consisted of a US vs. Honduras soccer match. However, the Honduran team was a legit team from a league with uniforms and the works. The US team was hodge podge, with a few Hondurans thrown in for numbers. I didn't play. I still hate soccer. I'm glad to report that the final score was only 4-2, obviously the Honduran team won. Huge shout out to Carrie though. There were 3 girls who played, it's a pretty big deal for women to play soccer with men, and Carrie was the only American man or woman to score a goal. Way to get it for the girls Carrie! (The other US goal was scored by a Honduran playing on the team.)

And by Spring Break I mean we have the rest of the week off so we get some free time to do what we went/soak up the culture here during Semana Santa. Tomorrow I'm joining some of my counterparts to take a hike to a lake and we can swim, play some US football. Should be fun! We will be led by one guy's host family who knows the way, not like we're just settin' out on some trail because we heard there was a lake. There's some more cultural stuff over the weekend for Holy Week, which should be cool. I've seen how Spain does it, so now to see how it is here. I'm actually pretty excited!

Anyway, I appreciate you all reading. I realize some of this is a little boring, but I think these are the kind of things you want to hear about. If you want to know anything else or have suggestions please comment. I'm doing this writing for you...believe me this IS NOT how I journal! Don't fret though, I have started two lists which I will eventually publish when they grow a little more. They are: "Things only heard in Honduras" and "You know you're acclimating to life in Honduras when..." Trust me, they'll be good!

Stay tuned for one more post where I'm gonna share some pix with you guys!

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been a little longer than normal with this post. Life down here has been a little busier than "normal" (although, there's no normal down here yet...that much I've learned!)

So, let me get you up to speed a little bit about where I'm at now, since some people still seem to have it twisted. We are now in Field Based Training (FBT) in Ojojona, pretty near the capital again, just a different direction this time. I'm here with the other 17 Business (BZ) aspirantes (trainees) and we are now into the intense meat of the whole pre-service training (PST). (There is SO much jargon here in the PC [Peace Corps], more than the medical field...yes, I'm sure of that.) The other trainees from Health and Water/Sanitation are in two different towns as well, getting more specific training on their projects. This town is an old colonial town and very cute. It's got quite a bit of history and one historical site is the home where Francisco Morazan once lived, the man for which this department (Honduras has 18 departments, as the US has 50 states) is named for. In the AM training sessions we have 4 hours of Spanish classes from 7:30 to 11:30. These classes are held in the homes of the host families that our teachers are living with. (Yes, our teachers have host families too.) We get an hour and a half for lunch. (It's not that glamorous. It's a 20 min walk from where I live to where I have Spanish classes. It's a decent walk though and some good exercise.) Our afternoon session, from 1-5 is more project specific and we have learned about many things already. Some of these things include the Honduras Junior Achievement, Educatodos, PACA tools, business incubation and the use of technology in projects. (If anyone really wants to know more about those things ask, otherwise I won't bore you.)

I'm living with a new host family. A single mom, 21 year old host brother and his 26 year old wife and 2 little girls ages 8 and 3. They're great and I can't complain about anything. Besides the fact that my house is on nearly the highest point in this town and walking up at least 2 times a day is killer, but it has got to be some amazing exercise, so it's a good thing really.

Anyway, enough of the boring overview. On to find out why this blog is brought to you by the number 1. Oh, so many reasons!

1) This is my first post from Ojojona!

1) We celebrated our 1 month anniversary here in Honduras last Wednesday the 24. OK, we didn't actually celebrate per se, but it was the 1 month mark nonetheless.

1) I collaborated with others to give my first charla (basically a short presentation/lecture). My group went to the local colegio (high school) and gave a presentation on Community Mapping (part of that PACA tool thing I mentioned). As a group we did well. No matter that there was 5 of us and about 16 high school kids, it was still a little intimidating. I haven't done any presentations since being in college and peers are easier than kids. I was my typical self and quite reserved as usual in a group setting. I need to get more outgoing later on, but it will be easier when I don't have other group members as a crutch.

1) My Spanish class and I went to my first wake (both ever and in Honduras). We started the morning with the teacher asking us if we knew what certain vocab words meant. We come to find out they mean wake and other related terms and then he pretty much says, "OK, we're going to a wake now for this baby that wasn't carried to full-term. You guys can talk to the people and ask questions and there will be coffee and refreshments." Remember, classes start at 7:30, so it was about 7:45 and we just learned we were going to a surprise wake. Interesting way to start the day. This was definitely a choque cultural (culture shock) moment. Here's a group of 6 gringos going to a strangers house for a wake of a 4 month old fetus essentially, and we're told to ask questions of the mourners. There was the world's tiniest coffin and many people coming and going. Apparently, in Honduran culture most the small towns all know each other so it's completely normal to stop by someone's home when they're having the wake to pay your respects, even if you'd never met the person before. And yah, the wakes are held in home, there's no funeral parlors here. It is also the responsibility of the mourning family to provide refreshments for all these people stopping by the home and also be completely hospitable. Definitely different from the US, where we reserve mourning for close family and friends and it is completely acceptable to be a hermit for awhile, while other people bring you over food, casseroles and other dishes. While we were sitting there sipping our Sprite and odd little sandwiches (of who knows what) one aunt comes up to me...of 6 gringos...shoves a camera in my face with pictures of the fetus/baby on it saying how it looks just like it's sleeping. Gee, thanks lady! It had been closed casket, but I was surprised to see people come in, open it up and take a peek. I had been avoiding trying to see it and good 'ol tia just brought it right on home. Needless to say one guy in our class explained to our teacher later that it had been a very awkward situation for us and it pretty much goes against most US norms for death. He hadn't known. It's amazing what ridiculous things some of the PC staff still believe about Americans after having worked with the PC for so many years. (As in, there's no poor/homeless people in the US whatsoever, everyone age 22+ in the US is a college grad and more which I can't think of right now.)

1) First beach trip!!! Last Saturday I went with my host family on a bus trip to the Pacific Ocean side and spent a day at the beach. It was good overall, but I've gotta say I loathe the bus travel here in this country. Buses are old school buses from the US that don't meet emissions standards, safety standards or who knows what other standards. The Honduran rule of thumb is, "The more passengers, the more money." If there isn't 3 people crammed into a seat made for 2, the bus is not full. This does not bode well with my large American bubble of personal space, nor the fact that I don't like skin to skin contact with someone I don't know that well when it's about a million degrees and you're playing sardines in the bus. Furthermore, as we were about half an hour away from getting back the bus driver decides to pull over for a pit stop in which everyone piles off the bus to buy junk food and soda after we've already been going for 3 hours without stopping. I guess it's just my OCD, but if you've gone that far without stopping just man up and make it the rest of the way! Geez. So enough venting about bus travel. The beach was a good chance to see some nature, I love the beach...always have. The current and undertow were STRONG, so it was mostly just trying to stand your ground and not get sucked away with every wave vs. being able to swim, but it felt good to be in the sea again. Reminded me of Spain! :) And gold star for this uber fair, blonde gringa. I didn't get sunburned!

Anyway, that's all for the 1's I've got. Look for part 2 NOW!

OK guys!

So this post is a long time coming and I have a sick feeling it's going to take me forever to post this. (It makes me sick to think of it because it's nearly midnight and these usually take me an hour to write and I am EXHAUSTED!)

So, last Sunday I did my first traveling around this country, alone. Yah, alone. I didn't wanna tell to much about it ahead of time because I knew it would be ok, but I know how some of you guys back home are! ;) I mean c'mon, I've driven all of CA alone and traveled around Europe and to the US alone, what could Central America possibly throw at me that I couldn't handle?! Exactly, NOTHING!

From my small pueblo, I took a mototaxi out to the main highway. At that point I caught a bus down into the Capital. From that bus I took a taxi to the mercado where the buses depart to other major cities. And then it was on that bus that I rode for nearly 5 hours to a town called Sulaco. The first part of the trip leaving the capital was on decent paved roads. After that it was a dirt road into the town. I had a window seat and it was uber hot. Needless to say I arrived caked in dirt/dust and it was an interesting situation, to say the least. Now I know!

Upon arrival in Sulaco I had to walk from where the bus dropped me off to where I was to meet the volunteer. Needless to say, I was the only other gringa in this town (and they don't see many). As I walked into town and near the central park, where I was meeting the other gringa, I had so many people staring at me it was definitely awkward! All I could do was smile and laugh. Could you imagine such a thing happening in the US?!

I spent two days with the other gringa, shadowing her in her daily activities. Monday we went in search of Internet as she had to do a report form that the PC requires every 6 months. I got to experience some Honduran supermarkets and do some shopping. Plus, banking here is insane! Every time I pass a bank the line is ridiculous and I've yet to figure it out. I went with the other gringa when she had to do some banking and we probably waited in line for about 10 minutes (in the mid morning). [9-5 work here is very rare.]

The following day I went with her as she taught English to 4th, 5th and 6th graders. The first class was full of misbehaved kids, but there was about 40 of them, it's to be expected. The classes after that were better behaved because they were smaller and the teachers were present. In one class I received what the volunteer called my first "love note" even though it was from a little girl. It was more an admiration note. I will translate it for you: "Emily, thanks for coming to visit us. I hope you like this place. Emily, know that you are very pretty. I hope that everything goes well for you in your travels. See ya soon. I hope to see you again." This note made my day! After seeing some things that left me unsure of certain aspects, this note made it all clear for me. If I can reach just one little girl in a few minutes, imagine what will happen after 2 years. This little girl touched me with such a simple act, it all became clear to me and I will always think of her when things get rough during my time here.

I believe I was sent to visit this volunteer because she has done work with some womens groups, which I had told my Business project directors, that I was potentially interested in. Well, I certainly appreciate the opportunity to see what was going on because I'm not so sure that I'm still interested. Motivation can be a factor and I'm not exactly a motivational speaker. Not to mention I learned more about how everything works with help from the government, etc, etc. Mind you, I only saw a one day glimpse of this, but needless to say I think I may prefer something more structured along the lines of working with a larger NGO come time to get down to my own work.

Visiting the volunteer was great though for different aspects of the PC life. I saw that she was safe living on her own in a Honduran community. She had many friends in her town and many people knew her name and greeted her as we walked around. One afternoon we had free, we were able to visit the river and swim. A very fun time! Believe me, well deserved because it was probably nearly 100 degrees there.

Wednesday I returned back to the capital via a jalón (a free ride - more or less) from a friend of the volunteer. He was nice enough to drop me off exactly where the buses leave for my current neighborhood, rather than drop me off on the edge of the city and make me take a taxi. I got back to my cute little pueblo and we've continued on with the week since then!

Today was the last day of our normal routine in the training center. It was also the b-day of two people in our group. We had one last hurrah at a local restaurant, where about 30 of us showed up. (Where were the other 24?!) It was fun to go out with a bang, yet sad to say goodbye to the people we've been getting to know and been close with for 3 weeks now. Come Sunday we leave to our Field Based Training (FBT) where we are split into three groups according to our projects, ie Business, Health and Water/Sanitation. It's going to be great getting down to business (no pun intended!) yet, I will certainly miss some of the people I've gotten to know from the other two projects. Oh well, these first 3 weeks have flown and I know the 7 of FBT will be the same. I'm looking forward to it!

One last note! I got my first package from home today!!! I was waiting to make sure it arrived and that I had given the correct address before making it public. So, I would really appreciate anything you guys may want to send my way: non-perishable junk food, American mags, gum, anything creative you can think of... (for now I have no specific needs/wants). Better to use flat rate boxes from the post office!!! Anyway, the address is as follows:

Emily Whitfield

Voluntaria de Cuerpo de Paz

Cuerpo de Paz

Colonia Palmira

PO BOX 3158

Tegucigalpa, Honduras 11102

As far as I know that's just for packages! If you want to send me some good 'ol fashion snail mail (which I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE) I will try to get that address too.

Well everyone, by now you know the drill!! Thanks for reading and following. (Try to follow if you haven't already!)

Hasta la proxima vez...

Hey crew!

Just a quick post to let you guys keep tabs on me (for those of you not doubling up on Facebook)!

I finally got a phone and wireless modem today. It was supposed to happen last Wednesday, when the IT guy from the main PC office was allegedly bringing in a representative from the cell company to sell us phones at our training center. Dude could have sold about 30 phones, but backed out 3 days. We finally got ourselves into town and bought it today. The lady who owns the store hustled us, by charging us 50 lempiras more than what she quoted us yesterday when she was out of stock. (I guess no one plans on 50+ gringos coming into town and clearing you out, so she's been getting rocked by us.) I asked her how it changed so much in 24 hours and all she could manage was, my price went up. Yah, right. Oh well, the exchange rate we got there in the store was 18 lemps to $1, so whatev. That 50 lemp difference is about $3. Hard to get mad over $3 when I'm gettin' a cell phone and a wireless modem.

Furthermore, we went into Valle de Angeles today for a small business visit as I'd mentioned earlier. It was sweet. Myself and 3 others met with the owner of the local Internet cafe. (The one from where I'd been connecting prior to today.) It was very interesting and I learned a lot!

Sunday I'm heading out of town to visit a currently serving volunteer. She is also in Business and working with some women's groups, which I had noted may be an interest of mine during my initial interview. Will be back "home" on Wednesday.

This Saturday is "American Cultural" day at 'school' so we're supposed to represent our school or fave sports team. My friend from Oakland and myself will be reppin' Nor Cal hard with the A's and Raiders!!! Hope to get some pix goin' for you guys soon. We will see how this whole wireless Internet thing works out for me.

As always, thanks for reading, following and keeping in touch. It really means a lot to me!

Hasta la proxima vez...

So, I´m trying to be quick...I´ve already been on the Internet for an hour.

Anyway, like the title says, a shout out to my lil man, Cade, back home who is turning 4 tomorrow! I love you, Cade!!

And also just got a few pix I wanna share with you guys...

(Oh PS - no cell yet. Gettin´ one monday I think. It was ´chisme´that we would get them last wednesday)

I´ve gotten into horses since I´ve been here. See my brand is EM. No, not really. Just some of the stray horses that roam around. Yes, there are strays! Just an awesome coincidence that this one showed up outside my house and I took a picture! :)

That´s my dog, Rayo, on the way back from the rio last Saturday. It was a pretty intense hike. Well worth it!

The view from the bus ride every day. It´s pretty fantastic!

OK guys, thanks for following along!

Hasta la proxima vez...

(Hey guys, I wrote this post for you on March 1st!)

We’ve only been here in Hondu for five days yet we’ve heard repeatedly that there will be highs and lows. For the most part we’ve been getting what I keep calling ‘debriefings’. None of the classes are really into the ‘meat ‘of what we’ll be learning, but more like outlines. We’ve made lots of lists: our expectations of our teachers, what we expect to do here, how to better incorporate with our host families, traits that make a successful PCV, etc. For being on our own for two years we sure are getting a TON of group work in now.

Anyway, I mentioned the highs and lows because today was a HIGH for sure. For the first time we broke into groups according to our projects and discussed a little more what we’ll be doing. Now I have a better answer to the question that was posed to me so much before I left. It’s pretty much as I thought: business here encompasses EVERYTHING. They put lists on the wall with different subjects and two columns: Can Teach or Want to Learn. The things ranged from small business planning to accounting; animal husbandry to customer service. On the list that said Fundraising/Grant Writing only myself and one other girl put our names on the “Can Teach” side. (Michelle, if you’re reading this…get ready to help me out! :) I also put Can Teach on marketing, sports n games and customer service. I put Want to Learn on just about everything: small business planning, agribusiness, web design and so much more…I can’t even remember. Oh yah, outdoors was a list. Like, camping, hiking, etc. Put my name on Want to Learn, even though I’ve done all that, I don’t know that I could teach per se. Anyway, it was amazing seeing in writing all the possibilities. They also explained to us what the next 3 months will look like. Besides learning a little bit about everything we get to take various “field trips”. In a couple weeks we’re going into Valle de Angeles to see how some of the small businesses operate there. Then we go to FBT in a different city altogether from where we’re training now. At some point during FBT we get to take a trip to camp on the beach and visit an island to learn a little about tourism and how it’s sustainable here. Then in the last week before we’re tested we do like a practicum or whatever and make a mock business and see how it goes. On May 10 we will find out our sites for the next two years. It’s so well planned out! Our two business (BZ) instructors told us there are 28 sites wanting volunteers in BZ but only 19 of us. However, that’s in our favor as aspirantes (Trainees) because we will better fit a site vs. 19 spots for 19 volunteers. Over the next 3 months our BZ instructors will get to know us better, our strengths, what we expect out of service, what type of work we would prefer to do, etc. Our first individual interviews with them is tomorrow. I’m SO STOKED! Or as my friend put it, I’m so juiced! LOL, we’re all on a HUGE high right now.

And on the “home” front, my host family is the most amazing (aside from my real family at home, of course)! My host mom has my bucket of water warmed for my “shower” in the mornings, breakfast ready when I get out and lunch as I head off to “school” (These things are all pretty sweet. I dunno if they’re meant to last or if I’m supposed to take over those tasks eventually...) Today when I got home, I was offered coffee, which I’m trying to decline more often, and sat down to watch a little ‘novela’ with the girls. When my “mom” got in from work she asked me to join her on a walk and we went to her mother’s house (which is like 5 houses down the street, around the corner). In typical Honduran style some other friends were over. One woman gave us all a banana that she had just bought at the market. I knew I had made it past the awkward “gringa en la casa” phase when my host mom was telling everyone she would cry when I left at the end of 3 months. Then we went to the little cafeteria and my ‘mom’ bought me a ‘churro’ (here in Honduras that means snack, not the Mexican dessert we’re used to). We walked home and I got to make my own dinner, as we discussed what few foods I actually know how to cook that would be feasible without an oven. (I came up with French toast, omelets and pasta. LOL, I know I got MAD cooking skills, don’t hate!) After dinner I played some “Tiene que pescar” (Go Fish), War and UNO with the younger daughter and un primo that was visiting from down the street. Then as I was in here sitting down to write this my ‘mom’ brought me in a cup of piping hot cinnamon tea and asked why I wasn’t cold with the windows wide open. The weather here is about late June in Modesto right now. Pretty hot, with perfect cool evenings. So, I tell her I’m perfect as I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt and she says she’s cold. LOL, I’m scared to see what the summer is really like here!

Well crew, I want all you guys to know that I’m really happy right now. I’m on this high and I’m gonna ride it as long as I can. I know it’s gonna get hard one of these days, many of these days. Keep me in your prayers and I’ll keep you posted! :)

Hasta la proxima vez…

For those of you gringos at home my title is the white girl that couldn´t clean. I´ve been taught how to wash dishes and wash clothes without running water. I was watched while cleaning my room by the 11 year old daughter as if´I´d never cleaned before in my life. It´s all good though. One thing we have to do in order to be successful in the PC is have patience and the ability to laugh at yourself. Believe me, I´ve been doing mucho laughing.

Last night I did my first hand washing. I´m gonna have some buffed out forearms at the end of all this!!! I´m getting the hang of it, and my OCD is definitely going away, because there´s no way anything here will be to my US standards. Perhaps, it will just be really bad when I get home in 2 years. LOL...we shall see.

Yesterday, we walked down to the river which was probably about an hour walk and swam. The other American girl and I were both paranoid about accidentally drinking the water, but I think we did ok. I´m not sick and I hope she´s not. Haven´t talked to her today and probably won´t until tomorrow.

In about 2 weeks myself and the other Business aspirantes (trainees) will be moving to Ojojona for about 40 days. Then we come back to where we are now for our final week of testing before being sent out into Hondu. Right now I´m at an Internet cafe in Valle de los Angeles. Where I live, no hay nada! It´s cool though, doin´like the locals...I dig it.

Anyway, thanks for keepin´ posted! Oh PS - shout out to my Adventists...in this city where I´m at right now which is about 20 min from my house is an Adventist Hospital! LOL, we´re all over the world!

OK crew, thanks for reading! Gotta run ´cuz my lil ´sis is ´sittin here waiting on me getting bored, pobresita...I´ll go buy her a Coke! :)

I’m going to write this blog style even though it won’t get posted until who knows when. Basically, I feel I need to get it down because this is day 1 of about 820. Seems long when I say it like that.

This morning we were in Miami and had to be up and out of the hotel by 5:30AM. Our flight was at 10:15AM and we were about 5 min. from the airport. Crazy? I kinda thought so too, but with nearly 60 people that’s how the logistics go. It was not pleasant getting up so early as some of us had gone to our “Last Meal” as we liked to call it and enjoyed some Cheesecake Factory. By the time we got cabs back and repacked it was about 1AM.

Flight went well. There had been some concern about the Teguz airport and landing. I don’t get it. Perhaps we just had an amazing pilot. I did get a pic of the runway though and how it begins at the base of a mountain, so maybe that’s the deal. Getting through customs and our baggage was about the easiest of any country I’ve ever been to and on top of that the PC staff here in country were so on the ball, getting organized was not stressful at all. They had signs directing us as soon as we claimed our luggage, then again out in the main airport terminal. (PS – major props to the Teguz airport staff for double checking the baggage claim ticket to the ticket that’s actually on the luggage. Such security, I’ve never seen that either.)

Directly from the airport we went to our Training Center which was prob about half hour from Teguz. The country side is beautiful here…oh yah, and it’s HOT. I mean for Feb. No hotter than Modesto in July, but it’s FEBRUARY! Humidity isn’t that bad, but it’s more than I’m used to and it’s not even the rainy season yet. Bring it on Hondu…bring it on! (I’m pretty much already ok with the fact that I will be a consistent sticky, disgusting person and won’t do my hair again until May when we’re sworn in.) At the TC we went over what our host families living arrangements will be like. On the slide explaining which neighborhoods (aldeas) we would each be living in, it mentioned that eight of us would be living with families that had never hosted before. Guess whose name showed up on that list? Yep, yours truly! So after that, we were introduced to our host families and all taken home. My host mom is so nice! Her name is Merlin. From what I can tell she’s pretty much the cornerstone of the family. Mind you with myself here, there’s eight people in the house. There’s the husband, older son 23 and his wife, younger son, 19, older daughter 17 and baby daughter 11. The size of this house? Probably a little bigger than the garage and modified room at my mom’s house. Modest? Oh, yes. Is there indoor plumbing? No. Is there a shower? No. How’s the toilet? Um, can you say manual flush? As in pouring water in the bowl to flush. Believe me, I may be holding it most the time until I get to the training center. Tomorrow I take my first “bucket shower”. I’m thinking I should have shaved my head… I asked my host mother about “los bichos” (the bugs) and she told me they weren’t that bad. I’ve already seen two cockroaches and as I’m typing this in the dark there’s one that is attracted to the light of my screen. Not to mention, I was going to leave my windows cracked because it’s hot, but there’s a bug in between the screen and window. I will deal with him tomorrow. Rayito, el perrito, keeps barking outside, but I think I’m so exhausted I may actually be able to sleep. Oh yah, the roof is corrugated metal…can’t wait for the rains! Hmm, my aldea is furthest from the TC as well, so I have to be at the bus stop by 6:40 every morning. I have a feeling I will soon be a morning person. May as well, since there’s a 9PM curfew. Don’t think I’m complaining, just explaining! :)

My host mother made me an amazing dinner of beans, tortillas, cheese, plaintains with sauce and avocado. She likes that I’m not a picky eater. She’s going to teach me how to hand wash my clothes and make tortillas! Then after dinner and was cleaned up she asked me to go to church with them. They’re catholic. Mind you, I’ve never been t o a catholic anything besides one wedding. It was interesting. Long and I would definitely say a mix of catholic and evangelical practices, very upbeat singing/music and lots of it. The Adventist in me didn’t know what to do! My host family knows Adventists though and even knows where churches are here. Too far to get to sans car, but I’m glad to know they’re out there. Oh, and they love some coffee here! I’ve already had two glasses in one evening. Good thing caffeine doesn’t affect me! Oh and random side note. I believe it’s safe to say that while it’s only day 1, I’ve kicked my nail biting habit. Really?? Yes, hand washing and no running water don’t coincide well. So, while I’m not a germ-a-phobe in the US, I’m way smarter about it here, believe me! Oh and per PC rules, I have my own room, with a lock and extra perk for me -there’s a TV with cable! You’re thinking, small house eight people and I have my own room. Yah, I feel spoiled despite the huge differences between here and home. My room also just has a cement floor, no tile, no nada. Straight OG!

Sorry for randomness. Once again writing whilst exhausted and needing to sleep. At least you’re getting a blog post! Now, I see why people have a hard time keeping up with blogging. Writing one takes like an hour, there’s no Internet and we’re busy as all get out! From here on out, I make NO promises of posting. Just a heads up!

Hasta la proxima vez!

You get the title if you know pop music from the past year! :)

Well, I'm gonna keep it short and sweet because I AM EXHAUSTED, but have no clue how long it will be until I'm able to post again.

After a long night of not sleeping, I got to the airport with my mom, dad, stepmom and stepdad. There wasn't much time before my flight so there wasn't time for much more than a curbside goodbye. I was trying to hold it together just fine going down the line of hugs until I got to my mom and saw the tears in her eyes. It wasn't a cheesy Lifetime movie or anything, but more emotion than I try to convey (publicly anyway) . Cried as I checked in my bags, which the evil American Airlines woman wasn't buying because she still charged me for my bag being a little over the weight limit (OK 15 lbs...but c'mon it's for TWO YEARS!). Not to mention the guy on the flight probably thought I was a weird basket case because I kept crying off and on for the first few minutes of the flight (as in "goodbye my beloved California, I don't know when I'll see you next" type thoughts). Anyway, he turned out to be cool and was himself in the Air Force and heading over to Afghanistan soon, so we had a cool mutual respect of what the other was doing...and he probably got to understand why I was crying initially.

So, made it to Dallas and coolest thing ever. The gate where I landed from Sacramento was about three down from where I had to board to Miami. Believe me, I've had layovers where you have to catch shuttles and go to crazy terminals and barely make it in time for the next flight. Flight to Miami was good and now, here I am!

After I got my approximately 100+ lbs. of luggage gathered and went in search of the hotel shuttle, I only ended up at the taxi bay. There, another girl, who had equal amounts of luggage and myself kept giving each other the "You could be Peace Corps" eye and sure enough we were. Together we were able to track down the hotel shuttle and we arrived, luggage and all! Met up with some other H16ers and got dinner at a Latin/Cuban restaurant. Seems like I'm gonna be with some pretty good kids the next two years! :) Can't complain about anything for now!

Now, I'm in my pretty nice hotel room, with free wi-fi and my roommate is from Oakland, so obviously cool if from Nor Cal! ;) Tomorrow is orientation all day and we fly out early Wednesday.

Thank the Lord for his provisions and blessings! Whenever I embark on these kinds of trips my prayer is always that from Philippians 4:7, I ask the Lord for peace that passes understanding. It calms me and I know His angels are en route with me! It got me through today and I'm sure it will on Wednesday too!

Don't forget to "Follow" if you haven't already and you know how it goes...

Hasta la proxima vez...

Hello my faithful FOUR followers. (Please, help me increase that number! Scroll down the page til you see the little gray box that says "Follow" and click on it. If you have an e-mail address through one of the providers listed click accordingly. If not, click the other link and enter your e-mail address. You're not signing up for anything other than updates of when I create a new post! Do it cuz you love me! :)

This post is to update on everything in my life as I'm at T-minus five days and counting!!!

Last week was my last of work and it was super busy! So much for that whole "short-timer" thing everyone kept talkin' to me about. It was also my last week of the volunteer work I'd done for the past 18 months. Many of my customers at work were very sweet saying they'll miss me, wishing me the best and offering kind thoughts and prayers. What truly amazed me were the gifts I was given. One department, CAPE (Community Assesment, Evaluation and Planning), got together and gave me a $77 gift card to Marshall's. Another girl from PT (Pina) gave me a 'scapalario', which she told me it's blessed and it brings protection. I've tried to Google it, but no luck finding anything on it. It was very sweet though! There were many cards, flowers and stationary sets. So, if any of my old customers have found your way here and are reading (I hope you are for all the cards I gave out!), thank you so much! I'll miss you all and hope the new girl gives you just as much attitude as I always did! ;) Thursday I also had the last lunch with the Marketing/Fund Development girls from where I volunteered. They gave me such an amazing collection of goodies, it was better than my b-day AND Christmas! Everything was so well thought out, from books to take on the plane, to clothes that will be Honduras appropriate, to a gift card for a local thrift store. So Michelle, Christine and Monica - thanks so much!!

All the goodies I got from customers and MFD girls! Thursday night I got to see Jeff Dunham with my dad and he was hilarious of course! Friday after I got more going away goodies from my other volunteer position, I took off to Napa for one last hurrah with "The Girls". Stephenie planned a brilliant weekend for us with dinner at Rutherford Grill, wine tasting tour - with a driver!, trying a new restaurant Farmstead and of course our usual lounge in pj's DVD watching. Of course I had breakfast at the fantastic Gilwood's! The weather in Napa Valley was amazing and I got to see almost all the people at the old stomping grounds that I would have liked to.

The girls outside Peju

After I reluctantly pulled myself away from the Napa Valley, I headed home via The City, San Fran. I met up with my dad and step-mom for an uber-touristy day of Alcatraz and Pier 39. More great weather and super fun! With my dad on Alcatraz

Tuesday and today I've been shopping - using those gift cards I got! Got 10 shirts at the thrift store and only used half the $40. Used all the Marshall's card and got 3 pairs of jeans. Stopped in and got my mom power of attorney for finances. (Basically, she will have to file my taxes for me while I'm gone. Thanks mom!) Tomorrow I've got to do some last minute Wal-Mart run and a few other random errands, do massive quantities of laundry and start the greatest task of packing. Then all the going away festivities and flying out Monday.

So, everyone wants to know if I'm excited or nervous. Those are the biggest. All I can say is I suppose so. I never get any nerves, good or bad, until I'm on the plane. It's usually the first moment you get to stop and think about what's going on. Your lists are done, your good-byes are said, you've obviously made it to the airport on time, past security and now it's just you and a couple hundred strangers. Basically, I'm holding together because I've got so much to do. Monday morning will be a different story.

Well, I will try to post again just before I leave, but as you can tell I'm nothing but long-winded and these postings generally take me a little over an hour. Remember, FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW! I'm writing this for YOU, not myself! Thanks :)

Hasta la proxima vez...

...it all begins with a single letter. In my case that letter was one from PC (Peace Corps) inviting me to serve as a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) in Honduras. Now, my name didn't just come off a list like, oh say...jury duty. No, no, no. This has been a 2+ year thing that all started with me filling out an online application for PC service while putting off doing homework at Kim's one night. Yes, it's been THAT long.

After being "too busy" to ever submit the application and required essays during that last year of school, I finally got the cajones (nerve) to submit it sometime during the summer of '08 after I'd graduated. October of '08 I was contacted by my local PC office in Oakland (they say it's SF...but any of us living near there know better) for an interview. After making the drive out to Oakland and interviewing, making all my business classes sound way more important than they ever were to me, and waiting it out I learned I was a nominee! All that means is my recruiter in Oakland felt I was suitable for PC service so she told the main office in Washington, DC about me. I'm pretty sure all this nomination stuff came about November of '08. At that point I was ready to get into to PC and serve! Well, apparently at the end of the year EVERY recruiter from EVERY Peace Corps office is trying to get their last minute nominations in. My recruiter and I played phone tag (over the course of an AFTERNOON) and her initial voice mail asked me what I thought about working with bee keeping. I thought it would have been freakin' sweet and called her back to tell her as much. Thus, began the phone tag and by the time we finally got in touch at the end of the afternoon, someone had beat her to it! Sad day. My recruiter told me to be patient and she would get my name in for something again just after the new year. ::sigh:: And I put it off all through senior year only to have to wait when I was ready...

December...

January 2009...

(OK, well those months weren't that bad! I was still taking some classes online and at CSU Stan to finish up my Business degree. I was working PT doing the same thing that I'd done in high school, but it was money!)

In the meantime I began to lose hope that the PC was going to work out for me. I started looking for other "cool" overseas programs that I could do instead. One called Chung Dam Institute caught my eye. I fully researched them, found people on Facebook and talked to them about it and eventually applied to teach English in Korea with a salary of about $32k. I went through that whole application process and was waiting for them. (I don't think it's as competitive as the PC.) Then comes the e-mail: Congratulations, you have been selected to be an English teach in Korea! Great news right?! The thing is, I just was not excited about it. In my heart and the back of my mind...I wanted the PC. I like the mission of the PC better. It suited me better. I just wouldn't feel the same making that kind of money in Korea and it would be a totally different experience. Not a bad one, but just not what I was looking for. So, yah...I e-mailed Korea and said, "Sorry, I cannot accept your offer at this time." ::sigh:: Now, after all that...

This is when I get impatient and e-mail my recruiter to see what's happening since I just turned down another amazing option for the PC (which was leavin' me hangin'). Her reply tells me to keep an eye out for something she sent in the mail. Well, I'll be...there it was! A nomination packet which has medical and dental forms. Yay...I have NO insurance...BOO! That's very off putting when you need medical and dental checks galore, not to mention blood work up the wazoo. Oh, and vaccines...

At this point I'm getting tired of my job, I'm done with both my degrees and my hours had gotten cut at work. It was time to find a new job and put those hard earned, expensive degrees to use! Yet again, Peace Corps got put on the back burner. I spent who knows how many days driving to Napa (as in the Napa Valley with resorts and restaurants galore, for those of you not familiar with the area I went to school in) and back (about 5-6 hours driving round trip) because I was told, "Now's the time everyone is hiring for summer. You'll get something for sure!" Yah, right. I looked at things on Craigslist, Career Builder, Monster for the Modesto area...NOTHING. I went to a Sports and Entertainment career fair out in Oakland at the arena and scored an interview with THE OAKLAND RAIDERS. (Can we say DREAM JOB?!) Went out to the interview and obviously didn't get it. ::sigh...again:: Life was getting more depressing by the day. Here I was, two degrees, bilingual, working part-time, minimum wage and then it hit me, "Hey retard...PEACE CORPS IS WAITING!"

Pulling out all those forms I'd dreaded for so long, I started to research what was available for low-income health care. Luckily, I was working in the county Health Services Agency building and much of what I needed was readily available to me. I got on the Medically Indigent Adult (MIA) program because my income was low enough, so I was able to see doctors for around $5 a pop. I got the physical, vaccines and blood work taken care of for about $100! Some people have to pay for this all out of pocket and it adds up. However, that left the dental check-up which required x-rays. MIA didn't cover dental for check-up reasons...what's that word...preventative? Crap...how was I supposed to afford dental care with out insurance?? Then perusing the newspaper one day a special insert caught my eye. "Free x-rays for new patients only!" What?! Could it be true?? What dentist would do such a crazy thing??! I read on, "For new patients only." OK, I'm obviously a new patient...have no clue who this crazy dentist is giving away FREE x-rays. I call and inquire about the offer...what's the catch? NO CATCH! I make my appointment, am seen, get my FREE x-rays and learn I have 2 cavities. Crap again...I can't afford to get cavities filled w/o insurance! (Besides not being able to afford fillings, I was TICKED! My old dentist had found a cavity about 4 days before I was leaving for Spain back in '06 because I didn't floss. We had to schedule an emergency appointment to get me in before I left the country for nine months with a rotting hole in my tooth. From the time I got to Spain to present day, I'm a daily flosser and twice daily brusher. Yes, I was TICKED to learn I could possibly have a cavity, let alone TWO!) Anywho...I talked to my friends around work and found out that I DID have dental coverage for these type of things under the MIA program. It was a process to get special permission to see the dentist, however I did get it. They thought I was trying to work the system, "How did you get x-rays taken if you only have MIA?" OMG...again, it was the CRAZY dentist. Luckily, they didn't launch a full fledged investigation into my case. It was already June and like everything else, more cuts were being made to MIA come July (new fiscal year) and dental was one of them. So...got my butt in and got them teeth filled! And NOW if I ever learn I have another cavity, I will just proceed to have all my teeth pulled and get dentures...because really...what's the point of brushing and flossing if I still seem to get cavities??! But I'm off topic here...

Sometime throughout this whole process I got my full hours back at work and I was in full swing Peace Corps mode, so it made it a little more bearable after nothing panned out in the spring. Plus, volunteering kept me sharp and motivated with all the events I got to work on. Anyway, it's about August and I get all my medical and dental stuff sent back to DC. My online application status (called Tool Kit) sends me e-mails when things are updated. I get an e-mail saying all my information had been received and was being reviewed. However, if your program isn't set to leave in the next 4 months, don't hold your breath...that's basically what it said. (Since I was nominated in Feb. '09 and I was supposed to be leaving in Feb. '10, I didn't fall into that 4 month category) I'd finally got this stuff together and in to them that I'd had sitting around for six months and now they told me to wait. ::sigh::

Then I get another update to my Tool Kit. You are medically, dentally and legally cleared. A BIG hurdle cleared. But, I was still waiting! Word on the street from people who had been through the process is that you will be contacted and need to send in an updated résumé and final transcripts. Well, it was November and I FINALLY got that e-mail. The girl who contacted me from DC gave me a generic time frame and when it had passed...yet again, something taking longer than normal for me in the application process, I wrote her and asked what was happening. I was beginning to fear that the competition had beat me: someone with a better transcript from a better school, someone with more volunteer experience, better written essays... She told me that my Placement Officer (PO) had unexpectedly been out of the office for three weeks and reminded me that not everyone who is nominated receives an invitation. (Thank you oh, so much for the encouragement!) Then, not even two days after the discouraging e-mail, I'm e-mailed by my PO requesting a phone interview. THE final step before an invitation is potentially extended! We schedule a time, she calls, asks me the questions which had been flagged by my initial interview in Oakland (how do you handle stress, how will you adapt to a different culture, is your family supportive, how will you work with people who are at times not eager/interested). Luckily, I had my Spain references (as in, 'been there, done that') for the stress and culture situations. Gave her good answers for her other questions and she told me she didn't have any major concerns about my application and I should hear from her within 1-2 weeks. Mind you, this was the Thursday before Christmas, so 1 week from then fell on Christmas Eve and 2 on New Year's Eve. ::sigh:: Yet again, I was thinking 1-2 weeks wouldn't be the case for me. Sure enough, I didn't hear any word from my PO. But then came the e-mail "Your application status has been updated in your Tool Kit." I log on and OMG...it no longer says Nominee ToolKit...it now says INVITEE Toolkit. Could it be true?? Without contacting me as promised, my PO invited me for a position with the Peace Corps??! Indeed! It was true. My Tool Kit told me I had been mailed an invitation packet December 22, 2009. ::sigh:: But, then there was Christmas and the weekend and the mail wouldn't be running. I've never resented the holidays as much as I did this year! And then, my mom calls me at work on Dec. 29, "You have something from the Peace Corps in the mail." I wish I could adequately explain the irregular rhythm that my heart went in to and the knot of nerves in my stomach for the rest of my time at work and the drive home. It was a mere 45 min, but definitely one of those 'this is taking FOREVER' type situations.

Opening the FedEx envelope with nerves galore, I see the blue folder which has been emblazoned in my mind for quite some time now. From on top comes the letter. "Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that we invite you to being training in Honduras for Peace Corps service." My heart drops (I mean really, I was hoping for Costa Rica against the odds of the Wiki time line. I've been there twice and would LOVE to spend 27 months there. I had also hoped for Peru or Chile, but the PC tells us to go where we're needed.) I start pulling all the papers out of the blue folder and begin reading the "Your Assignment" booklet. I learn a little more about Honduras and about what I may be doing. My mom is anxiously waiting to hear all I can tell her from the book and the dates on the front are pretty intimidating: February 22, 2010 - May 11, 2012. No lie, that's a good chunk of life. But, what am I gonna do? This has been a notion in my brain since the fall of 2007 and you've just read what all I went through for this! I absolutely cannot wait to see what adventures this will bring.

Well, getting the packet in the mail is not the final step. You have to call DC and let them know if you accept or decline the invitation. So, it's like an RSVP?? I try to call Dec. 31 when it's only 4PM back in DC, yet the slackers must have taken off early for the holiday. ::sigh:: I guess I'll have to wait until after the long weekend. Again, I'm despising the holidays this year. After the longest weekend of my life, it's Monday morning, Jan. 4 and I make sure to call DC early on this time around. SUCCESS! I speak with the girl (formerly discouraging e-mail girl) and tell her, I'm RSVP'ing for this gig! OK, accepting my invitation to serve in Honduras. Whatev...

And this puts us in the here and now! I wrote an Aspiration statement and had to make yet another special version of my résumé to send to PC Honduras. Now, it's time for me to wrap up loose ends and prepare to leave the country for 27 months. Believe me, it's a daunting task. It's hard not to let the negative emotions take over and worry. But at the same time, I'm too level headed and grounded to be complete giddy and off the wall excited. It's good though, I think I'm where I should be for something this HUGE. I'm researching so much, learning tons and taking it one day at a time. The PC slogan is, "Life is calling. How far will you go?" Well, life called, I answered and how far it'll go...I'm ready to find out! So adieu...or I should be getting back to my Spanish...adios for now!

*Author's note: Please accept my deepest apologies for the horrible grammar and writing style of this blog! I realize I switched back and forth between my tenses, used more clichés than anyone should and didn't always maintain a coherent thought. It is my first blog of this nature, intended for a mass audience, and I was both excited and tired. Here's hoping I'll get better with time! (Not to mention, it's so long...I'm just publishing it for now and not even going back to edit...ENJOY!)