I've been back in the US for almost a week now. For a while before coming back here everyone was talking about reverse culture shock and how tough it was going to be. I've experienced it before and I guess that the idea of it is a bit weird at first thought: after being abroad for x amount of time, you start to experience culture shock from returning to your home culture.

I haven't done all that much this past week. With all the despedidas (going away parties) the last few weeks in Juticalpa and 4 days in our closing conference in Tegucigalpa I was exhausted once I got back here. However, some of the biggest changes so far are:

The cold. It's freezing here and I walk/bike almost anywhere I'm going. I'm more used to it now than the first few days but when people get excited that the temperature is going to reach 45 degrees F today then there's a problem. In Juticalpa, I was complaining if it got down to 65 degrees F at night time. A little bit of snow fell here the other day and the streets and sidewalks are pretty icy. Not being a rock star anymore. Peace Corps staff always joked with us during training that we would be rock stars in our sites. We would be El Gringo that everyone wanted to meet. Well, it was true. I knew people almost everywhere I went in Juticalpa, and if I didn't then some stranger would probably start talking to me. People here don't normally look, let alone talk, to strangers in the street. Language. I'm not sure what I miss more, Spanish or Spanglish. Although, I will keep practicing Spanish (probably not as much Spanglish). Philly. Philly is much different than Juticalpa. Both are really great and I'm always happy to be back in Philly. This past week I've been able to walk and bike around, drink various types of dark beer, eat all sorts of food and all this has been done without seeing people with machine guns driving around. There's also less dust here.

There are a bunch of other things that upon arriving here I realized are so much different, but overall I think the reverse culture shock isn't too strong this time. Maybe once I start getting out a bit more and seeing more friends it will hit me more, who knows.

When we were accepted to PC, we got tons of packets and papers and information. There was one excerpt that I kept where a RPCV (Returned PCV) described reverse culture shock. I'd say there's no better way to describe it and I think it's the way I felt the first time I experienced it. Check it out...

---------------------------------------------- The problem is this notion of home. The word suggests a place and a life all set up and waiting for us; all we have to do is move in. But home isn't merely a place we inhabit; it's a lifestyle we construct (wherever we go), a pattern of routines, habits, and behaviors associated with certain people, places, and objects all confined to a limited area or neighborhood. We can certainly construct a home back in our own culture, just as we did abroad, but there won't be one waiting for us when we arrive...

In other words, no one goes home; rather, we return to our native country and, in due course, we create a new home. This condition of homelessness is perhaps the central characteristic of the experience of reentry, and the confusion, anxiety, and disappointment it arouses in us are the abiding emotions of this difficult period.

To put it another way, the trouble with reentry is that you suddenly find yourself in transition when what you expected was to simply pick up where you left off (though, of course, neither the place where you left off nor the person who went overseas exists anymore). Even when they're expected, transitions are troublesome; when they're not, they can be genuinely debilitating.

Your self-esteem isn't helped, meanwhile, by the fact that no one seems especially interested in what you've been doing for the last two years. You have just gone through what may be the seminal experience of your life (certainly of your life to-date), and experience that has transformed your view of the world and your own country- and changed you profoundly in the process- and yes your family and intimates somehow aren't bowled over. You have so much to explain, but alas, their capacity to absorb is not nearly matched by your need to recapitulate; they're filled up before you're even half empty. The typical returned Volunteer is a catharsis waiting (not so patiently) to happen.

This dynamic only adds to the returned Volunteer's growing crisis of identity. With no present role, your sense of self- and of self-wroth- is embodied in the sum of all the experiences you've had in the Peace Corps; you are what you have been through in the last two years. But if nobody wants to hear this, then how can they know how you've changed and who you've become? And if they don't know who you are, how can they value or even like you?

Another frustrating dimension of readjustment is the sudden return to anonymity. While Volunteers often complain about living in a fish-bowl overseas, their every move the subject of intense scrutiny and still more intense speculation, they nevertheless enjoy being the center of attention and interest; it makes them feel special, even important. Speaking the local language for example, makes celebrities-even heroes-out of Volunteers, as does being the first American ever to teach at the King Hassan II Elementary School or to ride the local bus from Song Kwah to Phu Banh. Now, no one looks up when we enter a room or squeals with delight when we start speaking Swahili. Our every move has more or less the same novelty value as everyone else's every move. We aren't special anymore-and we miss it.

Something else we miss, acutely, is the intensity of the Peace Corps experience. Even when it was difficult-indeed, especially when it was difficult-the experience of living and working among an alien people had an almost palpable richness about it. We could practically feel ourselves growing and maturing, being stretched beyond what we thought were our limits and forced to come up with more patience or tolerance or persistence than we thought we had in us. We knew we were being transformed. And this was immensely stimulating and sustaining. Back home, life is easy and predictable; our character no longer gets a regular workout.

These losses-of home, self-confidence, and independence-are at the core of readjustment and all but guarantee that most returned Volunteers are not going to pick up where they left off. What's worse, the typical Volunteer suffers these losses alone and largely in silence. For two years, throughout all the excitement and frustration of culture shock, pre-service training, settling-in, and beyond, we were supported by other Volunteers going through the same experience we were. Now, suddenly and precipitously, we're on our own. We have our family and friends about us, and they are sympathetic, but they don't really understand.

Since the Peace Corps announced that all the volunteers were leaving Honduras, quite a few articles have came out.

In English about PC Leaving

BBC

Peace Corps Official Statement

NY Times - Peace Corps Cuts Back in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador

En Espanol

La Prensa - Por Inseguridad Voluntarios Se Retiraran de Honduras (Honduran Newspaper)

La Prensa Grafica - EUA Suspende Promocion de Cuerpo de Paz a Guatemala Y Salvador (This one has some intense comments that people left)

Random Articles

Washington Post - Grim Toll As Cocaine Trade Expands in Honduras

Bernama

Definition of Peace Corps on Urban Dictionary

Urban Dictionary

This all comes in good timing as Honduras recently moved to number ONE for highest homicide rate in the world segun a study done by the UN. I guess it's true that Honduras does always win. Way to go.

On another note, there has been chisme of when we are actually leaving Honduras. It seems that our volunteer conference will be held in Teguicalpa from Jan. 12th - 14th (pending official confirmation) and from there volunteers would be flying home either Jan. 15th or 16th.

Hmm let's see, this post may come as a surprise to some....

I'm going back to Philly next month, my guess is mid-January. There have been a lot of 'security incidents' with volunteers in Honduras in the past year and after a volunteer getting shot in the leg a couple of weeks ago PC staff finally decided it was time to evaluate everything that's going on in this country. There's been chisme (gossip) about something big like this possibly happening for about a week now which has made it less surprising to hear. So what's actually happening...

There are still some details missing, but Peace Corps Volunteers in Honduras are ALL going home for a period of at least 30 days while PC staff reassesses the situation here and will be looking at what changes they can make in the future so that PC can continue in Honduras. Supposedly, we can all return after those 30 days or however long it takes for them to get these things done. We don't have the date yet, but sometime probably in week 2 of January we'll have a conference with all the volunteers in Honduras and then fly home afterwards. My expectations of PC allowing us to come back (at least to Olancho) are not all that high, although hopefully I'm wrong. Also, I'm close enough to the end of my service that I wouldn't be transferring or starting in another country, so if it's done in Honduras then PC is done for me and I'll be trying to figure out what to do next (yes, plenty of options in mind, picking one or a couple is the hard part).

Am I happy about this? No. Timing couldn't be worse. But then again, when would the timing be right to tell someone they have to pick up and leave just like that (maybe when it's not freezing cold back home... I prefer warm weather and cold showers instead of warm showers and cold weather). Am I mad? Tampoco. It's out of my control so just have to make the best out of whatever happens. It's a tough situation that PC staff is facing seeing as all sorts of crap has gone down in this country. I feel safe where I live and in the places that I go, but there are a lot of volunteers all over the country, taking all different bus routes and being exposed to certain dangers. Just today, three police died as a bus got assaulted. Read Article Here. That bus route and the bus route where the volunteer was shot are both heavily traveled by PCVs in country. I'd probably be more worried if I lived out in that region of the country.

Anyways, you got any questions, ask away. I'll try to update when we get told more details.

Guatemala and El Salvador are also having changes made in their Peace Corps programs. They're next training classes have been cancelled but I believe none of them are being home, rather they're staying in country while changes are being made. I'm not 100% sure about that last statement. Although, Honduras does have the #1 homicide rate in the world.

When I first got to Honduras, I couldn’t even imagine 27 months into the future when I would be leaving. Even a year into service, it still seemed so far away. Now, it doesn’t seem so far with only about five months left. Not only is five months pretty close, but I have more than 3 weeks of vacation left and at some point plan on taking a two-week trip to visit other Water and Sanitation volunteers in Honduras to do some work and check out their sites. I feel like before I know it I’ll be vacationing in some other country before heading back to Philly to look for a job.

It’s all working out though, work has been slower lately as I usually only work in the mornings and have all the afternoon to do whatever I want. I have a couple of things left that I hope to accomplish with work in these next few months. The amount of free time I have is amazing. I love not having to work 8+hour days that just leave me tired afterwards.

So vacations… A bunch of us are going to spend New Years in El Salvador on the beach, or so is the plan for now. We’ll probably spend a couple days in the capital, San Salvador, also. That should make for a nice mix of big city/beach time for the week. Then, sometime in late January or early February, I plan on going back to Guatemala. That leaves me with just a few vacation days left which I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, maybe Nicaragua or the Bay Islands? When someone finishes Peace Corps, they get a readjustment allowance. This money is supposed to be used to help the returned volunteer ‘readjust’ to life, but many volunteers use it to travel for a while after their service. I don’t know what I’ll do with it, but some exciting adventure seems like the right choice.

Finally, the news about the drug lords! Last week I got a cold that was kicking my butt so I had no plan on going to the office on Wednesday. (Side note, there used to be a few people living near my office with really nice houses, cars, big guns, and bodyguards. What business could they possibly be involved in?) Brett, a PC volunteer from about an hour away sent me a text message saying that he had heard something about cops raiding some drug lords’ houses in Juticalpa and that something was going down. Surprised that I hadn’t heard anything, I called someone from my office. He went on to tell me that A LOT of cops were looking for these people and that he was watching a lot of it from our office. These cops were from the capital, Teguicalpa, although rumors were going around that either the DEA or INTERPOL were involved in the raids. The cops are very corrupt here and the guys they were looking for had skipped town due to some information leaks. When my friend left the office, the cops had 7 of the bodyguards handcuffed and were trying to get information from them. In the afternoon the next day, news came out that the police had captured either three or all four of the major drug lords in Juticalpa! This was huge and awesome news in my opinion, but to no surprise, after a few more days they no longer had any of them. Two of the four have international arrest warrants out for them and supposedly none of them will be coming back to Juticalpa anytime soon because it would just be trouble waiting for them. So cheers to a safe Juticalpa! Lechayum!

Since getting to Honduras,I haven’t traveled as much as I would've expected to be traveling. Recently, I went to Guatemala for a fewdays with some other friends from PC (TJ, Mark, David, Kristi). Mark’s friendLance also flew in from the states so we had a good sized group. I put up picsof the trip on Facebook (check them out here).

Due to lots ofrain, clouds, and mudslides, I ended the trip a few days early. Despite onlybeing there a few days and the rain, clouds, and getting stomach sick, it wasan awesome time. Guatemala is so so nice. This time I was in Panajachel (on theLake Atitlan) and Antigua. I plan ongoing back for a couple of weeks in either January or February. I want to see afew more places and the rainy season will be over by then.

Panajachel. Can see some of the damage from the rains and some volcanoes in the background

There were a lot ofMayans in the areas where we went. Many of them still dress in theirtraditional clothes and speak Quiche (one of 22 Mayan languages. I believealmost all of them speak Spanish as well because it’s the language they use inschool). We were in very touristy areas, so what we saw probably doesn’treflect how most of Guatemala is. People that we encountered were veryfriendly. When asking for directions or about anything to someone on the streetthey always seemed eager to help us. Another thing that stuck out to me wasthat a lot of people were smiling.

Family getting ready to play musicThe markets in the two cities I was in were incredible. In Antigua, there is a market full of artesania and a market with meats, fresh produce, spices, places to eat, food and many other random things. It seems that Guatemala produces more than Honduras in terms of fruits and veggies, there was quite an awesome selection there. In Panajachel, they also had lots of artesania and a million people trying to sell you things. It’s low season so was a bit easier to bargain prices down, even at the hotels.

The Artesania Market in Antigua

A lot of foreignerslive in Panajachel and Antigua. Some that we talked to are new there whileothers have been there for 10, 15, even 20 years. I could see myself spendingan extended period of time there sometime in the future, but who knows whatwill happen. A few people had one thing in common that they said, it goessomething along the lines of “We make less money here, but are much happier andhave lots of free time.” In a beautiful country where a little bit of money canget you a long way, I can only imagine.

Below are a few more pictures from the trip (which can also be found in the link above).

The rest of the crew

Chicken Buses in Guatemala are awesome

Everyone very happy with their falafel and shwarma

At Lago Atitlan. The view is so-so compared to if it would've been clear skies.

I haven’t written a blog post for a long time, just the pics and the PCV Challenge (which did anyone do by the way??). I’ve been writing quite a bit but haven’t had ganas to blog. But now it’s time to start back up.

Some of you may have heard of Engineers Without Borders. It’s an organization with student and professional chapters throughout the US and they do a variety of projects in developing countries. A mixed group (both students and professionals) of EWB came here from Akron, Ohio back in August, but I’m not sure if they’re still working on the project. It’s too bad: someone shows up to a community, tells them they want to work in certain projects (in this case, it was a system to purify their water), and then never comes back again. Then you wonder why communities have no hope or trust and don’t want to work when a NGO or PCV shows up and wants to do projects. Can you really blame them? It’s possible this group is still working on the project, I just haven’t heard from them in a long time.

On another note, I’ve been in communication with a professional EWB Chapter from Orange County (Orange County EWB's Facebook Page) since late last year and they came down here for their assessment trip in June. Four Engineers from the group came here for a week. The project they wanted to look at was making a well/pump/elevated tank water system for a community called Barrio Lempira, which is just a few minutes from Juticalpa. During the week, we had several meetings with community leaders and people from several government offices; a drill rig came from Tegucigalpa to take samples of the soil; and we did a short topographic study. For a better description of the project and more on what we did all week check out Gary’s blogpost about it at Honduras Assessment Trip, which is complete with details and pictures. All in all, it was a successful week and I had a great time hanging out with the four guys from the group (not to mention, thank you for all the food and beer!). I have all confidence that the group will be successful in the project.

Gary, Nick, Bobby, and Darren from EWB and me

Work wise, up until this week I have been very busy. My office contracted 3 people for a month to be my helpers for doing topographic surveys. For so long, I have been saying that I don’t want to do more topographic surveys but I just haven’t seemed to be able to escape them, yet. I’ve been focusing most of my time on working with urbano aka doing studies that will be used to improve the water system of Juticalpa (this is compared to working with rural communities before). Juticalpa, a city of 60,000 people has huge water issues. Everyone I meet on the street has their opinion of why there are water issues (some of which are pretty funny), but the reality is that most people in my office couldn’t care less to improve it and also millions and millions of dollars are needed to adequately improve the water situation for the future. Two large problems. In my opinion, the only person who is putting any effort to develop a plan on how to improve the water situation here is my recently new counterpart Ing. Morales. He is also from SANAA and has been working at this for a while and the studies I’ve recently worked on in coordination with him, when built, should greatly improve the water situation for A LOT of people in the city. The sad, and a bit ironic, part is that even though he is the only person in our office who is trying to improve the situation, there is talk that he may get politically removed from the office before any construction starts. That would be a shame, but asi es la cosa.

After a hard, half-day (we finished early) of topography under the hot Juticalpan sun

Even with work being busy, I’ve still had lots of free time as well which has been nice. I’ve been reading quite a bit and two books that I just finished, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and its sequel Lila: An Enquiry Into Morals by Robert Pirsig, I highly recommend if you’re looking for something interesting.

One thing that has hit me lately is the travel bug. It’s been quite a while since I went on a trip so hopefully in the next few months I’ll be able to hit up El Salvador, Belize, and Guatemala for some quality beach time and partying and relaxing. If anyone is interested, then let me know. My 2-year mark in Juticalpa is in less than 10 months so keep that in mind if you plan on visiting me down here. Another option would be New Years in Utila, one of the bay islands that are famous for diving. Check it out: http://www.aboututila.com

Well hope that all my friends and family (and I guess anyone else reading this) is doing well wherever you may be.-Eyal

I haven't blogged in a while, and I will soon. But until I actually write another blog, check out the PCV (peace corps volunteer) Challenge. The website has all the details.

The general webpage is:

http://www.livelikeapcv.org/p/challenge.html

And the page specific for Honduras is:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2YDS7Pm6kwENmRkYTQwMzAtYjAxZi00NWUyLWE0NTQtMzA4NDUzMzRhYmI4&hl=en_US

Can you do it? Let me know if you do. All these things describe pretty well some of the differences/difficulties for an estadounidense, more commonly known as gringo, living in Honduras.

I will add, however, that my life is not so tough here (as the different levels of difficulty for the challenge may suggest).

For Level 2, the last two items don't apply to my situation here.

For Level 3, the 3rd and the last items don't apply either.

For Level 4, the first and last do not, and

For Level 5, the most difficult level, the first and third do not and the last one not completely.

Good luck to you all

Eyal

Some people would not agree when I say Juticalpa is nice, but check it out and decide for yourself.

My Apartment (left)

Heather Being a Tourist in Juticalpa

Pulperia Across the Street

Hospital (built by the Japanese



Parquecito

One of the few 'Big' Supermarkets

Center Park

The Town Hall / Mayor's Office



Mexican Tacos With Unfriendly Workers

Banco Atlantida - center park

La Iglesia

Honduran Jerseys and Flags

Mangoes

La Surena (for fruits and veggies)

Eskimo! Ice Cream and Milkshakes

I'm still missing pictures of a few important places such as the Uniplaza (like a small mall), the gas stations, La Colonia Supermarket and Bus Stations.

Got these after doing a short topography study for a community. Earlier in the week I was given 7 more from a friend. I started cutting some mangoes and drying them so I can eat them later when mangoes are expensive

There have been three recent happenings, which for me are pretty big. Two are good and one is bad. I’ll go in order of what was first without too many details that may bore you.

#1. I just went to the USA for 10 days and it was my first time going in 15 months. I really wasn’t sure what the trip was going to be like. A lot of people talk about experiencing reverse culture shock and some people when they go visit want to come back to Honduras right away. First, I went to Chicago where I saw my mom and ex-Olanchana RPCV Erika. Chicago is a great city. The two days that I spent there wasn’t very much time, but I had a great time and it seems like a great city. From there, I went to Philadelphia where I saw my dad, many friends from college and high school, and other people throughout the city. I lived in Philadelphia for 5 years and love the city and it was great to be back. I was able to bike everywhere and the weather was nice (I think I got used to the ‘cold weather’ from the first 2 days in Chicago). At the end of my trip, I wanted to stay longer which is the opposite of what I originally thought would have happened. The main thing that stuck out to me was that many people are doing things in the states. There’s a lot of movement, innovation, and an energy that I don’t get as much here in Honduras. Before the trip, I was thinking a lot of extending to do a third year of PC, but now I’m leaning more towards finishing at the two-year point. That thought always changes though so only time will tell. I will say however that being back in Honduras I am happy and there are certain things that living/working here has to offer that the US doesn’t. If there was nothing good about being here, then I would go home tomorrow (which yes, we have that option). And no, I did not experience reverse culture shock.

#2. Work. Two good developments with work. After meeting with my counterpart, it seems that I have plenty of work to keep me busy for a long time. The big part of that is that the work I’m doing might be built before I leave and it’s for Juticalpa, which has tons of water issues! Also, the other day I went out to see the construction of the first project that I did after arriving in site here. Almost one year ago, I did my first topography study and design for a conduction line that will serve the urban center of San Francisco de Becerra and finally funds have been obtained (which I believe has part to do with them being hard workers as well) and now they are in the construction phase. There have been no funds in SANAA Juticalpa since I got here so it’s nice to see something finally being done with my projects other than being archived (well one of them at least. Another small one was built but I don’t count it). At this point, I say no to any project they ask me to do if they plan on putting it in the archive. I’ve seen a few projects get lost that were done 5-10 years ago by old PCVs and that’s just a waste of our time.

Construction of la presa in San Francisco de Becerra

#3. This is the bad one. Today there was a safety and security meeting in Catacamas with the volunteers from that area. Turns out that due to recent events, the volunteers from Catacamas, Santa Maria de Real and the area outside will be pulled out next week and sent to other parts of the country. I imagine that area will also become off-limits for PCVs. Best of luck to the six of you who are being pulled out and we will miss you. If you’re sent somewhere that isn’t too far, I’ll go and visit you in your new sites. Although honestly, I barely travel in Honduras except for going to El Paraiso and Choluteca so try to get sent there. But yeah, Olancho just lost a solid group of people.

Map showing Juticalpa and Catacamas in relation to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras

I could probably write a lot more on each one of these things. If you really want to know more then let me know or else maybe I’ll elaborate in a future post (although a bit doubtful).

As I mentioned in my last post, in a couple weeks, it will have been a year since I arrived in Juticalpa. It hasn’t passed as quickly as I would’ve thought as I feel like I’ve been here for years now. I actually won’t be in Juticalpa to celebrate my one-year anniversary because I’ll be in Philly.

Anyways, looking back. Many things have changed since I got here from my living situation to work to social life. I spent the first two months with a host family, then moved to a nice little apartment for quite a while and about two months ago I moved to this sweet apartment that I’m in now which is probably nicer than anywhere else I’ve lived before. Since I moved out of my host family’s house, I’ve lived by myself. That’s a first for me and it’s great. Having roommates can be good too (College days…) but I’ve got no complaints about living by myself.

Work… I really had no idea what to expect of work when I first got to Juticalpa. I started off by doing topography surveys and designs for potable water systems…alone. Being the seventh volunteer in a row to goto SANAA Juticalpa, I had an issue with this from the beginning. They weren’t learning anything from Peace Corps and are completely dependent on us to do topography and design (aka without us, it wouldn’t get done). Over the past year, I’ve sat down with my counterpart a few times and we’ve tried making a work plan. He always wants me to do surveys, designs and nothing more and I try mentioning working in trainings with water boards or with employees in the office so they can learn how to do what I do. With no help from him, I eventually gave a training to a few of them on how to use theodolite to do topography. I’m starting to teach some of the guys how to use GPS and for quite some time there’s been talk about teaching them how to use the program we use to design water systems. I’ve also recently switched from only working with the part of the office that deals with rural areas to working on the water system for the city that I live in. This should end up being more interesting and there are actually funds to do work.I’ve worked with other volunteers in the area a few times, have been helping support a couple of groups of Engineers Without Borders that are doing projects in the area, translated for a medical brigade that came from Canada, tried starting work with a couple of other offices in Juticalpa (with minimal progress so far), helped judge a science fair at the bilingual school Santa Clara, and tried to offer being a tutor at one of the universities here (also with no success yet).There was some time where I was not too happy with my work due to complete lack of support from my counterpart, but for a while now it’s been great and I’ve been keeping busy. Slowly but surely, I’m getting what I want done in the office and I don’t work on anything by myself anymore (in the campo that is). What would be cool though is to see some of the projects I’ve designed get built, but that’s difficult when there’s no funding. From the way things seem now, I’ll be staying busy for quite a while.

Social life. I’d say there have been spurts of time when we go out and party to times where there’s nothing going on for a while. But over the past year, the biggest change is that I have more friends and know a lot more people in the city then before. I guess part of that is what PC calls community integration. Also, I feel like things are quieter now in Juticalpa. You could say that the murder rate was pretty high for a long time. Lucky for us, the murders were all targeted so we were never gone after…unlucky for the targets though. For some time, there weren’t even many people in the streets because people were scared. A few clubs closed down also. That was a bit strange, but the city is livelier once again.

Peace Corps Medical Officers (aka our awesome PCMOs) tell us that most PCVs will hit a down point at their one-year mark. They have a graph that shows us when we’ll be happy and when we’ll be sad. I’ll say that this week I haven’t wanted to work much and I’m ready to get out of here, but that’s only because I’m leaving Saturday to the US and am ready for my vacation, nada que ver with things not going well.

Looking forward to the next year (and it could be interesting to read in a year all my upcoming expectations at this point). I’ve thought many times about extending for a year longer or if I do finish at two years then going home to work for a bit before heading out to do something else (maybe study another language in another country?). For now, work is going well and after meeting the bosses of the bosses of my office, it seems like there are big plans for the next few years for Juticalpa. If work stays interesting and life is good, then why not stay a bit longer? PC is the only chance I have where I can go work in any project I want, can say no to any project, speak my mind without worrying of getting in trouble with a boss, or stay home if I don’t feel like working or just want to practice guitar or try cooking a new meal. And no matter what I choose to do whether it includes working or not working, I’ll get paid at the end of the month. At the same time, I wonder about all the things I could do back home. I feel like there’s more opportunity to learn new things back home. I’m not saying that I’m not learning here, but it’s just different, kinda tough to explain right here right now. There are also certain aspects of life here that are nice that you don’t find in the US. It will be a tough decision, but we’ll see what happens. This week all the Japanese volunteers from JICA are being pulled out of Olancho. No new PCVs are being sent to Juticalpa or anywhere east of here. Who knows if I’d even have the option of extending in a year?

Yesterday, May 1st, was el dia del trabajador which is Worker’s Day in Honduras and many other countries. In Juticalpa, workers from a bunch of different sindicatos, kind of like worker’s unions, marched across town and gave a bunch of speeches about how they have to fight for their rights and this and that. The sindicatos represent workers from the different government offices (SANAA for water, health, teachers, energy company, etc…).

SITRASANAAYS is the group from my office, SANAA. Everyone in my office is great, but I have some issues with these guys, the work they do, and what they’re fighting for. Due to lack of funding, a lot of these guys spend weeks or even months sitting around not doing anything. They collect paycheck after paycheck but there are no funds for projects or for gas to be able to drive out to communities for whatever reason. This can make things tougher but it definitely does not mean that they can’t go work. For all the jobs that I do through SANAA, the community picks me up, gives me housing and food, and whether it’s one or ten days I don’t spend any money because they provide me with everything I need. However, with no funds, the tecnicos from the office don’t get per diem for everyday they go out. Not getting that extra money (the per diem) is enough to make some of the guys just say no they won’t go work. Yet, SITRASANAAYS has meetings trying to get salary raises and other things that some other people wouldn’t really see as justified.

Yesterday, many people in the march had shirts with Che Guevara and there were various speakers from each group. Most of them talked about how the government is screwing them over and doesn't treat anyone fairly, and that the people have to stay united and fight for their rights. A popular chant (and song) is ‘El Pueblo Unido, Jamas sera vencido’. I believe that’s how it goes. Google it to hear the rest.

Since I came to Juticalpa and starting working, I find it ironic that all these government workers always complain about the government not doing anything for el pueblo and its people. Why? Well a lot of these government workers are in a spot where they can really make a difference, but many (not all) don’t want to do anything if there’s no per diem involved or if the work isn’t for a community where they have family or friends. At the same time, they say the government is holding its people down and they’re trying to get raises and other benefits. I’m not supposed to discuss anything political, so I’m just going to stay at those facts. Anyways, a campesino got up to talk after all these people from the various sindicatos. This guy was a strong speaker. He started off by denouncing everyone and saying that they don’t care about anyone except themselves and the only reason they’re ‘luchando’ for ‘el pueblo’ is to protect their jobs and their salaries. He was saying that he has 10 kids and they need education and they need food and if anyone here cared about the workers (remember this is all during Worker’s Day) that they would be out working with them in the fields instead of sitting around doing nothing while collecting their paychecks.

Most of his speech was along those lines. A couple of the people in the crowd were saying that he’s the only one telling the truth and people should listen to him, but a lot of people kept screaming and making noises (you could picture this better if you lived here) and were messing around the entire time. Most of the people in the crowd would never fight for anything if there were a chance that they’d lose something, yet at the same time they were wearing Che Guevara shirts and talking about fighting back against the government. What the guy said was dead-on: These people aren’t fighting for el pueblo, they’re fighting to protect their own jobs and no one else. This country has many problems, but one big one is that no one cares about their neighbor. I feel like the idea of doing something for someone else or helping someone without benefiting yourself barely exists here.

Anyways, I wanted to write a blog taking a look at the past year. I've been in Juticalpa for almost a year now, which may or may not be the half-way point. Instead, I decided to mention the sindicatos and I hope to blog about other things that are going on before I go to the US this weekend. In case you’re wondering, work and life are going very well here. And there are a few good workers in the office who I make an effort to work with when I can.

For anyone that’s been reading this blog, you should know that I live in a city called Juticalpa, which has about 60,000 people and all the amenities that a PCV could ask for. I have no complaints at all about it (except for the insane amount of dust), I mean I have a nice apartment, a couple places with wifi, lots of work options, many different places to eat out at, and big supermarkets for those rare non-Honduran items that I want sometimes. The culture is different here when compared with the small towns, and there are places to go drink and dance if I want to.

Some PCVs say they want to be in a small town to get the ‘real’ cultural experience and some volunteers want ‘the tough life’ because PC for them is supposed to be a challenge. That’s fine, to each their own. Before PC, I lived in a big city for about 5 years and I love the city. I love the mountains and the outdoors also, but for living, I prefer to be in the city. I still get a cultural experience here, lots of time in the mountains due to my work, and the tough part of my PC experience so far all comes from the cultural differences, not the physical things.

So I wonder sometimes, what would life be like if I lived in a small site in the mountains, had to take bucket showers every day, had less work options, didn’t have anywhere to go out at night or a ton of other gringos to go out with? What if I lived in a small town where everyone always knows what you’ve been doing all day and chisme, or gossip, travels quickly about every little thing? I’m sure life would still be good and I’d probably be thinking what life would be like living in a bigger city. And I still get a lot of these things, just not at the full-scale.

Today, I was reading my friend’s blog who is in training for PC right now in Kazakhstan. That takes it even a step further. The culture here is definitely different from ours in the US. But to live in Kazakhstan would be such a wild experience. I’m curious what it would be like to serve in a country where I’d arrive not speaking any of the language and the culture is that much more different. Before coming to Honduras with PC, I had been here and to some other Latino countries a few times and spoke a decent amount of Spanish. I guess you could say that made adjusting to the lifestyle much easier.

Anyways, these are just thoughts. As cool as it would be to be a PCV somewhere in Asia or in a small mountain-town, I’m happy to be here in Honduras in the ‘big’ city. My lifestyle is probably not what most people imagine that a PCV’s lifestyle would be like, but hey I’m not complaining.

On another note, in 1 month I’ll be in Philly! Going for one week and am hoping to see a lot of you. Also check out my new style:

Olanchanos Represent

TJ Definitely Has a Mullet

About a month ago, a medical brigade from Canada came to Salama, Jano, and Silca. Those are 3 municipalities of Olancho. Three other PCVs and I helped them with translations for 5 days although I was only there for 4 of those days. The group came via a NGO called Friends of Honduran Children.

It seems that pretty frequently medical brigades ask PCVs to help translate for them. Usually we speak Spanish and English pretty well and in return we get to have a different experience for a few days as well as free food for those days (and nothing gets us more excited than free meals). This was my first medical brigade and I had heard a mix of things from other volunteers and their experiences. There are volunteers out there that don’t like medical brigades. They say that people, instead of going to a health center, will just wait for a medical brigade to come so that they can get free pills. As the day goes on, many people start saying they have the same symptoms because they know what pills they’ll get in return for saying them. My favorite one is what we call TBP: Total Body Pain. When we ask where they have pain, they just say ‘ohh it hurts here and here and here’ while pointing at their entire body. When asked for specifics none are usually given. But this isn’t everyone. Some people show up to the brigade and actually have issues that they want checked out. In this brigade, there was also a dentist station as well and they were extracting teeth.

I had a great time with this group. It wasn’t a church group or a group of just old people (nothing wrong with older people. The older people in the group were really chill) and everyone was friendly. The first day I was helping at the dentist station. It was sad to see a couple kids around the ages of 10-13 get their 3 front teeth pulled out because they were rotting. And a couple older people had as many as 5 or 6 teeth pulled. The following days I was translating for the doctors as patients came in telling their problems. As I said, many people just had TBP and that gets annoying. But there were a few interesting cases. This one family when we were in Jano was very poor and you could see the malnourishment in them and the one kid had a lot of issues. Check out the following pictures of them:

And here are some pictures of the group and us:Translating about brushing your teeth and what's good/bad for them

Erika acting as the dentist

People waiting to be seen by the docTJ, Mark, Erika, and I

My final opinion is mixed about medical brigades. Many people just wait for them and avoid going to the doctor because of them. At the same time, many of these people wouldn’t be able to afford going to the doctor or the medicine they would need. Medical brigades might help people short-term until more help comes, but they’re not a sustainable solution to any of the health issues. But when a government isn’t doing anything to help their people who are in need, what is a good solution? A lot of the time people have headaches 24/7 because they work under the hot sun all day and instead of drinking water, they drink soda and coffee. Some families have malnourished kids, but they have so many kids that whatever their income is it won’t be enough to sustain the family. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to get people to drink more water or have fewer kids or to do any of the other things that would easily solve some of the issues they have. It’s a cultural thing.

On another note, I finally moved into a new apartment last week. I love it in this new place. It’s ridiculously nice and I can’t believe that I’m going to live here for the next year and few months. With an amazing kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a balcony and an inside pila, I’m never going to leave here. And the price, well it’s the same as before thanks to the bargaining power of foreigners (we normally pay on time and take better care of the place). Here are a couple of pictures of the new place:

I got a balcony!

So whether you're a PCV or someone from back home, you’re more than welcome to stay here whenever I’m here.

Many things have been going on recently. Some are exciting while others not so much. Instead of going into detail about everything, I’ll write a quick summary of what I’ve been up to…

Work… Work with SANAA has not been busy at all. Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen my official counterpart since late December. Some tecnicos and I had 2 projects scheduled this month and one day I got two fijese que… in a matter of minutes so that was beat. I’ve helped with a couple of small things in the office but nothing big. I did meet the WatSan volunteer that served here in 2005-2007 which was cool. He seems to have the same thoughts as me about this office. I have started talking with a new office, La FAO. They work with groups of campesinos in agriculture. I have a bit to learn, but I hope to be assisting them with irrigation systems. It’s nice because they currently have funding from Spain so are able to drive places and hold trainings. This past week I was translating for a medical brigade that came here from Canada. Their group is called ‘Friends of Honduran Children’ and there were probably around 15 of them, a mix of doctors, nurses, a dentist and some more. I’ll write more about the medical brigade trip later this week as well as put up some pictures.

Living Situation… I have to move out of my apartment because Peace Corps says so. My sitemate and I can no longer live in an apartment building, so we each have to find a house now. The only thing is that it’s tough to find a house within our price range that isn’t very far from everything and in a good neighborhood. I’ve been walking around the city looking for rent signs and asking random people on the street or in pulperias if they know of any places. We’ll see what happens. It is a bit frustrating though.Where I live currently, there are 8 other gringos (plus myself). It’s more than I ever thought I’d be close to before doing Peace Corps. I don’t think PC wants us living in the same building as so many of our paisanos.

Last week I worked with Matt, the PCV in Catacamas, for a day and then helped him move into his new house. Happened to be the same day as his birthday so the next day he had a birthday/house-warming party that ended up being pretty wild.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.. I’m going to be visiting the US in May! I just got my tickets. So May 8 and 9 I’ll be in Chicago and from May 10 – 16 I’ll be in Philadelphia. So looking forward to seeing people and having some good times!

From my experience in the last 11 months, there aren’t many Hondurans outside of the two big cities that speak English. I’ve spent most of my time in Juticalpa so I’ll talk more specifically about things here.

I believe the statistics are that the population of Honduras is around 8.0 - 8.5 million people with 1 million being in the United States. How many of those 1 million are there mojado, or illegally? My guess is on the higher side. Every time I get on a bus or get a jalon, someone starts to tell me that they have been to the US and they give me a list of the states where they had worked. This didn’t bother me for quite a while, but honestly, it gets boring hearing the same thing over and over again. However, I have no problem listening to it if someone wants to drive me somewhere for free. One guy who gave me a jalon one day had just returned to Honduras after being in the US for 10 years. Yes, he was there illegally for 10 years. This guy didn’t speak more than 15 words of English. There are probably a million examples like that that I could give. One of my favorites was a guy who was there, got sent to jail and deported, went back, got sent to jail and deported again and finally decided that God didn’t want him to be in the US.

When you walk by someone you know in the street here, usually you yell adios, no one really says hola for a passing by like that. Anywhere I’m walking, I always have someone saying to me ‘bye-bye’. I’m guessing that’s the only 2 words (well I guess technically it’s 1 word, repeated twice) they know. I no longer answer when someone yells ‘bye-bye’. Other commonly known phrases are ‘Hey man, how are you?’, ‘What’s up my friend?’ and ‘I love you’. I’ll usually ignore those also as 99% of the people saying this don’t speak any more English than just that. A few times, I’ve answered them and started talking to them in English at which point they back away completely confused. Then, I’ll start talking to them in Spanish and a few get embarrassed at this point while others are completely surprised that a foreigner can speak Spanish (why? I don’t know. There are a bunch of them that can).

Bilingual schools. There are many of these in Juticalpa. Anyone that goes to the Daystar school usually speaks good English by the time they graduate. Daystar has about 15 teachers from the US. The Santa Clara also has a big group of teachers from the US, but I haven’t really met any students from there. There are a few other bilingual schools in the city, but they’re either still in the transition to bilingual or just are not all that bilingual.

Rich people. The upper class always seems to be an exception to everything in life. In many upper class families here, the kids have lived or studied for some time in the US and some even in Europe. Yeah, usually they’re bilingual.

So will Juticalpa ever become a city where many people can speak English? Maybe one day... one day in the far future. One problem is that many people want to learn English to goto the US. If they don’t do that, I imagine that they’ll find better work in Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula. Also, most people don’t want to study. They’re hoping to wake up one day and magically start speaking a second language. People all around Juticalpa want us (us as in foreigners) to teach them English. One person I know in Juticalpa (he works in my office) is actually studying English. He comes in everyday trying to practice and always has questions about grammar or vocabulary. If he sticks with it, I’m confident that he’ll be speaking well before I leave.

Why do you think everyone wants to learn English here? Many people tell me that lack of English is really the problem in this country, but do you actually agree with that?

New Years is a fun place to be anywhere in the world. I feel like no matter what country you’re in people will want to celebrate the fact that it’s time to get a new calendar. This year and the last few years also, I’ve been lucky to experience New Year’s parties in a few different countries. Two years ago, I was in Durango, Mexico where I celebrated with my friend Minka and her family. The entire week with them was fun and crazy filled with tequila, dancing and good times. Last year I was in Uzbekistan with Malika and her parents in one of those hotel parties and we watched a singer named Sevara Nazarchan (not sure of last name).

Out of country or in Philadelphia, New Years has always been great, but this year it was something different. I wasn’t sure what to do for NYE. A lot of PCVs were either going to the Bay Islands or to La Ceiba. I didn’t have much cash and was going to be out of site for a bit afterwards so was trying to find something going on around where I live. But due to some violent acts that had recently been taking place in and around Juticalpa none of my friends here had plans of going to bars or the club (and besides us gringos, I haven’t seen much of a house party culture here). Then it turns out that Josh, a volunteer who lives a couple hours from here next to some caves, was going to be celebrating in a town called La Florida which was located about 1.5 hours walking up the mountain from where he lives. I decided to go there, he said some craziness was going down and was excited that someone else wanted to go.

After a jalon, a bus, and a 20-minute walk (with a quick stop in Las Cuevas de Talgua) I got to his house.Josh at his house

Then, we proceeded on the 1.5-hour uphill hike with a couple of people from La Florida that were also on their way up. The only way up to this aldea is by walking or horseback; there is no road that leads there. Luckily, these guys had a mule which helped me on the way up. I have no problem hiking, but I wasn’t about to hike all that and then have to party while being tired and dehydrated.

The first house we got to was Javier’s house, also where we’d be staying that night. In his house was the pichingo or año viejo, which various people from the community had helped make. Check out the pics below, but pretty much, it was a very well-made scarecrow filled with multiple kinds of firecrackers. The surprise in it was that the big explosive and a couple of fireworks were supposed to go off after everything else had exploded. Año viejo means ‘old year’, so the idea was to light this thing on fire at midnight so it would blowup and make a nice big fire at the same time, all while saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new one.

Posing with the Pichingo

At Javier’s, we had some pastelitos and some rum. These guys asked me if I wanted a shot of rum which actually translated to a glass filled mostly with rum and a couple drops of soda. I could tell these guys meant business. From there we went to Freddy’s house. It got dark so we were walking with flashlights now, yeah there’s no electricity in La Florida except for a couple of houses that have solar panels. At Freddy’s house, we were given some delicious soup and tortillas. Then, a 20-30 minute walk to the next house with people carrying el pichingo. A lot of people were at this house, so I figured that’s where we’d be hanging out till midnight. We got a couple of tamales and some more rum and hung out while people were throwing firecrackers all over the place and taking pictures with el pichingo. Josh remembered that someone else had invited him to stop by their house that night, another 20-30 minute walk with our flashlights. These people were super friendly (everybody in this scattered town was). We got 2 more tamales despite the fact that I said I couldn’t eat more. I asked for some coffee to wake up and after that surprise… I heard someone yell my name and a glass of rum was given to me. I didn’t actually drink as much as it may seem like. This house had their own pichingo but it wasn’t full of firecrackers. Some of the guys at this house were playing cards for a couple hours. They were really into it. Later on Josh told me that they were playing high card the entire time.This is what the guy thinks is a 'shot' of rum

The other pichingo, no firecrackers in this one

Now we headed back to the house where most people were hanging out in order to be there for midnight to blow up the pichingo. It was put up on a stake so it actually looked like someone was standing up, some gasoline was poured on its boots and the fire was lit. It was exploding for a good 15 minutes, but the big grand finale explosion didn’t work out as planned. I think everyone loved it anyways. I yelled feliz año nuevo at midnight but no one else did. Maybe it´s an American thing to yell Happy New Year? I don´t know.

To start the New Year, a couple of the kids were playing ranchera music on the guitar and everyone was singing. The guys playing guitar could barely walk straight they were so drunk, but they did an amazing job playing the guitar. One old guy who is usually very calm happened to be wasted and smelling strongly of guaro. He was hugging everyone and saying happy New Year over and over. Another drunk guy was waving a machete around. Everyone was yelling at him (drunk guy waving machete… not a safe feeling) to stop but he wasn´t listening. It was funny though, he had baggy pants on and they kept falling down, half the time without even realizing it. Finally, it was getting late and we wanted to go to sleep. A group of people had continued drinking behind the latrine (I don´t know who decided on that location). The old guy didn´t want to go inside, he wanted to sleep on the piece of concrete right behind the latrine. I think he was convinced to go inside after a lot of arguing. We walked 30 minutes to get home and passed out.

A lot of the night is tough to describe in words. I think the fact that there´s no road going there has made it so there´s less change like in the cities. It seemed more like what an older, more traditional Honduras would be like. Some of those things would be cultural things that might be hard to picture unless you spend time both there and in a city in Honduras. That made the night that much more interesting. Also, I forgot to mention that someone in town got macheted that night. It’s the first time that I hear that one. When someone gets hurt or is sick, people from town carry them down to the road in a hammock, everyone taking turns carrying.

Hope all of you reading this had a great New Year, would love to hear how you celebrated.

05/12/10 – Couchsurfing

I’ll assume that most of my friends reading this know what ‘Couchsurfing’ is. For anyone else that may not know, I’ll give a quick description of it. www.couchsurfing.com is a website that allows cultural exchanges in several ways. Every user has a profile, similar to Facebook, but more geared towards traveling. So you can put up pictures, interests, friends and all that. There’s also a spot for ‘Couch Information’ and for ‘References’. When you put the city you live in on CS, other people can search CSers that live in a certain city. Whether you’re traveling and are looking for a free place to stay, wanting to meet locals instead of just being lost in a big city tourist trap, have questions about something in a city (schools, transportation, etc…), the CS community is there to help. When I was living in Philadelphia, my roommates and I hosted over 150 CSers. That means that over 150 people that we had never met sent us a message on the website, most of them were traveling, and then we accepted their request and they stayed in our house between 1-7 nights. Some people that I’ve met through the site have become good friends that I keep in touch with or have met-up with in other parts of the world while others that upon leaving I never talked to again. I’ve had tons of great experiences with couchsurfing and just a couple that weren’t bad, but weren’t good either.

To sum up couchsurfing, it’s awesome. I was hoping to host couchsurfers here but no travelers ever make it to Olancho. I have gotten many requests, but from the messages it seems that people just message all of the CSers in Honduras (there’s not very many) without looking at the person’s profile or where they live. So after getting requests, I respond asking for when they’ll be here and that yes I can host them. The response from them at that point is usually fijese que that I won’t be able to make it to Olancho on this trip but thank you.

However, what is pretty cool is that one of my friends, Kandice, came here last week to start working in Juticalpa for the rest of this school year. She hosted me through CS when I arrived in Korea and when I was on my way out of the country. We kept in touch and she wanted to work/live in Latin America. There are a few bilingual schools here in Juticalpa so it worked out well. Small world, eh?

And for anyone else wanting to work down here, I think there are lots of jobs here or other ways to make money (…that sounds kinda bad).

Thanksgiving was about a week ago and you might wonder what celebrating it in Honduras would be like. First of all, Hondurans don’t celebrate it, and if they know what it is, then it’s probably because they have some American friends. So, this Thanksgiving I think that all of us were thankful for the fact that there are many other PCVs here. There were 2 Thanksgiving dinners in Olancho this year. I’ll just talk about the one where I was. Volunteers came from as far as 12 hours away. We had the dinner in Catacamas at Matt’s house and everyone was supposed to cook something and bring it there (almost everyone did). Between ~15 people, we had 2 turkeys, 3 kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, sweet potato and marshmallow casserole (I think that’s the name), cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, mac-n-cheese-n-ham, salad, corn, and freshly-made rolls. It was a ton of food and between my plate (see below) and a 40, my stomach was hurting. One of those good hurts though.

Most of the food that was preparedMy PlateIndians

Then came dessert. We had some pumpkin pies, and a few other cakes and the most interesting looking thing was pineapples that were cut in half, gutted and then filled with pineapple pieces, rum and some other things. All of this was put in the oven for some time and then topped with marshmallows.The Pineapple with rum and marshmallow dessert

The dessert table

One thing that you don’t realize about this meal is that some things aren’t very easy to find here in Honduras. Some products had to be bought in the capital which is 3-4 hours away (cranberry, pumpkin pie ingredients and I forget what else) and a couple products were even brought in from the good ol’ USA (a huge block of cheddar cheese, brown sugar, and I think sliced almonds although I just found those in Tegucigalpa the other day).

If you think Thanksgiving sounded exciting, well a couple of days ago it was the first night of Hanukah!! Most Hondurans don’t know what Jews are. The best response that I’ve got when I say I’m Jewish was “but what religion, is it catholic or evangelical…?” The typical response is “what is that” or just a blank stare. Anyways, I originally thought 2 other volunteers close by were going to come to Juticalpa tonight for a Honduran Hanukah. I planned on making latkes, applesauce, and hummus and possibly even falafel. But plans have changed and maybe we’ll celebrate another night. So as of now, no Hanukah celebration, but eh what can you do.

Hope all you guys had a good thanksgiving back home. Let me know how you celebrated. And to my Jewish friends, you better be spinning that dreidle all week long!

My site mate Heather is a Youth Development Volunteer and she’s giving a couple classes to teachers with the TEAM program (Teaching English and Methodology) that Peace Corps has. So the students in the class are teachers. There are a lot of teachers that have to teach English in Honduras that don’t speak English. How can you do a good job teaching something that you don’t know? Well, the fact that very few people here can say more than “Hey what’s up man” and “you are beautiful” shows that maybe it’s not so easy to do.

Anyways, the classes had a quiz yesterday and I went to help make sure that no one was cheating on the quiz. You’d think that teachers are not going to cheat… Most of them didn't, but there was one teacher in the first class that had brought in her daughter (probably around 9 years old) despite the fact that Heather had told them they couldn’t bring their kids to class. The daughter would walk up to her mom and the mom would whisper to her asking for answers on the quiz probably because the daughter knew more than she did. I made the girl leave the class and now kept my eye on the teacher. One other person asked me for the answer to one of the questions to which I said ‘No, this is a quiz’. That wasn’t too bad. I liked the first class a lot. Except for a couple that don’t study, a lot of them seem like they’re having fun and learning.

The second class was something else. From when I walked in, it seemed like this class had been putting in less effort to study. I caught another teacher doing the same thing with her daughter. I told the daughter to get out and then 5 minutes later I caught her doing it again. At that point, I moved the teacher to another desk right in front of me and away from the door. Then, another teacher started asking me for a couple of answers. After saying no, he kept on asking me and said that if he failed the quiz that it would be my fault. Obviously he was right about that, I guess I’m a bad person. As soon as I turned around, he started asking another teacher who was walking by for the answers. I went over and told him to stop talking and finish his quiz or I’d take it and tell Heather he was cheating. Two other people had asked me if I could give them answers in the second class also.

I thought that was a bit ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I know lots of people cheat. I’ve cheated before (really?!?). But who would have thought that teachers would be cheating and continuously asking for answers? The class doesn’t even move at a fast pace, they are just too lazy to study. Then again, the education system is really bad here so maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising?

On another note, food… I had a past blog about food. As I said before, I like the plato típico here and other Honduran food. The food is pretty simple for the most part but tasty also. However, everything is fried and if I cook, I can eat a much bigger variety of food, it´s healthier and it´s cheaper. So, I´ve continued making Kimchi and can´t go a day without eating it. We started making some sushi. I even found wasabi powder to make wasabi. Continued a couple more times making hummus also. Unfortunately, I don´t think that you can get pita outside the capital so today I made chips (so easy, just take some tortillas, cut them, and fry them). And I´m starting to take a shot at making Indian food. Kirti gave me the idea of looking up recipes on YouTube. Great idea, YouTube has everything! Last night we made a Tomato and Onion Chutney and an Apple and Cilantro Chutney. The latter turned out amazing. The first one was good, but I didn´t have enough tomatoes so the onion taste kind of took over.Chicha de Piña - Mix of water, sugar, Pineapple shell. Let it ferment to a tasty alcoholic drink

Tortilla ChipsSushi

I´m going to keep downloading videos to see what else I can make. If you have any good recipes you want to share, send them to me: mistae13a@gmail.com. Also, next week I´ll be returning to the English classes to give out an exam. It should be fun. I´m excited to see the first class again. I think the second class didn´t like me though, too strict… This Thursday is Thanksgiving. A PCV in Catacamas is having a big dinner and I think we´re going to have all the good food people in the US will be eating (everything from turkey to pies).

Yesterday, I went to a municipality in Olancho called Campamento. My friend there works in the municipality and there’s funds coming in for projects. Yes, I said it… funds: the one thing that has been lacking big time in this country since the coupe that happened over a year ago. So, I went to see a reforestation event that he was working on and to check out a recycling project that I’ll be getting involved in.

After waiting almost an hour for a jalon, or hitchhike, someone finally gave me a ride most of the way. Then, they dropped me off somewhere and I had to wait a bit for another jalon to get where I was actually going. The commute took me over 2 hours compared to what would have been 1 hour on a bus. However, I saved 40 Lempiras (~$2) and actually, a bus never even passed me while I was waiting. After meeting at the Municipality, we walked up to the protected area where the reforestation event would be and measured it with GPS to get an idea of how many trees would be needed for the planting. During this, I was being explained a few things about forestry and prescribed burns. With some of the basic concepts that I learned on the walk, Hondurans could be saving more of the forest and saving time and money on reforestation efforts (deforestation is a big problem here. One of the things it leads to is dried up water sources, which leaves communities without sufficient water).

When we finished taking GPS points, we started walking over to where the baby plants were so we could water them. On the way there, we encountered a guy walking the same path as us. I wish I had my camera because his mustache was incredible! We talked to him for a bit. He told us where he was going and what he was doing. It turns out that he had worked with several Peace Corps Volunteers in Campamento in the past. One of them would call him ‘Mr. Mustache’ (I really wish I had a picture to put to the name). This guy repeated everything to us about taking care of forests and the proper way of cutting trees down and replanting that I had just learned from Matt. It’s not often that I meet Hondurans on the street that understand how certain things should be done which would help them avoid many problems. So it was nice hearing it. He also said that a lot of the reason that things aren’t done correctly are due to politics and the government (well there’s more than just that, the reason for a lot of the problems gets complicated).

In the afternoon, we checked out the trash dump and possibilities for implementing a recycling system. If I end up working in the project, then I’ll write more about it.

Also, I’d like to add that I’m eating some delicious, home-made, peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate-chip cookies while writing this. Thanks Regina!

Fijese que... is a very important line here and used all of the time. When someone starts saying this to you it means get ready because either something isn't ready, or something is cancelled, or anything that usually isn't what you want to hear. This week I've got quite a few of these so far. But first I'll back track a little bit.

For a while I haven't been very busy with work. My counterpart and I don't exactly agree on what my job should be. Plain and simple, he wants me to work by myself and I want to work with the other employees when I do topo surveys and designs. That's for a number of reasons, the biggest one being so that they learn and don't depend on Peace Corps Volunteers in the future. I had a meeting with him about this a few weeks ago with no positive results. One of the things that bothers me is that even apart from him only wanting me to work by myself, he doesn't want anything other than the topo studies/designs from PCVs. Although the topography is important for getting a project designed, I am not here to be a topographer for 2 years and I think a counterpart should want a PCV for more than just doing one job for two years (but maybe I'm wrong, who knows).

So I was going to the office in the mornings and helping the guys with some small things but no full out projects going on. Then, we had a regional meeting where all the PCVs in Olancho came to Juticalpa and we learned about how Olancho isn't the safest place in the world and about some interesting work that other volunteers in Olancho are doing. That same day Sean and Liza, 2 friends traveling north from Nicaragua, came here. Actually, they're my first two visitors in Olancho. And I'd say it was a fun crazy time while they were here. We spent a few days in Juticalpa and then went up north to Trujillo, a beach on the caribbean.

On the way there, we learned that the bridge broke a couple of weeks ago

Me, Liza, Sean in the fortaleza overlooking the beach

A waterfall in Santa Fe

Banana Beach

There's two PCVs that live in Trujillo, Jen and Julian. They hosted us and gave us some tips and it was an awesome time. Thanks guys! Both of them are also pretty busy with work now. I think the combination of being out of Olancho and around busy volunteers got me more motivated and ready to get some things started back in site.

When I got back to site, I met some people from a professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders that I'm going to start working with on a water project in Juticalpa. Their website here. They seem very organized and like they're going to do some good work so I'm excited to support them with what I can. And I also had a couple of things planned for this week work-wise.

That's when the Fijese ques started. Yesterday, I was supposed to go with my counterpart to see some construction of a water project and attend their town meeting. 'Fijese que... can't do it today, let's go tomorrow.' I was supposed to help someone with math but 'Fijese que... blah blah'. I also got a call saying that a short training I was supposed to give on water system design had to be moved till next week. That's 3 fijese que's in a day. Today, I got to work ready to go out to that construction and once again... shot down. Hopefully tomorrow...But on the bright side, there is work starting up. I'm also going to start getting a topography training organized with the tecnicos in my office. A few of them are interested in learning. They're bored not ever having work. This will require developing some training materials but there are a few of us in the Wat/San program that are interested in working on that.

There's a PC volunteer in Honduras that has been doing a podcast so you can listen to some PCVs around the country and hear about their work and different issues in PC and Honduras. Bryan did his last podcast in Juticalpa, so I'm in it.

Check it out:

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/la-vida-hondurena/id344379527

there's 11 of them now, so check 'em all out if you want.

I’m not sure if you guys heard of the tropical storm Matt last week, but it was supposed to pass over Nicaragua and Honduras and possibly turn into a Hurricane. So Peace Corps called a consolidation in Olancho. That means that all the volunteers that live in smaller sites out in the middle of nowhere had to come into the big cities of Juticalpa or Catacamas (I’m only talking about the department of Olancho, I don’t know if this happened in other parts of the country). These volunteers got put up in a hotel for 2 nights and given some money for other costs. In these 2 nights, they were going to wait while the dangerous storm, which was thought would be a big mess, passed over. Well it ended up being a joke. It rained a little bit, but not any more than it’s been raining since the day I got here. So it was a nice get together of some volunteers and we went out and partied a bit and enjoyed the nice city of Juticalpa for the weekend. If anything, I guess that it shows Peace Corps is looking out for us so that we’re not stuck in the middle of nowhere in a crazy storm.

A few weeks ago, a new group of Peace Corps Volunteers, H17, finished their training and got sent to their respective sites all over the country. Here in Olancho we got 3 new volunteers. Heather is a Youth Development volunteer in Juticalpa (so my new sitemate) and Ruth and Ben are 2 Protected Areas Management volunteers that got sent to Catacamas and a small aldea outside of Catacamas. So if any of you three are reading this, I hope you’re enjoying Olancho.

This also means that most of the volunteers from the H13 group that arrived a bit over 2 years ago are gone. My other sitemate Chad is from H13 but he extended for 4 months so he’s not gone just yet. But we did lose 3 volunteers from Olancho. Shannon and Kevin, I hope you guys are enjoying your journey through Latin America. You won’t be forgotten here (especially because half the things in my apartment I got from you). And my other sitemate, Matt, finished his 2 years but I think he’s coming right back to Olancho in a week or so. This may sound like there are a lot of volunteers around here… Well there are 3 here in Juticalpa, and within 2 hours on bus, you can find another 11.

Y qué más… We’ve started up again playing soccer a few times a week. Thank you SANAA for not having any funds to send your employees out to the aldeas, because of this everyone is around to play soccer. And some exciting news, I’m going to Costa Rica in early November for about a week! That is I’ll be gone for a week, but it takes about a full day to travel by bus from here to there.

Hope you’re all doing well back home. I don’t know who actually reads this, but my address is in the upper right-hand corner of this blog. Since I arrived in country, I’ve received a couple of things in the mail from my family (thank you), but I haven’t received post cards or anything else from anyone else… It would be cool to get something from you guys…

I live with lots and lots of little ants. I think most Peace Corps Volunteers here do and it’s pretty much impossible to get rid of them. They crawl up and down the walls day and night. It’s not that my apartment is dirty, I keep it clean and there’s never any food lying around on the counters. So why do they keep coming back all of the time? If any food or grease or sugar from something when I was cooking is left out then the ants will be there. Or if there’s a dead mosquito, fly, or any other tiny insect, then I can watch the line of ants across my apartment to wherever it died. Another place they always go to is my bottle of olive oil. You know when you pour some olive oil out of the bottle how that one drop or so might drizzle down the side; well the ants attack that one drop. Even after wiping the bottle down with a damp rag, I still wake up and see ants trying to get inside it. The ants aren’t bad. You could spend days (or maybe even the entire 2 years of Peace Corps service) watching these ants and trying to figure out where they’re coming from.

Having nothing to do with ants, in my last post I said that I was making kimchi. It turned out exactly as kimchi should be, spicy and delicious. I guess you could say life just got that much better. Although they don’t sell one of the ingredients, red hot chili powder, that’s required to make kimchi in all of Olancho so once I run out will have to find some way to get more.

I love food. If a country has good food, then I’d be happy living there. Food in Honduras is good… but it’s nothing that I’m going to miss when I leave after finishing Peace Corps. To start with, here are some different things you’ll find are eaten a lot here:

Baleadas – flour tortilla with beans and mantequilla and cheese, but you can also get it with avocado, onions, beef or chicken or sausage, and egg. There’s a guy who sets up a tent some nights during the week in the central park in Juticalpa and makes the best baleadas ever. And he has maracuyá, aka passion fruit, juice a lot of the time to go with it.

Tajaditas – plantains cut very thin and fried. They´re just like chips, but in my opinion are so much better than potato chips. I don´t know why we don´t have these in the US. Usually you´d buy a bag of tajaditas in a store, but in a comedor, like a restaurant but one step lower, you can get tajadas con carne in which they put meat, cabbage and some sauce over the tajaditas. Delicious.

Tacos – the tacos are different here. Put some meat and veggies inside of a tortilla, wrap it up, and fry it. Then top it with some sauce, cheese, and cabbage and pour some hot sauce on it.

Enchiladas – like tacos but first fry a tortilla that´s not rolled up and put all that other stuff on top of it.

Plato Típico – the typical plate if you go to a comedor and ask for un almuerzo, lunch, comes with a piece of meat, beans, avocado, rice, egg, tajadas, and a mini-salad of tomato and either cabbage or lettuce. Actually, it won´t come with all of these on one plate, but you get a nice mix.´

There`s more food than those that I just listed, but I don´t want to bore you putting up a huge list of what they have here. My host mom during training made amazing soups; however, the soups that I´ve had so far in Juticalpa are so-so. Even though it´s really really hot here, they still tend to eat soups for lunch (the hottest time of the day) at which point I'm sweating like crazy by the time I finish it.

I've been cooking a lot recently. Every week I make a big batch of spicy veggie chili (which my friend put the recipe in one the Peace Corps newsletters for volunteers here and called it Beans a la Eyal, ha). Yesterday I made a big pot of soup that I thought was really good. I also tried making kimchi and will find out later today how it turns out. Kimchi is so so good. Last week I made falafel, hummus, and some indian-like egg dish

Cabbage soaking in salty water, glass jar with kimchi fermenting, bowl with sauce

So it's almost 6 months that I've been here in Honduras, although only 3 months in site. I've put some more pics up on my facebook albums.

Lately things have been a bit more relaxed. I picked up another counterpart so I'll be working with 2 different offices now which means more variety of work and more interesting

A group of students from Engineers Without Borders came here and I went with them for a week while they worked here. Also went for a couple of days to give a GPS/GIS training to the new PC trainees.

My neighbors are really chill. One is an English teacher (gringa) at the bilingual school here and there's also a couple of Hondurans that just moved here a few weeks ago. Now that school is starting again there's probably about 20 new gringos in town. I haven't met most of them yet, but that's definitely a lot of gringos.

Next weekend is the Carnaval de Maiz, or corn festival in Danli, should be wild!

In the last few days I finished the topo study in the Rio Platano Biosphere and did another one for a small community that currently has no water. The first day some people from another community were supposed to pick us up and have people ready to work, but who would’ve guessed, they couldn’t make it to pick us up so they told us that they’d meet us on our side of the mountain with horses to take us over there. After breakfast, we headed over to where we were supposed to meet up and still no one. Finally, after almost an hour of walking uphill, they showed up with the horses and we rode the rest of the way. So we started late but finished later that day. Ah, it was good to finish. And for lunch, someone made us a nice fresh hot soup that was delicious. Then we rode all the way back on horses. Getting to ride horses through the mountains was sweet but it definitely came with a lot of soreness and a couple of bruises on the tailbone.

The next day I did a topo study in a community called Las Cruzitas. The best thing about starting a new study is that you start out in the source, so far for me has been a river in a nicely protected watershed, aka beautiful forest with NO trash (there’s a lot of nice places in Honduras, but there’s always trash whether it be soda bottles or churro bags). We were going to get a ride in a car all the way to the source but we couldn’t pass the river because of the rain. This seems to be a recurring theme for half of the time I’ve gone out trying to work in this place. At first while we were waiting, a bunch of cows passed. It was funny because the smaller cows as they were crossing started to get carried down the river by the current. All you could see was their heads as they tried making their way across. But they didn’t get carried to far before they got to a point shallow enough that they just walked back up on land and continued on their way to wherever they were going. We finally crossed on horses and continued on them for a while till we reached the source and started working. Around lunchtime, I ate lunch quickly and 10 minutes afterwards one guy from the community showed up with fresh hot soup for all of us. Even though I was stuffed I couldn’t say no… it would be rude wouldn’t it? So I ate lunch again. They had killed a chicken to make the soup for us that morning. There’s nothing like freshly killed chicken soup.

Then as we finished the topo study the same guy gave us all café and a bunch of bananas. I enjoyed it while watching their 12 little pigs and parrot running around the yard.

So that’s the end of work for now over there. Supposedly, I’ll be returning to the area in the future to work in other projects, but if not, then I’m definitely going back to visit.

18/07/10 – 2 Months in-site, My Own Apartment, and a Bike

The awesome thing about the day that marks 2 months in-site is that we’re allowed to move into our own place (that is if there are places available) and we can spend the night outside of our sites. It’s only been a couple days in this apartment but already so great. I’ve started cooking a little bit (which means more veggies than normal and a lot less grease). Today I marinated some beef in lime, cilantro, garlic, cumin, and curry powder and cooked it up with a nice side of rice and veggies. Ah yes it was good and accompanied by a side of yerba mate. Oooh I also made tajaditas for the first time. Pretty much you take a plantain, cut it up in a bunch of very thin slices and fry it in lots and lots of oil. I rubbed garlic and put curry powder on some of them. Some of those didn’t get any extra flavor but other pieces did, it was good.

I still have to buy some furniture although everything I need is here in Juticalpa. A couple other volunteers have been coming here to buy things like a bed, fridge, trash cans and other things they can’t find in their sites. I’m going to make a table or two out of PVC and buy 2 small mattresses and some pillows to throw on the ground in my living room instead of buying a couch.

I also got a bicycle from another volunteer (originally bought by Peace Corps) so I’m excited to start riding that around. I’ll have to be careful because there are many large holes in the streets and crazy drivers (actually, sounds like Philly). Unfortunately, we haven’t played soccer in quite a few weeks because everyone’s been out working in different communities. I’m hoping to start up again soon although I haven’t been here very much either.