So it has been a long time since I wrote anything here and a lot has happened. Hopefully little by little I can update.
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One of the funniest comments I have received while I’ve been here was: ‘If you are not the center on the Honduran National Basketball Team you are wasting the opportunity of a lifetime.’ Here is a picture of my soccer team. Can you guess which one I am?
Recently I got some feedback from my 1 or 2 readers that nobody wants to read and that I should stick to pictures and videos. But before that I was feeling guilty that all of my pictures and videos were about having fun and holidays so I am trying to balance it out. Anyway, yesterday [...]
Part of this experience is the cultural interchange, and a lot of the time I’m trying to figure out how the people in my town think or why they are the way that they are. This is hard because I rarely get into these deep conversations – although I would love to. Perhaps it is [...]
Sorry, I haven’t given an update in a long time so I’m going to try to catch up in the next week. I guess when you travel in certain countries you expect that people are going to come up to you and ask you for money. And even in upper east side NYC, there were [...]
Photos by Brett Johnson, Dec 22, 2010 Trip to France, posted with vodpod
A few months back I wrote how my bike died only 2 days after I bought it (story here). That was not entirely true. I found a mechanic in town who fixed it for less than $1. And since then he has fixed a number of other small problems. But last Tuesday it may have [...]
But I will award partial credit for planning ahead and being optimistic.
I have been thinking for a while about how to write this post – supporting the work that Peace Corps does in a way that is not annoying or boring. Anyways, I’m pushed to do it today for 2 reasons: (1) this year is the 50th anniversary of the founding of Peace Corps and (2) [...]
***WARNING*** – this post contains graphic images of a broken finger. If you will be grossed out please turn away. My adventure in the health care of Honduras was entirely accidental. After a Peace Corps meeting my friend Vanessa was rushing to get her bags so we could travel back to our sites. In what [...]
In late September I moved into my own house. Previous to that I had been living with host families – I survived 7 months of this – so it was time to be on my own again. The house is huge – a 2 BR with a huge living room. When I was looking I [...]
I am lucky enough to have a lot of ‘friends’ in my house. Unfortunately, since there are huge gaps between the walls and the roof there is not much I can do about it. In addition to the squirrel that lives in the roof and scratches at night, a mouse that tore up a tshirt [...]
Photos by Brett Johnson PC …, Apr 18, 2010 Bugs, posted with vodpod
Wow, without realizing it 2 months went by without a post. Everything has been going well, I guess getting more into the ‘real’ work of Peace Corps. Of course, what this is is not always clear. I’m going to try to post a few . . . ahhh . . . posts this week. Then [...]
So this LOST ad has been posted on the walls of corner shops all over my town. Apparently a policeman has lost his gun and is offering a reward for its return. To the policeman with the missing gun: I’m really sorry man. I bet all of your police friends are making fun of you [...]
So September was a really busy month. As I mentioned, I was helping with a medical brigade from 8.28 until 9.4. Then I was home for 2 days before I left again for a work conference from 9.7 to 9.11. Then back home again for 9 days before my parents and brother arrived for a [...]
From 8.28 to 9.4 I went to my former training town of Ojojona to help out with a medical brigade. A medical brigade is when a group of doctors from the US come to a town or village in Honduras to see as many patients as they can for free. In Ojojona, a medical brigade [...]
In addition to my machete I also recently purchased a cowboy hat as well as a flannel shirt . . . lined with thermal underwear material on the inside! With the combination of these 2 I feel pretty much unstoppable.
Yes, I bought a machete. FAQs: Q1) Is it awesome? A1) Yes, it is awesome. Q2) Why does it look like it is almost 3 feet long? A2) Because it is almost 3 feet long. Q3) Have you ever killed anyone with it A3) No – this is Peace Corps . . . they fire [...]
A couple days ago I asked my host Aunt (of the Dear Host Aunt Crazy fame) if her son (he’s 17) could cut my hair again – he had done it about 2 months ago. Her reply: “He left my house a month and 3 days ago”. I really like this Aunt – she is [...]
Peace Corps goodbyes are kind of strange. First of all, Peace Corps is kind of a solitary thing – even though you get together with other Volunteers occasionally the majority of the time you are working with your community by yourself. Second, you make friends with people outside of your training group – so they [...]
Overheard in my host family’s kitchen this morning: “You know, people are living less long than they used to. People used to live for 200 years.” -Host Mom “Everyone here was Indians until the Spanish showed up. They actually thought that they were arriving in India but they were wrong. Because India is in Japan.” [...]
Not sure if I already said this, but there are around 200 Peace Corps Volunteers in the country at a time – making Honduras one of the largest Peace Corps countries in the world. Twice a year a group of around 50 Volunteers arrives just as another one leaves. On Friday, 57 new Volunteers had [...]
To the thousands of Hondurans who read my English-language blog I apologize if you feel slighted. We in the US have some strange traditions. I’m not entirely sure why we would choose to hard boil something that we otherwise would eat and then paint it once a year in the hopes that a bunny would [...]
I had a really fun trip to Tegucigalpa yesterday. In training our security officer scared us to death about the dangers of Tegucigalpa. And I do think it was for good reason – its a place where you need to be on guard. But since it is the closest place to my small town where [...]
I’m sometimes torn what to write here – some of the experiences I’m having are pretty heavy and I don’t want to turn into a public service announcement. Its probably more fun to follow along when my story about falling off a donkey gives you a break from what you are doing. So I’ll try [...]
So in small town Honduras my social options are a little limited. Maybe as I make more friends I’ll figure this out – but for now I haven’t been to the couple bars/pool halls (read: shacks with alcohol) here in town. It just doesn’t seem worth it – a bunch of drunk dudes that I [...]
Kind of just wanted to test out embedding my own videos that I’ve uploaded to youtube In the meantime, it is what it is . . .
Lately I have been working in the office a lot on accounting. So today it was great to get out and see a couple of local communities. If this is unclear please re-read the first sentence. At 7:30 I met my co-workers at the office and we set off in a pickup truck. I was [...]
Born: 7.20.2010 Died: 7.22.2010 Honestly how can the chain break the first time you use it?
So I’m really stealing this term from someone else but I thought it was funny. There are a lot of medical brigades here. Basically, a group of doctors from the US comes down here for a week. They travel to some rural village where there are no medical facilities and treat patients and distribute medicine. [...]
I’m really glad for the talk we had today. It was great feeling that you had the confidence to share your life with me – it makes me think that I have done a really good job with this whole getting-to-know the community thing. Sorry if I didn’t seem so sympathetic when you started crying [...]
So one of the major exports of Honduras is coffee. Not only is it a major industry here, but a lot of people grow it in their backyard for themselves. Here are some photos from my host family: 1 – coffee growing on the tree – when it is ripe in January or February the [...]
So due to high demand (ok only 2 of you) here are some photos of the beekeeping Beekeeping, posted with vodpod
Did I just blow your minds? Yes – here in Honduras this is possible. Last month we had a week straight of rain with Tropical Storm Agatha (story here) and this past weekend we had Tropical Storm Alex (by the way, once you use an A-name for a storm aren’t you supposed to move on [...]
Just in case you guys didn’t already know – I know Bob Bradley (US Soccer coach) and Michael Bradley (his son and US midfielder). Ok, maybe I don’t ‘know’ them, but we’ve played soccer together. Back in 1993 or so, before either Bradley was famous, Bob was the Princeton University coach. And one summer we [...]
So soccer has always been my favorite sport. I know that makes me weird, or at least it used to growing up. I get how it can be a boring sport for some people – as compared to basketball, football and baseball it is a low scoring game. Most of the time you have to [...]
So sorry for the long delay in posting – a lot has happened in the last few weeks! On Cinco de Mayo we found out our permanent sites. At this point I was still in training with a bunch of the other people from my group – we were all really anxious to find out [...]
So I know heretofore I described the chicken buses down here. Allow me to now provide some background on the posh side of Peace Corps. Peace Corps Honduras has a fleet of vehicles. Most are Toyota Land Cruisers or something similar. All are white. Most other cars here are pretty old and have trouble getting [...]
So I just went through Semana Santa here – thought I would use the opportunity to try to post some pictures. Here is a quick recap of what I did last week: • On Monday and Tuesday had classes as usual. On Wednesday had a half-day. For many Hondurans this whole week is off. Basically [...]
So a few weeks ago Greg Morrison from the US Embassy came to visit our Peace Corps group and talk about the country’s history. Since there was a coup in Honduras in June 2009 this turned into a pretty interesting meeting. Here is what I learned about Honduras and the coup (from the US government [...]
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