You never know what to expect in Maraita.

Leaving work at the Municipal office, I hear music playing at the school and decide to be nosy and see what's going on. I walk in on the end of the school year celebration for the teachers. Well, I should say the AFTER PARTY celebration since all the parents, and most of the children and teachers had left. Now there is just 6 teachers sitting around a table and 3 empty bottles of bacardi gold and another bottle about to get there.

I'm greeted with cheers and am immediately served a drink which I believe was half a cup bacardi and only had a splash of coke since the whole town knows I am the only person there that doesn't like soda. Keep in mind its about 3 in the afternoon. I tried to "fijase que" give excuses to why I can't drink right now.... like you know... its day time or we are in a school with children but none of these worked.

You all know me- get one drink in me, and I was cheering the rest of the afternoon to first "Maraita" then to "Los Catrachos" or Hondurans then to the "Gringos" then to "The hardest workers in Maraita-the teachers" then to "The invention of Zambos (plantain chips) or the greatest thing to put in your mouth after a shot" ya there was no stopping me. We were all laughing and having a great time.

Then one of the teachers slips me a piece of paper, and when I ask "what it is" all I get is a little wink and a "Thats my number" Next thing I know, I am peer pressured by the group to dance with him. NOT JUST ANY DANCE but the music was a live band of "Conjunta" which is basically glueing your whole body onto someone and doing a step-backward and forward/left and right with tons of spins or in other words dancing well suited for drunk horny folk.

During this dance, I get the honor of being bombarded by this teacher begging for my number so that he "can show me his school" but I keep waiting for the rest of that sentence something like "where I can be the teacher and you can play the student rawr"

As soon as humanly possible, I run away back to the table only to find my cup has mysteriously been filled to the brim with that devils acid again. And that just plays out in a circle, I go dance and then I come back with my friends filling my cup and telling me to "Tomalo de un solo, apurate!!!!" or "Chug it, hurry up!!!" So I would just sneakily pour my drink in other people's cups where they were more than happy to help me with my predicament. Thereby getting my companeros wasted, and not myself.

Dang, it was one of the best parties ever! No one can day drink like the teachers of Maraita can :D

Is this what Peace Corps meant when they talk about community integration and cultural exchange in their application materials?

Honduras becomes Western Hemisphere cocaine hub

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — On Honduras' swampy Mosquitia coast, entire villages have made a way of life off the country's massive cocaine transshipment trade. In broad daylight, men, women and children descend on passing go-fast boats to offload bales of cocaine destined for the United States.

Along the Atlantic coast, the wealthy elite have accumulated dozens of ranches, yachts and mansions from the drug trade. And in San Pedro Sula, local gangs moving drugs north have spawned armies of street-level dealers whose violence has given the rougher neighborhoods of the northern industrial city a homicide rate that is only comparable to Kabul, Afghanistan.

Long an impoverished backwater in Central America, Honduras has become a main transit route for South American cocaine.

"Honduras is the number one offload point for traffickers to take cocaine through Mexico to the U.S.," said a U.S. law enforcement official who could not be quoted by name for security reasons. A U.S. State Department report released in March called Honduras "one of the primary landing points for South American cocaine."

Almost half of the cocaine that reaches the United States is now offloaded somewhere along the country's coast and heavily forested interior — a total of 20 to 25 tons each month, according to U.S. and Honduran estimates. Authorities intercept perhaps 5 percent of that, according to calculations by The Associated Press based on official estimates of flow and seizures.

The flow is hard to stem, said Alfredo Landaverde, a former adviser to the Honduran security ministry, because there are few other sources of cash income here.

"We have to recognize that this society is very vulnerable," Landaverde said. "This is a country permeated by corruption, among police commanders, businessmen, politicians."

The country's isolated, impoverished Atlantic coast, remote ranches and largely unguarded border with Guatemala — where much of the cocaine is taken — also make it a haven for traffickers.

"When the traffickers are unloading a go-fast boat in (the Atlantic coast province of) Gracias a Dios, you can sometimes see 70 to 100 people of all ages out there helping unload it," said the U.S. law enforcement official. "The traffickers look for support among local populations."

In the past year, authorities seized 12 tons of cocaine, according to the Honduran government — a vast improvement from previous years, but still a small portion of the estimated 250 to 300 tons that come through annually. Most of the cocaine arrives in Honduras via the sea, in speedboats, fishing vessels and even submersibles. In July, the U.S. Coast Guard, with Honduras' help, detained one such craft that had been plying the waters with about 5 tons of cocaine per trip.

Fishermen who once worked catching lobster now look instead for a much more prized catch, the so-called "white lobster" — bales of cocaine jettisoned by drug traffickers to either escape detection or to be picked up by another boat.

Honduras is also by far the region's biggest center for airborne smuggling. Of the hundreds of illicit flights northward out of South America, 79 percent land in Honduras, said the U.S. official. Ninety-five percent of those flights hail from Venezuela, which also has become a link for cocaine produced elsewhere.

Landing aircraft in Honduras was once so profitable and planes so easy to get that traffickers would sometimes simply offload the drugs and burn the aircraft, rather than take off again from dangerously rudimentary clandestine landing strips. Last year, however, they started reusing the planes to ferry loads of bulk cash back to Colombia, the U.S. State Department report said. Authorities found one load of $9 million in U.S. cash stuffed in plastic bags in the trunk of a car, and millions at a time in suitcases at local airports.

Earlier this year, as aircraft became more difficult to obtain, traffickers stole a military plane from the San Pedro Sula army base on the Atlantic coast, said Landaverde, adding that soldiers were accomplices to the theft.

"The plane is left outside," he said. "Some guys turn it on and take off. Nobody leaves a plane like that, ready to fly." In fact, one of the soldiers involved in that incident was later arrested in September with other ex-soldiers as they allegedly waited to meet a drug flight on the country's Atlantic coast.

It is not just poverty-stricken fishermen and corrupt soldiers who are the beneficiaries of the emergent cocaine republic. Last week, authorities seized 13 luxurious homes and ranches and 17 boats in the first such mass raid since the country enacted a drug-properties seizure law in 2010. All were owned by local people.

Key members of the region's business community who have hotel, real estate and retail holdings have been named as associates of the cartels, often for money laundering. Nor are the drug trade's ripple effects restricted to the coast.

Copan, a Guatemalan border province popular with tourists because of its Mayan ruins, is a lawless area dominated by business interests tied to the drug trade, said a radio station owner who asked not to be quoted by name for security reasons.

"These people move without shame in politics and the business world," the station owner said. "They are involved in large-scale businesses in tourism. This region has been separated from the nation's territory. It is their lair."

At the other end of the economic spectrum are local street gangs, who are often paid in drugs as well as cash to move drugs north. Their ranks are growing and competition among them has pushed up the country's escalating homicide rate to one of the highest in the world. The country of 7.7 million people saw 6,200 killings in 2010. That's the equivalent of 82.1 homicides per 100,000 people — well above the 66 per 100,000 in neighboring El Salvador.

Others are becoming players in the bulk trade, the U.S. official said, remarking that, "Lately, we've seen some gangs that will purchase the cocaine and resell it."

The high volume of drugs coupled with the alarming homicide rate is tough to address in a nation where many police and army officers are working with drug gangs. Corrupt law enforcement officials had a fierce foe in the person of former Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, who was fired by President Porfirio Lobo in September after proposing a law to purge the police force of corrupt cops.

Alvarez had said publicly that some corrupt police essentially act as air traffic controllers for the drug flights. When a suspected drug flight was detected in August, Alvarez was quoted by a local newspaper as saying that two police officials not assigned to the district were in the area — their cellphone signals were traced to the control tower where the plane landed.

Alvarez claimed he was fired because of his campaign to clean up the police force, saying, "It was easier to get rid of a minister than to get rid of a corrupt cop."

But his replacement, Pompeyo Bonilla, said that given Honduras' highly protective labor laws, a mass firing of police officers probably would have been quickly followed by the reinstatement of many. He also claimed that Alvarez overstepped his authority by sending his proposed police cleanup law to congress without even telling Lobo.

"The president heard about it on television," Bonilla said.

Alvarez, who left for the United States soon after his dismissal, was not available for an interview, according to an unidentified woman who answered his U.S. cellphone number.

U.S. Ambassador Lisa Kubiske said she expects to work well with Bonilla. "President Lobo's administration is totally serious about fighting the cartels," Kubiske said. "When you talk to them, counternarcotics is almost the first word out of their mouths."

Alvarez was accustomed to dropping bombshells, including the claim that fugitive Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman had visited Honduras' border region next to Guatemala.

In March, police under Alvarez's command raided a remote mountain lab in northeastern Honduras. Alvarez said the lab processed cocaine from the paste of partly processed coca leaves, the first time that would have been done outside South America and an ominous development for Honduras. The lab, however, had apparently not yet been put to use. Bonilla said the lab was a small one, quickly dismantled, and no other such lab has been discovered in Honduras. "We are rather more a transit route" than a producer or processor, Bonilla said.

Some doubt the lab was intended to process coca paste; it may have been simply dedicated to cutting and repackaging imported cocaine, which is usually cut many times before it reaches the street.

"We haven't seen any evidence of cocaine processing taking place in Honduras so far," the U.S. official said, adding, "Twelve thousand kilos of cocaine were seized in Honduras this year, and we haven't seen a single ounce of cocaine paste."

Associated Press writer Luis Alonso in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

I've come to the conclusion that I am 100% certified crazy. Here is an evaluation tool for yourself to see if you pass the test or not:

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

-Steve Jobs

This craziness I realized is what has come to drive me forward, it gives me meaning to my day, and most importantly has given me the ability to love life. I mean, isn't it remarkable to think that with just one conscious thought, decision, or act, we can choose to make our world better-here and now-helping another human or animal breathe easier? And to have this opportunity and privilege on a daily, hourly, minute to minute basis- is in and of itself an absolute miracle.

And sometimes it is so easy to do - complimenting someone, donating $10 to a charity, encouraging advice to a friend, helping a friend network into a new opportunity or experience, the gift of time spent with someone, a meaningful conversation that brings new knowledge, etc.

But as of late, here in the country of Honduras, it has also has become a great source of struggle for me. I am realizing now-more than ever-the Himalayan sized mountain of a challenge that exists to create real sustainable developmental change in poor countries. Its so hard to even identify and agree upon what is development? Is it a better economy? Is it having stuff in your house or shoes on your feet?

No-

For me it is having your basic needs met, having all possibilities open to you, being able to bring dignity into your own life by finding meaning for it, and to experience all forms of love (of self, other beings, and the world). This must be encompassed by a world that reaches to exist without discrimination and violence.

The one thing that almost always can keep me going is the extraordinary capacity we have as human beings to feel other's pain. Empathy. It is this experience of having this shared feeling, and knowing that I am an actor in the world that excites and fills my life. We all are connected, participate, and contribute to either the positive or negative energy in the world. (whether we consciously moralize about it or not)

So its time- here and now. It takes courage but we must as individuals moralize, decide, and act with consciousness inorder to take ownership of our life.

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

-William James

If our world is to be healed by human efforts, this awakening to a life of meaning with love and compassion is our only hope.

Also on a tuesday as I was working in my municipality, someone came up to me asking me to donate money to a 16 year old boy who had just gotten home from the hospital. He had been goofing around with his friends, drinking and trying to jump from a moving car as i understand it when he fell and apparently was run over. His name is Augustine. He lost his right leg. He is 16 years old and had it amputated from the top of his hip, at his waist.

This is an account from a nurse from the USA who saw him right after he was brought home from the hospital "I was shocked to see how they sent him home. No supplies to change the dressing, no medicines for pain or infection, nothing. He had a soiled dressing on and i opened it to change it with things I had brought. it was stuck to the open wound that was closed with only 6 staples. The incision is about 16 inches long so with just a few staples there are many gaping holes in his incision. I went to get him antibiotics and pain medicines and a lot more dressing supplies. Hope he doesn't get an infection as he heals. I was back Monday and today. I asked when he was supposed to return to the Dr and they seemed surprised and said " he never told us to come back". His wound is really draining and his home is very dirty. it is a 2 room house with no furniture. His mattress is on the floor. I attached a photo of a "wheel chair" someone made for him with an old frame and a broken plastic chair. I gave him a Bible, but can't talk to him about Jesus yet until Miguel returns from working with a team in San Pedro Sula this week. I can only imagine the depression he is probably in, knowing he will be spending the rest of his life with only one leg. That means there is little hope for work for him without education and mental skills."

The bad thing is that this story is told over and over again here in Honduras.

The good news is that this nurse is building a hospital right near where this boy lives to serve any and all Hondurans with better medical care. Its amazing how one person can really make a difference, and be that light for someone, one person at a time.

Its the strangest thing.... We are in the rainy season here and In Maraita its been drizzling constantly. BUT just drizzling....

Photo to be inserted here, give me a few days for it to load.....

Somehow this drizzling has caused tremendous flooding to come off the nearby mountains so much so that the town bridges have been flooded and no one (bus nor car) could get in or out of the town.

Photo to be inserted but don't hold your breath....

Then some pipe must have burst somewhere so we didn't have water. The floods went down, the water came back, but it still comes out black. Fun shower time :D

Right now, I have about 1 year of service leftt as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. I have had the privledge to be a Municipal Development volunteer in one of the most corrupt countries in the world along with the wonderful UN statistic of having the highest murder rates in the world for a non-war country. I live in Maraita, a small mountainous town, two hours from the capital- Imagine a tiny town with 700 people in the center, with the smell of either coffee, beans, or tortillas; everyone knows everyone’s business but there is such a close knit community that you really feel a sense of family immediately. Maraita is included in the 50th poorest municipalities in Honduras, so their are a lot of challenges but overall I've been pretty successful in my projects I started- creating a participatory municipal budget with the public to improve transparency, training women in how to run and manage a micro-business, supporting a community bank to give locals a way to save money and take out loans, creating a functional property tax system (measuring and evaluating land and houses so that the local government can charge property taxes like in the states).

Another side project actually comes partly inspired by Martin Luther King Jr- I am working with fellow volunteers and a local NGO to create a leadership, tolerance and diversity camp for high school students.

I want this to be spectacular so send me any thoughts, quotes, activities, etc that I can use.

Hey that means you all my ex-RA friends :D

Here is a Honduran food recipe to try, its delicious and a fluffier version of Mexican empanadas:

2 cups white flour

2 cups wheat flour (if not just use white)

1 tb spoon yeast

1 tb panela molida (aka natural sugar cane if not use reg sugar)

1 pinch of salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Filling! you can use guava/pineapple jelly, or shredded coconut, or shredded apples with cinnamon, or veggies, get creative!

Mix all of the dry ingredients first then add the oil. Knead for 5 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes, then make tortillas with small balls of dough. Cut two large circles out of a plastic bag. Make a small ball, place a plastic circle under and over it, and smash it with a plate that’s flat on the bottom. Add filling of choice, fold over, and seal the ridge well. Place on a greased pan and bake for 10 minutes at 175C or 345F

Enjoy!

The question is- if you could save someone’s life right now, would you do it? If say, you saw a small child drowning in a shallow pond, would you jump in and save them? Even if it meant ruining your best pair of shoes or outfit? I’d say that for most of us the answer is a DEFINITE, UNQUESTIONABLE YES.

At the same time did you know that UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, estimates that about 24,000 children die every day from preventable, poverty-related causes. The World Bank estimates that there are 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. Yet at the same time almost a billion people live very comfortable lives, with money to spare for many things that are not at all necessary. (You are not sure if you are in that category? When did you last spend money on something to drink, when drinkable water was available for nothing? If the answer is “within the past week” then you are spending money on luxuries.)

While thousands of children die each day, we spend money on things we take for granted like bottled vs tap water, starbucks coffee, expensive clothes vs thrift stores. IS THIS MORALLY WRONG?

This is the basic question proposed in Peter Singer’s book “The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty”

Its difficult to estimate how much it costs to save a life, but Peter Singer estimates that by donating to international development organizations/charities, the cost can be as little as $200. It means cutting back on a couple of bottled waters or sodas per week, and instead donating it, that in less than year YOU COULD SAVE A SOMEONE’s LIFE!! By switching from bottled water to tap water and donating the savings to charity, any one person can save another human life after just 3 years (http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities)

I recommend this book to everyone I know. From this book I have decided that I am extremely privileged and live in gross excess in a time when people (and animals!) are dying and suffering needlessly. So starting from now on I PUBICALLY PLEDGE TO DONATING 10% OF MY INCOME to international organizations that work in developing countries. I am hoping to increase this percent as I go.

I decided that the call is urgent for the world’s extreme poor and it is time to do something. I recommend taking the pledge too. If not 10% then just something that is significantly more than you have been giving so far. Then see how that feels. You may find it more rewarding than you imagined possible.

Will you take the pledge (http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/pledge), and thereby encourage others to do the same?

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

- Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Then I saw you through myself, and found we were identical.

- Fakhr ad-din Iraqi (1211-89)

Here is some photos from my vacation in the islands of Cayos Cochinos.

This is why you should come visit me in Honduras:

The dock in front of the house we stayed in:

The Beauty is just astonishing

Cute Baby

The baby just peed on me

Live Like a PCV Challenge:

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

Can you handle it?

My town came out in the newspaper this past week - Can you guess for what?

Maybe for the agriculture production, a community event or fair, a new project coming to town, maybe even a heart warming piece about a local hero...... BUT NO, Maraita was in the national newspaper for the Corruption!!! AH!

The article says how the inhabitants of the municipality of Maraita, Francisco Morazan, denounced the former mayors of the National Political Party who work to destroy local projects and community infrastructure which the existing authorities.

The former mayors spend all their time in the district to impose order and obstruct the work of the mayor, Juan Carlos Quinonez. Why? Because they are looking to get re-elected and are unhappy that they have not been able to extort money out of the current mayor. CRAZY

Here is the article:

"Ex alcaldes obstaculizan proyectos en Maraita"

Nacionales 26 julio, 2011

TEGUCIGALPA.- Los habitantes del municipio de Maraita, Francisco Morazán, denunciaron a los ex alcaldes del Partido Nacional de boicotear los proyectos de infraestructura local y comunitaria que realizan las actuales autoridades.

Agregaron que ya no aguantan a los ex ediles que pasan todo el tiempo en la comuna imponiendo órdenes y obstruyen el trabajo del alcalde, Juan Carlos Quiñónez y el vicealcalde Jorge Alberto Valladares.

Manifestaron que entre los proyectos a los que se oponen los activistas que trabajan en la comuna y los ex alcaldes está la construcción del muro perimetral del Centro de Educación Básica de Francisco Morazán en la aldea Terrero Blanco, además de la red de energía eléctrica, entre otros.

“Los ex alcaldes imposibilitan todas las gestiones de la alcaldía por el simple hecho de que sus activistas se quedaron laborando sin ser despedidos por las nuevas autoridades y estos les hacen la vida de cuadritos a todos”, denunció la empleada municipal, Karla Ortiz.

“Se creen los dueños del pueblo, disponen de los proyectos cuando estos les convienen y cuando no, permanecen congelados dejando a los pobladores en incertidumbre, lamentó Óscar Ramírez, residente en el pueblo.

Desde hace dos años estamos batallando porque saquen a estas personas, son de gran cuello porque hacen y deshacen a su placer y siempre están a la defensiva si lo que se va a realizar es en beneficio de la comunidad, se quejó la vecina del lugar Carmela Servellón.

Otros vecinos preocupados dijeron que lo peor de todo es que los ex alcaldes además de haber hecho una pésima administración pretenden postularse nuevamente.

"Our earth is wounded. Her oceans and lakes are sick; her rivers are like running sores; the air is filled with subtle poisons. And the oily smoke of countless hellish fires blackens the sun. Men and omen scattered from homeland, family, friends, wander desolate and uncertain, scorched by a toxic sun......

In this desert of frightened, blind uncertainty, some take refuge in the pursuit of power. Some become manipulators of illusion and deceit. If wisdom and harmony still dwell in this world, as other than a dream lost in an unopened book, they are hidden in our heartbeat. And it is from our hearts that we cry out. We cry out and our voices are the single voice of this wounded earth.

Our cries are a great wind across the earth. - From The Warrior Song of King Gezar

So coming to Honduras I expected big bugs. And I have definitely found really big BIG bugs and spiders and scorpions …. But really I had gotten used to them until my encounter with the dreaded CHINCHE!

This bug smaller than your thumb is just about the scariest insect I could possibly imagine.

During the day, Chinches hide in crevices in the walls and roofs. The bugs emerge at night, when people are sleeping. Because they tend to feed on people’s faces, chinche bugs are also known as “kissing bugs.” After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate on the person. Chinches pass T. cruzi parasites in feces left near the site of the bite wound which causes the horribly dreadful CHAGAS DISEASE.

Chagas at first is no big deal in humans at first. You might get cold like symptoms or a swollen eye but sometimes unnoticeable. The next 20 years are completely asymptomatic phase with no signs that you carry the parasite. Then all of a sudden, after 20 years, chagas disease affects the nervous system, digestive system, and heart. You either die from your digestive system failing and consequential body starvation or from your heart swelling up and basically exploding.

So one night, I came home and the electricity had gone out again. I immediately passed out only to wake up about 1 am because the electricity had come back and I had left my light on. I turn my head to see a chinche right next to my face. AH! I of course freak out but somehow courageously grab my sandal and chase done the sucker until I killed it about three times. When I smashed it, it shot out a stream of blood, UGH I am pretty sure it had gotten me. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night so I baked a couple dozen batches of snicker doddle cookies. Probably the scariest night of my life and I bake vegan cookies – very Martha Stewart.

Fast forward to now I just got tested for the parasite…. And drum roll please……. It came back negative! So I am saved! I am going to get the test done at the end of my service just to be sure but I feel much better now. Also I found out after the fact that there is medicine to kill the parasite but only if you catch it early. If you wait 20 years your screwed. After surviving this – I say – Is that all you got Honduras? C’mon bring it! I’m ready!

I want to share a story with you of someone I met here as a reminder of the incredible privilege we have as US citizens and also to inspire both of us to trek on ahead despite such massive walls of adversity that stand before us:

I met him on my first week at site. I was giving myself the first tour of the whole town and after about an hour I had just about seen everything of Maraita - a town about 3 blocks long and 2 blocks wide. I stumbled across the library and by chance on a training that was happening just at that moment. That's when I met Dennis Martinez, a short, young 25 year old man with a soft quick voice yet commanding presence. He was giving a talk on self esteem to a group of women. With curiosity, I introduced myself as Lisette the new Peace Corps volunteer in town and we got to chatting. He introduced himself as Dennis, an agent of change, born and raised in Maraita, and currently working to train women in micro business management through a government institute called PRAF. I was curious so he invited me to his next talk in a village 2 hours away by foot. So the next day we walked to a grammar school to talk about Personality and Identity. Nervous as he was, he did a great job. I jumped in with my love of icebreakers and interactive activities. In addition to the material he had, I did ice breaker game and made the shy women come up and present their identities in a pie graph. Many of the women presented themselves as 50% mother, 25% wife, and the rest random things like lover of music, dancer, christian, catholic. It was very interesting to me because it was very different from when I had done this activity in the states.

As I have gotten to know Dennis over the past 7 months, I have become more and more inspired by him. First he is a man working to help women in a Machista/Sexist country that believes women are men's property and are too ignorant to be capable of work outside the home. Second, Dennis is a gay man in a country that kills homosexual men and doesn't even acknowledge the possibility of a lesbian. (Women as just for men, part of the Machismo) He recently was interviewed on National TV and for the first time openly declared that he is gay. That's one way to come out of the closet. And finally what amazes me more than anything is his courage and idealism to front the oppression and injustice in Honduras. He proudly calls himself an agent of change - and he is one by helping women, teaching math classes with children, and working with one of the few gay rights organizations here.

In these talks now he has begun to open up like a book, telling the women that he was a victim of sexual abuse, has come up from thinking of himself as dirt to knowing he is someone (to use his words). Not just anybody, but an important person and an agent of change.

He is an optimist that sees the bright sun rising over the mountains of Maraita. He is nothing short of a hero who dares to dream.

Lisette has done it again with her crazy animal rights idealism.

I have been in country for 9 months and still going strong as a vegan!

I am even working with other volunteers forming a volunteer support group called Apoyo sin Pollo or Support with Chicken YAY to support vegetarians/vegans/non-meat heads in Peace Corps Honduras. Check out the article I wrote about it for the PC newsletter:

Get in on the action - Apoyo Sin Pollo!

Submitted by volunteer Lisette Molina

Tired of the bombardment of churros, sugar coffee, and funky ‘pata de baca’ soup? Want to feel rejuvenated, energized and ten years younger? Well, check out the newest unofficial PCV support group

Apoyo sin Pollo!

Our mission: “To provide loving support to Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff by eating saludable y sostenible, exercising through recipe exchanges, potlucks, sharing saludable reads, and creating a macanudo cookbook to be passed down to future PCVs and our communities.”

This group of 44 members grew out of a need to support vegetarians and vegans in Peace Corps but has now grown larger to include anyone interested in healthier eating and exercise for themselves and for their Honduran communities. This is about moving toward eating a plant based diet so that we are as physically healthy as we can be, environmentally friendly, and spare animal suffering. And it’s not about being pure or strict; it’s about being informed and having fun while living according to values like kindness and thoughtfulness. We strive to be healthy, heal our bodies from disease, and start making the world a more peaceful, sustainable, and livable place. It’s about leaning into a healthy lifestyle simply by tweaking our very favorite meals so that they are delicious and nutritious versions of the things we already love.

Quick stats about why “no pollo”:

• Former President Bill Clinton, Boxer Mike Tyson, Actor Tobey Maguire, NFL player Tony Gonzalez all follow a primarily plant-based diet so if you want to be famous, an athlete or President of the USA….

• The United Nations has reported that a vegan diet can feed many more people than an animal-based diet.

• A United Nations report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, ships, and planes in the world COMBINED.

• Of all the raw materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S., more than one-third are used to raise animals for food.

• Compared to meat-eating comrades, vegetarians/vegans experience a 50 percent lower rate of heart disease, a 40 percent lower cancer rate and a life- span of 6-10 years longer, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

• Animals are sentient beings who deserve dignity and a life free of suffering. Pigs are smarter than dogs and every bit as friendly, loyal, and affectionate. They have greater cognitive abilities than a 3-year old human child.

For me personally this has been a life saver and comfort. I’ve been vegetarian for over 10 years (no animal flesh – chicken, beef, fish, etc) and ve- gan for 5 (No animal flesh or products – meat, dairy, eggs, etc.). I am passionate about animal rights and also human rights. That’s why like you, I’m here in Peace Corps. But when applying to Peace Corps, I was told in my interview that I have to be flexible about being vegan aka eat meat. Luckily, I have been able to completely avoid animal products and still be culturally sensitive and more than nutrition- ally sound. And now I am even part the Apoyo Sin Pollo community who has the same interest too. Interested? Burning questions? Email Lisette.Molina.pchn@gmail.com

Went to Antigua, Guatemala for 2 days for a conference by BEJO on agricultural practices and producion. I was in love seeing so many of my old friends - veggies! including a strange green vegetable I've never seen. I also ate fresh veggie soup, carrot jelly, beet wine, and carrot sherbet: DELICOUS!

Its not what I expected. I thought the toughest thing about coming to volunteer in Honduras would be getting used to the living conditions. But I have gotten used to the rainy weather, huge bugs, and cold bucket showers. The real challenge is in one deceptively simple word:

CULTURE

The challenge is a day-to-day, moment-to-moment effort required to speak in another language and be effective in another culture. It’s when working as a Peace Corps volunteer in the city municipality, the incomprehension and mounting frustration that I can’t help but feel. Its getting used to dealing with a perplexing bureaucracy, the lack of motivation in some host country counterparts, and the tremendous daily, hourly effort required to speak in another language and be effective in another culture. It’s a constant struggle to be self-aware and sensitive.

Culture can be beautiful and encourage people to new heights. It can also inhibit individuals – dividing and destroying communities. I have never recognized it as such a powerful force. A wise friend of mine named Missy cautioned me about

CULTURAL FALLACIES

Or defending practices based on tradition and culture. Let’s talk about where this can go wrong – MACHISMO or sexism in Honduras. Woman’s lower status in society is constantly defended in Honduras by arguments of cultural fallacy. As a feminist from US culture, it becomes difficult to deal with the daily cat calls, harassment, lack of respect as a female leader, etc. I can’t drink a beer in my town as a woman and am constantly asked why I am 24 and don’t have kids.

It effects work too….

I am working on creating a cooperative of farmers in this region with 4 other municipalities. I invited several farmers to an organizacional meeting including 3 woman just to have the driver refuse to take the women. I had gone in another car but he apparently told the woman that this was a man’s meeting and they were not invited. (majority of farmers here are men).

Or the patronato that tries to stop the meetings of the women’s groups I am organizing by locking us out of the meeting venue- the community center.

A short Anecdote to clarify culture as a factor in development in Honduras: There are 2 pots on a stove both filled with rats - one represents El Salvador and the other Honduras. The pot representing El Salvador has a lid on it while the Honduran one has none. Why is that? Because if you would take the lid off the Salvadorean pots, all the rats would scramble out, escaping danger to a better situation. But for the Honduran pot, the lid is not necessary. If one rat tries to escape, move on to something better, the other rats will quickly pull him/her down. Thereby no one escapes, develops, or betters their lives.

This aneadote may seem odd but I have retold it to other locals and they completely agree that is Honduras. There is a culture of EGOISMO or selfishness. I see it between men, women, and children.

Poverty can be just as much about economics, GNPs, and money as it is about culture. Culture- as I now am beginning to understand- is both the end and the means of development work.

"In its entire 50-year history, we have spent less money on the Peace Corps than one percent of the defense budget for just this year, approximately $7 billion in 2011. Given that, the Peace Corps is less than a rounding error in the U.S. budget. "

Full article:

If the president proposed a program today that was cost-effective, inspired public service, trained Americans for 21st century jobs, strengthened our interests abroad, countered anti-American propaganda and had bipartisan support, we would consider it miraculous. Yet, we already have a program that does all those things. Today is the 50th anniversary of the executive order signed by President John F. Kennedy that established the Peace Corps. Unfortunately, much of the discussion about the program recently seems to be stuck in a time warp. Supporters and detractors alike talk about the Peace Corps as if it were a 1960s-era program — a disservice because it’s actually more modern than many realize.

When the Peace Corps started, many thought government could do just about anything: send a man to the moon, win the Cold War, and end poverty. The Peace Corps was born of that optimism. Although poverty remains far too pervasive, having sent a man to the moon and won the Cold War, we know that some of those ideas weren’t entirely fanciful.

Today, we live in a far more cautious time, which blurs the fact that the Peace Corps makes every bit as much sense now as it did in 1961. To start, it’s a remarkably cost-effective program. In its entire 50-year history, we have spent less money on the Peace Corps than one percent of the defense budget for just this year, approximately $7 billion in 2011. Given that, the Peace Corps is less than a rounding error in the U.S. budget. Yet, it supports 8,600 volunteers in 76 countries and directly affects at least one million lives each year.

Considering how little we’ve spent on it, the Peace Corps has a very powerful influence on the American public and global perceptions about our country. Many notable public servants like Ambassador Chris Hill, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, Senator Paul Tsongas, Governor Jim Doyle, and former Executive Director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy got their start in public service as Peace Corps volunteers.

While they are still “the sandals on the ground” as in the early days, who Peace Corps volunteers are and how and where they work is very different. Responding to present-day needs, today’s volunteers are more skilled and tech savvy, and are focused on combating HIV/AIDS, addressing food insecurity, promoting job creation, and building capacity to educate the world’s youth.

The Peace Corps helps Americans know the world as it is and as it is becoming. In today’s interconnected world we need to know how the world really works, especially in developing countries where there are myriad emerging business opportunities. Basically, the Peace Corps is a 21st century job-training program. It provides the kind of training in language, adaptability, working in foreign cultures that simply can’t be taught in business school because to truly understand the world you have to live as others do, seeing the world as they do.

As a result, the Peace Corps also fosters social entrepreneurs. By necessity, volunteers are entrepreneurial because they often work independently or in small groups in areas where there are limited resources and weak government services, forcing volunteers to be creative and self-motivated in devising innovative solutions to problems. Figuring out how to provide a remote village with drinkable water with limited resources is a challenge that has a lot more in common with running a shoestring Internet startup than you would think. But don’t take my word for it. Former volunteers have gone on to create Netflix, lead the Red Cross in Haiti, and start a telecom company out of Central America.

The Peace Corps also helps us maintain international ties and strengthen America’s interests abroad in the most tangible and important way: human connections. Current or former heads of state like Paul Kagame of Rwanda or Alejandro Toledo of Peru praise the Peace Corps for helping develop their countries and staying connected. With al Qaeda spewing anti-American propaganda and state-run television in some countries casting Americans as the Great Satan, we should not discount the powerful influence that the simple act of spending time with an American can have on others.

There are very few programs today that can bring both parties together, yet the Peace Corps is popular with both Republicans and Democrats and enjoys bipartisan support in Congress. It’s also been touted by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

It is almost inconceivable to think of a program that could do all of this on such a small budget. So today, on its golden anniversary, let’s take a moment to commemorate the Peace Corps as a modern-day initiative and recognize its successes over the last five decades. President Kennedy created a valuable program that was amazing in 1961, and is still remarkable 50 years later.

Kevin F. F. Quigley (Thailand 76-79) is president of the National Peace Corps Association, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization supporting Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the Peace Corps Community. To learn more, visit: www.peacecorpsconnect.org

March 1, 2011 Peace Corps celebrated its 50th anniversary as an organization that sends volunteers to serve in developing countries.

To commemorate the day, PC had a special cocktail event in Teguz, Honduras. I somehow got chosen as the only volunteer to do a speech - right after the PC Honduras Director Emily and the US ambassador. I never thought of myself as a good public speaker (much like how I feel about my blogging skills) and felt nervous to the bones.

But apparently it was a success, and a group of people even ended up crying from my speech including the director who ended up with watery eyes.

I ended up on 3 Honduran TV channels and on this news site with a photo with the ambassador, PC director, me and Honduran counterpart:

http://proceso.hn/2011/03/02/Metrópoli/El.Cuerpo.de/34398.htmlq

All and all, super cool! And my fav part is that they wined and dined us - Literally with wine and HUMMUS! Oh how I missed my mediterranean love.

Here is a copy of my speech - translated from Spanish so phrasing might be a little awkward:

I have to confess something. When Peace Corps asked me to give this speech, I had no idea where to start or what to share. So I asked for help from one of my best and smartest friends - A 9 year old boy - named David. He dictated to me what I should say as an introduction in front of you all today:

"Happy Birthday Peace Corps for your fifty years of existence in the world and for your serve. Thank you for your serve to people of Honduras and around the world. Thanks Peace Corps for your service to countries and cities. And also thanks for giving work to the Americans. "

This child, at the young age of 9 years, already knows Peace Corps as a service organization, and has Peace Corps as part of his vocabulary. It also seems that he understands the economic problems of the world and the lack of jobs. And it is true, in a sense David knows Peace Corps more than me. David and I live in a town called Maraita in the department of Francisco Morazan. It has a population of 7,000 inhabitants scattered across a valley and two mountains. The town center has a population of 500 inhabitants. Maraita is also ranked among the 50 poorest municipalities in Honduras by the Honduran government. Peace Corps has sent 18 volunteers to Maraita, starting in 1982. Person to person, Peace Corps has created a legacy of service in the cause of peace, and become an internal symbol to promote cultural exchange and give a helping hand. So to David, this organization has been part of his whole life.

We can build a list of items, materials, and donations generated from Peace Corps volunteers easily. In my town alone, volunteers started computer classes at school, constructed a library, trained nurses in the health center in first aid, and taught farmers improved techniques to ensure food security ... and much more. But you can’t find the biggest impact of PC in this simple list.

Gradually in the past 5 months of being a volunteer, I have begun to understand that the best thing what is the best out come of Peace Corps. And one event in particular, finally turned on the light for me.

As a volunteer in the Municipal Development project, my first idea at my new site was to make a participatory budget. For the first time people in Maraita could participate and comment on what should be included in the budget of the municipality and prioritize community problems. With the transparency committee, I organized meetings with all the community leaders. To start the meeting, we did an activity of creating a "resource map" in which each village or neighborhood drew his community and the resources were available to have a map of the community and identifying resources that may be useful in a project. I defined resources and showed an example of a map of other community resources. Then a representative of each village came forward to present their map. They came up to the front and presented their community: "There are homes in poor condition, there is a lack of forest protection, we are not organized and there is no neighborhood council, and so on."

They could only see the stain on the shirt and not the positive. We started again from the top. The description of community changed: "There are many homes - a thriving community with leaders, there is a forest with a spring as a water source, and maybe people here are not organized but we are willing to work." We no longer only saw a town full of poverty. We say communities filled to the brim with human and environmental resources. And the presenters were smiling, feeling, perhaps for the first time, proud of their small village.

Poverty begins and grows in the mind. You can see it in other people as I have seen it in my own mind. Poverty is a weed that is planted hard in the mind with thick, contaminating roots. What Peace Corps does in conjunction with local counterparts is pull out intoxicating weed and turn the hands of the people into hands that work, and work to cultivate and harvest seeds that are virtuous and good.

Nobody liberates anybody else, and nobody liberates themselves all alone. People liberate themselves in fellowship with each other.

And for me, that's the best thing that brings Peace Corps to countries around the world-

A service motivated by compassion, a belief in the rights that every individual should have a life with dignity, freedom and opportunity, a commitment to eliminate the barriers of poverty, ignorance and disease; an unwavering optimism of building a better world together.

Life is short. Even a long human life just adds to 650,000 hours. And from that you still have to subtract the basic things like sleeping and time in the bathroom.

There are few hours in this life. It’s like a shooting star flying fast in the night sky. And at the same time, every six seconds someone dies of hunger in the world.

But always when I wake up at the crack of dawn and smell the coffee and grinded corn in this country, I wake up with a big, wide smile. Because I know that on this day, this day of mine, I have the opportunity and tools as a Peace Corps volunteer to change the world and cultivate peace with members of my community. Maybe today I will bring peace to someone else or maybe I will see it grow within myself… but either way ... I know I have started something incredible.

Peace Corps has created an incredible movement.

Let me conclude by going back to the start - to what that little boy of 9 years said. It rings true – thank you to Peace Corps. Thank you for giving me a job, but not just any job. But "the toughest job I'll ever love" .... a job of service work with challenges, meaning and purposeful. And thank you Honduras for changing my life for the better, forever.

I think I have just about given up on typing on this blog. Video blogging is so much easier. Check out dorky me as I climbed Mt Enea to protect my town's water source:

We got sad news this past week - because of budget cuts they are killing two projects for the 5 we have in Honduras. One of which is mine - Municipal Development. So that means I am part of the last volunteer group for the project. Its sad because it is a much needed project and makes my work harder because any project has to be completed or self sustainable because no Municipal development volunteer will come after me to follow up.

So the other volunteers and I are moaning and groaning a bit but we are going to finish out STRONG!

I def relate to this video alot. Crossed between a binding optimism and the tuff reality of Honduras

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-wDq17zyN0

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!

New Years was awesome here in Maraita. I walked around visiting families and eating at just about every stop :D I spent the evening with one of my friends and her family doing some more eating, and dancing......only to then be presently surprised by a visit from “El Año Viejo” aka the old year:

The tradition is someone creates a scarecrow looking dude that represents this past year - El Año Viejo. He comes around to all the houses, and for a tip, you get the opportunity to dance with this beautiful man. So for fun and laughs, I danced with the scary and dirty Año Viejo only to realize he weighed a ton. Makes sense – 2010 was a challenging year:

Then at midnight to say goodbye to 2010 they burn this scarecrow looking dude in the central park who is also filled with firecrackers. Burning Man Honduras style. Its an awesome show! Check out the video above.

I have to say the trip back from the states was a tough one. It was so great seeing all my wonderful friends and family that it was hard to go.

BUT while waiting in the LAX airport since my flight got delayed 2 hours, I was pleasantly surprised to see a strip show with music and everything by Wee-man. The little guy from the show Jackass. He was actually on the same flight as me to Miami, and was pretty drunk, began flirting with some teeny boppers and then proceeded to play techno, do the robot and finally strip tease to the music. He didn’t get too far before his brother stopped him but it was hilarious.

Learned this recipe here in Honduras though its not a traditional recipe here. I made it for the holidays and everyone loved it. I will try to post more Honduran recipes on the blog. If you try it, let me know if you like it!

Ingredients:

-Beets (fresh vs canned is way better)

-Cucumbers

-Tomatoes

-Red or yellow onion

-Cilantro

-Candied pecans

Cut stems off beets and boil beets with skin until you can poke through with a fork easily. Then remove from heat, and peel skin off. Dice all veggies into small cubes and mix together in large bowl. Add chopped cilantro, finally diced onion, and crushed pecans. Enjoy immediately or this salad tastes even better after being in fridge. Enjoy!

Its something I realize I have taken for granted. Its so easy for me to vote, call up my senator or now whats becoming so common – just send a pre-written online petition. Here in Maraita I started on a project to create a participatory budget where citizens would give input on their needs so that the information can be integrated into projects in the 2011 Munipical Budget. This was an idea brought up by an organizer from SIPRODEH (Honduran government institute) but with no support. Discussing this idea with the mayor he let me spearhead the effort. I divided Maraita into 4 zones and held meetings in each zone with all the “fuerzas vivas” or leaders in the community of those zones. The meetings consisted of “PACA” activities (Participatory Analysis for Community Action), which resulted in the analysis of local strengths/weakness, creation of resource maps of each community, and a prioritization of needs.

Half way through the planning of these meetings, I found out I had created the first participatory budget in Maraita.The next steps is to present this information to the “Municipal Corporation” or local government council who will plan and develop projects based on the said needs then present the budget to the community. The meetings have been interesting – really unexpected occurrences – from a man standing up right smack in the middle me speaking to rant about the excess of alcohol in his community and re-tell the story of his life including when he used to be an alcoholic. Or another interesting thing that happened is when I asked leaders to sketch out a community map with the local resources and then present it – All I got at first was 10 minutes of what lacks in the community. I think it was the first time many of them had stopped to think about the many resources they had for developing projects instead of asking for what they need:

(Working together to draw resources)

(A finished map labled with churches, trees, houses, farmers, mountains, a school, crop fields of beans and corn, etc.)

(This group was a little stumped. They drew a church, wrote women's group, and drew my co-worker and leader of a "Junta de Agua" organization. People are always resources)

During these meetings, I also created a planning committee with leaders from each community to facilitate, advise, and be involved in the development projects that will occur in their community in 2011. It also was a great opportunity to meet almost all of Maraita’s leaders and get to know the community needs.The next steps is to present this information to the “Municipal Corporation” or local government council who will plan and develop projects based on the said needs then present the budget to the community.

The meetings have been interesting – really unexpected occurrences – from a man standing up right smack in the middle me speaking to rant about the excess of alcohol in his community and re-tell the story of his life including when he used to be an alcoholic. Or another interesting thing that happened is when I asked leaders to sketch out a community map with the local resources and then present it – All I got at first was 10 minutes of what lacks in the community. I think it was the first time many of them had stopped to think about the many resources they had for developing projects instead of asking for what they need. I think its a huge step forward in democracy. It also was a huge step forward for me - when people have to walk for hours to get to a meeting to voice their needs for the first time - I definitely have a greater appreciation for democracy. I made sure to get my vote in this November and next time I will send that online petition .... like this one http://www.petitiononline.com/stopgod/petition.html

"I believe democracy to be of all forms of government the most natural, and the most consonant with individual liberty. In it no one transfers his natural rights so absolutely that he has no further voice in affairs, he only hands it over to the majority of a society, whereof he is a unit. Thus all men remain, as they were in the state of nature, equals".

~Spinoza

This morning I went to hang up my clothes on the line to dry, when all of a sudden I felt a little itch on my foot. I looked down to see that I had decided to plant my foot right on top of a giant ant hill. My feet were covered in ants! AND as I found out Honduran ants love to bite the heck out of you --- My feet started burning with bites and I flew through the house to the pila (outdoor cement bathtub-ish thing) to wash them off and this is what I ended up with:

My host mom had a good laugh.

Its been over a month that I have been here in my site Maraita and I am well on the way to settling in. Let me try to paint a picture of what my life is like here.Maraita is an extremely small town. In this first month, I think I have gotten to know half the pueblo but through chisme (gossip) they all know me. When I introduce myself as Lisette the new PC volunteer, the response I usually get is “Oh so you’re the Nicaraguan who doesn’t eat anything.” Aka the vegan whose parents were both born in Nicaragua. Here I am not American since I don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes like the ones on TV. In the town center there is a small park consisting of grass, a basketball court (that is always ALWAYS used for soccer) and a kiosk. Surrounded the park is the municipality, a grammar school, police station, and church. The rest of Maraita central is mostly houses plus the high school, kindergarten, and health center. There is also ‘aldeas’ or small pueblos that surround the main part of town, photos below:(Central Park)

(Photo in one of the aldeas) I wake up at 6:30 am which by that time my host mom has already made breakfast, hand washed all of the families clothes, and cleaned the whole house. I head out for a morning run passing breath taking views of green mountains all around since Maraita is located in a valley. The views are also breath-taking cause I’m running and well- a little bit out of shape. All along the way, people greet me with a hello (Greeting everyone is a must here even strangers) and a curious stare or occasionally comment. Often I get a comment like “Really tired huh?” in the first 5 min of my run which is terrible for my pride but great for my motivation. The curious stares are from me being the only person in this town who runs for fun. Once my co-worker saw me running and decided to join me even though he was in his nice work clothes. People just don’t know how to react. Next is the most detested part of my day – the cold water shower. Dun dun duuuuuuh! Ok so maybe its not the worst thing in the world but its not fun. There is electricity and running water most of the time here so I can live with the cold showers. Then after getting ready and eating breakfast, I am off to work at the town’s municipal office. I usually get there by 8:30, 30 minutes after the work day begins, where I am chaffed for being late. Looking around though I always see everyone kicking back waiting for the coffee to brew to drink with their rosquias. There is a mayor (he comes about once a week), secretary, treasurer, women’s office coordinator, 2 janitors, environmental officer and public services officer. The building has one large room, two offices, and 4 computers. I usually then sit, chit chat for a while and wait for people to get started on work. Being a Municipal Development Volunteer I have tried to get involved with as much as I can in the Municipality. So work right now is planning a women’s small business showcase and fair, helping the CATASTRO office create a property tax system for the town, creating a PARTICIPATORY 2011 municipal budget with citizens’ input, and helping to establish the brand new women’s office. This is also mixed in with employees stopping work to gossip, dance, do someone else’s eyebrows, haircuts, food parties, rounding up somebody’s donkey that got loose in the park, etc. I love the work environment here. In between the work and randomness, I take an hour lunch break. I’m also working on some side projects including working with a community bank, and teaching the secretary at the high school how to use a computer so she then teaches the students computer classes. It’s a lot of work but with everything I do I have a counterpart so that the project is sustainable and continues after my 2 years of service. Also so I don’t have a heart attack and die at the age of 35. At around 5 pm I head home to my host family, eat dinner, watch TV, play with the kids, exercise or do yoga with my host mom, and then hit the hay around 7 or 8pm. Yes that’s right for you smarties paying attention I sleep an average of 11 hours. There are definitely some lows but overall its awesome here!

Yesterday, our Municipal Development group found out our site announcements. I am heading out to the beautiful, gorgeous Mariata:

"Maraita is located 2 hours southeast from the capital of Honduras Tegucigalpa in the departamento (state) of Francisco Morazan. It has very nice weather due to its altitude at 1,000 feet and by being located in a mountainous region. The town center has around 1000 people and 6,800 in the entire municipality. It is a poor municipality as a whole with little outside assistance from NGOs. The people there are very friendly and receptive to outsiders. The community can be slow to motivate but once active can effectively accomplish tasks set before them."

This is a brief bio in my welcome packet to my site. I will initially be working on creating a urban plan with the municipality, supporting a micro-bank, and teaching at school. As I learn more about the community and the needs, I can initiate other projects. Out of the group, I received one of the smallest sites but also the closest one to the capital. But Maraita seems like a perfect match because what I was hoping for is a community with lots of needs to keep me busy.

I am very excited to move on Sept. 11 to my new home for the next two years!

View Larger Map

Honduran, full bodied woman with a gorgeous face. She has 5 kids and crochets for a living. But she came to our training classes this week to share about something else. Anna is HIV+ The following is some of the things she shared with us Peace Corps trainees as part of our HIV/AIDs training:

She didn’t want HIV, she didn’t go looking for it, but still it came and found her. Her second husband gave it to her. He knew he was positive. She didn’t. And she didn’t figure it out till she was pregnant with their son Miguel and started to have complications and lose a lot of weight. The hospital staff avoided telling her that she and her newborn son where positive. She received 18 different diagnoses, neglect from the staff, and the first of a lot of stigmatism from being positive. Anna lost most of her friends and had to move after being ostracized from her community. She had to get organized with others and put on a fight with the government to work to make her antiretroviral medication available to her. On top of the discrimination, she has had to deal with being in a 3 month long coma, uterine cancer/chemotherapy, and alcoholism but recovered from it all. I cannot contemplate having to deal with this in the states or even began to imagine what it is like in the second poorest country on the western hemisphere with so much poverty, stigmatism, lack of medical expertise, or resources etc. But after 9 years of being HIV+, she is still in love with life and is a huge source of strength and inspiration to her children including her youngest Miguel. One of her children is in medical school now just hoping he will be able to find a cure for HIV for his mom before its too late. What hit me in her talk was after telling her story she warned us, “Be very careful with your sympathy.” Being in her position, with so much of a daily struggle, it must be very easy to take hand outs from sympathetic people. But in her case, she refuses. Instead she tells us that when we encounter people in difficult or next to impossible circumstances to offer a shoulder to cry on, a hug, or comforting hand. But then to fervently tell the person, “Te puede, te vale, te sale” (You can, You value, You do it). Sympathy is not about pity for someone's weaknesses but concern for their strengths and aspirations. True sympathy is about empowering others to make the necessary changes in their life and community to find happiness. A free hand out will not give them that depth of fulfillment. This is what Anna has dedicated her life to. I only hope to have a fraction of her strength to do the same. Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

Martin Luther King Jr.

The past two weekends I got to hop on a bus with highschoolers for two field trips. The first was La Tigra National Park - 238 sq feet of cloud forest and pine forest with abandoned mines, colorful birds, numerous rivers and waterfalls. Imagine walking on a mud path along side gorgeous flora of lush trees, vines, lichen, large ferns, colorful mushrooms, and orchids. I literally did some vine swinging (though not very successfully). It was a 2 hour hike just to get to the park entrance plus another 3 hours hiking to reach this tremendous waterfall. We stopped and had lunch at the foot of the waterfall hearing the water pour just next to us. On the way back down, a group of us got tired of all the trash on the path and started picking it up. We ended up with three grocery bags of trash! But other than that - BEAUTIFUL!

Photos:

The following weekend I headed out from Cantarranas at 3 in the morning for a 5 hour bus ride to reach Pulhapanzak National Park. No biggie for me cause I passed out the whole way their and back :D

Now I was impressed by the first waterfall at La Tigra but this park had a HUMONGOUS 43 m waterfall with a permanent rainbow next to it. And you could even zip line right across the front of this waterfall over a huge valley. This place is barely even mentioned in guide books, so it was so empty, relaxed, and peaceful. You could get a plate of typical Honduran food or drinks at the cafeteria and sit right next to this river. Or you can go for a swim and climb the many boulders and trees to jump in. Afterwards, we headed out to Lago de Yojoa, Honduras' largest natural lake. We sat at one of the many cheap eateries sitting right on the edge of the lake, ordered our food and drinks - and me enjoying the huge jar of chilies on the table. How lucky are these highschoolers to have these incredible fieldtrips!

Photos:

So get ready to visit! Your dream vacation awaits!

Get down, dirty, into the action! This week we did a 3 day training seminar on the construction of fogones or wood burning stoves. These specially designed stoves use half the amount of fire wood than a traditional Honduran wood burning stove. This means less emissions, less lung cancer for the cooks, less forest being chopped down, less time to heat up, and it even cooks meals for you! Ok maybe not quite at the level of automated cooking but it is actually more energy efficient than an electric. On the third day we constructed one of these fogones for a family living in a rural community. Amazing these are mostly just constructed with some bricks and mud/grass or cement/sand mixture.

Before Photo:

Mixing Cement and Construction:

One Happy Family:

Completed Fogone aka time for TORTILLAS!:

Check it out! We made a video about Cantarranas for our Spanish class. Its the first video I ever made, super silly, so ENJOY!

Having been in Honduras for 3 weeks, I think I can summarize my experience with one word – ¡TORTILLA! I have eaten about 100 hundred (4-6 per day) of these amazingly delicious hand made maiz goodness. When served a plate of spaghetti by my host family, I am asked in Spanish “How many tortillas would you like?” But the word is also appropriate cause as tortillas are the basis of about every meal, just like how these first week are the foundation my Peace Corps service.

Right now as I am going through the 11 week intensive training, I definitely feel like I am being mixed up with some local maiz flour and molded into a Municipal Development volunteer. Training is Monday thru Saturday, 7:30-4:30, and includes 4 hours of Spanish, technical/development training, cultural awareness, health and safety.

I am enjoying learning about and adjusting to Honduran culture here and also sampling all the great dishes and fresh fruit juices. My host family is absolutely amazing, sweet, and so welcoming. I am living with my host mom, dad, little 13 year old brother, a raccoon, 2 geese, a squirrel, 2 turtles, and 2 dogs.

Random things I have learned thus far:

· Out of the group of 57 volunteers being trained there are 0 republicans.

· I have discovered my favorite word in Spanish: Matapasión literally translates to `kills passion’ but is Honduran for granny panties

· Honduras is the third poorest country in the western hemisphere (sometimes placed as second depending on index)

· 42% of Hondurans complete grade 9 and only 21% complete grade 12

· 90% of Honduran agriculture exports go to the U.S. so you can probably thank the Hondurans for that salad you´re chomping on

· Honduras has the second largest reef in the world –the Mesoamerican Reef

· There are more than 100 protected area here (27% of the territory) including mangroves, forests, waterfalls, and other beauties. Friends, family get ready to come see it!

· During an HIV info session, the presenter explained that volunteers have access to unlimited number of condoms in every color, size, flavor, texture, etc. An excellent investment of US tax payer dollars!

I am new to this blog world, so please give me feedback on my nonsense scribbling or just write me! :D

Fighting for a cause simply creates more of a negative – fighting from two opposed sides. After gaining experience working with very effective non-profits like Support for International Change, Community Advocates for People’s Choice, and One Heart Source, I learned that you cannot help the world by focusing on the negative. But rather, effective solutions are born out of focused energy and collaboration of individuals united with a common action plan. I believe each one of us has the potential to bring hope into our world by standing up and making a difference using one’s own personal knowledge and experiences. I expect to use my attributes as a hard worker, motivator, leader, team-builder, and mediator – characteristics I have developed through previous activities ranging from volunteer advocacy work to academic research. In addition, I expect to use my theoretical knowledge of international development that I have gained from my Bachelors education in Geography and International Development Studies at UCLA. Bringing this energy and approach, the power to make an impact is immense. I am forever grateful for UCLA which has given me an excellent education and access to amazing opportunities. For example during my volunteer experience in East Africa with Support for International Change, I worked with many homeless children who faced extreme poverty daily and sexual assault nightly. The following summer, I worked in collaboration with Tanzanian leaders to build an education center, orphanage, sustainable food system, as well as a volunteer mentoring program during the seed year of a fully UCLA student run non profit One Heart Source. Both of these organizations were started right at UCLA by STUDENTS. I aspire to use these experiences to work with communities to enhance the quality of life of Honduran residents by creating new community wealth and building the capacity of residents to take control of their own economic and political future. Thus, these attributes also correspond to an aspiration to learn as much as possible while serving: about myself, about Honduras, about the tangible barriers to municipal development, and above all about the unanticipated lessons, which are certain to be the most trying. Professionally, this two year volunteer service is an incredible opportunity that will build my skill-set, teach me great lessons, and build character. In the globalized marketplace of today – the overseas experience, the cross-cultural knowledge, and language skills that I will gain as a Volunteer are extremely valuable and highly sought by employers. Peace Corps will offer an incredible foundation for me to build a career in international development work. The work I face as a Municipal Development Advisor will be much more difficult that any other task I have accomplished. Though having lived through 5 years of classes at UCLA gives me the confidence I need to push forward. As my friend Dennis once told me – “In any activity that requires a significant commitment of body and heart, we tend to find the most indelible lessons that touch the emotions as well as the intellect.” By giving my all to the PC service, I aspire to not only lend a hand to Hondurans but also to test myself. So along with the tangible professional benefits, intangible benefits will arise in the act of trying to make a difference in people’s lives. With lessons to draw upon for the rest of my life – the rewards will last a lifetime. As is often said, the Peace Corps isn’t simply something great…. but the beginning of something incredible.