I am so sad to write this. This week Peace Corps decided to suspend its operations in Honduras due to increasing safety & security concerns. http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1932
I can't say we were surprised. Crime and violence have been increasing since we got here, and we knew that it was a possibility. But that doesn't make it any easier. I love my community, and I had every expectation to spend a full 2 years here. For sure I was concerned for my safety -- there has been a wave of crime recently, but now that the news is official I am devastated to leave my community and the friends that I have made here. I had a lot of work projects planned for January and February and was hitting my stride with Spanish. I will also miss my town's feria. Seven months in site was definitely not long enough.
Officially, the country is being put on ¨Administrative Hold,¨ which means that all volunteers are returning to the states for a minimum of 30 days while PC reviews the security situation here and decides if the program can resume. If they decide to continue operations here, it will likely be with fewer volunteers in a smaller geographic region, so the liklihood of me being able to return to my site is slim. I would return if I had the option, and there may also be the option of transferring to other countries. But for now we are waiting for the official word.
In the meantime, we are all on what is called Standfast, which means we cannot leave our sites until January when we leave the country. I have a friend in town, so I feel awful that we will be stuck in my site instead of being able to travel as planned. However, I am going to do my best to enjoy my last few weeks in Honduras, spend quality time with host families and friends, and wrap up my projects. More details to follow...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
A Thanksgiving photo journey
Happy Thanksgiving from Honduras! I have certainly fallen off the blog wagon, and as such will give this update in the form of a "photo journey" through October and November.
My town had the annual Festival de Arroz at the end of October, and Tricia and I had a group of about 12 volunteers over. We checked out the festival booths and parade and made a fire pit in our backyard to hang out.
I am finally settled into my apartment and recovering from "flea infestation 2011," as it will now be called. I even went running for the first time in over 3 months, and it was marvelous! Since I don't have a picture of me running, here are the mototaxis driving in the festival parade (as viewed from outside the apartments).
The president of Honduras, Pepe Lobo, came to town for a project called Bono 10 Mil that gives financial assistance to single mothers, and we got to meet him!
I made a gigantic pizza!
Finally, today was my first Thanksgiving in Honduras! I had to work during the day, but luckily I was able to eat dinner with the staff, students, and parents at Georgetown School. The kids put on a short program and the parents brought the food, which was Thanksgiving classics with a Honduran twist -- chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and ayote (which is a squash similar to pumpkin).
Overall , I'd say things are going well. I've had to make several trips to Tegus recently, for a VAC meeting, business conference, and medical appointments, so that has shaken things up a bit, and things are only going to get more eventful as the year wraps up. I did get to spend a few days visiting my original host family, which was wonderful! As for Thanksgiving, right now I'm most thankful to be free of amoebas, fleas, and various infections, and very thankful to have water again. Among other things.
My town had the annual Festival de Arroz at the end of October, and Tricia and I had a group of about 12 volunteers over. We checked out the festival booths and parade and made a fire pit in our backyard to hang out.
I am finally settled into my apartment and recovering from "flea infestation 2011," as it will now be called. I even went running for the first time in over 3 months, and it was marvelous! Since I don't have a picture of me running, here are the mototaxis driving in the festival parade (as viewed from outside the apartments).
The president of Honduras, Pepe Lobo, came to town for a project called Bono 10 Mil that gives financial assistance to single mothers, and we got to meet him!
I made a gigantic pizza!
Tricia's shower broke, and they had to shut off the water in our apartments for a week. It was not pleasant, especially having to take the dishes outside to be washed in the pila (needless to say they piled up).
I had my 25th birthday in Honduras. I had to sit in some pretty intense meetings all day, but my counterparts at the muni surprised me with a cake and Tropical Banana (which I no longer think is repulsive, although it's still not great, but it's the thought that counts). I ended up having 4 cakes over 2 days, with lots of good company. Not a bad way to spend a birthday!
My town is getting a Despensa Familiar grocery store, grand opening next week. They have been building it the past 2 months in one of the fastest construction jobs I've ever seen. You know you've got a good PC site when your town has a Despensa.
Finally, today was my first Thanksgiving in Honduras! I had to work during the day, but luckily I was able to eat dinner with the staff, students, and parents at Georgetown School. The kids put on a short program and the parents brought the food, which was Thanksgiving classics with a Honduran twist -- chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and ayote (which is a squash similar to pumpkin).
Overall , I'd say things are going well. I've had to make several trips to Tegus recently, for a VAC meeting, business conference, and medical appointments, so that has shaken things up a bit, and things are only going to get more eventful as the year wraps up. I did get to spend a few days visiting my original host family, which was wonderful! As for Thanksgiving, right now I'm most thankful to be free of amoebas, fleas, and various infections, and very thankful to have water again. Among other things.
Monday, October 24, 2011
You know you're turning into a Catracha when...
You use an umbrella for shade.
You drink Tropical Banana and/or Uva and decide it doesn't taste half bad.
You use the phrase "Gracias a Dios" at least twice a day.
You voluntarily put refried beans on a fried plantain.
You voluntarily put mantequilla on anything.
You hear a reggaeton beat in the background at all times.
You wear sunglasses indoors and/or at night to divert stares from creepy men.
You plan to show up to meetings an hour late.
You aren't phased by women breastfeeding in public.
You aren't phased by gunshots and/or kids shooting off fireworks in the street.
You aren't phased by roosters crowing every hour of the night.
You get upset if a meeting doesn't provide a merienda (snack).
You drink coffee any hour of the day, with at least 3 teaspoons of sugar.
You start carrying hard candies in your purse (under the age of 70).
You sing along to the Black Eyed Peas.
You drink Tropical Banana and/or Uva and decide it doesn't taste half bad.
You use the phrase "Gracias a Dios" at least twice a day.
You voluntarily put refried beans on a fried plantain.
You voluntarily put mantequilla on anything.
You hear a reggaeton beat in the background at all times.
You wear sunglasses indoors and/or at night to divert stares from creepy men.
You plan to show up to meetings an hour late.
You aren't phased by women breastfeeding in public.
You aren't phased by gunshots and/or kids shooting off fireworks in the street.
You aren't phased by roosters crowing every hour of the night.
You get upset if a meeting doesn't provide a merienda (snack).
You drink coffee any hour of the day, with at least 3 teaspoons of sugar.
You start carrying hard candies in your purse (under the age of 70).
You sing along to the Black Eyed Peas.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Paranoia
It's always something, right? I managed to finally rid myself of amoebas, and within a few days found myself fighting an even greater foe... fleas.
Let me explain. A while back, I was chatting with a former PCV that lives in my site and found out that his cat was about to have kittens. I miss my cat back in the states, and decided to take one. So the night I moved into my apartment, I stopped by and brought over the cat. It was only after I had it settled into my apartment that I noticed it was covered in fleas.
What's sad is that I should've known better... as Kelly and I fought this battle 2 years ago in Oakland. I'm now going through the laborious process of washing all my clothes (a much more difficult process in Honduras when you don't have hot water or dryers) and organizing a series of fumigations. In the meantime, I'm getting bit, completely paranoid, and trying to avoid staying in my apartment. I decided not to keep the cat - probably not a good idea to get attached to a pet I'll abandon in 2 years. Hopefully the problem will be over soon (fumigation 2 is this week) and I can return to a normal, sane life.
Toro and I spent a total of 2 nights together. :(
Although I've been on the brink of insanity for nearly a month, everything else in my life is going great! I've been taking lots of little breaks (partly to escape the fleas, of course). I went to Marcala with some USAID counterparts for a small business expo and met up with some of the volunteers that live there. It was their town fair, so we got to spend a day eating fried food and candy apples, and even rode the ferris wheel. It was a well needed break.
Last week I spent the entire week working with Plan (i.e. Plan International), on their new socioeconomic development study. We went out into villages and met with residents to identify the poorest families in each community. This was a super interesting experience for me - it is amazing how different "research" looks here in Honduras. In the US, everyone seeks quantifiable information (surveys, interviews, etc), but here, the accepted method for conducting research is just talking with people. They hold open meetings with community members in each village, have the groups list all of the heads of household, and then ask them who is richest and who is poorest, and why. After compiling the "poor" list, they will go back out to collect more information about those specific families. It will be interesting to see how things progress.
Yesterday morning I went with the aforementioned former PCV to.... a bee yard! He was a beekeeping volunteer about 20 years ago and still works with bees part-time, and offered to take me and the two bilingual school teachers on a trip to move a couple hives. We all fully suited up, and it was a pretty intense experience. I ended up being the only one who didn't get stung, although one got into my veil at the end, which was an adventure. Check that off my life to-do list!
Finally, I got a wonderful surprise in the mail this week - a box of 24 ProMark sticks for the bands that I am working with! They had been using basically anything made of wood/metal, including pens, and drumsticks are really expensive here. Humongous thanks to Matt Savage and ProMark for this wonderful donation!! They will be put to use immediately.
After today, the rest of my October will be very busy. I'll continue working on the socioeconomic study with Plan, and planning the savings curriculum. Our town's festival de arroz (rice) is at the end of the month, so I'm planning a couple activities with the students at the colegio, as well as an expo at the feria with some of the groups that I work with. I also have the next VAC (Volunteer Advisory Council) meeting in Tegucigalpa, where we'll be discussing some recent policy changes. The meeting is on a Friday, so I'm hoping to visit my old host family that weekend for Andrea Pequeña's 5th birthday. She was already planning it back in March, so it should be quite the event! I'm sure the month will be over before I know it.
Let me explain. A while back, I was chatting with a former PCV that lives in my site and found out that his cat was about to have kittens. I miss my cat back in the states, and decided to take one. So the night I moved into my apartment, I stopped by and brought over the cat. It was only after I had it settled into my apartment that I noticed it was covered in fleas.
What's sad is that I should've known better... as Kelly and I fought this battle 2 years ago in Oakland. I'm now going through the laborious process of washing all my clothes (a much more difficult process in Honduras when you don't have hot water or dryers) and organizing a series of fumigations. In the meantime, I'm getting bit, completely paranoid, and trying to avoid staying in my apartment. I decided not to keep the cat - probably not a good idea to get attached to a pet I'll abandon in 2 years. Hopefully the problem will be over soon (fumigation 2 is this week) and I can return to a normal, sane life.
Toro and I spent a total of 2 nights together. :(
Although I've been on the brink of insanity for nearly a month, everything else in my life is going great! I've been taking lots of little breaks (partly to escape the fleas, of course). I went to Marcala with some USAID counterparts for a small business expo and met up with some of the volunteers that live there. It was their town fair, so we got to spend a day eating fried food and candy apples, and even rode the ferris wheel. It was a well needed break.
Last week I spent the entire week working with Plan (i.e. Plan International), on their new socioeconomic development study. We went out into villages and met with residents to identify the poorest families in each community. This was a super interesting experience for me - it is amazing how different "research" looks here in Honduras. In the US, everyone seeks quantifiable information (surveys, interviews, etc), but here, the accepted method for conducting research is just talking with people. They hold open meetings with community members in each village, have the groups list all of the heads of household, and then ask them who is richest and who is poorest, and why. After compiling the "poor" list, they will go back out to collect more information about those specific families. It will be interesting to see how things progress.
Yesterday morning I went with the aforementioned former PCV to.... a bee yard! He was a beekeeping volunteer about 20 years ago and still works with bees part-time, and offered to take me and the two bilingual school teachers on a trip to move a couple hives. We all fully suited up, and it was a pretty intense experience. I ended up being the only one who didn't get stung, although one got into my veil at the end, which was an adventure. Check that off my life to-do list!
Finally, I got a wonderful surprise in the mail this week - a box of 24 ProMark sticks for the bands that I am working with! They had been using basically anything made of wood/metal, including pens, and drumsticks are really expensive here. Humongous thanks to Matt Savage and ProMark for this wonderful donation!! They will be put to use immediately.
After today, the rest of my October will be very busy. I'll continue working on the socioeconomic study with Plan, and planning the savings curriculum. Our town's festival de arroz (rice) is at the end of the month, so I'm planning a couple activities with the students at the colegio, as well as an expo at the feria with some of the groups that I work with. I also have the next VAC (Volunteer Advisory Council) meeting in Tegucigalpa, where we'll be discussing some recent policy changes. The meeting is on a Friday, so I'm hoping to visit my old host family that weekend for Andrea Pequeña's 5th birthday. She was already planning it back in March, so it should be quite the event! I'm sure the month will be over before I know it.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Día de Independencia, Caos, y Cambio
Oh, the updates! The past 2 weeks have included Reconnect, a hospital visit, Independence Day, and moving into my new apartment. So sit back...
Last week we had a volunteer conference called Reconnect, where we got our whole training group plus last year's group together for technical and policy sessions. Overall I found the whole week exhausting, and a little frustrating because it set my work back - I missed some important meetings and also a week of marching band practice right before the parade. But it was fun to see some of the people that I hadn't seen since swear-in.
By the 3rd day, I was already beat, but I then had a relapse of my stomach pain and had to make my first trip to Honduran hospital. I had every test in the book, including urine and stool samples into little solo cups (yes, these samples are done in the little clear plastic cups you might find by a water cooler). I then got an IV of fluid and pain medication for my stomach cramps, and went back to training feeling like a loopy million bucks. I'm happy to say that I'm feeling better now, and have hopefully bid these amoebas freaking adieu.
Being sick and having 90 pent-up volunteers in one place for 5 days was a little too much for me, but there was one highlight of the week - our fantasy football draft! We set up a league with 12 volunteers and had the draft offline in a conference room one evening. It was my first in-person draft, and it was a ton of fun. It will also be a fun way for us to keep in touch over the next few months. Sitting by a computer and trash talking with other volunteers every Sunday will be a nice stress relief, no?
This week I got back to work and helped schools prepare for the parade. Honduran Independence Day was Thursday (the 15th), and I had an absolute blast! The town held a preschool-only parade on the 14th (SO cute), and then a huge parade on the 15th. It was a ton of fun. I had been helping with the band at Georgetown School, a bilingual school here where we are close friends with the director and teachers. I spent most of the morning with them and was so proud to watch the girls rock the national anthem in 3 part harmony!
I posted a ton of pictures on Picasa and am happy to send the link to anyone who needs it, just let me know! There are pictures from practice, the preschool parade, and the main event.
As if a 4 hour parade in the sun wasn't exhausting enough, I also moved into my apartment that day... sort of. Volunteers in Honduras live with host families for 2 months and then are allowed to find independent housing. Tricia's host family has a place nextdoor with 2 small apartments (and it's only a block from my host family), so we jumped at the opportunity. We committed a few months ago but had to wait for the previous occupants to move out, and then for them to finish renovations. Then between getting sick and going to reconnect, I kept delaying moving in. I even moved some stuff, set up my kitchen, and bought a bed and a stove, but I couldn't bring myself to officially move.
Last week we had a volunteer conference called Reconnect, where we got our whole training group plus last year's group together for technical and policy sessions. Overall I found the whole week exhausting, and a little frustrating because it set my work back - I missed some important meetings and also a week of marching band practice right before the parade. But it was fun to see some of the people that I hadn't seen since swear-in.
By the 3rd day, I was already beat, but I then had a relapse of my stomach pain and had to make my first trip to Honduran hospital. I had every test in the book, including urine and stool samples into little solo cups (yes, these samples are done in the little clear plastic cups you might find by a water cooler). I then got an IV of fluid and pain medication for my stomach cramps, and went back to training feeling like a loopy million bucks. I'm happy to say that I'm feeling better now, and have hopefully bid these amoebas freaking adieu.
Being sick and having 90 pent-up volunteers in one place for 5 days was a little too much for me, but there was one highlight of the week - our fantasy football draft! We set up a league with 12 volunteers and had the draft offline in a conference room one evening. It was my first in-person draft, and it was a ton of fun. It will also be a fun way for us to keep in touch over the next few months. Sitting by a computer and trash talking with other volunteers every Sunday will be a nice stress relief, no?
This week I got back to work and helped schools prepare for the parade. Honduran Independence Day was Thursday (the 15th), and I had an absolute blast! The town held a preschool-only parade on the 14th (SO cute), and then a huge parade on the 15th. It was a ton of fun. I had been helping with the band at Georgetown School, a bilingual school here where we are close friends with the director and teachers. I spent most of the morning with them and was so proud to watch the girls rock the national anthem in 3 part harmony!
I posted a ton of pictures on Picasa and am happy to send the link to anyone who needs it, just let me know! There are pictures from practice, the preschool parade, and the main event.
As if a 4 hour parade in the sun wasn't exhausting enough, I also moved into my apartment that day... sort of. Volunteers in Honduras live with host families for 2 months and then are allowed to find independent housing. Tricia's host family has a place nextdoor with 2 small apartments (and it's only a block from my host family), so we jumped at the opportunity. We committed a few months ago but had to wait for the previous occupants to move out, and then for them to finish renovations. Then between getting sick and going to reconnect, I kept delaying moving in. I even moved some stuff, set up my kitchen, and bought a bed and a stove, but I couldn't bring myself to officially move.
Of course, the secret behind this delay was that I didn't want to leave my host family. I love them so much and am really going to miss living with them (as evidenced by the fact that I spent a full 4 months living with them while most volunteers move out after 2). As I was packing, my host mom surprised me by making me pizza for my despedida. I was already emotional, but then I looked up at the ¨Bienvenida Andrea¨ banner that had been waiting on the wall for me when I first arrived, and started tearing up. I couldn’t even remember why I wanted to move out in the first place.
After the final family dinner, they helped me move my things over to the apartment. I had a really sweet & emotional conversation with my host mom, and I kept saying, ¨it feels like I’m moving back to the US, but I’m only going a block away!¨ She ended up convincing me to stay another night. My sitemate is out of town for the weekend, and it’s uncommon here for someone to be home alone. I didn’t want them to worry about me staying alone in the apartments, so I packed a little bag and spent the night in my ¨old¨ empty room. It felt like a sleepover.
The past two nights I stayed with Esperanza, the bilingual school director, and her family, and we looked at pictures and videos from the parade. Now, here I am getting settled into my new apartment without having spent a night there. Only in Honduras... (Pictures of the apartment to follow eventually.)
Speaking of parade videos, here are more of them! Might be overkill, but I had so much fun and am so darn proud of the kids...
Georgetown School
Georgetown School
John F. Kennedy, a public elementary school.
And finally, a private colegio (observe that they're a little more advanced than the elementary kids).
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Perdida
It's hard to believe I've been in Honduras over 6 months! Time has really been flying, especially recently.
I just got back to site after a longer-than-planned vacation out west. I went for the weekend, but ended up getting another bout of amoebas and had to stay longer (trust me, you do NOT want to take a bus down a bumpy dirt road when you have a stomach parasite!). I was in touch with my host family, but I didn't communicate at all with my work partners and missed a whole week of work. I was surprised (and perhaps a little offended) that no one called me to check in, but when I got back to work on Monday I had the following conversation with nearly every one of my coworkers.
Counterpart: ANDREA!!! YOU ARE HERE! YOU ARE ALIVE!
Me: Yes, I am here! Sorry I haven't been in touch, I got sick with amoebas again.
Counterpart: SICK! We thought we had lost you!
Me: Lost? That's ridiculous. I'm right here.
Counterpart: What a relief! I was sure you were gone. I searched and searched for you, went all over Honduras, and asked the police. And when I didn't find you I figured you had gone back to the states!
Me: Why didn't you call me to check in?
Counterpart: I was supposed to call you?
It's funny, I talked to several PC volunteers before I left and they all mentioned how hard it is to convey experiences to people back in the states. And it's true. This above conversation, while completely normal for volunteers, probably sounds ridiculous to someone outside of Peace Corps. The reality is that whenever we leave town, people assume we've gone off to travel (pasear) and that we might not come back. Yet no one calls us to check in, which would easily solve the confusion.
It's hard to describe some of my experiences on this blog because I have to include so much context, and I worry that it will be confusing for someone outside of Honduras to interpret. For example, if I were to complain on here about how my counterparts never call me to tell me about meetings (or to check in when I don't show up to work for a week), you might think they are just bad counterparts or that they don't like me. But that isn't the case. I have amazing counterparts... the communication problems are just a cultural obstacle that all volunteers face.
Another example is that it's normal in Honduras to go to meetings an hour or more late. If the meeting starts at 9, get there around 10 and you'll be on time. One day I arrived at 8:45 for an 8:00 meeting and my counterpart said to me, ¨you need to get used to Honduran time, but I guess we can start early.¨ (For those of you that read that and think, ¨how perfect for Andrea, Queen of Lateness,¨ I assure you that even my normal tardiness pales in comparison to the cultural norm here.) It's also common to cancel or reschedule meetings or events without notifying anyone.
What this more generally means is that we have to put in a lot of effort to integrate into our work environments, and while our work is appreciated, we often don't get the same level of communication and accountability from our Honduran counterparts. There is a lot of initiative required to be a successful volunteer. Volunteers that don't take that initiative tend to have less work, and may eventually become viewed by their communities as ¨Cuerpo de Paseo¨ (a pun on Cuerpo de Paz that basically equates us with tourists).
So if you disappear for a week like I did, your coworkers will assume you have lost interest or are off traveling until you take the initiative to get back in touch with them. And when you do, they are surprised. I am glad to report now that I am no longer ¨perdida¨ (lost), and that everyone in my community knows that I am alive.
I'll close with a few new pictures.
My first complete homemade plato tipico: beans, egg, cheese, fried plantains, avocado, and tortillas. Yum!
Our first General Assembly meeting for CAMACO....
... I was seated at the mesa principal with the president (speaking) and mayor...
... and at the end received a diploma for my work (diplomas are big here).
Last night Tricia and I made penang curry with tofu and brown rice, and it was amazing!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
La Banda
As most of you know, I am working with my municipality's band in hopeful preparation for our Independence Day parade on September 15. This has been a process. Here are my observations thus far.
Andrea's 10 Laws of Honduran Marching Bands:
1) The instrumentation of the band depends on the instruments available. The number of students in the band also depends on the number of instruments available.
2) The instruments shall never be tuned.
3) If it is remotely long and slender and made of wood, metal, or plastic, it is an acceptable drumstick.
4) If you don't know how to play the instrument, just play random notes as loudly as possible.
5) Do not... I repeat, do NOT... give the big tall dopey-looking kid a low brass instrument (see law 4).
6) Don't play the trombone. The slide will stick. Hondurans fry everything in a vat of oil, but there's not a drop of slide oil to be found.
7) Any drum can be made into a marching drum by simply attaching a belt to it.
8) It is impossible to expain anything band-related in a 2nd language (for example, how to get a sound out of a clarinet).
9) Even if you can explain it in Spanish, don't bother trying to teach kids the clarinet. If they manage to produce a sound, it will be inaudible in the cacophony (see law 5).
10) Have fun. Wear earplugs.
Andrea's 10 Laws of Honduran Marching Bands:
1) The instrumentation of the band depends on the instruments available. The number of students in the band also depends on the number of instruments available.
2) The instruments shall never be tuned.
3) If it is remotely long and slender and made of wood, metal, or plastic, it is an acceptable drumstick.
4) If you don't know how to play the instrument, just play random notes as loudly as possible.
5) Do not... I repeat, do NOT... give the big tall dopey-looking kid a low brass instrument (see law 4).
6) Don't play the trombone. The slide will stick. Hondurans fry everything in a vat of oil, but there's not a drop of slide oil to be found.
7) Any drum can be made into a marching drum by simply attaching a belt to it.
8) It is impossible to expain anything band-related in a 2nd language (for example, how to get a sound out of a clarinet).
9) Even if you can explain it in Spanish, don't bother trying to teach kids the clarinet. If they manage to produce a sound, it will be inaudible in the cacophony (see law 5).
10) Have fun. Wear earplugs.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Lo bueno
I've been informed that my last post seemed a little dark, so I want to assure everyone that things are great here, just wanted to switch things up a bit with some sarcasm. It has been pouring here for about 3 days (welcome to rainy season in Honduras), so I'm a tad bored and eager to be able to go outside again without risk of a wipeout on the muddy road.
Plenty of exciting things have happened lately. For example, my network of cajas (CAMACO) was just given a new office and computer, and my counterpart has been completely through the roof ever since. He has been so giddy that he and some of the guys at the municipality are talking about taking me on a trip to see ¨all the nice parts of Honduras.¨ Not sure what that means.
Yesterday a couple of coworkers took me and Tricia to a town in Comayagua to pick up furniture from a departing volunteer. We'll be moving into our apartments soon, so we're trying to get as much stuff as possible from other volunteers (table, chairs, pots/pans, appliances, etc). We ended up taking back the volunteer's guitar, and had a singalong in the car on the way back - with the two songs that we had learned for the colegio chorus. Too funny...
My town is building a new mall, and the two stores in front are the two major phone companies here, Tigo and Claro. They've been in a marketing war for about a week now, blasting reggaeton, passing out promotional ads, and using large ballons and windsocks to attract people. It's been entertaining.
The ex-president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, also paraded through town a couple weekends ago, which caused quite a buzz. Google him if you want the backstory.
I started working with an NGO called FIPAH last week - they are the ones that collaborate with the UNC/Nourish volunteers. They took me to a small town to meet with a group of girls that just started a coffee cooperative. I'm going to be giving them some business trainings, and we also played soccer for about an hour before it started to rain and I crapped out (everyone else kept playing). Very authentic PC experience.
I'm also going to be collaborating with a new USAID project called ACCESO that is being implemented in the western part of Honduras. Basically I'm going to be facilitating communication between all of the local governments and aid organizations that work with small businesses (mostly in agriculture), and help them enroll in this program. I'll also probably help schedule and give trainings. Have a look if you'd like! http://www.usaid-acceso.org/
Plenty of exciting things have happened lately. For example, my network of cajas (CAMACO) was just given a new office and computer, and my counterpart has been completely through the roof ever since. He has been so giddy that he and some of the guys at the municipality are talking about taking me on a trip to see ¨all the nice parts of Honduras.¨ Not sure what that means.
Yesterday a couple of coworkers took me and Tricia to a town in Comayagua to pick up furniture from a departing volunteer. We'll be moving into our apartments soon, so we're trying to get as much stuff as possible from other volunteers (table, chairs, pots/pans, appliances, etc). We ended up taking back the volunteer's guitar, and had a singalong in the car on the way back - with the two songs that we had learned for the colegio chorus. Too funny...
My town is building a new mall, and the two stores in front are the two major phone companies here, Tigo and Claro. They've been in a marketing war for about a week now, blasting reggaeton, passing out promotional ads, and using large ballons and windsocks to attract people. It's been entertaining.
The ex-president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, also paraded through town a couple weekends ago, which caused quite a buzz. Google him if you want the backstory.
I started working with an NGO called FIPAH last week - they are the ones that collaborate with the UNC/Nourish volunteers. They took me to a small town to meet with a group of girls that just started a coffee cooperative. I'm going to be giving them some business trainings, and we also played soccer for about an hour before it started to rain and I crapped out (everyone else kept playing). Very authentic PC experience.
I'm also going to be collaborating with a new USAID project called ACCESO that is being implemented in the western part of Honduras. Basically I'm going to be facilitating communication between all of the local governments and aid organizations that work with small businesses (mostly in agriculture), and help them enroll in this program. I'll also probably help schedule and give trainings. Have a look if you'd like! http://www.usaid-acceso.org/
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Saludos
Dear taxi drivers in Teguz,
I just got out of a taxi. I don't want another taxi. If I did, I would not be getting out of this one. Stop bombarding me.
Dear Rooster,
SHUT UP. For the love of god. It is 2am.
Dear host family,
French fries are not the same food group as sandwich bread. When I have amoebic dysentery and ask for pan sandwich, please do not bring me papas fritas.
Dear dog shrouded in fleas,
I pity you, but get away from me. You are probably covered in excrement.
Dear kid on bicycle,
Are you trying to swerve and kill me? Because I'm trying to get out of your way.
Dear construction workers who piropo (cat call) me as I walk by,
You are lucky my Spanish isn't good enough to give you a piece of my mind. Lucky.
Dear Hondurans,
You put a pound of sugar on all of your food, yet put salt on fruit? It doesn't make sense.
Dear Rat,
You are dead to me for eating my chocolate. I hope it kills you and you rot in rat hell.
Dear whoever drives down my street at 5am blasting reggaeton over a megaphone,
Seriously? I mean, really. SERIOUSLY?
Dear cows,
You are large and slow. Get out from in front of our car.
Dear mutton-chopped, afroed, mustached campesino in oversized camo shirt, rain boots, sombrero, and tassled machete sheath,
You are awesome. The world needs more of you.
I just got out of a taxi. I don't want another taxi. If I did, I would not be getting out of this one. Stop bombarding me.
Dear Rooster,
SHUT UP. For the love of god. It is 2am.
Dear host family,
French fries are not the same food group as sandwich bread. When I have amoebic dysentery and ask for pan sandwich, please do not bring me papas fritas.
Dear dog shrouded in fleas,
I pity you, but get away from me. You are probably covered in excrement.
Dear kid on bicycle,
Are you trying to swerve and kill me? Because I'm trying to get out of your way.
Dear construction workers who piropo (cat call) me as I walk by,
You are lucky my Spanish isn't good enough to give you a piece of my mind. Lucky.
Dear Hondurans,
You put a pound of sugar on all of your food, yet put salt on fruit? It doesn't make sense.
Dear Rat,
You are dead to me for eating my chocolate. I hope it kills you and you rot in rat hell.
Dear whoever drives down my street at 5am blasting reggaeton over a megaphone,
Seriously? I mean, really. SERIOUSLY?
Dear cows,
You are large and slow. Get out from in front of our car.
Dear mutton-chopped, afroed, mustached campesino in oversized camo shirt, rain boots, sombrero, and tassled machete sheath,
You are awesome. The world needs more of you.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Un cumpleaños, 3 pizzas, y la fumigación
Today was my host dad's birthday. I had always been a little jealous of my friends who talked about host family birthdays, so I was excited to experience my first.
I've had a very busy week, working 2 days with Plan in their La Esperanza office (reminded me a lot of office days in SF, with the cooler temperatures, fast(er) internet, and a coffee maker). The director and I are working on a new savings curriculum for youth, and I'm very excited about it! I've also been going to nearby municipalities several times a week, so when I had the opportunity to take a lazy day today, I enjoyed it!
About mid afternoon, my host mom and sister summoned me to help make pizzas for the birthday. I was scared at first because Hondurans typically use ketchup as their pasta/pizza sauce, but my family knows what they're doing, and it turned out to be delicious. We had a lot of fun making the dough and sauce, and even stuffed the crust with quesillo!
All of a sudden, we heard a horrid noise and my host mom goes ¨vienen los fumigadores!¨ ... which translates to ¨the fumigators are coming!¨ Yes, here in Honduras (or at least my town) there are people that go around with what look like giant fiery leaf blowers, spraying each house with pesticide to kill the mosquitos. (Picture someone barreling into your house without warning and spraying the whole thing with a fire extinguisher.) They'd done it to the municipal building last Friday while I was there, so I knew what to expect... and I knew we needed to flee!
My Spanish suddenly got very good, as my host mom and I went into a panic. We crammed the finished pizzas back into the oven on top of each other, put away all the plates and utensils, grabbed the cake, and ran outside. I also darted back into my room to bag up all of my food and throw it under a sheet. Between the panic and the smoke, it felt like we were fleeing a fire.
Flash forward 20 minutes, and we're all sitting outside, eating pizza and cake and drinking fresco as disgusting smoke billows out of the house. Totally normal, except we have to cover our faces and sprint every time we need something from inside. I guess that's what people do here... they improvise! My host dad didn't seem to care. I suppose his birthday gift was a reduced risk of getting malaria or dengue.
I've had a very busy week, working 2 days with Plan in their La Esperanza office (reminded me a lot of office days in SF, with the cooler temperatures, fast(er) internet, and a coffee maker). The director and I are working on a new savings curriculum for youth, and I'm very excited about it! I've also been going to nearby municipalities several times a week, so when I had the opportunity to take a lazy day today, I enjoyed it!
About mid afternoon, my host mom and sister summoned me to help make pizzas for the birthday. I was scared at first because Hondurans typically use ketchup as their pasta/pizza sauce, but my family knows what they're doing, and it turned out to be delicious. We had a lot of fun making the dough and sauce, and even stuffed the crust with quesillo!
All of a sudden, we heard a horrid noise and my host mom goes ¨vienen los fumigadores!¨ ... which translates to ¨the fumigators are coming!¨ Yes, here in Honduras (or at least my town) there are people that go around with what look like giant fiery leaf blowers, spraying each house with pesticide to kill the mosquitos. (Picture someone barreling into your house without warning and spraying the whole thing with a fire extinguisher.) They'd done it to the municipal building last Friday while I was there, so I knew what to expect... and I knew we needed to flee!
My Spanish suddenly got very good, as my host mom and I went into a panic. We crammed the finished pizzas back into the oven on top of each other, put away all the plates and utensils, grabbed the cake, and ran outside. I also darted back into my room to bag up all of my food and throw it under a sheet. Between the panic and the smoke, it felt like we were fleeing a fire.
Flash forward 20 minutes, and we're all sitting outside, eating pizza and cake and drinking fresco as disgusting smoke billows out of the house. Totally normal, except we have to cover our faces and sprint every time we need something from inside. I guess that's what people do here... they improvise! My host dad didn't seem to care. I suppose his birthday gift was a reduced risk of getting malaria or dengue.
Monday, July 11, 2011
El Agua Sucia
I realize I haven't done much to describe my standard of living here, so I want to devote a quick blog to it.
You may have seen the recent ¨Live Like a PCV Challenge¨ site, so I will say that every volunteer's experience is different, and a lot of the worst-case-scenarios don't apply to me since I'm in a larger community. For example, I have regular internet and am within 30 minutes of a giant supermarket that has just about every food I could want. I baked Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Dream cookies last night, after looking up the recipe online. Pretty posh in a lot of ways.
With that said, here are the realities of life in my site:
- Food: Living with a host family means eating their food, which means pounds and pounds of sugar. On everything. No one drinks water, just a ton of soda and super-sugary juices, and then coffee loaded with sugar. Then there's mantequilla, which is basically a combo of butter and sour cream that you squeeze out of a pouch. Fry up the beans with a stick of manteca (crisco, basically), then slather them with mantequilla. Then fry up some plantains and douse them in mantequilla. Yum!
(I will follow this by saying that I really like the non-fried food here, especially the plato tipico of beans, egg, plantains, cheese, and avocado with corn tortillas. I'd just prefer it without the pound of mantequilla.)
- Bathroom: Cold showers, every day. We don't always have running water in the evenings, so I often have to take bucket baths (using a larger bucket of stored water and then a smaller pail to pour it over yourself). Might sound awful, but they are easy to get used to and actually save a lot of water.
Also no flushing toilet paper. It's placed in a trash can next to the toilet. When there's no water, you can flush the toilet manually using a bucket.
- Bugs: Mosquitos, biting ants, cockroaches, and these stupid winged creatures that divebomb me and my computer screen (my host family in Yuscaran called them palominos, no clue what their actual name is). I have a mosquito net over my bed, which keeps most of the flying creatures away from me at night.
- Animals: Geckos abound (they chirp). I have been lucky enough not to encounter a scorpion yet, but did see a mouse in my room the other day, as well as a fairly large frog. The streets and yards are full of farm animals, which crow and bark and yelp at all hours of the day. Hello, insomnia.
- Security: I am not allowed to leave my house after 8pm, and advised not to do much after dark. Being a woman in this country is more difficult because of the machismo in the culture, and crime in Honduras is no joke. My town is very safe by day, but most people stay in at night, especially women.
- Alcohol: Women in Honduras don't drink, except in big cities where it is more liberal. As a result, I don't drink in my site.
- Religion: I go to church every Sunday that I'm in town. It's amazing, but people really do respect me more for it.
- Water: As you can guess from my amoeba episode, it's not good, certainly not drinkable. We have running water most of the time, but during the dry season it stops between 7 and 8 every night and comes back around 3am. Now that it's rainy season, we have water more hours of the day, but it's less predictable and a pretty consistent brown color. I am lucky enough to have access to a washing machine, but even that won't get my white clothes clean. I gave up trying.
So, I suppose to conclude, if you want to take an Andrea-specific Peace Corps challenge, put a pound of sugar on all of your food (except fruit, which takes salt instead), fry everything in a tub of butter, don't leave your house after 8, don't drink, go to church, tie a rooster to the foot of your bed, and bathe in cold, dirty water. However, you are allowed to gchat all day and bake cookies. It's really not that bad, I promise!
You may have seen the recent ¨Live Like a PCV Challenge¨ site, so I will say that every volunteer's experience is different, and a lot of the worst-case-scenarios don't apply to me since I'm in a larger community. For example, I have regular internet and am within 30 minutes of a giant supermarket that has just about every food I could want. I baked Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Dream cookies last night, after looking up the recipe online. Pretty posh in a lot of ways.
With that said, here are the realities of life in my site:
- Food: Living with a host family means eating their food, which means pounds and pounds of sugar. On everything. No one drinks water, just a ton of soda and super-sugary juices, and then coffee loaded with sugar. Then there's mantequilla, which is basically a combo of butter and sour cream that you squeeze out of a pouch. Fry up the beans with a stick of manteca (crisco, basically), then slather them with mantequilla. Then fry up some plantains and douse them in mantequilla. Yum!
(I will follow this by saying that I really like the non-fried food here, especially the plato tipico of beans, egg, plantains, cheese, and avocado with corn tortillas. I'd just prefer it without the pound of mantequilla.)
- Bathroom: Cold showers, every day. We don't always have running water in the evenings, so I often have to take bucket baths (using a larger bucket of stored water and then a smaller pail to pour it over yourself). Might sound awful, but they are easy to get used to and actually save a lot of water.
Also no flushing toilet paper. It's placed in a trash can next to the toilet. When there's no water, you can flush the toilet manually using a bucket.
- Bugs: Mosquitos, biting ants, cockroaches, and these stupid winged creatures that divebomb me and my computer screen (my host family in Yuscaran called them palominos, no clue what their actual name is). I have a mosquito net over my bed, which keeps most of the flying creatures away from me at night.
- Animals: Geckos abound (they chirp). I have been lucky enough not to encounter a scorpion yet, but did see a mouse in my room the other day, as well as a fairly large frog. The streets and yards are full of farm animals, which crow and bark and yelp at all hours of the day. Hello, insomnia.
- Security: I am not allowed to leave my house after 8pm, and advised not to do much after dark. Being a woman in this country is more difficult because of the machismo in the culture, and crime in Honduras is no joke. My town is very safe by day, but most people stay in at night, especially women.
- Alcohol: Women in Honduras don't drink, except in big cities where it is more liberal. As a result, I don't drink in my site.
- Religion: I go to church every Sunday that I'm in town. It's amazing, but people really do respect me more for it.
- Electricity: My site is way better than Yuscaran in this respect, but every once in a while we do hear the dreaded phrase ¨se fue la luz.¨ The outages usually don't last more than a couple hours.
- Water: As you can guess from my amoeba episode, it's not good, certainly not drinkable. We have running water most of the time, but during the dry season it stops between 7 and 8 every night and comes back around 3am. Now that it's rainy season, we have water more hours of the day, but it's less predictable and a pretty consistent brown color. I am lucky enough to have access to a washing machine, but even that won't get my white clothes clean. I gave up trying.
So, I suppose to conclude, if you want to take an Andrea-specific Peace Corps challenge, put a pound of sugar on all of your food (except fruit, which takes salt instead), fry everything in a tub of butter, don't leave your house after 8, don't drink, go to church, tie a rooster to the foot of your bed, and bathe in cold, dirty water. However, you are allowed to gchat all day and bake cookies. It's really not that bad, I promise!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Amigos
I don't want to gloss over the past few weeks here, but I also don't want to post a novel. So let's see if I can keep this interesting!
The 2 performances that I mentioned in the last post were outrageous. The first was at a culture night, and Tricia and I helped accompany the chorus in a traditional song. No video, unfortunately.
The following week I got to spend 3 days in Tegucigalpa for a Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC) meeting, where one representative from each training group meets with the country director and staff to discuss PC policy. It was really interesting, especially in light of the recent budget cuts (thanks, Congress) and the restructuring that will be happening in PC Honduras. Our group is the last business project group, and the next training class that comes this month is only 15 people.
These trips to Teguz are especially fun because there are always volunteers passing through, and we can enjoy supermarkets, malls, and good food. The highlights of the trip for me were bagels, crepes and Irish coffee, and semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can find milk chocolate chips at most supermarkets, but semi-sweet are hard to find).
The night we got back from Teguz, Tricia and I had our final chorus rehearsal to prepare for the Día de Estudiante performance the following morning. We'd practiced the songs quite a bit, but were shocked to find out 12 hours before the event that we would also be performing 2 dances: the twist, and a traditional Lencan dance. Panic! For the traditional dance, we were a couple. I was the man.
If nothing else, my time in Peace Corps will completely kill my shyness/inhibition. I thought the TV interviews and piano playing were embarrassing... try dressing up as a man with a painted-on fake beard and dancing in front of an entire high school of students!
After that ridiculousness, things settled down a little. This weekend was a mushroom and wine festival in La Esperanza, which was a fun time. The wine was really gross, but the chorros (mushrooms) were good. La Esperanza is up in the mountains, so it is significantly cooler than my town (which has been even hotter than usual this week) and I always love going there!
Our town is now home to 3 volunteers from Amigos de las Americas, which is an organization that sends high school and college students to Latin American to volunteer for the summer. We took the volunteers under our wing a little bit, but they are doing pretty well on their own! Totally overshadowing us in some ways. Yesterday they organized a 4th of July gathering and made mac and cheese and funfetti cake. We invited the UNC students who are here for the summer and the bilingual school staff, and it wound up being a great time! When I applied to Peace Corps I never imagined spending the 4th of July with 10 other gringos that live in my site... but no complaints!
The 2 performances that I mentioned in the last post were outrageous. The first was at a culture night, and Tricia and I helped accompany the chorus in a traditional song. No video, unfortunately.
The following week I got to spend 3 days in Tegucigalpa for a Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC) meeting, where one representative from each training group meets with the country director and staff to discuss PC policy. It was really interesting, especially in light of the recent budget cuts (thanks, Congress) and the restructuring that will be happening in PC Honduras. Our group is the last business project group, and the next training class that comes this month is only 15 people.
These trips to Teguz are especially fun because there are always volunteers passing through, and we can enjoy supermarkets, malls, and good food. The highlights of the trip for me were bagels, crepes and Irish coffee, and semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can find milk chocolate chips at most supermarkets, but semi-sweet are hard to find).
The night we got back from Teguz, Tricia and I had our final chorus rehearsal to prepare for the Día de Estudiante performance the following morning. We'd practiced the songs quite a bit, but were shocked to find out 12 hours before the event that we would also be performing 2 dances: the twist, and a traditional Lencan dance. Panic! For the traditional dance, we were a couple. I was the man.
If nothing else, my time in Peace Corps will completely kill my shyness/inhibition. I thought the TV interviews and piano playing were embarrassing... try dressing up as a man with a painted-on fake beard and dancing in front of an entire high school of students!
After that ridiculousness, things settled down a little. This weekend was a mushroom and wine festival in La Esperanza, which was a fun time. The wine was really gross, but the chorros (mushrooms) were good. La Esperanza is up in the mountains, so it is significantly cooler than my town (which has been even hotter than usual this week) and I always love going there!
Our town is now home to 3 volunteers from Amigos de las Americas, which is an organization that sends high school and college students to Latin American to volunteer for the summer. We took the volunteers under our wing a little bit, but they are doing pretty well on their own! Totally overshadowing us in some ways. Yesterday they organized a 4th of July gathering and made mac and cheese and funfetti cake. We invited the UNC students who are here for the summer and the bilingual school staff, and it wound up being a great time! When I applied to Peace Corps I never imagined spending the 4th of July with 10 other gringos that live in my site... but no complaints!
Pictures
Wanted to post that I changed the privacy settings on my pictures. I have been trying to be careful to not list identifiable information on my blog and on Picasa because they are open to all of the web. However, I found a way to make all of my pictures ¨unlisted¨ without being totally impossible to get to. I posted the link on Facebook, and if you can't get to it, just email me or comment and I will send to you!
On a similar note, my stats are showing views from some strange countries, so if you happen to be in Turkmenistan and look at my blog, let me know so I'm not weirded out by the randomness.
Here are some pictures that I can't take credit for, but were taken by my sitemate, Tricia!
Phonetic Spanish version of the Star Spangled Banner that the kids used. LOVE IT.
Our Japanese JIKA volunteer, Hiromi (not pictured), taught us how to make sushi at the colegio.
Hanging out with some students during the Feria de Salud.
This doesn't really have to do with my Peace Corps experience, it's just a super cute bunny.
On a similar note, my stats are showing views from some strange countries, so if you happen to be in Turkmenistan and look at my blog, let me know so I'm not weirded out by the randomness.
Here are some pictures that I can't take credit for, but were taken by my sitemate, Tricia!
Phonetic Spanish version of the Star Spangled Banner that the kids used. LOVE IT.
Our Japanese JIKA volunteer, Hiromi (not pictured), taught us how to make sushi at the colegio.
Hanging out with some students during the Feria de Salud.
This doesn't really have to do with my Peace Corps experience, it's just a super cute bunny.
Finally, a video of my arch nemesis in all of the world, Rooster. He hangs out outside my window crowing at all hours of the day. If my host family killed him and served the meat to me, I would eat it despite being vegetarian.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Préstame un Martillo
Since my last update, I have been unbelivably busy (warning: long post), and I am definitely getting into the swing of things with work.
Last week the students here were on vacation, and since both of my host parents work in schools, they were home as well. On Wednesday afternoon, they took me up to their coffee and banana farm in the mountains, which was very beautiful and tranquil. I learned a little about what life would be like in a rural site, and about the process of cultivating coffee.
I am getting into my work with CAMACO, the network of cajas rurales (small microfinance banks) that is run by our municipality. I spent 2 days last week filling out loan paperwork. Basically, every year CAMACO lends fertilizer to local farmers, but the bankers don't know how to properly fill out the forms. So they get the necessary names and signatures/thumbprints and then drop off the stack of paperwork at the municipality office. And now my counterpart is slogging through it. One of my goals here will be to train the individual banks to keep their own records, but before we can start that, we have to get through the montón of papers sitting before us!
This week a national organization is in town conducting a census of all of the cajas. I am spending today and tomorrow introducing myself to the representatives and presidents of all of the cajas when they come to fill out the census. It's really boring, but very important that I am there to get to know everyone and develop confianza (trust).
Monday I went to La Esperanza for a Plan International meeting, which went very well. It sounds like I will be working with them to develop basic business and math lessons for youth, and then training teachers in outlying communities. Also at the meeting were 3 staff members from Amigos de las Americas, which is a volunteer organization for high school students. I learned that my town will be getting 3 Amigos volunteers next week. Add this to the 4 UNC students that are here with Nourish International (so random!), plus the staffs of the 2 bilingual schools, myself, and my sitemate, and we are going to be overflowing with gringos for the next 2 months!
Yesterday I gave an HIV charla to a group of high school age students with the two volunteers from La Esperanza, Nicki and Nolan. This was the same exact program that we gave to the 11-year-olds in Yuscaran, but it went much more smoothly with the older kids. Just as before, it included a condom demonstration, presentations about HIV/AIDS, and an infinite number of dinámicas, or games.
Hondurans are really, really into dinámicas. Kids and adults alike, even at the most formal of meetings. They don't have to be clever or profound -- for example, silly dances, beans, candy, double entendres, throwing paper. We tried out a bunch during training. The health volunteers got super into them, but most of us in business were adamant that we would never, ever, EVER, do some of these activities.
However, there is one that captured a lot of our hearts, and any time I have to do a dinámica, this is my go-to. You get the whole group in a circle and go around one by one, repeating the following exchanges:
Person 1: Préstame un martillo. (lend me a hammer)
Person 2: ¿Para qué?
Person 1: Para martillar! *mimes hammering*
Person 1: Préstame una plancha. (iron)
Person 2: ¿Para qué?
Person 1: Para planchar! *now miming hammering with one hand and ironing with the other*
Person 1: Préstame una licuadora. (blender)
Person 2: ¿Para qué?
Person 1: Para licuar! *you get the drift*
Silly, but fun. Although it kind of crosses the line of ridiculousness when you think about it English (¨Lend me a hammer.¨ ¨Why?¨ ¨To hammer!¨). Can you see anyone in the US doing this activity with a group of adults?
Finally, I am developing a business curriculum with the colegio and met most of the students this afternoon and evening. Right now this is on the back burner because I am spending most of my time at the colegio practicing for our 2 upcoming musical performances.
I am sure both performances will be videoed and broadcast for all to see, adding to my laundry list of stellar PR moments. Since my first live interview, I have been ambushed twice: once for a radio interview while I was filling out caja paperwork, and again for a TV spot... while I was working out! My host family is letting me use their exercise bike, and I actually had to stop midway through and do an interview, totally sweaty and distracted. Que barbaridad...
Last week the students here were on vacation, and since both of my host parents work in schools, they were home as well. On Wednesday afternoon, they took me up to their coffee and banana farm in the mountains, which was very beautiful and tranquil. I learned a little about what life would be like in a rural site, and about the process of cultivating coffee.
I am getting into my work with CAMACO, the network of cajas rurales (small microfinance banks) that is run by our municipality. I spent 2 days last week filling out loan paperwork. Basically, every year CAMACO lends fertilizer to local farmers, but the bankers don't know how to properly fill out the forms. So they get the necessary names and signatures/thumbprints and then drop off the stack of paperwork at the municipality office. And now my counterpart is slogging through it. One of my goals here will be to train the individual banks to keep their own records, but before we can start that, we have to get through the montón of papers sitting before us!
This week a national organization is in town conducting a census of all of the cajas. I am spending today and tomorrow introducing myself to the representatives and presidents of all of the cajas when they come to fill out the census. It's really boring, but very important that I am there to get to know everyone and develop confianza (trust).
Monday I went to La Esperanza for a Plan International meeting, which went very well. It sounds like I will be working with them to develop basic business and math lessons for youth, and then training teachers in outlying communities. Also at the meeting were 3 staff members from Amigos de las Americas, which is a volunteer organization for high school students. I learned that my town will be getting 3 Amigos volunteers next week. Add this to the 4 UNC students that are here with Nourish International (so random!), plus the staffs of the 2 bilingual schools, myself, and my sitemate, and we are going to be overflowing with gringos for the next 2 months!
Yesterday I gave an HIV charla to a group of high school age students with the two volunteers from La Esperanza, Nicki and Nolan. This was the same exact program that we gave to the 11-year-olds in Yuscaran, but it went much more smoothly with the older kids. Just as before, it included a condom demonstration, presentations about HIV/AIDS, and an infinite number of dinámicas, or games.
Hondurans are really, really into dinámicas. Kids and adults alike, even at the most formal of meetings. They don't have to be clever or profound -- for example, silly dances, beans, candy, double entendres, throwing paper. We tried out a bunch during training. The health volunteers got super into them, but most of us in business were adamant that we would never, ever, EVER, do some of these activities.
However, there is one that captured a lot of our hearts, and any time I have to do a dinámica, this is my go-to. You get the whole group in a circle and go around one by one, repeating the following exchanges:
Person 1: Préstame un martillo. (lend me a hammer)
Person 2: ¿Para qué?
Person 1: Para martillar! *mimes hammering*
Person 1: Préstame una plancha. (iron)
Person 2: ¿Para qué?
Person 1: Para planchar! *now miming hammering with one hand and ironing with the other*
Person 1: Préstame una licuadora. (blender)
Person 2: ¿Para qué?
Person 1: Para licuar! *you get the drift*
Silly, but fun. Although it kind of crosses the line of ridiculousness when you think about it English (¨Lend me a hammer.¨ ¨Why?¨ ¨To hammer!¨). Can you see anyone in the US doing this activity with a group of adults?
Finally, I am developing a business curriculum with the colegio and met most of the students this afternoon and evening. Right now this is on the back burner because I am spending most of my time at the colegio practicing for our 2 upcoming musical performances.
I am sure both performances will be videoed and broadcast for all to see, adding to my laundry list of stellar PR moments. Since my first live interview, I have been ambushed twice: once for a radio interview while I was filling out caja paperwork, and again for a TV spot... while I was working out! My host family is letting me use their exercise bike, and I actually had to stop midway through and do an interview, totally sweaty and distracted. Que barbaridad...
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Un montón de pastillas
Unfortunately, I have nothing too exciting to blog about because the ¨food poisoning¨ that I referred to last time ended up being a hard-fought 2 week battle with... amoebas!
I can now check that off of my Peace Corps Experiences list.
The reason it took so long was that I originally waited a few days to see if it was food poisoning, and then the doctors thought it was a bacterial infection and put me on a 5 day antibiotic. When the problems persisted, I had to go to the doctor in La Esperanza and wound up on a carefully measured cocktail of basically every potent stomach drug known to man.
After taking 8 pills a day for almost a week, I can confidently say that I am amoeba-free, but I am just now getting over the food intolerances brought on by the medicines. For about a week, I was getting awful cramps anytime I ate anything, probably because every fiber of my stomach and intestine was destroyed.
One thing I did learn from this experience is how wonderful and hospitable the people are in my site. My host family was, in fact, TOO nice while I was sick, incessantly trying to feed me when I came out into the common area. I kept having to hole up in my room because I was afraid if I opened the door for anything but running to the bathroom, they would force some sort of refresco or fried food on me.
Now that I am feeling better, I'm trying to get back into work and hoping that my counterparts still remember that I exist! Today we had a lengthy chorus practice, and things will be picking up again next week. Getting involved with music has been really fun (my host parents have lent me a guitar and are also trying to find a marimba for me), and I'm excited to finally start the exercise group. Next week, a group of us will be giving HIV charlas to youth and then painting the health center. Pair that with the wat/san evals I did those first few days, and it's hard to believe that I'm a business volunteer.
As we near the one month mark of being in site, I can say that I am feeling at home here. Eventually I will find some work that has to do with Negocios, but until then, I am content passing the time and getting to know more people. That is, as long as that time doesn't include amoebas or the blasted creature in my bedroom that keeps eating my chocolate (I do NOT want to talk about it).
I can now check that off of my Peace Corps Experiences list.
The reason it took so long was that I originally waited a few days to see if it was food poisoning, and then the doctors thought it was a bacterial infection and put me on a 5 day antibiotic. When the problems persisted, I had to go to the doctor in La Esperanza and wound up on a carefully measured cocktail of basically every potent stomach drug known to man.
After taking 8 pills a day for almost a week, I can confidently say that I am amoeba-free, but I am just now getting over the food intolerances brought on by the medicines. For about a week, I was getting awful cramps anytime I ate anything, probably because every fiber of my stomach and intestine was destroyed.
One thing I did learn from this experience is how wonderful and hospitable the people are in my site. My host family was, in fact, TOO nice while I was sick, incessantly trying to feed me when I came out into the common area. I kept having to hole up in my room because I was afraid if I opened the door for anything but running to the bathroom, they would force some sort of refresco or fried food on me.
Now that I am feeling better, I'm trying to get back into work and hoping that my counterparts still remember that I exist! Today we had a lengthy chorus practice, and things will be picking up again next week. Getting involved with music has been really fun (my host parents have lent me a guitar and are also trying to find a marimba for me), and I'm excited to finally start the exercise group. Next week, a group of us will be giving HIV charlas to youth and then painting the health center. Pair that with the wat/san evals I did those first few days, and it's hard to believe that I'm a business volunteer.
As we near the one month mark of being in site, I can say that I am feeling at home here. Eventually I will find some work that has to do with Negocios, but until then, I am content passing the time and getting to know more people. That is, as long as that time doesn't include amoebas or the blasted creature in my bedroom that keeps eating my chocolate (I do NOT want to talk about it).
Monday, May 23, 2011
¡Qué Barbaridad!
I have officially finished my first week in site, and man am I exhausted! The week basically consisted of me being dragged tons of places and meeting tons of people. I've also had 2 sick days... one with a head cold, and today with food posioning, but we won't get into that.
Monday the colegio (high school) had a welcome event for us with the music class. They sang both the Honduran and US national anthems, as well as ¨that's what friends are for.¨ My sitemate and I both had to give speeches, and it ended up getting out that we were both musicians. By the end of the morning, we had joined the staff chorus, agreed to perform a duet for the Dia de Estudiante celebration, and played piano on the spot while a teacher videotaped.
The municipality informed me that my first day of work would be out in the aldeas (i.e. the middle of nowhere) administering wat/san evaluations. So I got up early on Tuesday morning and rode up to the top of a mountain. I was developing a head cold, so we stopped for ¨special tea¨ before splitting up into pairs. I trudged through the mountains with a campesino, visiting each house and filling out a questionnaire about the sanitation system and latrines. Hence, my day as a wat/san volunteer.
I was supposed to go back out Wednesday, but my cold was worse and I wasn't up for trudging through the campo for 10 hours. I slept most of the day, and just when I was getting comfortable, my sitemate and I were whisked off to the local TV station for a 30 minute live interview. One thing I've learned in Honduras is that people love to plan things for you, but they never tell you until the last minute.
This interview was quite possibly the most awkwardly entertaining and embarrassing 30 minutes of my life. The show was... modestly produced, and included us sitting at a desk in front of a camcorder, with a monitor down below. I found myself looking at the monitor a lot, which meant that on the actual camera I pretty much looked like an idiot. They interviewed us and played the video from our welcome ceremony, and then closed with the video of each of us playing the piano. Que desastre...
At first, I thought, ¨what's the harm... I bet no one saw it,¨ but just about everyone I've met since has brought it up.
Thursday, we had the health fair at the colegio, where I worked the ¨brushing your teeth¨ charla, passing out toothpaste and toothbrushes to the kids, most of whom had seen me on TV the night before and wanted to talk about it. It ended up being a lot of fun. We met a few guys from the NGO World Vision, who invited us to a training on Friday at the balneario. We got to relax and observe the training, and also swam with the kids and played games in the pouring rain. Not a bad way to end the week!
This weekend was great, pre-food-poisoning. I spent some time with the bilingual school director here and some of the American teachers. Saturday morning I walked all around town, stopped by the market, and took a bunch of pictures. Then, my sitemate and I went to Siguatepeque with her counterpart and got to see the supermercado that we'll be shopping at for the next 2 years. I was supposed to go to the lake yesterday with a group of teachers and volunteers, but alas, my stomach would not allow it. Sad.
Overall, I'd say I'm still getting settled in and trying to get a feel for what my work will be. My first project will probably be making a website for the town, which several different people have asked me about. I am also looking to start a girls soccer team at the colegio, because the girls are really interested and there's currently nothing available. We are also starting an exercise group for women... tonight! Hopefully I will feel well enough to go.
I'm also very excited to get more involved with my NGO, Plan International. They are about to start a brand new socioeconomic development project in Intibuca, so I will get to see the entire project from start to finish. Hoepfully I can spend the next month learning more about the project so I'll be ready when it kicks off in July.
Monday the colegio (high school) had a welcome event for us with the music class. They sang both the Honduran and US national anthems, as well as ¨that's what friends are for.¨ My sitemate and I both had to give speeches, and it ended up getting out that we were both musicians. By the end of the morning, we had joined the staff chorus, agreed to perform a duet for the Dia de Estudiante celebration, and played piano on the spot while a teacher videotaped.
The municipality informed me that my first day of work would be out in the aldeas (i.e. the middle of nowhere) administering wat/san evaluations. So I got up early on Tuesday morning and rode up to the top of a mountain. I was developing a head cold, so we stopped for ¨special tea¨ before splitting up into pairs. I trudged through the mountains with a campesino, visiting each house and filling out a questionnaire about the sanitation system and latrines. Hence, my day as a wat/san volunteer.
I was supposed to go back out Wednesday, but my cold was worse and I wasn't up for trudging through the campo for 10 hours. I slept most of the day, and just when I was getting comfortable, my sitemate and I were whisked off to the local TV station for a 30 minute live interview. One thing I've learned in Honduras is that people love to plan things for you, but they never tell you until the last minute.
This interview was quite possibly the most awkwardly entertaining and embarrassing 30 minutes of my life. The show was... modestly produced, and included us sitting at a desk in front of a camcorder, with a monitor down below. I found myself looking at the monitor a lot, which meant that on the actual camera I pretty much looked like an idiot. They interviewed us and played the video from our welcome ceremony, and then closed with the video of each of us playing the piano. Que desastre...
At first, I thought, ¨what's the harm... I bet no one saw it,¨ but just about everyone I've met since has brought it up.
Thursday, we had the health fair at the colegio, where I worked the ¨brushing your teeth¨ charla, passing out toothpaste and toothbrushes to the kids, most of whom had seen me on TV the night before and wanted to talk about it. It ended up being a lot of fun. We met a few guys from the NGO World Vision, who invited us to a training on Friday at the balneario. We got to relax and observe the training, and also swam with the kids and played games in the pouring rain. Not a bad way to end the week!
This weekend was great, pre-food-poisoning. I spent some time with the bilingual school director here and some of the American teachers. Saturday morning I walked all around town, stopped by the market, and took a bunch of pictures. Then, my sitemate and I went to Siguatepeque with her counterpart and got to see the supermercado that we'll be shopping at for the next 2 years. I was supposed to go to the lake yesterday with a group of teachers and volunteers, but alas, my stomach would not allow it. Sad.
Overall, I'd say I'm still getting settled in and trying to get a feel for what my work will be. My first project will probably be making a website for the town, which several different people have asked me about. I am also looking to start a girls soccer team at the colegio, because the girls are really interested and there's currently nothing available. We are also starting an exercise group for women... tonight! Hopefully I will feel well enough to go.
I'm also very excited to get more involved with my NGO, Plan International. They are about to start a brand new socioeconomic development project in Intibuca, so I will get to see the entire project from start to finish. Hoepfully I can spend the next month learning more about the project so I'll be ready when it kicks off in July.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Soy Voluntaria del Cuerpo de Paz!
It's offical... I am a Peace Corps volunteer! There is so much to report that I don't even know where to begin, and I am working on a very frustrating keyboard, so vamos a ver how this goes.
We had our swearing in ceremony on Friday at the US Embassy in Teguz. Everyone was all dressed up, and even though it rained, the event went really well. Our counterparts (work partners from our organizations) came to meet us in the morning, and we spent the day chatting and going through introductory activities. The vice mayor and another employee of my municipality came, and we ate lunch with my sitemate and her health counterpart. The most awkward moment was when we asked them what our site needs the most help with, and they said ¨clean water.¨ (Remember that our training group includes business, health, and water/sanitation volunteers... you can see why this was a conversation killer.)
The ceremony itself included speeches from our country director, the ambassador, and volunteers. I conducted the US national anthem, which we had to sing acapella - and we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! We took lots of pictures and then stayed for a nice dinner in Teguz before returning to our host families to pack.
Yesterday, my counterparts picked me up in their car (thank goodness they brought a car! some volunteers had to take the bus), and we drove in to my site. It took about 3 hours, and I was exhausted. We immediately went over to the municipality, where I met just about everyone in the world, including the mayor. I'm going over there bright and early tomorrow to meet with them and develop a work plan, and we're also getting some sort of formal welcome from the escuela.
My first impression of my site has been a really good one. My host family is absolutely WONDERFUL... they have been taking me all over the town, and today we went to one of the nearby balnearios (basically a bunch of pools), where I actually got in the water and went down a surprisingly scary water slide. I also went to church with them this morning and spent 2 hours helping an old woman find and read verses in her Bible. (You know you're in Peace Corps when...)
Yesterday they gave me a walking tour of town, and I went back out again today with my sitemate, so I'm starting to feel better oriented. The city itself is large, but not very developed, with only the central roads being paved. The colegio where I'll be working is closeby, and they have a track where I can go running. They are hosting a health fair this Thursday, so we will be hitting the ground running! (no pun intended) We have also learned that the municipality has a band, so I am eager to help out with that.
There are 2 bilingual schools here and a lot of medical brigades and church missions that come through, so the town is really receptive and helpful to foreigners. It's a nice vibe because tourists don't really come through here, so people tend to respect the foreigners that live here without staring at us like we're aliens. We've already met several American and Canadian teachers from the bilingual schools, and there is a volunteer here from the Japanese equivalent of Peace Corps. My first impression is that the presence of other gringos will be an asset, but of course it will be a challenge to balance that time and not spend too much time hanging out and speaking English!
Of course, these are all my impressions after only 2 days here. I'm sure things will change as time goes on. Other good things about my site so far: There are 3 fairly nice parks as well as a supermercado. Also, Intibuca is the only department in Honduras that can grow strawberries, and my host family and I just ate strawberry ice cream with bananas for dinner. Yum!
In other news, the Honduran soccer championship game just ended, and people are screaming and parading through the streets. I also keep getting ¨viva Motagua¨ texts from random numbers. It sort of reminds me of SF when the Giants won the World Series. They do love their soccer around here...
We had our swearing in ceremony on Friday at the US Embassy in Teguz. Everyone was all dressed up, and even though it rained, the event went really well. Our counterparts (work partners from our organizations) came to meet us in the morning, and we spent the day chatting and going through introductory activities. The vice mayor and another employee of my municipality came, and we ate lunch with my sitemate and her health counterpart. The most awkward moment was when we asked them what our site needs the most help with, and they said ¨clean water.¨ (Remember that our training group includes business, health, and water/sanitation volunteers... you can see why this was a conversation killer.)
The ceremony itself included speeches from our country director, the ambassador, and volunteers. I conducted the US national anthem, which we had to sing acapella - and we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! We took lots of pictures and then stayed for a nice dinner in Teguz before returning to our host families to pack.
Yesterday, my counterparts picked me up in their car (thank goodness they brought a car! some volunteers had to take the bus), and we drove in to my site. It took about 3 hours, and I was exhausted. We immediately went over to the municipality, where I met just about everyone in the world, including the mayor. I'm going over there bright and early tomorrow to meet with them and develop a work plan, and we're also getting some sort of formal welcome from the escuela.
My first impression of my site has been a really good one. My host family is absolutely WONDERFUL... they have been taking me all over the town, and today we went to one of the nearby balnearios (basically a bunch of pools), where I actually got in the water and went down a surprisingly scary water slide. I also went to church with them this morning and spent 2 hours helping an old woman find and read verses in her Bible. (You know you're in Peace Corps when...)
Yesterday they gave me a walking tour of town, and I went back out again today with my sitemate, so I'm starting to feel better oriented. The city itself is large, but not very developed, with only the central roads being paved. The colegio where I'll be working is closeby, and they have a track where I can go running. They are hosting a health fair this Thursday, so we will be hitting the ground running! (no pun intended) We have also learned that the municipality has a band, so I am eager to help out with that.
There are 2 bilingual schools here and a lot of medical brigades and church missions that come through, so the town is really receptive and helpful to foreigners. It's a nice vibe because tourists don't really come through here, so people tend to respect the foreigners that live here without staring at us like we're aliens. We've already met several American and Canadian teachers from the bilingual schools, and there is a volunteer here from the Japanese equivalent of Peace Corps. My first impression is that the presence of other gringos will be an asset, but of course it will be a challenge to balance that time and not spend too much time hanging out and speaking English!
Of course, these are all my impressions after only 2 days here. I'm sure things will change as time goes on. Other good things about my site so far: There are 3 fairly nice parks as well as a supermercado. Also, Intibuca is the only department in Honduras that can grow strawberries, and my host family and I just ate strawberry ice cream with bananas for dinner. Yum!
In other news, the Honduran soccer championship game just ended, and people are screaming and parading through the streets. I also keep getting ¨viva Motagua¨ texts from random numbers. It sort of reminds me of SF when the Giants won the World Series. They do love their soccer around here...
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Lapiz con Flor
Hola! It's amazing how fast time has passed. We got back from FBT yesterday and are gearing up for the last week of training. It was hard to leave Yuscaran in some ways, but I was so excited to see my old host family and my neighbors. Fiona (the puppy) is twice as big now, and it's wonderful to be back in a place where there is internet and it doesn't take 20 minutes to load espn.com.
However, I do not have spell check, so please forgive any errors in this, as I am rushing and do not have time to edit!
Now that we're back from business training, I'll try to give more details on the last few weeks as well as the town we were in. The advanced Spanish speakers got to design a community project for the 6 weeks, to work on while the rest of us had language classes. They interviewed businesses and community members throughout the town and made a tourism website: http://sites.google.com/site/puebloyuscaran/. Please visit to increase the site traffic! It's translated in both English and Spanish, and also a cool way to read a little more about where we were living.
For Semana Santa, there were religous processions every day, and we got to witness the making of an alfombra, which is a giant sawdust carpet. Alfombras are a big tradition in Honduras during Semana Santa. I will post pictures when I get the chance. I also went with my family to Teguz that Saturday-Sunday, and we stayed at the house where their 3 daughters live. It was a fun trip -- great to have a break from the daily grind. They gave me tours of a couple malls and drove me around the city. On Easter, we went to their evangelical church and then out for a fancy lunch at KFC. Nothing says Happy Easter like 5 hours of church and a bucket of fried chicken and biscuits!
During the long weekend, we had several gatherings and really bonded as a business group - as boring as we thought the town was at times, we really got into a social routine, and I will miss having everyone so closeby. Our group has a lot of strong personalites, which had the potential for distaster, but wound up being a whole lot of fun. There was never a dull moment.
Last week, we did a really fun and exhausting project called a business simulation at the local escuela. We split into teams and worked with four different classes of 6th graders for five days. The first day we gave them charlas on business topics, and then we had them design a business and a product to sell. We spent the rest of the week buying materials, working on production, and promoting and selling the product. It was a ton of work, but the kids loved it, and I had a lot of fun as well. My group sold lapiz con flor -- flower pens. We bought boxes of pens, ribbon, and bouquets of fake flowers, and taped them all together. The product was very impressive, if I do say so myself! In the end, we finshed 2nd, but we made over 700 lempiras in two days, and I was so proud of the kids!!
Now that I've rambled for a while, I will say that we received our site assignments today! They waited until the end of the day to tell us, and it was a very stressful hour of speculation when they were revealing everything. If you're wondering why I waited until the end of the post to mention this, you know exactly how we all felt when we were sitting through policy and technical sessions this morning and afternoon.
I will be in the department of Intibuca, which is in the mountains more toward the western part of the country. My site is meduim-large sized, about 10,000 people in the city center and 20,000 total. The work there sounds like a great fit for me - there is a large technical high schoool that is looking for help revising its business and finance curriculum, a network of caja rurales (small microfinance banks) operated by the municipal government, and a large NGO that works on economic development through food security. I will have a sitemate from the health group, which is not common (larger sites have multiple volunteers, but it's rare to have 2 from the same training group). Either way, it will be nice to have another American around.
My site has internet cafes and modem coverage, so hopefully I will get better at updating. It has been a very eventful day, and I am so excited to enjoy this last week and get to my site!
However, I do not have spell check, so please forgive any errors in this, as I am rushing and do not have time to edit!
Now that we're back from business training, I'll try to give more details on the last few weeks as well as the town we were in. The advanced Spanish speakers got to design a community project for the 6 weeks, to work on while the rest of us had language classes. They interviewed businesses and community members throughout the town and made a tourism website: http://sites.google.com/site/puebloyuscaran/. Please visit to increase the site traffic! It's translated in both English and Spanish, and also a cool way to read a little more about where we were living.
For Semana Santa, there were religous processions every day, and we got to witness the making of an alfombra, which is a giant sawdust carpet. Alfombras are a big tradition in Honduras during Semana Santa. I will post pictures when I get the chance. I also went with my family to Teguz that Saturday-Sunday, and we stayed at the house where their 3 daughters live. It was a fun trip -- great to have a break from the daily grind. They gave me tours of a couple malls and drove me around the city. On Easter, we went to their evangelical church and then out for a fancy lunch at KFC. Nothing says Happy Easter like 5 hours of church and a bucket of fried chicken and biscuits!
During the long weekend, we had several gatherings and really bonded as a business group - as boring as we thought the town was at times, we really got into a social routine, and I will miss having everyone so closeby. Our group has a lot of strong personalites, which had the potential for distaster, but wound up being a whole lot of fun. There was never a dull moment.
Last week, we did a really fun and exhausting project called a business simulation at the local escuela. We split into teams and worked with four different classes of 6th graders for five days. The first day we gave them charlas on business topics, and then we had them design a business and a product to sell. We spent the rest of the week buying materials, working on production, and promoting and selling the product. It was a ton of work, but the kids loved it, and I had a lot of fun as well. My group sold lapiz con flor -- flower pens. We bought boxes of pens, ribbon, and bouquets of fake flowers, and taped them all together. The product was very impressive, if I do say so myself! In the end, we finshed 2nd, but we made over 700 lempiras in two days, and I was so proud of the kids!!
Now that I've rambled for a while, I will say that we received our site assignments today! They waited until the end of the day to tell us, and it was a very stressful hour of speculation when they were revealing everything. If you're wondering why I waited until the end of the post to mention this, you know exactly how we all felt when we were sitting through policy and technical sessions this morning and afternoon.
I will be in the department of Intibuca, which is in the mountains more toward the western part of the country. My site is meduim-large sized, about 10,000 people in the city center and 20,000 total. The work there sounds like a great fit for me - there is a large technical high schoool that is looking for help revising its business and finance curriculum, a network of caja rurales (small microfinance banks) operated by the municipal government, and a large NGO that works on economic development through food security. I will have a sitemate from the health group, which is not common (larger sites have multiple volunteers, but it's rare to have 2 from the same training group). Either way, it will be nice to have another American around.
My site has internet cafes and modem coverage, so hopefully I will get better at updating. It has been a very eventful day, and I am so excited to enjoy this last week and get to my site!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Real Negocios
Things are still going well here, although it doesn't feel like I have much to report.
After the volunteer visit, we had a 2 day HIV project in which we prepared charlas (a 4 hour class) for students at the local colegio. It's a program that every PC volunteer worldwide gets trained in. As you can imagine, it was very awkward teaching sex ed to a group of 26 kids, especially because my group had the youngest kids -- 11 and 12 years old! But they liked us, and we had a decent amount of fun.
We also did a business project on tourism this week, where we visited a few attractions and camped at a balneario, which was basically a fake beach. It was nice, and we played sand soccer and volleyball, which killed our feet but was very fun.
Yesterday we organized a soccer game between the business group and the water & sanitation ("wat san") trainees, who are also in El Paraiso. We all bused into a neutral location and played a full 90-minute game at a stadium. Almost everyone from both groups came, and it was great to see all of them for the first time in a month. Unfortunately, we lost 2-1, but there is a wat san guy who played college soccer and scored both goals, so we feel pretty good about the way we played. I, for one, had never played a full game of soccer in my life. But it was very fun! We are hoping to rematch next weekend.
Other than that, holy week - Semana Santa - is upon us, so there will be activities all week. There was a procession this morning for Palm Sunday that came right by my house. We get Thursday and Friday off, which will be interesting since we are usually so bored on the weekends. Hopefully we will find fun things to do!
After the volunteer visit, we had a 2 day HIV project in which we prepared charlas (a 4 hour class) for students at the local colegio. It's a program that every PC volunteer worldwide gets trained in. As you can imagine, it was very awkward teaching sex ed to a group of 26 kids, especially because my group had the youngest kids -- 11 and 12 years old! But they liked us, and we had a decent amount of fun.
We also did a business project on tourism this week, where we visited a few attractions and camped at a balneario, which was basically a fake beach. It was nice, and we played sand soccer and volleyball, which killed our feet but was very fun.
Yesterday we organized a soccer game between the business group and the water & sanitation ("wat san") trainees, who are also in El Paraiso. We all bused into a neutral location and played a full 90-minute game at a stadium. Almost everyone from both groups came, and it was great to see all of them for the first time in a month. Unfortunately, we lost 2-1, but there is a wat san guy who played college soccer and scored both goals, so we feel pretty good about the way we played. I, for one, had never played a full game of soccer in my life. But it was very fun! We are hoping to rematch next weekend.
Other than that, holy week - Semana Santa - is upon us, so there will be activities all week. There was a procession this morning for Palm Sunday that came right by my house. We get Thursday and Friday off, which will be interesting since we are usually so bored on the weekends. Hopefully we will find fun things to do!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Pensaba que era caliente...
Just a few days ago, I complained about how hot it was at our FBT site. I retract that statement.
I've spent the past 3 days visiting a volunteer in Amapala, which is an island off the southern coast. Each trainee was matched with a current volunteer to visit, and I landed the only beach spot (insert irony here). It's been a really fun trip, apart from the fact that it's blisteringly hot in the southern part of this country. Most people give up on work around 2 or 3pm, go home, and sit outside with a cold refresco until the sun sets. It's hard to do anything when it's over 100 and there's no air conditioning. Luckily I'm in a country where I can preference away from a hot site (as opposed to, say, Africa).
Anyway, I've really enjoyed chatting with the volunteer that I'm visiting. I got to meet her counterpart (Honduran work partner) and visit a couple of the places where she works. Monday we went with a group of women to a cooking charla at a restaruant on the mainland. It ended up being pretty interesting. I learned to make mango salsa and how to cook a fish! Plus, the chef who gave the presentation was from El Salvador and lived in the US for 20 years, so I could understand him. There's a really thick dialect on this island, and it's been almost impossible for me to understand people.
Aside from revisiting my fear of boats, relaxing at a gorgeous beach, and nearly dying of heat stroke, the visit spurred me to think a lot about what I want in a site / work assignment (which is the purpose of doing the visits!). We have a lot of input into our placement, so it's good to learn about a real experience and think about the pros and cons. For example, I think I'd rather have a larger site than a smaller one... and I'd rather work with a school or larger organization than with small businesses.
I've spent the past 3 days visiting a volunteer in Amapala, which is an island off the southern coast. Each trainee was matched with a current volunteer to visit, and I landed the only beach spot (insert irony here). It's been a really fun trip, apart from the fact that it's blisteringly hot in the southern part of this country. Most people give up on work around 2 or 3pm, go home, and sit outside with a cold refresco until the sun sets. It's hard to do anything when it's over 100 and there's no air conditioning. Luckily I'm in a country where I can preference away from a hot site (as opposed to, say, Africa).
Anyway, I've really enjoyed chatting with the volunteer that I'm visiting. I got to meet her counterpart (Honduran work partner) and visit a couple of the places where she works. Monday we went with a group of women to a cooking charla at a restaruant on the mainland. It ended up being pretty interesting. I learned to make mango salsa and how to cook a fish! Plus, the chef who gave the presentation was from El Salvador and lived in the US for 20 years, so I could understand him. There's a really thick dialect on this island, and it's been almost impossible for me to understand people.
Aside from revisiting my fear of boats, relaxing at a gorgeous beach, and nearly dying of heat stroke, the visit spurred me to think a lot about what I want in a site / work assignment (which is the purpose of doing the visits!). We have a lot of input into our placement, so it's good to learn about a real experience and think about the pros and cons. For example, I think I'd rather have a larger site than a smaller one... and I'd rather work with a school or larger organization than with small businesses.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Echar la Gueva
Greetings from the department of El Paraiso. We are in the midst of our 6-week technical training, with the 18 of us business folks in a small colonial town. It’s cute, with cobblestone streets and a central park, but there isn’t much to do. It’s also really hot. The one internet café is slow as molasses, so I’m not going to beat myself up trying to keep up with things online, or post pictures.
My host family is a couple in their early 50s. They have 3 daughters that go to school in Tegucigalpa, so it’s just me and them. They are super nice and hospitable, but very conservative. My host dad’s family has cows, so we have fresh milk and cheese (which they sell out of the house), and my host mom runs a shoe store that’s attached to the house. It’s a lot more low-key than my old host family, where there was always something going on: kids playing outside or building casitas out of couch cushions, and adults making jokes or watching football.
Most evenings after training, we gather as a group of gringos to do nothing (the Honduran term is “echar la gueva”). We have also been playing soccer with the locals, which is really fun. I’m not very good, but the Hondurans still include me (a welcome contrast from America, where guys usually dominate games to show off and exclude the girls!). On weekdays, we play on a concrete futbolito, which is basically a basketball court, with a tiny plastic ball that is impossible to kick. Last Sunday we went out to the large campo and played a full game. All the gringos usually end up getting schooled by small children and laughed at by the men…and injured from playing on concrete… but it’s in good fun.
As far as accommodations here, it’s comparable to where we were before – some families have hot showers and washing machines, and the houses are fairly nice. However, we only have water a few hours a day, which has been a change. The power has also been going out. They keep telling us it’s uncommon, but it’s happened 3 times since we got here. What’s nice is that the outages really don’t affect life very much, and it gives us a great view of the stars and forest fires in the distance. My biggest fear is being halfway through a shower when the water goes out (which has already happened to a friend), and also getting attacked by giant roaches in the shower, which happened to me yesterday.
Overall, I’m adjusting to the pace of life and getting used to not having much to do. But we will be spending the next few days visiting volunteers in other parts of the country, which will be a nice change… wait until you find out where I’m going!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
¡Feliz Día del Padre!
Yesterday was fathers' day in Honduras. Apparently it's not that big of a holiday, but we had a barbeque today at my house for all the extended family, with hamburgers and CUPCAKES, which were the highlight of my month. Chocolate with white frosting and M&Ms.
Other than that, we're finishing up this part of training and getting ready to move to Field Based Training (FBT) on Wednesday. This means I'll be in a town about an hour farther from Teguz, just with business people, and I'll be getting a new host family. I'm excited about some aspects but sad to leave my family and neighbors here.
Friday, my Spanish class went on a field trip to the market in Tegucigalpa, where our "test" was to take the bus and a taxi there and then buy things at the market for our host families. We sped through that portion so that we could have time to go to the supermercado, where I splurged on some Nutella. We also went back to Teguz yesterday to fill out paperwork for our residency cards, which took hours. It was basically Honduras' version of the DMV, and just as disfunctional. At one point, the system completely shut down, so we had the bus driver take us to Pizza Hut for lunch until it got fixed. There are some things I like about Teguz, but it is very polluted, and after 2 straight days there I am glad to be back in clean air.
A lot has happened in the past week other than cupcakes, Nutella, and Teguz, but of course I'm blanking. I've been getting schooled by the neighbor kids in soccer, watching the NCAA tournament with the other gringos, and of course spending time with my host family. I also organized a march madness pool amongst the trainees, which as been fun. And I suppose my next post will be from FBT!
Other than that, we're finishing up this part of training and getting ready to move to Field Based Training (FBT) on Wednesday. This means I'll be in a town about an hour farther from Teguz, just with business people, and I'll be getting a new host family. I'm excited about some aspects but sad to leave my family and neighbors here.
Friday, my Spanish class went on a field trip to the market in Tegucigalpa, where our "test" was to take the bus and a taxi there and then buy things at the market for our host families. We sped through that portion so that we could have time to go to the supermercado, where I splurged on some Nutella. We also went back to Teguz yesterday to fill out paperwork for our residency cards, which took hours. It was basically Honduras' version of the DMV, and just as disfunctional. At one point, the system completely shut down, so we had the bus driver take us to Pizza Hut for lunch until it got fixed. There are some things I like about Teguz, but it is very polluted, and after 2 straight days there I am glad to be back in clean air.
A lot has happened in the past week other than cupcakes, Nutella, and Teguz, but of course I'm blanking. I've been getting schooled by the neighbor kids in soccer, watching the NCAA tournament with the other gringos, and of course spending time with my host family. I also organized a march madness pool amongst the trainees, which as been fun. And I suppose my next post will be from FBT!
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