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!

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.

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!