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!