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...

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).