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!