End of first part of training:
Volunteer visit
Last weekend I went to visit a volunteer in Siguatepeque (I couldn’t pronounce it either until I got here). Michelle works as an engineer designing water systems for the aldeas surrounding Siguat. I travelled there with three other trainees. It was actually just a stroke of luck that I got to travel with them. I didn’t find anyone the night before that was travelling my way (which seemed odd), so I just went up to my friend Annie who is my neighbor and asked her when she was going to Teguc, so that I could ride up with her. Then, at the bus stop the morning we were leaving, I found out that we were going to take the same bus.
I really liked Siguat. The town was very nice, actually it is a city. I really thought that I was going to join the Peace Corps, and then live in a tiny little town, without water or electricity (very dramatic like), but now I want to live in a city. Its odd, but I like that cities have restaurants, markets, supermarkets, and internet cafes. I also just like the feel of the smaller cities here (Teguc is the exception to the cities, it’s not really a great place). It just goes to show you how much can change.
I found out a lot about the peace corps, the water and sanitation group, and about the life of a volunteer from Michelle. On the second day we started a topography study to start planning for a new water system in a nearby community. The old system there is 35 years old. The town had grown enough that a while ago, they just built a PCV system that was not planned out very well. Now that have a lot of problems, and are interested in building a new system to replace the old and newer systems. What wat/san volunteers do is provide the feasibility study and the plan for the community, but that have to provide a lot of information, help with the topo studies and it is their responsibility to pay for the project. By doing this for them, we can significantly cut the budget, because engineering fees are high, but they have to pay for the rest. Some volunteers get into grant writing, and working with the community to see how funds can be raised, but others don’t. It’s a personal choice on that one.
At the beginning of the day, I didn’t really know what to do, because although we had had an intro to surveying principles, we never set up the theodolite. By the end of the day I was an expert. I remember hearing undergrads complain about their surveying class that it was hard to set up the instrument and take the back and fore spots in 15 minutes. They MUST have had to do something else though, because by the end of the day I could set it up on a steep mountain, find the men with the back spot and estadio (I don’t know the word in English) through dense forest and take all measurements in under 15 minutes. I had a once in a lifetime experience though, I had to set up the theodolite on a steep ledge, so I just kind of eyeballed it for level before I began the fight of trying to level the thing, and it was perfect! Completely level. Once in a lifetime experience.
The area we were in was really pretty. In the more jungle-y portion there were ferns that were no joke 20 feet tall, which made for some really giant fiddleheads! We also passed through a coffee farm. While it was interesting to see a coffee farm, you can’t cut the branches down like you can in a forest, which makes it really fun to survey through there.
Michelle also coaches a baseball team for 8-12 year olds in her town. She coaches with two of her sitemates (volunteers that live in the same town). There is a lot different between a team here and a team in the states. There is a lot of discipline in the states (which I know I didn’t like getting yelled at by my coach for striking out) and once your parents sign you up, you have to go every week and your parents are there to help you and push you to work hard. Here, the kids sometimes have to beg their parents to let them play. They have to walk themselves there, and every week it a surprise which kids will show up which makes it hard to have consistency. I think it makes it even more impressive for those kids that have a lot going against them (no brand new sports equipment for them) plus other distraction, when they really show the dedication to the sport and to practicing. Also, these kids play once a month because the other teams are so far away and it costs a lot of money to move an entire team. To practice three times a week and only play once a month has to be hard.
I had a great visit.
Training:
Today (Sunday) we are switching training sites to field based training. Here we will really concentrate on the technical aspects of our jobs, as well as Spanish. The last two weeks of the training there are going to be completely in Spanish, no English by the instructors at all. I am both exciting and worried about this. I am also worried about moving to a new family. I really like my family here. I finally like all the food too (although refried beans are probably my least favorite though). So, it will be odd, but hopefully I will have the same luck and get a great family again. Tonight is going to be fun though because I will want to spend a lot of time with my new family, we have to walk around the town for Monday, I have to unpack, and I need to write in my journal, update more of this, and do homework. I am going to be up late again.
Ok, I will write more later tonight or tomorrow, because it is about time for me to leave here.
Well, it’s a few days later. It gets really busy here. This is the reason that no one has letters. I barely have time to do what I need to do, and there is no extra time.
Hmm, so about the big move- it sucked. Really, I know I should use a less vulgar word, but let me explain to you what happened. The bus arrived late at the stop in Las Canadas, then there was a lot of confusion over which bus everyone had to be one and how to organize the luggage so that it wouldn’t be a problem. Then we had three more stops to repeat the whole experience. Once we had both groups (Wat/San and Business- Health went north in their own bus) and all our stuff in the bus it was a tight fit. The ride to Ojojona was fine, and we left the business group there and headed to Pespire. Now, it wasn’t too hot in Ojojona, and we were all thinking that it wouldn’t be too hot in Pespire. We were wrong. The ride just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter. It was ridiculous when we finally entered Pespire.
Now, part of the challenge in perspire was to find our houses using the provided directions. I headed out with a group to find our neighborhood. About one bock into the walk we get ourselves a bolo. A bolo is a drunk basically. They can be passed out randomly on street corners, or they can come up to you and babble on and on. Ours just rambled. At one point he even drooled on Jill’s shoe. So, we are walking and walking in the blistering heat with all our stuff, and trying to explain to the bolo that he should leave us alone. But eventually we are all just drained. At this point I volunteered to go find our families and see if there was anyone that could help us with our bags. I was actually quite proud of my Spanish. I was able to ask people for directions, talk with the family members and I even scored us a truck. Jill’s brother in law was about to leave when I arrived and offered to delay his trip for a few minutes while he helped us with our stuff. It turns out where we stopped really wasn’t far from our houses, but we were really just that drained.
My family here is great. During the week I have three family members in the house, and during the weekends I have six. My two oldest sisters live in teguc during the week because they are attending the university there. My host dad also lives there during the week for work. He works in the administration of the police. We haven’t gotten into detail yet on what he does exactly. During the week I live with my host mom (who is a teacher), my 15 year old sister, and an 11 year old brother. I’ve been here two days now, so I can’t give too much detail.
Today we gave a charla (it’s a presentation) to people who work for a local non-governmental organization (NGO). They work with juntas de aguas (water boards) and other related topics. Yesterday we had a lot to talk about community analysis, and everyone today gave a charla that used one of the tools. Our charla (I did it with four other people) went really well and the audience was really interested and involved in the process.
Tomorrow we start working outside the in ridiculous heat. Oh Goody!
So, although I don’t have time to write, feel free to write yourselves. Nothing will brighten my day after four hours in the sun in 100+ degree weather like a nice letter from my friends and family.
Jill
PS if you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or send me and an email, and I will try to respond to them in the blog.
Ok, the plan is to post this tomorrow. Hopefully it actually happens, but since I didn’t post it the other day I get to write more in this post. Eventually these posts should get shorter and you wont need an hour to catch up on my life each week.
First, I hear that Mom wrote up my other blogs. Thanks Mom! A big round of applause for her because they were long. She loves me, what can I say.
Back to Honduras. First of all, you pronounce it Onderias, because you don’t pronounce h’s here unless it is after a c (ch). Other interesting facts, you pronounce y’s life j’s in English. I finally put that together yesterday and already it has helped my speaking abilities.
Food: Now, I have mentioned food a lot because it is a big part of life here. Also because I knew going in that it was going to be a big problem for me. In the states I rarely ate beans because I didn’t like them. Now I have become accustomed to them. The other day I actually accepted a second helping of refried beans (I was very hungry). Now, only a few days later, I have realized the benefit of refried beans: they cover any taste. I get served these huge portions of cheese here, and I have never been a big fan of cheese, so just eat the cheese with the refried beans in a 2:1 mixture, and you barely taste the cheese. The first time I was served fried platinos, I had no idea what to make of the taste, it wasn’t bad, but it was different than anything else. Now, I love platinos, but in the beginning I ate a combo beans/platinos. Platinos are plantains.
Also, the pepsi and coke here are a lot different than in the states. Since sugarcane is more common than corn, they use it instead of corn syrup and you can really taste the flavor here. In the beginning I could really taste a difference, but now I like this new taste, and think I would prefer it to the soda in the states. I once described it as tasting like flat soda in the states (because you can taste the ingredients) but with the fiz. Others have said this is an apt description, but I can’t tell the difference anymore because I have become accustomed to the soda here, not that I have it often.
There are just so many new foods here I can’t describe them all. I will say for all you people that like mangoes, I am living in the region of Honduras that produces mangoes and they are cheap here. You can buy one for $0.05 or you can get one off the tree in the central park for free. This is mango season now, and they are perfect for the eating.
Clothing: It is hot here, but we have to keep a “professional casual” dress here. Also, I was told through emails and through reading other peoples blogs that skirts were not a good idea. Yeah, well, skirts would have been a fantastic idea. It is so hot here and we can’t wear shorts. I am luckily in the fact I am a woman and I can wear sandals. Today we were outside and I wore boots and it wasn’t too bad.
Ok, cutting off early to talk to the host fam.
Bye
Jill
Psych again, although I really should just erase that other part, I am not. This is much later in the evening. I spent a little while talking to my hermanos. Then I showered and I am enjoying a brief but wonderful portion of my day, the few minutes after showering and before starting to sweat again. It is a rare but beautiful thing to not be sweating here. Then to be clean and not sweating, its like gold.
So, other things to mention. My host family is great, they have really excepted me as part of the family, my mother calls me her oldest child. My mother is so great, as we speak she is washing my clothes. All clothes washing is done by hand on what is called a pila. Now, Honduran woman must all have really strong arms, because mine get so tired after about thirty seconds of doing this. I brought a bunch of clothes that needed to be washed, and then forgot or was too tired at night to wash them. Then tonight I was just going to bring a small group of clothes because I need a shirt for tomorrow. My Mom saw my pathetic technique at washing my clothes and took over. Then she told me to get the rest of my dirty clothes. I asked her if she was sure (she knew I had a lot). I have now learned that washing clothes is a daily process, not a once a week thing. She called it my mountain of dirty clothes. She is a wonderful lady.
Hmm, so about the heat. When I get out my shampoo at night to take a shower I can feel the hotness of the shampoo which has been in my oven of a room (all rooms here are ovens really) over the relative coolness of the night. Oh, in case any of you are wondering about the fact that I am washing clothes for tomorrow late at night, no se precupen, its still hot enough outside to dry the clothes in two hours. And working outside in the heat wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I was plenty cranky out there, and had some misunderstandings with another volunteer (sorry Ryan, although you kind of deserved it) but it was survivable. I brought plenty of water, so that didn’t become a problem. Yes, I am keeping plenty hydrated here, it seems that I am always downing bags of water. Oh, that is another thing, you can buy anything in a bag here. Instead of having a ton of plastic bottles of water, it comes in a bag, you just bite of a corner and drink. Also, I bought what is essentially a popsicle in a bag today. They reuse the glass soda bottles here, so if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of returning the bottle, they’ll just put it in a bag for you. I will try to get a few pictures for you.
Speaking of pictures, who knows where these pictures will wind up in this blog, but the ones I am planning on putting in here are:
Two pictures of my hiking trip which I didn’t talk about which was pretty much a comedy of errors, a picture of the fun and cramped conditions on the bus for moving day, and a few pictures of my new town. The church was built by the Spanish a long, long time ago. Another picture is of a street here, the cobblestone tradition was started by the Spanish in this town, and the last of the town in the central park (where the free mangoes are). I will try to get a picture of a water bag or other type of bagged beverage later for you folks.
Don’t forget to keep in touch!
Volunteer visit
Last weekend I went to visit a volunteer in Siguatepeque (I couldn’t pronounce it either until I got here). Michelle works as an engineer designing water systems for the aldeas surrounding Siguat. I travelled there with three other trainees. It was actually just a stroke of luck that I got to travel with them. I didn’t find anyone the night before that was travelling my way (which seemed odd), so I just went up to my friend Annie who is my neighbor and asked her when she was going to Teguc, so that I could ride up with her. Then, at the bus stop the morning we were leaving, I found out that we were going to take the same bus.
I really liked Siguat. The town was very nice, actually it is a city. I really thought that I was going to join the Peace Corps, and then live in a tiny little town, without water or electricity (very dramatic like), but now I want to live in a city. Its odd, but I like that cities have restaurants, markets, supermarkets, and internet cafes. I also just like the feel of the smaller cities here (Teguc is the exception to the cities, it’s not really a great place). It just goes to show you how much can change.
I found out a lot about the peace corps, the water and sanitation group, and about the life of a volunteer from Michelle. On the second day we started a topography study to start planning for a new water system in a nearby community. The old system there is 35 years old. The town had grown enough that a while ago, they just built a PCV system that was not planned out very well. Now that have a lot of problems, and are interested in building a new system to replace the old and newer systems. What wat/san volunteers do is provide the feasibility study and the plan for the community, but that have to provide a lot of information, help with the topo studies and it is their responsibility to pay for the project. By doing this for them, we can significantly cut the budget, because engineering fees are high, but they have to pay for the rest. Some volunteers get into grant writing, and working with the community to see how funds can be raised, but others don’t. It’s a personal choice on that one.
At the beginning of the day, I didn’t really know what to do, because although we had had an intro to surveying principles, we never set up the theodolite. By the end of the day I was an expert. I remember hearing undergrads complain about their surveying class that it was hard to set up the instrument and take the back and fore spots in 15 minutes. They MUST have had to do something else though, because by the end of the day I could set it up on a steep mountain, find the men with the back spot and estadio (I don’t know the word in English) through dense forest and take all measurements in under 15 minutes. I had a once in a lifetime experience though, I had to set up the theodolite on a steep ledge, so I just kind of eyeballed it for level before I began the fight of trying to level the thing, and it was perfect! Completely level. Once in a lifetime experience.
The area we were in was really pretty. In the more jungle-y portion there were ferns that were no joke 20 feet tall, which made for some really giant fiddleheads! We also passed through a coffee farm. While it was interesting to see a coffee farm, you can’t cut the branches down like you can in a forest, which makes it really fun to survey through there.
Michelle also coaches a baseball team for 8-12 year olds in her town. She coaches with two of her sitemates (volunteers that live in the same town). There is a lot different between a team here and a team in the states. There is a lot of discipline in the states (which I know I didn’t like getting yelled at by my coach for striking out) and once your parents sign you up, you have to go every week and your parents are there to help you and push you to work hard. Here, the kids sometimes have to beg their parents to let them play. They have to walk themselves there, and every week it a surprise which kids will show up which makes it hard to have consistency. I think it makes it even more impressive for those kids that have a lot going against them (no brand new sports equipment for them) plus other distraction, when they really show the dedication to the sport and to practicing. Also, these kids play once a month because the other teams are so far away and it costs a lot of money to move an entire team. To practice three times a week and only play once a month has to be hard.
I had a great visit.
Training:
Today (Sunday) we are switching training sites to field based training. Here we will really concentrate on the technical aspects of our jobs, as well as Spanish. The last two weeks of the training there are going to be completely in Spanish, no English by the instructors at all. I am both exciting and worried about this. I am also worried about moving to a new family. I really like my family here. I finally like all the food too (although refried beans are probably my least favorite though). So, it will be odd, but hopefully I will have the same luck and get a great family again. Tonight is going to be fun though because I will want to spend a lot of time with my new family, we have to walk around the town for Monday, I have to unpack, and I need to write in my journal, update more of this, and do homework. I am going to be up late again.
Ok, I will write more later tonight or tomorrow, because it is about time for me to leave here.
Well, it’s a few days later. It gets really busy here. This is the reason that no one has letters. I barely have time to do what I need to do, and there is no extra time.
Hmm, so about the big move- it sucked. Really, I know I should use a less vulgar word, but let me explain to you what happened. The bus arrived late at the stop in Las Canadas, then there was a lot of confusion over which bus everyone had to be one and how to organize the luggage so that it wouldn’t be a problem. Then we had three more stops to repeat the whole experience. Once we had both groups (Wat/San and Business- Health went north in their own bus) and all our stuff in the bus it was a tight fit. The ride to Ojojona was fine, and we left the business group there and headed to Pespire. Now, it wasn’t too hot in Ojojona, and we were all thinking that it wouldn’t be too hot in Pespire. We were wrong. The ride just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter. It was ridiculous when we finally entered Pespire.
Now, part of the challenge in perspire was to find our houses using the provided directions. I headed out with a group to find our neighborhood. About one bock into the walk we get ourselves a bolo. A bolo is a drunk basically. They can be passed out randomly on street corners, or they can come up to you and babble on and on. Ours just rambled. At one point he even drooled on Jill’s shoe. So, we are walking and walking in the blistering heat with all our stuff, and trying to explain to the bolo that he should leave us alone. But eventually we are all just drained. At this point I volunteered to go find our families and see if there was anyone that could help us with our bags. I was actually quite proud of my Spanish. I was able to ask people for directions, talk with the family members and I even scored us a truck. Jill’s brother in law was about to leave when I arrived and offered to delay his trip for a few minutes while he helped us with our stuff. It turns out where we stopped really wasn’t far from our houses, but we were really just that drained.
My family here is great. During the week I have three family members in the house, and during the weekends I have six. My two oldest sisters live in teguc during the week because they are attending the university there. My host dad also lives there during the week for work. He works in the administration of the police. We haven’t gotten into detail yet on what he does exactly. During the week I live with my host mom (who is a teacher), my 15 year old sister, and an 11 year old brother. I’ve been here two days now, so I can’t give too much detail.
Today we gave a charla (it’s a presentation) to people who work for a local non-governmental organization (NGO). They work with juntas de aguas (water boards) and other related topics. Yesterday we had a lot to talk about community analysis, and everyone today gave a charla that used one of the tools. Our charla (I did it with four other people) went really well and the audience was really interested and involved in the process.
Tomorrow we start working outside the in ridiculous heat. Oh Goody!
So, although I don’t have time to write, feel free to write yourselves. Nothing will brighten my day after four hours in the sun in 100+ degree weather like a nice letter from my friends and family.
Jill
PS if you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or send me and an email, and I will try to respond to them in the blog.
Ok, the plan is to post this tomorrow. Hopefully it actually happens, but since I didn’t post it the other day I get to write more in this post. Eventually these posts should get shorter and you wont need an hour to catch up on my life each week.
First, I hear that Mom wrote up my other blogs. Thanks Mom! A big round of applause for her because they were long. She loves me, what can I say.
Back to Honduras. First of all, you pronounce it Onderias, because you don’t pronounce h’s here unless it is after a c (ch). Other interesting facts, you pronounce y’s life j’s in English. I finally put that together yesterday and already it has helped my speaking abilities.
Food: Now, I have mentioned food a lot because it is a big part of life here. Also because I knew going in that it was going to be a big problem for me. In the states I rarely ate beans because I didn’t like them. Now I have become accustomed to them. The other day I actually accepted a second helping of refried beans (I was very hungry). Now, only a few days later, I have realized the benefit of refried beans: they cover any taste. I get served these huge portions of cheese here, and I have never been a big fan of cheese, so just eat the cheese with the refried beans in a 2:1 mixture, and you barely taste the cheese. The first time I was served fried platinos, I had no idea what to make of the taste, it wasn’t bad, but it was different than anything else. Now, I love platinos, but in the beginning I ate a combo beans/platinos. Platinos are plantains.
Also, the pepsi and coke here are a lot different than in the states. Since sugarcane is more common than corn, they use it instead of corn syrup and you can really taste the flavor here. In the beginning I could really taste a difference, but now I like this new taste, and think I would prefer it to the soda in the states. I once described it as tasting like flat soda in the states (because you can taste the ingredients) but with the fiz. Others have said this is an apt description, but I can’t tell the difference anymore because I have become accustomed to the soda here, not that I have it often.
There are just so many new foods here I can’t describe them all. I will say for all you people that like mangoes, I am living in the region of Honduras that produces mangoes and they are cheap here. You can buy one for $0.05 or you can get one off the tree in the central park for free. This is mango season now, and they are perfect for the eating.
Clothing: It is hot here, but we have to keep a “professional casual” dress here. Also, I was told through emails and through reading other peoples blogs that skirts were not a good idea. Yeah, well, skirts would have been a fantastic idea. It is so hot here and we can’t wear shorts. I am luckily in the fact I am a woman and I can wear sandals. Today we were outside and I wore boots and it wasn’t too bad.
Ok, cutting off early to talk to the host fam.
Bye
Jill
Psych again, although I really should just erase that other part, I am not. This is much later in the evening. I spent a little while talking to my hermanos. Then I showered and I am enjoying a brief but wonderful portion of my day, the few minutes after showering and before starting to sweat again. It is a rare but beautiful thing to not be sweating here. Then to be clean and not sweating, its like gold.
So, other things to mention. My host family is great, they have really excepted me as part of the family, my mother calls me her oldest child. My mother is so great, as we speak she is washing my clothes. All clothes washing is done by hand on what is called a pila. Now, Honduran woman must all have really strong arms, because mine get so tired after about thirty seconds of doing this. I brought a bunch of clothes that needed to be washed, and then forgot or was too tired at night to wash them. Then tonight I was just going to bring a small group of clothes because I need a shirt for tomorrow. My Mom saw my pathetic technique at washing my clothes and took over. Then she told me to get the rest of my dirty clothes. I asked her if she was sure (she knew I had a lot). I have now learned that washing clothes is a daily process, not a once a week thing. She called it my mountain of dirty clothes. She is a wonderful lady.
Hmm, so about the heat. When I get out my shampoo at night to take a shower I can feel the hotness of the shampoo which has been in my oven of a room (all rooms here are ovens really) over the relative coolness of the night. Oh, in case any of you are wondering about the fact that I am washing clothes for tomorrow late at night, no se precupen, its still hot enough outside to dry the clothes in two hours. And working outside in the heat wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I was plenty cranky out there, and had some misunderstandings with another volunteer (sorry Ryan, although you kind of deserved it) but it was survivable. I brought plenty of water, so that didn’t become a problem. Yes, I am keeping plenty hydrated here, it seems that I am always downing bags of water. Oh, that is another thing, you can buy anything in a bag here. Instead of having a ton of plastic bottles of water, it comes in a bag, you just bite of a corner and drink. Also, I bought what is essentially a popsicle in a bag today. They reuse the glass soda bottles here, so if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of returning the bottle, they’ll just put it in a bag for you. I will try to get a few pictures for you.
Speaking of pictures, who knows where these pictures will wind up in this blog, but the ones I am planning on putting in here are:
Two pictures of my hiking trip which I didn’t talk about which was pretty much a comedy of errors, a picture of the fun and cramped conditions on the bus for moving day, and a few pictures of my new town. The church was built by the Spanish a long, long time ago. Another picture is of a street here, the cobblestone tradition was started by the Spanish in this town, and the last of the town in the central park (where the free mangoes are). I will try to get a picture of a water bag or other type of bagged beverage later for you folks.
Don’t forget to keep in touch!
1 comment:
By the way - I priced mangoes today at walmart - $1.44 lb. And papayas were $2.68 - they have those there too?
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