So, I don´t have anything prepared for today, but I am right now in the internet cafe and decided to give improv writing a shot. Really, it is downpouring out there and i don´t have an umbrella, so i will be here until i use up 26 Lempiras worth of time, which happens to be how much money I have in my pocket. We are in another one second= fully drenched type rain, so here i am.
News: Well, there has been quite a lot to talk about in the local news, but in order to secure Peace Corps volunteer safety, they advise that it is best to leave your personal comments personal, and not share with the world. Important part: I am safe, we are all safe, and there is a lot of continued talk between the peace corps and the US embassy to ensure that we stay safe. The new training class was supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but they will instead be going to the Dominican Republic for a little bit. I thought about offering to assist in training, but realized that my suggestion probably wouldn´t be appreciated right now. I can´t imagine all this happening on the eve of when we arrived into Honduras. I just remember how many times we had to move during training, and how everyone complained about it, and now these poor people will have more moves than most.
Back to me:
I haven´t really been doing much lately. I have been watching a lot of news, and talking to the host family. Its a good time to be here if you like international politics.
Hmm, really not much more to say. Please feel free to send american candy, it is more expensive here than honduran candy, but at the same time it tastes a lot better. ON the subject of food, i have finally gotten used to eating oatmeal in the morning. I have oatmeal with a little granola on top (to differ the textures) and then add a good bit of sugar to make the whole thing more honduran. I haven´t eaten too much on my own lately (which is good) because my host mom thinks i lost weight, and that reflects badly, so i have been getting some pretty good food.
ok, rain has ended, and i have to do some grocery shopping. Take care!
Jill
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Hola todos!
This has been a slow week. Next week I will be in the mountains all week, so at least I will have more work to do. Not to mention, only two weeks until the baseball try-outs.
Monday I didn’t do anything, was told that I was going to start a new project Tuesday.
Tuesday morning I go to the office to find out what was going on, only to find out there was a meeting with the funding agency, a Swiss development agency. I went to the meeting in the morning, and well, as you would think any funding meeting would be, I was bored. In what I have come to think of as true Honduran fashion, they kept talking about things in circles, never with direct to the point answers, so I was lost a whole lot of the time. At lunch time we went out to lunch. It was a little odd for me at first because I didn’t know I was invited, and once it was clear that I was going, was I supposed to pay for myself? It ended up being fine, and I discovered a nice place to go eat that is cheap.
Wednesday was more of the same. I just kind of bummed around, doing this and that. I went for a run with my sitemates, where I got my butt kicked again.
Thursday afternoon I went for a meeting in an aldea. I don’t know, because I had been chilling out, I hadn’t been speaking a lot of Spanish, and while I want to be more involved, at that moment I was just like, please don’t make me say anything. I was supposed to talk about some of the problems with their water system, but luckily the meeting got cut short before that! Ok, it was cheating out of my job, but the subject never came up, not my fault.
Its now Saturday night, and I have been thinking about going to use the internet for a few days now, I just can’t seem to get myself there. But, some interesting things have happened, so now I can share with you.
Friday I had my third tutoring session, and this one tops the list for the worse one. I tried talking to him a little about what I wanted, but he insists on going through this process. I am going to try one more time to get through, and then just cancel the tutoring sessions. It is just too painful, I just hope it doesn’t ruin the relationship I have with my host family.
So, Saturday morning, I have come to terms that the only way I am going to speak better is just to get more involved with the family and my community, and I am ready to get going and then find Wimbledon on tv. Now, with the French Open, it was on all the time, not so with Wimbledon, so I spent the morning watching tv instead of talking and instead of going to the internet café. Then, once the second match is over, I am pumped to get out of the house, and don’t you know it starts raining as I am putting my shoes on. Well, what is a little rain? I grab my umbrella and leave. No joke, 60 seconds later it is down pouring. Within a three block walk, the streets already have an inch to two inches of water running down them. I get to the internet café and it is closed (?!) and I have to walk back home. I was soaked, and I did have my umbrella with me, it was just raining that hard that nothing mattered, you were just going to get wet. I had to jump these huge streams of runoff just to get into my house. Twenty minutes later, it stopped (I have great timing). Well, after the rain stops for a little, I grabbed my raincoat and in my newly changed into dry clothing I head off for the grocery store, because I felt with my luck it was going to start raining in a minute. Not so, everyone was back out and doing their normal thing, I apparently need to develop this Honduran knowledge of when it is going to rain, and when it is not going to rain.
Later I met up with the sitemates to talk a little bit and to complain, because everything takes a little readjustment.
Let me tell you about rain for a little bit though. It is very hard to dry clothing here because it rains so often (once or twice a day, every day). There are no dryers here, everything gets dried by the sun. Right now everything is starting to get a little bit of a musty smell going on. I have clothes strung around my room almost all the time because when I bring it in from the clothes line (right before it starts raining), everything is generally not dry.
So, you may be thinking, what do Hondurans do? They suck it up and deal. No other way of putting it. I was thinking a while back that Hondurans have a lot of polyester clothes (not the cheap 70’s kind, but general low quality clothes) but they have a significant advantage here: they are easier to wash by hand, and they dry faster than cotton. Also, one day in the field I noticed a kid wearing a shirt with a ton of holes in it. Well, at that moment I thought that the shirt was probably handed down from one kid to the next and was probably very old. That could be true, but the other part is that clothes are hung on barbed wire fences to dry, and I can see a few holes being created that way.
Also, if one or two of you could send a little email or leave a comment (see comment below every blog) that says you are reading this, that would be great. At times I feel that I could just send out these as an email to five people, and reach the same audience, I just want to hear that you are reading it, because a good amount of time goes into thinking of ideas to write about, writing the blogs, and then going to the internet café to post them.
So, as some of you might have read, we are having a few political issues right now. Nothing violent or problematic, as always the Peace Corps is keeping a tight eye on everything.
This has been a slow week. Next week I will be in the mountains all week, so at least I will have more work to do. Not to mention, only two weeks until the baseball try-outs.
Monday I didn’t do anything, was told that I was going to start a new project Tuesday.
Tuesday morning I go to the office to find out what was going on, only to find out there was a meeting with the funding agency, a Swiss development agency. I went to the meeting in the morning, and well, as you would think any funding meeting would be, I was bored. In what I have come to think of as true Honduran fashion, they kept talking about things in circles, never with direct to the point answers, so I was lost a whole lot of the time. At lunch time we went out to lunch. It was a little odd for me at first because I didn’t know I was invited, and once it was clear that I was going, was I supposed to pay for myself? It ended up being fine, and I discovered a nice place to go eat that is cheap.
Wednesday was more of the same. I just kind of bummed around, doing this and that. I went for a run with my sitemates, where I got my butt kicked again.
Thursday afternoon I went for a meeting in an aldea. I don’t know, because I had been chilling out, I hadn’t been speaking a lot of Spanish, and while I want to be more involved, at that moment I was just like, please don’t make me say anything. I was supposed to talk about some of the problems with their water system, but luckily the meeting got cut short before that! Ok, it was cheating out of my job, but the subject never came up, not my fault.
Its now Saturday night, and I have been thinking about going to use the internet for a few days now, I just can’t seem to get myself there. But, some interesting things have happened, so now I can share with you.
Friday I had my third tutoring session, and this one tops the list for the worse one. I tried talking to him a little about what I wanted, but he insists on going through this process. I am going to try one more time to get through, and then just cancel the tutoring sessions. It is just too painful, I just hope it doesn’t ruin the relationship I have with my host family.
So, Saturday morning, I have come to terms that the only way I am going to speak better is just to get more involved with the family and my community, and I am ready to get going and then find Wimbledon on tv. Now, with the French Open, it was on all the time, not so with Wimbledon, so I spent the morning watching tv instead of talking and instead of going to the internet café. Then, once the second match is over, I am pumped to get out of the house, and don’t you know it starts raining as I am putting my shoes on. Well, what is a little rain? I grab my umbrella and leave. No joke, 60 seconds later it is down pouring. Within a three block walk, the streets already have an inch to two inches of water running down them. I get to the internet café and it is closed (?!) and I have to walk back home. I was soaked, and I did have my umbrella with me, it was just raining that hard that nothing mattered, you were just going to get wet. I had to jump these huge streams of runoff just to get into my house. Twenty minutes later, it stopped (I have great timing). Well, after the rain stops for a little, I grabbed my raincoat and in my newly changed into dry clothing I head off for the grocery store, because I felt with my luck it was going to start raining in a minute. Not so, everyone was back out and doing their normal thing, I apparently need to develop this Honduran knowledge of when it is going to rain, and when it is not going to rain.
Later I met up with the sitemates to talk a little bit and to complain, because everything takes a little readjustment.
Let me tell you about rain for a little bit though. It is very hard to dry clothing here because it rains so often (once or twice a day, every day). There are no dryers here, everything gets dried by the sun. Right now everything is starting to get a little bit of a musty smell going on. I have clothes strung around my room almost all the time because when I bring it in from the clothes line (right before it starts raining), everything is generally not dry.
So, you may be thinking, what do Hondurans do? They suck it up and deal. No other way of putting it. I was thinking a while back that Hondurans have a lot of polyester clothes (not the cheap 70’s kind, but general low quality clothes) but they have a significant advantage here: they are easier to wash by hand, and they dry faster than cotton. Also, one day in the field I noticed a kid wearing a shirt with a ton of holes in it. Well, at that moment I thought that the shirt was probably handed down from one kid to the next and was probably very old. That could be true, but the other part is that clothes are hung on barbed wire fences to dry, and I can see a few holes being created that way.
Also, if one or two of you could send a little email or leave a comment (see comment below every blog) that says you are reading this, that would be great. At times I feel that I could just send out these as an email to five people, and reach the same audience, I just want to hear that you are reading it, because a good amount of time goes into thinking of ideas to write about, writing the blogs, and then going to the internet café to post them.
So, as some of you might have read, we are having a few political issues right now. Nothing violent or problematic, as always the Peace Corps is keeping a tight eye on everything.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Random pics
My first host mom, brother, and myself at the end of cultural day in Zarabanda
The hikers. Those brave enough to try La Tigre, minus Iljeen, who is missing from the pic
Don´t get the idea that I now love pink. The shirt was a gift, and it helps me blend in more because it is a very Honduran shirt without screaming juniors department too loudlyits a short one!!!!!!
Sunday:
I woke up without a hangover! Yeah! T and I came back to site after eating some really good Mexican food. The ride was pretty uneventful, although we were both groaning about stops because, well, beans for lunch wasn’t the best idea. After I got home, I kind of chilled out, read a little, went to the internet café where I posted the last blog. I tried doing a videochat with the folks, but the connection was bad.
Monday:
I went to the office in the morning, and found out that I didn’t have work that day, yeah!, oh wait, I am supposed to be here to work: shucks, tisk, tisk, tisk. Actually, I enjoyed having the day off. In the afternoon, T and I went shopping. We are in the middle of feria now, which is kind of like a fair, but really the only part I have seen is that there are a TON of vendors in the plaza. So, I bought some gifts for friends and family. No, you will not be getting them now, I just thought ahead to buy a few pieces of a time, so right before Christmas I am not going crazy. I even bought something for my niece/nephew, does that make me the first to buy him/her something?! We also tried out a restaurant which I hadn’t been to. It kind of felt nice to be doing something so normal, going shopping and going out to eat.
In the evening I had my first tutoring session here, and I think my tutor and I are going to have to talk a little. We went over the alphabet and what are accents for an hour. Ok, first, this is not my first rodeo as far as languages are concerned, and second, "$%&$, I don´t need to spend a lot of time learning the miniscule details of spanish. I told him I wanted an hour long conversation where we talk, and he corrects me when I make errors. Its all that I want, pretty simple right. See, the thing is, once you get done with training, you are done with spanish lessons, and the average Honduran will not correct you, they will tell you they can understand you well enough, but will never correct you. So, everyone from the bottom spanish levels to the top, are thinking that over the next two years we will develop some really bad habits with spanish because there is no one to tell us we are doing it wrong. I didn´t want to say anything last night because he seemed so happy and had really thought out the fact that we would repeat the letters a million times and I would have to write them out: I have been reading and writing in those very same letters (minus ch, ll, ñ) for a very long time! Ahh. Welcome to life in the Peace Corps!
Tuesday:
We were supposed to head out to the aldeas today to begin another study, but that was before my counterpart remembered the meeting with the funding agency. Its not good to skip those. So, I go in, and learn there is a meeting. I was kind of curious to meet these people, so I said I would like to sit in on the meeting. Four hours later, I was regretting it. Actually, that is a lie, an hour later I was regretting it, we stopped for a lunch break at four hours. Then we went out to lunch. This was a little odd, because I didn’t know if I was invited, and then I didn’t know if I was expected to pay for myself. I don’t normally carry money around, so was kind of like, oh no, what do I do? But it all worked out. We went to this nice and cheap place. I talked a little more, the meeting was about stuff I wasn’t involved in, mainly planning which had already taken place.
Cultural differences:
At the end of lunch, my counterpart asks me if he can ask a question. Then he repeats that (which asking twice threw my brain for a loop) while saying, forgive the question. So, now I am expecting something bad. He asks if I was feeling alright because I looked thinner. Well, I am an American woman, you can tell me I look thinner every day! Later I will explain that in the US, telling someone they look thin or thinner is normally a compliment. Here, you get, you are looking really healthy, you have gained a few pounds! My sitemate has received this, and didn’t take it all that well. Now, for those of you worrying, I think he made the whole thinner thing up. I don’t have a scale here, so I can’t be sure, but I don’t think I have lost weight. The other tried and true way of deducing your weight is the dry pants test: you put on your jeans after they have been in the dryer and compare how they fit to the last time you did it. Well, no dryers around here, so this test doesn’t work; in fact, jeans just keep stretching and stretching and stretching.
Whoa, this computer does not have microsoft office on it, so I had to open my saved file of this blog using notepad, weird. It worked though!
I woke up without a hangover! Yeah! T and I came back to site after eating some really good Mexican food. The ride was pretty uneventful, although we were both groaning about stops because, well, beans for lunch wasn’t the best idea. After I got home, I kind of chilled out, read a little, went to the internet café where I posted the last blog. I tried doing a videochat with the folks, but the connection was bad.
Monday:
I went to the office in the morning, and found out that I didn’t have work that day, yeah!, oh wait, I am supposed to be here to work: shucks, tisk, tisk, tisk. Actually, I enjoyed having the day off. In the afternoon, T and I went shopping. We are in the middle of feria now, which is kind of like a fair, but really the only part I have seen is that there are a TON of vendors in the plaza. So, I bought some gifts for friends and family. No, you will not be getting them now, I just thought ahead to buy a few pieces of a time, so right before Christmas I am not going crazy. I even bought something for my niece/nephew, does that make me the first to buy him/her something?! We also tried out a restaurant which I hadn’t been to. It kind of felt nice to be doing something so normal, going shopping and going out to eat.
In the evening I had my first tutoring session here, and I think my tutor and I are going to have to talk a little. We went over the alphabet and what are accents for an hour. Ok, first, this is not my first rodeo as far as languages are concerned, and second, "$%&$, I don´t need to spend a lot of time learning the miniscule details of spanish. I told him I wanted an hour long conversation where we talk, and he corrects me when I make errors. Its all that I want, pretty simple right. See, the thing is, once you get done with training, you are done with spanish lessons, and the average Honduran will not correct you, they will tell you they can understand you well enough, but will never correct you. So, everyone from the bottom spanish levels to the top, are thinking that over the next two years we will develop some really bad habits with spanish because there is no one to tell us we are doing it wrong. I didn´t want to say anything last night because he seemed so happy and had really thought out the fact that we would repeat the letters a million times and I would have to write them out: I have been reading and writing in those very same letters (minus ch, ll, ñ) for a very long time! Ahh. Welcome to life in the Peace Corps!
Tuesday:
We were supposed to head out to the aldeas today to begin another study, but that was before my counterpart remembered the meeting with the funding agency. Its not good to skip those. So, I go in, and learn there is a meeting. I was kind of curious to meet these people, so I said I would like to sit in on the meeting. Four hours later, I was regretting it. Actually, that is a lie, an hour later I was regretting it, we stopped for a lunch break at four hours. Then we went out to lunch. This was a little odd, because I didn’t know if I was invited, and then I didn’t know if I was expected to pay for myself. I don’t normally carry money around, so was kind of like, oh no, what do I do? But it all worked out. We went to this nice and cheap place. I talked a little more, the meeting was about stuff I wasn’t involved in, mainly planning which had already taken place.
Cultural differences:
At the end of lunch, my counterpart asks me if he can ask a question. Then he repeats that (which asking twice threw my brain for a loop) while saying, forgive the question. So, now I am expecting something bad. He asks if I was feeling alright because I looked thinner. Well, I am an American woman, you can tell me I look thinner every day! Later I will explain that in the US, telling someone they look thin or thinner is normally a compliment. Here, you get, you are looking really healthy, you have gained a few pounds! My sitemate has received this, and didn’t take it all that well. Now, for those of you worrying, I think he made the whole thinner thing up. I don’t have a scale here, so I can’t be sure, but I don’t think I have lost weight. The other tried and true way of deducing your weight is the dry pants test: you put on your jeans after they have been in the dryer and compare how they fit to the last time you did it. Well, no dryers around here, so this test doesn’t work; in fact, jeans just keep stretching and stretching and stretching.
Whoa, this computer does not have microsoft office on it, so I had to open my saved file of this blog using notepad, weird. It worked though!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
One more week down
Saturday:
After posting the last blog (if it looks weird, I had computer problems) I returned home for a while. I watched Bend It Like Beckham in Spanish. The thing is, I have watched it in English on my computer a lot since arriving here, so it was interesting to watch it in Spanish. And I watched Enchanted in Spanish. Everything was in Spanish, even the songs were in Spanish. Anyone who wants to send me a copy of that movie can by the way.
In the afternoon I went for a run with my sitemate. She actually runs, I normally say run when I mean slow jog, but she means run. I ran for much longer than I thought I would be able to. I think she was disappointed that I had to cut it short, but I have two years to improve while we are here. I did run for a lot longer than I thought I would, and that is with the fast pace, so I wasn’t disappointed.
Sunday:
After sleeping in, I went to the internet café, and posted the pics. I returned home, at more hot soup on a hot day, and put the information from the topo study in my computer. I like my house here, a lot of people have been having problems sleeping in, if they are not out of their rooms by a little after 8am, their families think they are sick, its now 2pm and my family is still running around in their pajamas. I like this, they don’t care when I drag myself out of my room on the weekends, but do get concerned if I don’t come out to eat lunch. You don’t skip meals here in
So, directly after lunch, my family told me there was ice cream in the freezer if I wanted some; well, when was the last time I turned down ice cream? I look in the fridge, and there is a tiny bit of ice cream. I scoop a little bit out, taste it, and it was awful. Ice cream can be awful people, this I didn’t know. I knew it could be low quality, but imagine the lemon/lime kool-aid flavor without sugar in ice cream. It was disastrous.
Later I met with my host Mom’s brother, who will be my tutor for a few weeks. It should be interesting. At the very least it will be three hours a week of me talking in Spanish. So, you may be thinking, don’t you live in
Right now I have an awful taste in my mouth. I didn’t eat a lot for dinner, so tried to make a grilled cheese and the cheese they had was yellow sandwich cheese, but tastes nothing like the cheese you are used to, and its kind of late on a Sunday night, so I can’t run to the store to get something to change the flavor.
Stories from the topo study;
First of all, I think they make Honduran cigarettes different than American ones. I was out in the field the other day and was like, what is that smell, I kind of like it. Turns out it was cigarette smell. Part of me things they make them Honduran by adding fried fat and salt into them, but who knows. Later, I regained my disgust of cigarette smoke by the shear volume I inhaled. Relax, there is no chance that I will take up smoking down here, even if they did add fried fat and salt.
We were working on a branch of the system the other day and arrived at the house. I sat down for a minute to write some things down in my notebook, and I happened to glance at the ground. What was there you ask? Well, there was a piece of newspaper that was about the size of this paragraph or smaller with Micheal Jackson’s face. Odd, I know, but it made me laugh.
I went to Teguc to get yet another vaccine, which I can’t really complain because I opted to get the HPV vaccine. It was a fun day though. T’s (sitemate) parents had decided to give us a ride since they were going into the city that day. I was supposed to arrive between 7 and 7:30am. Well, I woke up, thought, oh, this feels nice, then immediately knew something was wrong, waking up on weekdays generally does not feel nice. It was 7:24am. So, I race out of bed, go brush my teeth, send T a message saying I am a few minutes later and get dressed as fast as I could. A minute before I was going to leave, she calls me and tells me that her Mom really wants to go right this minute. I tell her I will be out the door in three minutes or less and finish getting ready and hope T can stall her Mom. So, I power walk down the streets of my town, having to skip breakfast I am so late. Then, three houses away I get a call saying T’s Dad hasn’t eaten breakfast yet, so there is no hurry. Fun! It’s a good way to start your day.
The ride to Teguc was really quiet. We got dropped off and took a taxi to the Peace Corps office. There were already a few friends there. After getting the shots, a bunch of us went to the mall to eat and meet up with other friends. I have to say, it was very good to see everyone, and it was also very good to eat little ceasar’s crazy bread. That mall is so American it is not even funny.
Getting back to town was interesting because’s T’s parents call and tell us to meet them at the Dunkin Donuts on this one street. It turns out there are three of them on that one street, and we picked the wrong one first. So, we ended up paying for two taxis when one would have done the trick. Then, driving back we hit quite the storm, and you could see the side streets just become rivers. Very fun.
Back to work:
After that huge storm the back roads are disastrous. There are mini-landslides that go across the roads, and the ruts are now way deeper than before. Those of you who have lived on or near dirt roads know what a good storm can do to the road.
The day went fairly well, and a few funny things happened, although I don’t know how well they will translate to story telling. At one point I attempted to hold a coffee tree back with my left (they are very flexible), I used my leg because I needed my hands to write in the notebook, and very nearly got catapulted down the mountain. It turns out there was an equal and opposite reaction to me trying to move the tree. Physics, what would we do without you.
Last day!
Well, the last day of the topo study I learned that I should just wear the same pair of pants every day in the field. They just get SO dirty, that I am not looking forward to washing them by hand! I saw today that my coworker was wearing the same pants, and was like, he has the right idea. Ahh, I guess its good to know from now on though.
Also, if I were an entomologist, I would be in heaven right now. I have seen so many odd bugs. The one thing that has bugged me the most though, is not bugs, it’s a plant. It is a plant that I was told “pica,” which normally means itch, but it actually burns. I discovered this the other day when I slipped and a minute later part of my arm burned. Then, today, my smart butt sat on a bunch of the stuff. I put my hand down and a minute later felt my mistake. It only burns for a few minutes, so is more annoying than anything else. I guess it is better than poison ivy which itches for days.
In my work, I am using a theodolite. It is not a new one that is all digital, and to read the angles you have to use a system to mirrors to catch the sunlight. But, we are in the rainy season, so sun light can sometimes be a scarce commodity. This is why I am so happy my cell phone has a flash light. It actually has a light at the top. So, when you say that you used your cell phone as a flashlight, its not your phone flipped open, but the light is actually one. Getting back to the point, I have used this many times now to force light through the mirrors. It’s very convenient.
Vegetable peeler vs machete
Here in the campo, most men have a machete. I think I have mentioned this before. It is a very invaluable too. Among its many uses, is to peel vegetables. We passed a mango tree (common occurrence) and they all ate a mango and used the machetes to peel the mangoes. They repeated this with oranges. Perhaps I should create a list for uses of machete. Use number 63: Vegetable peeler.
Deforestation:
Well, I am not planning on writing up an entry on what is deforestation and why is it bad just yet, but it comes up now in a small way. So, to do the topo study, I need to be able to see from the point where I have my equipment set up, to the point where I want to go next. Problem: We are not in open well-groomed fields. So, when we are in the forest, there becomes this swath about a meter wide that is highly visible. Sometimes I feel a little guilty because sometimes these trees are positioned in very valuable positions, fighting off erosion and whatnot. It’s kind of like being on trail crew again, I am destroying a little bit of land for a better good.
Weekend!!!!!!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Pics
Ok, mango trees produce a lot of fruit, this is one branch of the tree in the patio in my house.
So, at the end of the workday on Friday, I opened the door to get in the car, and this little guy was in there. He was injured and in the road not moving, so Walter picked him up and put him in the car. Later we returned him home to give him the best chance possible of surviving.
So, the little protective case for the theodolite has provided a lot of amusement. Its like a puzzel trying to get it back on. I couldn´t resist taking the pic here.
Awesome flower, I just loved the mixture of the purple and the pink.
This is where I am working doing the topo study right now.
¨The walt disney world of honduras.¨ That was how it was explained to me, but really it is a fair, and the equipment is now in my town, so you can expect some details in a future blog.
Cute little church in an aldea.
Birthday party for a one year old. Too cute. There she is with her pinata. My counterpart is the guy to the right.Saturday, June 13, 2009
first topo study
Well folks, let’s see what I got for you this week.
Well, what did I do today? I got up to go to work, which after a week of not getting up was an adventure in and of itself. Therefore, although whoever was banging on what sounded like metal garbage cans, did me a favor at 6:30am this morning! I didn’t really do anything this morning. I went in and kind of tried to sit in on what was going on. I was invited to a meeting with the local SANAA people in the afternoon. They are the water and sanitation agency in the country. So, with nothing more to do, I went to the post office to mail stuff after lunch, and just happened to meet up with one of my sitemates on the way there (that’s what happens when you have three people in a small town).
So, I chatted it up with my counterpart on the way to the meeting. This makes two days in a row with a serious religious discussion. What am I going to do if this continues? Religion is not one of my favorite topics. This has nothing to do with the Spanish language, it’s the subject that has me go: crap! It’s just that a lot of people here are really religious and I don’t want to accidentally offend anyone.
Then, the guy we were meeting was an hour late, so more chatting took place. The view from the office has a great view of the town. During the meeting I found out that my counterpart does not want me doing the designs (boo). I think right now he just needs the designs done asap. So, I will give the engineers for SANAA all the data and then do a design myself, so that after a few I can show him what I can do. Even the guy from SANAA was like, why isn’t she doing the designs? He has worked with Peace Corps volunteers in the past. Boo. I’ll get him to change his mind though. At the end of the meeting I really had no more chat left in me, so the ride was pretty silent.
So, we got home and I posted the last blog. I didn’t end up going running, which is such a shame! I got home, ate dinner (yeah for fried plaintains), read some of today’s paper and watched a movie.
That’s my life people. Tomorrow I start a topo study. More details to follow…
Of all the random things you see on tv. I stumbled upon soccer tennis. That’s what I am calling it anyways, I haven’t caught a name yet. So, it goes like this, you have a “tennis court,” which consists of this rug that is green with white outlines, like a grass field, that is about 8 feet by ten feet (my guess). Then, in the middle is a knee high net. Team one “serves” the ball, which is a nice easy kick of the soccer ball that lands in the other team’s court. They then have three hits to get the ball back (kind of adds a volleyball action too). Like soccer, you can’t use your hands, so it takes your soccer ball juggling skills into account. There was a lot of heading the ball as well. Now, they have the three hits (can use less if wanted) to get the ball back in the court of team one. You keep going like this until someone hits the ball out of the court or can’t get ball in play, for instance, misses a “pass” to their teammate. Oh, I forgot to mention, there are two players on each team. You can’t pass the ball and have it roll on the ground, if it touches more than the initial bounce from the other team, you are out. So, maybe it should be called soccer volleyball. I tried to get a video of a point to put up, but my camera batteries are dead and the legality of doing that is a little sketchy. Sounds fun though, I might have to try it. Ok, just heard they did call it fútbol tenis, which is soccer tennis.
Day one of topo study: Well, it didn’t go horribly, but it was a little rough at times. First of all, I didn’t prep in my mind the instructions for the people that were coming to help us out, so it was a little rough. Then, I really should have told my counterpart that it would be faster for me to work on my own, then to have help. It is just faster for one person to level the tripod than two people. At the end I became the boss by being like, now move this one, now that one (around a tripod it is hard to get two people, especially when it is balanced on a mountain-side). The tripod I received is a little faulty as well, you can’t touch the things after you have it level, and you need to be very gentle while leveling it. There are a few screws loose and one missing which makes this happen.
Funny language story:
So, before we arrive to the community Walter and I were in the car and we were talking about birthdays, and he asked me if they had permission to bañarme on my birthday. Ok, for those of you that know Spanish, this literally means to bath me, so I was so confused. I really thought I had heard it wrong, because surely he wasn’t asking that, so I’m raking my head to find another word that is close. Eventually I gave up and had to ask what he was talking about. Apparently it is an old tradition to dump people in the pila on their birthday (with clothes and usually covered in food as well). Confused me for a while.
Day two of topo study:
I finally got my first real sunburn here. It’s really not too bad but after two days of forgetting sunscreen, it caught up to me. In case you are wondering, I already put the sunscreen in my bag for tomorrow. Other than that, it went fairly well. We did a lot more points than yesterday. I put my foot down though that any following topo studies I have to visit the community first to get an idea of what the distribution system will be like. Let me give you an accurate example of a description I got:
Me: How many houses are this way.
Dude: There are four houses, in that direction, one way off in that direction, my house in that direction and another house in that direction (with confusing hand signals).
Me: So there are seven houses in all?
Dude: Yes, look, there are four houses there, one house way, way, way out there, my house there, and another house way over there. Then there are these two houses right here.
Me: So there are nine houses in the branch?
Dude: Yes, but there are two houses right here, you are going to go between the two houses (didn’t actually happen), then go there for the four houses there are there, and another branch, which has the house which is way out there, my house and the other house that is far out there as well.
Me: What?
Dude: You are going to put a branch for these four houses, and then another branch, with an inch pipe to my house (this was weird) then there is a house way out there and another one way over there.
Me: But the split is after these two houses?
Dude: No, you are going to go between the two houses and have a branch there, one for the four houses over there, one for my house and the house that is way out there and the last one which is far in that direction.
Confused yet? So was I, and we repeated this process several times, only to have new houses spring up out of nowhere. This is why we always have a map of the community. It makes life easier. The tech who was with me from my agency was a little confused on the directions as well, and he is Honduran, so that made me feel better.
Oh, so I haven’t talked too much about the bug situation here. Well, there are a lot of them, but one species has taken the lead in the annoying Jill contest. I have no idea what they are called, but they are like this: They shed their wings, so you have these little tiny wings everywhere. One time at my old house I was literally getting covered with them, they just seem to fall out of nowhere. Then you are left with something that looks like an ant crawling all over the place. Now, where this falls on their life cycle, I don’t know, but when the ant-like stage is crawling on my bed, it’s the very end of the life cycle.
We went to the zoo today! Ok, so it’s not exciting. They have just started building it so there is not a whole lot to it. Zoo’s here are not like the
I went over to a sitemate’s house and watched the Honduran vs
Day three of topo study:
Well, I think that because I am letting the guy from my agency take a lot of points, people are starting to lose respect for me a little bit, because they are questioning a lot, or just saying dumb things. For example, everyone had said that they wanted to follow the road, and that they didn’t have permission to leave the road (people don’t want them digging up their corn and coffee for the water system. So, this guy (direction guy from above) was like, take the point here and then there, which just happened to completely avoid the road and go through land we don’t have permission to use. At one point I really thought, ok, I am the engineer here, I want the point here, go there and don’t listen to anyone else. Most of the guys helping are nice and pretty much do whatever needs to be done, but there is one character that is trying to be helpful, but normally isn’t. This all happened after we marched up what felt like
Dogs:
Ok, the thing about dogs here is that they are normally extremely thin. I used to watch animal cops a lot and was heartbroken to see the thin dogs and cats. Well, I have been here long enough that my idea of a good body weight is probably very different from yours. For example, if you can just barely see the ribs, the dog is fine, no problems. If you can see the ribs but the other bones are only barely peeking out, its not too bad. If the dog is heavy enough to cover the bones even if only a little, that is one very lucky dog.
The other thing is that all the dogs are a weird mutt mix. I saw a dog today I would consider a corgie/shepard mix. At first, the dog got on my nerves because it was following us, then later it was annoying because it seemed to always be in my way, but by the end of the day I had changed my mind about the dog, and it was cute. While we are on the subjects, dogs here are dogs, they are not pets and not members of family. We were at a house to eat lunch today and there were these very cute puppies, so like most Americans that like dogs, I picked it up, and it freaked out. I mean this dog was trying to bite, which didn’t work out well considering how small he was. The second time I caught him he was a little better. His sibling did a lot better on the pick up.
Chickens:
Now, I remember people saying that American chickens don’t fly because they are grotesquely overfed and whatnot. Well, Honduran chickens don’t fly either and they are almost starved. Take that! The other thing about chickens is that they are about as graceful as I am. The area that I am doing the topo study in is very, very steep. So, they really don’t have the leg-span to walk down the hill, so they kind of slide, drop down the hill. It’s funny to see. I am also funny to watch going down the hill. I decided today that I was doing fine if I could keep up with the “townie,” who works with me. Then later I saw that he was wearing loafers while doing this and I was in work boots. Hondurans by the way (male Hondurans) wear the rubber rain boots that you might remember from your childhood.
Day four of study:
Ok, today went a lot better, and crazy guy wasn’t there, coincidence, I don’t know. I still get a lot of crazy directions. One guy, kept telling me there were two houses at the bottom of the hill. Well, I was thinking, we have to drag ourselves all the way down this hill for two houses, and then march straight up. We get down there and it is 4pm, quitting time. I asked if they minded just getting done with the houses there so we didn’t have to walk down the mountain for two houses and climb back up Monday morning. They looked at me like I had five heads. Then someone tells me there are 6 houses. Oops, but one guy told me for three hours that there were only two houses. Argh. Then at the end of the day I asked someone how many houses are near the school. Simple question right?! But it had to be reasked by someone else who understood me. This is my life. One of my friends has invited me to go to help her with her first study, well I have learned a lot of things to help her out, I have always been one to learn things the hard way. At the end of the day I was tired and tired, but content with the progress we had made, and that my Spanish, while no where near perfect, is holding up and allowing me to do this.
That night I went over to a sitemate’s house for dinner. The three of us made homemade spaghetti sauce from tomatoes, not even with tomato paste. Go us! One of them went to Teguc to pick up the supplies for the baseball team, so we now have bats, balls, gloves, helmets, etc. They are thinking about starting the team up in June. Every year there is a big baseball tournament with all the teams coached by PC volunteers. It is not until April though, or maybe March. This way we will have a lot time to teach. Some areas have had teams for a long time, and have kids returning for a second or third year on the team, and we have to start from scratch, so we are planning to start early. It was good to have dinner with them, to be able to talk and just relax, and speak English for a while. I kind of feel out of the loop sometimes because they have a lot of the same contacts within the community, and I am only in town on the weekends, but at the same time, I speak more Spanish because I am not always with them. It’s only been a month in site on Monday, so its too early to make too many decisions, I’m sure later I will get to know more people in town after a while, and that my brain wont be so taxed after a day of all Spanish. One month down, 23 to go. Ok, really, I am not keeping track of my time here, it is not like a daily countdown, that phrase just popped into my head.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Those of you wanting shorter blogs are in luck!
Tales from the site:
Things are going well. The celebration ends tomorrow. Later in the summer (that is summer for you, winter for me), we are having another celebration, a fair-like shindig, with rides and everything, or so is the rumor. I am happy about this because with fairs comes papusas (delicious food).
I am writing this while watching the US play Honduras in the world cup qualifying match. Right now they are tied at one a piece. I decided not to go out in the town and watch this game because I didn’t want all the jokes that would go with a gringa watching the game with Catrachos (Hondurans).
Well, a bunch of my friends have received requests on what they would like as care packages. So, being the caring person I am, I’ll provide you with that list without you asking. So, here we go: LETTERS, snickers, m&m’s (all varieties), cooking spices, Gatorade fruit punch drink mix, oyster crackers, q-tips, music cd’s, hand sanitizer, or anything that you think will make me happy. I truly can buy anything I want here, so these are just luxury items, most of which I can buy here. So far I have not had problems with wanting something that I can’t get here. Oh, hair conditioner, they only sell shampoo and conditioner together here, but I like them separate. I am sure I can find this in Teguc, but it’s the one thing I have been wanting and not seeing in my town.
How do you know you are starting to adapt to Honduras?
It’s 76 degrees in my room and I am cold. To be fair it is a very damp 76. I actually have sock on, I only wear socks when I have to wear my work boots.
Good news! My sitemates and I are going to start a baseball team here in town. In the future you will be receiving a lot more news about this. Also, I have made plans to start running here, although I have told them I will only run when I haven’t spent all day trekking around in the mountains. These two activities will get me out more. Although I think I am doing well for being here less than a month.
Things are going well. The celebration ends tomorrow. Later in the summer (that is summer for you, winter for me), we are having another celebration, a fair-like shindig, with rides and everything, or so is the rumor. I am happy about this because with fairs comes papusas (delicious food).
I am writing this while watching the US play Honduras in the world cup qualifying match. Right now they are tied at one a piece. I decided not to go out in the town and watch this game because I didn’t want all the jokes that would go with a gringa watching the game with Catrachos (Hondurans).
Well, a bunch of my friends have received requests on what they would like as care packages. So, being the caring person I am, I’ll provide you with that list without you asking. So, here we go: LETTERS, snickers, m&m’s (all varieties), cooking spices, Gatorade fruit punch drink mix, oyster crackers, q-tips, music cd’s, hand sanitizer, or anything that you think will make me happy. I truly can buy anything I want here, so these are just luxury items, most of which I can buy here. So far I have not had problems with wanting something that I can’t get here. Oh, hair conditioner, they only sell shampoo and conditioner together here, but I like them separate. I am sure I can find this in Teguc, but it’s the one thing I have been wanting and not seeing in my town.
How do you know you are starting to adapt to Honduras?
It’s 76 degrees in my room and I am cold. To be fair it is a very damp 76. I actually have sock on, I only wear socks when I have to wear my work boots.
Good news! My sitemates and I are going to start a baseball team here in town. In the future you will be receiving a lot more news about this. Also, I have made plans to start running here, although I have told them I will only run when I haven’t spent all day trekking around in the mountains. These two activities will get me out more. Although I think I am doing well for being here less than a month.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Sustainable Development
Why am I here? A goal of mine is to be involved in the development of Honduras. Here is a little of what we have discussed as development, and more importantly, sustainable development.
Step 1: What is development?
Process that promotes the dignity of a people and their capacity to improve their own lives.
This joins into the fact that we are not here to do work for people. We are here to work with people, so that when we leave, our information and part of our skills stay here.
Step 2: What is sustainable?
When the community is able to continue on its own without outside support.
There is more to this, because we are working in a new place that may not trust American volunteers, women volunteers, or is rejecting the information for many reasons.
Culturally sustainable- This addresses whether or not this is an outside concept, or if the people can adapt this new method into their lives, their beliefs and traditions.
Politically sustainable- Will this be able to continue after you leave or will there be splits in the group which destroy the effort?
Economically sustainable- Easily understood, will there be enough money to pay for this afterwards, because if the people are forever in need of outside money, the project is not said to be sustainable.
Managerially sustainable- Can the people take charge after you leave? Do they have the knowledge and materials required?
Environmentally sustainable- Will the project destroy the local environment and/or can they continue with the project without using all of their resources?
Step 3: How does this apply to my work?
Unknown. Basically, I cannot pass down all my knowledge, but I will be participating in several trainings that will work to make this more sustainable. The agency I am working with seems to be pretty knowledgeable and is working in these areas.
The hardest area that I have seen so far is the culturally sustainable. People have their own way of doing things. This is true for people everywhere, you will have some people who are willing and want to try new things, and others who insist that their granddaddy’s method is just fine for them. Here we have a problem with deforestation. Don’t worry, eventually I will make a nice little page up with that information. Here, people just clear large tracks of land, and burn the brush. Some areas have a lot of cattle (how did that McDonald’s hamburger taste?) so a lot of land has been cleared for grazing land.
Step 4: How can you be sure this will last?
In general, I have no idea. There is a lot more I can go into here on the importance of community involvement. I wont do that though. My agency works with the juntas de agua, which are the community members, and offers trainings for them, which passes the information down the line.
Step 1: What is development?
Process that promotes the dignity of a people and their capacity to improve their own lives.
This joins into the fact that we are not here to do work for people. We are here to work with people, so that when we leave, our information and part of our skills stay here.
Step 2: What is sustainable?
When the community is able to continue on its own without outside support.
There is more to this, because we are working in a new place that may not trust American volunteers, women volunteers, or is rejecting the information for many reasons.
Culturally sustainable- This addresses whether or not this is an outside concept, or if the people can adapt this new method into their lives, their beliefs and traditions.
Politically sustainable- Will this be able to continue after you leave or will there be splits in the group which destroy the effort?
Economically sustainable- Easily understood, will there be enough money to pay for this afterwards, because if the people are forever in need of outside money, the project is not said to be sustainable.
Managerially sustainable- Can the people take charge after you leave? Do they have the knowledge and materials required?
Environmentally sustainable- Will the project destroy the local environment and/or can they continue with the project without using all of their resources?
Step 3: How does this apply to my work?
Unknown. Basically, I cannot pass down all my knowledge, but I will be participating in several trainings that will work to make this more sustainable. The agency I am working with seems to be pretty knowledgeable and is working in these areas.
The hardest area that I have seen so far is the culturally sustainable. People have their own way of doing things. This is true for people everywhere, you will have some people who are willing and want to try new things, and others who insist that their granddaddy’s method is just fine for them. Here we have a problem with deforestation. Don’t worry, eventually I will make a nice little page up with that information. Here, people just clear large tracks of land, and burn the brush. Some areas have a lot of cattle (how did that McDonald’s hamburger taste?) so a lot of land has been cleared for grazing land.
Step 4: How can you be sure this will last?
In general, I have no idea. There is a lot more I can go into here on the importance of community involvement. I wont do that though. My agency works with the juntas de agua, which are the community members, and offers trainings for them, which passes the information down the line.
two updates in one week!
Hello again folks.
Last night I went back to the 50th celebration. This was a little racier than in past nights. There were a lot of dancers who performed on the stage and it seemed that the requirements were: skirt may not cover all of your butt, tight tops, and most of the time little enthusiasm. At one point it was great though, it was like a Honduran Jerry Springer. The students had set up a talk show style performance where these five women (one was actually a boy in drag) who all were supposedly involved with this man. I think the point was to point out the problems with sleeping around, etc., but it was funny.
Ok, I am watching a tv program, and it is on the only maximum security prison in Alaska. Sorry Kelsey, but I guess I had never pictured Alaska as needing a max security prison, let alone a prison. I guess they have their problems like everyone else. It turns out they got some pretty crazy people up there in the frozen tundra.
Whoa, just had my first fun time in the bank. Apparently you have to carefully sign your checks here. I gave my Mom a check for the rent, and when she went to the bank, she had problems. My signature wasn’t the exact same as my paperwork for the bank. So, I go, wait in the line and the guy was just like the signature is bad. I was like, ok, I get that, but I really need that money since my Mom now wanted cash. But, he just said my signature was bad. So, I ask if I can write myself a check to get the cash, and I stared at the signature on the screen for a while to get the exact right one. It seemed like afterwards, the one thing I didn’t bring was my ATM card, which might have been a good thing there. Hopefully in the future my Mom will accept checks from me so I don’t have to carry around a lot of cash. It’s only a two minute walk from the bank to my house, but still, it’s the principle, a check would be a lot easier for me. Later I talked with her a little and its not a big deal to her. There was a lot of jokes about how picky the banks are here, and I let her know that I never had a problem in the states, so, situation resolved, its now just another learning experience.
So, apparently there was an article in the teguc paper about the swearing in ceremony and I even made to get my pic in the paper. So, if you have extra time in front of a computer, type in Honduras Peace Corps and something like Tegucigalpa or embassy, or the newspaper name is la tribuna. See if you can find a link. I haven’t seen a pic, but someone else in my group grabbed an extra paper the day after swearing in and told me about it, so hopefully I can get my hands on a copy.
Now, speaking of papers, I will take you through a typical Honduras newspaper. In front of me I have the paper for Wednesday June 3.
• Front page:
o Newspaper writer found God during his time as a hostage.
o Sports announcement, the Honduran soccer team will not show fear to the Americans in their upcoming game.
o In the OEA meeting (meeting in Honduras right now that Hilary Clinton attended for a day, meeting of a bunch of north, central and south American countries)
National section:
Money needed for fall elections, teachers not getting paid, 80% of the country prefers democracy of tyrannies and dictators, power is of in a part of the country, there is a major bill coming up for vote soon and so there is a lot about that, we have our first case of human rabies, some arrests were made, more arrests were made, some people wee killed, new cases of the swine flu in Honduras (just to let you know, there is a large system of people looking after the spread of this for us, I am in safe hands, the peace corps is not lying when they say our safety is their top priority). There is an article on reforestation, and how the kids in the city have been taking part in trying to grow more trees in the city. Big article on why the hospital in one town is one of the best in the country. President of Ecuador visited Honduras, there is an international agriculture school here and 200 students from Ecuador attend the school, so he came to say hi. Then several pages on the international conference here.
Entertainment
Announcement of who will represent Honduras in the miss universe competition, lots of crazy pics, announcement for a play
Sports
So, Saturday, Honduras is playing the US in world cup early action. So, there is a lot on this subject, many pages of full color. We take our soccer very seriously down here. Also, a good bit of European soccer league news. Seriously, if you are truly a fan of soccer, you need to learn Spanish, because their newspapers here have way more soccer news than any in the states that I have ever seen.
Society (that’s right, we have a society section)
There is a huge picture of the queen of Spain, with a story of how the Queen travels quite cheaply, like any other person. We have a Miley Cyrus article, small but cute. Little blurb describing an Anne Hathaway video on youtube. A little celeb gossip, even Guy Ritchie can’t escape the Honduran press. Then, lots of pics from around Honduras, wedding announcements, birthday stories complete with several pics, for example Karim Navarro celebrates four years old. Small story with five pics. Bapstism story of one little girl makes the paper too. Memorial announcements make it too, just like in the states.
Classified section (always a winner)
General government announcements, just like in the states. Then comes a section where you can find a house, land, a restaurant, a dog (anyone want a poodle?), jobs section, and then cars for sale.
Advertisements (my favorite part)
So, full page, full color ads are the most expensive in the states, but the papers here are full of them, so here are a few:
1. Appliance store is having a “MEGA” sale with 30, 40, and 50% off
2. Digicel is offering some of their deals (cell phone company)
3. Sears is selling computers, and a $500 laptop when you use your sears card
4. Tigo is offering their deals (another cell phone company)
5. New apartment complex is now renting (by the way, I am only on page 13 right now)
6. VISA/local bank are offering deal that gives you miles, and flying to Miami is only 12,500 points
7. Grocery store is showing off their prices
8. Citibank has credit card deal with miles going on
9. Other miles card plan
10. HSBS is saying they are a safe bank
11. Basking Robins offers a cone for only 19 lempiras (they are also proud to support the Honduras soccer team)
12. ValueCenter is having a tenth anniversary sale
13. Visit Roatan complete with prices for transport and hotel
14. Furniture store is having a sale
15. Tigo is offering a free blackberry for a month if you sign up for their plan
16. Construction company is hiring
17. Some company is advertising some kind of international network, not sure what they do
18. More Digicel
19. Bank is offering discount of credit cards (?)
20. Fast food joint is showing what they got for only 19 lempiras
21. Burger King has a similar add
22. More Digicel
23. Three companies combined to show their support for the Honduran team and to put their name in print
24. The company in the first add has another full page add
25. Another grocery store ad, but apparently there is aunt jemima syrup here, I gotta get me some of that!
26. Finished off with Tigo
Ok, apparently I should have cut myself off at some point. But, count how many full page color ads your Wednesday newspaper has.
Friday (sorry again Brit, but its more food stories)
My stomach right now is very happy. My family made me sandwiches for lunch. A few days ago I asked if I could live her for longer than the two months that are required, and my family asked that I tell them what I do and do not like to eat so that they can prepare things I liked. When they asked me what I ate a lot in the states, I said sandwiches because they are the greatest food on earth. So, we talked a little more about them, and for the last few days they have been very excited to tell me we were going to have sandwiches for lunch today. There was all kinds of worry as to whether we had enough tomatoes and onions. So, today we had them and they were pretty good, way too much sauce (think big mac special sauce) but other than that, not bad. My stomach is like, I recognize this taste, and my tongue is oh so happy right now. I have definitely been lucky to have three great host families during my time here in Honduras.
Last night I went back to the 50th celebration. This was a little racier than in past nights. There were a lot of dancers who performed on the stage and it seemed that the requirements were: skirt may not cover all of your butt, tight tops, and most of the time little enthusiasm. At one point it was great though, it was like a Honduran Jerry Springer. The students had set up a talk show style performance where these five women (one was actually a boy in drag) who all were supposedly involved with this man. I think the point was to point out the problems with sleeping around, etc., but it was funny.
Ok, I am watching a tv program, and it is on the only maximum security prison in Alaska. Sorry Kelsey, but I guess I had never pictured Alaska as needing a max security prison, let alone a prison. I guess they have their problems like everyone else. It turns out they got some pretty crazy people up there in the frozen tundra.
Whoa, just had my first fun time in the bank. Apparently you have to carefully sign your checks here. I gave my Mom a check for the rent, and when she went to the bank, she had problems. My signature wasn’t the exact same as my paperwork for the bank. So, I go, wait in the line and the guy was just like the signature is bad. I was like, ok, I get that, but I really need that money since my Mom now wanted cash. But, he just said my signature was bad. So, I ask if I can write myself a check to get the cash, and I stared at the signature on the screen for a while to get the exact right one. It seemed like afterwards, the one thing I didn’t bring was my ATM card, which might have been a good thing there. Hopefully in the future my Mom will accept checks from me so I don’t have to carry around a lot of cash. It’s only a two minute walk from the bank to my house, but still, it’s the principle, a check would be a lot easier for me. Later I talked with her a little and its not a big deal to her. There was a lot of jokes about how picky the banks are here, and I let her know that I never had a problem in the states, so, situation resolved, its now just another learning experience.
So, apparently there was an article in the teguc paper about the swearing in ceremony and I even made to get my pic in the paper. So, if you have extra time in front of a computer, type in Honduras Peace Corps and something like Tegucigalpa or embassy, or the newspaper name is la tribuna. See if you can find a link. I haven’t seen a pic, but someone else in my group grabbed an extra paper the day after swearing in and told me about it, so hopefully I can get my hands on a copy.
Now, speaking of papers, I will take you through a typical Honduras newspaper. In front of me I have the paper for Wednesday June 3.
• Front page:
o Newspaper writer found God during his time as a hostage.
o Sports announcement, the Honduran soccer team will not show fear to the Americans in their upcoming game.
o In the OEA meeting (meeting in Honduras right now that Hilary Clinton attended for a day, meeting of a bunch of north, central and south American countries)
National section:
Money needed for fall elections, teachers not getting paid, 80% of the country prefers democracy of tyrannies and dictators, power is of in a part of the country, there is a major bill coming up for vote soon and so there is a lot about that, we have our first case of human rabies, some arrests were made, more arrests were made, some people wee killed, new cases of the swine flu in Honduras (just to let you know, there is a large system of people looking after the spread of this for us, I am in safe hands, the peace corps is not lying when they say our safety is their top priority). There is an article on reforestation, and how the kids in the city have been taking part in trying to grow more trees in the city. Big article on why the hospital in one town is one of the best in the country. President of Ecuador visited Honduras, there is an international agriculture school here and 200 students from Ecuador attend the school, so he came to say hi. Then several pages on the international conference here.
Entertainment
Announcement of who will represent Honduras in the miss universe competition, lots of crazy pics, announcement for a play
Sports
So, Saturday, Honduras is playing the US in world cup early action. So, there is a lot on this subject, many pages of full color. We take our soccer very seriously down here. Also, a good bit of European soccer league news. Seriously, if you are truly a fan of soccer, you need to learn Spanish, because their newspapers here have way more soccer news than any in the states that I have ever seen.
Society (that’s right, we have a society section)
There is a huge picture of the queen of Spain, with a story of how the Queen travels quite cheaply, like any other person. We have a Miley Cyrus article, small but cute. Little blurb describing an Anne Hathaway video on youtube. A little celeb gossip, even Guy Ritchie can’t escape the Honduran press. Then, lots of pics from around Honduras, wedding announcements, birthday stories complete with several pics, for example Karim Navarro celebrates four years old. Small story with five pics. Bapstism story of one little girl makes the paper too. Memorial announcements make it too, just like in the states.
Classified section (always a winner)
General government announcements, just like in the states. Then comes a section where you can find a house, land, a restaurant, a dog (anyone want a poodle?), jobs section, and then cars for sale.
Advertisements (my favorite part)
So, full page, full color ads are the most expensive in the states, but the papers here are full of them, so here are a few:
1. Appliance store is having a “MEGA” sale with 30, 40, and 50% off
2. Digicel is offering some of their deals (cell phone company)
3. Sears is selling computers, and a $500 laptop when you use your sears card
4. Tigo is offering their deals (another cell phone company)
5. New apartment complex is now renting (by the way, I am only on page 13 right now)
6. VISA/local bank are offering deal that gives you miles, and flying to Miami is only 12,500 points
7. Grocery store is showing off their prices
8. Citibank has credit card deal with miles going on
9. Other miles card plan
10. HSBS is saying they are a safe bank
11. Basking Robins offers a cone for only 19 lempiras (they are also proud to support the Honduras soccer team)
12. ValueCenter is having a tenth anniversary sale
13. Visit Roatan complete with prices for transport and hotel
14. Furniture store is having a sale
15. Tigo is offering a free blackberry for a month if you sign up for their plan
16. Construction company is hiring
17. Some company is advertising some kind of international network, not sure what they do
18. More Digicel
19. Bank is offering discount of credit cards (?)
20. Fast food joint is showing what they got for only 19 lempiras
21. Burger King has a similar add
22. More Digicel
23. Three companies combined to show their support for the Honduran team and to put their name in print
24. The company in the first add has another full page add
25. Another grocery store ad, but apparently there is aunt jemima syrup here, I gotta get me some of that!
26. Finished off with Tigo
Ok, apparently I should have cut myself off at some point. But, count how many full page color ads your Wednesday newspaper has.
Friday (sorry again Brit, but its more food stories)
My stomach right now is very happy. My family made me sandwiches for lunch. A few days ago I asked if I could live her for longer than the two months that are required, and my family asked that I tell them what I do and do not like to eat so that they can prepare things I liked. When they asked me what I ate a lot in the states, I said sandwiches because they are the greatest food on earth. So, we talked a little more about them, and for the last few days they have been very excited to tell me we were going to have sandwiches for lunch today. There was all kinds of worry as to whether we had enough tomatoes and onions. So, today we had them and they were pretty good, way too much sauce (think big mac special sauce) but other than that, not bad. My stomach is like, I recognize this taste, and my tongue is oh so happy right now. I have definitely been lucky to have three great host families during my time here in Honduras.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
more pics
This is me in my new house, taken from the camera in my laptop. See the nice hammock, he nice greenery, be jealous.
This is me working on the abney level survey. I know, i look excited. The hat and glasss are a trademark by the way.obviously i found a way to add pics. i checked out a new internet cafe and its like magic
Ok, i recently got this one. this is everyone sleeping on the flight to honduras. 
This is me with my bag leaving pespire. not sure how it got so big, and i have a small duffel bag as well. its a lot of stuff.
This was taken at our despedida (good bye party) and is me with my mom and host brother
My host family in Pespire minus one sister
In the park, recoving after the long walk up the hill to get there, really I have no idea how i did Katahdin because this hike was hard.
Ok, look closely at the tree, you see my whiteness glowing, but my host brother olman is looking through the holes in the trunk. this is in a national forest near my first house.
The training center puppy, we all threatened to dognap this little guy at some point. funny story, at the end of training, all the dogs refused to eat tortillas too!
The head table at swearing in, from left to right, you have luis, the man in charge of training, a woman who represents an organization that is trying to increase small businesses in honduras, the ambassador, trudy the country director and you cannot see him but there is a guy who works with hiv education in honduras
Carlos and myself. Carlos was in charge of wat-san training in pespire.
the whole wat-san group, looking very clean and not sweaty for once
me and the honduran flag at the embassyin the last one there is a pic of a few of us being silly after swearing in
finally, i got the blog online
HOW HAPPY AM I?
Well, right now I am watching what not to wear! It’s in Spanish, so I am getting some new vocabulary. Also, I never realized how fast they talk on this show until I watched it in Spanish. Also, I went to the grocery store earlier, and they had huge bags on snickers minis, which I managed not to buy, but just seeing them made me happy.
My alarm clock and I have quite the battle going on, and I am not sure who is winning the war. The thing has a backlight, so you can see the numbers when there is no light. Well, it is very selective on when it will work. You have to touch it just right to get it to come on, but every time that I think I figure it out, it changes its mind on how it is going to work.
So, I went through the blog today and realized how long the entries look. But the options are write less or write less; which means you don’t get as much info. It’s not really that feasible right now to use the internet more often.
Someone want to do something fantastic for me? I know you do! I get ESPN, and therefore want to know when Roland Garros (French Open Tennis) and Wimbledon will be on ESPN latin America. Not exactly sure what the name is for my espn coverage, but I am sure you can figure it out. Bonus points for those that send me (via email is fine) the schedule for TCM (one of my favorite channels). In fact, email is better because by time I get mail two weeks after it is mailed, then the news and schedules will probably be very old. I could look this up myself but I don’t have a lot of time online. To give you a heads up, I am 90% certain we have dish tv.
School is over and I should be getting my world wise school information soon. World wise schools is a Peace Corps program that connects peace corps volunteers currently serving in their post with schools in the US. It is yet another way to incorporate Peace Corps third goal which is the sharing of other cultures with Americans. The school year in the states is just about over for everyone, but it means I have something to look forward to for the fall.
In case you were wondering, goal one is to provide developing country with trained personal to assist in the training of host country nationals. And number two is to share American culture with the host country, which we do every day by interacting with families, neighbors, etc.
Ok, interesting day. We had an earthquake here in the middle of the night. I woke up and really thought that someone was in my room shaking my bed. Then by time I realized that it might be an earthquake it was over. Only a little major damage done, and none in this area, just woke everyone up. The epicenter was a ways away from here, but apparently people from Mexico to Panama felt it. A 7.1 on the Richter scale, not bad.
This morning we left for the aldeas again. I didn’t sleep well again last night, so I was really tired walking around. Then in the afternoon we went to observe the trainings that some of the people in the NGO (non-governmental organization) are doing. The first one had a really bad attendance rate. The second one was in the middle of nowhere. I mean, whoa, this one had me worried with the conditions of the roads. Apparently I will be going to an aldea farther out than that, whoopee!
Oh, insight that I had and don’t think I’ve told you yet. To me its just weird that everyone knows all about their water systems here. No one in the states does. It’s definitely something to get used to. The people helping us though are the ones involved in the water boards, so that might be it too. Next week I start working for real doing the surveys, so that should be interesting. I had the thought today, you really sure you want me to do that? when someone told me they wanted my advice on where to put the conduction line.
Oh, man, I had so many ideas of what to write today, but yet again, I am at a loss for words. I need to carry around a notebook to write notes down in!
Friday:
It’s just easier for me to write out which day is which. Went back into the field today, I went to get to know a system that I will be reworking. They have a water source and tank, but still have a lot of problems. Friday night and I am watching twister on tv and looking a water system design that a volunteer who was here before me did, I know, I am living it up right. One thing is for sure though: I need to buy a fan, my room has very little air movement, and although it is winter here, its still warm. Very warm.
Weekend:
Saturday morning we went to the community where I will be doing my first topo study. Not really sure if it was worth it or while. I did get to play with a kitten though, which was fun for me and scary for the kitten. The animals here don’t get the lush life of the pets in the states. Most of them are skin and bones.
Sunday I got sick again! Yeah! Ok, that’s enough sarcasm. Stuff happens, and if you have read any of my friends blog, the subject of bowel movements is a common theme, I think I have spared you most of that.
Monday:
Still a little sick. Didn’t start the topo study, but at least now I have time to go do my errands around town (which hopefully include posting this blog).
I am watching the French open right now, it says live. Del Potro is beating Tsonga. Who would have thought that Nadal would be out of the French Open so fast?
No good revelations or thoughts lately, I thought about writing about deforestation and its affects but I am kind of lazy right now. So, you have that to look forward to in the future.
Tuesday:
So, my town is in the middle of its 50th year as a municipality celebration. What they were before that, I have no idea. Anyways, apparently every night there is some kind of celebration and really every school in the area has a night to perform. Last night was a high school in the area. The marching band was definitely the best part. This was not your average high school band. First, they only had drums and bells. Second, they were not nearly as dull as most high school bands. You know the drumline movie? Where they show the marching bands doing crazy stuff? That is the kind of training these kids have received. It was fun to watch. The rest of the night the entertainment was kind of iffy. There were a few lip-singing performances that were kind of awful. Sorry kids, but a little more enthusiasm is needed in your performance. I had to give them credit for trying, but after about 5, I had enough. There were also some kids from the school who performed traditional folk dances.
Food
On another note, my sitemate and I tried some of the local pizza, and that was the first and last experience for that place. It was pretty scetch. First, it was the weird Honduran 1000 island/mayonnaise type sauce, the cheese was really thick, and I think it was special Honduran cheese. Apparently there is someplace else to get pizza in town, so we will try it later. For now we are just happy we are not sick from the pizza.
I kind of feel sorry for you guys, I was reading the blog of a friend the other day and it is crazy funny. Mine just seems really, really dull compared to hers. She had this crazy typical day drawn out, but I just don’t seem to have a typical day, much less one that is funny. I either go to work, or I don’t. Today, I am watching the quarter-finals of Roland Garros. I have a feeling that eventually I will be getting a call asking where I am, but really, I will say I am studying Spanish grammar. This might sound bad, but consider this, it’s the French Open, and I have nothing to do in the office. I made the effort to go in yesterday and I got a “what are you doing here” look. I talked for a few minutes and then left again. Hopefully today is not the day they rescheduled me for the topo study, although they would have already have been here looking for me if that was the case. As another note, the pace of life here is a lot slower. Volunteers don’t do the 8 hour work days. We have a lot of free time, and there is talk about starting a baseball team with the kids in town, so that will become part of my job too. I was talking to a volunteer during training and she said that the day I was talking to her was a busy day for her because she took part of a class in the school in the morning and came to help with our training in the afternoon. I just want to let you know that I am not lazy, just maybe not using my time very efficiently.
For those of you following the World Cup, the US and Honduras play this Saturday. Oh, I also watched NCAA men’s lacrosse the other day. Duke vs Syracuse. Very interesting. Not the kind of thing you expect to be able to see while in the peace corps. And yes, this post is kind of in the posh corps, we all have cell phones, there are internet cafes in almost every town and cable tv is easy to get.
I don’t think I have introduced any Honduran words for a while. So, today we have cheque.
• Cheque- (check-ayh like you have a Minnesotan accent) adv.- cool, good, fine, ok.
When you feel really good you can say chequeleque. Let’s practice:
• How are you? Cheque.
• How are the preparations for the party? Todo cheque.
• So, I am going to pick you up tonight at 7pm for our date? Chequeleque.
To give you an idea of the importance of these words, we were told them the first or second day of training.
Food (sorry Bittany)
Ok, so I am going to give you a Honduran recipe as well.
Boleadas (aka great food)
Ingredients
Flour tortillas – now there is a special type of tortillas that makes boleadas go from good to great, that taste more like pizza crust than tortilla, but use your own judgement here, just make sure they are not too small, anything less than a six inch diameter wont do.
Refried beans, better with homemade, but I guess you can use a quality can type
Cheese, now this one might be hard to replicate, because the type of cheese used here is actually fairly salty, so you will have to be the judge on the type you use.
Optional- chismol and guacamole (always better fresh than in a can- recipes to follow)
Directions
Cook refried beans according to the directions (I suggest adding onion and garlic, but that’s just me). Shred the cheese while cooking.
Heat tortillas- in a griddle is the best method to get the desired consistency.
When both are done, put the beans on one half of the tortilla, sprinkle cheese, guacamole and chismol over the beans. Fold tortilla in half. Enjoy.
Chismol
Chop up onion, tomato, green bell pepper into tiny pieces and mix together. Now, we have what are called especias here (mix of spices) so you will have to decide if you want to add anything here. Garlic and spicy peppers can also be added. Touch of salt to finish it off.
Guacamole
Take an avocado, remove the fruit portion, mash it up, add chopped veggies that you want. (maybe a little salt too).
Now, a true boleada doesn’t have the chismol or guacamole, but I suggest them for those of you who haven’t gotten accustomed to beans every night.
Address:
Ok, the address has changed yet again. I went in to get a post office box with my sitemates. So, check with the parents or give me an email.
Well, right now I am watching what not to wear! It’s in Spanish, so I am getting some new vocabulary. Also, I never realized how fast they talk on this show until I watched it in Spanish. Also, I went to the grocery store earlier, and they had huge bags on snickers minis, which I managed not to buy, but just seeing them made me happy.
My alarm clock and I have quite the battle going on, and I am not sure who is winning the war. The thing has a backlight, so you can see the numbers when there is no light. Well, it is very selective on when it will work. You have to touch it just right to get it to come on, but every time that I think I figure it out, it changes its mind on how it is going to work.
So, I went through the blog today and realized how long the entries look. But the options are write less or write less; which means you don’t get as much info. It’s not really that feasible right now to use the internet more often.
Someone want to do something fantastic for me? I know you do! I get ESPN, and therefore want to know when Roland Garros (French Open Tennis) and Wimbledon will be on ESPN latin America. Not exactly sure what the name is for my espn coverage, but I am sure you can figure it out. Bonus points for those that send me (via email is fine) the schedule for TCM (one of my favorite channels). In fact, email is better because by time I get mail two weeks after it is mailed, then the news and schedules will probably be very old. I could look this up myself but I don’t have a lot of time online. To give you a heads up, I am 90% certain we have dish tv.
School is over and I should be getting my world wise school information soon. World wise schools is a Peace Corps program that connects peace corps volunteers currently serving in their post with schools in the US. It is yet another way to incorporate Peace Corps third goal which is the sharing of other cultures with Americans. The school year in the states is just about over for everyone, but it means I have something to look forward to for the fall.
In case you were wondering, goal one is to provide developing country with trained personal to assist in the training of host country nationals. And number two is to share American culture with the host country, which we do every day by interacting with families, neighbors, etc.
Ok, interesting day. We had an earthquake here in the middle of the night. I woke up and really thought that someone was in my room shaking my bed. Then by time I realized that it might be an earthquake it was over. Only a little major damage done, and none in this area, just woke everyone up. The epicenter was a ways away from here, but apparently people from Mexico to Panama felt it. A 7.1 on the Richter scale, not bad.
This morning we left for the aldeas again. I didn’t sleep well again last night, so I was really tired walking around. Then in the afternoon we went to observe the trainings that some of the people in the NGO (non-governmental organization) are doing. The first one had a really bad attendance rate. The second one was in the middle of nowhere. I mean, whoa, this one had me worried with the conditions of the roads. Apparently I will be going to an aldea farther out than that, whoopee!
Oh, insight that I had and don’t think I’ve told you yet. To me its just weird that everyone knows all about their water systems here. No one in the states does. It’s definitely something to get used to. The people helping us though are the ones involved in the water boards, so that might be it too. Next week I start working for real doing the surveys, so that should be interesting. I had the thought today, you really sure you want me to do that? when someone told me they wanted my advice on where to put the conduction line.
Oh, man, I had so many ideas of what to write today, but yet again, I am at a loss for words. I need to carry around a notebook to write notes down in!
Friday:
It’s just easier for me to write out which day is which. Went back into the field today, I went to get to know a system that I will be reworking. They have a water source and tank, but still have a lot of problems. Friday night and I am watching twister on tv and looking a water system design that a volunteer who was here before me did, I know, I am living it up right. One thing is for sure though: I need to buy a fan, my room has very little air movement, and although it is winter here, its still warm. Very warm.
Weekend:
Saturday morning we went to the community where I will be doing my first topo study. Not really sure if it was worth it or while. I did get to play with a kitten though, which was fun for me and scary for the kitten. The animals here don’t get the lush life of the pets in the states. Most of them are skin and bones.
Sunday I got sick again! Yeah! Ok, that’s enough sarcasm. Stuff happens, and if you have read any of my friends blog, the subject of bowel movements is a common theme, I think I have spared you most of that.
Monday:
Still a little sick. Didn’t start the topo study, but at least now I have time to go do my errands around town (which hopefully include posting this blog).
I am watching the French open right now, it says live. Del Potro is beating Tsonga. Who would have thought that Nadal would be out of the French Open so fast?
No good revelations or thoughts lately, I thought about writing about deforestation and its affects but I am kind of lazy right now. So, you have that to look forward to in the future.
Tuesday:
So, my town is in the middle of its 50th year as a municipality celebration. What they were before that, I have no idea. Anyways, apparently every night there is some kind of celebration and really every school in the area has a night to perform. Last night was a high school in the area. The marching band was definitely the best part. This was not your average high school band. First, they only had drums and bells. Second, they were not nearly as dull as most high school bands. You know the drumline movie? Where they show the marching bands doing crazy stuff? That is the kind of training these kids have received. It was fun to watch. The rest of the night the entertainment was kind of iffy. There were a few lip-singing performances that were kind of awful. Sorry kids, but a little more enthusiasm is needed in your performance. I had to give them credit for trying, but after about 5, I had enough. There were also some kids from the school who performed traditional folk dances.
Food
On another note, my sitemate and I tried some of the local pizza, and that was the first and last experience for that place. It was pretty scetch. First, it was the weird Honduran 1000 island/mayonnaise type sauce, the cheese was really thick, and I think it was special Honduran cheese. Apparently there is someplace else to get pizza in town, so we will try it later. For now we are just happy we are not sick from the pizza.
I kind of feel sorry for you guys, I was reading the blog of a friend the other day and it is crazy funny. Mine just seems really, really dull compared to hers. She had this crazy typical day drawn out, but I just don’t seem to have a typical day, much less one that is funny. I either go to work, or I don’t. Today, I am watching the quarter-finals of Roland Garros. I have a feeling that eventually I will be getting a call asking where I am, but really, I will say I am studying Spanish grammar. This might sound bad, but consider this, it’s the French Open, and I have nothing to do in the office. I made the effort to go in yesterday and I got a “what are you doing here” look. I talked for a few minutes and then left again. Hopefully today is not the day they rescheduled me for the topo study, although they would have already have been here looking for me if that was the case. As another note, the pace of life here is a lot slower. Volunteers don’t do the 8 hour work days. We have a lot of free time, and there is talk about starting a baseball team with the kids in town, so that will become part of my job too. I was talking to a volunteer during training and she said that the day I was talking to her was a busy day for her because she took part of a class in the school in the morning and came to help with our training in the afternoon. I just want to let you know that I am not lazy, just maybe not using my time very efficiently.
For those of you following the World Cup, the US and Honduras play this Saturday. Oh, I also watched NCAA men’s lacrosse the other day. Duke vs Syracuse. Very interesting. Not the kind of thing you expect to be able to see while in the peace corps. And yes, this post is kind of in the posh corps, we all have cell phones, there are internet cafes in almost every town and cable tv is easy to get.
I don’t think I have introduced any Honduran words for a while. So, today we have cheque.
• Cheque- (check-ayh like you have a Minnesotan accent) adv.- cool, good, fine, ok.
When you feel really good you can say chequeleque. Let’s practice:
• How are you? Cheque.
• How are the preparations for the party? Todo cheque.
• So, I am going to pick you up tonight at 7pm for our date? Chequeleque.
To give you an idea of the importance of these words, we were told them the first or second day of training.
Food (sorry Bittany)
Ok, so I am going to give you a Honduran recipe as well.
Boleadas (aka great food)
Ingredients
Flour tortillas – now there is a special type of tortillas that makes boleadas go from good to great, that taste more like pizza crust than tortilla, but use your own judgement here, just make sure they are not too small, anything less than a six inch diameter wont do.
Refried beans, better with homemade, but I guess you can use a quality can type
Cheese, now this one might be hard to replicate, because the type of cheese used here is actually fairly salty, so you will have to be the judge on the type you use.
Optional- chismol and guacamole (always better fresh than in a can- recipes to follow)
Directions
Cook refried beans according to the directions (I suggest adding onion and garlic, but that’s just me). Shred the cheese while cooking.
Heat tortillas- in a griddle is the best method to get the desired consistency.
When both are done, put the beans on one half of the tortilla, sprinkle cheese, guacamole and chismol over the beans. Fold tortilla in half. Enjoy.
Chismol
Chop up onion, tomato, green bell pepper into tiny pieces and mix together. Now, we have what are called especias here (mix of spices) so you will have to decide if you want to add anything here. Garlic and spicy peppers can also be added. Touch of salt to finish it off.
Guacamole
Take an avocado, remove the fruit portion, mash it up, add chopped veggies that you want. (maybe a little salt too).
Now, a true boleada doesn’t have the chismol or guacamole, but I suggest them for those of you who haven’t gotten accustomed to beans every night.
Address:
Ok, the address has changed yet again. I went in to get a post office box with my sitemates. So, check with the parents or give me an email.
Monday, June 1, 2009
I´m alive
Ok folks, I had a whole blog written up but you have never had as many problems with a computer than I am having now. The thing has a hidden usb port, and now it refuses to read my usb. Anyways, i am alive and well. i watched a bit of the french open this morning.
so, looking back i saw that a bunch of my blogs are just really really long, and i tried to come in today to use the internet to post a shorter blog, but the computer is just not working with me.
take care
jill
so, looking back i saw that a bunch of my blogs are just really really long, and i tried to come in today to use the internet to post a shorter blog, but the computer is just not working with me.
take care
jill
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