Saturday, January 30, 2010

debate

Last week I went to a gathering of the PCVs in my area. At one point we were talking about someone who had completed their Peace Corps service, and was living in country. It was decided that this person is a little odd, and that led to a comment about how most returned peace corps volunteers are a little odd. One member of our group was a little disturbed to hear this because he is leaving in three months and well, doesn't want to be considered odd when he returns to the States. In the end we decided that only a small fraction of Americans sign up for peace corps. These people sign up for anything. You don't know what you will be doing, where you will be living, even what language you will be speaking. To do this, you kind of have to be a little different. The test will come when I complete my service and if I am still just me, or maybe a little different.

Friday, January 29, 2010

a rather boring week, but surprises for Seca

Hello once again.

Hmm, it is hard to write about the last week because the main feature was extreme laziness. Saying that, I did do some topo study work.

One funny note, my dog just scared herself quite a bit. We were playing with a rag, a favorite toy. I was swinging it above her head, just to be moved as she jumped for it. This time, I let go of the toy and her back legs slid out from under her, leaving her falling backwards, and landing smack on her back. She wasn’t so happy, but I thought it was funny. She wasn’t hurt.

This week I went to a regional safety and security meeting. I met up with people I haven’t seen in a while from the department, so that was interesting. We live in the safest inhabited area of the country. There is one department (state) that has very few people and is really separated from the rest of the country as far as transportation goes, which is technically a little safer, but there are no volunteers in that area.

At this meeting I got to show off pictures of Lucas, the cutest nephew in the world.

I heard from my former sitemate, T, who is currently living in Costa Rica. She has a 3 month old puppy, so I can share puppy stories with her. I do have to say though, I am happy with Seca’s behavior. I think she does well for being shut up in my small apartment for most of the day.

The good thing about the topo study work was that I brought Seca. When we returned she was very tired from running around the mountain, so she slept all through the night without trying to eat anything. Its like heaven. On the mountain we surveyed through this really steep part (and I mean REALLY steep) and she kept landing herself under my feet. I could barely stand up and walk but she was always there. As we hit leveler land, she relaxed and rested under coffee plants while I worked.

About the dog, anyone who wants to ship down some rawhides, they are more than gladly accepted!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

its a long one

It’s been a busy week. I left to go to a Peace Corps workshop. This workshop was on the other side of the country, and was for my Water and Sanitation group on how to do a wastewater project. I knew about this in advance, but being Peace Corps in Honduras, it wasn’t exactly smooth.

Now, my main counterpart was going to go with me, but less than a week before we were supposed to leave, he tells me he can’t go. Well, then I was thinking, I’ll go on my own and just take a few days afterwards to travel in the west. Then one day I go in the office, two days before leaving, and my counterpart tells me one guy is going with me. I don’t recognize this name. Hmm, so the morning comes to get on the bus and although I had tried to contact him twice, I am not sure we will be in the same bus (through an intermediary, I suggested the 5am bus, then to realize 6am was ok). I’m on the bus not really knowing what to, and someone I kind of recognize gets on the bus, but walks right past me. So, the bus takes off and the guy does not respond to another text message. The bus takes off for Tegucigalpa and oh well, I think I am travelling alone again.

In Teguc, the guy who I saw earlier comes up to me and he is the guy I am bringing. This works, we get off at the bus stop, get a good fare to the next bus stop. Side note: here you kind of barter for the taxi fare, its not a generic per distance rate. We get to the next bus terminal 10 minutes before the bus leaves. Now, we took the good bus up to San Pedro Sula. Its expensive, but very nice. Even the stop in the middle is better than the other buses; it goes to a nicer restaurant and gives you enough time to eat a real meal.

We get into the terminal in San Pedro, and in 15 minutes we are leaving in the last bus of the day. We just had really good timing. Now, it took us 11 hours, which was really, really good. I was thinking 13 hours, so I was happy with 11. The drive was really beautiful.

The next day my counterpart and I decided to go out for a walk. The thing about this trip is that a nasty cold front was going through. You have to imagine me who lives in an area with an average low of 72 degrees in the coldest month of the year, going into a place that was in the 50s all week. My counterpart didn’t even bring a sweater, so part of walking around was going to find him a jacket. We did so and I found an indoor market that reminded me very much like a flea market. When my siblings and I were younger, one of our aunts brought us to flea markets a lot, and so it was great to walk though there.

We then followed that up by walking around the city. Well, we walked the nicer parts of the city. I don’t think there were any really bad places, but after one large loop and shopping, it was 2 hours later, and so we went back to the hotel early. After lunch we had the first part of the meeting. It is a part that is supposed to address how is our work relationships are going, what we are doing, how we can work better together. That kind of stuff.

The next morning starts the real presentation on how to have a wastewater system. It included a background on theories of it and old ways and new ways. Then it went into how to design the connection sewer system. This day was very hard to follow because this guy was talking about 100 miles an hour about very technical material.

Everyone is having problems keeping their attention on the presentation. Now, half the people in my group are engineers, and even they, who have seen this material before, are struggling to keep our attention on the guy. The other people have just given up, and are downloading things online and chatting with friends. At the end of the day I was worried about how my counterpart was doing because it was very technical material and he doesn’t have a technical background. I went up and started talking to him and was surprised at how much he got out of it. He was paying attention the whole time, and while he didn’t understand the details, he got all the large details.

The next day continued in very much the same way. To celebrate the last day, the volunteers went out for good pizza and then some karaoke.

The morning we all dispersed, I got a ride with a Peace Corps staff member who was in the area and travelling on the same road as my friend and I. He is the head honcho for the business group, and it was really good talking to him. We talked to him about his experiences working with the Peace Corps and volunteers. How are different groups, what do you think about the impact that PC has on Honduras, etc. It was just really nice to talk openly to someone who in Honduran and gets to see what PC does for his country. He also had a different opinion than most volunteers on the political stuff that is going on within the office, and that’s all I am saying on that.

He was in the area preparing for the next group of volunteers. Before sending a volunteer to a town, there is generally two or more visits there. The PC staff need to know that the town wants that volunteer, that the counterpart is going to take on the responsibility, and that the town is safe enough for a volunteer. We stopped in a small town along the highway that had requested a town, and we (my friend and I) got to listen in on their conversation, getting to know how the PC end of site development goes. Also, it gave me more of an insight into the business project.

Finally we arrive in the town with our friends and I find out an interesting fact about my friend. She has done a ton of work with GPS/GIS, and its because she couldn’t find her way out of a paper bag. Eventually we find the house, and there are a bunch of people there. The time there is nice. It was a volunteer’s birthday in the town, so people had come in. The volunteer and his wife prepared a great meal and everyone just kind of chilled out. The next day we went and got some good traditional Honduran food before my friend and I took off again for another town. Now, because its after the fact, we jaloned out there, which is Honduran for hitchhiked. Yes, Mom, I know its not the safest, but we missed the last bus.

The drive between those two towns is amazing. I can’t think of another work to describe it. And from the back of a pick-up truck, sitting high on coffee sacks, it was great. The funny thing is that the road would be considered impassable from the standpoint of most Americans, but it’s a major byway. From the other end, they had started building a real highway, but it never got finished. A few years ago they just stopped.

Side note: this is not so uncommon. Sometimes, in many different projects, when there is a change in leadership (mayor), the new mayor will stop the old mayor’s projects. In Siguatepeque, a mayor stopped construction of a plaza in the center of town although it was nearly completed. By time a mayor who came along that wanted to complete the plaza, which had become an eye soar for ten years, came around, it cost ten times more to finish it. Now the town has a beautiful central plaza.

In town, I meet my friend’s contact there. He is a 70 year old guy named Fred that is just great. He was one of the first PC volunteers ever, in Pakistan. I have to give that first generation some serious credit, to go someplace you don’t know much about, and not to have any one that you can ask for reference, that takes guts. Anyways, in his working life he became a water treatment technician in the states, and is now working with a non-profit agency in the states as the go between man between them and local agencies here in Honduras. He is just an amazing wealth of knowledge. I have the education to be here, but I am completely under-qualified compared to this guy with the experience. He has worked in projects in China and Haiti as well.

A shout out here to those in Haiti impacted by the earthquake. If everyone could take a moment of silence for the thousands dead and millions affected.

Anyways, going back to meeting with this guy. He told my friend and me much about his work and what they are doing. We brainstormed on how to improve some things there and how we could bring some of what they are doing there into our communities. We went and saw the water treatment facility that had been built there, or one of the facilities and I was surprised at how complex and simple it was at the same time. The basic properties of treatment are explained in kind of these complex ideas but they can be put into action easily and not so complexly. I was very happy to see that.

Finally the day comes to leave there and go back to my site. That morning I took the time to meet some of the Hondurans that Fred works with and to check out their water quality lab. I will be helping my counterparts with their lab and so that was good experience for me.

The ride into Teguc was rather uneventful. The thing about teguc is that there is no central bus station, and where the buses leave for my area leave out of a different area than the buses for the West. I get in a taxi and ask to go directly (meaning no dropping off five other people first) and I seriously asked the guy five times how much it was going to be. Remember, its not a set rate. The guy proves to be a bit of an ass during the ride, but whatever, I would never be seeing him again. Then he starts talking to me about dollars. He didn’t speak so clearly and only used slang so I was having a difficult problem understanding him. He says something about 15 dollars. Well, in my mind I translate that to almost 300 lempira, and I think he means it would be that much to get a taxi ride all the way to my town. I remarked on how expensive that would be and hence I was going to a bus station. He keeps bringing it up though, and I realize he thinks I am going to pay 15 dollars. Besides the fact that the amount is ridiculous, I had already told him about five time that I didn’t have American cash on me, that I lived in Honduras and saw no reason to walk around with dollars.

The guy almost misses my bus, and as he is pulling over I am now is an almost yelling match at how much he is trying to charge me. I have done that route several times and each time it is 80 Lempira, or quite a lot less that the 300 he wanted. I hand him the money as I get out (he only got 100 Lempira because I didn’t have the correct change for 80) and he starts yelling that he wouldn’t have crossed town for that much. Lessons: always answer your passenger when they ask how much and don’t be an ass. I was so furious when I bought my bus ticket my hands were literally shaking. I have been lucky in the fact that he was the first that tried to completely fraud me of money. Others have charged a little more than they would for a Honduran, but he was the first ridiculous one that saw the color of my skin and thought he could get away with that bull. I live in Honduras people, I know how much things cost.

Ahh, not that my rant is over, not much else is up. I am home and dealing with my hyper active dog again. I had to lock her up in the office today so I could get some work done around the house. I have a tiny garden at my house and she has destroyed it so I went in and did some repairs. The other thing is she started eating her poo again, so I needed to clean the area of poo. I hadn’t realized how much was in there beforehand. Now I know to check every other day or so.

That’s all I feel like writing for now. Happy Belated Birthday to Dad. Happy one month to Lucas.

Jill

Sunday, January 10, 2010

New Years Resolution

So, I am thinking most of you have already made (and probably broken) your new Year's resolution. Well, I have great news for you! A new resolution that you can keep and make me happy at the same time! What more can a person want? Your resolution is that you will send me two letters this year. Two letters from all of you and i will be a very happy person and the envy of all peace corps volunteer with so much mail.

Jill

updates

Well hello everyone! Instead of telling you play by play what I have been up to lately, I figured I would try a different strategy. I wanted to tell you a little bit about Honduras, and today’s theme is household chores.

I know, at first it does not seem very worth while, but some things might be surprising.

Laundry. Now, I know I have talked a little bit about laundry before, but I figured I would recap. Washing clothes is normally a very physically exhausting prospect (at least for gringo volunteers). It involves rubbing your clothes with a stick of laundry detergent, and then rubbing the article over a cement washboard, all the while dumping small buckets of water over said article. Now, I can now wash underwear and small items well, but I am still missing an effective strategy for larger items, like jeans.

While I was living at my host family’s house, we had a washer, which has lead to my still incompetent form. For the really dirty stuff I do prefer to hand-wash because washing machines just never get out the big dirt and grass stains.

Mopping. This one is a real treat. In the States you have these handy little mops that you can rinse out so easily in a bucket. Not so here. Now, for those of you old enough, try to remember those mops that were used in comedies over someone’s head as a wig. We have those types. They are impossible to wash on those cement washboards. And that is what you have to do. You rinse them with water, and then spill some washing liquid over the floor, and then just kind of splash it around. Follow this up by rinsing the mop again.

Now, lately we have had some little house-breaking mishaps, and as such my mop is kind of smelly from puppy pee. This in turn makes washing the mop even harder since I have to use gloves over my hands. Side not: puppies are not good for mopping. She was chewing on a rawhide stick throughout the mopping escapade, but then afterwards decided to bury that rawhide in the world’s smallest garden. So, now my floor is very dirty again from her muddy paws.

Dusting: My least favorite chore of all time is dusting. I don’t mind sweeping, I can mop, and I am not opposed to ironing, but I can’t stand to dust. Well, that’s a bit of a problem considering I live in Honduras, and in a very dusty town at that. Aside from the dirt that gets tracked in from shoes and paws, there is also the dirt in the air. My roof is a tin roof, and my landlord has yet to fill in the spaces below the curved roof, so dust can get in there. Put it all together, and I have to dust a lot. After three days you can see a visible build up of dust.

Flushing the Toilet: Now, why on earth would someone put this as a category, you might be thinking. Well, I will tell you, because I don’t have running water and therefore cannot flush. Most toilets you can just dump a bucket of water into the toilet bowl and it will naturally flush. But, in my apartment, the toilet does not want to work like that. Instead, when I have to flush, I have to bring two buckets of water from the kitchen through the bedroom and then fill up the tank of the toilet, at which point I can flush. And, if for some reason, I do not fill up the tank before going to bed, I am awoken at around 3:30am to the god-awful sound of the water when it comes. For some reason, the water makes a horrible sound as it tries to fill up the empty tank.

Shower: Who Showers.

Bathing: Now, I have a shower, and when the water is running (occasionally happens while the sun is up) I could shower, but there is no hot water. I don’t like cold water showers. Even in the hottest day, I will have a hot water shower. So, instead I heat up two pots of water on my stove to bath. I heat them until boiling and then that water and some cold water into a large bucket and bath using that. This works, except when they have a scheduled power outage day (like today) where I cannot turn on my stove to heat up the water. It’s a bit of a pain.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

quick update

Just in case any of you were worried, my dog was found. She ran away from home and to the house of those that took care of her while she was away. She decided she wanted to go back to the farm. She pulled the same trick the next day and because of which she gets to be trapped in a small area versus getting to run around the office. Stupid dog.

Jill

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

i{m back in honduras

Hello to all of my loyal followers!

I am writing to you from Honduras, I arrived about a week ago from my short excursion to the States. I am not sure what I wrote last time (and keep in mind I write the blog entries before going to the internet café- it saves money) so here is a recap: My nephew is adorable, I ate a whole lot, flushing toilet paper is weird, we went bowling for my birthday, the pup is going to be trained using the clicker method, and I ate a bunch more. Seriously, every time I had even a little bit of free space in my stomach, I ate another full meal.

Now, how was getting back to Honduras? The overnight was a pain because I was so worried that I was not going to wake up in time (3:30am) that I didn’t sleep so well. I got ripped off by the taxi driver, even though I made him go over 25% lower. Go negotiating skills, and well I stood in front of him and everyone else and said that was ridiculous. This was followed by being ripped off by the bus guy who insisted I had to pay extra for my bag although I have never had to pay extra before.

I only left my house the first few days to buy food and go to parties. I went to my organization’s Christmas party, and then to the host family’s house for New Years.

Today I finally went back to work. Oh, I also finally got my dog back, she was stranded in a village. I see her (and I swear she has bad eye sight) and then when I get closer she is excited to see me, but in her incredibly muddy condition, she gets my very dirty. She got a bath, which didn’t go too badly. Oh, I have to mention that she has grown so much! Two weeks in a puppy’s life is a lot, and she is so much bigger, and she is cute now that she is clean; although I did find a tick on top of a tick later in the afternoon. You just can’t see those things until they are filled with blood.

I met up with some volunteers and ex-volunteers that are visiting. I worked on trying to PLAN out my month, yes, its crazy for Honduras, but I tried to plan. It turns out I will be a little busy this month, which is good, assuming I get the enthusiasm to work. That’s been a bit of a problem lately.

Ok, so bad news. My dog is missing. She escaped. The thing with Honduras is that people steal dogs, so if she escaped, she might have been subsequently stolen. I will keep you updated. I am hoping she comes home when she is hungry.