and the training continues

More news from the furnace:

Well, Easter Sunday was a lot more relaxed than I thought it would be. Since all of my family was still tired from the beach, and therefore nothing was ever said about mass. At least I think that was the reason. Well, Sunday night my sister asked me if I wanted to go, and I said yes, and it only turned out to be me and her going to mass that night. The church is really pretty at night.

Monday we went on a hike in the afternoon. There are these trees here in Honduras which produce these gourds. They are not eaten by humans, but I guess you can do something and feed the inside to cows. The outside you can use as a cup, or other handy thing; although, if you have a lot of these things, you will have a lot of extra in your property. We went hiking behind a farm, with a bunch of cows. Under one of the tree there was a huge pile of the gourds, leftover from when they made the cow-food. It was pretty interesting to see, one person described it as looking like a pile of baby skulls, but I used “Honduras bubble wrap” because you get the same fun sensation when you step on them as when you pop bubble wrap.

Tuesday afternoon, we repeated part of the hike. We walked the microwatershed boundary with GPSs and later plotted it on the computer. Now, I am not sure why training is arranged the way it is. There were three or four days on how to use an abney level (which trust me is easy) and 20 minutes on how to use ArcGIS. I’m not really sure of the reasoning here.

I have been busy the last few days trying to plan my charla for Thursday. We are all giving charlas on trash. My group has decided to split our 45 kids up into three groups, and each of us will have 15 kids for 15 minutes. This is going to be interesting. So, with all the time I have spent on this project, I still don’t know exactly what I am going to do. It’s a little bit of a stressful time. And they announced we are giving more charlas the next week, we have a report due the next week (make that two reports), and this huge design project. Seriously, I have never worked this hard. I get up early and go to bed late. And all that stuff above does not include Spanish homework, or spending time with my family to improve my Spanish that way. Ahh. There is a reason they call it “The toughest job you will ever love.”

Wednesday: Morning classes- same as normal. Next week we are starting the subjunctive!
The fun part was in the afternoon, when we started building forgones. These are stoves that use wood. Materials needed: Dirt, ceramic tile, bricks, a base for the stove to sit on, water, and cow poo. That’s right, we got to play with cow poo. It was actually fun to make the stove. Other people grabbed pictures, so I will steal them later.

Side note: My computer is going nuts right now telling me all kinds of grammar mistakes are here that I know are not problems with grammars. So, if something is wrong, just assume the computer incorrectly self-edited.

I’m so nervous for this charla tomorrow. I had pictured in my mind that I would plan everything I would say, but really, I don’t have much prepared, it’s all going to be winged. I know what I am doing, and most of the words I need. We have another charla next week. Goodie. My Spanish teacher said she would relax the homework until after the charla, but apparently she forgot this statement. As much as I may complain on the blog now and in the future, I am having a good time. There is just so much that we have to learn in such a little time, that each day is crammed with stuff. Two more days until the weekend!

Thursday was a lot easier than I had expected. Juan, Jill and I got together Wednesday night to “practice the charla” but really, we just talked for a whole lot of time, and ran through it once. It was good to talk though because we have all been having the same types of concerns, and it was good to hear that other people were having the same problems, and just to relax for a while.

It was funny though, I set my alarm Thursday morning to go off early so I could prepare my charla. Then, at 5am, I decided to go back to bed. I barley woke up in time, and thus didn’t do the work I needed to do. But, not to worry, the other people in my class were in the same boat, so we used the hour before class to finish up. I didn’t have time to practice.

So, I went with Juan to go talk to the school’s director about which class we were going to so that we could work out the logistics, because we were going to split the kids up and thus needed three separate spaces. It turns out we only got 30 kids, which was good. The beginning was disorganized because we were waiting for someone else to begin their charla so that we could use a classroom. Then it was funny. We introduced ourselves, and had the kids count off by three’s so that we could have three groups. Well, about 18 kids turned out to be number ones. We had to force kids to be other numbers. My charla turned out to be outside which was interesting. In this school, they have two fifteen minute breaks, and the classes all have a little different schedule so at any given time there are a bunch of kids running around. Thus, I had to keep my kids entertained and ward off distractions caused by the other kids. The charla went really well though. My topic was recycling. At first I set them down in a circle-ish type shape (they are 4th grade students who are looking at a strange gringa), and asked a few questions. Now, we had been warned not to expect kids to come right out and answer questions, so I was a littler nervous about this, but immediately they started answering questions. Then I talked for a little bit. Then the fun activity. I had them make things out of trash. The day before I had walked by my house and picked up trash (bottles, bags, cartons) and brought some newspaper and said we were having a competition to make things out of the trash. I was nervous about how the kids would react to playing with the trash (although I cleaned all of it), but they just dove in. I was happy. The second group also went well. The third group I had a challenge with because they were really rowdy. I even had them change where they were sitting one time to try and get them to pay attention, but they were still rowdy. I was really glad that my Spanish teacher was not watching at that point in time.

In the afternoon we finished the stoves. I want to walk by at some point to see it after a few days, but it is really far from here. I was smelling horse manure all night though. Speaking of night, my friend Kalin visited me last night. Her host nephew was sick so the family went to the doctor which is right across the street from me. She gets to play with an 8 month old baby every night, I as jealous.

Friday
Today we helped participate in the “Dia de limpieza” which is where the students clean the town. Normally there is a lot of sweeping the streets near the school, but since we had just given trash charlas, we cleaned up trash from around the community. My class (which just happened to be the same class as the day before) wasn’t really feeling it, so we were gone for a half hour. Later I helped with the organization of collecting the classes’ trash. The bottles are being stored for a week, then a guy is coming to buy them (since they are worth money), the rest of it is being brought to the totally unsanitary landfill close to the river. Nothing much we can do about that.

That afternoon we learned how to do a nursery project in our communities. Another day of being covered in dust, it was just what I wanted. It was good though, I was in a really sour mood though and this didn’t speak as much Spanish as I should have. After dinner, I went to watch a movie with everyone else in town. I couldn’t attend the last two events, so I made sure I went to this one. I felt really bad though, because I got home at late. My Mom was asleep in the hammock waiting for me to get home so she could barricade the front door (really there are just locks on the inside), and she couldn’t do that until I got home. Normally they are awake at that time, but the whole family had gone to bed. I felt bad, although I did let them know to expect me at around that time.


Saturday

Saturday afternoon was spent trying to try and finish the water system in La Palma. Nothing much happened all day.

Sunday

Sunday was spent splitting trying to finish the La Palma project, working with someone who is giving a arcGIS training this week, and trying to do homework. So, pretty much it was a chill weekend.

So, I am chilling out right now, putting off washing my jeans (which are the hardest to wash by the way), and I was flipping through some of my pics on the computer. I have to say, I am really glad that I am doing peace corps now, and in a country with electricity. I can’t imagine only having my little photo album for pictures. It really helps just to remember the good times of the past and everyone that loves you in the states. Now, that does sound rather sentimental for me, so just to let you all know, I am doing fine. It was a stressful week, and the fact that there is less than a month of training to go is kind of scary. The last week of training we have a class whose title is mental health. I think this will cover how not to get depressed when we are without each other living in our sites. Also, I have heard that there is a one year slump, where are a lot of people get the urge to leave. Then there is the fact that you leave here, which is hard because you know you will probably never see anyone from here again, and they have taught you so much.

So, funny story: after writing the above my host siblings came over and I started going through some of my pics on my computer with them. After a while we hit the folder for my sister’s wedding. We came upon a photo of just Megg and I, and since I am always getting commented on how white I am, I pointed out that she is more white than I. Congratulations Megg, you have been called “Super White.” Not just really white, or the whitest in your group, you have reached the upper reaches to super white. I look tropical now compared to you with my little bit of a tan.

I think it has been a little while since I have typed up a good food story, so let me think what I can come up with. I found a place last week that sells the sundae cone things, which might be the place where all of my money gets spent. Oh, I eat popcorn now. I didn’t really dislike it in the states, it just wasn’t good enough to eat normally. Now, I get served giant bowls occasionally. How do you eat it with a ton of butter? I have to choke down those pieces. Breakfast might be my favorite meal of the day. Not that it varies too much from dinner or lunch occasionally, but I like it. I didn’t like too many traditional breakfast foods in the states, so the fact that I get tortillas con queso in the morning is just fine with me. A few days ago I got corn flakes for breakfast. I could smell the corn flakes and hot milk when I came down the stairs and had to prepare my stomach for what I was going to do to it. I ate corn flakes a lot in Las Cañadas, but here my stomach has gotten used to better. For lunch today I got soup, with some mystery objects in it. It was funny though because I started sweating while eating because of the steam coming off the bowl, and my Mom apologized for making me sweat. It was cute.

This week we start learning the subjunctive! Really I don’t understand it right now, but that’s what I have classes for. I think that after we cover basic present subjunctive I am going to start writing in my journal in Spanish for extra practice. I just know right now that I normally write and think a lot of sentences that need the subjunctive (or so the teachers have told me when they said I can’t say that sentence without the subjunctive). It should be interesting. It’s the present and past in subjunctive, and that’s really all we are going to learn as far as new tenses in Spanish class. I have a feeling that it is going to throw me for a loop though. I am just now getting a handle on the present perfect and past perfect. Oh well, need to get as much grammar in now while I still can.

Two weeks until site announcements!