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 San Diego zoo, they are more like the tiny zoos you see on the side of the road in the weirdest places in the states. They do have some deer, sheep, goose, goose-like birds, turkeys, what looks to be female peacocks, a fox, a raccoon, parrots, a few other birds, bunnies and weasel like things. Now, I have to say, the fox has to be going nuts because he is in a small cage that is contained within a big cage and running free in the big cage are animals that he/she would normally eat. Now, in two years it should be done, but if the local government changes parties in power, the project will probably be forgotten (a Honduran’s sentiment, not mine).

I went over to a sitemate’s house and watched the Honduran vs El Salvador soccer match. It was very important that Honduras won, and they did 1-0. Good for them. The next match is Honduras vs Costa Rica, and it is in Honduras, but three days before we are allowed to leave town. I’m not that interested in going, but I know a lot of my friends from my training class are. It’s kind of a bummer for them.

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 K2. Ok, huge exaggeration there, but I was sweating a ton and they didn’t seem to notice the @#$%^ mountain. Argh.

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.

I can´t load photos today because the internet cafe is closing in 5 minutes, love you all

Jill