Wednesday:
There wasn’t really a whole lot of energy today. I was told that someone was coming at 7:30am, but really expected 8am, so I was surprised when they arrived on time. Almost immediately I was really tired. We went out to do a topo study in a community not too far from here. This time I heard the talk that the community members got, which was treat her like you would treat us (or else was implied). Or else in this case wouldn’t mean violence, it would mean you don’t get any help or funds.
I went with the same girl from the survey. It kind of started off slowly, but it always does; once people learn their roles, it goes more smoothly. It is odd though, one of the hardest things I have problems with is getting them to pull the tape measure tight, so that it isn’t lying on the ground. Every time I try to pull it to get a more accurate measurement, they think I am telling them to walk towards me, which completely ruins what I am trying to do. Eventually we got this though, although I turned to the girl with me (Mabel) and was like, do you understand what I am trying to get them to do, and if so, help me explain. Everything worked out in that regard in the end.
It turns out Mabel and I were both really tired. So, we are talking a lot and both saying weird stuff because we are so tired, and both making mistakes with the numbers, so there was a lot of laughing. By the way, I think someone always caught the mistake, so there shouldn’t be a problem with the design. Even though I was so tired, and doing everything possible to keep my mind on the project, the Spanish was rockin’. The only thing was that I kept saying negative and not negativo. I decided this was a small English lesson to Mabel. Other than that, I was able to do the work and joke around with her in Spanish.
I return home really tired and finally get some laundry done. Later I called S to see if she wanted to go out to dinner (T is out of town), so we went for pupusas (= food of the gods). The thing in my house is that I pretty much make all my own food. I make my own breakfast (=normal) but my family doesn’t eat dinner, so I make food. Well, for the last month I have pretty much eaten two things over and over again, so I wanted to get out of the house. I have to get more adventurous with my cooking here.
Thursday:
Ahh, I shouldn’t be working at 7am, there is something just unnatural about it. Maybe one day I’ll get used to it. We went to two communities to do more of the surveys. This time I did more by myself, and no one had problem understanding me, and I felt comfortable talking to everyone. The great part about the surveys is that it provides a topic to talk about, so there can be side conversations about how the grey water is dealt with in the town and a little gossip as well.
We returned to town to find a police and military blockage of a road. Fun times. Really, we drove right by it (not through, thankfully we didn’t go in the other direction that morning) and while there were a few protesters, there was music playing and it seemed most people just were chilling out. We then got the news that we had a national curfew at 6pm. I didn’t go out that night.
Friday:
Now, I should be getting used to getting up early and going to work, but I am not. It wasn’t any easier today. This time we went to a community where I have gone a few times with a large group of people. Mabel and I took one edge of the community and the other people fanned out across it. We started at the house of someone I “know” who is a member of my organization and I have talked to in previous visits. While doing the survey I started talking to her a little bit about the one time we came, Walter was calling her by the wrong name all day, and then we went on a 4 hour hike in the heat (she didn’t, I did, she was too smart for that). I think she had a little bit of a hard time understanding me at first, but then we got to talking. She sent one of her daughters with us to be our guide because the houses are dispersed and hiding. We went around, one time Mabel ended up doing my survey for me (we were splitting I would do one, she would do one) because the guy was just not understanding me. One thing you have to face is that people see you, and just think you can’t speak Spanish, and that they won’t understand you. So, take in this lesson yourselves, sometimes you just need a little patience to understand someone that has English as a second language.
Other houses were better, there were some problems, but most people were really patient, if they didn’t understand me, I would repeat myself, or try to rephrase the question. If that didn’t work, then they would turn to Mabel. It was good to have a lot of one on one time with Mabel between houses because we were talking a lot. This time I wasn’t trying in inject English in the conversation.
Several times during the day I got calls from our Director of Security of Peace Corps Honduras because he knew there was an increased military presence in my town, and that things may heat up, so I talked to him a bit too. Also, it turns out 12 police officers arrived to the community I was in to check IDs, and they stopped a few of the people I was with. I was in a really distant part of the town, so I never saw them. Mabel was freaking out when she heard this because she didn’t have her ID on her. We never saw them.
Then, after we had done our 9 houses, I called to try and figure out where everyone else was (we had a guide so we weren’t lost, its just I didn’t know where we were in relation to them) and found out that they were starting the curfew at noon. It was 11:45am and I was more than 30 minutes away from my town. It turns out my ride was in town, and he had to haul #$%^& to get to us (all 14) and get us back to town. I don’t know what you’re thinking reading this, but it was never a dangerous situation. There was definitely a sense of urgency, but not danger. There was once police check point on the road but Walter spoke to them on the way out of town and explained he would be coming back with all of us, so everyone got dropped off in by their house. It was odd going through the town, because normally it is so active with a lot of people around. Even sadder was seeing all the people who live in the surrounding villages trying to get out of town, most of the trucks leaving town were packed with people, and if some were walking out of town. It turns out Mel walked into
Saturday and Sunday:
All day curfew, not joking. A lot of time watching tv, getting caught up on writing, and reading. The curfew is not being highly enforced, so there are people out and around, but I am staying on the cautious side. This continued Sunday when all the businesses in town were open.
Other news:
A few weeks ago I wrote that I wasn’t really eating a lot of tortillas. This has changed. Warm, freshly made tortillas can be eaten plain. The other day I was out doing the topo study, and I had 10 tortillas in my container (community provides food), and I ate 7 of them. On that note, a lot of times you aren’t given a fork, so you scoop the food with the tortillas, which of course means you eat a lot. Just two minutes ago, I went into the kitchen and ate a tortilla with cheese. I also learned how to make pupusas (food of the gods). Maria and I were having a good time learning the hard way how to make them. S told me the general strategy the other day, so we tried, and they are so delicious. Once we get over this curfew I will go out and buy more quesillo so I can make them a lot. They are so delicious it is ridiculous. By time I come back for a visit, I will be a papusa making expert.
Monday:
More of the same. The town has been operating about normally, and that was even more so on Monday. In the afternoon I was going to go for a run with T and S, but it was hot, and we haven’t run in a long time, so we ended up walking around town for a bit, then we went on a search for paletas, which are like popsicles but you freeze them in small cups. Good, but messy, and they were really good on a hot day.
Later we went and hiked up to a cross on a hill not too far from my house. You can see almost all the town from there. We then went to dinner and found a hidden Mexican food place with good food. Oh, today I discovered a place that sells the best coffee in my town, which supposedly has the best coffee in the country. I also found a place that sells coffee wine, and other coffee items. That’s where I am doing my Christmas shopping!
Tuesday:
Life is pretty much like normal here. Due to a small stomach problem, I didn’t go to work, but the town is running like normal, and so are the buses.
I am having fewer and fewer blunders in Spanish, but there was a good one this morning, but I think you will understand why. I was asked “Le llamo a Karen?” Well, this has two meanings. 1: Did you call Karen? This is the one I thought it was, but I was wrong because 2: Did Karen call you? Well, once I realized my blunder, no Karen did not call me. Oops. There was no previous conversation to guide me through which option it was. In the end it was a small blunder and now I know to watch out for similar situations.
The next day, I went to the office but no one was there. I was confused. I get home, and like a half hour later my host Mom comes into my room and was like ¨why are you up¨and when I told her I had already went to the office, she told me that it was dangerous to leave, apparently we had visitors in town which caused a slight uprising (peaceful uprising). Thats how fast the situation changes here.
We (sitemates and I) decided we had enough of being couped up in town and went to visit a friend in the next town over for a few days. It was so nice to get away.
Today we had our first baseball practice. Can you believe it? It was hard to for me to grasp that it was actually happening as well. We talked to them a bit and then played kickball because we figured it was a good way to introduce the rules and terminology of baseball. It is definitely interesting starting a new team on a sport they have barely heard of. Only 10 of the 25 kids showed up in the end, so we will probably be changing people on the team next week if they don´t show up again.
Thats it for now,
Take care
Jill
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