Pics

Weird hats for dogs, and humans!

This is half of those who went to Gracias for Thanksgiving.

Biggest hair clip I have ever seen!

That's right, you can even get the B's merchandise here in Honduras. Used, but it's still here.

3 of the 5 flower girls.

My first host mother and myself.

Me and the bride, my host sister. Isn't that dress fabulous!

Bride and groom (missionary, not Peace Corps)

Me, posing. For most of the day I was unofficial photographer. My friends really wanted to pose for pics, and they made me sit for a pic or two as well.

tales from the road

The following is my tale from recent trip to the mountains:

Day 1: I am told we are leaving at 5am, so like a smuck, I arrive at 5am. No one is there, and I am sitting out by myself in the dark with my stuff. Thank goodness I live in a safe place. We actually leave at 5:38am. Later, one guy states that thank goodness we left on time for the first time! Now, what would your job be like if you showed up 38 minutes late and we considered on time?!

On the way out there, which is a 2.5-3 hour drive, there was some nice Christmas music in the background. That made me think of carolling last year with friends around my town.

Now, the people in my office like to joke around, and one favorite joke is to call an animal by person in the group's name. For example, a short person/animal/gnome on tv, is Edward, because he is really short. So, we are driving along and suddenly stop. Walter (my coworker) sticks his head out the window to ask how much does Nelson cost. Nelson, is another coworker, but he was referring to a pig. The very confused little girl answered that he wasn't for sale because they are planning on killing him (for food). Poor Nelson.

Good news: I can finally eat tortillas and mantequilla. Mantequilla is a sour cream type thing which has taken me almost two years to be able to eat like a Honduran. That's right, I can eat mantequilla now, so it's time to go home.

The community I am working in is called El Recuerdo and they have something very important going for them: a giant soccer field. This thing is almost regulation size. It is hard to find large tracks of flat land, so normally people play in small areas, but not here. They even have a league set up between all of the small communities, complete with championships. There are jerseys to wear, but the players don't take them home. This is common: one family takes care of the jerseys and at teh beginning of every game they fight over numbers and such. This one family (and by that I mean one woman) takes care of the jerseys, ie washes, and has them ready for the next game.

Lunch rolls around and one guy was excited to have me eat at his house. He is one of the people really advocating putting in this system and has been giving me a tour of the area all morning. So, I go there and am given a plate of food: balona and weird eggs cooked in a large amount of oil, a large portion of mantequilla, and 6 tortillas. My life is interesting, what can I say. If nothing else, Peace Corps has taught me to be less picky about food.

That afternoon I was sitting around because my work for the day was done. I was reading The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in Spanish in a hammock and made myself nauseous due to the rocking motion. Later, I planted myself in teh kitchen next to the wood burning stove to keep warm and continued reading. As the afternoon progressed, I was tilting the book to get the last remnants of sunlight then toward to fire to get light there. A few minutes after I had given up on reading, the woman turns on the light. THe light! They had light! Actually, they have a solar panel which means that they have lights throughout the house and even a tv. I don't even have a tv. It shocked me to see electrical appliances in the house.

Day two:
One thing that should be done before dragging out the topo equipment is to pick your route so that you don't have to argue about the direction while carrying the equipment. So, that is what we did on day 1, but on day 2 all kinds of new people were there and there was lots of discussion. I allowed this for a few minutes until putting my foot down that there was a route, and there would be no changing of the route. Unfortunately, because they know the area so much better than I do, I don't always know that not being flexibe is a good thing. However, I can't have them taking forever to discuss something.

Later, I broke the equipment. Not so much that it doesn't work, but enought that I'm worried I could cause more problems. So, we had to carry the theodolite separately, baby-ing throughout the day.

At 1:30pm, I was asked until what hour we were going to work. My answer: 5pm. Their hope was 2pm. Sorry guys, we work long days when i am out there.

One of the things I like to do while on a topo study is let people look through the theodolite to see how much it magnifies things. So, at one point I set it up pointed a house which you could see the outline of the house with your eye, but no details. Through the eyepiece, you could see lots of details of the house. Now, later, while waiting for the guys to chop down some brush in my way, I started looking at a house and watching the people, although only for 5 seconds. Is it weird that I want to see something funny/ embarassing happen while spying on people? Don't answer that.

Later that night, I read two kids books that I picked up to the kids of the house. Now, it was hard for them to concentrate, but the little girl seemed to like it and played with the books pointing out all the animals to a smaller child later.

The next day I headed back to town (short trip, I know). I was riding in the cab of a truck with one of the guys with the community. He went through the basic questions: What is your name? Do you like it here? Do you have a boyfriend? No joking, this is how every conversation goes. What was funny though was later, when he asked why I was not married. I responded that I am young, and like travelling, and that I had plenty of time to marry later. So, he asked how old I was. 25 I respond (although only for another 13 days). The look on his face was precious. That is OLD to not be married in the villages. Normally girls here get married around 16.

That's all for now. More adventures on the next edition.

funny

A full blog entry to come soon, but this happened this morning and I thought it quite cute.



Back story: My dog sheds A LOOOOTTTTT!!!! I sweep once or twice a day and brush her everyday, and there is always hair everywhere. Also, several months ago in a rage I broke my dustpan, so I sweep everything out onto the street.



So, this morning I am sweeping and getting this morning´s load of dog hair out of my apartment. My five year old neighbor asks me what the dog hair was, which I explained. Then he asked, ¨Why did you take her hair off?¨ It sheds kid!!! It can´t be stopped.



Anyway, I thought it was cute.



Jill

text messages

Ok, so a few updates ago, I put in a big thing about how to send me text messages online. Apparently it wasn't working for a while, but I have since received a message via the website. So, please feel free to try again.

Tomorrow I leave for a topo study, and should have interesting stories when I come back.

Jill

thanksgiving

I went to go visit friends for thanksgiving. It was a great time. Over 30 people showed up for dinner, including PC volunteers from all over the country, other Americans in the town, and some Honduras that knew the couple throwing the party. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to the hot springs! They have been developed into a tourist attraction, with stone pools dug out to allow for swimming. Oh, how I miss swimming. And today I was thinking about figure skating, not something you see around here.

ok, i gotta run

JIll

lazy days are here to stay

Hey there folks. Time for another book review:

I just got finished reading Chris Duff's On Celtic Tides. It is an excellent read. In 1996, Chris solo sea kayaked around Ireland. It took him over three months to do it, and he wrote a very nice book about it. This book calls out to those who have the adventurous spirit, fierce independence, a love of water, or kayaking, and those who are interested in learning more about Ireland. I give it 5 stars.

At one point he quotes John Dunne, "No man is an island." Chris then goes on about how sometimes a solitary adventure brings you closer to those you love. I agree with this. Now, for the last several years, I have been living away from home (college, grad school, and now the Peace Corps) but even here, I find myself thinking about my family and friends a lot. Without all the distractions of surviving a normal life, there is a lot of down time to self-exam and think about those you love. Now, there can be too much self-examination as well, but thinking about family gives you strength to continue, because those people (and I write that my closest friends are family to me) have given you the ability to do this. They have shared their dreams with you and given you the inner strength to continue through the hard times.

So, to all of you who have made me who I am, I thank you.

Still being in the reading mood, I reread all the letters that have been sent to me in Honduras. Yes, I still have them all. They are out of order and most are not dated, so it was weird to relive those letters and experiences in those letters out of order. Trips are planned, taken, shared, proposals followed by weddings, children being born. A lot has happened in the last 1.75 years.

That's all for now,

Jill

photos

A natural umbrella- banana leaves!
looks kind of like a minigolf obstacle.

back to the mountains!

Hey, there! I just got back from a weekend up in the mountains. I had a good time and was surrounded by good people. My sister would like them, the women are trying to make me fat by giving me HUGE plates of food 3 to 4 times a day. One day I finally convinced them only to feed me twice, although once was enough!

The first day we get out there, a cold front came through and it rained freezing cold rain (for Honduras that is). Anything under 70F is cold to me now. One day I was cold at 72F and then really cold at 68F. Later I got a little better and only needed the sweater under 70F. Anyway, to avoid the very cold rain, I had one of the guys helping me cut me a banana leaf. I balanced it on my head between points. Later, someone ran to their house and got me an umbrella. While I was taking the points, I could not hold it with my hands, so someone would hold it for me. Now that's service!

I remembered something very important on this trip- the problem with water. This time I mean drinking water. In the States, everyone drones on about dehydration, but here it's rare to see the villagers carry water although they do hard work all day. The first few days out I was really thirsty, but had forgotten my water bottle at home, so I was just thirsty. I would get like two to three cups of coffee a day and that's it for liquid. Later, they gave me water with meals and then I ran into the other end of the problem: what to do when you have to go to the bathroom. I thought I would be gone for two to three days, but ended up being gone a week, and thus didn't bring enough toilet paper. That's only a small problem when I could find a bathroom. Somehow while surveying through coffee plants I can't see the meter stick, but always feel that I might be seen through the branches. I stayed with a family one night that didn't have a latrine, so everyone goes in the great outdoors.

Normally when I work, I have three guys with me and then everyone else either making stakes, moving branches out of my way or cutting the underbrush. The three guys are: one hold the backshot stick, one carries the theodolite and one the meter stick. This time I had four guys working with me one day- the third had to help me get from one spot to the other. It started when I needed to do a jump from one rock to the other. Now, not normally a problem but I felt uncomfortable jumping from one slick rock to another with a six foot drop to the stream between. Later, I was just falling all over the place. In the last few months of little work, I lost my mountain legs. By the end of the week I got my mountain legs back!

One day I was working and the backshot and person carrying the theodolite were kids, well, teenagers. One was staring like he was in LOOVVEEEE, with me. All day, just staring at me, it's weird. This kid saw S and I when we danced at the dance festival in the plaza. He also told me that it is rumored that S brought a bunch of teenagers to the States. Not actually true, she went home alone.

One thing, a lot of people talk to you about helping them get to the States. Now, we can't actually do it, Peace Corps rule. One guy who helped this week was talking to me about helping him get a visa to go work in the states for a few years. The passage through Mexico is extremely dangerous for illegals, so he doesn't want to go illegally. All I could think though was: you are never going to get a visa. Pretty much, you need money to get a visa. The process is long, involves several trips to the capitol and maybe some bribe money. The bribe stuff I am not sure about, but it's rumored to be true. This guy does not have the money for all the trips into the capitol, not to mention flight to the states and start up cash. I smile and nod when people talk to me like that, because I know there is no hope.

One thing about life in the mountains, life starts early. The women are all up by 5am, starting the cooking fires and general business. The men who work in the fields leave the house around 6:30am. This was true for my work too. They normally stop working around 1 or 2pm, while we worked until 5pm. The teenagers just up and left though at 3:30pm the day they helped out. I was at the base of the hill, the others at the top and I had to scream to them that the kids just left. They had had enough. Suffice it to say, the others weren't so happy about that. Without someone to carry the equipment, I was done. Before I got my mountain legs back, I was slipping and sliding down a LOT. Even afterwards, I am not carrying that heavy thing up a mountain side! I am not in that great of shape people!

Sometime the person carrying the equipment would try to level it off. At first I encouraged it, why not? Their job was to carry the thing, which is not so exciting. Well, one day this guy really wants to do it, but he was so SSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW. Seriously, ten minutes to level it when I can do it in under 2. I was seriosly trying to get some zen calm. By the end of the day I started jumping in and grabbing two of the three legs of the tripod and managing to level it with only those two. As nightfall was closing in I finally was just like, move over! I was trying not to be mean all day, but my patience has a definite limit!

Now, a little note on poverty. Someone not used to this here would assume that everyone in the mountains live in a state of poverty. There are however levels of poverty. Some people are actually doing pretty well although their house may or may not look like it. Others, well they are really poor. Then, there is the level of hygene that people keep to. You will see some people cleaning their dirt floors with brooms made of a stick with leaves to keep their house clean. Then you have some people who let the livestock enter their house, everyone goes to the bathroom wherever, and well it's dirty. At one such house I saw a pig walk into the kitchen and come out with a banana in it's mouth. Ok, so a pig walks in it's own feces. If you then allow it to enter your house, it drops that feces in your house.

Likewise, some people will keep their kids clean. A quick dip in the stream does that. In this particular regions, there were streams everywhere, so it would only take a few minutes to run your kids to the stream and clean them. Note: people who don't have water at their house do everything at the stream (bath, wash dishes, clothes, etc.). So, you see some poor people who try to keep basic sanitation high, and then those that don't. I always feel bad for the kids in those situations.

Seca is doing well for all those that are curious. My new sitemate, M, took care of her. She is afraid of street dogs though, so doesn't walk her very far. I now know most of the street dogs, or at least those on the streets that I frequent. Most of the time it's Seca that creates a problem if there is a problem. I still hear, "and your dog?" if I walk around town without her. She's famous.

Health update: To add to all the skin problems I have had here, I now add a fungus to that list. That's right, the skin parasites love me. Not to worry, it is not harmful, just itchy and I went to the doctors and got me some meds to get rid of my new problem.

letters!

So, write your letters quickly! A friend will be in the States until Nov. 13th and has agreed to shuttle letters (or small packages) back to Honduras. So, write to:

Jill Churchill
c/o Sheila Kragie
2683 Bon Bon Dr.
San Jose, CA 95148

These need to get in BEFORE Nov. 13th. Write fast!

PS. No one has sent me a text yet on the very well displayed tigo website, what´s up with that. I know you all have internet access, since you need it to see this blog!

send Jill free texts online!

Ok, so you can send me free text messages anytime you are online! go to www.tigo.com.hn and this screen will come up. Click on the yellow/orange one in the middle

This will then show up. type in your name, make it short like Jill vs Jillian Churchill. then click "aceptar"

then this will pop up. in the first place, put my number, 9525-5595. this is one more digit then you are used to, but trust me, it works

Ok, so now type in the bottom spot what you want to send me. when you are done, click enviar on the bottom right.

Now, you have to do the verification, like any site you need to prove you are a humann, and not an automated machine. every time i have tried this, i have needed all lower case. type the verification in that white box below the numbers and letter, and then click on the "enviar" that is right next to it.

Then keep texting! It is kind of expensive to text back, so you may not hear from me, but it is a great way to say hello to your favorite daughter/sister/niece/cousin/friend when you are online.

workin' for a livin'

Ok, so I am not feeling very communicative today, so this might be a very short blog, solo Dios sabe.

I went out to a mountain community two times in the last two weeks. Now, here is the thing, i work with gravity water systems, so the dam has to be higher than the tank so the water flows downhill, and then the houses below the tank, so again, water flows downhill to the houses. There are pump systems that use a pump to get water out of the ground and into a tank, but i don't do those.

So, we go, and try to verify that the water source was higher than the tank site. we normally do this with a GPS, to get a basic picture, because they are not 100% right. But, on trip one, we find out that the GPSes don't want to get a signal because the source is in a canyon. Then, when i go back with my survey equipment, the townspeople are all about starting at the tank site and surveying to the source. so, we go downhill (not a good sign), then continue going down until we hit the source and they are like, "We're here!" and I get to tell them, "No we are not!" Yeah, whole day wasted.

fun note, as we are working I heard loud booms, and the first time i thought it was thunder. Nope, its the Nicaraguans disarming bombs by exploding them! Now, mother, don't worry, it was several miles from me, its just that sound travels so i could hear it.

ok, really not feeling like typing, and Erin, forgive the typo errors, i don't have the energy to correct them although i know they drive you nuts.

Jill

Campfire night 1. Making smores!

View from the trail. That is a lake in the background.

Further up the trail.

Looking out into the mountains.

Waterfall!

That's me! The flash caught the little droplets of water that bounce off the bottom of the waterfall.

At the top.

Lookout. This is the group I travelled with. Great people.




Jealous yet!

updates

So, not too much has been going on lately. My sitemate, S, left. that was sad. She is a great friend and an excellent person. She has been replaced by M who seems like a really nice person, but I don't know her that well yet.

Work is going, slow progress but going.

This weekend, I went to the national park Cerro Azul. It is beautiful. I met a lot of really nice, new people. I signed up for couchsurfing, and they were all a part of it. I was kind of disappointed, I have been sick lately and not working, so I haven't been speaking that much spanish, so I was excited to talk to them in spanish but almost all of them spoke english. there was another person there that only speaks a little bit of spanish, so they all spoke in english. oh well. I will try to get pictures up later from the trip and you can all be jealous about me living here and kick your butts for not coming and visiting.

Also, most of you (ie not Erin, Megg, and Mom) have not completed the New Year's resolution I set for you. So, get out some paper, write me a letter and pop it in the mail!

Take care all,
Jill

New hair cut

So, yesterday I was bored, and really tired of my long hair. So, I decided to cut it. Myself. I began cutting to the normal level I cut my hair, which is right before it hits the shoulders, but then decided to go for something that I had been thinking about. My hair is now a bobbed length, although my hair doesn't behave that way. Its kind of Molly Ringwold, 1980s style.

Hey there all

Well, lately I have been thinking about how you know you have been in Honduras too long. Here is what I have:

You stick everything in your bra. It’s an anti-robbing technique meant to separate your money from your bag. However, when you put a chip bag there because there is no trash can, it may have been kept too far.

You stand six inches or less away from doors. In Honduras, if you want to go into someplace next, there is no polite space allowance, stick your face on the door to signal you are next.

Espagetti is acceptable food. This is spaghetti, but with cream mixed into the sauce. I have not reached this phase, but friends have.

You love fried food. Well, I used to eat healthily.

You prefer soda over water to refresh yourself. I never bought soda for my house, now I down large quantities on nearly a daily basis.

You throw everything on the ground.

You now speak Spanglish and not English.

Ants in your food no longer upset you.

You have been sick on a bus a few times.

You call out “chitch, chitch, chitch,” to get someone’s attention. In the past that was only used on dogs.

You see a cute little kid on the bus and think, “Que linda la negrita.” In the states, that would be extremely offensive; it means what a cute little black girl.

You can tell rich Hondurans based only by skin tone. The richer they are, the less time they have ever spent in the sun, and thus the whiter their skin. My friend was recently quoted saying, “He’s light skinned, but not rich white.”



Yeah, that’s all I have for now. Every book/ article on going back to the states says that getting readjusted to the US is more difficult than getting used to the foreign culture. There are many theories on why, but I believe that our concept of “normal” has changed. Also, how do you put the extreme poverty that we sometimes see against people spending outrageous amounts of money. The fact that all Americans are not rich and in fact can be quite poor although they make a lot by Honduran standards has been a common topic of conversation lately.

Photos!

A little after sunrise, day 1.

The group (minus 1) getting ready to go snorkeling.

This island is for sale! Any takers?

Pelicans. They are looking at a guy cleaning fish. He cleans out the insides and throws them anything he takes out.

After the big class 4 drop, the one in the background. It looked more impressive in real life.

Me, jumping from the large rock. Mom, please note the life jacket and helmet.

Travelling

I’m not sure the last time that I updated my blog, or what I wrote on that update, so this may be very out of date.

Two weekends ago: I went to Comayagua to Peace Corps Olympics! I shared a hotel room with several friends and friends of friends (which is how you meet everyone in PC). I was kind of disappointed because we didn’t have hot water.

The Saturday began and we all go to the soccer field, which because of all the rain lately has been named the mud bowl. We play soccer, in three games. My team won! Not that I assisted in that. I was out there, but my skills at soccer stopped at basic passing the ball. I had a lot of fun. It was so hard to stop while playing, and people were sliding and falling into the mud all over the place. At one point I passed the ball to a teammate, and saw three other players from the opposing team start running for the ball and thought, “Oh no, they are going to get it;” but in the end they all slid too far and the ball went right to whom it was meant for. Go me.

After soccer, we had sack races, three legged races and a water balloon toss.

The final activity was ultimate Frisbee. Now, this is not my game. I tried, I really did, but just couldn’t get it. Every time that I tried to cover my person, I wouldn’t have a clue where the Frisbee went to, and if I watched the Frisbee for a second, I lost the person. In the end, I didn’t end up playing too much, just cheering on my team.

Afterwards we all went dirty and tired to eat lunch. We had the events at a real city, with all kinds of restaurants, Honduran and American. Then back to the hotel to rest for the night, and Peace Corps prom.

Now, I am not going to lie, I was disappointed in prom. Really it was a dress-up party. I went in a strapless dress (reuse of bridesmaid dress!) and had quite the sun tan/burn lines. I applied sunscreen twice in 6 hours, apparently not enough, even for an overcast day. Most of the women were in a similar position.

The next day I went home, and worked for the week.

Until Friday, when I took off for vacation. Now, before the vacation started I was flipping out because our paychecks were very late. For two months we had been paid at the middle of the month, and it was already the 20th and we hadn’t been paid. I didn’t have enough without that month’s pay, and the vacation needed to be paid for in cash. In the end a friend had to up front me a lot of money.

That first day I went up to the coast, picking up some friends on the way. We stayed in a cottage on the beach. Early the next morning we took off for some islands which are only a few miles off the North Coast of Honduras. After stopping at the conservation center, we went to where we would be staying. There is a Garifuna community there (refer back to old blogs if you don’t remember them). They fed us and let us sleep in one of the cabins for the night.

We did a bit of snorkeling that first day. Now, I was wearing a sundress over my bathing suit most of the day and thought to myself, “I need to but on more sunscreen before going out without the dress.” Yeah, people had already left, so I just went in. While in the water I realized that I hadn’t applied sunscreen, and yep, I burned. One hour in the sun, and skin not used to seeing daylight= strong burn. For those of you who haven’t already figured out where I burned, I burned my butt. There is a strong red outline around the bottom bathing suit half. So, burned butt cheeks and upper thighs = fun time sitting. I have never been more happy that I sleep on my stomach and therefore wouldn’t be in pain all night. The next day I applied much sunscreen the my bottom.

The next day did have a bunch more snorkeling, and we saw an island for sale. Very sweet set-up. We then ate more lunch (fresh fish again) and headed back to the mainland. Half of the group had to go back to work, and the rest of us went up into the mountains. We went to a lodge and ate before going to bed. Sounds boring, but all that sun and time on the water wore us out.

The next morning we went out white water rafting. It really felt like only a few minutes, but it was three hours, well, almost three hours. The stinky part is that the hard part is right in the beginning, and then it is much easier. So, the first few minutes I was still a little unsure and a little nervous, but later when I was like “whooahh,” it was only baby stuff. Not the fault of the company, but still a little stinky.

Yeah, and then we started heading home. Good times had by all.

I get home and there was an inauguration of a park and community center that my friend and fellow volunteer designed and found funding for. I went to that; it was very preachy since a reverend was the master of ceremony. Still, I had a good time.

Now, I am home, at least for a few days, and working. I am really excited for going and staying out in the aldeas in two weeks. I really like being out there.

Off the cuff

So, first let me say that I am writing this at the internet cafe instead of at home, and this keyboard is very sticky, so please excuse typing errors because going back and correcting everything has already become tedious.

Last weekend I took a minivacation. M sitemate, S, and I went to the south of Honduras. Now, for us, it is easier to travel through Nicaragua, than to go through Tegucigalpa. We managed to get permission from Peace Corps to do this (normally we would have to apply for vacation in advance ) but this time we did it. IT was a great trip.

Before even getting on the first bus it was a good trip. We go to our bus terminal and there is some gatorade promotion going on and the first thing the guy says after we walk over there to see what was going on was ¨la chica mas bonita que he visto en verde¨which translates to the most beautiful girl i have ever seen in green, i was wearing green that day. Then we heard the vocal styling of a few bolos in town. bolos are drunks that really can´t even have a productive life they drink so much.

we finally get going and it takes forever to pass the first border, we were stopped and had to present passports 4 times, no joking. now, once we passed the border i was travelling further south than i had ever been in my life. Nicaragua by the way surprised me because just looking at the infrastructure, the development of roads and towns and bus terminals, etc, you would think it was a richer country but the people are actually poorer than hondurans.

THe greatest part about going is that neither S nor I looked up how to get where we were going. So, we had to ask the border agent how to get there. he looked at me like ÿou are going to get so lost¨while I was repeating hte names of the towns where we had to change buses. We got stuck in town 2 for 2 hours because the bus didn´t leave in a convenient time frame. We finally mak it to border number 2 - crossing back into honduras- and find a friend there, so her family gave us a ride into town. that was nice, because we had already been on four buses and there wasn´t a bus waiting.

The town was amazing, lots of money there. now my town is pretty nice, but pales in comparison. the fair was going on, we we walked around after getting to the house to put our stuff down. there were stands of food, games, carnival rides... a fair. That night was a big old dance. they close off the center of town and put up bands and djs all over the place. luckily our friend lives in the closed off zone, so we got in there before they closed everything and thus didn´t have to pay to enter. we danced until like 2:30am. good times!

I will say this though, the guys there are not as brave as the guys here. We were dancing for a long time there without anyone asking to dance with us. This would NEVER happen in my town, here you literally have to shove them off you.

Now, I must have written about piropos or cat calls at one point or another. Now, one thing about cat calls, well the appropriate ones anyway, they feed your selfesteem. When we went dancing in that other town and no one wanted to dance with us, it was kind of a blow to the ego. We have decided that 1:those guys aren´t as brave as the onse around here and 2: they didn´t want to break into a group of 4 women. note: that would not deter anyone in my town, they come into groups of 8.

Yeah, i am not feeling all that descriptive today. for anyone who wants it, my number changed to 9525-5525.

Take care

Jill

Hello again, apparently I have picked up the blogging attitude.

Today, instead of baseball we played kickball. Baseball kind of fizzled out and now every other Saturday we have some kind of sport or activity for kids. We didn’t quite get the attendance we wanted, but that meant we got to play and not just be coaches. It had been a LONG time since I had played, but it was a good time! We had a few new kids and some we hadn’t seen in a long time, so that was good. Kickball, an activity that only needs a soccer ball and its fun for all ages, I recommend it.

Also, I am getting in better shape, a friend and I have started running. It was kind of weird, she knew I ran every once in a while, so one day she asked me if I wanted to run in the morning, and now we are running buddies three days a week. The first time we ran we both tried to bring our dogs and that was a disaster! First they only wanted to play and so getting them to go straight was interesting and then one little dog came up growling and ended up getting hit by a car. Since then, we just run without dogs. Occasionally S comes along and runs too.

Funny story, so I go to the post office and the guy tells me there is no mail for us. Then, he comes out and has a letter with my name on it and says there is a package. This is why I like the woman, she knows me. Turns out, the letter was mailed in August of last year! It had been hidden in the wrong box for almost a year. I started reading and got very confused because it had odd references to things that happened last year. The package was great, treats for me and for Seca!

Another note: I highly recommend the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. I know it came out a few years ago now, but I thought it was rather well done. I had avoided seeing it for a long while because I liked the book and did not see how it could be made into a movie without skipping a lot, but my congratulations to the movie makers, they did an excellent job. No two hour movie could have all the detail of a 200 page book, but the imagery was amazing and they were faithful to the story line.

Pictures!

Making wood-burning stoves. Update: the families that have the new stoves are happy to report they use 1/5 to 1/7 of the wood they were using before which saves them money, and protects the environment. With the chimneys, the smoke is leaving the houses and no longer accumulating in their lungs.

Two little chicks! So cute.

Bride prep!

Going to the chapel, and Erin's getting mar-ar-ar-aried!

Make-up time.

Hair stylin'

Gift boxes with chocolates

Manicures and pedicures, too bad we almost drove Erin crazy trying to find the place!

Walking to the restaurant to start the bachelorette party!

View on drive up Tuscon's Mt Lemmon.

Rex, while not getting squished by backpacks.

Dengue

Dengue

Instead of doing my normal moment by moment account of what I have been up to lately, I have decided to talk a little about one topic. Today’s topic is dengue fever.

This is a very important topic for me and all those in Honduras (as well as many other countries). This year the dengue epidemic is very bad, the public hospitals are full and have to turn away patients. There have been many deaths this year due to hemorrhagic dengue. The rainy season is the perfect time for this to spread.

The virus is carried by a mosquito. The mosquito bites an infected person, and then can transmit the virus to the next person it bites. Dengue is a virus, so there are no preventative measures such as vaccines that can be taken. The best defense is to use mosquito repellent.

The rainy season provides all kinds of stagnant water for the mosquitoes to breed in. The amount of water held by half an egg shell is all the water they need. Now, keep in mind that this country relies on pilas, or open cement tanks to store water, and you have a perfect mosquito breeding spot in or right outside the house. Available through public health centers are what is called “abate,” which kills mosquito eggs in the water, and this needs to be placed in the pilas to prevent mosquito reproduction. The puddles and other water sources in homes are another risk.

Due to the almost limitless amount of spaces for the mosquitos to reproduce, the government is sponsoring a major fumigation campaign. This is a lot bigger in the capitol, Tegucigalpa, because that is where the majority of cases have been so far. My area is also seeing high numbers. Last night the school across the street from my house was fumigated in an effort to protect the kids. My host Mother, who had dengue earlier this year, has fumigated her house twice in the last few months.

The virus itself needs five days in the body before it will show itself. The symptoms are general cold/flu symptoms with body aches, fever, tiredness, etc. The scare is hemorrhagic dengue which comes about when the blood platelet levels are very low. After five more days, a very itchy rash is common. Then, your mind wants to be able to go back to doing normal things, but your body needs more time to recover and gain strength or else you can come down with an opportunistic infection.

I am very good about applying the repellent, and take my naps under my mosquito net to make sure I don’t get bit then. There are four versions of the virus and a lot of volunteers come down with at least one during their time here.

old post that I didn't put up

Incredibly brief update:

Not much happening around here except for a ton of rain.

I started a project to create catchbasins and an actual rainwater removal system. Most of the road around here are dirt. Those of you who have ever lived on a dirt road know how much a good rain can damage the road. Now imagine a good sized storm everyday- the roads are in pretty bad shape right now. I went and for some critical areas, did some measurements and the municipality might put in some storm drains. Who knows, it might just be a pipe dream.

Baseball last week was interesting. One kid brought a small soccer ball, so while waiting for more kids to show up, we started passing the ball. As more kids showed up I became goalie and they pretty much did corner kick drills. It was a lot of fun. Only four kids actually showed up, and after a while of soccer, we switched to baseball. We practiced throws, pop-ups, then I taught them how to bunt. That was a little hard to explain especially considering the new kids who have now batted three times in their life.

I just had such a good time playing with the kids. What am I going to do in the states to match that? My nephew is several years away from being able to play catch or soccer with his aunt. If I tried to play with kids in a park I would be considered a predator. There is always little league sports but who wants to deal with crazy parents?

There was an inspirational concert the other night. Basically, these singers that would never make it on the big stage are put into this concert and the message is to live more peaceful lives, without violence, and preventing teen pregnancy. It was ok, not something I would go to again, but for one night it was fine. Walking home afterward there was a group of guys smoking, well, not tobacco. Great job, a concert to get away from things like drugs and you smoke up a doobie right afterwards. Then they didn’t get it when S and I weren’t interested in them. Shocking.

I did a day of translating, and was very happy with how that went. The Episcopal church has missionaries here end a water ministry that has well drilling machinery. Well, when they go into a town to put a well in, they have a class on water hygiene and health. While they have trained and hired Hondurans to help them there is still a woman that comes down from the states to do it and she doesn’t speak Spanish, so I helped her out. I thought what they had done was good. She gave me a large bag of hersheys kisses as a thanks which thoroughly enjoyed.

That morning I woke up to a Seca emergency. I get out of bed and Seca was being more clingy than normal. I pushed her off and started going about my business. A few minutes later I look down and her face was HUGE!!!! She must have tried to eat a bee or hornet and got stung. I didn’t even think I ran to my med kit and got out the Benadryl and shoved one down her throat. She was acting normal and she ate fine although her mouth was huge and her eyes were almost completely swollen shut. I ended up giving her another Benadryl and when I was satisfied the swelling was going down I left to do the translating, I did get distracted several times during the course of the day hoping that she was fine. No lasting side effects. I wasn’t even around to see if she got doped up on the meds.

Ok, so I did something stupid. I was making pizza and it came time to take it out of the oven, and I could only find one oven mitt, so I put it on my right hand and started to take it out. Well, my pizza tray is wider than my oven so the tray has to go in at a bit of an angle. I tried to take it out and it started to rotate, and yep I did the dumb thing I reached out with my free hand to stabilize it. Burned a few fingers but good. I couldn’t immediately treat it though because the pizza slid off the tray and onto to heat coil things at the bottom of the oven and caught on fire. I was worried I was going to burn my house down for a minute. However good sense returned and I grabbed a towel to protect my left hand and put the pizza on the tray again and took it out of the oven. Then I put the blistering fingers in water. So, now I sit typing this with one hand because the left hand is wrapped around ice. Does this type of stuff happen to other people? Or is it just me?

it's not that long, i promise

Long, long time and no update. Well, things have been moving pretty slow around here. I have also lost the desire to blog and share every miniscule detail of my life, because everything here has become so normal to me. My dog ate something of mine: normal. Heavy rains: normal. Blunders in Spanish: normal.

Three weeks ago now I left to go to the states. I went to Erin’s wedding in AZ, hence why no one knew I was in the states. After some snafus trying to get there, I had a wonderful visit. I gained at least 5 pounds on the trip thanks to eating all that wonderful food.

Most of the visit was hanging out and getting ready for the wedding. Kelsey was there already so it was the three of us. One day we went up into the mountains and drove around. Did you know there was a ski resort right outside of Tucson, AZ? Yeah, the mountains are high enough that it snows there. Amazing.

The wedding was gorgeous, eventually I will put up a pic or two. The wedding was in the Catholic church that the groom’s parents belong to and the reception was at a country club. Now, the four of us (adding Devika now) met/ became good friends due to playing tennis together in college, so we took some shots on the tennis courts there; some fun ones where we are playing tennis using the bouquets as rackets and some pretty posing pictures as well. I can’t wait to see those!

Since then I have been on post-vacation vacation. The last few days I have finally gotten back into doing a little work- little being the key phrase there.

What work I have done is mostly for a stove project. The people who live in the villages, and a good portion of those who live in towns and cities have wood burning stoves for cooking. These stoves are generally very inefficient and cause major health problems because the smoke sits in the room and enters the eyes and the lungs of those in the house. Therefore the designs for these stoves have been modified to reduce the amount of wood needed and adding in a simple chimney to remove the smoke from the household.

In the community of San Lorenzo (note you will not find this community on ANY map) I have been working on a stove project in conjunction with a missionary who lives in the city nearby. I help with the building of the stoves and training of the women on how to build them, and she provides the money basically.

A note on small villages here: Each community kind of has a community board for community projects. These include small things like organizing workers to clear the sides of the road of debris, to big projects like building schools. Now, this community currently has 2 big projects, they are building a park (designed by fellow PCV Nathan) and a community center (also designed by Nathan). Each household is required to send people to work on the project. Not doing so does have consequences.

What the missionary has done is to increase participation by rewarding extra work. The big budget items for the stoves are the metal plates that serve as the cooking area and the chimney. Now, it costs less than $30 to build a stove, but if you are a subsistence farmer, this can be a lot of money. The missionary stated that those households that contributed two extra days of work to the projects can get the metal plate and the chimney.

We have used one lady in particular in the stove projects and she has become the leader for the project. A few months ago she was brought to a Women in Agriculture meeting to learn me about better farming practices and how to become a female leader in a very male dominated area. She returned to town too shy to actually try to be a leader, but through this project those things she has learned are coming out and she has taken charge.

You may have noticed that I have used “the women” and “she” a lot, well this is because this is a women’s project. Because women spend hours a day cooking (beans take a long time to make) they are the ones with the worst health problems coming from the poor stoves. It is also to say that if you want something, you must do it yourselves. And this has certainly done its job in San Lorenzo.

When we started the project, I had the women help me with the making of the stoves. Now, men are involved in that they cut the adobe blocks into the shapes that are needed for the stoves and to cut the hole in the roof for the ceiling. Nobody takes a machete away from a man. The first few stoves consisted of me doing the majority of the work, with me explaining why I wanted the blocks shaped in a certain way and why they should be arranged in a certain way.

The last time I went there (this was the fourth trip for stoves) I wanted to back out of the building part and make sure the women could do it themselves, making it a sustainable project. The first house I went to that day was to the leader of the project and she already had several of the adobe cut and the rest arranged on her adobe table in the shape of her stove. Clearly she understood.

The second house was a woman who had only helped on one stove. A few women come up to see what is going on and in the end they wound out helping with the stoves. Now, my forever stomach problem came up in the middle of this stove and I had to sit outside when there was a lack of work going on inside. The women stepped right up and finished, doing an excellent job. Now, thanks to my stomach ails, I decided to take an extra long lunch break and listen to the world cup match on the radio with the man of the house. Towards the end of the match he let me get on his horse and ride about the community a little. It was fun.

On the ride, his son (who was walking ahead of the horse so that the horse would just follow him and eliminate my need for learning how to drive the beast) takes us to a house which I was getting a stove. I am happy and excited, and tell them that I will be down in a bit to start their stove. I go ahead on the horse a little more and head back to the house. After regulation period was up (this particular game went to overtime and penalty kicks) I went down to the house and realized I had misunderstood the conversation. The house was slated to get a new stove that day, and while I was listening away to the radio and chatting it up with Tito, the ladies of the community went right ahead and built the whole stove without me. Good for them!

Then I go to another house where the women were in the process of building a stove. I like to build the stoves without the mud to see how the blocks need to be cut and to size the thing, a dry-build if you will, then the actual building of the stove takes a few minutes. This build was great though. The women were on top of everything. They were ordering the men on how to cut the adobe, they were discussing the sizing of the stove, and how they could modify their own stoves, and at one point a man tried to tell them they were doing it wrong. This was a great moment. They women banded up and pretty much told him to mind his own business because they knew what they were doing. I was offered a chair and just watched this unfold from the sidelines.

I hope you don’t think I am man-bashing here. That is certainly not my intention. This is a very machismo culture, very man oriented where women are often treated as second class citizens. By enabling women, you are impacted that half of society, but then they are educating their kids differently in the home, making certain changes in attitudes permanent. If these women and men can see what they can do on their own, they can make improvements in their daily lives and see eventually need less direction from the outside. These people are villagers and they are always going to be villagers (again not using villagers as a derogatory name, but to classify them differently from someone who lives in a city and has more interaction with the world and technology) so the goal is not to change that but to help them live more comfortable lives.

World Cup action: I hope that some have you have at least noticed that the FIFA World Cup passed. As I am writing this, the third place match has yet to be played, nor the final, but who knows when I will actually post this.

Honduras qualified for the tournament for the first time in a LONG time. The whole qualification process was a big deal for us. Honduras did not make it past the round robin play. They lost two matches and tied the third (0-0). The US did better, but was still eliminated early on.

Whenever there is a match here, the town is empty. I live right near the park and when Honduras was playing, it was empty. This is very abnormal. The park is always a busy place. I watched half of one game on a big screen at a bar, but the smoke got to be too much and we left for someone’s house. This is a soccer country, so everyone can tell you details about all the teams and who they support.

Carnecerias: Roughly translated as butcher shops. I learned something new this morning, and it was when the butcher shops get their meat. I left my house a little after 5:30am to walk my dog. There was another activity planned for later, so I wanted to walk her early, plus I was awake. Anyways, while on our first circuit around, I see two guys lift what appeared to be half a cow out of the back of a pick-up truck and into the market.

I had never considered myself a city girl, but have appreciated the fact that I can get my meat in little Styrofoam packages in the supermarket. This, in my opinion, is good. Those people who complain about the lack on knowing where your food comes from is baloney, I know it was once a cow, but I don’t want to be reminded of that by seeing half a cow pulled off a not so sanitary truckbed. The thing had large bars around it, which means live cows probably ride in their occasionally so that means that the meat is resting on top of cow poo. See, separation of meat from the farm is good.

The second part of why this is important relates to dogs. As the butcher shops carve up their halves of cows and other assorted animals, they have some bones lying about, and being nice people, they throw them out into the street occasionally for the dogs to eat. Thus, around 6am, there are packs of dogs that travel from butcher shop to butcher shop. Luckily for me, they have a healthy fear of people, and don’t approach while I am walking Seca.

Mail: I haven’t received any mail in over two months. This is crazy. Someone, and new people are definitely allowed into this bandwagon, should send me a letter. Nothing fancy, just write on paper “How are you? I am fine,” and possible a few other details about what is going on in your life.

vacation! rest! more work.

Last week of FBT, the trainees are building a pila and a latrine. Gotta love mixin' cement!

Ok, so this was in a bathroom- translation: In case of emergency, break the glass (and there is a corn cob in the glass)/

Small boats that bring you to the island.

View from the boat.

View from the dining area of our hotel.

Small touristy villages.

Hey folks, I am just taking a break from working, so I thought I’d clue you in a little on what’s been going on for the last few weeks here in Honduras.

The trainees are GONE! They are good people, and will make good volunteers, but I spent too much time on their training and not enough on my own work for the last two months, so I feel that I am back to being a volunteer and not a training assistant. Eventually I am sure I will miss them, and its weird not seeing them around town, but I am still happy they are gone. Also, I was housing a lot of people that came down to help with training, so my dog wasn’t living at home (she’s not friendly) and now she is back home. Its nice having her back.

The last few weeks were interesting. As I sit here writing this I am not sure what I already have in my blog, so bear with me for a minute if I repeat a bit. The last two weeks were pilas and latrines, followed by junta de agua (water board) training. I felt bad during the pila time because we hired someone to help the trainees learn how to make the pilas, but he didn’t go a good job of going from group to group. Therefore I sat by on one group trying to tell them what to do, but lets just say my working with cement techniques are a little lacking. I refused to mix cement. It was my least favorite activity during training, and besides, there were a lot of them there to do it.

My group also helped out with latrine construction. This meant they got to help dig the hole, which surprisingly I do have past experience with- go trail crew! They also did a little more work with it. It’s amazing what you can do with mud. I’m not sure how much they got out of the latrine project since I didn’t have the drawings with me to explain why they were doing what they were doing, although I did try to explain.

Oh, I also played soccer with the aspirantes. Twice. Now, tennis is my sport for those who don’t know me, and I quit soccer after playing from first grade or kindergarten up to eighth grade because, well, I’m horrible at the sport. I did have a lot of fun though. We played at this new court in town. Now, for those of you thinking, don’t you play soccer on a field? I would like to introduce you to futbolito, or mini-soccer. The court is roughly the size of a basketball court, but with goals the size you used in first grade. Our new court even has artificial turf. What can I say, we do it right here in El P.

Oh, so that weekend we had another small good bye party for the volunteer who just left. It was really relaxed, hanging out and eating. Bye Mandy, you are already missed.

The next week was the water board training for the trainees. Friends came down to help out with the training. In Honduras, we have this phenomenon called bolos. It means drunkard really, but to fully reach bolo status you have to be seen passed out on the side of the road at random hours. My town has very few bolos. But the first thing my friends see as they come off the bus is a guy sleeping off his drunkness on the corner of the road. Way to welcome them into town buddy.

After the training (so I actually did not participate in the training besides popping in for a few minutes because I was cooking at home), we played soccer- see above. The next day we took off for Teguc. One friend just finished his Peace Corps service, so he was taking off to travel Central America before heading back to the states, and the other was just heading through there to go home. I was going to a meeting, which will be explained in a minute. The funny thing about the ride is that my boss messaged us early to ask if we were still in town, and then was like, the other driver is leaving for Teguc in ten minutes if you want a ride. Well, free ride, heck yeah. Forgot several things because I wasn’t quite packed yet.

Ok, the meeting I went to was an Emergency Zone Coordinator meeting. Basically, it breaks down like this: In case of emergency the Peace Corps office becomes a central command area, and they disseminate any and all pertinent information to what are called E-zone people. They then relay that to fellow volunteers. This means that PC isn’t trying to call everyone under the sun, just a few people, and those few people are essentially leaders for the volunteers in their regions. See, its very organized, so if something ever did happen, say, like a coup, we are organized and ready to handle it. Thought that might make you feel better about my safety during emergency events.

Ok, so I met a bunch of new people at this meeting and was invited to a weekend on an island. I went and had a good time. Isla de la Tigre is not a white sandy beach in the north, but a volcanic island in the west, not too far from the Pacific Coast. At the time that I went it was also fair time in town, so there were food concessions and bands all about.

Now I am back and working on my own stuff, its amazing. And a little boring. Oh, well, what can I say. Happy mothers day everyone! My phone was dead so I couldn’t call my mother or any of my three host Moms. Oops.

More: Well, more time has passed since writing the above, and they have been crazy days.

I got back and started working again, I know, surprising but true. Then on Friday I went to do another stove project. There were about 7 people watching and helping so that they know what is going on and can later build their own stove. The missionary who is kind of spearheading the project has bought the materials on the church’s funds and the people have to work extra days on community projects to get their materials. For example, the metal piece that goes on top of the stove to cook on is worth L200, or ten bucks, but that is a TON of money for these people, so they put in two days of labor to get it. The community members are more than willing to do this and are all excited to build a stove that uses less wood and has a chimney thereby eliminating a lot of health issues associated with breathing in smoke all day.

Now, in one week there is a dance appreciation day in town. Sara has signed us up and we are doing a dancing through the decades show. We are taking 12 songs and dancing for about 30 seconds of each song showcasing various types of dances. We are starting with the Charleston, eventually hitting swing, jazz, beach boys style, disco, thriller, crazy 80 dances and ending with the 90s. It should be a lot of fun!

more pics- just to keep you entertained

Current work project- this is a dam for a 40 house community.

Jill vs pinata of Clifford the Big Red Dog. Alas, it was S that dealt the death blow.

Shout out to my awesome and adorable nephew Lucas Arthur Churchill! Maybe you wont be the only grandchild by time I get home?!