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!
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!
