Whoa, it has been a long time since I have written. The blog below is the first one, so read that first. The internet just hasn’t been working in town, I am not sure why, but it just isn’t working.
Interesting things:
Scabies wasn’t actually scabies, it was something else and is almost completely gone.
I went out to lunch the other day with my host mom, host sister, and the Japanese Volunteer in the house. It was a good bye lunch for him, because he has finished his two years and has left. It was good though because he actually talked. This is not normal. We lived in the same house for a little over four months and I knew nothing about him and had heard him talk like two times for three words each time. My host mom was great too, she walks in and is like “I want a margarita!” I hadn’t seen her ask for a drink before.
Other things:
Mel Zelaya is back in Honduras. As of now there has been no issues with this, but we are again unable to travel through Teguc.
In a few weeks the aspirantes will become volunteers. We are getting two in the department. One is a youth development volunteer and the other is in municipal development.
Things are progressing fine, I no longer have embarrassment to speak in Spanish, and as long as people don’t speak too mumbled I can understand them. Please no cracks on the hypocrisy of that statement.
I have finally started a few of my own projects for work. With the situation still a little volatile, I don’t want to travel in case they reinstate the curfew so I haven’t been traveling.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
INTERNET ACCESS!!!!!!!!!
Ok, so to start where I left off:
I got back from the celebrations, and then began to plan for my upcoming technical four day training. This is done every year and called reconnect. Monday I basically sat around and packed, and relaxed. Tuesday I got up early and caught the bus to Teguc. This ended up being more stressful than need be because to get a ride up to the reconnect site, and thus arrive on time, I had to get to the office by a certain time, and it was doubtful for a while. I did make it, and then got to chill for the ride, and even scored some Burger King out of it! I like Burger King.
Seeing everyone for the first time since training was cool. Some people have changed quite a bit (sickness can cause weight loss), and I don’t know, it was just a time to relax. The first afternoon was filled with a field trip to visit this awesome sustainable agriculture farm. They have collection systems to drink the rain water (tested clean by Univ. of Vermont) and also have larger rainwater collection tanks for other uses in the farm. They have composting latrines, ceramic filters, compressed dirt buildings, organic crops, a biodigestor to trap methane gas which they use in their kitchen, and are a leader in encouraging diversifying crops and preventing erosion in fields. They also have coffee wine there, which one person bought a bottle and all of us tried it. The guy called us drunks because we immediately opened the bottle and finished it that afternoon. But, one bottle and 15 people doesn’t last long, so one afternoon is sufficient to down it.
That night was just filled with hanging out. During training several groups had formed, but we just hung out as one groups, which was nice. It didn’t get out of control, which out boss was worried about. Oh, the first night it was just the Health group and Wat/San (my group) who arrived in Feb.
The first morning we went out to build a latrine. Now, normally this should take two or more days, but we built what we could in the time frame to get an idea of the process. This was super helpful because I have a large latrine project coming up at work. I was pretty tired from moving rocks and sand around, but when we came back the H12-ers were at the training site. These are the people who arrived a year before me. Afternoon was filled with a lot of processing and how is everyone, any concerns, how is everyone holding up with the political situation, etc. I got bored quickly with that. The second night was definitely more energized than the first, a lot of people, a lot of drinking. It is a PC event after all. Nothing too out of hand happened.
Next morning people were in various stages of hurting. Some people got sick, some hung over, and some just tired from staying up later. More meetings, more talking, not much more.
Third night was a party. We had a dj, but most people were just content to sit around and talk. It was a themed party, 70’s style. The costumes ranged from party-poopers who didn’t do anything, to some really crazy outfits. My camera doesn’t work at night, so eventually I will get some pics from someone else to show how great my home-made costume was. I am so proud.
Next morning everyone had to get packed and out pretty early. Everyone travels by bus here, so the travel time home ranged from 15 minutes to 10 hours. I went to Gracias, Lempira to visit the site of friends. We stopped at a really cool place for a while, and this town has a HUGE market. Our market is tiny but theirs is huge with just a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables. I am jealous of that. The area I went to is also the traditional home of the Lenca people, so there is a lot of pottery there as well. I was carrying around an already stuffed bag, so I will have to go back later and buy some.
Finally we made it into their town. We ended up going to the hot springs that night. I was amazed, I could walk around there in my bathing suit without comments; in my town I can’t even wear capris without hearing piropos. They are so nice, they have made the place a nice family atmosphere and have created these giant pools for the natural hot spring water. We got to talking with these girls from a tourism school who are going around and studying Gracias, and that was cool to hear their views on Honduras and tourism and ecotourism as well.
Saturday was the big day. We decided to hike up the highest mountain in Honduras in one day. Normally people do this in 2. We ended up starting a little late. Then we walked very slowly to start (I had serious allergy problems and felt like the pressure in my head was twice what it needed to be). We hiked for a very long time, and at 2:15pm made it to the top. We headed back down at 2:48pm. Pretty soon after the clouds rolled in, and it started to get dark faster than normal due to cloud cover and the tree canopy cover as well. At this point let me assure you that we are alright, just with valuable lessons learned. We are hiking as fast as we can, trying to only stop when absolutely necessary, and it just keeps getting darker. Once we climbed down the seriously steep section we were running whenever possible to make up time. Then we got flashlights out, but only had 2 for the 3 of us. Eventually it started to rain. We were doing good thanks to Bert’s amazing sense of where the trail was, but then we got to a tricky spot, and were like, did we cross this raging river? Was it a raging river earlier, or did the rain make it this way? Eventually we back-tracked the 20m until we found the trail, and then found where we were supposed to go. There was still a small stream crossing that I ended up just walking through it instead of trying to jump on slick rocks, and thus got soaked because it was deeper than I thought.
We had called a mototaxi driver to come and get us at a certain time when we had cell phone signal, but we seriously misjudged the distance we had left before the visitor’s center. So, by time we finally got there it was past pitch dark and the guy wasn’t there. It turns out he went (still amazing because no other driver would even attempt it, especially at that hour) but his kids were in the mototaxi and were crying because they were scared, so he left again. Well, we walked as fast as we could on the dirt road, and eventually got signal to call him and he headed back up to get us. This is why you need to make friends with the taxi drivers! He had to drop his kids off with friends because they were refusing to go back up. We did give him a lot of extra money for doing this for us.
The next day he saw us hobbling around town in all our pain. He even gave Kalin and I a short FREE ride because he saw us wincing while walking down a street.
So, lessons learned: always have emergency items with you, you can’t use I’m in Honduras and don’t have them in my traveling bag excuse, always stick with your turn around time, it doesn’t matter how close to the top you are, and love your taxi drivers. Except for some aching muscles and joints, everyone was fine afterwards.
It took me 12 hours to get home. In the States I could drive from Allentown, PA to my house in 8 hours, but not in Honduras, things just travel slowly here.
Well, then I got home, and had these crazy things on my legs, and other places. I go to the doctor, and she says I have scabies. For those of you who don’t know what this is, I have little mites crawling around through my skin. Apparently they are supposed to itch more, but it’s not too bad. Therefore, I have spent an enormous amount of time the last few days ironing everything. The heat is what kills these little pests (they can live in your clothes for a few days), and since we don’t have a dryer (unheard of in Honduras), I have been ironing everything. This includes my mattress, underwear, and later today the straps on my backpack. It’s a good time.
A few days later I went to visit my friend’s site for her birthday. It was a good time, and a few volunteers from other areas came by.
I got back from the celebrations, and then began to plan for my upcoming technical four day training. This is done every year and called reconnect. Monday I basically sat around and packed, and relaxed. Tuesday I got up early and caught the bus to Teguc. This ended up being more stressful than need be because to get a ride up to the reconnect site, and thus arrive on time, I had to get to the office by a certain time, and it was doubtful for a while. I did make it, and then got to chill for the ride, and even scored some Burger King out of it! I like Burger King.
Seeing everyone for the first time since training was cool. Some people have changed quite a bit (sickness can cause weight loss), and I don’t know, it was just a time to relax. The first afternoon was filled with a field trip to visit this awesome sustainable agriculture farm. They have collection systems to drink the rain water (tested clean by Univ. of Vermont) and also have larger rainwater collection tanks for other uses in the farm. They have composting latrines, ceramic filters, compressed dirt buildings, organic crops, a biodigestor to trap methane gas which they use in their kitchen, and are a leader in encouraging diversifying crops and preventing erosion in fields. They also have coffee wine there, which one person bought a bottle and all of us tried it. The guy called us drunks because we immediately opened the bottle and finished it that afternoon. But, one bottle and 15 people doesn’t last long, so one afternoon is sufficient to down it.
That night was just filled with hanging out. During training several groups had formed, but we just hung out as one groups, which was nice. It didn’t get out of control, which out boss was worried about. Oh, the first night it was just the Health group and Wat/San (my group) who arrived in Feb.
The first morning we went out to build a latrine. Now, normally this should take two or more days, but we built what we could in the time frame to get an idea of the process. This was super helpful because I have a large latrine project coming up at work. I was pretty tired from moving rocks and sand around, but when we came back the H12-ers were at the training site. These are the people who arrived a year before me. Afternoon was filled with a lot of processing and how is everyone, any concerns, how is everyone holding up with the political situation, etc. I got bored quickly with that. The second night was definitely more energized than the first, a lot of people, a lot of drinking. It is a PC event after all. Nothing too out of hand happened.
Next morning people were in various stages of hurting. Some people got sick, some hung over, and some just tired from staying up later. More meetings, more talking, not much more.
Third night was a party. We had a dj, but most people were just content to sit around and talk. It was a themed party, 70’s style. The costumes ranged from party-poopers who didn’t do anything, to some really crazy outfits. My camera doesn’t work at night, so eventually I will get some pics from someone else to show how great my home-made costume was. I am so proud.
Next morning everyone had to get packed and out pretty early. Everyone travels by bus here, so the travel time home ranged from 15 minutes to 10 hours. I went to Gracias, Lempira to visit the site of friends. We stopped at a really cool place for a while, and this town has a HUGE market. Our market is tiny but theirs is huge with just a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables. I am jealous of that. The area I went to is also the traditional home of the Lenca people, so there is a lot of pottery there as well. I was carrying around an already stuffed bag, so I will have to go back later and buy some.
Finally we made it into their town. We ended up going to the hot springs that night. I was amazed, I could walk around there in my bathing suit without comments; in my town I can’t even wear capris without hearing piropos. They are so nice, they have made the place a nice family atmosphere and have created these giant pools for the natural hot spring water. We got to talking with these girls from a tourism school who are going around and studying Gracias, and that was cool to hear their views on Honduras and tourism and ecotourism as well.
Saturday was the big day. We decided to hike up the highest mountain in Honduras in one day. Normally people do this in 2. We ended up starting a little late. Then we walked very slowly to start (I had serious allergy problems and felt like the pressure in my head was twice what it needed to be). We hiked for a very long time, and at 2:15pm made it to the top. We headed back down at 2:48pm. Pretty soon after the clouds rolled in, and it started to get dark faster than normal due to cloud cover and the tree canopy cover as well. At this point let me assure you that we are alright, just with valuable lessons learned. We are hiking as fast as we can, trying to only stop when absolutely necessary, and it just keeps getting darker. Once we climbed down the seriously steep section we were running whenever possible to make up time. Then we got flashlights out, but only had 2 for the 3 of us. Eventually it started to rain. We were doing good thanks to Bert’s amazing sense of where the trail was, but then we got to a tricky spot, and were like, did we cross this raging river? Was it a raging river earlier, or did the rain make it this way? Eventually we back-tracked the 20m until we found the trail, and then found where we were supposed to go. There was still a small stream crossing that I ended up just walking through it instead of trying to jump on slick rocks, and thus got soaked because it was deeper than I thought.
We had called a mototaxi driver to come and get us at a certain time when we had cell phone signal, but we seriously misjudged the distance we had left before the visitor’s center. So, by time we finally got there it was past pitch dark and the guy wasn’t there. It turns out he went (still amazing because no other driver would even attempt it, especially at that hour) but his kids were in the mototaxi and were crying because they were scared, so he left again. Well, we walked as fast as we could on the dirt road, and eventually got signal to call him and he headed back up to get us. This is why you need to make friends with the taxi drivers! He had to drop his kids off with friends because they were refusing to go back up. We did give him a lot of extra money for doing this for us.
The next day he saw us hobbling around town in all our pain. He even gave Kalin and I a short FREE ride because he saw us wincing while walking down a street.
So, lessons learned: always have emergency items with you, you can’t use I’m in Honduras and don’t have them in my traveling bag excuse, always stick with your turn around time, it doesn’t matter how close to the top you are, and love your taxi drivers. Except for some aching muscles and joints, everyone was fine afterwards.
It took me 12 hours to get home. In the States I could drive from Allentown, PA to my house in 8 hours, but not in Honduras, things just travel slowly here.
Well, then I got home, and had these crazy things on my legs, and other places. I go to the doctor, and she says I have scabies. For those of you who don’t know what this is, I have little mites crawling around through my skin. Apparently they are supposed to itch more, but it’s not too bad. Therefore, I have spent an enormous amount of time the last few days ironing everything. The heat is what kills these little pests (they can live in your clothes for a few days), and since we don’t have a dryer (unheard of in Honduras), I have been ironing everything. This includes my mattress, underwear, and later today the straps on my backpack. It’s a good time.
A few days later I went to visit my friend’s site for her birthday. It was a good time, and a few volunteers from other areas came by.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
weekend fun
Friday night:
Friday afternoon S’s friends arrived. They are in the same group, have baseball teams so came to help with the practice and later go to the Corn Festival with us. We hung out for a while and made pizza from scratch. Delicious! I am thinking of making this for my host family some day.
Saturday:
Once a day of relaxation; is now a very busy day with a crazy morning. This week it did turn out to be a little less hectic than normal. I got up and ready for tennis and then called for a ride and to get to the gym with all the baseball equipment and to get the gym opened, but our contact was out of town, so I got to wait for baseball to start. We ended up jumping in the back of a pick-up to get to the school and arrived just in time. We had a good practice, we wanted to have a game, but the kids just aren’t ready, I don’t trust them to pitch or catch well enough to play. They gave us a few ideas and I was able to relax a bit and take some pics while Sara (S’s friend) took charge of our throwing group for a bit.
After practice, we ate, showered and left. Well, important pit stop, the best coffee in town. We are known for our coffee which is saying something. The woman even showed us how they roast it, what it looks like before and after and invited us to come back and see the process one day.
In town we went to see the Japanese volunteers in the area perform. Really, there was a bunch of acts, and we got there in time to see them. Maybe next year we will do something to represent the USA. Maybe not.
So, afterwards we went to track down bull-riding. This is clear across town and there is a ton of people there and we walked through what looks like a flea-market set-up but its new stuff. Getting through there was fun. We eventually find where the action takes place, but needed 15 minutes to find where to buy tickets. We get in, and it starts 2 hours late (we arrived an hour and a half late, so it actually worked out) and it’s a lot different than what you see in the States.
Dinner followed at a few stands. I got a few different plates, and loved eating the street food and enjoying the atmosphere. Still later that night was dancing. Everyone was impressed that this town pulled off an event like this. It was huge, with several blocks fenced in and a stage at the end of every block. Some had live bands, others had DJs. The mood was great, I was expecting a lot of drunks and a lot of aggressive people, but it was all really relaxed. I am so glad that I went.
Friday afternoon S’s friends arrived. They are in the same group, have baseball teams so came to help with the practice and later go to the Corn Festival with us. We hung out for a while and made pizza from scratch. Delicious! I am thinking of making this for my host family some day.
Saturday:
Once a day of relaxation; is now a very busy day with a crazy morning. This week it did turn out to be a little less hectic than normal. I got up and ready for tennis and then called for a ride and to get to the gym with all the baseball equipment and to get the gym opened, but our contact was out of town, so I got to wait for baseball to start. We ended up jumping in the back of a pick-up to get to the school and arrived just in time. We had a good practice, we wanted to have a game, but the kids just aren’t ready, I don’t trust them to pitch or catch well enough to play. They gave us a few ideas and I was able to relax a bit and take some pics while Sara (S’s friend) took charge of our throwing group for a bit.
After practice, we ate, showered and left. Well, important pit stop, the best coffee in town. We are known for our coffee which is saying something. The woman even showed us how they roast it, what it looks like before and after and invited us to come back and see the process one day.
In town we went to see the Japanese volunteers in the area perform. Really, there was a bunch of acts, and we got there in time to see them. Maybe next year we will do something to represent the USA. Maybe not.
So, afterwards we went to track down bull-riding. This is clear across town and there is a ton of people there and we walked through what looks like a flea-market set-up but its new stuff. Getting through there was fun. We eventually find where the action takes place, but needed 15 minutes to find where to buy tickets. We get in, and it starts 2 hours late (we arrived an hour and a half late, so it actually worked out) and it’s a lot different than what you see in the States.
Dinner followed at a few stands. I got a few different plates, and loved eating the street food and enjoying the atmosphere. Still later that night was dancing. Everyone was impressed that this town pulled off an event like this. It was huge, with several blocks fenced in and a stage at the end of every block. Some had live bands, others had DJs. The mood was great, I was expecting a lot of drunks and a lot of aggressive people, but it was all really relaxed. I am so glad that I went.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Box from the states. Even the outside was happy with all the stamps!
So, in case you don't know your fruit trees, this house has banana, orange, and mango trees behind it. This was in the town with the monton de naranjas (mountain of oranges).
Random view.
Frijoles. this is how the frijoles in the cans look before they are cleaned and processed.
Cool view across a valley. This was after the rain that made the topo study more fun than normal.Another week, lots of stories
An incredible story:
My host family just got back from Costa Rica last night. They were there to visit family members that they just found out about. Here is the story:
In 1954, what would be my host grandfather fled Honduras, supposedly for political reasons. His family never heard from him again, only the idea that he fled to Costa Rica. Well, the years went by, and wife raised the four children alone, and the children became adults, had children, and eventually those kids became adults as well. One of these grandchildren was very interested in the story, because he could see the pain in his father’s face when he talked about his father. He then set about investigating where his grandfather was. It turns out he died 12 years ago, but left behind another family in Costa Rica. My host Mom and several members of her family went down for a few days to visit and learn about what kind of man their father was, since he left when they were so young, they didn’t know him very well. My host Mom was so happy when she returned, she was telling me about what happened, and you could see a light in her face and eyes that just made her glow. The reunion went very well, and the children of this man got along well, and are happy to know their other brothers and sisters.
Later, I went to publish the last blog and pics. I then decided to check the post office to see if anything had arrived. The second I walked in the door the lady who works there started smiling and telling me that there was a new letter and a package. The letter was for T (we share the box), but the package was mine! It was covered in Simpsons stamps, and just looked so happy! The woman there told me that I could sign for it later because she didn’t have the right book with her (we enjoy a kind of nod-smile recognition, and it is kind of like going to my neighborhood post office in the states- Hi Dan, how is it going?). I left almost dancing and with a giant smile on my face.
In the package from Mom and Dad was some M&Ms, DVDs of “Deadliest Catch” and batteries. So, I sat myself down, chowing down on candy and watching the DVDs. Later I read every piece of paper that was used to stuff the box, all parts of a package are used here, volunteers have been known to sit down and read classifieds just to keep an eye on things in the states. I read the comics, well almost all the articles, did the crossword, Sudoku, and scramble puzzles.
S and I started running again today. She seems to want to run every day, I don’t know if I am up for that. We have entered into a pact that we will talk in only Spanish except for one day a week. It was really funny, she calls, and I hear “Hey, Jill, it’s Sara. Do you want to run? Oh wait, I wanted to talk in Spanish.” Then she repeated it all in Spanish. It was weird, because it was just so fast I was like, “what is going on?” During the run we did talk all in Spanish. I am quite proud of how far I ran considering we haven’t run in almost two months now. We finished right before the downpour.
Good news: The ATM is finally in! I will be able to check the balance on my account! I could walk into the bank to do that, but just going in, standing in line, and then explaining you just want to see the balance on your account is a little odd to say the least. Now, I can just go and see, no problem. First ATM in town. Now we are right up there with every luxury available. The weird thing about this town is how fast new things just pop up. The other day I discovered two new places to eat in one day. Then a building can be taken down and another one up in what feels like two days.
Back to work:
Now, rainy seasons normally consists of a shower in the afternoon that lasts from 30 minutes to an hour. Today did not fit the mold, it rained all day long, which was interesting because I was outside trying to do a topo study.
Chickens:
I have written several times about dogs, so I decided it was time to write about chickens. In the aldeas, they have chickens everywhere. Somehow they know whose chicken is whose although the don’t have fences that keep the chickens free so they wander all over the place. During training one day I fed some chickens out of my hand. Today I accidently fed a chicken out of my plate. Chickens wandering around the porch are normal, so I was just sitting there eating, and I set my last tortilla on the edge of my plate (which was on my lap). Next thing I know, this chicken is jumping up, and I really thought for a minute that it was going to jump on my lap. So, after being scared of attacking chickens for a second, I realized it was running away, with my tortilla in its mouth. That’s right, a whole tortilla.
Directions
I know a while ago I had written a little dialog of what happened on my first topo study, well, today something similar happened, and I feel like sharing.
Guy: We are going to go down here because there are three houses.
Jill: Ok.
(we pass one house)
Guy: There are three more houses over there.
Jill’s head: wait, I thought there was three houses in total.
One minute later:
Guy: We can finish this line today right?
Jill: Yeah, there are only three houses here.
Guy: No, there are seven houses to go.
Jill: You just told me three.
Guy: No, there are seven.
Jill: Ok, we can still do seven today, no problems.
A few minutes later.
Guy: Do you want to eat now, or after we finish the houses down here.
Jill: But there are 7 houses.
Guy: No, there are three.
Jill: What happened to the seven.
Guy: NO, there are only three down here.
We do one house.
Guy: Do you want to eat now, or wait to we finish the three houses down here?
Jill: Wait, shouldn’t there only be two houses left?
Guy: No, there are three houses.
I thought you would like this. I am sad to think of a time when I don’t get royally confused every day. For your reading pleasure, this is another funny example of a typical surveying dialog.
Woman: This is the last house.
Jill: Good (it had been raining all day and I was excited to go)!
I go to the house.
Guy: This is the last house.
Jill: Good! So, we only have the a few houses to do tomorrow.
Guy: There is one more house down there.
Jill: But she just said it was the last house.
Guy: It is the last house, but there is a house down the road.
Jill: So, it isn’t the last house.
Guy: No, it’s the last house.
Jill’s head: I give up.
Tennis:
So, I just had my second tennis practice and I had a ball (ha, tennis, ball, ha ha ha). I am teaching some people who I know and are around my age how to play tennis. This again, was only the second practice, so we reviewed the forehand and eventually I taught them the backhand. It was so good to kind of just hang out, and then to play tennis, I was in heaven. For those people that I have played tennis with and especially those that I have taught tennis to, they know how much of a stickler I am for form, so I was yelling “two hands, follow through” but it was all in fun.
The next night we played again. This time I taught them to hit volleys, the Paula way. I put them against a concrete wall and hit balls at their heads. It was great. I am really impressed with how they did too.
First time getting mad at work
Ok, so I have successfully survived several meetings with real engineers here (read: with experience) and without warning had another meeting this morning. This guy though was full of $%^&. I had to school myself so bad to keep quiet. Later, I got in the car with a few people, and Walther started to say something, and I just lost it. I was yelling in a controlled manner that he was wrong, that I am very confident in what I did, and really was trying to get the point across that he should not talk to me about this. It turns out he agreed with me. So, tomorrow I have to spend the day with this guy and keep my mouth shut, it’s a good thing that I don’t have that large a vocab of bad words in Spanish.
Working:
So, I returned to the town I started working on yesterday. It took forever! I really thought we would be done in a few hours, nope the whole day. I didn’t eat breakfast, worked hard all day and finally ate lunch at 3:30pm. I was so tired, annoyed and hungry. It’s done though! I did use my anger to my benefit though and blasted up the mountain side thinking, “that SOB, ya da ya da ya da.”
Next day: (sorry if this gets confusing following my timeline)
I completely forgot I had plans to work, and therefore was still in bed when I got a call saying everyone was in the office waiting for me. Oops. That comment was a bit of an exaggeration though. The annoying fake engineer was there, with these two old men who have a lot of experience in doing topo studies. So, one guy flat out tells me that my method was right (ok, so I asked and he says its valid) and the other one takes my lack of chatter as I don’t speak Spanish, and have never heard of the metric system. All day he was yelling out numbers five time in a row to make sure I got it. Even Walther was like, she does speak Spanish, and can do this. So, we did a bunch of work in the hot sun on the steep mountain. Why? Don’t know, even the cool older gentleman was like, you can just write the distance to the pila, which I already did the first time around. I liked him, at the end of the day he told me I did a good job with the topography. What can I say, I am a sucker for compliments.
Later we came back to town, I did a quick bucket bath (no time for shower), ate like a crazy woman, and then left for a meeting. I didn’t do a whole lot of talking (hey, I don’t talk a lot in large groups in English, why would I do it in Spanish?) but I understood everything that was going on!
Yet later, I again ate in a hurry because tennis starts at 6pm. Not surprisingly, they didn’t arrive on time. We go to the high school, we are using the high school gym for practice, and it was locked and we couldn’t find anyone with a key to let us in, so we talked for a while until it started to rain. I got home, relaxed, and cleaned my room finally, I haven’t had a lot of time the last few days. I get up, go to work, come home, eat in a hurry and leave, and come home so tired I just want to sleep. I have reconnect next week, I will suggest to anyone who is bored at site to start sports teams, it eats up a lot of time. To conclude the day I made an amazing glass of hot chocolate. When the volunteer nearby left, I scored a box of hershey’s cocoa powder, so I have made hot chocolate a few times. It is by no means cold, I am writing this in a tank top and it is still over 80 degrees in my room at 9:30pm, but its still something nice and creamy to have at the end of a stressful week. Next week I take my first travels in Honduras, stay tuned for the tales of the road.
Friends
Just so you don’t think that it is all work and no play, I am finally making friends here. People here have been friendly from the beginning, but there is a difference between friend and friendly acquaintance. I have one friend who is really my texting buddy, I haven’t seen her in a while, but we text a lot. This is an example of a text:
A! ke bien sem imagina q para usted a d ser emosionante bisitar todos esos lugares.
There are ones that are almost all abbreviations, and I have to sit there, with my head cocked to the side thinking “what does this say?” Normally if you just pronounce everything out loud, the point becomes clearer.
Other friends include those in the tennis team, a few at work, and people who are a part of my host families. Those are on top of the PCVs in the area.
My host family just got back from Costa Rica last night. They were there to visit family members that they just found out about. Here is the story:
In 1954, what would be my host grandfather fled Honduras, supposedly for political reasons. His family never heard from him again, only the idea that he fled to Costa Rica. Well, the years went by, and wife raised the four children alone, and the children became adults, had children, and eventually those kids became adults as well. One of these grandchildren was very interested in the story, because he could see the pain in his father’s face when he talked about his father. He then set about investigating where his grandfather was. It turns out he died 12 years ago, but left behind another family in Costa Rica. My host Mom and several members of her family went down for a few days to visit and learn about what kind of man their father was, since he left when they were so young, they didn’t know him very well. My host Mom was so happy when she returned, she was telling me about what happened, and you could see a light in her face and eyes that just made her glow. The reunion went very well, and the children of this man got along well, and are happy to know their other brothers and sisters.
Later, I went to publish the last blog and pics. I then decided to check the post office to see if anything had arrived. The second I walked in the door the lady who works there started smiling and telling me that there was a new letter and a package. The letter was for T (we share the box), but the package was mine! It was covered in Simpsons stamps, and just looked so happy! The woman there told me that I could sign for it later because she didn’t have the right book with her (we enjoy a kind of nod-smile recognition, and it is kind of like going to my neighborhood post office in the states- Hi Dan, how is it going?). I left almost dancing and with a giant smile on my face.
In the package from Mom and Dad was some M&Ms, DVDs of “Deadliest Catch” and batteries. So, I sat myself down, chowing down on candy and watching the DVDs. Later I read every piece of paper that was used to stuff the box, all parts of a package are used here, volunteers have been known to sit down and read classifieds just to keep an eye on things in the states. I read the comics, well almost all the articles, did the crossword, Sudoku, and scramble puzzles.
S and I started running again today. She seems to want to run every day, I don’t know if I am up for that. We have entered into a pact that we will talk in only Spanish except for one day a week. It was really funny, she calls, and I hear “Hey, Jill, it’s Sara. Do you want to run? Oh wait, I wanted to talk in Spanish.” Then she repeated it all in Spanish. It was weird, because it was just so fast I was like, “what is going on?” During the run we did talk all in Spanish. I am quite proud of how far I ran considering we haven’t run in almost two months now. We finished right before the downpour.
Good news: The ATM is finally in! I will be able to check the balance on my account! I could walk into the bank to do that, but just going in, standing in line, and then explaining you just want to see the balance on your account is a little odd to say the least. Now, I can just go and see, no problem. First ATM in town. Now we are right up there with every luxury available. The weird thing about this town is how fast new things just pop up. The other day I discovered two new places to eat in one day. Then a building can be taken down and another one up in what feels like two days.
Back to work:
Now, rainy seasons normally consists of a shower in the afternoon that lasts from 30 minutes to an hour. Today did not fit the mold, it rained all day long, which was interesting because I was outside trying to do a topo study.
Chickens:
I have written several times about dogs, so I decided it was time to write about chickens. In the aldeas, they have chickens everywhere. Somehow they know whose chicken is whose although the don’t have fences that keep the chickens free so they wander all over the place. During training one day I fed some chickens out of my hand. Today I accidently fed a chicken out of my plate. Chickens wandering around the porch are normal, so I was just sitting there eating, and I set my last tortilla on the edge of my plate (which was on my lap). Next thing I know, this chicken is jumping up, and I really thought for a minute that it was going to jump on my lap. So, after being scared of attacking chickens for a second, I realized it was running away, with my tortilla in its mouth. That’s right, a whole tortilla.
Directions
I know a while ago I had written a little dialog of what happened on my first topo study, well, today something similar happened, and I feel like sharing.
Guy: We are going to go down here because there are three houses.
Jill: Ok.
(we pass one house)
Guy: There are three more houses over there.
Jill’s head: wait, I thought there was three houses in total.
One minute later:
Guy: We can finish this line today right?
Jill: Yeah, there are only three houses here.
Guy: No, there are seven houses to go.
Jill: You just told me three.
Guy: No, there are seven.
Jill: Ok, we can still do seven today, no problems.
A few minutes later.
Guy: Do you want to eat now, or after we finish the houses down here.
Jill: But there are 7 houses.
Guy: No, there are three.
Jill: What happened to the seven.
Guy: NO, there are only three down here.
We do one house.
Guy: Do you want to eat now, or wait to we finish the three houses down here?
Jill: Wait, shouldn’t there only be two houses left?
Guy: No, there are three houses.
I thought you would like this. I am sad to think of a time when I don’t get royally confused every day. For your reading pleasure, this is another funny example of a typical surveying dialog.
Woman: This is the last house.
Jill: Good (it had been raining all day and I was excited to go)!
I go to the house.
Guy: This is the last house.
Jill: Good! So, we only have the a few houses to do tomorrow.
Guy: There is one more house down there.
Jill: But she just said it was the last house.
Guy: It is the last house, but there is a house down the road.
Jill: So, it isn’t the last house.
Guy: No, it’s the last house.
Jill’s head: I give up.
Tennis:
So, I just had my second tennis practice and I had a ball (ha, tennis, ball, ha ha ha). I am teaching some people who I know and are around my age how to play tennis. This again, was only the second practice, so we reviewed the forehand and eventually I taught them the backhand. It was so good to kind of just hang out, and then to play tennis, I was in heaven. For those people that I have played tennis with and especially those that I have taught tennis to, they know how much of a stickler I am for form, so I was yelling “two hands, follow through” but it was all in fun.
The next night we played again. This time I taught them to hit volleys, the Paula way. I put them against a concrete wall and hit balls at their heads. It was great. I am really impressed with how they did too.
First time getting mad at work
Ok, so I have successfully survived several meetings with real engineers here (read: with experience) and without warning had another meeting this morning. This guy though was full of $%^&. I had to school myself so bad to keep quiet. Later, I got in the car with a few people, and Walther started to say something, and I just lost it. I was yelling in a controlled manner that he was wrong, that I am very confident in what I did, and really was trying to get the point across that he should not talk to me about this. It turns out he agreed with me. So, tomorrow I have to spend the day with this guy and keep my mouth shut, it’s a good thing that I don’t have that large a vocab of bad words in Spanish.
Working:
So, I returned to the town I started working on yesterday. It took forever! I really thought we would be done in a few hours, nope the whole day. I didn’t eat breakfast, worked hard all day and finally ate lunch at 3:30pm. I was so tired, annoyed and hungry. It’s done though! I did use my anger to my benefit though and blasted up the mountain side thinking, “that SOB, ya da ya da ya da.”
Next day: (sorry if this gets confusing following my timeline)
I completely forgot I had plans to work, and therefore was still in bed when I got a call saying everyone was in the office waiting for me. Oops. That comment was a bit of an exaggeration though. The annoying fake engineer was there, with these two old men who have a lot of experience in doing topo studies. So, one guy flat out tells me that my method was right (ok, so I asked and he says its valid) and the other one takes my lack of chatter as I don’t speak Spanish, and have never heard of the metric system. All day he was yelling out numbers five time in a row to make sure I got it. Even Walther was like, she does speak Spanish, and can do this. So, we did a bunch of work in the hot sun on the steep mountain. Why? Don’t know, even the cool older gentleman was like, you can just write the distance to the pila, which I already did the first time around. I liked him, at the end of the day he told me I did a good job with the topography. What can I say, I am a sucker for compliments.
Later we came back to town, I did a quick bucket bath (no time for shower), ate like a crazy woman, and then left for a meeting. I didn’t do a whole lot of talking (hey, I don’t talk a lot in large groups in English, why would I do it in Spanish?) but I understood everything that was going on!
Yet later, I again ate in a hurry because tennis starts at 6pm. Not surprisingly, they didn’t arrive on time. We go to the high school, we are using the high school gym for practice, and it was locked and we couldn’t find anyone with a key to let us in, so we talked for a while until it started to rain. I got home, relaxed, and cleaned my room finally, I haven’t had a lot of time the last few days. I get up, go to work, come home, eat in a hurry and leave, and come home so tired I just want to sleep. I have reconnect next week, I will suggest to anyone who is bored at site to start sports teams, it eats up a lot of time. To conclude the day I made an amazing glass of hot chocolate. When the volunteer nearby left, I scored a box of hershey’s cocoa powder, so I have made hot chocolate a few times. It is by no means cold, I am writing this in a tank top and it is still over 80 degrees in my room at 9:30pm, but its still something nice and creamy to have at the end of a stressful week. Next week I take my first travels in Honduras, stay tuned for the tales of the road.
Friends
Just so you don’t think that it is all work and no play, I am finally making friends here. People here have been friendly from the beginning, but there is a difference between friend and friendly acquaintance. I have one friend who is really my texting buddy, I haven’t seen her in a while, but we text a lot. This is an example of a text:
A! ke bien sem imagina q para usted a d ser emosionante bisitar todos esos lugares.
There are ones that are almost all abbreviations, and I have to sit there, with my head cocked to the side thinking “what does this say?” Normally if you just pronounce everything out loud, the point becomes clearer.
Other friends include those in the tennis team, a few at work, and people who are a part of my host families. Those are on top of the PCVs in the area.
Monday, August 24, 2009
A little education
Ok, while flipping through channels, I happened upon this movie that looked like your average B rated teen movie, so I passed it by. Later I just happened upon it again because there is not a lot on tonight, and it turns out that it was a very good movie, with a significant point. It was about how HIV/AIDS is understood in high schools and what happens when someone in the school finds out they are HIV positive.
Now, because this is my blog, and I can do anything I want in it, let’s review some of the basics about it. A large part of the Peace Corps mission is to spread the message about HIV/AIDS around the world; I am making sure it gets out in the US as well. And yes, I can do this in Spanish too.
HIV/AIDS
There are 4 ways to spread the virus: semen, vaginal fluid, blood and mother’s milk. That is all. This does NOT include saliva, so you can kiss someone with the virus and not become infected.
Tests: There is now a 20 minute rapid test. This is not 100%, but it is fast. To be really sure, go get a blood test, which takes a few days. You can go to a lot of places to get a free anonymous test, just google the nearest clinic. The test will not show a positive results for the virus for the first three months after infection.
Prevention: The only 100% safe way is to abstain from sex. That being said, there are ways to reduce your risk if you do choose to have sex. Use a condom. If the guy says that it feels better without one, tell him that a baby and AIDS feel like crap. My personal advice is not to trust people who say they are being monogamous. Also, if you get tattoo sit your tattoo artist down, and ask them to review their safety practices with you. Used needles can have blood in them, and you guessed it, if that needle has HIV positive blood in it, you can get infected. Same goes for doing drugs and using needles, but I know none of my loyal listeners do that, right?!
What is the difference between HIV and AIDS? I’ll be honest, I didn’t really understand the difference until we did our HIV charla. HIV is the virus. The virus without treatment will slowly wear down on your immune system. During this time frame, you look and can feel completely healthy. Eventually the virus wears you down to the point where you get really sick. This is AIDS, where you finally feel the effects of the virus, that is to say something like pneumonia can kill you because your body has no defenses left. It is not the virus that kills, it’s the subsequent infections you cannot fight off.
Now for a few HIV/AIDS myths:
You can tell someone has the virus by looking at them. False, you can look and feel normal for years.
Peeing after having sex prevents HIV and pregnancy. NOT!! Wrong system for women, and still wrong for men.
Pulling out early prevents the spread of the disease. False! Now, pulling out assumes that the guy will want to when the big moment comes, but he will have still released pre-seminal fluid, which can have semen (pregnancy risk) and thus can spread HIV.
Mosquitoes can spread the virus. They only inject their own saliva, there is no sharing of blood.
A mother will always pass on HIV to her child. Not so, there has been a lot of research into this, and while there is a strong risk, you can prevent passing HIV onto the next generation.
Anal sex is safer than vaginal sex. Whoa baby are you wrong. The anal cavity is not as used to stretching as the vagina, and thus can rip easier.
HIV/AIDS is a gay thing. NOT SO. The lack of education on this topic has made it a fast growing virus through the population, and the teenage and young adult percentage is growing. The CDC proposes that 300,000 people in the country have the virus but don’t know it. Therefore, always ask to see their negative test, and then still use a condom.
Ok, so, there is my health rant. What can I say, that movie made me cry. I am adult enough to admit that I didn’t know a lot about HIV for a long time. To me it was something in the past, or something I didn’t need to worry about. I was young and dumb. Luckily I never got in trouble. If you are wondering, yes I have been tested. The stats during the credits of the movie said that the CDC suggests regular screening of people over the age of 13. It is far past time that we get over the stigmas of HIV and start thinking about getting healthy. HIV is not like cancer, it can be prevented, and with enough education and dedication, we should be able to get rid of it.
If there is something else you would like me to spread to my masses, let me know, sin pena (without shame or embarrassment) and I will get the word out.
Always yours and making sure you are healthy,
Jill
Now, because this is my blog, and I can do anything I want in it, let’s review some of the basics about it. A large part of the Peace Corps mission is to spread the message about HIV/AIDS around the world; I am making sure it gets out in the US as well. And yes, I can do this in Spanish too.
HIV/AIDS
There are 4 ways to spread the virus: semen, vaginal fluid, blood and mother’s milk. That is all. This does NOT include saliva, so you can kiss someone with the virus and not become infected.
Tests: There is now a 20 minute rapid test. This is not 100%, but it is fast. To be really sure, go get a blood test, which takes a few days. You can go to a lot of places to get a free anonymous test, just google the nearest clinic. The test will not show a positive results for the virus for the first three months after infection.
Prevention: The only 100% safe way is to abstain from sex. That being said, there are ways to reduce your risk if you do choose to have sex. Use a condom. If the guy says that it feels better without one, tell him that a baby and AIDS feel like crap. My personal advice is not to trust people who say they are being monogamous. Also, if you get tattoo sit your tattoo artist down, and ask them to review their safety practices with you. Used needles can have blood in them, and you guessed it, if that needle has HIV positive blood in it, you can get infected. Same goes for doing drugs and using needles, but I know none of my loyal listeners do that, right?!
What is the difference between HIV and AIDS? I’ll be honest, I didn’t really understand the difference until we did our HIV charla. HIV is the virus. The virus without treatment will slowly wear down on your immune system. During this time frame, you look and can feel completely healthy. Eventually the virus wears you down to the point where you get really sick. This is AIDS, where you finally feel the effects of the virus, that is to say something like pneumonia can kill you because your body has no defenses left. It is not the virus that kills, it’s the subsequent infections you cannot fight off.
Now for a few HIV/AIDS myths:
You can tell someone has the virus by looking at them. False, you can look and feel normal for years.
Peeing after having sex prevents HIV and pregnancy. NOT!! Wrong system for women, and still wrong for men.
Pulling out early prevents the spread of the disease. False! Now, pulling out assumes that the guy will want to when the big moment comes, but he will have still released pre-seminal fluid, which can have semen (pregnancy risk) and thus can spread HIV.
Mosquitoes can spread the virus. They only inject their own saliva, there is no sharing of blood.
A mother will always pass on HIV to her child. Not so, there has been a lot of research into this, and while there is a strong risk, you can prevent passing HIV onto the next generation.
Anal sex is safer than vaginal sex. Whoa baby are you wrong. The anal cavity is not as used to stretching as the vagina, and thus can rip easier.
HIV/AIDS is a gay thing. NOT SO. The lack of education on this topic has made it a fast growing virus through the population, and the teenage and young adult percentage is growing. The CDC proposes that 300,000 people in the country have the virus but don’t know it. Therefore, always ask to see their negative test, and then still use a condom.
Ok, so, there is my health rant. What can I say, that movie made me cry. I am adult enough to admit that I didn’t know a lot about HIV for a long time. To me it was something in the past, or something I didn’t need to worry about. I was young and dumb. Luckily I never got in trouble. If you are wondering, yes I have been tested. The stats during the credits of the movie said that the CDC suggests regular screening of people over the age of 13. It is far past time that we get over the stigmas of HIV and start thinking about getting healthy. HIV is not like cancer, it can be prevented, and with enough education and dedication, we should be able to get rid of it.
If there is something else you would like me to spread to my masses, let me know, sin pena (without shame or embarrassment) and I will get the word out.
Always yours and making sure you are healthy,
Jill
pícs
I{m not sure if this made it already into the blog, but I really liked the picture, so when I went through my pics the other day, I decided it deserved another go.
This is a part of my town, normally it is not so hazy out. I live two doors down on the left side of the street on the right.
THis is another cool pic of a flower.
I liked this pic. It is a very steep canyon area that is planted with coffee and in the foreground there is a barbed wire fence with a vine growing around it. I do not know, something about the hardness of the barbed wire with the life and energy of the plant, made me like the pic.
This is the church in the city nex door.
Plaza outside the church.
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