So much to be thankful for!

WARNING:  This post contains pictures of super cute children and some pictures of pigs being roasted.  View at your own risk!   


With only two weeks until I will be heading back to the States (I am sooooo excited), I wanted to fill ya'll in on what I have been up to lately.  Since I last posted back in October, rainy season has officially ended (yes!) and 'winter' is now in full swing (no!).  In my site 'winter' means that at night it drops down to the low 50s (this is just me guessing, as there is no weather.com temperature reading for La Florida).  My room gets pretty chilly at night but I have been hunkering down under some extra blankets and sleeping in my fleece.  It should be noted that I spent 6 years living on the equator and then the last 5 in Texas.  I may be a bit of a wimp when it comes to any temperatures below 70 degrees.  The school year finished up mid November and I have spent the past few days attending a number of graduation ceremonies (two different kindergarten graduations, the 6th grade graduation and the high school graduation as well).  Work has been dwindling down for me as the school year ended and everyone else is getting ready to harvest their coffee crops.  I have been filling my time by playing a lot of soccer with the kids in town and doing a lot of reading!  The high-light of the past month for me has definitely been my two Thanksgiving celebrations! 
 
I spent Thanksgiving day with 30 other PCVs at an Orphanage in La Paz.  We headed over to the orphanage Thursday afternoon with all the fixings for an authentic Thanksgiving meal!  We had turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and homemade bread just to name a few things.  Don't even get me started on all the desserts!  I had a wonderful day with the kids and the other PCVs.  I am already looking forward to doing it all over again next year!

Just some of the food waiting to be taken over to the orphanage!

My contribution, two of the three apple cakes I made before they were frosted!

One of the many piggy back rides I gave that day!

One of the girls enjoying here Thanksgiving meal!

Chaos!

The kids digging in!

The following day, I headed to Yamaranguila with a group of friends to attend a pig roast!  I will be the first to admit that I was a little skeptical at first but the weekend ended up being a blast and the pig was delicious!     

Our dinner, Wilbur and Snowball

The pig roasting pit under construction

Putting some marinade on the pig

Flipping the pig

Cooking like real catrachos on a fagon

 

 

Killing time waiting for the pigs to finish!

Ryan, anxiously awaiting some roast pig!

The finished product

A machete is totally necessary when cutting up a roast pig

Feeding the neighborhood dog a snack

The perfect ending to a perfect Thanksgiving!

           

Rain Rain Go Away/The Wheels on the Bus

Part one of this post is about rain…a lot of rain.  Rainy season is in full swing here in Honduras.  As I am writing this, I am currently sitting in my room listening to the rain pounding on my tin roof (I am finding it hard to hear myself think).   I will admit, that I have a tendency to exaggerate things, but I have seriously not seen the sun for two weeks.  I have never experienced this much rain in my life and that is including the 6 years I spent in Indonesia, where rainy season was sure to produce epic downpours every afternoon.  All in all, this rain is starting to dive me nuts.    

Normally I wouldn’t complain so much about some rain, but it has really started to mess with my day-to-day life here.  I can’t do any laundry right now because I can’t get any of my clothes to dry.  I have tried washing a few things and hanging them under cover to dry, but no luck.  I have had a pair of jeans on the line 4 days now and they are still damp (and starting to smell like mildew).  If we don’t see some sunshine soon, I am going to be in big trouble!   

The next problem I am facing is the mud!  With no paved roads within 20 miles of my town, our dirt roads have turned into rivers or swamps.  Try as I might, I can’t leave my house with out getting covered in mud.  I can’t even wash my muddy shoes/clothes because I have no sun to dry them with!  My overall lack of coordination has not been helpful as I try to navigate the muddy streets by stepping in right places…one false step and you are likely to be ankle deep in mud or fall into a lake sized puddle. 

A river, I mean road, in my town.

The rain has also prevented me from accomplishing much work these past two weeks.  All my classes, meetings and other activities have more or less been put on hold.  Many of the students at the high school live up to an hour walk from the school.  With the rain and horrible roads, many of them have not been showing up for school (or at least not on time).  The rain has also lowered the temperature here in my town and has caused half the town to catch gripe (more or less a word that encompasses all cold/flu like symptoms).  Everyone is walking around in winter coats and hats, sniffling and sneezing.  I should add, that while it is chilly here, I have not needed to wear more than a sweater or long sleeve shirt.

Finally, the heavy rain has also been messing with the power as well as my cell phone and internet signals.  The power has been going out regularly, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for up to 15 hours.  My cell phone signal has also been cutting out and my already temperamental internet has been worse than ever before.  The worst of it is when all three of these things happen at once, leaving me sitting in the dark with nothing to do but listen to the rain pounding on my roof.   The upside to this is that I have been catching up on sleep and reading/watching movies on my computer (at least whenever we have power).     

Some tress that fell down during a storm. Another reason rainy season needs to end now!

Part two of this post is about buses and ties into all the rain we have been having.  If you were to ask any of my PC friends what I complain about most, I think they would all say it is my bus ride from La Florida into Marcala (my nearest big city).  I know I have mentioned this before, but I only live about 20 miles from Marcala (although 95% of the trip is on unpaved, mountain roads).  Before this week, the bus ride has taken me anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 2 ½ hours.  The increase in time it takes is directly related to the amount of rain we have been having.  

This past weekend, I was in Marcala for an event promoting women’s role in food security and increasing income for families.  A women’s group I have been working with attended the event to sell the orange wine they have been producing.  Monday was a holiday, so I decided to spend Sunday night in Marcala and visit with some other volunteers that were in town.  Monday, I decided to catch the noon bus back to Florida and I assumed I would get back around 2 pm.  

Orange wine for sale in Marcala!

That was not the case.  The heavy rain we have been having really did a number of the road.  About 30 minutes into the trip, the bus stopped and the driver said everyone had to get off the bus and walk up a particularly muddy and steep part of the road.  I grabbed my raincoat as it was raining and jumped off the bus.  I should mention that the black flats I was wearing, were the wrong choice of footwear for the day.  I started the trek up the hill only to almost fall with every step.  A man walking up the hill behind me took pity on me and tried to help me by more or less pushing me up the hill.  At one point I used a rusty barbed wire fence on the side of road for balance but ended up cutting my hand (don’t worry, I have recently had a tetanus shot) and ripping my raincoat when it caught on the fence.  I then proceeded to wait at the top of the hill for about half an hour while some of the men on the bus used some rope to bull the bus up the muddiest part of the hill.  

Some men trying to bull our bus up the hill.

Not the best choice of footwear for climbing up muddy hill.

After that was over, all the passengers got back on the bus.  As if the bus ride was not turning out to be bad enough, a bolo (a bolo is a drunk and yes it was 1:00 pm on a Monday) noticed me and spent the rest of the trip trying to get my attention by shouting things at me in broken English.  I chose to ignore him, but as time passed he was getting more and more obnoxious.  Luckily, he passed out at some point and I figured it was smooth sailing from that point forward, but as you should know by now, Honduras always wins.

About 15 minutes outside my town, the bus stopped again.  A portion of the road had been washed away (I guess it was a small mud slide) and the bus could not pass any further.  This meat I had to once again get off the bus and into the rain.  I walked the remainder of the way home and arrived wet, muddy and cold, four hours after I had left Marcala.  As I stumbled into my room wanting nothing more than to take a hot shower, I realized the power was out...no power means no hot water.  Thankfully the power came back a few hours later, so there was a bright spot in my otherwise disaster of a day.

The bus did not make it past this point.  Thankfully we were almost in Florida and  I only had a 20 minute walk back to my house from here.

At least this duck seemed to be enjoying all the rain!

Honduras DOESN’T Always Win

My faith has been restored in Honduras.  This past weekend, I took a trip to my nearest big city to visit some PC friends, hit up the only ATM with 3 hours of my site and to take a well needed break from life in site.  I had a great time hanging out with 4 other volunteers from my training group and catching up with what everyone had been up to.  We also made some homemade pizza for dinner and had banana pecan pancakes for breakfast the next day!  It is always great to have some non-Honduran foods every once in a while.  

I was headed home the following afternoon and was walking to my bus.  I should preface this by saying that I have acquired a new habit when traveling in Honduras.  I now spread my money, credit cards and ID cards out all over my body and any bags that I am carrying.  I put some money in my back pack, some in my different pants packets, I keep a secret stash under the insert of my shoe and depending on how much I am carrying, I might find a few more hiding spots.  I do this, so if I ever were to be robbed/mugged (I guess I should say if I ever get robbed/mugged again, I already lost a phone to some muggers a few months back in another large city I was visiting) I could hopefully just loose some of my money and not all of it.  The thing I hate most about not having a bank in my site is that I have to travel with larger amounts of money at least once a month.  Half of Hondurans live on less than  $1USD a day.  My rent  alone is around $80.  It always makes me a little nervous to travel with this much money, even though, I feel very safe traveling from my site to the “big city”.  The bus driver and I are friends now and he always keep an eye out for me and sometimes even gives me a reduced fair.  On top of this, I usually know ¾ of the people riding the bus, many of whom are work colleagues or neighbors.  

 

Anyways, back to the story.  I was walking to my bus and reached into my back pocket to grab my phone.  I must have also had put some money in this back pocket, and it fell out onto the street.  A man, sitting on the side of the street called me as I walked past to return the money I had dropped.  I have to admit that I was shocked.  I dropped one bill the equivalent of about $5.  I had no clue I had dropped it and this man could have easily pocketed the money. You can buy around 3 meals, 25 bags of chips, 10 beers or even a bus ticket to Teguz with that money, just to name a few things.   It really made me so happy to know that someone would go out of his way to return the money I had dropped! It was exactly what I needed after being frustrated with how things tend to work in Honduras!

I should mention that Honduras still does always find a way to win.  A few minutes later I was sitting on my bus waiting for it to leave (if you want a seat you have to show up at least an hour early) and a bolo (the Honduran word for a really drunk guy) came staggering up to our bus.  The ayudante (the guy that collects money on the bus and helps people with their bags) shut and locked the door to the bus.  The bolo proceeded to yell slurred profanities and attempt to kick the bus (he was having some balance issues that prevented him from making contact).  I was a little nervous, but everyone else locked in the bus with me crowded around the windows and laughed at the bolo as he eventually was dragged away by a group of men.  After packing upwards of 100 people on the bus (this bus is a yellow school bus, it safely and comfortably sits around 40-50 people), we were off.  I got to spend the next 2 and half hours sweating to death as I was tossed around my seat, knocking into the man sitting next to me and the people standing in the aisle.  I should also mention that it is only a 20 mile trip to my site, but it usually takes well over two hours due to a number of factors.  When you combine an aging yellow school bus, unpaved mountain roads and plenty of stops, you get a very long and uncomfortable bus ride. 

Anyways, life is good!  You win some and you loose some.  I guess I just have to keep working hard and perservering, knowing that in the end, I will have gained some amazing life experiences! 

Honduras Always Wins

I have had an interesting few weeks here in Honduras.  I spent a week at Reconnect, where all the business volunteers currently serving in Honduras had 4 days worth of meetings and training sessions.  The volunteers from water and sanitation project, as well as the volunteers from the health project also had their reconnects at the same location.  This meant that there were around 75 volunteers in one place.  It was a shock to be around so many Americans again, after spending almost 4 months secluded in my little mountain village.  All in all, it was a good week and it was great to catch up with my friends from training who I had not seen since our swearing in ceremony back in May.

At reconnect, as well as having business technical sessions, we had some cross project sessions with all the volunteers present. In one session, we talked about the things that make living and working as a PCV in Honduras difficult.  In a short amount of time we had a long list of things that ranged from people not showing up to meetings (a common occurrence here) to the safety and security problems we face living in Honduras.  One volunteer, who has the reputation of being a bit pessimistic, simply said “Honduras always wins.”  What she meant by this is that as hard as we work to try and accomplish something, nothing is EVER easy here and things usually end up working against you.

There is a lot of truth to the statement "Honduras always wins."  I should start by saying, I have no regrets about my decision to come to Honduras as a PCV.  I have high hopes for what I can accomplish during my 27 months in country.  That being said, nothing is ever easy here and the more time I spend here, the more it seems that "Honduras always wins" in one way or another.

I feel like my blogs have been fairly upbeat and positive.  I have been trying to keep everything in perspective and not let the little things get to me.  Well, these past few weeks have just not been very great.  I debated whether or not I wanted to be write this post, but I want to be honest with myself (and the 5 of you that actually read my blog).  Sometimes things just really suck here and I have lately found myself thinking “Honduras always wins.”

To start things off, I finally got sick (it took me more than 6 months) last week.  It was nothing major and I knew it was bound to happen eventually, but it still put me in a bad mood (and left me feeling pretty bad for a few days).  I think the worst part was that the previous week I had just been bragging to all my PCV friends about how I had made it 6 months without getting sick as most of them have had amoebas 3 times, had a few bacterial infections and even a case of pneumonia which required hospitalization.  I guess that’s what I get for thinking my six years in Indonesia left me a stomach made of steel and gave me a stronger immune system than everyone who grew up in the States!  To add insult to injury this week, I also had to eat the biggest bowl of Sopa de Mondogo (tripe soup) that I have ever seen in my life.  A family from my town had invited me to lunch and as I sat down at the table, “Honduras always wins”, popped into my head.  Let me say that an upset stomach and giant chucks of tripe do not go well together.   To make things just a little worse, one of the little boys in the family insisted on making vomiting sounds all through lunch and constantly discussing what tripe was and where it came from.      

To continue my less than stellar week, a change was made to Peace Corps Honduras policy that will change the next 20 months of my service.  PC Honduras has banned large gatherings of Volunteers and has also limited how many nights we can be out of site per month.  Our country director also cancelled a PCV tradition of having a Halloween party in Copan Ruins (not a PC sponsored event) that I have been looking forward to since arriving in site.   I am pretty upset about these new changes.  As a volunteer that is living in a small rural community, my sanity really depends on having a few times a year where I can be with a big group of Americans and just let loose a little.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my site and the people that live there, but  I have zero social life in my town.  My friends are all old ladies or little kids, as everyone my age tends to leave town or be married with 3 kids by the time they hit 24.  I am in my room by 8:30 most nights and have been reading at least a book a week and going through the movies on my external hard drive at an alarming rate.  I need the opportunity to get together with 10 or 15 other gringos, drink a few beers and act like a normal 24 year old every once in awhile.  The policy was put in place to prevent safety and security incidences that are more likely to occur when there are large groups of Volunteers in one place.  I understand why PC Honduras had to implement this policy, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept. 

I also have also been having a rough time with my work lately.  I started teaching a business course in the high school a few months ago.  I was feeling pretty good about my progress, but then, of course,  Honduras had to go and win.  The students at my local high school have pretty much been in strike on and off for the past 6 weeks (yes, the students go on strike here, as well as the teachers).  Now, some of teachers have stopped coming to the school because they have not been paid in 6 months.  As of right now, I have missed more classes than I have taught.  Then of course there is the fact that every meeting I have attended  during the past few weeks has started anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours late.  I can't bring myself to show up late to meetings and because I this, I usually end up sitting alone for at leas half an hour until someone finally shows up for the meeting.  I try to practice patience, but sometimes I lack all the patience needed to work in this country.   

On a more serious note, I also got some news about an incident that occurred to an American woman (not a peace corps volunteer) in my nearest big city, that I visit 3 or 4 times a month.  While the incident happened in an area I have never visited, it is only a few blocks away from where I usually run all my errands when I am in town.  I was upset not only to hear about what happened to this young woman, but also how little help the local authorities have provided her.  After hearing about this incident, I was reminded that I can't let my guard down so easily.  

On top of all of that, a long list of other minor things happened to me that ended up being the cherry on top of a bad week:  I had a weird bug bite on my face that stung/burned/tingled for about 12 hours, we lost power for 18 hours, someone hacked my cell phone and signed me up for a bunch of subscriptions that ate up all the money I put on my phone and my favorite jeans (I only have two pairs) now have a hole in them from being washed by hand so many times.  The list goes on, but I will spare ya'll the complete list!

So there is my rant.  I want to reinforce the fact that I am in fact, happy to be here, even though I might sound like I am complaining  a lot in this post.  What’s life without some challenges, right! I promise that in the next post we will get back to the happy and positive stuff (like how I made orange wine with a woman’s group for 6 hours one Sunday or how I scored two goals in that last game I played with my woman's soccer team)!

What do gringos eat?

The current host family I am living with consists of my host parents who are in their 60s and are retired teachers, their adult niece and her two little girls who are 4 and 7.  We are also have frequent visits from my host parents kids and grandchildren.  One weekend we had 9 visiting relatives on top of the 7 of us that live at the house.  Out of this group 6 were kids under the age of 10.  Needless to say, that turned out to be a long weekend for me!


The other weekend, Victor Jose (my favorite of the grandkids) was in town visiting.  I had spent the afternoon playing cards with him and the two little girls, Maria Fernanda and Marissa.  For some reason, all afternoon long Maria Fernanda was asking me questions about how to say certain words in English and a lot of questions about why gringos do this or why gringos like that.  At one point she asked me what gringos eat.  This was a hard question to answer as I feel Americans eat a lot of different foods (I didn't really want to say pizza and cheese burgers, although, there is some truth to that).  Later that evening, after dinner, Victor Jose was hungry and wanted a snack.  He went to the small store that my host parents run out of the front of our house and grabbed a bag of white bread.  He came back in the house and got some homemade jalea de mora (blackberry jelly) and put some on a slice of bread.  It suddenly dawned on me that I had a jar of peanut butter stashed in my room.  I would be lying if I say I didn't really want to share my peanut butter (it was JIFF by the way, the good stuff, not to mention I cost me a day wages) with the kids, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to share some American Culture with my host family. 


I asked the kids if they would like to try an "American food" which I assured them almost every child in the States eats on a regular basis.  They were ecstatic at the idea of trying something American children like to eat.  I went to my room and got my peanut butter.  I made a few PB&Js and cut them into triangles (the best way to eat a PB&J sandwich).  I am not sure why, but at that point the four year old went a little nuts.  She started running around the house eating her PB&J and yelling "Soy una gringa, soy una gringa" (this pretty much translates into "I am a white girl").  After telling anyone in the house who would listen, plus a few customers that came into the store, she was convinced that she was now a little gringa after eating peanut butter.  I then explained to them that you could also eat peanut butter on crackers, bananas or even plain.  Then, my crazy little Marissa took her dirty four-year-old fingers and stuck them right into my precious jar of peanut butter.  I cringed, but the damage was already done.  Of course then, Victor Jose and Maria Fernanda also wanted to stick their fingers in the peanut butter jar and eat some plain.  At the end of the night I had a lot less peanut butter but it was worth it to see how excited it made the kids to try some peanut butter!  The bad news is now, everyday, the kids keep asking me for me peanut butter!

 

Marissa, after eating her PB&J sandwich.  She has recently been given the nickname "hurricane Marissa" from my host dad as she is a bit of a wild child!

6 lessons learned after 6 months in Honduras

August 24, 2011 marked 6 months in Honduras for me.  It also marked my half birthday, which makes me think its time to have my quarter-life crisis, as I will be 25 in only 6 months!  It is hard to believe that I have already been here that long.  It seems like just yesterday I was boarding the plane to Tegucigalpa with 52 strangers and wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into.  While I still have another 21 months of service left, I have learned a lot in the past six months.  In honor of this momentous occasion, I have decided to write a list of  6 lessons learned during my first 6 months of Peace Corps Service.  In no particular order, here I go:

1.  I don’t have to be a picky eater. Before coming to Honduras the list of things I didn’t eat may have been slightly longer than the list of things I did eat.  Now after 6 months having other people cook my food, I can proudly say that I have left my picky eating habits behind me.  I now eat eggs and beef without a second thought.  I drink coffee and beet juice like I’ve been doing it all my life.  Even the food items that I don’t like (such as tripe and liver) I have managed to choke down with minimal struggle. 

 

2.  Patience is a virtue.  Everything about my life as a volunteer requires more patience than I have ever needed in my life.  I need to be patient with myself as I struggle to speak Spanish every day.  I need to be patient with the people I am working with as things here move at a much slower pace than I am accustomed to.  I need to be patient every time I use, what in my opinion, is the world’s slowest internet connection.  Travel in this country requires massive amounts of patience.  My most frequent trips between my site and my nearest city can take more than two hours to only travel less than 20 miles.  Patience, Patience, Patience!

 

 

3. I am braver than I thought I was.  Before Peace Corps, I sort of considered myself a bit of a chicken.  Six months ago, I left my family and friends and everyone I knew to come to Honduras.  I am not going to lie, I was scared, very scared.  I am happy to say that I am doing great here!  I have made amazing new friends, I have integrated into my community (this is still a work in progress) and I have survived 6 months in a foreign land!  I also should mention that I killed a scorpion that I found in my bed with a tennis shoe. I didn’t even scream or cry! 

 

The Scorpion I killed! I am crossing my fingers that he does not have brothers/sisters/parents that are still lurking around my room!

 

4.  I took a lot of things for granted before Peace Corps.  The first things I realized I took for granted are of course the more ‘superficial’ things like hot water, high speed internet and pizza.  As I spent more time here, I realized all the opportunities I had and still have that people here lack.  Everything from the opportunity play organized sports as a kid and not having my school year interrupted by 2 months of teachers strikes.  Of course not being able to see my family and friends for 6 months has also been tough!

 

5.  Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Along with being patient, learning to not sweat the small stuff has been essential to me.   Life is very different here and it can definitely be hard sometimes.  The little things can easily build up to the point where they will drive you crazy.  I have learned to be flexible and appreciate each experience I have, because at the very least, it will give me a good story.  Living as a PC Volunteer in Honduras you will, without a doubt, prepare for a class or a meeting and then have everyone show up 2 hours late or not show up at all.  You will get sick of eating tortillas, beans and eggs for dinner for 180 nights in a row (this is not even an exaggeration).  Every time you get on a bus, someone is going to throw up and 3-7 women will be breastfeeding their 3 year olds (and then giving them soda and bags of chips). Also, the likelihood of having a strange man sit next to you and ask you about your marital status is also bound to happen.  There is also the possibility that he will ask you to visit him in his pueblo and/or for your phone number (I am know an expert of telling strangers that it's PC policy only use our phones for work related conversations, which, is totally not true, but most people seem to buy it).

 

6.  Roosters are my least favorite animals in the world.   I can say, without a doubt, that I have not had one un-interrupted night of sleep since coming to Honduras.  What is to blame for this?….Well 80% of the time, it’s the roosters.  Who ever said that roosters only crow at sunrise is a big fat liar.  They crow all the time, but they especially seem to prefer the hours between 2 and 5 am. 

 

At the end of the day, I can't really complain about waking up to this every day!

I'm Back!

I’m back, for good this time (I hope). First off all, sorry for my temporary absence from posting blogs.  My internet access turned out to be only temporary.  One week after purchasing my modem and an internet plan (that was suppose to last for a month), it stopped working.  The main problem with this is that there was nothing I could do about it for a few weeks.  I could have attempted to try and call some sort of customer service hotline but to be honest, I don’t know if that even exists or if I could even accomplish anything with my current level of Spanish (let’s face it, most of the time you can’t accomplish things with customer service agents that speak English)!  I was finally able to take a day trip into a my nearest big city to deal with the issue.  After a complicated and frustrating exchange with the people working in the store, my Internet was finally restored…at least for a few weeks until it randomly stopped working again! 

I think after more than two months, I might have gotten most of the kinks worked out with my internet problems.  That would be too easy after all, I am a PCV after all. You now you need to consider the recent power outages we have been having here in my site!  While I still have power most of the time, the power usually goes out a few days a week.  It’s usually out for anywhere between a few hours and more than a day.  This means that I have to ration out my computer usage on days when the power is out and of course, whenever I have free time (and am motivated) to write a post, I never have power and/or internet! 

Now that I have gotten my lame excuses out of the way, I am back on the blog writing bandwagon!  I hope to try to update this blog a few times a month (okay, at least once a month). 

Since I last posted, everything has been going well!  I have more work, which is keeping me pretty occupied. I have taken a few short trips to visit my fellow PCV friends, which has been great.  I have spent countless hours on the chancha de futbalito  (a cement court of sorts where I play soccer with the kids) and even played one full-fledged, full field game of soccer with a local group of girls from the local church.  I have eaten the famous Honduran dish of Sopa de Mondongo (that’s a whole different blog post) and lived to tell the tale.  I have taken a few hiking trips in the mountains ranging from a few hours to more than 6 hours.  I really live in a beautiful place; ya’ll all need to start planning trips to come visit me! 

I would love to post pictures on this blog, but once again the Internet situation (which I hate, but can’t live without) prevent me from doing so.  I am on a limited monthly data plan and also can’t wait hours for a single picture to upload!

Also, I would love to hear from my family and friends back home!  Please email me at jessica.ball.pchn@hotmail.com.  Let me know what is going on stateside.

On a side note, I will share a funny Honduras story with ya’ll.  I am currently sitting my town’s public library.  It is actually quite nice and was built a few years ago with the help of another PCV who lived here.  It has a few computers (no internet though), some tables, a small but decent collection of books and a kid’s corner with games and children’s books. I decided to escape this afternoon to the library to get some work done.  I was working in my bedroom, but the little kids at my house decided to sit outside my door and knock on it every few minutes to ask if I could play uno with them.  The fact that I told them I busy and we could play after dinner meant nothing to them. I packed up my things and walked over to the library and found myself a nice quiet spot in the corner.  I was finally able to get some work done for a few minutes before chaos erupted.  A family of baby chickens wondered into the library.  The lady that works here then proceeded to chase them around like a crazy person as she tried, unsuccessfully, to shoo them out the door (which I should mention are kept open to let in a breeze).  After that interruption, I got back to my work.  Shortly thereafter, I felt something breathing on my foot.  A dog had wondered in the building and was sniffing my backpack with great interest.  This of course, led to the librarian running around like a crazy person again, shooing the dog out the door.  Just when I thought that was the last of the interruptions a group of wild children (not the ones from my house) came running into the library. They decided to play (super loudly) with a few toys that the library has in its kid corner.  Then, just to make sure I didn’t get any work done, a man from my town who had stopped by the library asked if he could talk to me.  That turned into a 30-minute conversation about whether or not I could teach him and a group he belongs to, how to make fermented orange wine?!?!?  Unfortunately, I do not know anything about fermented fruit wines, but said that if they every figured out how to produce it, I would be happy to help them with the business aspects of producing, marketing and selling the product. I have now decided to declared defeat and leave my work till tomorrow!   

One Month at Site/I Finally Have Internet Access!

            I have been in my site for exactly one month! And on top of that, after more than 3 months and around 1/4 of my monthly living allowance, I finally have internet access! This past Saturday I took a two hour bus ride from my site to the nearest "big city" (it is a big city for me because it has a bank, one small grocery store and a population of more than a few thousand people) to meet up with some other volunteers and buy an internet modem.  After a frustrating 45 minutes in the shop selling modems, I finally walked away with my own modem.  The good news is of course that I have internet access.  The bad news is that it is pretty slow, not the most dependable connection and a little on the expensive side for a broke PCV like me!  That being said, slow and expensive internet is definitely better than no internet at all!  Just to bring everyone up to speed, a lot has happened in the last few months since my last posts. I have now been officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteer and I am now living in my site, where I will be for the next two years!  During my months without internet, I tried to keep writing blogs about what was going on in my life.  I will go ahead and post those blogs now so all of ya'll can read about what I have been up to lately!

            Life here moves in my town moves pretty slowly and I am going to have to practice patience here if I want to make it for two years with out going stir crazy! I have been spending my evenings playing soccer and basketball and other games with a lot of the kids in town.  I live right across from the street from the town’s central park.  The park is really nice and has a basketball/futballito court.  While it is not in the best condition, it is way better than some random patch of dirt somewhere.  I am doing what I can to bring an end to machismo in the this country by making sure to beat all the teenage boys at HORSE the basketball game (which they call Burro, which means donkey), whenever I can! I am also thinking about starting some girl’s sports teams.  I hear there used to be a girls soccer team, but that it fell apart a few years ago because of lack of organization. I have seen a few girls playing sports, but mostly, it is just the boys.

            Two weekends ago I took my first trip overnight trip away from my site. I went to a nearby village that was hosting the yearly Mora Festival.  Mora is a type of blackberry that grows in the mountains here in Honduras, especially in my part of the country.  I was able to try berry jam, wine, pastries and anything else you can put blackberry into.  I also was able to watch a blackberry-eating contest, a bike race around the town park and a soccer game, which pitted the local mayors (who I might add are mostly older and a little over weight) against a local team.  The main reason I went was to meet up with some other Peace Corps volunteers in the area. There were 8 of us in total and it was nice meeting some of the people that will be my neighbors for the next few years. 

            Work is slowly but surely starting to pick up for me.  In the past few days I have even been approached by some people in the town wanting help with different things from helping out the local library to giving classes on how to run a small business.  I am also going to start working with a fellow volunteer on a project he will be doing in my town with local bread making micro business.  I am glad that there seems to be a lot of great opportunities here for me over the next two years!

Site Placement!

Before I stat with all the details of my home for the next two years, let me start by saying it is Peace Corps suggestion that I do not mention my site location or name in my blog.  That is why it might seem like I am leaving out some important details of my site! 

            I have been at my site for about two weeks now.  I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by! I have already been here in Honduras for 3 months now.  Let me start by telling everyone about my site.  I am living in a small town and when I say small, I mean really small.  The town center has a population of around 1000 people, although I think this number has been exaggerated!  The town is located on a mountain and similar to most small towns around Honduras, the majority of the people here depend on small-scale farming and coffee in the highest altitude areas.  There is running water and electricity here (although, in the short amount of time I have been here, the power has already gone our 4 or 5 times for a few hours at time, but that’s rainy season for ya).  There are no banks, grocery stores, gas stations or type of large-scale business here.  There are a few pulperias here (kind of like a small convince store that sells basic goods) and a small weekend market that sells produce.  It is really quite beautiful here and I look forward to getting to know this place over the next two year. 

            I have received 3 community partners or counter parts here in my town.  I will be working with the local high school, a few small businesses supported by the local parish and a small savings and loans cooperative. 

            The high school has expressed interest in receiving assistance to train their youth in personal finance topics.  The school also has several vocational workshops (wood shop, metal shop, farming, baking and sewing) and wants to set up a business incubator for their students.  They also are interested in any support I can provide teachers and students in improving their computer skills.  They have also expressed interest in me helping out with English classes. 

            The local parish has a youth entrepreneurship program and educational program that is supported financially by the members and also by the income generated through the micro businesses that the program currently manages.  They are currently running a cement block factory and a silk-screening business as well as agriculture and productive activities (vegetables and tilapia farming).   The youth benefited by this program attend the local high school to get their degree and they also receive vocational training.  The youth comes from the surrounding areas that are very rural.  They have no access to a high school education in their towns and have very few options for their futures except farming.  The youth stay in a boarding house that has been set up on the church grounds.  They would like me to be able to help them in setting up better management procedures in their businesses and to help them develop and implement a plan to generate enough income for their program to be self completely self sustainable.

            The cooperative has 117 members and does a number of different things.  They run a small shop in town that sells some farming tools as well as seeds and fertilizer. The cooperative would like assistance from me in providing trainings and support to their beneficiaries on business topics like business plan writing, bookkeeping and basic accounting, basic computer and ICT skills, marketing, added value and commercialization.

            I am a little out of my element here, as most of these groups some sort of manual labor and my knowledge of tilapia farming and metal works in pretty non-existent!  On top of this, I still have a ways to go with my Spanish language skills.  Things have been moving a little slowly, but I am confident that in time I will have a lot of really great work to do here! Luckily I have two years here to figure everything out! 

           

Feild Based Training

 FBT: March 23-May 4

            I have spent the last 6 weeks in Yuscáran, El Paraíso.  As you can guess, I did not have access to internet here and that is why I haven’t been able to keep this blog updated.  I will try to catch everyone up on what has been going on in my life during FBT.

            My Monday thru Fridays have been spent having a combination of both Spanish classes and technical sessions where I am learning a little bit about a lot of different topics regarding business opportunities in Honduras.  We have talked about everything from agro forestry, income generation projects to tourism niches.  We also had the opportunity to do a number of hands learning activities.  We spent an afternoon planting home gardens and learning how to start a tree nursery.  I knew I was really in the Peace Corps when I received a text message from Jesus, my training specialist, asking if we could ask our host families if we could barrow a machete for the afternoons activates! Another fun activity was a business simulation we did with a local school.  For one week we worked with some 6^th graders and taught them about the basic principals of business (Marketing, Production, Accounting, ect). Then the kids got a loan from Peace Corps for about $20 USD to start their own business.  It was a really fun week and both the kids and us trainees. 

            Some other highlights from the past 6 weeks would include a tourism field trip we took to a number of 3 tourism locations near Yuscáran.  The trip was overnight and all 18 of the business trainees plus our language teachers and Jesus all spent the night camping on a man made beach next to some man made lakes!  We had a bonfire and even roasted some marshmallows!  It was a lot of fun and something I never though I would be doing in Honduras.

            I also went to visit a current volunteer in her site for three days.  It was one of my first experiences traveling in public buses here and let me say, I think it is going to take some getting used to! The common form of transportation here is yellow school buses that have been brought over from the states. I am keeping my eyes peeled for a bus that has one of my old school districts name painted on the side!  I went to the department of Valle to a town with the reputation of being the hottest town in Honduras and it was definitely HOT HOT HOT.  I am used to hot weather living in Texas, but the difference is that we have air conditioning in our homes, cars and offices in the states!  I literally showered three times a day and never stopped sweating the whole time I was there. All in all it was a great experience to learn about what volunteers really do here in Honduras. 

            Over the past 6 week I have really become close with all the other Business volunteers.  Outside of classes we have been doing all kinds of things to keep ourselves entertained. I love Yuscáran, it is a great little town, but there is not a whole lot to do here.  We have had to get very creative at time to mitigate our boredom.  A few times we have hiked up a hill to an old tree that overlooks the town.  We have played countless games of cards.  A few times we have gone hiking in a nearby biological reserve.  They are some waterfalls and lagoons up in the mountains, but unfortunately, we where there during the dry season.  After of few hours of hiking we got to see a few trickles of water and not much else.  One Saturday, we planned a soccer match in a neighboring town (a one and a half hour bus ride away) with the group of Water and Sanitation volunteers who were in training nearby.

            All in all, FBT was a wonderful experience.  I improved my Spanish and learned a lot more about doing business in Honduras.  I also have made some really great friends among my fellow PC business trainees.  It’s a little sad to think that soon we will all be living all over Honduras. On May 14, we will all be headed to our sites!

Week Four

As I start my fourth week in Honduras, not a whole lot has changed.  I am still in training Monday thru Saturday, still spend time with host family and I am continuing to learn more and more with each passing day.

On Friday, I went with a small group of fellow trainees into Teguz to visit a market.  It was an exercise for our Spanish classes to practice using public transportation and shopping.  The trip was more or less uneventful.  The best part was that we were able to go to a grocery store in the city and I splurged on a jar of peanut butter! It was definitely worth it!

On Saturday we took another trip into Teguz to go to Immigration. We had to register for Honduran residency and have identification cards.  After more than four (very boring) hours and a crashed computer system later, all 53 of us had finally finished the process. After immigration the group headed to Pizza Hut for lunch.  It was nice to have some pizza after a few weeks of beans and tortillas every day! 

We only have a few more days left here before I head of to field based training.  I am nervous to leave since I really enjoy my current host family (and the hot water heater) that I have now.  In FBT the pace of things is going to pick up even more and we will start to phase out our sessions in English and move to all Spanish. 

I am not sure about the Internet situation during FBT so I am not sure about how often I will be able to update (not that I have updated much during my first few weeks).  

Week Three

I only have about two weeks left with my first host family.  On the March 23, 2011 we start field-based training (FBT).  For FBT we will break off into our project groups.  I will have a new host family in FBT and will live with them for around 7 weeks. 

I learned how to make corn tortillas from scratch today.  My family joked that I could open Tortilleria Jessica, but I think I still need some more practice.  My host mother could make the tortillas super fast and they all turned out the same size and shape.  My tortillas on the other hand, we all different shapes and sizes!

This Saturday we did not have class.  The other trainees and I organized to meet at the training facility do play soccer, ultimate Frisbee and some other games.  After playing for a few hours we decided to go to nearby Santa Lucia to get some lunch and hang out.  After waiting for a bus for 30 minutes, we decided to walk.  It took us about an hour and it was mostly uphill.  My legs were definitely sore the next day.

Sunday morning I attended mass with my family.  I came home and did some laundry.  Then I helped prepare lunch.  My host mother is trying to teach me how to cook like a Honduran so that when I am living by myself, I won’t starve to death.  We had some beef tacos with chismole, a salsa made from onions, green peppers, tomatoes and cilantro.  I spent the afternoon doing some homework and playing soccer with my little brothers.

The Peace Corps training staff is keeping us all very busy.  We are still having regular language classes and the rest of our time is spent on project specific work, volunteer health and safety session and an assortment of other lessons.  I have been learning a lot during the last few weeks and the more I learn the more excited I am about the two years that lie ahead of me.