The training center is located 30 minutes outside of Teguz (The Peace Corps’ nickname for Tegucilgapa) in the mountains. For the next three weeks or so I will be living in nearby with a host family and spending most of my time at the Peace Corps training center. This area has limited access to the internet, so my posts are likely to be sparse for the time being. I will be receving around $3 USD a day for 'walk around' money. My host family feeds me three times a day, so the money is just for extra things I might need or want.
The host family I am living with is wonderful. My host parents, Juan Carlos and Ingrid have 4 children and a nephew that live with them. The two girls are 16 and 13 and the boys are 11, 5 and 3. The little boys are a tad on the wild side, but they are so cute and sweet, they can get away with a lot! We only have one bathroom for all of us to share, however, I am not complaining. Many of the other volunteers live in houses with that only have running water once a twice a week. I am spoiled at my house with hot water and a toilet that flushes every day. It is inevitable that in the future I will not be so lucky and have to switch to cold bucket baths. My room is slightly larger than my closet in the states, but I have a bed and a dresser so I can’t complain. As I am typing this, the boys are coming in and out of my room opening my drawers and playing with my empty suite cases. They are very curious about everything!
For those of you that know me well, I have some interesting news for you. We all know that I enjoy staying up late and sleeping in the next day. So far in Honduras, I have been waking up around 5:45 every morning. This means I am usually in bed around 9:30 or 10. I should note that between the chicken coup behind my house, all the dogs wondering around and the other random animals roaming the streets, I have yet to have an uninterrupted nights sleep. Something I have learned since arriving in Honduras is that roosters do not only crow at sunrise. They crow all night long and they are LOUD. I am beginning to think it will be two years till I have a night quite enough to sleep through the night.
I am at the training center from 7:30am until 4:30pm Monday through Saturday. We have Spanish lessons in the morning, a break for lunch, and then in the afternoon we have sessions on health, safety and other relevant information regarding our two-year service in Honduras. We are being kept very busy! My Spanish is nowhere near where it needs to be, but everyday I get a tiny bit better. By the end of my training in 3 months, I must reach a certain level of Spanish competency. The Peace Corps staff assures us that they always get trainees to this level, but I am still a little nervous.
A little about the food here. For the first few days, I think my family was trying to ease my transition into Honduras by feeding me “American food” like chicken nuggets, something like pizza (it was homemade) and spaghetti. The last few days I have had a few more typical Honduran meals like two fried corn tortillas with cheese and some type of salsa between them. Plantains are another staple here. I even had some fried plantains with cheese on them for breakfast this morning. They drink a lot of coffee here, but the norm is to put equal parts coffee and sugar! Another common staple here is beans and eggs.
All in all things have been going well for me. My inability to say everything I want in Spanish can be frustrating at times, but I know that will take time. Honduras is a wonderful country that has its fair share of problems. As I continue to learn more about all the problems this country faces, I am excited to know that I may be able to bring about some positive change in this country.
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