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!
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