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!