OMG...you wouldn't believe

Yeah, I can't believe what I have to battle with on a daily basis. It's only been a week but they are finally getting to me. =| So, I've mentioned I have a little office right? Well it is slowly being invaded by the locals....wasps, ants, spiders, bees, flies....and BATS! Yes, all these little critters are my neighbors. The wasps live in the corners, the ants are all over the floor/chairs, bees & flies are in and out, and the bats are in the roof right outside my door. (We even have wild horses but these mind their own business for now.) Apparently these critters don't bother anyone else. I on the other hand am totally freaked out. I purchase RAID to fight them off but I think they are starting a rebellion of their own against me. Erk!

On the ground and running...

My first week in site has been very exciting. I've met most of the staff members at school. My counter part did a great job of hosting me. He had a group of students waiting for me with flowers Monday morning. Plus, the principal introduced me at Friday's staff meeting. Unlike most schools we had class Thurs. & Fri. after the parade. My favorite was participating with the school's Cuadra de Honor (Honor roll students) and Cuadra de Danza (Folkloric dance group) in Weds. Independence Parade. We walked through the main parts of town and it kinda serves as my introduction to the community as a whole.

Work consists of me helping with the English course for 1st year students (equivalent to 10th grade). I see each group once a week....we have 10 groups of about 45-50 students each!! Yeah! Talk about oversized language classes. The goal is that I focus on pronunciation, conversation, incorporating manipulatives, class projects, dinamicas, games, songs, etc. into class. Classes are only 40 mins long...yeah can we say challenging....so I try to model all aspects of teaching. So far the students have been great!! They love to say "Bye teacher" as I walk through the hallways. The campus is huge and on the outskirts of town...we ride the bus in at 6:30am and return to town at 3:00pm. El profe even got me an oficina that I hope to decorate this week.

My other counterpart is totally cool! She's been visiting almost daily. I haven't done much with the project. I've toured the facilities, the home (for abused girls), and observed yesterday's activities. They handed out a large donation of toys to the most needy kids. The toys were provided by a local construction company. We also visited a local orphanage for el Dia del Nino (Children's day). The statistics of the kids we work with are scary. She estimates that 7 out of 10 girls have been sexually abused and most of the kids live in domestic violence. Most of them do not attend regular public education and look malnourished. A few of the girls are warming up to me. Wish I had more time to work with them.

I finally had my first baleada at La Princesita...yeah, I ate the entire thing. It is definitely my favorite Honduran food.....hand made flour tortilla filled with beans, fresh cream, eggs, avocado, fried plantains....mmm! It's a must if you're in town!!! (Not to mention free wireless internet)

Dream come true...I´m a PCV!

9.11.10

I have arrived in my new home…Comayagua, Comayagua! We had a beautiful swearing in ceremony. Thanks again Jessica and Patricio for excellent speeches. It was a great feeling to have the Peace Corps Honduras familia together in one place, including Howard and his always pleasant, warm speeches. As we took oath, a surreal feeling came over me. One of my biggest dreams has come true. I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). Yay!

I met my counterpart, el Profesor David, from the Escuela Normal, a primary school teacher college. He is the English methodology professor. I will be helping serve 1,300 students between the ages of 14 - 17 years old. Additionally, he would like to see me teach a group of current teachers from the community. We have a lot of work ahead. He is very eager to improve his class, teaching, and understanding of the English language. He seems like a very hardworking, positive, and healthy individual. I think we will get along great. He took excellent care of me as we made our way out to site. To start, he got us a ride to Teguz which meant no lugging my luggage down a dirt road to then load it onto a “chicken bus”. Not to mention he didn’t let me help with my HEAVY bags…..no really, two large suitcases that easily weigh over 50 lbs., one carry one that weighs about 40 lbs., plus a backpack full of books…another 30 lbs.

Comayagua is beautiful…just as described. The park with filled with vendors selling traditional food, crafts, and souvenirs. They had several dance groups performing ballet folklorico. El profe gave me a quick tour of the central park. I’m about four blocks away. Plus, I’m just around the corner from Café Princesita, the best café in town with free internet and huge baleadas (flour taco filled with refried beans, fresh cream, eggs plus you can add avocado and pico de gallo which they call chismol….yummylicious).

My new host family seems really nice. They are an elderly couple and totally adorable. They are very active in church (Evangelical). Their daughter is my other counterpart, the director of a NGO that provides at-risk youth extra-curricular activities/snacks/tutoring/counseling. We visited their casa hogar (home) for abused girls. They currently host 7 girls between the ages of 12 - 15. They collaborate with other organizations and have a lot going for the kids. During our visit the girls were working on purses/belts/bracelets hand-made from the snaps off soda cans. I’m also very excited for my work with this project.

I will really miss my compañer@s. I’m hoping everyone made it safely…especially after our little get together last night. We finally had a dance party! I’m kinda lucky in that I am situated in a central location. I can easily travel north to Santa Barbara, east to Olancho, south to Teguz or Choluteca, and sorta easily get to Ocotepeque. Just another advantage of living in the countries first capital.

Back in Zarabanda...five days till swearing in ceremony!

I’m in my new host family in Zarabanda. I ended up having a switch in host families. This new family is really cute. They seem to be a happy/healthy family….three girls, one little boy, a mom (professor) and a dad (civil engineer). Their house if beautiful and had an amazing view of the valley below. They spent the evening at a birthday party. I made small talk with the empleada (maid) and was in bed by 8:30pm.

They are heading off to church in Teguz and will most likely spend the day shopping. I decided to hang back and meet up with the girls in Valle de Angeles (where I am now).

Yesterday was a crazy long day. We met the bus and loaded luggage at 6:30 am. Dona Digna was in tears when I said goodbye. She had a little present for me and I had left her a card with a cross I thought she’d like. It was quite an adventure getting to Teguz. We had to stop halfway to fix the bus and then again to put gas in. Most of the afternoon was spent in the immigration office getting our residency cards, yay! The PAMers showed up later and it was really nice seeing the rest of the group. Even though I’m not close to everyone it was nice to have the whole group together again.

The last week in Talanga went by fast. Ronaldo and I ended up scheduling a charla at NPH. The facilities are amazing and really do resemble a huge ranch. The taller (workshop) students were hosting and exhibition of their projects. Their work was great and they would have easily sold at a mercado. I ended up buying two matching mantas (embroidered cloth) for Dona Digna and myself. I held charlas with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. They asked me to speak on the rules of courtesy and self-esteem. The groups were really responsive but the 4th graders required more classroom management. All in all I think the students really enjoyed it and I certainly had them thinking about their actions and their future.

Schools are back in session as of last week. The ministry of education claims schools will hold Saturday classes and will continue through the end of November. In Talanga, most schools were opting out of participating in the Independence Day parade. We got to see a bit of the festivities with Flag Day on September 1st. The ceremony was held at the park starting at 6am. Some of my favorite parts included a performance by the ballet folklorico and a poetry reading by a little girl.

Bueno, I’m looking forward to my cafecito at Expreso Americano!

It's official I'm going to....

The following was typed yesterday, Aug. 30th...and yes, my official site assignment is Comayagua, Comayagua...yay for me!!! And congrats to the rest of the H17 Team!!

I will officially know my site assignment tomorrow afternoon. Although I am 99% sure it will be Comayagua. I had my tech interview last week and they gave me a ton of info on my counterparts and job assignment. I’ll be working with an Escuela Normal (primary teacher development). The students will have just graduated colegio (middle school, 7^th-9^th). I’ll be paired up with the English methodology professor. This will keep me very busy Monday thru Friday. I was told the school is located outside of the city so I will rely on the school’s transportation which may mean I’ll have to stay on campus all day. I’ll also be paired up with a Christian NGO that works with children mostly after school and on the weekend. From what I understand they want to improve their teaching practices for their tutoring sessions. I will most likely dedicate my Saturdays for this project.

Comayagua is a beautiful city filled with history and cultura. It was the first capital of Honduras and is undergoing a transformation to restore much of its colonialism. It is considered a large city with roughly 60,000. I am very excited because it sounds like it will be a city with a small town feel. There is a US military base just outside of the city that has undoubtably created a different perspective of the Americano. I am also expecting to run into a lot of gringos in town. This will definitely add an interesting twist to my Peace Corps experience.

As for technical training, we’ve done all kinds of activities and learned about possible projects. I really enjoyed a charla on HIV/AIDS. We had great facilitators and I personally cleared up a lot about this enfermedad (illness). Like usual, we put our skills to the test by holding our own charla with high schoolers. We were split into teams of four and had to recreate the charla. I think my team did an excellent job. As the native speaker I took care of clarifying the vocabulary and demonstrating the proper use of a condom. Yes, a room filled with high school boys listening to me describe how to properly use a condom in Spanish.

Last week, we learned about school gardens….as we created one. We started by first creating a compost pile. So there you had us youth development volunteers using our machete to cut dry grass and shoveling gallinaso (chicken poop). I must say that our group made a great looking abonera (compost pile). The following day we had to clear a ton of ground to plant our garden. Sadly our section of land was filled with random tiles, toilet parts, rocks, among other random things. I ended up exhausted, dirty, sweaty, and with two huge bug (maybe spider) bites. The swelled up to the size of a half dollar and looked nasty on my feet.

I did my best to develop a new project but had to go thru our program trainer. Only one organization got back to us, Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos. I have been wanting to visit since I volunteered at NPH Domincan Republic and would love to meet the group in Honduras. I know that it’s one of the oldest sites and I want to compare to the relatively new site in the DR. I am very excited about going to visit and possibly hosting a workshop. For now I will continue to tutor sixth graders in math at the only school that continued having classes despite the huelga (strike). BTW, most schools did resume today. We are hoping they will continue to be in session through the start of our service. Keep your fingers crossed!!

This past weekend my host mom and I set off on a little adventure to Teguz. We took the bus but ended up getting picked up by my host sister. She drove us to the Mulitplaza shopping mall. On our way there I got to see different parts of the city including sketchy looking streets filled with vendors and an overflowing river that has caused a lot of flooding. The city is really spread out and from my experience so far looks the same no matter where you are. The mall was amazing…many fufurufu (chic) stores, a few coffee shops, and a ton of American fast food chains. I didn’t buy much because I’m living on my allowance (58 Lempiras = $3.00 a day). I totally got ripped off when I purchased trail mix that I swear had a price tag of 67 Lempiras a pound and I ended up paying 189 Lempiras ($10.00) a pound….errk! It rained the rest of the weekend so we didn’t do much else. The streets are deserted in Talanga when it rains which makes it especially scary in the evening.

Wow! It’s hard to believe we only have two more weeks in Talanga

Wow! It’s hard to believe we only have two more weeks in Talanga...que rapido pasa el tiempo (how fast time goes by). Program training will soon be over and that will be all the guidance we receive before going to site. Youth Development does have more year round trainings than other programs but most of these will be done with the entire Youth Development team. Our fun times, inside jokes, and crazy songs will be integrated into the YD cultura.

We will be given our assignments next week Weds. Exciting!! This will be the site where we will work with a specific community/counterparts for two years. Pero claro, ya por la cuenta de cada quien (But of course, now on everyone’s individual account). Considering the situation now, the great thing will be having counterparts outside of schools such as health centers, libraries, NGOs (if any), Casa de la Cultura (Cultural Center), the municipality, etc. Yes, the schools are still on strike. According to our Program Training Director, this strike is now a rare case. We will be on week four this coming Thursday.

Changing topics, another challenge we are dealing with now is the rain. Talanga hasn’t seen serious damage, but other nearby cities (especially Teguz) have experienced mudslides, overflowing rivers, erosion on major streets, collapsed roofs/houses, etc. One of our sites, Danli, has over 200 displaced families due to the heavy rains. The weather forecast includes another week of the same thing. For Talanga, this means dark, lonely streets after 6pm, black outs when it rains heaviest/evening, broken water pumps (no water for many neighborhoods), and rivers (YES, literally rivers) on few streets. For example, the main road will always have major water flow on the eastside which, if you forget, means you have to walk through a few inches of water to cross the street. Our favorite is getting trapped at our Restaurante Sikisa because of the giant lake that blocks the main entrance.

Coming to the end of training makes me really realize how fast time goes by. My six weeks of training have been a complete roller coaster. Now I see why the keep describing our Peace Corps experience as such. We arrived a Sunday, I was in the hospital for a week, still felt week after, started my work with the 9^th graders, the schools went on strike, thought the stikes would end quickly but that didn’t happen, started tutoring a little boy, was keeping busy prepping for Self-Directed Group Projects. Now I feel like I have been doing nothing with my mornings…although I will honestly admit that very few times have I actually felt that way….I definitely would have loved to have a concrete program in place. Note to self: have more than one project with various counterparts going on at the same time.

Besides training the group has had a ton of fun stuff. We had our Peace Corps Olympics (review session) at the nearby pool, a few of us will be on the national tv gameshow X-O thanks to the Boy Scouts who invited to join them for the taping in Jaimaca (we got to see a bit of the feria festivities and Anna won $50 USD), continue to enjoy Spanish club (I’m hosting this week’s session on coping mechanisms for when we are alone…lol), have our get togethers, and this Saturday will be having a pot luck bday bash for Stacie at Alicia’s house/mansion.

I am sure many of you are wondering where my site will be. Like I said earlier, they will announce our assignments next week. They have said they’ll release a list of possibilities next week. Much of their decision will be based on skill set and each respective community’s needs. We have one new counterpart this year, a Normal (a teacher school). I am super excited about possibly working with them and have nominated myself for this site. I wonder if I’ve been the first to nominate myself to a specific site. This would mean that I would most likely be in Olancho or Danli. Either site would be very exciting. I am very curious about Olancho because I’ve heard they have a heavy ranchero culture. I’ve been through Danli and I’ve heard it would also be an excellent site. I would most likely get to collaborate with whoever is placed in El Paraiso (which I loved).

Finally, I’ll share that my dad is hospitalized now. He had another episode of internal bleeding from his esophagus and intestine over the weekend. He is a lot better now and will most likely check out tomorrow. For those of you that don’t know, my dad was a lifetime alcoholic (a major reason why I don’t drink). He was diagnosed with a bad case cirrhosis (serious liver disease) in December when he had is first episode of internal bleeding. He has a hard time admitting he is sick or needs help so he spent a week bleeding away pretty much. The doctors said he had very few units of blood in him when he arrived and that he was lucky to be alive after. He was prohibited from drinking but every once in a while we are sure he’s had a beer. As it turns out, he must have had a drink this weekend because it ruptured his esophagus and intestine. There is very little he can do now except avoid alcohol at all costs and acidic/irritating/hard to digest foods. I am praying that he will make it over these next two years. I would have a hard time dealing with my decision to join Peace Corps knowing of his near death experience if he was to passes away.

Bueno, I have to run...having lunch and then learning about school gardens and planting one. Please keep me posted on your chisme (gossip). LOL

One week in the hospital and a full recovery later

Hola gente....yes, I was in the hospital for a week. Turns out I caught maleria and dengue during my volunteer visit to El Paraiso. I had a headache and fever the first day, and a horrible fever and body aches the day I reported it. The lights had gone out so it took a while to get the blood results. The PC doctors wanted a second opinion so I ended up in the hospital the next morning in Teguz. Sure enough my white blood cells and paletes had dropped. I was on an iv and medication for about 5 days and finally my blood started stabalizing. I spent a TON of time watching English programming and reading (finished my book). All the nurses were very curious about me...I hardly fit in the bed and spent a lot of time alone. I started sharing about how I was in PC was just starting my service of 27 months. My host mom was great. She visited me several times and took me extra clothes, phone charger and snacks. She is great! We get along and have fun together. Besides her, the PC doctors visited almost daily and Ronaldo (my program trainer) came by on the weekend. The group made me a really cute card that was nice to decorate my room with. It was my first time in the hospital and I lucked out to have great facilities and staff. The doctor explained things in detail and stopped by often. Suggesting I enjoy the "playas Viera". =)

It did take a few days to regain my strength. I could only spend about 1/2 the day out and then ended up asleep the rest of the day. I tried climbing a hill and going inside a cave four days later and was exhausted. LOL Glad I made it up and inside the cave. That was a crazy experience. Bats and all.

Since then, I´ve found an independent project. I volunteer at a "centro basica" helping the 9th grade class in math. Wow do they need help. I had only a hand full that can subtract with borrowing, hardly anyone that can multiply or divide with two digits or more. Yeah! They are suppose to be working on algebra...we will get there!!! My goal is to work on the basics...enough to remember the steps. Then drill the algebra skills. It´s a hard task because honestly I doubt they have any number sense or understanding of math concepts. Sadly, this is the case with most students in most subjects. =|

Otherwise, my group and I headed out to Rio Dulce for our second visit....as unsuccessful as the first. Only 6 kids showed up and ended up breaking into the classrooms to get our the sports equipment and so we could hold our "charla" (workshop). They are a great bunch of kids and we would love to have more to work with. We posted posters all over the school in hopes of generating interest.

We also had our first dance session on Thursday...that was fun...everyone was a great sport and did their best. We had two days with a super volunteer...thanks Janet. She´s a retired teacher that spent her first term in the Dominican Republic building a school, teaching computers, and tutoring math/literacy. She extended her service and ended up in Honduras. She's in one of the most isolated locations. She uses a ton of creative ideas to teach students to read and works with the community to improve literacy skills. She receives a ton of support from friends/family back home receiving a package of goodies per week....hint hint. =D She helped us familiarize ourselves with TEAM the teach English methodology course for teachers. We practiced with each other and a group of 5th graders. Lots of fun working with these kids.

I started running again and have worked out a ton. My body still hurts. Yesterday we went running and then had an hour yoga session (thanks profe Melissa...you are impressive).

We "went out" Friday night...lol. Ended up at Old House restaurant and Cocodrilos bar early evening. That was a lot of fun. Some of us ended up at the park till curfew (literally...9pm) watching/playing basketball. Thanks equipo gringos. We spent most of yesterday out and about. I purchased a new skirt and had a helado with a friend. We ran into friends from Canta Rana (the municipal development training site). Ended the night with a piyamada (pj party) at Daniela´s place...that was cool too.

So yes, this is my life...I walk to INFOP (office/head quarters) early in the morning, have tutoring session with 2 groups of 20 9th graders for an hour each, head home for lunch, and have training session till 5 pm. The streets are lonely after 6pm so I end up home for dinner at 7pm. Most nights I watch a bit of novelas (soap operas) and head to my room to type in my journal or prep things for the next day.

Today I need to grade the rest of the diagnostics and generate some ideas for tomorrow´s lesson...assuming the teacher's strike is over and schools return to session. Yes, the teachers went on strike this past Thursday and Friday. Several thousands protest in Teguz. The govt is claiming they can´t afford to pay the high salaries and want to convert schools to centro basicos or possibly eliminate kinders. The war continues...

K, chicos/as until next time...please post any questions/doubts you may have.