Honduras PC

little John, pilas, haircuts

2009-09-14T09:17:00.003-06:00

I just got a puppy! It may sound like a terrible idea, but I've found a family that will take it when I'm gone (if I don't bring it with me). It's two months old and little and super cute. It cries at night still but follows me around all day long. I think I'll call it little John because it will be a big dog and Robin Hood is one of the themes recently (because of reading that book outloud to Kevin's family).

Days have been passing quickly for me, even though my life is almost like one long vacation. I think I have gotten used to it. I just need to have a better writing schedule, and then I will feel like I'm doing something worthwhile.

The other day I hiked out to las higueras with Aleyda and Candido to haul a sack of corn home on my back. I can't beleive he plants all the way out there! He has to haul his water uphill when he fertilizes and bring everything out and back on his shoulders...no wonder he's so skinny and eats so much. Imagine having to sacrifice so much to eat!

I went to Agua Azul (by the lake) with Kevin this week to visit his sister, pick up the dog and some boxes his dad had sent from the states. The last night we were there, Kevin and his sister went through the boxes. I was rather appalled and felt kind of sick...it looked as if he had picked up boxes of left over garage sale junk and sent it to his family, regardless of the usefulness of it. I think he sends stuff so that he can be closer to his family (and not just sending money) and so that the kids have new and novel toys. But I felt sad and sick about it, because I could just see him exporting the worst of American culture to Honduras. And the stuff will not last--it will get broken within a few weeks and thrown where? --in the yard. Arg. I talked with Kevin about it and realized that the good things that money gives are opportunities: for education, for travel, for living the lifestyle that one wants. Kevin's dad is not making enough money to be able to provide those opportunities. So he gives what he can (sort of a rip off/shadow of the "American dream"). It makes me very sad...Kevin keeps telling me: "listen, you've said it before, you didn't chose where to be born, the world is this way, and you have to accept it because if you don't you'll make yourself sick." (ha. I can't even believe I dramatize to him about it--he's the one who lives with it, not me.) And he's right, but I have trouble letting it all go. I want to know what else I can do. I want to change the way the world works (I know that sounds super-adolescent. I don't have an exaggerated opinion of my power and importance, I promise). I just think there has got to be a way to do this differently. Someday I will find a way to do something.

I'm still working on the Pila project and teaching in the school. My pila project committee is fun to work with--they bring lots of ideas to the table and work hard. The president is someone I had never met before and I've come to really like him. He arrives five minutes early to every meeting and makes jokes with Aleyda whenever he's around us.

It's still fun to be in the school, but I'm having a little trouble teaching the 3rd and 4th graders. If you can think of any activities appropriate for that age group and good for learning vocabulary, let me know.

Alonzo has been sharing some good stories. I think I should write them all down as tall tales from Honduras. He's such a ham, and I've never heard him tell the same story twice (which is pretty amazing).

Last week I went to an in-service training of the health and water sanitation voluteers. I taught two sessions:one on latrine projects and one on family gardens. It was fun to share what I have learned. In the evening, the volunteers all partied pretty hard. Strange. I am so not into that scene (I wasn't that into it in college, and college is over). I set up a barber's chair and cut hair in the corner all night. That was much nicer, because then I could have short and personal conversations. And don't worry, I don't advertise myself as a hairdresser--it just has come out that I've cut other volunteers' hair, and everyone is in need of a haircut, so I'm happy to help.

I visited some other volunteers two weeks ago (my friends Jennifer, Gabe and Savanna) because Jennifer left Honduras this week (she quit, so to speak). It was great to see them and talk about volunteer stuff. It made me very sad, though, because we started talking about Haves and Have Nots and Honduran culture. I think volunteers get pretty cynical about Hondurans and their tendency to cheat and steal and take advantage. I don't want to do that. When I think harshly about people (or the human race) I don't really feel like being in the world. So better to be taken advantage of (by being trusting) than to take advantage. But Gabe's site is very beatiful and it was fun to hike and be around those three.

Well. That's my book for today. I hope you all are well.

Peace
(that's what I've got to have inside before I can find it in the world, right?)
so I wish that for you...

Jennifer

June

2009-07-08T09:43:00.002-06:00

I had a rocking month of June. I mean, things were crazy and fast and unexpected and really good and really bad at the same time.
I have had an amazing time of teaching in the school. It has become really fun for me to work with the fifth and sixth graders, because we are begining to learn a little English grammar. Don't ask me why I like grammar so much, but I am sure I am more excited about it than they are. They are picking up on some things, and I'm sure it will help them in the long run.
I started a new project. After some conversations with Alayda, we decided to work on a pila project. Pila's are the water cysterns that people use; they store the water in them so that when they wash they don't waste water. There are about 60 people in my community without pilas, which is a big waste of water. So, last weekend I had an interest meeting, and about 40 people showed up! I had a blast; I love running community meetings, especially now in Planes, because everyone knows me. I sat on a desk in the front of the room and made jokes and laughed with everyone. I really do love my job (I believe that's the first time I've said that). We made a list of the participants and formed a committee to help me write a grant and organize everyone for the project. I'm very excited!
My days follow a pretty enjoyable pattern. Every morning I wake up, excercise and then go make tortillas with my friend Alayda. For those of you that have had the pleasure to meet her; she is still as chavacan (happy and teasing) as ever. She is very good to me. Afterwards I work in my house; I do the laundry, clean, prepare for classes or meetings, read, or write. Then I usually visit other friends in the community, like Joseny, Oneyda, or Elida. Elida's family reminds me of my own, and I have taken to spending time playing marbles with the young kids or reading to them. This week I bought a copy of the adventures of Robinhood that I will hopefully start reading to them.
This week, I ran into a young man who plays the guitar well. That was exciting and surprising. It is possible that I will meet with him occasionally to practice and learn a bit. As long as he refrains from trying to make me fall in love with him.
I have some beautiful flowers in front of my house right now, and vegetables growing in the garden. I feel comfortable and at home in my house and my community. I can now comfortably say that I will be able to stay here for the remainder of my commitment, which means I will be here until September of 2010.

As for the bad, in June I got pretty sick. I am significantly thinner because I have not been able to regain an appetite because of some personal worries. I had to buy new pants this trip to Siguatepeque, because when I wear the pants I brought with me I look like I'm wearing my father's pants. My female friends like Alayda and Elida are doing a good job of taking care of me. I'm trying to take care of myself.

Oh! We have also had some political difficulties in Honduras which I am sure you have heard about. I am well; I live in such a small community that the unrest does not affect us. The PC is keeping us on alert and taking care of us; if there is lots of violence we will be evacuated. Do not worry about me!

I will be coming home for a visit very soon! I will arrive in MN on the 23rd of July, and I'll leave on August 4th. I am very very excited to see all of my family and friends!

Happy Easter

2009-04-20T12:14:00.003-06:00

I think it´s high time that I send some pictures...so here´s an update.

I´ve had a great past few weeks--I´ve been very happy and very busy. I´m SOO looking forward to Mom and Dad´s visit, and so are the members of my community. They all want to meet them! It´s going to be a good week!

For Easter I went to Comayagua and watched the people make and destroy carpets out of saw dust. They were beautiful. The first few pictures are of those carpets, at about seven in the morning, after people had spent all night making them. The third picture is of the procession. The people are stepping on all the their beautiful hard work. It´s a pretty symbolic tradition.

On Saturday I went home to Planes to participate in the traditions there. So, instead of going to church on Saturday night I danced until midnight! I had a blast!

The next day I went swimming in the river. Everyone was there...The next picture is of that. On Sunday night, the ¨Jews¨ came out. People dress up in scary costumes and run around being crazy, chasing kids and dancing. It used to have more significance, but now people just do it to have fun.

The next picture is of the get up. The last picture is Christian with a big snake he killed.

Jennifer

Projects Update

2009-03-30T09:19:00.002-07:00

I´m sure you all know this by now. I´ve gone through a rollarcoaster in the past few months, trying to keep my head up. Right now, I´m feeling great, so I figure it´s a good time to write a blog post/update.

This week I have been accompanied. Juliana came from Nicaragua to visit me again. She's a great guest--she accompanies me and helps me with everything I do, and then I have someone to talk to about everything that happens. The week was busy. We team taught the English classes at the school on Monday morning. Juliana is a very experienced English teacher; she taught English in Thailand before she even really knew Thai. So, she has been giving me ideas about interactive and fun English classes. We will do one more set of classes together before she leaves, and then I'm on my own again!
On Tuesday, the priest from the county came to give mass, reconciliation, baptize, and give first communion for the one time he does it all year. So, of course, I had to go. The man seemed to be out of a movie talking about how horrible the Catholic Church is. He spent his one chance to minister to the people of my community lecturing them about how they need to stop living in sin and return to God. He reviled the people for the way they marry--union libre--instead of marriage in the church (it would be difficult and costly to pay for the classes in Meambar). He reprimanded people for going to the evangelical culto (which I do every week). The gospel, to me, is about love, hope and acceptance. I wish that churches wouldn't forget that in their petty rivalries.

We have spent the rest of the week taking walks, talking a lot, making tortillas with my friend Alayda, and working on a sign for the library. Since it has been a while, I thought I would give you all a written update on my projects.

Latrines in Cienegal: All month I waited for a response from Aldea Global, the NGO that we turned in a grant proposal to at the end of February. I called the coordinator every week and just twiddled my thumbs, hoping for the money...(but 48 latrines cost a lot of money). Finally, last week, the director called me and told me that he wanted to visit Cienegal for a community meeting about the project. Aldea Global has almost all the funds necessary to fund the project, but there are a few hitches the coordinator wanted to talk about. The NGO has only 25 toiled bowls, but they had some money set aside to improve the road to the community. So the deal we talked about at the community meeting was that the people of Cienegal could work for two days on the road and then use the money to buy the remaining toilet bowls. The mayor of the county is going to donate the money for the cement, and Aldea Global wants to start the project in April. It seemed to be a successful meeting. It was great to start seriously talking about the work--the coordinator of the NGO brought some materials to let people know that he was serious. He also complimented us on the work we did to make the budget and proposal for the project; he could tell we were serious and well organized. The people were a little disappointed about the extra work (because the road work will be with pickaxes--it will be very heavy work), but they seem ready to take it on. I made a small speech and got a big applause (they really appreciate that I have been advocating for them). So, Easter week the people will be out with their pickaxes in the road, and hopefully at the begining of April we can bring in the rest of the supplies and get moving before the rains come.
The Library Project: oh, do I EVER have great stories about this project...it has been really instructive to have frequent meetings with members of my community. I'm learning to let go of what I think a library should be and work to expand my committee members' ideas. But, just for an example, the most important first step to building a library, my committee concluded, was to buy a customized stamp. And now that we have the stamp, we stamp everything; our minutes, our raffle tickets, our requests for books and supplies. Now, our next goal is to make a sign for the library that has the names of the founders on it. Nevermind that we don't have an actual library yet, or even book shelves (we are working on that). Sometime, though, if you want a good story, ask me about the agenda for a meeting.
Classes: Now, once a week, I am giving English classes at the primary school. I have 45 minutes with the fifth and sixth graders, and then 45 minutes with the third and fourth grade. I don't have enough time, nor are they really at an age, to learn a complete English. But I am trying to use my time to expand their horizons, have fun, and teach them a little bit of English. We will use activities and games. Juliana has given me many ideas.
Gardens: I have been working on vegetable gardens for a few months, but the project is not organized (i.e. it doesn't involve meetings). But I think, because of my advice, two members of my community have started compost piles and at least 20 people have planted tomatoes, radishes, or peppers.

There are always options for a few other projects--a trash clean up project, a live barrier project--but things move and evolve slowly.

I am excited to see mom and dad soon!

April and May will pass quickly. I hope you all are well, and I love you.

Jennifer

January is...OVER!

2009-02-04T06:28:00.001-07:00

Wow, that went fast. Right? I feel like I was just writing to you all that I needed to make sure to find things to do to keep my January busy so that I didn´t get lonely. My month just filled naturally, though. I´ve been out of site for most of the last two weeks.

Last week, I took Juliana, a little girl from my site, to a club foot brigade in Tegucigalpa. She doesn´t have a club foot, but her toes have been falling off. So I used the brigade as a starting point, but then I just ended up toting her with me to the public and private hospitals in Teguc, looking for answers. Public hospitals in Tegucigalpa are ridiculous. They do not give appointments; one just shows up as early as one can in the morning with a reference and waits and waits...and waits until one can see the doctor. And the doctors are well trained, but they are trying to see as many patients as they can so it´s hard to get the sort of attention one needs. Everytime we would finally get to see a doctor, the doctor would inevitably call at least five other doctors, they would look at Juliana´s foot and talk about it. It´s a pretty mind-boggling thing. So, she was tested for leprosy, she was seen my dermatologists, foot doctors, and neurologists. In the public hospitals, we were passed from doctor to doctor. It was a pretty emotionally exhausting experience for me, because I was caring for this 13 year old on my own and being her only advocate. It was a tough week. Finally, we went to a private hospital and a doctor finally listened to us and took time with us. He decided that she probably has a neurological problem (she doesn´t have feeling in her foot, so she bumps it, it has poor circulation and her toes fall off) so we are going back in to Teguc on February 9th for an electrode nerve conduction test and an EMG brain scan. Hopefully that will work out.

We stayed with an RPCV who served in the Ukraine and his ethnically Russian wife. They were extremely kind to us and gave us all of our meals and toted us around Tegucigalpa for all of our appointments. We will stay with them again in a few weeks.

Over the weekend I went back to site, but this week I came into Siguatepeque for a PC in service training. I reunited with all of my fellow PAM volunteers. It was a fun week! We went to an integrated farm, learned about developing lesson plans for Environmental Ed, and did some networking with our fellow volunteers. I think it was important to step back and look at all the possibilities for projects (especially now that I´ve narrowed down the options in site--I don´t want to get closed minded...) Now I´ve only got nine days in site and I´m off again to Teguc with Juliana...my latrine project is moving fast (I´ve got an all community meeting and educational session on Feb 18th), and Katie Peterson is coming to visit on the 19th (and we´re going to Guatemala!). So February is going to FLY by. I hope you all are well. I love you. Thank you for the support--the letters, emails, and constant well-wishes.

Jennifer

the New Year

2009-01-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

This first photo is of all the volunteers I went to the lake with for the celebration of the New Year. We took the picture right after the clock struck 12! Happy New Year!

These pictures are of the lake on New Year´s. I was experimenting with my camera and the night lens. Didn´t they turn out beautiful? This is the Lago Yojoa, the biggest lake in Honduras.

The next picture is of Savanna and Jennifer, the two other PCVs I spent the most time with on New Year´s. We just did a lot of talking, walking and just hanging out during those two days.
The next picture is one of the spectacular veiws from Planes. The thing is, it is just a normal view--all of them are so amazing. And I had forgotten until I had Juliana with me to be impressed.The next pictures are of one of my excitements this January. I have spent time making flower beds and vegetable beds with Oneyda. I have also planted tomatoes, peppers, and a bunch of spices in these cups. I feel like a proud parent to see them sprouting! I love growing things. Now I´m just waiting (still) to fence in my yard.

I have devoted one of the walls in my kitchen to things I have received in the mail. So as you can see, there are poems, leaves, drawings, pictures, and poems, all pinned up there. It make me very happy. See if you´ve got anything up there!

Since arriving back at site I have generally felt very good. It was fun to be back and spend time with my community members. They were excited to see me, and more than a few told me they were afraid that I had gone home never to return. Since returning to site I have been working on planting with Oneyda (we already have sprouts---see the picture above again!) and planting at home. I finished making my walls smooth and whitewashing them (now I have to make the outside more pretty). I put up a false ceiling of plastic in my house. That way you can´t see the dirty ceiling. I made invitations for a library meeting (we´re going to try to get a new committee) and have been passing them out all week. The meeting in on Sunday of this week! Wish me luck! (the important piece will be that people show up!). I had a latrine meeting in Cienegal. We´re making good progress.

That day (Sunday), I went to Cienegal with Julissa (one of Ana´s daughters). We went early so that we could go to the Catholic celebration in that town before the meeting. I got a little worried when I noticed that the man who was preaching was the same one who asked me, weeks ago, if I was married while he was preaching. And sure enough, near the end of his sermon he asked me if I understood what he was saying. I told him that of course I did. Then he proceeded to ask a barrage of questions: are you baptized? confirmed? what´s your first and last name? are you a missionary? what´s your work here? Again, I was very embarrassed, but I´m getting used to such treatment. I guess he was curious, and he figured that the 40 other people in the church were also curious (and they probably were).

And the meeting was energizing. Everyone showed up (that helps me SO much). They had done their homework and they were supportive of the steps we´re taking. We´re starting to organize a compulsory community meeting (for those that want latrines) and we´re working on writing the grant proposal. So exciting! We will have success. We´re meeting again on the 25th.

This week Ada, the women I used to live with, invited me to her wedding that is taking place next Friday! I am excited--it should be fun. I bought a hammock, which a Honduran friend assured me is totally inappropriate for a wedding. Oh well. I think it´s sweet, at least. And useful. And I didn´t want to buy dishes.

Next week, I may go to Tegucigalpa with Juliana (Ana´s other daughter) to a medical brigade to try to solve her mysterious disease that makes her toes fall off. That is, if I can convince Ana to let me do that. Hopefully it works out. At the end of the month I will go to reconnect and see all of the other PAM volunteers. Things are going fast.

I love you all. I hope you are well.

Jennifer

Christmas

2008-12-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

It never did feel like Christmas, but after all of these emails refering to it, maybe we did have Christmas...hmm. Daniel and Ben, I totally sympathize with you. This Christmas was so out of the ordinary that I didn´t miss home hugely (or I didn´t think I did, until I talked with Mom and Kathleen on the 25th).

I have had a great past ten days with my friend Juliana, who has been visiting from the states (we lived together in MPLS two summers ago). She was traveling central America, and decided to come to Planes to pass Christmas with me. Her spanish is quite good, so we were able to do things that I normally do, but it was so much better acompañada! The first few days I talked until I was hoarse. I had no idea that I had learned so much! But with her here I was able to explain everything that we were doing and everything related to my job (from the local dialect, to integrated farming techniques, to the relationships and characters of my community members). It was amazing to have someone to share my life with, because I can´t tell anyone from my community those things, and other volunteers are having their own crazy personal experience that is hard to relate.

As for highlights...we took a hike to Cienegal (the community in which I am doing the latrine project) and spent a wonderful afternoon with Doña Josefa. She was a little penosa (shy) at first, but then she opened up and started telling us about her experience with the duende (the legendary Central American elf that bewitches young girls), anecdotes with her husband (one day she told him she wouldn´t wash his feet anymore to get rid of the althlete´s foot, and so the next morning when she got up to start the fire, he put his feet where his head should have been in the bed so that she would come back and kiss his feet! And she did, on accident...), and finally, her serious question for us: your country is amazing and everyone in my country wants to go there, so why are you two here? I find that question coming from a Honduran very humbling, because I can´t use the same language that I would with my friends and family in the US (well, see, I was born into wealth without doing anything to deserve it, so I feel compelled to help those who just happened to be born with a lot less). I can´t tell her exactly that because I don´t want to tell her that she is poor (although she would say it) or seem like I have great facility to do whatever I want (although I do: options are our blessing and our curse). Juliana and I did a lot of thinking and talking after that. On our way home, we lost the path as the sun set...I knew that all we needed to do was climb to the top of the mountain and then we would be in the road again, but we had to hack our way through brush that was taller than us up a steep slope. That´s the kind of story that´s fun to tell later, but at the time it was rather scary. I´m going to have màs cuidado with that camino...

On Sunday morning last week, we were doing yoga in the living room when Don Alonso showed up at my window, inviting us to go fish for talapia in his ponds so that we could eat some. So we hiking down to his ponds and watched him fish with just a hook on a string, baited with tortilla. Then Melvin and Nata showed up and invited us to go bajar naranjas with them. So we held their horse and burro while they climbed orange trees and threw them down to each other (you have to catch them or they´ll break). We got home in time for church, after which my friend Maria de la Luz stopped by and cleaned the fish for us (thank goodness). I gave her most of the fish as payment, and she told me about how she wants to go al norte when her baby is 18 months old (she´s 9 months right now). She wants to find a home to work in, so that she and her husband can buy a house (and not rent). But wow...she was saying she could wash the clothes and clean, but she has NO idea about what that entials (a washing maching, and vacuum cleaner, many houses instead of one).

On Christmas Eve (that´s the big day around here), Juliana and I awoke to the sounds of squeeling pigs. Everyone kills their pigs for Christmas tamales. We got dressed up and went over to Oneyda´s to help make tamales. On our way a young man, one of my most persistent admirers, called after us ¨con todo gusto la llevo a mi casa...¨ Oneyda returned from cutting coffee (she was working on Christmas Eve! and she had a bunch of family visiting from out of town) and set us to work cutting up red pepper, potatoes and onions and kneeding dough. Tamales are made from a masa of ground corn and LOTS of african palm oil (white vegetable fat). You spread the masa out on a banana leaf, and then put a little dollop of potatoes, rice, and a chunch of partially cooked pork (usually with a bone inside and skin still attached to one side) on it. You dribble a spoonful of broth on the top and then roll up the banana leaf. You make a whole bunch of these (at least 25) and then put them in a pot with a little water and steam them for at least an hour. They´re pretty heavy. But Juliana and I have already been daydreaming about a party we want to have next christmas when I come home for a visit...we want to make a bunch of tamales (without the palm oil and gross pork) of different sytles (sweet thai, spicy mexican, etc) and LOTs of ingredientes. You all are invited. I´m sure it will be delicious.

Even though we were invited to at least four houses, somehow we got off with only eating one tamale! What luck! Oneyda was really excited to tell everyone that she had the only tamales in town made by gringas. She´ll be talking about that forever! We also learned how to make Torrejas, which are amazingly disgusting fried corn cakes soaked in sweet water. Oneyda was very patient with us, teaching us how to cook and letting us (most women don´t trust other people to prepare their entire christmas dinner). She´s an amazing person.

At around seven thirty, we saw that there were lights in the church so we went over for Christmas service. It was pretty much like normal, except by candlelight. The sermons are done by lay people, and generally just sound like a collection of platitudes: you should be fishes of men...loaves and fishes...invite Mary into your home, that way you will have strength...people are bad and need Jesus. They are so confusing that I generally daydream. On Christmas Eve, though, Fermina, Oneyda´s mother, gave the sermon. She had a confusing speach she made up on the spot (I think that was supposed to be focused on Mary), but halfway through she started talking about what an amazing person I am, about how much she respects me, that I talk with everyone and am always happy. It was a wonderful compliment and also wildly innappropriate. I am glad I am generally used to things like that here, otherwise I would have been very embarrassed.

After church we went back to Danilo and Oneyda´s for a little dance. It was fun (I´m glad I´m used to Honduran men...), but it was broken up around 10.30. I felt like I was in college again. The policeman that broke it up told everyone that someone had died in the next community, using scare tactics to make everyone go home. It was a lie. But I understand more than I did before--Honduran men from the campo drinking guaro is kind of scary. Nothing happened, I have just heard too many stories.

Besides all of that...in the last week I have had two attempts at meetings with my library committee. But we´re having trouble with the committee; only two people consistently arrive. The two people are amazing (Doña Ana and Alonso) and really fun to be around (together they tell jokes and tease and laugh, using vos--the central american familiar verb form--between each other). But the lack of the rest of the committee is frustrating--it´s hard to help people that don´t want to work on something. We´re going to try one more time, on the eleventh of January. Hopefully we can have success.

Now Juliana and I are in Valle de Angeles to spend a few days with the host family there. I am so glad to see them, and they are still as welcoming and amazing as ever. Juliana is leaving on Tuesday to go back to Nicaragua to work on a documentary about organic coffee, and I will be going to Agua Azul (near the Lago Yojoa) to spend the New Year with a bunch of Volunteers. I´m pumped!

I love you all. Thanks for your emails (Daniel especially) and for the packages and letters.

Jennifer

Thanksgiving, Graduation, Coffee, and meetings...

2008-12-05T07:17:00.023-07:00

So, I haven´t sent pictures in over a month. The first ones I´m sending are from the day I went to cut coffee (they call it cortar café). It´s rather like picking apples--you tie a bucket around your waist and then just pick the red berries until it´s full. Then you dump them into a bag. The girls I went cutting with are Kelin, Juliana, Julisa and .... I hang out with them sometimes in the afternoon around 5 pm...we sit on this plastic drainage pipe they call los muebles, or the couches, and just hang out and joke for a while. They always ask me, when I see them, if I´m going to come to los muebles this evening. I can´t really deal with the picture of me, but I wanted you to see the process. I´m just picking the red berries. It´s hot and sunny, but the long sleeve shirt is kind of necessary because of the bugs and the close branches.

The last picture is of the tambo, or tumbilla that I´m filling with coffee berries.

Here´s a picture of me in case you forgot what I look like. And so that you know I don´t always look as bad as I do when I cut coffee. My hair is wet--I just took a shower. This picture is of Eulalio, my landlord, making a pila (water cistern) out of bricks and cement. He finished it, and this week when I filled it the water drained out within only a few hours. it is not supposed to do that. I let him know and he´s going to patch up the leak.

So, last week I was nearly entirely preoccupied with my new house. I went there nearly every day to clean, whiten the walls with lime (cal), or start decorating.

The other pictures are from the same day. Oneyda came over to help me whiten the house. We´re wearing old clothes, and trapos on our heads and fat and rubber gloves on our hands to protect ourselves from the burning basidity (I know that´s not a word) of the cal.

Here is a picture of how my room used to look, before I whitened the walls, bought new plastic for the ceiling, and decorated.

At the top was a picture from that same day. I´m with Eulalio´s youngest daughter, and Pichin (my little friend) is learning how to use my camera.

Besides working on my house last week, I had my first community meeting in El Cienegal, where I will be doing a latrine project with the community.

Here is a picture is of a man Danilo and I met on our way over. I´ve actually seen him quite a lot--he frequently comes to the catholic church to preach. He is working in his feilds in an immense and impressive valley where many people farm called Tapiquilares. I´m pretty sure he´s using a chemical to kill the greenery in between his corn plants from his last harvest so that he can plant beans for this one.

This next picture is just greenery, but it´s to give you a taste of what the hike between Planes and Cienegal is like. The village is in the valley between the picture and the next mountain. It´s very wooded, with pine trees. When it is nice out I love the hike. It´s very steep, though, and when Danilo decides he´s late I can´t keep up with the way he runs down the mountains. He´s like a mountain goat!
So, I was pretty nervous about the meeting. I think understandably, because I don´t have that much experience conducting meetings even in English.

Here are some pictures of the people waiting for us to start. As you can see, it was mostly women and children (which could be a problem, as most of the latrine work needs to be done by men!).

But Danilo was there supporting me (which was great, especially at the beginning). He sat in front with me, introduced me and the meeting, and then I took over. I introduced myself and the PC (we do not just give projects, we help the community develop them and learn the process). Then I asked everyone to introduce themselves and tell me something they liked about their community. This is when my nerves left me, because they were so embarrased! I had to do lots of encouraging and joking to help them share with me just a little. And they´ve probably known each other all their lives! In the end, most of them ended up just telling me about how happy they were that I had come. (yay!). From there, we identified community needs, then voted on one we wanted to work on. People unanimously chose latrines. We elected a committee, I gave them homework (visit every house in the community and do a census and convince people of the necessity of all of them working on this) and we decided on the next meeting date. So I´ll be going there next Sunday. I´m working on planning the meeting.

On our way out, Danilo and I stopped at a woman´s house (he can´t resist conversation and coffee). Here is just a taste of what the houses look like in Cienegal.

They don´t even make their houses of adobe, but just use wood slats. They all have dirt floors. I have gotten used to the way things look, there, but the first visit was tough. So that´s how I spent my Thanksgiving. (give thanks for you water system and your indoor plumbing).

On Friday I went to the clausura (graduation) of the sixth graders. I served as a testigo (witness) for Doña Ana´s daughter Isidor Juliana.

Here is a picture of the entire class with Profe Ana (my former host sister). They were all forced to buy the same dress. People in the community made the dresses.

And here we are at the celebration afterwards, eating enormous quantities of food! (unlike Grad parties in the US, people serve your food here. And I was invited to numerous parties, so I had to chose between feeling enormously full or wasting food. I was feeling rather ill from some juice I had been given in Cienegal the previous day, so I was able to turn down food). You can see Alayda standing in the background (she came for the party, and then left again...boo). And her daughter is in the dress nearest to us. The last pictures are of my decorated house. In the first one, you can see my hamock, my big work table, and my maps.
Then you have my pictures on the walls (thank you Ben and Kathleen and Jacqueline). I have another wall full of pictures on the other side.

The last picture is of my hornilla. This week, on Monday, when I moved in, I realized that my chimbo didn´t have any gas. So I went to get firewood and Ocote (a really sappy pine used for starting fires) and cooked over the wood stove. It was a rather frustrating experience. I had trouble starting the fire, and keeping it going, and it was VERY hot. But I´m through with that, now. It gave me something to do. And introduced me to new people (when I went to buy wood).

All for now. Until next time,

Jennifer

p.s.

i almost forgot,

This morning, I got two lovely surprises at my mail box. Thank you so much for the thanksgiving package, Aunt Kate (And Andrew, Jacqueline, and Tom). It was wonderful. I made sure to give the little christmas light up magnet to the post office worker, Claudia. Now she loves me (and the little magnet) and will make sure to treat my packages well). I also got an extraordinarily heavy package from Grandma Pat and Grandpa Al. Thank you so much, as well! I am so excited to see the nuts and dried fruit. They will last me a LONG time, and I will enjoy every bite. Thank you for all of the love!

My cat, new friends, and the Catholic Church

2008-11-12T11:21:00.014-07:00

The first picture I´m sending is of my new kitten! We´ve decided (my friend Alayda and I) to call him Concetido, which means something like ¨dear one¨ (I think). Sol (soledad), Alayda´s sister and Ana´s daughter, is holding him.

Here we have Omar, Betty, Marleny and Daniela at dusk by the soccer goals. The kids play here every evening as the sun sets.

These are Alayda´s oldest daughters, Marbelie and Jolibet. They are standing in the doorway of their house. This is the Catholic Church I go to every sunday for a service (there is no priest, so there is no mass). Alayda usually goes with me (you can see her back in this picture). There are three women that lead the song and do the readings. It is pretty simmilar to mass in the US, but the content of the sermon is usually a little more literal.

These to photos are of my new house. As you can see, it needs a little work. Today I am buying cement and some other supplies so that we can fix it up this week. I will be moving in in the begining of December (hopefully).

This is little Luis (people call him Pichin), who will be my neighbor in my new house. Oh! He´s holding his little brother. The afternoon that I took this photo he told me that his mom had gone to pick coffee--he was at home caring for the kids. He is eight.

This is Ana (the teacher I live with) and Jairo (her brother). This week we went up to their coffee finca in the mountain to look at the construction they have done there. The cement structure they are standing on is where they are going to pour out the coffee to take off the shells. This is Marjorie, peeling an orange with a machete. That´s right, a machete. Until I came to Honduras I never knew that a machete has so many uses, but now I know that you can cut the grass, chop up firewood, dig holes, all with a machete.

Here we have the whole troop in Jairo´s truck. From left to right, starting in back, is Ada (the other teacher I live with), Jennifer (a girl from town), Ete (Ada´s sister), Ana (the teacher), Omar (Ete´s son), and in the truck is Panchita (the mom of Jairo, Ana, Ada, Ete, and the teacher in the school) Marixa (Jairo´s wife) and Jairo.

Finally I´m sending a picture of my closest friend here in Planes, pictured with the flowers she loves to care for outside of her house. Her name in Alayda. She is about 32 (I think), and went to school until 4th grade, after which she helped her mom by selling bread in the community and the nearby ones. She married for the first time (well, here people don´t marry often, they just live together and call it marriage) when she was around 17 I think. Now she is living with her third husband (this one of eight years) and she has three really sweet daughters. Every time I visit Alayda I end up staying longer than I planned, and we laugh a lot. She teases me about Ben a lot, calling him Mincho.

Well, that´s all for today. This next week, I am looking forward to a community meeting in Cienegal, a town a two hour hike away. We are going to do a community needs analysis and hopefully start working on a latrine project. Wish me luck at running a meeting in Spanish! I will try to take pictures there!

Pictures Part 3.1

2008-11-04T11:30:00.009-07:00

Hi again!

This next picture is of my counterpart, Danilo. It´s only his profile, but I wanted to catch him at what he does best. He was chatting with a farmer down the hill (the farmer was planting beans) about planting fruit trees. Danilo´s job right now is reforestation, and he spends his days traveling to other communities setting up tree nurseries. He loves it--he loves to walk and he loves to shoot the breeze with everyone he meets. He looks unnassumming, but he is the way that politicians should be.

As you have probably heard, it has rained an exceptional amount in Honduras over the past two weeks. There have been landslides and people have had their houses washed away. Luckily, we haven´t had any calamities in my site. But the road to get out of my town is being washed away. As you can see in this photo, half of it has washed away. A small truck can still pass. Hopefully they fix it soon, but that is not too probable.

Here we have some of the beautiful girls in my town that shout to me as I pass their houses. ¨Jennifer,¨ they call. They are pictured in front of the house of the teachers, where I live right now. In the background is also the football feild.
This is Oneyda, my counterpart´s wife, and her daughters Daniela (sitting) and Tanya. I spend a lot of time with them.

This is me with one of my possible future cats. I decided that in my new house I want to have a cat (sorry, Ben) to eat the cockroaches and mice. I found some kittens in some nearby houses and had a great time petting them one afternoon. The Hondurans around thought I was pretty weird (cats are for kicking) but I made the kids only touch the kitten nicely. As you can see I am wearing a sweater. It has been pretty cold.

I spend my last few hours of the day at my desk by candlelight, so I thought I´d take a photo so you can see how it is. I spend time writing letters, writing work notes, and reading. There is only so long I can operate by candlelight, though, so I always end up going to be early, around eight thirty.

This is Profe Panchita, the dueña of the house I currently live in. She is a teacher at the school (second and fourth grade, I think). She is sewing out on her patio (it´s an open space connected to the house with a roof). She is serious and doesn´t talk much, but she takes care of me. I´m sorry I have no photos of her daughters Ana and Ada. Next time.

Pictures Part 3

2008-10-30T11:09:00.010-07:00

The first picture I´m sending is of my fellow volunteer Gail playing guitar after the wedding we went to at our FBT site months ago. We are at our friend and trainer Terencio´s house. Gail was a PCV in Tanzania before she arrived to train with me in Honduras, so Ben knows some of her PCV friends from Tanzania. It´s a crazy world!

Next pictured is my PCV friend Matt and Terencio´s son. Whenever I have a question about Agrictulture, I first call Matt, and then I consult my books. He always has information (or at least he pretends to). He now lives pretty far away from me, so I don´t know when I´ll see him again.

This is a picture of me with my PCV friend Gabe on the day of our swearing in, in case you have forgotten what I look like. Gabe is from MN, so we have a good connection. He lives near me, so hopefully I will see more of him.

This next picture shows you the streets of my village! The picture is of María de la Luz, one of my new friends, and her husband and daughter. Note the cow in the background.

This picture is of Ete, and her adorable son Johnaton, who can now walk alone! Ete is one of Ana and Ada´s sisters (there are six of them and all of their names end in linda--Etelinda, Analinda, Adalinda, Olinda, Bettelinda, etc...). She lives in a house just across the feild, but she always comes over to visit with Johnaton.

The landscape is the beautiful veiw that I see when I walk over to Danilo´s house in the morning. I think this was taken one day last week when we left at seven in the morning to hike to a nearby aldea (2 hours there and back...it was a great workout!).

This is Oneyda, my counterpart´s wife. She is a good friend of mine--I frequently stop at her house just to see how she is. She is pictured with a new fogón (cooking stove) that she had just made that morning. (David, in case you´re interested...you mix clay with dry manure and ashes and fashion the clay around bricks. Leave a hole to put in the wood and a hole for the chimeney. Cover it with a peice of thin metal (I don´t know what kind). On that you can make tortillas or place your cooking pots!)

This is one of my counterparts´ family´s dogs. It looks like it just got a chicken! The dirt floor is typical for my community, as are the mud walls covered with a white paint they make by mixing a rock they find in the mountain with water. The plastic chairs are also typical--people sit on those or wooden benches.

This last week, I learned how to plant beans (and impressed all the men in my town), walked to two nearby towns (both two hours away) and made tortillas for my host family. Time is going quickly.

More pictures to come soon.

The new routine...

2008-10-17T13:16:00.001-06:00

I think it´s a sign that I´m adjusting that events do not stand out in my mind as much as they did the first time I wrote to you from my site. My life is becoming more normal in Los Planes. What I am most happy about is the fact that even though my job is unclear and unstructured (get to know the community, think of projects) I am thriving. I guess, contrary to what I previously thought, I don´t need so much direction to be able to find things to do. I am actually rather good at self directed activities.

It seems that with each week that passes, a new window opens of things that I need to investigate. And that´s how I feel right now. I feel like a spy with an ongoing list of people to see and questions to ask (all over cups of coffee, surrepticiously slipped in after I´ve talked about the weather and the health of the kids). Last week, I started visiting houses of men and women in the community whom I had heard held leadership roles. These visits went really well--I have found that it is very interesting to me to hear about other people (I have to be careful about gossip!) and I really like to hear about these peoples´ lives. I have gotten to know many people in that way.

This week, I have become obsessed with agriculture improvement. There has been a tropical storm in the Carribean, so I have spend my time inside (the rain hasn´t stopped for three days) reading articles about improved farming techniques. From what I have read and already knew, I can see some very easy and important improved agricultural practices that could greatly help the yeild of produce in the area. As I have mentioned before, people here mainly grow beans, corn, and coffee (their coffee fincas are always intersperced with fruit trees--lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins, mangos, bananas). I have discovered that people don´t grow other veggies because the costs of the pesticides and fertilizers necessary to do so are too high to make the crop worth growing--the market selling prices end up being devastatingly low. From what I´ve read, it´s better to improve the techniques of the crops already grown than to introduce something new. So, although I´d like to start a women´s group to teach how to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, I´d like to work with them men in the community to teach them how to use barriers (live and dead) on their sloped land, cultivate leguminous green plants in between their corn to naturally fertilize the soil, and help them find alternatives to burning their crops in the feild after the harvest. I have become pretty fired up about these things, but the problem is that I have not yet visited many farms with the men in the village.

I really appreciate my counterpart´s wife, Oneyda. Whenever I am not sure what to do with myself, I go visit her. With her I make tortillas and listen to talk about the entire aldea, which always interests me. Oneyda loves flowers--she has about forty flowers growing in plastic bags outside of her house. They are propped up on wooden benches so that the chickens won´t get them. She harvests the seeds herself. Needless to say, she is very excited to start growing tomatoes with the women´s group!

I have found a house to rent! It is owned by a respectable man who I would like to get to know. He is the pastor at a church in the community that meets about four days a week. I can hear them singing late into the night. The house is a little place--it has a bedroom, a kitchen and a little sitting room. Right now it has a dirt floor, but Eulalio is an albañil, so he is going to put in a cement floor next month. There is a bathroom outside, and he will also make a pila outside (water cistern). The house is a little dark, but that is common for houses here--they usually only have one small window per room. But there is a big yard, and he is going to make a fence so that I can make my garden. I hope to start working on that in the begining of November. I am very excited, and in my spare time I dream about how I´m going to make a compost pile, and a place to bury my plastics and burn my papers and grow such delicious veggetables...I am sure such dreams don´t make sense to most of you (who dreams about garbage sorting?) but trash is such a problem here that I can´t wait to have one place that I can control. It will be clean.
And since this has been more general, I think I will let you know more specifically what I do with my days.

I usually wake up around six or six thirty, and stretch for a half an hour. My limbs tend to be sore here from all of the walking on steep terrain. I get up and shower and eat breakfast (oatmeal with raisins, honey and fruit--right now that means bananas and oranges) by about seven thrity. People here eat refried beans with tortillas for breakfast, but I have bought my own breakfast to avoid eating that plato tipico three times a day!
I wash my clothes from the previous day in the morning to avoid a pileup of dirty clothes (it is no fun to wash all at once). Recently it has been a problem because nothing dries in the rain. I am continuousy putting out my clothes or taking them in, depending on what the sky looks like. Usually I leave the house around eight. Many days I take a walk to the river. This means I have to walk through the town, greeting whomever I see and entering houses where I can. Occassionally a kid will see me and take me to their house (this has happened twice this week), and I always like that--it is a good excuse to get to know new people. Sometimes I get a second breakfast (it is hard to turn down food here in a polite way). I like to visit one or two houses before noon. I am usually done by eleven o´clock, at which time I return home to record what I have learned (about local farming, people, problems, concerns, or positives). I usually hang out, reading, playing guitar, or writing, until about one, at which time I eat lunch (refried beans, rice, tortilla. Maybe an egg, maybe pataste, a veggie like zuccinni). In the afternoon I like to visit one or two more houses, where they give me coffee and usually something else to eat (fresh oranges are popular right now--you could say they grow on trees they are so plentiful!).
Last week I played soccer with the high school students a couple times (great fun, and I don´t feel too bad at it because I am good at running, at least). I also like to walk again in the afternoon, up to a farm or the mountain or to the river again. I eat dinner around six, and spend the evening (from six to eight) reading and writing letters by candlelight. I listen to music for a while and then go to sleep around nine. I get lots of sleep here.

Well, this is a long one. But I´ve got to let you know what I´m doing!

Today I arrived in town at nine am. I have been using the internet (almost four hours!), visiting the post office and getting to know the city. I met Michelle, another PCV who lives here. I will be staying at her house tonight. At five I will be going to dinner with David, another PCV I have met, and his girlfriend (a Honduran) and Michelle. I am glad to speak English and see other PCVs today.

Tomorrow I´m going to a workshop on parlimentary procedure with a new coffee coop that has been formed in the aldea by an organization called CoHorsil. I´m still figuring out the goals of the organization. I´m going to support the leading group, to tryto help develop their leadership skills. That will be all day long, and then in the evening I will return to Los Planes.
I think that I will not return to town for another two weeks. So tentatively, lets say that I will be back here (and use the internet) on November 1st. I will bring photos next time.
I´ll talk to you soon!

Week 1 in Site

2008-10-08T12:56:00.002-06:00

Hi Everyone!
I can´t believe it´s already the second week of October! Time passes quickly.
I´m sorry I couldn´t get an email out last week about my first week in site. Transportation is a little difficult for me right now. The PC doesn´t want me to spend nights away from site, but the bus is down right now. So the only way that I can go to Siguat is in Paila, or truckbed, and the Paila´s leave me only three hours to do my shopping and internet use in Siguat. Once a week. I think I´m going to find a way to stay the night next week (The PC allows me to on ´business´). That way I can have time to get to know the city and maybe chat with Ben online.
But to start with an update from last week...my life feels like an adventure recently. I just never know what is going to happen. I was really afraid for this transition from the busy schedule of training to the entirely new life and free time of a new volunteer. But really, it has been going well. Every night I think of a few things that I could do the following day. I try to carry it out, but inevitably, my day takes a crazy turn and I end up on some adventure. This started the moment that I arrived in Los Planes. On Sunday, the 28th, when I arrived, I went to see my counterpart. He wasn´t home, but his wife was making a torch (plastic wrapped around a wooden frame with a candle in the middle). She told me that there was going to be a parade for the Día de la Biblia. So I went to the school, where all of the children were assembling. They were all wearing colorful outfits. From there we paraded around the town, accompanied by drums. It was dark and it started to rain, but everyone came out of their houses to walk with the parade anyway. It was a great entry into life here!
The next day I wasn´t sure what to do with myself, but somehow I ran into some kids, my first friends here. I played soccer with them, and then we climbed the mountain in our backyard. Their names are Herly (who is 11 and very inquisitive and capable) and his sister Marleny (13, she would like to live with me!). With them I planned more hikes for the following day.
So on Tuesday I climbed the mountain again, and then in the afternoon I took a walk with Ana (one of the teachers from the school that I live with) and a bunch of her students. Last week I started to feel more comfortable with the teachers...they are very kind even though at first it was hard to get to know them. Now I have been spending more time with Ana. She is young, close to my age, and very daring, for a woman here, which is fun!
On Wednesday I wasn´t sure what I was going to do with myself, so I took a walk to the river. On my way back, I ran into three little boys. I asked where they were going, and they told me they were going to the mountain, to the milpa (corn patch), to pick corn (maize, rather). They invited me to go with, and were very surprised but excited when I readily assented. I asked how far away the patch was, and they told me allí en la montaña, no más. So suposedly it was very close, but I know enough of Hundurans to have a little doubt about right over there in the mountain. We walked for about an hour, climbing the mountain in a narrow path of mud. I stepped in mud up to my calf! But I had some quick 7, 10, and 12 year old´s to keep up with, so I hiked without complaining. I discovered that they boys´ names were William, ....(now I can´t remember...). They go to their father´s corn patch twice a week to pick corn, which they eat and sell. When I was able to look up to look at the veiw, it was astonishing; we walked right on the mountain, and I could look down into the steep river valley. We arrived at the milpa and started picking corn. Most of it was wormy and bad. I discovered that the family rents land--they clear cut and burn it, then plant corn, and then beans, and then move on to new land. Wow!
On our way home, we stopped at the river. There I waded into the water to wash my shoes and pants. It was quite a hike! In the afternoon, I hiked again with the kids from school, and this time I went with both teachers (Ana and Ada). I hiked for about six hours that day!
On Thursday, I got another example of my adventure of a life. I went to the school to observe, and when I arrived, the teachers told me that I was to go teach the sixth graders for half the morning, and the fifth graders for the other half. I taught English, which was great fun! I quickly made up activites that we could do to learn basic English vocabulary. I think I will go to the school every Thursday to teach English and other things. I am happy to be spending time with kids, because it is a great way to get introduced into families. The kids can report to their parents about me (and they have...).
On Saturday I went to pick Cacao with some boys from the school (Gabriel, Rene, and Rito Manuel). Cacao is a big yellow fruit that grows on trees: you pick it and break it open to suck on the seeds. The seeds, though, if you dry them out and then toast them, are what you make chocolate from...I have been trying to make chocolate but I have not been successful yet. I have two years! In the evening, I was invited to dance down the street. I went, but didn´t stay long, because there weren´t very many women there and it seemed like a bad idea to stay. I was right--I have found out since that I shouldn´t have gone at all. The whole town is talking about it! People keep asking me if I´m going to go again. I have discovered, though, that it is not really acceptable to dance just for fun...one needs to be celebrating a birthday party with friends for it to be okay. So I won´t do that again.
On Sunday I went to the Catholic church. They told me a service would start at ten (there is no priest, so there is no mass), but it actually didn´t get going until 10:30 (I should have known...). Religion here is something else...but the people are excited that I have religion (they say so in front of me) so I will keep going.
On Monday I worked on a vivero (tree nursery) with Danilo, my counterpart. The seventh graders came to help out. I decided that I don´t much like making vivero´s...I would much rather start a veggie garden. Speaking of that...I have met about three women who would like to start a women´s group to grow veggies..we could sell them to the rest of the village. I would like to start that project sometime soon!
Yesterday, I didn´t know what to do with myself again, so I took a walk around town (for me, that seems to always lead to something good). When I passed a local pulpería (local store), the owner invited me in for coffee. I stayed with her for about an hour. She offered me tamales, cheese and tortillas, sweets. I left with vegetables, plantains, and sweets. People here are so hospitable! I think yesterday´s visit gave me the courage to start visiting more houses. Hopefully I can do that the rest of this week.

Love,
Jennifer

Pics Parte Dos

2008-09-20T13:35:00.000-06:00

I have a new set of photos to let you all in on my life a little bit...

This is me with my host cousin, they always called her ¨niña.¨

The second photo was taken during the goodbye dinner our families had for us. The white guy is another PCV. His host mom was my host grandma. On his back is my host brother (tito) and in the front of the photo is my host cousin, who always came to play card with me (or just bother me). He´s pretty cute.
This picture is at that same party. So the picture is of my second host mom and her daughter who really liked me.
This picture is of my spanish class in our FBT [that stands for Field Based Training for all you non PCVs out there {Peace Corps Volunteers} ] training site (the one we just left).

This is of the kids in my second host family´s community playing cards (games that I taught them!). The kids are all cousins, and aren´t they cute!

This next picture is of my site. It is right outside my new host family´s house, and it is of the cancha de futbol and the mountain that is right outside of the town.

The next photo is also of my site. I took it when I hiked to the neighboring community up the mountain. The houses are my new community. As you can see, it is indescribibly beautiful.

September 15 was Honduras´ indepedence day! So, we all went to town to see the neice in my first family march in a parade with her classmates. So this next picture is of the family; my host brother, with whom I get along very well and talk with a lot, my host mom, my host sister who lives nearby, my host brother who lives up the hill, and my host sister´s daughter.

I am doing well today--it is really festive here and the weather is beautiful.

Site Placement...settling again

2008-09-16T02:15:00.000-06:00

I am back with my first host family. I arrived today, back from visiting my site for the first time! It has been a crazy busy week and I have lots to tell! So...starting last weekend...On Sunday night the community where my group of PAM volunteers (Protected areas management) did our field based (technical) training, had a goodbye party for us! It was really a good time...the entire community (of about 150 people) showed up! Every family brought food, and there was so much that there were leftovers. The PCVs passed out the food. It was so fun, because we knew so many people in the community, because we had worked with them to make water cisterns, latrines, biodigesters, wood stoves (everything that we had to learn how to make we made at someone´s house, and with the help of community members). We played some music for them (I played moonshadow), some people did a few skits (making fun of us learning how to milk a cow, wash our clothes, etc), and we did a swing dance for them (I taught five couples a dance I choreographed to James Taylor´s How Sweet it is). Then, they played music and we all danced a dance called conjunto (its really simple), switching partners and dancing until eleven (which is REALLY late for here!). It was fun to know people. I had a blast, and they invited us back for a wedding next weekend. We don´t have permission from the PC yet, but I hope to goodness we can go...I really like that community.

On Monday, we had one last day of class, and the team announced our site assignments. That evening, my host family, along with Patrick and Isaacs families (they were all related) had a goodbye dinner for us. It was really sweet; before we ate, according to the Honduran tradition, everyone went around and told us what they appreciate about us and what they will miss about us. Then we had a chance to talk. I found that even though it has been very hard to live with that family, I was able to speak from my heart about how I´ve come to appreciate them and how much I really have learned from them. And I felt great that my spanish is good enough to permit me to say those things! On Tuesday, we said goodbye to our families (mine showered me with gifts--a hot water thermos, a pot for cooking veggies, and tons of food!) and got on the bus to go back to our first training site. There, I dropped my luggage off, said hello to my host mom, and my brother (it is so great to be with them again--they are SO easy for me to talk with!), and then returned to the training site to meet my future counterpart....I was really worked up, walking on needles, nervous and excited. It was worse that I hadn´t really slept much (its been a rough week for that). And then my counterpart didn´t show up until three thirty (everyone else arrived at noon!). The car he was traveling in broke down. My counterpart is a little man with a mustache and a large nose (sorry I don´t have a picture, I will later!). He seemed really quiet at first, although nice, but I soon got to know more...We didn´t get to talk much the first day, as he was so late and we were wrapping up activities. Tuesday evening, I went home to hang out with my host family again, and repack my bags...I didn´t sleep much that night either.We were up and going by seven, on our way to my future site, where I spent Wednesday through Sunday.

We took a bus to Teguc, a taxi to the bus station, another bus, and then we waited for another bus to the community. I talked about my interests and possible projects. It turns out that currently he is paid by Aldea Global, an NGO that takes care of the Parque National Cerro Azul Meambar (right next to my community), in a reforestation project. We decided that I can help him with that for a while, help with the coffee harvest, and get to know people in the next few months. Maybe I can work on a family gardens project. Only one bus leaves the city every day at 12.00 pm. for my site, and it was in the shop on Wednesday, so we went in a truck. I sat in front and talked with the driver, who spent seven years living in Chicago illegally (it is astounding the quantitiy of people that I have met that have done that). Upon arrival at site, I met my counterpart's wife. After my time there, I would say that she is easiest for me to talk with. I made tortillas with her and chatted about my family and about hers...then her husband took me over to my future host family´s house. I am living with three teachers. A mother , and her two daughters. One of the daughters also has a daughter. So it is a house of women. But they are very busy and don´t seem to interested in me. After a few perfunctory questions, they left me alone, and I felt like a wallflower-exchange student, quiet and confused in the corner. I am used to the feeling by now, though, and just sat through it patiently. With time I will be comfortable. It was a pretty uncomfortable afternoon, though. As a PCV I am really learning how to deal with awkwardness.To make matters worse, everyone in this community stares at me. I am a new face, and I am white...so the men and women stare, and the men (or every male upwards of 12) all whistle and make comments. I don´t know where to look, because I know I can´t look at them...I am hoping that that goes away quickly, because its really difficult for me to deal with.

That night, both of my host families, and a guy that helped with our training called me. It was SO nice to have people check up on me and make sure that I was okay! Especially because I was feeling very alone and lonely in a new place...my counterpart is a champ, though. He really is. On Thursday morning he took me out to meet people in the community. And he is like a politician, but they way politicians should be (sincere!)--he kisses babies, chats with their mothers, greets all the men, talks with kids about school. He is a great counterpart, and a great person to present me to the community. We stopped at so many people´s houses (and I can´t remember ANY names!). But I had a great time watching him and trying to learn from him about how to relate to people! In the late morning, we went to a neighboring town to get seeds for the reforestation project. He was sure I wasn´t going to be able to walk (1/2) hour, but I insisted, and finally we went. He greeted everyone in the neighboring town as well! The next day, we went to a town that was two hours hike away. I am so glad he believed me that i wanted to go. I think he´s finally catching on that I like to walk, and that I am capable of it (I am really worried that men in this community are not going to take me seriously). We didn´t eat lunch, but we visited tons of people (seven houses, I think), and got drinks in every one! I am getting to know my counterpart better now, too. We talked a lot (about the way men talk to me, about possible projects...). I am really happy to have him as a counterpart, and I can see that eventually I will feel at home here. Saturday I went to town with the teachers...they didn´t want to leave me at home alone, but I just followed them around as they shopped, so it was a pretty boring foreign exchange student day. I´ll be glad when that´s over...And now I´m here. I´ll be in this area for two weeks, now. So I should be able to get to the internet a few times a week. I´ll talk to you all soon!

from one week ago...

2008-09-13T05:38:00.000-06:00

I have had a great weekend. (september 5-7) The week went quickly; we visited a volunteer's site and toured a farm there, spoke with her women's group. On wednesday we had class and had our failed fiesta. But the best part of that day (since everything did turned out so/so) was when I got home and laughed about it with my host family. They are really growing on me. They are very kind to me, and from them I am starting to learn how to have patience with the just hanging out that is so important to this culture. People just spend time together talking or being silent, and I am learning not to be judgemental about what to me seems like wasting time. In the US, we see time and money and we think of what we produce as being the most important. I don't think I can or will let that go, but I am learning to tolerate it in other people. I am learning to have patience and do it myself, since it is so important to get to know people and spend that kind of time with them.

On Thursday and Friday of this week, we were given and then gave a workshop on Aids. Some health volunteers presented it to us, and then we gave it at a school. It was very good practice, and the workshop was well designed for highschool students, so it was fun. On Friday, as a going away gift, my host family gave me a hamock and some dishes. I was very touched by the gifts, because I was not expecting anything and these families don't have money to throw around. I didn't know what to say and just looked speachless for a while and then I remembered my manners and thanked them profusely. Anyway, Friday was a great evening, and I just hung out with my host family.

Yesterday, I had a great day. Usually the weekends are hard for me because I don't have enough to do. So I planned activities for myself to pass the day. In the morning I cleaned and packed and took a walk. When I finished I made an art project out of leftover paper from our workshop. All of my host siblings watched me (they have no hobbies like that and were very interested). In the afternoon, I made apple bread and oatmeal cookies with my sister. That was fun. All of the extended family came over to try the food we made, and they like it! Some PCV friends came over in the afternoon to do a project, and we performed our swing dance for my family (we were going to do it at the goodbye party, but since that didn't happen...). It was a great success, and really fun for me to dance! In the evening I walked through town to buy popcorn for my host family, and groups of kids greeted me by name. Other people stopped me to ask when we are leaving. Some women whom I have just met once asked me to visit them...so I'm going to stop by later today. That walk made me feel great! I love the friendliness of people here, and it is experiences like that that make me so happy to be here. I can't wait for that to happen when I'm at site!

I am feeling happy again today, although I have less to do. I will take a walk to visit those women after lunch, call my parents and go to a goodbye party that the community where we have had our training (fifteen minutes away) has planned for us.

I am looking forward to the next week. Tomorrow they are announcing our sites (so we will know for sure where we are going). Then, on Tuesday we will meet our counterparts, and on Wednesday we will travel with them to our future sites. I will bring most of my stuff there to my new host family's house. We will go back to the training site on Saturday or Sunday.

More info to come about my site soon!

Another week of training...

2008-08-16T14:25:00.000-06:00

I`ve gotten through another week here! I am halfway through training! And I find out my site assignment in a week and a half...Things are moving quickly!
It was another busy week with classes. On Thursday my spanish class gave a charla (a presentation) to anyone in the community who wanted to come about Dengue fever. Mostly just our host families came to support us. But I think it went really well. I am starting to feel more confident presenting in front of people. And I am glad to have learned more about Dengue myself! It is carried in a mosquito that bites by day, and is endemic to all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The virus isn`t usually fatal unless it develops complications. Usually, you just get a high fever and achy bones and a terrible headache. Although we have the mosquito in the southern US, we do not have dengue epidemics, because of the quality of our health system and the fact that we don`t store water for human consumptions outside in open tanks. Anyway...it was an informative week, and it was great to start feeling confident about the work that I will soon be doing!
Besides that...Yesterday, my spanish class was ¨on¨ again--we facilitated a workshop for fourteen teachers and the other PCVs at the school. We presented to them about techniques for integrating environmental ed into all subject areas in schools (for example, writing a paper about endangered species for spanish class, counting percent decrease in endangered species for math classes, and learning about the regions the species live in for social science). After our presentation, we all paired up (a volunteer with a teacher) and planned lessons that we are going to help the teachers present on the upcoming tuesday. In all, the workshop went very well, and it was another great confidence booster! I have never taught before in a classroom, so it was very intimidating for me at first to be thinking about teaching teachers...but I have been realized that I am qualified to do this. And the thing about facilitation is that you don`t have to be the all-powerful, all-knowledgeable one, you just have to lead and direct the learning. Many of the teachers were very receptive and cooperative, and I felt confident speaking in front of them in spanish. So, I am feeling even more ready for my upcoming work!
This week, in technical classes we worked on making a flush latrine (latrina lavable) and a water cistern (pila). So we mixed cement and dug holes. I asked a lot of questions of the man who has been teaching us. I also have been hanging out with the kids that inevitably come to watch us. It was a fun and active week! My trainer told me that she is glad to see me so inquisitive and integrating so much into the community, because it will really help me at site. The integrating part, asking questions and meeting people, is really the fun part for me. And now that I am building skills at organizing people and facilitating meetings, I am starting to feel very ready to get going! I am sure I will learn more in the days to come, though...

will write again next week.
Jennifer

first photos

2008-08-10T13:41:00.000-06:00

This week has been an experience. I`ve learned a lot and gotten to know a lot of new people. First of all, the town that we live in now is a lot smaller than the last one. It is also a lot more of a community, because it is more remote (you have to go on a dirt road to get to it, and there are no buses that go directly into the town--you have to walk to the main road). This community also has known about the Peace Corps, because a village up the road had two volunteers. So, they have seen less extranjeros (because they are not accessible to tourists) and they have an amazing amount of respect for PCVs.

The kids followed me to my room when I went to unpack, and played with my stuff (I bought a mirror, and one side of it enlarges faces, which they loved). They found my cards, and I discovered that they had never seen playing cards before. So that became our new game.

This week, every day that I came home from school, the neighbor kids and my host brother would be waiting for me (picture below). I taught them to play crazy eights and kings on the corner, and just yesterday I taught them go fish (which was a big hit). We also played more active games like SPUD (which they already new--just with slightly different rules) and hopscotch (rayuela). I am also making headway with the rest of my host family. I have been helping my host mom cook a little bit, and my host dad has been joking with me that he wants to have me help him make a latrine.

The training has greatly shifted here. We are trying to get more involved in community life here, as practice for our integration during service. So, I have felt very pushed by my spanish classes this week. This monday, we found out that we have to give a presentation next week to women in the community. So on wednesday we went out, shouting at peoples´ gates to go in and talk with them. We asked them if they would be interested in coming to our ´charla´ (as it`s called in spanish) and then we asked them what they`d like to learn about. I was very uneasy doing that, until I realized that while an assignment like that is not culturally acceptable in the US, it is very acceptable here. Especially since we are gringos. We are qualified by our white skin, to people here. But it is begining to make more sense to me--if the average Honduran only finishes sixth grade (which is the statistic now), then the ability to amass and present information, and the ability to think critically is enough to make me qualified to present to the community.

And really, I was received very well. I started with my host family and moved on to the family compound. It was quite fun to talk with people: they were glad to know me and excited about a charla. The consensus was that we should talk about Dengue fever, because it is the mosquito season.

So, we did some research online, and next thursday morning my class of five students will be presenting to anyone who wants to come. I`ll let you know how it goes.

Besides that, we have been learning how to make cisterns and latrines, how to run community meetings. Class gets long, because we start at seven thirty and end at five every day. And then there are always the kids to play with. But it has been good to be busy. I am glad to get a taste of what my future volunteering will be like.

The first two photos are of me and my host sister at the other house eating green mangoes. They made me take photos because they thought it was so funny that I couldn`t eat the mango very well. Green mangoes are very hard and you have to bite into them with your back teeth.

This is Jessica, Justin and Erik (other PCVs that i am training with)

This is of my last host parents. The photo is taken at their family farm (where they grow corn, potatoes, beans, and many kinds of fruit trees).

Here is my new mosquito netting. It`s great for keeping me safe from malaria and cockroaches! (I feel like a princess when I read under it in my bed).

My new host family. They were pleased and shy when I asked them if I could take a picture.

That`s all I got for now. I was going to take pictures of us making a cistern yesterday, but I forgot to bring my camera to class. I`ll do it sometimes soon. Maybe I`ll take a picture of the pila as well (the cistern where we wash everything from clothes to dishes to our bodies).

thanks for reading! more to come soon...

New Host Family

2008-08-07T12:47:00.000-06:00

I moved to a new town this week. I`m doing well...I`m learning to navigate this new family. I think they are pretty in awe of me and respectful and quiet because of it, so I have a hard time having conversation with anyone over 14 in my house. Luckily, the kids aren`t so shy. They wait for me to be done with school. My host brother (8) waits, along with a bunch of cousins/neighbors. So we play cards and hopscotch and games with balls. I try to teach them new things, and everything with the cards is new and exciting for them. Usually every everyone else in the family (and some neighbors) come over to watch. I feel very on the spot a lot, but its has been fun and I feel useful.
More to come soon.

Training continues...and i share my skills!

2008-07-24T21:25:00.000-06:00

I had an exciting morning. I had my first tech interview, so I talked with the person that will be placing me in a site. We talked about possible niches for me and project opportunities. I am excited about it, because it seems like there will be a place for me in small animal husbandry (working with people on chicken coop projects and etc) and also in integrated farming techniques (that is helping people plant a variety of crops and doing this in a specific order). I am very excited about the prospects of doing either of these things, because I feel like I have real experience and knowledge to bring to the subject. I am passionate about these things, and I have concrete experience from home on chicken coop design and etc. Today I talked about the possibility of keeping chickens with larger farm animals (like horses or sheep) so that they have a place to graze, but also making small coops for them to stay in at night and lay their eggs in. I am excited, because my director hadn´t heard of that idea before. So I do have ideas of real value. It really helped to realize this, and it made me feel that I will be able to make a worthwhile contribution here. I am quite happy about all of this.

I am going to be going on a site visit from Sunday morning until Wednesday. I am pretty excited about the visit, and I am going with another PCV who is very nice and whom I would love to get to know better. It sounds like we´re going to tour some coffee fincas on horseback and go see the PCVs fruit tree cooperative. So I think the whole thing sounds great!

Training begins...

2008-07-16T21:09:00.000-06:00

I am in a town that is close to the one I live in with my host family right now to use the internet quickly this evening. I am doing really well today. With my classes in the Peace Corps we have settled into a little schedule: each day we have Spanish class from 7.30 until 11.30, and then culture, safety and health classes in the afternoon. I am excited about what I am learning, even though at times the classes get long and a little tedious.

I have never lived among this much poverty. My host family lives on a hill down a busy paved road. To get to the house, I have to walk down a little rocky trail. Sometimes it is wet, and when it is dark I have a really hard time with the trail. I have learned to take bucket baths every morning (with cold water, of course). I use a five gallon pail, and pour buckets of rain water over my head that we collect in the pila. I use an outdoor toilet that one ¨flushes¨ by pouring a bucket of water down. Last weekend, I learned how to wash my clothes by hand (my family uses a neighbors washing machine, but they say I need to learn to do it myself). My host family has a lot of chickens that walk around the yard (which isn´t really a yard, more like rocky trails to the bathroom and the shower) and don´t seem to have a purpose except wake everyone up at 4 every morning and poop all over. They don´t even use the eggs, because the animals eat the eggs before any person can get to them.

It is the rainy season right now in Honduras, and I am living in the mountains (about 2.000 ft), so the weather is pretty cool. It rains a lot, and when it is cloudy I like to have a sweatshirt. Today we saw the sun all day (which is rare) so that made me very happy. I also got to take a walk (I have been pretty sedentary for the past week), so that made me happy as well. It gets dark really early here (it is light from 6.30 to 6.30). My schedule has changed a lot, though

I have found a few cockroaches in my room, which isn´t too bad, since I haven´t seen anything else. It´s hard not to feel dirty most of the time, but I am getting used to it.

Know that I am doing well, learning a lot, and enjoying myself.

In a foreign land...

2008-07-10T20:07:00.000-06:00

I have arrived in Honduras!, and I am doing very well. I met my first host family this afternoon, and I am having a great time with them already! I have a wonderful host sister who is eighteen and very fun to spend time with already. We have laughed a lot together already. I feel very confident about my Spanish and so interacting has been very fun and not at all nerve-racking. They were a little worried about what I could eat, but my host mom was very relieved when she found out that she could speak to me without problems. This host-family transition is much easier than the last one language-wise, so I feel very happy and excited about the whole thing.

Honduras is a beautiful country. We traveled through rugged mountains yesterday and saw lots of animals and people outside. The people that I have met so far in training and in the family are very welcoming and friendly. I am very excited to learn more and know more.

My training with the Peace Corps has been and I am sure will continue to be fun and intriguing. I am very impressed with the volunteers that I am working with, and I expect to learn a lot from both the other volunteers and also my trainers. It looks like we will have very full days, but I am very excited to learn.

Love you and miss you all a lot!

Jennifer