little John, pilas, haircuts

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

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

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

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.

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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!

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