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.
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