first photos

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...