Last thoughts before leaving training

I thought I should fill everyone in before our final week comes to a close and I’m off to my sight where I will be spending the last 2 years.

Let me start by saying that I just witnessed an incredible battle between a wasp and a spider in my

Bedroom window. I have to leave my windows open in order to fight the ever annoying mold issue and there are no screens on the windows so hence the ever plentiful variety of gross critters having access to my room. Anyway this tiny spider totally took out a feisty wasp and quite the battle ensued. I have come to the conclusion that to leave spiders alone in my room because they do more good than harm, except the super big hairy ones that look like relatives of tarantulas. I know my dad would totally approve (Jim Gillihan’s memory).

I haven’t had water in the showerhead for the last 3 days so I have had to wash/shower with bottles of water filled from the Pila. Water access is a serious issue in Honduras, no one really knows when they are going to have it or not, which makes a lot of basic things we take for granted in the USA a lot more challenging:  bathing, laundry, cooking, flushing toilets etc…

Other stuff that I haven’t really mentioned but now is part of living the Honduras life for me is always needing to look down when you are walking. Why? First of all the roads here are not up to US standards and I’m talking about the gravel roads  in the country, they aren’t really even at all there are lots of potholes rocks and dogs in the street. Which brings we to my next point you need to look at the ground not to step in poop. It’s everywhere, dogs here just run wild for the most part so there are not the little clean up after your dog baggie dispensers every couple blocks, and there is also gigantic mounds of horse poop too to watch out for. Oh and the garbage, its all over the ground people just through it there all the time, everything you can think of orange peels, chips bags, plastic bottles of soda, everything and everywhere. So ojo, always look down when you are traveling anywhere in Honduras. These are the kind of things that its hard to give people a sense of the reality here.

Other news, I went to my first prom last night. Yes Peace Corps H-18 hosted a prom/ going away part which was fun. And it only cost $8 a person mind you that is several days’ salary but very worth it.  Everyone got dressed up and yours truly wore make-up and contacts for the first time in Honduras. Its kind of crazy that my fellow volunteers really only know me with glasses so it was a shocker. I have to say that my face felt freer. It was kind of one of those peace corps rules that just becomes part of life glasses no contacts, so I’m just going to whip them out on special occasions. Things like wearing glasses every day, never wearing jewelry, never blow-drying my hair, not watching TV for 3 months, having to put money on my cell phone every week have been absorbed in to parts of my daily routine. I have been compiling a mental list of things that I miss about my ex life that I’ll have to include in a post soon. But wow that was a tangent prom, we reserved a cool restaurant that had a pool and a bar attached. We were served amazing food (grilled corn, potatoes, onions, shallots, every kind of meat you could imagine, welcome drink, soda, chismol and chimichurri) had access to the sound system, so we got to play classic American music from iPods, so there was dancing, some swimming in underwear, eating and drinking of course. It seemed that everyone had a good time. Its going to be sad leaving everyone and parting ways, because we all have become quite close.

Thursday was Honduran independence day I sat through the longest parade ever, lots of cheerleaders, baton twirlers and bands all with fancy uniforms. I was glad I got to see such an important culture celebration.

Here is some general info on my new sight (which I can actually verify once I’m there, this is from the info packet they gave me pre-departure)

*There are around 100,000 people living in the city

*the city sits in the south of Honduras and it sits fairly close to the borders of both Nicaragua and El Salvador.

* the city was founded in 1535 so its old and historic, but it has lots of modern connivances like Pizza hut, Wendy’s and big grocery stores( I’m the only one in the group with a site this big and these type of chains)

*It’s really really hot there, and is know by some Peace Corps staff as Cholu-Texas.

*It’s close to the a golf (Golfo de Fonseca) aka the beach and the ocean

More interesting facts to come later…

Thursday is our official swearing in ceremony at the embassy as well as the 50^th anniversary party for Peace Corps. Friday we head out to site with our counterparts. Lots of big changes coming soon, I have a feeling that I’m going to miss these mountains and this cool climate.

No one posted anything about my last 2 blog posts so maybe that means there not being read????? Would love to hear from you all.

Un abrazo fuerte!

Pictures fro, my project and prom

Site anouncement and some pics (finally)

Im going to....... Choloteca Choloteca the 4th largest city in Honduras with a population of 100,000 people. I leave next Friday for site and get sworn in on Thursday! Swearing in is at the american embassy and is a huge deal because of it also be PC 50th aniversery. More details about my site and swearing in soon.

Finally some pics me working at a the school where I just finished my independent project. And a pic of my host mom dancing in the kitchen during our pupusa cooking lesson the pupusas are the last pic.

Miss everyone. Hope to hear from you all soon.

PS I am going to have a new personal mailing address once Im in Choluteca where you can mail me love letters directly. So Ill keep you posted when I find out what it is.

Here she be

I know that it has been a while since I have written but because of technology challenges and busyness this is the best I can do. I hope this does not become a pattern of making excuses for the lapses between posts at the beginning of each post. I’m guessing that it won’t be since pretty soon I’ll be in sight and this blog might be my only reliable English outlet and therefore I’ll be making excuses as of why I need to post so often instead.  Anyways hopefully you will forget about it and just enjoy all of the interesting tidbits I’m about to share with you.

Big news first I had my last interview with my bosses aka the youth development project heads where they finally gave everyone some hints about what they are going to be doing for the next two years. They basically just revealed to me who my counterparts will be aka the organizations that I will be working with. Other people found out more info about their host stay families or the weather of their site or if they have a site mate (another PC volunteer from another branch ej. Business, municipal development…) They told me that I have 2 counterparts, a school district where I will be working with them to give teacher trainings on things like classroom management and teaching methodologies and teaching TEAM which is a curriculum for teachers who teach English. My second counterpart is a NGO (non- governmental organization) that provides before, afterschool and vacational programs for students pre-k through ninth grade. So I get to do teacher training and work with kids which I am happy about. I find out tomorrow at 4 where my site actually is so all the details will come out then. Everyone in the group has been on pins and needles waiting and hypothesizing where everyone is going.  Next post everybody.

Now that’s out of the way other stuff that has been happening. I am still fighting lots of gross bugs and battling mold issues. Friday-Saturday was Día del niño/children’s day. Friday it was celebrated in schools which basically consisted of kids eating sugar all day. There was a formal presentation, then the moment every kid was waiting for sugar distribution. It begins with Piñatas which are pretty much the most dangerous thing I have ever seen, kids getting wacked in the head with a stick as they skin their knees diving for pieces of candy. Nooooo sense of order when it comes to piñatas here it’s a real free for all.  Then goodie bags of candy were passed out, they coke then cake, I really wasn’t exaggerating about the sugar. Then kids usually get candy from family members as well. Thank goodness I don’t live with any small children because talk about kids acting crazy via sugar infusions. The kids really seemed to be enjoying themselves though smiling all day with mouths full of sweets.

Other noteworthy happenings I taught a group of highschool boys how to put on a condom appropriately. On Monday we had an all day TOT (training of trainers) on HIV/Aids. AIDS is a huge issue in Honduras effecting a very large numbers of the population, so part of being a productive peace corps volunteers give workshops on awareness and prevention. So after the training on Tuesday we had to give a 4 hour HIV/Aids workshop in pairs to classes in a vocational high school. So 2 female volunteers were matched up with a classroom full of 15 to 18 years old boys studying woodworking to broach the topic of sex. I was a bit nervous to say the least. After the initial awkwardness it went smoothly, the boys were for the most part respectful and were very interested in the topic. I was able to demonstrate how to put a condom on a banana using all the appropriate steps, and monitor the group practicing. All in Spanish mind you which was quite a feat. I was observed and got a really good review, with the comment that I was a natural and it looked like I had given the presentation 100 times before, LOL.

Over the last several weeks we have been working on independent projects in small groups to get a feel for the kind of projects that we will be working on in site. Mine has been with 2 other volunteers at a local elementary school. We met with the teachers, the principal and the PTA and decided on doing an afterschool program to support students with learning delays, since it appears that students with special needs are pretty much ignored or not given any extra support. The plan was to do small group interventions, but it didn’t really turn out like that. We started with a list of students that teachers recommended and identified their problem but their attendance has been really sporadic like none showing up the second week, and other kids from the neighborhood kept showing up randomly. So it has morphed into Literacy support for students who show up. We broke into 2 groups K-3 and 4-6^th. I am team teaching the K-3 kids and it has been going pretty good. Doing a lot of early phonetics stuff in Spanish which has been fun, whipping out the songs and phonics chants, sight words etc. Also I am super lucky because my mom sent me a few books in Spanish from home that we have been able to do a read aloud everyday and incorporate an activity. It is really really really hard to find books here not to mention good literature Spanish books. So thanks mom you’re a life saver. I might be calling in a few favors and asking some teachers to use some scholastic points to get me some books for down here.

I had my first “ethnic” food since being in Honduras Wohooo. It was a version of fried rice from a Chinese restaurant in Teguz that a daughter brought my host mom. A rare treat even though it was not really like the fried rice that I’m used to at home it had a Honduran twist if that’s possible.  Ethnic food meaning anything not traditional Honduran is a rarity to come across. I miss Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, even Mexican (what they call tacos and enchiladas here are NOT the same). Not to mention go to American fare like mac and cheese or a burger. I would kill for some basic cheese Im not even talking the fancy stuff like gouda or brie I’m talking cheddar. Anyways I have to get off this food tirade before it takes over the entire post, I could go on and on.

I have my final Spanish leveling interview on Wednesday pray for me ahhhhh. I’m reading an interesting Honduran novel call prision verde currently for class, lots of good historical and political insights. Time to sign off, new post should be coming soon with the big site reveal……..