la vida de Emily: 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!