Peace Corps - Honduras!

Honduras Favorites

2009-11-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

Some of these photos have already been posted earlier in this blog and, while I took the majority of these photos, I can't take credit for all of them. However, I do believe they were all taken by someone who has seen Honduras as a stranger, tourist, helper, worker, and most importantly, community member. From the touristy sites, to special moments and the unique culture of my village, to records of accomplished work, and to just having a camera at the exact right time, these photos really represent my two years in Peace Corps. They reflect the side of Honduras that not many people get to see and that I was so fortunate to experience in the last two years. I'm so happy I have these photos to remember my time here. Although, anyone who has been here knows that you can't ever really forget Honduras.

Mangoes

My project manager inspecting the newly built greenhouse

Waves coming in at sunset in Tela

Slingshot contest - one of the various outside activities to entertain people until sundown on Independence Day when the flag is lowered

Pineapple ready to eat

Making a clay pot

Selling bread

Firing pottery in an oven

Mangroves at Punta Izopo

Lancetilla Botanical Gardens

La Campa

Sunset on Honduras' Independence Day

Hummingbird

"Guitaron" or giant guitar for religious ceremony

Grinding corn to make tortillas for lunch

William and Karen eating "pastelitos"

Waterfall that provides water for my village

The beach at Tela

Two girls headed home

Girl playing at home

Red flower

Firing clay pots in the traditional Lencan way

Cultivated crops on steep slopes

Reina helping Diana grind corn

Cross overlooking the pueblo

Copan Ruinas Mayan artifact

Coffee plant almost ready for picking

Coffee beans

River in Celaque (meaning "box of water") National Park

Fire on Celaque blocked out the sun

Giant ceiba tree

Worn paths in Nueva Esperanza

Confetti at Carnaval in La Ceiba

The kids never got tired of me taking their picture!

Becky making a doctor's visit not as scary

Bananas

One happy baby

Heading home from work and finding a friend

Photos to enjoy

2009-09-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

A view from Cero San Juanera

Neighborhood Cipres in Nueva Esperanza

La Campa from above

The winner of this year´s ¨India Bonita¨ (Pretty Indian) contest.

Every year there is a fair in Santa Rosa de Copan where there are music concerts, coffee tasting, and a celebration of the pride of the town . . . cigars!

Some jewelry at the fair made out of seeds and flowers

Getting Ready for Life in the Capital!

2009-09-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

As you all know, my time with Peace Corps is winding down. And while the days are winding down, the amount of work certainly is not following the same pattern. In this last six months, I have had the most work I have had in my whole Peace Corps service! This can be attributed to the fact that people in the community are more willing to ask me for help or workshops. Initially, I imagine they were nervous to ask such things but now that I am closer with more individuals, there is less unwillingness to ask. Some have asked me to teach them to make cake, pickled vegetables, help them make a personal stove, help them calculate costs and gains of a pulperia . . .

Truthfully, it’s nice to have the distractions so I don’t have to think about how little time I have left here in Nueva Esperanza. At the same time though, I am being careful not to overdo it because I also want time to just relax and spend the last couple of weeks with people here.

Another distraction has been . . . where am I going to live in the next three weeks? A few months ago, I applied for an internship that USAID was offering to all Peace Corps Volunteers who have completed their service in Honduras. The internship will be in the USAID office in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. My friend and fellow PAMer, Mary, also got the internship and we decided to look for an apartment together. Although we do realize we are going from one spectrum to the other: living in small communities working on development to living in the capital in a posh office working on development . . .we are excited for the opportunity and know we will learn a lot more about international development from our experience with Peace Corps and with USAID.

Some of you may have heard that there has been some political strife here in Honduras and USAID said they would be cutting their aid. Mary and I did have some initial uncertainties if we still had our job, but we are in the process of signing the contracts so no worries!

Well, searching for apartments has been tough for a variety of reasons. One: I live about 7 hours (on a good “fast bus” day) from Tegucigalpa, Two: We don’t want to pay ridiculous prices for a place (we’ve lived in mud houses for two years, too nice of an apartment is unnecessary and would be a little overwhelming) and Three: Unlike in the villages where you can walk into someone’s house with no locks, it’s hard to get in contact with people renting when they have huge impermeable walls and barbed wire all around. Mary and I searched on three different occasions. The first time, we found some apartments we liked, but were very far from the USAID office. From this trip, we realized that we would really like to be within walking distance of the office. So the second time, we walked around two nice neighborhoods right above the office. We looked at some very nice apartments but none that were in our price range. Because Mary lives close to Tegucigalpa than me, she was able to check out one option that sounded promising. A woman was willing to close off part of her house and turn it into a two bedroom apartment. Because we were running out of time and because I really can’t afford to come into Tegucigalpa anymore, we checked this option out. It was perfect!

Counting Down . . . But Making It Count

2009-09-11T14:07:00.001-07:00

Herminia and I with our öllas¨ or pots

When I was getting ready to leave for Honduras on July 2007, two years seemed like such a long commitment. I know a few people who have told me they would like to do Peace Corps but wish the term was shorter. But now I have two weeks left and inevitably have had to start thinking about the end. Even if I didn’t want to think about the day I have to leave, I can’t help it. I dream about being back in the states or the move to Teguz. During my classes when my students are working on an in-class assignment, I have my notebook handy so I can scribble down reminders of things I need to do or items I want to give away before I leave.

Now with so little time left, I’m trying to make every day count. I don’t want today to be the last day that I see certain people. But I know that is the case for some who live far away or that I don’t see very often; and already some people are thanking me for the time I was here and hope that I travel safely.

To make my time here count, I have started to try to think more like a tourist, or how I was when I first arrived. What would I have wanted to do here if I were just visiting for a few days? One: Take lots of photos, so I have pulled my camera out again to the excitement of the children, and adults, and everyone really. Two: I’ve worked enough with the business side of the pottery but I never actually made anything. So I decided to try my luck at being an actual Lencan potter! Herminia and Nicolas started giving me pottery lessons. First, we made two bowls because I don’t have any good deep bowls to eat my cereal in every morning. Then, we made a pot or “olla”. Here´s some photos of the fun!

Our traditional Lencan pots (of course the real traditional ones are about 30 times bigger than these)

Nicolas helping me with my pottery

The red dirt they use to make the paint

Me putting the first coat of paint on

Herminia making lunch after our not-so-hard work

Integrated Farm Tour

2009-09-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

Oscar Arias, owner of the integrated farm

Back in June, I went to a Women and Agriculture Conference that the Protected Areas Management project puts on every year. How it works is each PCV that wants to participate brings a woman from his or her community to the conference. During the conference, we learn about improved agricultural practices such as making organic compost or saving seeds, but we also talk about gender, self-esteem, and female leadership. This year, I took a woman from La Campa named Adelaida Gomez who works for a privately funded institution called CASM (Comisión de Acción Social Mennonita). This institution does a lot of really great development work in La Campa and other municipalities and their funds have not been cut because of the coup that happened here in the end of June.

During this conference, we visited an integrated farm on the north coast which interested Adelaida a lot. So much, in fact, that she went back to La Campa and organized a trip back up there with a group of 30 farmers from here! An integrated farm uses improved farming practices such as organic fertilizers and takes into consideration one´s health and the health of the environment. For example, instead of burning their fields every year, they let a plot of land rest for a season or two instead of stripping it year after year of all of its nutrients.

So, Adelaida, the other staff from CASM, three high school students doing their three month practice, and the farmers picked me up on the side of the road outside of Santa Rosa de Copan the next day. I spent the night in Santa Rosa because the day before I had taken a friend and her baby to a cleft lip medical brigade put on by Operation Smile. (Unfortunately, the baby was underweight five pounds and so they didn´t operate.) Adelaida and I rode in the front to give directions to the driver. Luckily, we didn´t get TOO lost finding our way back out to the farm because it´s pretty well hidden from the main road! On the way, we ran into some people peacefully protesting the return of president, Mel Zelaya. Road blocks have been very since the coup but luckily this protest was only blocking one lane, slowing down traffic but not completely stopping it. I had only heard about the protests but this was the first time that I actually saw one in action.

Protesters

At the integrated farm called Naranjo Chino, we made insecticides and fungicides using natural ingredients like papaya leaves. We saw a compost latrine, a water filtration system using a barrel and some sand, a biodigestor, and an ecological oven among other things.

Making the fungicide - grinding papaya leaves

The other group making the insecticide

I love visiting integrated farms because usually the people who run the farms start off just like the farmers that we take to visit. The only difference is that they were willing to try different techniques to improve their farm. This means that the farmers of integrated farms can relate to other Honduran farmers and thus know how to teach them using many visuals and simple metaphors instead of listing off technical vocabulary that are above comprehension. They also know what to say to motivate them to change their farms or are familiar with the excuses and reasons why farmers are reluctant to change their practices. And the best part is that Honduran farmers are teaching Honduran farmers! There may have been some external aid at some point, but now the integrated farm we visited is 100% sustainable.

Banana trees with compost in between

Look at all the bananas they get on one branch!

Cutting up the trunks of banana trees to make an organic compost ¨salad¨

A man selling bananas in El Progreso on the north coast

The sunset on the way home

Greenhouse Project

2009-09-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

With leftover money from the improved stoves project, an organized group of farmers and I were able to finish building a greenhouse in one of the neighborhoods of Nueva Esperanza called Las Olominas. World Vision had initiated this project but was unable to provide everything. They ended up being short approximately 20 bags of cement, two rolls of chicken wire, 1,000 bricks, and so on. All in all, about 15,000 Lempiras. In two trips to Gracias, we were able to purchase the materials they were missing and get them up the mountain. The greenhouse is going to be used by the group of farmers that installed the irrigation system in Nueva Esperanza. Each farmer will get a part of the greenhouse where they will germinate their horticulture seeds. Here is a photo of the greenhouse:

My Project Manager, Menelio, came out to see the greenhouse

Now that there is the irrigation system in Nueva Esperanza, the farmers are learning to grow all different kinds of vegetables they have never grown before. Many institutions have taken interest in their work and are planning on helping them in many different areas (hence the greenhouse). The goal is to sell their vegetables in the markets and in bigger cities. They still have a ways to go, but hopefully they can eventually generate a steady income from their plots of land!

The irrigation system in action

Adrian taking a break from planting onions.

Don Virgilio enjoying the water of the irrigation system

Virgilio peeling me a piece of sugar cane to ¨chupar¨(suck) while touring Otolaca

Habits

2009-07-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

July 25th marked the anniversary of the Agroforestry Cooperative “San Matias” in La Campa. I have worked a fair amount with the manager of the cooperative who has thoroughly supported the potters with loans, buying/selling their product, and organizing sales at fairs and events.

The anniversary was to begin at 8 am and I didn’t arrive more than 2 minutes late when I came up the hill at 9:10 to the large warehouse-style room usually used to store coffee. I finally have Honduran time down! Although I admit I did walk quicker than usual because even though I knew nothing had started at 8, deep down I knew I was getting there . . . well, late. I can’t seem to ever get rid of the thought: “What if on this occasion things actually start on time?” And sometimes people will tell me the time they think something will actually be starting because they know I arrive on the hour. I guess there’s habits we just don’t shake after two years. (July 11th marked exactly two years for me in Honduras!)

By the time I arrived, the number of this anniversary had already fallen from being taped on the wall, so I don’t know exactly which anniversary we were celebrating. We began with singing the National Anthem and then with a devotional from the pastor. The Evangelical church band from my village filled the spaces between every bullet point on the agenda with ranchera tunes. We almost needed them to provide an intermission during the president’s words who, during his 50 minute oration, appeared to begin concluding his speech by thanking everyone for listening to him three different times before thinking of something else he wanted to say and then continuing on. Then, he was so delighted by the applause that followed that, after the music interlude, he stood up and continued again for another ten minutes.

During his speech, more and more people started to show up and so more chairs were brought to squeeze people in. The screeching of chairs and shuffling of people made it hard to hear the president at times. Also, every now and then, the green and yellow balloons that someone had meticulously hung from the ceiling and walls started to pop haphazardly or deflate as they were only tied with string. One strong breeze sent the name plates of the board flying to the ground and the people in the front row gathered them up and put them back in place just to have them blow down again twenty minutes later. Oh well, they weren’t in the correct order in the first place.

The event ended with lunch for the 150+ people who arrived and I found my friend, Leonor, with her daughter Esmeralda. I was looking for them during the meeting and was sad to see they hadn’t come. They had either entered later and I didn’t see them in the back or they had come just in time for the food, not uncommon. Either way, Esmeralda’s squeals of laughter turned heads and produced smiles as we played in the line for food. All in all, the meeting was . . . a lot of fun! We didn’t play any games or learn anything new that can help us live more productive lives, but I got to chat with tons of people that I hadn’t seen in a while. Sure, I could have been actually DOING something else like cleaning my always dirty house instead of sitting for 3 ½ hours, but two years here has taught me that just getting to see so many people I know and care for is what it’s all really about. A year ago, I probably would have been almost gnashing my teeth with boredom after this. I’m glad I’ve opened my eyes to see that at least some old habits change.

A ¨Shaky¨Expedition

2009-07-31T08:38:00.001-07:00

So back in June, Ursula called me one late afternoon to ask if I would like to go to the capital, Tegucigalpa, with a local institution that wanted to take some potters for an art exhibition. It had been a while since I had been to Tegucigalpa and this would give me a chance to check in on how our pottery is doing that is selling in a store over in that area. So, I decided to go. “Great,” Ursula told me, “Well they are gonna be at my house tomorrow at 8 am to leave so can you be there by then?” What?! A little bit more of a warning would have been nice! And maybe if she had told me earlier that, so far, I was the only person that was for sure going! I called my EDUCATODOS students to let them know that English and Math classes were cancelled for the week and then I called Mercedes, the head of our directive, from La Campa to see if she could give a more definite answer about going. There was no way I was going to go alone to sell pottery that wasn’t mine. Where’s the sustainability in that??

Mercedes confirmed that she was going to go and so that morning us and two other women from another community that makes recycled paper out of plant leaves and fibers left with the director of the institution who happens to be a good friend of mine. Going to Tegucigalpa in car is definitely a lot more fun than in bus. We took our time getting there, making random stops at the director’s favorite restaurants and sites.

For lunch, he took us to a little traditional restaurant that sells atole (a thick corn drink that can be served as soup) served in guacal (a bowl made of a dried shell excavated from inside the seed of the guacal tree).

Upon arrival to the city, the experience can best be understood by imagining the old movies where the jungle boy is brought to the big city, or the pilgrims have discovered a strange, new world. Even the new car we went in was intimidating! The air conditioning was so cold that it was bothering the womens’ sinuses and the automatic windows prevented them from getting fresh air for about half the trip before I told them how they worked. We won’t even mention the car alarm. On the way, we passed a shop selling tons of pottery and all the women simultaneously cried, “Look! Look! Look!” and pointed out the windows as we passed. Mercedes’ honest face is readable like a newspaper headline and I could tell she was discouraged to see how successful this business was with pottery that was so attractively painted and decorated. Even the director noticed and commented, “Don’t be deceived by their pottery because it doesn’t have the value of years and years of tradition behind the practice.”

In Tegucigalpa, the pilgrims landed, and I, the foreigner, was their guide. We could have just landed in China and the women would have had the same expressions of confusion. One thing that I didn’t expect was how the clothing of the women made them stand out in the city. The raggedly towels on their heads used to protect them from the sun and dust all of a sudden were out of style compared to the suits and high heels of the city folk. I signed us in at the hotel and when I turned around with the keys, I was confused by the commotion that was happening. The three women were huddled around a little table and animatedly doing something. Ah, I saw what it was. Free coffee in the lobby. I suggested we get our bags to the rooms first because how were they going to get everything up the stairs while balancing a hot cup of coffee? But they were worried that the hot pot wouldn´t be there when they returned. ¨Better to take advantage now¨ they told me.

That night, I half awoke to my bed vibrating violently below me. Initially, I thought it was a dream that someone was standing at the side of my bed shaking it and trying to get me to wake up because I was late for the art exhibition. What woke me up completely was when Mercedes starting shouting what was going on and shouting even louder that someone was trying to get in the room. My eyes shot open at that to see the door rattling so hard it was banging against the wall and definitely sounded like someone wanted in really badly. There were footsteps shuffling and distressed voices in the hall as well. The shaking lasted about a minute before everything stopped completely. Turns out, there was a 7.2 earthquake in Honduras at this moment.

The next morning, we went to the Hotel Maya for the exhibition. It turns out it was not an art sale at all! It was a rural bank meeting! This was a meeting of the big shots of this institution to congratulate one another on the success of initiating rural banks (caja rurales) in villages all over Honduras. Of course, publicity is the most important aspect of these events and so cajas rurales had been invited from all over to be in the background as the founders talked to several different newscasts. I guess that’s how we get funding to keep coming. The only times that we got to sell were before and after the meeting when people were trickling in and trickling out. Needless to say, sales weren’t superior. During the meeting, they gave background information on what is a caja rural, how many have now been founded, and the successes of specific caja rurales. The first part of the meeting I paid close attention because it soon became clear to Mercedes and I that we were gonna have to pretend we were a caja rural! Yet another thing that would have been nice to know a little earlier!

One of the heads of the institution talking with Mercedes

After the meeting was over and we were at our table selling, some of the heads came to ask us about our “caja rural”. Sometimes it’s nice to have the “gringa card” to play. I usually replied, “You should really ask the potter, she will be able to better explain how they work, I just help out where I can in the community. Oh, it looks like I have to go take pictures now. Bye!” Mercedes answer was a little bit smoother, “Well the potters have been organized for quite some time with the help of Corina who has really helped us out a lot to become a caja rural and she can tell you all about the way she has helped.” No one really seemed to notice.

The ladies with their recycled paper

Mercedes and the other two ladies went back that same day in the same car but I decided to stay and head out to Valle de Angeles to see how our pottery was selling. The last time I had been out there was in December with Ursula and Herminia when we left the pottery in the first place. I wanted to visit my fellow PCVs that are out there, too. It was so exciting to actually see our pottery on the shelves! We really were able to break out of La Campa and now more and more people are gonna recognize the red Lencan pottery of the west. Woohoo! I was so excited I even took a picture:

Construction fun

2009-05-29T12:12:00.001-07:00

So since the rainy season has started, people that didn’t get a chance to finish the building they wanted to do during the dry season this year have to protect their adobe (mud bricks) or they will ruin in the storms. My friend and neighbor, Irene, Juan’s brother, was planning on starting to build his house this year but because of his studies in the university, didn’t get a chance to start. So I helped him with Martir (who built my fence) to cover the adobe with nylon and a roof of tejas and zinc. I have never helped put tejas on a roof before so it was a learning experience for me and a lot of fun hanging out with my friends. It’s moments like these that I will miss dearly when I leave.

Martir and I

Irene

Perfectly laid tejas

Me learning to lay tejas

Martir

The neighbors' kids watching and probably wondering what the heck I'm doing (hey, I'm used to that by now)

Carnaval in La Ceiba

2009-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

La Ceiba, "the girlfriend of Honduras" has a festival every year called "Carnaval". It's pretty much Honduras' version of Mardi Gras. But after seeing the photos in the newspaper of it last year, I was determined to go this year. I went with Vanessa, her boyfriend Chad, and a few of the guys from my group and we stayed in a hostel pretty close to the action. But there were loads of other volunteers there. I guess 200,000 people come to this festival where there are live concerts on every block, a parade, and all kinds of shopping. During the parade they throw out beads to the crowd. Vanessa and I had a contest on who could get the most. She beat me by one! (She got nine and I got eight.) Here are some photos of the fun!

Vanessa and I getting ready at the hotel

Left to right: Eli, Vanessa, Melissa, and I at a bar the first night

Chad, Charlie, and I

The parade!

More of the fun

People from the balconies were throwing out money and beads

A father and his daughter enjoying the festivities

A float

Even the presidential candidate Pepe Lobo had a float

Late night snack

The Next Step

2009-05-10T16:41:00.001-07:00

Last week I traveled to the capital, Tegucigalpa, for an interview I had with USAID for an internship position they were offering. I was super nervous for the interview because they were only offering one position this time around. (Earlier this year, they offered and filled two internship positions which I didn’t apply for.) This year-long internship will let me get a feel for international development work and I’ll be able to see if it’s something that I would be interested in doing in the future. After working in development for a year and a half, I have realized how much I enjoy this work and that my experience with Peace Corps and living directly in a rural community has given me a good firsthand idea of what it takes to have sustainable and successful development and the obstacles that come about when working to reduce poverty.

So, I was super excited when USAID called me May 13th to tell me I got the position!! For the first six months, I’ll work in programming in the office in Tegucigalpa. Basically monitoring projects that have been initiated in different communities and finding ways to improve efficiency and sustainability. Then for the last six months I’ll choose a department to work in which can be municipal development, democracy, agriculture, education or environment. I most likely will choose the environmental department where they will be working on a renewable energy project. But I have been teaching here in La Campa 7th grade English and Mathematics through EDUCATODOS, a USAID education program for adults who have dropped out of school but want to continue their education, and so the head of USAID suggested that I would be able to contribute to improving the manuals and books we use. So if I have time and if it’s allowed, I might want to work a little in the education department as well. Also, it’s a paid job (What?! Courtney making money?!) and would allow me to be in Honduras for another year. Now, before everyone starts moaning that I’m never coming back to the states, I plan on coming back at the end of September for three weeks when my Peace Corps service ends. Yay! And I definitely plan on coming back again in June 2010.

Through Peace Corps, I think I have finally found a field of work that I really enjoy. My heart has always been in environmental conservation and sustainability and I have always been mindful of living a sustainable life that takes into consideration our wellbeing as well as our relationship with the planet. For me, environmental awareness and conservation are key aspects of international development. How can we improve work plans or developmental programs for the people and at the same time take into consideration our environment? I have really enjoyed the work I have done in eco-tourism here in La Campa, generating income for the locals but also raising awareness of the beauty of the nature around us. Also, the stoves project turned out to be a success because there is less smoke in the houses and thus less respiratory infection, and at the same time there is less deforestation. A career that focuses on the improvement of the human condition while placing emphasis on the environment and sustainability seems like a perfect career for me. And now I have the opportunity to get a feel for what that type of work may be like through this internship. On another happy note, one of my best friends here, Mary, another PAM volunteer from my group, was one of the two who got the internship the first time around. So we are gonna find an apartment together in Tegucigalpa. Woohoo! Wish me luck and I’ll see you all in September!

Cooking Classes . . . Got recipes??

2009-05-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

With new stoves and new ovens, the women of the improved stoves project and I are begining cooking classes. Malnutrition is prevalent in the area. World Vision came though a couple of months ago to weigh the children who are being sponsored by people in the states. I went to help out and visit Anna, the Peace Corps volunteer in Gracias who works for World Vision, who was working with them. Anna was in charge of weighing all of the kids that came in and if they were underweight, they were sent to another corner of the kindergarten where they met with a doctor. If the kids were a healthy weight, they were sent off with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Unfortunately, I don’t remember seeing a single child being sent off without first having to go see the nurse.

Hopefully through these classes, the women will learn how to cook more healthily through baking more, frying less, and learning a variety of new recipes. What are we gonna try first?? . . . Pizza! And everyone is super excited!! (I gave it a trial run with my friend Sonia in her oven and it cooked perfectly!) Through these cooking classes, I also hope that the women can learn to make faster, easier foods so they will have more free time that they can dedicate to other things such as other work, pottery, or being with their family. And who knows? We already broke the barrier that manual labor is just for men, maybe the men can participate in learning the easy recipes and prepare lunch or dinner for their wife! Another possibility is learning to make bread and since the same fire that heats the stoves heats the oven below, the women can be making lunch and backing bread at the same time which they can sell at community events and generate more income.

So, what I am asking from all of you is if you have any healthy, easy recipes that you think would be fun and would like to contribute to the women of Nueva Esperanza, I am putting together a cookbook and would love your contributions. The ovens heat up to about 350 degrees or so but lower temperature recipes would probably be ideal. Also, the ovens only heat up from the top so any foods you know how to make that require broiling or that recommend being baked on the top rack of an oven would be awesome. Thanks so much for your help!!

47/55 stoves done . . .Finally nearing the end

2009-05-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

Olga with her new stove
I never thought that I would be able to say this, but the improved stoves project which was my main focus during this last year and a half, is finally coming to a close! No more hauling bricks, no more dirty fingernails that never get clean! Initially, the project was to make 36 stoves. But because the mayor ended up contributing more money than originally planned and because some materials were cheaper than what we budgeted, we were able to make 55 stoves in total. (With another 20,000 Lempiras left over!! This extra money, is going towards making six public latrines in Otolaca, an area in Nueva Esperanza where the farmers are experimenting with new horticulture, and towards making a greenhouse to grow horticulture seeds, a project World Vision is helping out with as well (another story).

The women of the stoves project and I have come a LONG way. While every challenge and stressful situation was tough at the time and there were countless moments when I felt like I was tumbling uncontrollably into a black hole of failure and I didn’t know what I was doing, it makes this moment so much sweeter. My pride for the women and what they have accomplished is beyond words. I remember how, in the first meeting in November of 2007, the women were reluctant to participate in a self-esteem game where we stood in a circle and said one thing about ourselves that we were proud of. In this first meeting, most of the women were shocked when I explained they were going to be constructing the stoves and told me construction was “man’s work”. Now, at the completion of this project, there will be 55 new stoves in Nueva Esperanza made by 55 trained women.

And that’s just in Nueva Esperanza! The women have also been sought out to make the stoves outside of the community. One group of women was paid to go to another town an hour and a half away to make the stove in the home of a man who was interested in the design. Imagine four women taking a man to a hardware store to tell him what he needs to buy and then him paying THEM for their construction work! Another woman told me she is planning on making the stove in another town where her family lives.

Many women who, on the first day of construction, were hesitant to pick up a machete and start building, by the end had developed greater self-esteem and confidence that they were offering to help make the stoves for others outside of their group. The requirement for each woman was to help build three stoves, but most helped out with 5 or 6, one helped out with as many as 11! At the school parents’ meeting, the president of the board (who happens to be a man) asked that the women who knew how to make the stoves come to make one in the school.

And of course, as a Protected Areas Management volunteer, the environmental component of the project is just as important. José Paz Orellana, the husband of one of the beneficiaries of the project, told me, “This was a good project because it mobilized the community in a way that has never happened before here. The women have never been organized in groups before and they have never worked together as they did for this project.” He also told me that, “Every three days, I had to bring home a load of firewood which is a lot of time spent hauling a heavy cargo because our stove before used a lot. Now, the same load of firewood is good for the whole month, so I only have to bring a load once a month and because of that I have more time to be doing other things like working in the fields or being with my family.”

Let’s hear a big hooray for the women!!

The women in action

The women (and men and children) who helped out

Goodbye summer!

2009-05-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

A view from the top: Looking down on Nueva Esperanza where the rain is starting to fall heavily

This last week marked the end of the dry season. What were benign, white clouds that first started to appear in the brilliant, blue sky about a month ago have gradually turned into the dark gray ones full of water. And finally they burst. We had a couple of hard storms come through that turned the roads into slippery mud (I was walking home the other day and just as I was thinking about how slick it was and that I should be extra careful not to fall . . . I landed on my butt and got my pants, bag, and shoes all muddy.)

I used to love the sound of rain on the roof because it was so peaceful and I felt so safe inside a cozy home. Now, even though I still love the rain and usually go outside to my patio to watch it fall, the sound of it when I am inside my room bothers me. When the big storms come, there isn’t the security that you’re gonna stay dry as you do in the states. I have to make sure I get everything valuable like my computer and camera stored away. I also have to tightly seal any food that is out and hide anything made of paper so it doesn’t get wet. The worst feeling is cold raindrops on your face when you are trying to fall asleep at night.

But the rain also turns everything green which is good news for crops and the cows and horses. Nueva Esperanza has been very dry and the animals were really suffering to find enough grass to eat and water to drink. Many people were talking about how their animals were suffering and some lost their animals to lack of food. The green grass and mountain also reminds me of the beauty of home in Oregon, making me nostalgic and eager to return home. (Less than five months away!)

Elias walking fast with corn to feed the hungry cows.

The rain flooding onto my patio

Gray skies

It hails in Honduras?!

Summer photos Jan-March 2009

2009-05-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Milton and me

A wedding in Nueva Esperanza in the Evangelical Church

The wedding celebration.

Food served at the wedding

My friend Juan hanging out

Ursula burning the hairs off a chicken for dinner

A small summer construction project for me . . . Nelo putting in an electroducha! Yay hot showers!

A full ride headed out of La Esperanza. This is how it's done when you don't have a car and you need to get home.

Sugar cane harvest time

Fire cooking the sugar cane juice.

The sugar cane juice boiling down to make "dulce" or "miel"

I visited my friend's tomato farm which has been running for three years. Other farmers started experimenting with tomatoes this last year as well although some crops were lost to plagues.

Mangoes almost ready to be eaten!

Yup! All those little green ovals are mangoes! I eat mangoes everyday . . . I know you're jealous!

Go Honduras!!

2009-05-02T19:11:00.001-07:00

Anyone following the World Cup qualifications? Well, Honduras survived the first cut and is fighting to make the top five that will go on to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa this year. Every two months or so the Selection team plays in San Pedro Sula. I went the first time to see Honduras beat Jamaica and the game was awesome!

In January, Honduras was scheduled to play Mexico in San Pedro again. This was the BIG game. If we didn’t win, then we were OUT!! So you can imagine how packed the stands were. Nine of us volunteers got together to go watch. This game happened a while ago but it took me a while to get the photos from others. We had to fight to get enough room for all of us to sit together, and then we got poured on and were soaked the whole night. But when we beat Mexico, I think all of San Pedro shook with the energy and excitement coming from the stadium.

Kyler and Bryce

Getting Dirty in Organics

2009-05-02T19:01:00.001-07:00

I regret not having enough time or a lot of knowledge in agriculture to have gotten involved with an organized group of farmers that are trying out new horticulture products in the area. Some farmers who are beneficiaries of a big irrigation project that was finishing up when I arrived are branching out from growing corn and beans and trying things like green beans, tomatoes, and green peppers. So far, only a few tomato harvests have been lost to some plagues and diseases. Other than that most out here are learning fast and it’s nice that I don’t have to go into town for ALL my veggies now. (Tomatoes never really did survive the bus well).

An institution sent a guy out here to teach the farmers how to make organic compost. I had a few recipes for some Bocashi and was invited to come along to help out and learn as well. Truthfully, besides the compost I am trying to make in my house with my leftover fruit and veggie peels, I don’t know anything about compost. So I skimmed a book about the subject before heading to the workshop which was at my host mom’s house. The workshop was informative, long, messy, but most importantly, fun! And sometimes I forget how much I enjoy these community activities and how much it means to them that I am just around.

The layers of the compost

Coffee shell is added to make it richer

Francisco (my host dad, remember?) adding the active microorganisms

Atanacio and Maria Santos sifting dirt

Camilo putting down a layer of dirt

Me using a "bomba" to irrigate the compost

Finished!

An April Adventure

2009-05-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

The one and only main road in Utila
Semana Santa (Holy Week) is one of the biggest holidays in Honduras so we volunteers get a few days off as well. Susan (my travel buddy to Guatemala) and I were ready for another short escape. So for the week, we went to one of the bay islands on the North Coast of Honduras called Utila. Utila is smaller than Roatan and a little less touristy so a lot more affordable than the bigger island. Utila is also one of the cheapest places in the world where you can get scuba dive certified. For $250 (including lodging), Susan and I took a three-day class and got certified to 18 meters!

Arriving to Utila!

Beach volleyball at the hostel

Getting used to being around Americans, Europeans, and other international people in general was rough for us in the beginning. Susan and I were used to going to bed at 9 pm and all of a sudden we are sharing rooms with people that don’t even get up until 4 pm to start their day! I definitely felt awkward and a little out of place in the night scene and was caught off guard when I heard people being openly rude or impatient to others during the day. That was quite shocking coming from a village of humble campesinos that would never treat people with a lack of respect that I saw some treating others. We were also surprised to find that even though it only takes about 45 minutes to walk from one side of the island to the next, there was a HUGE amount of traffic! It seems that everyone had a motorcycle, golf cart, or even a pick-up, and there’s only one road! Watching the cars try to weave in and out of the people and the other traffic made me wonder how people could think that was more convenient that walking? Or at least get a bike!

The bar at our hostel was packed every night with the same night owls. Drinking every night?! And I used to be like that??!! Utila was beautiful and, to our surprise, very affordable! It was fun walking around town and the scenery was amazing. I got tan, too! Although everyone back in Nueva Esperanza told me I looked “quemada” (burnt) and that they thought my whiter (more pallid, pasty) skin was prettier. Everyone here dreams of being white. <>

Susan and me on one of the only beaches

Buying jewelry from the local artists. (Possible pottery market?)

Celebrating getting diver certified!

Getting the wet suits on

Susan and I heading home after a dive

On the dive boat

Lest we forget to value the good things we are given

2009-04-25T08:13:00.001-07:00

Mercedes Gomez is the head of the pottery directive that I have been working with here and even though I have just recently gotten to know her, we have quickly developed a solid friendship. Mercedes doesn’t leave her house very often so I was surprised to see her on the road to Gracias when I was headed into town as well. Later on, I found out that her husband, Marcelo, had a stroke and she was going with him to the hospital in Gracias. A few days later, I was devastated to hear the news that he didn’t make it. Most of the time, life out here is so pleasant and relaxed that you feel like you don’t want to give it up for anything. But once in a while you get hit by the brutal reminder that it’s a life of difficulty and suffering which no one should have to face. When Marcelo had the stroke, other villagers went around La Campa looking for someone with a car that could take him into Gracias. In the hospital in Gracias, they couldn’t attend to him and so sent him to Santa Rosa de Copan. I’m not sure if they had to find someone else with a car to take him the hour it takes to get there or if they went in bus which takes an hour and a half. Marcelo was attended to in Santa Rosa for a few days and then it was decided that he would get the best attention in San Pedro Sula, three hours by direct bus from Santa Rosa. Marcelo passed away on the trip there.

Michael and I went to his wake and were happy to find that Mercedes was able to keep busy providing coffee and bread for all the guests who came to mourn her husband. The night was gloomy but life must go on.

But even in this small community, as loved ones leave us to move on to a better place, we are blessed with the arrival of new lives that will share in the same love that connects us with those from before. One week before Marcelo passed away, my good friend, Genara, had a baby girl in the last week of March. There were complications, however, as Abigail was born with a severe cleft lip. Luckily, Abigail is able to breast feed and Operation Smile will be coming through in the end of August. So, hopefully they will be able to operate on their baby.

Genara's baby Abigail

Milton turns three

2009-03-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Since Angela’s husband teaches during the week up on the mountain, he wasn’t home last year to celebrate Milton’s second birthday so they didn’t do anything. But since this year Milton’s birthday landed on a Sunday, they decided to go all out with tamales, cake, and a piñata. I helped Angela make over 100 tamales and popcorn to put in goodie bags for all the kids that were gonna come. Here are some photos of the party!

Anggie stirring the tamale "masa"

Angela making the tamales

Angela and me making TONS OF TAMALES

Sister Keimy with Milton

Milton cutting his birthday cake

Milton with father, Maximo

Healthy Smiles

2009-03-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

The Youth Development project has a connection with Colgate to improve dental hygiene education. I have been waiting since last year to get my donation and finally it came! Becky came out to help me with a workshop for the teachers of three different schools and two kindergartens in my community and then I went to the schools to turn in two toothbrushes and one tube of toothpaste to each student. Every week, the teachers are in charge of giving a small lesson dental hygiene or general hygiene. Here is a photo of the kids learning to brush their teeth. I ended up collaborating with my friend, Alan, who is in charge of a healthy schools project and so we went around distributing multivitamins and giving fluoride to all the kids afterwards as well.

Ticks, bricks, and puppies!

2009-03-11T09:20:00.001-07:00

My neighbor Angela, me, and the new puppy Randy

A flowering mango tree, mango season is starting! Yesss!!!

The same mango tree after the bloom and full of fruit(May 2009)

It’s the hot, dry season now, from about February to June. So everyone has started to make adobe (mud bricks) to make houses and to start any other outdoor construction projects. The best part about summer is that a cold shower doesn’t seem that bad. (Although I recently installed an “electroducha” which gives me hot showers). Also, there are baby animals all over the place! Baby cows, horses, goats, puppies, and kittens! Even baby opossums that Vanessa found! I was visiting a friend in her home and what I thought was a black dog came inside and as it passed I said, “Wow your dog has long legs like a goat.” Then I did a double-take . . . it was a goat! An adorable baby goat that pranced after me and wanted to follow me home!

Pastor Emilio's new puppy! He even has his paws together like he's greeting "Bendiciones" (Blessings) like the people do here.

Another not-so-exciting thing about summer. A giant spider that came into my house.

Baby horses in Olominas

A newborn calf

Vanessa's cat gave birth to five kittens! It didn't seem like a pleasant experience.
The bad part about summer means that it’s time for ticks, fleas, and invisible grass mites to come out and leave more scars all over my body. So since those furry little creatures are so tempting to cuddle, I’m back to shaking my sheets out and ironing and washing all my clothes. The dry season also means that fires on Celaque are very common. Every year, people sneak into Celaque and purposely light the forest on fire. And every year this will be a problem as very little, if anything, is done to find the perpetrator. At least there are lots of people here willing to go help put the fire out. Many people from various communities went to help fight the fires. This year was definitely worst than last year, with the fires only about an hour walk away from where Vanessa lives.

The view of Celaque from the road to Gracias

The mountain has been so dry the fire took the whole side of the mountain in one day

The smoke was so thick it was blocking out the sun and my view of Celaque

What a Way To Start the Year

2009-03-11T09:19:00.001-07:00

January again which means that the first medical brigade that I translated for last year is coming back! I was so excited to see the doctors and nurses again as well as the West volunteers who I don’t get to see that often. From last year, only Becky, Kyler, and I were returning from last year. But two other volunteers from the new group of my project, Protected Areas Management, also came along. So it was a lot of fun to meet them and hear about their work.

PCV Kyler with a cute patient

PCVs Maggie, Kyler, Kate, nurse Aaryn, Becky, and me after a long day of work

One of the days of the brigade was also the Inauguration Day of President Barack Obama. The guy who helps organize this brigade every year went out of his way to find us a t.v. that got CNN in Spanish so that we could watch the Inauguration. When it was about to come on, we all gathered in the main room, gave all the kids coloring books and crayons, and watched the inauguration with all the other patients waiting to be seen. It was definitely a momentous occasion that we will look back on and say, “When this happened, we were united, doctors from various parts, Peace Corps volunteers, and local Hondurans, working to improve the quality of lives of some individuals.” The moment more than the speech, which was hard to follow as it was dubbed over in Spanish, brought tears to our eyes. This was one of the rare times that I have actually felt proud to be an American. And I am excited to finally be able to say with honor that I am a North American where our new president is Barack Obama. The feeling of hope was already evident before Obama’s inauguration; but I think that it’s even more so now because the whole world stopped to listen on this day.

This year we had dentists come down to pull lots and lots of teeth.

Maggie translating in triage

Me helping Aaryn clean wax out of an old ladys' ears. When she arrived she was so scared because she couldn't hear what we wanted her to do and she kepy getting dizzy with the water in her ears. When a marble-sized piece of wax came out of her ear though, she started shouting that we were a blessing from God giving her the miracle of sound again!

(October 2008) Time for a Break . . . in Guatemala!

2009-02-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

Stove construction is off! I don’t know how . . . but once we started construction, everything worked as it was supposed to! All the parts fit, I didn’t screw up the first stove (too badly) and all of a sudden 36 women are trained and making stoves all over the place that I can’t even keep count of who has finished and who hasn’t! In the last two weeks of October, I was helping make two stoves a day, 6 days a week. In general, I helped make two stoves per group. The first time facilitating construction and the second time watching to make sure they for sure get it. So by the end of October, I was exhausted but in a good productive way. The way that makes you want a vacation but also feel like you really deserve it!

So my friend, Susan, (Municipal Development volunteer) and I decided to go to Guatemala for a couple of weeks after a Halloween party in Copan Ruinas. Unfortunately, I got my camera stolen and so photos of the trip are going to have to come later when I can get them from Susan.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to visit an orphanage in Antigua, Guatemala. Susan has a friend who works in the orphanage and offered to let us stay at his place while we were in town. Our first night in Guatemala, he picked us up in downtown Antigua and after dropping our stuff off at his apartment, we went out to a bar to drink and chat. Orlando is head of the orphanage which is called “Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos” (Our Little Brothers). He has worked there for eight years and the orphanage has over 300 kids ranging in age from babies to adults. The great part about the orphanage is that it offers various workshops in carpentry, baking, and other activities so that when the children grow up and decide to leave the orphanage, they will be able to open a small business or have some experience to be able to find work. There is a basic school inside the orphanage as well and if the students want to continue their education, the orphanage pays for them to continue on to middle school or high school.

To my surprise, none of the kids can be adopted from the orphanage and, in general, it’s very hard to adopt children from Central American countries. I asked Orlando why it was so tough because, really, if families here don’t have the funds to take care of their children, there should be the option to adopt so the child can have a better life. I would have never guessed his response. Orlando explained to me that it’s dangerous to put kids up for adoption because . . . and yes, this reason stopped my heart too . . . people will adopt kids and then sell their organs on the black market. The next day, I found a Guatemalan newspaper and the front article was about an adoption agency that was a hoax. Basically, some people were claiming to be a valid adoption agency and had collected thousands of dollars from North Americans who wanted to adopt Guatemalan children and then disappeared with the money. It’s amazing what people are capable of and how much I’m still so naïve about.

(So I will try to get photos of the trip up as soon as possible. Sorry!)

(September 2008) Finding Friends When You Need Them Most

2009-02-10T13:54:00.000-08:00

Finally, we got funding for the stoves project after 7 months of waiting and being lied to and I had all the materials except the “plancha” which is the large metal sheet that the women cook on. This is also the most expensive part of the project. The mayor, who was providing the plancha, said he would have them on a Friday. I was a little nervous about the fact that my first stove was to be the very next day, Saturday. But he told me to trust him. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even in Nueva Esperanza during this time. I was still in Tegucigalpa in the doctor’s office doing all the official stuff for mid-term meds. But all I could think about was getting back and starting building. We only learned how to do these projects during one day of training which was over a year ago, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that I was scared out of my mind that something was going to go wrong. What if the materials were the wrong size? What if everything doesn’t fit together? What if I don’t even have all the materials? What if I screw up the first stove and everyone thinks I don’t know what I’m doing? What if they don’t work once they’re built?

I left as soon as my meds were done and arrived home after dark and exhausted from the 8 hours of travel. The next morning, Friday, I walked to the municipality just to make sure we had the planchas. When someone is about to tell you an excuse or is about to tell you that they are going to let you down, they start the sentence off with “Fíjese que”. I held my breath just hoping those weren’t the first words. But sure enough, the mayor told me, “Fíjese que, we don’t have them”. Usually it’s not worth it to show how disappointed you are because frankly you get disappointed a lot here. But I couldn’t help but let the mayor know how much I really didn’t want to hear those words. I hurried over to the house of the lady who was first in line to start building her stove to hopefully catch her and tell her not to undo her old stove. But I was too late, she had already been cooking outside since Thursday. When I told her we wouldn’t be able to make the stove, her son got angry with me and told me to just show him how to make the stove because he was a bricklayer and could make it on his own. I told him I couldn’t show him because: A) We didn’t have all the materials B) No other women were going to show up to help build (there had to be a minimum of three women building each stove) and C) This was a women’s project and his wife had to be there to build. When he told me he came representing his wife, I told him he was more than welcome to come and learn, but his wife was the one in this project and thus I wouldn’t teach him until she was present. At this, he muttered something along the lines of I didn’t know what I was doing and this project isn’t ever coming and then left.

This incident pushed me over the edge. For almost a year, this project has caused me constant stress and anxiety trying to find the balance between keeping the wheels turning and also keeping everyone involved by assigning jobs to others who don’t come through when they are supposed to. I know I could have done everything faster myself but at the stake of the sustainability of the project. And when the mistakes or inaction of others comes back to reflect poorly on me and only me, it takes a lot of tolerance and patience to resist taking everything into your own hands. So getting yelled at after months of hard work was the last thing I needed. I felt like no matter how hard I tried to make things work out, it was to no avail. And how backwards is it that someone was basically telling me I was doing a poor job of getting them their free stove? Good grief what the heck am I doing here?!

Here, I find it’s easy for a small dilemma to grow out of control and become more overwhelming than it should be which is what was happening. As volunteers, our work environment is also our living environment and the lack of distinction between the two means we lose it easier. Being alone also definitely does not help and even though I really wanted to talk to someone, I felt like I didn’t have anyone to call. I started to think about how much I left behind in the states and how long it had been since I had been away from my family and friends. And for what? So I could live alone in a country that doesn’t respect women and work on a project that no one seems grateful for and get lied to and yelled at by machista men?

There was a full moon out which lights the roads really well so I decided to calm down and take a walk. That was definitely the best thing I could have done because I really needed someone to talk to and I ran into my neighbor, Juan Ruperto. I was too upset to talk to him at the moment but when I came back an hour later, he came over to make sure I was okay. We went on a walk again and he just listened, which is all I needed. After a couple of hours, I felt so much better. He made me realize that there are people who care about me and that I should be proud of the accomplishment that the whole town has accepted me and supports me. Sometimes things go unlike we anticipate and it’s important to not take to heart what a few individuals say because as he observed, the majority of the women in this project are motivated and organized. And since there has never been an organized group of women in Nueva Esperanza, there are more ways to fail and more challenges that come with it. But in the end, he told me that all the hard work and problems I encounter will make this project even more worth it and even more rewarding. It takes very little effort to become frustrated with work and the way things are here, so it feels great when someone from this country can remind me why I actually love being here. I think Juan seeing me in a state that no one else sees created a confidence between us that I don’t have with any other Honduran, man or woman, and I’m thankful for this friendship that came about when I least expected it but most needed it.

Trip to Tegucigalpa with the potters!

2009-01-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

Seeing us off for our adventure to Tegucigalpa!

In November, a bunch of volunteers near Tegucigalpa had been working to organize an artisan fair in the US Embassy and invited all volunteers who have some type of artisan group in their sites to bring people from their group and sell inside the Embassy in December. What a great opportunity for the potters! The fair was set for the beginning of December and since July, Ellen and I had been working hard to prepare everything for the trip. There were business workshops we had to cover (which Ellen and I luckily had already covered earlier) and we needed to accessorize our pottery with labels, business cards and catalogs. I also opened an e-mail account for the group and Ellen, who teaches computer classes, taught a group of potters how to use the computer and check the internet in case more orders came from contacts we would make in Teguz. Thanks to Cooperación Espanola, the classes were paid for and the women, who originally could not afford the classes, can now use a mouse, use basic programs, and check e-mail!

Some of the beautiful pottery and clay artwork from La Campa

Because of budget cuts, there were no funds in Peace Corps to be able to cover any costs for this fair. And unfortunately, getting to Tegucigalpa is a long and rather expensive trip. But even still, two women (Herminia and Ursula . . . two of my best friends and supporters here), agreed that this was an opportunity we could not let pass us by and decided to go.

Ursula is a very active community leader and is involved in almost every project in some way. She also has been a confidant to me and supported me in more ways than I imagined or expected from anyone. If it weren´t for Ursula, I wouldn´t have been able to accomplish as much as I have and certainly my experience would have been a lot more difficult. Herminia is very intelligent and her husband, who is the main potter, does beautiful work. However, Herminia is less experienced with taking a leadership role and is even less experienced with traveling out of the community. So, I was most excited for this opportunity for her. This trip was her first time to Siguatepeque and to Tegucigalpa. It was also the longest time she had been away from her husband since they got married when she was 17 years old.

It´s time for the ladies to leave the village! Woohoo!! Herminia on the left and Ursula on the right.

So December 2nd came and we were ready to go! The fair was December 3rd but of course we had to leave a day early. I was excited to see how motivated Herminia and Ursula were for this trip and also excited to hang out with them outside of Nueva Esperanza. It would be an experience that none of us would forget. Herminia and Ursula wrote a letter to World Vision asking them to help us out with transportation and they said they would be happy to take us. So we filled the car with 11 boxes of pottery (each piece with a label tied on with a piece of corn husk), a stack of catalogs and business cards, and a huge sign that said ¨Alfareria de La Campa¨ which Ellen and I spent painstaking hours making and laminating by hand with contact paper. The head of World Vision in Gracias, Guillermo, took us straight to Tegucigalpa with one stop in Siguatepeque. The craziest thing happened when we were in Siguatepeque. I ran into my friend, Andrea, who I hadn’t seen since graduating from high school!! Herminia, Ursula, and I were in a small market looking at aisles of food when she came and stood in front of me. It was such a surreal moment and I was in disbelief. Andrea was on vacation with her family and boyfriend on the North Coast and were headed to Tegucigalpa when they decided to stop in the same rest stop in Siguatepeque as us. Small world, huh?

The artisan fair in the US Embassy

Herminia and Ursula selling to a customer

Some of what the potters make

In Tegucigalpa, I got to show Ursula and Herminia the Peace Corps office and introduced them to my project managers. Again, Herminia was making me laugh because every time we had to cross the road, she would run up and grab onto my arm. All the cars going in every direction was very overwhelming to her and she had no idea how I knew how to get across the street. Even Ursula, who has been to Tegucigalpa, commented that sometimes there’s just too much to look out for in the cities. It definitely is a shock going from the small towns to the big cities.

Herminia, Ursula, and I at our booth

During the fair, there were several other volunteers selling all kinds of artisan stuff. Getting into the Embassy was a little complicated. We sold a good amount and ended up taking the extra to a touristy town outside of Tegucigalpa called Valle de Angeles. There, we left four boxes in a store in consignment. So now La Campa pottery is finally out of La Campa!! Woohoo!!

Our newly labelled pottery and business cards

M.O.D.A. de La Campa

2009-01-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

So before Ellen finished her service, I asked her to help me give a business workshop to the potters. So in September, we gave a 4 hour business workshop on the basics such as the definitions of marketing and a product, the importance of product quality and promotion, and how to calculate the costs of a product to set a good price. The women here have never learned how to calculate the value of their labor and don’t realize how much more they SHOULD be selling their work for. Some women sold pairs of earrings for 10 Lempiras ($0.50) and didn’t even calculate that the metal she bought to make the earrings cost that much. When we told her she could be selling those earrings at 60 Lempiras ($3), she was shocked and said it was too much.

Me talking during our Business Management and Marketing workshop
about accounting and marketing skills (looks like my 4 years with CUTCO actually did pay off!)

For us, raising the prices of the pottery was such an obvious task that needed to be undertaken and I was super-excited thinking how much more money these women are going to earn for their beautiful work. However, a lot of challenges have arisen in trying to raise the prices. For one, everyone who knows what is La Campa pottery is used to the super low prices. In fact, there are some businesses that have found success by just coming to La Campa, buying the pottery, and then raising the price sometimes 600%. These businesses refuse to buy the pottery if it costs any more than the 50 cents a plate or $3 a large pot; and since income for the potters is a matter of having enough to buy food or not buy food, they are not willing to take the risk. Even if they were willing to take the risk, I would then have a lot of businesses and individuals very unhappy with what I am trying to do.

Ellen gathering info to change the prices of the pottery

So, Ellen and I have tried another angle. We have decided to look for the market outside of La Campa and Gracias where we can sell at prices that the women actually deserve. We invited the potters to a meeting and formed a directive that has representatives from all the different pottery groups that are organized in the municipality of La Campa. The name of the group is M.O.D.A. (Mujeres Organizadas de Alfareria) de La Campa. (The style of La Campa) . . . pretty creative, no?? M.O.D.A. will be in charge of taking orders that come from other parts of Honduras and eventually/hopefully orders that come from the states (but that’s not for way, way in the future). From those that decided to join, they elected three coordinators who will be in charge of receiving orders, dividing them equally among the different pottery groups, and then getting them shipped off on time. So far, we’ve got the basic organization but not necessarily the motivation to keep having meetings when there are no orders coming. And, truthfully, business has never been my specialty. But little by little we are taking the little steps necessary to get our name out there (we have an email address and are working on a website) and opening ourselves up to the possibility of success. It’s just a matter of if this will work or not. But hopefully it does mainly for the wellbeing of the potters and so they can finally start getting what they deserve for their pottery, but also because I´m proud of the group name and really want it to stick!

The potters

Photos to enjoy

2009-01-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

So my friends who are volunteers on the other side of Celaque hiked from their side to my side to visit me! I´m sad that I couldn´t make the hike with them but my ankle is still sore. And of course I had to be on the other side to receive them. But we hung out in my house and had a good time!

Becky and Ellen making dinner in my house

Left to right: Kristyn, Michael, Ellen and Rachel

Rachel and Kristyn in my hammock

So every Sunday there are football games all over the mountain. Even though the communities here are really small, each aldea seems to have their own football team. Right now we are in a tournament to see who is the best team in the municipality of La Campa. The winners get new jerseys!

La Campa football stadium

My neighbor, Maximo (Mataras, the white team) and Ellen´s boyfriend (La Campa 2 team) fighting for the ball

Football ´´campeonato´´ game in the stadium in La Campa

In case and disputes break out during the game (not really, they´re there making sure no one is illegally cutting down trees on the mountain, but they did have to intervene when a fight did start)

I don´t get bored here too often which is surprising, but whenever I don´t have anything to do, I can always go and visit my neighbors.

Me making tortillas with my neighbor, Magdalena

Black corn is in harvest!

Magadalena´s son, Carlos, showing off the corn

My neighbors Juana and Lencho with their children

Milton, Angela´s son, eating a plato tipico on the bus back up the mountain

Random photos

Me and a baby horse

The graduated 6th grade class, graduation was in November

Agapito coming back from working his harvest and Anael

A pretty flower

And finally, here are some photos of friends I have in the community that I would like to share with you all. I hope these photos help you get an idea of what its like here and who I randomly encounter on almost a daily basis. One difference here than in the states is that most of my friends here that I hang out with are men. This is because there are not many women in the community that are my age and because they are too busy attending to their house. I only know of one woman who is my age (she is married with four children!) and one other woman who is a year older (who recently got married). No one else comes close.

Gerson and me

My friend (and guitar teacher) Agapito and me

Roman at the Independence Day Celebration, his name was john when he was in my English class

September 15 - Honduras Independence Day

2009-01-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

So September 15th is Independence Day and everyone celebrates from early in the morning to the end of the day when the flag is taken down and the whole community goes on a march. I was in training last year so this was my first Independence Day celebration in Nueva Esperanza. The kids in the schools started practicing marching a month before and in La Campa and Gracias you can hear all the bands practicing the drums for the marching.

"Tiros" or slingshot competition keeps the men entertained until the end of the day

The target for the slingshot competition

Traditional Lencan dances are some of the entertainment

In the morning, there is a program with dancing and performances by whoever wants to participate. In the afternoon women come to sell food or drinks they have prepared and there are games. Finally, there is a dance (although this upset some Evangelicals) to keep the kids entertained until around 5 pm when the flag comes down, firecrackers are set off and everyone marches.

There's always a "carrera de cinta"

At the end of the day everyone lines up outside to prepare for taking the flag down

Ready with the flag to begin the march

The school leads the community in a march after taking the flag down

The Biggest Challenge(s)

2009-01-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

One motto for Peace Corps is “The hardest job you’ll ever love”. From mental stress (organizing and running meetings in Spanish) to emotional stress (being yelled at, facing lack of cooperation) to physical stress (moving 1,200 bricks), this improved stoves project has been the ultimate test of patience and the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Since Day 1, I was unsure how this project would all work out and I wrote earlier that I knew no matter what I did, I was going to run into challenges that I would have to take as they came up. But if I had known how much stress and worry would come from this project, I don’t know if I would have had enough guts to continue with it. If I were to start this project again (which actually may happen), I would do a lot different. But naturally we all learn from our mistakes and what I knew when I started this project (two months in-site) is a lot different than what I know now. So I want this blog entry to keep my family and friends posted but also hope that other Peace Corps volunteers or development workers interested in starting their own project can learn from what worked and did not work for me and hopefully can run their project a little bit smoother than I did.

The kinds of stoves we are replacing

Challenge #1: Culture Differences and Unawareness of How to Run Community Projects
The first mistake I made was to assume that the people who came to the first interest meeting for the stove project had a need for an improved stove. I figured that those who attended the meeting had a need and their signing of the contract meant they were aware of the requirements and were motivated and willing to work hard for this project. But really some of the women that came already had a stove and were just trying to take advantage of whatever I brought while others that couldn’t attend and had nothing were left out. (When I start this project again (I have extra funding to make a few more stoves), I am going to start out by getting names of those who are interested and then doing a diagnostic in their home to see the actual need.) We formed a board of directors which was a lot harder than I anticipated as no one wanted to take a leadership position. But even still, because I called the first meeting and knew the design of the stove, everyone still saw me as the leader. Also, this was the first woman’s group project to be formed in Nueva Esperanza and for some of the members of the group this was their first meeting they had ever attended. So to ask them to take a leadership role in a group of 37 was a little overwhelming.

From there, we waited almost a year to get funding. The women and I wrote and submitted a grant proposal to an NGO that claimed they were more than eager to support us even before we had the proposal done. But 7 months later, we were still waiting for their reply. I started having people ask me when the stoves were coming and soon after I started dealing with people who thought I was lying and that this project wasn’t actually going to happen. It was frustrating dealing with people who were basically asking me, “So when are we gonna get that free stuff you promised us? We don’t think you’re actually going to give it to us.” However, I can’t blame them because I am the first Peace Corps volunteer here and thus the people didn’t know what to expect. Plus, this wouldn’t be the first time that some organization has come in and not followed through with a promise. So if this was the attitude after the first month, imagine month 7!

Mistake #2 was believing that whatever anyone told me to be true was true. In the states, if we don’t know an answer, we are okay with saying we don’t know. But here, some people just tell you what you want to hear. The NGO we were waiting on told me they had submitted our proposal to their office in Tegucigalpa and were just waiting for confirmation. But the truth was that after seven months, our proposal didn’t move from a stack of hundreds of other proposals from their desk in Gracias! It basically had sat in this pile for over half a year! Well, time to start over. . . that was fun to report at our next meeting. (There’s also no such thing here as “Don’t kill the messenger”).

Challenge #3: Transportation and Distribution of Materials . . . With What Car?
We found funding through a Peace Corps SPA grant which came within 3 weeks of submission. Getting funding was supposed to be the easy part! Now we had to worry about buying the materials in Gracias and figuring out how to get them transported up the mountain to the community. We had huge sheets of metal and rebar that we needed to buy and get cut. And the 37 chimneys alone took up the whole back of a pick-up. Luckily, my counterpart from the NGO, a woman named Mideibis Lopez, still wanted to continue helping me out and so together we walked all over Gracias buying what we needed, sending purchased materials to places where they could get cut, and storing materials for until we could get a car. I guess one benefit to waiting for seven months is that I knew people in my community a lot better and had the trust and friendship with them to have those with a car be willing to help me move the materials. It took three different trips with three different cars. Mideibis and I bought, transported, and distributed 30 bricks, 7 pieces of rebar, 4 tiles, a 20’’x 20’’ sheet of metal and a chimney to each of the 37 women in the project. If I worked for an NGO, this might not have seemed like such an impossible task because NGO’s usually have engineers, connections in the metal workshops or warehouses to get good deals, multiple people working on the same projects, and transportation. But in this project, there was just my counterpart and I with no car, recently received money, no experience whatsoever of buying the type of materials required, and for me, under a year of living in the area.

36 chimneys bought in Gracias ready to be taken up the mountain

What 1,200 bricks looks like. All moved by hand.

Women at my house picking up their 30 bricks

Packed and ready to go

How it's done without a horse
Challenge #4: Dealing With the Changed Times
Finally, we got all the materials turned in including what the mayor said he would contribute. Although that is a different story in itself (see ¨Finding Friends¨ entry). But since so much time passed since the first meeting I had with the women, a lot had changed which meant I had a few more problems. In the seven months that we waited, another NGO came through with a housing mission. Basically, 13 families in my community were given a new house that . . . you guessed it . . . came with a new stove. And of course four of the women that were in my group were the beneficiaries of the housing mission. There were others who thought the stoves project wasn’t coming and had gone ahead and built their own stove which I congratulated them on for taking control and making a new stove without outside help. But they saw it as missing out and the lesson they learned was that they were better off waiting and not building their own stove because now they were out of that money while others were going to benefit from a free stove. So even though this was going to be their second new stove, I let them stay in the project because they did attend the meetings and I didn’t want them to feel that it’s not worth it to take matters into their own hands. Others just stopped bothering to show up to our new meetings and when we started turning in materials, they wanted back in. I had one lady who had only gone to one meeting out of the 6 come to my house when I wasn’t home and told my neighbor that she wanted a plancha (the most expensive part, a thick sheet of metal that is used to cook on, what the mayor provided for the project) from me or she wanted to be paid for the time lost for going to ALL of the meetings. Poverty isn’t in the wallet, it’s in the mind. And it’s attitudes like what this lady had that keeps Honduras from developing the way that it can.

Challenge #5: Dealing With Gender Issues
In the first couple of months when this project was initializing, a lot of the women who were interested in the project were reluctant to tell me if they were for sure in or out because they had to ask their husbands what they thought since construction was “man’s work”. It was also hard to get through to the women that THEY were going to build the stoves and they couldn’t send a man to represent them during construction.

Women doing "man's work"

The most trouble, however, came from one man who always seems to bring trouble to projects in Nueva Esperanza. His mom’s stove was the very first one we were going to construct and he showed up representing his wife to build the stove. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to build that day for a number of reasons (again, see ¨Finding Friends¨ entry). When I told him we weren’t going to build, he told me that I should just show him how to do it because he’s a bricklayer and could build it alone in two hours. I told him that this wasn’t the point of the project and that his wife needed to be present to build because this was a woman’s project. When I told him that he couldn’t come representing his wife, he stormed out and hasn’t spoken to me since. When we finally made the stove at his mom’s house, he was present but didn’t talk to any of us at all. The final step was to put the chimney through the roof and for this we needed someone with lots of upper body strength because our ladder broke and so whoever went up had to pull themselves up. When this guys’ mom asked him to go up he said, “This is a woman’s project and so you women have to do it yourselves.”

And that wasn’t the end! Now, his wife has helped build 5 stoves, two more than the required three and so all we have to do is build hers and her group will be done. But I have heard through the grapevine that he is not going to let her build the stove and is not going to give the materials back to me. I have yet to go over to talk to the two of them but it’s a conversation I’m not looking forward to. Truthfully, it’s his wife’s stove and she has the right to make it if she wants or not. Yeah, if only it could be that easy.

Summing up
I felt like this project formed as a shot in the dark and after starting the project, I could only keep moving forward even though every step I took was a proclamation of my faith in an intangible idea that I just hoped would work out in the end. Basically, I felt that I was either going to somehow come out with a successful project or I was going to mess something up and let down a whole community. This project took so long to get up off the ground that I even forgot how to make the stoves! I bought the materials according to the measurements written on a handout we got during training and nothing ever really became completely clear to me until the first stove was built. But now I’m happy to say that things did work out and even though the challenges were/are many, we now have 29 out of 37 stoves built. In October, I had one or two stoves a day to make. But after more and more of the women were trained and had practice making the stoves, a lot of the stoves were built without me being there or without me even knowing! I went on vacation for two weeks to Guatemala and when I got back in mid-October, five stoves had been made! The record number in one day is three and our first stove took four hours to make but the fastest one that was made was in one hour. And even more good news, there’s extra funds left over and so using what I learned from my mistakes, I’m going to open the project again for those who were left out and maybe even those in neighboring communities. After all, there’s 37 qualified women who know how to make the stoves, so to start over again should be a breeze. Truthfully, I feel like anything I do after this ever again will be a breeze.

September 27, 2008 - one year in country

2009-01-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

I apologize that it has been so long since I have gotten these entries out. I had about seven pages of blog typed and ready to be published and then my USB cleared everything on it. So even though the following entries are organized under January, they are accounts of everything that has happened since September . . . which is a lot!

Well, the end of September marked one year here in Nueva Esperanza. This time next year I will be packing everything up and headed home. There are days when I feel like I have finally figured out the Honduran culture, and then I get thrown a curve ball and remember that even though I have been here for almost a year and a half, there is still so much that I have to learn about the people and the dynamics of village life. As far as work, I am keeping busy with my three main projects of the improved stoves, working with the Lencan potters, and developing eco-tourism in the next town over, La Campa. After a year, it’s nice to finally have steady work that constantly is keeping me busy instead of fighting to find something to do. Now that I have hit a year, everything is starting over again. Celaque is hidden behind the rain clouds, the cold season is about to hit, the kids are getting ready to finish school, and coffee cutting will begin on the mountain. I feel nostalgic thinking about this last year and am aware of the fact that from now on everything will be the last time for me in Nueva Esperanza.

The one year mark also means that each project group gets together in Tegucigalpa for mid-term meds. Basically just going to the doctor to make sure we are all still healthy after a year in Honduras. I genuinely hate the long trip to Teguz but the fact that I will get to have my teeth cleaned and polished makes it worth it! I don’t think I have ever been so excited to go to the dentist. Also, my ankle is still hurting from when I sprained it so I want to get that checked out. All of us that were in El Suyate for Field-Based Training decided to take advantage of the reunion and go visit our host families. It’s not everyday that we all are able to meet up in the same place. In fact, the last time that all of us were together was last January! It was really nice seeing everyones’ families again and they were so excited to see us as well. Around 7 pm, we lost power and so my mom and I just talked by candlelight in our room and caught up on the last 8 months since we last saw each other. It turns out that the soccer team us girls played on in El Suyate is no longer existent because their team captain got pregnant. I updated my mom on my projects and told her she was always invited to come out and visit me to which she replied with a gasp that there was no way she could leave here. I wonder when the last time it was that she has left the community or if she has ever even been to western Honduras?

The next day, we had to get up early because Claudia, our project manager, planned a trip for us to go hiking in the protected area La Tigra for some in-service training. So at 5 am, Bryce, Liz, and I walked the same path we walked every day of training to the main road to wait for the bus. We ended up catching a ride with an NGO to Tegucigalpa. So just like that, our quick visit was over and we were off again. Even though I don’t get much of a chance to visit this part of Honduras, I know I will always have a family in this tiny town waiting for me whenever I want to return.

Area Protegida La Tigra

PAMers in La Tigra

A blue mushroon!

Bryce got stuck on a log on the marshy trails

Mary and Alice sharing an umbrella

Two Short Stories

2008-09-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ever since I have arrived to Honduras, I feel I have started to view life through different eyes. My beliefs of what used to be important to me or what made me happy have changed significantly just from one year of living in a small rural village. After one year in, I already know that one of the hardest things I am going to have to do is leave Nueva Esperanza, and I’m only half way there! The people here have opened my eyes to so much and given me so much more than I could ever give them, and for that a part of my heart is and always will be here in Honduras. Every volunteer in Peace Corps has a different experience and, as we have heard from our many safety and security updates, all communities treat their volunteer with varying levels of respect. I have talked with other volunteers about how hard it will be for me to leave and many have told me that they could leave tomorrow and never look back. But here in Nueva Esperanza, my experience has been very positive. And two events have happened to me lately that I want to share with you all hoping that it will give you a small glimpse into what it is like for me to live here in my community.

The first event was on Saturday, September 13th, and all started when I sprained my ankle really bad. (So my family and friends don’t start to worry too much, I am a lot better and while my ankle is not completely healed, the fact that you are reading this right now means that I am walking well enough to have made it into town and publish this entry).

I was walking to La Campa and the path down to the center of town is very, very steep with loose gravel and dirt; and in this rainy season is very slippery. I was coming down the hill carefully and to steady myself I put my right foot sideways behind a rock and stepped down with my left foot. Well, the left foot slipped and gave out and I fell landing all my weight down on my right ankle that was stuck behind the rock. My ankle went in and popped and the pain was soooo intense that I couldn’t move for about 10 minutes. But since I was in the middle of a trail without anyone nearby, I had no choice but to walk down to Ellen’s apartment and get some help. So I hobbled down (slipping again on the gravel might I add) and finally got into her place. Luckily, Ellen lives where there is a pharmacy and her landlord is the town nurse, so they got me some ice (which is really hard to come by) and I stayed there for a few hours until they gave me a ride back to my house. The last time I sprained my ankle was during a tennis tournament my senior year and that time I had to get crutches. Well, needless to say I was a little worried cause my ankle was hurting more this time than before, and I knew it would be impossible for me to be on crutches here. If you need a visual, imagine leaving the house and having to cross a deep ditch and then hike on crutches on uneven slopes through slippery clay and mud six inches deep . . . just to get from my house to the main road!

Well, once I got home, my neighbors immediately realized what happened to me as I couldn’t cross the ditch that is in-between my fence and the road. So they came and helped me into my house and then brought me dinner and then lunch the next day so I wouldn’t have to cook. The young girls, Angie and Keimy, were late returning for school in the afternoon because they went out in search for ice which is even harder to find ice in Nueva Esperanza as most people don’t have refrigerators. They came back with two “topoillos” (frozen juice in a bag) and told me the people that do have fridges just put water in the freezer for me for later. At this point my ankle hurt so bad that my whole leg was shaking and another neighbor, Nacho, who is deaf mute came over to see how I was doing. When he saw that I needed ice he left and came back with some bags that he got on the other side of the community, over an hours’ walk in total. But it didn’t stop there. Unfortunately this happened right when I had a ton of work to do. I had to go to Olominas, about a half hour walk away, to talk with some people about getting bricks for the stoves project, I was giving a business and marketing workshop with Ellen to the potters in La Campa that week, and I had to send invitations to all 36 of the women in my group to announce the day we were going to turn in the materials for the stoves. But my friends that have means of transportation came to my rescue. They took me to where I needed to go, waited for me to do my work, and then brought me back home; and the teacher in Olominas (the one I have a crush on) took all of my invitations and distributed them to the students to give to the women. And finally, since I couldn’t walk to get into Gracias, my neighbors went and bought me my fruits and vegetables when I ran out.

My neighbor, Nacho, with a new baby horse. The guy that went and got me ice.

The second event happened about 9 days after I sprained my ankle. Three of my PC buddies came out to visit me to see Nueva Esperanza and buy some pottery. During their time here, I was getting a load of 1,200 bricks delivered to my house, bricks for the stoves project and some personal for the next improvement I am going to make on my house (sealing the spaces between the walls and the roof because a lot of insects and bats get in at night). The guy was coming from Santa Rosa de Copan but told me he was coming between 9-10 am and to have at least two people there to help me. Since my friends were all there, I figured we could handle unloading them. Well, by 12:30, we were tired of waiting and I really wanted them to get to see La Campa before they left. So we decided to head out. At the very top of the hill that overlooks Nueva Esperanza, we heard the truck with the bricks arrive and I was so bummed. But I really wanted them to see La Campa so I told the girls to go on and I would go back and unload the bricks. I told the man that I didn’t have helpers because he was 3 ½ hours late and so they left. And when he told me I couldn’t unload the bricks alone, I said there was no other choice. I asked my neighbor Juana who lives close by if she could help for a little bit but I knew she was busy cooking lunch. Other than that, my nearest neighbors were all gone and there was nobody near by.

I took a few loads going back and forth from the truck with the help of little Angie and Keimy and realized that I really couldn’t do this alone. But just as I stopped to think about what to do next, I saw Nacho coming. And then Juana showed up as well with her two daughters to help. And slowly more and more people saw what I was doing and started to come out of nowhere and without me even asking them to help unload. Juan Ruperto, the brother of the Olominas teacher I like, came pretty immediately and Juana’s husband, who had come back for lunch from working all day in the fields, showed up later. In total, there were nine of us going back and forth and Juan Ruperto said to me, Asi unidos se cumplen las cosas (“Together, we get things done”). I replied that I was glad I didn’t know what 1,200 bricks looked like or I really would not have been looking forward to unloading them. LOL. With the last hundred or so to go, it started to pour and although we were all tired, we worked faster to get the bricks unloaded before they got wet and heavier.

What 1,200 bricks looks like

And if we thought that was the end of it, we were wrong. The truck, on its way out to the main road, got stuck in the mud. (Yes, the same place where my neighbors always get their car stuck. I seriously think my next project should be to lay cement there because I don’t even know how many cars and trucks have had trouble getting through!) So in the pouring rain, we helped try to get the truck out of the mud. We started with moving the 800 bricks of another order in the front of the bed of the truck to the back when the front tires were stuck. We pushed the truck backwards and forwards, collected rocks from the creek and moved them here and there to make new paths, and even made a dam to stop the water from making the area worse! But no matter what we did, the truck just kept getting stuck. The brick dust that was smeared on my clothes was now turning into yellow mud. We were all drenched and shivering from the cold, not to mention my ankle was starting to hurt again. After about half an hour, our numbers had grown even more as everyone that passed by came to help out; even two of the buses that run from Gracias stopped full of people and the ayudantes (helpers that take your money and help you with your bags) ran out to help push the truck out of the mud after yet another failed attempt to get past. Finally, after getting the truck stuck and unstuck about four different times, it made it to the road, and with handshakes and goodbyes the guy was off. The rest of us hung out for a little bit, dripping wet, and talked about how we were happy the truck didn’t get stuck permanently and then went off to do our own things. There were no complaints about being soaked or any expectations of some type of reward for the work. When you live in a small community, that’s just what you do for each other.

The after-party consequences

2008-09-11T13:24:00.001-07:00

Another tradition in Lempira is an alcoholic drink called “chicha”. In the past, the drink was made for celebrations such as a wedding but drunk in responsible quantities, maybe two cups. But now, it’s just another means to get drunk, especially during Día de Lempira. In Gracias, I saw my friend Edwin at the fair. He was with a bunch of friends and the last thing he told me was “Be careful with your purse, there are a lot of robbers here.” Ironically, it was he who should have been careful with the robbers. Late that night, Edwin bumped into some guys who wanted to go to the hot springs right outside of Gracias. Edwin decided to go and jumped in the back of the car. On the way out to the hot springs, the car crashed. Fortunately, everyone was okay, even Edwin even though he was in the back. The guys told him to wait with the car while they went to get help. When the police arrived, Edwin figured the other guys had sent them. But really they had come because they were looking for the car Edwin was waiting next to because it was stolen. Edwin was taken to prison and faced up to 13 years in prison, just for a stolen car that he didn’t steal! And here in Honduras, the police just look for someone to blame and call it good if no one says otherwise. There’s no thorough investigation. Luckily, Edwin had some friends who talked to the owner of the stolen car. After Edwin offered to pay for all the damages, if he dropped the charges and Edwin was set free. Hopefully a lesson was learned after that night.

Food!

2008-09-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

And finally, once you crack the inside part open, its a baby coconut!
This page is going to be dedicated to all the different foods of Honduras that I have gotten to try. After a year in, I think I have a good grasp of what is around during which months. More to come later!

Totoposte, like a squash and excelent in soup!

The inside of the totoposte

Zapote, my new favorite fruit

The inside of the zapote, it is really sweet and has the texture almost like an avocado

Zapote, again

Mazapan, or breadfruit . . . which I will never try again because I was puking all night after eating

The inside of the mazapan

Mazapan is eaten sliced and then fried, maybe it was the grease that made me sick. Who knows.

Yummy bread. Served with coffee is my favorite afternoon snack!

A pear

Guineos morados

Malanga

Malanga 2

Maracuya (passionfruit)

The inside of maracuya

Datiles, miniature bananas

Flor de izote, the flower that grows on the top of an izote tree

To prepare the flor de izote, you take all the flowers off of the plant and put them in a pot with a little bit of oil and salt. You fry this for a little bit and then add egg. You can also add tomato or onions or other vegetables. Served with tortillas and a side of beans.

A guanabana

Avocado

Banano (there are about 7 different types of bananas here!)

Coyoles. So this is how you eat them. First, the outside is hard which you have to crack open with a knife or with your teeth.

Once you peel the outside off, there is a yellow chewy fruit inside that kind of reminds me of sweet oatmeal when eating it. It surrounds a small hard ball.

After the fruit is eaten, you throw the little ball into a fire for about 5 minutes. Once the ball is black, you take it out and crack it open.

Inside is a baby coconut!

Tamales de pollo (chicken tamales)

Random Photos

2008-09-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

A baby cow

Neptaly holding the ladder while Selvin ties my hammock up

A baby horse and its mom

Keimy turns 11!

Waterfalls in La Campa after a hard rain

Agapito knocking down avocados

Lunch break at school

The road to my neighbors´house

San Manuel de Colohete, another aldea about 12 km up from La Campa

Angie and Milton passing the time

My friend, Mario, and me

Angie turns 9!

Milton swinging from the corn grinder

Izote trees in Nueva Esperanza

My friend, Alan, in La Campa

July 20th - Dia de Lempira

2008-09-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Since it’s been over a year, it means I’m starting to celebrate the same Honduran holidays twice. But this time around when it comes to community events, I won’t be awkwardly standing around feeling out of place. The first Honduran holiday that passed when I first got to Honduras was Día de Lempira, July 20th. But last year, it did just that . . . passed by without any sort of celebration that I heard about. Since my training wasn’t even close to the department of Lempira, nothing exciting really happened. All I remember from that day last year is being in Spanish class and we had to go around and ask people why the day was so special. But this year was a different story. I guess I should have figured that Día de Lempira would be huge in the department of Lempira, but I never would have guessed how big. The whole month was dedicated to the celebration of the “National Identity” of Honduras.

So of course no one came to my English class . . . there weren’t even regular school classes! Everything was cancelled to prepare for or to celebrate Día de Lempira. And of all the months I have been in good health condition, I got hit with dengue fever right before all the celebrations start. Dengue is a sickness caused from a bite from a certain type of mosquito. You basically get body aches, an awful headache that doesn’t go away, flue-like symptoms and a fever. I had a 102 degree fever for three days straight, the three biggest days of celebration. Did this stop me from going to enjoy the events? Absolutely not. Although Ellen kept saying I looked like I was going to pass out.

In La Campa, there was a dance festival where the professors and students performed traditional dances. (They had to cancel school for a few days so the professors could learn the dance, and then a few more days so the professors could teach the kids). Getting to this festival was pretty stressful. I kind of have a crush on one the teachers so I wanted to be there early to make sure I saw him dance. But there is a lot of mud where I live and when it rains, it’s hard for cars to get to the main road. I was on my way on foot when I passed my neighbor, Angela, who wanted to go in car but managed to get the back tires of her husband’s car half way stuck in sand and mud. Angela has been learning on and off how to drive but she still doesn’t know how to go in reverse or in any gear past second. (To get a driver’s license in this country, you just have to pay for it.) I helped her get the car out and then she asked me to get the car to the road where it was drier, about 50 meters away. Well of course when I got the car stuck, she ranted about how I couldn’t drive and then stopped a truck going by so the man could help us get the car out. When he tried to get the car past and got it stuck as well, she yelled at him for not being able to either, the irony of the situation being that she is the only one of us that can’t drive. We finally got the car out and back to her house but not after her yelling at me that I can’t drive and I yelling at her that if I can’t drive then she should just do it on her own and not ask me for favors. I ended up not talking to her for a few days but she sent me tamales and tortillas to show she was sorry so I went over to hang out and then we never talked about it again. And in the end I did get to see the dances, and Nueva Esperanza won the dance festival!

The teachers dancing a traditional dance

The Nueva Esperanza dancers

One of the biggest traditions for Día de Lempira is the “India Bonita” (or “Beautiful Indian”) pageant. There is a pageant in all the communities that have schools. I only went to the pageant in La Campa and in Nueva Esperanza. For the pageant, one girl is elected to represent each class (4th and 6th are one class as well as 3rd and 5th).

In Nueva Esperanza, there are three schools but two of them are 1st-6th grade in one class and so they only had one girl to represent the whole school. These girls then make dresses that best represent what existed during the time of “Lempira”, the Indian who led 30,000 men to fight for freedom.

Lourdes representing Las olominas school

Some girls made dresses made completely out of corn husks or had beans, corn, and other seeds glued on. One girl made the department of Lempira out of these basic grains. Angela’s daughter, Keimy, was elected to represent the 3rd and 5th grade class. Angela had made her a dress gluing beans, squash seeds, and corn to the top with flowers made out of cobs of corn on the back. On the dress, she had someone paint Lempira and decorated the bottom with dried corn husks and miniature clay pots and comals (round dishes used to make tortillas). Keimy then had a small basket full of fruits and vegetables typical of the department of Lempira and of the time. At this point, we were on speaking terms again and so I got to help get Keimy ready for the night. However, dengue was just starting to hit, so I was in bed all day and didn’t get up until around 5 pm so I could help Keimy get ready and to go watch. By the end of the night, I was losing energy.

My friend Roman, dressed as an indio in La Campa, and me

Keimy modeling her dress

At the event, the girls model their dresses and usually judges decide who wins based on the detail of the dresses. However this year, we were unable to get judges and so it was decided by cheers from the crowd. Of course the little one from the kindergarten won because she was the cutest and her family of 14 was there to make extra noise which caused some controversy because her dress was not very “Lempira-like”. I was a little surprised by how angry some people got, especially since they don’t win anything except a sash that they get to pass on to the next “India Bonita” next year. Angela even said she wouldn’t have joined the pageant if she had known it was going to be judged by the audience.

Dress made entirely of ´´tusa´´ corn husks

Nueva Esperanza´s india bonita candidates

Little ´´indio´´

The next day, I still had an awful fever but I had already decided I wanted to go into Gracias to see the events. There was a rodeo and my neighbors invited me to go with them (given we could get the car past the mud). So I hitched a ride with them. In Gracias, there were food booths, dramatizations of the death of Lempira, pageants of the “India Bonita”, dances, rodeos, cock fights, and lots of booths for selling. It was like the February fair all over again but celebrating culture rather than religion.

India bonita candidate in Gracias

La Sensual Elizabeth singing at the rodeo

Rodeo in Gracias

Mariachi singer

A Year In

2008-09-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

First off, I just wanna say I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to get a blog entry up. It would be a lie to say that nothing interesting has happened. Sometimes I don’t think I have much to say but once I sit down and begin to write, I find I do have a lot to share. So be expecting several more blog entries after this one! Work has finally picked up and when I do have free time in the evenings, I usually have non-stop drop-by visitors that are making a habit of coming over often. Some of these visitors, of course, are more welcomed than others, but in general it’s nice to have someone to hang out with, talk to, and play guitar with in the evenings. (Although because I still am practically the only 23 year old single girl in a 10 km range and most of the visitors are guys, I’m still wary of how I act and what time they stay til). I find now that very rarely does my Spanish hinder any conversations I have with Hondurans which is nice because it allows my friends to get to know me at a more complex level and vice versa. The other night I talked with my friend, Alan, about “machismo” and how it encourages the objectification of women. We got on this topic when I went to my first rodeo (which I’ll talk about in the next entry) and Alan didn’t understand why I didn’t like watching the singer, “La Sensual Elizabeth” (yes, that’s what she calls herself), who came out in a long coat which a man untied and took off of her to expose a very skimpy outfit to the hoots and howls of all the men.

So, it’s official. . . I have been in Honduras for over a year! I hit one year in-country on July 11th and will be one year in-site at the end of September. So although it’ll be two years next July, the two years of service is counted from when we are in our communities and so I’ll be headed back the states (maybe) at the end of next September. Still so far away, but so much to do before I go! I finally got funding for my improved stoves project and construction will be starting in October. After much frustration and even some tears, I had to drop the NGO that initially promised to financially support this project and I got funding through Peace Corps. Seven months is a long time to wait for, and to pester, an institution so I decided Peace Corps funds might be the best way to go; and I’m a little sad I didn’t do this in the beginning as my project got approved about three days after I submitted all the necessary papers and the check was in my account the next week. There are still a few kinks to work out and it has been over a year since I learned how to build these stoves, so I am definitely a little nervous with how this is going to go down. Plus, this is the first construction project in Nueva Esperanza that requires the manual labor of women. So all I can do is pray that everything goes smoothly and then just take the obstacles as they come when it doesn’t.

In the meantime, I have gradually and inadvertently gotten involved with developing Eco-tourism in La Campa. Besides the HUGE potential La Campa offers for tourism (Colonial church, hikes, beautiful scenery, Lencan pottery, horseback rides to waterfalls . . .) many institutions have already supported La Campa with tourism development as it is the second biggest attraction after the town of Gracias. For example, the tourism institution in Gracias came out and constructed a Museum dedicated to the Lencan pottery in La Campa (. . .which receives about 2 tourists a week . . . in a good week). So I’ve been working to try to attract more attention to the museum and use it as a tourist center. I have met a few tourists in La Campa that come and then have no idea what there is to do or where anything is. I remember when I first arrived to site and was walking around La Campa, I accidentally walked in to the museum and thought it was the municipality! So my short-term goals are as follows:
1) Paint on the side of the museum its hours of operation, prices for entry, and even a sign that it is a museum
2) Make a map of La Campa showing all the accommodations, restaurants, pottery shops, and other points of attraction. (I met one tourist walking around one day who didn’t know there was a restaurant in La Campa, and since there aren’t any stores in La Campa, just figured she wouldn’t eat until the next day when she returned to Gracias. . . not exactly the best impression for someone we want to return with friends)
3) Make pamphlets for two trained tour guides who live in La Campa about the tours they offer and their prices and a pamphlet for the potters who offer demonstrations of making their pottery. All to be available in the museum and in Gracias

As of now, few tourists go to see pottery demonstrations and even fewer ask for a tour guide. But it’s not because the interest is not there. Several tourists come to La Campa and want to see the pottery made but just don’t know where to go. And it’s hard for small villagers to understand that not all tourists are comfortable (language-wise or not) with just asking random locals where to do such things. People here tell me, “Well the tourists just have to ask and we can tell them how to get to the potters’ houses to see demonstrations”. But tourists want it easier. They want one place with all the information on what you can do, how you can do it, and how long it will take to do in La Campa.

As for the pottery itself, I’m still working with the women’s group in Nueva Esperanza and recently got involved with working with a man named Amadeo in La Campa who buys the pottery and sells it elsewhere. Amadeo manages an Agroforestry Cooperative, owns a hotel, and has been mayor for three terms in La Campa. He’s a very motivated individual and very involved with development here. By working with him, I can support all the other potters in the area as he buys from all of them. He also owns a car and so transportation of the pottery is a lot more feasible if we have more people interested outside of La Campa and Gracias.

In addition to this, I was nominated to be a VOS (Volunteers Offering Support) member. I had to go to Tegucigalpa for a few days of training and learning about VOS. Basically it’s like Freshman Peer Mentoring or being an RA in the dorms again. If any volunteers have a problem and need someone to talk to, then they can call me up. After signing the contract to be a VOS member, we had elections for new officers and I am Training Coordinator with another volunteer from my group, Anne Marie (we were in the same Spanish class way back during training). I was a little reluctant to be a part of the leadership because I live so far from Tegucigalpa, but I think it works out well that there are two of us for the job. So next year we are in charge of running the training for the new VOS members and also training Peace Corps staff.

So these are the main things that keep me busy. I’m working on other little projects like making tree nurseries, teaching English, touching up my house, or just helping out where I can. And when I don’t have that much to do, I have the freedom to travel and hang out with other volunteers; maybe go and eat pizza in Santa Rosa de Copan or other foods from the states that I miss. But I really like staying in Nueva Esperanza chatting with my neighbors, hanging out with Ellen, having people over, or going to “pasear” (walk around and see people). I still love visiting my host family and other families and friends that don’t get out as much. But I also always have a pot of coffee ready for anyone that may drop by for a quick visit. Actually, if I don’t see certain people about once a week, they think I am mad at them. So I try to get out as much as I can and I always have my door open when I am home. Talk about pressure to upkeep the social life!

Martir (left) and Selvin (right) putting up the posts for my fence

A snake found right outside my house. We think it´s a python of some sort but are unsure

Martir tightening the barbed wire around the posts

My neighbor, Neptaly, came to help out. Him and Selvin unwinding the barbed wire

Soccer season has also started up and so every weekend there are games in Nueva Esperanza and in the stadium in La Campa. Most communities have their own team, or two like Nueva Esperanza and La Campa which have tons of players. Watching the games makes me miss competitive sports so I may soon find myself on a girls’ team if one is ever formed. The best part about the soccer games is that everyone there has come to just have a good time. The school teachers make up half the team as well as some of the students they taught 6 years before. The referee is the local shop owner and is running around on the field in jeans and a checkered shirt. Sometimes watching the games in the stadium makes me forget that I’m in Peace Corps because when I look around, I feel like I could be at a game in the states, or anywhere. The boys think they’re cool wearing their baseball caps sideways eating “topoillos” (frozen bags of juice) and flirting with the girls who have put on their cutest outfits and are sitting in groups pretending they don’t see the guys, the men are eating chips with a Coca-Cola and moving around greeting one another, and the women are selling “pastelitos” (fried turnovers with potatoes or rice inside) and other homemade snacks while their youngest are running back and forth along the bleachers. No one has to work, all worries are forgotten, and everyone is enjoying the Sunday afternoon, the long-awaited day of rest.

Celaque . . . finally!

2008-06-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, my friend Rachel and I went up Celaque, the tallest mountain in Honduras. We did an 8 hour hike (10 hours in total including the trek up to the Visitor’s Center) and reached the second highest peak on Celaque, at 2,300 meters. Because we went a few days after Hurricane Alma hit, it was VERY wet and slippery. I ended up falling twice and we were stumped for about 20 minutes when we had to cross a part of the river that had risen so high we couldn’t find a way across. Here are some photos of the hike.

The start of the trail, the water was soooo high!

Rachel and me

The view at 2,300 meters

Me

Strange plant

Taking a break

Crazy vegetation!

Crossing bridge on the way back

Visitor Center in construction, a wall made form plastic bottles. Yay recycling!

Worker making wall from bottles filled with sand

A large grasshopper on our hotel door

The Downside of Rural Community Life

2008-06-17T07:30:00.001-07:00

So although there is the upside of safety in rural communities, the downside of not living in the big cities, where more voices can be heard, is that sometimes these communities on the fringes of the most beautiful areas of Honduras are forgotten. Of course, corruption inside and outside of the communities can prevent improvement, but some of the basic needs out here are continuously overlooked until it causes a bigger problem. To get to Nueva Esperanza, you have to cross numerous creeks and rivers. There are bridges to get across the rivers and the creeks are low enough to just pass right on through. However, the last bridge right before Nueva Esperanza has been broken for more than five years. There is a huge hole in the middle which only a motorcycle can (barely) get by. So, all cars and buses have just gone down through the river. Sure the river has gotten high before, but there has never been any problem with getting across. Until now. The first hurricane of the season, Hurricane Alma, hit southern Honduras in the end of May. Here on the outskirts of the storm, we got LOTS and LOTS of rain. The hurricane raised the river so high that it was impossible for cars, or the buses, to cross.

There was no problem when I left Nueva Esperanza the day before, so I had no idea what was going on when I was headed home and the bus suddenly stopped and turned around. The driver announced that we couldn’t get across the river so everyone had to get off and start walking. I’m pretty sure I gave the bus driver the dropped jaw look of shock. I was coming back with my backpack of overnight gear plus three other bags of groceries. . . and we were at the bottom of the hill. Plus, this bus was supposed to go San Sebastian, it was still 18 km away from it’s destination up the mountain! Everyone got off the bus and started walking across the bridge and up the hill, no complaints and no hesitation. I still am amazed by the attitudes of the people here. I think I stayed calm the whole time just because everyone else did; and because everyone else accepted this ordeal as just another challenge to face, I did, too. Although I can’t help but feel a little angry at how unjust it is here as I watch a man unload a 100-pound bag of corn, carry it on his back bent over up the hill, and then re-load it into the other bus that was waiting for us at the top. For people that already have to struggle with so many other things, like just getting enough of life’s necessities, it’s inexcusable that their lives have to be made more difficult with a problem that should have been taken care of immediately. Another woman struggled with her baby in one hand and two full bags of groceries in the other to make the trek up to the other bus. I wish I could have helped her with the load but I had no free hand to offer myself. We loaded the new bus which didn’t have the overhead compartments like the other one and so all of the bags and boxes of things were either compacted with the owners in the seats or stacked in the aisle. The whole time, I don’t remember hearing a single complaint. . . which may be why nothing has been done to fix the bridge. (The short-term solution now is putting boards across the bridge so cars can pass. . . I prefer walking the 3 hours to town than risk falling into the river). Maybe we’ll get someone’s attention now.

The Upside of Rural Community Life

2008-06-17T07:27:00.001-07:00

I remember a story my friend, Ana, (who is from El Salvador but now lives in Washington State) told me when we worked together at my university. She told me that what she misses most from where she comes from is that if you are going through hard times, your neighbor is going through hard times, too; and so you worked together or suffered together. But in the neighborhood where she is now, your problems are your own and you have to deal with them yourself even though there are people who are so close by who could help.

I know I have already talked about how wonderful it is to be a part of a small community where you are always welcomed into a home and stop to greet everyone you walk by. But one other benefit that comes from living in a small community, I learned about this last week, is safety. A couple of weeks ago, a woman named Graciela and her husband moved into a house near me because Graciela wanted to be closer to her son and daughter, two well-respected people who live in Nueva Esperanza. One day though, the man went and threatened Graciela’s daughter with a knife because she came from another father. With that, the community united in a way that I wish I could see happen in the states. There’s a select group that is dedicated to the security of the community and when they heard of the event and heard that the man was still in Nueva Esperanza at a pulperia (small store from a house), they called the alert. A bunch of phone calls were made not only to the group but to anyone in the community that might be around the area. The pulperia just happens to be right next to my house so I was coming home and stopped to greet four men waiting in the road in front of the pulperia. One of the men was the brother of the woman that was threatened and I thought he was kidding when he told me they were there to detain the man that threatened his sister. No machetes or other weapons were on hand, just the power of numbers. One by one, men came from all directions, some that were called and some that were just passing by and stayed for the support. The four turned into 30 or more who all just stood and watched the offender, making sure he didn’t disappear before the police came to take him away.

My neighbors came out of their house to watch and one of them told me, “Look, Courtney, you’re seeing what happens when someone brings problems to the community.” And then he joked, “But if this guy pulls out a machete, they’ll all scatter.” I guess this happened again the next day when the man was released the next morning from jail and came back to his house. The people united again and pressured him to leave and go back to where he came from. Since then, he hasn’t been heard of since. Peace restored! In these rural areas, anything that threatens the well-being and safety of the community is thought of as everyone’s business and everyone unites to take care of the problem. So for the woman who was threatened, instead of having to stay in her house everyday trying to avoid this man who had no good motive to threaten her, her fear and troubles were divided among the community and together the problem was taken care of immediately. In the states, I think sometimes we try to keep too many of our worries and problems to ourselves or forget to care about other people’s troubles. But here, my house was literally in the middle of this whole ordeal. The man lived 100 meters from me and threatened the woman two houses down on the other side of my house. But I never felt nervous for my own safety because I knew the community was always watching out for one another and wouldn’t let anything else happen. Not to sound naïve and not that I’m going to completely let my guard down, but I truthfully don’t think I have ever been safer.

In my house!

2008-06-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

I finally moved back to Nueva Esperanza! Well, I have to admit that I have been living in my house for almost two months; (I moved April 15) but actually making the house feel like home has taken a lot longer than just the move. In fact, there is still a lot of work to be done before I can finally call it home. But, I am proud to say that by the end of all the construction, I will almost be a professional house-builder!

For those of you who don’t know, it is required for me to live in Nueva Esperanza. Unfortunately, when it was time for me to move out of my host family’s house, there were no housing options for me. So, I had to move to La Campa, the next town over, at the beginning of 2008 and kept waiting for options to open up in Nueva Esperanza. Finally, a woman who lives in La Campa offered to finish a house she has in Nueva Esperanza for me so I could move in there. At the time, I had a few options that I was waiting on but after they all fell through, I told her that would be great. A few days during the construction of my house, I went to help out. Who would have thought that my pre-service training would have come so in handy! I was hauling bricks, mixing cement, laying gravel, and even helped dig out my latrine hole and build the wall to my bathroom! I talked to a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama once who told me he had to build his own house because there was no housing in his community and I remember saying, “Wow I can’t believe you had to BUILD your own house! There is no way I would have done that.” Little did I know . . .

Moving Day was an adventure in itself. To give you an idea of what it was like, think about moving away from home to college. You have packed all of your belongings for the next two years as well as any furniture (bed, shelf, . . .) or appliances (stove) you need because there is absolutely nothing provided for you. Then, imagine having to get all of that stuff to your house without a car and on no paved roads. Okay, so I didn’t exactly throw my bed on my back and hike to my house. Thanks to an ex-pat who lives in La Campa, I was able to transport my things in the back of his pick-up. However, my house was not exactly ready to be moved into when I did. My landlord had promised me that everything would be ready for me to move in mid-March. . . then the end of March . . . then the beginning of April . . . then April 15th at the latest. . . So, I packed all my belongings and then was living out of my boxes for the next month waiting for the house to be ready. I finally just couldn’t wait any longer. I declared, rain or shine, that I was going to move April 15th. When I made the move, the house at that point had running water and electricity but was still missing light bulbs (so much for the electricity), a finished floor, door handles, and window and door locks. My landlord had promised me that the guy who was to put the locks on my doors was coming the next day. So I used long pieces of wood to jam the doors shut so they wouldn’t open in the middle of the night. However, he didn’t come the next day. In fact, my landlord admitted to me that she hadn’t even bought the locks yet. It was around that point that I decided I better help get the ball rolling. I don’t have the knowledge of how to install door locks (the ones that have a key), but I did put on the door handles and other small locks that you can lock from the inside. So when I was inside the house, I could secure everything. But if I had to go anywhere, I had to leave a door open so I could get back in. Finally, a week later, the guy FINALLY came to do the installation and I had some other people help me install the light sockets and light bulbs.

Gradually, though, improvements have been made inside and out. A lot of people have really helped me out from lending me a table to helping build a moat around my house. The rains have started coming and sometimes there’s so much water during some storms that it enters under my door and through my windows, thus the need of the moat. Although that sounds pretty terrible, it doesn’t really mean anything when you have a cement floor. In fact, if anything, it has made me a tidier person because I have to make sure not to leave anything on the ground that can’t get wet. Water drips through the ceiling, too, so I can’t leave anything on the table either.

It’s definitely nice being back in Nueva Esperanza and closer to the people I first developed relations with. When I’m lonely or bored, I have great neighbors that I can go drink coffee and eat mangoes with. In La Campa, I really only slept there and spent the rest of my time in Nueva Esperanza and so didn’t really get to know anyone else except my landlord’s family. And the best part about living in my house is that I am so much more accessible. People can now come and visit me or talk to me about work without having to walk far away or enter someone else’s house. I can finally host people and start to pay back all the free cups of coffee and meals I have received! I have had a few people over for a US “plato tipico” which is a lot of fun and one time when I cancelled my English class, some of my students still came over to hang out. A few days ago, we had an English class dinner at my place which even a little rain inside couldn’t damper the night.

Main room before

After

Edwin working on my room

End result

The biggest change was taking out this door and putting in a bathroom.

Bathroom after

Before

After

Some kids from my English class doing a ¨dinamica¨

Me!

Sam and Chanel Come To Visit!

2008-04-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

The highlight of the end of March and beginning of April was a much anticipated vacation with two of my best pals from college. My good friends, Sam and Chanel, came for a ten day journey through Honduras. Chanel is moving to Virginia soon and so this would be one of the last chances for us three to be together for a long time. I’ve broken down this entry by day so you can read the chapters of the adventure as you please.

Day 1: Sam arrives at noon, Chanel arrives at 7 pm to San Pedro Sula
Even though their visit was for longer than a week, traveling by bus prevented us from having as much time as we would have liked at the places we visited. Also, we lost a day at the beginning and at the end because of different arrival and departure times from the airport. Luckily, the only transportation problems that were had was when I alone was heading up to San Pedro Sula to get to the hotel before Sam arrived. My bus broke down and we had to wait on the side of the road for another to pass and pick all of us up.

Sam and Chanel got to get excited about the trip before me as they had to pack, board a plane, and travel here to Honduras. For me, I just had to go to San Pedro Sula to meet up with them. And since I’ve already ridden that bus numerous times, it didn’t actually hit me that they were going to be in Honduras until I was in the hotel and the owner told me, “I think your friend is here”. Right about then, I got that sudden heartbeat-rising feeling. Without warning, I was suddenly experiencing the joy and comfort that comes from simply meeting up with those whom you have long-standing relationships with. The luxury of actually seeing a friend from the states has been foreign to me for ¾ of a year (Shade’s visit is an exception because we met abroad and have never actually met up in the states). So I hadn’t even imagined how it would feel to be here in Honduras and actually get to see those who I have missed for so long.

Sam and I had the day to hang out in San Pedro Sula before we were to pick up Chanel at the airport. San Pedro Sula is a dangerous city and so we stayed on the streets near the hotel. To my delight, and Sam’s chagrin, the hotel was within walking distance of the city mall! I tentatively asked Sam if she wanted to go inside, knowing that while I was imagining all the different kinds of foods and imports that we could look at inside, Sam had just left the states and didn’t need to be reminded of it so quickly. In the end, I think my assertion that it would be air-conditioned and we could escape the extreme San Pedro heat convinced her to consent. That night after we met Chanel at the airport, we met up for dinner with another volunteer, Ian, who lives near me. His parents had come to visit and wanted to treat us to a very nice traditional Honduran restaurant. After dinner, we were spent and had a long day ahead of us.

Day 2: Travel from San Pedro Sula to Nueva Esperanza
We caught the 6 am bus from San Pedro to Santa Rosa de Copán (3 hours) then a bus from Santa Rosa to Gracias (1 ½ hours). The plan was to catch the last bus that leaves Gracias to my site at 1 pm. But in Gracias, Sam and Chanel wanted to walk around and shop a bit instead. Gracias is a nice colonial town and is pretty touristy, so there is a fair amount of stuff to do and see. (I had scratched the hot springs in Gracias out from our schedule to leave us more time on the north coast). So, we spent the afternoon walking around, shopping, visiting Dan, another volunteer stationed in Gracias, and Sam found her heaven . . . the fruit and vegetable market. El Mercado (the Market) is a huge building that takes up about a block where you can find anything from fruits and veggies to dried fish to sunglasses and shampoo. But since Sam is trying a new local-only raw food diet, we lost her in the fruits and veggies section. In fact, Sam took so long in the market, that Chanel and I bought some groceries, got hungry, left the market to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant, came back and Sam was still there so full of bags of fresh produce that they took up almost every corner in my apartment. After the market, it was off to the best “jalón” (hitchhike) spot to Nueva Esperanza to wait for a truck to pass or see if there was a moto-taxi that would take us for a good price. Since we had missed all the buses, this was how we were getting up the mountain.

In the moto taxi heading up to Nueva Esperanza

Sam and me cutting up veggies for dinner

Day 3: Getting to Know Nueva Esperanza

In Nueva Esperanza

My new house!

Sam and Carlitos

Of everything we did during our vacation, this was the most memorable and special day for me. And I believe this day left not only an unforgettable imprint in our memories, but also in the memories of the people of Nueva Esperanza as well.

Chanel at the pila

I had told many people that my two friends were coming and they all wanted us to stop by when they arrived. So we started off the day with stopping by my friend, Genara’s, place to look at her pottery. Sam and Chanel got to see the fresh clay used to make the pottery, the red earth that is used to paint the artwork, and all the tools and materials that are needed to carry out this traditional Lencan process. They learned first-hand from the artist herself about this ancient process that is unique to this western part of Honduras. Before we left, Genara shared more of the culture and brought out a traditional. . . drink? Pretty much it was squash cooked with dark green dulce (from sugar cane) but boiled down so that you ate the thick, dark green, stringy liquid from a glass with a spoon. Genara had told me earlier that she wanted to make something for my friends for when they came but she didn’t know what. So I suggested anything Lencan and was eager to see what she had made.

Sam and me with the Lencan drink

Chanel, too tall for Honduras!

The rest of our day was spent walking around the community, greeting people along the way, buying pottery, and making a few stops here and there. I really wanted Sam and Chanel to meet Simeon and his wife, Berta (who makes the best tortillas in Nueva Esperanza) but we ran into their daughter on the way to their house and she told met hat both had gone to Gracias and hadn’t returned yet. So, our last visit was to see a woman named Nila who lives further away in Oromilaca, the next community over. Truthfully, I just started to get to know Nila about a month ago when we met in the street and she invited me over for lunch one day. Since then, I had visited her only a few times even though we really connect and enjoy each other’s company. At Nila’s, Sam and Chanel were in awe of the beautiful array of flowers, trees, cacti, banana trees, pineapples, and pataste (a green thorny vegetable like squash) that she has growing on her bit of land. She gave us a tour and picked two ripe pineapples from her garden to serve to us. It was the freshest pineapple I have ever tasted, still slightly warm from being out in the sun all day.

Nila cutting the pineapple

While Nila was cutting up the pineapple, Sam and Chanel were exploring the kitchen, having fun grinding a little bit of corn and taking pictures of the tools used to make tortillas. When Sam and Chanel had both successfully mastered the grinding process but still hadn’t actually made a tortillam Nila suggested we stay for dinner and all learn how to make tortillas together! Nila even promised to make rice even though it’s not usually eaten at dinner. (She knows I love her rice, I think it’s the best in Nueva Esperanza). That night, I was planning on making “plato típico” (a typical Honduran meal) but even better to have one made by a Honduran herself. So we all helped to make a superb dinner.

Chanel at the corn grinder.

Sam performing the next step to make tortillas

I had originally planned for us to be heading back to the La Campa before dark, but taking advantage of the few precious hours we had in Nueva Esperanza turned out to be a much better idea, and the walk under the stars was the perfect ambiance to reflect on how welcoming and magnificent people can be. Half-way home, we ended up catching a ride in the back of a pick-up the rest of the way. Thus, Sam and Chanel got to experience all types of transportation in the area: bus, moto-taxi and jalón.

Sam, Nila, Chanel and me at dinner

Day 4: Copan Ruinas

Today’s plan: catch the first bus out of Nueva Esperanza, get to the Ruins, and take a tour so we can leave for Tela tomorrow morning.
Lesson learned: never make plans when you’re at the mercy of the Honduran bus system.

If we had a car I imagine we would have had no problem getting to the Ruins at a reasonable hour. However, even after leaving on the first bus out of Nueva Esperanza (which passes before 7 am), we didn’t roll into the town of Copan Ruinas until about 2 pm, too late to catch a tour of the Ruins (which are a little outside of town) or do any other touristy things as all surrounding parks and reserves close at 4 pm. Instead, we did the next best thing . . . shopping! There were a ton of tourist shops as well as a lot of vendors selling jade from Guatemala. Copan Ruinas is very close to the border and jade is very popular to sell in this part of the country. At the end of the day, Chanel and I checked out the bar scene and relaxed over mango daiquiris and tequila sunrises in two quaint bars near the Central Park.

Day 5: Tour of Copan Ruinas

The Mayan Ruins

Giant Ceiba

We were up early to get to the Archaeological park right when it opened. If you’re reading this and plan on going to the Ruins, I recommend paying for a guide. It was a little expensive but worth it because the park lacks descriptions or historical information written on signs anywhere. There are bilingual guides that are very knowledgeable and answered our questions from how the traditional games were played by the Mayans to what trees and plants were around and how they were used by the Mayans. After the tour, Sam stayed behind to do a nature hike while Chanel and I got lunch and bought tickets for our bus ride that evening to Tela. By 2pm, we were outta there.

If there’s one thing that you learn in Honduras, it’s that you have to ask several people before you get a correct answer. And sometimes you still get the wrong answer. We had bought tickets for a bus thinking that it would take us straight to Tela and that it was a Directo (only stops to let people off but doesn’t stop to let people on and thus can potentially arrive hours earlier than non-Directos). However, this bus definitely picked up whoever waved it down and then the driver told us that it only goes to San Pedro Sula and from there you have to take a taxi to another terminal and catch another bus to Tela. He also said we would arrive with plenty of time for us to catch the last bus to Tela that left at 6 pm. By the time we rolled into San Pedro, it was after 5:30 and the other terminal was at least 20 minutes away! This is one of those rare times where I felt happy the fast-paced lifestyle of the states has rubbed off in some parts of Honduras. I’ve been on some pretty scary bus and taxi rides, but even this guy had me holding my breath and bracing myself. Right as we arrived to the terminal, the bus was just pulling out and we were able to get on. Phew!

Day 6, 7, 8: Tela . . . beach, seafood, heaven!

Garifuna woman selling pan de coco
The next few days have all kind of meshed into a lazy haze. On the beach, the sand was soft and very fine; and you could walk so far out without it ever dropping off. All I remember is swimming in the warm Caribbean Sea and waking up on the beach to find that hours have slipped by (. . . and that I didn’t put sunscreen on very well). In Nueva Esperanza we have the Lencan ethnic group. On the north coast, there are the Garífuna who look like they are from African descent and are best known for their pan de coco (bread made out of coconut milk) and braids. For some reason, everyone wanted to braid Chanel’s hair and one woman even braided a bit of her hair for free, but Sam ended up getting them.

We ate a lot of shrimp, seafood, pan de coco, fresh mango, and fresh fruit licuados (smoothies) in these three glorious days. We also signed up for a tour that took us through a Garífuna village, to another beach, and kayaking through mangroves. There were some Australians on the tour and it was fun listening to them debate about the Aussie Rules Football teams and thinking back to my junior semester abroad in Melbourne. Too bad I could only remember like two team names.

Mangroves

Our last night, we ate at a restaurant on the beach and then climbed the lifeguard tower to listen to the ocean and look at the stars. What a perfect way to end an awesome vacation. The next day, we spent the night in San Pedro Sula and the next morning, Sam was off at 4 in the morning and Chanel later in the afternoon. Did it all really have to end so soon?

Conclusion:
Going back to my site after this vacation and readjusting to being gone for so long was the toughest part. Even back in Nueva Esperanza, I was still in vacation mode for at least a week it felt like. But it was also nice to come back and be with the people that got to meet Sam and Chanel and see how they still were glowing from meeting them. I don’t think Sam and Chanel realize just how much it meant to them that they came and cared to know them. They were able to bring joy to them in ways that I don’t and were able to support them in ways that I can’t. On the other hand, Honduras left such a lasting impression on both Sam and Chanel that they want to come back before my two years are up. If you guys are reading this, thanks so much for coming down. I miss you already and had sooooo much fun just being around you guys. I hope you uphold your promise of coming back because all of us here can’t wait to see you again!

Honduras through a Lense

2008-03-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Young boy

Otolaca

Roof top and the sky

Angie

Cross at the top of the hill during the fair

Yegua (female horse)

Outside my door

Otherwise known as ´´Marlboro man´´

Feria San Matias

2008-03-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

The San Matias Fair

So here in Honduras, most towns have a yearly fair celebrating the saint that guards the area. The belief is that there are specific saints in charge of certain regions. During Field-based training in Morocelí, the saint that was celebrated was “El Señor De Las Aguas de Morocelí”. The story goes that years ago, “El Señor” appeared to the people of Morocelí at the river where they bathe and blessed the water. When the people then took the water home and drank it, they realized it had healing powers and cured the sick. So, the people continue to keep their faith in their Saint and celebrate him at the same time every year during the fair. Here in La Campa, our fair is in February and we celebrate San Matias, or Saint Mathias.

In the last half of February, the first signs that the fair is coming is when fussball (“futbolito”) tables and other games start to appear. (Vendors trying to make some early fair money). The big weekend though is February 22-24 which I am going to write about now.

The booths at the fair from up top

It’s a weekend of utter chaos! There were thousands (and I mean THOUSANDS!) of people here selling, buying, exploring, gambling, praying, dancing, and experiencing an event that was a lot crazier than I could have ever imagined. There may not have been ferris wheels or even as many people at the county fairs in the states, but the number of people per square meter of this little town was definitely about five times more.

When moving on the narrow paths between the booths, there is no sense of personal space and on the last day, you seriously couldn’t move it was so packed. At one point, I was trying to get out of the mob headed down a narrow row of booths and almost started panicking because I was having trouble breathing from the hot air and bad body odors floating around. But we were packed so tight that I had absolutely no control of where I was going. I just had to endure and go with the flow.

Some tourists I met buying alfareria

The fair in La Campa is one of the most famous and biggest in the west of Honduras. People come from all over the department of Lempira to make offerings to San Matias because they either owe him for a prayer that was answered or to ask him for a miracle. I asked the mayor about this and he told me that if, for example, your son is sick, you can pray to San Matias and tell him that if he cures your child, you will give an offering to him during the fair. Or, you can come during the fair and ask him for anything that you need. So, everyday of the fair, there was a line wrapping around the courtyard of the church of people waiting to get inside to see the statue of San Matias. There were two lines: one line for the women and one line for the men. The separate lines were to keep order and also to protect the women because sometimes the men will push the women out of the way to cut in line.

Inside the church

Inside the church, San Matias on the left

Thousands of people had come to give their offerings. . . obviously San Matias is doing a good job taking care of his people! There were other religious events such as processions of the virgin Mary and various masses in which I didn’t participate.

Agapito with large guitar to play for a procession

Praying to the virgin

The virgin arrives

However, I did partake in some of the other cultural events that come during the fair such as the “Carrera de Cinta” (tape races) and a “Pelenque” (cock fight). (As far as the cock fight, the one I saw will be my first and last that I ever want to see again. It’s very brutal, and I hope it stays illegal in the states forever. That’s all I have to say on that.)

The “Carrera de Cinta”, however, is an enjoyable tradition. Men on their horses sprint under a line of rings (smaller than a keychain ring) taped to a rope and try to poke a stick through the tiny hole (smaller than a keychain ring). When they get their stick through the hole, it rips the ring off and each ring is attached to a flag that has a number. This number corresponds to a certain girl who then goes and pins a handkerchief to the shirt of the man who ripped the flag down. (I was number 17.) Whoever has the most hankerchiefs at the end wins.

Ellen´s boyfriend ended u winning with 12 handkerchiefs

At first, I thought that the fair would be something fun for my family to experience when they come visit me. And since we haven’t planned a date when they’re gonna come down here, I figured February, in time for the fair, would be perfect. That is, until I realized what thousands of people in one place can do to a small community. First, I couldn’t sleep more than 2 hours every night because of the neverending noise of fireworks, firecrackers, a band (that was playing until 5 in the morning! I seriously was about to run outside in my pajamas and throw rocks at the horn players), and large crowds. Also, because people come from such remote places, they can’t just pack up at the end of the day and go home. So they all just sleep out in the grass! Imagine a town of about 300 in the “urban center” just multiplied its population about 100 times and all of those people are sleeping on the road, in the grass, under their booths, by the river . . . everywhere!

Bed under a booth

Buses came full of people from all over

Woman making tortillas for her food booth

Well, the sight might be something worth seeing, but my other sensory organs like my nose (the smell of thousands of people that don’t have access to a proper latrine) and ears (thousands of people shouting, fireworks, firecrackers, and bands all night) told me that there are definitely other activites that I would enjoy more while my parents are here.

Conserva de coco (a really good treat made from coconut and sugar)

Photos from February

2008-03-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Little Diana grinding corn

Mucho maiz!

Cueva Taistado

My friend David in the Cave Taistado

A parrot at Villa de Ada (a touristy place in Gracias)

Lago de Yojoa, the only lake in Honduras (this is actually a picture from the end of January)

The national (and endangered) animal of Honduras, the white-tailed deer

Ellen and me

It was Ellen´s birthday on the 15th! We went to Villa de Ada, swimming in the river, and then had a bonfire and showed the kids what s´mores are.

Tilapia with tajaditas at Villa de Ada

We went swimming in the river
Finally, the irrigation project is over in Nueva Esperanza! These are photos of the inauguration. An eleven year project, two years of laying tubes from 12 km away on the mountain all the way to the community. Men would leave at 3 am to walk to the mountain and begin laying tubes.

Me with the Mendez family at the inauguration of the irrigation project

Selling alfareria at the inaurugation

Kids performing traditional dance for the inauguration

The performers

Me with the beautiful dancers

Making carne ensalsado for like 300 people

Quick Update

2008-03-02T16:16:00.002-08:00

So, here’s a quick update about what has happened since the last time I wrote, which I know has been a while. Sorry! I split it up by good news and not so good news (cause really there’s nothing that’s really bad) so you can decide what you want to read first.

Good News:

1) I am working closely with a woman named Midaevis Lopez who works for PRONADEL (Promoción Nacional del Desarrollo Lenca, or National Promotion of Lencan Development) the NGO that is going to fund my improved stoves project. So far, we are just working out the kinks in the project before sending the grant proposal to Tegucigalpa. Midaevis told me that at this point it should take about a month, depending on how fast Tegucigalpa decides to support us. It’s nice to finally have someone helping me with this project that has done this type of work before. The stress level is definitely a lot lower since Midaevis and I started working together.
2) I have a house! I finally have found housing in Nueva Esperanza. The only thing about this house is that it is not completely built yet. It still is missing floor, finishing on the walls, a bathroom, a pila, water, electricity, doors, and windows. That sounds like a lot . . . because it is I guess, but hopefully it will be done by mid-March. I told the woman I’m going to rent from to tell me when they are going to begin construction because I want to go help do whatever it takes to keep the process moving along.

My house!

3) My friends from the University of Puget Sound are coming to visit! Sam and Chanel are coming March 29th and staying until April 6. I can’t wait to see them, but I also hope that my house is done by then so that we have a place to stay!
4) My former host mom’s baby was finally born on February 6th! We all have been waiting for this baby boy for months. Idania, my host mom, had to have a Caesarian but out came a healthy 8 pound baby GIRL!! I guess the doctor was wrong about the gender and so to all of our surprise, there is a new baby sister. They still have not picked out a name yet and luckily a lot of the clothes they bought for the baby boy are unisex colors like green and yellow.

The newest member of the Lopez Mejia family. Although unnamed so far.

5) I made tortillas and my friend, Genara, couldn’t distinguish mine from the others that were made by the Honduran women. Woohoo!
6) My computer is fixed and in my hands! It was actually fixed almost two months ago but I could only just get it from Tegucigalpa in the end of February.
7) I bought a guitar and am slowly teaching myself how to play.

Not So Good News:

1) I have scabies . . . again (for the fourth time!), but really at this point I’m so used to them that it’s not that big of a deal. I just put my cream on and wash my clothes in hot water. Truthfully, the worst part about it is that I’m not used to washing my clothes in hot water and so I accidentally have mixed colored clothes with my white clothes twice and have stained my white clothes red the first time and blue the second time.
2) My friend, Martin, here from Nueva Esperanza lost his grandmother on Thursday, February 28th to a sudden heart attack. Martin is always smiling and in a good mood so it was hard to see him sad.
3) I have acquired a bad cough which either is left over from the last time I was sick or from all the dust that is in the air since it’s so dry here. (The dust is inches thick on the road. In some parts, I feel like I’m walking through snow. I wear my sunglasses everyday not to protect my eyes from the sun but from the cloud of dust that engulfs me when the cars go whizzing by.)
4) Well, I got my computer from Tegucigalpa. But I accidentally left my cell phone there. So for a few weeks at least I will be without that.

A Small Bit of Good News

2008-03-02T16:16:00.001-08:00

After four months into site, all project groups get together for more training and to meet the other volunteers in the respective projects that have been in-country for over a year. This is called the Reconnect Workshop and ours was at Los Pinos National Park near Lake Yojoa. We learned a bit about the Riecken Foundation (builds libraries all over the country), how to write grant proposals (info that would have been good to have about two months EARLIER), Peace Corps funding options, making a hydro (how to use for example, a waterfall, to produce energy), insect collection and mounting, trail interpretation, etc.

To help the women in my community out, I took some of the alfarería to see if I could sell it to the other volunteers. Not only did I sell everything that I brought, but the woman in charge of the cabins where we stayed wants to buy some of the stuff to sell at her place! I’m really excited that Alba, the woman from Los Pinos, is interested in selling the pottery at her place because Los Pinos is a very developed National Park and gets many tourists from all over Honduras and the world. It’s a great opportunity to get greater exposure of the artwork outside of the west and to increase sales. Also, Alba has worked closely with Peace Corps volunteers before and she is more interested in helping the women out in my site than making a profit. Right now, Alba and I are keeping in contact through e-mail to decide what she is interested in buying. I took photos of practically everything we have in Nueva Esperanza and she is deciding what she can afford to buy and then sell. Although I am taking care of everything for the women as of now, I eventually plan on helping them get in contact with Alba directly (either by phone or helping the women set up an email account and show them how to manage it) and figuring out a plan to get the artwork sent out there on their own so they won’t have to depend on me to do it.

Some of the alfareria that the women make:

¨Anafre¨ - you put coals in the bottom and can serve hot beans and cheese with chips

I have also started to talk with the women about making brochures that tell about the history of the Lenca and explains the traditional process of making the pottery. Although I wrote earlier only about the firing method, the whole process from collecting the sand and making the clay to how they sell the product is very unique and interesting. There is a cooperative in a community nearby that makes recycled paper and so I also have thought about talking to them to make little tags to attach to each piece of artwork that says something simple about how the alfarería is unique only to this area and how everything is made by hand.

Some of the women are experimenting with making black pottery (the color is just from smoking the pottery)

tools used to make the alfareria

Doña Feliciana making large pots

Shade visits

2008-03-02T16:15:00.001-08:00

I would like to give a shout out to Shade and say thanks so much for coming to visit me! Even though the visit was short (three days) it was great getting to see you and to show you around my site. I’m glad you passed by while traveling through Central America and I hope you didn’t get scabies and that your scorpion sting is better. (As a side note, the scorpion sting did not happen here in Nueva Esperanza).

So to update the rest of you, Shade is a friend from California who I met in Australia. We haven’t seen each other since Australia which means we never have actually met up in the states, I just realized. After being a little stressed out with graduating from USC and not knowing what that next step in life was going to be, she decided to take a trip and visit people throughout Central America. And her last stop was here in Honduras.

Having Shade here was a nice change and also a wake up call for me that I have lived alone and without having to entertain anyone straight from the US in a long, long time. Before her arrival, I hadn’t planned anything for us to do besides visit a few people in my site because my idea was that we could just chill and hang out. When she came though, I suddenly shot into panic mode. I thought about our lifestyle differences at this point and started to worry that I hadn’t prepared properly. We were going to have to wait for a ride to my site which can take anywhere from ten minutes to three hours, was that cool? There’s only a curtain to my bathroom, is that not enough privacy? There’s not much to do as far as entertainment in Nueva Esperanza, should we stay in Gracias where there’s more to do? I don’t have a refrigerator so nothing is cold, and eggs don’t have to be refrigerated, is that gross? I realized I hadn’t even prepared my apartment for two people. I only own two bowls and when I dropped one, I was so scared that it had broken because that would mean we would have to take turns eating! Everything worked out fine though and it was great seeing someone familiar for a change.

Working a Medical Brigade

2008-02-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

Cololaca, Lempira: where the Brigade came

So, at the end of January, I got a chance to help translate for a medical brigade that came to a small aldea near Nueva Esperanza. At first, I was hesitant to go because my friend, Shade, was coming to visit me right after and then I would be headed into Tegucigalpa for almost a week to meet with all the other PAMers for a Reconnect Workshop. (The workshop was only three days long, but including travel, that meant I was going to be gone for at least 5 days).

However, I did finally decide to go after considering the following:
1) I recently submitted the grant proposal for the improved stoves project to an NGO and on the spot they told me they were going to support the group. WOOHOO!
2) It has been years since I have done any translating and it would be nice to be able to gauge how much my Spanish has improved since then (and learn some new medical terms).
3) I could use a break from ´´A Typical Day in Nueva Esperanza´´ which if was a tv show would essentially be the same episode over and over again.
4) I have barely applied my Biology major since arriving into country so a refresher would be nice.

The room where us women slept.

The brigade was a group of doctors, nurses, a veterinarian, construction workers, electricians, a bricklayer, and friends from church in Arkansas. Some of them have worked this brigade before, but many met for the first time in the airport in Little Rock the day they flew to Honduras. The great thing about this brigade was that not only did they offer medical care, but the crew included people with other skills as well. So while the doctors were busy with the patients, there were others playing and coloring with the kids, installing lights in the quarters where we slept, helping to build walls, painting the buildings, and making an ecological oven. It was fun being able to change the activity up and do translating in the morning and oven construction after lunch. Also, the ecological oven that was being made was the type that Peace Corps volunteers build, so it was nice to learn a little bit about them.

Tommy painting

George laying the bricks for the ecological oven

The completed ecological oven

The medical brigade was set up at a center that has hosted other large groups like Heifer International. It turns out I had met the man in charge of getting the brigade organized at this center one day in La Campa. I admitted to him that I ¨maybe think I vaguely remember briefly meeting him¨, but he seemed to recognize me immediately and knew of the other volunteer in La Campa as well. I guess in an area where there´s only about 4 gringos and like 4,500 Hondurans, people remember us easier than we remember them.

Patients waiting to see the three doctors.

As far as hoping to learn some medical terms in Spanish, it turns out that I learned more ´´campesino´´ slang words and sayings than anything else. Depending on the doctor that I was with, I heard a lot of ´´I have pain in my bones´´ and, my favorite, ´´Me siento bolina´´ which literally means I feel like a drunk, or I feel dizzy.

Becky translating for Doctor Chris

The hard part of working the brigade was seeing the true adversity of poverty. Most of the people that came to the brigade needed things as basic as Ibuprofen, vitamins, and reading glasses. There were countless cases of adults and children with diarrhea and stomach pains, probably from worms or parasites and a few children with lice.

Mary Ann trying to find a pair of reading glasses for a patient

Doctor Mary Ann, Doctor Chris, and Veterinarian Cathy

Others came in with more serious problems. One woman had a blood pressure that was so high that the doctor told me that if we were in the states, she would be hospitalized. She lives about an hour away from where we were by foot, but luckily that day she had gotten a ride. There were a few patients with cancer, one child with muscular dystrophy, and one girl no more than 4 years old that was cross-eyed and had to be led around by sister who we had to turn away because there was nothing we could do for her. Sometimes I just can´t believe what people have to endure in these countries where words such as ´´opportunity´´ or ´´access´´ are only understood when describing the life of someone far from here. I rant about having to sit in line for two hours to see the doctor, but if she prescribes me a medicine I need, there´s no question on if I can afford it or not or if I have to sacrifice something else in order to purchase it. Here, people are thankful for each day they get through and just accept what life throws at them. One woman came into the clinic limping because she had recently stepped on a rusty nail that had gone completely through her heel, but her reason for the visit was for something minor like stomach aches. Another man who previously had been diagnosed and treated for stomach cancer came in and, to his dismay, found out that it appears the cancer has spread to his legs and maybe his lungs. He told me that before, another doctor had given him two weeks to live, but he has survived two years; and the reason he is still alive is because someone up above is watching over him.

Peter and Betsy playing with the kids while they waited for their appointments

Pastor George, Rachel, and me

I´m really glad I decided to work the medical brigade for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s distressing to be able to see up close the effects of poverty and to not feel like you are making a difference in fighting it. In the first few months in my site, there were various times when I felt overwhelmed by the need here and how little I felt I could offer. Being able to translate though gave me a sense of accomplishment. By translating for the patients, I felt instant gratification with each person that I helped communicate with the doctors. Also, more and more, my eyes are being opened to the other kind of life that people live and I find again and again I am forced to think about what values I have in my life and how they are changing after seeing this other side of the spectrum.

A group of us hanging out after dinner

Christmas and the New Year

2007-12-28T11:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I experienced my first Honduran Christmas and while it didn´t feel like Christmas, it was still a great one. Everyone here celebrates Christmas on the 24th instead of the 25th. As far as decorations, some houses will put up some lights and my host family had a little plastic tree that they pull out every year. Other than that though, there isn´t much else.

Christmas tree at my host family´s house

Christmas seemed to come up so quickly and pass by just as fast and I think part of that was just because I was not surrounded by the constant Christmas advertisements and holiday sales. I know in the bigger cities there were Christmas sales in the large superstores. But even Gracias is small enough that these don´t really exist. Also, people do not buy gifts for one another here. The most common thing is that people will buy some new clothes to wear for Christmas, but that´s about it.

I actually spent the majority of Christmas Eve in Gracias. My host dad and I were going to go to Santa Rosa de Copan (a larger city 1 ½ hours from Gracias) so I could buy a mattress, toaster oven, stove, and other things I need for when I live alone. We were going to borrow a car from a guy who lives in Gracias and so I decided to go early on the bus, run some errands, and wait there for my host dad who had a few things to do in Nueva Esperanza and then was going to catch a ride in. However, when I got into Gracias around 8 am, I found out that the guy whose car we were going to use went to La Campa to do some work. I called my host dad who told me that he had just stopped by the house and told him that he needed the car until noon and then after that we could go. Finally, around 3:30 pm my host dad shows up in Gracias where most of the stores had closed for the holiday. I had already figured we weren´t going to make it to Santa Rosa so I had made a few purchases in Gracias like a bike and pillow, but nothing from my list of stuff that I really needed. By 3:30 though, I was ready to get home.

Fresh-made bread. The secret ingredient? FANTA!

At home, I celebrated the 24th with my host family with a dinner of pork tamales and sweet bread. We didn´t have a white Christmas but we almost had a black one, in that we lost power twice for about half an hour each time. Everyone here eats pig for Christmas and when I was on the bus earlier in the day headed to Gracias, there was a man next to the road shaving the hair off a recently killed one. At night, the tradition is to light off firecrackers in the streets. I thought I would join my host brother and sisters in the road to experience the tradition. Well, I experienced that tradition for about ten minutes and that is definitely enough to last this Christmas and the next. Pretty much there were about 9 kids in the streets all in their own little world lighting the firecrackers and bottle rockets. They would light them and then throw them away from themselves but without considering if it was going nearer someone else. Some of the kids would shout if they threw one near you on accident but it was pitch black and I was freaking out that I didn´t know where they were going to explode. I got hit first by mud and then a rock when I decided that I care too much about having vision in both eyes to be able to stay out any longer.

Idania making pork tamales, (pork tamales and bread are the traditional Christmas meal)

Mmmmmm!!

It´s tradition to stay up until midnight, too but that is threehours past my usual bed time! I also had an exhausting day in Gracias and so while I tried to make it to midnight, I think I only made it to about 10:30. LOL.

Christmas day, everyone sleeps in and lays low. I was invited to Doña Concha´s house for breakfast of pork tamales and sweet bread. She also gave me some grapes and when she handed them to me, I seriously felt like a queen. It has been so long since I have had grapes and while they have them in Gracias, they are very expensive, about 35 lempiras a pound which is the same as a pound of beef. (That´s only $1.50 but remember I only make $6 a day, so a pound of grapes is ¼ of my daily earnings). For lunch, I went over to Ellen´s apartment and she made us pasta and a green salad. I had made some bean bread earlier and so we toasted that with garlic salt and cheese. For dessert, she had made a chocolate chip pie which was AMAZING as chocolate chips are hard to come by. There are so many times that I think if I didn´t have Ellen near me, I don´t know what I would do. We both agreed that the fact that it was about 75 degrees, dry, and dusty really didn´t help it to feel like Christmas. But it´s not like we would have a nice warm fireplace to curl up next to if it were a white Christmas so I was happy that we were at least comfortable.

Don Simeon and his family on Christmas. I like to think of them as my second family because they all have been really supportive of me here.

For dinner #1, I was invited to the house of Don Simeon, Doña Berta, and their nine kids. This family has been like a second family to me and so I was really happy to be with them for the holidays. After a dinner of pork tamales and sweet bread here (as you probably have already noticed, that´s the traditional Christmas meal) I went back to Doña Concha´s for dinner #2 of baked pork, sweet bread, beans, tortillas, and extra bread to take home in addition to the loaf she gave me at breakfast.

At Dona Concha´s for Christmas breakfast. From left to right, my friend Cindy, me, Cindy´s mom Dona Concha, some family that came to visit, and Belkis

My Christmas dinner at Dona Concha´s house: baked pig, beans, and tortillas.

I thought this year I would feel how I did last Christmas in Chile when I felt alone and sad to be away for the holidays. While I missed my family and friends this year, I was definitely not lonely and really enjoyed being here with my new friends. I had a lot of fun learning about the Christmas traditions and I can say with assurance that this was a very special and unique Christmas that I will cherish for years.

One unfortunate thing has happened this month which I hope to get fixed very soon . . . my laptop broke. I was working on my laptop on my bed and when I got up to get a notebook that I needed, it slid off and hit the floor. It landed on the charger in the back which was jammed even further inside. So now the laptop will start but then turns off almost immediately. It did make it once to my desktop and everything was the same so I know the memory is ok. But other than that I can´t do anything. Claudia talked with the man in charge of tech support at the Peace Corps office about my situation and he recommended me to a guy that he knows in Tegucigalpa. So I plan on taking it in after the new year.

First Three Months

2007-12-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I have finally gotten some time to write and give you guys an update of what´s up in my life. I have now completed the ¨community entry period¨ which was the first three months of service and was dedicated to getting oriented and familiar with Nueva Esperanza. My first report was due to Peace Corps this week and described the community in general, a needs assessment, gender analysis, challenges and expected support, identifcation of activities or large projects, and integration. Having put everything in writing, I realize I have done a lot more than I thought I had in these last three months. Maybe not so much as far as projects, but as far as becoming familiar with the way things work here and what I will be involved in, it definitely took three solid months.

As far as work goes, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to be involving myself in for at least the next year. So far with the improved stoves, I have formed a preliminary list of 37 women interested in the project and at the end of this week I should have a final list of women who have signed the contract. The contract states that the women understand that they have to provide certain materials for the project as well as manual labor. The materials they have to provide are sand, mud, bricks, and adobe (cheaper bricks made out of mud). The rest of the materials will be provided by the project. They will then have to help with not only the construction of their own stove, but also two others. The women who have signed the contract then formed groups of four and they will work within this group to build the stoves. If the women do not get the materials that they need and break the contract, then they will lose the materials that were to be provided for them by the project. We have a final meeting this Saturday and then I am going to work on the grant proposal and submit it to the local NGO´s as soon as I can. Once I hear back from the NGO´s with support, we can get started on the training and actual construction of the stoves.

While we´re waiting to hear back from the NGO´s, I was hoping to start a family garden project. However, I really wanted to make my own garden first so I could gain some experience with what grows well here or not and what kinds of problems that may arise in the garden. But since I have yet to find a place where I can live permanently for two years, I have not had the chance to start a garden anywhere. We´ll see how everything goes. Once the garden project and stove project are underway, I would like to start some cooking classes to teach the families how to cook with their new stoves (and oven), with the new vegetables from their garden, and more healthily. Hondurans love fried food and cook with tons of lard and oil for every meal. Even before making steamed rice, they fry it for about 10 minutes and then steam it. Bologne sandwich? They fry the meat first. Even I have gotten into the habit of frying my food more often. Although I have had to stop because I went to the doctor about these hive-like marks I was getting on my back and stomach and she told me to stop eating anything with oil.

I think cooking classes may be a good idea because I have noticed that most women here do not experiment with different dishes and cook making slight variations of the same ingredients of beans, vegetables, chicken, other frozen meats, cheese, rice, and served with tortillas. Whenever I came back from shopping in Gracias, my host mom was always curious what I bought and always fascinated by the foods that I cooked. I would bring home things like parsley or even wheat bread and she would ask me, ¨You can get that in Gracias?¨. It´s amazing to me that she has lived here all her life and has never bought some of the foods I brought home from the mini supermarkets. Also, a lot of the meals that I make take about a quarter of the time it takes my host mom to cook. There are some days where she is too tired to cook, doesn´t want to make tortillas, or the kids complain that they are bored of the food. But the thought of making something that doesn´t need to be eaten with tortillas, is faster, and is different has never crossed her mind. So, I think the cooking classes can be something easy and fun.

As far as bigger projects in Nueva Esperanza, the community is about to finish a large irrigation project at the end of this month. Two years ago, construction started 12 km away from the water source on the mountain Camalote of laying tubes from Camalote to Nueva Esperanza. In the beginning, the men would start walking at 3 am or 4 am to get to Camalote around 7 am to start laying the tubes. Men and women worked six days a week for two years to bring water to the crops of Nueva Esperanza! This project will benefit 63 families. With this project, farmers are hoping to grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and eventually sell them in the markets in the big cities. Most farmers only grow corn and beans in Nueva Esperanza and the majority of this is for personal consumption. Thus, this project could open up new means of income for the community as well as help to fight malnutrition because there will be such a wide variety of fruits and vegetables around. The construction is expected to be done in the end of January and the inaugural ceremony is set to be January 30, 2008.

My part in this project is that some of the farmers have expressed interest in learning more about production, use of chemicals, and how to get their product to a larger market. Other possibilities for projects that I learned about back in my tech traning may be organic compost, organic pesticides and insecticides, and more sustainable agricultural practices. MARENA, a local NGO, is currently working on ideas for projects to help protect the watershed for once the construction of the irrigation project is finished and farmers start to grow their vegetables. Some ideas of projects are the construction of latrines, trash management, construction of oxidation lagoons for ¨aguas mieles¨ (¨honey waters¨ or contaminated water which happens when people pick coffee and don´t dispose of the remains properly), and establishment of tree nurseries for reforestation. All of which I think is very important, coincides with the PAMer goals, and I learned a little bit about during training.

So, these are the ideas I have right now as far as work goes. I also would like to do some Environmental Education in the schools and maybe teach some English classes, but for right now I´m going to see how all this lays out before taking on too much.

As far as non-work stuff, something fun that I have been doing lately is a lot more horseback riding. I have gone a few times with my counterpart´s son, Herzan, all over the area. We have gone on trips just for fun, like to see the water tanks of Nueva Esperanza, and also trips for work, we went to Las Olominas (one of my communities) so that I could give out invitations to another meeting for the improved stoves.

My friend, Herzan and me on top of a watertank in Nueva Esperanza

At the watertank

The longest trip that I went on was when Ellen, her boyfriend, Irene (pronounced ¨Ee-reh-neh¨), and I went up to see where the irrigation project begins. I had gone up earlier with the men in my community for a meeting and brought back pictures of the beautiful waterfall where we get the water. Ellen saw the pictures and really wanted to see it and so we planned a day trip up. To get to the waterfall, it´s two hours on horseback. Then you have to cross through a coffee farm and then hike down to it.

Ellen and Irene heading up to the mountain Camapara, where Nueva Esperanza gets its water

Amazing, huh? Where we get our water for an irrigation project in Nueva Esperanza

The hidden waterfall

Oromilaca, another of my aldeas in my site, a view from the water tank

I went with Dona Alberta to learn how to milk a cow!

Coffee freshly picked, up close

Lots of coffee (it´s coffee season!)

Coffee on the plant ready to be picked

Ellen and her boyfriend, Irene

Hidden parrot that yelled ¨Buenas¨at me

Reflections

2007-12-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

Although I don’t feel too different as a person, when I think about what I have learned thus far from the people I have gotten to know, I realize I have discovered more than just how Hondurans live their life; I have determined a lot more about how I want to live my own. I was talking with two volunteers that if we were to go back to the states tomorrow, would we be the same person? I know that if I went back now and turned into the person that I used to be, I would be disappointed with myself. From my other blog entries, you all know that every day here in Honduras I am reminded of how essential it is to maintain patience. But in order to be able to work patiently with others, it’s fundamental to first learn to accept every person for whom they are; and I think that is one aspect about me that, I am pleased to say, has changed the most. In the states, I remember getting frustrated when someone didn’t understand my point of view or why someone couldn’t do a task that I figured would be easy for anyone to complete. But sometimes what comes easily to me may be awkward and uncomfortable for someone else; and I know that sounds so basic, but I don’t think I ever really appreciated that until being here. We are all characterized by distinct interests, levels of education, habits, and manners in which we were brought up which define our personalities, our abilities, and our imperfections. But these differences are what make it possible for us to learn something new or be inspired by every individual we encounter. No one is better than another because there is no scale or classification system that can put us in order from top to bottom; we’re all different in too many ways. Sure, we have classified everything from individuals by their social class, race, or gender to whole communities as developed or undeveloped countries; but that’s because we like order in our lives and we have allowed this labeling to engrain stereotypes in our minds that tell us that a better person can easily be defined by A, B, and C.

At the second meeting I had with the women’s group interested in the improved stoves, I was put off that the women were so reluctant to form a board of directors. “How are we going to get anything done if no one wants to do anything?” I thought. But then, we did a self-esteem activity I read about where we stood in a circle and all the women said aloud one thing they were proud of. I was astounded to hear that for some of the women, this meeting was the first meeting they had ever attended in their life. The failure to form a board of directors was not because these women don’t want to help me; they’re just scared to stand out in any way because they’re accustomed to a life where leadership has never played a role. One woman was brave enough to declare that she would be president (so far she’s our board of directors), followed by the statement that, “But you all can’t laugh at me when I talk during the meetings”. In the states, there usually are various nominees for a president, vice-president and other group leaders. Here, just coming to a meeting is an accomplishment in itself. So instead of concluding that these women don’t want to do any work and giving up on them, what I need to do is effect a closer relationship with them to give and receive advice on how we can keep developing this project with expectations that are appropriate for everyone.

Likewise, this meeting introduced me to a personal weak spot that I have, but have not noticed in other community leaders that have led other meetings I have attended. For me, I´ve learned that I’m considerably inflexible in that I try hard to keep things going as planned but when I start to feel like I’m losing control, I become very anxious and tense. Don Virgilio is president of a large irrigation project that has been going on here for two years and benefits over 135 people. Although he only has a sixth grade education, he has a natural calmness and stress-free manner of handling large meetings that I hope I can develop over time. When everyone starts shouting in the middle of the meetings because it’s basically impossible to keep 135 people happy and under control, he still manages to get things settled without ever losing his temper . . . without even raising his voice really! Finally, I think I am better at accepting people for who they are because the attitude of the people here is that that’s what you do. I have become well integrated within my community because the people have accepted me for who I am, and thus my eyes have really been opened to the importance of practicing this basic principle.

So the next time you’re working with, for example, a co-worker and you’re feeling annoyed that they can’t comprehend what seems a basic concept to you, sacrifice a few minutes to catch them up and let them set the pace. Is it really worth it to complete a job alone while discouraging another, or would it be better to accept that person for their differences and you make a change that perhaps they can’t? Only when we can accept people for who they are can we work collectively and fruitfully. I think sometimes we get caught up in the movement forward that we forget about those that helped us get there. Maybe you couldn’t be as good of a person as you are today without the kind words from that least expected person.

A Review of November: Life the Honduran Way

2007-12-04T06:49:00.000-08:00

So, a little bit about the changes I have made to my daily routine now that I have been in my site for two months and in Honduras for 5 months. (Has it really been almost half a year?! WOW!) The next blog entry about my reflections of Honduras is a bit powerful and so I will keep this entry light and entertaining.

First off, the other day I experienced the most overwhelming decision I have had to make in five months . . . what kind of jelly to buy. I was in this new grocery store in Santa Rosa de Copán (a larger city than Gracias which is 2 ½ hours from my site by bus). Walking into the grocery store was like crossing the border and entering a miniature Safeway. I went in simply to get some peanut butter and jelly. I got the peanut butter easy enough, but when I got to the jelly aisle, I felt so helpless. There really were just too many flavors, brands, and prices to choose from. It took just ten minutes to decide on the flavor I wanted! There was blackberry (which would have been my first choice but it was very expensive for a small amount and didn’t come in a good re-usable jar), mango (which I just finished a jar of at home), orange, pineapple, apple, and light strawberry. All types of questions were running through my head: Which flavor would I like best? Of that flavor, which jar was going to get me the best deal? Why is a larger jar less expensive than a smaller jar of the same flavor? Which jelly can I use with more meals? Which brand is better? To add more pressure, there was an employee shelving something in the same aisle and in the time it took me to decide what flavor to get, she had restocked the shelf, left, and come back to find that I was still in the same spot. I even thought about walking around a little bit and coming back later, but that thought made me snap out of my ridiculous stupor and I finally was able to make a decision.

One pretty drastic difference from my life in the states compared to my life here is my morning routine. Even though I used to claim that I hate jogging and that no one would ever find me running out of my own will, I actually have started to get up at 5:45 am 4 or 5 days a week to run for half an hour. I have found that what I hate worse than jogging is not having any type of regular exercise. There are a few soccer teams here but they are all guys teams and I have thought about starting a girls’ team but have not gotten that idea up and rolling yet. So, Ellen, the business volunteer near me, runs past my house around 6 am and I join her and run with her to La Campa. It’s a great time for us to chat about how we have been lately and to catch up on any chisme (gossip). I must admit that another pretty big motivator to get up and break a sweat in the morning is that it gets pretty cold here and we only have a FREEZING cold water shower. I will admit that there have been days where I won’t have run in the morning and I will turn the shower on but not be able to get in. I know that’s kind of wimpy, but would you like to start everyday by jumping underneath a waterfall two minutes after waking up when it’s raining and windy outside? The water here comes straight from the mountains so that’s what it’s like.

I am still living with my host family and will be living with them until they build me an apartment behind their house since there are no other housing options in my community. Already, Francisco has started to measure out the dimensions of the room. My family tells me that the construction only takes two weeks and that at the latest they will be done constructing the apartment by the end of December. Although to me this seems a bit improbable, I have decided to remain optimistic and if I am moved in by late January, I will be very happy.

I have started to cook my own meals and my family has been fascinated by the lunches that I have created. I have introduced them to typical foods from India, Indonesia, the Caribbean, Italy, and other countries (thanks to a recipe book that some previous volunteers put together). Actually, their curiosity in the meals I make, which really are so simple, is what gave me the idea of starting a cooking class. Although I have been experimenting for lunch, my dinners I leave to be Honduran. I am addicted to tajaditos (fried plaintain chips) and have become pretty good at making tortillas that once my host mom mixed mine up with hers while they were cooking on the stove! WOOHOO!!

The graduating sixth grade class

The big event of November here is graduation. The “big-deal” graduation is from the sixth grade as most people will not continue their education. Only 5 of the 12 graduating sixth graders are going onto high school. My host sister, Janeysi, graduated from the sixth grade and seriously the graduation was SOOOO LOOOONNNNGGGGG as they first gave a diploma to every single student in the school that was advancing a grade (starting with the first graders). The most unique part of the graduation was when they had a performance in the middle of the celebration. What did they choose to be the entertainment? A dramatization of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Although it’s great that these kids have completed the school year, I wish people here realized that graduating from sixth grade is not that great of an accomplishment. The kids don’t actually really know how to read well until they are in the third grade.

But, it’s a big deal here, and I will remember for next year that I will not have to cook for myself for the whole week of graduations. I had so many feasts that included gallina india (wild chicken), rice, potatoes, soup, cake, sweet bread, and coca-cola that it was like a Honduran Thanksgiving . . . for 7 days.

Idania and Laura plucking the feathers off the chicken to prepare for the party the next day

Janeysi´s graduation lunch

My family, Ellen, and Janeysi´s ´´padrinos´´ (close friends or relatives you choose to go up with you during graduation to represent you and give you gifts)

Challenges and Adjustment

2007-12-04T06:40:00.001-08:00

Well, I have officially been in my site for two months, and here in Honduras for five. WOW!! And to best describe how that period of time has most affected me, I would say that what I used to think of as quick errands or minor events in the states now define my most productive days and joyous memories. I think the hardest part of adjustment to Honduras has been modifying what I call a productive day. For the first couple of weeks in-site, I tried to get out as much as I could and went door-to-door introducing myself and getting to know the people. However, every night I came back, I felt disappointed with the day and felt I could have done better in some way. In the states, having free time was a luxury that I didn’t get too often, but also was something I didn’t want too much of because my mind was always set on moving forward and doing something that was constructive. Squeezing class, science lab, work, tennis practice, weekly meetings, meals, and homework into one day was normal. Here, I would consider buying groceries an adequate daily accomplishment. It has been nice to indulge in the free time I have now, (I have read 5 or 6 books in two months!) but I sometimes felt stressed and guilty, too, thinking that instead of reading there is something else that I could be doing.

Dona Honoria making fresh tortillas. First, you take corn kernels off the cob and soak them in water. Then, you grind them with a hand grinder and they have a powdery texture. Then, you add water and grind, or ´´repasar´´ the corn on a rock like this:

Once you have ground the corn twice, the texture is that of pizza dough and you can form the corn into little balls and make them into tortillas.

As far as the standards I have of what makes me happy, this has both good and bad angles. On one hand, I have learned how to live a life so simple that some of my happiest memories are as plain as eating oranges in the grass with my neighbors or receiving a gift of sweet bread because I stopped by to congratulate a mom’s daughter after graduating from kindergarten. On the negative side, however, sometimes having a day where I didn’t feel depressed, lonely, discouraged, or stressed, was considered a good day for me. These past two months have had its ups and downs and even though our project directors told us that the first three months are the toughest, I didn’t imagine any part of my Peace Corps experience would be as tough as it has been.

Every day has been a constant test of my self-motivation, self-confidence, and ability to be independent. As a training group, we always had other North Americans around to confide in and whatever anyone was feeling or struggling with, someone else was on the same page. Everyday, it seemed we were able to escape from Honduras just for a little bit in the time that we went out to dinner, played soccer, or even just hung out and spoke English. But in my site, there was no one to give me words of encouragement before going door to door to introduce myself to the families; or to let me know if I was integrating well or if I needed to meet more people or go to more meetings. I was so used to a life where I knew exactly how I was doing in everything. In tennis practice, my coach always told me what I needed to work on and what I was doing well with. At some jobs, I had weekly meetings with my bosses or managers to review the week; and in class, there were always pop quizzes or midterms to let you know exactly where you stood to 1/10 of a percent. So, it seemed that no matter how much I went out trying to integrate in my community, I always felt stressed that I might not be doing a good enough job because I didn’t have anything to compare my experience to, I just didn’t know how I was doing.

To make things tougher, I am the first Peace Corps volunteer in my site. My project director, Menelio, told me I would find more challenges because of this but I was truthfully excited to hear I was the first volunteer because it meant I could start with new projects that interested me rather than wrapping up unfinished projects that other volunteers had left behind. However, this also meant that very few people here knew what Peace Corps was. I was offended that after all that I have given up to be here and all that I have already gone through (loneliness, scabies, diarrhea, leaving my family and friends. . . ), people thought I must be here for my own selfish personal gain (getting college credit or getting lots of money)! And I was hurt that after trying so hard to be open and friendly with everyone, no one thought to ask me straight up. Also, since my community is Lenca, a native ethnicity of Honduras, they are used to getting screwed over by people that come promising change and then take advantage of them or don't do anything.

Another unusual and unfortunate detail about Nueva Esperanza is that most girls from the ages of 18-24 leave Nueva Esperanza to go work in the larger cities like San Pedro Sula. That means I am unable to befriend any girls around my age and since I am pretty much the only young woman in the whole community, you can imagine what kind of attention I get from every guy between the ages of 18-45. I had one guy ask me “how long the marriage contract was in the US”. When I told him I didn’t understand the question, he said “Well, for example, (yeah right for example –he probably thought about this the first second we started talking) if we were to get married and I went back with you to the United States, for how many years do people stay married before they can get divorced legally?” (But I guess I would have to be nuts to believe that it was possible for a 22 year old Asian-North American single girl to move into a community for two years and not be noticed.)

Celaque at sunset

Getting to Work: Fogones Mejorados (Improved Stoves)

2007-12-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

I am finally ready to start my first project! Based on the needs assessment I did at the community meeting and what I have noticed from visiting families at their homes, I decided to form a women’s group to make improved stoves. Most families here cook on a metal plate that is held up by mud sides with a pile of wood directly underneath the plate. The smoke fills the whole house because they basically just have a campfire going in the middle of the kitchen. Emphesima is one of the main causes of death here in Nueva Esperanza and respiratory infections are the most prominent health problem. It’s such a serious problem that is so easy to fix! Also, these stoves are more efficient in that they use less firewood which reduces deforestation. Once this project is underway, I am hoping to start some cooking classes on how to cook different meals and more healthily. The design of these stoves includes an oven so I can teach them how to bake or how to make meals without so much frying. (Hondurans love fried food and cook everything with lots of lard, which is cheaper than oil, every day).

So, last week I held an interest meeting for women who wanted to form a group to start this project. I went to get the key to the school a few days before the meeting but Don Anastacio, who had the key, told me he was going to be in the school in another meeting when mine began so he would open a room for me when I arrived. However, 40 minutes before my meeting was going to start, my host mom told me that he had cancelled his meeting earlier that day. So here I was again without a key to the school with a meeting about to start. Anastacio lives about 20 minutes away and doesn’t have a phone, so I called his neighbor to see if he could go over to his house and tell Anastacio to bring me the key. The neighbor explained, “I am not at my house now but I am headed there now and so I will ask him.” (Oh that infamous word “now”). Just in case, I decided to start walking there anyway. When I passed the school, it was open because another meeting was going on. Doña Ursula, who usually has a key to the school, was there and I asked if she could open another room for my meeting.
“Yes,” she responded (to my relief), “I have the key to a Professor’s room”. But then after trying all the keys in the door, she replied, “No, I don’t have the key”. (It is rare to hear someone say “I don´t know”. Most people usually respond with “yes” and then correct themselves if that´s not true.)
“Well, I am going to call Anastacio’s neighbor then and see if he has talked with him yet”, I explained.
“Oh, well if you want to talk to his neighbor, he’s right over there,” Ursula pointed to about 100 meters away where he was busy digging a ditch and where he had been all day and was going to be for a few more hours by the looks of it.

Luckily, there were some men working in the kindergarten and they had a key to the rooms there. So, this meeting was in the exact same room as my community meeting. However, everything went smoothly. I made a list of 17 women who are interested in forming a women’s group to implement this project.

Truthfully, I feel a little worried about if this project will succeed. The women are very shy and most of them are not used to being part of an organized group or put in a situation where they can actually have a say in something. Also, I have to remember that their education level is much different than mine. This was definitely apparent when I showed them a picture of the stove. I had drawn a large color-coordinated picture of the stove and I slowly explained every part of it even though most of it was clearly labeled. I asked if there were any questions and after a long pause, one woman explained to me, “It’s just that right now, we’re taking this all in.” After waiting for a few more minutes to allow the women to talk amongst themselves and orient themselves, a few women had questions and I ended up repeating the description two more times a little bit slower than before.

I feel that there is a very fine line between what I should help with and what I should leave to the women to learn to do on their own. As I want this project to be sustainable and I want to give the women a chance to gain more self-esteem, leadership experience, and motivation to take a stand on making their own lives better, I don’t want to do all the work. But, I feel that if I leave everything for them to do, they will become overwhelmed, disheartened, and leave the group. I had made a list of all the materials that the stoves use and explained to the women that before we apply for a grant to do this project, we need to come up with the cost of everything and that I needed their help with investigating the prices. I knew it would be hard to get the women to volunteer to research the prices of some things, but they were hesitant to search for the prices of anything, even things they use in their everyday life! It was like they didn’t want to be labeled with a responsibility and didn’t want to stand out in any way. Already, I feel the women are very delicate and it was impossible for me to tell how these women felt about this project. Did they just come to the meeting out of respect because I invited them or are they excited to start this project? Were they motivated by my talk about the importance of this project or did they leave disappointed that I told them I would not be doing all the work? Are they going to come to next week’s meeting? I have no idea.

Women working on parts of the grant proposal

I’m hoping that once things get going and when the women gain more confidence in me and in themselves, they will be more willing to take charge. I also have to realize that there are differences in culture, lifestyles, education, and habits which play a significant role in starting any projects here. This was definitely clear when I showed the women the picture of the stove and it took them time just to comprehend it. Also, some of these women never leave the house or have had responsibility outside of cooking for their family and keeping the house clean. For some of them, their husbands, brothers, sons, or cousins go into town whenever they need something. So, to ask a woman who never leaves her house to go into town she may not have visited for months or years, ask strangers where to purchase an item they may have never seen before, enter a shop where it is bizarre to see women (any hardware store) and investigate the price of an item although they may not know how to write the info down, this does seem like an impossible task.

Lessons Learned From My First Community Meeting

2007-12-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

One month into site, I decided to hold a Community Meeting to do an evaluation of the needs of the community and to talk a little bit more about my job as a Peace Corps volunteer. Many people in my community believed I was getting credit from a university or because I got paid a lot by the US government to be here for two years. So, I thought it would be a good idea to explain to everyone just what I am doing here.

Community meeting

All I can say is that the whole experience was definitely very “Honduran”. I intended on having two meetings, one with just the women and one with just the men. However, I ended up having to cancel the meeting with the women because of a very unfortunate circumstance. . . it was wet and cold. The man who had the key to the school never showed up and very few women came because of the early hour and the weather. After canceling the meeting with the women, I immediately walked to the house of the man who had the key and when I asked him if he had gone to the school today and maybe I had missed him, he told me, “No, it is too cold to do anything today”. After lunch was the meeting with the men. But I ended up canceling that meeting too because only about nine men showed up. My host mom said, “Well, at least nine came” but I hadn’t the heart to tell her that 4 or 5 of the men that were there were the ones that have asked me various times if I have a boyfriend, plan on having a boyfriend, or plan on getting married while I’m here. So, I changed the meeting to the next Saturday and spent every day up to then walking around putting signs in the pulperias, sending notices home with the schoolkids, and having people make announcements in the churches.

I had learned my lesson from before and gotten the key the night before. However, when I went into the school on Saturday to prepare for the meeting, the lights wouldn’t turn on! I had my laptop and rented a projector to highlight my talk, but now it looked like I wouldn’t be able to use them. Don Virgilio, a good friend and respected community leader, arrived early and suggested that we move the meeting into the kindergarten (across the soccer field from the school). As we were collecting everything I had set out, my portfolio paper, my projector, my laptop, my markers, and other materials, a dog got into the bag that had cookies I brought for the meeting and ran off with a pack! Luckily, Don Virgilio and some other men chased the dog down, got the cookies back, brushed off the saliva and dirt on the pack, and put them back in the bag. . . welcome to Honduras!

The man who had given me the keys to the school the day before showed up and when I told him we’re moving because there was no light, he told me, “Yeah there is a problem with the electrical system. There hasn’t been light for a few days in the school.” I decided to ignore the fact that I had seen him YESTERDAY and that it would have been nice if YESTERDAY he had let me know that BEFORE giving me the keys to the school that had no light.

Outside the kindergarten, I asked if anyone had the key to the gate and Don Virgilio said, “Ah, we’re going to get it now.” (One of the things I first learned here is that when people say “now” as in “there is a meeting now”, they mean at some point that day, maybe even in the evening if it is the morning). So, we waited outside for about ten minutes for someone to get the key. Inside, I set up all my stuff again and was almost ready to begin when my counterpart arrived and told me “We should move the meeting into the other room because there are more chairs”. So, again, I collected up all my stuff. Outside the other door, I asked if anyone had a key and someone replied “We’re going to get it now”. So there we waited again and at this point, many more people had arrived. One woman even showed up selling pastelitos (fried rice-stuffed tortillas) which I took as a good sign that lots of people were going to come. Finally, we began the meeting only 50 minutes after when it was supposed to begin (not bad considering I figured we wouldn’t be starting until an hour after the designated time.) I imagined there would be about 60 people at the most, but there was definitely 80 or more! Needless to say, I was pretty nervous talking in front of everyone . . . especially in Spanish!

One of the best lessons I learned from this meeting was: NEVER bring chocolate to give out to a group of people. I had brought cookies and coke for the adults and chocolate for the kids for when we were done. I asked my counterpart to help me with distributing the snack at the end of the meeting and he kind of paused in disbelief that I had brought something for so many people and then immediately designated some people close by to “help maintain control of the people” as we poured the drinks. Well, to give you an idea of what that experience was like, think of the little carnivore beetles from the movie “The Mummy”. I had set everything out and ten seconds later after everyone had surrounded the table, everything was gone. I’m talking about everything, even the empty coke bottles, the bags in which I brought the stuff, and every single plastic cup was never seen again by me! I was planning on keeping the cups to use at other meetings and the large bottles to hold potable water, but I seriously have no idea where they went. And that was just the adults! My friend Herzan was helping pass out the chocolates and when I looked back to see how he was doing, he had given up handing them out one by one because the kids had shoved him up in a corner, surrounded him and were pushing him and each other to get their hand in the jar. I hope he didn’t feel too battered and bruised the next day.

One group of men making a calendar of all the activities that they dedicate themselves to every year

The women who attended the meeting

A Traditional Lencan Practice – Firsthand!!

2007-10-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned earlier, the Lenca are famous for the ceramics they make. Not only do they make everything by hand without using any special equipment, but they also make it from the sand and mud collected from the river or the side of the road. The ceramics are coated in red with a paint that is also made from the earth. Many of the women in my community dedicate their lives to making and selling these ceramics either in small shops (alfarerías) in La Campa or on the streets in Gracias. My counterpart’s wife, Moncha, is one of these women and she invited me over one day when she was going to fire the pottery. Here are some photos of the process:

First, you let the ceramics sit in the sun for a few hours.

Next, using something to keep the ceramics from touching the coals beneath (in this case bricks and pieces of broken pots that have cracked in the sun), you stack the pottery upside down, placing the smaller pieces in the larger pots and making miniature “ovens”.

The pans and pitchers (or anything that has already been painted) must be inside the larger pots or the color will get ruined.

Once all the little pieces are hidden inside the miniature ovens, the rest of the larger pots are stacked upside down one on top of the other.

The most costly part of the whole process is the amount of wood it takes to fire the pots. Firewood (leña) can either be bought or people can go and collect it themselves. Wood is placed around and on top of the stack of pots until they are all completely hidden.

Then, small pieces of kindling (called ocote) are lit and spread around the whole heap until the fire burns evenly.

I honestly had never seen a fire that huge and intimidating! The flames got to be about 6 feet tall and even from ten feet away, my forearms were getting burned. It was a very windy day so we had to be careful because even from 15 feet back if the wind changed, you could feel the burn! (I like this photo because you can see the intensity of the fire and also Celaque is in the background).

Moncha let the fire go for about 30 to 45 minutes, or once the pots start to turn white. When they start to turn white, she uses a long stick to knock the wood away. But even from that distance she has to move in quickly, try to knock some wood down, and then turn back because the heat burns her face.

If the pottery is not fired for long enough, it will eventually crack. But if it is fired for too long, it will crack. So it’s a process that takes careful scrutiny. Once all the wood is removed, the pots are left to cool.

Then, all that is left is to paint the ones that have not already been painted and then sell them! Moncha’s mother taught her this whole process of making ceramics and it is a very traditional and famous Lencan practice that has been passed down through the years. And as Moncha learned from her mother, she has taught her daughter, Francis, to carry on this unique cultural tradition.

While Moncha tells me she sells a fair amount in Gracias, it’s hard to depend on this income as it varies according to how many tourists are around and how much they want to buy Lencan artwork. However, I think there is a lot of potential to expand and diversify this market and so hopefully I will be working more with these women concerning that or with ecotourism, trying to bring more tourists here.

Ceramics and pottery in a storehouse in La Campa ready to be sold in Gracias (these aren`t actually Moncha`s work)

Photos of Nueva Esperanza

2007-10-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

Coffee from the coffee farm of my friend, Tino

Celaque, as I was walking to La Campa

I finally found a food that I cannot eat. . . chicken feet! Luckily, my family was not offended when I said I just can`t eat it.

A view of the Catholic church and La Campa

A ´´cangrejillo´´which actually was in my room in El Suyate during FBT. Luckily, I haven´t seen one of these yet. Instead, we have these:

A ´´gallo´´ which I am told if it bites you, you have to go to the hospital. I am also told it turns into a butterfly though so I am not sure what to believe besides my gut instinct to not get anywhere near them!

My host father, Francisco, turned 34 last week!

´´Espinas´´