Goodnight Stars, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight.......SCORPION

Yes…that’s right. A scorpion. I was not too excited to see that when I got in. I had been at Deyvis’s house watching tv (telenovelas…I swear I’ll master Spanish by watching them! Oh...and Deyvis is the guy that I met on the bus last month and quickly became a good friend with). Anyways, I went home at midnight and discovered this little guy in my room. My host parents were sleeping and I didn’t feel it was necessary to wake them. I called Deyvis and he told me to kill it…but the problem is that I can’t. I have a hard enough time killing bugs. I don’t like the thought that I’m taking a life and smushing the insides of the poor things. Then you have to clean up the intestines afterwards. I’m okay sucking them up in the vacuum or flooding them down the drain, but I just can’t smash 'em. Since I couldn’t kill it Deyvis told me to cover it and in the morning ask my family to kill it for me. I went inside to get a pot (with a handle!) to cover it with. But the bastard was close to the wall and I risked the chance of it moving while I was closer that what I would have liked. During this time I’m calling my friend Amira…b/c I don’t want to deal with it alone. She’s yelling at me to just put the pot over it and I’m freaking out about having it come near me or move. So I start slapping a flip-flop on the floor hoping it’ll move just a smidgen. It didn’t. Then I start swing my flip-flop hoping to create some wind to move it. Nothing but a flinch from the dirty potlicker. So I thought that maybe it was dying. I went outside to get the lime-pickin stick which is about 5’3. Apparently it didn't like the stick b/c it took off running (I scream a little) and went under the stand where I keep my clothes. I thought that maybe it would stay there till morning so I got my flashlight, made sure my mosquito net was completely covering my bed and put on a movie. About an hour later I went to check...I searched the floor around my bed then carefully got up and turned on the light. It was gone...and I still can't find it. I'm hoping that it left the way it came in.

I used to eat ketchup on my eggs and now I use hot sauce

Okay...that's not a change due to Honduras, more a thank you California. But over the last few months I have thought about how much I've grown and changed in the past 1-1.5 years. I went from being in a relationship to where I thought I'd be having kids by this time to really taking some time to rediscover myself and some of the things that I possibly want in life. Though I still don't know about either of those sometimes. California definitely helped to shape me and make me a stronger more secure person. It still kind of amazes me when I think about how I've grown since graduating 3 years ago. I look forward to the transformations that Honduras will have on me.

I often think and wonder if I'll ever figure it all out. But do we ever? It seems like everytime I feel like I have my footing the rug gets pulled out from under me. Admittedly...its usually my own doing. I can't seem to stay in one place for too long, but maybe b/c I just haven't found the right place. Or maybe its not just the right time yet.

I have had a few small "Oh my god...what am I doing?!?" freak outs. Minor. 27 months is a long commitment. 4 down...23 to go! Sometimes I get caught up thinking about all the things that I'm missing or will be missing. Basketball, concerts, nice long hikes, The Food Network! Then I started thinking how in a month I'll be living completely alone, which I've never done. I shared a room up until halfway through my sophomore year of college for pete's sake! I've always had somebody else in the house...so it will be a little different completely on my own. I think I may sleep with the lights on the first night or two...haha. I've had a couple of people offer to keep me company that first night and reassure me that I'll get used to it, which I'm sure I will...

Its still a lot of changes and adapting. I feel like I've been in this constant mode of transition for a couple years now...as soon as I do start to settle everything changes. I'm doing good though. Sometimes a little sad...often kinda bored. Just part of readjusting to life in a small town. I'd forgotten what it was like when everyone not only knows your business but will definitely be talking about it too!

If you feel like sending any packages they are more than welcomed! I can always use crafty type supplies like markers, stickers, glitter, beads, etc. American candy is always appreciated...haha. That and a cute card to decorate my walls with or even better is a hand-drawn picture telling me how much you love and miss me! Haha...that's it for the pensive post...see below for a little more of an actual update!

I got the Blue Screen of Death on my laptop today...I'm hoping that it doesn't cause too many problems. Though before this, something happened with my drives. I can only access my external hard drive through the auto play, and my C drive...when I try to open it, it asks which program I'd like to use...so I can't get to it. I haven't spent much time trying to figure out what happened. I might just transfer a few files and roll it all back. But now...I can't access Word. It asks if I want to open it in Safe Mode then fails. And then asks to Detect and Repair...and fails again. I don't know...grrr.

I am alive and surviving my first rainy season in Honduras. I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd done laundry until I realized I had 20 pair of underwear hanging on the line. Who even has that many? And I wasn't completely out either! Besides that things have been good. Slowly getting busier, but classes end the 15th of November, so it might slow down again. Starting to make a few friends and have a couple of people to talk to in town, but still few...and some are teachers who don't live here during the break!

I had to jalon for the first time. As much as people would think that soccer is the national pastime, I strongly argue that jaloning is. A jalon is a hitchhike...normally in the back of a pickup truck (since thats what 98% of the population out in the campo drive). It can be planned or it can happen unexpectedly. There may be as few as 2-3 people or as many as 20. Babies and young children are not discriminated against...the more the merrier! Most of the time its free, but sometimes you may get charged a small amount. It could be for a few miles...or a few hours.

So I went to town last Tuesday to go to the bank and the post office and pick up more (powdered) soy milk from the grocery store. Traveling can be a little annoying here. There are 3 times that buses pass to go into town. 5:15am, 6:30am and 7:15am. After 7...no more buses. If you want to go you need to find someone with a car that is going. So I got on the last bus into town and another guy from town that I had seen once or twice got on and sat next to me, so we were able to talk the whole way. He was nice enough to pay my fare (which was about $2)...its nice to make friends! The post office ended up costing me 1/4 of my monthly pay...argh! But it was worth it. I sent a small package to my sister and bought a stamp which cost $25 and spent another $25 to rent a PO Box for a year. Just having my mail closer to me will be a benefit...instead of waiting for the Peace Corps office to forward it once a month...and once it is forwarded I don't exactly have mail service in my town. There's a guy that goes once every 15 days to pick up mail. My host dad goes to Marcala once a week so I can always send the key along with him and have him pick up my stuff.

So I got done what I needed to do and ate some lunch before getting on the bus back to Florida. The 12:00 bus didn't show up...but there was another bus going past my town for the border that normally leaves at 11:30...so I went over there; it was waiting around longer b/c of the other bus not showing up. So we take off about 12:30 and about 20 mins outside of town is where we turn to start climbing up the mountain. The bus couldn't make it...so we all got off and started climbing then got back into the bus. As we started taking off again there was a horrible noise...the tire broke (I think something with the axel) and we were told that we'd have to wait for the next bus...which doesn't pass for 4 hours!

The first truck that passed by everyone ran for...there was about 20 people in the bed...so I decided it was safer to wait. I ended up being on the side of the road with one other high school boy from town for almost an hour before somebody finally passed by. Luckily, it was a man from town. I hopped in front with them and we took off. It took almost as long as the bus between picking up people and the driver stopping to chat along the way. But he didn't charge me...and I scored a free bag of organic coffee that is produced by a woman's cooperative in town!

I can't seem to travel anywhere w/o something happening...buses breaking, my bags leaving on the bus w/o me, national police officer losing his gun, etc. Excited to find out what else could happen...waiting for a flock of chickens to crazily fly through the bus....haha.

I Live Where the Mountains Touch the Clouds

Well, its been a month and a lot has been going on. Since I last updated we finished Field Based Training in Talanga and I returned to Las Cañadas for the final two weeks. And an interesting two weeks it was. It started with leaving for a site visit to my new home for 3 days (which I am at now), followed by wrapping up spanish classes and training. I got bit by my family's dog my last week of training...and a nice bruise to show for it. It was quite sore...and still is around the puncture wound...and its been 10 days. But classes finally finished...thank god! They published an article about our swearing in ceremony: ARTICLE. The only thing is that they said we were in training for 11 months instead of weeks! The first pic is of our Youth Development group...the second is the 2 of the 3 teachers I spent most of my time with. These were the two who were with me during the 5+ weeks of Field Based Training so we were able to get pretty close.

So now I'm in my site and its kinda slow this week. I haven't yet been able to meet with all my counterparts to figure out a schedule. The high school is on strike...and soon a lot of people will be away because the coffee harvest is about to start. So I've just been hanging out at the library...here's the website which has some cool pictures of my town! Its hard to get settled in and find my place. I definitely need to find a few friends or else I'm going to get really depressed really fast! I love my site though...its very cute and quaint. And like my subject says, I'm tucked away up in the mountains and its absolutely amazing!

But enough about that...I don't really have anything thoughtful or inspiring to say....just wanted to show off my killer bruise ;o)

More updates to come....

Almost done with Field Based Training!

These past few days have been exciting. Besides finding out what I’ll be doing we had some fun last week. Wednesday night the mayor invited us to his house for a couple hours so we did a little talent show, made hot chocolate and enjoyed ourselves. He wants to invite us back for a longer evening (we were there for less than 3hrs) and said he’d make carne asada for us. Then Thursday we had a mental health break and got to leave Talanga for the majority of the day. We went to the next region over called Olancho to a town where we had Spanish “outside of class” in this little cabaña place that had a restaurant and a pool. All the teachers came and we played games and activities that made us use our Spanish but after that we had our free time to eat lunch, use the pool and just relax. Friday when we got out of Spanish class in the afternoon there was a Peace March starting so we joined in the with Catholic missionaries that are here (and our age) and marched to the park. There’s a whole campaign promoting peace and to stop the violence against children that the Catholic Church is put on throughout the weekend so it was pretty interesting.

I was kinda sad and bummed out a few weekends ago…just sitting around being bored and having too much time to think, but I’m feeling better. We’re into the 9th week of training and I’m ready to be about done! The last week or two we’ve gotten a lot busier with Spanish and doing things out in the community. We have school projects we’re I’m working in an aldea school just doing some activities and charlas (talks/workshops). So we went three times last week and we go three times this week…which is a lot of hours! My group was stressing out b/c the teachers asked us to give a charla about sex education…but I think it went rather well…especially seeing that it was for 4th-6th grades. We broke them into 4 groups and had 4 different, but related, topics and they spent about 30mins with each of us. I was surprised at how well behaved they were! Especially since when I was in the 4th & 6th grade classroom (they’re combined) on Monday it didn’t go so well. All the kiddos were really respectful, didn’t make jokes and didn’t even complain when we went past their recess/snack time! I took on the task of doing masculine and feminine anatomy…whoo…but it went really well. A little hard for the 4th grade to understand, but I made it interactive enough that they were at least able to get a little something out of it. Today we’re meeting the parents at the school to talk about what we’ve been doing with their kiddos and maybe give a little parenting advice. Tomorrow is the last morning at the school and I must say that I am a little relieved…a lot of times I feel like we’re wasting their time and ours by being there.

Things are wrapping up in Talanga. Monday is our last day here…we go back to Zarabanda/Las Cañadas on Tuesday morning, but we won’t even be spending my time there. We get back to our first host families house to freshen up…then go to the training center to meet our new counterparts (or at least a few). We’re supposed to have lunch and dinner with them. Then Wednesday morning we travel with our counterparts to our new site for the rest of the week. We return on Sunday to Zarabanda and finish with 2 more weeks of training…then on the 26th of September I will be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer!

What will I be doing for 2 years in Honduras????

I found out my main counterparts and the projects they’d like me to be doing! I’m really excited…sounds like I won’t have a lack of things to do. Here they are:

1. Riecken Library: Here´s their website...They have a lot of programs at this site including teen clubs, early literacy and reading programs and a mobile library—my first thought was a bookmobile. But no—it’s literally the librarian walking out to the aldeas (little tiny, smaller than villages places where people live) with books to read to the kiddos. They also have baseball equipment and would like to start a team, so I can do that if I want to. AND an exciting perk with this particular type of library is that they use satellite internet…which means that not only will I have internet access in my site…I probably won’t have to ever pay to use it somewhere else. I might just have to find a house to rent within a few hundred yards of the library! ;o)
2. High School (Colegio in Spanish): My main counterpart here would be the counselors working on improving their programs concerning reproductive health, values, self-esteem, etc. That whole slew of workshops that they give dealing with all things related. The colegio also said that it’s possible to get involved in their sports teams if I was interested.
3. Catholic Church: Most people are afraid of working with a religious organization…and I had my preconceived notions, but I’m actually more okay with it than some people. And what this church does is really unique. The current (newish) priest is apparently really young and active and involved in the community. So there’s a building attached to the church where there’s room for some of the HS youth to stay during the week in order to attend school. The youth that are there are from really poor families out in the aldeas. They have a small screen printing business and would like help improving that or coming up with other small business ideas in order to generate more funds to be able to provide housing for more students. They are aware that we’re Youth Development volunteers and not Business or Municipal Development and don’t have much (or any) business skills, but they’d still like to see how we can work something out. The main thing at the church would be working with the youth on afterschool activities and doing some workshops on self-esteem, life skills, etc.
4. Centro Básico: This is a school that serves 1st-9th grade out in an aldea with about 300 students total, so a good sized school. It also has Kinder, which I can get involved in but I’m not obligated to. It sounded like they wouldn’t be one of my main counterparts, but would be excited for anything I could do. They’re open to a lot of things and would appreciate any time I could spend there. One thing they definitely wanted was to start a school garden and teach kids (parents?) how to have a home garden. Other projects they mentioned was parenting school, English with the teachers, environmental education, sports and dental hygiene. It sounds like if I wanted there’s a lot I could do there! The only drawback is that it’s not right in town. I was told it’s about an hour walk one way…but on the bright side they told me the walk has great views. And they did mention it would be about 30 mins on a bike…which is good news. Because of funding cuts, not everyone that wants a bike will get one paid for anymore. Volunteers that needed one for transportation were able to ask for the funds…now its being more limited based on real need. So it sounds like they’ll be buying me one!
5. Health Center: Lastly…a health center! Which I’m excited to work with…I was hoping to be tied to one somehow. They want me to start a Pregnant Women’s Club (I was told that most would be adolescents). They’d really like me to do more than just prenatal health, etc…especially since these women are more than likely pretty young. They’d like to see some sort of activities that would be fun and encourage the mothers to still do things that are fun and they like…that just because they’re pregnant/a mom doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy things. My other though is some sort of crafts like t-shirt making, jewelry, maybe some sort of knitting/sewing/handicraft something. I heard of another volunteer that started a women’s exercise club, which would be good to do some sport of physical activity with them…then have a club for after the babies are born. I can imagine how they feel about their bodies afterwards, so it would be a really cool thing to do.

I’m pretty excited by the sounds of things. I didn’t get much more information nor did I bother to ask. I figure I’ll find out in a few more days. Other people dug for information about what part of the country, if it’s a big or small site, how far away is the closest volunteer and/or city, etc. I’m not too worried about that stuff…I’m just glad to know what I’ll be doing. It also helps prevent me from trying to guess where I’m going; then be wrong. There’s already been one person who had convinced herself that she would be in the west up in the mountains. Another was sure that she was going to a certain site…then I got some info from the volunteer I visited last month and it’s not. As I was telling her the first person was in the car with me and realized it was her counterparts and job descriptions…so both were a little upset b/c they had their minds set on these other places. Some people have a pretty good idea between the description, counterparts and talking with current volunteers and are able figure it out. I welcome the surprise on Monday.

One Month in Honduras!

Well, its been awhile since I´ve updated anyone. I am now in my second living place in a city called Talanga. Our whole Youth Development group is here for about 6 weeks...at the end of which (Sept. 8th) we´ll be finding out where we´re living for the next two years! After we leave here we go back to our first site for an additional two weeks.

My living situation is different...its taken a few days to get used to. I live with a family who has 3 children and a nephew living with them...all are adults between the ages of 35-26. They´re nice, but sometimes a little quite and I still am not very good at interacting with families. I often don´t know what to say to them. The house is nice; my room is detached from the house so I am woken up every night by the dogs barking outside my room...then the rooster starts in between 4:30 and 5:30am. There is no indoor plumbing so I have learned how to flush a toilet with a bucket of water. There is a shower, but water comes out in two small, unpressured streams. So they said its better/easier to just bucket bath it. Its really hard getting up at 5:30 knowing that I have to throw cold water on myself. Showering at night doesn´t really happen here. There are also no lights in the shower/toilet. Which both are seperate small stall-like rooms. The shower area is about 3*4ft...and the toilet even smaller. Like I said, its taken some adjustment. Its not bad, just different. :o) And tomorrow I learn how to wash my clothes by hand in the pila (like a large sink/water storage area).

Besides that things have been good...training keeps us quite busy. I´m trying not to get sick again...I got a bacteria about two weeks ago...and that was no fun at all. My spanish is (I hope!) improving. There´s a lot that I´ve forgotten, but its slowly starting to come back to me. I´m sure within a few months I´ll be where I should be speaking-wise.

I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It was a great book, but made me really miss all the opportunities that were in California. As of right now, I definately see myself going back there. I miss all the fresh fruits and veggies! Especially without worrying if they would make me sick or not. I love beans, eggs and tortillas...but its not the most healthy meal. My family does like to eat veggie soup...but I´m sure it has a decent amount of oil. They use a lot of oil, salt and sugar in their food. One reason why I can´t wait to live alone!

Unfortunately I don´t have any pics of the area yet. Maybe soon...
As far as packages, I don´t need anything yet. Amy and my parents are sending me some things...chocolate! Take care...Peace Out and Much Love!

Adventure of a lifetime!

I'm about to take off...currently sitting in my hotel room in Washington DC wondering if I'm actually going to get to sleep since we have to meet up in the lobby at 2:30am. The last two nights have been lacking in that department...

Orientation went really well and its a good group of trainees. It wasn't until this afternoon that it started to really hit me that the following morning I would finally be in Honduras. I'm excited, anxious and nervous all at the same time. I can't stop thinking about everything...wondering what its going to be like. I will find out soon enough!

On that note, the training location has changed to a city where there are no internet cafes and families most likely don't have internet in their houses. So there don't expect to hear much out of me for the first month or so. I will keep journaling and have something ready to post when I do get a chance at the internet again, as I'm sure there will be a lot to update on. With that said, I'm going to get a little rest before I have to get up again. We aren't flying into the capital due to the plane crash that happened the beginning of May, so tomorrow we have a 5-6 hour bus ride to get to the training site. I plan to catch up on sleep then! :o)

Take care and much love!

Michigan in a week!

As the days are dwindling down I find it harder and harder to believe that I'm really leaving. I don't think it will hit me until right before I take off for DC! I know that these things are coming up but until I'm stepping on a plane or getting in a car to drive across the country, it doesn't quite seem real. I've been in California for just over two years and as much as I complain and say how much I hate Orange County, it can really grow on a person.

I try not to get too upset but its hard not to keep thinking "This is the last time I'll be doing _____." I was much better this week than I was the previous...way too emotional for a while. It always seems that as soon as I feel like I have a life somewhere, I pick up and leave again. That is my choice...and right now, I don't think I'd really want it any other way. There's so much to do and experience. I've made some great friends here and have wonderful memories... and I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone and seeing how we all are going to grow, learn and develop into our true selves. On that note...make sure that I keep in touch with you! Haha...I sometimes am not so great at that; I realize it and I apologize ahead of time. Its not that I've forgotten or don't care, but sometimes I need a good kick in the dupa!

Life Condensed...

I'm currently living out of a bag and crashing with a friend. I've been able to condense my things down to 1 hockey bag of clothes (which about 1/3 are work-related...and too big since I've lost weight...so they will not be traveling any further than Anaheim), 1 suitcase that's half-full with toiletries and a few electronics...and I mailed home a box of things to Michigan. My life officially could fit into a Mini Cooper. And I'd still have room for 2 passengers.

Its humbling...I like to not be tied down by my posessions or feel that they control my life. Its also sad in a way, but its the way it must be, eh?