The wait is over, we finally know where we will be living for the next two years, and really we couldn´t be happier. Our new town is called San Francisco del Valle. It is a small town, of about 1,000 people located in the western part of the country. We may already be partial, but the western part of the country is the most beautiful. It is full of green rolling hills and semi-tropical vegetation. Our small town is also located close to the Mayan Ruins at Copán, which is nice because then anyone coming to visit us can also easily visit the ruins. We are about 4 hours south of the second largest city in the country, San Pedro Sula, though we don´t have much reason to go there anyways, it is pretty dangerous. Are town is pretty small and doesn´t have all the conveniences but it is only 2km from the neighboring town that is medium sized and has restaraunts, internet, and small-scale shopping.
It is quite a trip from the capital though, about 10 hours by bus. We are sandwiched in the western corner of the country, about 18 miles from both Guatemala and El Salvador. This region is very safe and the people here are very nice. Also, we were excited to discover that it is not blazing hot here. It is usually 70-85 degrees and there is a dry season and a wet season. A variety of fruits can also be found in this region- pineapples, watermelons, oranges, limes, lemons, and bananas can all be grown here. This area is also famous for its coffee farming. Yesterday as we travelled around the mountain towns with our coworkers we passed coffee farms all along the side of the road. Now to this point in our lives Emily and I haven´t been coffee drinkers. We are going to give it a try, though we aren´t sure if that´s a good idea or not.
Our host family here is very nice and quite well off. Obviously there are many views of the immigration problems in the U.S. but I feel that he did it the "right way." He worked long hours in the U.S. for four years so he could come home and open his own business and farm. He now has a coffee farm and a construction business here in Honduras. We were happy to see that because a lot of parents that leave Honduras for the U.S. never come back. Emily and I have both just finished reading a really good book about the journey of a young boy from Honduras to the U.S. in search of his mother who left him. We recommend it to anybody and everybody, regardless of your stance on the issue. It shows what the journey to the U.S. entails and the positive and negative consequences for the people involved. The book is titled "Enrique´s Journey."
The actual trip to our site was quite a journey within itself. We were lucky enough to get a ride with another volunteer who´s coworker brought a van and was going to a town near ours. Otherwise we would have had to pack 5 huge bags on a few different buses and hope not to lose any. We started at 5am, the first challenge was the lingering smell of gasoline (Emily says antifreeze and she´s from a farm so she´s probably right) that permeated the van the entire trip. At first it gave us a headache but letter we just started to think that everything was very funny. Our driver was very good but the rules of the road are different here. Double yellow on a corner means go faster when you pass and lay on the horn. We continued more or less without incident until we were only 5 miles from our town and we blew a tire in the crater sized holes in the road. This was on the highway, this stretch is full of BIG holes that are around 6 inches deep. The driver changed the tire in the dark and we made it to town, by this time it was 8pm. Then we couldn´t find our host family´s home so a couple local kids jumped in the back of the truck and took us there. Also, there was no electricity, but we made and we love it. In the center of town is a park with a 114 year old Ceiba tree, very cool.
We spent all day yesterday meeting our counterparts, coworkers, and kids at the school. Tonight we have a dinner with the mayor and a meeting with the 190 or so teachers in the district/county. Tomorrow we will go back to the capital on the 10 hour bus for one more week of training and then we will swear in as official volunteers on September 27. And then we get back on the bus and make the trip here again. We´ll tell you more about who we will be working with and what we will be doing in the next blog.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Sunday, September 2, 2007
yes, that is 2 dogs stuck together...
It’s been a long time! It’s difficult to summarize the highlights because they are all the little things that we experience along the way. This experience is nearly impossible to comprehend unless you are living or have lived it. The numerous horses and donkeys that just wonder around the streets, the funny/rude comments we get in English from people who generally have no idea what they are saying, going to teach a class and then realizing the students aren’t there because the teachers are on strike (again), realizing that you and your friends bought all the ice cream in town and are going to have to wait another week to get more, and every animal possible barking, meowing, hee hawing, naying, and cock a doodling all night long just for the fun of it.
We are counting the days until training is over, 25 I think. Training is hard work and long days. Our Spanish is coming along but now we realize that we were kidding ourselves thinking that we would leave training as fluent speakers, there is just too much to learn and too little time. The good news is that almost all of the volunteers we meet are at a very high level of Spanish, meaning a lot of learning happens when you are at your site.
We have been having a lot of fun with our family here, they took us to a corn festival in a large nearby city, we ate some corn and had a great time. The highlight of the trip was definitely the stop at a small supermarket (which we don’t have in our current town) where we bough peanut butter and jelly and became the envy of all other volunteers. Seriously, we have become easily amused and typically have very boring conversations. Watching the ants at work or talking about foods we miss from home. I think we are all in the first stage of craziness. There is kind of a theory that all volunteers more or less lose it after being in site for a year. So for those who thought we left weird, wait until we come back. Today we went with our family to a small place where the mother grew up. I won´t call it a village because it´s just a few houses. We felt honored that they took us there and our mother introduced us as her new children. We took the opportunity to stock up on some fruit and veggies that the extended family had growing in various trees. There were HUGE papayas, avacados, bananas, plantains, and other small sweet fruits that are yummy but I don´t know the names in English because we don´t have them in the states.
We have been working extremely hard recently. Typically what happens is some current volunteers come and train us in how to teach a certain concept or work with a certain group (small businesses, self-esteem, youth sports, libraries, HIV, arts and crafts) and then the next day we go and work with that group or concept (in groups of 3), putting into practice what we learned. It is really fun to get into the schools and actually work with the students and in some cases parents (we gave a couple classes to parents of the schools we work in- nutrition, family unity, discipline and stuff like that). The kids seem to love us (or maybe just the break from regular work) and we always get them involved.
This last week we gave our most difficult charla (class) yet. It was a four hour charla about HIV/AIDS to local high school students. We received the charla in the morning from our trainers, had 3 hours to plan, and then gave it the next day. If that doesn’t sound hard enough remember that we had to do the whole thing in Spanish. The kids actually had a good time and learned a lot, we did a pre and post test and “computerized” the results (sadly, I’m already losing my English vocabulary- limited as it was to begin with). The highlight of the charla was having the students put condoms on bananas. Now when they see us around town we won’t just be the gringos, we’ll be the “banana condom” gringos.
I set a record. Because of my mother I sometimes us a step-o-meter thing (pedometer?) to count my steps. I went with a couple friends to a national park and by the end of it all I had walked some 34,000 steps and 22 miles (so it said). I almost walked four more just so I could say I did a marathon. Let’s just say it was fun and all but I’ll never walk that far again (not to mention it was extremely uphill).
We met another volunteer who is about to finish his service. He is from Washington as well. He told us of a Washingtonian tradition, there is a book here with pictures from Washington and it has been passed down from one Washington volunteer to the next, so people could share it with their families and communities. It looks like it’s been here for awhile and it has some great notes in it. It is now in our hands (our goal is not to lose it).
So far the highlight of Cantaranas has to be our dog story. During training we heard a rumor that dogs could actual become stuck together during sex. We debated this topic for awhile and then it happened…we were startled by the noise, dogs aren’t supposed to sound like that, we ran outside to check it out, and there it was, two dogs, our dogs, were stuck together. The female would try to walk away and the male would yelp (understandably) in pain. Like any other smart person, we got the camera and made it a Kodak moment for all. Apparently our female dog was in heat and our male dog couldn’t keep his dirty hands off her. He wasn’t the only one, during that week, I’d look out the front door and there would be five or six dogs just standing there staring at our female. PLEASE, listen to Bob Barker and get your pets spayed or neutered!
p.s. a big shout to Ferndale and UW for taking care of business.
We are counting the days until training is over, 25 I think. Training is hard work and long days. Our Spanish is coming along but now we realize that we were kidding ourselves thinking that we would leave training as fluent speakers, there is just too much to learn and too little time. The good news is that almost all of the volunteers we meet are at a very high level of Spanish, meaning a lot of learning happens when you are at your site.
We have been having a lot of fun with our family here, they took us to a corn festival in a large nearby city, we ate some corn and had a great time. The highlight of the trip was definitely the stop at a small supermarket (which we don’t have in our current town) where we bough peanut butter and jelly and became the envy of all other volunteers. Seriously, we have become easily amused and typically have very boring conversations. Watching the ants at work or talking about foods we miss from home. I think we are all in the first stage of craziness. There is kind of a theory that all volunteers more or less lose it after being in site for a year. So for those who thought we left weird, wait until we come back. Today we went with our family to a small place where the mother grew up. I won´t call it a village because it´s just a few houses. We felt honored that they took us there and our mother introduced us as her new children. We took the opportunity to stock up on some fruit and veggies that the extended family had growing in various trees. There were HUGE papayas, avacados, bananas, plantains, and other small sweet fruits that are yummy but I don´t know the names in English because we don´t have them in the states.
We have been working extremely hard recently. Typically what happens is some current volunteers come and train us in how to teach a certain concept or work with a certain group (small businesses, self-esteem, youth sports, libraries, HIV, arts and crafts) and then the next day we go and work with that group or concept (in groups of 3), putting into practice what we learned. It is really fun to get into the schools and actually work with the students and in some cases parents (we gave a couple classes to parents of the schools we work in- nutrition, family unity, discipline and stuff like that). The kids seem to love us (or maybe just the break from regular work) and we always get them involved.
This last week we gave our most difficult charla (class) yet. It was a four hour charla about HIV/AIDS to local high school students. We received the charla in the morning from our trainers, had 3 hours to plan, and then gave it the next day. If that doesn’t sound hard enough remember that we had to do the whole thing in Spanish. The kids actually had a good time and learned a lot, we did a pre and post test and “computerized” the results (sadly, I’m already losing my English vocabulary- limited as it was to begin with). The highlight of the charla was having the students put condoms on bananas. Now when they see us around town we won’t just be the gringos, we’ll be the “banana condom” gringos.
I set a record. Because of my mother I sometimes us a step-o-meter thing (pedometer?) to count my steps. I went with a couple friends to a national park and by the end of it all I had walked some 34,000 steps and 22 miles (so it said). I almost walked four more just so I could say I did a marathon. Let’s just say it was fun and all but I’ll never walk that far again (not to mention it was extremely uphill).
We met another volunteer who is about to finish his service. He is from Washington as well. He told us of a Washingtonian tradition, there is a book here with pictures from Washington and it has been passed down from one Washington volunteer to the next, so people could share it with their families and communities. It looks like it’s been here for awhile and it has some great notes in it. It is now in our hands (our goal is not to lose it).
So far the highlight of Cantaranas has to be our dog story. During training we heard a rumor that dogs could actual become stuck together during sex. We debated this topic for awhile and then it happened…we were startled by the noise, dogs aren’t supposed to sound like that, we ran outside to check it out, and there it was, two dogs, our dogs, were stuck together. The female would try to walk away and the male would yelp (understandably) in pain. Like any other smart person, we got the camera and made it a Kodak moment for all. Apparently our female dog was in heat and our male dog couldn’t keep his dirty hands off her. He wasn’t the only one, during that week, I’d look out the front door and there would be five or six dogs just standing there staring at our female. PLEASE, listen to Bob Barker and get your pets spayed or neutered!
p.s. a big shout to Ferndale and UW for taking care of business.
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