"O'bama"...sounds like...

Sometimes I enjoy passing time by hanging out around the park and just talking to people- the kids who take the money for the shuttle buses, the police officers, and this teenager with polio who is in a wheelchair. I didn't even know polio was still around anymore. How sad, that this kid has a disease that could have been prevented by getting a vaccine when he was a child. Anyways, just hanging out and seeing what happens can lead to some interesting conversations, like this next story...

I was asked an interesting question from one of the local police officers while I was hanging out in the park the other day. Before he asked, he did the look around to see who was around and then lowered his voice, so I knew it was going to be something good. He wanted to know what I, as a U.S. citizen, thought of Barack O’bama, because personally, he was a little worried. He prefaced his comments by saying “I know you guys are all into that equality stuff, but…” He was worried because Barack’s name doesn’t sound “American,” and not only does it not sound American, but it sounds a lot like the names in the countries that we are “at war” with. He also wanted to know where O’bama was born and if I was worried as well. I told him that I was not worried about O’bama actually being a terrorist and he shouldn’t believe everything Rush Limbaugh says. In the end, I think I calmed his fears and convinced him that O’bama would be as good a man as any to lead our country.

Work Update!

Just wanted to give you a little update on what we've been up to/will be up to as far as work.

Kyler:








Emily:













Just kidding. We are working on a lot of different things right now. Let's try this again.

Kyler:
-Still working with the baseball team- the wiffle balls I received have helped practice a ton. Our numbers are down a little bit as school hasn't started back up so the kids are working, but I have a pretty solid core. The regional tournament that we have to win is in March. There is also a little problem of getting money for uniforms. So that's baseball.
-I'm working with Emily's work to try to start a youth soccer league. It is going to be a lot of work but the goal is that once it gets going it will sustain itself and won't need any help from me. So I have been researching uniform costs, how to construct goals, league rules, trying to form a board of directors, and that sort of stuff. It's definitely a challenge but something that the kids really deserve.
-I'll be starting an English class for teachers in March. The teachers will teach their students English and I will observe and support them. This is a project supported by the Honduran Ministry of Education.
-I've got a bunch of old film cameras (and film) and I'd like to use them to do some sort of photography project with the high school.


Emily:
-Emily has a really exciting project on the horizon. There is a house for pregnant women in our neighboring town. Poor women from the aldeas (villages) can stay there for a couple weeks when they are going to give birth (so they are near the hospital). Emily is creating a program to work with the women on health and nutrition for their babies, as well as breathing techniques for the labor.
-In the middle of our park is a brand new kiosk, and Emily would like to start a business there with a group of high school youth. She is working with a business volunteer in the neighboring town to get this done. Things won't really get going until school is back in session.
-She is also teaching community English classes to adults.
-Every Wednesday is story hour at the library for the little kids.

So, this is what we've been up to/will be up to in the near future. Some of these things will work out a lot better than others. We're still really in the beginning of our service and trying to find our niche in what exactly we'll be doing. In a couple weeks we have a "reconnect" workshop with other youth volunteers where we'll learn about new and different projects, as well as discussing what has been working and what hasn't. Till next time...

Kyler

Barbie…Coffee Farms…and more…

It seems like recently, Emily and I can’t go anywhere without hearing, “Barbie! Barbie!” The thing is, they are talking to me! No, I don’t have long blond hair- but let me give you some background. Last week, I went to a nearby town with the soccer team to play in a game during the other towns fair. I played goalie, and we won 4-0. There was an announcer and when I would make a save he would say, “Oh, great save by Barbie, the Uruguayan.” I thought it was amusing and later my teammates told me that there is some really good goalie from Uruguay nicknamed Barbie. So now sometimes when my teammates see me around town they yell Barbie.

I recently took a trip up to a local coffee farm owned by our friend Joaquin. It was a great time. The landscape resembles the pine forests of eastern Washington with some more tropical plants thrown in. After a long windy drive with a pickup full of people that included a flat tire and the crossing of a few rivers, we arrived at the coffee farm. Coffee beans need shade so people usually plant bananas or oranges. This means there is a huge supply of free bananas and oranges right now (he invited me up to see the farm and cut some bananas). Joaquin grabbed a machete (standard equipment here) and gave me a tour of the various kinds of bananas (minimos, guineos, platanos, filipos). He walked up to the first tree which was about as thick as a telephone pole and with one quick chop the whole thing bent right over and the bananas that used to be 15 feet in the air were now hanging right in front of us. With one more quick chop we had about 50 bananas in our hands. After repeating this process a few more times, usually with me playing out some samurai fantasy and chopping away at the tree, we had a few hundred bananas. So now we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a few weeks. It's worth noting that banana trees grown REALLY fast and are only good for one "real" harvest. After the first harvest they grow worthless small and gross bananas. So they can sprout up 15 feet in less than a year. They are also easy to plant, you just chop a piece of the tree off and stick it in the ground.

Side note: a few months ago when Joaquin was crossing the river during some big some big rains, he was swept downstream for a good story and some minor scrapes and bruises. Interesting thing is the river was just a trickle when we crossed it.

Emily and I just received some “Christmas” packages and want to send a big thanks out to those that put those together. I imagined my grandma going through the checkout line with loads of candy and the clerk wondering if she had the munchies. Little stuff (and big stuff) from home means a lot here and other volunteers also benefit as everyone passes on books and magazines when they finish with them. I also have to add that Vago now has more toys than any dog in Honduras. Though I’m not sure that any of the great toys we received can replace his favorite 30 cent plastic ball that we play soccer with. Emily and I stand at opposite ends of the hallway and Vago stands in the middle, then we play soccer- he’s a tough defender.

The interesting thing about dogs here is that a lot of them (50% I’d say) are more or less “wild.” By that I mean that they just wander the streets scavenging for food and they are so skinny and beat up from dog fights that they would all make the news back home in the states for animal abuse. This is because the people here can’t afford to take Bob Barker’s advice because it is really expensive to get your pet spayed or neutered and the only place it can be done is in the larger cities, which is a long expensive trip for most people.

Check back shortly as we should have a work update for those interested in what we're doing- like sitting in a hammock and playing with kids isn't work!