¡First Visitors!

Well I had a blast with my first visitors- Mom and Kathy. It was their first time out of the United States (nobody counts Canada) and that is always a special thing. Everything is different, your senses are being overloaded with new images and information and your eyes and brain just fight to keep pace. So of course I had to take them somewhere familiar to calm their nerves, so their first meal in Honduras was at…Burger King. Not their choice, really, but I only get a “good” hamburger about every six months so they just had to deal with it. Hearing about something is never the same as actually experiencing it and when we got on the road they had to fall asleep or die of worry- people tend to drive fast here and pass on corners and such. The double yellow means two points for the pass instead of one or zero that you’d get for solid or dashed.

They were quite a hit with the neighbors, children and adults alike, and probably haven’t been told how young and beautiful they were (seriously, by everybody everywhere we went) since their high school glory days.

I think they would probably say the highlight of their trip was the next morning at the school, where they played the role of rock-stars with cameras taking pictures of everyone. They joined us at baseball practice and even brought some new equipment. We thought the new bats would be the biggest hit but we underestimated 12 year old boys. The protective cups were by far the most popular, with kids trying them on in turn and then smashing their privates on the closest pole, tree, or bat was at hand. The young ladies on the team just sat around amused.

After practice the visitors were so tired they decided they needed a nap while I headed off to give a class to the teachers. Just when they were about to drift off, they heard a banging on the gate followed by “Señora Debora, Señora Kathy…” Little did they know that the neighborhood kids had planned a mango tasting. The kids all got mangos and then flavored them up with lime juice and chili peppers. The custom here, though, is to eat the mangos when they’re still green, so these mangos had some kick. Our two distinguished visitors put on their best “oh yeah, I really do like it” face and ate sour mangos until they could come up with a good excuse to stop (remember, since I’m not at home, all the communication is done by charades because Mom and Kathy don’t speak Spanish). Apparently they also did some dances, had a fake beauty pageant using my mosquito net as the gown, and taught the kids the “hokey pokey” (just what I need!).

Next, we headed off to the Mayan Ruins where mom’s cane didn’t stop her from climbing to the top of every last pyramid and building in the archeological park. We ate good food and established our routine of the ladies going to bed around nine and Kyler heading out on the town at about the same time, always reuniting for breakfast the next morning- this wonderful routine continued the rest of the trip.

Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands, was our last and most luxurious leg of the trip. It is a different world from mainland Honduras, in many ways. The people speak English (with a wonderful English accent), and the locals are a mixture of English, Black, and Latino, just to name a few. The islands were a stronghold of the popular pirate Captain Henry Morgan, whom I’m sure you remember from history class and nothing else. We stayed at a nice resort where the reality TV show Temptation Island was filmed. We had a nice house with a/c and an empty stretch of beach to play on. We pretty much just wound down the trip eating at all the nice restaurants and relaxing on the beach, exactly what we all needed.

I think the job of my future could be Honduran tour guide: I point out all the stuff and take care of the logistics, you pay from my room on the beach and yummy food. Any takers?

Thanks to Darcy and friends for the donated soccer gear, the kids will love it.

Happy Mother’s day Mom (and all other moms)

Kyler

It's been a busy few weeks as I try to get ready for my mom and Kathy to come down. First, the minister of education came to town, so the kids got all dressed up and we made signs supporting the local version of No Child Left Behind (which is having more success here than in the states).

Here is a good chance for a laugh at my expense:
We had a few cold days a couple weeks back and I was freezing during my showers, which really upset me because I paid good money for an electric hot shower that was not doing it's job. Let me emphasize, it is very not fun to take a cold shower in a cold house. After a few days of this shower cursing, I finally realized that a week before, when it was really hot, I had flipped the switch to turn off the heating element. So to keep a short story short, all I ever had to do was flip the switch back on.

Last Friday I went with a couple friends to the colonial town of Gracias, just a couple hours away. We attended a salsa class being given by another volunteer and made every volunteer's most important purchase: my first machete. I had looked at many a machete when I finally came across what I knew was "the one." I was sure that it would work for whatever I could find to use it for. The price started out at about $2.50. I tried to bargain the price down, but when the seller didn't budge and had a pistol holstered around his waist, I decided $2.50 was a great price and took my baby home. Now I have no excuse to be bored, because a your machete can never be too sharp!

I have a friend hear who lives up in the mountains and has started a beekeeping co-op with the locals. The bees are African so they sting (there are some here that don't). Wouldn't you guess there aren't a lot of bee suits around here, so that makes his job all the more interesting. So when it's about 90 degrees, he puts on a few sweatshirts and a "bee-hat" that he made from cutting up the moskito net he is supposed to use and goes to work with the bees. He's already skinny so the "sweating the pounds off" thing doesn't appeal to him. He never complains though, just laughs as he tells us about the hole in his pants that he didn't see but then felt the bees stinging his legs. Anyway, they do make good honey.

I'm happy to report that the rainy season is about to return and thinks will go back to being green and muddy instead of brown and dusty. Not sure which I like more, but the heat has been pretty intense and I'm not one to complain about an afternoon rainstorm that allows me a couple hours of relaxing on the porch in the hammock.

ps. thanks to all those that have wished us well and are helping to support the baseball team. We don't leave for another month and a couple kids told me they're already packed. The kids that have televisions have also been catching MLB games on tv, so I've had to teach them to root for the Mariners and Red Sox (they think that is a very silly name) and boo the Yankee's

Champions!

It’s been awhile so there is a lot to report. I’ll start with my favorite…

My baseball team won the regional championship! The Falcons of San Francisco de Valle are the best in the west! We started earlier this year as the bad news bears, no one showing up for practice, kids fighting, taking balls of the face, etc. The most difficult things are always the rewarding, and this was definitely one of those cases. There were times when I didn’t think we’d even get to go to the tournament- not enough kids, no funds for the trip, etc. But then there were days when I’d see a glimmer of hope and remember why I was doing it- an older boy helping a young girl learn how to bat, my player with a notorious bad attitude telling a girl good try when she struck out, the team deciding to elect a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer to help raise money and make decisions.

To raise money we held a movie night for our town. The kids visited the local high school and nervously spoke to each class and sold tickets. We were able to find a projector and rented out the city hall to show a horror movie (the best kind they said). Kids brought microwaves and we sold soda and popcorn and all the kids on the team had a job. The night was a wonderful success and we had about 100 people show up (in our town of 1,500). We made about $75 which was enough to cover our bus trip to the next town.

Luckily, about 15 parents showed up to go with us to the regional tournament. The kids were so excited they didn’t sit down the entire trip, just stood there looking out the windows. When we got there the other team was warming up and it was time to play (editor’s note: I was the more nervous than before a college football game). We put on our uniforms and warmed up, and then we did our dance (the 1990’s Atlanta Falcon’s Dirty Bird Dance) to get rid of all the butterflies. We came out on fire, dropping 15 runs on the Santa Rosa Panthers in the first inning. They answered back with 1, and after the time limit was up, we were the winners by score of 17-2. The kids celebrated and then we took a break while we watched Copan Ruins destroy Santa Rosa 15-1.

We had to win the next game to move on, and Copan Ruins was the area powerhouse (the only place that already had experience). It was a pitching battle from the start but we knocked in a few runs here and there and we were up 5-2 in the final inning and they had the tying run at the plate. Great time for an injury, so my catcher takes one off the thumb and it dislocates (this is very painful). My assistant coach and I run out and pop it back in, then I smack him on the helmet and tell him sometimes the tendons just jump around and he’ll be fine. I can tell he’s unsure what to think so I tell the ump let’s play ball so he doesn’t think too much and we start up again. My former host brother takes the batter to a full count and then strikes him out for the victory. Parents who have no idea about the rules of baseball are screaming happily as the kids jump for joy. If it were an acceptable thing in this culture, I would have cried at this point (but I didn’t). On the way home the kids screamed the chorus of a rap song they had written about the team out the bus window to whoever would listen, followed by a broken English version of “we are the champions”. Now we have the huge challenge of raising money to get to the capital city 10 hours away. If we can do it, it will be a great experience and the first time to travel far away (or at all) for almost all the kids. (if you would like to help out, we will take donations J, get in touch with my mom)

Of course, Vago (the dog) came with us and supported the team! How do I explain how much he has grown? A couple months ago, my favorite part of the day was when I had to go to bed, because I picked up the sleeping Vago and then laid him down in the bedroom. Yesterday he was dead asleep in the doorway and I can’t pick him up anymore so I just got down on my hands and knees and pushed him across the floor (he didn’t even wake up).

I’ve started my English classes for the teachers and though the numbers haven’t been as high as previously thought, the class is going well. The teachers I do have seem committed. There are a few that work in small aldeas (villages) four hours away by foot and have to walk back for the class and then get up really early the next morning to get back to their aldeas.

Soccer is going good and our team grabbed another second place after going to a shootout in the championship. I’ve been playing forward and I scored three goals in the tournament, though I couldn’t get one in the title game.

During the week of Easter, no one works and everyone goes to the beach. So I went to the beach. I ended up in a hotel right on a deserted stretch of beach with 12 friends, it was cheap because we all shared one room (gotta love bunk beds).

That's all folks.

The Little Things...

We've been here for awhile, so things that may have at first been new and different are now just "life." But then every once in awhile you see something that reminds you, "this isn't typical for most people." I've had a few of those moments lately, and they've been fun.

I was waiting in line at the corner store to buy a soda, but I was waiting next to a horse that belonged to the guy in front of me. I thought, I've never been standing next to a horse at a 7-11. The guy was actually buying minutes for his cell phone, and he proceeded to jump on the horse and make a call as he rode off.

Sticking with the horse theme, I was walking Vago (the dog) down to the river so he could splash around when I passed three of the 4th graders all riding on the back of one horse. It was an odd site to see three little kids on a horse together, with no adult in site, and of course they knew how to handle that thing.

I was at the park playing basketball with some of the grade schoolers when they had to make a decision about who would be on my team. Instead of flipping a coin the little girl picks up a leaf and spits on it, then tells the boy to choose "dry or wet." Just one of those things that is so normal to them and so interesting to others (me).

That's it for now. It's the hot dry season so there's lots of dust and we're struggling through the 80 degree weather. Wish us luck with that.

ps. the picture is just a panorama I took from a friends farm.

happenings...

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I was fortunate enough to go with a medical brigade into a small town in the mountains as a translator. They were a group of about 15, including doctors, nurses, construction workers, and people to play with kids. Because they were more or less in our area, 7 of us Peace Corps volunteers were able to go. It was a lot of fun and great to see some people get help when they are so far away from everything. It was sobering though, because people with more serious conditions here are just out of luck.
One woman carried her 3 year old daughter for 2 and 1/2 hours just to get to our "clinic." She said the girl had just hadn't been wanting to walk for the last month, that it hurt. It was decided that she has muscular dystrophy, and her muscles will only be going downhill. I wonder what's in store for her, the land where she lives isn't very conducive to wheelchairs. One thing she will get a lot of is love.
We saw a lot of body aches and pains, as well as a few bot flies (very gross). A few of the older people that came in (80's) that complained of pains, had surely been working hard physical labor in the hot sun for the last 65 years. The work ethic here always amazes me. The little 3 wheeled "moto-taxis" are often driven by teenagers or young men in their 20's. I had the opportunity to talk with one of them during my ride and found out that he works from 6am to 9pm, EVERYDAY. That is 105 hours per week! I'm sure there is a lunch break and a few bathroom breaks in there but when does he have time to do anything? Oh, and if you're wondering how much he makes, it is $10 a day. That is $300 dollars a month. It's not horrible for down here but it isn't great either. $300 dollars a month! I could make that in 3 days with the crappy job of substitute teaching!
Changing gears now...Emily and I had a week of "reconnect" in the capital with all the other youth volunteers. It turned out to be a really good chance to see other projects that people are doing and how we could successfully implement them in our site. Speaking of which, school is starting next week and it looks like we are going to be super busy with all sorts of different things.
Got to watch the Super Bowl last weekend. We got together with a few volunteers who borrowed a projector from work and had a blast. I thought maybe we were some test audience and in real life the Giants hadn't actually won. Crazy.

Oh, I almost forgot, I'm a cowboy now. Life is just better that way.

"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