Cheque

The title of this blog is “Total Cheque.” In case some of you were wondering, Cheque is slang in Honduras (not sure if other Latin American countries use it or not) and it is used as ‘cool’ or ‘chill’ would be used in America. For example, if someone asked how you are doing, you’d reply ‘Cheque’ if you were doing well. Or you might ask ‘Todo Cheque?’ if you wanted to ask ‘Everything OK/ Cool?’ It is pronounced Cheh-kay. So that was a little Honduran slang for you.
Additionally I’ll go over what I’ve been doing so far in the Peace Corps. Essentially, every day is divided into two parts – Spanish language classes and technical classes. Language classes are normally in the morning, followed by technical classes after lunch. Technical classes is where we learn business procedures in Honduras. Some of it is going over different business structures in Honduras as well as bringing everyone up to speed in business skills. Basic finance, accounting, marketing, information technology etc. is taught since everyone is at a different level here. We also learn about business specific to Honduras such as tourism and artisan craft. Other important subjects are how adults learn, how to affect behavior change, and most importantly for business volunteers, how to write a business plan. The latter is especially important as it is the bread and butter of what the business volunteers do here.
My group is HN-16. I’m sure we’re not the 16th class here as Honduras has one of the oldest programs in the Peace Corps, but our group comprises of Health, Water and Sanitation, and Business. The Peace Corps has two cycles annually in Honduras – the first cycle which is us, and the second cycle with PAM (Protected Areas Management), Municipal Development, and Youth Development. Right now the three groups in my cycle are all divided up by projects – Business in Ojojona, Health in La Paz, and Water and Sanitation in El Paraisio (the cities might be the other way around for Health and Wat/San) for field base training (FBT). This is where each project trains more in depth for their respective projects for 7 weeks. After this we will go back to Zarabanda (where we were for the first 3 weeks) for one more week all together and then we will be placed all over the country. Generally, I’m told that the last few weeks are really stressful because everyone is anxious about where they will be placed. This is important as it is where you will be for the next two years and can determine if your service will be enjoyable or not. Generally, PAM is placed in the rural areas without much development and Business is placed in areas with more infrastructures. I hope that I don’t get placed in a big city because generally there are more people that speak English there and it is easy to fall into a trap of not speaking Spanish. At the same time I don’t want to be placed in an area so small that I’ll be bored out of my mind and has no internet connection. We’ll see how it goes – one of the things I need to finish for next week is a questionnaire about placement.
Other than that, special thanks to Roger and Charlene for sending the first letter I received here (took almost 3 weeks!) and my sister for sending my first package (2 weeks! With candy!). I’m not sure why it takes packages shorter time to get here, but then again it is random. I’ve heard that sometimes packages g o all the way to Australia before they get here to Honduras, so who knows what goes on…This past week we went on a tourism trip and camped out at a beach. I’ll upload pictures and more information next time – don’t want to run out of things to write about…and if anyone has questions they would like to ask, feel free to ask in the comments section and I’ll either answer them there, or if it requires more detail I’ll perhaps blog about it…

Interesting Stories

So we had 2 Peace Corp trainees that were sexually assaulted so far. Fortunately they were males, and they were accosted by their host sisters after a few drinks. Everyone just laughs it off, but I find it interesting nonetheless. Again, it is only funny because the trainees were males. It really is tougher to be a female Peace Corp trainee/volunteer than it is a male. During one training session, we were told of several different instances when females were assaulted. One female was out having a drink, then next thing she remembers is waking up in bed with a Honduran man. Most likely she was drugged. Another time a female volunteer was out for a run when someone intercepted her with a gun. He was trying to get her to the bushes to rape her but she was quick thinking enough to stall for time until they heard someone else approaching. That scared off her assailant and she was fortunately safe. Since it was almost the end of her service, she just went straight home to the U.S. So it is definitely important to keep safe, to stay aware, and not carry a lot of stuff with you. Being a foreigner definitely makes you stick out a lot more here.

Ojojona

So I have been with my new host family for about 2 weeks now. I am in Ojojona, about 40 minutes south of the capital Tegucigalpa. That is if you have a car – it is a two hour bus ride for everyone else. I love this town because it is quaint; there are eight thousand people living here. My new host family is totally awesome. No young kids, their son and daughter are in college, and we play soccer often. We play with the neighborhood kids and we play with a small plastic ball since no one has a soccer ball. I plan on buying one and eventually leaving it here for the kids to play with.

What sucks for my host brother and sister is that the teachers here in Honduras are constantly on strike. The government doesn’t have money to pay them (they are federal employees) so the teachers frequently strike. What this means for the students is that they do not get to learn. Some people are angry at the teachers, but then again, if the teachers didn’t go on strike, the government would not worry about paying them. It is a cycle here, and it is considered to be the norm. There is a one term limit for the presidency and when a new president from a different party comes in, they fire everyone from the previous administration and place their friends and followers into position. Obviously this sucks because any work that was in progress from the previous administration would stop. Also, this doesn’t stop the government from making long term promises it does not intend to keep. One of these was teacher salaries. They kept saying they would give the teachers a raise in lieu of cash now – this kept going on until the next president came in and was left holding the bag. Obviously the new administration has no intentions of honoring the word of the previous admin, so lots of teachers are left out of luck. One of the reasons why the government is so much fiscal problems is also because Hondurans for the most part do not pay taxes. The equivalent of the IRS here is almost powerless and lots of Hondurans are unemployed – on paper at least. There are lots of random businesses here, such as selling good on the streets or out of your house, and it is not reported as a business so they don’t pay taxes. And the government doesn’t have the revenue/resources to chase after those that don’t pay taxes, so nothing really gets done.

Other than the big picture issues that plague Honduras, I am adjusting to life here. I just want to say that you don’t really get to appreciate a washing machine until you start washing your own laundry with your hands. On a weekly basis. But I am getting used to it, and I find that I wear shirts at least twice a week before I wash it.

Another frequency here is blackouts. Sometimes it is for several hours, but last night it was from 8pm until 1pm today. I taught my host brother, sister, and visiting cousins how to play pendejo (Guatemalan asshole) and we played that for a while. You find ways to keep yourself entertained here.

In terms of language, when I got here I tested at novice low (pretty much all I was able to say was “that cat is black. I like cat.” We just had our 2^nd interview test, and I tested at intermediate low! We have to speak at an intermediate mid level by the end of training, so I am definitely encouraged by the progress I have made.