Right now I am currently working with the school a lot more than my primary counterpart, but with school letting out in November, not sure how that will work out. I did talk to the mayor, so we may be trying to do a water purification project again that was shelved back about a month ago.
In the meantime I plan on doing research into coffee and to visit some schools while in NY to see how else I can contribute.
I uploaded new pictures on picassa so I figure that I can write a bit about those (I'm using the mayor's modem as I am fixing his laptop).
Dia De Lempira (Lempira Day)
Dia de Lempira is to celebrate Lempira, a national hero in Honduras. He was one of many to lead a revolt against the Spanish Conquistadors but was one of the most successful. He was so successful that the Spanish led him into a trap under the pretense of a treaty but then they assassinated him. For this day the school kids dress up in indigenous clothes to commemorate him. There was a big celebration at the school as well, with a beauty pageant (I think) and dancing, etc. My host mom asked me to take pictures of her son at kindergarten as she would be in school and would miss the festivities there, but unfortunately there were no celebrations there due to lack of funds. But it was fun nonetheless to see the kids in colorful costumes.
Trujillo
On the north coast of Honduras is Trujillo, which was where we had the Third Chapter meeting. Generally the Third Chapter is for volunteers over 40 years old, but due to member shortages the 30+ crowd was invited as well (even though I turn 30 end of September, I was invited). I took the opportunity to visit a part of Honduras that I probably won't see again as it takes about 12 hours to get there by bus from my site, but it was fun nonetheless. I got to meet some volunteers that I probably would not have been able to as their sites are far away from mine, and it was a good time to relax and get out of the house. We stayed at Casa de Kiwi, a hotel owned by a New Zealander and employed by lots of transients from the States and the U.K. It was fun to hang out at and speak English, knock a few back and relax. But by being located on the Caribbean side, it was more like a large salt water lake than an ocean but I enjoyed it still. Slightly envious of the volunteers placed there, but I do enjoy the climate at my site a lot more.
Not pictured but an event that I enjoyed is Noche de Fumadores. Every town has a patron saint and every year they have a feria (celebration) for that saint. The end of August was the feria for Santa Rosa, the big city near my site (where I go grocery shopping and transfer bus if I ever need to go anywhere). Being a cigar exporter, the one night celebrated the cigars and was sponsored by other alcohol companies so it was a night of free cigars and booze. Lots of peace corps volunteers showed up and it was a great time to hang out with everyone again. I think I smoked about 5 cigars that night and took home about as many (not including the gift cigars that I received and bought off other volunteers that were not taking their's). I also toured a cigar plant earlier that day which was fun and informative.
Shortly after we had the business reconnect (3 months after we are placed in site we meet as projects to discuss work related issues) so we met up again. Coming up on year end it seems that there will be lots of get togethers - next is Halloween with a big party at Copan Ruins, followed by Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Thanksgiving and Halloween are probably the two biggest as lots of people head back for Christmas. But I'll be sticking around here, and hopefully I can organize a trip up to the islands to get scuba certified! Honduras is the cheapest to get certified anywhere in the world, with packages including certification and lodging. Hope that all this doesn't seem like Peace Corps is one big party because there is a lot of work in between....
