So what is $25....

I'm at an American style bar drinking a beer, connected to free wi-fi, and ordered a burger. Sometimes you have to try and be normal again... right? Especially now that it is Christmas. I thought I would be spending it alone holed up in my house - I'm going to the Islands to get scuba certified on the 29th and didn't want to spend too much time on the road. But fortunately I got an invite from my host family so it looks like I'll enjoy dinner with them. But still it isn't the same, so this burger and beer(s) is my Christmas party for myself.

It's strange how my perception of money has changed since I got here. Now I'm thinking in terms of Lempiras (the Honduran national currency) and I was debating whether to buy a blender as well as a toaster oven. Blender to make refried beans, hummus, etc. and toaster oven just to make things other than stove top foods. But a blender costs 450 lempiras, a toaster oven about 750 lempiras. That seems so expensive! And who knows of the quality? I hemmed and hawed all morning. Should I or should I not buy? Should I wait until a volunteer leaves and then try to buy something off of them cheap? Or should I splurge right now?

To put things in perspective, the exchange rate is about 18 lempiras to the dollar. I usually round up to 20 lemps to keep things easier. So I'm torn about a $22 blender and a $36 toaster oven. hmm.....

well i decided to spend the money on buying monopoly instead (495 lemps). At least I can use that for game nights with the local hondurans... and until I get the tahini that sungnam mailed me I won't really need it as I can still mash my beans by hand.

I would also like to take this moment to share my adventures with my bus.

Two weeks ago I was on my way to the big city to pick up a package my sister mailed me. As usual, I closed my eyes to take a nap for the duration of the trip... but this time the bus stopped just before the main highway. We all had to get out the bus and what I saw was hundred of cars parked on the side of the dirt road and eventually a bit mob of Hondurans. Some had sticks, others were stranded travelers like us and there were lots of cops in riot gear. We had to walk across this stand off to get to the main highway (they call it a highway but its actually a 2-way road that travels all through Honduras) where we saw cars blocked off by boulders and demonstrators. We also passed by military armed with big wooden sticks. The protesters were choking off travel between Santa Rosa (the close big city to me where I buy groceries/pick up mail, and the transportation hub for the west of Honduras) and the rest of Honduras. The protesters were from the town of Dulce Nombre (along with the sister towns of Concepcion and San Agustin, my town) upset because the national government had been saying that they would pave the road from the main highway that leads to Dulce Nombre for the past several years but, surprise surprise, have not yet done so. The other towns were involved as they would benefit from the paving of the road as well - this road through Dulce Nombre leads to those towns as well.

So after picking up my sister's package, I couldn't get back to my site as no buses would be able to go through the area and even if I tried to walk past the protest area there would've been no guarantee of a bus from the protest area back to Dulce Nombre (and not to mention my site). I walked that stretch before and it takes a good 2 hours. I was stranded out of my site, but luckily I was able to take a bus the other way of the protest to another site where a volunteer lived to spend the night and not spend money on a costly hotel. I was eventually able to make it home safely the next day as the government negotiated with the protesters and stated that equipment to pave the road would be sent in. Not sure how that is working out...

Here is to hoping that the holiday travels will not be disrupted, for me here as well as everyone back home. Hope you guys have a happy holiday and a happy new year!!

Happy Holidays

Thanksgiving - good food and goof friends. What could be better?

This year we had a small get together in Salama, Olancho at Mark and TJ's site. We had about 8 people and I was a bit worried how we would cook the turkey as TJ only had a toaster oven (yes, it is possible to buy turkey here in Honduras if you go to the big city), but Mark's host family was kind enough to let us use their oven. Of course we provided them with some food as well...

I cooked the turkey, gravy (from scratch!) and sausage apple stuffing (my usual dishes for thanksgiving) and other people cooked mashed potatoes, yam, green bean cassarole, corn, buns, etc. The only dish we did not have was cranberry sauce, but overall it was a very successful thanksgiving dinner. We didn't get to enjoy leftovers the next day as we went to Catacamas where another volunteer lived (in the nicest house ever!) but i'm sure mark and tj enjoyed the leftovers the next couple of days.

In Catacamas we had an "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" party - apparently it is very popular with the Olancho volunteers, so I stocked up on some episodes to watch. It is like a live version of Family Guy - very inappropriate. After my weekend there, I went to Santa Barbara to visit some people that work with coffee. I learned a lot there and hope to continue working with some of the people I met - I believe that there is a lot of potential in working with coffee at my site.

While in Santa Barbara they had their feria (celebration of the saint the city was named after) and we saw a bull riding event. The highlight was during a break when a dog wandered into the bull pen. The rodeo clown snuck up on the dog while it was licking itself, and then to the delight of the crowd he grabbed the dog by the hind legs and started swinging the dog around! It was the most hilarious thing I ever saw and I was fortunate enough to grab it on video camera. I caught it in mid swing - i wish i got it from the beginning! I will try to post it later. The dog was unhurt, but it was hilarious....

The second most amusing event was that night. In the central park there was an area set up as an outdoor night club and another area with a live band. There was a backup dancer and the band had a guy come up to stand while she danced provacatively. Then it was his turn to dance for her. That part was whatever, but then they brought a little kid up! The dancer danced/grinded on him (but not directly on him), but when it was the little kid's turn, he started dry humping her leg!! Everyone started cracking up and then a band member lifted him up and he was dry humping the dancer's torso! I wish I had a video of that.... but it was awesome.

I'm back in my site now and next up is Christmas. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but I do plan on going to the bay islands for new years to get my scuba certification! hope to be able to update the blog before then, but if not, Happy Holidays and Happy New Years everyone!

Its good to be back

So it feels good to be back in Honduras.

After about a week in the states, I have to admit that while it was fun, I was feeling anxious to get back. I loved seeing friends, eating good food, but it really did not feel like home. For one thing, I was not independent - I was staying with friends and they were taking me out and paying for me. It is wonderful to have friends that want to take care of you, but for me I hated being so dependent. Right now Honduras is home, and I don't really have plans on going back until I finish my service.

I also wish to apologize to the friends I was not able to meet with - there just did not seem to be enough time for me to do everything. I wish I was there longer to meet with everyone and to get more accomplished, but it became very expensive. Essentially, that means everyone will have to come down here to visit and see me.

Since I've been back, we have had Halloween, a training session, and school is out now. Thanksgiving is coming around the corner as well as Christmas and New Years. I am looking forward to the beginning of next year where there will be no activities and I can just relax. Halloween was over a weekend, and I'll have to say that I was very impressed at the creativity of some volunteers. I took the easy way out and just put on Avatar face paint I picked up in the states. I looked more like urban warfare smurf than Avatar; more than several people asked me what the heck I was supposed to be, but kudos to the people (one or two) that actually guessed. Pictures are on Picassa.

The Olanchoers really outdid themselves. There were 4 guys that dressed up as the 4 Honduran beers and they won best contest. Sexiest costume went to the 6 female volunteers dressed up as Lady Gaga. Truly impressive. My personal favorite was a volunteer that dressed up as Mario Kart. With the bar raised so high, I have no idea what I will do for next year.

One of the activities from Halloween was outdoors, with beer, volleyball and ziplining. I think this was one of my favorite days so far in my service - peace corps guatemala came out as well, so we had a great time outdoors. Guess I'm getting older, but these outdoor activities are preferable to the drink and party events at night.

After Halloween 2 volunteers stayed one night at my place before we headed down to the capital for training. They lived far away and did not want to go home just to travel all the way back again, so we went down together. It was fun catching a ride from the mayor as he had a training event as well. Being back in Valle De Angeles (our first training site) brought back great memories, but it was COLD! The weather is definitely getting colder now, and I'm glad that I brought back a sleeping back and did not take back my winter jacket - with no heating and insulation, it gets very chilly in some places, especially at night.

Thanksgiving is coming up soon as well, so probably will visit a friend's site in Olancho to celebrate with other volunteers and several of us have tentatively planned to go to the islands after christmas and into new years to get scuba certified and to relax.

well, lunch is here, so until next post...

It has been a while since my last confession...

I'm heading back to New York on the 1st of October to the 11th for Dave and Tracy's wedding, so I am looking forward to meeting up with everyone, resupplying (taking back an empty suitcase!) and dropping off items that I found out I really don't need (blazer, dress shoes). Also looking forward to pigging out - one volunteer I talked to told me they gained 10 lbs on one visit. Good times!

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....

Technology in developing worlds

Technology is a double edged sword in developing countries. My site for example is a rural site up in the mountains and it, along with hundreds of other sites in Honduras, would not be connected to the outside world if it were not for technology. There is no infrastructure in these rural sites it would be difficult to persuade the phone companies to build the infrastructure for a telecommunications system miles away from the closest big city for only a couple hundred people that live there. It wouldn make fiscal sense. Multiply that by the hundreds of little villages around Honduras and you could see it would be a big drain on resources for the phone companies just to lay the wire. However, with cell phones, all they need to do is put up one tower and all of a sudden thousands of people can get cheap cell phones and pay as you go plans. In Honduras just about everyone pays per minute (about 5 cents a minute or per message) and incoming calls and messages are free. So now even in my small site I can make and receive calls.
Satellite T.V enables people in my site to get the latest soap operas and music channels. One person will get a dish and will split the signal for a charge. It comes to cost about $5 per month. With cell phones and satellite T.V, anyone that visits my site would find it hard to believe that they were in a 3rd world country.
But despite these luxuries, the majority of the people here have never used a computer. There is no internet here unless you get a wireless modem, but only about 4 or 5 people in town have computers in their house (the educated ones). The rest of the people will most likely live and die by the coffee fields, with T.V as their only comforting refuge. As this world had entered the digital age, the people in developing worlds are falling more and more behind. Yes it brings them luxuries but it also makes it almost impossible to catch up. They need to know how to learn to use computers to get a job in a well paying company but how will they get such computers or education? There only option to earn a living is to continue what their parents did and work on the coffee fields and thus the cycle starts all over again. This doesn even account for the effects of said technology on the people. Cell phone thefts are probably the most common theft here in Honduras. Many people die from refusing to give up their cell phones as well. And the effects of T.V? The people here see the wealth on T.V and desperately want to live those lives. However, they don want to put the work into getting it. As T.V glamorizes everything (no one wants to see a T.V show of the daily grind of the average working guy), they don see all the hard work that goes into making an honest living. This is compounded with the fact that many Hondurans live off of remittances they have family members who are in the states working (most illegally) and they send money back to Honduras. Considering that the average Honduran in a rural site such as mine only makes $70 a month, when a family member mails back $4,000 for a year work it is easy to decide to not work at all.
So this is essentially one aspect of the situation in Honduras right now. Still to be discussed are the rampant drug gangs and drugs, corrupt police and government, the education system that is going down the drain, and the companies from the developed countries that are here to take advantage of the situation.
On that note I did get a blackberry. I got it because I have no internet at my site and didn want to have to bring my computer to the bit city just to check email the blackberry has wi-fi so it would be all I need to take. It came with a month of free internet and blackberry services so I am connected at the moment but once it is up I will be back in the dark.

update 2

I have been in my new house for a month now but I still am not fully furnished. I need to buy a table and bookshelves as all my stuff is on the floor. I have spent personal money as well much to my chagrin. I have also been traveling a lot as well. August proves to be busy as well - the peace corps olympics as well as a noche de fumadores (smokers night). It is a night celebrating cigars as santa rosa, the largrest city near my site, is known for their cigars. Unfortunately for me that means a lot more money to spend. A lucky thing is that by being in such a small site I don't spend much money as there is nothing to do. But right now moving in has drained my resources. But you can't put a price on experience, right?
But I will have to admit that my peace corps experience is nothing like I imagined. People living here are not living in huts or anything. They have cable tv and everyone has a cellphone. But the cell plan that everyone has is pay as you go. It is free to receive calls and texts and it only costs to call and send. Their ar plans but those are limited to the well off. They still rely on firewood to cook and the water is not drinkable without purification. But that in itself does not make that much of a hardship - their are people in the states that live in the mountains like that. More on this next time...

quick update

ok so im finally living by myself!! sweet freedom. it is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, but one bedroom is occupied with some belongings of the owner who is in america at the moment. i will be living there for the next year, and we will see what happens after that. i will do a proper update soon, as i plan on getting a wireless modem. it is slow at my site, about 53k, but in the bigger sites it is a lot faster. it costs about 15 dollars a month, but i think it is worth it because of all the usefull info on the web. oh, and i will be going back to new york for a wedding in october, so i hope to see everyone then. this is the only planned trip back to the states i forsee during my peacecorps service, so i hope to make it worthwhile!

Sometimes you don’t realize how important something is…until it is gone

Sorry if this post takes a serious tone, but I have to get something off my chest. I’ve only been in the Peace Corps for about four months now, but you start to realize all the things you have taken for granted in your life. To put things into perspective, I get $50 a month to pay for housing, which is about the norm for employed people in my site. I’ve paid more to eat out in New York. My monthly living allowance? About $215 to pay for everything else such as food, water, transportation, cell phone, internet, clothes, etc. That is less than a weekend out back home. The Honduran government, in an effort to reduce the usage of electricity, provides free electricity to all houses as long as they are under certain monthly usage (in terms of kilowatts). If they go over, then it can be expensive so it is an incentive to conserve electricity use. Food is either cooked on a wood burning stove or an electric powered stove, but the majority of the people use wood burning – even those who have an electric stove. The wood is acquired from the trees around them even though it is a protected area as the government is trying to reforest the area. The water that we receive is from the rivers, so after a heavy rainstorm you can expect to receive brown water (from all the earth the rain water picks up as it flows down). This is the water that you have to wash your dishes, your clothes, and even your body. Water doesn’t come every day so you have a pila (a cement tub) to save up water. Toilets have to be flushed by pouring water down them manually – if you splash the water, be prepared to have it get on you. The Honduran sewage system – if you can call it that as there is no centralized sewage in small areas like mine) – cannot handle toilet paper so you have to place it in trashcans next to the toilet. There is no trash collecting service so you have to burn all your trash – even the toilet paper from your bathroom. It is common for people to litter and throw their trash outside on the streets while walking, riding a car or even a bus. Why would you want to carry it home where you would have to burn it? There is no recycling either.

In my site they are undergoing a construction project so we have had no water for the longest time. The pila has run dry – I believe that water leaks out somewhere. We have had lots of rain, almost every night, but even when we collect it in small buckets and put it in the pila, the leak makes sure that the next morning we don’t have enough. With the little water we have, we have to wash dishes, flush the toilet, and when we have enough water, bath ourselves. We can’t even wash clothes right now. I hadn’t been able to take a shower/bathe for a while, so last night (I’m writing this on June 17), I finally had enough and decided to bathe myself. In the rain. I took a bar of soap, went to a corner in the backyard and tried to get wet (took about 5 minutes as it wasn’t raining as hard as I would have liked). I then lathered myself up and then waited in the rain for about another 5 minutes to try to get all the soap off. The corner of the roof had a steady stream of water from all the water that was running down it so I strategically placed myself under it to get maximum water. My source of light? The frequent lightning overhead. And I did this all while wearing my boxers so not to flash my host family.

But everything I’ve posted above? I knew that when I signed up for the Peace Corps that I would have to make sacrifices. I can’t expect to live in the same conditions as I was accustomed to in the U.S. I’m not really bothered too much by what I’ve written above. What I found that I really had taken for granted, the heart of this whole post is something I believe we all take for granted: the toilet seat. You see, when I first arrived into this house, to my chagrin I found that the toilet only had the right half of the toilet seat. Sure the toilet was disgusting as sometimes the water wouldn’t flush and there would be feces floating around in the toilet. That sometimes when I tried to flush it before I used it the water would splatter (as you would have to hold the bucket high up to get sufficient power to plough through whatever is clogging the pipe. But I found solace that at least whenever I had to do my business, I would only have to lean to the right and I would still be able to do my business. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. But I was horrified yesterday morning when I heard a distinct clattering sound of hard plastic hitting the floor and my host mom cursing in disgust. When I looked into the bathroom, my worst fears were confirmed – my anchor, my only solace of hope and comfort in the bathroom, the right side of the toilet seat, had fallen off. I don’t believe they plan on buying a new toilet seat until after I leave because they want to remodel the hose then, so obviously it doesn’t make sense to buy a seat when they’ll just buy a new toilet soon anyway. But that means that for one month from now on I will have to squat to use the bathroom. I know that lots of girls squat in the United States (when using public bathrooms), and one guy as well (Dave), but I’ve always just lined the toilet seat with toilet paper to do my business in comfort. But yesterday was the first time I had to squat over a toilet (that isn’t a hole in the ground). I just can’t understand how anyone does that. Since I have arrived here, I have been pretty fast with the business. However, I was so unaccustomed to squatting that it took longer than usual, and my legs got really fatigued. I had to brace myself with one arm on the wall behind me for support. It was not a pleasant experience. When I was finally done, I got dressed and walked to the school, but my legs were so wobbly that I was walking like a drunk. At school, some of the kids wanted to play and I just couldn’t get my legs to comply. Needless to say, going forward for the next month, I will dread the mornings (like I did this one). So the next time you are doing your business comfortably at home, please think of me. As for me, when I finally find a house to move into, I think I will buy an extra toilet seat…just in case.

Welcome to San Augustin

So I have taken some new pictures of my new site and they are on the web. It is real quiet here, but real beautiful at the same time. Being up in the mountains is very cool and we don’t have much malaria or dengue problems here. But we do have the Chagas bug, which I encourage you to read up on. They predominately live in houses made of adobe (lots of those here), so I definitely don’t want be living in one of those. I’m at a lost in how I can help here as there isn’t really a lot of infrastructure here. When visiting another volunteer, I ran into an ex-volunteer (RPCV – returned peace corps volunteer) and she said that she was surprised that another Business Volunteer was placed in San Augustine as the other volunteer worked primarily with the municipality. She thought that they would place a Municipal Development volunteer here and I can see why – there doesn’t appear to be much business here that I can support. Business opportunities for where I am are not much as the majority live off their earnings from coffee and the women primarily stay at home to wash, cook, clean, and take care of the kids (everyone hand washes clothes of the entire family, and the kids get out of school at 1). It may, however, be a different story in the neighboring towns – they don’t earn as much as the people that I’m around. I may have to trek all the way to the other areas to see how I can help then in income generating ideas. But it will primarily revolve around farming, or raising livestock. Also, I hope to see how I can help the schools out there – there is only one teacher per town (I use that word very loosely – its more like a neighborhood that is far away), one class room, and the teacher teaches all from 1-6^th grade. After, the kids generally join their parents in the field to work. The kids in my town (or urban area) are a bit more fortunate – they get to go to school until the 9^th grade, and then they can take a bus to either Dulce Nombre (the closest neighboring town) or Santa Rosa (the biggest city in Copan) to continue their education.

My primary counterpart is the municipality of San Augustine, but right now I’m working a lot with the school as I’m still trying to find out how I can help in the muni. The school here has a computer room with 24 computers (16 set up as they don’t have enough tables at the moment). I’m organizing the room so it can accommodate more computers and tables (the 16 they had set up were on the perimeter of the room, with not enough outlets for all), setting up a restricted account for the students (lots of the computers there was no admin log in, so anyone would be able to install/uninstall anything they wanted), and installing Microsoft Office, a Spanish typing program, and Rosetta Stone (so they can practice English) on all of them. I hope to find other programs as well, or educational games, so that can help the students get accustomed to using computers. I also plan on teaching Word and Excel classes to the student and teachers as well. Other future plans are to set up a network (there is a server, router etc. and wireless adaptors on 16 of the computers), to teach volleyball (they have nets and balls), basketball (may need help from you guys in the states to get some new basket balls) as well as baseball. One thing that sucked is that after the other volunteer left, no one else continued his work with the baseball team. My plan to circumvent that is to form sports clubs like they have in schools in Asia. The older, more experienced students can teach the newer younger students (while the basics are covered in physical education). Hopefully this will be more of a sustainable model. But the other problem is that adult supervision will be needed. I have some willing people from the municipality, but I hope that other adults, especially the parents, will start taking more of an interest in the lives of the students.

Down the line include HIV/AIDS presentations, business simulation, health presentations, and I especially would like to start a gardening club as well. Considering that the majority of these kids are coming from families that work with growing coffee, they should know the science behind it. Also it would be healthy to diversify their diet and eat more vegetables. Not to sound ungrateful (having lived away from home for about 12 years that a home-cooked meal is always appreciated) but I really can’t stand to eat corn tortilla, beans and eggs any longer. I really want to start cooking for myself, and once I do I definitely want to start holding cooking classes for those who are interested. Other preoccupations right now is that I need to start looking for a house to live in – I’m allowed to move out on the 15^th of July and definitely look forward to that. The first thing I plan to buy aside from a bed is an electroducha – the heated showerhead. Cold showers do not make me happy. But that being said, I’ve never taken quicker showers in my life. I usually stand in front of the water and count to 10, almost hyperventilating from the anticipation, then I jump in and get wet in 10 seconds, turn the water off, lather up, then turn the water on and rinse off in 20 seconds. To be fair, the second time is not as bad. But the first 10 seconds while I pump myself up to jump into the frigid water? Not good times. Electroducha may even be the first thing I buy. Screw it, I can sleep on the floor – I’ll have a nice warm shower to wash myself off after.

But I think I may need help from anyone that is willing – I need to start looking for companies or organizations that my be willing to donate items to the school here in Honduras. Basketballs, books (in Spanish), equipment for their rarely used laboratory, perhaps even games as well. I’ll try to flesh out more ideas, but if anyone has a good contact for any of the above that would definitely be helpful. I also need to learn about the coffee industry, to find out how I can increase the incomes of the coffee producing people here. They don’t really grow their plants according to best practice – they just do what their parents, and their parents’ parents have been doing in the past. Anyone with info on that would be helpful as well – I’ll be looking on the internet once I visit someplace that has it as well.

To leave on an amusing note, I received a phone call one day from a random Honduran. He said that he was watching my son as we spoke and that if I didn’t want anything to happen to him, that I was to send him money. Now these phone scams are becoming more and more popular in Honduras – people call random numbers and try to scare them into sending money. Tracking those numbers down don’t help as people are mugged here very frequently for both their money and their cell phones. As such people get new numbers all the time. For me, I’m just surprised that the scammer didn’t try to tailor his scam to me, a non-Spanish speaker. I didn’t understand what he was trying to say, so I handed the phone to a municipal worker here, who then gave it to someone else laughing, and then eventually to the police officer that is stationed here which is when the scammer hung up. I’m sad that I didn’t get a chance to find out more about my son....

new final mailing address

on the side bar, but here it is:

Stephen Ahn

Apartado Postal 1800

Santa Rosa De Copan

Honduras, America Central

Volunteer at last!!

I haven’t been able to update in a while because my site has no internet! I live in a small town of about 2,000 people. The roads are all made of dirt, there are pigs and chicken running around, and there is no market to buy food (closest things are pulperias). The closest big city is a two hour bus ride away in Santa Rosa where they have more stuff. But the only bus leaves my site at 7am and leaves Santa Rosa at 3pm, so not too flexible. I will be working with the town government as well as the school. The school is tiny – 1st to 9th grade, and each grade is only one classroom. I definitely find the benefit of replacing a volunteer – the people here accept me more readily so integration should not be too hard. They go out of their way to make me comfortable and are more trusting of me. My host family was recommended by the outgoing volunteer and they are nice – the dad is only 3 years older than me and they have two kids – one 9 and one 3 ½. The mom is a teacher and the dad owns a coffee farm. This whole town exists because of coffee – about 20% of the families here own coffee farms and the rest work as manual laborers. I need to figure out how I can improve what goes on here – the owners of the coffee farms work from October to May, which is coffee season, and then they just chill until it starts again. It may sound nice but it creates a mentality of doing nothing for about four months. The manual laborers as well – they prefer to work three days a week and then they don’t do anything for the other four days. I think one of the first things I need to do is to help change the mentality. I see what makes Americans different; perhaps what makes them so successful - it’s the mentality of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and that you can be whatever you want to be. For me it seems that here people are kind of resigned to their fate. I think that trying to change that mentality is going to be my first step. Also, for a small town, there isn’t a sense of community. I feel that everyone kind of does their own thing, which is a real shame. Another project I’m thinking of are events to bring everyone together on a semi-regular basis; for example, bingo night or movie night, or even a party or dance. Since my town is a dry town (no alcohol sold – sad, yes), they shouldn’t get too rowdy. Plus, everyone has a gun.
My second group to work with is the school. Interesting thing about school here – it starts at 8am and ends at 1pm. I don’t recall school being so short for me, but I could be wrong. I really hope to improve the educational system here – not for all of Honduras, but for my town at least. They have a computer center but no one knows how to really use computers. When I met with the teachers, I asked what they hoped I would help with – they said English, computers, physical education, health, and sports. I said that I didn’t have a problem with this, but that I would need the teachers to commit to spend extra hours to learn and to teach the students as well. When I said this and asked who would be willing to spend time, no one raised their hands. The director then suggested I start with physical education first. This kind of raised the issue of the sustainability of our work. If I do all the work now, who would continue when I leave? That is another issue I have to tackle – doing the work for them for two years and then leaving will not solve any of their issues. But I’m glad I’m thinking about this now instead of a year and a half from now.
In other news, I’ve been to Santa Rosa (the big city) 3 times in two weeks. I was kind of tired of it for a while. Fun story – the second time I went to Santa Rosa with the people at my municipality, we were driving back around 7pm. The road to our town is up a long windy dirt road. It was dark and about 20 minutes outside of town we saw a car blocking the road, and people with flashlights in the hill above and below. We were told before of stories how bandits would block the road to stop cars and would rob them at gunpoint. The municipal worker waited for 5 minutes to see what was happening and then started to drive in reverse at high speed. He said it was not worth the risk – we had ladies in the car, and they tried to call the one policeman in the town. It turned out that he had left that afternoon which didn’t help with the mood. We did a J turn and then hightailed it back to Santa Rosa to sleep in a hotel. I called the Peace Corps to tell them of the situation as well (policy). I was told we made the right decision – better safe than sorry.
The next morning we drove back up to our town once again, and who do we see? The same car from the previous night. It turns out that they were deer hunters, and we traded a few laughs. They said they were signaling with the light to drive past them, but who in their right mind would take that gamble? Good times all in all.
Today (6/4) I went with the kids from the school to a field, where they ran around playing games and soccer. One person actually had a football (American), so I taught them to play football. Needless to say it was really fun, but I forgot to take sunblock. My face hurts.
I posted picture from the last week at Peace Corps training along with our swearing in (now we are formal
Peace Corps volunteers, not peace corps trainees). I’ll post pictures of my new site next time.

Copan

Last week we found out our final site placements… the location we would be spending the next two years of our lives. I’m going to Copan! Peace Corps doesn’t recommend we share with the whole world exactly where we are going, but I’ll be in a small city in Copan. Copan is in the west of Honduras, on the boarder with Guatemala. The Copan ruins are there as well. I’ll be going to Copan with one other business volunteer (she will be south of where I am), along with a Water & Sanitation volunteer in another site north west of me and a Health volunteer about south west of me. Those are only the volunteers from this group; there are other volunteers from previous groups there already. What is also nice is that I’m a bus ride away from San Pedro Sula, the major transportation center of the north. There are lots of factories there owned by Koreans, so I should have no problem finding Korean food as well as Korean groceries. When we go to our sites, we will have to live with our new host family for at least 2 months. Also, we will not be able to leave our site for those 2 months. We aren’t allowed to take vacation days until 3 months in; until then we are allowed “walk abouts” which means we are allowed to travel somewhere overnight in case we want to visit other volunteers, need to run errands at other locations, etc. I am definitely looking forward to my new site even though I am told that I have big shoes to fill. I am replacing another volunteer, what everyone calls a ‘super volunteer’ because he did so much for his community. Lots of the other volunteers specifically said that they didn’t want to go to replace him because of the expectations to live up to. Somehow I ended up with this site, but I’m ok with it. I plan on going in with no expectations of what I want to do; I’ll just go in and see what there is that I can do to improve and help my community.
Other big news – I passed the language proficiency exam! We had to get at least a level of intermediate medium to swear in as volunteers. I started out as a novice, but today I had my interview and I was cleared as an INT-M. That also means that I’m eligible to receive a tutor for the next three months – something that is only available to those at the INT-M level. So it turned out great. If I had not been able to pass I would have been required to stay at the training site for another week to study and then take another exam. If that wasn’t enough I would have had another week again. But I’m glad to start my life in my new site, where the real world is waiting for me.
Our last week in Ojojona we held a business simulation at a high school in a nearby community. We each had a classroom of students and we taught them basic marketing, production and accounting. The students then had to form their own businesses, create a product and then sell – all in four days. My group made bracelets to sell. I definitely felt more comfortable speaking Spanish in front of a crowd after the HIV/AIDS charla and I feel I did a lot better this time. Also during this week was when we found out about our site announcements – they drew a map of Honduras on the ground, explained where the sites were and then told us who was going to which site. That was followed by pizza and cake – good times!
Also, I went on an excursion to see some caves near Ojojona, which was fun. We managed to get a jalon (hitchhike) to the location of the caves and back. Nothing like sitting on the back of a pickup truck… I also went on a grueling hike to La Tigre National Park. We couldn’t get to the waterfalls because we had to get back early to catch a bus, but we had some nice views when we went.
In other news, I am back at the first training site with my first host family. We are here for this last week of training; on Thursday we meet our counterparts, and on Friday we have our swearing in ceremony as volunteers. We will meet the ambassador and all the other good stuff – it should be fun. We then leave for our sites early Saturday morning, so this is the last time a lot of us will see each other until 3 months. That is when we will all get back together to learn about grant writing and all that other good stuff. I left my family in Ojojona last Saturday, which is why I wasn’t able to post anything. I’ll be leaving this coming Saturday so I don’t know when the next time will be to update everything – I was told that there isn’t good wireless internet access where I am going. I may have to look into getting a landline when I move out on my own, or may have to use the local internet café if there is one. Lastly, I adjusted the blog so that anyone can post comments without having to sign up, so please let me know if you have any questions or what not. Until next time… new pics posted as well....

Tourism week / HIV

Last week we went to the southern coast of Honduras for classes on tourism. We divided into three groups to work with three different businesses and develop business plans for them. My group was a restaurant that also doubled as a private zoo. Apparently there is only one public zoo in Honduras, with a lot more private collections. The restaurant we went to exhibits the animals for free – but he only has about 17 different species. Eventually he hopes to charge, but in doing so, he will really need to spruce the place up. After touring the restaurant, we went to the beach and camped out there one night. We had hot dogs and tuna fish sandwiches – glorious American food!! – played volleyball, and in general just relaxed (with the exception of the one group that interviewed the owner of the campgrounds). The next day we went to another beach for a group building activity and played an improvised version of waterpolo/ultimate Frisbee with a half full Coke bottle. We then went to another restaurant for seafood and the third group interviewed the restaurant owner. After that we went home and had to work on a business plan (in Spanish this time!) to present to the group by the end of the week. Work hard, play hard – it was real fun. On Saturday we played soccer against a group called Christos Jovenes (Christ’s Kids) and we got smashed 7-3. 1 was a self goal, and we missed 2 penalty kicks, so it could have been 6-5, but it was 7-3. Most importantly we had fun, so good times.
This past week we went over micro finances and we had guest speakers (volunteers from previous groups) to give lectures on HIV/AIDS (in Spanish). We were then split up into groups to give the same presentation to a local high school – in Spanish. The work was intense, but I think we did a good job. The volunteers told us that giving a VIH/SIDA charla (that’s how they say it in Spanish) is a good way to integrate into your site when you first get there as lots of Hondurans are interested in these lectures. One of the volunteers was Korean, and he told me that there are Korean super markets in Honduras, especially in San Pedro Sula (the municipal with the highest homicide rates) as lots of machillas are owned by Koreans. Machillas are factories that receive half way processed goods from over seas, are worked on (value is added) the shipped back out again. But the danger in San Pedro Sula is primarily between gang members as lots of them are there. The only danger for tourists and other non-drug dealers is to be mugged, but as long as you split up your cash you should be fine. I definitely think the risk is worth it – I miss me some Korean food…

Next week we find out about where we will be placed. Should make for an exciting day Wednsday.... new pictures are up as well.

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.

Volunteer visit - Olancho 3/13 – 3/17

We went to visit a Municipal Development Volunteer - C -in Juticalpa, Olancho. Olancho is known as the Texas of Honduras – everyone has guns, a very cowboy feel, cattle, etc. Oh, and drugs. There are lots f drugs. Juticalpa is the capital of Olancho. There are about 50,000 people in Juticalpa, making it one of the bigger cities. Because of this there are lots of other Americans in the city – most of them here to teach English at a bilingual school. Most Hondurans that can afford it send their children to private schools because the public school teachers are always on strike. By law, a child should be in school 200 days a year, but in actuality public school students attend about 100 days. Last year, because of the coup, they only attended 70 days of school. A growing number of private schools are becoming bilingual schools where they teach both English and Spanish.
In Juticalpa, the best (and most expensive) bilingual school is Daystar, and not surprisingly, lots of the students are the children of the drug dealers. But the night we arrived, it was the birthday of one of the teachers, and it was an 80’s themed party. All the gringos know each other, so C took us to the party. It was a fun time and we got to meet lots of other teachers. What is interesting is that there were lots of women who were dating locally. C told me that there are two types of people – those that date locally and those who choose not to. It appears lots of people here choose to (who else do they have)? But then again you see some romance blossom amongst gringos….
The next day we went to a catholic orphanage. A big Nationalista Convention was being held next doors, and we were told the president of Honduras, Pepe Lobo, would be stopping by the orphanage and we would be able to meet him.
Side note – in Honduras nicknames are very popular. Presidents will go by them and they will always be referred by it. Nicknames given to regular people are not always the nicest – if someone is fat, their nickname will be “gordo.” Not too creative and it can be mean. Most Americans will be known as gringo and I was warned to expect to be called chino. It’s not done maliciously, but is just part of the nickname culture. Interestingly I’ve been called gringo more than chino.
While waiting for the president, we spoke with the Catholic father whom our volunteer gets along with and works occasionally with as well. He is from Malta, and he epitomizes humanitarian aid in Honduras. He says that lots of the children in the orphanage are the result of incestuous relationships. He doctors the birth certificates of lots of the children (that result from incestuous relationships) because he does not want them to know the situation which they came from. Illegal? Yes. But his concern is the welfare of the children – knowledge like that will be a shame for the rest of their lives. Other things he does is steal supplies to get construction done, for the orphanage, for the old person’s home, etc. Corruption is rampant in Honduras, and many times materials for building will disappear. Promises of material from government officials never show up, and the only way to get anything done is to do it yourself. When trying to get a prison built, he was told it would cost 70 million Lempiras. He found someone and had it done for 20 million. The 70 million he was told? It was because someone would keep passing the work down to someone else and keep a portion of the money. The Catholic father is a realist, and he does whatever he needs to make sure the people that need help get help. Unfortunately you can’t always play by the rules when doing good – the people that need the help just won’t get it.
While waiting for the President, we got to meet one of the ex-presidents – Malduro. He was very well educated and spoke English perfectly. He studied in New Jersey and then went to Stanford. Highly revered, he led Honduras out of a budget crisis and onto a path of recovery until Hurricane Mitch came and ruined everything, plunging Honduras back into poverty. Unfortunately Honduras has a one term limit for presidents – I’m sure he would be able to help Honduras right now. Fortunately he is working with the current president as an advisor. After we got to meet Pepe, took a picture, then we left.
While in Olancho, we got some other work done as well. But of note was a trip out to try ‘vino de coyol.’ A coyol tree grows out here in Olancho, and is famous because the sap ferments inside the tree. People cut down the tree, lay it down, then cut a hole into the tree. The fermented liquid fills the hole and people collect this. A tree can be ‘milked’ like this for 26 days, and can provide up to 50 liters of the vino de coyol. An interesting note is that people used to drink out of the tree, but legend has it that if a woman on her period drinks from the tree and some of her saliva gets into the tree (via backwash), the tree would stop producing the vino. Thus this is not allowed anymore.
It was fascinating to hear about the drug trade in Juticalpa. Honduras is a waypoint for the drug trade – small planes will land in the streets at night, drop off some drugs, refuel and then fly on to the United States. These pilots are not always the best trained, so there are lots of small planes crashing. In the burning wreckages people would find bags and bags of cocaine.
Despite the heavy presence of drug gangs, it is relatively safe for normal citizens. The violence is mainly limited between the drug gangs, drug gangs and police, and family vendettas (lots of times between the two). Several weeks ago there was a giant shoot out between police and a drug gang; one of the policemen was caught. The drug gang then used a chainsaw to decapitate the policeman. We actually drove by the house of the drug dealer that did it.

A different life in Honduras

So what are some of the differences between living in the States vs. living here? Lets start with water. In the stated you are blessed with running water most of the time. The water is drinkable; we clean our food with it, shower with it, brush our teeth with it, flush, etc. All this stuff we take for granted. In Honduras, only the major cities have running water. The rest of the country is blessed with receiving water once every few days. Thus water needs to be stored in concrete basins outside the house, called pillas. Water is taken from here to wash clothes, to prepare food, take bucket baths, etc. Going to the bathroom? After doing your duty you have to get a bucket and wash it down the drain. Do it fast enough to create the pressure to flush the toilet, but not so fast that it splashes you. Too slow and it wont even flush. Good times. The water is not potable - drinkable. You have to boil it or chlorinate it to drink or prepare food with. And you have to use drinking water to wash your teeth. So good times. My host family is doing well enough to have running water, but not like the states. Their tank is above ground, so there is water pressure created to have a shower, flush the toilet like normal, and use the sink. But when water went out for a few days, we had to use the pilla water. And there is no such thing as hot water here - there is only water on.
Families that can afford it will buy an electroducha. This is a device that plugs into an outlet - there are outlets in the showers for this.... safe, i know - and it will heat up the shower water as it flows out. So your options are cold, somewhat warm, or really hot. But this is considered lucky - some of the people have to take bucket baths. One guy was saying that he was actually having panic attacks when taking bucket baths because it was cold water baths. Im moving to a new host family this coming Sunday, and I read that I have an outdoor bathroom and no shower. Im guessing that this will be me soon as well..... Ill keep you posted.

2 weeks into the Peace Corps training process...

So I am in Honduras with 53 Peace Corps trainees - we had 54, but one person dropped out. Some relevant info first - Peace Corps Honduras used to be really lax - people would just party all the time. A new director was brought in to clean things up, so it is a lot more strict. The new director did a good job of that - PCH runs a lot more effectively now, but is run at a Zero Tolerance policy. Right now we are Peace Corps Trainees (group HN16 comprised of Health, Water and Sanitation, and Business) - after 3 months of training, we will hopefully be nominated to become Volunteers. The rules are a lot tighter for trainees than volunteers. One of the older trainees in Business decided to drop out because he found it too restrictive. He was in his 40's, spoke Spanish well and had lots of working experience. It is a bit unfortunate that he didn't want to stick around a little bit longer to see if things would become better, but he decided he would want to come down with another group to Honduras.

The other trainees in my group are all pretty young - they are mostly in their mid 20's. With the departure of the one older trainee, I am the 3rd oldest in our group (the 2nd is older by only a few months). But everyone is nice and eager to learn, and I look forward to learning and working with them.

Hello World

first blog entry trial....