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.