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....