Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - with a happy ending

Today, Monday the 30th of May, I was supposed to give a charla about diarrhea. I spent last week buying the materials and collecting the information I needed to be able to make the charla. Yesterday, I spent all day preparing the charla. I pepared seven charla papers (poster-size papers of information) with statistics about diarrhea, what causes it, how to prevent it, how to treat it, what to do if there are signs of dehydration, the signs of dehydration, and then I wrapped it up with a short game: on another charla paper, I drew (yes, with my horrible artistic skills I drew) a house with animals all around it, kids playing, people going to the bathroom in random places, dishes piled up on the pila, and someone filling up a water jug from the river. I then drew small pictures with “corrections” on them. For example, you would put the picture of the trash can over the pile of trash outside the house, and you would put the picture of the outhouse over the guy going to the bathroom behind a tree. So, after all my blood, sweat and tears - ok, only sweat - I practiced reading over the charla a bunch of times and tried to anticipate any questions that might come up, so I would be ready with responses. In essence, I was ready! So, why then, when I arrived at the health center this morning was I unable to give the charla? Oh, that’s right, because I’m a chicken! I got there and was so nervous. There were not even that many women in the Center this morning, but I actually knew two of the women their with their kids, which may have made me more nervous for some reason.

When I first arrived Sonia asked me if I wanted her to introduce me again before I got started and that sent me into shock. I asked her if I could wait a little bit - maybe until 9 a.m. before starting, and she said that was no problem at all. So, at 9 a.m. I didn’t mention anything about the charla and just tried to keep myself busy, then at about 9:30 a.m., the doctor was getting ready to stitch up a little boy’s arm, so of course I had to watch! And, to my delight, it took almost an hour. When I came out of the “operating room” Sonia had ran home for a little bit to tend to her sick grandchildren, which just let me off the hook even more - I wasn’t going to start until Sonia got back. I found things to keep me busy, like doing a puzzle with one of the little girls waiting with her mom, so by the time I saw Sonia again, it was almost 11:30 a.m., which was getting to close to lunch time. Sonia didn’t say anything about the charla. She knew I was nervous and she had even tried to get me to relax earlier. She said she would stand up there with me the whole time, so if anyone asked a question I couldn’t understand, she could answer it. But, as nice as that was and as much as I didn’t appreciate it, it didn’t calm my nerves at all! So, when she didn’t say anything about the charla, I felt even more guilty that I had backed out of it. I was sitting in the chair across from her, while she was doing the paperwork for all the patients they had that morning. She looked up and saw the expression I had on my face and asked what was wrong. I told her that I was really sorry that I was too scared to do the charla. She just chuckled and said it was fine - that there is plenty of time to do it when ever I feel comfortable. When I told her I was embarrassed that I didn’t do it, she told me not to be ridiculous and that I can just do it tomorrow, or later this week, or maybe next Monday - whenever I want.

The fact that Sonia was so nice about me completely failing this morning, makes me feel even more guilty for not giving the charla. I don’t know what my problem was. I know the information; I had practiced it so my Spanish would be more smooth when speaking. Still, it would have been my first charla by myself - that I prepared and gave all by myself. It was a landmark that was too much for me to accomplish today. But, hopefully later this week I will get another opportunity to do it. During the week, thankfully, there are not a lot of people that come into the health center, which means there are not a lot of sick people (hence the hopefully.) But, if there is a day this week with a lot of patients, I will suck it up and give my charla, if not, I will give it next Monday - NO MATTER WHAT! I will march in that health center at 8 a.m. ready to succeed!

On a happier note for me, today I went on a mission to find mangoes with two of the ladies from the health center. We met at the health center a little before 5 p.m. ready for our mission. We had walking shoes, we had bags, and we had energy. The aldea we walked to was a couple km away, which isn’t too bad, but it is uphill the whole way - and I’m not being sarcastic! But, as our luck would have it, after walking for about 10 minutes, a truck drove by with someone Janet knew, so he picked us up and took us to the entrance of the town - it cut about 20 or 30 minutes off our journey! After aimlessly walking around the aldea for 10 minutes, we finally asked someone where we could find the lady with the mangoes. We were almost there, only three houses away! Unfortunately the big mangos were not ripe yet, which is weird because most people’s trees are almost empty this time of year because all the mangoes have ripened and been eaten, but her tree is a late bloomer, I guess. So, Vilma and I each took 6 green mangoes (they will be ripe in a 4 or 5 days probably) and the Janet and Vilma each filled a bag with the other, small, mangoes.

Unripe Mangoes

When we were loaded up with all we wanted, I was shocked that the woman didn’t want any money for the mangoes! It seemed unreal to me. The amount of mangoes we had was probably worth more than $100 U.S., which in Lempia is close to 2000! Here the large mangoes go anywhere from 3 to 10 lempira, though - depending on the competition people have to sell them. But, this is just how people are here. They are so generous!

After we left that woman’s house, we walked about 150 yards and were at the house of one of the AIN-C promoters. To our surprise, she had mangoes, too - three even different types than the two the other woman had. We spent about a half an hour spotting the ripe ones in the tree and using a really long stick/pole to hit them off their branches! We were eating mangoes while doing this - it was basically heaven! After filling our bellies and our bags we said goodbye and thank you, and again, we were not able to pay for any of the mangoes!

The walk back home was all down hill, but with bags full of mangoes, it was still a bit of a work out. But, it went by very quickly because the whole way was an English class. Vilma, I realized, actually knows a lot of words in English, she just needs practice forming sentences! She really wants to learn, so I’m going to have to figure out how to actually teach English. I’m sure there is a “Teaching ESL for Dummies” book out there that would suite me just fine!

After dinner me and the family feasted on mangoes - what a wonderful end to a terrible day!

I Flunked Tortilla Making Today

Written May 27th

Ok, let me back up a little bit. Yesterday, I met Grosbin. He is a facilitator for AIN-C, which is a government program focused on the prevention of malnutrition in children under two years old. At birth, every child is given a card that is like the vaccination cards we get in the States, but along side the vaccination record, is a growth chart. So between birth and age five, kids are measured and weighed every month to ensure proper growth. The best treatment for malnutrition is prevention - or so we were told time and time again during training. I whole-heartedly agree - why wait until a child is malnutrition to try and correct the issue? It is best to keep on top of things and make sure everyone is healthy. Working with AIN-C is a really good connection to have for us health-ers. In my site, I have eight other small aldeas are around me. This means, eight times a month the AIN-C representative comes to the area to measure and weigh kids. Each of these eight gatherings consists of a bunch of moms with their kids, who have to wait all morning before their kid/kids can be weighed. This is the perfect opportunity for us Peace Corps Volunteers to give charlas. I am particularly excited because these gatherings are the perfect opportunities to give charlas about nutrition and to possibly cook with women/mothers, which is what I really want to do.

I met Grosbin yesterday at a the monthly meeting of all the AIN-C promoters for the different nearby aldeas. Aftwerward, he mentioned that the following day he was going to a nearby aldea to work with a group of women and teach them how to make “green tortillas,” and he invited me along. I don’t mean green tortillas as in sustainable tortillas that grow back after you eat them - no, they are simply made with a bunch of eatable leaves of different plants that have a bunch of good vitamins and minerals that kids often don’t have nearly enough of. So, Grosbin is working with mothers to teach them how to incorporate important ingredients into the thing that everyone eats everyday - multiple times a day - the tortilla.

So, today, I met Grosbin at 1:30 p.m. and we made our way to the aldea. The meeting was supposed to start at 2 p.m., but of course that is Honduran time so it actually ended up starting a little early - at 2:30 p.m. One of the mothers brought greens - two different types of leaves, and also some cilantro (the not as strong-flavored kind) and another mother brought a couple green peppers. All of this was rinsed, cut up, and then put into a blender and liquefied. The juice of all these greens was then used as the water to mix with the ground corn to make tortillas. Grosbin also had the ladies add a small packet of chicken flavoring (basically a bullion cube), to add more flavor. I had yet to make corn tortillas, so when the ladies tried to teach me how to form the ball and then the actual tortilla, I failed miserably. I have the pictures to prove it. These women have a life-time of experience and do it so easily, but I just didn’t have the knack for it. They all got a laugh out of watching me try my best, though.

After the tortillas were done, we all tried one with some refried beans and cuajada (a soft cheese). They were delicious. And, all the kids who were there tried them and even asked for seconds, which is a great sign. Grosbin told me that a lot of times when a mother says, “oh my kid doesn’t like that!” that usually means she hasn’t even tried feeding it to them, which is unfortunate. These recipes are only to help their kids, and often times the mothers can’t be bothered to make the slight alterations to things they make everyday anyways, but the ones that is hurting are their kids. Another thing that Grosbin is making the rounds teaching mothers about is soy. A lot of families can’t afford to buy meat, so their kids have a protein deficiency. A way to make up for the lack of meat in their diet is to add soy. Soy beans are fairly cheap here, so AIN-C is taking it upon themselves to teach mothers how to grind the soy beans and make soy milk, soy chorizo (sausage), and soy bread-type thing. You can basically take the ground soy beans and do anything with it that you would with ground corn. In a couple weeks, Grosbin will be going back to this aldea to work with the mothers on soy recipes, and I will definitely be going with him again. I want to get to know these women in hopes of forming a women’s group and working with them once a week or once every two weeks on different nutrition topics, and possibly exercise classes. The opportunities are pretty much endless.

On another note, Grosbin invited me to go with him to the hot springs that are nearby because I haven’t been there yet. I don’t know what I should say. We were given so much training about safety and security here in Honduras that going to a hot springs with a Honduran man that I just met doesn’t seem like the greatest idea, even though he seems to me like a perfectly fine person. The way our trainers made it seem is that even if a guy seems to be completely normal and a great friend - he will try and rape you. Of course the trainers only said this because they have good reason to. Many incidents have taken place here in Honduras that usually involve someone that a woman volunteer had known for quite some time. According to our trainers, American women can not be “just friends” with Honduran men. At some point the question of when you are going to have sex with the “friend” will always come up.

I don’t mean to frighten any of you - sorry mom - but that is the reality that we are faced with here in Honduras. I can’t simply get an invitation to go check out the hot springs and just go. I really have to know the whole situation. Who else is going with us - am I going to be the only girl - how late are we going to stay there - is anyone going to be drinking - will I for sure be able to get a ride back - what does my host mom think of this guy? There are many things to weigh in the decision to go or not to go. I would hate to say no and then have him not invite me to go to anymore AIN-C meetings with him, though.

My first debacle as a Peace Corps Volunteer!

“Tomorrow is another day - I will just think about it tomorrow.”

The Mango Cleanse

Written 24^th, 2011

It’s the newest thing! You simply eat mangoes constantly and your body will naturally “flush” all the toxins out. It is mango season here in my site, so mangoes are everywhere. I swear, everyday I come home and my mom has a new type of mango for me to try. I have tried so many, and I honestly can’t tell you the names of more than three of them, and to be quite honest, a lot of them taste the same to me. However, there are a few that have very distinct flavors; some delicious, and some just good. This morning, I cut one up to have with my oatmeal (a mango piña), but unfortunately it was a little too ripe, so it wasn’t good, or at least I didn’t think so. I don’t like mangos to be super sweet, and when they get overripe, they get really sweet and lose that sort of pine needle-esk taste that is so distinct to a mango. I have been eating about four mangos a day. I’m loving it, but yes, they really do flush out those toxins!! I’m not sure if we get much of a variety of mangos in the States to chose from, but if you can find a Mango Hadé (spelling), it is definitely the best!

Next Monday, I’m going to be giving my first charla on…wait for it, wait for it… diarrhea! I was at the health center yesterday, which was a Monday. Every Monday there are more people in the center because it is not open on the weekend, so we get a build up of patients. So this Monday, almost all of the babies and under two-year-olds had a fever. Sonia wanted me to give a charla about diarrhea right there on the spot. I couldn’t do it. It took me a little while to explain to her that there is no way I can stand up in front of people and just wing-it because I just don’t have the Spanish vocabulary to be able to do it. But, after about 20 minutes, she understood that I wasn’t talking about not being able to do it because I didn’t have materials or because I was nervous (which obviously I am), but because even though I know the information that the people need to hear, I simply don’t have the Spanish vocabulary, yet. It would be a grueling hour of me stumbling over my words trying to get out information that could have been said in about 15 minutes.

So, after that interesting discussion, it was decided that I would give the charla next Monday. So, now it is Tuesday. I have five days to get the material, find the information, and mentally prepare myself to give it. Yes, I am super nervous. I don’t like to get up in front of people anyways, but doing it in Spanish, and having this be my first charla by myself - even scarier. But, I have to start sometime, so why not Monday, with a charla about diarrhea - who doesn’t like learning about pooh!

On another note, motorcycles are starting to drive me crazy - and I have only been here a little more than a week. Day 1, I had to explain that I can’t ride motorcycles, and I have had to explain it many times since then. But, yesterday I missed out on being able to go to an aldea to observe an AIN-C (the measure and weigh kids) event. The AIN-C representative and Sonia were going, but on what - yes a moto - so not only could I not go because there was only room for two, but because it was also prohibited. Everyone here rides motorcycles. Anytime anything is going on, the only way to get there is on a motorcycle!

TOTAL SEGUE - “Ok, Snaps. Snaps is the name of the game. The name of the game is Snaps. Do you hear me?” Then something is said while snapping and you have to guess what they just snapped I am watching “P.S. I Love You” and that was just said. But, it made remember one of my camping trips with the Beckwith family. We were yurting in Washington in November - awesome, I know. One night we were all sitting around the fire and someone mentioned that game - I think it was Jeff, but then everyone took turns playing, but I could not for the life of me figure out how the game was played. I still have no idea how the game is played. I need to figure it out. But, one of the “rules” is that you can’t explain it, I guess. You have to just figure it out for yourself based on when the person snaps - but yep, this blond can‘t. I’m usually pretty quick to figure things out, but not with this particular game. It is one of those things that when, someday, I finally do figure it out, I’m going to hate myself for not figuring it out sooner!

Seaside Aroma

Written May 22nd

For all of us Southeast Alaskan-ers, the words “seaside aroma” probably don’t bring to mind the most pleasant odors. Seaweed, kelp, muddy/sand/gook, rotting fish, beach asparagus, burning garbage, dumping honey buckets, and salt - this is known to us locals as the “low tide smell.” A phrase that is not at all uncommon to hear is “ohp, smells like low tide.” However, although the odor is sometimes close to unbearable, I love the memories that come to mind when thinking about low tide. The Annual Port Alexander Troll Closure Opens (golf tournaments) are always held during the lowest tide of the summer, so you can only imagine the wonderful smells of that two-day tournament. But, even though we are all playing golf on the beach, during the lowest tide of the year, sinking up to our knees in the muddy/sand/gook that just never wants to come all the way off, and having to spend two morning breathing in the “seaside aroma,” it doesn’t get to us. The smell is completely tolerable when you are surrounded by friends participating in the longest-running golf tournament in Alaska - chugging a beer before the tournament starts (usually around 6am) doesn‘t hurt either.

Oh man, but what about March in Southeast Alaska. All the Alaskans I’m sure know what I’m getting at. March brings us to Herring Season! So, added onto the already sometimes almost unbearable smells that make their way from the beach, in March, as hard as this may be to believe, it gets worse. When the herring spawn, our beaches are flooded with herring eggs, and then closely followed by herring carcasses. At first it isn’t even that bad. There is just a little extra salt in the air, but after a couple days, when the eggs have been sitting on the beach rotting, it starts to get pretty pungent. This smell is strong enough to draw every bear in a 50 mile radius down to the beach to gorge themselves, even though it is only March and we would all be 100 times happier if they would all stay in their dens for a couple more months before deciding to make their way out of hibernation!

Ok, seaside aromas are not all terrible smelling. I have to admit that that first time back out on the boat fishing with my dad every summer, the smells were always wonderful. Well, not the diesel smell, I can just never get used to it. It makes me seasick, and I think it always will. But, the other smells. I would always ride out on deck for our first trip from Sitka to Port Alexander - mostly because inside I would feel seasick, but also because I just liked soaking up all the smells. It is that salty/sweet smell of the ocean that will always keep me returning to Southeast Alaska no matter where my life takes me. I smell that smell every time I go back home after any sort of time down in the states (as in the continental US) - stepping out of the airport, it is just there. In any seaside community, that salty/sweet ocean smell is always there, and when you are not around it for a while, you miss it; and when you are around it for a while, you tend to forget it is there. It is weird how going out on the boat just makes that smell so much stronger, though. Because during that first trip to Port Alexander ever summer, I would just lay on the hatch cover on deck taking deep breaths of that salty/sweet ocean breeze, and I would, for a little while, be able to forget that I was going to be stuck on that boat for the rest of my precious summer.

You may be wondering why I am currently going off about “seaside aromas.” My host mom back in Los Planes gave me a shower gel and it is called - wait for it…”seaside aromas.” I didn’t read the scent when I first received the gift, but I pulled it out today to use and actually looked at what it was called. I just couldn’t imagine what sort of scent it was going to have. Because, as I explained , when I first read the words “seaside aroma” I did not think of good scents. The last thing I need to do after running for 45 minutes in 80+ degree heat, is jump in a cold shower and soap up with seaweed/mud smelling shower gel. Obviously it doesn’t have that scent - to be completely honest, I can’t figure out how this shower gel resembles a “seaside aroma” what so ever. I guess I would explain it as a more floral scent, but then again - no, not really. But, I can tell you that it in no way smells like any seaside I have ever had the opportunity to smell, and I have been to my fair share of seaside: Alaska, Washington, California, Florida, Virginia, New York, Minnesota (Lake Superior is basically an ocean), Italy, Greece, Dubrovnik, England, and France.

Youth of Lempira Take a Stand

As a precursor to this blog - I just want to say it has been more than a year since I have tried to write journalistically, and as I am not allowed to include the name of my town/ municipality it was a bit awkward. To top it off, i was too shy to ask ppl the questions I had to really make this an actual article, but I gave it a go anyway. Hope you enjoy.

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With posters held high and pom-poms in hand 40 adolescents, ages 12 to 25, marched to the mayor’s office for the first meeting of local officials and youth from the surrounding communities. What began one year ago as 625 adolescents meeting to decide the needs of their respective communities of Lempira, came to a new stepping stone today as the local officials signed their proposal for five new initiatives deemed important for improving this municipality.

As the Honduran national anthem began at 10 a.m. Thursday March 19, 2011, a historic event was in the making, as it also marked the first annual open government for Honduran youth in this municipality. After three days of preparation the 40 youth participants, 2 representatives from every community, were making their mark on history.

The youth in Honduras have the most to lose. If things don’t change to decrease the poverty of Honduras, the youth will be then ones to suffer the consequences. For this reason, the municipality of Lepaera began an initiative with adolescents in May of 2005, to open the doors to the local government and to give their two cents on how things could be improved it their communities. This process is now making its way across Honduras with the hopes of reaching the national level.

With the help of Plan (an organization founded more than 70 years ago that works in 48 developing countries, promoting child rights and lifting millions of children out of poverty), Coneanfo (Comision Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Education Alternativa No Formal), The ETEA Foundation for Development and Cooperation, and Union Europea, this group of young people was brought together to join the fight to be part of the discussion on decreasing poverty and improving ways of life in Honduras.

Using the open field near a water park as a campground, these 40 adolescents along with representatives from Plan and the other three supporting organizations, camped for three days, preparing to meet the local government officials. With support from the four organizations, they youth pin-pointed the five most important problems, prepared their proposal, elected seven representatives - President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and three representatives or the people, and got to know one another on a level that only living in tents together for three days can provide.

The five most important problems the youth of this municipality identified and presented today to the local officials, and the members of congress who came to witness the event, were: drug and alcohol use and trafficking, the lack of medicine and staff in health centers, the quality of streets and the amount of garbage usually occupying them, the destruction of forests, and unemployment.

After a representative of the group of youth read the proposal to the local officials, they took a five minute recess to have a private meeting. Upon returning the mayor gave the youth their decision, saying the five problems they identified were of course very important and that the local officials have no problem working with the adolescents to find solutions and begin solving the problems. Each of the local officials signed the proposal, who were then followed by the member of congress attending this monumental event, the governor of the department of Lempira, and finally the seven elected officials of this group of adolescents.

After deeming the day a success, the group of adolecents made their way back to the water park to debrief with their facilitators. The heat of the day was getting to everyone, so they decided to take full advantage of their location and went swimming to celebrate the piece of history they had just taken part in.

The Youn People

Written May 18^th.

Today I finally met with Carlos, the Health Promoter. We met at the Centro de Salud at 8 a.m. to make our way to the water park the kids have been using for their meetings. However, Carlos rides a motorcycle - it is more like a dirt bike - and riding motos is prohibited by Peace Corps. Volunteers are not allowed to drive or be a passenger on a motorcycle. If you do, and the Peace Corps finds out, supposedly you will be shipped back to the States. So, I had to explain this to Carlos, the doctor and the other ladies in the office when they said that Carlos was going to give me a ride. They understood that it was prohibited, but not the extant that they needed to. After explaining it to them, Carlos and I went outside and he fully expected me to get on and ride with him. This is when I pulled out the information about being sent back to the States if I ride a motorcycle - he understood. I told him I had not problem walking and that Sonia told me about where it was. So, he took off on his bike, and I started walking. Once he arrived, he would start walking back toward me, so he could show me just where it was. I quickly realized that was unnecessary because there was a big sign with an arrow on the main road pointing directly to where I needed to go, but it is still nice to have someone to walk with.

When we arrived, there was obviously a lot more introductions. Introductions always make me nervous because people don’t know yet that my Spanish is not that great. So, after I’m introduced they just start jabbering on and I can usually only pick out a few things that they have said. I usually do alright at this point by focusing on that question they asked or that one statement that they made that I do understand, but there are of course those times when I just have absolutely no idea what they said to me. Those are the times that make me feel like an idiot, and I have to then tell the person that my Spanish is not very good and that I didn’t understand what they just asked me. And, of course when I say that the person has no problem slowing down and saying/asking again, but by that time, I have already been embarrassed and feel like an idiot, so there is no going back. But, like I said, the people are always really nice about it. During a break the kids got during their meeting today, I was talking to one of the guys in charge, and then he said something I didn’t understand and I had to ask him to say it again, and I apologized for my horrible Spanish. But, he told me that my Spanish is great! I have heard that from a couple people and always think they are just trying to be nice, but this guy was 100 percent serious. It was definitely a little confidence booster, but I know that I still have a LONG way to go.

So, this event the youth were doing. Today, they were working on what they were going to do the next day at the mayor’s office: who was going to say what and when; who was going to be in charge of different topics, and that sort of thing. But, first, they had an election. They voted for a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, something called a fisica, and a vocal 1 and vocal 2. The vocals 1 and 2, are like representatives of the people (voices) I think, but I don’t know what the fisica is! This took the better half of the morning. People had to be nominated and then seconded and then each position had to be voted on. It was actually kind of fun to watch. I don’t know what they are going to do with those positions though. That is the part I didn’t have a chance to figure out. The girl who was elected president immediately started being a little bit more active in the days activities - stepping in when people couldn’t agree on things or when the director guy was having trouble organizing the kids to do certain things. I’m guessing they must have had the conversation about what this new set of officials was going to do before I got there - maybe I will ask tomorrow. Before I left, I asked the guy who I think is in charge if it would be OK if I went with them to the mayor’s office tomorrow and he said that would be no problem at all, that if I wanted I could come back that afternoon, too.

I should have gone back this afternoon, but I wanted to go home and make lunch and hide from the heat. Walking back to my house from the water park, I stopped at a stand on the side of the road and bought tomatoes, peppers and red onions. Then I stopped at a pulparia and bought a can of jalapeño halves. Then I stopped at another pulparia and bought a little bag of bleach. When I got to my house, I found a large pot and filled it with water, put 3 tablespoons of bleach in the water, and putt my veggies to soak for 15 minutes. Living in Honduras, if you want to make anything out of raw veggies, you will not be able to do it fast - in order to be sure you won’t get sick, you have to soak them in bleach water for 15 minutes. While my veggies were soaking, I realized I forgot my platano chips. I went to the pulparia across the street, but they didn’t have any. However, one of the ladies hollered across the street for her nephew and sent him to a nearby pulparia on his bike. In under five minutes, I was headed back across the street to my house with my chips! I was setting out to have a delicious lunch with actual veggies! It has pretty much been since I left La Villa that I have eaten veggies - which is WAY too long - a little more than two weeks. So, I was making chismol to eat with plantain chips. Chismol is the Honduran version of pico de gaillo (spelling) - it is salsa. It is just chopped up tomato, green pepper, onion and jalapeño mixed with lime juice and a little bit of salt. It is one of my new favorite things. This was my first time making it by myself, and I think it turned out very well! I had made it a couple other times with other trainees, but I feel like this afternoon, buying everything, and then making it myself, was a kid of landmark for me and my new life!

I Can Do This...

Written May 18^th.

Day 4 at my new home, but day 3 of actually getting down to business. Monday, I went to the Centro de Salud with Sonia at 7 a.m. I met one of the other nurses and the sort of admin-assistant. The other nurse started a 1-month vacation that same day, so I won’t get to meat her for a little while. Although, she is staying here in town for the month, so chances are, I will probably run into her before the month is up. The doctor arrived at 8 a.m., so I was able to meet her then. She is so nice. She reminds me of someone in the states, but I haven’t been able to put my finger on who, yet. The second that I met her, I felt as if 100 pounds had been lifted off my shoulders - she just put me immediately at ease. I know this will be doable with her by my side. It was a Monday at the centro, so a line had formed out the door, so we didn’t have much time for small talk, but she still made it happen. Before starting on her stack of patient files, she called the mayor and made a plan to take me to his office later to introduce me. I was very happy about that because I was really nervous to meet him by myself. La dactora and I went to the mayors office at about 9:30 when she had a small break in her line of patients. He was busy, but made time for me. The mayor seemed happy to meet me, and he told me that whatever I need or want help with, his office is there to help me in what ever way they can! That is exciting, but really, that is what he has to say. However, he also said that I could come use the internet if I want to. But, I think I would feel to weird doing that. Of course I would love to go there and have free internet access, but like I said, I would feel weird. It would be different if I was actually working at the municipality, but because I’m not, I don’t think I will take advantage of that offer. By the way - on a complete segway - In Spanish, Mayor is Alcalde. When I was younger, I watched the show Zorro with my parents, starting when we lived in South Dakota I think. And, in this show they always referred to the dreaded/hated mayor as Alcalde, so now, every time I say the word, or type the word, I think back to when I was five years old, watching Zorro with my family - I know - adorable, right?

Back to reality, when I was at the mayor’s office, he mentioned a training that was going on for the young people in the community and the surrounding communities. I didn’t really understand what he said it was for or about, but I understood that there were a bastante (a lot) or kids doing something down at one of the local swimming pool/water parks. (Ya, I know - finally a place where I might be able to go and cool off). When I got back to the Centro from the mayor’s office, the health promoter, Carlos, was there. He also mentioned the training session going on because that was were he was headed. So, this was my chance to figure out what exactly it was. Apparently, a bunch of local kids are meeting up to discuss the needs for their communities and for the youth of their communities, and they are going to be presenting the information they come up with to the mayor. I thought this sounded like a great program and wanted to be part of it. Had I have arrived earlier, it would have been a perfect opportunity to give a charla to a large group of kids, but at this point, I just wanted to go observe what they were doing and get to know some of the youth in my new community. Carlos asked if I wanted to go, but I was not ready to just jump up and go right then. It was my first day “working” and I was nervous. Obviously I should have just gone - I need to take every opportunity that presents itself, but I was to scared. I told him that I would like to go the following day, and thought that was going to be the plan, but apparently I was mistaken. Either something was lost in the language gap, or we just didn’t finalize anything.

So, to finish off my first official day of working in my new home, Sonia, her daughter and I walked to a nearby aldea to buy mangos. They were yet a different kind of mango than any I have seen so far, and I have seen a lot so far. These ones are called Mango Piña. Before this one, I think I had tried 7 other types of mangos. I can’t keep track. They all taste amazing to me and I can’t really tell the difference - except between the little ones and the big ones. There are small ones that a lot of people just eat like an apple - peel and all. I can’t do that because it would probably be dangerous - I don’t want a parasite. So, I peel them no matter what. Sometimes it is basically impossible because the mango is just too ripe and I end up getting juice all over me and cutting practically all the meet off with the peel, so I tend to steer clear of the little ones. But, the Mango Piña, which are apparently only available from this one tree in the nearby aldea are great. The aldea was a 25 minutes walk away, but going their to buy these mangos was definitely worth it. Thankfully at about 5 p.m. it starts cooling down to a bearable temperature, but walking 25 minutes to another community still makes you pick up quite the sweat. I liked the walk, and decided I was going to make that my run in the mornings. When we got to the house of the women with the mangos - each with our backpack, she let us fill them up, and told us she didn’t want our money! That is insane! Sonia gave her 100 lempira for them anyway, and it was hard enough to make her take that. It seems like people are always like that with Sonia. We had gotten mangos from a different lady (a different kind of mango) the day before and she didn’t want Sonia to pay for them either. Everyone loves Sonia. She has one of those personalities that you just can’t help but love and get along with. Even seeing her work at the Centro. She is so good with all the people. With the little kids, even though she is stabbing them with a needle or making them take an iky vitamin A pill, she has a way of comforting them and making them not hate her! She also has a way of making me comfortable, which in new situations is not the easiest thing for me. That first day at the centro, after she got the majority of the people signed in and had a handle on the chaos, she went out into the waiting area and had me come too, so she could introduce me to everyone that was there - without warning to me. But, I survived and felt comfortable out there because she just has that aura about her.

Day 2 of actual work, still did not consist of any actual work - I have a feeling this is going to be the case for a while. I have to wait until I feel comfortable and have all my materials prepared. Cuerpo de Paz talked about these first two months in site being all about getting integrated and getting to know people, and that is fully what I intend on doing. And, in those two months, I hope my Spanish reaches an all-time high, so I feel comfortable starting to work. This second day of work was a little scary for me, because Sonia had to go out of town for training, so I had to go to the Centro by myself. I thought I would be meeting Carlos there to go the training for the youth, but when I got there one of the other ladies told me that Carlos had stopped by the previous afternoon to say that he would take me out to were the kids are the following day. Of course! So, I hung out at the Centro for two hours, just watching. There were nowhere near as many people in the centro Tuesday as there were Monday. But, there were an insane amount of people outside the centro. I asked one of the ladies, Janet, what it was all about, but I didn’t really understand her response. I just smiled and nodded like I understood. I really need to stop doing that. When I don’t understand something, I need to ask them to keep explaining in different ways until I can figure it out, but I get embarrassed! So, when the doctor arrived at 8 a.m., I asked her. She talks nice and slowly for me and can usually tell by the look on my face whether I understand of not, so it was a lot easier. Apparently all the people were waiting for there monthly money from the government. Once a month, someone from the government comes with money for all the “needy” families and gives them about 800 lempira (or that is what I think the doctor said). Later I asked Janet how they decide who gets money and who doesn’t. She said she didn’t know, but that it was based off of need - I don’t know how they calculate that need: maybe family size, maybe they know who in each family is working, but that doesn’t seem likely. But, however they decided, those families deemed needy - receive money from the government every month. So, all the people who receive this money from the nearby aldeas come to Las Flores once a month and stand in line all day until there name is finally called. And, of course, because there are people that will have money, there are people that set up stands for selling anything and everything. I actually bought an umbrella (for my own personal shade - a parasall (spelling) I guess you would call it. There were also people selling food, shirts, shoes, giant pots for making tamales, laundry baskets, boot-legged movies, nail polish, cheese graters - like I said, a little bit of everything.

At 10 a.m., I walked to the colegio (high school) to introduce myself to the director (and the sub-director on the off chance he was there too. The day before some kids told me that he is only there in the afternoons.) However, when I got to the colegio, which is at the top of a pretty big hill, and in this heat all that does is make me sweat like a fricken pig. But, just my luck, neither the director nor the sub-director where there; the guard at the LOCKED gate told me they would both be there after noon. So, I planned to return after I went to the bank.

I had been trying to go to the bank agent here in my community for three days. That morning, she had finally been open, but again, with my luck, their was no server connection for the debit machine, so I could not get them money I needed to give Sonia for rent. But, the gal told me to come back at 2 p.m. and that it should be working. So, I went home for lunch at noon - after going to every pulparia in town to see who had what. I bought jam, apple flavored, and makers for when it comes time to make my charla papers. My plan for lunch was to make a version of French toast - hence the apple jelly. I got home and tried my luck at Honduran French toast. I used corn tortillas that Sonia made - she makes her extra think and out of purely ground corn. I dipped two of these in egg and pup them one in a time in a small pot (I couldn’t find a frying pan that wasn’t being used to store something else - rice, beans, spaghetti, etc.) The stove tops here in Honduras are like the Kalvenator that me and my roommates had my senior year of collage. The burners are cast iron, which means they take forever to heat up, and then for ever to cool down. So, when my “French toast” was finally done, I slathered them in peanut butter and jelly, and enjoyed them to their fullest. Maybe I just really wanted to like it, but I thought they were delicious and would have now qualms about making it for someone else!

After lunch, I waited until 2 p.m., which was just about perfect. Between noon and 2 p.m., it is insanely hot outside, so being in the safety of my home watching How I Met Your Mother was probably a very good way to spend those blisteringly hot two hours. I need to acclimate to the weather slowly - I don’t want to end up with a heat stroke or dehydration.

At two I made my way to the bank and then back to the colegio to meet my other counter part - Jamie, the sub-director - under the protection of my new blue and white polka-dot umbrella. The umbrella did not protect me against the heat, though - just the burning sun. So, I arrived at the school dripping with sweat. The first person I walked up to and asked where I could find Jamie, was actually Jamie - that was easy. He took me into his office and pointed his fan right at where I was sitting - like I said, I was dripping with sweat. I took that moment to explain that I’m from Alaska and that I just can’t help but being hot all the time here. He almost had a worried look on his face. I must have been bright red and really dripping with sweat. But, we moved on. We talked about what I want to do at the high school, and I showed him the manual I have for our initiative for teens to teach HIV/ STI prevention. He explained the set up of most of the school sin Honduras. There is a morning session and an afternoon session with different students and different teachers. The director came in about that time, so Jamie introduced me to him as well. He seems complete impartial to anything. He said he was happy to meet me, but had nothing to say. I expected some sort of welcome speech I guess, but nope. Don’t get me wrong. He is a very nice man, but just not the one who I’m going to be working with - that will be Jamie. Jamie then took me around the school and introduced me to some of the teacher and some of the students when we ended up interrupting a classroom. The home-ec. teacher wants me to give English classes, which I can totally do. I told her we would have to do a mix - I could teach English in exchange for being taught Spanish! She seemed very excited for it, so I will most likely end up doing that! It will be good practice for me, but I don’t even know were to begin to teach English!

I left the high school with an agreement with Jamie to return in a couple weeks with a plan of attack. I told him I need to prepare my materials and practice my charlas to figure out how I could break them up into different sections, so that I can go back to the high school and talk to the teachers about how we can fit my sessions into their calendars. He seemed very happy with this and told me to take my time.

Jamie is really nice, but I must say that I am very glad that Sonia is my other counterpart. If I ended up with two counterparts that were like Jamie, I would end up doing nothing. Jamie doesn’t seem to be a “go-getter.” He is laid back and wants me to just do what I want to do, when I want to do it, which is great. But, having Sonia as my other counterpart is good because she is a “go-getter,” which will keep me motivated and will keeping me working on things.

The first day here, I was having my doubts. I had just arrived and was scared and nervous and thinking that maybe I had made a bad decision joining Cuerpo de Paz. How could I live in a country for two years when I hardly know the language and can’t bare the heat? But, after my first two days I have done an about face. I have been meeting the people in the community and have been told by many that my Spanish is great - they must be kidding - but all of it is very encouraging. I am now ready to just jump in and get things going. The next few weeks I will still just be meeting people and slowly gather materials, but I know that I can do it, and that I have the support of a lot of people behind me.!