Site announcements...

Written May 5th...

After 70 days, today we finally found out where we are going to be living for the next two years of our lives! As excited as we all were, it was so nerve-racking at the same time. It was pretty much the longest day of our lives. Classes started at 7:30 a.m. as usual, but site announcements were not scheduled until 3 p.m. So, as the day moved at a slugs pace and we all tried to get hints of sites from members of our training staff, we learned nothing of about our future homes. Technical sessions began after lunch, so all the health crew went to our training salon eager and excited for the news we were gong to be getting in two and a half hours. However, none of realized how tedious those two and a half hours were going to be. Our technical session was about people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). John, a volunteer from the South came to give us the training session, and it wasn’t that the information wasn’t important or interesting, but the fact that it was the two and a half hour before site announcements mean that in reality, all the information went in one ear and out the other.

Helmuth, our APCD (the head honcho of the health group - not sure what it actually stands for), arrived early, so he was sitting in the back of the room, listening to our training session. At this point none of us really cared what he was thinking about our non-participatory-ness. I was even more antsy than everyone else - in my opinion anyway. Some of us had organized to have one of the drivers go to Tegus and buy a cake for us because it was Hector’s (our training director) birthday!!! However, the message did not get passed on to me that the cake was actually waiting for us - hidden in the mini-bus. We wanted to have a mini-party after lunch, but were not able to because we didn’t know the cake had arrived. So, all through our training session, I was freaking out about where the heck Luis Knite and the cake were. Finally, half way through our session, Javier came into our classroom and pulled me aside. He apologized for forgetting, but then told me where the cake was hidden! So, now that I knew where the cake was, all we needed was a short break so I could run and get it and we could sing happy birthday. But, that short break didn’t come until right before 3 p.m. when Helmuth was supposed to start site announcements. Once John began rapping up the session Helmuth kept piping in with comments and questions and little asides, so the session went right to the end of its allotted time. Yes, I was stressing out like normal, but it all worked out - Hector was surprised and the cake was delicious, so that was all we could have asked for.

But, now came the moment we had all been waiting for. It was 3 p.m. - site announcement time. I don’t know why on Earth we thought we would actually be getting our site assignments at 3 p.m. Since when had Helmuth been straight forward and prompt with anything - NEVER. To top it off, Wat-San and Business had been playing soccer and just messing around since about 1:30pm, so we were sick of sitting in the boiling hot classroom listening to a bunch of what seemed like pointless information at that moment. We just wanted our site info. But, alas - Helmuth kept us on the edges of our seats for another 45 minutes while he went through pictures of people in some of the sites, and some pictures of the sites. He was talking about what he had been thinking about while finding all our sites, and what sort of things he came across on the way. He is definitely long winded!

So, then it was time! Hector had made a large map of Honduras on the floor out of Masking tape. He and Helmuch then put the name of 17 towns in their appropriate locations. And, on the back of each of these cards was a photo of one of us health volunteers. We were so nervous. They started in the North West and picked up one card at a time, reading the name of the town, then flipping it over and announcing who would be living and working there for the next two years. As each location/person was called, we were given a packet of information about our site and the counterparts we were going to be working with. Damarise, Laura and I were sitting right next to each other and had our heads on each other’s shoulders and laps, with what I’m sure were the looks of pure fear/excitement in our eyes. Damarise was first out of us three - she was happy because it was not La Paz - she is heading North. Damarise had been under the impression that because she had worked in La Paz during FBT, she might end up there for her site because while working there, she found out La Paz was going to be one of our sites. The potential work opportunities and counterparts in La Paz were just not what she wanted, so when her name was called for somewhere else, you could see the relief in her eyes - or I could anyway. Next was Laura - she is heading South, which is what she wanted! La Paz was coming up soon, and I had decided I also did not want to end up there. I liked visiting La Paz during FBT, but I didn’t want it to be my home for the next two years. When they called someone else’s name for that location, I was also very relieved. When Helmuth was going through all the sites on his Power Point before starting to announce them, I was attracted to a particular one - and to my surprise, when he got to that site on our floor map, he called my name. It was meant to be! He had a picture of a beautiful flower on his slide show, and then a shot of the whole town. It is small but cute looking, and I can see myself there. I am excited to arrive and see it in person.

I am not supposed to say where I am going to be located on my blog, or where other people are or are going to be. What I can tell you is that I will be in the West, in the Department of Lempira and in between two larger towns - which is just what I wanted/needed, so I can have access to grocery stores and markets.

I have two counterparts. One is a CESAMO (large centro de salud) that wants to work on prevention of HIV and infant/maternal mortality, as well as family planning - three things that I have been very interested in. However in my municipality there are: 3 Centro de Saluds, 1 CESAMO, and 2 CESARs (a little smaller than a CESAMO), so I think if I want to, I can probably arrange projects with some of the other ones too - depending on how far away they are from my site and how easily accessible they are.

My other counterpart is a high school - in my packet, it sounds like my counterpart wants me to work with the students on trainings about: leadership, relationships, values, self esteem, professional edict, motivation, pregnancy prevention, and he would like youth groups formed. I can definitely work on the pregnancy prevention information, and in our initiative for the younger kids there are a lot of activities involving self esteem, values and relationships, so I could involve those two.

Just now, reading through my information again, I realized that my host mother is also going to be one of my counterparts - that could be awesome or interesting. I really hope it ends up being more on the awesome side - I don’t want there to end up being any awkwardness. Sometimes you just want to leave work and be able to leave work, but if I’m living with the woman that I work with, that may present a little bit of a problem. But, we will see how it goes.

One thing I asked for in my last technical interview was to be in a slightly larger site with small aldeas around me, so I could keep busy. My site is not very big, which I think I will be ok with because I am in between two large cities, and when reading my packet, I realized that a lot of small aldeas are located all around me. The population of my site with the surrounding 10 villages and 33 settlements is almost 10,000. So even though it is a small site, it still seems as though there will be plenty of working opportunities. From my packet I have read: I will be able to purchase how ever much potable water I might want; there is a sewage system and 110vt electricity; all three of the cell phone carriers receive good coverage; there is an internet café next to the centro de salud; there is a mail service of some sort; my Honduran bank is also located in the community; and there are a couple restaurants. However, there is no library and there are no grocery stores, only pulparies (corner shops with the basics). However, I am close enough to a couple big cities that getting my kind of groceries should not be a problem.

As a health volunteer in the Peace Corps, I am called upon to improve the health of women and children and to provide HIV/AIDS education to the youth, people living with HIV/AIDS, women, and men. The core methodology of the Peace Corps is a Training of Trainers, which builds sustainability. So while helping my community, I will also be teaching, training, and motivating my colleagues! When working with women’s groups, which is something I really would like to do, I will be educating pregnant women in topics related to nutrition, health care, breast feeding, risky pregnancies, and other important topics - I will also hopefully be teaching healthy-cooking classes. During these women’s groups, I will need to be identifying potential leaders, too, so that I am not always the facilitator of the group - again, sustainability is the key.