Wild Wild West

All the talk about the welcome party was good. It made me want to go, though not for the reasons a lot of other volunteers were going. I had heard that welcome parties here in Honduras are a time for all the old volunteers to see the new “relationship” prospects, as well as a time for all the new volunteers to see who is out there in their zone who they know will be “clean” and won’t be trying to marry you for a trip to the States. I wanted to go to the party simply to get to know the rest of the volunteers in my zone. I wanted the pleasure of being in the company of a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers - to hear their stories and how their service has been for them thus far. With so many volunteers in one location there would have to be an uncountable number of untold stories - comedic and horror - right?

Pre-Party:

Only living forty minutes away from the location of the party, and it being the town I go to every Saturday to do my weekly shopping, I arrived bright and early Saturday morning. I tried to get my errands done, but was unsuccessful because apparently even though the bank is open on Saturday, they can’t actually do anything. But, that is besides the point. I met up with some other volunteers at the locally owned restaurant: Weekend’s Pizza. It is run by two woman who are half Honduran and half American. Their Mother (or was it father?) was a Peace Corps volunteer back in the day and married a Honduran, so they grew up in Honduras, but they know English and love to have the Peace Corps volunteers at their establishment! I stayed at the restaurant for four hours, visiting with all the volunteers who came and went. I ended up leaving with some friends from my training class (H-18) to find the finishing touches for our costumes for the party.

The awesome H-14 volunteer who planned this event themed it - Wild West! So, we all needed to encontrar (to find) costumes. I wanted to buy a big belt buckle and a cowboy hat to top off my jeans and plaid shirt, but alas, I was too cheap. I didn’t want to spend 300 Lempira on a hat that I was only going to wear once. Ok - to be fair, 300 lemps is only about $17, but I have to start thinking in terms of Lempira. With my limited Peace Corps budget, spending 300 lemps on a hat is six days worth of pay - and that is just too much. I don’t think someone in the states would take the $600 or more that they make in six days and buy a hat for a one-time event, so try not to picture me as, too cheap! I would rather try and penny pinch and save some of my money for different adventures here in Honduras, but at my current spending rate, I am really not saving anything. I think it is the excitement of being here in a new country and having so many things to see and buy. Hopefully after a few months my spending habits will fade a little bit.

After asking for directions many times and looking in a lot of stores, finally everyone was happy with their purchases and ready for an evening of cowboy fun, so we went back to the hotel that all of us Peace Corps volunteers were pitching in to rent. We were not just renting a few rooms, no we did it in style - the volunteer who organized this event, rented the whole hotel! It worked out to only being about 200 lempira ($12) a piece for our own bed for the night, and a place to party freely with no worries of any danger or being robbed or mugged - but that is a story for later!

Background:

Let me explain how the Peace Corps here in Honduras works a little bit before I get into the party too much. Everything is changing right now with budget cuts and alterations to the structure of Peace Corps Honduras, but when I arrived, this is how it was. Ever years, two training classes come to Honduras. In February Health, Business and Water and Sanitation; then in September (? I‘m pretty sure) Protected Areas Management (PAM), Municipal Development (MUD)t, and Youth Development. So, the first group (Health, Biz, and Wat-san) are the even numbers and the other groups are the odd numbers. I have no idea why we are only on number 18 when Peace Corps Honduras is going to be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, but that is just how it is.

So, at this party were: H-14, 15, 16, 17 and us newbees the H-18ers. The few H-14ers there had either all ready COS-ed (Close of Service) or were about to, meaning they are done with their two-year term, and the H-15ers have about 4 months left till they are out of here. Now that I think of it, there were really not that many other health volunteers at this party - only three that I know of for sure! But, a lot of people started showing up later into the festivities that I was never introduced to, so who knows who was actually there. I know there were a whole lot of the PAMers, though!

The Party:

So, out of everyone that ended up going to that party, I think I can probably tell you the name and project of only a handful of them, which is pathetic! There was: Katie:health, Terrin: health, Mat: Health, Stephen: MUD, Stephan: Business, Xia (spelling): Wat-San, Carrie: Business, Lisa: Youth Development, and Camila: PAM - Better than I thought - I got nine. Ok, then there was also: Kenen, Dametri, (and I really can’t spell) Brock and his wife, Cayla, Meredith, Jenna, and Greg, but like I said, I can’t tell you which project they are from. On top of these people, a lot more were at the party, because I only named 15 just now - down right pathetic - but I was either not introduced or simply can’t remember the names of the others, which is unfortunate.

Even though I was hoping to hear a lot of different stories from the other volunteers, I really didn’t get to hear any. Carrie told a great story about taking the bus that same day - she was petted heavily: and I mean petted literally. A guy actually pet her head/face! She is a girl that I am going to like. Her personality and the way she tells stories = awesome! I look forward to hearing more of her stories. Even though I didn’t get to hear much about Peace Corps during this party - it was still awesome. Dametri and Stephan made dinner, which was a great change to our normal Honduran food of beans, tortillas and egg. The guys made bbq chicken, salad, grilled veggies, and someone brought brown rice and a bean salad - it was delicious! Then began -well, in reality, it had already begun - the drinking and dancing. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to dance. But, for some reason, I was not feeling the dance music, so it actually took me until almost midnight before I began to bust a move. Amanda and I really wanted to Bachata (an awesome Latin American dance), but the DJ wouldn’t play that type of music, so me being stubborn and sober, I just didn’t dance until they played a Bachata song! Finally they played one - and only one- and Amanda and I enjoyed the heck out of it. At about midnight everyone migrated to a club to get their grove on. It took me a while to decide if I actually wanted to go or not because I was pretty tiered, but come on - who are we talking about. Of course I went to go dancing. I only stayed for about 30-45 minutes before I was about dead and made my way back to the hotel with some other folks that decided to call it a night, too.

I got back to my room - showered, read for a little while and fell asleep probably by about 3 a.m. I got out of bed about 8:15 and decided to go start the clean up. I was the only one up and out of their room at this time, and I didn’t expect to see anyone for quite a while because the amount of alcohol that was consumed was pretty insane, but Stephan actually came up and helped me clean after about 20 minutes. The manager of the hotel helped too, so it didn’t take too much time to finish with the three of us.

Everyone was pretty slow moving when they finally did get up, and I was surprised that most people were up before 9 a.m. I also realized that some people had even left before I got up because they had early buses to catch back to their sites. I would not want to ride a bus for 2+ hours hung-over, that is for sure.

One of the other H-18ers and I were talking during the party. Looking around there were so many people that we didn’t know, and we felt weird about going up to people and introducing ourselves - we didn’t really know how to explain it, but we felt like we were being judged. The other H-18er had a good analogy. She said it was like rushing your freshman year of college. You go into a sorority and everyone is watching you and judging you trying to decided if you are worthy of jointing them. Last night sort of had that vibe about it - not that I ever rushed a sorority in college, but I’ve seen enough chick flicks.

I’m looking forward to more Peace Corps parties to get to know everyone else who has made this life-altering decision to come volunteer in a foreign country and to just have an opportunity to hang out with some gringos - as horrible as that may sound. But, I know that during these two years there are going to be times that I really just need to hang out with other Americans or other people that speak English. I heard it from our trainers and I heard it from other volunteers that there will be times where you really just need to have a venting session and will need a break from your site and Spanish!

Most interesting thing seen during the Wild West party:

One of the H-14ers and an English bloke doing some sort of fancy partner yoga.

At about 11 p.m. I was chatting with some other H-18ers. I had my back to the action going on behind me, but when I saw the looks of curiosity on my friends faces, I turned around to investigate what they were witnessing. The English bloke was laying on his back with his legs up holding up the thighs of the H-14er, who had her legs out in an upside down split with her head basically resting on the bloke’s crotch. I guess trying to explain to you this crazy scene is harder than I though, but you can get the idea - “crazy two-person drunk yoga,” gotta love it!

The Robbery:

One of the H-16ers decided to sleep at the Weekend’s Pizza gals’s house because a bunch of water had been spilled on her bed at the hotel. So, when her and one of the Weekend’s gals decided to stop dancing and call it a night, they left the club and were walking to their truck. On the way, two boys (described as 16-year-old-looking) held them up with knives and told them to give them all their money and their phones. The Weekend’s gal gave the kids her phone and 100 lempira, and H-16er gave them her personal phone and told them that was all she had. Thankfully the kids did not seem to be incredibly experienced or were just in a hurry, but they didn’t press the matter. The H-16er actually had 1,500 lemps on her and her other phone because she is one of the e-zone coordinators for this zone (if there is an emergency, she is responsible for telling everyone in her emergency zone). This incident took place at about 3 a.m., and it was the first thing I heard about when people started waking up after their night of partying. Neither of the girls seemed to be too distraught by the incident. The other Weekend’s gal - the sister - was more concerned about what had taken place than either the other two were.

So, moral behind this story - it is probably not a good idea for two women to walk around alone at 3 a.m. no matter how close your car is or how safe you think it is in that neck of the woods. As much as an independent woman as I am, I am slowly starting to realize that there are times that I really do have to “depend” on a man: to walk me home, to walk me to my bus, basically to escort me anywhere when I don’t know the area or if it is dark. It has taken me a while to get a grasp on this concept, but it is one that I’m going to have to get better at if I don’t want to get mugged or harassed!