The Six-Month Mark!

Written September 1st

So, I have been in Honduras for more than six months, and I have been a health volunteer for Peace Corps for three and a half months. It is amazing how fast this time has gone by. So, what have I accomplished in six months - what have I experienced - what have I learned - what crazy things have I seen. These are all very good questions that I have been asked, and am going to attempt to shed a little bit of light on those topics right now. Because I have touched on some of this in previous posts, I will do my best to mix it up a bit.

Work, Work, Work

To start with the work aspect of my being in Honduras, I feel like I have been able to complete the goals I set out for myself before arriving in site. I have gotten to know the people of my community, I have visited the aldeas (small villages) around my town, I have given a few charlas that I feel people enjoyed: diarrhea, cancer prevention, and infant nutrition. I, of course, want to give a lot more charlas, but it has been a process for me to get to the point where I feel comfortable standing in front of a bunch of Honduran women, speaking in Spanish. I also started the abstinence program that the health project here in Honduras has. I meet with the female 5th and 6th graders every Thursday and with the males on Fridays. I have been doing it for about two months now, and I am about half way through the program. I am definitely getting through to the girls. They always have great questions and are genuinely interested in what I am teaching them. The boys are another story. I have to work very heard to keep their attention, and I feel like they really are not learning much. I know there are a handful of them that pay attention, or try to when the rest of the class is being very disruptive, so at least I am getting through to a couple of them. Hopefully those boys will be four less that will end up impregnating a teenage girl!

I also started the same abstinence project at the high school. This has been a very different experience than with my 5th and 6th graders. How we arranged it was to have 10 female “leaders” and 10 male “leaders” from each course at the high school (there are 3). So in an ideal world, I would have 30 girls and 30 boys to teach about abstinence, self esteem, HIV prevention, ect. Then, the 10 from each course could then help me teach the rest of the students. Like I said, this is in an ideal situation. We have been trying for about three weeks - today will be week four! The first week, there was confusion and only the students from segundo curso showed up. The second week, I was in training in Siguat, so I couldn’t be there. Then, last week there was an event at the grade school, so only five students showed up for my training. I ended up letting them leave because there was no reason for me to give them their pre-test when I would just have to give it again when all the students were there.

So, today, I am meeting with the director of the high school, and we are going to chat about the situation. He said he is going to have a meeting with the students that are supposed to be attending my training, to inform them that it is mandatory! So, hopefully this will get the ball rolling.

That is about it for my work, work. I have also joined the AIN-C coordinator a few times to help weigh children under the age of 2, in the aldeas around my site. AIN-C is an organization that monitors baby weights to make sure that they are not malnourished. I love going to weigh the babies! I haven’t gone in more than a month because the coordinator that I would usually go with has been studying for exams to become a lawyer! I should be able to go this month, though! I am hoping to be able to give some nutrition charlas while the babies are being weighed. Nutrition is one of the things I think is most important. When I see babies being given coffee, chips, candy, or cookies, I just cringe! And they are given these things instead of fruit or something that actually has a nutritious value. Babies can’t grow and be healthy if all they are eating is chips, cookies and tortillas! This is definitely the topic I am most passionate about, so I need to overcome my fear of speaking in front of large groups of people in Spanish, and start teaching these women how to give proper nutrition to their babies!

ADVENTURES

I have definitely been enjoying my time here in Honduras. I have made some great friends (Hondurans and other Volunteers), and I love to spend my free time and weekends with them. Amanda, another volunteer, has become one of my favorite people here in Honduras. Together, we have been having adventures, and are planning much more for our two years in Honduras! We’ve been to the hot springs in Gracias - for my birthday - as well as the hot springs at the river, and the ones in my site. We have given cute ayudantes (bus attendants) our phone numbers, we’ve danced the nights away in Santa Rosa, we’ve jumped in the river in the middle of the night, we rode a rickety, Honduran Farris wheel, we’ve sat in the park stalking families with their cute babies (baby fever), we’ve gone to small-town fiestas where everyone just stares at the gringas. We have done so much more, but what I’m looking forward is to what we will do next and during the next two years of our life here in Honduas.

Amanda and I on the Ferris Wheel in Santa Rosa

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

The first thing that pops into my head for a learning experience, is that large groups of gringos need to be careful when walking the streets of Santa Rosa late at night - you just never know when the police will decide to put you in jail for no reason. Thankfully I was not part of the group that was incarcerated, but I don’t ever want to end up in Honduran jail, so I will definitely be cautious from now on when I’m in Santa Rosa at night.

I have learned that I need to not ever be embarrassed or too shy to just do something. Whether it is giving a charla, trying a new type of food, trying a new activity (like soccer) - what ever it is, I just need to try it out. Maybe I won’t end up liking it, but maybe I will love it - there is only one way to know for sure.

I have also learned that my trainers were quite right when they said that Hondurans run on their own time. When something is supposed to start at 9:30 am, I would not be surprised if it doesn’t start until after 11am.

On that same note, I have come to terms with the fact that if there is something scheduled, a meeting, a soccer practice, what ever, it is not uncommon for nobody to show up!

I have learned to take most of the advice that I am given from Hondurans with a grain for salt. When I’m told that I shouldn’t drink a lot of water because it will make me gain weight - I just brush it off. It is something they have been thinking their whole life - me telling them they are wrong is not going to change their mind.

Also, I have come to terms with the fact that Hondurans are VERY blunt. They call you by your most prominent feature - if you are bald they will call you baldy, if you are fat, they will call you fatty, if you are white they will call you gringa! So, I am either called gordita or gringa! So, after six months, I’m pretty much used to it. But, when it is someone I have never met and they come up to me, squeeze my arm and say “que gordita,” it is a little hard to restrain myself from wanting to punch that person in the face.

I have also learned that Hondurans have no sense of personal space. They will come to your house and then just sit there. It is very awkward, or I think so anyway. I feel like I need to force conversation because nobody is saying anything. Also, personal space in the sense of my personal bubble. When people meet me and squeeze my arm, that is an invasion of my personal space, but they don’t realize that. And, when you are on a bus that crams on about 50 people more than the maximum capacity, you get parts of people resting on you that you try really hard to ignore!!

CRAZY THINGS I HAVE SEEN

I guess the craziest thing I have seen is when mothers are feeding their infants coffee! You would never see that in the states, and no matter how many times I see it here, it will never be ok.

I actually saw a chicken on one of the chicken buses this week! That was exciting. I thought it was dead at first because the women carried it on by the legs and it looked very limp. But then 10 minutes later I looked over at her and the chicken was sitting on her lap with its eyes open!

A giant spider in the middle of the road was a little hard to handle, but at least it wasn’t in my house.

Yesterday, when I was running, I saw a dog get hit by a car! That is something that can happen in the states, too, but here, nobody thinks twice about it. The driver just kept on going and the rest of the cars that drive by just drive right over it. In the states the driver, hopefully, would have pulled over and called animal patrol.

Something I see everyday is little kids with all their teeth rotting out of their mouth because of all the sugar they eat, and they never brush their teeth. That is just sad to see!

Pigs, roosters, cows, horses, and ducks just roaming the streets looking for food.

Thankfully I have not seen anyone be killed or any dead people!


Today, I have 33 days until I leave for the United States for my sister’s wedding. It is going to be so weird to go back to the states, especially for such a short amount of time. I’m going to go, and then turn around and come right back - it will feel like some weird dream. The culture shock is going to be a little extreme, but hopefully it won’t mess me up to much to the point where I basically have to start all over again when I get back to Honduras!