Written October 5th
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Harold R. McAlindon
To be quite honest, I have no idea who Harold R. McAlindon is, but I really like this quote! It sums up my thoughts exactly. As one of the young people of today, I feel like it has been drilled into our heads pretty hard that we need to be ourselves, not conform, and stray away from the pack. And, I think we have done a pretty good job at accomplishing that. The last few years, Peace Corps, America Corps, Teach For America, and all the other volunteer organizations that are available, have seen huge influxes in applications. This of course has a bit to do with the countries economic problems, but I would also like to assume it is reflecting the sentiments (pensamientos) of my generation.
Yes, I know that trail has already been broken, but it is not fully formed - so following it is a bit more challenging than most of the other routes that people tend to follow: marketing, business and alike - making the big bucks!
Today I have been given the perfect opportunity to reflect on my life. Have I taken the road less traveled?
I have been out of the United States for more than seven months. I got off the plane a couple hours ago at the Miami airport after living in Honduras for the past seven months as a member of the Peace Corps. I have only been a volunteer for the past four and a half months, but was in training before that. So right now, as I am travel back to Alaska for a quick trip to see my sister get married, I am faced with reality. Now that I am not in Honduras, living my life day by day because that is the only thing I can do, I am forced to look back and reflect.
Miami was a good airport to fly into - I found myself speaking Spanish every now and then just out of pure habit, but it was ok because in Miami chances are whoever you are speaking to can speak Spanish, too. I know this week is going to be a whirlwind for me, and I am going to arrive back in Honduras not knowing what hit me and not knowing how to get back into my grove, but I will overcome it! And what I have realized today is that I am excited to go back!
Having been in Honduras for seven months now, I have seen plenty that is very hard for to see - very hard for me to accept, most of which I have talked about at some point. Seeing infants and toddlers being given coffee, cookies, candy and chips is hard to watch because then you see all the young kids a little bit older with their teeth rotting out and signs of malnutrition. I see women being treated like men’s property every day. I see garbage covering every inch of the ground and people just tossing their trash out of bus windows like the ground is one big trashcan. I see men wasting away of alcoholism, and the effects it has on their wives and children. I see the infidelity of basically every man in Honduras, and in many case women too. Then I also see how this then effects the young children who are now getting pregnant and getting people pregnant - as well as the boys who are 11 years old and up who holler at me when I walk by like construction workers on lunch break.
But, having all this in my face all day every day, I still am able to keep my chin up. There was always that possibility of when I got back to the states I would not want to go back to Honduras, but that is not the case for me. I know I have only been in airports all days, but I am eager to go back and continue my work. I know I am not going to have that big of an impact on the lives of people in Honduras, but I will at least be able to have somewhat of an impact on the people in my site.
Having been in Honduras for the last seven months, I have met a lot of Peace Corps volunteers, but I have also met a lot of other people who chose to travel to another country to help in what ever form they can. These are mostly JIKA volunteers (the Japanese form of Peace Corps) and missionaries, and then people just coming as part of a small church group project - I don’t know if that is technically classified as missionaries as well, but I separate them in my mind.
I had the honor of meeting a couple from Minnesota last week. They came to my site to visit on their way to a meeting in Copan. They come to Honduras every year to fit people for prescription eye glasses. I’m pretty sure that they told me they do it with their church, but I could be mistaken. They will be returning in February to fit people for eye glasses again and are going to need translators. Amanda and I told them we would be more than happy to help out. But, it was great to meet them and see the impacts they had had on people’s lives. The women, Kay, she pointed out a couple people that were still wearing the glasses they had fitted them for the year before who were very happy with them. Then Hector, I shouldn’t have favorites, but he is my favorite kid in town, he came over to say hi, and Kay asked me to ask him if he remembered them from the previous year. And he did - it was adorable. He held his hands up to his eyes and made eye glasses. He was 10 years old when they came last year, but Hector will remember them his whole life, as will the people who can now see because of them.
I did, of course, also meet some people who were not happy with the crew that came to fit people for glasses. One thing about Hondurans is that they will never pass up an opportunity for free things - no matter what it is. The only reason anyone ever goes to meetings is because there is always a merienda (snack). So, last year when the eye-team was in my site fitting people for glasses, apparently a line wond its way down the street everyday the team was there. But, of course, not everyone needs glasses, so some of the people who were tested and told they didn’t need glasses, were not very happy. They wanted their“free gift” from the Untied States, and the sun glasses being passed out were not adequate for some of the people who went in for fittings.
But, you can’t please everyone. That is something all volunteers have to make themselves realize very quickly as we are not only around for a couple weeks - we are in site for two years! So, if you go in thinking you can please everyone, you will be very disappointed and your two year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer will be very trying. Someone is always going to think that what are you are doing could be done better, or possibly shouldn’t be done. Family planning and teen pregnancy prevention are two things that cause a lot of controversy! There are always people that don’t think kids should learn about condoms, and there are always people that don’t think women should use family planning methods. If it were up to those people, kids would start having babies at age 14 and just keep popping them out until they physically couldn’t anymore.
I’m excited now, though. I have been flying and sitting in airports all day, but all I can think about is what I am going to start doing once I get back “home!” I want to start a women’s group and a youth group, I want to start giving exercising classes, I want to work with the group of pregnant women, and I want to make more of an effort to go to all the nearby aldeas (small villages) on the days that babies get weighed so I can give nutrition charlas to all the mothers!
People in my site all talk about the past Peace Corps volunteers who have been there and the great things they did. So, I hope that after my two years in site that they will all talk about me in the same, proud way. I want them to see the differences that I will hopefully make, and then be able to continue on with the projects that I started - teaching teen pregnancy prevention, informing women about family planning options, teaching everyone about proper nutrition, and teaching women that they are not meant to be a man’s “property.” I will be happy if even one of those things sticks with the people after I leave in two years!
So, for now, I am headed to Alaska, and am so excited to see my family, and at this point I feel like next week when I get back to Honduras I am going to be revitalized and ready to jump in head first and make things happen!
