Written December 31st
As it is New Years Eve, I am currently thinking over this past year - 2011. It was a good year. This time last year, I was in Seattle celebrating the 24th birthday of one of my best friends (Happy Birthday Jess!), and waiting to be shipped off to Honduras, where I currently am. It was a great day, Jessica’s best friend Danielle made mini cupcakes - they were Guinness cupcakes with a Bialys Irish Cream frosting! I don’t like the flavor of alcohol, but those cupcakes were delicious! The three of us drove up to Seattle (we were at Jessica’s parent’s house) to get ready for an evening on the town. Seattle - being the home of the Space Needle, has the annual fireworks show there. I had never been before, so I was excited to see it. However, as it was December 31st, it was freezing out, especially waiting around that late at night. Jess, Dani, and I joined the mob of people around the TV cameras around 11pm - hot chocolate in hand. We, like everyone else, were trying to get the TV host’s attention, so we could get on TV. When he went around asking for plans for the new year, I told him I was joining the Peace Corps, which got me five seconds of fame on the Seattle news! After the fireworks show, we stuck around the TV crew to try and get a hug from the host - which we did - then we made our way back to the car and to Jessica’s aunt's house. Instead of heading to bed, we went downstairs and watched two episodes of Jersey Shores, and the called it a night. I had never seen Jersey Shores before, but that was how I welcomed the year 2011! Who would have guessed that show would play a semi-larger role in the year to come! (Explanation later).
The next two months I spent at my best friend’s house outside of Seattle practicing my Spanish and reading some of books Peace Corps recommended. Then, February 23rd I left for Peace Corps staging in Atlanta - taking my life down a whole new path! In Atlanta, I met 52 other people just like me, anxiously awaiting our departure to Honduras. We spent three months together in training - all equally appreciating what we were learning, but hating a good portion of it at the same time. Nobody likes to be treated like they are in kindergarten - being told when to eat, when to sleep, what you can and can’t do, especially when we are all college graduates that had made the choice to volunteer our time in another country.
But, as tough as it was, we all made it through training - without loosing a single trainee. May 14th, we were all shuttled to the American Embassy to become real Peace Corps Volunteers. None of us would have guessed at that time that we wouldn’t even make it a year. Of course people talked every now and then of the possibility of Honduras getting shut down and what you would do in that case, but it was never something I expected to really happen - at least I truly hoped not. But, as the news kept telling us that Honduras is the most dangerous country in the world - with the highest murder rate, and an insane amount of cocaine traffic - I guess our fate was inevitable.
I still remember May 15th perfectly - waking up at 4am to finish getting all my stuff together, and to meet the bus Peace Corps had organized for everyone who had long trips ahead of them. I lucked out and did not have to haul around my two huge bags because a volunteer that was going to be living close to me got a ride to his site, and his counterparts graciously hauled my luggage to my site for me! Took a load of my mind and back! I got off the Peace Corps bus in Tegucigalpa, where I met up with my counterpart/host mom - Sonia. She had a cab already, and hurried me along to get in it. I made my last goodbyes to the volunteers that were on the bus with me, and hopped in the cab. Sonia is a straight shooter - she tells it like it is, and does things efficiently. She knew we had a bus to catch, and was hell bent on getting there on time, which we did. I was not the only volunteer to end up on that bus, there were four others. I would have liked to sit with them, talk in English about how nervous we were, and just relax, but I had to sit with Sonia. At that point, my Spanish was adequate at best, mostly due to my lack of self confidence - I thought too much about what I wanted/needed to say and if I was going to say it right. After arriving in site, I quickly learned that the best thing for me to do was just to talk, talk, talk in Spanish and not worry if I messed up.
Sonia and I didn’t talk a lot on the bus, I had my book, and I pretty much kept my nose in it. She knew that I was nervous, and that my Spanish was not that great, so she didn’t try to force any conversations either. We talked every once in a while about something we were passing or about other volunteers that had been in my site in the past, but that was about it.
We arrived to my site at about 2pm - and my luggage had made it there an hour or so before us. Sonia showed me around the house, and showed me to my room where she left me to unpack. She brought me some fruit after a little bit, but then I just went to sleep. I was exhausted after hardly no sleep the night before, followed by a day of traveling and stressing about whether I would like my new home or not. It takes a lot out of you. I got up for dinner, and met Sonia’s husband and son, then went back to bed. The next day began my true service with Peace Corps Honduras. I can’t believe that it has been almost 8 months since that day (which was my sister’s 27th birthday). It has all gone by so fast - the whole year has basically been a world-wind!
In my opinion, 2011 was one of my favorite years yet. I joined the Peace Corps and spent the past 10 months in Honduras - a country I have come to love, and to be quite honest don’t want to leave. I will never forget the lunchtime talks or after-class getaways during training - Nina, Amanda, and Ashley talking about Jersey Shore; Geoff and Alex making fun of them, but in my opinion secretly wanting to go to Valle de Angles and watch the latest episodes with the girls; Slater, Kelvin, Alden, and Roy always looking for more food because they are growing boys that need more than a typical Honduran lunch to satisfy their metabolisms; Vlad, Cruz and Erin always getting the soccer games going; Che, Andrea, Tom, Dan, Slater, Melissa, and I making our bi or tri weekly trips to Santa Lucia; Lacy always off on her own knitting, or fighting with Slater and Cruz; Ryan always sharing his passion for music and Norway; Kristin and her usually accurate guesses about who was going to hook up with whom; Kelvin and Ryan busting out the Thong song at Karaoke; Julia and her amazing rapping skills; Ashley and I singing Little Mermaid sons outside the immigration office in Tegus; Eric, Roman, Alden and Jacob always bringing out the hacky sack; Damarise and Craig being adorable with their marriage bracelets; Brian always rockin’ his straw Fedora; Brett, Tiffany, Vlad, and Nina busting out the playing cards; Brayton always finding time to get a little reading in; Tricia and Leticia always so adorable and chilly when a good portion of the rest of us were sweating - I have so many memories or our times together; I just wish that we could have more. Having to leave Honduras a year and a half early is not something any of us wanted, but we are all figuring out how to deal with it in our own ways.
Over this past year, I made some friends that I truly hope will be life-long. It will be hard staying in contact as all of us volunteers are from all around the US, and as easy as it is to say you will stay in contact with friends in site, I know that once we all get back to the States, it will slowly get harder and harder to keep in contact with our friends we leave behind in Honduras. But, on the bright side, now we have Facebook - which makes keeping in contact with people all around the globe a much easier task. Us H-18 Volunteers will be together one last time during our conference in Tegucigalpa, then we are all being shipped back “home” on January 16th - a month and a week short of one year in Honduras.
During this conference, we all have some heavy decisions to make. Do we stay on “Administrative Hold” in hopes that Honduras will open back up and we can return to our original sites? Do we take “Interrupted Service” and apply to another country? Do we take “Interrupted Service” and deiced not to continue our service with Peace Corps? I know that a lot of volunteers have already made up their minds - some already having gone home, but then there is me (and I‘m sure others are in the same boat) - I just can’t decide what to do. Do I hold out - hoping that I will be able to return to my site at some point, albeit two or three months from now? Do I take interrupted service and move on with my life? Do I want to start all over in another country? I guess this is what the conference is going to be about though - an opportunity for us to really hear all of our options and make an informed decision about our future with Peace Corps.
So, now I have 10 days left in my site, then I’m off to Tegus to be put up in a nice hotel that I will not be allowed to leave. I know Peace Corps has to take their security precautions, but putting 150 volunteers in a hotel and then telling them they are not allowed to leave it - I’m guessing there may be some trouble ahead - but vamos a ver (we’ll see).
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