What else is there left for them to take?

Today we got a bright and cheery e-mail from our Country Director. That was complete sarcasm. In the e-mail we were strictly told that we will not be able to go to Copan Ruinas for Halloween, and if we do we will be administratively separated from the Peace Corps. We were also informed that we are no longer allowed to have goodbye or welcome parties for volunteers that are COSing or just arriving in sites. This is due to the fact that apparently us volunteers in Honduras have been repeatedly dismissing the safety/security warnings about excessive alcohol consumption and late-night hours.

This news has bummed out, I'm pretty sure, every single volunteer in Honduras! Ya, i don't drink, but I am still a huge fan of meeting up with all the other volunteers in my area when the opportunity presents itself, and I was very excited to go to Copan Ruinas for Halloween! I will still make it over there eventually, but not for Halloween, I guess.

This has come as a surprise to most of the volunteers I have talked to about this since I read the e-mail about an hour ago. We all know and understand the Peace Corps Honduras is one of the high-risk countries, and so we all try to make the best of it. We stay in our sites and work, and then every so often are able to get together with other gringo/english speakers to take a break from our harsh realities for a moment. But, now PC has taken that away from us. Yes, we can still meet a few people here and there, but the fact that they are choosing to run our lives like this, makes things very frustrating.

I understand that there is a fine line between safe and out of control. When you have 45 gringos running around the streets of a city, probably a little out of control, but the fact of the matter is, i don't think any Hondurans would have the guts to try and rob that many gringos at one time! And as for safety - we all see things happen everyday that are scary and make us realize we are not in "kansas" anymore. We are most likely going to be robbed on a bus at some point during our stay here in Honduras, and we will probably see a dead person, too...these things are going to happen whether we are in a big group of gringos or solo - so why take our one last chance at sanity?

It said in the e-mail from our Country Director that we can't act like we did in the United States and go out and get drunk and crazy, and that ignoring the warnings of the Peace Corps could land us thrown out of country!!! That is enough to make most of us listen to these new policies, but we will do so begrudgingly!

Bellow is the letter that our Country Director forwarded us from the regional safety and security officer.

TO: Volunteers in Honduras

FROM: Carlos J. Torres, Regional Director for the Inter-America & Pacific Region

DATE: September 13, 2011

RE: Safety and Security

The safety and security of Peace Corps Volunteers is the Peace Corps’ highest priority.

We devote significant resources to providing Volunteers with the training, support, and

information they need to stay healthy and safe. At your post and here at Headquarters,

we are diligent in monitoring data, trends and promising practices to promote safe service

experiences for our Volunteers around the world.

The security environment for Volunteer service varies greatly across our 70+ countries of

operations. Many countries in Latin America have unique crime environments, including

countries where the State Department classifies crime as “critical” and where the Peace

Corps observes a higher incidence of crimes against Volunteers. Many of these

countries, including yours, are fantastic for meaningful Volunteer service and achieving

the Peace Corps’ three goals. However, the security environment requires greater

diligence and effort on the part of Volunteers, post staff, and the team here at

Headquarters as we work in our shared responsibility to promote Volunteer safety and

security. As a veteran of living and working in Latin America for over 30 years, I am

personally aware of this reality and I am fully committed to doing everything possible to

work with your Country Director to promote a safe, productive Volunteer experience.

Through this commitment and based on analysis of trends and practices in Latin America

and across the Peace Corps globe, I am asking you, your Country Director and your

Peace Corps post to adopt a series of reforms and policy changes. These reforms and

policy changes are aimed entirely at impacting the safety and security of Volunteers in a

positive way.

Specifically, I am asking for the following:

• Implementation of a 2-year host family stay program for new Volunteers;

• Time spent Out of Community for personal reasons (Personal Leave) cannot

exceed 3 overnights per month;

• Prohibition of large overnight gatherings of Volunteers, such as “despedidas” and

Halloween, due to security risks resulting from alcohol consumption and late-night

hours, unless pre-approved by the Country Director;

• We strengthen additional safety and security related policies of Volunteer

Handbooks, such as enforcement of Whereabouts and Travel policies;

• We strengthen the analysis of statistics, monitoring of data and mapping to assist

posts to monitor crime environments;

• We reduce the numbers of Volunteers which will enable us to enhance Volunteer

support;

• Further strengthen site identification and preparation; and,

• Increase the number of field /site visits provided by the Peace Corps to our

Volunteers in their host communities during service, particularly in the first six

months of service.

Through this memorandum I am asking that you work together with the staff and

leadership at your post to ensure successful implementation of these reforms and policy

changes. I realize some may not come easily, involve a change in the way we have done

business in the past, and require flexibility and adaptability on all of our parts.

I fully recognize there is no single answer which will provide a solution to the crime

environment in many Peace Corps countries around the world. However I do believe that

working together, as Volunteers, post staff, and Headquarters, we can and should take all

necessary actions that will mitigate risk for current and future Volunteers. That is the

sole intention of the reforms and policy changes that we are implementing in Honduras.

Thank you for your service.

And the Reality Hits...

Amanda and I have been hanging out a lot lately. We go dancing at different fiestas, go to Santa Rosa to hang out in a bigger city - we have been having a good time. Sometimes, it is almost like we are not even living in a third-world country. Yes, our sites are small and you can see the poverty and we are working with counterparts to try and educate the population about HIV/AIDS and nutrition for kids/babies, but they way technology is readily available and how people dress in Hollister and Abercrombie, we realized it is very easy to forget where we are. We are not forgetting our goals, and why we are here - it is just a matter of keeping our guard up. It is sad that the two years that we are going to be living here, we will need to have our guards up, but the fact of the matter is that we will. And, we had that realization on Saturday!

Yet another fiesta was going on in my site, and so of course Amanda and I went. Any reason to go dancing, and we are there. The fiesta went until about 1:30 a.m. and as everyone was leaving the community center that it was held in, a fight broke out. This is normal - any time there is a fiesta, people are drinking, and any time people are drinking, people are going to end up fighting. That is the same anywhere, whether you are in Honduras, Alaska, Florida… it is all the same. The difference, however, is that in Honduras, pretty much everyone walks around with a gun, and if not a gun, than a knife. This particular Saturday, it was a gun. The crazy part is that the people at the door of the community center were “patting people down” to make sure know weapons ended up inside, but apparently they were not doing a very good job because people still had their guns on them.

As this fight broke out in the street out front of the community center, a couple of our friends grabbed Amanda and I and pulled us farther down the street. Then as the fighters moved around yelling at each other, we sort of kept moving back. At this point, Amanda and I were fine - two guys yelling at each other with a hand full of other people trying to keep them from landing punches - we could handle that. The guys fighting kept getting a little closer, so the guys we were with pulled us behind a truck that was parked on the side of the road. Up until this point, everything was ok. The guys we were with were being protective and it didn’t seem like there was any real danger, but that was when reality set in. It was right then that one of the men fighting pulled out a gun and starting shooting it into the air - he was drunk, he didn’t want to actually hurt anyone, he just wanted to freak the other guy out. But, after his arm got tired and he lowered it a little, the shots were not going into the air anymore - at that moment, the tire that we were standing next to started losing air. I noticed, but Amanda didn’t. When the guys we were with noticed, they all started talking about it and I told Amanda to listen, when she heard the air leaking out of the tire, she got freaked out - we were both really freaked out, and one of our friends grabbed our hands and pulled us farther down the street away from all the commotion! However, one of our other friends just walked off in front of us - that was irritating. Then he came back to where we were and asked what was wrong. We tried to explain why we were so shaken and how him just walking off was not ok, but he didn’t get it. He didn’t understand he just said “oh that is just my crazy cousin - he is drunk - it was an accident.” We tried to explain how that didn’t make it ok - ya it was an accident, but we still had a bullet hit a tire that was literally less than two feet away from us!!!

People here in Honduras are just so used to it - people have guns and shoot them off when they are drunk. If someone were to be hit, that would just be an unfortunate accident. But, in the U.S., yes, people have guns and sometimes people get shot on accident, but whoever did the shooting would most likely end up in jail for the rest of their life, and the family of the person who was shot would grieve forever. Not here. If someone would have been shot that night, there is a good chance the body would still have been their in the morning, nobody would go after the person that did the shooting, and the family of the person who died would of course be sad, but it would just be another normal thing that happened that they would eventually forget about. People being killed is not a cause for alarm here - it is just a natural part of life that everyone seems to have come to terms with. This is what Amanda and I and the rest of the volunteers here have to come to terms with. We have to realize that we are not in “Kansas” anymore. It may seem safe most of the time, and we may feel like nothing will ever happen to us - but unless we keep our guards up, one day something will happen and who knows when, where, or what - but we have to be as prepared as possible.

During training last week the Country Director, Emily, told us that this is part of service where people start letting their guards down - we have been in Honduras for more than six months and we have been in site for more than four. We feel settled into our communities; it feels like home; we have friends and neighbors and a somewhat normal work schedule; we want to think that nothing could ever happen to us. But, like I just said - we need to keep our guards up, because something can always happen when you least expect it.

Jaloning Adventures

Written September 7 & 10

It is currently 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night and I am completely ready for bed. This has been my life for the last few days! Not sleeping Sunday night has really messed with my sleeping pattern and ability. Let me start from the beginning:

Friday, Amanda came to my site because it was the start of the Feria. Every town here in Honduras has a feria to celebrate a patron saint, and mine happens to be the month of September, which fits nicely with the celebration of Independence Day (Sept. 15) of all of Central America from Spain!! So, this is going to be a pretty happening month. Amanda came to visit to see what was going to happen for the start of my feria. We ended up dancing most of the night, of course, because we just can’t dance enough! Amanda is the one who taught me how to Bachata, which is my new favorite dance ever!! I’m still not much of a Merengue dancer, but I put in an honest effort, and when I have a good partner, it is really fun, too! However, we lost power in my site at about 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. Thankfully the people organizing the dance for the night had a generator, a fairly large generator, because to power all the strobe lights and colored lights bouncing around the dance floor along with all the electric/sound equipment, I think they needed a lot of juice. The dance floor was a just the lawn by the local restaurant in town, and it had rained recently, so there were some mushy spots, but the strobe lights and colored lights shinning all around us made it easy to forget how dirty you feet were getting.

Satruday, we still didn’t have electricity, and it stayed off all day. Amanda and I were basically dying because it was hot, and we couldn’t use my fan because there was no power. We ended up spending the morning lying on my kitchen floor because it is tile and was nice and cool. When the power is out, there is also no cell phone signal, but you can send a text from my back door sometimes. So, Amanda and I were lying on the floor in my kitchen with our cell phones aimed at the doorway trying to send text messages. At one point, a couple friends came over, and yes, we were still lying on the floor. They thought we were a little weird for it, but after describing why we were doing it, they seemed to understand. They were heading to the hot springs to cool off, which I just couldn’t understand. It was hot out, and we were sweating and the hot springs were about the last thing in the world we wanted to do. They said that it would cool you off, but we didn’t believe them! Saturday night, when the power came back on, Amanda and I ended up just watching a TV program on my computer and going to sleep at a more reasonable hour than Friday night, but still quite late.

Sunday, we ended up going to Santa Rosa, where I was able to actually get some work done on the Women’s Health Manual that I am working on. The bus ride back to my site was interesting. It was 6 p.m. on a Sunday, and we were two of about 12 people that were on the bus, which was quite unusual considering they usually pack so many people on the buses that you can’t move or breath. But, being so late on a Sunday, I guess they know there are not very many people heading back in my direction. A guy begging for money rode with us for a little while, until he realized none of us were going to give him anything, so then he hopped off. The rides back to site always seem to be so much longer than the ride to Santa Rosa. Going to Santa Rosa, it is always exciting - an adventure out of site. But going home, I always just want to be there already, so the bus ride always feels like it takes forever. This bus ride was even worse because it was so late and it was starting to get dark. As the sun was going down, and the fog and rain was settling in, it seemed very late, and it felt like we should have been home hours ago. The ride is really only about 45 minutes, but somehow it felt more like two hours.

We arrived back to my site and made it up to my house in one piece. The trek up to my house is never easy. Hiking up the 60+ steps right before my house is always a challenge, especially when you are overtired, have been traveling and just want to get home. We made our way up to my house, one step up at a time. It took us a little extra time, but we finally made it. Once we got there, we made macaroni and cheese, which was one of the most amazing things I had eaten in the six months I have been in Honduras. We were so worried we were going to lose power again and not be able to make it, but we lucked out. I probably should have bought a gas stovetop, but I didn’t want to have to deal with all of that - the extra hassle is not worth not being able to cook sometimes - in my opinion. It is crazy what you crave living down here, though. I never really ate mac and cheese in the states, but here, it always sound amazing. After dinner, Amanda played around with my music, putting some on her iPod, and I packed for our trip to Siguat! Reconnect was going to start on September 6th, but we needed to be in Siguat by the 5th at 6 p.m. We didn’t want to pay for a bus, so our plan was to jalon (hitch hike) our way there. Luckily, I remembered that my next-door neighbor actually works in La Esperanza, which is more than halfway to Comayagua, which is where we wanted to go for the day before training started! I talked to my neighbor about giving Amanda and I a ride, and he was fine with, but it turned out he was actually leaving at 4 a.m. in the morning, rather than 5, when he usually left. We didn’t want to pay for a bus, or deal with a lot of bus transfers, so we decided to just do it.

So, Amanda and I listened to music while I packed, and then a couple friends came over and we were all just listing to music and chilling at my house. We all stayed up really late, and by the time everyone left and it was just Amanda and I left at my house, we decided that trying to sleep was a bad idea because we were afraid that we wouldn’t wake up to our alarms and that we would miss our ride! I’m glad we decided to just stay up, because when my alarm was supposed to go off at 3:40 a.m., it didn’t. I looked, and I had actually set it for 3:40 p.m. Like zombies, we walked across the street to my neighbors house, and luckily only had to wait about five minutes before he was ready. We figured we would be waiting at least a half an hour if this guy ran on the usual Honduran time, but thankfully, he didn’t! We made it to Gracias in about a half an hour, but there we had to switch from my neighbors little pick up to the big work truck. We got to ride up front and there was a lot of space, so we just slept off and on the whole way to La Esperanza. The truck must have been made somewhere in Europe because the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car. I am usually ok with that, but Hondurans are some crazy drivers, so it made me a little nervous. We obviously arrived just fine, though!

We were in La Ezperanza before 8 a.m., which was amazing. We ended up just hopping on a bus because it was early and we had no energy for trying to find a jalon. It was only 80 lempira from there to Comayagua, so it wasn’t too bad! We got to Comayagua at about 10 a.m. and our first stop was Dunkin Doughnuts because we wanted a bagel and cream cheese - I didn’t even get a doughnut, which I was very sad about later that day! While eating our bagels, we decided to go to La Villa de San Antonio and see our old host families from Field Based Training back in March, April and May! We didn’t let them know we were coming, so they were very surprised to see us. It was a lot of fun. We brought them doughnuts, and spent some time catching up and then went back to Comayagua where we met up with Nina (another H-18 health volunteer). We were all staying at Andrea’s house (an H-12 health volunteer, she extended her service). We all went out for dinner, and when we got back to Andrea’s apartment, Nina, Amanda and I all fell asleep - between 8:30 and 9 p.m. We were like grandparents, but we were running on nothing. Nina had gotten up early for her 7-hour bus ride, too, so we were ALL exhausted.

The next day, we just relaxed in Comayagua, went to the grocery store, bought cheese and crackers, and made a picnic in the park! Then we did a little bit of tourist shopping, in the limited stores that are there, and then it was time to head to Siguat to start Reconnect - the annual training/get to know the other volunteers in your projects for Peace Corps.

This was another adventure! We went back to the apartment, packed our stuff, put on our heavy-ass back packs and then headed to where we thought was the road for Siguat. We walked down the meridian of the street for about 20 minutes before we realized that we were actually on the wrong street. There is a highway-type road that goes to La Libertad, and that was the one we were walking on, so we jumped in a cab and took it out to the mine highway for Siguat. Once we were there, it only took us about five minutes before a truck pulled over that was headed to San Pedro, which was perfect because they have to pass through Siguat.

However, about five minutes into this jalon, they pulled onto a small dirt road, which was mildly scary until they stopped and said they were hungry and asked if we wanted to jump out and find another ride or hang out while they ate. So we just decided to hang out while they ate. Even though getting that particular jalon was not that difficult, we didn’t feel like trying again - and besides, we had time, so why not hang out? The place they were eating ended up being very nice. There was a small lagoon/lake/pond thing with a little rowboat you could use. The area with the tables was open so you could see the beautiful lagoon. The food looked great, we didn’t eat, but the seafood soup the guys were eating smelt and looked delicious. They asked us if we wanted anything, but we had way to much pena (kind of embarrassment) to say yes. We ended up letting them buy us a drink, though. We stayed there for a little more than an hour, which was more time than we should have, but we all just kept chatting. They had a lot of questions about Peace Corps and what we were doing with our projects. The older one had worked with Peace Corps people before, so he knew a lot about it and was very interested in what we were working on. There names were Eduin and Jose Miguel - or at least that is what we decided their names were after they dropped us of and we were trying to remember. Once we left the restaurant, the jalon was very fast. We got to Siguat a little after 5 p.m., which was perfect. We were able to grab a cab, go to the grocery store and stock up (the hotel is really far out of town and we were not going to be able to go back) and then grab a cab out to the hotel. We got there basically right at 6 p.m., which is when we were supposed to arrive. Thankfully, we were not the last ones - that would have been a little embarrassing!

So, all in all, our jaloning adventure was a success- Amanda and I did cheat and took a bus from La Esperanza to Comayagua, but it was only 80 lempira, and we arrived in Comayagua by 10 a.m., so we are just going to let that one slide!

Jaloning back home was a total success!! The bus from the hotel dropped us off at a shopping center because we wanted coffee, I needed to find a present for a friend in site, and some gals wanted Wendy’s - but, once we were ready, we went to the highway, and grabbed a jalon to the desvio (the sort of fork in the road) for La Esperanza, and there, we only stood there for less than 10 minutes, probably about five, and then a big truck stopped. It was a little creepy for a couple seconds until I finally got a look at the guy driving - it was someone from my town! He recognized me and pulled over to see if we were headed there. WHAT LUCK!!! We ended up in my site at about 2:30 p.m. - a little more than four hours!! From there, Amanda and I headed to my house to go to sleep - not sleeping much during training, and then jaloning is very exhausting!

Jaloning to Siguat from Comayagua

Jose Miguel and Eduin

Gotta love chillin' in the back of a pickup!!!

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!

The Magic School Bus

Bus travel was not something I experienced in the states. Ya, I took some of the city transits in Bellingham and Seattle when I lived in Washington, but that was it. Moving to Honduras has opened my eyes to a whole new world of transportation. I have never really liked riding on buses - they are diesel and they small like it, they vibrate and people smell weird, but to get around in Honduras, you just have to deal with it.

A few different bus options are available here in Honduras. You have your fancy buses with bathrooms, tv’s, air conditioning, and reclining chairs; there are the rapiditos that also have the nice seats and air conditioning, but they don’t usually stop quite as often as the larger buses (rapid=fast); then there are the micro-bus rapiditos that are basically small buses, or vans that are used to cram as many people as possible into for one trip, to make the most money; finally we have the yellow school buses - which of course are known as the chicken buses. The chicken buses are probably the most commonly seen and talked about. I have yet to actually see a chicken on one of these buses, but I’m have no doubt that during my two-year stint I will see one.

The chicken buses are the cheapest of all the buses, but I have come to realize that sometimes paying the extra five or ten lempira for the nicer, rapidito is not the worst thing in the world. On the chicken buses, when all the seats are full, they add one more person to each one, and then they fill the isle with so many people that if you have a seat, someone is basically sitting on your lap, and there is no way to move freely through the isle. Peoples privates also tend to rub all up on other people - I unfortunately once had a man’s crotch pretty much resting on my arm. To make this all even more uncomfortable, people in Honduras do not smell that great, especially the people who choose to ride the chicken buses. I have heard it referred to as the “campesino small,” which basically means the poor-farmer smell. People don’t bathe everyday, and even if they do, they often times forget about the soap! Also, I am living in Honduras, which means it is HOT, so when we are all crammed in like sardines into a school bus, you have to keep in mind that it is probably more than 80 degrees outside, so you can only imagine the sweat and lovely smells coming off of everyone. Sometimes I prefer to stand. Even though the rides get a little crazy - I’ll explain that momentarily - I think it is better than sitting on the plastic seats only to stand up and have your whole back and most of your ass drenched in sweat - Great image, I know!

The way people drive in this country is a whole other story. In the states, we have double yellow lines, and when one side has dashed lines, that means that you are allowed to pass - the passing zone if you will. Here in Honduras, I have seen those passing lines, but I’m not sure that whoever made them knew what they meant. They usually only last about 20 yards and they don’t take into consideration turns or anything of the sort. Whether the dashed lines mean passing here in Honduras or not, people don’t pay attention to them. I don’t think I would ever really want to drive here in Honduras - I feel like I would end up killed by some crazy driver that decided to pass someone on a turn, which is what everyone does - even the buses. One day, I was actually a little bit frightened for my life. Now, usually the buses do drive relatively fast for how curvy and bumpy most of the roads are, but on this particular day, the driver was driving even faster because there was another bus in front of us, so it was always a race to see who could get to the bus stop faster to get the fares! These buses were basically playing cat and mouse. One would stop to pick up passengers and then would drive like a maniac to catch up with the other bus and pass it no matter what the road conditions were at that moment: a turn, cars coming, crazy pot holes, or all of the above. Passing another bus at high speeds on a turn - SCARY - it feels like the bus is just going to tip right over.

Thankfully most of my experiences with buses thus far have not been too excruciating. Yes, it is hot, yes the smells can get to you, but that is what the windows are for! That is, unless there are no openable windows. A few weeks ago, I was on one of the nice buses from my site to Santa Rosa. On this particular bus, the windows did not open, but it was ok because amazingly enough, it had air conditioning. This was all great, until a lady on the bus got sick. She vomited right into the isle and we could not open any windows for ventilation. We were all trapped on the bus being forced to breath in the toxic smells coming from what was that women’s breakfast!

Another thing about public transportation in Honduras - when someone is car sick, they don’t clean it up - if you are lucky they will just throw some newspaper over it!

I really hate spiders...

I have seen way too many spiders in the last three days. First, I was walking home in the dark a couple nights ago and something scurried across the street in front of me. It caught my attention, so I let my glance follow where the animal was headed. However, to my surprise, it wasn’t a frog, or mouse or any other sort of animal I would have been expecting. It was a huge spider. In all actuality, the body was probably only the size of a golf ball, but the legs made it seem huge. I screamed right there in the street. Thankfully nobody heard. It was the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. As soon as I got my wits back I got away from that things as fast as I could - ok, I didn’t run, but I sure walked fast. Then, when I got home, I was checking my kitties litter box to see if he had finally figured out what the heck it was for, and as I bent down, something on the wall caught my eye. I peered to my left as I continued to bend over toward the litter box, and as my mind realized what I was looking at, I jumped backward and scared the hell out of Junior (my new kitty). Again, a yell escaped my lips, but thankfully not a very loud one. I managed to gain the courage to grab a flip flop and kill it. This one was about the size of a silver dollar, including the legs.

So, to add to my torture, the next day, I was showering and felt something funny on my foot. Yep, looked down and there was one of those big, black, silver -sized spiders on my foot. I jumped and screamed, and luckily was wearing flip flops so when I stomped on the little sucker, I didn’t have to touch it. That shower was over right then and there. A little later, when I was headed to bed, there was yet another one of the little buggers on my floor - another kill for the flip flop.

So, today, I was reading and out of the corner of my eye, saw something scurrying across my floor. Another spider. This one was the same size as the other, ugly black ones, but it was more of a gray and seemed to have a white stripe down its back - like a skunk-type spider. I still screamed, but luckily that trusted flip flop was right next to me, so I grabbed it and killed the spider before he was able to get under my bed and out of my reach. It is still sitting in a curled up ball on my bedroom floor. I was hoping Junior would eat it, but that does not seem to be his style.

On a different note - a happier one - my landlords are some of the nicest people I have ever met. My first night, when the power went out, they brought me a candle, then, during my first week, Don Adrian saw that I had my laundry hanging on the fence, so one day he knocked on my door and showed me the clothes line he had just finished putting up for me. Twice they have sent one of the kids over to give me some fruit called “nancys,” which I really don’t like, and I finally got the courage up to tell them that the other day. They always invite me over to watch TV, which I usually don’t take them up on, and they are always inviting me over to eat. They are currently building a really nice fence around my house for security, and they know that I want to learn to make Honduran food, so when they are making tortillas, they always let me know, so I can go observe, help and learn. So, yesterday when I was in Santa Rosa, I bought them a box of chocolate as a little thank you. They seemed to really appreciate it. Then, today, Junior managed to get out of the house when I was out for a run - I left the windows open, and he jumped right through the bars. They heard Junior meowing outside, chased him down, and took him inside their house until I got home!

I feel like I really lucked out with my living situation. I love my new house, and my landlords and their family are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Yes, sometimes I would really like to just be in my house and not be bothered, so it is frustrating when they come over just to chat, but then don‘t really even say anything, but that is just part of the culture. Other volunteers say that I should set boundaries and tell people that when my door is shut not to bother me. But, I am ok with being inconvenienced sometimes if it means forming better relationships with the people I will be living with for the next two years.

Jailbirds

Written July 31st,

As this blog is supposed to be a channel for teaching Americans about the culture here in Honduras, I have been trying to do just that. Sometimes my stories start out with that intention and then are segued onto another track, but I’m going to assume that people usually get the general understanding of the points that I sometimes try to make. I also enjoy just telling stories about my life down here and what I have been up to, which can of course be a little glimpse of how things work down here in Honduras as well.

So the story of the day, week, and maybe even the year - we’ll see how crazy my service gets - just happened last night. It, of course, started out like another normal day in Honduras, but by the end, things had become a little crazy. I know that a lot of different people read this blog, and I don’t want anyone getting the wrong ideas about the Peace Corps based on the fiestas that happen in these parts, but when you put 25+ Americans together and add booze, something is bound to happen. I have yet to write fully about any of the parties that have happened so far during my training and service for this exact reason, but this next story, I do believe is a must-tell. However, I will not be including all the details. So, for anyone wanting to join the Peace Corps, or for any Peace Corps staff that may read this, please do not judge any of our work or dedication to our projects based on one goodbye party for a few volunteers who just finished their 2-year service.

First thing’s first. Friday, I met Ashley and Amanda in Santa Rosa for lunch, and Amanda came back to my site with me as my first visitor and first guest in my new house. Saturday morning, we went to Santa Rosa together fairly early because we had a few errands to run and we wanted to get our hair trimmed! We found a salon that looked nice and was not too expensive, so we decided to go for it. We were both very nervous - when trying to explain a haircut to someone in a different language, you just don’t know how it’s going to work out! I went first because I was not quite as concerned as Amanda - my hair is pretty much always up anyway because I can’t stand to have it down in the heat. Of course, after showing him how much I wanted cut off, he ended up cutting off a whole lot more, which made Amanda even more nervous. After our 2-year stint here in Honduras, she wants to cut her hair for Locks of Love, which means she doesn’t want a whole lot cut off, just little trims here and there over the next two years; to keep it healthy. We both survived our haircuts and were relatively happy with the outcomes. Amanda’s looks great, but she was definitely freaking out about how much he ended up cutting off!

Our mission for the rest of the afternoon was to make Craig a birthday cake. We had asked Isaac, the guy who runs the hotel we were staying, if we could use the kitchen, and he gave us two thumbs up. I wanted to make a cake with Rainbow Chip frosting because that is the best frosting ever created, but unfortunately it is only sold at the grocery story that is very far away from this hotel. Santa Rosa has two parts. There is the old, colonial part of town up on the hill, and then the new part of town down below. We always spend our time in upper, colonial Santa Rosa, and only take a cab down to the other part when we need to get on the bus. For this reason, and us being cheap and not wanting to pay for two taxis, we went to the closer grocery store and got a yellow cake and chocolate frosting - the classic combination that is never a bad choice.

Before we were able to purchase the cake mix and frosting, we had a bit of confusion. Amanda and I were in the hotel and Ashley was on her way to town, so we thought she was going to stop and grab the stuff at the store before meeting up with us. But, when she arrived, she did not have the goods - there was a slight mix-up in what she thought we had said. So, we all walked to the grocery store, and of course ran into Craig right outside. I ran inside to buy the stuff while the others chatted, but Craig was on a mission so they didn’t chat for long. But, when we were walking back to the hotel, we ran into him again. He had just bought himself an oven - smaller than a regular oven, but bigger than a toaster oven - and he wanted some help carrying everything to the hotel. I stuffed the cake mix and frosting in Ashley’s bag before he could see them and ran to help him. When we arrived at the hotel, we found out that he and Jessica were going to make birthday brownies in his new oven, which meant we were all going to be in the kitchen together and our surprise birthday cake was no longer going to be a surprise. We were bummed, but in the end it all worked out because it turned out the oven in the hotel didn’t actually work!!

Before we could stat baking the goodies, we needed to buy eggs, so we ran to a nearby pulparia. What was supposed to be a very short task, ended up lasting about twenty minutes because right when we were about to leave the pulparia, it started poring down rain - basically a monsoon. It was the kind of rain that the second you step outside, you are soaked to the bone. We decided to wait it out in the pulparia until the rain let up. By the time we made it back to the hotel and began the baking process, it was already almost 5 p.m. Thankfully baking from a box, there is not much prep-time needed, so after getting back to the hotel, it took less than ten minutes for the cake to be put in the oven.

I am extremely jealous of Craig’s new oven. It was only 1,300 lempira, and the cake fit in it perfectly- you could even do two batches of cookies at one time I think, as long as you switched the upper and lower racks half way through. I really need an oven because I love to bake. But, back to the day - While I made the cake and brownies, and cleaned up the kitchen, everyone else was starting the drinking process. When the cake was done, I put it in the freezer, which shocked a lot of people. But, I talked them into just trusting me and not worrying about it. When the brownies were done, we turned into barbarians. The second they came out of the oven, the five of us each grabbed a spoon, and we ate the brownies piping hot, right out of the pan. It was pretty ridiculous actually, the brownies only lasted about three minutes. It is amazing what people will do when they haven’t had brownies in five months!

So, from here, I’m going to jump forward a couple hours. People went and ate dinner, took naps, showered, etc, etc. but, as soon as I got back to the hotel after dinner, I frosted the cake, so it was ready for consumption. Jessica had just bought a few candles for her house, so she unwrapped one and put it right in the center of the cake - you can’t have a birthday cake with out some sort of candle on it - who cares if it is a big, purple, funny-smelling, one. The cake was then defiled a little bit with a certain body part drawn into the frosting - oh we are all so mature. Once the cake was cut and the word was spread that it was up for grabs, it lasted under 20 minutes.

To jump forward another few hours of people hanging out talking, drinking, and not doing anything particularly noteworthy, we decided it was time to migrate out to a bar. It was about 11:30 by this time, and we all went to a bar that had just opened in Santa Rosa. I was under the impression that there would be dancing, which was the only reason I joined the group of people that were headed there. Apparently the DJ, who was brought down from San Pedro, started at 10:30 p.m. and was looking forward to the gringos showing up to get other people to dance. But, us gringos had a little too much pena (were a little too embarrassed) to dance in the middle of a pretty high-class bar with Hondurans sitting all around us, watching. Most volunteers left about the time one fell, knocking over a few speakers in the process - he was quickly escorted to his bed and tucked in.

Then it was dancing time. Most of the volunteers all ended up in the same club, but there were others spread out around the town. I stayed at the club, dancing until about 2 a.m. because I had been wanting to go dancing for a long time, so I wanted to get as much out of my system as possible. However, apparently, while I was getting my grove on, some serious events were taking place.

At about 1:30 a.m, a group of volunteers were walking back to the hotel, but were making all sorts of noise in the process. I mean, to be quite honest, when you have a large group of people that have been drinking, they are just going to be loud in general, but add a few crazies that spread their hyperness on to pretty much everyone they are with, then you have a group of people that are hooting and hollering all the way down the street. This usually isn’t that big of an issue, but when you decide to walk right in front of the police station, the police can get a little annoyed. A few minutes later, another group of gringos, only five of them, were walking back to the hotel after going to see who all was still left at the club, and then buying baleadas. A police truck pulled up behind this group of five volunteers, who were not doing anything, and arrested them.

I, however, did not learn of this until the next morning. I knew one of my roommates was not in our room that night, but I had assumed she ended up crashing with other volunteers in one of the other rooms - we basically had the whole hotel rented. So, at 8:30, after I had showered and was packing up all my stuff, another volunteer came into our room and told Ashley and I that five volunteers were currently in jail. We didn’t believe him at first - he is one that likes to joke. But, there was something about his tone of voice that made me think he was actually telling the truth, and then when we over heard all the volunteers outside in the courtyard talking about the same thing, we realized he was not pulling our legs!

The security officer for Peace Corps Honduras, Juan Carlos, had called a couple volunteers to help with the situation - the two oldest/”most mature and sophisticated.” They went to the jail at 7:30 a.m. to start trying to get the volunteers out of jail. At about 8:45, they came to the hotel and told us we needed to gather all the belongings of the people in jail and take them to the house of the volunteer who lives in Santa Rosa. So, a few of us worked on rounding up all their things, got a taxi and took them to the house. After that, it was just a waiting game. I was waiting to hear from the older volunteers about the situation at the jail, all day. Finally at about 1:30, me and another volunteer walked down to the central park to talk to the volunteer who was being the middle man. He told us that a whole mob of other volunteers had just gone in and visited the ones who were incarcerated. With that, I went inside to visit them, too. I didn’t realize that was allowed, otherwise I probably would have been there all day. I thought it would be better for all of us to stay away while things were getting sorted out, but I guess not. The mediator-volunteer had managed to get the jailbirds taken out of their actual jail sells, so they were all just hanging out in the courtyard of the police station.

They all looked so tired - understandable so - I sure wouldn’t have slept if spent the night in Honduran jail. As they told their story, the pieces from what we had all been hearing all day, finally fit together. All except for why they were being kept in jail for so long when they had not actually done anything. They said that they were told they were arrested for “scandalizing” that is the word used on the forms. However, none of them, or me, really know what exactly that means. I wanted to go back and see the jail cells they had spent the night in, but I was to nervous, but considering how the courtyard looked, I know that it couldn’t have been good. Apparently their was a lot of urine! They guys said actually witnessed a “beat down” in their cell during the night - and that is in their words. A few of them looked really frazzled - with the “I can’t believe I am in jail” looks on their faces. And considering they were some of the least likely people to ever end up in jail in the states or in any country, I could understand that look in their eyes.

When I went to visit, they were just waiting for the head officer/boss guy to come and sign the release forms, and then they were going to be able to go, but they had been waiting for a few hours already. It was Sunday, though, and Hondurans are not known for their rushing abilities - Ahorita, which is translated as right now - actually mean anywhere between 5 minutes and HOURS.

I ended up leaving Santa Rosa to go home at about 3 p.m. and I finally got a call at 4:30 saying they had been released - they were in Honduran jail for about 15 hours. The question on everyone’s mind is what Peace Corps is going to do about this. At this point, none of us know, but I’m sure we will find out soon enough. Nothing illegal was done, only things that are frowned upon, such as walking around at 1:30 in the morning.

Moral of this story - when you are walking around the streets of night - don’t do it so loudly, and especially not in front of a police station… obviously the Peace Corps would like us to just completely avoid these situations all together, but when you are in a foreign country and only meet up with other Americans every so often, you really want to go out and have fun. Unfortunate things can happen, and you never know when or where, but I guess those are risks that we are willing to take. Thankfully nothing terrible happened. The people who ended up in jail are all ok, nobody was hurt, and everyone still has all their belongings.