New Places, New Faces

Hola from Ojojona! Last Sunday, the 22nd the business project moved to Ojojona to do Field Based Training for 7 weeks. Ojojona is a cute little mining town that was founded in 1584 and looks exactly like what you think Latin America should look like. There is a central plaza where people of all ages sit and talk for hours in the shadows of the surrounding churches. All along the streets are little tiendas where people sell everything from leather goods to painted pottery to mangos. The two most obviously Honduran details of this town are that a thin layer of dust covers everything and no one is in a hurry to get anywhere. Yes it is Perfect. It’s a good thing that the town is so cute too because getting here was definitely interesting. First of all everyone had to bring their luggage to their training bus stops themselves so thank god for Theresa’s host dad who used his large farming pickup truck to haul us and our luggage to the bus stop or it is very possible that I would still be trying to walk the 15 min trail with my 200 + lbs of luggage. Then, due to what we believe to be some budget cuts, Peace Corps had the Business and Wat/ San projects travel south together on the same chicken bus with ALL our luggage. Now, this means that 33 people with at least 3 bags each all have to ride on a yellow school bus for 2 hours. For those of you who saw my luggage, imagine that 33 time over plus needing space for us to sit down. Needless to say luggage was stacked everywhere and people were forced to sit in the aisle and on top of bus seats/ luggage. However, being the flexible group we are, we got out a laptop and my speakers to play some music and make the best of it.

Unfortunately, the whole Business project is not allowed to live in the same town so half of the people were dropped off first in a small town called Santa Ana, about 15 mins outside of Ojojona. Once we arrived in Ojojona we were dropped off with all our luggage close to the central plaza with some directions to our new homes. After asking a few passersby, Jp, Jose, and I made our way up a hill to our new homes. I would be lying to say that I wasn’t already excited about my new family after reading my little information sheet but as soon as I met them I was so happy! I live my host parents Dona Ana and Don Luis and their children Ronal (28), Alejandra (26), and David (21) as well as Alejandra’s two boys Luis David (8) and Issac (7). Dona Ana is a teacher at the local high school and Don Luis works at the airport in Teguz. All their kids are studying at Universities in Teguz: Ronal is studying law and working at the Human Rights Office, Alejandra is studying to be a teacher, and David is working in the Customs dept of an importer/exporter in Teguz as well as studying to be a teacher. Although I truly loved my last host family, I can’t express how beneficial for my Spanish as well as just enjoyable it is to talk to educated adults here outside of the classroom. Not only do I already feel so at home but I also feel like I am learning so many new things about Honduras from them every day! The stories are just great and make me realize how easy it is to have a slower paced culture that is so relationship oriented because story telling/ talking is an art form and popular pastime here. Its also nice to have so many more people around, especially the boys with the ages they are because it reminds me of being home. I play with the little boys whenever possible, this includes schooling them in soccer haha (no really I won twice now) or playing card games. So now they are calling me “Tia” (Aunt) and making sure to split their chips or pop evenly 3 ways for all of us which is just too adorable and makes me feel like a mini Ms. Gates! The parents also introduce me as their daughter so that makes me feel good too! The only thing that is going to take some getting used to it the fact that we have a muchacha (a maid) named Carolina so I am not quite sure how to act and what I should or shouldn´t be helping with. Carolina is pretty quiet but she has 3 adorable kids that I also spend alot of time with which is nice.

As far as training is concerned, it is getting more intense but I am really enjoying it. Its really nice to start having more time to work on exclusively business related topics as a group. So far I have given a lecture with 3 other group members to the town water board as well as visited the farm of Don Berto (87 yrs) to hear about the town’s history and learn about the traditional farming methods here. I am also in a new Spanish class where I am the only girl but I like my teacher’s, Victor´s, teaching style much better so 4 hours a day isn’t quite so bad now. It has also been nice to get to know the other business volunteers better. Ojojona is really small and tranquilo so its been easy to plan afterclass activities where we can hang out together. However, the people who live in Santa Ana are at a disadvantage because they have to be driven to and from their town so its much harder to include them in things which is affecting the whole group. Hopefully we will be able to work out something soon so we can all do some fun things together. Tonight for instance is my host brother, Ronal’s, birthday and all the volunteers as well as a ton of family are invited so it should be fun! I guess last year´s was a blast so we shall see! Also the volunteer who is serving in Ojojona invited us to a barbeque tomorrow! So it should be a great weekend! Hasta la proxima!