Friday, May 29, 2009

Orocuina

(Written 05/27/09)

Buenas, que onda! Well I am finally here, in my new home for the next two years! After spending over a year waiting and imagining what my site would be like it was truly a surreal experience to finally get here. I arrived here on Saturday afternoon, the 16th, after a blissfully uneventful 3 hour trip from the capital in my counterpart’s car! I will admit that at first when I got here I was a little nervous due to the extreme heat (it’s really intense, I have literally not stopped sweating once since getting here) and also because of the extreme poverty of the people living on the outskirts of my town. However, after 2 weeks, I am feeling much better, though still sweating, and excited to be working in the type of atmosphere that I imagined while back at home in the states. In fact I am feeling luckier everyday because Orocuina is actually very pretty. It sits in a valley, surrounded by mountains on almost all sides and now that rainy season has started the entire countryside is colored beautiful shades of green. There is also a river that runs alongside my town which I am told I can swim in so I am really looking forward to that! There are also some tourist attractions here which I had no idea about before coming such as a waterfall, caves, a lookout, and indigenous hieroglyphics painted on mountain walls. So I am definitely looking forward to exploring those.

My new host family is a very nice older couple named Don Balbino (yes like the nickname for Babe Ruth which is how I always remember his name) and Dona Rosaura. They have 4 girls who are all grown and out of the house so it is just us 3 living here. However, less than a month ago one of their daughters, Sulema, had her first baby and my new nephew José Julian so they have been staying here at the house with us so that grandma can help out. In addition I have 2 dogs, a cat, and a loud bird that talks more than most humans do. The house is big and pretty, built in a hacienda style with an open court yard in the center of the house where there are lime trees and a hammock to hang out in. I have a nice large room in the back of the house, close both to the bathroom and the kitchen (just how I like it haha) with its own door to the street so I don’t have to tramp through the house when I want to leave which is really nice. I also have full access to the kitchen and have been shopping and cooking for myself since moving in. Adventures in the unknown for sure because everyone who knows me knows that I can’t exactly cook, but poco a poco (little by little) I am learning and I am definitely not going hungry due to my survival cooking skills of cereal, salad, and eggs as well as the generosity of my new friends who give me free delicious meals.

As for work, right now my community counterparts include two women’s’ groups, one that makes Hammocks and another that makes spices, the project manager at the municipality (Mayra), the local high school, water board and radio. However, I am sure this will change as projects get added and completed throughout my service. I’ve sent the last 2 weeks just contacted them and having a few meet and greets so I learn a little more about what they do and in what areas there are opportunities for me to work with them. So little by little I hope to start gaining the confidence of my new community and beginning some projects with them. One thing is for certain, my counterpart Mayra and I are like two peas in a pod so it is really nice being able to not only get to work with her but also have her as a friend to hang out with.

Right now though I am just happy to be here and ready to start feeling like this is my new home. Everyone has been so welcoming which really helps a lot. So now I am just trying to adjust to my new life and the pace of things here. So hopefully I will continue making friends and be able to get some people behind some projects soon! Poco a Poco, little by little....

Congrats, Now You May Officially Work for Free!

(Writen 5/15/09) - Happy B-day momma yesterday and Carly today!

Well today I join the ranks of thousands who came before me to work as a Peace Corps volunteer!! Although I already felt like a volunteer, today it is official.
This week passed so quickly and was such a complete rollercoaster ride that I can hardly believe that by tomorrow night I will be in my new home for the next two years! During this past week all the H14ers were reunited for one final week in Zarabanda to do some general housecleaning before we are sent off on our own. This of course means we had to pack everything up and move back to our old host families for one week to sit through long meetings about banking, safety and security, and working with our counterparts when all we actually wanted to do was move to our sites. But it was nice to see everyone again before we are shipped all throughout the country. On Thursday we had yet another infamous Despedida (going away party) which is nice in theory but ends up being a lot of work for a really awkward social gathering with our host family and a bunch of other families that no one else knows. However unlike the last one, the Peace Corps staff took care of all the food and decorations so all we had to do was serve the food and entertain our guests which made the whole event much nicer. Both Gloria and Reynita (my 1st host mom and little sister) came and all in all I believe they liked it, especially the photo slideshow with all their photos.

Which brings us to the main event, swearing in. Today I woke up bright and early to get all dolled up and head out by 6:30am to go to the Peace Corps office in Teguz to meet my counterpart. All of us volunteers rode the big yellow school bus to Teguz which made the whole trip feel much more like going to prom than to be sworn-in at the US Embassy haha. And while all the other soon-to-be volunteers where pretty nervous about meeting their counterparts, I was cool as a cucumber because as everyone knows I am an excellent bull shitter and have no trouble talking to strangers J but I was pretty nervous about the logistics of getting to my site. Apparently a few of the counterparts have cars but for those who don’t, its public transportation a-ho with all your possessions no matter how long the trip. Especially after all of our safety and security meetings, we are all more than a little nervous about being an American with an insane amount of luggage of public transportation that goes through major cities like the capital. But once we got there everyone was paired up with their counterparts and let me just tell you at this moment the bells of fate rang as I looked across the room and saw the most impressively dressed woman waiting for me. My counterpart is Mayra who works as the Project Manager at the Municipality in Orocuina. She is 24yrs old, has a degree in International Business and is currently working on getting her Masters in Project Administration while she works at the municipality. She was dressed to the 9’s putting on her makeup while laughing at someone on her Blackberry and holding her pink razor in the other hand. We spent the next hour talking which went by super fast as we chatted about our families, favorite pastimes, boys, and a little bit about work haha. But I mean hey, we have the next 2 yrs to talk about work right? Then she uttered the words I had been praying I would hear: “I hope you don’t mind but I brought my car so we are going to ride back in that instead of the bus!” AHHH HALLEHUJA! I can’t even explain how worried I had been up until today about the logistics of getting to site with my 4 large bags on less than favorable public transportation. I mean, nothing says rob me more than a gringa riding on a bus with 4 bags she can barely lift for hours at a time. I literally felt a wash of calm come over me afterwards and was truly excited for the rest of the day.

After the meeting we rode over to the US. Embassy to be sworn in. The whole affair was pretty quick, lasting only about an hour. There were 5 speakers which included our training manager Luis, our country director Trudy, 2 Honduran guest speakers, the Ambassador, and our very own Jose to represent the volunteers. And I must admit that out of all the speeches, Jose’s was by far the best and made me way more emotional than any graduation or wedding speech I’ve heard to date. We also sang both the Honduran and American national anthems, recited our swear-in oath and of course ate cake and took a million photos. While I was waiting with my counterpart to have my picture taken with the Ambassador a camera crew approached me and asked if I would like to be on tv to which I quickly replied NO! However, apparently no one was convinced that anyone, especially an American, would not want to appear on tv so before I knew I was thrust in front of a camera and attempting to sound articulate in Spanish about my experience so far in Honduras. Lord only knows what I said but hey, theres a memory right? After the ceremony and cake we were hustled back into the school buses and shipped back to the training center in Zarabanda to eat lunch and then WORK!! Now in past years all the other volunteers enjoyed a pretty nice party at the Ambassador’s house for the rest of the afternoon but as luck would have it my cycle was the first to “try something new” which means budget cuts and making us work instead of enjoy our last day with the other volunteers and training staff. Although after the way the afternoon went, I am pretty sure that they won’t be doing it that way again because everyone was over it before it even started, including my counterpart ha. The whole thing ended at 6:30 and then we had to scramble to say our goodbyes before we were sent back home which also sucked because it leaves you crying like an idiot in front of everyone, including your counterpart. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go straight home because I had to go get money from an ATM to last me through my first few days in site and buy saldo for my phone so I could talk to my counterpart in the morning so I went to a nearby town with some other volunteers to get money before heading back home. I didn’t end up getting home until around 8pm and had to rush to eat dinner and then spent the rest of my night trying to bond with my host family, saying goodbye to other volunteers in my neighborhood and packing which wasn’t exactly how I pictured my last night but oh well. Luckily since I have a ride tomorrow to my site and don’t have to take the bus I don’t have to be at the bus stop at 4am like my neighbors do!
Now as I sit in my bed I am overcome with a million different emotions. Although I so happy to finally be a volunteer and I am beyond excited to get to my site and start working, I am also a little nervous to actually be on my own. It’s so funny to think that when I signed up for Peace Corps I was so ready to go off and work alone, in an unknown country for 2+ years and now I am nervous to leave all the other volunteers. I really never imagined I would make such good friendships in such a short period of time. Now I am left wondering how will I ever get anywhere without Jp and Jose to walk with me? What will I do when I walk out my front door and don’t see Matt across the street waiting to talk to me. And I can’t even begin to imagine not being able to see Erika every day? Starting tomorrow I will be meeting new people all over again and trying to form new friendships to make my experience throughout the next two years something meaningful. Heres hoping the Peace Corps was right about my “advanced” level of Spanish and that I have enough energy to be super friendly everyday for the next several months! So heres to jumping in headfirst all alone!

Deje un Pedazo de mi Corazon en Ojojona (I Left a Piece of My Heart in Ojojona)

(Written 5/9/09)

I’ve always hated the various touristy t-shirts and mugs that proudly flaunted that saying… too bad now I feel like its true. It’s weird how sad I am to leave Ojojona. I had been so excited and so ready to get to my site since before I even left the U.S. that I never even gave a second thought to the experiences I would have or the friends I would make during training. But the truth of the matter is, I was just starting to really feel at home here. Although I loved my host family the instant I met them, I was just now starting to feel like I had my own place in the family. More than that I have friends here in Ojojona, something I never thought would happen. Last week I noticed that when I walk through the streets of Ojojona, I know people. Neighbors or people I met at some family gathering, kids from school projects we’ve done or that I’ve played with in the neighborhood stop to chat and mototaxi drivers offer me free rides because they just happen to be passing by my house. And it’s nice. I feel safe and happy in my friendly and pretty little mining town.
I suppose I didn’t realize how sad I would be to leave until we had our Despedida (Goodbye party) on Thursday night. I had told all the volunteers that we would have more than enough food because I was certain that only my host mom would come from my family, just like on cultural day, because corny non-dancing parties aren’t my family’s thing. Then much to my surprise, all of them showed up! Even my shy host brother who rarely leaves the house for anything came and I was overwhelmed. Then all day yesterday, my last official day there, everyone was saying how sad they were to see me go and asking when I would come back to visit. Later that night my host family, along with Tony’s even threw a going away party for us, “because Katie needs to dance before she leaves!” All of this, and not to mention the going away gifts from my host fam, neighbors, and friends, all were setting me up for a very emotional goodbye this morning. I woke up extra early this morning so that I could say goodbye to my host dad and brother before they left for work and since the bus was 3 hrs late to pick us up, as usual, I got a little extra time with my host nephews who sang a goodbye song for me as well as with my host mom who came with me to the bus stop. Although I kept from crying, my eyes definitely watered up when my host mom cried a little and told me she loved me before I got on the bus.
And all of this is only describing my experience with the Hondurans in Ojojona and how it feels to leave them. I can’t even imagine what it will be like in another week when I leave all the volunteers from H14. I feel like the business project really became a group in Ojojona and it will be weird to be without all of them. Ojojona definitely was the perfect site for us.

All in all I can’t imagine having a better experience during training and a part of me definitely wishes Ojojona was my site for the next two years. But heres to the fun family parties, the beach trip, playing soccer and karate with my nephews, late night (9pm) talks with my neighbors, licuados, watching soap operas with the whole fam, Karaoke, Dinners with Richard, dance party mototaxi rides, videojuegos, the cabin picnic, and the millions of other fun memories that Ojojona has left me with. I’ll miss you but I’ll be back soon!!

Hombres de Amor

(written 5/8/09)

Today was the last day of our Business Simulation and it went so wonderfully! For those who may not know, a business simulation is a weeklong activity where groups of three to four volunteers teach basic business principals to a group of people (usually high school students) for two days and then the group creates its own business. Everything from selecting a product to produce, receiving a loan (from the Peace Corps) to selling their product with their own business name and marketing plan. With our training group there were 5 groups all doing a simulation and picking a product to produce and sell on the same day which adds an element of competition to the process which Hondurans really love. Due to our slight setback with the teacher strike, Jesus and the school director helped round up some students who still wanted to learn on their days off (weird I know) and then made a deal with the local Escuela Taller to do the simulation with them. My group was all boys ranging from 14-24 from the Escuela Taller which is a program that basically functions like a JVS for disadvantaged youth who really have no other access to job training. I worked in a group with JP and Taylor and since we lost a day to the strike everyone had to adjust their plans to finish the full simulation in 4 days. The first day consisted of charlas about basic business concepts, picking our product to produce, our company name, and buying the raw materials. Since Mother’s day was that upcoming Sunday my boys chose to make heart shaped boxes out of thick red carton, decorate them and fill them with candy to sell. Going along with their theme and the fact that they were all one of the few groups of all men, they aptly named their company “Hombres de Amor” (basically The Men of Love) and used the slogan “Para Endulzarse su Corazon” (To Sweeten your Heart ). The second day was production day and all the guys worked really hard to not only make their product but to also make signs for them to wear on sale day as a form of advertisement. The third day was sales day which proved to be an impressive day. Out of all 12 boys, 5 were amazing salesmen and ending up selling almost all the products themselves. In the end, they sold everything and made enough money not only to pay back the loan of 350 lemps but also earned a 300 lemp profit which I was very proud of. Although you would think sales day would be the most difficult for the boys, the final day which was presentation day proved to be the biggest challenge. On Friday every group had to make a presentation in front of everyone about the formation of their business, successes and challenges, and what they learned/ liked about the process. Needless to say my “Hombres de Amor” did NOT want to get up and talk in front of everyone alone but nevertheless they worked hard on their presentation and then 6 brave men got up and presented.

The presentation went great and although we didn’t win, we came in third out of five, I have never been more proud in my entire life! At the beginning of the week I was more than hesitant to do this project for several reasons, most of them involving my lack of experience or desire to work with youth and the fact that this project was the type of thing I absolutely hated in high school. However, much to my surprise it turned out to be my favorite activity during training. The guys were all really into the activity and you could tell that they actually wanted to learn what we were teaching them. Some of my boys walked an 1 ½ hrs from their towns to the bus stop to ride for at least another 30 mins to 1 hr just to come to our simulation. It was so amazing to see some of the guys really understanding the material too. This was the first time almost all of them had heard of any of these business concepts which will be so important for them because they are all learning a trade and could each have their own business within the next two years. On sales day and then on presentation day I felt like a proud mother watching her child take his first steps which is ridiculous I know but it was so outrageously rewarding to have taught these boys something and then see them apply it in their own successful and unique way. If this is what being a teacher could be like I think I would like it a lot (scary I know, but don’t hold your breath just yet). I will admit though that I had an advantage by having a pretty captive audience. I was voted most popular volunteer by my peers because all of the high school and Escuela Taller boys were supposedly in love with me according to the other volunteers and the outrageous number of photos I had to pose for with these boys. Apparently boys’ ages 14-18 is my target market haha. Either way it was not only a great experience for everyone involved but it was also a great way to get to know some of the youth in the community. Too bad I will be leaving tomorrow and I am so not ready!

If You Can't Handle the Heat...

(written 5/5/09)

Don’t come visit me in Orocuina! As many of you may already know, yesterday I found out I will be serving my next 2 years in Orocuina, Choluteca. Choluteca is the southernmost department of Honduras that borders Nicaragua. My site, Orocuina, is a relatively small town with about 6000 people living in Orocuina proper and over 8,000 living in surrounding aldeas (kinda like villages). The city is only an hour outside the department’s capital and the third largest city in Honduras, Choluteca, and about 3 ½ hours from Teguz which should make future travel easier than a lot of other sites. Most people make their living through small scale farming of beans, corn, sugar cane, watermelons, cantaloupes, and peppers. My principle work counterparts will include two women’s’ groups, one which makes hammocks and another that makes spices, as well as the local municipality and schools. I am really excited because this is the type of work I have the most interest in and exactly the type of projects I pictured myself working with when I first started applying for the Peace Corps.

After my last technical interview I was pretty sure I was going to Orocuina based on my work interests and site size preferences but I kept myself from doing any research or getting my hopes up so that it would still be a surprise. And even though I knew where I was going, the site announcement process was pretty torturous because Jesus and Jorge (the Business PTS) enjoyed dragging it out and watching us all suffer while they described all 17 sites and pointing them out on the map before telling us which site was ours. As part of the process we made a tape outline of Honduras on the floor with all the sites marked out so once Jesus and Jorge were finally ready to announce our sites they called us each down one by one to receive our packet of info and stand on our site. Once all the sites were announced, I looked around and was a little sad to see that all my friends have been placed really far from me. In fact only 4 volunteers out of all 44 are being sent to sites in the south. However, I am trying to look on the bright side that I will be forced to integrate that much quicker with the locals and I will also have a ton of beautiful places to visit. Now all we can talk about is what our sites are supposed to be like and how we are going to get there (we are all praying our counterparts have a car because if not we will have to ride a public bus with ALL our luggage, basically saying please rob us!) More than anything I can’t wait to be sworn in and get to my new home for the next 2 years!

As far as training goes, today we were supposed to start our Business simulation with the local high school but as luck would have it today was the first day of a nationwide teacher strike so there was no school. I really hope we are still able to work something out though because the simulation is our final big project of training and supposed to be the most fun out of all the activities. But vamos a ver!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Lets Talk About Sex

(written 4/24/09)

Thats right… what I am about to describe to you will most definitely sound like an awkward movie scene but it is all in the name of educating the youth of Honduras. On Thursday 3 volunteers came to Ojojona to do a TOT (Training of Trainers) on HIV and AIDS which sounds really intense but actually involved doing a lot of fun activities to learn about HIV/AIDS and how it is transmitted so we could teach them to students at a local High School the following day. These activities included learning a game about white blood cells, doing a picture game of how HIV is transmitted, and then doing the ever popular condom on a banana demo. After we finished the charlas (lectures) and dinamicas (activities) we were split up into groups of 4 to begin working on our presentations for the following day. Now I was a little nervous because as you all know I am not typically the best with kids, ok let’s be honest I had no patience for them at all at home, and I have never taught anything to anyone so this was definitely going to be a day of firsts. However, I have already come so far in terms of patience and actually interacting with children of all ages that I would certainly surprise all of you. Therefore, once we were in our groups I figured why not jump in head first and offered to do the condom on a banana demo. Unsurprisingly my group members were happy to let me do it so, like a good student I went home and studied my condom vocabulary for the next day.

The following day I wore my best “teacher” dress and arrived with condoms and bananas in tow to get down to business. I had practiced all my vocabulary and prepared myself for a fair amount of jokes from the kids. What I was not expecting was to actually know three of the students. The weekend before I had gone on a beautiful beach trip with my host mom, sister, and her two boys to a private beach called Los Delgaditos with the local church. Of course, I was the only gringa on the entire beach and consequently caused quite a stir with my two piece bathing suit and tattoos (don’t worry I ran the whole outfit and tattoo thing by my mom before hand and she gave me the green light). Everyone was super nice and wanted to know where I got my cool tattoo as well as wanted to learn how to swim since apparently very very few Hondurans know how. Well in this group were some high schoolers who spent the majority of the day watching me until a few got up the nerve to talk to me. Lucky for me these same boys who were talking to me on the beach were in my class for the HIV/AIDS charla and felt like they were pretty cool because they knew one of the teachers, specifically the one holding the condoms. So I got a few more personal jokes from them than expected. Nevertheless, I forged ahead and with the help of my lovely assistant Kyle, who held the banana and did the appropriate thrusting actions when necessary, and successfully showed 21 Hondurans between the ages of 14-18 how to use a condom. I hope you all can picture me standing in front of a class putting a condom on a banana and being smi-serious about the whole thing because if that isn’t movie material, I don’t know what is! The entire charla lasted a little over 3 hours which was definitely long enough for everyone. It was a good thing also that we left the condom demo for the end of the class because there was no getting anyone to calm down after they were able to talk about sex and play with condoms for hours. However, it was obviously so important for them to learn this because so many of them had no idea how to use one and/or believed alot of the popular myths about condom use here.

One thing I did learn, apart from Spanish condom vocab, is that I am surprisingly comfortable teaching a class and that I actually even enjoy it. I am sure it had a lot to do with the age I was working with but I really was able to relate to the students very well and give my lesson without worrying about the language barrier. I think my personality and my ability to hear some pretty outrageous comments without "batting an eye" works a lot to my advantage too. Who knows after this maybe I have a future in teaching… or a career in condom demos, vamos a ver (we’ll see)!

Amapala

(written 4/17/09)

Buenas! This week was probably the best week of training so far! On Monday afternoon we packed up our batallas (the large white Jurassic park looking vehicles that we cruse around in) and headed 2 hours south to go camping on the beach. This excursion was a working trip to learn about sustainable tourism in Honduras by doing some interviews with a few restaurants and then writing business plans based on our interviews. But to be honest no one was concerned with the amount of work involved as long as we got a chance to get out of the classroom and onto the beach! After stopping for our first interview at a zoo/restaurant we continued south until we reached Guayaba Dorada, a private beach that Peace Corps rented for us. All of us were divided up into groups to get all the prep work done, like a cooking team, campfire team, tent team, and games team. However, for some outlandish reason I ended up on the loading and unloading the truck team with one other boy… haha must have been all my muscles. Either way we all worked well together and helped each other out (good thing or more than one bag would have fallen off the top of the truck if it were left up to my rope wrangling skills). After setting everything up we spent the rest of the night swimming, eating REAL campfire food like hotdogs and marshmallows and playing games/ playing the guitar. It was so much fun! The only down side was the overwhelming heat! I literally sweated the entire time I was there. And while it was wonderful to wake up and look out the tent and be only a few feet from the ocean, it was less fun spending the night sweating in the tent.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to tear down the tents and have breakfast at the little restaurant on the beach. It was so gorgeous being only a few feet from the water and being the only ones on the beach! Not to mention this was all part of “work!” After wards we loaded up the batallas and drove about an hour south where we took a little speedboat to an island called Amapala. We took our little speed boat past some beautiful houses to a private beach owned by two families that looked like a long lost beach out of a movie. It was super clean with no houses or people in sight and no amenities at all. It was really perfect. And as a bonus, there was all this volcanic mud because Amapala used to be an active volcano so we collected the mud from the bottom of the ocean floor and rubbed it on ourselves to have the best mud bath ever. Our skin was so soft afterwards and all we could keep thinking was how much something like that would cost in the states. We stayed and swam around for about 2 ½ hrs and afterwards we took our little boat to another part of the island to visit the island’s tourism office to speak with the woman who runs it. Afterwards we went to the municipality where we looked at really old photos of the island and heard a bit about its history. Then we all loaded up on the boat again and went to Playa Burro to do another interview and then have the most fabulous lunch to date here in Honduras! Again the restaurant was only a few feet from the ocean but this time we had a buffet of seafood including cheviche, paella with shrimp and lobster as well as grilled fish and shrimp. We spent a lot of time stuffing our faces and relaxing at the restaurant before getting back on the boat and loading back up in the batallas to head back to Ojojona. Although the trip back was pretty hot with all of us stuffed into two vehicles (about 24 of us) we did get to stop for ice cream as well as stop to visit the Wat/Saners in Prespire which was really nice. We ended up getting back around dinner time, totally exhausted and glad to be back in our much cooler site.

Overall the trip was so amazing! It was so nice to go to the beach and “relax” a little because we have been working so hard in FBT (Field Based Training). Plus it was a great way for all of us to spend time together outside of training and become more of a team. In addition Amapala is a future site so someone will be doing their service there which has more than a few people excited. It won’t be long now (May 4th)!!!

Holy Jesús Cristo y Semana Santa

(written 4/12/09)

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day! The celebrations here have been great but I must admit it doesn’t feel like Easter without a Cadbury egg or at least a peep L This week was Semana Santa which is the biggest holiday here in Honduras. The majority of Hondurans have the entire week off and those who are not participating in the dozens of masses and processions are spending their time at the beach, so its definitely the time of the year that everyone looks forward to. It was a good week for us aspirantes (trainees) too because it meant we only had two days of training. The week’s activities started off on Sunday morning at 3am when selected members of the Catholic Church begin making their sawdust carpets for the morning’s procession. The carpets represent those laid out for Jesus on Palm Sunday and are made from dyed sawdust laid in large paper stencils. My family made a carpet and the whole process actually takes quite awhile (even though I did not go down to the plaza with them at 3am). The carpets were made down the center of the entire road that connects the two catholic churches in town and they were really beautiful. It was so surprising that some of them were only made of sawdust. Then at 9am a large procession began in the Catholic Church at the top of the hill. Everyone was holding palms and singing when the priest came out of the church with a donkey that was decorated and carrying a statue of Jesus. After some prayers the priest led the donkey down the carpet path to the church at the other end of town with everyone following behind singing. The procession completely destroys the carpets so I was really glad I got there early to see them because so much work went into something that was only used for less than 20 minutes. Once the procession reached the church everyone went inside for a 2+ hour mass. The whole church was so packed with people that there wasn’t even room to stand inside that many people just stood outside the church in the blazing sun for the entire thing. The whole morning was really beautiful and interesting and I am so glad that I was able to experience it in a small town that still practices old traditions like this.

Later in the week on Wednesday Peace Corps hosted a cultural day where everyone made a traditional Honduran dish/ drink with their host family and brought it to share. Someone must have warned everyone that I am no chef because my mom and I only had to bring Posol which is a traditional beverage made from cornmeal, sugar, milk, ice and cinnamon. But it was still good despite my previous disastrous kitchen experiences and we didn’t have any leftover so I guess it was a success. In fact all the food was really amazing so I hope I will be able to make some of these dishes when I am in my site. Aside from the food every Spanish class had to do an activity so my class did a skit. It was actually pretty funny because I was the mom and my teacher Victor was the dad and the three other boys were the aspirantes who couldn’t speak Spanish and just kept repeating phrases like “Tengo un gato en mis pantelones “ ( I have a cat in my pants) or “Donde esta la biblioteca” (Where is the library) for every conversational situation. Some of the other activities included a country line dance, a map game where all our families had to put our names on our home state without asking us direct questions, a song by the business boys and of course a piñata for the children. Afterwards a group of children did a traditional Honduran dance for us and then pulled people up on stage to dance with them. Of course I got chosen and had to try and replicate the dance in front of everyone haha. It really was a lot of fun and it was nice to do something for our families.

On Thursday I went to Teguz with my family to buy supplies for the big Easter dinner. My host brother drove my mom, nephews and I and then we met up with my host dad who got off work early form the airport (unfortunately he has one of the few jobs that don’t get the holy week off). We spent the entire afternoon there and by the time we got home I was exhausted so I went to bed directly after dinner. Unfortunately, I woke up at 1am really sick with the flu. For those of you who heard the details it was pretty intense for a few hours and now I am pretty much dreading being alone and sick in my site. So, I spent all of Friday in bed but phone calls from home and visits from my friends here definitely helped make me feel better. On Saturday I tried to lay low for a lot of the day and get myself back in business for the night’s activities because Saturday night is when Easter is actually celebrated here. Everyone spends the entire day cooking and decorating the house and then at 10pm they go to mass. I had originally agreed to go to mass with my mom because I wanted to see the differences in the celebration but when my host sister informed me that mass starts at 10:30pm and goes until 2am and that no one else in the family was going with my mom, I quickly reconsidered my decision. In the end I am glad I did because I was able to go to movie night with the other aspirantes and then get in a quick nap before everyone came back from church and the party started. Around 3am my host mom and about 12 family members/ friends came home to have Easter dinner which was really good. Afterwards there was a toast followed by some dancing and desert. Even though it was late, everyone was in a great mood and spent the night talking about who fell asleep during mass and how I only got up to eat and dance lol. I even got some meringue lessons courtesy of my host cousin because my mom tells anyone who will listen how much I love to dance and makes everyone dance with me! It was all so much fun that I didn’t end up getting to bed until 5:30am. Since everyone celebrates late on Saturday night, today is saved for relaxation and I am definitely enjoying it!

Tomorrow we are going camping on the beach as part of our tourism training and I can’t wait!!!!