Site Placement

I am currently sitting through a torrential downpour. Which means this is the best time to use the internet. That makes sense, right? Well, I have fully charged batteries on my laptop and my phone (modem) and there is no power in town, which means I am one of few, if any, other people able to access the internet, so it's all mine!

It seems like I've been here a while. And I have. However, I'm still in this long, arduous part of Peace Corps known as training. I'm not a Peace Corps Volunteer. Yet. I'm a Peace Corps Trainee.

So here's how it works. I spend roughly 3 months in cultural, technical, and language classes learning how to interact with my family, what it means to be a business volunteer, and of course, Spanish. Throughout training, there are a series of 3 technical interviews where my superiors sit down with me 2 on 1 and ask me a range of questions from what kind of work I'd like to do to what size of town I'd like to live in. As the experience progresses, I get a better and better idea of the aspects that are bueno, and the aspects that are not-so-bueno. Sometimes I change my answers from one interview to the next based on my experiences and exposure to certain things. For example, I really had no idea what size of town I wanted to live in. But after I came back from a tiny little pueblo in Olancho, I realized I kind of like the quaintness, although I wanted something a little bit bigger with a few thousand people.

I went to my 3rd interview yesterday. This is the big one, and the last. I have now officially told them all of my requests and thoughts about what I want the next 2 years of my life to look like. This interview was spent mostly portraying the types of sites that they are considering for me, and then discussing my feelings towards each scenario. So here are the pictures they painted:

1 - This is a pretty rural site with a couple thousand people. My main counterparts (who generally determine what kind of work I'll be doing) would be two different coffee cooperatives. There was one coop, but after deciding a few of the farmers had higher quality coffee that was simply being diluted, they amiably created their own. Or rather, they're still in the process of creating it, and that's where I would come in. The other big part of work at that site would be the high school (colegio) where I would be able to give all sorts of business charlas (lessons) and most likely help in creating some microbusinesses. I realized, after having done a few activities with the schools, that I really enjoy working with kids and I think that aspect would really add to my overall job satisfaction. The nearest big city would be a couple hours away by bus, but I realized I was asking for a rural site when I said I wanted to work with coffee. As far as microfinance, there's always an opportunity to work with money when you're working with business. And my counterparts don't limit me to the type of work I'll be able to do at my site, so I'm fine with that not being included in the painted scene.

2 - This site is slightly bigger and is more urban. There are about 3 larger cities within 30 mins. In this site, I would be working with a women's coffee cooperative and would be linked to some of the aldeas (surrounding villages) through the municipality, where I would work to create microbusinesses with the youth. The European Union has funds available for youth-run businesses, and I would be helping to organize, create, and write business plans for these microempresas.

There was a lot more we talked about in the interview. Why I didn't really want to work with artesanía (handicrafts, or "handicrap"?) because I just didn't see the value in it. I mean, if I'm going to get involved with growing or starting someone's business, I'd prefer that it didn't just collect dust in some gringo's house. But hey, that's just my personal opinion. A lot of people love the pine-needle-woven placemats. And more power to them, because they're doing the work I don't want to do. Also, nice thing happens when you request to work with coffee - you get placed in high, mountainous, coffee-growing regions of the country where the weather is much more bearable. That part I'm excited about. A lot of other aspirantes PC Trainees are really preoccupied, or even worried, about where they'll end up and what kinds of hints are being dropped in the interview. Here's my philosophy: I didn't request to come to Honduras. Heck, I didn't even request to come to Latin America. And so far, I'm loving it. So why start being picky now? Since December, when Peace Corps told me I'd be headed for Honduras on February 22nd, I knew I was on a need-to-know basis. And trust me, there's a whole lot of things that I simply do not need to know. So for the time being, I'm going to continue to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Only God knows where I'll end up, and He's never steered me wrong.


Salmos 23


Jehová es mi pastor; nada me faltará.
En lugares de delicados pastos me hará descansar;
Junto a aguas de reposo me pastoreará.
Confortará mi alma; 
Me guiará por sendas de justicia por amor de su nombre.
Aunque ande en valle de sombra de muerte,
No temeré mal alguno, porque tú estarás conmigo;
Tu vara y tu cayado me infundirán aliento.
Aderezas mesa delante de mí en presencia de mis angustiadores;
Unges mi cabeza con aceite; mi copa está rebosando.
Ciertamente el bien y la misericordia me seguirán todos los días de mi vida,
Y en la casa de Jehová moraré por largos días.

Semana Santa

As most of you know, this past Sunday was Easter Sunday. What most of you probably don't know is that you could have had vacation all week long if you lived in Honduras. Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the week leading up to Easter Sunday and there are all sorts of events, mainly processions, that take place. As U.S. government property, we had to work Monday-Wednesday, but then we had a nice long weekend.

Thursday kicked off with a soccer game. We split the teams evenly between gringos and hondurans. Although, the Hondurans should have counted for two since they have twice the stamina and twice the soccer skill than the rest of us. I managed to score one of the goals for my team. After the goalie and defender had been taken out in the prior two attempts, I was free to nudge the ball over the goal line (along with the final defender). The second half my team wanted to switch up goalies... you know me, I've never been goalie in my life, but I've seen it on TV and it doesn't look that hard. So I went for it! I was also thinking, let's get this Honduran out scoring some more goals and keeping the ball on the other half of the field - easy work. I was able to challenge a few attempts at goal and save our team from losing the victory. Apparently they thought I was kind of good, even though I made the one mistake a goalie can make and picked up drop-pass. (Note: you can only grab the ball when it's not being passed to you). I got a little scraped up, but I think I heard some guys calling me "Portero" (goalie) in the street the other day.

Thursday night started the Silent Procession, signifying the time that Jesus went away to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane before being brought before the Roman court. After this procession passed the main street at about 12:00am, the night began. If you've ever heard of Semana Santa, then surely you've heard of the alfombras. The translation is 'carpet' but alfombras sounds more appealing. And trust me, you need appealing sounding words to stay up all night long tediously pouring colored sawdust into cardboard stencils so that it can be trampled down by the massive procession the following day. Yes, that's right. This beauty did not even live to see its 24-hour birthday. Hopefully you can see some of the process in the collage above. We're in a pretty small town, so our resources are limited, but there were about 15 - 20 people when we started and we spent the whole night just making this one section. Bigger towns around Central America have massive, elaborate, ornate alfombras that stretch for blocks and sometimes different neighborhoods take over different sections and spent all night creating their masterpieces. Well, I didn't actually stay up all night. I bailed at about 5am. It's amazing how rapidly sleep moves up the priority list when you try to pull an all-nighter. I saw the face of Jesus, saw Him smiling, He knew I wanted to go to bed. I heard Him say "It is good," so I went.

The next day I slept in until lunchtime. It was a pretty lazy day of napping and hanging around, and also enjoying the pool on my neighbor's roof. Best idea ever! They even put up a tent so it was in the shade. It was much cleaner than the river where everyone had been hanging out every other day that week. I stuck with the lazy theme and called it a night pretty early. That left me well-rested for Saturday.

Saturday was the day for the big dance (ACU read: choreography) fiesta. It started at 10pm and went until 3am. There had been a couple other kick-off dances like this before, but this was one of the "bigger" ones, so I heard. Turns out they weren't lying, there were a lot of people there, all in their teens and twenties. I kept telling everyone I can't dance, or that I don't like to, or that I wasn't sure about paying the $2 at the door, etc. But in the end, us humans are pretty adaptable. I actually ended up having a really good time, made better by the fact that I had met several people by this point and felt like I actually had some friends around. So I took the opportunity to get some dance lessons in Bachata, Cumbia, Merengue, and of course Reggaeton, which isn't really associated with any particular dance. So it ended up being a great night and I even danced a little bit (ok, kind of a lot). I even made my host family stay until 3am, before finally giving into their desire to go home. In conclusion, let's just say a good time was had by all, and white guy can move a li'l bit. And I'm actually really looking forward to the next fiesta!

I have just over a week left here before we head back to our original training site. I'm gonna be really sad to leave after having met so many people and really integrating with my family, who serves some really scrumptious dishes. After another week back at base camp, we'll all go our separate ways to our new homes. Official swear-in date is Friday, May 13 (also my parents' anniversary).


Enjoy the pictures and I hope you all had a lovely Easter.

Pila Talk & Olancho

As you may remember about rural Honduras, most people don’t have washing machines. How in the world do they clean their clothes, you ask? This wonderful invention called a pila. It’s basically a permanent cement washboard connected to your holding tank of water. This is where they get that saying “washboard abs” – it’s the tool you use and the result of using it. You get that tub full of water and then wash and rinse your clothes little by little using a paila (scooper). This method really does clean your clothes better than a washing machine because you are washing every item of clothing individually. However, the downside is you use a lot, a lot!, of water. And if you’re anything like me, you also sweat. A lot.

Now this does seem like a fun thing to spend 2 hours every Saturday doing, but let me add to the thrill. The pila is right next to the kitchen, where the women like to hang out. I have a 40yr-old brother living with me who does his own laundry, but for the most part it’s extremely rare for a man to wash anything on the pila. (We’ll talk about why 40yr-old sons still live with their moms later). So you can imagine me, for maybe the fifth time now, taking my laundry for the week and setting it down in a heap to be washed. First of all, I do like to wear clean clothes on a daily basis. And second of all, I am twice the size of the average Honduran.  After having been told that I have a montón of laundry, they stick around to watch how I intend to wash my montón. Now, I’m not in any particular rush to wash my clothes as fast as possible, nor do I want to be working up a sweat in the near-100° heat. I mean I’d rather not spend my whole day doing laundry, but let’s be honest, what else am I going to do all day? So about 20 minutes in, the women decide I need a lesson from an expert. Poor gringo has used a machine his whole life and he’s not used to washing his own clothes (slightly demeaning, but nonetheless true). Let me not forget that this shirt-washing lesson was quickly followed by an underwear-washing session, while the other women were still watching. I could have chosen to be embarrassed, but instead I decided to take notes, as she was explaining I’ll probably have to do this every week for the next two years so I should learn how to do it right. The embarrassing part is actually when I’m washing the clothes and someone walks by every so often, maybe lingers for a minute watching me, and asks, “¿Ya termina?” “Are you done already?” ¿Cómo se dice: “Does it look like I’m done already?!”?

Overall, I think I halved my laundry time this past weekend, and will continue working on my technique. Let me also say, these washboards were designed for a 5’ tall woman. So a 6’ me… have you seen the movie Elf? Yeah, it’s like I’m working at an elf station. But I know it’s a good workout. At least that’s what I tell myself when I’m dripping sweat into the shirt I’m washing.

Venga si quiere, salga si puede

Come if you want, leave if you can

Olancho is a department unto itself. It’s not quite the abandoned terrain of the Moskito region, but it doesn’t quite belong to the rest of the “well-maintained” Honduras. It often maintains its own form of vigilante law, and for that, it is often referred to as the Wild East (at least among Volunteers). Olancho is also the proud home of Honduras’ two most recent presidents, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya and Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo. But its motto holds, whether referring to the captivating beauty of its rolling hills or to the dead feeling some people get when on the receiving end of a recently-discharged revolver, Olancho has its reasons for staying. However difficult it is to leave, I managed to escape (at least for now) back to the department of El Paraíso for another 5 weeks.

I learned several important things while visiting my new friend Erika in Olancho. The first was that I discovered I am preferential to small sites. Seeing her walk around town and being greeted by name by every person in the street gave it a really small-town feel. Now this site was only 1500 people; perhaps a little too small for me, but the sense of community is overwhelming and is exactly the type of community life I had pictured upon applying to the Peace Corps.

We also spent a day on top of a mountain hiking around to small coffee farms surveying the families about what kinds of resources (pilas, running water, cement floors) were available to them, and what business opportunities might exist for them (i.e. do you own the land). I’ve always been interested in coffee, and have spent a few years learning as much as possible about it while pouring double-tall non-fat vanilla lattes for Starbucks addicts. Upon seeing these coffee farms and discussing the farming methods with the farmers, my head was flooded with ideas of how to improve the process and sell the coffee for a higher price (Note: Coffee futures closed around $280). I continue to be shocked with how basic most concepts are here. Thinking to myself what little I actually know about a certain topic, and then realizing that one college class session about anything is more than what most of these people have learned in a lifetime, or sometimes several. And that’s not to say that people here are not smart. These people have figured out how to thrive with, oftentimes, only the most basic of living conditions. The intelligence comes in to play in a completely different way. I think if someone tested their social intelligence, they would be blown away. Tell me if you know where all the stores are in your town and what they sell. Now tell me about each of their families and what all of their children do and where they live. Now add to that knowing which fruit/vegetable/grain vendors come to town on which day and who has the lowest prices. And if you’re my host mom, you also run your own business baking and selling cookies out of your home! Can she do double-digit multiplication in her head? Probably not, but that’s why calculators were invented (for simple addition, too). I guess I’m trying to say life is different in Honduras, and I’m always learning.

The other point I remembered to bring up in my technical interview (interview with our directors about our site placement and work desires) was that I love teaching and working with youth. I can’t believe I almost didn’t say this, because we’ve done a couple of activities with youth so far and I’ve loved them. There is also a lot of material available for pretty much any project you can think of with the schools. I mentioned my most recent 2 months before leaving Seattle helping tutor for Algebra after school, and it was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done. The feedback I got from this desire was that schools are always a great place to start, and that they are almost like a blank canvas for volunteers to paint whatever picture they want, if not to just get their hands dirty.

All in all, I’m not too worried about my site placement. I’ve done my part in the interviews and expressed my desires. Now I leave it up to the pros, these guys have been putting Volunteers in awesome sites for quite some time and they probably know where I’ll fit best better than I do. And there’s One more who certainly has a plan for my site and the work I’ll be doing there, so I’ve decided not to worry myself about it.

As we continue through this journey together, I hope that you all are living good stories – realizing your desires and overcoming obstacles to get them. If it makes a good story, it makes a good life.

Como se dice: Where's the wifi?

As previously mentioned, and now confirmed, internet usage is a lot harder to come by. It does exist in the town I'm in, but it is unbelievable slow. And it only works when the power's on... who knew? So in the last 5 days, we've been out of power 3 of them for at least some part of the day. Usually it's in the evenings, but the third time (the charm) it was out for a solid 24 hours. I consider this my wakeup call to real Peace Corps life. I haven't had a warm shower since I left staging in Atlanta, and that was at 4:00am, so it wasn't very well appreciated. We also ate dinner by candle-light, after my mom cooked on the woodfire stove. Environmentally-friendly or not, that things work come rain or shine, luz or no luz.

All that quick summary to say I found some internet, and I'm not even at a cafe. All of the aspirantes (trainees) are doing a "volunteer visit" which means I'm in Olancho right now (Eastside!). It's kind of like Texas: it's hot, dry, and everyone has guns. Which, depending on your definition of safety and security, could be very safe or very scary... or both. I'll be here until Wednesday getting a taste of real volunteer life. The first taste was a 2-hour bus ride to Teguz followed by a 4-hour bus ride with a shifting capacity of people, from 10 to 100. I'm convinced the U.S. has not taken full advantage of all the space available inside of your standard schoolbus. It's simply supply and demand. If people are demanding to get on the bus and are willing to pay the whopping $3.50 to travel halfway across the country, then the only limit on your profit is the supply of space on your bus. And trust me, profit is worth more than your "personal space." I know I haven't even mentioned much about my new home in Yuscaran, but I'll get to that next time. Let's just say, I moved up in the world and now have running water at my house, but it's still cold. Also, my mom owns a small business baking sugar cookies. I help out with the product testing to ensure consistent quality. I do this about 3 times a day, always over coffee (with more sugar!).

So what's the gameplan? Well, we're headed out bright and early tomorrow to a surrounding village that has no water. Why did they decide to live where they can't get access to water? There can only be one answer to that question: coffee. So we're headed up with some Water/Sanitation volunteers to see what we can do about getting some water systems installed and help out with income-generating projects for the community. We should knock that out by lunch, and then we'll see what happens.

Other than that, not sure what you guys have been reading/hearing in the news about Honduas, but there's some people in the streets of Tegucigalpa unhappy about the lack of money in their bank accounts. Merely the tip of the iceberg, but just one of the indicators of the amount of work to be done here. And also an idea of how complex and integrated the development issues are.

Thanks for reading, and I'll try to keep some semi-regular updates coming your way.


Ritmo de Cambio: Mucho. Lento.