Subirana, Yoro: Meet & Greet

I’ve fallen into my new little world quite nicely and almost forgot that some of you want to know what I’m doing. So I’ve been in Subirana for almost two weeks now, though it feels like longer. My host family is amazing, very esteemed and Godly people in the community. With their help, I’ve met most of the important people in town. Let me try to explain how my job works before I go any further.

It works like this: I’m a Volunteer, not an employee. I don’t work at a business or organization, I work in the community. I’m not here to work on my own projects, I’m here to work on projects the community needs. “So what exactly do you do?” you might ask, as most people in the community do. Well, I’m still figuring that out, but I seem to be doing quite a lot without having a good idea of what I’m doing. My designated counterparts, or work partners, are the two schools in town – the centro básico (grades 1-9) and the colegio (3 years of specialization). I also work with a coffee cooperative, called COMISUYL (Cooperativa Mixta Subirana, Yoro Limitada) who has a pretty good thing going. The main task there is to automate their accounting system with Excel magic. I’m also looking for other things to get involved in, which has been pretty easy because the people here have a lot of initiative. There’s a community youth group that is really interested in starting community activities like a fair, organized sports, recycling projects, movie nights, reconstructing the community center, etc. They heard I was in town and were eager to meet me and start pitching their ideas to me, so now my job is to do what I do best – critique and ask questions. I’m also going to start working with my host dad creating a savings and credit cooperative.

So, I’ve already met all of the teachers at both schools, who then took me around to each class and introduced me to all of the students. My host mom owns a rather large store across the street, so I’ve met all of the kids that work there and she’s sure to introduce me to any important folk who come by. My host dad is the president of a Christian organization called Hombres de Negocios (Men of Business), through which I’ve met nearly all of the male business leaders in town. He also has a few brothers in town who are community leaders. All of these people have been the most gracious to me and have offered their homes and anything that I need. “A sus ordenes,” they tell me. At your service. This phrase melts my heart every time I hear it. “I came here to serve you,” I think to myself. “How is it that I feel so served?”

During training they told us not to expect much. Life would be extremely slow as we met the people and waited to gain their confidence before being entrusted with any “real” work. I’ve met the people, established some tentative work hours and I feel I’m well on my way to integrating and getting some work done. I’ve already taught a few computer classes on Excel, gotten involved with class projects at both schools, given a few informal English lessons, and created a Powerpoint presentation for the Cooperative to give to its investor organizations tomorrow. What’s my favorite part so far? Walking across the soccer field (campo from here on out) and having people yell out “¡Hola, Adán!” with a smile and a wave. It feels good to be known.

Current community issue: Water. I think I’ve had 3 running-water-showers since I arrived. Gotta love those cold bucket baths! If I thought hot showers woke me up, it’s because I never had a cold bucket bath. Now that will wake you up! The bucket is useful though, because you also use it to flush the toilet. But there’s only so much water in the big bucket. You know what they say… I’m just not sure how to translate the verb mellow, and I’m pretty sure brown and down don’t rhyme in Spanish.

Speaking of doing things old-school, I was finally able to access some decent internet long enough to upload a video of me washing my clothes in the pila in Yuscarán, which I have not had to do here. And yes, I am wearing clean clothes. Enjoy the bonus material.

Officially a PCV: Now What?

*Honduras 18 Business Team @ The U.S. Embassy*

It's the last night in Zarabanda, our original training site, and it's raining. I can feel it sprinkling down from the shoddy ceiling. It seems appropriate. I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer; I should be elated right now. After all of the application, anticipation, and training I've finally arrived. I've made tons of friends, seen different parts of Honduras, improved my Spanish, and now what? I haven't even started.

It's an exciting journey. But yet, I'm not excited. Not right now, anyway. While it's the beginning of something great, it's also the end of something great. The end of English, the end of American friends, the end of familiarity however brief it might have been. It's the end of several relationships, the good ones, and also the bad ones, or at least a drastic change in them. No more friends to hug when I'm feeling down. No more friendly language teachers always around. No more helpful staff to guide me and encourage me.

I'm reminded again of El Ritmo de Cambio - the title to my blog. Change has come again. It always has a way of finding me. It's inevitable; it comes and goes when it pleases. Me, however, I'm on a schedule of constant change.

And now I'm here. In a little town called Subirana. In the middle of nowhere. Put here to accomplish something. 'What will you do?' someone's already asked me. 'I don't know' is the only response I have right now. There's a lot of things I don't know. I just finished 3 months of training; I feel like I should know something. So what happens next? I'm nervous; feeling excited about starting the next two years, but at the same time feeling sad and reminiscent about the past three months.

Onward and upward, I tell myself. I visited the coffee finca already, and the other plot of land that will slowly become another finca. I had fresh cream with my frijoles, it comes from the cows they milk everyday. My family also makes cheese, which no one sells in this town. I've met the family, one of whom married a Swiss tourist some years ago and they are the only English-speaking people in my town. I was ready to eliminate English from my vocabulary, but thank God there is always that possibility. I think they might become my best friends, not just because of the English, but because they've also experienced drastic changes in culture and language.

Final notes:

The electroducha (shower-water-heater-upper-thing) was bad intel. Day 81 of cold showers or bucket baths. But that's a small thing, I'm just glad I finally have indoor plumbing. I've had indoor DIY bathrooms, and I've had outdoor plumbing. Now I have my own bathroom with running water whenever I want, and there's not even a bucket in sight! Plus I had some amazing coffee for breakfast that actually tasted like coffee. Now to get to it before the sugar goes in. I need to look up the word for 'bitter' again. I've had several conversations about coffee, and I will undoubtedly have several more. However, I highly doubt I'll get tired of talking about it. I'm also not sure how I should feel about the "workers" cleaning my room and doing all of my laundry. I feel like I should feel guilty for some reason, but I absolutely love it. I remember in Guatemala, the maid didn't even talk to me or look at me. But these people are more like family, so for the meanwhile I am living life on a cloud. I took about 6 steps up the socio-economic ladder by moving to this poor, small pueblo. Interesting.

If anyone else is going through drastic change, or maybe you're just wondering if that change will ever come, I assure you, and myself, of two things: Change will come. You will survive. Think of me when you drink your coffee, and enjoy today.

The Reveal

After all of the anticipation and build-up of the last two and half months of training, and really of the last year or more since I decided to join Peace Corps, I finally have a home. My directors received feedback about me from my interactions with nearly every human for the last few months, always watching to see how I reacted in certain situations, what kind of personality I had, how I adapted to the culture, along with a whole array of other factors, to determine where I would end up. With all of that information, combined with everything I've said in my interviews and questionnaires, they have placed me in... that top right corner spot, far away from everyone else in the picture. Note: this floor map of Honduras was made entirely of masking tape and good old-fashioned American ingenuity. The faint outline of the flag in the top left is my personal handiwork.

Subirana, outside Yoro in the department of Yoro!

For those of you unfamiliar with Honduran geography, Yoro is a department in the northern part of the country. It is not the famously popular north coast. In fact, it is a landlocked department typically known for being jungle-like and hot. However, since I will be working with a couple coffee cooperatives, I have the good fortune of being placed in a mountainous, temperate-weathered site. I will also be partnering with a couple of the schools there to implement some business charlas (lessons). There are also opportunities to teach English to some of the teachers, start a business with some of the colegio students, and implement a recycling program, along with who knows what else! The town has a few thousand people and I'm told the leaders have a lot of initiative, which sounds perfect. My host family (from the reading) seems very well connected and fairly well-to-do. I almost cried when I read that there is an electroducha (electric shower-head) in my new home. That means, if all goes according to plan, I am just a week away from taking my first hot shower in-country. That's 80 days of semi-cold to freezing cold showers, folks. Not to mention, I will have running water (YAY!) and my own personal bathroom (double YAY!). My new host parents own a bodega (supermarket), my host mom is an elected official for the municipality, and my host dad is a coffee farmer - they dry coffee on the back patio.

There are a few other Volunteers from the other projects that also got placed around me, but within an hour or two, it's just me. I'm finally leaving America! I'm definitely excited to get out on my own and put myself and all my skills to the test. We've learned a lot throughout all of this training; the rubber is about to meet the road, and I couldn't be more ready for it. Thanks to all of you for the prayers and well-wishing. I am so appreciative for everything that God has done and is doing and I have only good things to expect from Him in the future.

Amen.