So I need to start out this blog with a major confession: I am on the meatwagon, and I love it. Carne Asada, pork loin, ground beef, shredded chicken, as well as some unidentified meat items have all been incorporated into my diet. I was terrified about how this would all go down with the old G.I. System, but it hasn't been any worse than the normal G.I. Issues I've had off and on since I've been in country. I thought that there would be an intense internal moral debate about the almost-life-long vegetarian going back to her cave-woman instincts, but its all so amazingly delicious, I really haven't worried about it. It started when I realized that no matter how hard I try, until I live on my own here, I'll never be able to be a vegetarian. Most Hondurans don't really understand what a vegetarian is, so you end up getting served a lot of meat anyway, and then don't want to be rude by telling them no. I finally figured that if I have to eat it, I'm going to love every minute of it, and I have. I'm sure that once I move into my own house, I'll try to keep up the vegetarian lifestyle thing, but right now, I'm loving anything served on a skewer.
This week has been an incredibly full week, and I'm working on an actual blog post to send out – I'll try to do this ASAP. Until then, I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Y-mela? Y-not?
So, first of all, I´m so sorry for taking so long to post another blog...I´m currently living in a teeny, tiny town with no internet, and no grocery store, and well basically, no nothing. It´s called Yarumela, and has a population of approximately 1,500 people. 8 of us are living there, and the other 8 in our health group are living in La Paz, which is where I am at the moment, using the amazing, fantastic technology called the internet.
Things are going pretty well here, but it is definitely a different world than Santa Lucia. Our host families in Yarumela haven´t hosted any ¨gringos¨before, so I think it has been an adjustment for pretty much everyone. My host family calls me ¨la princesa¨(I don´t think I need to translate that), and won´t let me help with any of the household chores, which makes me feel pretty bad. My host mom and I also don´t have the best communication, I don´t understand her Spanish, she doesn´t understand my Spanglish, so its been a bit frustrating. An example of a conversation:
Host Mom: What would you like for dinner tonight?
Me: Whatever you´re making for the family is fine for me.
HM: No, I want to make what you want
Me: Um, I´m ok with whatever you make.
HM: But tell me what you want me to make.
Me: Well, I´m not really familiar with the food here, and you´re a good cook, so whatever you´d like to make is fine.
HM: But what do you want???
And it goes on from there. This pretty much happens for every meal, and for every time I leave the house (when would you like me home? whenever you´d like. What are we doing tomorrow? Whatever you´d like to do.)
Besides that though, the family is super nice and have been great to live with. They put up with my garbled Spanish and gringo need for privacy, so I appreciate that.
This week is Semana Santa, so we have had 4 days of glorious, glorious vacation. We have been able to do a lot of fun stuff, so I´ll run down the week with you:
Wednesday: Cultural Day in La Paz with our families; they cooked all of the food and we brought the finer points of American Culture to Honduras, such as the Electric Slide and Easter Egg Dyeing. Fun was had by all, and the food was delicious. Photos have been posted on flickr.
Thursday: We went to the rio, where there was swimming and barbecuing and general hanging out. I felt like I was back home, and loved it. Later in the day, we were witness to a time-honered tradition in Yarumela: The Running of the Jews. No, not kidding. Flashbacks of Borat were running through my mind, but thank goodness, none of them laid an egg, so I guess we´re safe for another year. In all honesty, I was torn between being completely appalled at something so offensive, and also having fun running from them as they chased us and, of course, demanded money. I guess this is what they mean by adapt and integrate.
Friday: The best day, by far. The Yarumela trainees were able to score a bus to Comayagua, thanks to Sarah´s, another one of the trainee´s, family. They drive one of the buses between La Paz and Comayagua, and though the buses normally don´t run during Semana Santa, they gave us our own private tour. Pretty sweet. Its a tradition in a lot of Honduras to create alfombras (carpets) out of colored sawdust on Holy Friday, and then have the stations of the cross throughout the town. Comayagua is famous for theirs. We had a great time, and then went and had Pizza Hut after, then watched I Am Legend (yay for pirated movies!!!). All in all, a fantastic day.
Saturday: In the big city writing to all of you, will hopefully buy some fruit to take back to the fam this afternoon, and who knows what will happen tonight...
I´ve also had some requests for care package ideas lately, so if you´re thinking about sending one my way, the following are ALWAYS appreciated:
Magazines (The economist, paste, national geographic, mother jones)
burned cds and dvds (any new music that you love is most welcome)
girl scout cookies
books, books, books - anything you loved that you have laying around the house is perfect
travel packs of tissues
single use packs of hair conditioner (the kinds you find at Sally Beauty)
I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!
Things are going pretty well here, but it is definitely a different world than Santa Lucia. Our host families in Yarumela haven´t hosted any ¨gringos¨before, so I think it has been an adjustment for pretty much everyone. My host family calls me ¨la princesa¨(I don´t think I need to translate that), and won´t let me help with any of the household chores, which makes me feel pretty bad. My host mom and I also don´t have the best communication, I don´t understand her Spanish, she doesn´t understand my Spanglish, so its been a bit frustrating. An example of a conversation:
Host Mom: What would you like for dinner tonight?
Me: Whatever you´re making for the family is fine for me.
HM: No, I want to make what you want
Me: Um, I´m ok with whatever you make.
HM: But tell me what you want me to make.
Me: Well, I´m not really familiar with the food here, and you´re a good cook, so whatever you´d like to make is fine.
HM: But what do you want???
And it goes on from there. This pretty much happens for every meal, and for every time I leave the house (when would you like me home? whenever you´d like. What are we doing tomorrow? Whatever you´d like to do.)
Besides that though, the family is super nice and have been great to live with. They put up with my garbled Spanish and gringo need for privacy, so I appreciate that.
This week is Semana Santa, so we have had 4 days of glorious, glorious vacation. We have been able to do a lot of fun stuff, so I´ll run down the week with you:
Wednesday: Cultural Day in La Paz with our families; they cooked all of the food and we brought the finer points of American Culture to Honduras, such as the Electric Slide and Easter Egg Dyeing. Fun was had by all, and the food was delicious. Photos have been posted on flickr.
Thursday: We went to the rio, where there was swimming and barbecuing and general hanging out. I felt like I was back home, and loved it. Later in the day, we were witness to a time-honered tradition in Yarumela: The Running of the Jews. No, not kidding. Flashbacks of Borat were running through my mind, but thank goodness, none of them laid an egg, so I guess we´re safe for another year. In all honesty, I was torn between being completely appalled at something so offensive, and also having fun running from them as they chased us and, of course, demanded money. I guess this is what they mean by adapt and integrate.
Friday: The best day, by far. The Yarumela trainees were able to score a bus to Comayagua, thanks to Sarah´s, another one of the trainee´s, family. They drive one of the buses between La Paz and Comayagua, and though the buses normally don´t run during Semana Santa, they gave us our own private tour. Pretty sweet. Its a tradition in a lot of Honduras to create alfombras (carpets) out of colored sawdust on Holy Friday, and then have the stations of the cross throughout the town. Comayagua is famous for theirs. We had a great time, and then went and had Pizza Hut after, then watched I Am Legend (yay for pirated movies!!!). All in all, a fantastic day.
Saturday: In the big city writing to all of you, will hopefully buy some fruit to take back to the fam this afternoon, and who knows what will happen tonight...
I´ve also had some requests for care package ideas lately, so if you´re thinking about sending one my way, the following are ALWAYS appreciated:
Magazines (The economist, paste, national geographic, mother jones)
burned cds and dvds (any new music that you love is most welcome)
girl scout cookies
books, books, books - anything you loved that you have laying around the house is perfect
travel packs of tissues
single use packs of hair conditioner (the kinds you find at Sally Beauty)
I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Volunteer Visita
Hi All,
First of all, congrats to Cindy for figuring out how much I”m making! It's right around $3 a day. Which, to be honest, is ok, because our housing and food is being provided right now. However, it is a little tough when we are expected to get cell phones and other items that cost about a week's worth of pay. Most of us brought some American dollars with us, so that has gone to the extra stuff.
This past week, we had our volunteer visits, and mine was incredible! Myself and another trainee were place with a volunteer in El Negrito, which is located in Yoro. Each trainee is supposed to have their own volunteer, but the original volunteer I was assigned to had a family emergency and had to go back to the States. Kristina, another one of the Health Trainees, was kind enough to share her volunteer with me! We got to El Negrito on Sunday, and just walked around the town with Krista, the volunteer who is currently serving there. She has been in country for two years, and will end her service in April. El Negrito is a town of approximately 13,000, but with the surrounding aldeas, it might be more. The people that we spoke with were all really nice. This was also the first time I really had to deal with piropos, which are just dirty things that men yell at a lot of the women here. Think about walking through one giant construction site all day long. It's not bad here in Santa Lucia, but it was bad at the bus stops along the way. They especially like to single out the gringas, so that's an added frustration.
Krista is currently working on several projects, one of which is an abstinence initiative funded by money from PEPFAR. She is working with several other volunteers to create a course designed for girls ages 10-13. The hope is that once the project is finished, it can be implemented on a national level. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after reading through the lessons, the project is so much more than just abstinence education. It also addresses self-esteem, good life choices and independence, which are all themes that the women and girls in this country need. Krista scheduled a charla (class) for us Tuesday morning, so Kristina and I were able to help her teach a class to 6th grade girls on reproductive anatomy. It was actually a lot of fun, and the girls were really enthusiastic and fun. Krista is also working on bringing a public library to her town. She is working with a committee made of school teachers, and they are in the process of completing the building and fundraising for books. They have put a lot of work into this project, and it is really exciting for the community to have a place to actually read books. Right now, the kids in the schools don't really have any resources to do research or write reports for their classes, so that will be a big help. We also were able to visit a local nutrition center for malnourished kids – it was a lot of fun to play with all the kids, and they're really really sweet, but it was difficult to see them so sick from things that are completely preventable. I have a lot of pics from the nutrition center, but don't feel too comfortable posting them here, so I'm just posting this one, which is my absolute favorite. I fell in love with this girl the moment I met here, she is just a really great kid. If you want to see more photos from the visit, just let me know and I'll be happy to email them.
*Note - I couldn't get the photo to upload, so I'm just going to try to put it on my flickr page...sorry!*
It was also really great to get some American food during the visit – I love Honduran food, especially the food my host mom makes (she's a GREAT cook!) But after a while, you just want things from home. We had brownies with ice cream, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and made calzones one night. Yum.
Today we leave for FBT in La Paz, I am really excited about this, because we'll actually be doing more hands on work. I'll be living with a new family in a small aldea outside of La Paz.
Oh, and a BIG thanks to Mom and Tom for the apple pie recipes – I kind of mixed them together and baked one yesterday – I think everyone liked it, because there's none left today.
That's it for now!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Cantogallo and Jacaleapa
Hi all! first, a big thanks for the comments! If I don't reply to them, please know that its just because internet here is expensive and pretty slow, so I don't get to spend a lot of time on here, but I love hearing from people back home.
It has again been a pretty full week, but I'll try to stick to interesting stuff here:
We recieved more vaccinations this week, and for some reason, I have needed ALL of them. In the past two weeks I've received vacs. for Hep A, Hep B, Rabies, more Rabies, Typhoid, Tetanus, Polio, HPV, Flu. I know there's more coming up next week, but I think my poor arms really need a rest. We have also started taking our malaria pills, which you have to take on a weekly basis throughout your Peace Corps service. They're supposed to give you some pretty crazy dreams, but I haven't had any yet.
On Sunday, a group of us went to the top of Cantogallo, a local mountain that has a radio tower on the top. It was a tough climb, but the view from the top is just amazing. I still haven't gotten over what a beautiful country this is, and that it is actually my home. Cantogallo is the mountain in the background - I took this photo on my way home the other day.
On Monday, we went to one of the markets (Mercado Jacaleapa) in Tegucigalpa as an assignment for our Spanish classes. We had to buy certain items for for our familias, note the types of items being sold, and the hygiene of the market. There have been many times since I have been here that I have been thankful that I'm a vegetarian, and the market visit day was definitely one of them. There were lots of meat/animal products out with no refrigeration, and lots of flies. Ick. We were supposed to negotiate to buy some grocery products, but apparently the market has some sort of monopoly on avocados, because no one would bargain with me. I felt a little bad when I was only able to bring Carmen two avocados instead of three, but she's pretty understanding. She also told me about a trainee that stayed with her a few years ago that wanted to get the best price for her for bananas, so ended up buying 30 and bringing them home. At least I didn't do that.
Tomorrow we leave for our volunteer site visits, and I am incredibly excited about this! Myself and another Health trainee will be traveling to El Negrito, which is in the department (state) of Yoro. We will be there for 3 days to observe, ask questions, and see how the volunteers live. Its also supposed to be hot there, which I'm super excited about, since its been a bit chilly here. (Actually, I guess chilly is a relative term, and I shouldn't be saying that to those of you in the midwest...)
Thats it for now, I hope everyone has a great week!
It has again been a pretty full week, but I'll try to stick to interesting stuff here:
We recieved more vaccinations this week, and for some reason, I have needed ALL of them. In the past two weeks I've received vacs. for Hep A, Hep B, Rabies, more Rabies, Typhoid, Tetanus, Polio, HPV, Flu. I know there's more coming up next week, but I think my poor arms really need a rest. We have also started taking our malaria pills, which you have to take on a weekly basis throughout your Peace Corps service. They're supposed to give you some pretty crazy dreams, but I haven't had any yet.
On Sunday, a group of us went to the top of Cantogallo, a local mountain that has a radio tower on the top. It was a tough climb, but the view from the top is just amazing. I still haven't gotten over what a beautiful country this is, and that it is actually my home. Cantogallo is the mountain in the background - I took this photo on my way home the other day.
On Monday, we went to one of the markets (Mercado Jacaleapa) in Tegucigalpa as an assignment for our Spanish classes. We had to buy certain items for for our familias, note the types of items being sold, and the hygiene of the market. There have been many times since I have been here that I have been thankful that I'm a vegetarian, and the market visit day was definitely one of them. There were lots of meat/animal products out with no refrigeration, and lots of flies. Ick. We were supposed to negotiate to buy some grocery products, but apparently the market has some sort of monopoly on avocados, because no one would bargain with me. I felt a little bad when I was only able to bring Carmen two avocados instead of three, but she's pretty understanding. She also told me about a trainee that stayed with her a few years ago that wanted to get the best price for her for bananas, so ended up buying 30 and bringing them home. At least I didn't do that.
Tomorrow we leave for our volunteer site visits, and I am incredibly excited about this! Myself and another Health trainee will be traveling to El Negrito, which is in the department (state) of Yoro. We will be there for 3 days to observe, ask questions, and see how the volunteers live. Its also supposed to be hot there, which I'm super excited about, since its been a bit chilly here. (Actually, I guess chilly is a relative term, and I shouldn't be saying that to those of you in the midwest...)
Thats it for now, I hope everyone has a great week!
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