SO HOT!!!

Well first off, I am sorry that it has been so long since I updated. This will probably be a long one b/c alot has happened in 2 weeks. So it might not all be in order but I will do my best.

Last week we all went to the Police Academy in La Paz and gave charlas on HIV/AIDS and safe sex. We broke up into 4 groups and prepared the lectures, each one of us had our own part to present. I was in charge of lengua de los hombres ( guys language), basically I had to start of with teaching them a dynamic to loosen them up and then had them pass around papers with different words such as penis, vagina, homosexual, etc and have them write words that mean the same thing but in slang. After that I had them explain why some words are funny and why others are not. And then we tried to have a brief discussion about the words. My session was about 20 mins. In all we were there for 4 hours. In the time we did condom demonstrations with bannanas and talked about the transmission of AIDs, and so much more. Oh yeah did I mention that it was all in spanish!
The same day we had a Honduran man come and talk to the group about his life living with AIDs, it was really hard to understand but what I did catch made me want to cry.

Another day we went to a near by village and participated in a charla about diarreah and washing hands. We went to the health center and talked with mothers. It was a good experience.

We have had volunteers visit us that are near the end of there service. The other day a married couple came and shared a bit of their experience as health volunteers in Honduras. Deb has spent 2 years working with midwives and had an enormous about of knowledge to share with us. More than that I truly enjoyed the projects her husband Jon has worked with his during his 2 years. He has dedicated his time to the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. By incorporating art into his work he has been able to have the community help him with his efforts. He created a story with the art that helps explain how the disease is not about statistics but real people. It was truly touching and inspiring all he had to share.

My spanish class went 2 days ago to a local elementary school and taught the kids some games and than gave a message associated with the point of the game at the end. I was so pumped at the end of it because the kids understood everything I was saying!! That was a huge thing.

Spanish is a continual struggle here, but it is something that I have no choice but to work at. This past week a few people from the main office came to visit, and one was the spanish facilitator. I pretty much had my first break down since being in country. I think the stress that goes along with training had finally caught up with me and it all came out on him. I cried, and complained about training, spanish, life and pretty much anything I could think of. He was so awesome and listened to everything and than gave me the encouragement that I needed. Things really are good here, but I was stressed and made things seem alot worse. Training is definately intense and there is a continual push to learn and perfect the language. At times it seems to much to handle, but at the same I want to be here and love the work, so I plan to try and focus on the positive things that I am experiencing.

I am getting to know the country better and the people that live here. There are some things that I don't think I will ever get used to such as the machismo, but there are other things like the weather that have become a part of my life. La Paz is extremely HOTTTT basically all the time. I just sweat. Since La Paz is not in the mountains I do not experience the luxuries of a nice breeze all day.

To answer your question Jess I get free time at night and most weekends. During this time I try to spend with my family here b/c it helps alot with my spanish, I do homework for language class and if anyone in the health group decides to do anything I try to spend time with them. I go to bed the majority of the nights at 8pm or close to that, but I get up at almost 4:30am because the roosters do not permit much more sleeping than that. Life is at alot slower pace here. I am still getting used to not always doing something, but the heat definately helps slow me down.

I hope everyone is well and look forward to hearing from you all. Love and miss you.