WORK

So it appears as though I might end up doing something here after all. Everything is definately a process here and finding work is no exception. I am going to start working with a 5th grade class next friday and this week I started going to the aldeas (small communities) to help with the weighing of children and distribution of medicine. From this I think I am going to get alot more work, because there appears to be a real need for education of nutrition and hygene.

I am taking it all one day at a time. Every day is completely different in terms of my emotions. But I am pushing through it and the people that I work with have been great in supporting me. I move into my own place this weekend. This will be another big change for me, it is going to be great I know but going to take alot of getting used to because I only know how to live with families in this country.

I am good, I love you all and appreciate all the support that you have given me.

Countdown

Went to Tela this past weekend to see what I have been missing not living on the beach. Well it started out crazy with me missing my bus so I had to wait most of the day and then went to Ceiba with a girl from the office. I spent the night in her house and the next morning went to Tela to meet my friend that lives near by. We hung out on the beach and then had lunch on a restaurant on right there on the beach, after about a half an hour a guy strolled by on a bike and stole my friends wallet. She started running after him, but didn´t have any luck, from there we went to the police station. When all this was over we just hung out like bums, went to dinner and then went to bed early. The next day we hung out on the beach for a few hours until the heat was just unbearable and I decided to head back early to Morazan... What an adventure!!

So far my time in Honduras has consisted of:

*1 bus ride where a child puked on me

* billions of tortillas

*7 books, 5 of which were in May and the other 2 in June (didn´t read during training)

*2 trips to Pizza Hut

*1 trip to Tela

*3 packages that were sent to me but that I still have not received

*1 year 10 months and a few days till I move back to the states... that is not exact but close enough

and I know there is much more but I have had a brain freeze...

The heat is incredible here and that is not in a good way. I wish I had a thermometer (or whatever that thing is called that tells you the temperature) to know exactly what I was dealing with here. Sweating has become my favorite past time. ITS HOT HERE. I don´t think it gets this hot in the states. I´m really not exaggerating.

JUST NOT THE SAME

Almost 2 months now since arriving in my site. Everyday is different, some good, some bad. There is not a moment that goes by that I am not asking myself what in the heck am I doing here. That is not to say that I am regreting my decision to be here or that I want to go home, all I am saying is, wow this is a different experience.

I am in the process of finding a place to live and it is turning out to be quite a task. I am working with World Vision as of right now, but it is more like I spend alot of time in the offices with not so much work. The phrase poco a poca comes to mind right now, which signifies, little by little. It is such a hard thing to be patient and realize that everything is a process. I am still trying to adapt to certain parts of the lifestyle; like how you are to say hello to every person that you pass on the street or you appear rude, when you go to someones house you stay for hours just talking, and of course time is of no importance here. In the states we are so used to everything being on time and having a schedule, that just does not translate here.

I miss everyone like crazy and wish that you could share this experience with me because I can´t put it into words what it is truly like here. I am becoming very independent and at the same time realizing how much I need people in my life. Life is just nothing without people to share it with. I am really trying to make friends with the people around me, but trust is a hard thing within another culture that I still do not fully understand. Everything in time

1 Week Down

So I have been in my site going on 2 weeks now and gradually things are getting better. Last week was pretty hard for me in the beginning, I was on the verge of quitting just because everything was so new and the fact that I am the only "gringa" in the town doesn´t help much either. This past weekend was Mothers Day here. Unlike in the states it is a huge deal here. Kids get out of school on thursday and friday to celebrate the entire weekend. On Sunday I was awoken at 4:30am by youth from the local church singing to my host mother for Mothers Day. There are parades, parties and alot of food in celebration of the mothers here. And yesterday I went to the health center and ended up going to one of the aldeas (small small villages) in search of children that had yet to recieve their vacinations.

It was very sad the living conditions that I came across on this trip. Everyday I learn alittle more about how truly poor this country is. The picture that you see on tv are not exagerating about poverty. For along time I thought that I would like to live in a country like this for the rest of my life, but as of right now 2 years looks to be sufficient. I have come to realize how much I appreciate the life I have been blessed to have and after this journey comes to an end I think I will be more than happy being the person that supports other people in this effort to help others because it is just too much for me.

Ok so that speal just came off as though I hate it here, and that is not the case, it is just something that I am truly adjusting to at a slow rate and the more I become involved the hard it becomes. Don´t get me wrong, I am happy to be here and eager to help I am just starting to realize that this is not the life I envision for myself forever. These 2 years should be sufficient. Who knows in 6 months I might feel differently.

Until next time, I am getting better at keeping you all posted and I have also updated my photos there are like 300 new ones or something like that. Enjoy!!

Morazan, Yoro

Sorry that it has been so long since my last time I updated my site. My life has been a complete rollercoaster the last few weeks. So I´m going to start with where I left off!!

The tenth week of training we recieved our sites and I have been assigned to Morazan, Yora in the the northern part of Honduras. I went on my site visit Thursday 26 -Saturday 28. It was a bit overwhelming but a good chance to see a glimpse into my life for the next 2 years. After the site visits everyone returned to Santa Lucia for a closing of training. We all had to go through the immigration process and recieved our resident cards, we had our final spanish interviews and just reconnected with the other 2 groups. It was great to get a chance to catch up and hear all of the different stories people had to share. On Thursday the 3rd was the swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Embassy and after we all went to the Ambassador´s house to swim in his pool. All in all it was a good day with the exception that I lost my cell phone at the Embassy and had to go and buy another one. I talked with the ambassador after the ceremony and found out that he is from Dayton, Oh which I thought was very interesting. Me and my friend Molly ended up eating lunch with him and his wife just talking about the states and Honduras, it was nice to be able to talk to someone that was familiar with the area.

On Friday all of us began our journey to our sites. A few of us made a pit stop in the capitol for the night and than traveled on Saturday. On Saturday afternoon I arrived at my site. Since than my emotions have definately been up and down. My main counterpart here is World Vision and the Health Center. With World Vision I am going to be working in the promotion of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, honestly I am not sure as of now what that entails. Next Monday I am going to the health center to talk with them about what I can do to help them. Yesterday I walked around the town to know it a bit better and I also went to the local high school and saught out a teacher that can help me even more with my spanish. I am going back today so we can talk more today and set something up. I also went in search of a place to rent for myself. I came across one house but I am going to continue to look before I make my decision. I am not allowed to live on my own for 2 months so I have to time and I need to buy everything to furnish the house so I need to be very wise with my money!!

I think you are all up to date now!! I am going to make a serious effort to do better from here on out. I have access to computers in my office so it should be easier from here on out. Thank you so much to everyone that has sent me emails I love recieving messages. I am sorry that sometimes I can not respond to each message individually but I want you all to know that I am reading each and every one. Thank you all so much for your support and make sure that you continue to keep me updated.

By the way I have yet to recieve any type of package or letter in the mail. I am very dissappointed in you all!!! J/K.

ALMOST THERE!!!

My experience has really taken off here. I feel like I have been here for so long. Alot has happened since the last time I was on here. Training is extremely stressfull, long, and full days. Everyday seems like a week because we just pack them with so much.

So the whole week before Easter is called "Semana Santa" and it is a BIG deal here. We got out of having class on Thursday and Friday because of it. Everything shuts down. On Saturday there was a huge processional with 14 stations to stop at. I went and walked the town of La Paz for 3 1/2 hours. I wanted to experience this event to its fullest. I have met some friends here and they are a great outlet to vent and just get away. I will be posting pictures from the processional when the computers here decide to download them for me. The week of Semana Santa was good. We went up into the mountains and learned how to work with health workers that monitor the weight of babies within a community. Mothers walk for hours every month to get their babies weighed to gage if the child is healthy and if not to find out what needs to be done. In a lot of communities it is utilized because the parents do not have the money to take the children to the doctors or the means to get them there. Another day we went back to the mountains and learned how to build improved stoves with mud and bricks. It was one of the coolest things for me so far, I want to add one to my house here when I get it. And we also learned how to make gardens.

This past week we worked with parteras (midwives) and gave charlas over hemorraging. So many things we take for granted in the states as common sense are what the people here need the most help. There will be some photos of me on a table looking like I'm pregnant soon, it is from the session with the parteras, I was the demonstration! It was a good time and really opened my eyes. During last week we also learned more on communication skills and support groups for people living with HIV. The reality is that alot of us in my group will be working with people living with the disease so we need to be prepared and equipped for that type of work.

I also met with the PCMO's ( peace corps medical officers) the other day. Of course I have problems. I had to go to a local clinique the other day because I have a urinary tract infection ( not fun). And then with the pcmo's i had to get my allergy medicine changed b/c mine is not strong enough here. My allergies are ridiculous, I think alot of it is because of the dust. And finally I have bug bites all over my legs and they are really red. They have been there since we arrived in La Paz and refuse to heal, so they told me it is because of my allergies and they gave me cream. I can't go anywhere with out having some sort of problem I have realized!

Last week I had my third technical interview. It went well, I was able to give some input on the work that I would like to do in the next 2 years and things that I would like to get from my site assignment. Next monday, April 23 we get our site announcements!!!! During the interview we also talked about my spanish and how I am doing during other training sessions. I got really positive feedback which was great and is helping me stay positive. My spanish is improving slowly but surely. People have commented on my improvement but I think it is easier for other people to notice than it is for myself. One of my boss's told me that I am a perfectionist and that he has noticed that I am way to hard on myself. I think he is probably right. I have pushed myself so much and just want to do the best job possible.

The other day they had mail call and of course I did not have anything once again. GUYS you need to get on that. I want to get some fun stuff too!!!!

Everyone take care and continue to send me emails. I am going to try and do a better job of writing things down as they happen so I can remember when it comes time for me to write them on here. If anyone wants my phone number to call me just email me. I would rather not post it on this.

This past weekend one of the girls in our group was robbed. She was on the front stoop of her boyfriends house here and as I understand it 2 men approached her with machetes and made her give them everything she had. Now I know that machetes sound horrible and they are but its not like an uncommon thing here like it would be in the states. In saying all of this I do not know many other details, but I have decided that I will not be out after dark here anymore. She was pretty shook up and I feel really bad for her. Although what I just explained sounds horrible everything with me is great. I just wanted everyone to be aware of all sides of my life here. I did not tell anyone this to worry them.

I love and miss you all!!

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.