Now it is Sunday and we have only a few days left here in Sabanagrande doing our field based training. The last two weeks have been fairly eventful down here and of course the sobering news of tragedy in Virginia reached us. People in our group heard the news by around noon on the 17th because we have a Virginia Tech alum who had been reached by her mother, I think, and other volunteers had been on the internet in the morning and passed it to everyone. It covered the front page of the papers here for three days but I needed to spend some time in the internet café reading American papers to fully understand the events. What an awful ordeal, all of our hearts go out to everyone affected, wherever you are.
In trivial news by comparison, we have nearly finished up work here in our current training site. The major work in the last ten days was two presentations to locals, the first a 4 hour HIV/AIDS lecture we gave to schoolchildren two Fridays ago, and the most recent a 2 hour presentation of the ins and outs of setting up and running a local water board to members of surrounding communities. The last was more daunting because it was on a subject we are just now learning about and was given to members of current water boards or people representing villages or towns looking to set one up. We are not sure we didn’t sound like a bunch of Borats in front of them, but it was a good experience.
Better news still is, as I have mentioned a few times already, we are leaving here in a few days. Tomorrow is the day of our site announcement, the day everyone has either been dreading or looking forward to for at least a month or two by now. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement and start sweating the details of your future location, but the truth is we do not have a huge say in the matter and even if we did, what exactly can we contribute? I do not know the country well at all, have only visited or briefly stayed in three towns, so it’s probably better that someone else is making the decision for me. I wanted rural and isolated when this began, before I knew anything, and I will stick with that—seems more like a true PC experience than living in a big town. But like I said, what do I know?
In somewhat sobering news from down here we have lost a member of our group of 51, someone from one of the other programs. All the information we have in our little site is second and third hand so I do not know anything for sure except that someone was sent home by the powers that be. Since we arrived in country over two months ago this is the first person to leave for whatever reason, so it’s a little sad because we all know each other more or less. It’s no good and hopefully the last time it happens.
For fun we have done a couple cool things on the weekends. Last weekend a small group of us went on a three hour hike to a small watering hole in a not-so-nearby town. We packed lunches, lots of water, and left around 9am. We got there at noon, ate lunch and then went swimming (pictures to come) in a great, secluded little section of a river, and at 4pm we started the trek back. When we finally arrived home it was nearly 7pm and my legs felt like I had just run a marathon—limping, awful pain everywhere, but somewhat delirious and euphoric! Then yesterday a group of us went halfway down that same road and then turned off and followed a trail to a small pond and waterfall which was at the base of a massive hill. It was great because the pond was insanely deep and you could climb up the rocks and jump off twenty feet or so. I have to say that at the moment we all decided to try and climb the rocks I felt a new appreciation for what my sister and brother-in-law do all the time—rock climbing is hard! And if we fell we were landing in a pool of water; the thought of doing it off the side of some mountain made my stomach a little queasy.
So that is all the news from Sabanagrande, all that’s fit to print. The upcoming week has us learning our sites tomorrow in a big announcement deal which I hope ends up happily for everyone, then Tuesday we have our goodbye party for the families, and Wednesday we leave. All the groups reunite in a city somewhere north of here, stay together for an afternoon and evening, and then we all go off to our new sites for two or three days to drop off our bags, meet everyone we can, and walk around. Then we all come back to Santa Lucia, our first home here in Honduras, for a week of wrapping up training. Swearing in happens in Tegucigalpa and then we’re done with training and embark on the journey. More to come…
Joe
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Continued...
Sorry about the interruption, it could not be helped but I do not like to keep you all waiting. So here is the situation: Semana Santa is done and we are back to work here in Sabanagrande. There are only two weeks left of FBT here and then we return to Santa Lucia to reunite with the large group of 51 aspirantes. We will swear in as volunteers, if all goes well, and then we are off to our individual sites and the two year countdown begins. Two weeks from now, just before we leave Sabanagrande, we find out where each of us will be for the next two years during a big “site announcement” party. It is a nerve-wracking deal, to be sure, but since none of us really has any control or a great knowledge of the different regions of the country, there is no point in sweating it for too long.
To be honest, there is not a lot of time left here for training and while I am excited to be done and to reunite with the large group, I am not quite sure I am ready to be set free out in the country. We have had some solid training and good experience with doing surveys and using different equipment but the thought of being the only volunteer in some town or village and being responsible for bringing water to them is a bit overwhelming. Cold feet, you say, suck it up and get to work. Right. And I am sure once I am out there I will feel more comfortable with what I can do, but at the moment it seems daunting.
At the moment that is all I have for you. The countdown to site announcement has begun but until that day there is nothing of note. I love the comments so keep at them between filing motions or treating patients or writing judge’s decisions or making another few thousand or writing articles or designing dresses or studying or teaching or whatever you have on your plate at the moment, ok? Much love from Honduras.
To be honest, there is not a lot of time left here for training and while I am excited to be done and to reunite with the large group, I am not quite sure I am ready to be set free out in the country. We have had some solid training and good experience with doing surveys and using different equipment but the thought of being the only volunteer in some town or village and being responsible for bringing water to them is a bit overwhelming. Cold feet, you say, suck it up and get to work. Right. And I am sure once I am out there I will feel more comfortable with what I can do, but at the moment it seems daunting.
At the moment that is all I have for you. The countdown to site announcement has begun but until that day there is nothing of note. I love the comments so keep at them between filing motions or treating patients or writing judge’s decisions or making another few thousand or writing articles or designing dresses or studying or teaching or whatever you have on your plate at the moment, ok? Much love from Honduras.
Monday, April 9, 2007
April 8, Easter Sunday
It has been awhile since my last entry and I know you have all been waiting on the edge of your seats...of course. Before I move on I want to wish my dad a Happy Birthday and one as well to Daniel Ramon. Feliz cumpleaños, the two of you!
Ok so at the moment it is Easter Sunday and I just returned from a trip to the north coast with my host mother and her 3 yr old daughter. As mentioned in the previous entry, the PC has forbidden us from travel outside of our current sites unless our host families go with us. As it turns out, I was the only one of the water/sanitation crew who was fortunate enough to leave town…pride and shame, I feel. The trip was nice and let me use the description of it to educate those of you who do not know much about Central America. We went to stay with a cousin, I believe, of my host mother in San Pedro Sula, which is up north and about 30 minutes drive from a great beach town. Here’s the education: Honduras is the only Central American country which has multiple cities the size and strength of a country capital. Outside of Guatemala City or San Salvador, for example, you have only much smaller towns and villages. San Pedro Sula is the industrial center of Honduras and as a city is nearly as large as Tegucigalpa, the capital. In point of fact, there is a third city in Honduras, La Ceiba, which is on the north coast, which can more than hold a candle to Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, but let’s not get carried away.
So from Wednesday evening until Sunday morning we were in San Pedro Sula and on Friday spent the day on the beaches of Puerto Córtes. A very good Semana Santa which included a new dish called Sopa de Pescado Seco, a soup traditionally served during the holy week. All in all it was a great excursion from Sabanagrande and a pleasant few days away from all things PC. But what else have I left out?
The Sunday before my family and I (and another aspirante, Chris, who lives in the house of what is my host grandmother) went to the south coast for the day. That was a three hour bus ride each way in a yellow school bus full of evangelicals! I say that not as a bad thing, generally speaking, but we did listen to a CD of Christian music the entire time there and back—and the single disc we listened to consisted of only 7 or 8 songs. I know the words and the background arrangement to the entire collection of songs, my favorite being “En La Casa de Dios”. That beach was nice as well but at the moment I have to give my nod to Puerto Córtes and the north coast. More tranquilo in the south, perhaps, but there is a reason the masses flock north.
Moving on, what in the field of Peace Corps work and knowledge? A good question. First off, we constructed from scratch two latrines outside of a kindergarten that will be finished soon. That meant, among other things, digging two holes 2.5 meters deep, building a rock wall at the mouth of each hole, mixing sand, gravel, and cement mix and making a concrete cover for each hole, doing the same for the base of two latrines, then building the structures themselves out of wood and sheet rock, and finally digging a trench .5 meter deep and nearly ten meters in length. We also built an improved oven at the house of a local family. How is it an improvement, you ask? Another good question. The improvement is in the use of tiles built into the walls of the oven and the use of a certain mud, all to improve insulation. The final improvement is that the hole to put wood in is much smaller, so while one need burn less wood there is no loss in heat or cooking ability. Overall goal, of course, is reducing the amount of wood each family is using because one of the major issues in the country at the moment is deforestation. The idea behind both of these last two projects is to familiarize us with what types of side projects each of us may be involved in outside of our water and sanitation specific work. The latrine building is actually directly related with what we do but is an aside from the construction of water systems, which will be job number one.
Some of you have asked, “Well Joe, it is laudable (and very impressive) that you teach children ages 6 and 7, how to use a computer at the local grade school. It requires patience and mental fortitude and a knowledge of the intricacies of the Spanish language to such a degree that surely few could even attempt such work. But what, exactly, does it have to do with water and sanitation?” A question that gets to the heart of the matter and I am grateful for that. The short answer is nothing at all. The longer answer is that the PC language staff has determined that instead of sitting through Spanish class five days a week, some few, some of us lucky few, will have the opportunity to use our language skills out in the community. It is not really panning out all that excellently to this point, though, because on occasion the teachers just do not send us students. Well, ok, that happened once and then another time the school principal did not expect us until the next day so we could not teach that day, either. Either way I think we are moving on to a new project this upcoming week, so please just calm down with all the intense and leading questions. I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.
Unfortunately, friends, thats all the time I have for the moment but expect more soon.
Joe
It has been awhile since my last entry and I know you have all been waiting on the edge of your seats...of course. Before I move on I want to wish my dad a Happy Birthday and one as well to Daniel Ramon. Feliz cumpleaños, the two of you!
Ok so at the moment it is Easter Sunday and I just returned from a trip to the north coast with my host mother and her 3 yr old daughter. As mentioned in the previous entry, the PC has forbidden us from travel outside of our current sites unless our host families go with us. As it turns out, I was the only one of the water/sanitation crew who was fortunate enough to leave town…pride and shame, I feel. The trip was nice and let me use the description of it to educate those of you who do not know much about Central America. We went to stay with a cousin, I believe, of my host mother in San Pedro Sula, which is up north and about 30 minutes drive from a great beach town. Here’s the education: Honduras is the only Central American country which has multiple cities the size and strength of a country capital. Outside of Guatemala City or San Salvador, for example, you have only much smaller towns and villages. San Pedro Sula is the industrial center of Honduras and as a city is nearly as large as Tegucigalpa, the capital. In point of fact, there is a third city in Honduras, La Ceiba, which is on the north coast, which can more than hold a candle to Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, but let’s not get carried away.
So from Wednesday evening until Sunday morning we were in San Pedro Sula and on Friday spent the day on the beaches of Puerto Córtes. A very good Semana Santa which included a new dish called Sopa de Pescado Seco, a soup traditionally served during the holy week. All in all it was a great excursion from Sabanagrande and a pleasant few days away from all things PC. But what else have I left out?
The Sunday before my family and I (and another aspirante, Chris, who lives in the house of what is my host grandmother) went to the south coast for the day. That was a three hour bus ride each way in a yellow school bus full of evangelicals! I say that not as a bad thing, generally speaking, but we did listen to a CD of Christian music the entire time there and back—and the single disc we listened to consisted of only 7 or 8 songs. I know the words and the background arrangement to the entire collection of songs, my favorite being “En La Casa de Dios”. That beach was nice as well but at the moment I have to give my nod to Puerto Córtes and the north coast. More tranquilo in the south, perhaps, but there is a reason the masses flock north.
Moving on, what in the field of Peace Corps work and knowledge? A good question. First off, we constructed from scratch two latrines outside of a kindergarten that will be finished soon. That meant, among other things, digging two holes 2.5 meters deep, building a rock wall at the mouth of each hole, mixing sand, gravel, and cement mix and making a concrete cover for each hole, doing the same for the base of two latrines, then building the structures themselves out of wood and sheet rock, and finally digging a trench .5 meter deep and nearly ten meters in length. We also built an improved oven at the house of a local family. How is it an improvement, you ask? Another good question. The improvement is in the use of tiles built into the walls of the oven and the use of a certain mud, all to improve insulation. The final improvement is that the hole to put wood in is much smaller, so while one need burn less wood there is no loss in heat or cooking ability. Overall goal, of course, is reducing the amount of wood each family is using because one of the major issues in the country at the moment is deforestation. The idea behind both of these last two projects is to familiarize us with what types of side projects each of us may be involved in outside of our water and sanitation specific work. The latrine building is actually directly related with what we do but is an aside from the construction of water systems, which will be job number one.
Some of you have asked, “Well Joe, it is laudable (and very impressive) that you teach children ages 6 and 7, how to use a computer at the local grade school. It requires patience and mental fortitude and a knowledge of the intricacies of the Spanish language to such a degree that surely few could even attempt such work. But what, exactly, does it have to do with water and sanitation?” A question that gets to the heart of the matter and I am grateful for that. The short answer is nothing at all. The longer answer is that the PC language staff has determined that instead of sitting through Spanish class five days a week, some few, some of us lucky few, will have the opportunity to use our language skills out in the community. It is not really panning out all that excellently to this point, though, because on occasion the teachers just do not send us students. Well, ok, that happened once and then another time the school principal did not expect us until the next day so we could not teach that day, either. Either way I think we are moving on to a new project this upcoming week, so please just calm down with all the intense and leading questions. I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.
Unfortunately, friends, thats all the time I have for the moment but expect more soon.
Joe
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