It begins in earnest now!!

Ok, so there was a bit of a gap in between the last entry and this one, but what can you do? I have been completely cut off from all news, weather, and other worldly events in the past couple of weeks and am just now getting back into it. So site announcement went well, but like I said, what the heck do I know about what I want? Here’s what I know: I wanted rural, isolated, small town in great need of water help…check, check, check, check! It turns out there is not an internet café in my town and there is also really no easy way to get here…from anywhere. From both Santa Lucia and Sabanagrande there were buses that left every half hour going to Tegucigalpa; in my town there is one bus to the capital that leaves every morning. The ride is about five hours on a typical, yellow school bus (ie no seat belts or room for luggage), and the first three hours are on dirt roads…yes, once we hit pavement it only takes two hours. And that’s the thing, I am kind of centrally located in the country, but as this particular country’s roads go, I’m in the boonies. What does this mean for you? As far as address goes, stick with the original which I will again paste below. If I find a more accurate one that’s going to be dependable I’ll change it up but for now no change. Here is that original address again:

Joe Brandt-Hammar
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3158
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, C.A.


What do you want to know? The last week in Santa Lucia was surreal, back with the entire group of 50, living with our original host families, going to school everyday for the last few days of training. It was great to see everyone, of course, but we all knew it was only so the training staff could dot the i’s and cross the t’s and not for anything truly substantial. A couple of runs up the never-ending hills, a game of soccer against the local guys as the light faded one afternoon, and several lectures on safety, health, and business and we were wrapped. Thursday morning we all went into Tegucigalpa to see the PC headquarters and get an idea of where things were and then to the heavily fortified US Embassy for the swearing in ceremony. Wow, mere feet from the polluted, dangerous Tegucigalpa exterior we were sitting alongside a man-made mini river and spring in the middle of lush grass as our ambassador spoke to us. It was surreal but also very nice and while I got the idea the rest of the embassy employees were annoyed we were taking up their beautiful lawn/patio area, the guys putting on the show did a good job.

After the swearing in we were bussed out to the ambassador’s pad in the hills of Tegucigalpa—basketball and tennis court, big pool, manicured lawns. A pleasant afternoon, to be sure, but I was kind of expecting a tour of the grounds (nope!) and/or an outdoor buffet of some sort (not a chance!). In previous years, and by that I mean nearly every…single…Honduras…group…before…us, the new volunteers were taken to a Tegucigalpa hotel afterward and left to themselves. Not us. We were taken out of harms way and back to our sleepy little town to spend the night with our host families one last time…instead of in various hotel rooms by ourselves in the big city. Geez, I’m glad they made that switch!! Actually, a couple of guys from the class ahead of us were mugged on swearing-in night, which I guess is not the best way to begin life as a volunteer.

So now I am here in the department of Yoro, which is fairly large and directly above Francisco Morazán and Comayagua, the two departments basically dead center in the country. As the crow flies I am not too far from the famed north coast beaches (Tela, La Ceiba, etc.), but once again the roads to get there make it a pain in the ass and far away indeed. My town is nestled in the hills and the outlying areas are kind of picturesque, even if the city itself is mostly just homes and dirt roads (none of this quaint, cobblestone path stuff anymore!). There are 2 or 3,000 where I live and it is one of only 5 towns out of 170+ in the municipality with electricity, so I have that going for me. It is pretty scorching here, the kind of hot where you realize your jeans need to dry out once you take them off at night because the belt area is soaked through with sweat. In good news I have a solid compañera here, a youth development volunteer from the class ahead of mine, and she knows her way around and has been introducing me to everyone. The mayor is by all indications very active in getting the municipality money from big government Honduras and both he and a Spanish NGO here say there is much water work to be done in the area.

Now begins the slow process of meeting people one by one and trying to establish myself within the town and surrounding aldeas. I am currently living with my third host family, which as you might imagine is getting quite old. It is, true, and I can not wait to get my own place and start being truly independent, but this family is feeding me well, washing my clothes, and charging me virtually nothing for any of it. But am I torn? At all? Ok, no, I definitely want to be on my own. So that’s the scoop, everyone, and despite the lack of internet access here I do hope that I can write more regularly from here on out. Keep sending the comments and emails as you have the time. A BIG congrats to Ms. Jenna Nobles (who no longer goes by that name, I suppose) for the wedding about three weeks ago!!! Life events, people, try to keep those on hold…
Much love from Yoro,
Joe