Now I’ve got to make this place smell like chocolate chip cookies…

October 13, 2008
We’re back with a quick entry to get the ball rolling. The last entry ended with Gen leaving Honduras and me leaving Victoria for a solid block of time. Before I get to all that let me just say that I am no longer the only volunteer here in Victoria. The newbie arrived and her name is Sara and all is right with the world. Get this: she is a baseball stud, and by that I mean she not only played as a child but in college as well…at a Division I school. So our little youth baseball team project might actually have a chance of doing something productive this year. Neither Gen or I had much idea what we were doing and practices consisted mainly of throwing the baseballs as high in the air as we could and running around, giggling like idiots. At the time I was pretty proud of the effort. But no, now I see that it was inadequate!

So, the reason I ditched Victoria the same day as Gen left for good was that I had two buddies fly in. One is a red-headed lawyer from Minnesota, valedictorian of his Boston College class; the other is a gray-haired New Yorker currently getting his PhD in mathematics. So I have to walk on eggshells around these guys and try and not make them feel stupid…it’s rough. Who am I kidding? The five of you who read this know Reif and Cutrone, so let’s just leave it at that. Ok, the trip was excellent and I am still kind of in disbelief they actually made the trip. Especially that red-haired one, what with his getting married later this month (I’m sending a couple seed bracelets your way, buddy!).

I will not go through the entire itinerary with the rest of you, but we did see Mayan ruins at Copán and some hot spots in Guatemala. It was actually cold in Guatemala which I could not get over given how brutally hot it was (and still is) in neighboring Honduras. The trip was excellent, as I said before, but it was rushed due only to my lack of free time because of an impending volunteer workshop that was a mandatory attendance deal. Nearly every morning the three of us were getting up at ridiculously early hours to catch shuttles to the next destination but somehow we always made it. We saw some truly remarkable things, for sure, but the best part was sitting in various bars and restaurants, drinking the local brew, and just talking. Good talks, bad jokes, and just generally not making the United States look good to those around us. But good talks.


October 14
I spent a day in Victoria once Reif and Cutrone left, gathering my things for the Peace Corps mandated training workshop. That ended up only being about two days long but took up nearly a week including travel time. Not much to talk about there—it was great seeing friends because I go months and months without seeing any other volunteers, normally, and there were some good presentations and information exchanged about projects, etc. Forced reunions are never anyone’s first choice but this one turned out to be pretty worthwhile.

Two days later a high school friend and one of the most upstanding citizens I know, we’ll call him Sarat, came to visit. He is a doctor starting his residency in orthopedic surgery (is that right, dude?!) in Miami—but back off, ladies, he has a girlfriend. Sarat took a year off med school and lived and worked in India for six months and then Guatemala for six months. So not only his he world traveled but the Spanish language is one he has already mastered.

Anyway, we took a different route with his time here. It could have been Guatemala on the one hand, the Bay Islands (and scuba diving) on the other, but there was a super secret option three: go back to Victoria, stay for the Independence Day celebrations (parade, pool party, dance), and then head north and do adventure stuff outside of La Ceiba. We opted for super secret option three. The downside, as we said at the beginning, was travel (the bus rides can be brutal) and time lost traveling. But the upside was seeing small town Victoria in all its celebratory best AND doing some touristy stuff later on.

So we hung out in my town for a day and a half first. Meeting some of my friends and seeing a massive parade came first—let me correct that, Sarat ended up meeting half of the town—and in the afternoon we took a walk to the big pool just on the outskirts of town. At an event like this theres generally three distinct crowds: the first is the older guys (38 yrs+) who go just to hang out and drink beer; the second group is the cool kids from the colegio (ages 16-19) who are there to see and be seen; the third group are the kids age 12 and below who just want to swim and play. We hung with that last crowd and now know a few things: Sarat is much faster than me at swim sprints; I am much faster than 10 yr olds at swim sprints; I can hold my breath longer than Sarat; 10 yr olds can hold their breath longer than me.

After we said goodbye to Victoria we headed to the north coast. Outside of La Ceiba we found a “lodge” on the river and stayed there for a couple of days doing beer drinking, reading, white water rafting, rock climbing and cliff jumping, and canopy tours. It was a great mix of high adrenaline adventure activities (!!) during the day and good food, on-the-river relaxing atmosphere in the evening. And before you know it that trip was complete as well—it just seemed like seven days is not enough time. But I was grateful for all three guys coming down and had a blast and a much needed break from all things pcv.

Now I am here in Victoria and have been here since the last week in September. The last three weeks have been a great chance to get back into things after nearly a month away. I have gotten back into the running routine, have been teaching every week at the elementary school, and been finishing some designs that needed work. On top of that there is a new volunteer here to get to know, so Sara and I are beginning that process whenever time allows, and with her enthusiasm being the key ingredient we started baseball practice with the youth team a couple of weeks ago!

October 15
This isn’t really an entry, but I had to share this. I am at the elementary school today, have just begun a class with sixth graders, and the power goes out—surprise!! Ok, so all the kids run out of class and commence memorizing something in a pamphlet. I sit outside and watch them and before long a couple come over to talk. I ask them what they are doing and they show me. They have to memorize the explanations for every line in their national anthem—and their anthem is ridiculously long. At public events they sing what amounts to a fifth of the entire thing. And of course every line has significance, and these children have to memorize the meaning of everything.

Before long they are asking me about the “himno nacional” for my country. They want it in Spanish and I say I only know it in English. Then they want me to sing it and I say I’ll cant sing but I’ll say it to them, but only a bit because they have to get back to memorizing (I didn’t want poor grades for anyone based on me singing or talking). So I began saying it, and all was going well. And as I approached the end of the first stanza I decided not to keep going. So I stopped and told them to get back to work, but I was feeling uneasy about the words—as if I couldn’t remember everything. But I knew that was ridiculous because EVERYONE in the United States of America knows the national anthem. Its not like some know it and some don’t. No. EVERYONE knows it.

So I began writing it down, line by line. Soon there was a crowd of fifth and sixth graders huddled around me, curious about what I seemed so intent to write. Some started saying, “You don’t know it, do you?” and I brushed them off with a “Por favor, chicos!” and then demanded space. I was waivering, slowly but surely losing my balance on this metaphoric tight wire, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was shocking to me but there was no avoiding it. After twenty minutes of solid concentration, this is what I had:

Oh say can you see
By the dawns early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilights last gleaming

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still standing

O say does that banner
(something something) still wave
O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave

Don’t worry, I got it before much longer and completely on my own. Yes, all of it...in the correct order. And that last point is a very important one. All on my own. At some point this may be used against me for a very public shaming, I am sure. But I felt I should share…