Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Went to La Hacienda today, and it was good to see the girls again. We talked about puberty and the differences in changes boys and girls will experience, which they seemed to get more or less. The concept of sex vs. gender I think went over their heads, but I saw it at least as a way to present the difference in what they CAN do and what society says they can do. For example, it is a thing of sex that a woman can have a baby and a man can not, but it is a thing of gender that a woman takes care of the kids, because a man is capable of doing that too. I really realized how much American females take for granted the fact that kids in our country grow up understanding (more or less) that woman are equals to men, but here it is evident that things are different. They really pushed for the idea that being a boss is a man’s job, but I pointed out to them that the director of the colegio is a female. They thought being a doctor is for men, but I referenced a friend of mine in Camasca who is a female doctor. And planting corn is for men, but I asked them why it was not possible for a woman to do that? It was interesting how when I asked who can go to a billar (to play pool), they were perplexed by the idea of a woman doing that, same with drinking beer. I was trying to explain that although society says we can’t, and sometimes it may not be appropriate to do a certain action, we are still biologically capable of doing it. So I am fairly certain that I have now inspired a nine year old girl to drink and go play pool and I will be shunned by my town forever.

We also made necklaces out of keychains and ribbon donated by a woman at my church, which they really liked. Would like to return tomorrow but supposedly there is an event at the high school (pregnancy prevention talk, and I’d like to meet the nurse doing it), and then Friday the kids at the school are playing another school in soccer so there is no class. Monday there is no class because it is some type of Catholic holiday, but all anyone can tell me is that it has to do with flowers for the Virgin Mary and that you eat bread and tamales. Wow, sounds like every other holiday in Honduras. Seriously, HOW are these kids supposed to get an education when they never have class? And today the teacher I work with (-ish) showed me the new uniforms the kids have for the soccer game Friday. I like how there isn’t enough money for the morning snack (a big deal since these kids are malnourished) or school supplies, but money for a soccer uniform somehow surfaces.

Today I walked to the highway to get a ride to the community because I was told the guy who normally takes us was on vacation, but I guess that was untrue because he drove by, I waved him down, and I got in the truck without him every saying anything, and how could he anyways since he was BLASTING ranchera music. Really, might have some hearing damage. We ended up picking up the rest of the teaching crew walking since no one knew he was going to be driving. I asked about him being on vacation and everyone acted like I was an idiot, like I had made that up. Oh well. Got a ride back home from the kindergarten teacher, but she invited me to her house so I stayed there a few hours. She lives in a different small community closer to Camasca but still really way back in the woods. I thought she’d offer me lunch since it was lunchtime, but she never really did. Eventually after I’d been there an hour (around 1:30) she asked me if I wanted cheese, tortillas, and avocado, and I accepted. How strange, Hondurans are usually stuffing food in your face. I asked her if she had already eaten at the school and she said yes and I said I hadn’t. That is what led to my avocado cheese offer. She also did a very Honduran thing and put the TV on in the room and then left me alone. They always do that, invite me over, and then leave me by myself.

You all will be happy to know I am lice-free. I got a bit worried because my head has been super itchy that last few days and another volunteer was talking to me about how she got lice working in the schools (which I do). I had Yolanda look at it, and she called Carmen, the house worker, who scratched the crap out of my head and said, no, you don’t have lice, but you have a LOT of dandruff. Typical. At least it’s not lice, that is SUCH a pain to get rid of here!

My clothes are starting to get moldy. The rainy season has officially begun and it rains every afternoon and has been cloudy all day long. Now I understand when other volunteers have mentioned moldy clothes issues. More creatures continue to come out from everyone as the rain continues. I hear things moving between the nylon and the clay tile roof and just hope whatever it is doesn’t don’t fall off the edge of the nylon into my bed. I’ve already talked to volunteers who’ve had scorpions and mice in the bed, don’t think I could handle that.

I turn 24 Saturday! PS-my digicel phone stopped working so I will not be able to call the USA much until I get it fixed, fyi.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

So it’s been a month since I’ve written!

So the Thursday before we had the despedida (goodbye party) for the H12 volunteers (all the volunteers who just now completed 2 years of PC service), I went to the colegio to give my English class and it turns out it had been cancelled and no one called me. Love that. So I just prepared for the next class with the teacher, and then went back and had Cuban food at Andy’s. Friday night the people at the NGO Andy worked for gave him a despedida, but not too many people came,  felt kinda bad for him. I gave him the little book I had compiled for him, with little notes written by all his friends in Camasca. Saturday we went to La Esperanza for the despedida for all the H12ers, and it was really sad. We went to the Fogon to dance, and then the next day most people left but I stayed another night. Sunday night I found myself with Robynn, Chris, and Andy, all who were leaving, and it was just so difficult to say goodbye to all of them. (Chris is coming back to live there in a month or so and I ended up seeing Robynn again, but in that moment I was really down). Monday morning I said goodbye to Andy and came back to Camasca and cried. It was more difficult because our old landlord wanted all of Andy’s stuff out, so I had to go through all his stuff, kind of like when an old person dies and you have to sift through everything they’ve left.

So that week I went to La Hacienda and worked on my project more with the girls, packed for the USA, etc. I had to move all the big stuff that had been at the other house to the church, but the school director (my new favorite person in Camasca) totally came through and brought a friend and we had everything moved in 15 minutes! Granted, his friend was hitting on me and has since called me to “take me out” (and what does that even mean in Camasca), but that’s to be expected and well worth the help he gave me. I did have English class that week, thankfully, although I think it’s a bit of a waste of time. Wow, I’m truly becoming the cynical Peace Corps volunteer I’ve tried not to be.

I would say 5 out of 30 teachers will even remember what we did, but I have lots of time on my hands, so I guess if I benefited a few it could be worth it.

Saturday morning I finally began to feel excited. I realized that that night I’d see my parents, be in my own bed, with a hot shower, air conditioning, etc. Had a layover in Miami and then arrived in Charlotte that night, and my parents greeted me with balloons and a lot of excitement! Haha. Watched Glee that night and went to bed late, like most of the nights during my trip home. Sunday I went to my home church, and then that night my parent’s group of friends from church came over and we had a little party and I shared about my experience. It was cool because I presented the project I am doing in La Hacienda and they donated over 100 dollars! Monday Mom and I went to SC to visit my aunt, returned Tuesday. Oh and we went to the Gap Outlet store and I got some great stuff, and at Goodwill too (like a Ropa Americana store, but super organized, even by color, wow). I spent lots of time with my niece Emma, who is so big and talkative now. Got to have lunch with my old pastor and youth minister, spent time with McKayla, and spent some time in Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem to see friends and family. My time passed SO quickly. I tried to stay a few days more but it was going to cost me so much money. I also had lots of phone conversations with people I didn’t get to see. OH and how could I forget the huge packages I brought back from Camasca for people in the USA. Turns out my counterpart’s nephew lives in Charlotte, and my host mom’s daughter lives in Asheville, so I met Iris’ nephew and gave him all the packages. Small world, right? I also received in the mail stuff to take to Yolanda and sent off packages for the previous volunteer, Susan. Are you tired from reading this paragraph? Yeah, that’s how I felt too.

Stayed with Sandra in San Pedro Sula, a very large city in Honduras, very developed, and where my flight was out of) but is doing her one year of service as a doctor in Camasca. She travels back and forth very regularly and said I could crash with her. I freaked out a bit because she didn’t answer her phone for like 30 minutes after I arrived, but eventually she came and we went back to her house. It was SUPER hot in San Pedro, though, reminded me of the Dominican Republic. We went to a birthday party for one of her friends that lived in a huge, nice house in San Pedro. I guess I’m becoming more Honduran because awkward events like that (I only knew Sandra and I didn’t even know her well at all) don’t even bother me anymore.

Michelle and I went to La Ceiba for the Carnaval, the biggest celebration in Honduras and some say in all of Central America. We arrived earlier than everyone else and enjoyed our big hotel room with A/C. We just walked around town and ate some good American food. That night we went to a small carnival in one of the neighborhoods of Ceiba. The big celebration is Saturday but every night the week before they have mini-celebrations in different parts of the city. It was great! There were stages with live music, food, performances, lots of people. We tried to go to Sambo Creek, a town of Garifunas on the beach, but the driver misinformed us and we ended up in the wrong town! AHH. So we had to pay a ridiculous amount of money for someone to take us to the right town. We went to some hot springs there which were nothing like the picture in the advertisement (i.e. there was a pic of a girl looking at a beautiful waterfall, and when I asked the guy about that, he said, what waterfall??), but still really nice and relaxing. We then needed a ride to get to the actual beach (it would be a long walk), and we were asking some tour guide folks about buses, and they just said they would take us, which was really nice. Nothing like arriving in a Garifuna town as a white person (they are black) in the back of a zebra-painted truck. A little Garifuna girl came up to Michelle and I and asked what we were doing, and we told her we wanted good food, and she took us to a restaurant on the beach. We each paid 5 dollars and had huge plates of fried fish, tajadas (fried green plantains), riceandbeans (that’s literally what they call it), and salad. We then walked a bit on the beach and then went back on the bus. Oh and we had delicious coconut bread. I had heard the coconut bread there was way better than what they sell in the city, but the people in the community said it was too hot for coconut bread and no one would be selling it until the afternoon. Well I felt sad but then while we were waiting for the bus, we heard someone screaming that they had coconut bread, and then the bus driver and random people on the street were like, she wants to buy it! (she being me). So yeah, I ate some yummy coconut bread and we got on the bus.

One night I went with Michelle and Meredith and we met up with some H13 friends at a karaoke bar. It was fun, well at first, if you don’t consider the bad ranchera music the Hondurans kept requesting. Hondurans approach karaoke very differently than Americans. They sing sitting down, with their friends, and pick super cheesy romantic songs and try to sing well. Americans, on the other hand, like to get in front of everyone, pick ridiculous songs people can sing along with, and its even better if your voice sucks. I sang Say My Name (Destiny’s Child) with another friend, and then did Ironic by Alanis with Michelle and Meredith, dedicated to our PC boss who has that as his ringtone (seriously). Patrick did the Beastie Boys Intergalactic song, which was HILARIOUS because he knew all the words and everyone got into it. Then as more people came, they put on dance music and the place was full of our gringo friends. We then went to another place but it wasn’t much fun so we got home around 2am.

Saturday was the big day. We woke up late, got breakfast (at lunchtime) and got in place for the parade. It was a big deal for Honduras, I mean I’ve never seen anything like this in the country before. There were floats with costumed women representing different indigenous groups of Honduras, a Japanese dance/float (there are volunteers like Peace Corps here from Japan), music, etc, and the streets were FILLED with food, vendors selling beads and masks, clothes, etc. I stayed until about 5pm and then went back and rested for a bit at the hotel. We got a quick dinner and got ready, and I left around 10 with 2 others, but we didn’t stay long at the festival. There were SO many people that night that we couldn’t move, and at one point I was scared I’d be trampled. And the guy in our group got his phone stolen. So we went back to the hotel, waited a while with everyone else, and then went to the area of town called the Zona Viva where they have clubs. We were at an outdoor place for a while but saw a nicer club across the street. The entrance fee was expensive, like 10 dollars, but a few of us paid it, only to be really disappointed. The music wasn’t that great and we just didn’t like the vibe, so we went back to the outdoor place the rest of the night, and got home around 3am (but there were still TONS of people out!).

Somehow everyone found out about me being gone because random people in Camasca AND La Esperanza were asking me how my trip was, seriously people I don’t remember ever meeting. I was really ready to be back in Honduras, in my site is another thing, since I feel more alone now and I still don’t have a house. I am also frustrated with work. Iris is gone for the week, and the mayor too, so the trash project won’t be advancing this week for sure. I stopped by Julio’s office but he’s just difficult, I can’t put my finger on it but he just doesn’t make it easy for me to work with him. The new volunteer is now here, but I haven’t met him yet. I just know that he’s already doing tons with Cocepradii, surveying for latrines, and I’ve been trying to get to do something like that since I got here. I don’t want to step on his toes but I’d be interested in helping with that. There was a project a while back to do improved stoves, and Julio said he didn’t know what was going on with it, just waiting for materials, and I called the guy in charge (the clinic in Santa Lucia) and he said he’d call me back in June, he wasn’t sure. The colegio kids are all in a 40 day training with UNICEF so they’re not able to work now, so the trash talks have stopped. Went by the bank and money was deposited for the Yo Merezco project from the grant I got, but it isn’t the correct amount, and the Peace Corps office phone is down so I can’t call to ask, awesome.

I am going by the colegio later because I need someone to go with me to this workshop in Tegus on Yo Merezco, and I want to see if I can bring a high school student. The Youth Development project director, who is in charge of the workshop, said they want adults to come, but the thing is, there is no one to come with me. She said to bring a teacher from the school, but the teacher of the kids I work with I know would say no (a week away from her family and kids), and really it wouldn’t make sense to ask her because I’d be almost done with her kids by the time the workshop rolled around. To me, it would make more sense to have a motivated senior come with me, who could then help me with the big training of the other high school kids to replicate it in other communities. And some other volunteers are bringing nurses, but I’ve heard the health center doesn’t do much in regards to preventative stuff and the staff is all really busy. So I’m going to see if I can get permission to take a student, and also, if they are serious about doing the training later on, so I don’t waste my time. Julio also told me of a water and sanitation committee, so I may go talk to one of the committee members who is a teacher. Will start back in La Hacienda tomorrow. And one good thing is that Marlin, my friend from FAO/PESA, has a whole nutrition/hygiene workshop planned with the girls for June, and that they are going to provide most of the money for it! Yay.