Friday, July 2, 2010

Housing drama continues. There was another possibility of a house, near the Catholic church. I went with Iris before I left for my training in Tegus last week, talked to the owner on the phone, and he seemed nice enough and said he’d come show me the house. We dropped by the house, thinking it was inside a building they use for monthly meetings for an institution in town (which no one seems to know what they do, surprise), and we talked to the daughter of a woman in the house next door. Well I returned later and talked to the mom, she seemed nice enough. Wow was I fooled! I heard once I got back from my trip that she had been talking about me, how I was the gringa that just went house to house and wanted to kick her out. Turns out she hasn’t paid since January but has a contract until August, a bit complicated. I didn’t realize that the house I had been told about was HER house, or else I wouldn’t have gone there and asked her about it, geez. I managed to get my host mom to tell me that she is kind of crazy, but not to say anything to her about what I had heard about her, because everyone in town is scared of her. At that point, I was just annoyed and wanted the house even more because I didn’t like being treated that way. Well it gets worse. I didn’t say anything else to her or anyone else, but had talked to the owner about coming to show me the house. Well then she tells the same person (who happens to be my next door neighbor, so classy) that if I move there, who knows what will happen to me, basically threatening me. She also said that the man who lives there with her is a witch and would put a curse on me. WHAT??? I know it sounds bogus, but curses freak me out, especially since I know people in town that have had curses put on them and had crazy stories. Plus, I would always worry about living there and her damaging the house or trying to get me or something. So, once again, the one house option I have falls through. The way I see it, I’d rather stay at my host mom’s house where at least I won’t have a witch and his crazy woman after me.

I called Iris because I was really concerned about what to do, I obviously wasn’t going to live there but didn’t know if I should just let it go or confront her. She advised me to talk to her and explain that I had thought the house for rent was the one beside her’s, and didn’t realize she was still leaving there. I basically had to apologize which was annoying because I didn’t do anything wrong, and she ended up saying, well I know you’re a foreigner and you don’t know how we do things here, we respect contracts. And then she started talking about how she was such a good Christian, better than most. This from the woman that threatened my life and tried to put a spell on me. I just played my innocent self and had to suck it up and give in, all the time noting that the house is actually nice inside and would be a good fit. It just feels like I will NEVER get a place to live. I think I mentioned the room I considered renting, and then heard the owner was really “brava” (like mean/crazy), and I managed to get out of my host mom that she had her father-in-law killed and had even shot herself one time to make a point during an argument. Really, not excited about small town housing drama.

Finished my Yo Merezco project in La Hacienda (!) and I’m in the process of writing a project proposal for the big training we are doing in the colegio. Its been really stressful because its all last-minute and sometimes I think I am the only person really thinking it through. Like the colegio director JUST gave me the amount of kids I’ll be working with, and I figured out myself that these kids she is giving me don’t have any funds to work with, unlike the original kids I was going to work with, which completely changes the nature of the project. I know it will come together but I’d rather it not be this stressful. I would rather just do it all myself, because sometimes in my town something that would take 5 minutes takes an hour, but I know part of our role as PCorps is to work alongside with nationals and teach them the process. Boo. So we have a week and a half until we start the three day training, and I think Sarah, from the town close to me, is at least going to help for a day. Our big town fair is in a couple weeks, so excited, I’ve heard its actually a good fair in comparison to the other ones around here, we’ll see.

Went to Valle de Angeles last week for a training on Yo Merezco, and I got trained in the program for boys, which was really interesting, while the teacher I brought went to the training for girls. We are going to base our training a lot on what we did there, because the format was great and I found it useful but also enjoyable. I got into the Tegus area early to stay with my host family from training (the one who lived near Tegus), and then one night during the week my Cantaranas host family came to Valle and we had dinner, and it was so nice to see them! I got to see several volunteers that I hadn’t seen since training, and it was fun to go out in Valle with them at night. Overall, I had a really good time.

I got really sick in La Esperanza, the sickest I’ve been in Honduras, about a month ago. We had our regional meeting with all the volunteers in my department, and stayed at a nice hotel and had all our meals at the restaurant there, one of the best restaurants in La Esperanza. Well the night of the meeting I felt really full and my stomach felt a bit off so I didn’t go to dinner with the group. While they were gone I started to feel really nauseous and just felt miserable in the bed. I called the PC nurse, who happened to be with us at the meeting, at like midnight and she came over with medicines. Well by the time she got there I had thrown up several times and felt a bit better. The next day I had bad diarrhea and nausea and just stayed another night at the hotel because the thought of getting on the bus back to my site (3 hours on a bumpy mountain road, no thanks) made me want to gag. The nurse said she thought it was food poisoning, which is possible but strange because we all ate the same food at the hotel. I’m just thankful I was in La Esperanza when it happened, in a nice comfy bed with people to clean up after me.

Ok so I need to get some work done on the project proposal now. Going to La Esperanza Sunday, I think, to celebrate 4th of July with some other volunteers. Will then be in Camasca getting ready for the training and also preparing for a Project Citizen training with Iris. Then the next weekend my friend Christine and I are going to Comayagua to take out Victor’s wife for her birthday (long story but when we were all together in Siguatepeque we came up with the idea) which should be fun, and as always, interesting. Then the training, and feria!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Still no house. It’s getting ridiculous at this point. I know no other volunteers that are still looking for houses, I mean really, I’ve almost been here a year! There is one more house I am going to see when I get back from my training this next week but I just doubt it will work, from all my previous experience. I may just have to rent a room in a house where I’d have a front entrance. My host mom used to be fine about me coming home whenever, but now she is worried about burglars so she locks the house from the inside and I can’t get in with my keys. I’ve had to stay with friends or a couple of nights ago, I had to call another girl that lives there to let me in. I feel like I’m 15 again. I would really LOVE to have a small house with a backyard, kitchen, pila, one or two rooms, and maybe even a front porch (which is what everyone else I know in PC has). Instead it seems I’ll have to settle for one room in a house, shared bathrooms, and a cramped space to cook in (within my own bedroom). Oh, so there was one possibility in town of renting a room, supposedly where a previous volunteer lived for 2 years. The owner, an older lady, seemed a little loopy but harmless. I mentioned her name to my host mom,Yolanda, who didn’t respond really, and so I probed a bit further and asked about this woman. Turns out she had her father in law killed because they had issues over land ownership, and everyone in town knows but is afraid to talk about it because she may come after them. And she supposedly shot herself to prove a point to her husband when they were arguing once. SERIOUSLY? And my host mom wasn’t even going to say anything. So, I don’t know, maybe not the best place to live. As my host mom said, she may get mad and throw your stuff outside, or I’m thinking worse….

June has been busy so far (yay!), mainly working on the Yo Merezco abstinence project in La Hacienda, and I finished today!! I have been collaborating more with other people in town. We discovered with the UNICEF folks in town that we have similar goals of sexual health education, and so one of the girls came along with me one time, and they may come to the training I do in a few weeks, we’ll see. It would be great to have other people supporting the students as they are doing this project out in the communities. There is a new nurse in town that has been doing talks on pregnancy prevention but her way of doing it is with slide shows, no activities really (well she called a girl in front of 50 peers to do a condom demonstration which was so painful to watch because she had no idea and was so embarrassed), and way too many kids in one room at a time. I had wanted to collaborate but she doesn’t seem very interested so that’s fine. The program I have done with the girls in La Hacienda is more comprehensive and we talk about all the issues around abstinence and sex, not just not doing it or being safe. We talk about reasons to have sex or not have sex, consequences, etc. One afternoon I was there at the colegio and it prompted an interesting conversation with a teacher there. He said that he didn’t like the talk because it was too “open” and that it should have been run by the teachers first, which I agree. But he also said another problem they were having was with homosexuals in the school. At first he said it a few different ways and I didn’t understand, I guess he didn’t want to be direct, but finally came out and said it. According to him, there are a few gay colegio students who are convincing other male students to be gay as well. Oh yeah, as ridiculous as it sounds. I just couldn’t believe my ears. I tried as politely as possible to explain that people aren’t “convinced” to be gay. Regardless of your beliefs on homosexuality, that kind of thinking is just plain ignorant. He said they have a distinct manner of dress, which I’m trying to imagine but can’t, since they all wear uniforms and I have never noticed anyone who looked like how he was describing. On the same topic, today in La Hacienda my friend who helped me with the talk mentioned something about watching after your kids because when little boys are molested, it turns them gay. Don’t even know how to address these kinds of ideas.

Ok, on with what has been going on lately. We’ve had some fun sport activities lately. A week ago we had a big ceremony in Camasca and high school soccer teams from the other municipalities close by came to compete, and also Zach’s girls basketball team competed. It was actually really enjoyable. The next day there was a soccer championship between the kindergartens of the municipality and it was ADORABLE. I cheered for the La Hacienda kids, who had no chance against the ones from Camasca. It was incredible to see the difference in size and the ability to pay attention during the game. Their clothes were much more drab, and they were so much thinner than the Camasca kids, and I think their confusion at the game and inattentiveness is due to malnutrition, at least in part. Nonetheless, it was really funny to watch the little kids all run after the ball, attempt at the wrong goal, and cry whenever they fell or got hit by the ball. Supposedly they are going to have competitions every couple weeks which will be entertaining.