June 3, 2011

I have less than 4 months, maybe just 3 months left. This week has been extremely boring, not too much to do, and I think it makes me more anxious to leave. My parents visited for a week and I think saying goodbye to them makes me just want to get back to the USA. My first year of Peace Corps I remember wondering how I would ever be ready to leave, but I feel that way now. Zach and I are waiting for funds for a stoves project, but I realize I won’t be able to see it finished while I’m here, so it makes me want to just do the bare minimum and then leave. Not that I have a job or any exact plans for when I return, but sometimes just thinking about eating at an American food court, walking on my college campus again, or going out for ice cream with my family (a lot of it is food related, YOU try eating beans and eggs for two years and see what it does to you) is enough to make me want to jump on a plane back…or cry. I think not being with friends and family made it kind of rough too for my birthday on Sunday. Sure, I got lots of facebook messages and  a few phone calls, but I still was by myself and really did nothing to celebrate.  I had thought I would do something with friends here but many were busy and others were not even in town. Hopefully it will be the last birthday I’ll celebrate without my loved ones.

In the meantime, I’m leaving tomorrow to go to Comayagua, a town a couple hours outside of Teguc, to visit with some Honduran friends. Then all next week we have our Close of Service (COS) Conference outside of Teguc. This conference is with everyone in my training class, as we prepare to finish our service. We talk about money issues, career tips, pick our official leaving date, etc. I really cannot believe that I have been in Honduras for two years, and am almost done with my service. I’m hoping I can also figure out my post-Peace Corps travel plans.

Ok, I lied, I wasn’t completely useless this week. Yesterday I did a dental talk in San Juan de Dios. I brought toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste from my dentist in the USA for the first grade class there. I tried to teach them the basics of dental health, but really, teaching the concept of plaque to a six year old kid who can’t read and has a two minute attention span is difficult. I passed out the toothbrushes and we practiced brushing our teeth (outer surfaces, inner surfaces, top of your teeth/mastication surface, and then the tongue! You’re welcome for the review) a few times. WELL I guess some of these kids never brush them, because several of their mouths started bleeding. And then one of the kids showed me that part of his tooth had fallen out. Whoops.  I told him to hold onto it (not really sure for what purpose) but then he threw it into the woods. I had to actually show several of them how to brush their teeth, doing it for them, and their teeth were in horrible condition. I knew that they rarely brushed their teeth, since they don’t learn to do this in their homes from their parents, but I was shocked. Their teeth were broken off, black, yellow, rotten. And these are six-year old kids. Actually, as I was finishing up at the school, the community’s dentist (one dentist for 7,000 people) randomly came by and we talked for a bit. She got money from the municipality and also Colgate to give toothbrushes and paste to all the kids in the municipality, or at least the ones enrolled in school. Not sure if she was able to spend much time in each class, but at least it was an effort on her part. I wish I could support her more to give follow up in these classes. These kids are certainly not going to get in the habit of brushing their teeth, much less correctly, after one hour-long session. I’ll be back in a week and will visit them two more times. I also passed out some information for their parents and hope to speak at a parent’s association meeting so that their caregivers will take this seriously. Random fact—did you know you can use salt instead of toothpaste if you run out? That is a valuable tidbit in communities like San Juan where toothpaste is not readily available, and can be costly.

PS—I have to give a special shout out to my parents. I never would have thought they’d visit me in Honduras, and they were really good sports. They came all the way to my town, 3-4 hours on a hot bus without air conditioning around windy mountain roads, and then another on an unpaved, bumpy mountain road in the cabin of a truck. They tried all the typical foods (and let’s be honest, Honduras is not known for its cuisine), one of them tried a Honduran beer with me J and they sat through countless conversations that they did not understand. They dealt with the hotel in Camasca that doesn’t understand the concept of fitted sheets, insulation in the walls, and had a huge ant infestation in their room.  They were flexible and patient, and I am very proud of them! Thanks again, Mom and Dad! (But let’s do the next vacation in Europe, ok?)