Minor Successes

Now that we have internet at home, I might get carried away with blogging every day.

Today I did my first “activity/charla” here in La Esperanza. It wasn’t much. My counterpart asked me to give a short presentation at the monthly meeting of representatives from each of the women’s groups in our organization about the importance of saving in order to motivate them to contribute. I used an activity we learned in training. At the beginning, I gave each person a piece of candy and told them they could eat it or save it. At the end of the meeting, I asked if anyone still had their piece left, and if they did, I gave them an extra candy. The point of this is to show that if you can save your candy for a little while and not eat it, your candy pile will grow. This is of course supposed to mimic what would happen if you saved your money and put it in the bank to gain interest or to grow as you save more and more each month.

I was a little skeptical that either none of the women would eat the candy, or that all of them would, and then the lesson wouldn’t be as apparent. But it worked perfectly and the women loved it! A few women saved their dulces and were rewarded with an extra piece. I explained to them more about the importance of saving for emergencies and large purchases and that they could avoid interest and prestamos (loans) by saving up for something rather than borrowing money. I also told them to repeat the activity with each of their groups to spread the message. I think at least some of them got the message and the activity garnered me a round of enthusiastic applause.

While I guess this technically isn’t the first ‘work’ I’ve done, it’s the first presentation/activity that I led and I’m happy to say that it was a success in its own small way.

New Furniture

We recently got a bunch of new furniture, so here are a few pictures of our newly furnished apartment:

New couch, tv, and dvd player

Finally a fridge, along with a new kitchen table

Nice big bookshelf and another wooden table

Wood furniture is very expensive here, so it's rare to have so much of it, but we bought our stuff cheaply from old volunteers who are leaving. It's actually some of the nicest furniture that we have owned here or in the US.

We also bought a modem from the other volunteers, so we should be able to Skype with people. Just let us know what your Skype screen name is and maybe you'll get a call all the way from Honduras!

Mas fotos

4th of July BBQ




Regular daily deluge


Host family´s dog


M&M Granola Muffins with our new muffin pan


Feria de Chorro y Vino


Cute little chorros in the parade


Us at the festival


View in the Valle de Otoro


Lychee berries from the market


This is how you crack them open to eat


La Gruta - famous landmark in town where Chief Lempira hid from the Spanish


Gouda fondue


Landscape near Barrio Llano de la Virgen


Nicki and the surviving dinosaurs of Honduras

Us with a view of our city above La Gruta

Now we´re getting fancy

So the other night we were making gouda fondue, yes, you read correctly, gouda fondue, and we went to the store to get some cornstarch, an essential ingredient. Oddly enough it turns out they sell cornstarch in single serving packages. It’s fortified with vitamins because it’s meant to be drunk, yes as a beverage. Apparently it is a common baby meal, and any other type of person meal, to have a glass of watery cornstarch. Can anyone out there confirm that this makes sense? I mean, I understand that starches are probably good for you, and they have a lot of corn here so heaven knows cornstarch is easy to come by, but still. They sell it in the aisle with baby formula. The fondue still turned out great.

In other news, we received a bunch of new furnishings for our apartment. A few of the volunteers who are leaving in the coming weeks sold us some stuff for cheap and then gave us another bunch of stuff for free. So we now have a huge new bookshelf, a beautiful cedar table for the kitchen, more chairs, a t.v. and DVD player and a spice cabinet (along with about 80 new spices). Later this week we’ll also be getting a couch and modem. All of this for the price of $165 US dollars. Granted the stuff is used but still, dirt cheap. Thank you Grandma for the money you sent, it covered a good portion as you can see J We’re still waiting to get a stove and fridge in another 3 weeks when the other volunteers leave.

We heard that no new volunteers from the next group are coming to La Esperanza, which is kind of sad. We won’t have any site mates to hang out with regularly. I guess that just means we’ll have to travel more J

We were in Teguz this past Monday and Tuesday. I went to the dentist so the Peace Corps paid for my part of the trip (my teeth are A-OK). We splurged by going to a fancy sandwich place near the office which set us back 300 lemps (15 dollars) for a delicious sandwich of salami, pepperoni, olives, feta and oil and vinegar with homemade potato chips. It was worth it. You can’t get sandwiches like that just anywhere. The weirdest thing was, the restaurant looked like it belonged in NYC, chic and polished with trendy décor. We forgot we were Honduras for a minute. We also splurged on a trip to Mas por Menos, a grocery store (we think maybe owned by Wal-Mart unfortunately, or perhaps Costco) which sells imported items from America, including Kirkland brand items. We bought Nestle chocolate chips, real parmesan cheese, canned pumpkin, Campbell’s tomato soup and they even had Celestial Seasonings Nutcracker Sweet Tea, our favorite! It was unbelievable; we were like kids in a candy store.

Of course the happiness of the trip came to an end when I had my phone stolen near the bus station heading home. No worries, it was a nonviolent, non premeditated attack. Some random guy just ran up as we were getting out of our cab and reached into my pocket. It was sheer luck that my phone, and only my phone, happened to be in there. He just ran off. The funny part is that here, none of the bystanders care. In the US, someone else probably would have run after the guy and caught him. Here, no one even seemed to notice. Luckily, the cell phone companies here are used to dealing with this sort of thing, so a quick phone call later and my number and money that I had on the card were saved, I just had to get a new phone. We basically were told in training that your phone will probably be stolen at least once, so just be prepared. At least it’s out of the way and in probably the safest way possible. We’ll just be more careful next time.

So aside from the stolen phone, we’ve had a pretty good (but expensive) week. We’re not sure you’re supposed to live this well in the Peace Corps.

Our First Feria

We waited in vain for several weeks for our famed Feria de Vino y Chorros. It was supposed to be about three weeks ago, but they finally got around to having it this past weekend, which kinds of defeats the purpose since the harvest of chorros is actually over now. We heard restaurants were stockpiling them weeks ago, saving them up for the feria. Chorros are mushrooms, the kind of mushrooms that look like something from Super Mario, bright red spotted caps and beige yellow stems. Of course, since they were out of season already, the mushrooms served at the feria were a different type. They, like other varieties, can’t really be cultivated so they are hunted for in the wild. The vino here is not from grapes, it’s fruit wine. It has a much stronger flavor and is very alcoholic tasting. Not something you would have a glass of with dinner really.

Thursday they started setting up tents on the main road by the park for food and art vendors as well as a stage. This is when we realized it was a big deal. The last “feria” was no more than a few tables set up in a school gym, so this was a marked improvement. Friday we headed over in the evening to find that all the nicer restaurants in town had stands set up selling various platos tipicos with the addition of chorros. Chicken and chorros, beef and chorros, tacos and chorros, chorro soup. Friday we didn’t have dinner, but we arrived in time for a traditional Lenca folkdance. It was an amazing group of 10 or so Hondurans, ranging in age from about 12 to maybe 30. They were dressed in traditional costumes, big colorful flowing dresses for the ladies and blue button up shirts and cowboy hats for the men. It was such a fun show to watch. They danced for a good hour with about 3 costume changes in what reminded me of a square dance to songs ranging from traditional campo songs to modern Polache. It was possibly the first real cultural ‘thing’ I’ve seen here, so it was pretty great we thought.

After the dance, a band came on called Fenix Epocas (which doesn’t really mean anything). What a group. The lead singer was probably in his mid 50’s with glasses, the backup singer a 16 year old kid and the keyboardist looked perhaps like he was blind. But they were pretty darn good. They started off with what else but the Beatles! Of course, I was enthralled and started clapping and bobbing to the beat. Sadly, either people here don’t understand English (possible), don’t know the Beatles (doubtful), or simply just don’t find dancing and clapping in public to music very exciting (likely) because I think I was the only person dancing. I was, in fact, the only person that looked at all pleased about what was going on. Well, me and a small group of other gringo missionaries from Georgia. I looked like a complete idiot, I’m sure of this because everyone was staring at me. But the band continued, more Beatles, Rolling Stones, Take Me On, Another Brick in the Wall, Pretty Woman then some funk and disco. Still no one danced. I felt sorry for the band, they were doing great but no one seemed to appreciate them.

We headed down to the other side of the fair where other festivities were taking place. A big screen was set up where they were projecting modern music videos and teens were beginning to dance – this is the music they apparently like to dance to. We also saw a troupe of gypsy jugglers. Most of them weren’t very good except for one guy juggling with fire sticks. We couldn’t decide if they were gringos who were just so dirty and tan that they looked Latino or if they were actually Latino. Either way they just looked like regular hippie/gypsy types, I guess they look the same everywhere. Before we left, we headed back to see the live band and they had started playing rock español which people were getting a little more into.

Saturday, the feria continued and our friends, the couple from Siguatepeque, came to town to join us for the festivities. We saw multiple versions of the schedule claiming the parade was at either 10 am or 1 pm. It turned out to be at 11 am (go figure) so we missed most of it because we were walking around elsewhere. We saw the last few ‘floats’ go by with young girls throwing candy like you used to see in the US and some adorable kids dressed up as chorros. We then settled in for lunch. We chose the nicest restaurant in town because we figured it would be a good opportunity to taste how good the food while at a fixed price plate that we could afford. I had chicken and mushrooms, Nolan had beef and mushrooms, delicious! Neither of us are big mushroom eaters, but we thought they were pretty tasty. We perused some of the stands for a bit with some other volunteers we ran into, honey, pañuelos, broccoli, cheese from a jewish shop, dulces, fruit wine etc. There wasn’t all that much to see.

Later that night we headed back for more live music and dancing. This time there were four simultaneous acts. The first was a private party at the alcaldia for 150 lemps, we didn’t check that one out. The second was a middle-aged man lip synching to what sounded like Tom Jones in Spanish. Interesting. The third was a latin group with some brass. They were awesome, upbeat and funky so we watched them for awhile. Aside from the few folks dancing near the front, everyone else just stood and stared. This I can kind of understand, just standing and listening, but the last ‘act’ if you could call it that, was a DJ with latin pop playing. Again, a few teenagers were tearing up the tiny dance floor, but an even larger crowd was gathered, staring straight into a wall of 12 gigantic speakers with a DJ peeking out from behind. That I will never understand. There was nothing to look at! Honduran music culture befuddles us sometimes.

The night ended with a display of fireworks, my personal favorite. I don’t think, however, that many pyrotechnic specialists exist in Honduras because the show was, well, poorly timed. They would set off about 10 of the exact same fireworks in a row, one after the other. Then there would be a few minutes pause, then another 10 of a new kind, then a pause. Some of the bigger ones were dangerously low and looked as if they shot almost straight into the ground. We headed home soon after the fireworks ended. The crowd was probably 99% 15 year old greasy looking Honduran boys that were both a little intimidating and mildly annoying, so we decided to be old married fogies and call it a night.

The work of Nolan and the children

I have a new found appreciation for Nolan and the work he does. Last weekend I accompanied him on an exploratory visit to a fuente (water source) in a barrio of Intibuca where they are having some problems with their current system. Nolan’s task is to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it so that the residents can get more than 3 hours a day of running water. We headed out with the Junta de Agua (water board) in a pickup up into the mountains. We stopped along some random side road, got out and started walking. The people we go with to different communities are all so interesting. I thought it was funny the outfits mostly. Here Nolan and I are wearing out REI lightweight ripstop hiking pants, northface hiking shoes and wicking shirts while the president was wearing some kind of work boots, jeans and polo shirt and carrying his computer. The secretary was wearing black dress pants, a leather jacket and baseball cap. Another member, the vocal, was wearing jeans, dress shoes, a cowboy hat and button up shirt. And we just set off into the woods on some tiny unmarked trails, these guys tiptoeing down muddy slopes and hopping creeks like mountain goats. It was raining so it was getting muddier and muddier as we went, but people here almost don’t notice the rain, or so it seems. The scenery was beautiful, as it always is. We would be tromping on narrow trails through dense woods then all the sudden pop out into someone’s random corn field or pasture with cows.

We hiked for maybe 25 minutes to get to the fuente where we talked and took pictures etc. They are having trouble capturing all the water that is being stored up behind the dam they built. They also need a section of the system redone. As we were talking with the Junta, I realized what a different experience Nolan and I are having with work. I sit in an office or store and chat with my lady friends and drink coffee (sometimes) or talk about marketing and abstract things. Nolan meanwhile is out here, a real engineer, discussing important design elements, troubleshooting problems and hiking 5 hours a day through dense jungle-like conditions. His vocabulary too is so different. I admit I hardly understood what was being said about the system, but Nolan got every word. I’m sure he’d be just as lost in a finance lecture though.

We hiked back taking a different route to follow the conduction line (I’m getting a hang of the lingo) downstream a little. By the time we got back to the car, it had only been maybe an hour or hour and a half of hiking, but I was exhausted, soaking wet and thirsty. Nolan was fine as ever. It really is a tough job he has, and I admire him for doing it so well. But I’m still hoping to go back out again with him and learn to survey.

Something else I’ve been meaning to write about here is the kids. I think kids here work as hard, if not harder than adults. With one of my groups, UMMIL, who has an artisania shop and café in town, there is a girl who works in the shop, let’s call her Maria. Maria is about 16, her family owns a pulperia in another neighborhood. But Maria works at UMMIL 7 days a week, nearly all day except a half day Sunday. She takes orders and makes food at the café, helps sell artisan stuff and does most if not all of the cleaning and organizing. Maria also goes to high school in the evenings where she is studying “comercio” or business, so in her free times at work, she does homework. She’s the sweetest girl, not at all depressed by her situation, but I just imagine that it must be so much work for her. She’s only 16 and she has a full time job and school! How many 16 year olds in the US can say the same? Maybe in the US kids have a part time or weekend job, but a full time, 7 day a week job and school?

Then there is the kid who lives next door to us, let’s call him Miguel. He’s 14 years old, also the cutest thing ever. His dad is I think the nephew of our host mom and his family helps run a Pepsi products distributor in town. So Miguel gets up at maybe 6 or 7, I see him a lot of times in the morning heading out. He works at the Pepsi place all day with his dad, loading and unloading big trucks of soda and water (which are heavy and he is a small 14 year old). Then he also goes to school at night a technical school, coming back at about 7:30 in the evening after long days, but always with the biggest smile on his face. In his free time, Miguel is taking care of his 2 year old brother who’s always running around in their yard. But he’s the most polite, happy looking kid I’ve ever seen.

Lastly, we just met a boy at a place where we go to get fried chicken. His family runs the fried chicken place and a pulperia. He’s always there at the desk, selling stuff if his mom or dad isn’t around. He’s only 9. He goes to a bilingual school so whenever he sees us he just starts chatting away in English, asking us all kinds of questions, anything he can think of. So adorable.
And those are just a few examples. Now, this is not to say that Hondurans are breaking some child rights laws by employing their children. That is not the point. First, I don’t know if there are such laws or what stance they take on this kind of work. Second, I think the kids are doing it mostly on their own accord to help out their families. Third, it’s not the sort of manual slave labor that would cause a child any real harm. Fourth, they are all still attending school simultaneously so they are still getting an education. So these kids are mostly (hopefully) learning a lot about having a business. Maybe not so much about the finances or risk, but about the management and work required. I am really in awe of the stamina and dedication these kids have, maybe because they have to. If they didn’t work, who knows what situations they and their families would be in.

The Beatles - Hello Goodbye

I think I finally understand the Beatles song, “Hello, Goodbye.” They wrote it about Honduras. When I walk down the street, I say ‘Hola’ or ‘Buenos Dias’ and people reply with an ‘Adios.’ You say goodbye and I say hello. It makes perfect sense actually, why waste words saying hello and goodbye to anyone you pass for only an instant.