Something to be Thankful For

After a couple of months feeling like a foreigner in my own country I have come to appreciate all the more the friends I made during my stay in El Caracol. Against all odds and the heavily touted "barriers" (cultural, language, etc) they accepted me despite my many faults and, excuse the cliche, made me feel like one of their own. I don't want to give the impression that I'm wearing rose colored sunglasses - life there was far from idyllic and probably richer for that fact - but time has the side effect of enhancing the good while allowing the bad to fade. I've come to realize that it was never about me - it was always about them - and I wish I would have realized that sooner.

The proverbial question - Would I do it again? - in a heartbeat, without a moments hesitation, and I would hold nothing back.

I would like to continue with a few anecdotes from my last month. I should have posted these while the events were still fresh in my mind but I just couldn't bring myself to. It probably would have helped mitigate my "reverse culture shock" as even now I am finding it somewhat cathartic.

I ended my last post months ago with the statement that Sonlight Power, Inc. was planning to repair the school's solar energy system. The day that they came was one of the biggest emotional swings of my time there. As I walked out to the pavement to meet them, I passed not one, but two logging "camiones" (trucks) stuck in the muddy road. I was cursing the world - the ONE DAY I needed the road to be clear this has to happen. The group was delayed so I had some time to sit and stew on this as well. Luckily the Sonlight group was really upbeat and decided to wait it out and for once the Honduran "45 minutos" was actually not far off. The Sonlight driver was impressive - they made it in and out without problems despite ominous road conditions, and they were able to replace/repair the system within a matter of hours. I can't begin to describe how ecstatic I was when the lights came on after I had written the day off earlier as one of my worst failures. Even though I played a minuscule role in the events, it was moving to see this amazing resource for the community functioning again. Even more so now that the "voluntad politica" (political will) for the electricity project continuation no longer seems to be there.

A few days before I had an epic "Lord of the Rings"-esque experience. Shortly after my host brother received a call that a ternero (calf) was stuck in one of the post holes dug for the electricity project (don't get me started on that) we were rushing off down the rocky path, weapons in hand (ok it was just rope) to confront the impending danger. We were met about 3/4 of the way by a barefoot community member with unusually large feet (hobbit anyone?) who led us to the hole. The three of us managed to haul the hefty ternero out of a hole a meter wide and a meter and a half deep. It then proceeded to walk away as if nothing had happened. Luckily it had not fallen head first or it likely would have drowned in the afternoon rains.

To interject with good news - the young men in Mexico were safe and sound and contemplating returning to Honduras at the time that I left the community.

The little 3 year old is one of the Hondurans I miss the most. I had taken to joking around with him and one day as I tossed him on my shoulder he said "Asi no Roberto, no soy un palo de lena" (not like that - I'm not a piece of firewood) because people tend to carry firewood on their shoulder. I proceeded to call him "palo de lena" for the remaining weeks. Apparently for several days after I left he was knocking on my door looking for me.

Another touching moment was the "despedida" (going away party) my host family threw on my last night in town. They rented a gas generator to power lights and a stereo to send a dance party into the "madrugada" (early morning), and my host mother and her friends spent the majority of the previous day making nacatamales (my favorite Honduran food - such a poignant gesture when you realize the effort that goes into making them - and no I did not request them). Although the community probably enjoyed it even more than I did (there are not many social events) it was a very heartfelt way to say goodbye. I fell asleep to the sound of rain on the "tejas" (clay roof tiles) for the last time, and woke up to find that the raging river had threatened to wash away the one bridge in town while I slept. Apparently mother nature was not convinced it was time for me to go and let loose 3 inches of rain, causing the river to rise above the bridge; which I was told had not happened since the devastating Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in 1998.

So now I am dealing with Honduras withdrawal - especially since I no longer have a backyard island beach to escape to - and wondering what comes next.

Hope you had the time of your life

If Peace Corps is a sink or swim experience, I floated. I have learned a lot - about myself, human nature, life in general - but I definitely did not save the world. Not that I expected to be superman, but I had no idea that it could be so hard to help others. Seems like such a simple concept. But I am still here; I have not thrown in the towel - that has to count for something.

I have been shocked to the core. Have you ever seen the anguish of a mother who does not know if her child is dead or alive? Maybe you have heard about the massacre of immigrants in Mexico, and remember my previous post about two young men from the community who decided to try their luck getting to the states. The last I heard they were still in Veracruz, distant from site of the massacre, but they have not communicated in weeks. As I sat with the mother of one recently all she could manage to do was wonder why her son had decided to leave with his cousin to "chase of the dollar" and leave a life, that while at times a struggle, was familiar and safe. I cannot imagine listening to the news when the cadavers were returned to their countries of origen with the knowledge that some remain unidentified and one of them may be your son. What consolation can I possibly offer - the foreinger from the other side of the fence - relatively exempt from these dangers and the call of the dollar. By luck of birth, I have already attained the dreams they were, no are, chasing. There is a saying here: "todo se pierde, menos la esperanza" - you can lose everything, but hope remains.

I did not wish to leave you with this depressing note, but I felt that it had to be written. Hopefully the following will again lift your spirits.

The movie Air Bud showed not to long ago on one of the few channels that makes it to the community (followed by the rest in the series on successive weekends). Kids loved the golden retriever playing basketball so much that they were inspired to build their own "court" on the side of the road. Pots with the bottoms rusted out served as hoops attached to branches the kids stuck in the ground. It is very cute, but pretty much utter chaos as no one dribbles. They can´t really as the surface is not conducive to dribbling.

Previous to this there was a Shrek marathon, were the soon to be 3year-old of my eldest host brother received the nickname "gato en botas" (Puss in Boots) as he currently runs around in oversize rubber boots (the smallest available at the time) after demanding that his dad purchase them. He has taken to calling me Robertin (little Roberto), Robertillo (similar), Roberta (the female form) etc. to egg me on, and even calls me Tio (uncle) from time to time. I have grown close to him and will definitely miss him when I am gone.

I am almost tired of the foods prepared with fresh corn, luckily coinciding with the end of the season. I have lost count of the number of times I have eaten atol (corn pudding), huihuiles (not sure of the spelling - tortillas made from fresh corn), tamales, and boiled/roasted ears of corn.
It was good to get the experience of being stuffed to the brim with corn, as I had missed it last year due to the lack of rain.

The last few months in site have been difficult. All of the rain that was absent last year at this time has fallen this year and then some. The road is almost washed out, and continually worsening with the logging trucks that traverse it and get stuck in the mud pits they create. In one storm, 2.5 inches fell in around an hour and the runoff threated to wash away the porch of the house my eldest host brother just constructed. The farmers here have lost most of their bean crops, and are at risk to lose the corn crop too as the grains have to dry before they can be stored to make tortillas later. Feast or Famine.

Bright side is that the Sonlight Power, Inc., the organization that installed the solar panel at the community school, is planning to come and fix it this coming week. Hopefully they will not have trouble in arriving. The communities along the road have organized work groups to toss rocks and gravel in the worst of the ruts.

Crazy that 2 years can pass by so quickly. All of a sudden I have to figure out how to say goodbye when it seems like I have just barely said hello.

Reflection

I pass through life like driftwood in the tide - my hands bound by my fear to make waves.

I appologize to those of you who have been waiting a while for this. I have been thinking a lot recently - probably about things I shouldn´t be dwelling on - and it has not put me in the best frame of mind. As a result, I kept putting blogging off until I realized that it was not benefiting anyone. To top things off, I almost wasn´t able to write today; the electricty is out, but luckily this internet cafe has a generator.

I will spare you the details - I think it is sufficient to say that my COS (close of service) conference was a sobering experiece.

Back in May, there were rumors flying around in the community that a company was going to pay people per hectare of land (registered with the company) based on the tons of oxygen produced. All one had to do was submit the deed of the property. It was later explained to me that the company was also interested in CO2, and that the oxygen was for more polluted countries. To add to things, a second helicopter began making rounds overhead (in addition to the one supposedly investigating wind energy prospects) and this led people to believe that it was packaging oxygen to take to the US and other countries. I tried to explain that the US has its own oxygen and that the helicopter was probably just measuring oxygen levels, but I had to listen some more before I finally deduced that they were actually talking about a carbon credit program that they didn´t understand. I can see how some "gringo" trying to explain the concept in broken spanish might come across as looking to buy oxygen for polluted countries. The company did manage to get across the idea that more trees per hectare produce more oxygen so maybe the program will catch on and help promote reforestation.

I was waiting for the bus home one day when a bolo (drunk) came up to me. I usually try to avoid them because they can be openly hostile to foreigners, or at best constantly ask for money. This guy happened to ask me where I was from first, so as not be rude I told him, "Pensilvania" (Pennsylvania). His eyes lit up in shock like I had whipped out some sort of dangerous weapon, and he asked in all seriousness if Dracula was real. Trying not to laugh I spent the next 15 minutes trying to explain the difference between PA and Transylvania.

My dislike of chickens has raised to a new level. Not only do they bullseye to my room if I leave the door open for a second and destroy my attempts at gardening, now they will not let me eat in peace. One day while I was calmly enjoying my breakfast with the customary stack of tortillas on the side, one of the chickens jumped up on the table (with that awkward wing flapping in attept to fly) and snatched a tortilla before my host mother chased it out of the house. Something new every day as they say.

The rainy season has been making up for its relative absence last year. It has rained so much that the tejas (clay tiles usaully superior to tin roofs for the noise factor) are leaking as they have become so saturated that water passes through them, albeit slowly, like a filter. All this rain has made it difficult to pass from one side of the community to the other; the rio is unpredictable. One day I was struck with cabin fever and decided to head out to the field with my host brothers. We decided against the long way around (all on one side of the river but plagued by pooled water and barbed wire fences) in favor of the double river crossing, drier and quicker, normal route. At the second crossing the river was higher than anticipated so my host brothers begin to cross on a log fence suspended by a cable across the river, one by one. Then it was my turn. About four steps in, there was an ominous crack and I suddenly found myself dangling in the river up to my waist. I managed to pull myself out to the other side without further incident, just to catch flak about wanting to swim with clothes on and being the gordo (fat) gringo that broke the fence (although I might weigh 20 pounds more - at most). Just wasn´t my day - needless to say we took the long way around on the way back.


Research has been somewhat less than desireable. I have a weir placed in a spring to measure flows but it has been removed twice. Thankfully I have been able to locate it both times and re-install it. Apparently some of the neighborhood kids (so I was told) emptied one of my rain gauges before I could record the amount of rainfall, but at least that seems to be an isolated incident. Recently the store owner placed a hose in the spring where I have the weir to fill his pila (storage tank). I am still thinking of a way I can accurately measure the amount of springflow that is being siphoned off. My advisor came to visit recently and, in addition to moral support, left me with a gps. Hopefully I will be able to take points of interesting features to compare with satelite imagery and aerial photos (if the rain lets up).

Around the last bend

My Peace Corps experience is winding down, more than 3/4 over already. I sometimes find myself thinking about how little I have accomplished compared to what I thought I would do at the beginning. It is hard not to compare myself to a college freshman who has slacked off (not that I have) the majority of the first semester and is now riding on finals week to justifiy his existence, especially when I look at what other volunteers have accomplished. But enought of that.



My host brother Enrique moved into his house before Holy Week, even though he did not have money for the doors and windows. He just went around town looking for junk boards and nailed everything shut except for one door - he installed an old one that his aunt gave him that she had replaced. Could you imagine moving into a house without doors and windows? Life is different here. A house is more like a work in progress. (side note: one of these days I will get to a fast enough connection and post pics on facebook)

Salad round 2 went better this time; no greens, just tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, carrots, and the same amazing Italian dressing mix. Of course some members of my host family were like a kid with a bowl of M and Ms who has decided he only likes the green ones - fishing around with their fingers to pick out what they liked. Thankfully other family members are less picky. No polite comments of discontent this time so I will chalk it up as a success or a least a partial one.

There has been a helicopter flying overhead for several weeks know. Apparently a Canadian company is looking into wind energy prospects in the area. The friendly neighborhood old man, who sometimes drinks to much (but was not drunk at the time) jokingly told me it was selling bananas and I broke out in laughter. Probably not so funny without context, but when you have random pick-ups occasionally drive through town selling random fruit the joke makes more sense.

English classes have started to throw me for a loop. I have learned that I am not made to be a teacher. The odds are not in my favor to start with: 1 few gradeschool students are dedicated to learning in a formal environment, 2 they are even less motivated when they know they will not be tested on the material, and 3 (most important) I cannot compete with the breakfast/lunch that often shows up late during the hour I´m scheduled to teach (even I would probably start drumming my fingers if I had to listen to myself while staring through the barred windows at food waiting for me on the other side). Then comes my ineptitude. The other day I was trying to get the students to pratice the "my name is..., what is your name?" exchange. I had hoped to have the students go around in a circle saying their names and asking the person next to them what their name was, but I could not get the point across. I exhausted every figment of my extremely limited teaching prowess drawing stick figures on the board in a line with arrows between them and the statement/question above each of their heads, but even this "brilliant" illustration got nothing more than blank stares. I had to settle for asking/responding to each student in English while they asked/responed to me in Spanish, but I even managed to botch that by confusing myself and slipping into Spanish.

2 of my host dad´s cows died prompting a sudden vacination campaign. It is something to see vaqueros in their environment. 2 man lasso teams ropping cows, and dragging the agressive ones over to a post to anchor them down; my host dad running around with syring in hand, slapping cows in the rear, jabbing the needle in, and half slapping the cow again to massage the pain, another running around slopping paint on cows horns or forehead to distinguish those that had already gone through the gauntlet. Although the paint wasn´t foolproof (some of the cows would fight smearing paint on other cows horns/foreheads) they really seemed to know which cows had been already. 70 some cows in around 2 hours; I have nothing to gauge that by but it seems impressive to me.

I did not get out to see the Holy Week festivities this year but it was not so bad staying in site. I was invited over to several houses various times for the traditional "sopa de pescado" (fish soup). Interestingly enough, some families make the crabcake-like fish "tortas" by letting the fish (previously gutted but still heads and all) dry for a couple weeks and then grinding them in the same "molina" used to grind corn and tossing the "polvo" (powder) into the crabcake-like mix. As gross as it might sound the soup is actually quite good (but my standards have changed so take that for what it is worth).

Thankfully the rains have come again. It was starting to get to the point that I no longer felt cleaner after bathing. The river was basically choked with sediment and algae to the point that the water that reached my host family´s pila through the hose looked "alive". And I actually have no room to complain - others had it a lot worse. My host dad had the almost daily task of breaking the hose down into it´s various sections to remove the algae/sediment clogs or the air buildup from low flows. He mentioned that having various sections also reduces the potential value to thieves but it makes it harder to maintain the hose system in flood flows during storms.


I have started research finally but it is almost like I have not. I am hoping to look at the relationship between rainfall and spring flow to infer something about groundwater conditions and recharge zones but I keep hitting setbacks. I missed the first rain at the end of March because, although I had a rain gauge, I did not set it up because the rainy season does not start until May. I put it up the following day to have a pair of oxen knock the fence down so I had to look for another location. I also had installed a plastic ruler in a spring fed pool to gauage the level of the water and it somehow walked off shortly after. I´m not sure if someone needed a ruler or did not want me messing around there. The community was hesistant to let me investigate the water source for fear of losing there limited supply in the dry season but maybe that will change now that the rains have started to fall. I missed a chance to measure the recharge rate of this soucre when it went dry once during holy week (probably due to the increased demand) because I could not find who had the key to the springbox to take measurements. I don´t want to ramble on so I´ll just leave it at "it has been difficult".


Here´s a little something to brighten your day. A little while ago I was seething after a bad day; laying in the hammock and trying to clear my head when the neighbor´s dog walks up and urinates all over the portable solar panel I had set out on the porch to catch the sun at the best angle. Lesson learned - It can ALWAYS be worse.

Peace,

Rob

Random Moments

I woke up around midnight several weeks ago to the sounds of the kitten tearing into the bag of beef jerky that I had been saving for a special occasion (not sure what that was supposed to be). Apparently I had fallen asleep without remembering to secure the door and the wind had blow it open.

My best man's best friend gave birth to 2 healthy puppies (almost makes up for the weeks of hell while she was in heat) that are almost a month old now.

I made a salad for the host family one day but it did not really go over well. No one really liked the mustard greens and parsley combo (not my fault they were the only greens the chickens left alone) despite the amazing (in my opinion) Italian dressing I made from a mix. My host dad nicely said that the leaves were a little past their prime. Most didn't even try it, but they did polish off the tomatoes I had bought and sliced to complement the salad - well at least they got their veggies. So I ate a family's worth of salad so it wouldn't go to waste and hoped I wouldn't get sick.

I used to think chickens were my arch nemesis but burros (donkeys) are now vying for that coveted position. I did not know that donkeys were so intelligent, but there is a pair in my community that have figured out how to open gates to make midnight food raids. Not only did they polish off my mustard and parsley (making a second attempt at a salad impossible) they have made repeated trips to munch the bush right outside my window making quite a racket that keeps me up all night. In there defense they did leave my peppers alone at least, and it is the dry season when food is scarce.

Speaking of chickens, fishing for chickens is hilarious. One of the guys in my community who loves to fish recently got a hold of a fishing rod. I was showing him how to cast it when one of the chickens in the yard decided the lure would be a tasty meal. Thankfully it did not catch up (can't imagine trying to get a chicken of a hook) but it followed the lure almost to the porch.

I recently went on a trip to a nearby community nestled in a picturesque valley below impressive cliffs but I was almost unable to appreciate the scenery. I don't know why I agreed to go along with questionable stomach status, but thankfully there was a latrine and even more surprisingly it was stocked with TP. I met a funny little guy there who kept cracking jokes - like how the cliffs were a fence he made a few years back and how I should take a picture of him as the tallest guy in the area (he might be 4 ft tall) - but his comments of "que bonito" (how cute) got old after a while. It made me realize just how thankful I am that I have lost some of the celebrity status in the community I live in - my whiteness, blond hair and blue eyes are no longer so novel.

A brief work update:

Regarding the water project, I heard through the grapevine that the property owner still verbally agrees to moving the dam further upstream for better quality but that he is no longer willing to sign a legal document granting permission. So the water project does not seem possible through that route at the moment. People are beginning to talk of looking into drilling a well when the electricity project gets completed (it is still kind of on hold though).

I started teaching English in the school again and I was pleasantly surprised how much the kids remembered. I won't have to spend several classes reviewing the ABCs so hopefully we can make more progress this year. I received another batch of letters from the school in the states and hope to motivate the profesora to have the students write response letters by the end of the month to potentially have time for more than one letter exchange this year. I am also working with the profesora and the equivalent of the PTA on preparations for a tree nursery and school garden to be started when the rains return.


I'll leave you with this insight:

The first bus is not always the best bus when you are on a schedule.

2 Month Special Feature

Dear faithful readers

I must apologize for the lapse in the regularly scheduled blogging. There is no excuse; I’ll just chalk it up to an unfortunate series of events.

First, here is the promised recap of the trip to Guatemala (unfortunately now more than 2 months ago).

I’ll preface this by saying that a week was not enough. I saw a lot but it felt like I was constantly moving, like I could never really sit down and relax and get to know the country. First stop was Antigua – quite the interesting place. It has interesting colonial style architecture and impressive ruins left over from past earthquakes but does not feel quite like “authentic Guatemala” due to the international vibe. It seemed that over half of the people encountered in the street were foreigners. Antigua served as a base to visit Volcan Pacaya, my first opportunity to see a volcano up close and personal (aka not on TV). Once we reached a certain point it seemed like Pacaya was devoid of life like Mars, except the rock is black and vents near the active zone were contributing steam to the morning mist. Our guide lead us far closer to the lava flows than you would ever be allowed to in the US, and some of my compatriots stuck their walking sticks in the lava to catch them on fire if they could manage to withstand the heat of being so close. It’s quite the otherworldly experience watching glowing red lava pass through the cracks beneath your feet. I found it hard to reconcile the slow progress of the lava with the destructive potential of the volcano, but it was easy to feel a profound respect for the ancient force of nature. From there we moved on to Lago Atitlan where we got a chance to see Maximon, the god of vice (sort of a blend of Catholic and indigenous Guatemalan traditions), for a price of course, and the wooden statue was very happy to accept gifts of guaro (cheap alcohol) and cigarettes according to the two guys sitting behind. From there it was over a 12 hour trip to the Mayan ruins of Tikal; not the most pleasant experience, but the ruins made the trip worthwhile. I am always fascinated with what ancient civilizations managed to accomplish without modern machines. I’m sure that the 60m pyramids are not all that impressive compared to those in Egypt, but it was amazing to be in the middle of the jungle, sitting almost at the top of one with my legs dangling off the side, and pondering what life was like there a thousand years ago when it was constructed. I couldn’t help but wonder if our civilization won’t someday fade back into the wilderness after we exhaust the Earth’s ability to sustain us.

Catching up

Back in November I had the opportunity to help transport some cows from one pasture to another on horseback. To be honest, I didn’t really help out much at all but it was amazing to get caught up in the excitement of it all and I didn’t even mind too much when the horse would suddenly take off at a gallop, nearly jolting me from the saddle. Actually the gallop was a lot less hard on the rear end than the next slower pace (canter maybe?).

Election Day this year was kind of sad; there was none of the excitement from the primary elections a year ago, and very little campaigning from what I could see. It seemed like most people in this community were resigned to the current situation. I would guess that less than one third of the community voted, despite last minute petitions of representatives from the mayoral candidates. The new president just took office so we will have to see how things turn out.

My eldest host brother is building his own house and I have been lending a hand here and there. Making adobes, while easier on the pocket, is a lot off work. Step 1: gather a significant amount of dirt and wet it to the right consistency. Step 2: dump in pine needles (to prevent the adobe from cracking as it dries) and mix them into the mud with your feet by stomping around as if you were crushing grapes for wine with your feet. Step 3 is the tedious job of hauling the mix to the mold and spending hours hunched over filling the mold, cautiously removing it, and starting over. I jumped in on steps 4 and 5, squaring the adobes off with a machete where they had slumped, and stacking the dried adobes to make room for more. The latter was quite a task and I was sore for days. It was pretty much just like the deadlifting I used to do way back in high school. I probably stacked around a hundred adobes a day (around 500 in total and thankfully they didn’t all dry the same week) and each one probably weighs around 50 pounds (although I might be off a little since it has been a while since I have been in a weight room). The foundation is nothing more (and nothing less) than a trench dug and filled level with rocks plastered together with mud. The walls are up now and only the doors, windows and roof (made of wood) are lacking. Watching the walls go up was interesting; the construction was just like working with bricks except instead of bricks it was significantly larger adobes and the “mud” was really mud. I can’t help but think how a house made basically of dirt (except for the cement lintels) would never last back home. A picture is worth a thousand words so for those of you who have facebook, check out the progress and I’ll try to get the new photos up soon. For those of you who do not, I again apologize.

Before I went home over Christmas and New Years I went through a rough week where I was substantially under the weather (I’ll spare you the details). During this time I developed the theory (obviously just based on personal experience and far from proven) that noise pollution is a concept that does not exist in this culture. I had already observed that many Honduras seem to think that louder is always better, but when I was just really trying to rest and my host sisters turned on the radio full blast it dawned on me. Add to that the fact that the week before my (previous – just kidding, we still get along) man’s best friend went into heat and it didn’t seem to really bother my fellow inhabitants of the house while I, however, passed several sleepless nights. I had never known just how lucky I was to have never experienced this before. It was as if the house was converted to a dog hotel and all of the neighborhood dogs (and some drifters) decided to stop and spend the night, and, after some heavy drinking, they all decided they were going to fight over the same girl.

Christmas and New Years were good but I again had to remind myself that home had not changed, I have changed. It was not anything I could specifically pin down but home just wasn’t the same. Probably the “reverse culture shock” that we as volunteers are warned about. As much as I was looking forward to snow, and it was beautiful, I’ve become more Honduran than I had thought and couldn’t bring myself to go out into it very often. In my defense, temperatures were below freezing just about the entire 2 weeks I was home (side note: it is cool to explain low temperatures to Hondurans because they usually have never felt them and because below freezing is “bajo cero grados” below 0 in Celsius which just sounds more impressive). I wound up taking most of the “snow pictures” I had promised my Honduran friends from the windows of the house – I know, how lame am I.

I felt somewhat vindicated when my mom came back with me to visit for a for a few days. I had been given some criticism by friends and family in the US for feeling cold when the temperature hit 60 (Fahrenheit) here in the community. However, this time I had to loan my sweatshirt to my mom. The truth is that when the wind howls and the temperature drops (even if the drop is only around 20 degrees) if you aren’t physically active the cold penetrates your very being because the houses are far from sealed and insulated. The wind comes in under the roof, through the shuttered windows, and even right through the door without even knocking.

Work update:

The water project: same old thing unfortunately

The electricity project: Funding came through for the first half of the project and the 2 communities closer to the highway know have public lighting. The only thing lacking is the house connections which the patronato (council assembled from the 2 town councils) does not want to allow the families to connect until the project is completed so that they do not stop supporting the project for the other 2 communities. Some people in my community are really angry that funds only came through for 2 communities when they have pulled a lot of the weight in getting the project to come through, but others are more understanding and see that electricity is now a few steps closer and that it is not likely that a project once started won’t be finished. When, however, is another thing altogether. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to switch on the lights before I leave in September? Or maybe not.

And of courses classes will be starting again this month so things are looking up.

That’s all folks.

New Experiences

I recently had the opportunity to try "juevos de toro". I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later - everyone has stories about trying some unusual food - but this was sort of suddenlly thrust upon me. Fresh bull testicles for lunch, and I mean fresh - castratated that morning after the cows were milked. I don´t want to give the impression that this was forced upon me, but my host family made it seem like such a treat that how could I refuse. End result: not as bad as I expected but I would not pay for it. It´s much better than "sopa de mondongo" (tripe soup) which is like chewing on rubber, but I have no desire to make it a regular part of my diet.

After a home soccer game against a town in which a fellow volunteer is stationed, I went over to talk with the coaches and see if they knew the volunteer. After joking about my "stellar" performance not being bad for a gringo, I found out that they thought they did, but really didn´t, or at least had him confused with some other gringo because some of the details were off (we gringos all look the same anyway). I stuck around to BS a little more and the one coach graciously bought me some taquitos and a fresco. While I was eating, some female fans of the other team started taking pictures of me with a cell phone. I´m not sure that even models can pull off looking attractive while eating, but I was wearing a dirty, sweaty, soccer jearsy, eating extremely messy finger food loaded with salsa, and balancing a drink packaged in a plastic bag. So in this extremely attractive state what would possess someone to take a photo of me?. My "blue eyes" apparently. Eventually I told them the next one would cost them 20 Lempiras (about 1 dollar) and they giggled and from that point onward tried to be more sneaky about it. I don´t enjoy the spotlight and it was made even more awkward by the fact that they were probably around 16 years old. I suppose I should just take it as a compliment.

I had my mid-service medical evals in October and I am proud to say I am parasite free, have recuperated my lost wieght, and my blood pressure is "within normal bounds" despite my high fat diet. Even more surprisingly, given the over-abundance of sugar in Honduras, the dentist found no cavities in my teeth and even complimented me on my hygiene - I can´t remeber the last time a dentist had something complimentary to say about my brushing habits (kind of sketched out by the fact I was in and out in 15 min though). A few weeks later during the regional safety and security meeting I had a brutal reality check. Looking around the room at all the new faces relative to a year ago it suddenly hit me that I´m now a seasoned veteran and I can´t help but think "what do I have to show for it?"

¡Vamos al Mundial! Honduras is headed to the World Cup for the first time in over 20 years. Although definitely overshadowed by the Goipe de Estado, it was inspiring to see Hondurans united and so animated about something other than politics. My Honduran friends took the earlier loss to the US well (more or less) but I would have never heard the end of how the US sold out to Costa Rica if the US has not tied enabling Honduras to pass Costa Rica to classify with a win against El Salvador. So it all worked out - both Honduras and the US classified.

Work Status:

The de facto government decided to end classes early so the school garden is suffering. The parents promised to send the students to water (and the students were watering for a while) but without the obligation of classes I have not been able to keep them motivated to come to the school, especially after I took a week of vacation in Guatemala. The health promotor wanted to start a vivero (tree nursery) project at the school but we have decided it will be best to wait until classes start up again.

The water project continues to throw me for a loop. The owner of the property of the proposed dam location continues to be hard to get in touch with, but supposedly is willing to move the dam further upstream. Good news for the fact that this would provide water of much better quality for the community, but double edged in the fact that we would have to start over again (not from the beginning at least). The really frustrating part is that we had already brought this possiblity to his attention in February and he was in agreement only to change his mind after I had already invited my fellow water and sanitation volunteer to come meet with him and extend the project topographic study.

The electricty project may still be on the table. Apparently a week ago my counterpart went to the capital to meet with some members of the congress and was told that the project would have support of some sort in 15 days. As the elections are set for Nov. 29 I am trying not to be cynical in thinking this is nothing more than a campaign promise.


I ran out of time today so I´ll post a little about my Guatemala excursion at a later date.

Peace