It has been a while

Sorry guys. I got wrapped up in FBT and probably didn´t make the effort I could have to get to the internet more than once this month. I just got to my email and I´m a little overwhelmed with the mountain of emails in my inbox but I don´t want to bore you with details.

One of the most exciting events in my life here so far is that I cleared the minimum spanish level to become a volunteer in the last interview so I don´t have to worry about that anymore. However I´m far from perfect, as I can´t have a fluid conversation, so there is still a lot of work ahead. I wish there was some way I could speak fluently right now. Aside from language classes, I been passing the time with tech instruction and hands on experience with building ferrocement water tanks, improved stoves, latrines, and biodigestors. Pretty sweet stuff that I hope I can incorporate into my service.

I got some juicy details the other day but won´t know where exactly I´m headed for a few more weeks. I´m headed to a smaller community without electricty, and will likely be teamming up with a water/sanitation volunteer to bring a water system to the community. I´m pretty stoked. I´ve also spent some time on my host father´s farm during the last month relearning the value of some good old manual labor. The ag. techniques are pretty advanced; they use raised plant beds, drip irrigation, and live barriers of grass or other plants between fields (to control errosion and pollution by fertilizers/pesticides) which they also harvest to feed the cattle. I´ve been here for 4 weeks and it´s starting to feel a little bit like home. I only have one full week of FBT left, followed by a site visit, and only 2 weeks of training after that. Time is flying by.

A little bit of advice:

If your looking to conserve water try taking cold showers. My time in the shower has been cut back from 10 minutes to under 2 and sometimes closer to 30 seconds if it´s a really cool morning. I think when I get to site I might switch to taking midday or afternoon showers.

Also, the use of a machete is not as simple as it appears, at least not for me when it is used to clear weeds from a farm field. My forearm was sore for days and I think I chopped more rocks and dirt than weeds. It´s not all like cutting branches from a tree. At least I gave some Catrachos (the local term for Hondurans) something to laugh at when I had to file the machete blade every 10 minutes to maintain a sharpe edge.


If this post seems to be all over the place it´s because my mind is full of thoughts I need to organize, so I appologize. Hope you find it interesting though. Take it easy.