Monday, November 26, 2007

Home!

Happy Thanksgiving! I know I am a few days late, but that's how it goes. Yes, I did get to celebrate with some other volunteers. I went to La Paz, a town a little bigger than Talanga with many more resources. There are 2 PCVs there who share a huge house and were kind enough to host a Thanksgiving celebration. The social interaction was incredible. A food, wine, baseball, watching American football on TV. I also enjoyed getting to know some of the volunteers who have been here for awhile. Although we enjoyed turkey, mashed potatoes, bread and all kinds of other goodies, I missed cranberries, gravy and pecan pie! Even though we gave thanks and ate plenty, it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving without family and the bite of cold weather. It didn't even rain. It was a good time but I still cannot process that it is officially Christmas season. I refuse to accept the coming arrival of Christmas until after Thanksgiving. One holiday at a time please. Apparently, if you head to the mall in Tegus there is a huge tree and it is swimming in the Christmas spirit. I haven't been. I am not sure that I am ready. The whole weather not changing still weirds me out.

Other good news: I officially moved into my own house yesterday and spent my first night alone. It was a little scary. My house if very secure but snuggling up in my sleeping bag on my camping pad wasn't very homely. The house is COMPLETELY unfurnished. Here are pictures of the front door and my bedroom. The shelves built into the wall are the only furniture in the entire place. There are three rooms: a living room, bedroom and "kitchen". The kitchen could easily be the bedroom since there aren't countertops or appliances. Although my host family was very nice and I have to buy EVERYTHING for the house, the thought of my own space is almost too much to deal with. This new house has many luxuries that I am not guaranteed here or have been living with out. My favorite things about my house, besides my selfish desire for solitude (like I don't get enough surrounded by people I don't know): light in the bathroom, water tank giving me a flushing toilet, sink and shower (cold). I had none of these things in my last home. You flushed the toilet by dumping in a bucket of water, bathe with a bucket and do both in the dark. I also have a cozy little front porch and a place where I can hang a few clothes. The negatives are that I share the back "yard" area with my landlord and her family and it will take me awhile to furnish the three rooms, if I ever get around to it. Right now, but focus is on a bed, stovetop, toaster oven and maybe silverware and dishes to eat and cook with.

As far as work goes, this is a slow time of year. Schools are wrapping up (the system is different and it is a slow, drawn out process) so I'm not sure exactly what I will be doing during the next few months besides trying to integrate into my community and make friends.

Monday, November 12, 2007

To hell and back

Hands down, last week was my worst yet. After my wonderful visit with Emily and Kyler, I cam back reminded that I have no friends here. The first few days I felt lonely and depressed but don't worry, that didn't last long. I discovered I had head lice and was forced to focus my despair on my scalp! How did I avoid head lice as a kid and get it when I am 24! Oh, yeah, I am in a third world country. I don't know when or where exactly I picked up the lice, but I'm sure it came from some kid I was befriending! I called the PCMO (PC doctor) for medication and treated it the same day. That problem solved.
The next day, I had to call the PCMO again, new problem. I had a fever (101.8 and I think my temp runs a little low normally). The PCMO gave me the name of a local doctor so I visited him. After checking my BP, throat, temp, chest and back sounds, he handed me a piece of paper and told me to give it to the woman out front (the office is also a full service pharmacy). "Um, what do I have?" I had to ask. "Malaria." Shouldn't you do a blood test to check for that? I didn't ask out loud. When I finally reached the PCMO the next day, she had me go to the office in Tegus for a blood test. Turned out, I didn't have malaria. I expected as much but it is nice to know that my blood test was normal on all fronts. It may have been a mild case of Dengue (which is also carried and spread by mosquitoes) but my blood was normal so they don't really know what it was/is. I started getting better but woke up Sunday with cold-like symptoms: cough, stuffy nose, all the things I didn't have before. I am happy to report that I feel much better, both physically and mentall, but it was a rough week.
Of course I had to be sick and feel awful the week of my ferria too! There were actually things to do in my town. Although, as far as ferrias go, I don't think mine is that great, there are carnival like activities, boothes of jewelry and other useless trinkets to buy, a mini parade to the Catholic church each afternoon, things like that. When I say "mini" parade, generally there is one car decorated into a float. Each town has their own ferria to celebrate their patron saint. Ours is San Diego (I think!). Of course, I ventured out a few times to watch a little of the commotion, but I couldn't really appreciate it as much as I may normally. I spent a lot of time in bed. Thank goodness for my Ipod. It's probably my favorite thing right now. So yes, I feel much better, just need to kick the last of a scratchy throat and get my energy back.

Things Hondurans (in general, of course) LOVE:
firecrackers (you know, the ones that just go "BOOM"), especially at odd hours of the night/morning
lace
curtains over doorways (it's supposed to give privacy when the door is open)
extended cab pick-ups (and all the variations)
dinamicas (ice breakers and similar activities)
fried food
hard candy (especially suckers)
drinking out of bags

Friday, November 2, 2007

I have friends? I almost forgot!

This week I had a great opportunity to see a little more of Honduras and learn about Baseball. Yes, I know the basics but since I am supposed to be coaching a team and the last time I played softball was about 8th grade, I needed the refresher. Kyler and Emily are starting their own team in San Francisco del Valle, Ocotopeque (it's near the borders to El Salvador and Guatamala). Since most of these kids have never played or watched much baseball, they are clueless, even to the basic concepts. As an introduction and to feel out interest, Kyler put on a 3 day baseball camp. Expecting about 40-60 kids, he enlisted my help (also a great reason to visit friends). By day 3, 40-60 kids turned into almost 100 (that we counted). Granted, some of them were outside the 8-12 year old age range, but that is still a lot of kids to practice with.

The trip was great. They have a great site and it was wonderful spending time with friends. I had been feeling a little isolated from that the last month or so. I also visited Connie Head (yes, another person from Wenatchee serving in Peace Corps Honduras, although she finishes her service in December) so that was a good time.

This entire trip has been a little bit more of an adventure than I expected. I left my house in Talanga at 5:40am Sunday. About 10 minutes outside Talanga the bus broke down. Great start to a 10+ hour trip, that leaves a lot of time for more problems. Luckily, that wasn't the case. Another bus passed about 30 minutes later and we made it (quite crowded but safely) to Tegus. Of course the taxi driver tried to rip me off (and sort of exceeded but not too much) for the 3 min cab ride. Yes, I timed it. 3 minutes, is not far by any standards. The rest of the trip was long and slow but pleasantly uneventful. I did recieve a drawing from my last seat buddy, a 17 year old Honduran boy who just graduated from colegio. I'm going to need wall decorations when I move into my house and that's a start. hahaha. I arrived in San Francisco at about 5:30pm. Yes 12 hours and I only changed buses once with a 30 minutes wait. Hence my excitement about the possibility of a ride back with one of the PC doctors (PCMO) who was in the area.

I cut a few hours off my trip back to Tegus by going with the PCMO. Unfortunately, we left a little late in the afternoon for me to catch a bus from Tegus to Talanga. I tried to stay in one of the usual PC hotels but they were both booked for the night. I received clearance to try the Maya, the backup plan because it's more expensive (I think "Guad 1 and 2" run about 250 lempiras/night, the Maya is about triple that). The Maya was also almost full and could only put me in a L1000 room. For those of you trying to do the conversion, I think it's about $60. That's fine when we're earning a US salary but you forgot, I earn Lempiras and that's more than a week's pay. Luckily, I think PC will reimburse me for part of it but I am waiting to hear. Either way, my "free" ride probably turned out to be more expensive than the L184 bus ticket and an extra night in Tegus. There are positives though... I am taking advantage of free internet at the PC office and I got to pick up my packages! (Thanks Traci and Katie and Abbey and crew for the Halloween care! I love them both! Also served well for breakfast :) )

It's really hard for me to conceptualize the time of year and that Christmas is approaching to quickly because the weather hasn't changed since I arrived in July. I bought chocolate last week and when I realized it was Christmas wrapped, my initial reaction was "How old is this?!... Oh, it's October, it's for this year." For a second, I thought it was July. Time to run but I am doing well and still enjoying my experience here. Miss and love you all!