The last group of Passionist volunteers are gone, leaving room for a new group to settle in to life in Talanga and the next group of PC youth development volunteers getting to know life in Talanga for the next few weeks as they continue the “Field Based Training” portion of their training. While it is great having new people around and the opportunity to drop in on training sessions whenever I have free time, all these gringos are proving to be a challenge to my Spanish. I have been speaking so much English; it is sometimes difficult to spit the words out in Spanish. I catch myself interjecting English words in the middle of sentences with Hondurans. I guess that is the price I pay for socialization with my fellow countrymen.
Aside from feeling tongue-tied, things are going really well. I am finally experiencing the busyness I anticipated for months. This isn’t even “PC Honduras busyness” but real, legitimate—I have something to do all day everyday—busyness. It’s great, I love it! I showed up at the colegio Wednesday, prepared for a self-esteem talk which I was invited to give on Tuesday. The administrators informed me that the students to whom I gave the HIV workshop to a month or two ago, were giving the talk to other students! I was so excited that the plan was being actualized but annoyed at the administrators for not telling me ahead of time. I requested 3 days to work with the students, prep time the first day and two days to give the charla. I also told them 6 people was the maximum number of people per group to give the talk. The kids didn’t get prep time at school, just one night to prepare, broken into 2 groups of about 16 (yes, 16 people GIVING one talk, a bit ridiculous but whatever). Wednesday they gave day two of the talk. I just wish I could have been there for both days. As I ran back and forth between the two classes, one group really impressed me. They were so prepared with visual charla papers and condom-balloons, each containing a question for an activity! They other group did alright as well but spent most of the time I observed reading off individual papers. They didn’t seem to have the other students’ full attention but they did include a few activities (activities are NOT in the normal teaching method here). After the talks, I met with the kids who gave the charlas. The purpose was to do a little self-evaluation, find out how they felt about giving the talks to other kids and see how we can improve the session. I don’t know why I expected this plan to be lucrative. We sat in a circle as the rain poured on the tin roof of a classroom. “Which part of your charla was most successful, what did you feel worked the best?” Response, “All of it. The activities went well but all of it was good.” Ok… “Which parts were difficult?.... Which were the worst parts or what challenges did you have?” Response, “None of it, it all went well.” “How can we improve this?” Response, “No, it’s all good.” SERIOUSLY?! I asked a few other questions and tried to re-word things but was unsuccessful at any constructive feedback. I even asked how many of them were truly interested in the information and how many did it because they had to. Not a single person admitted to doing it because it was required. Maybe they are just nice, maybe they are full of shit. I think they are so accustomed to giving the right answer and agreeing with everything that they no longer consider the possibility of disagreeing. Sad reality: creative thinking (including forming individual opinions) is not a widely encouraged or taught skill here. Despite my feedback challenges, I am ecstatic that the kids gave the HIV prevention info to their younger counterparts.
Also moving forward, my water filter project! We are still at early stages in the process but a filter sits in the Centro de Salud in La Ermita (one of the aldeas where I work in the schools and the colegio) as an example of the filter anyone in the community could have in their house. I no longer buy 5 gallon jugs of purified water but add pila water (the supposedly potable-bacteria-filled water that comes through the tap outside into a concrete holding tank: a pila) to my clay and colloid silver filter. They first few batches tasted like clay but that issue is resolving itself. The plan is to leave the example filter in the health center for a few weeks then start taking orders… we’ll see.
Thursday, I spent almost the entire school day mixing soil and creating a raised bed with 2nd and 6th graders (two separate beds) at one of my schools. Friday we planted basil (that is what I had on hand) and flowers in each bed and talked about composting, replacing nutrients and not littering (an issue I think I raise everyday at the schools). Most of it they will probably forget or didn’t listen to but hopefully something will stay with a few of them. If nothing else, it was a good morning of manual labor side-by-side with young Honduran kids.
Changing gears… I have been getting up early to run with one of the new Passionist volunteers. I rose just after 5 one morning and as I stumbled to put my contacts in and clean the pila (water only comes twice a week). I moved my cleaning brush to find a huge tarantula hanging out on the back ledge of the pila. I don’t like spiders, especially big, hairy ones. I went to the bathroom as I considered my options. I am afraid to kill the big ones because it’s creepy and I don’t want to clean up the mess afterwards. When I returned a few minutes later, the spider was inside the pila, towards the top of the concrete side. I walked away again, still considering my options. When I looked again, the beast had moved to the waters’ edge. Still unsure of what to do with it, I decided to start the cleaning process as normal: I dumped detergent and bleach in the water. The next thing I know, the tarantula is IN the water. It was still, then swam… sort of. It did this dead-man float, sink, swim to the top routine a few times. It finally moved far enough from the drain that I was willing to brave it. I reached in and pulled the drain on the pila. My biggest fear was that the spider would stick in the drain and I would have to pull it out in order to re-plug the drain and fill the pila. Luckily, that didn’t happen. Since the tarantula was curled up in a ball, I assumed it was dead and cleaned around it. I went for my run. When I came back, the water was on and when I dumped clean water on it, it ran to the front corner of the pila (still on the bottom). How was this thing not dead? I watched it for a few minutes, it must have been a reflex, the thing looked pretty dead. Maybe this is gross, but I re-plugged the drain and let the pila fill enough for me to scoop the spider out in the bowl with some water. I then threw the seemingly dead spider in the street in front of my house for the neighborhood chickens. I didn’t know tarantulas could be suicidal but I am thankful to this spider from relieving me of the decision regarding whether to smash it and deal with the mess or find a way to get it out front for the chickens without touching it or letting it fall on the way, which by the way is through my house. Hopefully I the geckos will continue to fill that niche in the food-chain and I won’t have to deal with anymore giant arachnids. Just to note, I consider it my fault I found it because the day before, the new Passionists found a similar tarantula in their house and I mentioned that I had only seen one large spider in or near my house here. The first one, my landlady’s son picked it up on a stick and fed it to the chickens so I didn’t actually have to deal with it.
Photos: Last night with my first group of Passionists. The new group is fun but I still miss the others. They will always be my first. (If I finish out my service, the next group will arrive a few months before I leave.) Volcan San Cristobal; the Cathedral in Leon, Nicaragua; The cross above Talanga; and some Baseball pics. They wouldn't move, I will try to fix that another day
