Despite how this entry turns out, I am still enjoying my time here. Lately things have been a little more difficult. I have reached a point where I am a bit burnt out of 8 hours of training and Spanish classes every day and living in another families home. I have 3 1/2 weeks left in Cantaranas, 
then 1 more week until becoming an offical volunteer. Once that happens, I will finally go to my site and be able to settle in to life here. I think these feelings of frustration are compounded by other minor details. Although the food generally tastes pretty good, it is starting to catch up with me. Eating fried food 3 times a day, everyday and hot meals in 90 degree weather is slowing me down a bit. It´s now ¨normal¨ to have a slight stomach ache most of the day. Nother unbearable, but not my first choice either. There are a lost of things in this country that I don´t really understand, but above all, for the live of me, I can not figure out why the hell anyone would eat hot soup in 90 degree weather! I feel that I have been a pretty good sport about the food (I am definitely my father´s child there). I eat just about everything that is put in front of me. I finally had to put my foot down on the hot soup though. ¨Muy rico ¿si?¨¨The flavor is good, but I don´t like eating hot soup on hot days.¨ Luckily, my host family thought that was funny, and hasn´t served me soup since. I just don´t understand. It´s kind of like covering your baby with a blanket in the middle of summer, as you watch the seat drip down their cheek. Do you want to crawl in a down sleeping bag in the middle of a Sahara summer? No! So why not drink cold beverages and eat cold meals when it´s hot outside? It´s beyond me, but in another month, I will be able to cook for myself again.
I experienced one of my highest and lowest points here simultaneously last week. One of the volunteers who came to help with training is also from Washington (Monroe), since he will leave in December, he passed on a book about our beatiful state. Full page photos of the entire spectrum of WA, from Pike Place, to Mt. Baker, the San Juans, wheat fields in E WA, and the Wenatchee River. I was joking with Emily (probably my best friend here who happens to be from WA as well, go figure) about how the pictures were going to make me cry. I guess I shouldn´t joke about things like that because that led to my first tears since leaving SeaTac. It isn´t that I don´t miss you, and the beautiful place I call home, but let´s face it, I´ve never been a big crier. Granted, there were only about 3 tears, but it was a strange reality that I am really here.
In general, everything seems very surreal. It´s happening, and it´s incredible, but it all feels oddly normal and mundane (that is the surreal part). Sometimes I feel like I will wake up the next day with running water, and septic in which you can flush the toilet paper, or be able to ask what´s for breakfast without having to translate for myself first. While this life seems so strange, it is surprisingly difficult to picture life in the states. Everything seems so expensive and unnecessary. I don´t even want to know how I will react when I actually do return.
Onther type of surreal... Sometimes, hearing other people´s stories makes me appreciate the simplicity of my own living situation (when I don´t know what to say or how to say it, I just don´t talk to my family). Last week, we recieved a warning from a classmate, ¨Don´t touch the pila water!¨ (A pila is a large cement basin which is your water supply and generally has a rippled cement surface on which to wash clothes.) That warning basically means, don´t use the toilet and use purchased drinking water to wash your hands. I thought this was an odd warning but definitely one to heed. Later, we learned the story. The day before, we heard a ruckus as the resident chickens pecked at left over food on the dirty dishes. We didn´t think much of but felt for the girl who is staying there. Apparently, chickens on the pila is not uncommon and she is not happy about it. As it turns out, one of the chickens must have leaned too far and fell into the water. The American was lucky enough to find the drowned chicken later that evening. It gets better... The host mother removed the chicken from the pila and the following day, the host siblings used the same dead chicken water to bathe themselves. I will spare further details but I am thankful my family does not have chickens. Don´t worry, bathing in dead-chicken water isn´t normal behavior in Honduras, but there are strange people in every country. Our Honduran Spanish teacher seemd pretty disturbed the story and I believe someone talked to the family about water sanitation.
Like I said, despite how this entry may have turned out, I am still enjoying myself, for the most part. I am making a few good friends who will play an integral role in my sanity over the next two years. You guys would be amazed at how well I am learning to entertain myself. My new favorite spot- lying on the tile floor of my bedroom with my ipod, doing sit-ups. I spend a lot of time alone in my room and I have amazingly little to do. I read the last Harry Potter in 3 days and have read all of the books I brought with me. Just imagine how much I could have read if I LIKED to read!
I will try to update again next weekend but it depends when I make it to Valle to use the internet (yes, I am living in an internet-free town).
This week, I miss carpet, reduced-fat WheatThins, cold food and of course, good chocolate!
Oh, and if you want to send a postcard, letter, photos, or a small package (large envelope), I would LOVE it (the address is on facebook if you don´t have it, or you can ask)!
then 1 more week until becoming an offical volunteer. Once that happens, I will finally go to my site and be able to settle in to life here. I think these feelings of frustration are compounded by other minor details. Although the food generally tastes pretty good, it is starting to catch up with me. Eating fried food 3 times a day, everyday and hot meals in 90 degree weather is slowing me down a bit. It´s now ¨normal¨ to have a slight stomach ache most of the day. Nother unbearable, but not my first choice either. There are a lost of things in this country that I don´t really understand, but above all, for the live of me, I can not figure out why the hell anyone would eat hot soup in 90 degree weather! I feel that I have been a pretty good sport about the food (I am definitely my father´s child there). I eat just about everything that is put in front of me. I finally had to put my foot down on the hot soup though. ¨Muy rico ¿si?¨¨The flavor is good, but I don´t like eating hot soup on hot days.¨ Luckily, my host family thought that was funny, and hasn´t served me soup since. I just don´t understand. It´s kind of like covering your baby with a blanket in the middle of summer, as you watch the seat drip down their cheek. Do you want to crawl in a down sleeping bag in the middle of a Sahara summer? No! So why not drink cold beverages and eat cold meals when it´s hot outside? It´s beyond me, but in another month, I will be able to cook for myself again.I experienced one of my highest and lowest points here simultaneously last week. One of the volunteers who came to help with training is also from Washington (Monroe), since he will leave in December, he passed on a book about our beatiful state. Full page photos of the entire spectrum of WA, from Pike Place, to Mt. Baker, the San Juans, wheat fields in E WA, and the Wenatchee River. I was joking with Emily (probably my best friend here who happens to be from WA as well, go figure) about how the pictures were going to make me cry. I guess I shouldn´t joke about things like that because that led to my first tears since leaving SeaTac. It isn´t that I don´t miss you, and the beautiful place I call home, but let´s face it, I´ve never been a big crier. Granted, there were only about 3 tears, but it was a strange reality that I am really here.
In general, everything seems very surreal. It´s happening, and it´s incredible, but it all feels oddly normal and mundane (that is the surreal part). Sometimes I feel like I will wake up the next day with running water, and septic in which you can flush the toilet paper, or be able to ask what´s for breakfast without having to translate for myself first. While this life seems so strange, it is surprisingly difficult to picture life in the states. Everything seems so expensive and unnecessary. I don´t even want to know how I will react when I actually do return.
Onther type of surreal... Sometimes, hearing other people´s stories makes me appreciate the simplicity of my own living situation (when I don´t know what to say or how to say it, I just don´t talk to my family). Last week, we recieved a warning from a classmate, ¨Don´t touch the pila water!¨ (A pila is a large cement basin which is your water supply and generally has a rippled cement surface on which to wash clothes.) That warning basically means, don´t use the toilet and use purchased drinking water to wash your hands. I thought this was an odd warning but definitely one to heed. Later, we learned the story. The day before, we heard a ruckus as the resident chickens pecked at left over food on the dirty dishes. We didn´t think much of but felt for the girl who is staying there. Apparently, chickens on the pila is not uncommon and she is not happy about it. As it turns out, one of the chickens must have leaned too far and fell into the water. The American was lucky enough to find the drowned chicken later that evening. It gets better... The host mother removed the chicken from the pila and the following day, the host siblings used the same dead chicken water to bathe themselves. I will spare further details but I am thankful my family does not have chickens. Don´t worry, bathing in dead-chicken water isn´t normal behavior in Honduras, but there are strange people in every country. Our Honduran Spanish teacher seemd pretty disturbed the story and I believe someone talked to the family about water sanitation.
Like I said, despite how this entry may have turned out, I am still enjoying myself, for the most part. I am making a few good friends who will play an integral role in my sanity over the next two years. You guys would be amazed at how well I am learning to entertain myself. My new favorite spot- lying on the tile floor of my bedroom with my ipod, doing sit-ups. I spend a lot of time alone in my room and I have amazingly little to do. I read the last Harry Potter in 3 days and have read all of the books I brought with me. Just imagine how much I could have read if I LIKED to read!
I will try to update again next weekend but it depends when I make it to Valle to use the internet (yes, I am living in an internet-free town).
This week, I miss carpet, reduced-fat WheatThins, cold food and of course, good chocolate!
Oh, and if you want to send a postcard, letter, photos, or a small package (large envelope), I would LOVE it (the address is on facebook if you don´t have it, or you can ask)!
