Bello to the Rescue

My font porch can be a “dangerous” place. As I lay in my hammock on in my enclosed porch, the dog napping on and off, head resting at the gate, two evangelists approached. Both older Honduran men, not Bello’s favorite populations in general. People can and should have their own faith but I prefer not to be preached at in my own home. When the Mormon missionaries passed by several months ago, I also happened to be reading on my porch. The porch can be a dangerous place because I am exposed. I cannot pretend to be busy or not home as I lie with a book in a hammock in plain site. Bello to the rescue. As the men approached, one wearing a “Jesucristo vive” (Jesus Christ lives) shirt, zipper-cased Bible in hand, he gave them a few seconds as we both surveyed the men. They stopped within inches of the gate, obviously a little unsure of themselves. Whether this uncertainty was a result of the dog or due to their own convictions, I do not know. Bello gave a growl, then let out a full round of barking. The man in the Jesuscrito shirt tried to talk through the barking. I didn’t hear a thing other than “las palabras”, “the words”. Bello tends to get excited when dogs, pigs and some people pass the house. Although I don’t normally like when he jumps up, paws on the sill, to bark out the bar windows, in this case, I tried to hide my smile. He put his paws on the sill and barked, face-to-face with the other man. (Hondurans in general are not tall people and there is a single step up to the porch.) As the hair on the back of Bello’s back stood on end and he growled off anything but a welcome, I eased out the, “this isn’t a good time” excuse as I watched my baby.
Normally, I don’t really like his “bravo,” as it is called here. I don’t appreciate when he randomly lunges or barks at an innocent passerby as I walk him on his leash. Instances like this, I can’t help but appreciate it. Who Bello reacts negatively towards is sometimes unpredictable but a few traits tend to set him off: 1 Bolos (drunks). 2 People who are obviously afraid of him. 3 Frequently, people on bikes, I am not sure why, 4. The others are mostly men, though not always. I think he is a pretty good judge of character although once in awhile he reacts to people to whom he didn’t just a few minutes previously. I will never full understand it but sometimes I appreciate my personal “vigilante”. I love that he barks at bolos and “me cuide.”
Side note: the tick situation is improving though not completely resolved.

Completely unrelated...
One strange reality of living in another culture and living in another language is trying to express your personality. At least for me, it isn’t the same. Maybe it is the language, maybe it is the culture, maybe it is the rest of the situation and my role in my community. I don’t feel like I am the same person in Spanish as I am in English. Partially, it is difficult to pop off random comments in another language. Also, many things don’t translate. When around other Americans, you can translate things directly and often they pick up on the intention. For example, at one point I said “si solamente,” translated directly means “if only” but I am pretty sure that doesn’t work quite right in Spanish. I said it in the presence of other Peace Corps volunteers, at least one of whom caught my meaning immediately and laughed at the direct translation (which was the point). Months ago, I mentioned to one of my sisters that I don’t feel like I portray the same personality in my community. She told me that probably wasn’t the case but I think it might be true. My evidence, is that I was told by one of the younger colegio teachers that he initially thought me to be “enojada” which means serious. Maybe I don’t see myself as others do, but serious is probably one of the last words I would use to describe myself. Luckily, I think that impression has worn off and was mostly a result of my lack of ability to speak and not knowing what the hell I was doing the first few months in site.
Another incident occurred a few weeks after the encounter with the teacher. I was hanging out at my host family’s when come high school boys stopped by to help move chairs from their house (I’m not sure why but they have TONS of plastic chairs stacked in the backyard, why they have never offered to lend me a few, I don’t know.) My host sister commented that one of the boys was very outgoing. In learning a new word, I asked if I was outgoing. The response was a pretty definitive no. I either have a skewed perspective of myself, or I portray myself differently here. Who knows, maybe I am serious and not outgoing. Anyway, random rant but you aren’t a captive audience so I am not culpable.

FYI

I just found a draft from the first of June that was never posted. I am sure I tried and the "freaking Central American internet" tweaked again and wouldn't post it. Take a look, it even has pictures!

Roatán

Yea! I had visitors! The trip started out on an interesting note as I was chased by a pig, a large momma pig, at 5am as I walked through Talanga to catch the early bus and start my trip. I don’t really know if my fear of the pig is justified or not, but it was a little unnerving. The pig followed me for a good 5 minutes, from the park all the way to the market until I ran into a bolo (a drunk) who distracted it so I could continue on my journey. Thank you bolo!!
That is actually my second weird animal encounter when trying to catch the 5am bus out of town. The other was a weird swarm of giant insects near each light post. It was straight out of a Stephen King book/movie. When I say giant, I mean LARGE, they were each about 3-4 inches long. If you have seen esperanza bugs, they were about that size, but flew and thousands of them. Creepy.

Even though my fear of running from the pig resulted in me missing the first bus (I saw it driving down the road), the next left at 5:30 so I still got an early start. By the time I reached Tegus, walked a few blocks to the other bus station, grabbed some baleadas from a street vendor on the way, a bus for La Ceiba was ready to go. Perfect timing! You can’t understand how wonderful good bus timing is unless you have done a significant amount of traveling in a 3rd world country. You never know when busses will arrive or depart, regardless of whether a schedule is posted on the wall (they are usually inaccurate). Despite my fears of the bus breaking down causing me to miss the afternoon ferry to Roatan, the trip was flawless and I made it to the pier with enough time to do a little reading before Melissa and Nerissa arrived.
We finally made it to Roatan and found a place to stay. I don’t really have much to say about Roatan except that the beach really is a beautiful as the pictures. Other than the prices (comparable to normal US prices), which were mind boggling for someone living on about $200 dollars a month and accustomed to paying 14 Lempiras for a couple baleadas when I eat outside my house (less than a dollar), the island was great. Of course there were tons of travelers and people from all over the world working in the various restaurants and dive shops. The food was excellent and variety fit for a world-renown destination.
While on the island, I had my first snorkeling experience. I know, weird, but I have never been to a tropical island and you can’t exactly see much in the frigid waters of the Washington Pacific. The first time, we went from the shore. I enjoyed seeing the bright-colored fish but the experience overall was mediocre. The reef was so shallow that you could only swim in certain paths and couldn’t come up for a break to look into the sky or along the top of the water because would be standing on the reef (causes damage and is prohibited). I am not generally claustrophobic but felt a little of that anxiety as I tried to avoid scraping my knees on the reef. The next day, we went from a boat. I full enjoyed this until my snorkel started filling with water (no idea what was going on). Melissa and Nerissa both had previous snorkeling experience but seemed impressed as they had never been so close to the reef in Hawaii or off the coast of Mexico (although they saw bigger fish in other places.) We had free range to swim where we liked but spent most of the time near the edge of the reef where it dropped off to the depths. Most of the fish congregated near the edge so we could watch them school and dart. I didn’t find Nemo, but Dory has several siblings. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my first Caribbean Island vacation.
After a short time in paradise, it was a full day’s journey back to the “real world”. I know, I don’t really live in the real world but I did have projects waiting for me. It was nice to return to Peace-Corps-budget-affordable prices and an excited puppy. It was not so nice to find him infested with ticks! Again! Even after a tick-icde bath and three hours of tweezing them off they still aren’t gone!! Fighting ticks is a battle I will continue to fight for the next year. At the moment, I think I am losing but the tides will turn.
Melissa and Nerissa saw my site for a brief morning before hopping a flight to Costa Rica. It was fun showing them my house and one of the schools, where I live, even though they didn’t see much and the visit was short. As for me, it was back to cancelled meetings and HIV charlas. The teachers have been striking about 2 days a week for the last several weeks. That is just one of those issues I have to deal with here. It is annoying but I can’t change it so I reschedule things at the last minute and sometimes have unexpected free mornings. That is just the way it goes.

Nica and back

A few years ago, I may have ventured to Canada for a weekend outing. These days, I head to Nicaragua. It was a long trip but a few hours at a beautiful, almost unoccupied beach for some body surfing (at which I am inept, always swallow ridiculous amounts of the Pacific causing my throat and nose to burn from the salt) and a day hike up Cerro Negro was well worth the trip. Our timing maybe impeccable considering the volcano San Cristobal (near Chinandega) is predicted to erupt next week. We could see the smoke billowing from the top. The volcano was a pretty incredible sight, the smoke causing a clouded sky and a little protection from the strong sun.
I was amazed at how much the Nicaraguan terrain varies from the now familiar Honduran geography. Other parts of Nicaragua may be different, but the area near Leon consists of fairly flat lowlands, marked by dramatic volcanic peaks (both active and dormant). In Honduras you see mountain upon mountain, valley, mountain, more mountain. Like Honduras this time of year, Nicaragua was green and beautiful. In fact, the countryside was surprisingly green considering how low water level seemed to be in the rivers and streams. Nevertheless, a beautiful country and from the little bit I saw, I plan to return and highly recommend it.
Leon appears to have quite a bit to offer visitors. As I mentioned, there is a beautiful beach about 45 minutes from town, the largest cathedral in Central America and plenty of restaurants, hostels and tour agencies leading various expeditions to the surrounding volcanoes. The hike up Cerro Negro was the purpose of our visit, or rather, the trip down. The hike up Nicaragua’s youngest volcano (about 150 years old) took less than an hour, packing wood boards, beautiful orange jumpsuits and goggles. When we reached the top, we dropped our boards and ventured a little further to peer directly into the upper crater. You could smell the sulfur and see where it mixed with the graphite, calcium and basalt to form the mountain. Since this is an active volcano, if you scratch away the surface, the sediment is hot to the touch; an incredible reality after those geo-science classes in college. You know you are a nerd when you consider collecting sediment samples to bring back to geo professors back home. I probably would have done it had a container been available. That, and I suppose it may get lost in the next 14 months or so.
Suit up in orange and welcome to Volcanoboarding 101. I admit, I was slightly disappointed when I discovered we would sit on the board and sled down since I anticipated standing, as if snowboarding, but it still proved to be a good time. Yes, we packed wooden boards up the mountain so we could ride them down. In all, we were a group of about 20 and headed down the mountain on 2 tracks. The girls went first so we could watch the boys crash and burn from the bottom, a much better view since you cannot actually see the bottom of the volcano from where we were “pushed off” the mountain. That is not to say that the girls didn’t crash as well (I definitely did), but the boys tend to go faster and therefore, had some impressive wrecks towards the bottom. Faces covered in black dust and pebbles in places they shouldn’t be, we headed back to the hostel for free mojitos. Since we only had a few days, we hoped a bus to start the long trip back to Honduras. Nope, no shower first, we settles right in a busito with all the Nicaraguans, covered in dust and a little blood. Good times.
This week I am taking my first trip to the Bay Islands before diving head first into training and FBT with the next group of Youth Development volunteers. Hopefully I will come back with some good stories and even better pictures. Mel and Ner: Bienvenidos a Honduras!
photos: Beach near León; Cathedral in León; Cerro Negro, mid climb; Guys Volcanoboarding (yes that cloud of dust on the left is a person and the dots to the right in the of the hill are also people); Matt and I from the top of Cerro Negro, the smoking mountain in the upper left corner is San Cristobal.

Photos!

Baseball clinic in Talanga (new kids); National tournament with my Rio Dulce kids; Tegus side of La Tigra...
They are out of order because they won't move!  I will fix them later but for now, you should do fine assuming what is what.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

I love it! I am BUSY! They say it takes most PCVs about a year to figure out their role in their community and to really get involved in any projects. I don’t think any of us truly believe or believe that we will pass the first year twiddling our thumbs looking for things that make us feel useful. From my experience, it is very true. A year seems like a long time and seems a little ridiculous to spend doing piddly little projects to fill the hours, days and months until we find something we A.) feel is worthwhile and B.) can get people in the community to actually do. Verbal support is over abundant, turning words into action is a true challenge.
The schools and other organizations would allow me to give charlas (talks, or lectures) on any and all subjects until my voice was gone and I could no longer stand. I however, am not a huge fan of independent charlas. Sure, you can give useful little talks to various groups and it can be useful, but it seems like a bit of a waste and I generally assume that a very low percentage of the information is actually learned. I like to call them “Hmm, interesting” talks because that is what I usually think. “Well, that was interesting. What is next on the agenda?” The thought process moves on as quickly as the recipients leave the room, maybe faster.
So yes, I have been busy (big cheers). I have learned that boredom is stressful. I don’t like it much. The last few weeks have been anything but boring, therefore, less stressful. Ok, maybe some days have been slightly stressful from trying to get everything accomplished while dealing with Honduran transportation and scheduling (these can involve a lot of waiting). For me, this is a more positive kind of stress, it’s great. Last week, I spent three mornings in an HIV/AIDS prevention workshop with Bachillarato II kids (about 11th grade) in the colegio. I am very thankful that one of the Passionist volunteers is also interested in HIV/AIDS prevention. She actually did a significant amount of research for it during college. It would have been a very rough week dealing with 40 16-18 year olds on my own but with two of us it was much more manageable. They even improved from their pre-test to post-test! The colegio director (aka principal) asked me to come back Friday to give a mini talk to the parents. Schools are supposed to work with parenting classes in different areas. Since attendance is such a struggle here, they tend to take advantage of a captive audience to give all kinds of information. The parents had to come to pick of their kids’ grades. I tried to keep the charla as short as possible with over 100 parents (not very responsive or dynamic as a group) but it was difficult since there is so much information that is so important. It is difficult to lecture adults on complicated information when the majority of them probably never received the basics. (Example: the high schoolers barely knew what the immune system was. The majority of the parents did not complete high school, many probably didn’t finish 6th grade.) How do you talk about a virus that attacks the immune system to people who may not know the basic function of the immune system? Now how do you keep from over explaining and talking for hours? Yeah, it’s a challenge.
So, 4 days of HIV, 2 teacher observations for my Teaching English and Methodology class and more host family/facility/organization searching for FBT. (I think I mentionedthat field based training for the next group of youthies will be in Talanga.)
In addition to FBT development and all the education stuff, we (Mateo y yo) are trying to start another baseball team. The current team is in an aldea, we are trying to start another, or others, in the casco urbano, the main part of town. After 2 days of a 3 day camp we had 85 kids interested, plus probably a few more whose information we didn’t get. Thanks again to my Passionist buddies. Matt and Tyler have been a huge help with Matt taking the lead with this camp. Unfortunately, they are at the end of their year of service. I can only hope to find some reliable, interested Hondurans to help, and maybe one or two of the next Passionist volunteer group.
HIV, Baseball, FBT, TEAM, and I still made it to Tegus to visit with Kyler and run a few errands.
Other recent events: I saw Ally and Jeni as they visited my part of the world. They got caught in a storm in Nicaragua and lost about two days so our visit was short but it was really good to see them. Melissa and Nerissa come next, hopefully we get to spend a little more time together. I can’t wait!
The computer is back (again)! It is old but was free so I will take it when it is functioning. I actually have a possessed mouse right now but sometimes it functions. I am just grateful for the chances I have to work and write from home. Therefore, if it keeps working, you should get more updates, if it fizzes out on me again, they will likely continue to be few and far between. I do what I can.
Answer to the popular question of the moment: It is crazy that I have been here for almost a year, yet I still have about a year and 3 months to go. The feeling is shifting from feeling like I just got here and will be here forever still to needed to get things started so I can finish them before my time runs out. Yes, I feel like my time is going to run out. Mostly, because I know things will finally start coming together so that I am rushing to finish projects before leaving. That isn’t even considering my tendency to procrastinate! (Uh Oh!) Don’t worry, I will be home before you know it. Just no more weddings, I feel like I am missing all of them and everyone will be married and having kids by the time I get there! Can’t a few of you wait? JK
PHOTOS: I will add soon, I don't have them with me at the moment.

Beisbol, beisbol beisbol

4 days spent with 8-12 year olds

2 days of baseball

3 games coached

1 game played

4 missing gloves

2 missing balls

0 missing children

That's right, I am just concluding the most exhausting weekend of the last 11 months. My kids started out a little nervous. The 12 year olds, who went to the tournament last year didn't want a repeat. Instead of losing the first (and only) two games, we won both! After almost 2 hours of rain delay, thanks to a tropical storm from the Pacific, the under-estimated team fromTalanga beat the highly anticipated Siguatepeque in a close 1-0 game. The first batter of the game made it home, the rest was defense. It was intense. I don't know if I can handle much more of this coaching stuff. It is so stressful! : ) We took Copan Ruinas 4-2 in a very wet and rainy afternoon game 2 for both teams. The two wins put us into the semi-final against Morolica on the following morning. They were huge, catcher throwing signs... we were trounced (about 15-2 but they may have had more runs than that, honestly, I don't pay much attention to the score).

The kids were bummed (I think they were dominated by Morolica last year as well,) but a trip to Chiminike, the children's museum, cheered them up quickly. As we waited for the final game to start, some of the coaches and tournament officials played our own game. A short fence was set up in the outfield for the kids so we hit slow-pitched softballs with kids' metal baseball bats and ran a full 90 feet to the bases. It was interesting and some much needed physical exercise after all the rain and coaching. I am very proud of my kids but a little relieved the tournament is over.

The next few days are full of FBT (field based training) planning and searching for host families. I have an HIV/AIDS prevention workshop scheduled but it looks like I will have to move it for another date in June. June 5th is dia de medio ambiente, environment day. One of those days that isn't really a holiday but some of the schools will mention it. I am hoping to at least start the process of building a compost at one of my schools. The hope is that by the end, they will at least learn the difference between organic, biodegradable trash and the rest. Maybe they will even be able to use the soil on the trees they planted on the school grounds next year or start thowing their garbage in the trash instead of on the ground. Hooray for business! Life is much easier when I have things to do.

For now, I await Ally and Jeni's arrival as they travel through Nicaragua. I can't wait!

(photos: the team; Richard el catcher; the team again; Tania, Carlitos y Eduardo; some of the boys; the "seniors" aka 12 year olds who will be too old to play in the tourney next year.)