The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Gringos Speaking Spanish

Friday, July 23, 2010

I have been told that there is a heat wave hitting the USA. There is a heat wave here in Cantarranas, too. I believe it’s out of the ordinary hot, b/c the locals are complaining about the heat. Normally it’s hot here, but when the locals are passed out on their couch, faces covered with wet towels and sweating buckets of body fluid, I think something is up. So, if you want to feel what we are feeling, I invite you to turn off your air conditioning, don’t use your fans, go outside for a nice long hike/run/bike ride, then come home and fill up a bucket of water and give yourself a bath with it. That’s what we do here. And, to reward yourself, maybe have a Coca-Cola or grape soda. It’s the beverage of choice. Then, just sit around and wait to do it all over again the next day. I’m actually becoming accustomed to the bucket showers and prefer it to the regular shower; it takes the sting out of the ‘knock your butt over cold as ice water’ that comes flying out of my tap when the water does flow (which has only been 3 out of 12 days). Today was so hot, I was sweating even when I sat still. During my Spanish class I took the liberty of hiking my skirt over the fan for some much needed air, which I think really offended my Spanish teacher, but let me just tell you I’m here for a cross-cultural experience so in the USA we do what we need to to cool off. (Insert note: No, mom, we don’t have air conditioning here, we are lucky to have electricity) We don’t even have ice. We do have these little things called “bolsa de aqua” or bags of water. They costs L2, or ten cents, and you haven’t really experienced Honduras until you drink water from a bag. The major problem with them is that everyone just throws the bags on the ground, or out the window of a bus, so while the bags are better than plastic bottles everywhere, people still don’t understand the whole recycling thing. Major work needs to be done to get into Honduranians brains about saving the earth.

In the early part of today our group was split into two, with half of us staying here in Cantarranas, and the other half going to Valle de Angeles. We were tasked with interviewing various people in our municipalities, including the mayor, secretary, castro (mapping department), legal department, and others. To start, we were shown a very lengthy film with the history of Cantarranas and info on the centro de salud (health center), schools, and more. Cantarranas is a growing municipality and has a lot to offer the people that live here. They have several schools, a very nice fire station, and the health center is almost brand new. The park has a large open area for kids to play, although most of the time it is utilized by young teenage boys playing soccer. They also have a large soccer field and pool. When we interviewed the secretary, she told us the women in town play a large role (always good to hear), and that next Friday there is a town hall meeting. Each municipality is supposed to have 5 town hall meetings a year, but some never do. Some other volunteers and I are going to try and attend the meeting next week to see what it’s all about, how it’s run, etc and hopefully get more information for when we are in our sites. Another issue is that there is really no publicity for the meetings, so locals don’t know when the meeting is or what is offered. Our municipal development trainer said we could help out, so on Monday a couple of us our going to offer our services to the secretary. (Note: Morgaine and I did go to see if we could help and she said we could check people in on Friday night. This should definitely help with our Spanish.)

Finally, as I was eating dinner tonight, my mom came home with a big box that said ‘Dunkin Donuts’ on it. She had ventured into Teguz today and come home with four of the biggest donuts I had ever seen. They were the size of personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut. She told me to pick whichever one I wanted and a few minutes later I had a jelly filled, powered donut sugar shock going on! My hips were saying no, but my mouth was saying yes, yes, yes! It was so delicious and I was shoving it in as fast as possible. It was so good and just a sweet bit of home tasting right there. I will get one every time I go to Teguz; it was nothing short of delicious.



Saturday, July 24, 2010



I know I’ve said this before, but the cell phone carriers in Honduras are evil. And, I know, they are secretly all working together. After finally figuring out that Tigo is only good to call within Honduras, I asked my host brother if he could pick up a Digicell chip for me in Teguz this week. He came home with two; one for me, and one for another PCV. After sliding it into my phone, I concluded that it was compatible, and logged online to the digicel.com.hn website to add money to it. Digicel has really great rates to call the USA, so I wanted to use this chip for USA calling only. After configuring my username/password and adding a bunch of money to it, I was ready to go, until I checked my SIM card to see that the money hadn’t transferred. Of course it hadn’t, b/c this is Honduras and that’s how it worked. So, I called the Digicell customer service number and talked to the guy, who assured me the money had transferred and I just couldn’t see it. He told me he could see the transfer. So, I made a call to my dad, only to be cut off. Excellent.



I call Digicel back. I talk to them for two hours. They assure me they can see the transfer. I tell them, I can see the transfer, too. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that the transfer didn’t go through to my SIM card. What part of this are they not getting. Then, they try to tell me it’s b/c I’m not using a Digicel phone. So, I put the SIM card in a Digicel phone and of course is still doesn’t work, b/c I might not have a degree from MIT, but I know when I am attempting to be ripped off. So, after two hours on the phone, the guy tells me he has to do an ‘investigation’ b/c he has never seen this happen before (yeah, right), and I want to know why he can’t just credit my SIM card. He says he’ll call me back on Monday, and oh’, yeah, BTW he’s not in Honduras, he’s in El Salvador. (Just in case I was going to come and look for him). So, now I have L500 worth of call time to America floating in space somewhere.

This all took FOREVER and by now it is 6:00 pm and time to go to the ‘Dia de Lempira’ which is a fiesta at the school where my host mom teaches. We get all dressed up and head on over, where I find a bunch of small children dressed as Indians and princesses. They have face paint and lempiras stuck all over them, and there are people lining the streets. A guy is selling ice cream out of a blue Coleman cooler, so I buy some for my host brother and me while we wait for the festival to start. It’s supposed to start at 7, but the parade doesn’t get rolling until 8 pm, at which time the kings and queens walk down the street and onto the stage. There are dancers and cowboys and my host mom is passing out presents to the recipients. Last years queen passes off her crown to the new queen and afterwards everyone files into the school for a dance, there is a large strobelight and discoball. Although I headed home early, the party lasted until 4 am…that’s what my host mom said the next day, and no one woke up at my house until 9 am. The day of the lempira, a good time was had by all.

p.s. Today I think my host brother also tried to kill me. At 5:30 am he took me for a run through the hills of Honduras. We were supposedly going for an 8K run, but after what I decided was 6K, I turned around b/c I was exhausted from climbing the HILLS, which I call hiking, while he looked like he was floating along. Maybe I will have this path down in seven weeks, but after two days I told him I would meet him back at the house, which I did, after I took a much easier path home and a long shower.



Sunday, July 25, 2010



After being the first one to wake up at my house, I waited for two hours to eat. I know this sounds strange, but there are certain “rules” to being a guest in someone’s house. Even though PC says we are not “guest” we are members of their family, each house is different. Usually the family does cook for you and you all eat at a specified time, unless something really weird goes on, like the family works really weird hours or is out of town. My family cooks and eats at the same time every day. Except today…when everyone slept until 9:00, really out of the ordinary for anyone in Honduras. By now most people have been up for four hours, cooked everything for the day, done all the laundry in the pila, and cleaned the house. So, anyway, finally around 7:30, I snuck in (I say snuck, b/c I felt like a burglar going into the kitchen), and made my own oatmeal that I backpacked down to this country. There’s not usually a lot of extra food hanging around my house and even if there was, my host mom and one host cousin are the only ones ever cooking in there. I ask them all the time if I can help and they always say no. This is how I was left hungry today. After heating up my water, I slowly snuck back in my room with my oatmeal (I don’t know why I was scared, since it was my food), and kept quiet until everyone woke up.



Once they all did wake up it was like craziness. I have come to the realization that I live with a family. So far this week I have watched the Disney Channel and Discovery Kids more than I ever have in the last ten years. I also know all the characters in the Novella’s, not to mention I spent two hours of my life watching some really bad Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford movie in Spanish. I have never even seen that movie in English. Supposedly this is going to help my Spanish, but with all the craziness going on, I’m not too sure. Have I mentioned that my host niece loves to sing? Later in the morning I took a walk down the street to give my other PCV his Digicel chip, since I had purchased two. When he went to open the envelope he said “Where’s the chip?” What was he talking about? Yeah, there was no SIM card in there, so I walked back to my house and asked my brother where the chip was. He told me it must have fallen out in his car…which was now in Tegucigalpa.



Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: There is no chip in the envelope.

Him: Are you sure.

Me: Um, yeah…look right here.

Him: Is it in your room somewhere, did it fall out?

Me: No, I haven’t opened the envelope.

Him: Oh’, yeah! I opened the envelope and it is on the floor of my car. It will be back around 4 pm.

Me: Okay, no problem.



Next, to make a long story REAALLLLY short, the chip showed up and that chip actually had my L500 worth of saldo (talk time) on it. Which means that yesterday when I was talking to the Digicell guy he was totally full of it when he said he could “see” the SIM card I was calling him on had saldo on it. All he could see was that a L500 transaction went through. It also means that I almost gave my friend L500 worth of talk time, so let’s be glad that didn’t happen.

After that was all sorted out, my friend Morgaine and I got out of our houses and away from a weekend of studying to take a hike around Cantarranas. We went up the mountains and down to the river, named the rio grande by the people here. I don’t think they are too creative. On the way we saw an old abandoned truck out in the field, which reminded me of ‘Into the Wild’ but Honduran style. At the river it was really beautiful, until we came upon this big bush full of trash that had been all washed up by the rain. When will the people here learn they have to protect their resources? After we hiked back out, we hit up the ice cream store and enjoyed some nice chocolate covered delights in the park in the shade. I don’t know why I find it so easy to spend money on ice cream here when I wouldn’t eat free ice cream from my dad in the states. It’s just something about the heat that makes my body consume it every single day.

Rio Grande in Cantarranas

On the hike to Rio Grande/Random truck in field

Monday, July 26, 2010



Happy Birthday to my little sister, Ashley! She turns 25 today! I hope you have an awesome day and live it up!



I spent almost the entire weekend and today studying for my second round language interview Wednesday. I would like to move out of novice high, but during my tutorial my language facilitator told me it’s better to stay in the lower groups because then I still have access to tutoring and smaller groups (one on one teaching), etc. He also said I have improved greatly in three weeks, so that was nice of him.

When I walked out my door this morning, I was first met by the PC mail delivery! A package just for me from my mom! How wonderful it was to see that big padded envelope and inside my purple TIMEX watch that I have been missing for two months. And even better, my Women’s Health magazine. (Also, a mattress pad to make sure I don’t get scabies, but that is another story). I have been reading nothing but Spanish every night/day, but today, I will make time for some new material! I love mail, it just makes me feel like someone at home is thinking of me (yes, it feels like camp). In the afternoon we received a charla from an H-14 business volunteer. He taught us how to teach 5th and 6th graders the business plans for opening up their own businesses. Why is this important? Because after 6th grade, only 42 percent of people in Honduras continue their education. Most people feel that they have learned everything they need by that point and in rural communities the numbers are even lower. The presentations he taught us are fun and interactive, I think kids will really like them…they are all about saving and costs, etc. It’s important to municipal development, b/c we can help them decide why a business should be brought to an area. Really, we don’t need 50 pulperias in every town, and they aren’t all going to succeed anyway.



Also, tonight a huge rainstorm came into town. Around 8:45 pm I was getting ready for bed when my roof began to leak. This wasn’t a big deal, so I just went and told my host mom that the roof was leaking. She was watching her novella and barely blinked an eye only to tell me to throw a bucket under it. Um…okay, no problem, but did she even want to look at it? I threw a bucket under it, hoping the entire roof didn’t cave in during the night and at 9:02 promptly after the novella ended, she popped into my room and said “Okay, I see you got a bucket, all is good then.” You can see where the priorities are.



Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Eskimo shop and the Alcadea (city hall) on the left

I might have mentioned this before, but there is an Eskimo ice cream shop in Cantarranas. The owner is pretty smart, b/c she stocks a lot of American items, including these Quaker Oatmeal cookies and chocolate milk. The cookies are a good source of fiber so I have become addicted to them and today I decided that the chocolate milk was a needed source of calcium into my body. I pretty much went into shock the moment it hit my tongue and oh’, yeah, the milk here comes in a bag. Apparently it is that way in Wisconsin, too, so don’t be too quick to judge. From now on, when there are no bananas in town (the only fruit I have access to), I will be eating Quaker Oatmeal cookies. A needed source of Vitamin B. (Note: I have since found another store with these Quaker cookies for L2 less, I am stoked)



This afternoon we studied a non formal education charla assignment list. Sounds boring? Well, my group had to present ice breakers, warm ups and role plays. In case you don’t know exactly what an isebreaker is…it is a short, structured activity designed to relax and energize participants and to introduce them to each other at the beginning of a program. Warm ups is basically the same thing, and you can use role playing in them both. Sooo… for our ice breaker we used the toilet paper game. Have you heard of this one? You give a scenario, for example we said “Take as much toilet paper as you need for our one day stove trip.” This is important b/c in Honduras toilet paper is not in public restrooms so you need to carry it with you at all times. It’s really important in the PC b/c of stomach problems. So, a lot of people took a lot of TP. Once the circle has all their TP you tell people they must share one piece of information about themselves for every square of TP they took. Some people end up sharing 20+ things about themselves, some only share one or two. You get to learn a lot about everyone. That was our ice breaker today and it was enjoyed by all. Maybe you can use it at your next meeting as well.



Wednesday, July 28, 2010



This morning I had my second round Spanish interview. I’m not too sure how it went, but afterwards I treated myself to a large Coca-Cola and bag of chocolate cookies at the Eskimo shop. The lady there knows me really well by this point and I’m pretty sure she’s happy I’m living in this town. Even though together they both cost $1, I think I’m supporting her mortgage payment this month with all the ice cream and coffee I’m buying. I don’t care, after all the Spanish crammed in my brain, it made me very happy to have something American in me. Tonight I’m gonna go home and watch an English speaking movie on my computer. (Note: As I post this blog, I am actually watching a Novella with my family; there’s no English here).

You might wonder what we study in Spanish class all day long, four hours a day, five days a week. Different levels study different things, and right now my class is learning how to discuss the differences between our families here in Honduras and in the USA. How to describe the differences between our houses, where our houses are located, what our families look like, etc. A big part of this is so that when we move into our new sites in September, we can integrate into the community well. Also, in case we are robbed (God forbid) and need to describe to the police where our casa is, we can do a good job, as well as describe what the intruder looks like. Our classes are held at different houses in Cantarranas, and my class is held just one block away from where I live. While waiting for class to start yesterday, the lady who lives there showed me this contraption (see photo) that she uses to break down corn on the cob and make maize. I think it is eventually used to grind up the corn and make tortillas, but she was kind of hard to understand, so I just took a photo and thought I would share it with you.



p.s. I learned some tongue twisters today; here is one for you "Tres tristes tigres tranquilos comieron el trigo verde tres veces tristes en la triguera."