Where the mangos are $1, but the diarrhea is absolutely FREE

Sunday, June 27, 2010


Los Planes, Honduras

Manteca de cacahuete, it means peanut butter in Spanish. I learned this because my breakfast consisted of four pieces of toast with mango jelly and I decided that wasn’t going to cut it after a long pilates session. So, I broke into my comfort food and shared it with my host mom, who really liked it and together we had PB&J sandwiches for breakfast. After cleaning my room (really just sweeping the floor) and helping her pick through some black beans, I got a visit from my Scrabble playing friends; they brought two other PC volunteers with them and we all played while watching Germany kick England’s butt in the World Cup. I learned the word foco, which means light bulb, and also another dirty word which I won’t write on here, but feel free to email me and I’ll pass it along. At lunch, I learned another way you can make beans, which is to take the broth and use it as a soup, then add a couple hard boiled eggs, throw in some rice and cilantro (of course add tortillas to the side) and PRESTO, you have lunch! When this is all over I have decided to write a book like Bubba did in Forest Gump, except about beans, b/c in three days I have already learned 30 new ways to use them. Down on the road I jumped in a mini-shuttle bus (oh’, how I have missed you) and went into Valle de Los Angeles where I found a charming Internet café for L20.00 an hour, or about $1. The exchange rate is at L18.95 to $1 right now, which makes you feel like a millionaire when you carry around L500 until you realize that it’s only $10, but here you are a millionaire. Don’t be jealous, but I also got a steal on six mangoes for L20. I didn’t even have the heart to bargain with the guy since I felt they were cheap enough already. Now there’s a first.

Back at home I brought some oatmeal to my host parents that they asked me to buy, but when I handed it to Rosa, she said she actually wanted granola. So, boom! My first mission was not accomplished. This is one of the things I will have to do in the next few weeks to pass the PST test to be sworn in; let’s hope the “lost in translation” gets better. As I took a few moments to lie on the couch and digress, dad comes over and starts going on and on about the Argentina-Mexico game and I listen as intently as possible, but really, it’s like when my dad starts going on about the Longhorns and the game happened yesterday. I simply moved to another country where the same issues are happening, but in another language. At dinner we have (yes, beans!), that yummy feta-like cheese I love, rice with corn, avocado (seriously, I am going to turn green), and TORTILLAS! But, really, I have lost like seven pounds already. Because, my portion sizes are so much smaller here. I am fitting into my clothes much better and my stomach is really flat. I am working out every day, too (mostly with yoga, pilates, bands, jump rope, mountain climber, things I can do in my room), but I think it’s because I’m not gnawing away at snacks all day long. I’m going to use my bag of mangoes for weights this week until they are all gone, which might be tomorrow since they look delicious! At dinner my parents and I got into a huge discussion about fruit, our favorites, and the export of bananas/coffee from Honduras to the USA. Pineapples grow on the north coast here, which is also where a lot of gang violence is, so I won’t be going to look for them, but if a pina pops up at a market I’ll be grabbing one.



Monday, June 28, 2010



Today I learned the puntas.  (Not that dirty word, this is different!) It is the famous Honduran dance that will keep me in shape over the next two years and apparently everyone here does all day long. You shake your hips a lot while moving your feet back and forth, then eventually jump forwards and backwards three times before doing it all over again. Sounds simple, right? No. It will take me two years to master. After two other PC volunteers, Ben and Jesse, invited me over to see their houses in Zarabanda, I met one of their host aunts, Ana. She invited me in for coffee and cookies, then pumped up the music and away we went. With six little kids watching the gringos be about as white as we could, we shook it until we couldn’t go anymore. Before I left, I also took the opportunity to swing an axe as the men were chopping wood, and I had to show my fuerte as well. Apparently I made an impact, because Ana asked when I was coming back.



Back up the hill, I waited to catch my first public bus since being back in Honduras, when Rico Suave himself walked on over to introduce himself. He told me my name was beautiful, and if it hadn’t been for his lazy eye I might have been impressed. (Disclaimer: I’m really sorry to all the men with lazy eyes who might be ready this) Anywho, after having to make Spanish conversation with him for twenty minutes, I flagged down the bus and took off back to Los Planes, where it cost me L3 for the ride home. That is like fifteen cents; you do the math. I don’t care how much Spanish conversation my language teacher wants me to practice, I can’t make conversation with a guy who’s trying to pick me up on the side of a road in Honduras just for homework. Cheque?

So, today in PST we actually found out where will be during Field Base Training (hereby referred to as FBT). It’s an area called Cantarranas, about forty minutes away from Valle de Los Angeles, and about an hour from where I am now (on a bus). Apparently it’s really hot, which might be a nice change from where we are now. The last four days have actually been cool and I have been wearing wool socks to bed and my REI fleece during the day. It’s like fall in the cloud forest. I don’t know anything else about Cantarranas, except depending on who you ask it’s either big or small. Today we also had our first Municipal Development group meeting. In it we met our MD Director and she mentioned that two people would be placed in the North Coast and the rest in the Western part of Honduras (for final placement after September). I would like to be in the North Coast, so hopefully that works out for me. We will see. During our group meeting we all went around and introduced ourselves and experience; I have the most experience, but that is not really surprising. This PC group is younger than the average and there are no retired people. Most of the volunteers just got out of college, so this is the oldest I have felt in a long time. However, I do hope to bring a wealth of experience to the municipalities and the director said she is really excited to have me, especially because we both studies sociology. She said this is the first time in a long time that she has had someone with the sociology study (even though mine is just a minor), but almost every other person in my project is an International Studies/Urban Studies/Latin American Studies major. We also received our upcoming 11 week calendar and let me tell you, I will NOT BE SLEEPING until after September. Between language classes, project development, FBT, and whatever else comes along, there will be nothing else. Time is going to fly by. Before our final site placement, we will have three interviews with our director to gauge our interests, skill level, and language proficiency. After that, the final decisions will be made. I am keeping my fingers crossed.



Today, I lost the key to my room. Let me tell you, we are WARNED, WARNED, WARNED…do not lose your key. It costs your family a lot of money to get a key to your room!!! I have it on a clip on my backpack, along with my water bottle. Somewhere during the day, it must have gotten unclipped, b/c when I went with the boys towards their house, I noticed it was missing. Short of a heart attack, Jesse walked back through the woods with me to the school grounds, where everyone was gone. Pushing the gates back open, we scoured the grounds for a small key and saw the little man who makes coffee wondering around. I asked him and he said he hadn’t seen anything, so as I turned the corner, I saw it on the ground at his foot! I leaped for joy and couldn’t believe I found it. Luck came my way today and from now on, I will confirm that thing is on there!

Finally, although there are no mosquitoes in my room, there are some very large spiders. So far I have only seen Daddy Long Legs, but I wasn’t taking any chances and may it RIP in the toilet paper I squashed it with. Not one minute later did I see another spider crawling up on my shower curtain scampering away. He must have seen the damage I could do with some Charmin and gotten the message. It’s bad enough that the malaria pills are giving me nightmares about raccoons, but now I have actual critters to worry about. (Not sure if I told you about that dream, but I dreamed that these raccoons broke into my room through the window, crawled all around the floor and on me, then I woke up with my earplugs down around my feet). So, I have two years of these dreams to look forward to as well. Ole!



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Today’s lesson: Doing your own laundry is overrated! Cheque!

The morning started off with four hours of Spanish lessons, where I have been placed in novice high due to lack of accent (hello, PC, I am from the South, it’s probably always going to have a little twang) and lack of ability to form continual sentences. No one is in Superior, including the fluent Spanish speakers who grew up with immigrant parents, so I don’t feel too bad since no one seems to understand the PC rating system and the fact that Honduras uses Usted instead of tu is really confusing as hell. Basically, I have nowhere to go but up. My professors have joined in on the Spanish Scrabble game at lunch, which is great b/c it’s like an extra hour of class each day and they know all the slang words that are necessary to live a good life. During the morning I had my first interview with the Municipal Development Directors. The first question they asked me was “How do you feel about working with kids?” And, all I could think was I am going to be stuck with kindergarteners all day for two years (sorry, mom). I was honest with them and told them my strength is not with little kids, but one of my goals over the next two years is to learn more patience. Then, they told me Municipal Dev doesn’t work with little kids, they meant high school, so I said NO PROBLEM. Overall, I believe the first placement interview went well; Municipal Dev seems to have a lot of great opportunities going on in Honduras right now and I am just excited to be in a country where I really feel they need my help. I told them about the woman I met in Copan last time who made $2 a day in the coffee fields and that it is my hope to bring change into the lives of people like her. We saw a slide yesterday where the world average on healthcare is $6/per person and the USA average is over $1,500, yet people just keep complaining, so I am excited to be in a place where they are happy to work together on projects.

The afternoon brought a current PC Volunteer who is heading home in about two months. He discussed a group with us called VOS, or Volunteers Offering Support. This is a group of PC Honduras Volunteers who are available to talk about problems, concerns, or simply to vent to. Each new group (we are H-17) elects a new person to serve for them, so in August of 2011 we will elect our person. He gave us a lot of good info and passed out a fun newsletter. He also talked about having scabies, which is something I hope to avoid in my time here.

Of course, the best part of training so far came when our PCMO headed back to teach us how to deal with diarrhea (A FAVORITE TOPIC IN HONDURAS PC), and properly prepare food and water. As she rolled through her PowerPoint presentation, she told us that we would need to clean our pilas every two weeks, drain our water, and only use purified water, including when we clean our dishes. Several volunteers raised their hands only to tell her that they are pretty sure their host moms are not following those rules. They looked very worried, even though PC goes to all the houses to site check them (like a social worker in the states). Then she taught us how to boil water properly, for at least three minutes, and all PAM’ers (agricultural project workers) should be expecting to do this, when Ben asked if she had any chlorine tablets. She laughed and said she might have a few when Melissa nervously said “we will need 57.” (There are 57 of us in H-17). My host mom does use purified water in everything so I am not too worried at this point. To make sure we all knew what the hell she was talking about, PCMO led us to the kitchen area of our training site and put on the cleaning gloves to scrub the pila. She poured the chlorine into a mix that I’m pretty sure is illegal in large doses and began to scrub away. This will have to be done every two weeks. Andi asked her how we are supposed to get down inside and she said we have to crawl inside. This is going to work for small people like me, but I think it is more of a job to outsource and help out the local economy. Like my laundry…but I will get to that. Because so many of us Americans love our fruits and vegetables (contrary to what McDonald’s and childhood obesity thinks), we got a whole lesson on how to wash, dry, and prepare our healthy choices. (see photos) After getting up close and too personal with some carrots, we all chowed down on fruit and regular salad. It was so delicious and, for some volunteers, the only fruit and veggies they have seen since leaving Houston. I should take this opportunity to tell you that during our hour lunch we all check out each other’s lunches. It’s like kindergarten all over again. A lot of people have a typical Honduran meal, with beans, chicken, tortillas, others have rice and a lot have pasta. I am VERY lucky, because my mom likes to eat healthy and I am like her 12th PC volunteer, so she has this down. I get my Tupperware full of fruits and veggies each day.

In the afternoon, our PC Safety and Security officer, Juan Carlos came back for more scaring. I really think he enjoys his job a little too much, sharing stories of robberies and gang fights from Honduras. It is true that most of the bad things that happen are in the San Pedro area, but he does say “You will have to use this road.” The San Pedro area is one that was closed off for a long time to PC Volunteers, but has recently been reopened. There are 1,000’s of busses a day that go through there and only 1 or 2 a week that get violated, so the odds have gone down. In today’s safety and security training, Juan Carlos had us work with staff in skits where we practiced walking home late and a drunk called us Gringo and tried to take our money, or as women we walked by and they gave us unwanted attention, etc, etc. Then, Juan Carlos reads a report from something that has happened in the past to let us know the proper way to deal with it and report it and ways we can grow from the experience. Then, he confiscated all the mace and pepper spray. Thanks, Juan Carlos. But, at least I wasn’t the only one to bring it. He had a whole box full. Apparently we will all get it back upon our two year completion, but by then will it really matter? (Note: All the single ladies have gotten their mace/pepper spray back!  So long as we don't use it on every guy in Honduras.)

At home I thought it would be a good time to find out what this hand washing laundry thing was all about. Rosa was really sweet about taking me out to the pila and walking me through the steps. First, I turn my clothes inside out, then Rosa took a bowl of water and poured it over the clothing, and then the bar of blue soap (which I know has a name, but right now I can’t remember) and lathered it up. Then, she placed it over to the side and repeated. Until all the laundry had been washed. Next, she showed me how to scrub it on the pila until all the dirt comes out and then rinse it until there are no more bubbles or soap in your clothes. You have to do this until the water runs clear or else your clothes will dry stiff and stink and you will have to do it all over again. After she rinsed the first item, it was all up to me. So, let me tell you that it took an hour for me to do JUST MY SHIRTS and one pair of pants…my pajama bottoms. No underwear or anything else. I have stopped wearing socks because I know that causes more work; I just wear my Colombia/Teva sandals. Don’t worry, I’m still wearing underwear, but have enough clean stuff that today wasn’t the day; I actually had enough clean clothes, too, but since it took an hour just to do some shirts, I didn’t want to wait any longer to build up a large pile. It also built up my muscles, but I won’t be doing this for two years. The fact that it might bring cleansing “me time” to someone is complete bullshit. I will be putting some of my PC money into the local economy and hiring someone to do my laundry for me. END. OF. STORY. And, let me just add, that a lot of other volunteers have been wearing jeans and I have no idea why because I know it takes them at least twenty minutes to wash them and several days to dry. I have quick drying clothing. I will not be wearing jeans until I return to the States in 2012.



Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A representative from the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa spoke this afternoon and shared with us a history of the Honduras Socio-Economic situation. Honduras is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; 65% of the nation lives in poverty. 90% of Honduran agricultural exports go to the USA and 1 million Hondurans live the States. All of the major world aid players are here. I really enjoyed hearing her speak and can’t wait to go to the Embassy for our swearing in ceremony. We will also get to meet the Ambassador!



In the afternoon, Juan Carlos was back to teach us all about transportation safety. He brought tons of information with him about different types of busses (including chicken ones, really, he could have asked me) and showed us pictures of the correct cabs to use and private vans/transport for our family/friends to use when coming from the states or other countries. He specifically went over the San Pedro Sula area, which continues to suffer from a high crime rate, due to its proximity to Guatemala and the Sea of Cortes. Juan Carlos pulled us into various skits, including how to walk through the bus terminal and get into a cab and what to do if we are on a bus and are held at gunpoint. He also had two volunteers PRETEND IN A SKIT to have their car stopped by a blockade and then pulled out. Moral of today: give up your money/belongings/iPod and don’t resist. Also, only get into a cab that has a license plate with an “A” on it.



Finally, our IT guy came to discuss cell phone options. Here is the low down….there are three cell phone companies in Honduras. They are all sketchy and seem to be working with each other and against the people. This is because Tigo works really well in Honduras and has great Tigo to Tigo coverage, but only in Honduras. Claro is the newby and is trying to take over, but not everywhere just yet. Digicel has coverage, but not everywhere and they really like to focus on people calling to the USA and give really cheap deals on calls to the states (I mean cheap, like 5 cents a minute). Claro and Digicel glue their SIM cards to the battery, so you can’t just buy a phone from them and switch it out with Tigo. What people end up doing is buying a Tigo and Digicel phone so they have two phones…b/c phones here are like $25 each. I’m not kidding. So, what I’m probably going to do is wait until September, see where I get placed in country, and then pick a carrier. I would like Claro b/c they have the best 3G reliable service, but they’re only near the larger cities. I’ll most likely have to get a Tigo phone since almost all PC volunteers have them and we will call a lot. Some good things are people from the States can text me for free when I get the phone and if people from the States call me then it doesn’t use my minutes. I’ll let you know more later, until then let’s just SKYPE! (Note: I have since gotten a cell phone and will email you the info about how to get a hold of me).



Thursday, July 1, 2010

There are days when you really remember why you joined the PC and today was one of them. After spending my morning in Spanish classes (which I really enjoy, since I’m learning a skill I can take with me when I leave PC and getting them for absolutely free…although a lot of other volunteers don’t have the same sentiment), I noticed that I am improving and hope by the end of PST to move out of this novice high level. I noticed today that all of my group is from the South and wondered if PC often has the problem of Southerners trying to tweak their accents (my class is made up of people from Alabama, Missouri, Florida, and me). After leaving Ana (my professor) behind, we went on to “How Adults Learn,” an informative session to help us deal with working with an older population out in the field. We discussed the 12 Principles of Adult Learning, and my group focused on the immediacy that adults need to see results. I liked this since I am attempting to work on my patience while here. Our group used role playing to set up a scenario with a teacher showing women in a Honduran community how to set up a website in order to better promote their business/products. The last group went over engagement and accountability and used the “human knot” game where we all have to hold hands and get out of the circle. Don’t ask me how, but we were three circles, two circles within each other, and once again got a little up close and personal. If we don’t know each other well after these 11 weeks, then something went terribly askew.

Afternoon sessions brought “Host Family Experiences” and let me just tell you that I KNOW I have it good. Some people have major problems with cockroaches, ants, not enough food…. Even though PC has gone to these people’s houses and checked them out and even though a volunteer is supposed to be open and engage his/her family (especially in regards to the food situation), there are still times when it just isn’t gonna work out. But, for the most part all of us volunteers are really enjoying our situations, learning a lot of new Spanish, getting along with our families…and watching a lot more soccer and Telenovela. The very last part of the day each project split up again and we got an overview of the major areas in Honduras municipal development will be working on. Let me tell you, there is a lot of work to be done. Honduras has a major plan outline until 2038 to greatly reduce the poverty rate, teen pregnancy, raise graduation rates, etc, etc. As municipal development volunteers, we will play roles in this plan over the next two years. The scariest part is that there are no individual muni numbers on these rates. Everything is a “country” number, even though they are doing their best to narrow it down by area. So, I have no idea if I am being sent to an area of the country with the highest level of poverty or highest level of teen pregnancy. Also, BTW, a scary number is that 60% of the nation lives in poverty, which the government claims the level is at $2/day wage, but my host mom says is at $1/day. Right now our PST wage is around $3/day.

Tonight, I came home and talked to my family for three hours about all of this! I was so excited that I could talk to them about these topics. They are so disappointed in their government, but they do vote, and discussed all of the hopes they have for Honduras. They talked about the exports/imports (Tilapia is a huge export from the North Coast to Europe every single day. They fly it out fresh every morning.) My host mom also told me that it cost L20 a month for a child to go to school here, but then the papa has to buy new shoes, uniform, calculator, supplies, and so that is when he becomes poor and the child has to drop out. We also talked about malnutrition and they discussed the dogs being bigger than the kids…which is sad, but true. During all of this, my host mom gave me a huge bowl of soup, called sopa maggi con verduras and helped me with my tarea. We are planning on having a little Fourth of July celebration this Sunday and she requested pizza from Dominoes. It is her favorite American food, so I have to go into Tegucigalpa and get it. I am not allowed to go by myself right now, since I am in PST, which means I have to go with her, my host dad, or my host brother who is here a few times a week. He isn’t here tonight, but we’ll ask tomorrow. I know Dominoes isn’t very Fourth of July, but it is very American and I would like to make her happy!

Friday, July 02, 2010



In case you haven’t caught on yet, my days in PST consist of the following:

5:00 am wake up, do exercise (yoga, high impact cardio-I am getting real into this dance workout which makes me feel like Carmen Electra on a good day, jumping jacks, push ups, you get the idea) Basically anything to counteract the tortilla action in this country

6:00 am Hit the shower and get ready

6:30-7:30 am Have breakfast with my host parents, head to school

7:30 am-11:30 am STUDY SPANISH, all morning, every morning

HAVE LUNCH and PLAY SCRABBLE (We cheat, I’m not gonna lie. We don’t keep score and we allow each other to use the dictionary to assist us in finding words with our letters. It is the only way to help us all learn. There is a group of us that play every day and I am beginning to feel like one of those old men who play chess everyday in the park).

Afternoon-4:30 is filled with some sort of awesome activity that the PST staff has planned for us. The days change so we continue to be amazed and surprised. Do you see where I am going with this?

Today’s activity! Learn how not to get any sort of viral disease that may kill you in Honduras. My favorite days are when the PCMO and Juan Carlos (Safety and Security) come. Because it’s on those days that I bet half of the volunteers here wonder how in the hell they can get out of this country. Por ejemplo in today’s lovely Power Point of “Common Illnesses of Honduras” where we learned all about chagas, a disease where the bug is going to turn the area around your eye really red, attempt to invade your heart…stop it…and if not treated immediately, then you will die. Next, we move to the fungal, bacterial, and viral infections that will leave you never wanting to exit your brick house, which is probably going to flooded anyway by one of the natural disasters that we are here to protect against. Cheque? I do feel sorry for the PCMO b/c on the days she comes she is bombarded with questions from every direction, but my favorite was “Why is she playing volleyball?” (Please, please see photo) I, too, would like to know the answer. Mucho props to the PCMO staff, though, anytime I have a question or request they take care of it THAT DAY. I have no worries that if I have a medical emergency they will be there 24/7.

For the last two hours today the different projects split up and our Municipal Development team went over the outline and plans of different municipalities in Honduras. With every day I am getting really excited to work on my project (even though I have no clue what it is), but I enjoy learning more about the Honduras political system, as unstructured as it might seem. The first thing I notice when reading through everything is that the political structure changes too much. People simply aren’t in office long enough to put a plan into place and follow it through, from the municipal teams up to the country cabinet. But, I have only been here a week….let me do some more research! In today’s project meeting we split into two groups and came up with our vision of how we thought a municipality should look. Both of our groups had similar visions and about 50% similar to Honduras; so I think all of us will be learning a lot. Have I mentioned that we will be working with something called GIS? I don’t know what that is, but we have some volunteers in our muni development that do, so they will be teaching me. They sound really intelligent on the subject and I look forward to learning how to build a house or whatever it is technologically.

Back at home today my host dad and I made more scrapbooking birthday cards (I really do think he enjoys it) and we decided that for Fourth of July the three of us will make hamburgesas at the house on Sunday. I will make some red, white, and blue signs and maybe I will teach them the Star Spangled Banner. We’ll see how this goes…. Oh’, yeah! I forgot to tell you that this morning my door locked and wouldn’t open. Even though this time I did have the key with me! I was already late for school, so as I was leaving my host dad had a screwdriver in the top of the door and a shimmy thing at the bottom with the key in the lock attempting to break in. It was very Magnum PI Honduras.