After waking up this morning, I found out that there was a death in my family. My mom’s cousin’s grandfather had passed away at 5:00 AM this morning and at 7:30 AM she left for El Paraiso, another municipality here in Honduras. This meant that I was home alone with my host sobrinas, and when mom is away the kids will play. It doesn’t matter what country you are in, the rules are all the same. As soon as she took off, my host sobrinas were on their phones texting boyfriends I didn’t even know they had. A few hours later the older one and I took off to visit a tailor here in town so that I could have one of my skirts shortened, when she took a detour so I could meet her boyfriend, where I found out he is 26 and she is 18. When sitting on the couch I suddenly felt like my mother, having an evil eye and hoping she didn’t get into trouble just by sitting on the couch. After lunch we took off to the town pool, where her novio joined us again and I got to know him a little better. Turns out he has a job, is an upstanding citizen, and spent two hours teaching her to swim in the pool. I’m pretty sure this is how it works if you’re a parent, so I kept one eye on her while at the pool and one eye on my travel book in order to give her “space.” Soon, my friend Brad joined me and as the only two gringos there we stood out enough to be splashed all day by the locals wearing nothing but the underwear they had on. Apparently anything goes in Honduras, including backflips off concrete and I was just waiting to have to administer first aid with each hop, skip and jump around the water.
In the afternoon, several of us Muni D people met up and made “love notes” out of my scrapbooking stuff. Since all three different PC groups are in different towns right now for FBT, I thought it would be fun to send them “love notes” and let the other groups know we were thinking of them. The youth development group sent us some a few weeks back and I enjoyed getting the love. Afterwards, I headed back to my house to find my house full of family members I had never met. They were coming and going with all kinds of flowers, then packing into the car and heading off to El Paraiso. I got the point that they were making sure the sobrinas were okay, and afterwards the sobrinas told me to “hop in” the truck and we took off to the cemetery with three of their boy cousins. As soon as we arrived at the cemetery it started pouring down rain and had only one umbrella. The boys took off running with some flowers and my host sobrinas didn’t want to get out of the car; but, since it was getting hot and foggy inside, I just took off (and since they’re afraid of letting me go anywhere by myself, they had to come). Next thing I know, we were walking through the rainy cemetery to their grandpas grave as my host sobrina tells me it is the third anniversary of her grandpa’s death. So, within the last 12 hours I have had my host mom leave for a death and now I’m at the cemetery for the anniversary of a death. Up at the grave, we begin to break apart flowers and plant them in the ground…all in the rain of course. Meanwhile, my sobrina is singing Lady GaGa, which I’m pretty sure is exactly how her grandpa imagined it in heaven.
When we finally wheel back home, the house is full of people who say they are my sobrinas brothers/cousins/long lost relative from the country nearby; but, none of them talk to me. They all eat dinner real quick, then take off. Then, my sobrinas both have boyfriends show up and separate themselves in the kitchen and the living room, respectfully. I take this cue and retire to my room where I spend the evening watching “Dear John,” the first English speaking movie/news/TV I have seen since June. It’s not quality, it’s quantity here.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
It’s 7:45 AM and I’m walking in the rain. Andi invited me to join her and her host family to visit a farm today, but first I have to walk up to the La Colonia, a “suburb” of Cantarranas, and about a 20 minute walk. Once I arrive I am soaking wet, but her family doesn’t seem to mind too much and her mom offers me coffee and a cookie. I figure why not, I’ve already had two at my house. After coffee, I get to know here dad a little bit, and it’s nice to use some of the new Spanish I learned this week. He is such a nice guy and I learn that he worked in the states for 18 years and was near North Carolina; he has a lot of friends in the area, especially around Charlotte, Arlington and DC and we talk for a long time the East Coast. He is a very nice guy! After we are all ready we hop in the truck towards the finca, which is actually only about 1K down the road, but after you take the left there is a 20 minute drive in store through the fields of Honduras. Along the way we see tomato plants (crazy!), plantain fields, and beautiful rolling hills in the background. Andi’s host brother and sister and 12 and 7 and talking about different things while point to items out the window. After we arrive at the finca, we hop out of the car and I see a small pond with ducks and geese! In the middle of Honduras! Soon, her host dad leads us to the back of the house where a field of bacas (cows) are waiting for us and it doesn’t take long for him to shuttle us through the cow manure and sit us down near the udders to begin milking them. Apparently Bessy is ready and ripe to give her leche (milk) to us this morning. After Andi takes a try, I plop on down and give the udders a squeeze, where I find milk on my first try! Yes, I am a natural udder squeezer. LOL Something tells me growing up in Texas has something to do with this. Later on, I decide cows are fun, but I prefer to buy my milk in a bag at the pulperia and we walk along through the hills finding new and interesting animals and plants. There are horses and chickens and even a rabbit. As we head back to the car, we find that the right front tire is flat and Andi’s host dad has to call a moto taxi to bring us a spare. While we wait, he uses a piece of wood to prop the car up and jack the tire up to change it. An hour and a half later, the moto taxi comes rolling up, but not before we share bags of “orange juice” and cheetos. When the tire finally gets changed, all five of us head back into La Colonia, where Andi’s dad hops out of the truck and begins to use his machete on the coconut tree. Cocos immediately begin falling to the ground and no sooner have I sat down than I am handed a glass of coco water and a real coconut to eat. Life is awesome.
 |
| On the way to the finca |
Back at home my mom returns only to tell me that there has been another death in the family. Her cousin has died of dengue and within an hour the house fills up with people from Teguz and around the country. I try to stay out of their way as they prepare more food than I have ever seen in my life; people come and go, but only once and then disappear. It is an awkward night and I don’t know what to say except “Lo siento,” and I disappear into my room.
Monday, August 9, 2010
 |
| My awesome birthday cake |
In Spanish class we are told that this afternoon we will be heading out to a finca in order to prepare a fruit salad and do some team building with all the other groups. Our part is to prepare the pineapple, so when I head home at lunch I ask my mom for the ingredients I need to bring; a large bowl and some sugar. This is really weird, since at lunch she is preparing to leave for the funeral while feeding the people still in the house, but she hands me what I need as she walks out towards the beginning of the funeral procession (you might remember from my other post that they walk through the streets here with the casket). So, anyway, after lunch I head to the park to meet the other PCT, where a torrential downpour hits the town and streets begin to flood. I wonder if rain on your birthday is good luck. We are supposed to meet at 1:00 PM, but rain in Honduras stops people in their tracks and we don’t get rolling until 1:30 PM when the drops have stopped. Think snow in the Southeast in January. People don’t move. Which I find crazy, since it rains almost every day here from June-November. When we finally get going, we head out to the finca and I am serenaded by the entire PCT and facilitators to “Feliz Cumpleanos” and then we play some game to see which team can put on the most articles of clothing. I never really got the point of it, but the Spanish teachers thought it was funny. Finally, we got around to making our fruit salad and I got to present how you can ferment pineapple, something I can actually use in the future, so finally a Spanish lesson that keeps on giving.
At night, after all the Spanish lessons and funerals had finally given way, my friends and I joined my host family to cut into the most awesome cake my family found for me. I don’t know where this cake came from, but all I know is that it appeared and made my day. It is the happiest I have been in about three weeks and if it takes death and birthdays for me and my host family to come together, well then, that is what it takes. My host family cranked up the “Feliz Cumpleanos” music and we danced for an hour like gringos do to Honduras music, but my family thought it was funny to watch. We ate cake and drank banana refresco (coke/pop/whatever you call it) and laughed and it was an awesome day…right up until 7:00 PM when the electricity went out all throughout town. Talk about a party killer. Thanks, Honduras. It was fun while it lasted.
 |
| Turning 32 with my PCT's in Honduras |
Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday
August 10-12, 2010
 |
| Checking the temp on the stove |
 |
| Chopping wood and bricks for the stove |
 |
| Fun Tree on Campus |
We are building stoves. On Tuesday we left bright and early at 6:30 AM to head to Zamarano, a small town about an hour away from FBT to receive training at the Centro de Evaluacion de Estufas Mejoradas. This University is really selective about whom they let in and it cost $15,000/year US $. They have students from all over the world, including the USA, Europe, Central America and more. On Tuesday morning we left Cantarranas bright and early at 6:30 AM, which meant that my mom had to wake up earlier and make me breakfast and lunch to go. Since the teachers are striking right now, she normally wouldn’t have had to get up this early b/c school isn’t in progress. After we left and headed to Zamorano, we drove down the nicest highway in Honduras until we arrived at the school, which has recycling bins and flushable toilets! You can even flush the toilet paper down the system b/c they have their own water system there. It was heaven for the day. On Tuesday we received information about renewably energy, electricity from water, photovoltaic energy (not a lot in Honduras, b/c they don’t have a lot of permission to connect into a grid), thermal energy (mostly hotels are using them here), and wind energy (they just received permission to build 125 mg in wind power and are going to start off of the North Coast later this year). We also learned about the improved stoves workshops that the university offers, which we will be taking part in tomorrow. Tomorrow we will learn how to build a stove from adobe bricks and mud, in order to practice for Thursday, when we will go to different families homes near here and build one in their kitchen. I think this is such a cool service that we are getting to learn about and as Muni D PCV is really important b/c we can help more students obtain scholarships for here, assist family’s in contacting the school about stoves and other projects the school works on. They have a cattle farm and plant farm, as well as wood construction area and over the four year program teach students all kinds of different techniques they will use out in the world.
 |
| View from University in Zamorano |
 |
| First stove made of mud and bricks |
 |
| Finished stove |
 |
| Leveling the stove |
Thursday morning and it’s early again; taking off for Zamorano I really need some more coffee. But, there is no time b/c we are stopping by the school today before heading into the little village of Santa Rosa where five families are waiting for us. We have to finish their stoves today b/c their old ones are being torn down as we drive towards them. They are totally dependent on us. We will have until 2:00 PM, but as we drive down the road leaving Zamorano it is bumpy and we come upon a river that wants to stop us, so we don’t arrive until well after 9:00 AM. Stepping out of the car I am greeted by the most amazing view I have seen in Honduras and it is not a bad place to work for the day; bright red and orange flowers shower the green hills and as we begin walking towards a small house an old man wearing rubber boots shouts “Take the other path, this is too muddy!” (But, in Spanish) Okay, so we head the other way and the university team comes with cement, 22 adobe bricks, a level, and a bunch of other tools we will be needing. Once we plop down our backpacks we meet the family, a nice older woman named Blanca and her three kids. We immediately start chopping up our bricks, which need to be four inches wide and take turns so we don’t all throw our arms out. Next, we begin mixing the cement and measure the current stove area, where we find the land about as level as Lindsay Lohan’s breathalyzer…leading us to a long day of adding more cement and rocks to the left side of the stove. Having four perfectionist in the group makes for good teamwork, but a long day of working with a level and cement. (Today we worked with cement instead of mud). Things ran smoothly all day long, including the chickens that kept running in and out of our work space. While mixing up the cement on the floor of the kitchen we accidently took out the floor (of mud) which we replaced later with extra cement. The entire day was long, but so amazing to feel that we actually accomplished something long and lasting! The family will use that stove every day for the rest of their lives and we played a part in it. But, as cool as it was, I don’t think I want to build another one anytime soon. My back is so sore and the dirt under my fingernails is going to take a while to leave (I am still a woman, after all).
 |
| Field where we worked all day |
 |
| Heading home through Honduras |
 |
On the way to the houses where we built stoves
|
1 comment:
That was SO cool! I am really impressed with your skills...Girl Scouts might have helped!!! You are making such a difference. I am so proud of you. Everyone at the gym asks about you and says hello!
Mom
Post a Comment