The road to Orocuina is paved with Calvin Klein

Friday, August 27, 2010-Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Everyone loves cake

There are only a few more days of FBT left and I am super excited. Leaving FBT means that I will get to go to my new site, where I will live and work for the next two years. Today we found out our sites, and I will be going to Orocuina, Choluteca (or CholuTEXAS as the locals like to call it) because it is so damn hot. It is located in the southern part of Honduras, closer to Nicaragua and the southern beaches than the northern ones everyone keeps asking me about. It is near some old volcanic islands of Isla del Tigre (like a couple hours away by bus) and near a Pizza Hut, Wendy’s and major supermarkets in CholutTEXAS. Orucina is a small-medium size town with about 17,500 people. It is really hot there, but apparently this means that there are ample avocadoes for me to devour, as well as melons and lots of other goodie “staple crops” whatever that means…but I think it means corn and beans. CholuTEXAS is also known as the “Wild Wild West” (even though it is south) here in Honduras, so I’m looking forward to heading to my new town and see what they have in store for me. I will be about four hours from the capital of Teguz, but only one hour from the Pizza Hut, so don’t worry about me…. LOL. I am supposedly going to be working with the mayor, who is “an active young man.” I will be working on a lot of things, but we’ll see how busy I am when I actually get to site. They have requested my help with CBO’s organized at the local level, income administration, catastro (the mapping type office), grant writing, food security, tourism development, and the municipality has some serious water issues. So, apparently I will be learning a lot about water and sanitation b/c right now I don’t know anything! I will also be working on student government and civic education programs. (Note, this is a good time for me to mention the teacher strike here in Honduras that just came to a close after four weeks. The teachers here were striking for five reasons…or so I was told. One of them was that they weren’t paid during the last strike. I know it sounds silly, but teachers here get paid when they strike and they can strike whenever they feel like it. Teachers here get paid a ton of money, some make 9000 Lempiras a month or more, which is nine times the poverty level in rural areas and twice the minimum wage in urban areas. So, unlike the USA where teachers struggle to make ends meet and teach b/c they love it, here many teachers just do it b/c they make a ton of money and then strike b/c they can. It sucks, b/c the kids are missing out and they only go to school from 7:30-12:00 anyway). Anyway, that is my two cents on the subject, I could go on and on since my mom is a teacher and busts her butt everyday in the States, but I’ll stop here….

Muni D H-17 right before we got our site announcement

Now that FBT is coming to a close, I can definitely say I am ready to head to my site. It is hard to believe that 11 weeks have passed since I left the USA and said goodbye to all my friends. In order to give you a better perspective, I took the liberty of making a short list of FBT by the numbers:

FIELD BASED TRAINING BY THE NUMBERS-7 weeks in Cantarannas
Packages received: 6

Letters/postcards received: 5

Letters sent: 4

Showers taken: 3

Bucket baths taken: 42

Bars of soap used: 2

Cans of OFF used: 4

Digicell minutes used: 460

Tigo minutes used: 140

Choco bananas eaten: 4

Ice cream cones eaten: 20

Bags of chocolate milk drank: 13+

Packs of cookies eaten: 20+

Tortillas eaten: 400+

Charlas presented: 5

Stoves built: 2

Trees planted: 25

Trips to Teguz: 3

Bacteria infections: 1

Moving on to other things happening this week.

So, several weeks ago I took my bra to be fixed by one of the local costuras here in Cantarannas. She is a nice, older lady, who everyone knows (and she knows everyone), although it took her about two weeks to fix my bra. Nothing big, but it had adjustable straps so it could be worn as a strapless and the loops were torn…anyway….when I went to pick it up she asked me in an excited voice “Is this an original Calvin Klein?” Now, I’ve had this bra for about a year now and by now I have totally forgotten that yes, it is a Calvin Klein. When I tell her yes, she gets REALLY excited and proceeds to tell me how soft and well made she thinks the material is and how she is SO SORRY that she didn’t have the exact color to match up when she stitched it up. Now, let me tell you that the color she fixed it with was SPOT ON in my eyes and this bra is really uncomfortable as hell, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by spoiling the fun. Next, she asked me how much I paid for it and when I told her she loosely translated it to $1200 Lempiras…I paid $20 Lempiras to get the bra fixed, okay? Her niece let out a large gasp and then the costura handed me the bra back very carefully and told me again how beautiful it was and thanked me for bringing it to her. And that is the story of the bra. (Which, I am sure received much more love and attention from her than it did the first time it was stitched or anytime since when I have tossed it on the floor or in a gym bag). Gracias, adios.

My charla community group drawing an emergency map

The rest of this past week I stayed busy by preparing and presenting charlas. Over the weekend I studied for all my charlas and went out in the community and spoke with community members about various topics, including awesome places to visit in the USA. During this “community time” I usually hit up other aspirantes families or my friend at the Eskimo ice cream shop with pictures of my friends in the USA and postcards depicting my favorite places in the States. On Saturday night I was hanging out at the ice cream shop sharing pictures of North Carolina, California, Atlanta and Boston when in walked a young girl (about 22) carrying a large shopping bag. She came over to us and opened up the shopping bag and began to pull out stacks of clothes, varying in sizes and shapes with brand names like GAP, American Eagle, and Old Navy. After looking at all the clothes, my friend who owns the ice cream shop bought two new items from baby GAP and two new AE items for 25 Lempiras, or about $1.40. Yeah, that’s right….then, she asked me if people buy their clothes the same way in the States. So, in all fairness I described garage sales to her. She thought it was cool that on Saturday mornings people drive all over searching for clothes that only cost $1, and you can buy appliances she repeated from me? And, sometimes furniture, I said. She looked at me in awe and I thought, it’s the same thing here, but people just bring the garage sale to the park. In so many ways the two countries are the same and don’t even know it. After our shopping session, I continued to show her photos of the USA, when she promptly decided she would not like to live in Boston because the city was almost completely surrounded by water and although there was no rain in the photo she declared that the city must flood when they received torrential storms. And, although Atlanta looked nice because of the golden state capital and tall Coca-Cola bottles, her heart is now set on Washington, DC because of the big “white house” on Pennsylvania Avenue. I spent ten minutes trying to explain to her that that big “white house” is really difficult to move into and actually quite expensive, but she said that’s where she wants to go, and who am I to change her mind?

Delicious American food made by ME

Sunday morning my mom asked me if I wanted to go to a town about two hours away called Yuscaran. Of all the places I actually wanted to go, that is the place! But, today I couldn’t go b/c I had to prepare charlas and study all day. When I politely declined my mom responded “But, it’s nicer than Moresele.” Then, I felt really bad but refused to be guilt tripped into another trip after spending the last six weekends with my family (and babysitting more than once), so again I politely refused and then grabbed my backpack and ran out of the house to my study group! I could tell that my mom was super worried about me, b/c she took me all around the kitchen showing me how to make beans and tortillas into a meal, but I told her not to worry, I could whip something up for myself. I ended up making French toast, which is something the Honduran people don’t know too much about and devoured a whole plate to myself…please see photos. It was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed getting fat off of every bite.

Speaking of getting fat, I would like to take a moment to discuss the 10 pounds (or more) that I have seemed to find over FBT. It has been SUPER, SUPER difficult to eat healthy over the last seven weeks. Mostly I have had tortillas (see the FBT numbers) and beans and rice. Don’t get me wrong, I actually LOVE beans, but when there is no fruit and veggies mixed in, it takes a toll on a girl…which is probably why I went searching for comfort food (cookies and ice cream) more than once. It was also hard to work out here because my room was 6” x 7”, meaning it is only large enough for a bed and sometimes I can spread my yoga mat out. It was even hard to dance (a workout a lot of PCV’s do b/c they can’t run outside or go to the gym), so the weight has been piling on. I went back several times and read part of my aspiration statement I had to write when I joined the PC…here is what it said:

"In the Peace Corps, I know I will have to find my patience again for the electricity being sparse, cold showers, outside toilets, stray dogs on the street, my diet becoming more unhealthy then I am used to (along with café con leche and no French Vanilla Coffeemate), and the lack of outdoor exercise due to safety. Over the next 27 months, I look forward to once again embracing the new culture, laughing about what I have no control over and taking the opportunity to find new ways of health and wellness, including healthy cooking recipes and practicing more yoga and Pilates. I would be excited to introduce these classes into my community. "

So, now that I once again have control over my health and wellness, I am looking forward to getting to my site where I can have a lot more room and can practice yoga/dance/run/cardio to my hearts desire. I have also decided to practice vegetarianism since the quality of meat down here is not really that great. I am looking forward to this new chapter of my life too; if you have any recipes or suggestions, please send them my way!

On Monday and Tuesday we presented our charlas to a small aldea of about 100 homes (1,000 people) about 20 minutes north of Cantarannas. When we arrived on Monday, we were told that we would only be invited back for Tuesday if they liked our presentation on Monday; fabulous…no pressure! Monday we presented a charla on disaster mitigation and emergency preparedness. A topic I think a few people back home need to attend (especially with Hurricane Earl approaching). A couple of important reasons for this topic is because way back in 1998 Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras killing thousands of people, devastating the country and doubling the number of Peace Corps volunteers. Another important reason is because of the current flooding taking place because of the massive rainfall we have been receiving (a PCV in a nearby town actually lost his house and all his stuff) and because of the large number of dengue deaths Honduras has experienced this summer. So, first we had our dinamica/introduction game where we got to know everyone…we used a ball that we tossed back and forth and once you got it you had to repeat everyone’s name that had touched the ball…it was slightly confusing but kept the group entertained for 20 minutes and they liked throwing it to the gringos. Then, after some talk about global warming, what kinds of disasters Honduras is prone to, and what to do before/during/after and emergency, I talked about why drawing a map of your community is important and pointing out the risks, routes of evacuation, and public buildings you could use during times of need. They really got into this activity and sketched it out on other paper before taking it to the charla paper I had brought them. They made my block map look like a kindergarten project (sorry, mom). Then, they had no problem pointing out all the risks in their community and coming up with a solution as to how to fix them (I love it when people do my presentation for me!). Finally, to end things, I handed out lots of photos of items they would need/not need to pack a family bag in case of emergency and have ready to go. Pictures included a liter of coke, donuts from Dunkin Donuts, high heels, water, candles, flashlight, etc, etc. You get the idea. Anyway, so after all the pictures were taped up they apparently needed everything in their backpack, including an iron and a crock pot! As I held the pictures up asking them why a crock pot was important, they told me b/c they needed to cook their food, then I told them they were not going to having any electricity and they began to understand a little better. Once they realized they weren’t going to have any clothes either, they decided the iron could go on the other list as well. I declared the project a success after one lady told another guy he didn’t need meat in his backpack, but instead a can of sardines. Woo Hoo! Success! Note: We were also invited back, but the next day we presented on transparency in government and I don’t think you care about that boring subject.

On Tuesday night a bunch of us went over to another aspirantes house to learn how to make taquitos and pupusas (an awesome treat here made of corn filled with cheese, then fried like a crispy tortilla filled with goodness). Nancy’s mom owns a restaurant here in town, so for 50 Lempiras a person, she let us come to her house and gave us a cooking lesson, then we got to eat all of the food and drink Coca-Cola. It was an awesome night. The pictures speak for themselves.

Now you roll the chicken into the tortilas

Dumping in half a tube of margerine

Prepping the pupusas

Pupusas filled with cheese

Pupusas grilling on the stove

Taquitos ready to be enjoyed~!