Far Away From Home

Monday, October 18, 2010

People ask me all the time what I miss most about not living in the States. I miss having a cell plan in which I know my minutes will never run out. The reason for this is because I must pre-pay for my minutes down here in Honduras, which often leads to me not having any “saldo” as they call it and losing a call in the middle of conversation. Also, because none of the cell phone carriers offer any plan to suit all of my needs, I must buy several different chips. This means that anytime I want to call the USA, I have to take out one chip and battery, put in the other chip and battery, and wait for my phone to power on up again. Then, just when I’m in the middle of an important call, the line goes dead. Because I have no more minutes left. You would think you would get a message when you have like 20 minutes left or something, but no, that’s not the way it happens. Depending on the last digit of your phone, you get “triple” minutes on certain days…this means if I “recharge” my pre-paid minutes on Wednesday I get triple seconds depending on how much money I put towards my pre-payment. However, if I don’t use all my seconds by the following Saturday (a week and a half away), then they are gone. It’s totally bogus. Also, let’s say you have some sort of promotion, which I often pay into…mostly on my chip for the States. Like buy 180 minutes for L75, if your 180 minutes are up then your phone goes dead. Even if you still have 500 minutes on your phone, it doesn’t automatically flip over. You have to re-dial the number and start all over again. Again, bogus. If you ever want to feel really poor, I suggest you go to your closest cell phone store and get a pre-paid cell phone for a week. You have to think everytime you pick up your phone, want to text, or don’t have triple “saldo.” Plus, if you run out at night when you can’t go buy extra minutes then you are totally up a creek and home alone with no one to talk to. This happened to me tonight when I was in the middle of a business call and it was pouring rain outside. Muchas gracias, Tigo. You win again.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The best money I have spent so far has been the L40 I put into the local economy today for Rosa to wash my clothes. As much as I would (not) love to hand wash my clothes in the pila everyday for the next two years, I simply don’t have that much patience and am not about to pretend I do. I don’t like to wash my clothes in the States, where I have access to a machine, so why would I want to do it here where I have to scrub them by hand for hours at a time? I would much rather give someone a job that needs it and call it a day. So, much love and thanks to her for taking my big ol’ garbage bag yesterday and returning it to me today all folded and clean. Best L40 I have spent to date; she is hired for two years.



Mountains on the way to Santa Anita

 I would have told her so in person, except that this morning I was whisked off from my office to Santa Anita, a small aldea two hours away from my town far up in the mountains. WAAAAAAY up in the mountains, where the road turns from gravel to mud, back to gravel, and then simply to tire tracks, there are hills the color of green and covered with a thick, healthy natural growth of tall grass, filled in with fields of purple flowers. Cows cut through them on their way to a lazy afternoon nap, or another day’s milking session, followed by young boy’s leading donkey’s through the mud and women waiting under umbrellas (children thrown up on their hips). Bump after bump I watch the hills grow taller and see spaces in the forest from where trees have been cut down to make firewood for some family’s fogona (cook stove), and as we turn a corner I see piles of firewood stacked high and chimney smoke rise into the blue sky. Near the ‘Tigo’ and ‘Claro’ signs that also read ‘Pulperia’ I notice that the houses are nothing more than thin sticks and children dressed in only underwear and thin t-shirts wave at me as I pass by. This is the ‘campo’ as the locals call it, gringos call it ‘the country.’ Hours away from my town, which is considered rural, this is where poverty lives and breathes in Honduras.



Two hour long ride down this road

 During the car ride my bladder feels like it’s going to explode. Bumpity, bump, bump goes the car, along with my urgent need to pee. I’m not sure how long this ride is, but I know when I get out my first question is going to be ‘Puedo usar el bano por favor?’ Approximately two hours after we started, we pull up to the aldea of Santa Anita and after being introduced to everyone, I kindly ask if I can use their bathroom, only to find out that there is no bathroom, not even an outhouse. I thank them and sit down. I am not above going outside, and weigh this option and the meeting goes on for over an hour. The meeting is so I can discuss an upcoming conference in December, where they’ll have the opportunity to sell their hammocks to a holiday-hungry crowd, consisting of PC/US Embassy/USAID employees in Tegucigalpa, as well as place their photos and descriptions in a catalog to be sent back to the states. What an awesome opportunity for them! As I describe it and offer them a trip to Teguz, they can not decide who will go and are in fact worried for someone to go. I can not see why someone doesn’t jump at the chance to go to the capital and stay in a hotel for the night, until I realize that most of them have never left their small village before and one finally says “We don’t know anything about the city, we have never been there before.” They are scared to go, so I reassure them that I’ll be there with them, when in fact I think that a gringa PCV leading them through Teguz is probably way scarier than anything they could imagine! I tell them to take a few days and think about who they want to go and represent them. After taking photos for the catalog, we call the meeting to a close and they ask if there are any more questions. I ask if anyone has a bathroom I can use and they all say no; they say they only have buckets and I say that will do, but they look at me suspiciously, like a gringa can’t go in a bucket. I really want to share with them that I’ve gone to the bathroom in some pretty weird places in my life (NASCAR races, football games, late nights in college on the way home, but I don’t share those stories) and instead, the other representative from the NGO, and I, scoot around the corner of the house and pop a squat near the trees and the pigs. I think I surprised the locals, but maybe I gained their respect, too? I’m not an uptight prissy gringa…just another volunteer down here hacking it with them.



Waiting our turn to use the road



Field of wildflowers

 Wednesday, October 20, 2010



Working hard in my office; note the big holes in the wall

 This week I have spent most of my time in my office working on my projects. Here is an update of what I’ve been up to:

Cook Stoves: There’s a group here in Honduras called Proyecto Mirador. www.proyectormirador.org I am trying to work with them to teach the women in my town about building fuel efficient cookstoves. There is a group in the states called Global Alliance for Cook Stoves, but it seems the initial money is going to research and other things, not to the building of the stoves. I am working with two different women’s groups here who are interested in building these stoves. This week one of the groups sent me their proposal, which includes replanting trees that have been destroyed due to the major destruction of forests, b/c of burning trees to light up the stoves. After our proposals are ready we can send them to Proyecto Mirador and see if they can help us.

Recycling: In November I have another volunteer who knows everything about recycling in Honduras coming to talk to the schools here about how to get started on recycling in our town. My schools are really excited about the project, so now we just have to find out more information. This needs to happen, b/c people just throw their trash everywhere and anywhere they want.

Library-A lot of people in town have approached me about a new library here, so this week I talked to the people in the municipality about it. I was trying to find out through the CATASTRO office (or property tax type) what buildings are empty, for sale, for rent, etc. They sent me to another NGO in town and told me to talk to the boss there. I tried to explain to them that as a municipal development volunteer in PC I could work with them on the library and they said that I needed the support of an NGO. Proof to me that they don’t know how to use me or what my job entails. I will continue to power forward on this project, b/c a lot of people are interested; plus the NGO is out of town at a conference.



Working on hammocks in the mountains


Conferences-I have a couple of PC conferences coming up. Planning for these have kept me busy, especially the artesano conference. The artesans have to solicit the funding for their trip, plus take pictures and plan their outline for the catalog, so I had to go up in the mountains and take pictures. I also went with the group to the municipality and another NGO to help solicit the funds. Next week I’ll be out of town for another conference, so I’ve been busy getting ready to move into my new house since when I return it will be time to move! I am very excited to have my own place where I can invite my local friends over and learn more Spanish from them and teach them about American things as well.

As far as other stuff goes, I have been watching the MLB playoffs courtesy of Gamecast. Even though it doesn’t have sound, it is still nice to be a “part” of the playoffs. Go Rangers! The workout routine has been paying off and the tortilla weight is coming off. Another reason I’m looking forward to moving into my own place, so I’ll have more room to work out. I have started running again, now that I am more immersed in my community and people know who I am. Everywhere I go I hear my name yelled out by someone, even people I don’t know. Last night I came out of my Spanish tutoring to find someone waiting for me, asking “You are Cuerpo de Paz, si?” I didn’t even know people knew I was in Spanish tutoring, or where I took it, but they found me! On my morning runs now I see the same little old men herding their cattle and little kids waiting for school. I run to a little pulperia and buy a bag of water, then stroll back, taking in the mountains. It is my favorite time of day; sometimes Amanda joins me. The bus drivers wave and honk as they go by. It feels nice to be part of a community where “everybody knows your name.”