Safety and Security 101

November 15-21, 2010

The only word to describe this past week has been stress. While the beginning of the week started off great, with my recycling team (students from the colegio) all meeting up and collecting recyclable materials in the streets of Orocuina. In only one and a half hours, they collected 25 bags of plastic bottles and aluminum cans! I was so proud of them; especially because it was hot and they were wearing jeans and their colegio uniforms. They were very excited and have set out a plan to meet every week from now until school starts up again in February. (You have to remember that it is “summer” break here now, so anything they do now is strictly volunteer.) They also have all these ideas about turning their recycling into a microempressa (small business) and going on the radio to talk to people every week. I hope their enthusiasm lasts.



People here burn their trash; a bottle that has attempted to be burned



My group with all their bags collected

 Later in the week I spoke with PC and my safety and security advisor about some things that had been going on in my site. I won’t get into too many details, but there was a man in my site who carried out some sexual advances to me that he shouldn’t have. Done, end of story. I probably waited a little too long to contact PC than I should have (five days), b/c I really wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. Finally, I sent a report to my safety and security officer and PC gave me all of the support that I ever needed. They are so awesome when it comes to things like that. After making some changes on my house for better safety and security, I feel so much better and can sleep through the night again. I am so grateful to be part of an organization like PC that steps up and offers support and guidance.



Isla de Amapala

 In the middle of all that, it was also time for our annual safety and security conference! (What a whirlwind week!) All of the southern region volunteers headed out to Amapala, a small island off the southwest coast of Honduras. We enjoyed two days there while our safety and security advisor reinforced the dangers that we can come across while being PCV’s in Honduras. Everywhere NOT TO GO in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, what to do in case of an emergency (like hurricane, flooding, etc), and then made us take a quiz just to be sure we were listening. During this time we also got to meet our new Country Director, who is very supportive and open. She listened to all of our questions and concerns throughout the whole day and took the time to get to know us all. I haven’t had a boss like that in many, many years, so I am really looking forward to her being in Honduras. Amapala was really enjoyable and I got to see all my PC friends that live in the “South” but are still hours and hours away from me. It was a nice couple of days, even if it was to scare the bee-jeezus out of us so we don’t get robbed and assaulted.

Southern PCV's and our new Country Director



Isla de Amapala