in D.C. NO LONGER
Finally, after a few extra days of fun and freezing rain in the nation´s capital, our group has finally made it safely to HONDURAS! It took a few extra days, but I finally headed out last Saturday on what would be a very long day: flight from Reagan National to Atlanta, Atlanta to San Pedro Sula, Hondruas, then from there on a 5-hour bus trip to our training site in Santa Lucía, all the hell the way across country. We would´ve flown into Tegucigalpa, which is only 17km from Santa Lucía, but as our Valentine´s Day flight was cancelled they couldn´t find a replacement flight for all 51 of us any earlier than Tuesday, the 20th. Anyway, in the end we finally made it and are starting our amazing journey to becoming Volunteers and getting to know more abo9ut Honduras.
There´s so much to say, so I´ll break this up:
FAMILY: I live in a culdesac with a family of seven: two very sweet and caring parents and 5 kids, ranging in ages from 3 to 15. They´re all incredibly nice, the mom´s a great cook and I feel lucky to be with them. Also, the neighbor across the street is an American with a Honduran wife about my age, both of whom are also very nice and have offered for me to use their washing machine. That´s awesome. And I CAN´T forget the kittens. Perhaps the best part about the family is the presence of the kittens. They´re about 2 months old, they´re named Mushu and Moncho, and they never disappoint in delighting the entire family every time they enter a room. Any time there´s an awkward pause in conversation, we can always rely on talking about the kittens.
HOME: I get my own room with a key, and an adjoining bathroom with a hot shower. The room is big, it´s clean and it´s right next to the parking space where the city buses park, so I don´t even need an alarm clock. The start of two buses roaring out of the parking space is enough of a wakeup call for me. The shower is a tricky thing; when I first arrived I was told the shower was broken, so I resorted to bucket baths and ice cold showers for the first few days. Now the shower works, but if I touch the wrong thing on the showerhead I get a nasty little electric jolt. This I found out this morning. Hmm.
TOWN: Santa Lucía is 17 km from Tecugigalpa (capital city), but it´s like another universe. It´s high up in the mountains, the downtown is adorable and has a beautiful lagoon, and tourists abound. I´ll post pictures soon, you really have to see it to believe how gorgeous it really is.
CLASSES: are great. I´m in the advanced level language class, so we´ll be spending two days a week on a community project in Santa Lucía, related to our project. Since I´m in business, I´m thinking of researching cooperatives, or shadowing a business, or working with the local school on giving a talk about personal finance. There are plenty of ideas. Regarding project training, we had our first taste of Honduran businesses yesterday, where we went into town to identify formal and informal establishments. I had a chat with a young girl selling sweet gelatinous things on the street... I was supposed to identify if she were in the formal or informal sector, but seeing as she was about 8 years old I couldn´t necessarily ask her if her mom paid taxes on the business. But we had a nice chat all the same.
LANGUAGE: I´m learning bit by bit. I´m getting by, but I definitely have a long way to go.
OTHER VOLUNTEERS: are really cool. We all went out last night to a bar in town, and about 40something out of 51 volunteers were in attendance. It was a crazy gringo-filled scene, very good times.
SICK YET? I´m coming down with a cold, but I will take a cold over stomach parasites any day. My host mom prides herself on having hosted 18 healthy Peace Corps volunteers; not one ever got sick from her food. I´m comforted by this, though with my delicate system I doubt I´ll get through this without a stomach bug. We´ll see.
CONTACT INFO: If you want to send letters or packages, please use the address I posted earlier. I´d post it again but I can´t think of it off the top of my head. I will definitely post a list of possible things you could send that they don´t have here... I´ll let you know....other than that, I don´t have a set phone number yet, and during training we´ll be moving around to different places, so email and snail mail are your best bets for now.
That´s it for now!
There´s so much to say, so I´ll break this up:
FAMILY: I live in a culdesac with a family of seven: two very sweet and caring parents and 5 kids, ranging in ages from 3 to 15. They´re all incredibly nice, the mom´s a great cook and I feel lucky to be with them. Also, the neighbor across the street is an American with a Honduran wife about my age, both of whom are also very nice and have offered for me to use their washing machine. That´s awesome. And I CAN´T forget the kittens. Perhaps the best part about the family is the presence of the kittens. They´re about 2 months old, they´re named Mushu and Moncho, and they never disappoint in delighting the entire family every time they enter a room. Any time there´s an awkward pause in conversation, we can always rely on talking about the kittens.
HOME: I get my own room with a key, and an adjoining bathroom with a hot shower. The room is big, it´s clean and it´s right next to the parking space where the city buses park, so I don´t even need an alarm clock. The start of two buses roaring out of the parking space is enough of a wakeup call for me. The shower is a tricky thing; when I first arrived I was told the shower was broken, so I resorted to bucket baths and ice cold showers for the first few days. Now the shower works, but if I touch the wrong thing on the showerhead I get a nasty little electric jolt. This I found out this morning. Hmm.
TOWN: Santa Lucía is 17 km from Tecugigalpa (capital city), but it´s like another universe. It´s high up in the mountains, the downtown is adorable and has a beautiful lagoon, and tourists abound. I´ll post pictures soon, you really have to see it to believe how gorgeous it really is.
CLASSES: are great. I´m in the advanced level language class, so we´ll be spending two days a week on a community project in Santa Lucía, related to our project. Since I´m in business, I´m thinking of researching cooperatives, or shadowing a business, or working with the local school on giving a talk about personal finance. There are plenty of ideas. Regarding project training, we had our first taste of Honduran businesses yesterday, where we went into town to identify formal and informal establishments. I had a chat with a young girl selling sweet gelatinous things on the street... I was supposed to identify if she were in the formal or informal sector, but seeing as she was about 8 years old I couldn´t necessarily ask her if her mom paid taxes on the business. But we had a nice chat all the same.
LANGUAGE: I´m learning bit by bit. I´m getting by, but I definitely have a long way to go.
OTHER VOLUNTEERS: are really cool. We all went out last night to a bar in town, and about 40something out of 51 volunteers were in attendance. It was a crazy gringo-filled scene, very good times.
SICK YET? I´m coming down with a cold, but I will take a cold over stomach parasites any day. My host mom prides herself on having hosted 18 healthy Peace Corps volunteers; not one ever got sick from her food. I´m comforted by this, though with my delicate system I doubt I´ll get through this without a stomach bug. We´ll see.
CONTACT INFO: If you want to send letters or packages, please use the address I posted earlier. I´d post it again but I can´t think of it off the top of my head. I will definitely post a list of possible things you could send that they don´t have here... I´ll let you know....other than that, I don´t have a set phone number yet, and during training we´ll be moving around to different places, so email and snail mail are your best bets for now.
That´s it for now!
posted by Maureen at 11:36 AM
1 Comments:
i want kittens in my house! kittens are the MOST fun!
sounds like you're having an amazing time already, can't wait to hear more. don't get zapped by your shower too many times!
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