Thursday, February 28, 2008

Small-town professionalism

Here’s a snippet of last week’s meeting at the municipality. This is not to poke fun of anyone or anything of the sort; it’s simply a way of demonstrating the meaning of professionalism between my old office and the new. The structure of the meeting was as follows (roughly translated):

-Mayor invites all employees into office for impromptu meeting with the words “EVERYONE GET IN HERE NOW”
-Mayor opens meeting by first berating every employee on what they’re doing wrong, except his protégé employee who gets of scot free.
-Mayor then turns to two employees and tells them to decide in which position they want to work: in tributaria (tax collection) or in catastro (property zoning). “Give us time to think about this,” they said. "No," he replied. "Decide now."
-Mayor tells head of environmental unit that he’s going to villages all too often. Environment guy protests by saying that his job responsibilities largely take place in the villages, and by the way when does he get a motorcycle?
-Mayor then tells chief of police to help his star employee in making a list of businesses in the area. He responds by saying he wants to quit. Mayor responds with “Go ahead!”
-Throughout meeting cell phones are answered, eyes are rolled and paper is doodled on. Mayor tries to wrap up meeting but everyone’s already gotten up and left.

Just your typical meeting in San Jose!

Love by mail... AND a new address!

If you ever think about your dear friend/family member Maureen in Honduras and think to yourself, “This girl deserves something special, how could I possibly make her day a little brighter, her life a little more bearable, her diet a little less bean-and-rice-filled??” I have the answer for you: why, you can send me THINGS!

Here’s an updated list of things I would be absolutely thrilled to receive, if ever you feel the need to send a little mailable love my way. You can now send anything to my new address:

Maureen O’Neill
San José de Comayagua
Taulabé, Honduras, C.A.
Código Postal 032101

The list is:
-chocolate. Always and forever, I will love chocolate.
-Mike and Ikes, Mentos, Altoids and other fun-sounding candies or mints
-Crystal Light packets or its cheaper equivalent, Wyler’s Light (just as delicious!)
-fiber bars
-Cheezits, Wheat thins, Triscuits or any other delicious American crackers
-Halls Defense Vitamin C drops
-healthy soup mixes
-latest music from the States!!!!
-magazines
-Redken Fresh Curls shampoo or conditioner
-fun arts and crafts ideas and/or supplies

My Dog Tigra, Part 3… Canine Romance

Tigra has been in heat lately, which makes her very popular and apt to come across at least a dozen boy dogs throughout the day. It’s really funny walking around the neighborhood with her trotting behind me, and throngs of boy dogs suddenly appearing from nowhere, looking for action. Oftentimes my front porch is the unfortunate rendezvous spot for Tigra and her horny gentleman callers, though I think she’s been making an effort to keep them off the porch. She knows I disapprove.

This was the case on Saturday, while I was walking home and happened upon my little Tigra in the park, obviously having just had a little tryst with a dog with a fungus on his leg. How do I know they were together? Answer: they were STUCK together!!! Now this is a common sight in Honduras, almost as ubiquitous as aluminum-roofed houses or drunks passed out in the street. But the fact that it was Tigra just made me laugh. Oh WHY didn’t I have my camera… it was just classic seeing my little adopted dog in the post-coital awkwardness of being stuck to her little boyfriend dog. I’m sure it will happen again, and when it does I will have my camera ready. Oh those dogs!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Kids!!! aka who I hang with after work

Neighborhood kiddies proudly showing off the puzzle they finished.


Same neighborhood kiddies plus a few more, chalking up a little concrete.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Books a Million

Since my TV burnt out in December (due to the Pepsi truck snapping my cable while the TV was connected) and I live in the boonies where TV fixers do not come by very often, I have been reading up a storm. Since arriving in country I´ve gotten up to 28, and considering the average American reads two pleasure books a year I think that´s quite a bit. Although I also do not have a 40-hr a week job, or very many friends... but I certainly have a LOT of down time!

Here are a few of my favorites so far:

White Oleander by Janet Finch. A self-centered, brilliant poet is imprisoned for murdering her deadbeat boyfriend, and her poor neglected daughter is sent to foster care. Adventures ensue! I love it mostly because I´m a sucker for Oprah book club books.

Dry by Augusten Burroughs. I also read Running with Scissors, but I like this one much better. A man´s hilarious/heartbreaking journey to sobriety. Again, adventures ensue!

The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. I think this book should be read by any American who has a passport. Written in the 50s and still relevant today, it describes the ugly behavior of Americans abroad and the hero of them all (a physically ugly American) who actually takes time to live in a community, listen to the locals´ ideas and promoting a small-scale project built on their initiative and management. It resonated with me... for some reason...:)

Alex Dogboy by Monica Zak. This is actually a book in Spanish in our municipal library. It accounts the true story of a boy who lives at the dump in Tegucigalpa. Adventures...you guessed it... ensue!!!!!!!!

Message in a Bottle by Nicolas Sparks. His writing style is simple to the point of sounding silly (she goes to the fridge and opens it, she wonders what to take out, she eventually chooses a bottle of water, she closes the fridge), but the storyline is romantic and sweet. A good beach read... and yes I know you´re all jealous, I take beach trips in February!!! :)


oh by the way, HAPPY VALENTINE´S DAY!!!! In Honduras it´s the Day of love AND friendship, which I like sooo much more. Have a great day, all my wonderful fam and friends, acquaintances, well-wishers, and random folks who come across my blog.


And of course Chocho...... feliz día amor, te quiero muchísimo.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Feliz aniversario

Well as of thsi Sunday it will be one full year since I arrived here in Honduras. I can barely fathom how or where the time has gone... day to day the hours and minutes sometimes crawl by, but then I look at the calendar and I realize I´ve been here a YEAR. It´s nuts.

About this time in a Volunteer´s service, they start to feel a bit (or a LOT) disillusioned about the whole idea of making lasting change in a community. This feeling has hit me pretty hard, which has surprised me because it proves just how many expectations I had when going into this. So it´s kind of my fault since I should have had NO expectations going in. Stinks.

At this time I really hope to work on the following for the next year and three months in Peace Corps service:

Tourism: despite the limited marketing and almost nonexistant infrastructure of the San José caves, tourists still come! And they love the caves! I really would like to help the youth tourist group with organization, marketing, price analysis of their tourist packages and maybe even technical English classes on cave terms. Unfortunately they rarely invite me to meetings, and the last time I talked to one of the guides he got mad at me because I asked where the money went (what the tourists paid). I was just curious, and he assumed I was accusing him of stealing money. Whoops.

Libraries: training new municipal librarian on the Dewey Decimal system, basic maintenance of the library, etc. Trying to keep her from falling asleep whenever I talk to her about the library. Also I hope to plan story hours in the school to encourage them to go to any of the three libraries currently operating in town.

High school: I´d like to give a business simulation in the high school, continue holding English conversation classes with the English teacher, and work with the computer program to get more computers for the lab. No more teaching colorguard for me, I think!