Saturday, March 28, 2009

Past activities and looking ahead

Haven't written in a little while so I thought I'd share a few last updates on life here before I finish service and say goodbye to this country that has made me laugh, cry, and hurl (as Wayne and Garth would say) many times over.

I spent alot of the month of February out of my site due to a few trips to Tegucigalpa (where I finally got my chronic allergy problem taken care of, and I can finally say that I am illness-free for the first time since February 2007), and the visit of ELIZABETH which was a great week of visiting the major tourist destinations. We visited the Mayan ruins of Copán, the beaches of Tela (including Punta Sal, which I'd never been to but I'm so glad we saw, it was truly beautiful), and a couple days in little San José. It was great to catch up with my dear Elizabeth and for her to catch a little glimpse of my life here. She was my third and final visitor from home (after Mel C. and Chocho), and it was a little shocking to realize that I was really nearing the end here.

This month of March has been focused mostly on my final two projects: a World Map Project in the school and work with the library. The World Map project was done with the 6th grade class, where we drew and later painted a map of the world in the main entrance of the school. Thanks to fellow volunteer Kate Strass, who gave me her leftover paint and brushes from when she did the same project in her site, I was able to do the project with almost no expenses involved. The kids learned a little bit about geography in the process of painting the map--we did a few exercises that taught them that a continent and a country are in fact not the same thing--and in the end I think they had a good time and the project was a success.


At work drawing the map. This is my old host sister.


We then colored in the countries with markers... this is Africa!


Then came the painting.


It looks like they're having fun right?????

Finished!!!

An impromptu inauguration of the map.
Our mapamundi.

"Memory from Marina O'Neill and 6th grade 2009." Yeah!

The municipal library has experienced some major changes in the past month--just in March, we moved to the new municipality building which seriously quadrupled the library's space, AND we received a donation of a computer, laser printer, metal shelves and 500 donated books. All these new books we're currently putting into the inventory, then writing bibliographic cards then classifying them, all by hand. On top of that, now we average about 30 users a day who come in to read or investigate homework assignments, so it's quite alot of work we'll be doing before I leave. In all I'm just really impressed with how far this library has come. When I first got here the library consisted of the librarian and a couple boxes of books in a corner of the mayor's office. Now we have an actual space, tables, chairs, shelves, over 1100 books, and a community that knows the library exists and is starting to use it. It's not a perfectly-executed project, there were lots of bumps in the road and there is still alot of work to do after I leave, but in all it's pretty cool to see.


Some kids came by and helped put together our shelves...they came in their uniforms so I guess they shoul've been in class, but who needs school when you get to put up some shelves?!




Librarian and kids.




Finally, the town welcomed the "Bibliobús," a mobile library which we asked for to come to San José from Tegucigalpa to do activities with the community to promote reading. They were here a total of 3 days in the park, and lots of people came by to take a look at the books. There were even older people in the community who stopped by, which was rare to see (as most people in San José assume that a library is only for kids to do homework assignments). In all it was a really interesting and different activity for the community to experience, and hopefully after I leave the librarian can solicit the bus to visit again, particularly in the surrouding aldeas.

So I've got 34 days from today until I'm on the plane and back to the States. I plan on being back in Fairfax at least for awhile, since looking for work sounds pretty intimidating in any part of the country and I at least feel more confident about looking around the DC area. I will definitely be sad about leaving here, more than anything because of the kids and friends and families I've gotten to know and love while here. At the same time though I feel it is time, which is the best way I can feel really because it means I'm ready for the next step.

I'll write one or two more entries before signing off. Hasta entonces!

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