Hicking and Mining

The view of Teguc from the top of a mountain in Santa Lucia. The view is a lot nicer than the actual city.

Santa Lucia used to be a mining town and a few of the mines are still around. We checked this one out but didn't find any gold.

Cashew!

Inside of these hard shells is a cashew waiting to be eaten. This thing that looks like a big lima bean actually is part of a fruit.














First we cook the shell in the fire. This is a traditional stove that many families still have. Both of my host families have a modern stove inside and the traditional one outside. It is usually used to cook beans, which can take hours to cook.











Then we crack the shell with a rock and open it up.














Voila, a cashew! No wonder they are so expensive.

Host Family

Again I am very lucky to have a wonderful host family. My mother’s name is Ruth and she runs a Pulperia (little store) out of the front of the house. There are many small businesses here that sell just a few items and the store is the front of the house. At Ruth’s Pulperia you can buy pop, water, various spices, meat, some toiletries and random shoes that have probably been sitting there for years. The front door of the house is the entrance to the store and is kept shut most of the time (see photo of store front and front of house). From the back of the store you walk into the rest of the house. So when somebody comes up to the door they yell vendame (sell to me) and somebody goes into the store to see what they want. Ruth also works as a bus attendant on the bus that her son drives (the attendant is the person that takes peoples money when the get on the bus). On Saturday she also sells meat and fish. I have a 19 year old brother named Raphael who drives a school bus (see photo) and a 14 year old brother named Antonio who is still in school. My 16 year old sister Navidad is wonderful and very helpful. She is in her last year of school this year and hopes to continue with University. The father of the family is working in Spain and the oldest daughter is in medical school in Cuba. The mother-in-law lives down the street and usually comes to visit. She thinks I am hilarious and always calls me gringita (little American/white person) or muneca (doll) although I usually can’t understand a word she is saying.

The house has a family room (see photo), kitchen, three bedrooms, two bathrooms (one inside and one out) and a large area in the back with a traditional stove, storage area and two pilas (area to store water and wash dishes and clothes). I am lucky enough to have my own room (see photo) and bathroom which is very nice so I don’t have to worry about getting in to use the shower in the morning. Unfortunately my few isn't as nice as in my last house (that concrete wall is outside my window). There is electricity and sometimes there is running water, although the shower in my bathroom doesn’t work so I take bucket baths (I am finally getting used to the cold water) and the sink is still sitting on top of my closet. I finally put up my mosquito net here because I was getting horrible bites all over, the ceiling was dropping things on me (like dirt and leaves) and I didn’t want the geckos that live in my room to crawl on my bed while I was sleeping, oh and I don’t want to get malaria. Overall the living situation is great.

My family cooks three meals a day for me which is very nice. They won’t let me do a thing, not even clear my place after I am done eating. Like my last family this family thankfully understands the concept of not eating meat and they have fed me well. However, my pants are starting to get a little tight. My family insists on feeding me a lot of food, usually the largest serving, even more than the boys. I always tell them I don’t think I can eat it all and they always having encouraging words to convince me that I should try. Hondurans love to fry almost everything. They love to use Manteca (crisco) which comes in huge tubes (think chocolate-chip cookie dough tube that you buy at the store, but Costco size, about a foot long). So I am trying to get some healthy food in me and avoid the massive amounts of oil that they use. I have been lucky enough to find a new favorite treat, choco bananas (frozen bananas covered with chocolate) which cost about $.05! I love them and I eat them every day.

La Paz

La Pa is a much larger town than Santa Lucia, it has three supermarkets, about four internet cafes, a large outdoor market (mercado) and two Peace Corps volunteers. The town is relatively flat, but surrounded by mountains. The whole city is arranged in blocks with all the buildings within a block connected to each other. The climate is hot and dry. In the morning it is cool enough to need a long sleeve shirt, during the day it is hot and in the evening it cools off a little. Luckily it is not to humid, so even though it is hot I don’t sweat that much (although there are parts of Honduras where you sweating 24/7 is a fact of life).

Field Based Training

After about four weeks in Santa Lucia we packed up our bags and took three different buses to three different sites in Honduras. We are now in Field Based Training (FBT) and each of the three groups (Health, Business and Water & Sanitation) is in a different site not too far away from Teguc, the capital. The health group is in the city of La Paz in the Department of La Paz about 2 hours from Teguc. Originally the Peace Corps gave us a map of La Paz and said good luck getting there. The volunteers however, did not like the idea of lugging all of our luggage (which has grown substantially since we got here with the addition of dictionaries, manuals, medical kits and mosquito nets) onto public buses in Santa Lucia and Teguc. So each group chartered its own bus and we were all a lot happier.

Although it is sad to be separate from the rest of the volunteers in business and water & sanitation we have a great team. There are 20 volunteers in training, a number of current health volunteers who are helping train us, our project manager and four Spanish teachers. FBT is much more involved than our training had been in Santa Lucia and is more focused on hands on experience. We only had formal language classes twice this week, which were held in our teachers’ host families’ houses. Every day I get up a 6 (although the roosters and blaring music usually wake me up around 5). We have class from 7:30-11:30 then we go home for lunch and then back to class from 1-5. I moved up a level since I have been here, from Intermediate Medium to Intermediate Advanced +. I hope to leave training as Advanced. Our week was packed with very interesting sessions including Por Amor a la Vida, Encargada de mi Vida y Salud de Barrones.

Por Amor a la Vida (For the Love of Life)

Por Amor a la Vida is a collaborative program between the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and Peace Corps. They work with commercial sex workers (CSWs) to prevent HIV/AIDS. Three CSWs came to our class to share their experiences with us. There are three types of commercial sex workers in Honduras; those that work in night clubs, those that work in brothels and those that work around the US military base. In Honduras prostitution is legal and many of the night clubs and brothels are registered, have licenses and pay taxes. The culture of machismo encourages men to have many partners and paying for sex is not looked down upon as it is in the US. The night clubs are like strip clubs with rooms in the back and they usually have younger, prettier girls working there. For 30 minutes it costs about $45 and $75 for the whole night. The brothels seem to have older women who are not as attractive and 20 minutes costs about $5. A small portion is given to the establishment to pay for room and board. Condom use is required and the women said that they usually didn’t have any problems which men who refused to use condoms. They call the girls that cater to the American military gringas. Every Thursday there is a party on the US base a their ‘disco’ and the gringas are allowed to enter the base to attend the party. The single service men are also allowed to obtain passes for the girls to come onto the base to stay with them. The gringas receive $100 for a “three course meal”. They say that they US military men are the worst clients and usually refuse to wear condoms and usually refuse to acknowledge the children that they help to create. The gringas also cater to the expats who live outside the base and work for a military contracting firm.

Peace Corps’ primary goal among this population of women is to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission through condom use. Obviously Peace Corps is also trying to fight the causes of prostitution but these women seem to be stuck in such a cycle of poverty and lack of education that it seems impossible to break it. Income generation projects, education and self-esteem building can help but it will take a long time to break the cycle that is passed down from generation to generation.

Encargada de mi Vida (In Charge of my Life)

Encargada de mi vida is a youth development program designed by two Peace Corps volunteers. The first part is a 9 week basic sexual education course offered to all 5^th & 6^th graders. Many children finish school after the 6^th grade and the average age that boys first have sexual intercourse is 13. The second part is a 16-20 week leadership course for a group of 12 dedicated students. They focus on communication, leadership skills and peer education. This program was also given to the children on CSWs to attempt to prevent them from following in their mothers’ footsteps.

Salud de Barrones (Men’s Health)

The Peace Corps has recently started to focus on Men’s Health as a way to fight HIV/AIDS. In a culture where machismo dominates and men hold the decision making power concerning sex educating the men is very important. We spent one day learning the program material which is absolutely amazing. It is a combination of basic health information and lots of fun activities that break the ice and get the men talking. Then we had our first opportunity to give a charla (talk) to a real Honduran audience. We split into four groups and each group gave a four hour long session to groups of about 25 police cadets. Although we were all nervous about our Spanish and getting up in front of a group the entire experience was amazing. It was a good group to start with because they men were young (18-20ish) and very respectful. At first they were a little shy but throughout the program they began to warm up to us. I lead a talk called Hot Girls. We put up ten pictures of hot girls and then ask each person to write his name under three that he would like to sleep with. Then we reveal that one of them has HIV and they now have HIV. We emphasize that even though a girl may be really hot and not look sick at all she may be infected and not even know it, so it is always necessary to use a condom. They seemed to learn a lot and be very responsive to our activities. The biggest challenge was understanding what they were saying. When they use slang terms and slur their words together it is really difficult to figure out what they are saying. As a health volunteer I will be giving lots and lots of sessions like this one, trying to give correct information about sexual health.

Volunteer Visit-Olancho

Three weeks into training we have the opportunity to venture out on our own for our first Volunteer Visit. Each volunteer in training is assigned to a current volunteer in the field and goes to visit him or her for about four days. The idea is to give us a taste of what it is really like to a volunteer and check out what our predecessors are up to. I had the great fortune to visit a volunteer named Anna in Olancho, the Texas of Honduras (their current president is from there, go figure). Olancho is the largest department (state) in Honduras and is know for agricultural production, livestock and logging. I was able to take a direct bus from Tegucigalpa to the village of El Carbonal, in the town of Silca, in the department of Olancho. I arrived at the bus in Tegucigalpa at 6:30 am, and unfortunately the bus didn’t leave until 8:15. Luckily the bus driver knew I was coming because Anna had told him to expect me, so he was nice enough to talk to me for a while. The buses in Honduras are kinda funny; they are all used US school buses, the yellow variety. Even funnier is that lots of them have killer rims on them. Even funnier than that is that they still have the original writing on them. The bus that I took to my volunteer visit happened to be from South Bend, IN, the small town that my father was born in, go figure. The buses work well, but aren’t exactly the most comfortable for a five hour bus ride, of which the last three were on a dirt road. Although the bus ride was long there was plenty of entertainment. At just about every stop somebody gets on to sell some type of food, or somebody gets off to tell somebody something, or somebody runs up to the bus to give somebody something. The bus route is a way for people to get things done by having things dropped of, picked up, and messages passed. This is especially important when the closest large town is about three hours away from you site, as is the case with Anna. Finally I arrived in El Carbonal and Anna was outside of the school waiting for me and the bus driver dropped me off right there.

El Carbonal is a village of 90 houses with about 550 residents. They mostly focus on livestock and agriculture production. Anna is a Protected Areas Management (PAM) Volunteer. Usually PAMers are located in Protected Areas, but Anna isn’t for some reason. Nonetheless she focuses on environmental projects, such as family and school gardens, water availability, tree planting, biogas, etc. When I arrived everybody was interested in seeing another gringa and everybody wanted to meet me. Anna and I walked through the town and of course every single person (no exaggeration) knows her. After many introductions, questions like “Do you like it here?”, “Are you going to be our next volunteer?”, “Where are the other gringas?” (apparently they had seen a car with gringos and assumed more were coming), “Are you going to get married?”, etc. we finally got to Anna’s house.

Anna lives alone in a house made of adobe bricks and covered with a red tile roof. She has no electricity and was water available every other day. Her latrine and ‘shower’ are both outside along with the pila, the large cement tub that stores the water. Water from the pila is used for ‘flushing the toilet’, washing clothes, washing dishes, showering, watering plants, etc. In her kitchen she has a two burner stove fueled by a gas tank and that’s about it. At night we used candles to see and went to bed early.

Friday I was able to check out one of Anna’s projects in her community. A group of 25 families is working to install biogas systems to fuel their energy needs in the home. One of the components of this is to grow fruit trees and plant them in order to provide shade for the biogas system, which apparently it needs. A group of about 20 men, women and children got together, filled little bags with dirt and planted over 100 seeds. Later that evening we watched Charlie’s Angels on Anna’s computer. The new middle school has solar power which allows Anna to charge her computer there during the day and have a few hours of battery in the evening.

Saturday Anna and I managed to procure two horses from two of her neighbors. Although they were happy to lend the horses to us they kept asking if we would be alright, if we needed a man to go with us, if we wanted to borrow a pistol to take with us (most of the men wear pistols on their hips). In the end they let us go with the warning that if we weren’t back in 4 hours they would come looking for us. We rode to a nearby town where Anna knew somebody and had lunch and then rode back. The horses were great, they knew the trails well and nothing seemed to scare them. We arrived back in town at full speed and everybody loved thought it was so funny to see two gringas riding horses by themselves.

We returned just in time to show a movie at the school for the kids in order to raise money for one of Anna’s projects. She charges 3 limpiras for little kids and 5 for adults (18 limpiras=1 USD). By the time the movie was over we were exhausted and sore (I still am walking funny).

Anna and I returned to Teguc together this morning. She is going to spend a few days in the Capital relaxing, developing photos, checking e-mail, etc. Now I’m back in Santa Lucia and we only have one week left before we leave for Field Based Training!

I’m sorry I don’t have any photos, I took a ton, but then I accidentally deleted all of them! I’m still learning how to use my camera.

Hospital San Felipe

On Friday the health group had the honor of visiting on of the best public hospitals in Teguc. First, we met with the director of the hospital and she gave us an overview of the structure of the Secretary of Health for Honduras. It seems to be fairly centralized and hierarchical.

Second, we had a tour of the hospital, which has 400 beds and 7 departments: ophthalmology, diabetes, pediatrics, internal medicine, maternity, physical therapy and general medicine.

Last, we toured the maternity ward and talked to an Obstetrician. Overall, Honduras is trying to encourage women to give birth in hospitals instead of at home with a midwife. In and around the cities this is fairly reasonable, but for those who live in more rural areas it is much more difficult. Although San Felipe makes it a little easier by trying to keep prices low (about $50). We viewed three rooms in the maternity ward. First, we went in a large room with about 20 beds where women stay with their babies after they are born for 12-24 hours. Their families are able to visit them during visiting hours. Second, a group of 5 volunteers (including myself), were lucky enough to view the labor and delivery rooms. The labor room is a large room with about 10 beds where the women stay until just before they are ready to give birth. When we arrived there were two women there and three more came in as we were leaving. There is one or two nurses attending the women intermittently. They are alone at this point, husbands and families are not allowed to be with them because it is not a private room and the hospital needs to respect the privacy of the other women. We happened to time it well because after about 15 minutes the doctor said that one of the women was ready to go. They moved her to one of the delivery rooms next door and within 5 minutes she gave birth to a little boy. I was amazed at how fast it came out once it was ready. This was the first live birth that I have ever seen and am thankful for the opportunity to have seen it. The level of physical and emotional support for the women, the level of privacy and the level of sanitation were all very different from the US.

Mercado Jaceleapa

*Don’t worry if you can’t pronounce the name of the market, neither can I.

Wednesday we made our way to Tegucigalpa (Teguc), the capital city, to explore one of the markets and the bus stations. First we explored the Mercado, which had fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and some random clothing and accessory items. I bought a pineapple for $1, 10 oranges for $.50 and two pairs of earrings for $1. Pretty good prices, except I have to remember that my ‘walk around allowance’ is only about $2.75/day during training. When we get to our sites and have to pay for everything ourselves it will of course me more, but now everything is provided by our host families.

Then we went to the ‘bus terminal’ to practice asking bus drivers where they were going, when they left and how much it cost. The Honduran idea of a bus terminal is anywhere a bus leaves from. This may be a gas station, outside the supermarket, next to the Mercado, etc and may include from 2-10 buses.

Next we went to the Supermercado, also know as a grocery store American style. I bought soap and Q-tips.

Finally we went to the Peace Corps headquarters and enjoyed the air-conditioned ‘library’ and free internet.

Overall Teguc is not a very nice city. It is sprawling, dirty and hot. Actually Peace Corps volunteers are ‘not allowed to go there unless they need to’, whatever that means.

Vaccunes

Although I appreciate the protective nature of vaccines, my body is taking a beating. Before I came I read the WHO information for Honduras and it said there were no required vaccines to go to Honduras. I thought this meant we wouldn’t have to get any, but what I think it actually means is that there are no vaccines that you must have to enter the country. So, although they are not required, the Peace Corps is pumping us full. In all I will receive Teatnus-diptheria, Polio, Hepatitis A (I already heave HepB), Typhoid, Rabies and Influenza.

In addition I am on my second week on Malaria prophylaxis. We take 500 mg of Aralen (chloroquine) per week. Honduras is one of the few countries in which chloroquine is still effective. Previously I was under the impression that malaria prophylaxis prevented contracting malaria. Apparently this is not the case, it only reduces the severity of symptoms if we do happen to get Malaria. Hmmm…Therefore we are also given mosquito nets to put over our beds. My host family says I am like a baby, because the only people in Honduras who use mosquito nets are babies and the old people.

So far my dreams have been vivid but not out of the ordinary. It feels as if I am less asleep because I am taking part in my dreams and have to think/feel, so it is a little obnoxious. If you haven’t heard the horror stories of taking malaria prophylaxis they include vivid dreams and sometimes hallucinations and severe depression…hopefully I can avoid those.

Small World

Yesterday I met a girl named Zoila who lives here in Santa Lucia. We happen to have something pretty amazing in common; we both lived in South Korea. What are the chances of going to a small town in Honduras and meeting a Honduran girl who had lived in Korea? I thought it was pretty amazing. Actually, she is half Honduran. Her father is American and met her Honduran mother here. He is in the military and was stationed in Korea, so Zoila went to live with him for a few years. She is now back here finishing up high school.