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.