Christmas 2008

Even though this is my second Christmas in Santa Barbara it feels like my first. Last year I was in Cleveland until the 22nd of December and then returned to Santa Barbara with my parents and celebrated Christmas together, which meant that we basically just spent time together and didn’t do much community stuff. This year I have been here to see all aspects of the Christmas season. Work started to taper off around the 18th and I started to relax a little, which was wonderful. On the 19th Katie and I invited some of the women we work with over for dinner and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Their husbands/boyfriends kept calling them to see what they were doing and my counterpart Sara said it was the first time she had ever been to a party with only women.

Then I went to Copan Ruinas, a wonderful little town just a few miles from the Honduran border to visit friends for the weekend and saw the performances for their festival. They had fire throwers, jugglers, lots of people on stilts (including a precious little boy who looked about 8 years old) and drummers from Honduras performing. They also invited a theater group from Guatemala that did a performance on Mayan culture in the central park (their central park is gorgeous…unlike Santa Barbara’s).

Once I got back I started cooking and didn’t stop until Christmas. Another Peace Corps Volunteer happened to be staying in Santa Barbara for a few days to wait for her parents to get in since their original flight was canceled due to snow (snow?). It was wonderful to have her around to cook with since Katie was in Copan Ruinas with her parents. We made Rice Krispie treats for my Yo Merezco group (actually they were chocolate krispies since they don’t have Rice Krispies here). Then we experimented making yoghurt (I think it turned out all right for my first time). Then came the fudge…I was pretty nervous about this since I thought it was some big complicated process, but my mom sent me a recipe off the back of a Nestle Chocolate Chip bag and it turned out perfect and everyone was very impressed with me (including myself). The pumpkin bread was easy and this time we didn’t burn it in our little toaster oven, so that was good. Laura also helped me make a few dozen cookies for the prisoners I work with. We finished up with green bean casserole and roasted garlic (so good).

Christmas Eve I visited my counterpart Nineth and gave her some fudge and pumpkin bread.

Nineth & Allison

Then Katie and her parents and sister got back from Copan Ruinas and we went to the local sports bar for dinner and then watched Love Actually (a wonderful movie). At that point Katie and her family went to bed and I went to a Christmas Eve party. In Honduras they celebrate Christmas on December 24th, not the 25th. They actually celebrate it similar to how we celebrate the 31st. During the day they cook (and clean) and then may go to mass around 9 pm, then the parties and the eating start after that. I was invited to a friends party so I arrived at about 10:30 to a basketball court full of teenagers listening to (but not dancing to) reggaeton music. As awkward as it was I stayed there for about an hour and then went to the house of another woman I work with and she fed me tamales (made of corn mush with peas, potato and meat inside) and egg nog. She had a crèche that was about 12 by 15 feet with 3 feet tall Mary and Joseph. When I arrived there was a paper towel over the baby Jesus. They explained that it was because he hadn’t been born yet (at 12 they removed it with a broomstick). Then at midnight the fireworks reached their peak, which had been building for about a week prior.

While the rest of Santa Barbara stayed up the rest of the night eating, drinking and partying I went to bed around 1 am. Christmas day (when the rest of Honduras does nothing) I celebrated with three other Peace Corps volunteers from the area and Katie’s family.

We visited the jail around 11 am to give them cookies and then ate dinner around 5 pm (which would be Honduran time, since we planned to eat at 2 pm). For appetizers we had cheese & crackers, veggies & dip and hot mulled cider. For dinner we had mashed potatoes, chicken, stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls and roasted garlic. Then we had an intermission to let our stomach’s settle and watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation followed by apple pie, pecan pie, fudge and pumpkin bread.
At that point most of us went to bed but a few stayed up to watch A White Christmas, which I had never seen before, but loved.

Friday all the volunteers left and I finished up some work that needed to get done before leaving the country. On December 30th I will go to Nicaragua with some other Peace Corps Volunteers then on January 4th fly to Costa Rica to meet up with my parents and spend almost two weeks with them. So once I get back you can look forward to a Nicaragua and Costa Rica blog entry.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I went to La Esperanza, Intibuca, a volunteer’s site about three hours away from Santa Barbara. It was a full house with about 30 volunteers and plenty of incredible food. Robynn, the host, is an incredible cook and prepared three turkeys (one of which they killed and prepared themselves), mashed potatoes, corn bread, biscuits, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, stuffing and much more. Susan was the designated pastry chef and made numerous pumpkin and apple pies as well as a pumpkin log. Yummy!

Prison Graduation

Since September I have been working closely with 12 inmates (it was originally 13 but one left…) in the local prison and have developed strong friendships with them. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a “high school graduation”. They had been taking classes in the prison and six of them had reached graduation and planned a big event. They held it in the prison school room and decorated everything very well, invited a band and had tables set up for the families of each graduate. It was really wonderful to be there to see them graduate. I felt so proud of them that they have taken advantage of their situation and worked to better their lives. It is great to talk to them and recognize that they are thinking about their future and what they can do to improve their lives for when they leave. After the ceremony they had a dance with a live band and some of them asked me to dance, which was slightly awkward, but I got through it.
The rest of the prisoners were locked up in their cells and watching through the bars so the central part of the prison was completely empty. Maybe that is why the guards weren’t on high alert…

World AIDS Day

December 1st was World AIDS Day for the rest of the world. Honduras on the other hand celebrated on December 2nd. Why? Because they decided to change their elections from the middle of November to November 30th, and mandated that no events could take place 24 hours before or after the elections. So…we moved the date, which turned out fine. The HIV Network in Santa Barbara had been (trying to) planning the event for months prior and yet when the day came it seemed as though nothing had been planned and nobody knew who was supposed to do what. Actually, that is how things usually happen but in the end everything works out (I still don’t know how that happens).
We started out with a parade through town and all the organizations of the HIV Network marched as well as 12 taxi drivers with their taxis who have been receiving HIV prevention education through a Red Cross project I am working on.

Then once the parade got to the center of town we had an EXPOSIDA (which consists of big games that kids can play to learn about HIV and win prizes for participating).
The EXPOSIDA went very well and the fact that it was in the middle of town was good because then anybody walking by could participate. At one point I saw a couple of street kids fighting on the ground so I went over and asked one of them if he wanted to play a game. He said no because he didn’t know any of that stuff. I finally convinced him to play with me once and then told him he could play the rest of the games as well and he spent the next few hours playing. It felt very satisfied.

Taxistas Ceremony

A few months ago I started working on a project through the Honduran Red Cross to educate taxi drivers in HIV prevention and stigma reduction associated with HIV/AIDS. I worked with a wonderful woman hired by the Red Cross and we used the Peace Corps’s methodology to work with adult men and it worked splendidly. We started out trying to have meetings but soon realized that working with the taxi drivers in the street at the taxi stop while they waited for their next client worked much better. This week we had a formal “graduation” for all those who had participated. I made a power point presentation and presented our achievements and all the taxi drivers got diplomas. Overall, I was a great project and I am thankful that I was able to be part of it (not to mention free rides).

Back to Cleveland

Just 9 months ago my parents moved to Pittsburgh. While it was a surprise to me I was excited about the prospect of getting to know a new city. It was fun to hear their stories of bike riding on the trail just behind their house and I was very impressed that both of them were learning how to row. Well, this past week they moved back to Cleveland! They actually moved back into the same house since they hadn’t sold it yet (is that a curse or a blessing?). So, now I am excited to go back to Cleveland and back to the same house that I love and back to all the family and friends that I have there. It is still odd to me that my parents moved to Pittsburgh and I never even got to see the house and then moved back to Cleveland, all while I have been in Honduras (makes it seem like I have been here a long time!).

6 Months to Go

My official “COS” (Close of Service) date is May 1st, 2009, which means that as of November 1st I have just 6 months left of service. I think I will be ready to leave when the time comes but I still have lots to do here and will probably be very busy until the end. I am now starting to think about my projects in terms of finishing before I leave and who will replace me. In January we will have a meeting with all the Peace Corps volunteers that came at the same time as me to start the COS process, which I am sure will create mixed feelings of excitement to go home, anticipation for what will come next and desire to wrap up projects and tie up loose ends.

Things are going well in Santa Barbara. It finally cooled off and rained almost non-stop for two weeks. Santa Barbara did not suffer that much but other areas of Honduras, especially the north coast, suffered severe flooding not seen since hurricane Mitch.

As was the US, Honduras is preoccupied with elections, which were supposed to take place in the middle of the month but have been postponed until November 30th. It makes it difficult to get work done because everybody is busy campaigning. I saw a very interesting campaign commercial that involved four girls in mini skirts and crop tops singing and dancing the Macarena in support or a political candidate. Hmm…

The Christmas season is upon Honduras, since they don’t have Halloween or Thanksgiving to delay the festivities the fake Christmas trees and plastic Santa Clause went up at the end of October. I think I will wait until December to put up my little fake Christmas tree.

Halloween

Every year Peace Corps volunteers go to Copan Ruinas for a huge Halloween bash. Last year I planned on going but got sick about two days before Halloween and decided not to go, which was a big disappointment. Luckily this year I was feeling wonderful so I went for the weekend and celebrated with fellow volunteers, some of which I hadn’t seen for a year and a half.

Robynn (Actress hiding from the paparazzi), Kendra (Honduran school girl), Allison (Belly dancer)

As you can see, I went as a belly dancer (I had my parents send my costume down to me last year and have been waiting since then to wear it). Some of the projects did group costumes; the Fanta girls and the billiards set were very creative.

Guatemala

After a year and a half in Honduras I took my first vacation to a neighboring Central American county. Fellow Peace Corps volunteers Molly, Robynn and I took an 8 day trip to Guatemala to see Semuc Champey, Lake Atitlan and Antigua.


Me, Molly and Robynn in Copan Ruinas before leaving for Guatemala.

We left Copan Ruinas on November 2nd and traveled to Coban (with a B) which took about 6 hours (not too bad) and checked into Dona Victoria’s one of the cutest hotels I have stayed at in Central America. It used to be an old house and all the furniture and fixtures were vintage. The only odd thing about it was the bathroom door which had windows in it and no curtain…

Semuc Champey

The next day we got up early and went to Semuc Champey, about 2.5 hours away. The guide book describes Semuc Champey as a “…natural limestone bridge 300m long, on top of which is a stepped series of pools of cool, flowing river water good for swimming (Lonely Planet: Central America on a Shoestring).” Based on this definition I had one image in my mind but once we got there I was blown away by something totally different. When I read ‘bridge’ I thought of a typical bridge and imagined little hot tub sized pools on top of it. It is in fact a bridge and the river does go underneath it, but in a way I never imagined.

The first thing we did when we got there was climb a very steep path to the lookout and got an incredible view from above. Robynn, Molly, Allison climbing up to the lookout
Then we climbed back down and took a swim in the pools, which were beautiful, unfortunately it was not very warm that day and we didn’t last long in the water.

This is us at the beginning where the river water goes under the bridge
And this is the end, where the river exits.

The trip was almost perfect except that we had the worst guide of my life. He insisted on talking to us the entire time about inappropriate topics, made numerous personal stops on the way there and got mad at us for wanting to use a toilet instead of going in the woods with the flowers and butterflies.

Lago de Atitlan

November 4th we spent a long day traveling to Panajanchel, a town on the Lake Atitlan, but in the end the trip was worth it. It took us one shuttle and three different buses to get there. We actually thought the first two buses would take us directly there (because they told us they would) but it turns out they lied to us just to get our bus fair and we really had to get another bus once we got off that one. Robynn was particularly offended that they would lie straight to our faces like that just to make money…
We finally got there after dark, checked into our hotel, ate dinner and then went to a sports bar to watch the election coverage. We were the only Americans there and the only ones who seemed to be interested, which surprised me, since in Honduras people had been pretty interested in the elections. There were actually two TVs on with different channels covering the election and one announced Obama as winner a little before the other so we were asking ourselves if it was really true. Once we finally realized it was we started clapping and cheering. Then we tried to watch Obama’s acceptance speech but it was horrible because the subtitles were messed up and we couldn’t understand anything! Later on in the night other people in the bar congratulated us and the consensus was that all of Europe and Central America was for Obama so they were happy as well. Molly and Robynn and I were all so emotional and felt like we were taking part in history in the making.

We finished off the night salsa dancing (they actually have that in Guatemala!) and went to sleep happy and relieved.

The next day was devoted entirely to shopping, eating and appreciating the wonderful scenery. The lake is a collapsed volcanic cone surrounded by three volcanoes and leaves Lake Yojoa in Honduras in the dust when it comes to landscape. Panajanchel, the first town we visited, is known as Gringotenango (Place of the Foreigners), which means there is lots of shopping of Guatemalan handmade goods.
I bought earrings, pillowcase covers, table runners, a painting and various other souvenirs. We had a few unmemorable meals during the trip, but in general the food was amazing! Lots of healthy vegetarian dishes (not available in Honduras) and lots of hot tea (since Guatemala is freezing compared to Santa Barbara). All us girls like to eat, but Robynn is especially interested in food so we really enjoyed wonderful food and ended the trip with tons of pictures of what we ate.
After a hurried shopping spree we caught the last boat to San Marcos la Laguna, another small town on the lake.
San Marcos la Laguna is a very interesting place… Katie, my sitemate described it as a secret garden with little paths all over the place to various restaurants, hotels, yoga studios, art studios, massage centers and hippie living. We stayed at The Pyramids Meditation Center…
…which as we were reminded by numerous signs “…is a center of study and not a hotel.” The center offered yoga, metaphysics and meditation classes (we accidentally missed the metaphysics class, but enjoyed the yoga and meditation). All the buildings and rooms were built in the form of pyramids…
And there were pyramid structures under which one could meditate… In between our yoga and meditation class we all got massages. I tried out Thai massage for the first time and liked it although it is pretty intense.

Although San Marcos was a little odd, the views were beautiful and the food was amazing.

Antigua

Finally we headed to Antigua for the weekend, which is an incredibly cute colonial town with lots of great restaurants and shopping.

We checked in to the Jungle Party Hostel, which despite the ridiculous name turned out to be a great time.
Robynn, Allison, Molly

Our first day in Antigua we got up early to hike Volcano Pacaya, an active volcano about an hour away from Antigua.

Robynn and me waiting for the shuttle at 5:50 am (it arrived at 6:30)

We had talked to Katie and many other travels that had done the same hike and they told us how you can actually walk on the hardened lava around the top of the volcano and get right up close to liquid lava and poke a stick in it. Unfortunately for us the volcano had been exploding the three days prior to our visit and it was restricted to get too close. Our guide said that there were police guarding the access and if they took us too close they would loose their guide license. At first we were very disappointed and didn’t even think it was worth going because it seemed just like any other hike through the forest…until we came up over a ridge and saw the top of the volcano and a mass of hardened lava in front of us.

The abrupt line between normal vegetation and black lava was incredible and to see the volcano smoking and hear it grumbling was well worth the trip even if we didn’t get to see lava. Other groups with more adventurous guides did get to go right up close however…
Can you see the little people?


Although we were a little jealous I was okay with not taking the risk of being killed by an exploding volcano. I found it interesting that people didn’t really have any fear of being so close to an active volcano. I think there was an unfounded assumption that if we were allowed to do it on a guided tour it meant it was safe.


Molly, Allison, Robynn

Sunday November 9th was Molly 25th birthday, but we decided to start celebrating on Saturday night. We bought a cake and shared it with everybody at the hostel, which included Irish, French, English, Canadian and American travelers.

The Irish boys bought Molly an American bear which we decided to name Uncle Barack and for the first time we all felt proud to be Americans.
Molly with the Irish boys

Molly took Uncle Barack with her everywhere that night and kept him by her side the whole next day as well.

Allison, Molly, Robynn, Uncle Barack

We woke up Sunday morning and had breakfast at the hostel and watched Sex and the City the movie on huge bean bag chairs and then relaxed the rest of the day.

Monday we headed back to Honduras for a buffer night in Copan Ruinas and then finally got back to site on Tuesday.

Overall the trip was amazing! Molly, Robynn and I got along wonderfully the entire time (we didn’t even fight once). Guatemala was beautiful and it was interesting to see the similarities and differences to Honduras, just across the border. Guatemala has a much more developed tourism industry while people traveling through Central America often tended to skip Honduras L. Many people retain their indigenous culture, including dress and language, while in Honduras virtually nobody dresses in traditional clothing on a day to day basis. Most of the people we met were from Europe (with Holland in the lead) and Israel, and only a few Americans.

Traveling made me feel very good about my Spanish language skills, because despite the large number of tourists, many locals did not speak English. For example, our guide at the Volcano did not say one word of English the entire time so we translated for a few lost Americans. It also made me realize how comfortable I feel living and traveling in Honduras since I feel like I really know the country and how to get around. I know when I am being lied to and if I am being ripped off, but in Guatemala it was a little harder to judge.

Traveling also inspired me to travel after Peace Corps. When I finish my service, Peace Corps will either buy my plane ticket home or give me the money for it, which means I can use the money to travel, which I may very well do…

Ant Invasion

For the past year and a half Katie has had animal/insect invasions of various kinas, while I, in the apartment below her, have never had a problem…until now. I was noticing an unusually high number of teeny tiny little ants but I didn’t pay much attention because they are always around in manageable numbers. Until one day there was a huge line of them all across my wall I started to get worried. I did not have any Raid because I had never needed it so I had to call Katie down to help me find their nest and spray them out. I think we got the big nest but now they are looking for new places to nest and every day I have to follow the trail to a new hole in the wall and spray them with Raid jus to follow the trail again the next day...when will this end!

This is a picture of under my bookshelf. They were forming a path behind it so I moved it away from the wall and found this.

Yo Merezco

The Peace Corps Yo Merezco team

Yo Merezco (I Deserve) is a new abstinence initiative created by Peace Corps volunteers in Honduras. It is a 14 week course designed for girls 10-14 years old and addresses topics such as self esteem, communication skills, puberty, preventive health, teen pregnancy, marriage, HIV and STIs, domestic violence and decision making skills.

I received a training in the course from fellow volunteers a few months ago and then started a group in my site.

Osiris, Allison and Kamil at the Yo Merezco training

I was lucky enough to find a great group of girls to do it with who all attend a type of day care center for children of single or economically challenged mothers. They either go for the whole day or after school and play, eat and do their homework. I go once a week for about two hours to work with the girls and we have all really enjoyed it so far.

Yo Merezco girls

The first week I went alone and it was an absolute disaster. We started out with an eight page pre-test just to see what they knew and it was way too much for them, they didn’t even know how to fill it out let alone know the answers. The activities went okay, but with just me I couldn’t keep them under control especially with the younger girls. Although I had told the director that I only wanted 10-14 year olds she put a few 8 and 9 years old in who were totally out of control and it would have been difficult for me to kick them out.

Since the first week I have had somebody go to help me for most sessions which helps a lot and things have improved. A few of the girls are very bright and I can tell they are really learning but many of them are very behind where they should be in their education for various reasons related to their socio-economic situations. Although many of them are wild and don’t pay attention they always tell me they love the class.

This is the first time I have worked with youth and I am enjoying it and feel especially lucky to be able to work with high risk girls. Once I finish the course with them I hope to continue somehow…