One Year in Country

On February 18th, 2007 I arrived in Honduras. I was actually supposed to arrive a few days earlier, but we got snowed in in Washington D.C.

I arrived with about 50 other volunteers working with the Health, Business and Water & Sanitation projects and spent the first 2.5 months with them in training. Training basically consisted of half a day of Spanish class and half a day of skills training for our specific project. We lived with host families for the entire time. Although it was fun to get to know the volunteers and my host family was nice, we were all happy when training was over and we finally got our site placement and eventually got to live on our own.

Throughout training I had my heart set on going to the north coast of Honduras to enjoy the beaches and work with HIV/AIDS with the Garifuna population. So when I got assigned to Santa Barbara, in central Honduras, working with water filters I wasn’t exactly ecstatic. However, Santa Barbara has definitely grown on me and the more I visit other people’s sites, the more I love mine. I live in the capital of the department (like a state) in a mid-sized town for Honduras (about 15,000 people depending on who you ask). Before coming to the Peace Corps I imagined living in a mud hut with no electricity or running water…well, that’s not exactly what I ended up with. I live in a very nice two bedroom apartment with a hot shower and electricity 95% of the time.

My official counterpart is Agua Pura para el Mundo (Pure Water for the World), an organization from the states that makes bio-sand filters to purify water in rural communities without access to clean water. Working with them keeps me incredibly busy; installing filters, doing water analysis, researching anti-parasitic drugs, helping the manager with administrative tasks and communicating with our donor organizations in the states could keep me busy 7 days a week. But luckily I’m a volunteer so I can choose not to work that much and have some free time as well as work on other projects.

I also work with HIV/AIDS projects including Men’s Health, Youth without Borders, The HIV Network and Training of Trainers (TOT). Men’s Health consists of workshops for adult men, primarily concerning HIV prevention as well as other topics relevant to men’s health such as prostate and testicular cancer, erectile dysfunction (this one goes over really well) alcoholism, domestic violence, etc. I work with men in my town as well as on the Peace Corps Honduras Men’s Health team, training new Peace Corps volunteers in the methodology.
Youth without Borders is an NGO that teaches HIV prevention to middle and high school students. I basically just attend their meetings and provide advice when needed.
The HIV Network is a group of people who work with HIV as part of their job as well as retired teachers who want to be active in the community. They organize community wide events such as World AIDS Day on December 1st.
Training of Trainers is a program developed by Peace Corps to train Hondurans to be facilitators of HIV prevention workshops. Starting in March I will be responsible for training all new incoming Peace Corps volunteers in the methodology.


I also work with groups that come to Honduras to do medical missions or other service projects. I have translated for an Optometry Brigade, a Taiwanese medical brigade and Rotarian medical brigades. I also work closely with the local Rotary Club to facilitate communication with donor Rotary Clubs in the states and Canada.

Overall, I feel like I have meaningful work that keeps me busy, although I still make sure I have a lot more free time than I ever did in the states. I am learning how to cook, (I got two great cookbooks as gifts from home), reading a lot (I have read 17 books since I got here, including Harry Potter 1-3 in Spanish), practicing yoga, working out, going to futbol games (aka soccer), traveling in Honduras with other volunteers and dancing with a local Honduran folk dance group.

I studied four years of Spanish in high school and a semester in college so I had a good base, but had forgotten so much when I first got here. Over the past year I have definitely improved a lot and can communicate just fine, although I still meet some people who I can’t understand for the life of me.

Before I left for the Peace Corps I had no intention to come home during my service, (although we are allowed to take vacation days to do so if we want to). As it turns out I have actually been back to the states twice in the last year. On April 4th, 2007 my grandma Elizabeth Nye died, so I flew to Denver, Colorado to go to the funeral and be with my family and celebrate Easter. Although it was not a happy reason to go home I was so thankful to be with my family. On December 13th, 2007 my grandma Ellen O’Donnell died, so I flew home to Cleveland, Ohio to go to the funeral and celebrate Christmas early with my family. Again, it was an unfortunate reason to have to go home, but I was so thankful to be with my family. Being away from them this year has only increased my love for them and made me even more proud of my heritage.

One thing that I was sure of before I left for the Peace Corps was that my parents would come visit me and if they didn’t I would never forgive them. On December 23rd my parents flew into Honduras and spent 10 days with me in my site, visiting Mayan Ruins in Copan and relaxing on the beach on Roatan, a Caribbean island off the north coast of Honduras. It was a wonderful vacation but it took me about a month to get over being really homesick after they left. Anybody else who wants to visit is welcome!

I’m still a vegetarian and I still don’t drink coffee or anything with bubbles in it. I think the Hondurans let me get away with this because I’m a foreigner and they just think I am weird.

I’ve been fairly lucky health wise. I have only had bad stomach issues once even though I basically eat everything, have avoided bad sun burns (and skin cancer) by using an umbrella rain and shine. I haven’t been as lucky with bug bites, however; on about three occasions I have gotten ant bites on my feet that swelled up so much I couldn’t put on a shoe.

Although I am truly enjoying my service and don’t regret my decision to join the Peace Corps for a second it is challenging. For Christmas my parents gave me a book about Jivamukti Yoga, which contains a wonderful quote for every Peace Corps volunteer around the world.

“Act as if the future of the universe depends on what you do, while laughing at yourself for thinking that your actions make any difference.” –Buddhist advice