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!).