The Fruits of my Labor

I am also doing more HIV workshops in various communities of Santa Barbara, but I never do them alone. Since being here I have held two TOTs; one for youth and one for adult men. From these trainings, I now have a few people who I can call on to help me out with workshops, it is great, I love to see how they are excited to help and improving with every workshop they give. The young ones still need some work, but it is a good feeling to build an ongoing relationship and be able to help them improve.

Daykoro is 20 and is out of school and doesn’t have a job, so he is perfect to help me out! He is really comfortable with the audience and does a great job.

Charles (far left) used to work with Youth Without Borders so he knows all the activites and helps me out once in a while.

Taxi Drivers

Back in May facilitators from the Red Cross came to Santa Barbara and gave a workshop on Stigma & Discrimination related to HIV. The idea was that those that received the workshop would then train taxi drivers to talk to their passengers about HIV and give them pamphlets about HIV to put in their car and a cassette about HIV to play (there’s that whole training of trainers concept again). Well, just like CPTRT they used a power point and expected the taxi drivers to come to meetings and sit for a few hours and listen to a power point presentation. After the workshop we met with the taxi drivers to see if they were interested and of course they were (they always are in the beginning). Then we planned some meetings and a few people came the first time and then the numbers continued to dwindle. Finally we decided that if they wouldn’t come to us we would go to them. Since then one of the other members of the HIV Network and I have been going to the taxi stops a few times a week and just chatting with the taxi drivers while they wait for their next passenger and it has worked incredibly well. We are using some of the materials from the “Here Among Us…” manual and gee whiz, they work a lot better than a power point presentation. So far we have gone five times and talked to over 20 taxi drivers. Now that they know us and are interested they are suggesting we have a real meeting with everybody there (go figure). This more than anything makes me feel like a real volunteer, just sitting on the curb talking to taxi drivers in their element and answering the questions that they have. At first I was a little nervous, but they are really nice and most of them are pretty interested. Now when I walk through the streets all the taxi drivers say hello to me (which is much better than them giving me cat calls).

And the not so good…

Although I have had some great experiences working with people that are actually interested in working, it is not all great. A few weeks ago the HIV Network was asked to go to a large school event and put on an EXPOSIDA (using big games and questions to teach youth about HIV, it actually works really well). Youth Without Borders is an NGO that developed the EXPOSIDA and has all the games and materials, so I communicated with them to see what we could do and it was one of the worst experiences I have had here. The coordinator was so difficult to work with, the whole time I felt like she thought she was doing me a favor (whereas it is actually the other way around because I am the volunteer and this is her job). Getting her to do anything was like pulling teeth. All she could think of was the obstacles which would stop us from doing the event and not any of the solutions. One of our problems was finding prizes to give to the kids (if they win the games and answer the questions correctly they get tickets and can buy small prizes). So, like three days before the event we start asking people to donate prizes (way to plan ahead right). Sometime during this process it comes out that there are left over prizes in the Youth Without Borders Office that we could use. So I ask the coordinator why she didn’t say anything and why we don’t use the prizes that they already have. She reasons that if we use the prizes now we won’t have prizes for the next time we do an EXPOSIDA. I was absolutely flabbergasted at this reasoning and tried to explain that this event is a little more pressing because it is two days away and that after we can get more prizes for the next event (whenever that may be).
Me at the prize table

Anyway, the event went well, people were interested and actually learned, so that is good. However, afterward I felt like I never wanted to work with her again. I have very little patience for people who don’t want to work and do everything they can to get out of doing their job.

Relaxation

In addition to more HIV activities I have also been relaxing more. I sometimes sleep in until 7, work out, meditate and start work around 9 or 10 am. I am reading Harry Potter 6 and watching season 2 of House with Katie (series are so addictive). I also took a cooking class from the vegetarian restaurant in town and learned how to make soy milk, tofu, gluten and lots of other great vegetarian stuff. So far I have experimented with the soy milk and the gluten and neither turned out so I am going to have to try again. Although I know that once I return to the states I will never have time to make tofu from scratch it is nice to have the opportunity to do it here so at least I can say that I can do it (well, hopefully I will figure out how to do it successfully before I get back to the states).

We are the Champions

Real Juventud is the division II futbol (aka soccer) team in Santa Bárbara. The players come from all over Honduras to play for the team and for the since their creation they have remained a division II team. However, last Friday night they won the division II championships for the second season in a row and therefore were able to move up to division I, making Santa Barbara very proud to have a division I futbol team! Katie and I went to the game and it was incredibly exciting. People started arriving 3-4 hours before the game started to get seats but Katie and I decided that we didn’t necessarily need to sit down so we arrived about 1.5 hours before it started and stood at the fence separating the field (which I personally think is a great view).

The stands were packed with crazed fans…

The riot police were ready…


And the hot dogs were hot… and the beer was cold...The other team scored in the first half and Real kept missing shots. We started to get nervous…Theyn in the second half they scored their first goal and then with about five minutes left of the game they scored a second goal, winning 2-1! Everyone exploded with excitement, climbed the fences, rushed the field, grabbed the trophy and went crazy.
Luckily it was all in good spirits and the riot police were not necessary. The other team kinda just stood around and I didn’t even see any of their fans. After the field settled down a little Nineth and I made out way out to congratulate the players.

Nineth & me

On of the most exciting parts of the game was the fact that Katie and I knew a number of the players, so it made it much more personal. Also, people seemed to love the fact that we were Americans supporting the team (Afitrionas Americanas). They interviewed us and I had a number of people tell me they saw me on TV.

This is Frijole, the goalie (and no, that is not his real name).

Afterward they had a caravan of cars all around the city and to neighboring towns to pick people up to go downtown for the celebration. They caravan was headed by the fire truck with about 30 people hanging off of it and was followed by motorcycles and trucks full of people, half of which were probably drunk (yes, incredibly dangerous and illegal).

Luckily there were no incidents and nobody got hurt. Then we all ended up in the center of town where there was a band playing. Overall it was such an exciting night and it made me so proud of Santa Barbara. I couldn’t stay out too late though because I had to get up early the next day and save my energy for carnival.

Carnival

Carnival in La Ceiba (on the north coast) is the biggest and best carnival in Honduras (just like in Brazil…yeah right). I went last year and had so much fun that I had to go back again this year. So, Katie and I got up at 5:30 am Saturday and made our way to the north coast in scorching heat. We arrived around 2 pm and met up with my friends and made our way down town to catch the tail end of the parade.
Me & Katie

Jason, a teacher in La Ceiba was nice enough to host Katie and me at his place. Here I am with him and his awesome girlfriend.
Me, Jason & Cindy

Then we went to the mall, ate at the food court and went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie (the AC felt great). They we went home to take naps and headed out around 11 pm (I never stay up this late, but the Red Bulls helped me out). We started off at Fogoncitos, a restaurant with professional dancers who we got to dance with…it was great, I haven’t danced so much in a long time. It really made me miss being able to dance with good dancers. Then at about 3 am we made our way downtown and danced in the streets until about 4:30 am. Finally we made it home and went to bed for a few hours. Sunday we basically just ate and relaxed all day long and went to bed early.
Cindy, me, Mary

Cayos Cuchinos

Monday morning we again woke up early and met up with some other volunteers and their friends visiting from the states and made our way to a neighboring town to catch a boat to Cayos Cuchinos, islands off the north coast of Honduras.
From left: Mary & Kendras friends from the states, Katie, Mary, Kendra

The ride was about an hour off shore and was incredibly beautiful and the weather was perfect.

We arrived at the first island and checked in at the welcome center and watched an informational movie.


Apparently people believe that turtle eggs are an aphrodisiac and steal them to eat, so this information sign recommended they take Viagra instead. Translation: My eggs are not the answer

Then we went to a tiny island with nothing on it but two palm trees and snorkeled. I actually enjoyed the snorkeling this time since my snorkel worked and the water was deep enough that I didn’t have to worry about hitting the coral. We saw a huge 6 legged jelly fish (is that like finding a 4 leaf clover?) and beautiful conch shells.
Then we went to Cachuate, a third island and had lunch and hung out. This is the most inhabited island, with about 150 Garifuna people living there. Katie and I spent the night and it was such a unique experience.
There is one “hotel” with 8 rooms and there are also families that will host you. The accommodations were actually much nicer and cheaper than I had expected. For only $5 a person we got a room with a wood floor (as opposed to sand), a bed with clean sheet and water to take a shower.
We spent the afternoon walking around the island (which only took us about 10 minutes) and swimming in the crystal clear water.
Me & Katie

Then we lay in hammocks and played with the kids and talked to the people that live there.


Right next to the island we stayed on is another small private island, apparently owned by a Cuban.

After dinner we found some other Peace Corps volunteers that were on the island as well and roasted marshmallows, listened to drumming, danced punta and lay on the sand. It was actually cool at night and there were no sand flies at all. I was amazed by this fact because on most of the beaches on the north coast you will get eaten alive after just a few minutes, there is no way you could lay for hours on the beach. We went to bed around 10 pm and slept incredibly well to the sound of the wind coming from the east side of the island. In the morning we took a bucket bath in a bamboo shower.
We had breakfast and then just watched the fisherman and kids working as we waited for our boat to come pick us up.


It is by far one of the most amazing experiences I have had in Honduras and I can’t wait to go back as soon as I have the chance.