Written on 8/25/2009
Hi everyone!
Today was the beginning of our fourth week of FBT which means that the 15th of September, our last day of FBT, is quickly approaching. Training has been great thus far. Each day is split into two sessions: Spanish and technical. Since the last time I wrote, we have been continuing our Spanish classes. We switch teachers every two weeks to prevent repetitive classes and so far both of my teachers have been great. I usually fill an entire page of paper with new vocabulary words everyday. The only problem I have is studying them! I started making note cards to help me study but I cannot imagine using some of the vocab. For example, we learned multiple ways to say “menstruation” the other day.
Ways to say menstruation in Spanish
regla—the rule
el viejo—the old one
costumbre—tradition
menstruación—menstruation
ando con la cruz roja—I’m walking with the red cross
andar con el semáforo rojo—to walk with a red stoplight
andar en sus días—to walk in her days
Now that you are enlightened with the confusion that learning Spanish has brought to my life, I can explain the activities we have been doing in technical training. We were trained in a program called “Odyssey of the Mind.” I was not familiar with the program before joining PC, but it is a program frequently used by schools in the US to promote student creativity and imagination. We were divided into groups to work on “Self-Directed Projects.” Two aspirantes (PC trainees that are still aspiring to be volunteers) and I are working on Odyssey of the Mind with a class of 5th and 6th graders. We will use the four sessions we have to teach thinking outside of the box and self-confidence. Today, we planned our first session for Friday. We are going to play chirades, taboo, and Pictionary with the children to help spark their creativity. Since creativity is smothered in the Honduran education system, imagination and thinking outside of the box are difficult tasks.
In week 3 of FBT, we had a few different TOTs (Training of Trainers). We learned about parenting in Honduras and our influence as volunteers in regards to parents. As youth volunteers, we are encouraged to work with teachers, adolescents, and parents. Since these groups have an effect on youth, we are entitled to work with all of them in different ways. A volunteer came to talk to us about her experience with Escuela para los padres. It is a class that focuses on educating parents in nutrition, discipline, life skills, etc. The parents can choose their topics or the volunteer can choose the topics on their own.
The next day we had a TOT on Dental Hygiene. Colgate has a dental hygiene program that donates toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap to impoverished areas as long as there is a six-month commitment to educate the population about dental health. The program is rather simple but effective and fun. We did a dental hygiene chat with a group of kindergarten students to help us practice speaking and teaching. I worked with a group of knowledgeable kindergarteners that already understood the importance of brushing their teeth but we still made paper bears, sang songs, and did a skit.
On Friday, we had my favorite TOT—BASEBALL!! I was super excited and anxiously waiting for our baseball training. We went to Río Dulce, a small town outside of Talanga, to learn and practice baseball with the current volunteer’s baseball team. It was really fun. We broke into stations of hitting drills, fielding drills, and throwing drills. The team’s knowledge of the techniques was advanced so we had more fun playing a pickup game with them. The practice game was interesting because only a handful of us had experience playing baseball! But no one got hurt and everyone left with a smile on their face!
On Saturday, a group of us went to play soccer before going out to eat. I know that all of you are laughing at the thought of me playing soccer, but I am lucky to be with a group of people who do not care about including the weak in their games (or so they tell me!) I am not improving but I have stopped caring about how terrible I look while attempting to play! After a good workout, we went out to eat at a restaurant named Old House. One of the volunteers lives with the family that owns the restaurant. She always talks about how good the food is so we decided to try it. There were three choices on the menu: two beef entrees and a ham sandwich. All of us opted for the beef options and it was really good. On Friday, we had received the list of sites in which we are going to volunteer. As you can imagine, a lot of the conversation revolved around site placement.
On Sunday, I went to a farm with a group of aspirantes. One of the aspirantes lives with an amazing host family who enjoys spending time with us. Two weekends ago, they threw a birthday party for their host son. They invited all of us to spend the night celebrating with them. They made us a bunch of snack food, invited a mariachi band to play music, and bought a huge strawberry cake. The host dad enjoys showing us his culture so on Sunday, we went to his farm to spend the day with his family. Their farm is home to various animals and a family in charge of taking care of the livestock. There is a cockfighting ring, a few natural cliffs, a stream, and a few small lakes. We spent the day exploring the farm, talking with the host family, and eating a TON of typical Honduran food.
When we first arrived they made us catrachas. Catrachas are a snack food that is also eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner depending on the quantity given. It is a fried corn tortilla topped with refried beans and a layer of shredded white cheese that reminds me of feta. Later, we ate a meal of rice, sausage, and beef without forks! Of course, you can always use tortillas as a fork if you are Honduran; however, I failed to eat my meal with the provided tortilla utensils. I must have stared at the food for five minutes debating how to start eating it before deciding an acceptable approach. For dessert, we ate a really sweet and delicious treat—ARMADILLO! There are armadillo, which are native to the region, living on the farm. The family living on the farm hunts them and saves them for family visits. They cooked one for us after we ate dinner. It was really good! It tasted like a mix of pork and chicken, shredded and served over a fried tortilla! YUM!
Other news:
Last week, I switched host families. If you want more information on the reasoning, please send me a private message or talk to my mom. I was lucky enough to find a new host family immediately. Both parents are teachers in the school system here in Talanga and well-connected with the PC. Six years ago, a volunteer lived with them for his entire two year service. They have hosted various other volunteers, but due to the increase in work, they did not accept the invitation to host a volunteer this time. When the housing director called them and explained the situation, they were nice enough to invite me into their house the next morning. They have a son (age 9) and a daughter (age 4) and a dog that just gave birth to 7 puppies the day before I arrived. I am spending a lot of time talking with them about all aspects of life here in Honduras.
In my second technical interview, I learned more about my future site. I will be working with teachers in the TEAM (Teaching English and Methodologies) program, tutoring in math as well as teaching teachers’ math skills, translating for medical brigades that come from other countries to donate their services, and starting a baseball team. So far so good! As for which site I am going to, I am in the dark. They told me that the weather was similar to Talanga which does not help me narrow down the sites! I am not putting much effort into the site list because I think it just makes people crazy in the end. My method is to not focus on one site because I do not want to be disappointed if I end up somewhere else. Our third technical interviews start on the 9th of September. We should be receiving more information about our sites during those interviews. Site announcements are on the 17th of September and we swear in on the 25th (one week after the original swearing in date).
I am getting much better at showing with a bucket and flushing the toilet with a bucket! I never thought I would say it but I am starting to appreciate cold bucket showers! In my first host family in Talanga, I had an electro-ducha (an electric showerhead that heats the water). My host family here does not have running water but they have a small heater that heats a bucket full of water in about 10 minutes. However, I rarely use the water heater! I love coming back from my morning runs knowing that a cold bucket bath awaits me!
Hope everything is going well in the States! I will keep you posted! Love always!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Field Based Training Week 1
Written on August 9, 2009
Since we started FBT (Field Based Training) on Monday, August 3, our training has intensified. We now have training from 7:30 to 4:30 everyday, which includes 4 hours of Spanish class in the morning and 4 hours of technical training in the afternoon. Usually, we arrive at INFOP—the training center we are using in Talanga—at 7:25 and work through lunch. FBT is divided based on project so I am only with 17 people right now. The other two programs are in other sites around Honduras. It was a big change going from 50 to 17…and it will be even more difficult when we go from 17 to ALONE! Most of us think training in counteractive in preparing us to live on our own because we have everything prearranged for us. For example, I wake up at 5:40 to meet a friend to run at 6:00. We run until around 6:30 when I come home, take a shower, and eat breakfast. My host mom prepares my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Although I try to help her by washing my dishes, my responsibilities are limited. I come home to eat lunch everyday and then after training ends at 4:30, I return home to eat dinner and do my homework before going to bed. My schedule seems very similar to that of many high school students!
I do have to wash my own clothes (one advantage to PC Dominican Republic, the host family was responsible for washing my clothes!). My first hand-washing experience happened today at 5:00am. I usually wake up early since my bed time is between 9:00 and 9:30. When I woke up this morning without any clean clothes, I decided it was time to finally try my luck at hand-washing. I have been avoiding washing my clothes for this reason—how do you hand-wash clothes? Well, I quickly learned. I spent about 2 hours washing a weeks worth of clothing. My towel is as stiff as a board and most of my clothes smell overwhelmingly like soap. I will have to try again next time since rewashing is NOT an option!
Some of my friends from Muni-D came to visit us today. Municipal development is one of the other projects along with youth development and PAM (protected areas management). The Muni-D group is completing FBT in a site about an hour away from Talanga. Since the towns are close to each other, they took a bus into Talanga to see us. We decided to take them on a hike to a cave that is a popular local destination. First, you have to climb up to a white cross then climb another hill before veering to the left and finding the cave. Some of my friends from YD and I went to find the cave on Saturday but we did not bring headlamps. The cave is too dark to explore without headlamps or flashlights so today we came prepared. There were a ton of bats flying around inside and it smelled strongly of sulfur. We walked in and looked around but we could not find a pathway to take us deeper into the cave. We headed back down the mountain a different way than we came up in order to see more scenery.
This is a beautiful country and I am loving my time here. So far, I have very few complaints. For instance, I wish they cooked with less fat and more vegetables. But, this is a change I can make when I live on my own. I have 4.5 more weeks of FBT before we return to Zarabanda for the final stages of our training. I will keep you updated.
Since we started FBT (Field Based Training) on Monday, August 3, our training has intensified. We now have training from 7:30 to 4:30 everyday, which includes 4 hours of Spanish class in the morning and 4 hours of technical training in the afternoon. Usually, we arrive at INFOP—the training center we are using in Talanga—at 7:25 and work through lunch. FBT is divided based on project so I am only with 17 people right now. The other two programs are in other sites around Honduras. It was a big change going from 50 to 17…and it will be even more difficult when we go from 17 to ALONE! Most of us think training in counteractive in preparing us to live on our own because we have everything prearranged for us. For example, I wake up at 5:40 to meet a friend to run at 6:00. We run until around 6:30 when I come home, take a shower, and eat breakfast. My host mom prepares my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Although I try to help her by washing my dishes, my responsibilities are limited. I come home to eat lunch everyday and then after training ends at 4:30, I return home to eat dinner and do my homework before going to bed. My schedule seems very similar to that of many high school students!
I do have to wash my own clothes (one advantage to PC Dominican Republic, the host family was responsible for washing my clothes!). My first hand-washing experience happened today at 5:00am. I usually wake up early since my bed time is between 9:00 and 9:30. When I woke up this morning without any clean clothes, I decided it was time to finally try my luck at hand-washing. I have been avoiding washing my clothes for this reason—how do you hand-wash clothes? Well, I quickly learned. I spent about 2 hours washing a weeks worth of clothing. My towel is as stiff as a board and most of my clothes smell overwhelmingly like soap. I will have to try again next time since rewashing is NOT an option!
Some of my friends from Muni-D came to visit us today. Municipal development is one of the other projects along with youth development and PAM (protected areas management). The Muni-D group is completing FBT in a site about an hour away from Talanga. Since the towns are close to each other, they took a bus into Talanga to see us. We decided to take them on a hike to a cave that is a popular local destination. First, you have to climb up to a white cross then climb another hill before veering to the left and finding the cave. Some of my friends from YD and I went to find the cave on Saturday but we did not bring headlamps. The cave is too dark to explore without headlamps or flashlights so today we came prepared. There were a ton of bats flying around inside and it smelled strongly of sulfur. We walked in and looked around but we could not find a pathway to take us deeper into the cave. We headed back down the mountain a different way than we came up in order to see more scenery.
This is a beautiful country and I am loving my time here. So far, I have very few complaints. For instance, I wish they cooked with less fat and more vegetables. But, this is a change I can make when I live on my own. I have 4.5 more weeks of FBT before we return to Zarabanda for the final stages of our training. I will keep you updated.
Dominican Thoughts
Written on 7/30/2009
Here is a recap/summary of my time in the DR:
1) It took me about two weeks to figure out the family ties that connected my family with my neighbors. By the time I figured it out, it was already time to leave. I learned that my host mom did not get along with her husband’s family. This is problematic because my host family lived in the same building as my host dad’s parents and sister. His sister lived in the apartment next to ours and his parents lived in the house below us.
2) The DR is probably the hottest place I have ever visited. I sweat more than I thought was humanly possible (and I was not the worst!). Water had more value to me than other products. Unfortunately, the water was not potable and even if it were potable, it only came once a week to the house.
3) The education system did not seem very strong due to my host brother’s age and literacy level. He was learning to read in fourth grade. I thought he may be the exception but on our volunteer visit, the volunteer explained to us the sad truth about education in the DR.
4) We went to El Ramón to visit a youth development volunteer. She was doing multiple projects including a women’s group, HIV/AIDS awareness, a book club, English classes, a library project, a world mural project, etc. Mountains surrounded her house which overlooked an incredibly beautiful valley. Her site was exactly what I expected in a PC site. I hope to live in a site similar to hers.
5) We frequented the Car Wash. It is actually called the “Car Wash” in Spanish, but in reality, the concept is foreign. People bring their dirty cars to get washed and while waiting, they drink a few beers. When their car is ready, they drive home! However, it has turned into a place to drink more than a place to wash cars. Typical as it may be, they play music extremely loud and people dance until 2 am.
6) One night after going to the Car Wash with my host mom and her brother, we walked back to Los Cocos at 2:30 in the morning. My host brother and his friends started talking “Dominican” (meaning: virtually impossible to understand). They kept saying, “Queremo arro” but I did not know what they were trying to say. I finally deduced that they wanted to eat rice…but how? Well, this is how: (1) You make a fire in the middle of the street using cinder blocks, sticks, and a large pot. (2) Each person runs to their house looking for the ingredients to make the rice. One guy ran to find a pot, another found rice, another brought oil, etc. (3) Begin cooking and wait! At 3 am, we were cooking rice in the middle of a dirt road! My host mom and her friend were in charge of cooking! The rice took forever to cook but it was worth the wait! (4) EAT! We ended up eating around 4:30 and I went to bed at 5! It was an amazing experience. We enjoyed it so much that our families made us a “locrio” (rice with meat) for our going-away party.
7) Living without electric and water is probably not what I am looking for in my Honduran site. I hope to have the basic essentials; however, I have redefined “essential” in my time living abroad. Tomorrow, I am buying a cell phone! Yes…it is essential with the current political situation and the potential for hurricanes!
8) Both the training center and the training staff in the DR were amazing. I enjoyed my time there and I hope to return at some point. I loved living by other volunteers (something that is not the same here in Honduras). The days seemed to pass faster in the DR than they do here…I have not figured out why.
Here is a recap/summary of my time in the DR:
1) It took me about two weeks to figure out the family ties that connected my family with my neighbors. By the time I figured it out, it was already time to leave. I learned that my host mom did not get along with her husband’s family. This is problematic because my host family lived in the same building as my host dad’s parents and sister. His sister lived in the apartment next to ours and his parents lived in the house below us.
2) The DR is probably the hottest place I have ever visited. I sweat more than I thought was humanly possible (and I was not the worst!). Water had more value to me than other products. Unfortunately, the water was not potable and even if it were potable, it only came once a week to the house.
3) The education system did not seem very strong due to my host brother’s age and literacy level. He was learning to read in fourth grade. I thought he may be the exception but on our volunteer visit, the volunteer explained to us the sad truth about education in the DR.
4) We went to El Ramón to visit a youth development volunteer. She was doing multiple projects including a women’s group, HIV/AIDS awareness, a book club, English classes, a library project, a world mural project, etc. Mountains surrounded her house which overlooked an incredibly beautiful valley. Her site was exactly what I expected in a PC site. I hope to live in a site similar to hers.
5) We frequented the Car Wash. It is actually called the “Car Wash” in Spanish, but in reality, the concept is foreign. People bring their dirty cars to get washed and while waiting, they drink a few beers. When their car is ready, they drive home! However, it has turned into a place to drink more than a place to wash cars. Typical as it may be, they play music extremely loud and people dance until 2 am.
6) One night after going to the Car Wash with my host mom and her brother, we walked back to Los Cocos at 2:30 in the morning. My host brother and his friends started talking “Dominican” (meaning: virtually impossible to understand). They kept saying, “Queremo arro” but I did not know what they were trying to say. I finally deduced that they wanted to eat rice…but how? Well, this is how: (1) You make a fire in the middle of the street using cinder blocks, sticks, and a large pot. (2) Each person runs to their house looking for the ingredients to make the rice. One guy ran to find a pot, another found rice, another brought oil, etc. (3) Begin cooking and wait! At 3 am, we were cooking rice in the middle of a dirt road! My host mom and her friend were in charge of cooking! The rice took forever to cook but it was worth the wait! (4) EAT! We ended up eating around 4:30 and I went to bed at 5! It was an amazing experience. We enjoyed it so much that our families made us a “locrio” (rice with meat) for our going-away party.
7) Living without electric and water is probably not what I am looking for in my Honduran site. I hope to have the basic essentials; however, I have redefined “essential” in my time living abroad. Tomorrow, I am buying a cell phone! Yes…it is essential with the current political situation and the potential for hurricanes!
8) Both the training center and the training staff in the DR were amazing. I enjoyed my time there and I hope to return at some point. I loved living by other volunteers (something that is not the same here in Honduras). The days seemed to pass faster in the DR than they do here…I have not figured out why.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Honduras Arrival
Written on Wednesday, July 29.
¡Bienvenidos a Honduras!
I finally made it! Yesterday, around 11:40 AM (Mountain Time), my flight from Miami landed in Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa has one of the world’s shortest international runways. Since it is a dangerous airport, the PC only allows us to fly with an American company. Thank goodness! When the pilot told us to prepare for landing (in 30 minutes), I had no idea what was in store for us. The plane started descending from the clouds causing more turbulence than I expected. Adding to the bouncing plane, the runway is in a valley surrounded by small mountains. I do not know how it works but the airplane feels like it is coasting above the ground for at least 5 minutes. I could practically see inside people’s houses, watch their TV, and say hi to their kids! A few volunteers mentioned the thought the getting stuck in the power lines…You get the picture! But, I am here and I am safe.
When we got off the plane, we had to go through immigration. They gave us 90-day tourist visas. During training, we go through the process of becoming residents which allows us to stay for the two-year service. Our training director was waiting for us by the baggage claim, happy that we finally made it. He flew to the DR to train us but has been waiting since then for us to arrive in Honduras. Some PC staff helped us get our bags through customs which involved scanning our bags for suspicious items. The staff led us outside to six PC land cruiser SUVs where we put our luggage based on our ‘pueblo’. The fed us Pizza Hut pizza, Quaker oatmeal cookies, juice, water, and fruit. I have a feeling that will be the last American food we have for awhile!
We piled into the vans to be escorted to the training center in Zarabanda. Zarabanda is about 30 minutes from the airport. It is a quaint, small town in the mountains. For the first time in a month, we did not sweat when we walked around outside. It was incredible! The temperature here is amazing—around 70 degrees with a breeze. The training center is similar to the DR Training Center but mostly indoors. Instead of cooking food for us at the center, our Honduran host families will pack us lunches in Tupperware!
My host family is amazing. I was unsure about my situation at first because my host mom is only 23! It turns out that her mother has been living in Spain for the past few years. Her father, two brothers, husband, and daughter live in the house. My host brother (age: 9) is adorable. He loves to play Frisbee, baseball, Power Rangers, etc. We already have plans for the entire week! My older host brother (age: 18) is very cool. He enjoys watching movies, reading, playing video games, playing soccer, etc. He has an entire movie collection that he offered to me! Since there is a PC and country-wide curfew, I know what I will do after 9 pm—MOVIES! My host grandpa is also very nice. He talks to me about different issues involving the US, Spain, and Honduras. My host dad is 28 and works in construction. I do not think that I will be seeing him very often. My host mom does not work outside of the house, but she takes care of 2 year-old daughter.
My house is about triple the size of my DR house but completely different. I have a HUGE room with a double bed, a sofa, a TV, and plenty of floor space. My host family has internet and cable TV—there is hope for my service!! I watched Cinderella III with my younger host brother yesterday before my host grandpa turned on Telenovelas (Spanish soap operas). They are rather entertaining as well as good Spanish practice.
As you can see, I am having a great time. I am excited to continue training and become a volunteer on Sept. 25, 2009. I leave for FBT on Sunday—a 7 week training that is specific to youth development.
¡Bienvenidos a Honduras!
I finally made it! Yesterday, around 11:40 AM (Mountain Time), my flight from Miami landed in Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa has one of the world’s shortest international runways. Since it is a dangerous airport, the PC only allows us to fly with an American company. Thank goodness! When the pilot told us to prepare for landing (in 30 minutes), I had no idea what was in store for us. The plane started descending from the clouds causing more turbulence than I expected. Adding to the bouncing plane, the runway is in a valley surrounded by small mountains. I do not know how it works but the airplane feels like it is coasting above the ground for at least 5 minutes. I could practically see inside people’s houses, watch their TV, and say hi to their kids! A few volunteers mentioned the thought the getting stuck in the power lines…You get the picture! But, I am here and I am safe.
When we got off the plane, we had to go through immigration. They gave us 90-day tourist visas. During training, we go through the process of becoming residents which allows us to stay for the two-year service. Our training director was waiting for us by the baggage claim, happy that we finally made it. He flew to the DR to train us but has been waiting since then for us to arrive in Honduras. Some PC staff helped us get our bags through customs which involved scanning our bags for suspicious items. The staff led us outside to six PC land cruiser SUVs where we put our luggage based on our ‘pueblo’. The fed us Pizza Hut pizza, Quaker oatmeal cookies, juice, water, and fruit. I have a feeling that will be the last American food we have for awhile!
We piled into the vans to be escorted to the training center in Zarabanda. Zarabanda is about 30 minutes from the airport. It is a quaint, small town in the mountains. For the first time in a month, we did not sweat when we walked around outside. It was incredible! The temperature here is amazing—around 70 degrees with a breeze. The training center is similar to the DR Training Center but mostly indoors. Instead of cooking food for us at the center, our Honduran host families will pack us lunches in Tupperware!
My host family is amazing. I was unsure about my situation at first because my host mom is only 23! It turns out that her mother has been living in Spain for the past few years. Her father, two brothers, husband, and daughter live in the house. My host brother (age: 9) is adorable. He loves to play Frisbee, baseball, Power Rangers, etc. We already have plans for the entire week! My older host brother (age: 18) is very cool. He enjoys watching movies, reading, playing video games, playing soccer, etc. He has an entire movie collection that he offered to me! Since there is a PC and country-wide curfew, I know what I will do after 9 pm—MOVIES! My host grandpa is also very nice. He talks to me about different issues involving the US, Spain, and Honduras. My host dad is 28 and works in construction. I do not think that I will be seeing him very often. My host mom does not work outside of the house, but she takes care of 2 year-old daughter.
My house is about triple the size of my DR house but completely different. I have a HUGE room with a double bed, a sofa, a TV, and plenty of floor space. My host family has internet and cable TV—there is hope for my service!! I watched Cinderella III with my younger host brother yesterday before my host grandpa turned on Telenovelas (Spanish soap operas). They are rather entertaining as well as good Spanish practice.
As you can see, I am having a great time. I am excited to continue training and become a volunteer on Sept. 25, 2009. I leave for FBT on Sunday—a 7 week training that is specific to youth development.
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