A study on international relations.

            During the presidential primaries (I know everyone is trying to forget them, sorry for bringing them up, but I’m using this story to jump into another one actually worth hearing about) and the debates on foreign policy, I remember hearing too often about sticks and carrots. Sticks, I assume, represented America’s ability to punish nations working against us, and carrots the ability to reward. The whole analogy basically turning our foreign policy debates into a good representation of how political leaders would likely govern world politics or a kindergarten class. If you don’t remember said banter it may be that I invented it in my head, as I all too often do. If that is the case, I apologize to said former candidates. Painfully, every candidate spent too much time talking about sticks and carrots, but it brought up a couple of mental images. The most obvious is the cartoon image of a Bugs Bunny encouraging a rather stubborn animal using a carrot that’s been attached to the end of a long stick with a string. On the basis of that imagery, I’d like to introduce a series of questions:

 

1. What is the most stubborn animal you can think of?
2. Does that animal eat carrots?
3. Would a carrot on the end of a stick encourage that animal to move quickly? Even move at all?
4. If that method does not work, what method would work?

  Now, I recently had a chance to witness a study done to answer all of the above questions, and I’d like to share those answers with you, and perhaps at the same time we can figure out some of the greatest foreign policy questions we’ve ever been faced with.

First, I would like to credit Joel, a Hondu12 health volunteer, for coming up with the idea for this experiment and properly carrying it out. I owe hours of laughter to him and his fellow scientific colleagues for their time, effort, and invaluable intellect.

Second, I’d like to thank Ana, Hondu13 Muni-D, for organizing the event that made it all possible. Without her, one of my favorite events could have easily fallen to the wayside.

Now, without any further delay, I’d like to begin answering the questions. So, what is the most stubborn animal? I personally believe it is the donkey, which means when experimenting with hybrid sports and stubbornness it is the ideal candidate. Say for instance, you are a fan of equestrian sports, but you’re curious what challenges would develop if you were forced to ride an animal that wasn’t the least bit interested in cooperation, then the introduction of the donkey would be priceless in said research.

Someone was in just this dilemma when they developed the greatest up and coming sport, Donkey Polo. What is donkey polo? It is a lot like polo, only with donkeys, and on a cement court that has been enclosed. It is polo’s indoor soccer. Then, multiply that by Honduras. Instead of highly traditional equipment and uniforms played by rich people on expensive horses, it is broom sticks with blocks of wood loosely screwed on for mallets and a plastic soccer ball played on a rented donkey. After breaking too many broomsticks, mop sticks can be used, as long as the mop head is removed first. Uniforms don’t exist. A player’s team is only determined by their nationality. American Peace Corps volunteers make up one team, and Catrachos the other (catrachos has two meanings, Hondurans or a traditional food and though we would likely fair better against tortilla chips and beans, we play against Hondurans).

This was our 12th meeting, and the history of victory so far was Peace Corps 0-11. Having decided our biggest disadvantage was our ability to control the speed and direction of said donkeys, we then needed to discover the answers to questions 2-4 above. Question 2 was simple. Does a donkey eat carrots? Indeed it does. Though the emotion for carrots seemed less than expected, Joel maintained high hopes.

This year’s match had been designed around two things: Liquor and family friendliness. I don’t know either. Just go with it for now. Previous events had been criticized for not including local children enough, since most of the riders are at least 14 years old, so this year the event organizers decided to also include piñatas and traditional games at various times throughout the event. Also new this year was a sponsor. The fine people at the Yuscaran Aguardiente (also known as guaro) factory sponsored the event in full, involving everything from donkey rental fees to candy. The only thing they didn’t provide: guaro. Thank goodness it is only 50 cents for 1/8 liter, or half liters will run $1.50. While I appreciate the fine folk at the factory for their blessing, I would also like to note that guaro is awful. The liquor is made from cane sugar and water and is best known for the ability to turn an average street into a bed for people with poor self-control, especially during fairs. The town, while the home of production, has passed laws forbidding its sale within town. The point being to assure the factories presence wouldn’t create a public threat. Of course it can still be found, but admittedly it is harder.

The event was kicked off by a donkey parade, where participants rode donkeys around the central park and an announcement was made to follow the donkeys back to the court. The court was located on the grounds of the old high school which is the new youth center. This added complication pervious events avoided: stairs. Three stairs to be exact, but still three more stairs than the average donkey has used. Multiple donkeys chose to end their cooperation for the day on those steps. Luckily, the donkey I had ridden through the park was in a rather cooperative mood, and he didn’t seem to mind them. I rode him all the way in. Then we had the piñatas. Specifically, piñatas shaped like liquor bottles and donkeys. The kids loved them, but I was antsy to play. My donkey was cooperating relatively well, and so far I had only need to kick him like a horse, and he would go. He wasn’t running, but he was moving and could be steered, so I was ready.

I played defense because defense is always where there is more action on our team. Turns out, people who ride donkeys since childhood have a slight advantage over people who often are riding their first donkey ever. This is when I ran into my first cooperation issue. My donkey liked me, but was afraid of other donkeys. This poses a challenge to potential defenders such as me. If I arrive first, things are okay, but if someone else has the ball, my donkey insisted on keeping a safe distance. Finally, I grew frustrated and started trying to get my donkey to run to arrive first. The best method to get a donkey to run seemed to be slapping its hind quarters and kicking it simultaneously. Finally I was making progress, though the scoreboard already showed 2-0 and I was not winning. I hit the ball a few times and made a decent run for a goal but I was blocked last second when my donkey stopped, afraid of the goalie donkey. Fortunately, a team mate’s donkey was smacked by an opposing player during the drive and we were given a penalty. We still missed. A minute later it was 3-0 and I was closing in on the ball for a defensive stop and my donkey caught site of an opposing player and stopped again. I was so close to the ball I thought I could reach out and hit it. I was right… kinda. In my attempt to hit the ball I overextended my balance and while I still hit the ball, I also toppled off my increasingly less cooperative friend. I hopped back on and went to chase the ball and when I smacked the donkey’s hind quarter to motivate him I noticed it hurt more than usual. I looked at my fingers and the tips of three fingers already looked like blueberries. Falling off a donkey is a little rough on the fingers, especially when determined to still hit the ball. From then on, my donkey could walk when he wanted to. I got him to trot back to the defensive side and spent the remainder of the quarter semi successfully defending or being taunted by local children about how bad we were. Thanks to those children, I am planning to set up a TV in the local grade school to watch the United States – Honduras World Cup qualifier, and every time the US scores I will do a victory dance NFL players can only dream about. The quarter ended with a lucky shot by a teammate and I dismounted the donkey losing 4-1.

The experiment was scheduled for the third quarter, so I had some time to find a seat and relax. After the first quarter there was a traditional game, which involved sticking a spoon in your mouth, putting an egg on the spoon, and racing down the court and back, the first person to return wins. Third place was won by a volunteer, and that was likely our biggest victory of the day.

Second quarter went much like the first. Score wise it went exactly like the first. We got in a lucky shot, and they got 4 slightly more intentional goals. The second quarter was pretty much ended when one of the donkeys felt rather amorous towards another, and decided to make the relation physical while people were still attempting to ride both donkeys. The person on the top donkey fell off backwards, but the young lady on the bottom donkey was not a very good planner, and had worn a skirt. Skirts make quick donkey dismounts impossible, or at least tricky. She went the high road and stayed on the donkey, getting caught up in the closest thing to a donkey three-way I hope I ever see. Luckily for her, the donkey was pulled off rather quickly.

Between the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters was another game. This one involved two people leaning in toward each other and placing an egg between the bridges of their noses. Then the mariachis start, and the two people have to dance until the egg falls. The last couple to let the egg drop wins. I kept waiting for two people to smash the egg in an attempt to keep it from falling, but sadly I still have to wonder what that would look like, since I didn’t get to see it.

The third quarter took forever to start. Not literally, but when someone is looking forward to something so awesome, it can be hard to wait. Finally I saw Joel enter the court and look around for a moment. He picked his donkey, one with a fuller harness on the head, so he could tuck the stick in and still play with both hands.

So, does a carrot on a stick entice the donkey into moving and being more cooperative? Sadly, it does not. It does not run or even move until traditional methods are used to motivate the stubborn creature. While honey may outdo lemon in the friend department, kicks (and presumably hits with sticks) most definitely work better than carrots to motivate a donkey.

The third quarter ended our lucky streak, and while the Hondurans scored 3 more, we ended up no better off. The carrot experiment was successful in teaching us all donkey don’t care about anything, but sadly our learning pretty much ended there. Dogs, on the other hand are far easier motivate. Actually, to motivate a dog to run, all you have to do is hit around a plastic soccer ball. This was rather apparent when a rather clean looking dog ran onto the field, stole the playing ball and escaped quickly back out the door. He would have gotten away, but he made a wrong turn and cornered himself. The ball was recovered, but still needed to be replaced as it was sadly misshapen by the dog’s mouth. It was quickly replaced for the 4^th and final quarter.

The fourth quarter is always when first time donkey riders get the courage to play, and when the donkeys are tired. The donkey stops moving entirely, and while the Hondurans effortlessly dash around the court, the Americans start to play like foosball, hoping the ball comes near, but not moving very much. The game ended a respectable 11-2 and Peace Corps is officially 0-12.

Finally, as all good writers do, I have to cleverly relate my ending to my introduction. Has this experiment taught us anything about foreign policy? Should we use more sticks than carrots and get our international donkey to run? My answer to both of these questions is a definite no. We should not treat our friends and enemies like animals, nor should we address complicated situations in such simplistic terms. Such views lead to diplomacy by way of renaming popular breakfast items (see also: Freedom toast; Rose of the profit Mohamed). We must use caution before the world collective renames American cheese, and Kraft is known afterwards as infidel cheese the world round. That’s right, diplomacy and donkey polo, hand in hand.

 

The story is quite finished, but I would like to take this time for a few updates. My MRIwas reread by a doctor in Washington and my diagnosis has changed. They determined my ACLwas only partially ruptured, however my meniscus also has a tear. I will eventually need surgery, but for now I am being treated with a knee immobilizing brace and physical therapy. If the condition worsens I will by visiting Washington DC for surgery. If it maintains I will get the surgery in September.

 

My stoves are coming along slowly and I won’t complete my first two communities before Christmas as I had hoped. Actually, I am at 2 of 250, but materials finally got delivered yesterday and I hope that number to increase rapidly in the coming week.

 

Alice and I will be going to Costa Rica for Christmas where we are spending 3 days in a national park with a volcano and 3 days on the beach. This is my first time to travel Central America since I got here and I am feeling pretty lucky.

 

Alice’s students have officially graduated 4^th grade and are moving onto 5^th. She is on track to graduate them from elementary school before we leave next September which will vastly improve their ability to find work.

 

We have finally finished our supply of both beef jerky and macaroni and cheese. While I love Kraft, I highly encourage well wishers to also include the occasional Velveeta shells and cheese or Lipton-Knorr pasta side. Variety is much appreciated.

Happy Holidays to all of our friends, may they pass how you want them to. Quickly or slowly, just make sure to enjoy them.

E. Hippie

There's the carrot. But Mr.Donkey doesn't care.

Me, on a friendly Donkey.

 

Parasitos aka "amigos"

I was blessed to catch my first water-born parasite, probably about a month ago, called Giaria. It's a nasty little amigo, which a week or so after you get it gives you symptoms such as stomach bloating and pain (I like another friend's description, of like in the aliens movies the aliens are trying to escape and hatch, that I had a few in my stummy trying to do the same...), continual feeling the need to burp or fart to (in vain) try and relieve the stomach pressure (this is highly annoying if you actually are trying to get any work done), explosive diarrhea, and just general not feeling good. My parasite struck hard about every three days like clockwork, with the following symptoms, for about 4-8 hours. Then, it would mostly go away and I thought I was in the clear....I finally realized it wasn't just food poisoning and now I am on meds. Doc told me I shouldn't drink the water. DUH...of course I always drink bottled water and clean my veggies. But, I have had a weakness for "jugos naturales" or natural juices made from passion fruit, pineapple, mandarines, and many more. Alas, I feel this weakness probably gave me my stomach amigo. So, it's back to coke or coffee at restaurants for me.....que triste. I will just have to learn to make my own. The med, flagyl, is pretty icky too. Gives you a metallic taste in your mouth for awhile after taking it and makes ya feel a bit queasy. But, it is very effective, which is important. I would drink beer, since the water is all dangerous and stuff but supposedly until I am done with the meds that is a very bad idea. Vive Honduras!

In other news, Drew and I are going to Costa Rica for Christmas. We are going to a volcano national park and the beach. These nice thoughts are keeping me animated currently. I can almost feel the sun, the waves, the sand in my toes and a girly drink in my hand......with purified water of course, to aviod inviting any more amigos.

(Since blogger won't allow be to apply reactions to individual posts, I have to reset them everytime I change them. So, the results are in, Parasites:2 Healthy as a horse:0. This blog was apearantly parasitic. Expect every blog to have such an ending added.)

Honduran Turkey

Normally, volunteers gather for holidays to celebrate and take some time to speak English. Last year, if you've been following our blog that long, you read about how Alice and I did just that. Our sitemate invited people from her training group and Alice and I cooked all day for 12 or so people to attack it with the fury of people who'd eat dirt if you covered it in enough gravy and called it Thanksgiving dinner. 

This year there were various gatherings and get-togethers in all corners of Honduras, but Alice and I once again opted to cook it all ourselves. Besides just liking our own cooking, I am currently very busy with various projects that I am trying to get to a midpoint before the country shuts down for the holidays in mid-December. After talking to a few friends here and there it sounded like it was going to be just Alice and I for dinner, and so we started recruiting Hondurans to celebrate with us. In the end, we ended up being 11, with food for 20. 

Cooking here is relatively easy, but cooking something specific gets more complicated. Say for instance, you want to make dinner, there are at least 5 options at any given time in local stores, however, if you would like to cook green bean casserole or stuffing, you are looking at a trip to Teguc to scower the city looking for ingredients. If you are determined to cook a full thanksgiving dinner, you should count on at least 3 different stops, and then plan on looking foolish on the bus back. With enough grocery bags it looks as if you could feed an entire village, you should plan on getting a fair amount of confused looks in a country where people shop weekly, sometimes daily. In all, we had to shop at 5 different places to get everything, 3 in the city and 2 back in site.

Alice put a fair amount of work trying to explain the holiday,why we celebrate and why we eat what we do. Some are easy. "Well, the native americans brought turkey when they saw the pilgrims didn't have enough food for everyone." Others aren't. "We eat greenbean casserole because the enterprising campbell's soup company has convinced us they had 'cream of mushroom soup' at the first thanksgiving, and we must continue cooking with it at least annually, but more often if possible."

Alice, after finishing her explanation, insisted that everyone give thanks for something before eating. I, of course, then explained that in the United States it was traditional to put all the food on the table, start passing the food around the table, putting portions onto your plate, when someone, usually an aunt of uncle in my family, suggests that before we eat we all say something we are thankful for and the whole table slouches just slightly and eyes thier plate carniverously while we wait for our turn to give thanks. I said thanks to Alice for continuing that tradition and promptly loaded my plate. The most memorable thanks came from my host brother, who had been watching us cook all day. He inhaled deeply as if ready to give a long speech, thanking everyone and everything from his parents to the moon when he said in a loud proud voice, "Thanks for the FOOD". 

Of course, we added some honduran touches. There is no such thing as breakfast sausage here, and for the stuffing that requires it, we used honduran chorizo and ground beef mixed, which turned out better than any other stuffing I've ever had, however, as I explained to my real Mom later in the evening, "You put enough gravy on anything, and its bound to come out tasting at least okay." We left our pepper at home and were were forced to replace it with especias in everything that needed pepper. Especias is Spanish for spices, and if you ask at any store what kinda of spices they have, they usually put a bottle of especias on the counter and look at you like "What do you mean, what kind?" We learned that outside of a few things like cinamon and cumin, you should just be prepared to use especias, because its what there is.

After Dinner we enjoyed a break, and then had pumpkin pie (the spice issue came up here too, I susbstituted nutmeg for cloves and something else, it still tasted pretty good). The evening came to an end around midnight when we all still felt slightly full and decided we should sleep.

What did I do today? Turkey and rice soup!

(please excuse my spelling. My spell check seems to be non-functioning today, and cut and paste is too much work). 

Felipe, a friend and incredible artist, with our dog/monkey Lizzy

3/5ths of our host family. Emilia, Balbina, and Basilio. Missing: timid older sister Elena and dad, David

Our friend Maria Jose. 

Our host brother continuing to show off his personality.

Me, having not shaved for 3 days because our house is having water issues, Alice, my always lovely wife, Otho, an American educated engineer and Themis (Dennis) the dalmation.

About time for an update

I always feel like I am falling behind on the blog, but in all actuality I probably have something to tell about once a month, every two weeks during good times.

As we have talked about on many occasions Alice and I have put a great deal of time and effort into a civic education project. One group of students we had present in front of a group of national policy makers in an attempt to get the ministry of education (that’s right, we have ministries here, not departments) to adopt this particular program into the national curriculum.

Well, we were nearing the end of the school year and we had to plan something both of our schools could participate in. And we did. And it went great. We ended up with 3 groups presenting: one on poverty, one on drug use, and a third on deforestation. The presentations impressed even my, since two of the groups did a final practice the day before and seemed kinda shaky, but they pulled it off in style.

Following the presentations, invited community leaders are given a chance to ask questions or offer comments. I must censor myself now, to avoid future consequences. One of our invited community leaders started talking, and I zoned in and out, concentrating more on what I was going to say next, when a comment got my attention. The person who had the floor was making some audience inappropriate comments and I was immediately confused. I suppose while the time and place of comments is important to me, some folk consider what they have to say so important they forget to censor themselves. Consider that your lesson of the day. Think twice before speaking in front of people about what you’re going to say.

After comments we had lunch with the students and gave them certificates. Alice and I were both a little sad to big goodbye to our students, but we have been invited to teach English next year and we probably will.

We went to the big Halloween celebration in Copan this year, and that was okay. It could have been far better, but I lost our camera and the next day ate something nasty on the way home and enjoyed a case of diarrhea while on an 8 hour bus ride home and the following two days.

I went to the South again and went swimming in a good old fashioned swimming hole. There isn’t really a story there, but I did it, and I like saying that.

Lately I’ve been in the beginning stages of an improved stove project. Most stoves here are three small brick walls with a cooking surface on top, which work fairly well, but eat firewood like cookie monster eats cookies. (That sesame street reference was in honor of my nephew, Nathan, who loves Elmo and Nemo. I am working on a Nemo reference.) One of my counterparts is in charge of community-based projects to benefit the water shed and the quality of life of the people living in it. So thanks to a German NGO we are building 250 improved stoves in 6 communities. The improvement is the addition of a firebox and a chimney which greatly reduces the usage of firewood and gets the smoke out of the house, which should greatly improve the health of the people cooking who currently work in a constant fog of smoke.

In other news, I hurt my knee and may end up being evacuated for knee surgery. I apparently have a ruptured ACL, which is, apparently, not good.

I will try to keep everyone updated on the stoves and my knee, but until then, just keep swimming. (I knew I could do it.)

Rainy season

This year´s rainy season has come in with a bang. It has rained every day for a month, and not your usually rainy season rain, but big long storms, filling the whole country with water. There´s not a road without puddles, lakes, streams in them. More interestingly, due to the massive amount of water this season, our mountain road seems to be falling apart. It started with nothing abnormal, such as mudslides into the road, rocks and dirt sliding down into the pavement. Inevitable and easy enough to fix within a day or two. However, two days ago, massive rains caused a stream to flood, which caused part of the road of one of the mountain curves to just fall off. There´s a hole in the side of the road, and they are worried about the whole road going down.

So, to take a bus to the capital, I have to get off about 50 feet from the spot, walk to the other side, and take another bus. They won´t let them pass until they figure out what to do.

I´d like to say this is the only place where the road wants to slide off the mountain, but on the other side of our site, the other exit, they have been working on a similar road problem for over a year....doesn´t build a lot of confidence, except, at least for now, the other side is still pasable by buses. It is interesting, because it is conditions like this, with the country saturated, that can cause a national disaster like the havoc reaked by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. It put the country back at least a decade. My biggest prayer right now is that the rain lets up a little bit and no more tropical depressions or hurricanes dump on the country for a few weeks. Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.....

Project Citizen Update

I am standing in front of a roomful of people. I remind myself I did this to myself as I nervously watch my project manager finish her part of the speaking. I’m nervous because when she finishes, it’s my turn, then Alice. Alice has her part memorized because she hates being in front of people. I only practiced 3 or 4 times, but I was planning on just talking normally. I don’t know why I thought that I would be comfortable talking in Spanish in front of a group of 100 educators. I am half thankful that over half the invitees have skipped the second day of the meeting to participate in the teacher strikes that have shut down the public schools for the past 2 days. I speak Spanish like I’m 7. I’ve got a decent vocabulary and pronunciation, but I still haven’t had 8 years of grammar classes reminding me when to use preterit or imperfect.

The group of people I am standing in front of is the national congress on civic education. This is a congress from the old definition, the one where it was just a meeting of concerned parties, not national law makers. Of course, this doesn’t make it much easier to talk to them. We are still trying to get them to adopt project citizen as part of the national curriculum, which means they might as well be lawmakers. They are the top authority. With over 200 invitees, only 120 showed the first day. Today is the second day and I guess there is somewhere between 80 and 110. I’ve never had to estimate numbers of people this high. I’ve never been expected to talk to this many people either. Not even in college.

Along with my wife and boss, we also have eight of our students with us. They don’t know how good they’ve made us look. Even when they didn’t really have a clue what they were doing because we rushed them through 4 weeks of the program, they still made us look good by showing up at our whim. Instead of spending their afternoons and weekends relaxing or getting into trouble, they’ve spent 13 of the last 21 days in our office preparing for this presentation. I should mention it takes Alice and me at least 20 minutes to travel from their school to our office when we have direct transportation. It probably takes the students at least 35 minutes, but they show up consistently and don’t complain. The other 22 students in the class were only interested in doing work in class, which is more standard for students here. Anyways, I am watching them prepare in the last few moments before I say a few words and praying everything goes well for them when they present their work in a few minutes.

My boss is finished and shoots me a look probably meant to say good luck, but I barely see it. She worked hard to be a part of this congress and the last thing I want to hear later is that everything went well until Drew spoke. I’m walking to the microphone. I have to adjust it. In my entire time here, I’ve met 2 Hondurans as tall as me, but never anyone taller. I am a giant amongst men here, but right now I feel my confidence somewhere around my feet.

“Good morning” Yeah, I’m nervous, but at least I assigned the right gender to morning, should be all downhill from here.

“First, I’d like to introduce my wife and co-worker, Alice.” I am getting more nervous, despite the flawless execution of my greeting and first sentence. I silently bask in the pleasure of having assigned the appropriate gender to both wife and co-worker. If nothing else, at least this group of highly educated Hondurans will I know I’m aware that my wife is a female. I am awesome.

I continue on and tell people that we are Peace Corps volunteers in Valle de Angeles and we have a year left. Oddly enough, it is exactly one year to the day. I start into the meat of things and manage to execute a few decent sentences about how we started with project citizen in different school with another teacher, and now we are trying to expand it to 2 other schools.

I find myself temporarily distracted while I am talking and lose my place. I have what I am going to say written down, but I hate such restrictions when talking in front of groups. I usually do make note cards, but today I’ve just printed off a paper, since what I have planned to say is less than a half sheet of paper.

I look down at the paper and mumble “where am I?” The people laugh and I am immediately glad I screwed up. The students can now see it is not fatal to mess up and I am no longer hiding behind my rehearsed infallibility. I get through the second half of the paper much easier, even though I realize I left out a large chunk in the beginning. I pass the floor to Alice and I slink off the stage relieved. If I were a better husband I would have stood next to her for moral support, but the idea doesn’t occur to me until I’ve walked off.

I guess I had been more nervous than I thought, because it takes a minute for the details to start becoming clear in my mind again. Alice is already into her speech and I am sitting off to the side next to my boss hoping Alice does a good job. She gets so nervous in front of groups, I start to get nervous for her. She tells about the school we are working in and the students. We tactfully leave out that the teacher has been terrible and only shown up 3 times in 13 weeks.

Alice is talking about the students being nervous and she throws in that she is a bit nervous herself. This is a shock. Alice doesn’t add things in. Alice recites; it makes her more comfortable. The people reward her addition with a pleasant chuckle and she looks more at ease. She finishes up and passes the floor to the students. She did fantastically, and I remind myself I should mention that to her later, but I never do until she asks me about it later. My mind is already on my students.

The eight kids are split up into pairs to represent the four parts of the presentation. The first part is pretty easy. The two girls have to explain the social problem they chose to study, give some background, and explain why they wanted to choose that problem. They chose deforestation and forest fires, and if you see a before and after picture of their community, it is pretty obvious what the background is and why they chose it. At the current rate, the trees and topsoil with both be gone in 5 years, along with the water they all depend on. The two girls look confident and intelligent. They are speaking from memory, but the information doesn’t sounds mechanically memorized.

The second two girls have to explain the current public policy regarding the forest. They had to read 90 pages of the national forestry law to get the information they needed, and it took me and 2 other people at least 5 tries to explain the public policy concept. A law is public policy (most of the time), but a public policy is not always a law. Most groups have a public policy, and it may be the same as the law and it may not. The firemen are not policy makers, but they have a policy that pertains to the subject, so they need to be mentioned in an intelligent policy discussion, but you cannot propose a policy to them in hope they adopt it. Work in the community groups and their relation to public policy and the result was two baffled teen-aged girls. We finally got them where we needed them sometime two days before. The best part of all is you would never be able to tell the concept confused them even in the slightest. They make the second part flow as effortlessly as the first. The only complaint I have is that one of the girls seems to have spent too much time at a local evangelical church and is attempting to swallow the microphone between breaths, making her sounds a lot like she’s giving a sermon.

While the content of the second part was the scariest, the scariest performers were the third group. We did not pick the students who were going to participate, and we were willing to give all of the students an equal chance. The two boys had honestly never done any presentations in front of people, let alone in front of well educated strangers. They are very accustomed to memorizing and reciting, and they were amazing at that, but while they were talking during practices it was painfully obvious they were reciting things word for word. They were the only two to practice during the day off we gave the students to relax. They were still feeling mechanical, but the improvement was visible. One was still really nervous about talking in front of people, so he requested a local preacher open up the church for him on a Thursday, so he could practice his part with a microphone. The other student comes from the community where Alice does her literacy classes on Sundays where the illiteracy rate is sky high. When he graduates next year he will be amongst the most educated men in his community. By the time they got to the microphone, I was no longer scared they were going to mess anything up. I was just scared they would freeze up and all their hard work would end with them being disappointed. They were in charge of describing the public policy the students had come up with to deal with deforestation in their community. The policy was to basically follow the law, which seems silly, but really needs to be said to the powers that be in the municipality. They were perfect, and seemed like they were as comfortable as everybody else on stage. When they finished, I closed my eyes for a second in relief, knowing that I would never forget that experience.

The last pair of boys participated in community theatre during the fair, and we were not very concerned with their ability to talk in front of people. They hadn’t been either, and they probably had the most pauses because they hadn’t practiced as much as the other groups. The talked about their plan of action and it went smoothly. I was a little sad they had decided to talk from an outline, since this means every time they spoke it went a little different. Once, during practice they said the office for the municipal environmental office was smaller than the bathroom, and the person in it was not going to be taken seriously or be able to hold the meetings he needed in it. Honesty is not a valued in politics, and I think my boss mentioned he should change that part, but I would have loved to see him say that. I hope when the students do the presentations at the municipality he puts that back in. At the end we had told the students they needed a conclusion and we assumed that the last group was going to tack it on to the end, so when they announced the first girl was going to conclude, I was confused, and briefly, very worried.

            She did fine, and was probably the best person to do it. She was confident and well rehearsed, and she remembered to thank all the necessary people. The students were all relieved as they walked off stage, half exhausted, half proud. They sat down and for a few minutes they were chatty, asking how they did, feeling relived, but as soon as the net presentation began, they were immediately respectful and quiet.

Shortly after we have to usher them out so they can eat and Alice and I can get to our next activity. The new groups of volunteers were being sworn in, and we were invited. I am slightly disappointed I didn’t stay with the students to congratulate them over and over again, but Alice and I working on a plan to take them to the beach, where we will give them a free day to enjoy themselves. We’ll give them certificates and pictures of their performance, and hopefully, they will have half a clue how much we appreciate them.

            As for the other 22 students in that class, and the 30 students in the other high school, we are waiting out a teachers’ strike that currently has schools nationwide shut down and unused. We only need a little time to really organize the community level event, but the students in the other groups aren’t quite ready. As soon as we get them there, we’ll let everyone know.

La Feria Nacional-Independence Day

Ba-bababa-Ba-Ba-Boom!!

I woke up to the sounds of drums starting and the sounds of marching, sirens and people.

Drew, get up! We’re late, the parades are starting and we promised to be there…......we head into town and we show up to a town completely full of people. The streets where the parade will go is completely full on both sides, and the marching has started.

The cool thing about Independence Day here is that the kids are still in school. Each school participates, for the most part, with some kind of marching event. This is especially true for the elementary schools. This includes matching costumes, a flag guard, pom pom girls, people dressed in traditional costumes or representing different Honduran symbols, and much more. For the high schools, it is more of the same, but also including girls with batons and a marching band. Unlike the states, a marching band here includes drums, bass drum, cymbals and bell sets, there is not money for other types of instruments. But that does not stop the kids from pounding away great drum beats, swaying and dancing to the same beat as they march uniformly down the road. That’s the cool thing, they dance here as they march.

The conductor was dancing more than the band members........

So in most municipalities (counties) in the central town there are the parades all morning, with people cheering and out with their families. As we’ve gotten to know more people we know more cute kids that are involved, so of course we have to take pictures of them, here they are looking way too cool in their uniforms.

I gotta say......I have a weakness for cute kids in uniforms......

Dillan, our work partner’s kid, and Antonio, our neighbor who loves to play with Lizzie

In the afternoon, there was live music in the park, people out eating, chatting, and spending time with their families. I thought, okay, that is probably it. But no, there was another round of marching and music that night! Much shorter, just one high school marched, but they put 100% into it and it was pretty fun, with the park all lit up and the drums pounding.

Overall, I was impressed. It was a fun event, and I felt the sense of patriotism, good cheer, and cultural spirit in my town. It was very different than our Independence Day, no fireworks for sure, but they had us beat in their drum beats. So, feliz dia de independencia, 15 de Septiembre, Honduras!

A quick update to ease your nerves

Things have been busier than usual, and Alice and I have both recently sent out e-mails. Alice's email was rather important and if you missed it, I recomend you shoot her an email and let her know. Mine was just a story about a crazy day. Nothing important, but if you like stories and you didn't get it, let me know. 

In other news Alice and I have pretty much finished up our work with the new trainees. They find out thier sites today and Alice and I are going to tag along to find out who is going to be close. 

Our project citizen classes are both going well. One class has been selected to go to a national meeting of educators who are going to discuss the current situation concerning civic education where our students will present the information and answer question conerning the project. Our project manager is hoping we set a good example and encourage the country's educators as a whole to adopt it.

I've jumped head first into a tourism poject and I am working with the local chamber of commerce to help bring together a website project, a compost project, and research for tourism opportunities. Right now I am getting huge participation since I am offering to design a webpage, I just hope to sucker in a few people into the other projects at the same time.

Alice and I repeated the hike and today I will leave you with some pictures of the second adventure up the mountain. 

Mountain Basset seeing how easy the trail will be and preparing to bound up the hill.

The "bridge" over the ditch the dog wouldn't cross with me.

The dog openly mocking me by crossing the bridge quickly and easily with Alice.

What would have been a good picture if photography was a skill of mine.

The waterfall. The destination. The dog on the side of the hill showing off how she needs no trail.

Until the next time.

Drew

Time to break out of my routine

My life has often been a fight between my comfort with routine and my love for new things. Recently I have noticed what a negative effect routine can have on a Peace Corps volunteer. I have two basic schedules I follow without question or thought. The first, which gets followed three or four days a week involves me waking up early to an alarm at about 6 or 7 to race off to some obligation, like civic education classes, a training or a session with the new group of trainees. Then I either come home for lunch, or if I have more afternoon activities I grab a bite in the street and head to my afternoon activity. Then it is home for dinner and time to watch old TV shows on my computer (this month is season 1 and 2 of Seinfeld). The other daily routine I enjoy on the days when I am free in the morning involves waking up to a wet nose (the dog's, not the wife's) at 8ish, making breakfast then listening to three-day old pod casts that downloaded during a recent trip to the office. After a couple pod casts when my attention span is starting to run out, I find myself making lunch and proceeding with the afternoon as I would with the other routine.

The majority of my days here are quite productive, but I've found that since I usually have work, I've stopped doing new things. I live here like I would live anywhere else. What a wasted opportunity.

So yesterday I woke up following schedule B (pod casts, coffee, and toast with peanut butter), and decided that something was missing. The three previous days I had spent all my time working on various projects and here I was with a free day and I was going to waste it sitting in my house listening to pod casts I could easily put on my iPod and listen to anywhere. I remembered that one of the trainees had asked my a few weeks before if it were true there is a waterfall near where I live, and that reminded me nearly a year before I had gone with the previous volunteer on a hike to a waterfall nearby. The hike had taken us mostly on back roads built by the mining company that operated here some years ago (80ish years I think, but it is hard to say, since the forest here reclaims the old buildings so fast), but at some point we found ourselves following a trail about 50 meters from a waterfall. We were still too far away to see it, but the water had been too high to continue on the path, and we weren't in the mood that day for a swim. Alice and I turned around and vowed to ourselves to try again soon.

Nearly a year later my thirst for adventure finally returned.

Alice: You should shower before you come to the office.
Drew: I think I am going to take the morning off.
Alice: whatever, but you should still shower
Drew: no
Alice: what? you stink, you need to shower
Drew: I think I am going for a hike
Alice: Really? where to?
Drew: The waterfall. I think I am going to take the dog too. She was locked up all day yesterday and she could use the exercise.
Alice: Okay then, don't shower.
Drew: Wanna come?
Alice: No, I just finished taking a shower. I am feeling rather clean.
Drew: Alright, well, we're going.
Alice: Okay, well call me or whatever when you know when you'll back so we can eat lunch.
Drew: See you then.

(The shower was a big deal, since the day before we left before the water came on and we got home after it is was already off. I probably stuck like the farm we visted)

So me and my dog were going on a hike. I had been in the area before, so I knew it was fairly safe, and off I went. When we had gone there a year before and I din't remember the trail being particularly dangerous, since about 75% was old road. The road was washed out and mostly impassable in a car, but on foot it was still fairly easy, just muddy.

Locating which road exactly was another chore. I remember that I had made mental notes every time we turned, but since we had made some wrong turns the first time, my fuzzy year old mental notes didn't always take me on the right path. So to get up in the mountain took some time, but I managed to recognize wrong turns fairly quickly most of the time. The first time I messed up I had thought I had gone the wrong way, turned around, walked the other way for 10 minutes and realized the first way was correct. I was in no hurry, but the dog and I were both annoyed we had to walk back up a rather steep incline due to a fuzzy memory.

The second time I took the wrong road I encountered old mining ruins I had remembered and kept going. Turns out a lot of mining ruins look similar. I came to a ditch in the path that dropped about 5 feet and was about 5 feet across. There was a single log still crossing the gap, but the rest of the logs had fallen in the ditch and the ditch was home to a fair amount of flowing water. I looked at the dog and she looked at me. We were stuck. I could jump the gap, but not with the dog, and if I feel off the log with her in my arms I would definitely break something or her. She just gave me a look that said we had gone too far to turn around and I agreed, so I had no choice to think of something. I looked around for boards to lay across, and found some, but they were rotten and couldn't support my weight. After another minute or two of thinking I finally thought of the obvious. Since the ditch was only 5 feet across and 5 feet down, I climbed down onto the old broken bridge. Picked the dog up and set her down on the other side, then climbed up. (I should have brought a camera, and next time I will to improve this explanation). We walked a grand 30 feet before I realized I had gone to the wrong place. We had indeed gone to this place once before, but we had needed to turn around that time too. I had to repeat the whole process in reverse, but this time I managed to get myself covered in mud. So much so, it seemed silly to even try to rinse it off.

So I retraced my steps and finally found the right trail. The puppy and I were on our way we got to the same point we had to turn around the year before. It was at this point I realized bringing the dog with had been a mistake. The path along the stream to get to the waterfall was narrow and heavily inclined to the side, making falling off very easy. My fat basset baby was never going to make it. I didn't know what to do again. I was having problems following the narrow trail, which occasionally, didn't even resemble a trail, but rather a couple of places I could put my feet with nothing but a gap in between. I only have 2 legs, but they are long and offer me the ability to make large steps. This is how I learned I had the world’s only mountain basset. The dog was following with more grace than I could possibly have shown. I carefully stumbled across the gaps, while she gracefully galloped between them. Only once did she slip off into the water, and when she did, she offered me an annoyed look that said "look, if you would go a little faster I could have made it up that, now I am all wet and it is entirely your fault". So despite my myriad of attempts at self sabotage, me and my dog finally made it to the waterfall. I don't know if it was as awesome as I had expected, but I didn't care. I had made it and gotten out of my routine. The way there had taken about an hour and 45. I called Alice and told her I had made it and I would be back for lunch in about an hour and a fifteen. I remembered at this point I had brought my iPod and I gleefully walked home listening to my music. The way down the mountain only took 45 minutes, since I knew the way home much better than the way there.

So, today with a new outlook on what I should be doing with my free time I woke up, made some breakfast and started listening to a pod cast. I hate you routine, but You knew I couldn't stay away for long. I think even though I found myself stuck back where I was I still learned I need to enjoy the things around me more. In ten years I doubt I will be proud that I stayed so well informed about current events during my service, but rather I will be angry I didn't get out and do more. I need to do this everywhere. Even in the states I would sit at home or go to the same bar with the same people. I should have gone to the park or the movies or volunteering. I like being informed, but thanks to technology I can have it both ways. So, starting today, I am going to be better about doing things just because I always do them.

Maestra Alicia

I am teaching elementary school in our most illiterate community. Most of you know I started with a basic literacy class that I developed myself and then adapted with some Peace Corps materials. However, as a couple months went by, I found that I have no training as a teacher and had problems developing efficient lessons. My lessons weren’t bad and I was teaching some important concepts, but it felt incomplete. I discovered a “class by CD” alternative education program called Educatodos that teaches 1-6th grade, as well as high school classes. Each grade has 4 CDs worth of lessons, and a book that follows along with each lesson. The materials provided include reading, writing, comprehension, history and math, and is very complete as far as learning. I started this program after three months of my own classes, which has now officially turned into a fourth grade class, first grade, and one nice young man who I teach individually 2nd grade. They listen to the tapes and I facilitate and check their assignments. My fourth grade class is GREAT, the five ladies (two around 13 years old, the other three in their early twenties) show up every week, do the assignments, and seem to have lots of fun. They are thrilled that I am doing this program for them and want to complete thru the 6th grade while I am here as a volunteer.

My first grade class was larger at first but has dwindled down to a mother in her 40’s and a man in his late 20’s. They show up almost every week and are very eager to learn. The lady always comes with her pre-teen daughter that supports and helps her through the lessons. She is smart and is learning quickly and can already look at words, divide them by sounds and then read them aloud. The young man has a much harder time and can barely recognize the letters of the alphabet but he has made progress and can write his own name now without help. He can also write the alphabet on his own and is much better with numbers than letters. He can recognize any number 1-100 and tell you what it is. This is much better than a few months ago, and as long as he continues to come, I will work with him till he can read and write basic words on his own.

Each week a few random kids come, belonging to one adult or another, and they are fun to play with and are seeing their family member in a learning environment. Hopefully they will get the opportunity to go to school and help make their parent’s economical situations better. Also, I teach a nice young man 2nd grade twice a week at my home. This community is about 30 minutes up the mountain by car (an hour or two walking), but luckily he works as a lawn man for the clinic about a block from my house in town and so we do the class twice a week after he gets off work. He was too advanced for one class and couldn’t keep up with the other, but it is fun to work one on one with someone.

This is the most humbling thing I have done here. While in some ways I wish I had more students in a community I know has a dire need, it is amazing to see the same students show up week after week to learn the basics of elementary school. Especially my fourth grade girls. They are young, fun, energetic, and could be doing a lot of other things on a Sunday morning but they really want to learn and have touched my heart. I started this after Christmas and will probably work in this community till I leave Honduras. I have one volunteer (the lady standing in the next photo) and she helps teach the classes with me. Also, she is facilitating a 6th grade class for her husband and a few other men in town in the evenings. Together, we are making a small difference in the educational level of the town, where more than 80% of the adults are illiterate.

We as Americans are so lucky with our educational system. For one, we have classes all day, where here it is just about 4-5 hours in the morning or afternoons. Also, the teachers here strike a lot, and sometimes for valid reasons, but the people that lose are the students. Literally last month the schools all over Honduras were on strike twice and resulted in a loss of about a week of classes, which makes a huge difference in the quality of education. I teach this alternative education program in a community church which has opened our doors to us to teach the class each week. We sit in the little blue church benches but it is so great to have a free place to use with electricity and the students feel comfortable going here more than the small elementary school in town they never actually attended the first time around. I found this project because, despite the blatant poverty in the community, there are several people who are really motivated to make their area’s situation better. They asked for my help when I attended their community meetings, and I saw it as something I could actually learn to do. So this is why, for me, this is what a Peace Corps project should be….you see a change you have helped make, the community shows up and wants the change, and you have a person or two who are willing to continue it after you leave.

July and other observations.

So, I don't really have any reason to post most of the time, but I do anyways, and this is no different. I would like the refer all of you to "the talanga update" especially the later half of her latest entry and to "liz the pammer". Both of those blogs located in the right-hand column under "Other people rocking Honduras" have recently posted fantastic updates that do a very good job of describing a couple of complex experiences and emotions a lot of volunteers go through.

As of late work is more confusing than difficult. Work is occasionally difficult to find, but right now I nearly have too much work. I would like to narrow down my focus and hit one thing more effectively, but every time I am trying to do this I am getting vibes like people are feeling ignored in another area. Planning is becoming more formal in my counter-part's office and I am not enthused about more reports. Mostly because my written Spanish makes me cringe. I would rather just talk about when I am doing once a week. Hopefully the practice will improve my skillz.

August marks a few wondrous occasions. The sixth is Alice and I´s third anniversary. This means we will have celebrated our marriage two times here, and only once in the States. When we go home next September of our 4 years being married, over half will have been spent here. An interesting twist on the traditional marriage. Alice's birthday is also coming up on the 19th and she is pretty excited. I will be grilling and causing trouble while she celebrates with who ever shows up this time. (I say this since no matter who we invite only half of them show up, but another 5 people show up unexpectedly. I don't know how this works, but it happens consistently. I actually met people for the first time at my own birthday party.) If you are considering sending her something I'd like to make a few recommendations:

1. Do not send more Kraft Mac and cheese. We brought some and 3 packages containing more showed up shortly after. This means we probably have at least 30 packages. We need some time to work down the supply. Also, we currently have a ton of beef jerky. Probably won't need more till Christmas. Cheddar cheese based snack crackers are welcome (gold fish crackers/cheese nips).

2. We could use some new movies. I really want to see Juno, Alice will watch anything but a horror flick.

3. Things that will entertain us are always welcome. Creativity is encouraged.

4. Completely apart from Alice, I would really like a Macintosh laptop with MS office and adobe creative suite 3. You know, if you have a spare grand or two with nothing to do. My laptop here is becoming a constant source of frustration/amusement. On second though, don't actually buy me this, but know I spend more time at apple.com salivating than is healthy. One day when I have a real job I will probably spend more money at apple than is healthy.

I don't know why as of late I have felt the need to express myself in the form of a list, but I do. Life goes on.

A few quick updates. Alice and I are teaching project citizen two days a week in high schools a ways a way. Monday we catch a taxi out to an aldea (village that is not the municipal seed) about 15 minutes away and we teach about 16 students. Why 16? Because only half the class of 32 shows up consistently on Mondays. The teacher we are supposedly working with is probably half the reason why. She has yet to show up on a Monday to actually work with us. The kids who do show up are awesome and I am excited about working with them. Since they never have a teacher, we are going to work in some leadership themes and extend the program. Not sustainable work, but I could care less. I like motivated students and I like working with this group. Tuesday we go a little further away. We catch a ride 25 minutes to the town of San Jauncito (technically a part of Teg, but generally ignored by their municipal government). After our ride we walk up a dirt road for another 15 minutes to get to one of the coolest high schools ever. We are working with about 32 students, all of which show up regularly and a teacher that seems to like the program. The high school also offers the best shop class ever. They don't learn to make birdhouses and boxes. They learn how to build bookshelves, desks and cabinets. The equivalent of home ec actually learns how to sow blankets and clothes. Then all the stuff the two classes make gets sold at fairs to raise money for the school. Alice and I plan on getting a few new furnishings from the shop class.

We are working rather extensively with the new training group and we have spent about 2 days a week help teach some different parts of municipal development to the new group of trainees. Doing this makes me realize how complicated my project really is. I only work in about 1/3 of the areas we are encouraged to work in. The municipality we live in only has about 1/4 the offices it is supposed to have. I also realized how much more I know than I thought. I can do a reasonable lecture on community organizations, municipal structure, NGOs, and all sorts of other things that never affected my life before I came.

My current brain child is to start a tourism committee but this is proving to be more work than I expected. I just don't know what functions they should have and what sort of activities I should encourage. As of now I have three goals for them (awesome another list):

1. Promote activities keeping tourists here for more time. Too many people come to my town for lunch in a quiet mountain town and leave. This means usually only 1 business benefits (the restaurant) Maybe 2 (a craft shop). If someone stays for an overnight visit, that turns into more like 4 (the people who do the activity, a hotel, 2 restaurants, plus the possible craft shops and the nearby national park).

2. Develop a website. American tourists come by Valle de Angeles all the time, especially missionaries. A website would be a good way to raise money and attention.

3. Use their collective pressure to ensure the municipality provides appropriate services to make expanded tourism possible (grading the roads more often, more dependable trash service in more areas, water in more areas ect.)

I am hoping to expand these goals to more like 10 before I push for a first meeting.

Alice is continuing her literacy classes, but has added the option to participate in an education program that ends with a high school degree if people stick with the program. She works with about 3 different grades with a total of about 9 regulars and 6 irregulars.

We're doing other work as well. I still work at times with caja rurales, but another organization here has gotten some funding to expand these organizations and they have requirements that I was not interested in teaching. ( I was teaching the groups that they needed to make rules for credit and guarantees they were comfortable with, and if the rules work, go with them. The current group wants them to use some very specific requirements I think exclude people, hence is at odds to the whole idea. Also, they also are trying to get people to spend 3 or 4 weekdays in a row in training, which I cannot participate in, since I no longer have 3 or 4 weekdays in a row free until October).

Striving

Alice said I was going to post an update soon, so here I am. As Alice mentioned, I had the fever. I think she really did cover the main details pretty well and I will only add a couple of details in list form:

1. I hate getting IVs. My viens are thin and don't like to cooperate. It took 5 tries to place 2 IVs.
2. I bruise when an IV is placed correctly.
3. I bruise a lot when an IV is not placed correctly.
4. I don't like hospitals.
5. I cannot sleep well in hospitals.
6. If I am in the hospital for a fever, and I am discovered to be sweating at 2 in the morning, I could care less that my shirt is a little wet. Let me sleep.
7. If my blood pressure is slightly low becuase you wake me up to take it, it is not going to put me in better spirits if you wake me up on an hourly basis to check it again. Especially when the time period in question is between 12am and 7am.
8. If I don't have stomach issues, I don't want shots that fix stomach issues.
9. I don't really want shots at all.
10. I have medical allergies. Even if I told the admitting doctor about them, I will probably ask you about everything you try to hook up to my viens.
11. Failure to answer these questions will get you kicked out of my hospital room until you want to answer them.
12. I am not a good patient. I am not a patient patient.
13. I like hot food. Not eating cold food does not mean I have developed stomach issues. It means I don't like cold soup.
14. If I am so sick I need to be hospitalized, do not leave me in a hallway for an hour and a half.
15. I would rather go through the pain of another IV then have an old IV restarted by forcefully injecting saline to unclog it.
16. On second thought, I would actually prefer to just have the bag changed at a regular interval.

So, that is my latest trip to the local hospital. They diagnosed my correctly the first time, which was a nice change, but I larned I don't ever want to be hospitalized again if I can avoid it. I am contemplating talking to people at the office about my experience to find out if what I experienced was normal. I am betting it was, but I'd like to know.

So a new group of municipal development is being trained, and I am spending a lot of my free time helping my project trainer out. Alice and/or I stop by once a week to run a session and answer questions. The new group seems alright and they haven't lost anyone yet, and I hope they keep that up. My group has now lost 11 people, and we are well over average for the country. It is really sad losing that many people. Hopefully the new group keeps blogs so I can add them to people rocking Honduras.

That is all for now.

The Hippie

Dengue Fever

In Central America we have a fun little virus called Dengue. Oh, it's pretty awful actually. Some symptoms include: high fever (usually lasts a couple of days)
body aches and chills, especially head and eye aches
Body exhaustion, weekened immune system
and so forth......all of which Drew was unfortunate to come down with this weekend.
It is transmitted by mosquitos, and we just started our rainy season, so it is perfect breeding time for these bugs and the disease.
I won't talk too much about the hospital experience because I know Drew is looking forward to blogging about it. I think if Drew has to do another medical test or visit a clinic again anytime soon though, he may go crazy. Lets just say, they tend to overcheck some things and under pay attention to others. Lets just say it isn't like the states.....
However, i will give our little hospital in town one thing, it has the best hospital food I've ever seen. Maybe because it's adventist, and they run a daily bakery as well. Fresh bread and fruits, overall, not too bad.
Drew is now recovering and doing better, and I am wearing bug spray around the house so I don't accidently come down with the fever as well. Unfortunately, like with malaria, there is no preventitive medicines you can take, you just gotta hope you don't get bit by an infected mosquito. But good news for you in the states, it is non-exsistant there. And, people in town have been really supportive. Our counterpart came by the night Drew had to stay in the hospital and brought movies and music to listen too. Another work buddy gave us a ride home from the hospital the next day. We only live about 2 blocks from the hospital, but that is far when you're really sick. Since we live in the adventist neighborhood so close to the adventist hospital, all our neighbors knew he was sick and have sent their well-wishes for his quick recovery. It does help that people here are so friendly when you are sick, makes it a little easier.
This is just a quick update on our crazy past few days, hope all of you are in good health and doing well!

The islands, sun burns, and crabs.

Before I start into part of this blog that actually motivated me to write the blog, I would like to start by saying: no more excuses. The website is up! Right now I only have the Spanish version up and 2 sections still need some work (activities and photos), but think of it like a rough draft. The english version is scheduled to luanch by Friday, asuming my life is not consumed with other work, as I am concerned it might be.


http://www.consejodecuenca.org/


The Beach! That is why I am writing and that is why you are reading! Honduras is home to multiple locations that make it world famous. The Mayan ruins, the untouched forest in the East, the oven-like conditions of the South, the mountains in the center, but if an American says they have been to Honduras, they probably went to Roatan (or were on a churh mission, or maybe a hippie). The bay island of Roatan is the largest in a chain of islands off the coast of Honduras and is a regular stop on Carnival Cruise ships.

I remember when I joined the Peace Corps I told one of my co-workers at the time I was going to Honduras. The conversation went like this:

Her: I've been to Honduras.

Me: Really? Why?

Her: Vacation. Did you know they spoke English in Honduras?

Me: I don't think you went to Honduras. They speak Spanish. Maybe it was Belize?

Her: No, it was Honduas, and everyone spoke English

Me: Where did you go?

Her: Honduras

Me: Yes we've established that, where in Honduras?

Her: Oh! the islands!
Me: So wait, you never went on the mainland? and we're basing the language habits of the entire nation on an island smaller than downtown Tulsa?

Her: Look, all I know is that the people on the cruise ship told us everyone would speak English and on our tour they did.

Me: I don't suppose you're going to make me tell you why that was not even close to the actual lives of Hondurans?

Her: I don't understand what you mean.

Me: You have a customer in aquatics.

Her: Where?

Me: Just get out of the office.

So that is how I learned that Honduras had Bay Islands, and that I should go there if i wanted to potentially meet Americans completely clueless about Honduras.

My brother announced his visit some months ago, around February or March. I decided that I should take advantage of my brothers employment and go to the Islands. People with jobs can afford that sort of thing. He also wanted to see Copan, so we went thier first. Copan is cheap by american standards. 3 people can eat, have an appetizer and share a round of drinks for less than $25 at one of the nicer places. Sadly, I only had a half day in copan planned. We took an early morning bus to the ruins that arrived around lunch. After a good meal we headed to the ruins, stopped by the bus terminal for tickets, ate dinner and went to sleep. No party in Copan, but mostly because our bus left at 5:15 in the morning. The ruins are nice, but this was my second (and Alice's third) visit. The next day we traveled 12 hours. 2 Buses, a taxi, a ferry, another taxi and we finally arrived in time for dinner. We decided to go first to the restaurant Arco Iris. This place comes highly recomended by everyone, and it is good, but it should come with a warning.

Warning: all 3 of you just ordered an entree, any one of those entrees could feed all 3 of you.

We also established that the islands are NOT cheap. Dinner cost us nearly $70. This was the second best dinner I ate on the Islands, and it is worth it, but should be saved for the last night. On the way back to the hotel we saw a crab. I have never seen a wild crab. The odd thing to me was that no one was hunting it, and further, no restaurant served crab. That may be the only place a crab can live safely.

The next morning we set off and had no idea what to do. We figured we would head over to the famous beach. Beaches Rule. On our way there my brother discovered something that had previously not existed in my head. He found: A wild hermit crab. In my experience, hermit crabs are like genetically modified crops. They look normal, but you know it took some crazy person in a lab to come up with the idea. Now I still must assume it was instead a crazy person (like the pet rock guy) who decided to keep such a boring death-prone animal as a pet, since now I know they really do exist outside pet stores and plastic boxes in kids' rooms.

We did what all Peace Corps volunteers do when they don't know what they should be doing. We went for a walk guessing it would lead us toward excitement. It did. We ended up in West Bay on the beach. A glorious beach, full of wonderfully clear water and white sand with trees and hotels lining the frontier to the island. It was amazing. Now I will ruin your imagination with pictures.

When we got to the beach, it looked like the above picture. Every chair was taken for 400 meters of beautiful beach. It was wonderful, but crowded. Then we asked one of the people with the carnival towels what time they would have to be back on the boat. He told us at noon. After 11:30, it was a ghost town (beach). We had it all to ourselves.

Like this. It was wonderful. We got drinks from the beach bar, and did nothing productive all day. Just sat on the beach and got sun burnt.

This is how the other end of the beach looked. Beutiful no matter where you're looking.

After we got done on the beach we got some dinner and went back to the hotel. At about 10 at night we decided we needed to go for a swim. The hotel had a dock so we found the ladder coming off the side and climbed in. After swimming around a while I decided it was deep enough to begin jumping in. I know that this was a bad idea, but I did it anyways. I never did get hurt like I deserved, but I did get a great picture.

I call this picture midnight cannonball, despite the fact it happened at about 10:30. I was soundly asleep by 11:00.

The second day on the beach we decided to snorkel, and that was fun until I felt like I could smell the skin on my back burning. So after 2 hours we all decided a little shade could do us good, and we retired to the hotel for the day. The rest of the trip was traveling back to catch a plane, but it was worth all the travel. We all had a good time.

Once again, I am blogging about my dog.

First, Alice would like everyone to note that she does her fair share in taking care of the puppy, and it is true. The only time the dog is 100% my problem is at night and recently the dog has taken to jumping on me and before I am awake nough to put her back in her hole, she is over licking Alice's face. She usually does this at 2 and then again at 4. Last week we took our dog to the vet to get her the last of her shots and get her fixed. Here is another amusing fact about dogs. It cost nearly $175 to get her fixed. In the states I know at least 3 clinics that do it for free. Now, to be honest I don't know if it is free for everyone, but I know I wouldn't have to pay cause I know the people that do the operation. With all the street dogs here I am suprised there are no groups working on this problem, no shelters, no animal control. During training we get the pre-exposure rabies shots and if we get bit by a dog the advice we get is to watch the dog and if it acts funny, get the post-exposure shots. In other words, if a street dog bites you, there is no follow up. The cops aren't going to come, there is no report to file, and there is no animal control to pick up dangerous dogs. Just, you know, keep an eye on it. The national government is currently doing a campaign to vaccinate all dogs, but the problem is, someone has to take the dog to the place where they are giving the shots, so if it is a family that doesn't care, even free shots aren't going to matter. Animals as a whole amuse me to no end in this country. We regularly are on buses that stop and wait from random livestock to cross the highway. The funny part is it is never a herd of cattle, or something you would expect to see in rural Kansas. It is always something like a single chiken, a mule, or a small child.

More later, As you can all probably tell, my website is not up yet, but there have been some delays that were not (entirely) my fault.

I ha(t/v)e Fleas

As most of you probably know, I worked far too long in a pet store before I left. It was during this time I realized that I do not really like animals. I love my dogs, and fish are nice, but I would rather eat a rat than own one. In some ways, I was really hoping to go to Ecuador where Guinea pigs are a traditional food, and people keeping them as pets are considered to be slightly off. While I was there I found one product to be a little strange: Frontline, and all the other monthly flea medications. With such strict animal control laws in the US, most dogs are not around other dogs and very rarely get fleas. I have had dogs my entire life and only twice can I recount a dog getting fleas. This lead me to believe that people who buy these monthly treatments at $200 for a year supply are somewhere between crazy and paranoid. Now, I look back and feel confused for a completely different reason.

For the very first time I have a dog that is not allowed to sleep on the bed with me, since we own a very small bed and a fairly large dog. Her proper "bed" is a couple of pillows in the corner of the room blocked in on the other sides by the bed and a piece of plywood. For months, this has been a great solution with a couple exceptions. Exception number 1. She thinks that being so close to the bed, means she really should be on the bed, and when she wakes up during the night she jumps on it. Though, to be technical, she rarely jumps on the bed. She actually jumps on me, since she sleeps on my side of the bed. This means 2 or 3 times a night, I wake up to a 35 pound dog stepping on my face, chest, or gut. Even I cannot sleep through that. Exception number 2. When the dog would fit in an oversized bucket, she would wake both parents up when she needed to go outside and potty. Now she may wake us both, but she concentrates on annoying me. That means every late night bathroom trip is my problem. (Newly discovered) Exception 3. Bugs. Dogs are loved here in Honduras, but in a very different way than I grew up with. Most people "own" a dog that they don't give food nor water and wanders through the street 100% of the time. Our neighbors are an exception. They love dogs in the "American" way and have 1 indoor dog and 2 outdoor dogs. One of their outdoor dogs was previously a street dog, that they adopted, and he likes to occasionally cruise the town. Our neighbors are also great, since they dog-sit for us anytime we have a meeting, but this means every parasite in the street eventually winds up in my house. This means when my dog came home with fleas last week I had a problem. With the dog sleeping alongside the bed, and since I didn’t have something to kill the buggers with, I learned that fleas are vacationers. They will get tired of the same old dog to chew on, hop up on the bed, give me a taste, decide that the dog really was where they belonged, and promptly return home.

So, frontline, good stuff. But what I don’t understand about frontline now is the cost. In the US a 3-month supply ran between $40 and $60, an average of $50. A similar supply here costs $18. Now, we know very well that the reason Human drugs are cheaper outside the States depends on a couple items, like Canada subsidizing their drugs, or looser regulations in Mexico. Now what confuses me is: do these things apply to dog drugs too? No normal Honduran is going to buy this stuff, so why change the price? It is only going to be people with too much money buying the product, and here, I actually need it, so why do I only pay 40% of the price here? I don’t get it, but I am happy.

Besides having fleas, I’ve kept pretty busy. While we were gone, we missed a civic education workshop, but we like the program and we are going to do it anyways. This week we finally got a schedule down so we can start that in 2 new communities. The high school we were already working with is about finished up and now we are working on scheduling the final presentations. The first experience was really good, so we are hoping for similar results in the other 2 areas. One of our schools requires a 30 minutes bus ride and a 45 minute walk, which I plan on recounting to my children one day. “When I was 24, I had to travel an hour and fifteen minutes to do a class, 45 minutes on foot, uphill both ways, and I did it because I wanted to. No one had to tell me to, I offered to do it and I loved it. So shut up and go to school.” This is why I don’t have kids.

Alice came back just in time for our “environmental fair” and the whole thing turned out pretty good. The day started and seemed very focused on the environment, with art made from recycled products everywhere and one young lady showing off her dress made from empty bags of chips. We definitely drew attention to ourselves. Next year I hope we talk a little more about the environment, but this year’s success made next year likely. The afternoon was entertaining. I don’t know how it relates to the environment, but we had a fair number of dancers come and show off, which got a huge crowd. I’ve got pictures of the art, but not the dancing. I liked the art better anyhow.

Sooner than later I am going to put up the website for a group I work with a lot. The next 2 days people have agreed to help me get everything straight. Once the Spanish version is up, I am going to do an English version. Then I am going to focus on a website for an artist.

My next major project I am hoping to do is form a tourism comittee, but I need support from some key people. If they agree to work together, I am going to do a website for them. If they don't agree, I'm gonna do something else.