A long overdue update.

Sorry it took so long to me to get to this. I know all of you check this hourly, anticipating my experiences. Anyways, I appreciate all of your comments and support, lately it has been a big help toward keeping me sane. Things are coming to a halt here in training, and we find out out site Monday. I also am tutoring some people in English Monday night, so you may or may not hear from me that day. I would cancel, but we leave the next day, and that hardly seems fair to them.

Training is a very busy time, as pretty much any of the trainees will tell you, and the last 2 weeks have been no exception. I think I'll leave some things out this time, and I am still betting on having a lot of information. First, I want to say hello to my boss, who has been reading this, and tell let her now I really think that her and Jorge have really developed the best training program. Self-directed projects were probably the closest we could get to a real volunteer experience during training. I've talked to people from both of the other groups, youth and protected area management, and both have said their training lacked them having to organize things, and they have felt like they haven't gotten to finish a lot of the projects they start since they usually only have a day to work on things. Self-directed projects were a great solution to both of these problems with training. Bravo!

As I said before we went to visit a cigar factory, which was awesome. I have a video that sums up pretty much everything, as it is a woman rolling a cigar, but the internet is too slow here to upload it. I am going to try again in a few days when we are back in Santa Lucia. I hope it works, as it is super awesome.

So as I said previously we finished up our projects, and the last 3 days were a good mix of success and learning experiences, that I feel more prepared to do my job. Wednesday we finished a very difficult analysis of a community-based-organization. It was especially hard since, we didn't get the intended one group, but rather 3, and had to change the activity entirely that last time we were there. So this time, things started off a lot smoother, until we got the "so what are you going to do for us" question. It was a hard question, because we didn't really have a lot of opportunities left to offer any time, and we don't give anything else. Fortunately our training manager was there, and helped us out of a hard, awkward situation. Our goal in Peace Corps is complicated. We don't get money to do our projects, we're expected to use our resources, so most people start to wonder why we're here. Well, we're here because a lot of times just because a community has the resources to do something, they need a motivated person to help get things started. That is what he explained to them, and he gave them some names of local volunteers who would be willing to help them if they had a project in mind they would like to work on. It was a good experience to have, because that may (will) come up again, and I will know what to do. The people we're not aggressive at all, and they were endlessly polite, but understandably, they were confused why we were there giving them a training, but probably not coming back.

Thursday and friday We did work with people who were equivalent to high school seniors. Thursday we had planned a HIV AIDS charla, but we learned they were probably a bit old to get it. They had all had the lecture before, so they really didn't want to listen, but they played along. After that experience we decided we needed a different tactic. They needed something that fit thier age and maturity better. It isn't strange at all to find people ranging from age 16 to 24 in high school classes, so we had the good idea of using some team-building exercises we had done a few weeks earlier. It worked perfect. They had never done anything like these excercises before, and they all loved it. This time, instead of leaving early, all the students were asking if we had anything else they could do. We did acid river, where they have to work out a bridge with wood over an area without touching the ground, the human knot, and activity where they are all holding hands in an odd arrangement, and have get into a circle, feather tube, where they can all use one finger, and they have to put the tube down at the same time, A game where they have to fit all thier feet in a circle, then in a smaller circle (the cmaller circle is supposed to be impossible, so it is alot of fun to watch, and finally a game where they have to hold a string with one finger each and make a shape, with thier eyes closed.

The picture on the left is from day 1. They wanted to answer a question so badly, they often pushed people over to get into a spot during this game. They actually seemed to enjoy it, but not for the right reasons. After watching this, I started to think maybe American football should be bigget here. The picture on the right was right before they finished feather tube. It took them nearly 10 minutes to set down the tube, which is honestly about normal.

These 2 pictures are from the circle on the ground game, where every person has to either get thier feet in the center of the circle or not have it off the ground. They didn't believe me it was invented to be impossible when we talked about it, and tried for another 10 minutes before they accepted I really made them try something impossible. I think they actually got alot out of this activity, and if they didn't, I sure did.

Last weekend was unpleasant, due to digestive issues. That is all I have to say about that. But if your reading this as a potential volunteer and your concerned about your health, don't be. The Peace Corps doctor literally made a pharmacy open on a Sunday to sell me something to clog up the pipes. I was happy to not have to wait.

Monday was Cultural day. It isn't a real holiday, but the Spanish teacher organize it, and it is lovely. We do demonstrations of American culture, and they do local to do Honduran demonstrations. One group taught the hokey pokey. It was so much fun, I am posting a picture of someone that isn't me. Usually I don't do this, since I always find discovering pictures of myself a little creepy, so I extend that to others, but I have to make an exception for this. First, because we found pictures of ourselves on his wife's blog, and second, because the world deserves to see this. This man is the definition of a good participant. He doesn't care how silly something may be, he just does it, and he always seems to enjoy himself. Kudos to him. We followed all this up with some traditional honduran food we prepared with our families. So much good food, and fun. I really love being here.

Well things were soon to get even better, and it is so nice that I can say that. So often things like that are followed up with something disappointing or boring, but Tuesday and Wednesday were awesome. We did a rural tourism demonstration in a local village, to understand a learn a few things, and have a great time. Basically we did the "tour" and we learned the business side of things at the same time. We started with a sugar cane demonstration where we cut some cane with a machete, then ground it into juice and drank it. It was tasty with lemon, and less sweet than I expected, but it was still very sweet. Heres a picture of me with a deadly weapon, and one of Alice using the juicer.

Later that day we went horseback riding, and after lunch we made our own fishing poles and went fishing. Both of those activites were as much fun as they sounded, but about what one would expect, so I won't elaborate.

Wednesday we did alot of exploring in mountains. It was alot of fun. We even got to see the Nicaraguan border, but we didn't get to go.

Friday, we did our presentations to our boss over our experiences, and they started doing Independence day parades. Actually, they just started the last parade 10 minutes ago, so I am going to have to cut out early. Thanks for following along. Monday will be the day I finally know where I will be living for 2 years. I am excited.