Training in Olancho

Olancho is supposed to be the wild west of Honduras. Or something like that....it is the biggest state in Honduras and as we rolled into the department, I saw a sign, with Olancho greatly magnatized and huge arrow pointing saying "you're in Toyota country", ahh...reminded me of a good ol Texas or OK billboard. They produce the meat, cheese, and a lot of agricultural products for the country, and they love pickup trucks and eating well. There were cattle and men in cowboy hats herding them as we rolled down the highway. Made me think of home, in a Honduras'y kind of way, as there were still mountains, palm trees, and lots of Spanish.

What was I doing in Olancho? I had been invited by my counterpart (CATIE) and the Consejo de Cuenca to participate in a week-long training with them and other invited community members regarding conflict resolution and water source management. Drew decided he'd rather stay home, take the week off and watch the puppy, so I signed up to go and the adventure began. It was one of the best trainings I have attended, led by young, energetic and intellegent former students of the Universidad Nacional de Agricutura, and they taught us a lot. It was also nice to talk to young professional Hondurans my age, as there are few people my age in my site. So kuddos to them, and I think our group even learned a bunch of new diagnostic tools, resource information and practical experience to better manage our water sources.

Here are some pictures of the group and the training.

CATIE paid for the training and took good care of us, put is in a nice hotel and fed us well. I haven't eaten that much since I left Oklahoma! They eat well in Olancho and I like it!

A few other exciting things about the town we were in was the central park. They had a tree bigger than an SUV, branches bigger than tree trunks, and it was spectacular. Catacamas is a very pretty town with several large trees such as this.

The town also has natural caves in the mountains about 5 km from the University. They were amazing and reminded me of being a kid exploring Carslbad Caverns. It was a nice finish to the last day of training, to see a famous Honduras natural tourist spot.

After week of Spanish and time away from Drew, I was definitely ready to go home. But I went home knowing more of Honduras, more knowledge to work with the community groups in my area, and a bit better with the Spanish as well.