The March Update

So, a few people reponded to my outcry for blog support, and the majority pretty much said to do whatever I want, so I suppose that is what i will do.

Valle de Angeles was, until recently, one of the few places in Honduras where we could rent DVDs instead of buying pirated DVDs, which means I have to wait for the official release and I only get to see movies that offer a Spanish Language audio track (about 1 in 3), but it also means I get to watch special features that can turn one movie into 5 hours of entertainment. Sadly, this store recently closed since it was cheaper to buy pirated disks than to rent real ones, and so I was pretty much every third customer.

I am telling you this story so I can tell you another story. The video store is about a 10 minute walk from our house, and Alice doesn't like to walk around at night since there aren't any street lights, so when we decided we were going to watch a movie, usually I would have to walk
there and back, which was boring and sucked. So I decided that everytime I had to walk all the way there by myself I would stop at a local comedor and have a snack.

So the people who owned the comedor started to get to know me, and the other regulars recognized me as the wierd guy who bought something small, ate quickly and left. About a month ago I wandered in and asked for a drink and a couple pupusas (like really thick tortillas stuffed with cheese) and I hear someone ask me in English where I was from. Now, this is a hard question, since "where are you from" is pretty open to interpretation. I am from Oklahoma, but to answer this way implies I am a standard tourist, which, I am not, so usually I answer I'm from here. Most people dislike this answer, since I speak with a heavy American English accent and my skin color makes people know this is not where I am "from" but rather where I live. Doing so makes me feel better, since it sounds like I have a more vested interest in the country. I especially hate being asked this question by tourists, since they almost seem confrontational when I tell them I am from here. It is like they have some desire to connect to you based on where you live. Before I even had a chance to look around and notice who said it, the person had already repeated thier query and I was forced to answer not knowing if I was talking to tourist or local.
"I live here" I stated, hoping the topic would be dead.
"No, but where are you from?" I hear as I discover I am talking to a local.
"I'm from Oklahoma" I am forced to reply. A Honduran would never let the topic go if I don't answer something.
"Oh, um, cool, I went to school in California" He responded.
Appearantly, he was hoping I was from somewhere more interesting. Sadly, Oklahoma is the best I got without lieing. So we went on to talk for a while and a few hours later I found out that I had met someone who just finished thier Doctorate in commercial law in Europe. He had also done his grad studies in California, and his pre-law here in Honduras. He speaks English, Spanish, French and Italian, and he has since become one of my best Honduras friends. The best part? His name is Fidel. Sadly he is not a very old Cuban dictator, but his name is still Fidel.

A few weeks later we had another volunteer visiting us, and we called Fidel to come hang out, and he said he would, but he got caught up with something else and never made it. The next day he felt bad and invited us to a BBQ, and I finally discovered a Honduran social network of young professionals. We met 6 Hondurans, all college educated, working in various capacities in the capital. We also met a young lady who is visiting for 8 from San Fransisco, but hails from Barcelona, and doesn't speak English. I wanted to ask her where she was from to see if she said SF or Spain, but she was a quiet person, and I didn't want to be annoying. One of the most interesting people I met was a young lady from the states, who works with an alternative education program for people who cannot attend normal school. This is a great contact, and she is helping us bring that program to one of our poor ag communities that doesn't get much educational support.

Sadly, the following day I got a call early in the morning asking me to help make sense of a mess in one of my cajas. I showed up and started reading thier books, and I realized, they had done all my trainings, but had never been motivated to actually apply what they learned, and the books were in awful condition. The most obvious problem was that most of the needed information wasn't there and what was didn't pass as legible. While I thought things were getting better, I learned that day that people were just telling me they were getting better, but not really changing much in some of the groups, so since then I have started working with my counter-part to ensure accountability. This was a hard lesson, but I was glad to learn this now instead of later.

People say that life in the Peace Corps can occasionally feel like a roller coaster, and the next day proved they were probably right. After having a great day, and then a bad day, the rollor coaster theory says I was due for a good day, so when I got another call early in the morning I was afraid the previous day was only the beggining of the down turn. Actually, it was Fidel who wanted to celebrate the second day of Easter week with a trip to the beach. Being in the central part of the country, it is really hard to visit the beach, since it requires 2 different bus rides, 3 if I want to go to a pretty beach, so a day trip is impossible. Luckily Fidel had a car, so we could go directly. The beach was a private beach, and probably the nicest beach in the south. We had a seafood soup for lunch and we made it home before dark. It was a great day.

A few days later, Karen came to visit. For details on her trip, read her descrition below. I think the most shocking thing during said trip was: That so much was shocking. Everything here seems pretty normal now, so all the dogs, chickens, horses, mules, donkeys, and cattle in the street seem like a walk to work. Appearantly this isn't true in the US. I suppose I forgot that. I also forgot that horses aren't a normal mode of transport to work, and that most people use trucks, not donkeys, to haul firewood. I also saw a toucan. That was cool, but said toucan did not gift me with fruit loops as I expected, rather he just looked at me and made a noise that sounds like a frog. It was wierd.

Sadly, instead of being able to go to Copan with Alice and Karen, I got sick, and I still seem to be holding onto said sickness. Hopefully, I'll be better in a few days, but if I'm not, I'll be going to the doctor again.

I am planning to take an online class this fall on web design, since I cannot do what I want with the knowledge i have, so if anyone has ever taken such a class somewhere and liked it, let me know.