Cribs: Peace Corps Edition

A look inside my house in Honduras. I am home in Arizona right now for a friend's wedding (more on that later) so I was able to take advantage of the fast internet to upload this video. Enjoy!

Brooke returns to Honduras for Semana Santa

As I said in my last blog, Brooke visited Honduras for the second time to spend Semana Santa with me in Ocotepeque. We didn't plan a whirlwind tour like we did the last time that she visited and we just planned on hanging out in my site and enjoying the festivities of the week. Some of the highlights of the week are documented in photos below.

One of the days that she was here, a friend of mine taught us how to make ticucos. Ticucos are a traditional Honduran food that are kind of like a small meatless tamale. The process to make the corn husk rolled masa treat is pretty arduous. I think it took us about five or six hours from start to finish.

Here I am sorting beans. After buying beans, you have to sort through them to pick out all of the rocks and bad beans before cooking.

We went to the grinder to grind the masa that consisted of corn, onions, garlic, green pepper, and water. Brooke got a chance to work the masa coming out of the grinder.

We then mixed the masa with the beans, a TON of oil, and chipilin (sp?) which is an herb of some sort.

The mix was then rolled up in corn husks and cooked for about two hours before they were ready to eat. Here is Brooke proudly displaying a few of these tasty nuggets before we devoured them. mmmmm

Another highlight of Brooke's visit was a hike that we had planned with another Peace Corps Volunteer, her boyfriend, and five other Honduran friends. When you look into the mountains to the west of Ocotepeque, on the highest peak you can see a radio tower and the top of this peak is called the Peña Rojada. I had been wanting to hike to this point ever since I got here so I was pretty stoked to get a chance to do it. None of us had been there before so we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We left at six in the morning with a bag full of ticucos, about 20 bags of chips, and a three liter pepsi (typical honduran fare) and finally got to the trail around 9. From there, we started our ascent which took about 4 hours to get to the top. It was exhausting but the hike and views were beautiful. Once we got to the top, the trial continued on so we decided to walk a little further to see what was up ahead. We wondered onto a campground that was teeming with Salvadorians. Turns out that we had arrived at the highest peak in El Salvador-- El Pital (about 9000 feet). After inquiring with the other visitors, we found out that you can drive to the peak from the El Salvador side and camp up there! Oh well, now we know for next time. When the authorities started hassling us for our passports that we didn't have, we decided that it was time to head back down. We arrived back home at about 6 o'clock at night ready for a shower and sleep.

Brooke and I catching a breather in El Volcancito which is the last pueblo that we came to before entering the forest.

Me standing on top of the Peña Rojada.

Cute little Honduran mountain town.

Finally, here is a picture of Brooke washing clothes on my pila.

That is it for now. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday.

Medical Brigade and Story Hour

Many volunteers are called upon during their service to use their language skills in one way or another. They may be asked to teach English classes, translate grant applications, or translate at the many medical brigades that roll through Honduras. I have been asked to help out in some capacity in all of the above tasks during my time here and last week I participated in my first medical brigade. Organizations like "Doctors Without Borders" will set up shop in different locations throughout the year. Doctors will spend their vacation time volunteering in third world countries and serving the less fortunate people of that country. Most of the time the doctors will not speak the language so translators are employed to help them out.

I was recently asked to come to a little village about an hour away from my site to spend three days translating for a group that was coming down and doing eye exams and giving away medication, prescription glasses, and sunglasses to the people of the village. They brought along thousands of pairs of glasses that had been dropped in boxes at the Lions Club and subsequently repaired and calibrated by prisoners in Wisconsin.

In the three days of the brigade, we gave away nearly 600 pairs of glasses to people in the village of Cones and its surrounding areas. While translating, the doctors would point out to me the problems that they would see in the patient's eyes. I have never seen so many cataracts, eye cancers in which a layer of skin is growing over the eyeball and causing blindness, and other problems that were impairing the vision of these people. Many times the problems called for fixes that the doctors at this brigade were not equipped to fix and it was sad having to turn away people knowing that they would never have the resources to get the treatment that they needed. But for all of the heartbreaking cases there were also some very rewarding moments. Children that were failing in school because they could not read the blackboard and having constant headaches receiving a pair of glasses that would help to remedy their situation or old men and women of 80 years looking around astonished at what they were able to see after being nearly blind for 20 or 30 years. When we were headed home after three days, it was neat to see all the people walking around sporting their new glasses and sunglasses. It was also good to see the end result of the all those donation boxes that we see in the U.S. So next time you get a new pair of glasses, don't throw away your old pair. Donate those puppies and they will probably find a second life here or in other impoverished countries around the world.

Translating

Taking a little break from work to try and find the highest prescription glasses available. These ones modeled by my friend Luke were -12.0. Didn't know they went that high.

Another project that I have taken up here is a story hour in the local Reiken Library. The Reiken Library is a foundation that was started by a former Peace Corps Volunteer that came upon some wealth later on in his life and donated some money to start libraries in towns and villages throughout Honduras. Here in Ocotepeque, we are fortunate to have one such library. Once a week I bring in a class of 20-30 kids from the local school and we spend about an hour learning about what the library has to offer, playing games, doing crafts, and reading stories. It has been a project that I have really enjoyed and has allowed me to meet many of the children that live around me. I am always looking for new ideas of things to do with these kids, so if all you teachers out there have any ideas I would be interested to hear them.

Imparting knowledge on the youth of Honduras

I guess that is it for now. Next week is Semana Santa here in Honduras and is also celebrated all over Latin America. The week before Easter is one of the biggest holidays here and the whole country has the week off to celebrate (and mourn) the events of the week. The week will be especially exciting for me because, in addition to not having to work, Brooke (the gf) will be coming to spend the week with me. I am looking forward to seeing her and it will be the first time since I was home for Kellyn's wedding that we will see eachother. So here's wishing you all a happy Easter and I hope you are all able to celebrate with friends and family. Until next time...

Feria Patronal de Ocotepeque

Every city, town, village, and pueblo of Honduras has a town "fair" once a year to celebrate the place's patron saint. Ocotepeque celebrates its feria from the 10th to the 19th of March. During this time vendors come from Honduras and El Salvador and set up booths selling tons of fried things and crap that is made in china (shame that with all of the local artisans that do beautiful work, people here still prefer their plastic wares). There are also many sketchy looking rides that have been set up on top of 2x4s and cinder blocks. For some reason, these ferias are pretty popular and tons of people come from all around to eat drink (alot) and be merry. Both weekends saw the biggest influx of people that came to partake of the festivities.

I have been playing basketball with a group of guys here in the afternoons and I recently found us a league in Santa Rosa (a bigger city about 2 hours away from my site) that we are going to start in April. Our team invited a few teams from this league to play a tournament in Ocotepeque as part of the feria and they agreed to come out. We planned the four-team tournament for the first Saturday of the feria. In the week leading up to the the game we spent time repainting all the lines on the court, putting up new nets, fixing the rims, and cleaning things up around the court. On Saturday, the court looked the best I had ever seen it. When the teams started warming up for the games, people took note and by the time the first game started, there were probably 150-200 people around the court curious to see what was going on (basketball is a pretty foreign sport to them). We also had some food vendors and announcers in the mix. Other than having to deal with a little bit of sun and heat, the event was a success and the other teams were impressed at how well the event was organized. If you are wondering which team won the tournament, I'll give you a hint. It was the one that had the tall skinny gringo on it:)

A team picture before the games got underway

Look at that intensity!

After the games, there was a concert in the park on Saturday night. Polache, who is probably the most famous singer here (look him up on YouTube), came to play. A few other volunteers came into town to watch the tournament, see the feria, and go to the concert. We were all invited to an "exclusive" after-party with Polache too. There were thousands of people at the concert, but no matter where I stood, I had a pretty good view because I am about a foot taller than the average Honduran. haha. All in all it was a pretty fun day and I am hoping to plan the second annual basketball tournament for next year.

PC friend Brianna, Polache, Me

Happy Anniversary

Today marks the one year anniversary of the day that my group of 49 (only 30 remain) wide-eyed volunteers landed in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to begin our 27 month stint as Peace Corps Volunteers. It seems as if it were just yesterday but when I think about all that I have experienced in the last year, it starts to feel like I have been here for a while. I have lived through three months of exhaustive training, three different Honduran host families, infectious bug-bites, a military coup, national curfews and road blocks, an election and innauguration of a new president, hours and hours spent on buses, made lots of new friends (Honduran and American), and many new and different jobs and tasks. This is just a small sample of some of the things I have done and I continue to live new experiences everyday.

I do miss many things about the United States but I am really trying to take advantage of the time that I have down here in Honduras. I am happy here and know that the rest of my time will continue to fly by and, before you know it, it will be over. As my journey continues, I remain optomistic that I have and will make some sort of difference during my service and I look forward to everything that remains to happen during the next 15 months.

Congratulations to all my fellow H14 volunteers for all of our successes over the last year and for staying with it through all the ups-and-downs. Truly a great accomplishment!

New Year Update

Hello again friends, family, acquaintances, and people that happen to stumble upon this blog. I know it has been a LONG while since I have written anything on here and I know you all are itching (I am making an assumption here) for a little update on what’s going on in my life here in Honduras. So here it is. Even though I am a little late, I want to start by wishing you all a very happy new year. I wish I could have been home to celebrate the holidays with you all but I was able to make the most of it here in Honduras with some great new friends that I have made. More on that later.

Since it has been so long since you all have heard anything from me, I am going to start where I left off and bring you all up to speed. I am going to leave out the minor details so that this blog doesn’t bore you all too much and because I have probably forgotten a lot of them. So here it goes in rapid-fire chronological order:

• Spent most of October working on a report on the apiaries (bee farms) that are part of the cooperative that I work at. This included visits to eight apiaries, two each Saturday, at times having to walk more than two hours to arrive because they are located way out in the campo. But I was usually rewarded with a nice piece of honeycomb to suck on and make the walk back a little easier.
• The one-piece beekeeping suits that the cooperative has don’t fit me too well and on one occasion I didn’t secure the suit down around my ankles very well and those clever bees figured out that I had about a half of inch of leg exposed and attacked with gusto. I was bitten about 10-15 times and swelling and fever ensued. I have since acquired a pair of rubber boots to keep them out. Thanks Austin.

• Halloween brings a Peace Corps wide party to the Copan Ruins. I attended along with about 120 other Peace Corps Honduras volunteers. My costume was designed by another business volunteer to make light of the political situation that was going on in the country at the time. It was a puzzle with former President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya’s picture on it, moustache, cowboy hat and all. It was a lot of fun and we were all quite the spectacle. Imagine 120 costumed gringos running through a small Honduran pueblo! The people were out with their cell phone cameras documenting the action.

• At the beginning of November, after a business volunteer workshop in Gracias, Lempira, I returned home to Arizona for the wedding of my little sister and her fiancé, now husband, Coby Hiatt. The wedding was beautiful and the couple seemed extremely happy. I was a proud older brother. Congratulations guys!

• While home I was able to spend some much needed quality time with friends, family and girlfriend. It was great seeing everybody and I want to thank you all for your hospitality. I look forward to seeing you all again when I return home or maybe sooner as some have expressed desires to come visit me here. All are welcome.

• After another difficult goodbye, I left Arizona and returned to Honduras just in time for Thanksgiving. Obviously Hondurans do not celebrate the holiday but I needed my fix of football, turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and gravy so I headed to a friend’s house in Marcala, La Paz. About 12 volunteers from my group crammed into a small one-bedroom house for a couple of nights. It was nothing like being home with family for the holiday but a delicious spread was put on the table by some very talented cooks that managed to serve an ample amount of food to all in attendance using only a two-burner electric stove and a toaster oven. I was very impressed.

• At the beginning of December I was summoned to Tegucigalpa by the Peace Corps doctors to receive an inoculation for H1N1. While in route, one of my porcelain teeth fell out while biting into a sandwich and broke into little pieces. So a visit that was only supposed to be two days lasted a little over a week because of numerous complications with the dentist. A silver lining was that I got to watch the Cardinals lose to the 49’s on Monday Night Football while shoving my face with a large Pizza Hut supreme.

• When I returned home and tried to work a few days before Christmas, I found that not much happens here during the month of December. School is out, employees are granted long two-week vacations, and people generally stay home and enjoy time with family. When in Rome…I thought, so I joined some friends and neighbors at their celebrations.

• For the actual Christmas holiday, I went to Santa Rosa de Copan and spent a few days with volunteer friends. Once again I was amazed by the food and treats that we were able to enjoy that were cooked in our meager kitchens. Hondurans celebrate the holiday a little different than we do in the states. On Christmas Eve, they typically attend a ten o’clock mass and then come home at around midnight and shot of firecrackers for an hour and then have a feast and stay up talking until they pass out. Christmas is usually spent sleeping and recovering from the night before. We had more of a traditional American Christmas and enjoyed our meal on Christmas Day after a jaunt through the city in the morning.

• After a week back in my site it was time to celebrate New Years. My friends and I weren’t too keen on a big party so we decided to do something a little more tranquilo and booked a few beds in a jungle hostel in the Pico Bonito National Park up near the north coast. For those of you who have seen Avatar, the landscape in the park reminded me of the movie. It was gorgeous. We spent our time relaxing and reading in hammocks, whitewater rafting, and kayaking. We were woken up every morning by exotic birds singing and howler monkeys barking as opposed to motorcycle fumes and roosters as has become the norm for me.

• In January I spent time working and planning activities for 2010, fixing things up around my house, and hanging out with neighborhood kids. I also had to return to Tegucigalpa for another week to try to get my tooth figured out. The porcelain tooth the dentist made me did not match the other teeth (third world dentistry for you) so I complained and had him make me another one, that I have still yet to receive. So another trip to the capital (12 hour trip each way) is planned for February.

I guess that about brings everybody back up to speed on what has been happening in my life. One of my New Years resolutions was to do a better job updating my blog. As you can see I have already failed on that as it took me a month to post anything but I am going to continue to try and post things more regularly. If you all have any questions about life here that you would like me to answer, let me know. Some of the weird and unordinary things that happen here have become normal for me so I do not think to write about them anymore. Again, I hope 2010 finds you all happy and a healthy. Keep in touch. Until next time…adios.

Feliz Navidad

Brooke's Visit

As promised in the last blog, here is a little bit about Brooke's visit. So as not to bore you all with a long blog, I made a little video of our time together here in Honduras. Enjoy!

P.S. I am coming home in November for my sister's wedding. I will be in Phoenix from the 5th until the 16th. Hope I get a chance to see some of you. 

You All Made My Day

I turned 27 years old on September 8^th and I think that most of you already knew that Brooke came down here for a couple weeks to spend my birthday with me (more on the trip later). In the months leading up to my birthday, Brooke had been telling me that she would be giving me the “best birthday present ever” when she got here—I could have never imagined what she had been cooking up. I think many of you already know what she got me but I had no idea and I am surprised that no one spilled the beans.

We stayed in a hotel room for Brooke’s first three nights in Ocotepeque so that I could ease her into the idea of no running water to shower or flush toilets with. On our last night in the hotel, the night before my birthday, Brooke gave me the gift (it was a good thing that we did it this night because she got sick on my actual birthday). I opened the box and read a letter from her. In her letter it said, “I hope all the cards from home offer you support and encouragement”. When I read this, I looked into the box and saw a bunch of letters, and when I started flipping through them and seeing all the return addresses I was so amazed. I can’t even begin to explain how nice it is to get a letter from home (emails are good but there is just something about a card). I spent the next two hours of the night opening and reading all your cards and letters. Some made me laugh, some made me cry, but they were all special and I have probably read them all about four or five times in the last two weeks.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for sending me the cards, letters, dvds, cds, photos, magazine/newspaper articles, and money. They all reinforced to me how awesome my friends and family are and how much I miss seeing all of you. So thank you all. I especially want to thank Brooke for putting all of this together it was literally the “best birthday present ever”…and I have gotten some pretty good birthday presents during my life. 

Beauty and the Beast

Since arriving in Honduras six months ago, it has been hard to overlook the stark contrast between all of the splendor that the country has to offer and the ugliness that humans have created here. Some of my first memories of the country include walking down a beautiful road in the middle of the forest on the way to my host family’s house, gazing up at the beautiful green mountains and marveling at God’s great creation but then being appalled when looking at the ground and seeing that the road was lined with trash. Also, I have memories of sitting in a bus on the way to visit another volunteer and seeing a grandmother encouraging her grandchild to throw a plastic Coke bottle and Doritos bag out the window and then applauding when the child did it.

Honduras is well known for its flora and fauna from its rich tropical forests to its beautiful white and black sand beaches. It is less known for the trash lined roads, polluted rivers and lakes, and utter lack of respect for the environment. I imagine that much of the problem of pollution comes from the socio-economic status of the country, or better said, the majority of people here are more worried about where the next meal is coming from so that they can fill their family’s stomachs than they are about cleaning up a few pieces of trash on the ground. In addition, it is hard to keep a place clean when it is lacking trash pickup services, plumbing, and any sort of environmental laws. The people have to resort to burning trash (which is probably worse for the environment than leaving it on the ground), having wastewaters drain into rivers, and bathing and washing clothes and dishes in the same rivers. 

I have had many conversations with Hondurans about this and have gotten many answers. One person told me that having disposable plastic bottles and bags has been something that has come about recently. Before that, people were accustomed to eating fruit and throwing the pits or seeds out on the street and getting their Coke in a glass bottle that needed to be returned in order to get the deposit back. These glass bottles were then washed and reused. Now with the influx of sweet and salty snacks and drinks being wrapped in plastic there is more garbage being created and people’s habits of throwing things into the street have not changed. Others have told me that they can’t do anything about the problem because they lack the basic infrastructure to carry away garbage and sewage. They tell me that the government has apportioned funds to improve infrastructure but that things never get done because corrupt governors and mayors are stealing the money instead of using it for its original purpose. Other Peace Corps Volunteers that work in mayors’ offices have attested this.

Regardless of the causes, something needs to be done to solve the problem of pollution here in Honduras. I don’t know if I have the answer, but I get sick of seeing rivers that I can’t cool off in because they are too polluted or having to hold my breath as I pass a pile of burning plastic. I think that the problem could be solved by both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. The government needs to work on improving local infrastructure and the people of Honduras need more education on environmental protection. I admit that this is probably a long-term goal especially given that the government is in the middle of trying to resolve a coup d'état. Hopefully something will be done or is being done to solve the problem because Honduras has too much beauty to offer to be snubbed out by a pile of trash.

Don’t get me wrong, Honduras is still a picturesque country and I can’t even begin to count how many gorgeous vistas I have seen since I have been here and I have barely had an opportunity to see much of the country. I say this now because I am trying to recruit visitors to come see me. My first visitor has already scheduled her trip and she will be here for two weeks in September. No surprise that this first visitor will be Brooke and I am stoked to see her and do some traveling together. Hopefully she will return to the states telling stories of how awesome it is so that more people will come down. So, let me know when you all are coming so I can pencil you in to my busy schedule.

Below are a few pictures of the contrast that I described between beauty and beastie:

Beauty: My friend Ryan on I on a hike to the hot springs that are close to Ocotepeque.

Beast: This is a pila in my host family's house. This water is used to cook, clean, bath, brush teeth and wash dishes. The water comes from the rivers in the mountains and as you can see is pretty dirty and full of parasites. Needless to say, drinking is not recommended, but some people still do it.

Beauty: Picture of me up on a hill at sunset by my house. Contemplating life.

Beast: Pile of trash that I encountered while walking around. I see things like this on a daily basis.

Beauty: Waterfall about an hour from my site. I don't know why blogger doesn't want to show the whole thing.

I was going to add more pictures but my connection is slow. Hope everyone is well.

¡Golpe!

As people all over the United States celebrated the Fourth of July with barbeques and fireworks, a different type of patriotism was being seen throughout Honduras as Honduran citizens, young and old, took to the streets to rally and protest. As you may or may not know, last Sunday morning (June 28^th) there was a coup d'état here in Honduras. The cowboy hat wearing, motorcycle driving, moustache faced ousted president, Manuel Zelaya Rosales (aka Mel), was accused by congress, the military, and the supreme court of Honduras of breaking the constitution.

Ever since I arrived in Honduras I had been hearing about something called La Cuarta Urna which aimed to amend the constitution of Honduras to allow a president to serve more than one term of four years, among other things. During the first four months that I was here, I would see commercials, billboards, and other propaganda all over Honduras as the President attempted to garner support from the Honduran people.

Many people said that Mel was trying to follow in the footsteps of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (he did something similar a few years back and was able to remain in power). Mel’s term is up at the end of this year and the people thought that he was trying to make these changes for his own benefit and was attempting to be able to remain president of Honduras for an indefinite period of time.

Last Sunday this proposition was to go to vote. In the week leading up, knowing that the vote would controversial, Mel asked the head of the military to provide support in hopes to keep order. The military head refused; saying that the vote was unconstitutional and Mel immediately relieved him of his position but he was reinstated by congress just a few hours later. After these events, it could be seen that the vote would not go smoothly but it went on as scheduled. On a side note, the Peace Corps office in Tegucigalpa told us that we were to stay in our sites and couldn’t travel between the morning of the 27^th and the morning of the 29^th so that we would stay away from any protests or roadblocks that may be happening.

Well, the morning that the vote was supposed to happen, the military rushed into the presidential palace, supposedly with guns, and took Mel, said to be wearing his pajamas, to the airport and flew him to Costa Rica. Immediately thereafter, the man that lost to Mel in the last elections, Roberto Micheletti, was sworn in as president.

During the past week the news of what happened here has been gaining national attention. I have not heard of a single country that supports what the new administration is doing and many have withdrawn their ambassadors from the country. The World Bank has frozen credit and, after failing to meet a 72-hour ultimatum to reinstate Mel, Honduras has been kicked out of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Mel has threatened to come back and take back his position on various occasions. First he was going to come back on Thursday, then he was going to come back yesterday, then he was going to come back today. But, alas, still no sign of the guy. The new president has threatened to arrest Mel if he attempts to re-enter the country and he closed the airport today so that Mel couldn’t fly back. Micheletti says that he is not afraid of Obama or Chavez and the only way that he would give up his new position would have to be through force. As the saga continues, Hondurans continue to choose sides and take to the streets in support of their favorite. It seems that there is now a clear division between Zelaya and Micheletti supporters and whatever happens there is going to be one group that will not be happy and some fear violence will ensue.

So that is where we sit as of right now. Here in Ocotepeque, things have been relatively peaceful. There have been a few rallies in the park but nothing violent. We have been under a national curfew from 9 pm to 6 am since last Sunday, the “Standfast” order from the Peace Corps has been extended and we continue to be stuck in our sites. Don’t worry about me, I am in a safe city hours away from where most of the protests have been happening. The Peace Corps says that they are in communication with the U.S. Embassy and Peace Corps headquarters in Washington D.C. and will let us know of any new developments.

Because of all that is happening, work continues to be slow for me. I work with an organization that is supported by the government and, with all the uncertainty, people are less motivated than usual to do any work. The children of Honduras suffer as the teachers have been on strike for the last two weeks because they have not been paid. But other than that, life here continues on as usual. There has been much speculation by volunteers on what will happen and what we think should happen but I guess we just have to trust that we will be taken care of. Since I am so close to the borders of El Salvador and Guatemala, I was thinking that if things got really bad, I would just run down the street and hop the border. 

That’s all I got for now. I hope all of you had a fantastic Fourth of July and that you were able to spend the day with friends and family. I will keep you all posted on what happens here. My hand is all better, gracias a Dios, and I am happy and healthy. I will leave you all with a picture I snapped from my porch the other day as the afternoon rains were seceding and a rainbow appeared above the hills. Enjoy.