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.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
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!
Monday, September 28, 2009
You All Made My Day
I turned 27 years old on September 8th 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.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
¡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 28th) 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 27th and the morning of the 29th 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.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Charlie bit me. And that REALLY hurt.
The morning of the swear-in ceremony I woke up with a slight pain in my right hand. When I looked down at my hand, sure enough, there was a small blister on the ring finger of my right hand. I immediately assumed that I had been bitten by something but was not that concerned about it as it has become normal to have a few bites on my body at all times. Since we were headed to the Peace Corps offices in Tegucigalpa for the swear-in ceremony, I took advantage of the situation and slipped into the doctor’s office to have a doc take a look at it. I told her, “Something bit me while I was sleeping last night.” To which she responded, “Do you know what bit you?” I said, “No I don’t. I was sleeping when it happened.” She did not seemed all that concerned about it, gave me some anti-allergic pills and a cream that was supposed to keep away infection, and sent me on my way to the swear-in ceremony. It was pretty appropriate that I got to raise my bug bite swollen hand to swear in to the Peace Corps.
Over the weekend I applied the cream and took the pills but my hand continued to swell up even more. By Monday morning the wound had opened up even more, was spitting out pus and constantly felt like I had slammed my finger in a car door. I called the Peace Corps doctors and they wanted me to go to see a doctor but, as luck would have it, the doctor in my city was out of town for the week. So I had to get on a bus and travel a couple hours to a hospital in a city called San Marcos.
When I saw the doctor in San Marcos I explained to him that, “Something bit me while I was sleeping last Thursday night.” To which he responded, “Do you know what bit you?” I said, “No I don’t. I was sleeping when it happened.” Then he examined my finger and put me through a most excruciating pain by squeezing my finger harder than it had ever been squeezed in my life. He said that he was trying to extract all of the pus but I do not know why because it returned a half an hour later and now my hand hurt even more than it had before. He prescribed me some kind of anti-inflammatory medication and Penicillin (thank you Alexander Fleming) and told me that I would need to keep squeezing the pus out of my finger for the next three or four days.
The bus ride back to my site was terrible. I was sitting on a crowded bus with my hand throbbing and feeling nauseous when the bus overheated going over some mountains and we had to stop for an hour to let the bus cool down and add more water. I got back home and started taking the medication but things didn’t start looking better for about three days. I thought I was going to loose my finger. Needless to say, it made the first week of being in my site a little rough. Finally the infection broke and I was able to sleep through the night without waking up with a throbbing finger.
Everything is better now and my hand is back to normal but I still do not know what bit me. Whatever it was, I hope those guys are not here in Ocotepeque. Mom and Dad, this is probably the first you are hearing about this. I did not tell you because I didn’t want you guys to worry and I didn’t want to you hear you say, “We told you that you should have put up your mosquito net.” Sometimes you have to learn the hard way and, I’ll tell you what, I learned my lesson.
I am including some pictures of my hand as it progressed. I am sorry to anyone that has a light stomach.
The morning after I my hand was bitten:
Three days after:
Four days after:
Five days after:
Two weeks after. Pretty much back to normal:
Over the weekend I applied the cream and took the pills but my hand continued to swell up even more. By Monday morning the wound had opened up even more, was spitting out pus and constantly felt like I had slammed my finger in a car door. I called the Peace Corps doctors and they wanted me to go to see a doctor but, as luck would have it, the doctor in my city was out of town for the week. So I had to get on a bus and travel a couple hours to a hospital in a city called San Marcos.
When I saw the doctor in San Marcos I explained to him that, “Something bit me while I was sleeping last Thursday night.” To which he responded, “Do you know what bit you?” I said, “No I don’t. I was sleeping when it happened.” Then he examined my finger and put me through a most excruciating pain by squeezing my finger harder than it had ever been squeezed in my life. He said that he was trying to extract all of the pus but I do not know why because it returned a half an hour later and now my hand hurt even more than it had before. He prescribed me some kind of anti-inflammatory medication and Penicillin (thank you Alexander Fleming) and told me that I would need to keep squeezing the pus out of my finger for the next three or four days.
The bus ride back to my site was terrible. I was sitting on a crowded bus with my hand throbbing and feeling nauseous when the bus overheated going over some mountains and we had to stop for an hour to let the bus cool down and add more water. I got back home and started taking the medication but things didn’t start looking better for about three days. I thought I was going to loose my finger. Needless to say, it made the first week of being in my site a little rough. Finally the infection broke and I was able to sleep through the night without waking up with a throbbing finger.
Everything is better now and my hand is back to normal but I still do not know what bit me. Whatever it was, I hope those guys are not here in Ocotepeque. Mom and Dad, this is probably the first you are hearing about this. I did not tell you because I didn’t want you guys to worry and I didn’t want to you hear you say, “We told you that you should have put up your mosquito net.” Sometimes you have to learn the hard way and, I’ll tell you what, I learned my lesson.
I am including some pictures of my hand as it progressed. I am sorry to anyone that has a light stomach.
The morning after I my hand was bitten:
Three days after:
Four days after:
Five days after:
Two weeks after. Pretty much back to normal:
Check me out. I´m a volunteer!
Well, it’s official, after three months of putting my time in as a lowly Peace Corps Trainee; I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer. At the end of our training day on May 14th, I was presented a piece of paper that ended with the phrase, “Having no specific recommendations for Kyle Horton, training staff recommends that Peace Corps Honduras swear him in as a Peace Corps Volunteer of the training group Honduras 14.” Radical!
The next morning, we all loaded on to the bus just like every other morning…but something was different. Instead of the disheveled and tired looking bunch that usually occupied the seats, everyone was dressed to the nines looking like we were ready for a power lunch at a fortune 500 company. We headed down to the Peace Corps office in Tegucigalpa where we met our counterparts and had an hour to introduce ourselves. From there, we loaded the buses again and headed across town to the U.S. Embassy for the swear-in ceremony. Like you might expect, security was pretty tough at the embassy. Upon entrance to the building, we were made to pass through a metal detector and to surrender everything except for our cameras. We passed through the building and out into a beautiful courtyard/garden overlooking Tegucigalpa. For the first time since I have been in Honduras, I was able to sink my feet into a nicely manicured lawn (St. Augustine I think). The place was like a slice of America in the middle of the third world.
The ceremony was pretty uneventful. It started with all the Hondurans singing their national anthem and us doing our best to keep up with the lyrics that were on the back of the program. We sounded terrible. Then we sang the United States national anthem and some of the Hondurans in the crowd did us the favor of making us feel a little better about our effort at singing their anthem. The singing was followed by various speeches by the PC training director, the PC Honduras director, a couple of Hondurans that told success stories of their work with PC volunteers, the US ambassador, and one of our own. Finally, came the moment we had all been waiting for–the swearing in. We were told to stand up raise our right hands and repeat the following:
I [state your name]
do solemnly swear
that I will support and defend
the constitution of the United States
against all enemies foreign and domestic
and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
That I take this obligation freely
without any mental reservation our purpose of evasion
and I will well and faithfully
discharge my duties in the Peace Corps.
So help me God.
This was followed by a bunch of tears, cheers, handshakes, and hugs. Of the 49 people that started training, 44 were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. We then had a little time to have some cake and snap a few pictures before heading back up to the training center for lunch and a bunch of boring meetings with our counterparts that mostly centered on how the volunteer counterpart relationship is supposed to work. Then we were sent home to pack for an early departure the next morning without anytime to celebrate and say goodbye to some of the friends that we had made over the last three months (Not fair. Even the President gets to let loose after his swear-in day).
We were picked up the next morning at around five o’clock with our insane amounts of luggage and dropped off at the numerous bus stations in and around Tegucigalpa to head out to all corners of Honduras. As I said in my last post, I was sent to Ocotepeque, which is about as far west as you can go in the country. Since the infrastructure of Honduras is not all that it could be, I had to take a roundabout way of getting over here. My bus left Tegucigalpa at 7 am and I arrived in Ocotepeque at around 6:30 pm. That is a long time to be in a bus, especially when you consider that Honduras is only about the size of South Carolina.
So here I am in the city of Nueva Ocotepeque in the department of Ocotepeque. I have seen varying reports on the size of the city, anywhere between 10,000 and 25,000 people. The city lies in a valley is surrounded green mountains on all sides. It has a tropical climate with highs in the mid to upper 80s and lows in the 60s and we are now entering the rainy season (May-October) so it rains pretty much every afternoon. The city is about 8 km from the border of El Salvador and 22 km from the border of Guatemala. Because it is a border town, there is a lot of traffic that passes through. It also means that there is a lot of commerce and it has a pretty sweet open-air market where I will be able to pick from a large variety of fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables once I am able to cook for myself. I am now living with my third and final host family and, for the third time, I am forced to walk through the house with my head bowed or else I will hit every doorjamb. The family is nice. The father (Roberto) is a mechanic and the mother (Geraldina) works in a local hardware store and they have two kids. Carmen Maria (16) and Ricardo (9) who both attend school during the day.
My days have seen an abrupt change since I arrived here. I went from having days chalk full of training activities from seven in the morning until five in the afternoon and then homework to occupy my nights to having pretty much nothing to do unless I actively seek it out. We are supposed to have 2-3 months of integration where we are supposed to spend time chatting with our host family, talking with our counterparts and trying to figure out exactly what their organizations do, walking around town and introducing ourselves to the “movers and shakers”, and getting to know the community. This is all fine and good, but there is only so many times that I can stand walking to the local pulperia to have a coke and trying to shake as many hands as I can on the way. This new pace of life is going to take some getting used to and hopefully in a few months I will be able to find out what it is that I will be doing here. This is what I signed up for and I have to embrace it. So, here we go!
Below are a few pictures from the swearing-in ceremony:
I was in the paper right next to Beyonce (top left corner):
Me with the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens:
A pic with the our Peace Corps business directors Jorge and Jesus:
The whole business group right after being sworn in:
A few of the business dudes:
Stoked to be a Peace Corps Volunteer!
The next morning, we all loaded on to the bus just like every other morning…but something was different. Instead of the disheveled and tired looking bunch that usually occupied the seats, everyone was dressed to the nines looking like we were ready for a power lunch at a fortune 500 company. We headed down to the Peace Corps office in Tegucigalpa where we met our counterparts and had an hour to introduce ourselves. From there, we loaded the buses again and headed across town to the U.S. Embassy for the swear-in ceremony. Like you might expect, security was pretty tough at the embassy. Upon entrance to the building, we were made to pass through a metal detector and to surrender everything except for our cameras. We passed through the building and out into a beautiful courtyard/garden overlooking Tegucigalpa. For the first time since I have been in Honduras, I was able to sink my feet into a nicely manicured lawn (St. Augustine I think). The place was like a slice of America in the middle of the third world.
The ceremony was pretty uneventful. It started with all the Hondurans singing their national anthem and us doing our best to keep up with the lyrics that were on the back of the program. We sounded terrible. Then we sang the United States national anthem and some of the Hondurans in the crowd did us the favor of making us feel a little better about our effort at singing their anthem. The singing was followed by various speeches by the PC training director, the PC Honduras director, a couple of Hondurans that told success stories of their work with PC volunteers, the US ambassador, and one of our own. Finally, came the moment we had all been waiting for–the swearing in. We were told to stand up raise our right hands and repeat the following:
I [state your name]
do solemnly swear
that I will support and defend
the constitution of the United States
against all enemies foreign and domestic
and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
That I take this obligation freely
without any mental reservation our purpose of evasion
and I will well and faithfully
discharge my duties in the Peace Corps.
So help me God.
This was followed by a bunch of tears, cheers, handshakes, and hugs. Of the 49 people that started training, 44 were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. We then had a little time to have some cake and snap a few pictures before heading back up to the training center for lunch and a bunch of boring meetings with our counterparts that mostly centered on how the volunteer counterpart relationship is supposed to work. Then we were sent home to pack for an early departure the next morning without anytime to celebrate and say goodbye to some of the friends that we had made over the last three months (Not fair. Even the President gets to let loose after his swear-in day).
We were picked up the next morning at around five o’clock with our insane amounts of luggage and dropped off at the numerous bus stations in and around Tegucigalpa to head out to all corners of Honduras. As I said in my last post, I was sent to Ocotepeque, which is about as far west as you can go in the country. Since the infrastructure of Honduras is not all that it could be, I had to take a roundabout way of getting over here. My bus left Tegucigalpa at 7 am and I arrived in Ocotepeque at around 6:30 pm. That is a long time to be in a bus, especially when you consider that Honduras is only about the size of South Carolina.
So here I am in the city of Nueva Ocotepeque in the department of Ocotepeque. I have seen varying reports on the size of the city, anywhere between 10,000 and 25,000 people. The city lies in a valley is surrounded green mountains on all sides. It has a tropical climate with highs in the mid to upper 80s and lows in the 60s and we are now entering the rainy season (May-October) so it rains pretty much every afternoon. The city is about 8 km from the border of El Salvador and 22 km from the border of Guatemala. Because it is a border town, there is a lot of traffic that passes through. It also means that there is a lot of commerce and it has a pretty sweet open-air market where I will be able to pick from a large variety of fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables once I am able to cook for myself. I am now living with my third and final host family and, for the third time, I am forced to walk through the house with my head bowed or else I will hit every doorjamb. The family is nice. The father (Roberto) is a mechanic and the mother (Geraldina) works in a local hardware store and they have two kids. Carmen Maria (16) and Ricardo (9) who both attend school during the day.
My days have seen an abrupt change since I arrived here. I went from having days chalk full of training activities from seven in the morning until five in the afternoon and then homework to occupy my nights to having pretty much nothing to do unless I actively seek it out. We are supposed to have 2-3 months of integration where we are supposed to spend time chatting with our host family, talking with our counterparts and trying to figure out exactly what their organizations do, walking around town and introducing ourselves to the “movers and shakers”, and getting to know the community. This is all fine and good, but there is only so many times that I can stand walking to the local pulperia to have a coke and trying to shake as many hands as I can on the way. This new pace of life is going to take some getting used to and hopefully in a few months I will be able to find out what it is that I will be doing here. This is what I signed up for and I have to embrace it. So, here we go!
Below are a few pictures from the swearing-in ceremony:
I was in the paper right next to Beyonce (top left corner):
Me with the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens:
A pic with the our Peace Corps business directors Jorge and Jesus:
The whole business group right after being sworn in:
A few of the business dudes:
Stoked to be a Peace Corps Volunteer!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Ocotepeque
This is going to be a quick post. I had to come to Tegucigalpa today to see the dentist because one of my teeth fell off but I got it glued back on and am back to normal.
We had our site anouncements a week ago and I found out that I will be going to Ocotepeque, Ocotepeque. The city is in the far west of the country about 15 minutes from the borders of both Guatemala and El Salvador. I will be working with a small savings and loan that deals with agriculture producers. These kind of businesses have a tough time obtaining financing and the cooperation that I will be working with makes things a little easier for them. I am pretty happy about my site but we will see if all my dreams come to fruition when I travel there this Saturday. The trip takes 10-12 hours because I have to take a roundabout way of getting there.
We are now in our last week of training. I found out yesterday that I made it to the advanced level of Spanish which was pretty exciting. We swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers on Friday at the U.S. Embassy here in Tegucigalpa. The U.S. Ambassodor will swear us in so it is pretty prestigious stuff. ha. Anyway, I have to get a ride back up to Zarabanda now. My next blog will be from my site once I find a place to use the internet. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all.
We had our site anouncements a week ago and I found out that I will be going to Ocotepeque, Ocotepeque. The city is in the far west of the country about 15 minutes from the borders of both Guatemala and El Salvador. I will be working with a small savings and loan that deals with agriculture producers. These kind of businesses have a tough time obtaining financing and the cooperation that I will be working with makes things a little easier for them. I am pretty happy about my site but we will see if all my dreams come to fruition when I travel there this Saturday. The trip takes 10-12 hours because I have to take a roundabout way of getting there.
We are now in our last week of training. I found out yesterday that I made it to the advanced level of Spanish which was pretty exciting. We swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers on Friday at the U.S. Embassy here in Tegucigalpa. The U.S. Ambassodor will swear us in so it is pretty prestigious stuff. ha. Anyway, I have to get a ride back up to Zarabanda now. My next blog will be from my site once I find a place to use the internet. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all.
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