Tamales Time!!!

YUMMMMMMMM!!! Making tamales is so much fun, and a bit messy, too! Here I am with my friends Erin and Robin make tamales in San Nicolas!!! We got our hands dirty but it was worth it for the great photos and good food!

Some photos from Honduras...

Check out my home and the most favorite people in my life right now...Ale (my sister) is in the back, and my "sobrinos" (neices and nephews) are in the hammock. Maynor is 3, Noahmi is 9 and Merci is 13. They´re great kids, and certainly fill my evenings with lots of excitement!!! Just when I think its quiet enough to get a moment of reading and relaxation in the hammock, there they are again!!! Maynor enjoys pushing me back and forth in the hammock like a baby - Its never lonely with these three around :)

Week 4: San Nicolas, Santa Barbara

Last week I had the opportunity to travel around Honduras and see what life here is really like on my “Volunteer Visit”…A day in the life of a municipal development volunteer! Thursday morning I boarded the bus with a number of other trainees and set out for Tegucigalpa, where every journey begins… From there I branched off with two other trainees, Erin and Shannon, in a taxi to the bus station for Santa Barbara. The bus system does not have a central depot, but is organized so that you have to know which bus company travels to the part of the country you want to go. One bus company in Tegus travels twice daily to and from Santa Barbara. The taxi drivers seem to know where they are going, so we hopped in. We took a 4 hour bus ride through the countryside, passing through Comayagua and Siguatapeque, in case any of you are looking at Honduran maps as you read this! We arrived in Santa Barbara in the middle of the afternoon and were quite surprised...It was HOT! We have been spoiled by rather cool weather in Santa Lucia due to the rainy season, so it was a shock to us…but then again, this is Central America…and I am trying to work on my tan!
Santa Barbara is beautiful. It was one of the original colonial Spanish towns, organized around a central park, where the Catholic Church is also located. Today, it has many artisan shops, ropa Americana (clothing stores), and the most fantastic comedor (eatery) called Betty´s which serves Baleadas…a combination of refried beans, eggs, chismol (salsa), avocado, and mantequilla (Honduran version of butter/sour cream) wrapped in thick warm flour tortillas! My newest favorite! Another attraction in Santa Barbara are the hammocks that prison inmates make and sell in a local shop. We were only in Santa Barbara for a few minutes, but returned on Saturday night to meet up with some other volunteers living in the region. We had dinner and went to a karaoke bar. We spent Sunday shopping and eating before returning to Santa Lucia.
Thursday afternoon Erin and I took another smaller bus 30 minutes from Santa Barbara to San Nicolas where we stayed with two volunteers, Parrish and Robin, for the volunteer shadowing. Parrish is in Municipal Development and Robin is in Water and Sanitation. We truly did get to see what life is like for the volunteers, but first thing Friday morning we went to the market to buy vegetables, rice, masa, and pork for making tamales. We spent the rest of the day with a woman in town who taught us the process of making tamales…chopping vegetables, preparing the masa, and steaming the banana leaves. We made about 70 tamales and then spent the afternoon serving them to the staff at the municipio and the host family of one of the volunteers. The tamales were wonderful, and fresh, but more than anything it was great to be cooking and learning something new! I wish I could explain the process better, but there is much to say. I hope to post some photos of the day. San Nicolas is also well known for its coffee farming, so we spent a lot of the time talking and drinking fresh coffee.
Saturday morning we did do some work. A community meeting had been arranged in the aldea of Cruz de Pacaya, so we gathered at about 8 am to take the municipal truck out to the aldea. Two of us jumped in the back - it was quite a ride. We drove about an hour and a half up the mountain to a tiny village, literally at the end of a dirt road. Soon after we got there members of the community started to arrive and the meeting began. They brought us coffee and bread and bananas, because no community meeting is complete without a snack here. We discussed the 11 aspects of life that this municipality is using to analyze quality of life for people in the aldeas. The themes ranged from access to water, health and family planning, infrastructure, housing, the environment, and civic participation. It was a neat experience and a very collaborative meeting. Almost all who attended were actively participating, especially the women in the aldea. The process for calling the meeting was fascinating to me in contrast with my experience in community meetings. The day before a note had been sent up to the Patronato of the aldea by a messenger in a pick-up truck. The Patronato has the responsibility of informing the other members of the community about the meeting, and on Saturday morning we arrived. The information from this meeting will be used to analyze the concerns of the community so that appropriate projects may be planned. I was very impressed with the volunteers, their interaction with the community, their level of Spanish fluency, and the way in which everyone worked together. It was a good experience to have as I prepare for volunteer life.
All in all I had a great weekend. It was nice to meet some cool new people, make French toast, and see a really beautiful part of the country! And how could I forget – I had my first cold bucket shower in San Nicolas! The water only comes every other day, so buckets are filled when there is a water supply and then is used for washing on the alternating days. I must admit it was not as shocking as I had expected, and I could almost go so far as to say it was refreshing in the heat of San Nicolas!
Not that anyone is counting, but we hit our one month mark in country yesterday…1 month down, 26 to go…
Hope all is well! Until next time…Stephanie

Week 3: Charamuscas y Parasitos

I promised more exciting stories in this Blog, so here I go. My third week here in Honduras was not without excitement. Last Sunday I enjoyed a full day of soccer with my extended family – they have their own “Lopez Family” futbol team that spans from grandsons of 16 yrs to grandpas of 62 yrs. After a day at the campo hanging out in the sun, I enjoyed ice cream sundaes with a few volunteers at one of our favorite cafes, Restaurante del Piano. It is one of the few places we can go to watch American television…a respite from watching remade movies from the 1970s in Spanish at home (although I watched The Princess Bride in Spanish this morning, which wasn’t bad). Sunday evening I knew I wasn’t feeling well, but hoped it was just the adjustment to diet, stress, etc. Unfortunately, it wasn’t! Monday morning, I was up at 2 a.m. and by the time I was supposed to go to school, I was too weak to make the 20 minute walk (remember: its all up hill) to school. I opted for the car to give me a lift so that I could go speak with the medical officer, and then I spent the rest of the day between my bedroom and the bathroom until they determined that I had…not only bacteria, but also parasites, caused by some food I had eaten. Double the FUN!!! I received medicine in the afternoon and minutes later I was throwing that up, too, at which point I asked to be taken to the hospital. It was the best decision. It would be my luck that the first time I needed to go to the emergency room to get an IV in my arm would be in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. But really, the overall experience was smooth. My doctors were great, and though they offered up some English, I opted for a true Honduran experience and did my best to communicate in Spanish. My sister Alejandrina was there with me, which was great for support and communication. I spent the night there and went home around 2 p.m. the next afternoon. I think one of the best parts was getting chicken soup, Club crackers, and Sprite for lunch!!! Needless to say, I feel human again and hope that this experience built up my immunity for the next parasite that comes along! I wasn’t the first in my group and certainly won’t be the last…
The remainder of the week was great! We spent a half day in Tegucigalpa on Wednesday with our Spanish classes to visit an outdoor market and learn to bargain with the vendors for what our mothers had told us were good prices. I brought home oranges and apples, but the mangoes were a stiff price of 5 Lempiras (equivalent to 25 cents each) so I followed mother’s orders, although I was tempted. She was pleased I didn’t fall into the trap since they are able to get mangoes here in Santa Lucia for 3 Lps – Good deal!!! We also learned the public transportation system, had lunch in the central park, went to the bank, and visited PC Headquarters.
On Friday afternoon, in our technical training groups, we visited three different municipalities in the region to learn about the structure of the local governments, the delivery of public services, the tax collection systems, the politics of turnover in elections, and the catastro – which is the planning and zoning department. This was pretty interesting. We first had a meeting with the mayor and staff before conducting individual interviews with staff members. I was quite proud of how much I understood of my conversation with the secretary of the Municipality of Cantarranes – a test that my Spanish IS indeed improving!
This weekend has been pretty quiet, but quite rainy. I went on a hike yesterday with three other girls, and about an hour into it there were torrential downpours at which time we had to turn around. We were drenched, but there was nothing to do about it…just laugh! We got back, dried off, and went to the café for hot chocolate! I’ll try to post some pictures from this, but have had trouble posting photos in general…
Finally, Charamuscas, you ask, what is this? My best description is frozen cereal. It’s as simple as milk and cornflakes, poured into a plastic bag and frozen. You tear off a corner and eat the frozen treat like a Popsicle. Not bad at all…
Hasta Luego, Stephanie

Survival: My first two weeks in Honduras

So I landed here in Honduras on Wednesday June 21st and have survived my first two weeks in Central America. My training group of 51 “aspirantes” (aspiring PC volunteers) are stationed in a “pueblo” (town) called Santa Lucia, about 30 minutes outside of the capital city, Tegucigalpa. I live with Maria Colindres and her daugher, Alejandrina, 30, and son, Edwuar, 25, in the barrio (neighborhood) of Segovia at the outskirts of town. The first night I arrived was full of uncertainty and amazement – I remember wondering what in the world I was going to say to these people with my novice level Spanish. My sister Alejandrina (“Ale”) picked me up from the training center that first evening and we walked most of the way home in silence, full of nerves, trying to figure out what to say to one another. When I finally understood something she said, she exclaimed “cheque!” which means “cool” in Honduran Spanish – one of the many hondurrismos I am getting accustomed to hearing. Since then we have become fast friends! That night I had my first meal with my family and started getting to know my mother and brother as well. It’s been a great experience living with them thus far! We go on walks with the parrot (perico) named Tato and in the evenings all my favorite little girls in the neighborhood come over to watch, La Madrastra, a tela-novela (soap-opera). I must say I’ve gotten quite into it. Even when I can’t quite understand what is going on, the music says it all.
It’s about a 20-minute walk each morning to the training center where I have 4 hours of Spanish class and 4 hours of technical training in municipal development. Interspersed through the weeks are health and safety classes and vaccines (4 down, 9 to go). On a typical day I am up by 6:00 with the roosters and am off to school around 7:00. We finish at about 4:30 and then it’s off to the campo to play soccer with the locals. (Current score: Santa Lucia: 2, Gringos: 0) Life revolves around the sport and so the evenings are also full with talk of the world cup. I am usually in bed by 9:00, though I think I broke a record my first night going to bed around 7:30. It was a long day to say the least.
My hike to school each morning is great and I am getting a good workout with all the hills. And the air quality definitely beats LA! In the evenings the walk home is often very wet. We are just starting the rainy season and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much water. I’ve also never talked so much about weather ever before in my life. During the day its really beautiful – I’m starting to think the real reason I joined the Peace Corps was to get a good tan! Just kidding J
My weekends so far have been spent washing laundry, exploring the town, and making friends with locals and other volunteers. Life is simple here, but not without its challenges. Washing clothes is very hard work - I spent almost 3 hours this morning at “la pila” and am praying the rain stays away until my clothes dry in the sun. In the mornings I also often help Maria make corn tortillas. She makes 300 each day on her wood-burning oven to sell to pulperias (local convenience stores) and to neighbors passing by. The most I have made in any one sitting is 30, which I am quite proud of, though I did notice my mistakes end up on our table at lunchtime. This afternoon I will go study with some other volunteers and have an ice cream or choco-banana at my favorite café – some things never change!
All in all, life is good. I’m happy to be here. I love that the kids next door call me Tia (Aunt) Stephanie and that I have quickly become part of a family that really cares for me. There will be challenges and mosquito bites in my future, but I am glad that I made the decision to be here. I have no idea what lies ahead, but in the next few notes, I will tell more of the work I am starting here. I think this quote from a card my sister gave me the night before I left says much about what I anticipate my experience to be like.
“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together” (An aboriginal activists group in Queensland, 1970s)
Hope all is well with each of you! Would love to get updates and hear how life continues in the United States – I feel so out of touch…Hasta Luego, Stephanie