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