On Monday July 28th, I arrived in Miami at about 11:30 am and took a shuttle to the Onmi Colonnade Hotel along with 4 other potential volunteers. And from that first day, it has been a whirlwind of activity. Staging (in Miami) consisted of an introduction to the peace corps in general, and focused more on general rules and regulations, safety issues, and overall ideas about purpose, objectives, motivations, and goals of our service. This is where I first got to meet the majority of fellow volunteers, and also realized that a lot of my assumptions about training, the number of volunteers, and the backgrounds of volunteers were entirely wrong! There are 54 trainees in my class (known as Honduras 03-02 because we are the second new group to come to Honduras in 2003), and we are divided into three main program areas: business (my program), PAM (protected areas management) and youth development (a new program that is being started with our training class). I think that the average age of volunteers is around 26, but a great majority are younger, recent college grads in 2002 or 2003. We come from all over the country (the most volunteers, 4, I think, come from Texas), and have a wide range of experiences, interests, and motivations in being here.
On July 30th, the 54 of us flew down to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and thus started our introduction to Honduran culture! The airport in Tegucigalpa has a reputation as one of the most dangerous airports in the world because planes must take a hard right before coming in to land in order to avoid the surrounding mountains. We seemed to be no more than 100 feet over the surrounding hills, pastures, and farms for a good 5 minutes, felt the plane tip over on its side as it took a hard right, and finally saw the rural landscape give way to the runway. Although the process of gathering all of our luggage (believe it or not, 54 people all moving to a country for 2 years can accumulate quite a bit of luggage!) took a little bit of time, we all gathered with our respective programs in a somewhat orderly fashion and boarded buses that headed from the capital to Santa Lucia, about 45 minutes away through the mountains.
So, the past week has consisted of three main activities. First, learning Spanish and a little bit about our technical programs in school from 7:30 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. Second, getting to know our fellow aspirantes, or trainees better and form friendships. Third, slowly integrating into our families and with our communities, with whom we are staying for the first five weeks! I’ll tell you guys a little about each of these activities.
First, school has been an intense, but very good and necessary process. The language aspect of it only started yesterday, on Monday, so I can't say that I’ve accomplished too much already. I am in the "novice-high" class right now, and my goal is to move to at least the "intermediate-mid" level by the end of training in order to have the necessary skills to communicate with the people in my chosen site. Still, with only a week of experience, I have made great advances in my ability to carry on a conversation, and hope that my progress will continue to be swift and productive.
Outside of language, I have also learned a little more about what my program is going to be (although we are still in the dark about most details, still). There are 19 people in the business program, which is divided into an IT section (information technology) and business advising section (consulting, marketing, designing business plans, etc.). I will be in the second of these sectors. And, that’s about as much as I know about my duties! It really will depend on which community I will be living in, which isn’t decided until early October. Other examples of projects that business volunteers have undertaken, however, are working with local loaning institutions in order to better keep track of the loans they have given and when they have been paid back, incorporating better marketing skills to artisans and farmers, and utilizing computers and internet (they are trying to develop this more) in order to streamline accounting operations and give local businesses access on a national or international level to other products and technologies. Even though I don't know more about my specific projects, I am already excited to be involved in any of these endeavors.
Our trainers continue to tell us that our health and safety are their number one priority, and they seem quite serious about it! If we do not take malaria medicine when we are supposed to, put up our mosquito nets on our beds, or violate one of their safety rules (such as no driving, riding in the back of pickup trucks, or riding on a motorcycle at any time), it is immediate grounds for "separation", or dismissal from Peace Corps service. The services they provide in case of medical or personal emergencies are extremely impressive, too. So, if anything is ever to happen to me, don't worry because I have a fantastic support team around me to make sure I get the necessary care!
The most interesting part of training today, I thought, was an overview that we received about the purpose of Peace Corps and the approach to serving this purpose.
First, development is defined in human, people to people terms instead of through statistics. The Peace Corps defines development as helping people develop the capacity to improve their own lives. There is a four-pronged approach to improving capacity building. Helping individual members of a community, working with professionals and service providers, helping local organizations improve their ability to serve their purpose, and helping communities implement community-wide activities that should benefit everyone. The idea is by helping through all of these methods, we have the best possibility of making a difference in people’s lives. We want to work with organizations and communities because it affects a larger number of people. However, we also help individuals and service providers because chances are that by working closely with a few individuals, we can make MORE of a difference in their lives (quality versus quantity). The overall goal in the long run is to achieve sustainable development, which is achieved when a community can continue to work on its own without outside support (such as from a volunteer). The sustainability of a project must satisfy five criteria: it must be culturally sustainable, by building on local beliefs and traditions. For example, you can’t introduce birth control methods overnight to a primarily catholic country. Second, it must be politically sustainable. If the local or national government is not supportive of a project, it will be crushed! Third, it must be economically sustainable. Even if outside grants from the Peace Corps or other organizations fund a project, can the project be maintained by the community themselves once that initial funding is no longer there? Fourth, is it managerially sustainable? Is there local management capacity to carry on a project once the Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) leaves? Fifth, is it environmentally sustainable? Are there enough environmental resources to maintain a project? One idea that they keep hammering into our heads is that development is a slow process. Especially since for sustainable development, we need to take a long-term vs. Short-term approach. The old, clichéd analogy is that if you give a man to fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. It may take longer that first day to walk him through the process of learning how to fish and you might be hungry at the end of the first day or two or three. But, in the long run, he will have developed the skills necessary for him to not only use but also teach to others.
So, that is a basic outline of what we have been learning for the last 9 days (since Staging in Miami).
This week has also been an important time to get to know fellow volunteers. We will be each other’s support team, so it is necessary to build relationships. Of course, as in any group, there are some people I feel that I am connecting with more than others. Still, overall we are a really great group of individuals and I am excited to get to know everyone better. The two people who I have connected with most, up to this point, are Mike and Heather Wenrick, a married couple from Portland, Oregon. They are 25 and 24, respectively, and are working in the PAM program. We eat lunch together a fair amount of the time, and talk about training, fun activities we want to do, and social issues affecting the US, Honduras, and the world. Tomorrow, two of the volunteers have a birthday party that we are all renting out a restaurant for, and that should be a good bonding activity as well. I’m excited to spend the next 3 months with these people.
The most difficult, yet potentially also the most valuable part of training so far has been living with a real life Honduran family. In order to describe it for you, I need to preface it by explaining where everyone lives in relation to each other and the training center. Our training center is located in Santa Lucia, a small town of probably a couple thousand people. It has pulperias (stores), restaurants, bars, churches an Internet café, and small shops that sell various things. About half of the volunteers live in Santa Lucia from 2 minutes to 20 minutes away from the center on foot. The other half of the volunteers takes a bus every morning. A handful of people live in small communities along the main road, but the majority of the bus-goers (including me) live at the end of the line in another town, Valle de Angeles (I’ll let you guys figure out what that means) located 17 kilometers from Santa Lucia. On our first day when we met the families with whom we would stay, I was walking with my "mother" (no offense, Mom) and a couple other volunteers from the bus stop. Although I didn’t understand too much of what was going on, one local pointed to the top of the mountain, laughing, and said, "Usted." And so, it turned out to be true! Although I live in the village of Valle de Angeles, I am most definitely not in the valley! I’m on top of the mountain, a 25 minute walk every day from the bus stop (I need to be there in the morning at 7 am to catch the bus to school). But, I’m not complaining. It is a beautiful walk through the mountains on a rocky dirt road, over a stream, and into a very peaceful and quiet corner of the forest.
I am living with a mother, Silvia Ortiz, and her two sons, Samuel (18 years old) and Kevin (11 years old). From day one, it was very difficult to talk with them with my limited amount of Spanish, but they are very patient with me; they talk slowly so I can understand and involve me in some of the activities. I look forward to learning more Spanish in the next couple of weeks so I can have more interesting and varied conversations with them.
The town of Valle de Angeles is quite nice, too. It is a little bigger than Santa Lucia, has an Internet café (where I am now), and is actually a popular tourist spot for Hondurans from Tegucigalpa, San Pedro, and other smaller cities throughout the country. The draw of the town is a community of small artisans and crafts shops and the picturesque mountain scenery. On Sunday, I walked through the town where there were street venders selling foods, shops selling a multitude of crafts, hammocks, and pottery, and a large gathering of people playing soccer. I got there too late to watch any of the game, but it looks like a fun, festive activity that I am looking forward to observing, if not participating in, next week. I was even able to carry on a very limited conversation with some of the people in the town, which was nice and somewhat liberating (since I feel so reliant on others now due to my lack of language ability).
The biggest surprise so far? It is not hot everywhere in Honduras! The weather has actually been beautiful, in the 60s or 70s every day (in the high 80s on Saturday, I’m guessing). It is not suffocatingly hot as I expected it to be (like in Hong Kong and Bangkok). We’ll see how the weather is in my final location, though!
This past week also started some trash talking between the teachers at our training center and the students, since Saturday was the annual teacher-trainee soccer game. Supposedly, they had never lost to the trainees before. So, I decided to do what any competitive, slightly cocky Peace Corps volunteer would do...I started organizing our troops to give the teachers a run for their money! On Wednesday, I hosted a soccer practice that consisted of two games side by side: a big game of Americans and some local Hondureños, and a smaller game consisting of 8 girls and 3 guys who were beginners on a smaller field. I played with the latter group to help teach some skills and concepts, and it went quite well...I was very impressed with the abilities of my colleagues, and Wayde, who had never played before, ended up being one of our two goalies in the big game on Saturday. The bigger game on Wednesday was also a success, since I was happy to hear that all of the guys who played, including those who are 100 times more likely to play basketball than soccer, had a great time.
And of course, this leads up to the main event on Saturday. We got to the field a little before 10am. We were thrown on a dusty, rocky field, since the nice field was being used by a real team from the town of Santa Lucia, but that is probably just as well, since only one of us had cleats (it wasn't as much of an advantage for the teachers on such a hard, rocky field). They scored first, but we came back and tied it 1-1 in the first half. We scored first in the second half, taking a 2-1 goal lead, but they tied it up with about 30 seconds to go in the game! Final score - 2-2. A bit disappointing to let the lead slip away at the end like that, but still a great deal of fun.
I got many compliments on my play, which was nice, and feel that I had a strong impact on the game (although I unfortunately missed all of my shot attempts!). I played center midfield for much of the game, and controlled the ball for a majority of the way down the field on many of our offensive attacks, and it was kind of a badge of honor to have the other players asking to put me back in when I was substituted out to take a rest since I was a big part of our offensive attack. And even greater honor, though, was that two of the Hondurans who I've only played soccer with twice, now, asked me and two other aspirantes (trainees) to play with their town soccer team against a team from Tegucigalpa...wow! Unfortunately, I wasn't around, but I hope to take advantage of their invitation next time. Overall, the soccer experience was a great success!
So, in non-soccer news, we had another little party on Friday for another birthday, and similar to our previous gatherings, it was a really fun experience hanging out with the kids who live in Santa Lucia (since after school, our bus goes back to Valle de Angeles and we don't have too much time to interact). We have a fun group, and it was quite enjoyable talking with some more people who I haven't had much interaction with up to now.
After the soccer game on Saturday, we went to the same location (it was basically a restaurant in a backyard with a swing set and playground), where we had birthday cake, and a piñata for the birthday boy! A lot of fun for all! Then, a group of 8 of us left to go to the National Park, La Tigra, for an overnight camping trip! Needless to say, it was a busy day with a great deal of physical exertion (especially for yours truly playing center mid and running all over the field!). But I wouldn't have had it any other way. We walked 2 km up a winding mountain road to the National Park, where we split into two groups. My friend Erin and I had decided the day before to stay in a cabin we'd heard fantastic reviews about, and the others stayed in a tent on the stone underneath the ranger station (I felt I'd had my fill of rock beds after Thailand - besides, I don't have my sleeping bag with me). The cabin we stayed at is owned by a German couple, who vacationed in Honduras about 6 years ago, fell in love with the place, and then decided to move here 5 years ago. They basically took an unimpressive-looking side of a mountain, and turned it into a small slice of paradise! They have their main house where they live (and feed their guests dinner and breakfast), and one cabin with two rooms of two beds each. The rooms and bathrooms were immaculate, and I even had a hot shower (which I don't even have at my house in Valle de Angeles!). To cap it all off, their land high on the mountain overlooks a beautiful valley far below, that is dotted with the lights of some isolated houses in the small town below, and the moon reflecting off a lake over on the horizon. The sound of a mountain stream rushing below added to the tranquil feeling of really being immersed in nature.Dinner there was fantastic! Homemade pizza from their own oven! It was absolutely delicious! Erin and I shared our meal with a couple celebrating their 6-month anniversary. The woman, Donna, is a Peace Corps volunteer about to finish her 2 years of service, and the man, Eliel, is a Honduran who she met and fell in love with while here. They are going to go back to the States in October at her Close of Service, but they seem to have a lot to work out concerning a job, where to live, and things like that. It was a very nice dinner and dinner conversation spanning an array of topics from Honduran culture to specific Peace Corps experiences, American strengths and weaknesses as a society, and the subject of travel overall.
After dinner, Erin and I walked the 10 minutes back up the hill to the Ranger Station where our 6 amigos were hanging out. There were also a bunch of local Hondurans and a group of 7 Europeans doing a 1-year service project similar to Peace Corps staying there as well. Brock, our Texan fellow, had brought his newly-purchased guitar, and everyone was having a grand old time singing along and chatting with the Europeans for about an hour. It was a really nice night, made even better by the fact that I knew that I had a nice bed waiting for me, rather than a stone floor!
On Sunday, we woke up around 7, and begin our hike through the National Park. We explored an old mine as far as we could before getting our feet too wet, and then continued on to a beautiful waterfall. It was a great day that consisted of a lot of hiking, good company, and the beautiful song of the quetzal, a bird with an equally beautiful long, green tail that hangs down from its perch on the mossy branches of the cloud forest. A potential down point of the day turned out to be quite fine when John forgot his $400 designer prescription glasses (slightly tinted orange) at the waterfall as he dried off. We had just walked about an hour up the mountain when he remembered. I offered to run back and get them, but because we still had to hike an unknown distance to catch the bus back to the city, John was going to just give up on them, report the forgotten item at the Ranger Station, and hope for the best. We only walked another 5 minutes when we got to a point where the three of us who hiked in La Tigra 2 weeks ago recognized the location as only a 25 minute walk to the Ranger Station at the other side.
I convinced John that it was at least worth the attempt to look for his glasses (we were also skeptical because we had passed at least 2 large tour groups...we've been told from the beginning the Hondurans have a habit of assuming that any unclaimed articles found can be acquired without any guilt of stealing). But, it was still worth the chance. John and I started half running, half jumping back down the trail it had just taken us an hour to climb up. I wish I could tell you an exact number for the elevation we were now descending, but I would guess that it was quite a bit over 1500 feet, since it was an effort to make it up that hill! We ran for about 20 minutes, and were within 5-10 minutes of the waterfall. We passed a Honduran couple heading back up the same trail we had traveled an hour before, when I just had a feeling that they might be able to help us. I asked them, in pathetically bad Spanish after spending a weekend surrounded by fellow Gringos, if they had seen a pair of glasses down at the waterfall. Low and behold, the guy opens his bag and has them right there! John was about 20 meters ahead of me at this point, still trying to get down to the waterfall before the big tour group, when I yelled down to him and told him that we got his glasses! Boy was he happy.
And our reward for this fantastic find was a trek back up the hill that was about 5-10 minutes shorter than it would have been otherwise, but with a renewed energy from our shocking success. I won't tell any of my colleagues this, but the extra hiking time and distance was just what I needed, anyway :-).
Not only were we successful, but we were even able to get back soon enough to catch the next bus back to Tegucigalpa! A cute 6 year old boy sat next to me on the bus once it started getting crowded, and he was quite excited to show me how he has learned to count to 11 in English, and has learned some songs in English as well (are you sleeping, brother john?). He then proceeded to fall asleep against my arm while his mother across the aisle smiled at her son's ability to make a new Gringo friend. It was a nice end to our weekend in the woods.
This past week, we are lucky enough to have beautiful weather, and I played a lot more basketball and soccer. Tomorrow, our group of 51 trainees gets split into 3 groups according to our project. I will be going to the town of El Paraíso with 18 other business project trainees. Here, at Field-Based Training, we'll have more opportunities to use our Spanish and newly acquired business skills with the community in a variety of short-term projects (since we'll be there for 5 weeks overall).
I'm excited to go...as much fun as training has been so far, it has started to feel a bit repetitive, going to school everyday, and I'm about ready for a change. This should be much more interactive with the community and feel less like school. I get to meet a new family tomorrow, and look forward to integrating myself into this new family.
So, the next couple of days should be busy as I get used to another new home. But, soon enough, I hope to get another update to you with my thoughts on my new town, the business project, and my progress with Spanish.
El Paraíso is located 15 km from the Nicaragua border, and is a big coffee producing area. Like many regions of Honduras, there is a lot of agriculture surrounding the town, although coffee seems to be the dominant crop (the headquarters of Cafi El Indio is in the center of town). Corn, bananas, avocados, and other local fruits are also quite common, however. The landscape is a little bit flatter, making it easier to have larger agricultural fields than in the areas around Santa Lucia and Valle de Angeles and much of the central highlands area of the country.
The town itself is quite quaint, with a main street running through the heart of the business spots (three banks, corner stores called pulperias - they’re everywhere!, clothing stores, shoe stores, barber shops, bakeries, and a nice park with playgrounds and a basketball court which doubles as a mini-soccer field). There is also a plaza located diagonally 2 blocks away with a dry fountain (it may have water at other times of the year I’m not sure), more grass areas with benches and playgrounds, and surrounded by a church, the town hall, and a Culture Center. As I learned in my visit to Comayagua, every Spanish-style town founded in Latin America had this basic formula the town hall and a Catholic church surrounding a plaza, and the town expands outward from there. So, this is nothing too unusual, but it is still a very nice place to relax in the shade during the hot part of the day. The front steps of the Town Hall double as a stage for some dancing productions that have occurred over the course of the last two weeks.
Despite the quaintness of the town, it can also seem a bit suffocating without a cinema or too many places to go for nightlife (I’ll elaborate on that a little later). A rare treat, though, and an invaluable treasure which makes living in El Paraíso not only manageable but quite lovely is Cafi D Palo, located at the northeast corner of the plaza. The owner, Carlos, admittedly has no clue how to run a business, and is currently receiving some help with this from some Peace Corps volunteers in town. Still, it is widely recognized as the best non-discotec (dance club) nightspot in all of eastern Honduras the draw is two-fold: first, a relaxed atmosphere that makes it the only place in town that is worthwhile of a night out chatting with friends and meeting other locals and travelers; second, a cultural draw on weekends when there is an open mic opportunity for budding and blossoming musicians both local and from other parts of the country (add Peace Corps volunteers to the mix during these four weeks, too). While it can be exciting to play yourself or see your friends play, the main draw is still the owner himself. Carlos is not a businessman he s a musician, and a really good one, at that! He s a fantastic guitarist, has a beautiful voice, and performs with a captivating stage presence that forces everyone in the room to focus on him. It really is a special thing to see. He s also a very nice guy, and loves having us Peace Corps folk around to talk to and perform with. So, D Palo is definitely the hotspot in town.
Concerning town dynamics, there is also a very noticeable contrast in town between the haves and have-nots. Both the coffee farm owners and the field workers live in town, and although I haven t gotten all of the information about labor here, my guess is that the workers get paid barely enough to maintain a minimal subsistence for their families. So, although we are not living in the most extravagant living conditions possible, as far as Honduras living goes, I’m pretty well off!
As far as accommodations go, I have got it made here in El Paraíso! I’ve got my own room complete with cable TV, the house is quite nice, and there are two housekeepers who clean, do laundry, and make meals. It’s about as posh of a lifestyle at home as I’ve ever had, actually J. The family is also quite nice. I was a little confused initially with the various family members who are constantly coming and going, but I think I’ve got most of it figured out now! Mom and Dad, Monchita and Fernando, have 6 kids three boys and three girls. The oldest three (two girls and a boy) are married and are in their 30s or late 20s. Then, Yeni (pronounced like Jenny) and Neri (like Neddi) go to University in Tegucigalpa, and are only around on weekends (although they’ve been around all of the past week for independence day vacation). Freddi is 16 years old, and I spend the most time hanging out with him around the house.
The father is a coffee farm owner, and also owns some cattle pasture lands and banana fields. The mother owns 3 or 4 stores in town that sell school supplies, clothes, or odds and ends such as toiletries. So, the family is doing pretty well all and all!
Classes here at FBT have been much more relaxed, and have us more integrated with the community. The idea behind Field-Based Training is to start applying the language and technical skills we now have and become more comfortable as part of the community. Of course, it is still quite different because there are 19 of us here, but it is definitely good practice. In language class, we are continuing to learn more grammatical things, but mostly, we are encouraged to talk more with people in the community (for example, my class of 4 is leading a discussion about reducing garbage, recycling, and not littering this coming Wednesday). In business class, we have met with several different organizations to either practice the skills we have or learn new ones: Here is a rough description of what we’ve done:
When we returned, we talked about how much we liked El Paraíso and Honduras in general, but there was too much trash everywhere. We emptied a full bag of chips bags, bottles, straws, and other garbage we’d gathered on the street that morning to prove the point. They all agreed that the classroom was much uglier with all of the trash there. Our next activity was a contest to see which of the four teams could collect the most trash from the schoolyard. So, all 52 kids sprinted outside and began collecting garbage. More chaos (although intentional). After we put all of the trash in bags, we returned to the classroom for a closing message to remember to put trash in wastebaskets and to help keep El Paraíso, como Paraíso (Make the city of the Paradise like Paradise). It wasn’t a long charla (maybe about 40 minutes), but it definitely sucks out a lot of energy! I had a great time, though, and really enjoy interacting with the kids here.
Much physical activity (woo-hoo!). I’ve played a lot of basketball with about 8 of the other trainees. I’ve gone running in the morning to get me that refreshing, energized start to the day (and to make that cold shower at 6:15 in the morning a little bit more manageable). We’ve played 3 games of Frisbee now, and although the other guys haven t played before, they’re all athletic, which means that they pick up the game pretty quickly. Still, it’s a lot of fun to be able to dominate J. On a side note, Andrew Kerr, my opponent at least 10 times who played Ultimate for Haverford College, joined Peace Corps Honduras 3 months before me, and will be stopping by in two weeks to give us a little talk about life in the field it should be fun to get on the field with him again, too!
I went to see a Honduran National League soccer game between the team from Danli (in the province of El Paraíso, 20 minutes away) against San Pedro Sula, the second biggest city in the country. It was a fun game to watch, and the thunderstorm in the middle made the whole experience seem a bit surreal. I hope to get the opportunity to attend more after I gain more of an allegiance to a particular team.
Last Saturday, I went to one of my family's pasturelands on top of a nearby mountain, where they have cows grazing. I didn’t quite understand how important this pasture was, since I only saw three cows there, but I think it’s possible that this is just an extra enterprise my family has that isn't really important for family finances (this is just a guess, though). Also, I went to a professional soccer game between the local team from Danli, against the second best team in the country, San Pedro Sula.
My friend Tony (who was a stock analyst in San Francisco until he got fed up with that type of life and decided to join Peace Corps at the age of 39) and I played in an organized soccer game yesterday on the team of the El Paraíso police, against a team from a neighboring city. What a blast! I was kind of nervous, since these guys were pretty good players, and although I wasn’t great, I wasn’t terrible either. They want both of us to play more in the future. Unfortunately, I missed the game yesterday, though we have two more games next Tuesday and Wednesday I can t wait! It was a bit of a bummer, though, when they elected me to take the penalty shot after a penalty inside the box I was so nervous! I hadn't taken a penalty shot in at least 8 years in practice, let along a game! I missed terribly, knocking the ball way over the top of the goal. The team got a kick out of that and all the teasing was good nature, and I vowed to make it next time we’ll see!
On Friday, we had our going away party for the whole community of trainees and the host families. This was also a lot of fun. We presented certificates of appreciation to all of the families, and all of the trainees said a few words of thanks to their host families. It was a nice gesture that was well received, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. After this, we had a piqata for the kids, which was also a great crowd-pleaser. The rest of the night was just a dance party - as with most Latin cultures, dancing plays a big role, and us "Gringos" were doing our best to follow along. Because we all knew each other's families after being here for 4 weeks, it was fun to be dancing with friends. I think that it's the blonde hair, and especially the blue eyes, but the teenaged girls loved us! Everywhere I went, I had a little entourage of 15-18 year olds following me around - it was really cute. They thought it was the funniest thing in the world when I tried to imitate their dancing (poorly, of course), but thought it was great that I was out there trying.
It's a really big contrast between Valle de Angeles and El Paraíso in general concerning the welcome that we received. In Valle, the townspeople are much more used to having foreigners around - both because it is a fairly popular tourist attraction for the artisan shops and it's closeness to Tegucigalpa, and because of the peace corps volunteers that live there twice a year for 2 months. But in El Paraíso, having Americans around was truly a new phenomenon, and everywhere I went, I felt like a rock star :-). The little kids were fascinated by us, and stared at me with mouths agape when I passed by. When I said hello to them, it looked like I made their day. Sometimes, they would just whisper to their friends "Gringo" and point. Then, all of the teenaged girls and younger would just giggle, or whisper to each other, or call out in English, "I love you" before running back inside their house giggling. The teenage and university guys were thrilled that we played basketball and soccer. They really wanted to try to beat the Americans in basketball, and always wanted a Honduras vs. USA game. In soccer, they gave us opportunities to play, but definitely had the confidence that we were in their area! The adults were also very interested in why we were there, and being the upper crust of the socio-economic crowd, they had their own, interesting ideas about what to do to improve the town. One of my highlights was playing in two soccer games with the police department in an official game (me and one other American, Tony). I didn't even do too bad out there, and they were thrilled to have us on the team.
Because the basketball court was in the central park, there were always people around, and between my time there and my visit to the school to do a little talk on littering, I felt that a lot of kids knew who I was...it was such a nice feeling to be walking down the street, and have kids often coming up to me and say "Hola, Jeremías [pronounced like Heremias]". I didn't know who the kid was 90% of the time, but that didn't matter...as long as I said hello back to them and asked how they were doing, they were thrilled.
I had such a wonderful experience there, and unfortunately my era of good feeling came to an end when I found out about my site. My site is the village of San Juancito, right next to the national park La Tigra, where I've already gone twice. My problem with the site is that it is 15 km from Valle, where I've lived for 2 months, and I will have to go through Valle to leave my site every single time. I wanted some separation from my life as a trainee, and feel that I'm going to be too close to really form my own, new identity as a Peace Corps volunteer. I'm still debating what to do about it...whether I just see how it actually goes, or if I should request a site change before I get too much more involved with it.
So, that's really it for now. We have three more weeks of training, although four days at the end of this next week will be our site visit. I can't believe we're almost going out there.
This is my first entry as an official Volunteer of the Peace Corps. I spent my first 3 months here in training with 50 other potential PCVs, and last Friday, we had our swear-in ceremony at the house of the Ambassador of the United States. But first, I’m going to describe two other significant events leading up to this ending of training/beginning of service point. First, I now know where I will be living for the next two years! And second, I had a great birthday present last Wednesday, when I met the president of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro, insisted on wishing me a happy birthday in person (yes, I am that important).
About 2 weeks ago, I made the long trip (just kidding, it was about 10 km) from my current home in Valle de Angeles (which itself is 22 km from the capital of Tegucigalpa) to San Juancito, my chosen site for the next two years! When I first found out that I was going here, I was very disappointed. Everyone else was going to new places far away from where we’ve been in training for the past three months. Our volunteer life, separate from our trainee life, seemed new and exciting, and I was ready to start my real stint as a Peace Corps volunteer without any clue about what the experience would be like. But instead, I was going 10 km past Valle de Angeles to San Juancito, which I had already visited three times before to go hiking! But, after a couple days of thinking about my site, I’ve become very excited to live and work there.
I will have the luxury of being in a small town, where I wanted to live, while being close enough to Tegucigalpa to not be very isolated. In San Juancito, there are about 3,000 people, 3 pulperias (corner stores), a Catholic church, two eateries (which serve the same food for every meal û tortillas with beans, cheese, and fried bananas), one primary school, and one high school. The majority of the residents are farmers (of coffee to export, and then vegetables for consumption or to sell locally), and the rest of the people work in Tegucigalpa. So, having access to Tegucigalpa will be very nice if I ever want to eat anything besides tortillas, beans, cheese, rice, or bags of chips! But there are many potential projects with which I can work - there's a coffee cooperative which is trying to get more competitive prices to sell on the international and national market, a savings and loan branch of the same coop, a potential honey production enterprise to start, a cultural foundation that encourages the advancement of the arts, a computer center that gives basic computer skills classes (Mom, there’s an opening for you!), a tourism board, and of course, there are always projects working with kids. We'll see how it all goes!
The other exciting thing was the opportunity to meet President Ricardo Maduro on October 22nd. Now here is an impressive individual. He was born in Panama, and raised in Honduras, although he went to high school in Lawrenceville, NJ, and university at Stanford. After that, he returned to Honduras, where he was a successful businessman, and then the president of the Central Bank. I believe that he always had a hand in politics (as most successful businessman do, especially here), but things really changed when his daughter was kidnapped and killed. After that, he decided to run for public office, with a "stop the violence" campaign as his slogan. Since gangs have become a very powerful, scary, and dangerous threat over the past 5 years especially, the campaign hit home for a lot of people and he won the presidency in 2001.
He makes a point to meet with all of the new Peace Corps volunteers in his country to express his gratitude to them, and to explain his goals and aspirations for the country. Economically speaking, he obviously knows what he’s talking about (with a background in economics and as president of the Central Bank), and I think that the macroeconomic situation of Honduras has already improved...as president of the Central Bank, he had insisted on no longer pegging the lempira to the US dollar (which is currently at 17.5 L to $1), and although Honduras still has about 10% inflation each year, it’s much, much better than what it was. He is also involved in talks with 5 Central American countries and the United States to form CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement). I’m a little skeptical of this and the positive effect it will have on Honduras. However, when I asked him about the positive aspects of such an agreement for Honduras, I got the impression that there is a lot of pressure from the United States to sign. Although Maduro gave the usual free trade will improve efficiency and lower prices argument, I think that the US is still the driving force for the agreements.
Another monetary issue that is quite controversial right now is that Maduro recently froze the salaries of all government employees. The largest group affected by this is teachers, and they have protested three or four times in the last month and a half in front of the Casa Blanca. While on the surface, this seems like a terrible thing, I can understand Maduro’s reasoning û all government salaries have been increasing about 10% each year, and there just isn’t enough money to sustain this annual increase. Therefore, he wants to freeze teacher’s (and other) salaries, so federal funds can go towards the hiring of new government employees (especially teachers and police officers), since the current ones are grossly understaffed right now. The average class size in elementary schools is 35 kids, and that number is much, much greater in the rural areas. More teachers is a necessity. Concerning safety, Honduras has about 6,000 police officers in the entire country of about 6.5 million people in an area the size of Kentucky û compare this to New York, with perhaps 1 million more people, and of course a much, much smaller area to patrol û 44,000 police officers! With new legislation making it illegal to even be a member of a gang, more police officers a re definitely needed to enforce the law. Maduro also talked about education efforts, encouraging tourism, and helping modernize farming techniques so the small farmers can compete in a global market. Overall, Maduro was an articulate, poised speaker (in English), and I certainly support many of his targeted areas of improvement. Now, I’ll try to see how many of these things are actually going according to plan, and of course there’s always the x-factor in Latin American politics - corruption!
Moving on to Friday, our day of swear-in, that was a fun day! Of course, it couldn’t start without a little chaos, when our buses arrived late to pick us up from our respective bus stops in Valle de Angeles and Santa Lucia. The buses took us to the Intercontinental Hotel (the nicest hotel in Tegucigalpa), which is located next to a huge, American-style mall complete with big department stores and even T.G.I. Fridays. The San Martin Hotel overbooked their rooms, and since the same person owns the San Martin and the Intercontinental, we were all upgraded! We dropped off our luggage before heading to the swear-in ceremony.
Our bus of 51 soon-to-be volunteers drove up into the hills of the city to the high security home of the ambassador of the United States to Honduras, Larry Palmer. As the electric fence was opened and the 2 foot thick wall gave way, we entered a small bit of paradise among the poverty, pungency, and pollution of Tegucigalpa. Lush green, landscaped lawns, beautiful flowers of all colors, and trimmed trees lined the long driveway towards the house. My eyes really lit up when I saw the play area where we were headed. A large pool surrounded by shaded tables and lounge chairs was next to the tennis court, which was next to the sand volleyball court, which was next to the basketball court - perfect! I spent the 3 hours of the morning engaging in (and winning, of course) all of these activities. My hope is that the ambassador and I can become good buddies (since I’ll be living close to Tegucigalpa) and we can spend many days lounging by the pool or hitting some balls around on the tennis court - we’ll see!A catered lunch preceded the swear-in ceremony, as well. The one thought that I couldn’t shake from my mind was what a different sort of life this was û us Peace Corps volunteers, basically making no money, and provided with a living allowance to live at the same level as our neighbors, as opposed to the ambassador, who has the house of a multi-millionaire (the estate is owned by the US government, though, so obviously it’s not his once he leaves the post). So, as far as a post-Peace Corps existence goes, the Foreign Service, and being an ambassador more specifically, seem like pretty nice options for anyone looking for a life of luxury outside of the United States.
During lunch and for an hour after, our US Ambassador, Larry Palmer, entertained our questions about a variety of issues. He has had an extremely interesting life, and seems like a genuinely sincere and good person. Still, the compromises that one must make once one becomes an ambassador seemed quite clear as well. He is about 6’4, African American, and probably in his late 50s. He was a Vietnam War protester in the late 60s, and shortly after finishing college in 1970, he joined the Peace Corps, where he served for two years in Liberia. After that, he took his Foreign Service exam, and he has lived in a multitude of countries in Latin America and Africa since then. He was in Sierra Leone in the mid 90s as an ambassador, and has been in Honduras since 2001. It was a bit disconcerting at times to see that with his role as the official representative of the President of the United States here in Honduras, he often has to defend policies and decisions with which he would not otherwise agree. Still, overall, he made it quite clear that he has his own strong beliefs and honestly does his best to live by his own judgments each day. Although he did not say outright that he did not support the war in Iraq, his statement made all of us believe that if he had the freedom to speak his mind, he would protest the war effort. His statement was very diplomatic: I strongly believe that both then and now, President Bush firmly believed that Iraq posed a threat to the security of the United States, and that he acted in accordance with his convictions. Therefore, I support his actions. He was very warm and open with us the entire time, and was a great fan of long, drawn-out stories to answer questions. The hour went by much quicker than anyone wished, since we all wanted to pick his brain for much more time.
After that, we had our swearing-in ceremony, which consisted of giving an oath to uphold the ideals of the constitution of the United States, etc. The highlight of the ceremony, though, was the speech from our group representative, Brock Widener. Brock has become a pretty good friend of mine, and so for that reason, I was happy that he won the opportunity to speak to us, and on our behalf to our language and technical trainers, the head honchos of Peace Corps Honduras, and the Ambassador. But more than that, if you could think of the perfect combination for a public speaker to have an outgoing personality, charm, wit, genuine friendliness, good-natured humor, self-confidence, and a touch of Texan-style arrogance, that’s Brock in a nutshell. He’s a charmer and a schmoozer, and he isn’t more comfortable anywhere but in the spotlight. During training he wanted to have a big party/night out together with the whole group of 50 people at least every 2 or 3 weeks for his own sanity. That’s when he’s in his element, and he feeds off of that energy. During these nights out, we have about 6 guys in our group who play guitar, and everyone always gets the opportunity to play. But Brock’s a little different - when he has the guitar and center stage, he doesn’t just play, he performs! The guitar is stroked a little more emphatically, and the decibel level of the singing gets tweaked a couple notches higher. If you’re having a nice conversation in the corner, he won’t be completely satisfied until that conversation ceases to either sing along or just watch The Performer in action. And because he truly is a great, friendly, inclusive (not clique-y at all, he tries to include everyone), guy with a magnetic personality, it’s ok that he does this!
So, anyway, this is our training class representative, and he nails the presentation. He starts off by talking in Spanish (he has a pretty good level of Spanish, although he was disappointed that he didn’t reach the level of Advanced) to our Spanish instructors, thanking them for the work they’ve done, making little remarks about some of the personalities, and overall charming them like he has done to them and us for the last 12 weeks. Brock spoke after both Larry Palmer and Cisco, our country director, who also began speaking in Spanish before switching to English to address us volunteers. And the ironic thing about it is that Brock was many times better at speaking Spanish than both of these people of high rank and with at least 2 years living in Honduras under their respective belts!
When he switched to English, he really captured the essence of our group. He described his experience coming here as (in his opinion), a liberal Texan. After meeting some of the leftists, and socialists, and atheists in our group, though, he admitted that he doesn’t even know what the word liberal means! He described some specific moments that were particularly interesting or funny or memorable during our training (such as beating the CHP staff in soccer for the first time ever!), and left us with the advice to stay positive and enjoy our time here û not everything will go as we hoped, but overall, the experience is what you make of it. And that’s absolutely true û development is a slow process, and successes are often measured by one person at a time û empowering them with knowledge, teaching them technical skills, or encouraging them to think. So, it’s unlikely to have a new hotel built in my new site to help with the development of tourism, or that all local corruption will be erased. Still, if the ideas about some of these things are changed, then we can consider ourselves successful. And it’s with this outlook that I head out now to San Juancito, about an hour and a half from the capital of Tegucigalpa, where I hope to Make a Difference!
As far as a little description of my life here goes, I am living in a small community of about 3,000 people (it feels smaller) in a beautiful, mountain village in the foothills of La Tigra National Park, a cloud forest and protected watershed area. The center of town is at an elevation of about 1200 meters (3900 ft.), and the villages up higher in the mountains reach 2100 meters (5900 ft.). The elevation keeps the climate rather cool, and quite pleasant; it’s been cool enough to wear a sweatshirt at times, but normally during the day, I don’t even have to think about preparing for any drastic change in temperature (short-sleeves is fine). I am about 35 km from the capital, Tegucigalpa, which is close enough to reach on a regular basis if necessary, yet worlds away when one considers lifestyle and pace of life.
There’s really only two flat areas in all of San Juancito; one is on a plateau overlooking the river that runs through the center of town and is the home of the soccer field. The other flat area is a parking area for 4 cars in front of the cooperative where I’m working. To get anywhere, though, it requires walking up or down hills. And these are some serious hills, too! So, if nothing else, I’ll have two years of good daily hiking! The mountains that envelope the village are covered by lush vegetation from the nearly daily (nightly) rains. Forests dominate the mountainside in all directions, although plots of terraced farmland also dot the lands. Higher up on the mountain of La Tigra, a handful of yellow and red houses add a little variety to the otherwise green landscape.
But there’s much more! The town is a picturesque model of rural/village Honduran living in many respects. The quiet, small-town feel is apparent on sight of the town, and is secured the first time you meet anyone. The warmth and generosity towards visitors is truly remarkable. I was immediately accepted into the community, and have kids and teens of all ages calling out my name in greeting any time I walk anywhere in town! As in many areas in Honduras, agriculture is the most important economic activity. San Juancito has especially good weather for temperate crops. Banana trees, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, guavas, squash, onions, oranges, and cabbage are just some of the crops grown here, although coffee is the dominant cash crop here.
I am working with a coffee cooperative, whose main objectives are to provide an intermediary organization to empower the small coffee farmers, and support the community through education, providing a small savings and loan bank, and running a general store. My main activities there, so far, has been to help with the marketing and securing foreign investors and customers of San Juancito coffee (which is very good, I must say!).
Another great organization I am working with is called the San Juancito Foundation, which provides two main services. First, a metal and glasswork factory school teaches interested people of the town how to make various crafts. The hope is that eventually, former students can branch out and open up their shops to support themselves. Second, a cultural school gives kids an opportunity to explore art, music, dance, theater, and computers that are not available in public school. It is called the "Magic School," and it has gained national and Central American recognition for its programs. Just before I came to San Juancito, a group of 12 kids in the theater program went to El Salvador to participate in a theater competition for groups from all over Central and South America and they were the only kids group to attend! I am helping to organize the computer classes that are offered, and will also be supporting the factory by providing basic business and marketing skills to help the students interested in opening their own businesses. Additionally, a group of women make recycled paper products as a separate but affiliated part of the Foundation.
On top of all of these opportunities, the proximity of a national park gives San Juancito the potential to capitalize on tourism possibilities. So, I am working with the national park and with the town in general to develop some of the necessary steps to encourage tourism.
So, all in all, life here is exciting and full of possibility. The one aspect of the experience that can’t be explained fully is how wonderful all the people are - you’ll have to visit me to see for yourself!
I go back outside to look for Jodi, and she's at the far end of the walkway next to a taxi looking a little bewildered and scared. When she sees me, some tears start sneaking down her cheek, happy that her lonely helplessness has come to an end!
From Jodi's perspective, she had a bit of a rough go! All was going well when she left Miami airport thanks to Mark and Aunt Elfriede. However, a short while later when she landed in Honduras, her first travel issues surfaced. She followed the line of people exiting the plane, got her passport stamped, and went to wait for her luggage to arrive. After waiting there for several minutes, a man comes up to her and in broken English, asks her where she is going. She says "Tegucigalpa, and San Juancito" and he gets the message across that she has to get back on the plane! Although it didn't say anything about a stopover on her ticket, the plane first stopped in San Pedro Sula before continuing on to Tegucigalpa! To confuse matters further, her EST daylight savings time arrival was a little after 5:10 pm, her scheduled time of arrival. So, naturally, one would assume that once in Honduras, she was in the right city!
An hour later, she arrives in the CORRECT city, but still thinks that it's EST. So, when she gets her passport stamped (again) and retrieves her enormous bags of luggage (thanks for all the goodies!), she's worried that I've already given up on her. Since she can't carry the bags herself, a taxi driver is nice enough to help her lug the luggage to curbside - and into his taxi, of course! After not even looking at a Spanish book before or during her trip, Jodi had no idea how to say that she didn't need a taxi - just her brother (which she thought might be perro, or something?). But luckily, her overall uncertainty about taking the taxi shined through, and the taxi driver understood enough to take the bags out of the car. Ten minutes later (an eternity to a lost traveler), I FINALLY show up, leisurely strolling by after enjoying my grenita from New York Cappuccino. So, a bit frazzled, we began our Semana Santa (Holy Week) together.
From that point, things have picked up! Sunday night, we saw some of the traditional artwork that is done by the children of the Escuela Mágica in the church to celebrate Easter with colored sawdust. Afterwards, we visited Regina to have a nice chat in English before she left for her vacation house the next day. Finally, we enjoyed a nice dinner at home, courtesy of Ruth, whose hospitality came through like always.
Monday, we took a long walk up to El Rosario and La Tigra National Park. Monica and Jorge gave us a delicious, German lunch (it was basically latkes!), and we shared our matzah crunch with them. Afterwards, we walked to the waterfall, enjoying the beautiful, sunny, hot day (this is the hottest time of year - quite different from when you came!). I also saw a friend - a Canadian volunteer who has been traveling through Central America - and we stopped to chat with her on our way back down. All in all, our day's trek started at 8:30 am, and ended at 6:30 pm - a long, tiring day! But I must say, I'm very impressed with Jodi's hiking abilities. With zero complaints and water breaks along the way, we walked the 3.5 km road up to El Rosario in about 50 minutes. And that was just the prequel to the real hike in the park! But, I think that Jodi enjoyed the physical rigor, and the scenery along the way.
Tuesday, we had a slower day to recover from the previous day's exertion. We threw the frisbee around, threw the football, and visited a watering hole in the river where the locals take a dip. This was an interesting cultural experience, for sure! I would say that no less than 48 rules and regulations of regular pool and lake safety precautions and regulations were violated while we were there! First, I should describe the scene to you...picture a nice, serene mountain stream running past large boulders and a wooded riverbanks. After jumping from rocks and boulders upstream, we arrived at a rudimentary dam made from the surrounding rocks, vines, and imported sandbags. The watering hole is about 25 feet from bank to bank, and maybe 15 feet from the dam to the mini-cascade where the water enters. A huge, slanted boulder provides a so-so sunning opportunity as the sun shines through the trees. The water, at its deepest, is maybe 4 feet deep. From the top of the boulder, maybe 15 feet in the air, a 14 year old DIVES headfirst into the water! No problem! His 19-year-old friend follows suit, and the comedian of the group, the 16 year old, then tries to jump on top of his two friends in the water, barely missing their heads as he splashed down from 15 feet up.
Flips, games of throwing rocks at each other, running along the rocky dam, pushing each other, and of course, more headfirst diving into the shallow waters follow suit. It's amazing to see how fast these barefooted kids can run over slippery, slanted, unsturdy stones, leaping from one boulder to the next, sliding down into the water, jumping back onto the sandbags or rocks of the dam, scurrying past the little pools of water, and always with smiles and laughs! At one point, a misstep brought the 14 year old a couple inches from falling headfirst into one of the bigger rocks in the dam. He just laughed, got up, and continued chasing his friend around the pool! At another point, a misstep knocked over an important rock from its place in the dam, and water started pouring through. No one seemed to concerned, and about 5 minutes later, one of the smaller kids calmly placed the large rock back in its place, and repaired the leaky hole with smaller rocks and vines. No problem! It was certainly a fun experience.
This morning, we woke up early to catch a bus to La Ceiba. Our scheduled departure was 11 (my neighbor Emilio bought tickets for us on Monday), but we were lucky enough to get on the 10 am bus (the last two). It took us over 7 hours to get to La Ceiba! So, here we are in La Ceiba for the night, planning to take a boat to Utila tomorrow morning. My free place to stay in Utila fell through, so I'm still not sure what we're going to do. We've got sleeping bags (it's hot, though, and they're probably unnecessary) and a tent and we'll find something, I'm sure.
In the meantime, once we arrived, we quickly realized that there was not a single room available on the entire island to stay. I originally thought that I would be staying with friends who are working on an iguana farm there, but they mixed up their dates and didn't arrive until today! So, we were homeless. We didn't let it spoil the fun, though. Wisely, I'd taken along a tent and 2 sleeping bags (one borrowed from a Canadian volunteer), which certainly came in handy! We reserved a spot on a nice sand flea infested area of hard, dead coral by a hotel (which we of course had to pay for anyway!), and went about our day. Our initial diving plans were busted when we found out that Jodi could not do a night dive because she doesn't have an advanced certification, and didn't have her logbook to prove her prior experience. Still, we had a nice, relaxed night out, dining with a couple from Australia, going to Coco Loco which was a lot more chill than its name implies, and chatting with some people at the hotel before setting up our tent and retiring to dreams of clownfish weaving in and out of the dead coral beneath our heads. On the positive, it was the only night when Jodi wasn't viciously attacked by the sand fleas/flies...the netting on the tent really works!
Throughout our time traveling to/from the islands and during our time there, it was HOT! Everyday, there were blue skies, and a strong sun glaring at us. The second day, we decided to challenge its ferocity by walking from the south to the north end of the island. We explored the rocky shoreline, walked the small airstrip (reminiscent of the one in Grenada for me), and returned before noon to go on an afternoon dive.
The afternoon dive was very nice - our dive leader was knowledgeable and very good at finding interesting things to see. The company was good - including a couple of friends traveling from Guatemala with their families - and we enjoyed our first dives in 9 months and almost two years, respectively. Later that night, we hung out with some of my Peace Corps friends, who thankfully invited us to crash on their floor in their hotel. It might have been half of a notch better than the night before, but at least it kept us off the rocks!
Saturday, we looked to go to Water Cay to enjoy some pristine beaches and crystal clear snorkeling waters, but couldn't find any other people to go with us (we needed 4). Stupidly, I hadn't brought enough money to the island, and the two banks were closed our entire time there because of the holidays. So, we were pinching our pennies, and even borrowed some money from my PC friend. Luckily, just before giving up, we found three Brits going, and jumped aboard a slow, Honduran-paced motorboat with them. The island was beautiful. There were fantastic underwater caves of coral to explore, and a lot of different fish to chase. We needed Jonathan to identify a lot of them, but it was still quite enjoyable. Still, with snorkeling being literally the only thing to do there, our 4 hours on the island was a bit much. Our slow-paced driver finally returned at about 5:15, and we made it back to Utila at about 6 pm.
Our last hope for getting money was a cinema that advertised cash advances for Visa credit cards. So, when we returned, I ran over there to get some money out...they didn't have any - not until Monday! So, we were still without money, and I was a little worried about our next meal. Luckily, Jodi remembered that Mermaid's, where we had dined once before, took credit card, and we went back there. The owner is the husband of a friend of Regina's, and charged my credit card for the dinner and an additional $20, which he gave back to me in lempiras. So, I thought that we would be all right for money with one more night to go.
That night, we hung out with the Guatemalans we met the day before scuba diving, dancing and watching fire twirling, and slapping sand flies off our ankles and legs. Coco Loco more accurately lived up to its name, and we stayed until it closed at 2 am. Hotels began to empty, too, and we even had beds for the night! However, we didn't take advantage of them too much, though, since we went to sleep at about 3 am, and were up at 6 am for one last day of diving.
But it was worth it! "Sunday Funday" consisted of two dives, looking for whale sharks (the biggest fish on Earth and rarely spotted...except in Utila!), a barbeque, and beach volleyball and frisbee. What a fantastic day! The scuba diving was fun, but the highlight was swimming with the whale sharks and dolphins we found. The process for swimming with the whale shark was hilarious. Our captain, Albert, would look for the small fish that follow whale sharks around breaking the surface, and get us within striking (a.k.a. swimming) distance it them. We would get our masks, snorkels and fins on, and sit on the side of the boat, ready to jump in on first command. On his order, 20 bodies would "softly" flop into the water and chase after the large creature, which didn't want to be bothered by such pestering. Our first jump-in was a failure for Jodi and me, but after that, things were much better. The next jump-in, I swam right alongside the whale shark from the surface down to about 30 feet (before I remembered that unlike the whale shark, I am NOT a fish and needed to return to the surface to breath that good ol' air), so pumped up with adrenaline that I didn't even realize how far down I had swam. A couple attempts later, one of our new friends, in her anxiousness to get into the water with the whale shark, literally pushed Jodi in, and on top of the whale shark! So, Jodi was eye to eye with this enormous animal, which must have been a big peeved by the disturbance. Unbeknownst to Jodi, whale sharks eat plankton (like many whales), and she was a bit freaked out (and let out a nice, girly scream) to be so close to the creature. So, while the rest of us frantically tried to get closer to the shark, Jodi tried to swim away with the shark following her! Quite an exhilarating experience. To make it even better, a pod of dolphins started following us as well, teasing us as they zipped under, over, and around the slow moving smokeless. What a fun experience!
So, when we found out that due to boat trouble we had to skip the beach volleyball, we were all quite satisfied with the day's activities. Instead, we came back for a barbeque, hanging out in a Jacuzzi, and getting to know our Funday companions better.
Traveling back from Utila to San Juancito was tough, too. It seemed that all of Honduras was returning on the same day from the north coast to Tegucigalpa, and the direct lines were all booked until late in the evening. So, we woke up at 5:30 am to take a ferry from Utila to La Ceiba at 6:30, a bus from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula at 9 am, and after a couple of strikeouts, a slow, local bus from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa at 1:30. The last bus left from Tegucigalpa to San Juancito at 6 pm, but we got there at 6:30. So, we took a bus to Valle de Angeles, and paid some people there to take us the rest of the way (not without some more hardships, of course) to San Juancito. We arrived at about 9:30 pm, after a LONG day of travel.
So, overall, we had a great time together, and Jodi is a really good travel companion! Hopefully she arrives safely tonight, knows what time zone she's in, and is ready for her tests coming up this week!
On Saturday, May 8th, I took the bus from San Juancito to Tegucigalpa to meet up with my fellow Peace Corps volunteers Adam and Karen, and her friend from the States, Vishant, to go hiking in Sierra de Agalta National Park in the department of Olancho. As always seems to be the case, even the beginning of the trip wasn’t without a bit of uncertainty. I missed the 6 am bus (which leaves at 5:50 am), and did not know whether Miguel (my friend from San Juancito who was going to come with me) had taken the bus or not. So, I walk to the main road to catch a bus from Cantarranas with Hector, another friend in town. We wait there for 40 minutes (unlike the 6am San Juancito bus that leaves at 5:50, the 6 am Cantarranas bus leaves at about 6:20, and gets to San Juancito 20 minutes later!). So, I head out solo, worried that I’ve ditched Miguel on our trip before the adventure even begun.
When I arrive in Tegucigalpa, he’s waiting for me at Hospital San Felipe (the bus stop), having taken the 6:45 San Juancito bus (which is faster than the Cantarranas bus, apparently). So, we take off together for the Peace Corps office to meet up with my friends. From there, the five of us, Adam, Karen, Vishant, Miguel, and I, go to the Olancho bus station on the other side of town in the section of Comayaguela. We got there at about 9:30, and waited until after noon before finally leaving: so much for an early morning start! The good thing is that Collin, from Juticalpa, got off the bus we were taking, and gave me directions to Lagan’s house. So, finally, at 3:00, we arrive in Juticalpa and walk for about 20 minutes to the center. We look for Lagan without any luck, grab some food, and look for Lagan again before finally giving up. Next, we walk back to the bus station to try to catch a late afternoon bus to Gualaco: no luck-the last bus left at 2 pm! But in Honduras, there’s always another option! We take the 5pm bus to San Francisco de la Paz, about halfway to Gualaco, without any definitive plan for what to do when we get there. But as usual, Honduras came through for us! We’re basically the last to leave the bus, and the cobrador (money collector) points us to a police station on the main highway to Gualaco and tells us that they’ll stop a car for us to hitch a ride!
I don’t know what was better: the fact that the police actually ended up stopping a car for us who gave a ride all the way to Gualaco, or that the cobrador nonchalantly told us that they would be able to do that! For some reason, I have a hard time imagining the police in the USA offering this service. Like nearly all Hondurans, the police were incredibly nice, and I think that this raggedy group of gringos (plus Miguel) was an amusing sight for them in any case. The highlight of our brief time in front of the police station, though, was Adam confidently approaching one police officer and with that charming smile of his, explaining how we wanted to go to Gualaco, pointing to his right. The police officer smiled, said, no, and said that we want to go to Gualaco (pointing to Adam’s left!). Priceless! We weren’t there for more than 10 minutes when a pickup truck stopped for the police officers, who asked for the driver to give us a ride. Then, they very deliberately told us to sit down in the back, hold on, and be very careful. Yup, that’s the type of impression we gave them-a group of dumb gringos trying to catch a jalón in the wrong direction that would probably get ourselves killed: but sometimes it works to our advantage!
We arrived at about 7:00 pm in Gualaco and walked to the Hotel Santa Lucia (recommended by our Peace Corps friends Ryan and Jena). The manager certainly wasn’t expecting guests that late at night, but quickly made up 3 beds in two rooms for us. We briefly discussed the following day’s plans (without reaching any definite consensus) and turned in. So, the next morning, we still were not sure what to do. We asked the hotel manager if he knew of a guide, and he told us that he would have a guide for us when we came back from breakfast. After some uncertainty concerning our plans for the day, we decided to go to Chorrera Falls, part of the trail to Picucha (the highest mountain in eastern Honduras), at the guide’s suggestion.
We were a little annoyed as we got underway for several reasons. First, shortly after starting the hike (I should have read this beforehand), I realized that Chorrera Falls was not going to be the best destination I could imagine reaching. Second, the first part of the trail was not very pretty at all: it looked like the area had been badly deforested, and did not have the natural beauty we were hoping to find. Third, it was a long hike: a good 3 hours in each direction (without a really impressive waterfall at the end). In addition, the trail soon became a very narrow, poorly maintained, slippery route (which didn’t particularly bother me, but certainly slowed us down), and our guide (Speedy Gonzalez) was always running up ahead of us: I made it very clear to Miguel that he was NOT a good guide (which Miguel is), and Karen and I were constantly bitching about Jose Hernandez. It became a running joke that as soon as we caught up to him, he’d take off again like a sprinter out of the starter’s block. So, if there’s no other work in Gualaco (although I think there’s plenty), they can train the guides on how to guide (including giving information about the park, the wildlife, the history, and other interesting things). Still, we had a fun day, thanks to good company. The waterfall was cold, but powerful, and we enjoyed a little refreshing break between our 3-hour sprints.
We had some pretty dramatic falls on this hike, too. Miguel had the first and funniest flop. For our first time on the hike (about 2 ¢ hours in), we finally reached a river. We had to cross the river, and although there was an easier place to cross, Miguel and I wanted to try to jump over a particularly wide section. Miguel went first. As he plants his foot on a round, moist rock, his foot slips completely, and he falls face first into the water without even coming close to anything resembling a jump! Simply priceless. The other funny thing is how, at this point, the rest of us tried desperately to keep our shoes dry. Karen took her shoes off to cross, and the rest of us tiptoed from stone to stone, trying to stay dry: 15 minutes later, we had all had one unfortunate slip or another, and were tromping through the stream with our footwear without a second thought! On the way back, Karen had the scariest fall of the day, nearly hitting her head on a rock as she stepped on a slippery, moss-covered rock. But, we all came back more or less intact!
For some reason, I seemed to possess the uncanny ability to attract an exorbitant number of ticks! I think that for the day, I pulled between 80 and 100 ticks off of my body! There were many theories, but I think that my trailblazing, combined with shorts, hairy legs, and the absence of insect repellent, were the leading contributors to my attractiveness.
Our second day in Gualaco, we decided to go guideless (judging by our previous day’s experience, this was a no-brainer!). We started out late in the morning on a flat, wide dirt road, passing beautiful homes that seemed to be a couple notches up from the rural houses we’ve seen in all other areas of Honduras. The houses and yards were well maintained, and the farm animals didn’t look like they were starving! We caught a jalón for a kilometer or two, and then continued on foot to the Cuevas de Susmay (Susmay Caves). What a fun day! A young boy came to escort us through the dry cave. We climbed, crawled, boosted our friends, and traversed slightly hairy crossings around boulders to get to the cave opening. At this point, the guide said something quickly (which Miguel didn’t catch), and scurried ahead into the dark cave ahead. Only once we had entered the danger zone did we realize what he told us: we were trespassing on the heavily protected lands of a wasp nest: and boy did they make us pay for it! Stupidly, I thought that if I just walked quickly, they wouldn’t bother me. Note to self: when crossing enemy territory, RUN! I was last, and I think I got the worst of the wasp bites because of it: somewhere in the vicinity of ten bites. To make matters worse, we had run into the dark cave, so I couldn’t even see what was biting me! Eventually, the pain subsided and we continued through the caves on a fun mini-spelunking excursion. We saw some beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations, and squeezed through some small openings before making it back to daylight.
At this point, the guide left us (without a tip, by the way, because he disappeared: guides have a lot to learn here!) to fend for ourselves through the lower cave and the river that flows through it. One by one, we submerged ourselves waist high into the icy waters and began to walk through the crystal clear water deeper into the cave. What a beautiful place! The walls glistened with moisture, and the river added to the mystique. Since Miguel can’t swim, he was a little afraid that his next step was going to take him into water over his head, but I acted as guide for him (which is fine since he’s a good 4-5 inches taller than me) and we made it through without much trouble. When the river seemed to hit a roadblock (or riverblock of collapsed rocks), Miguel and I (the only two with shoes) decided to explore a little more. What fun! We could have explored higher up and further back if there weren’t three others patiently freezing in the water waiting for us. The rocks sparkled with a bluish-purple glow under our flashlights back here, giving us the feeling of being surrounded by the most amazing, vivid starry night you could imagine. Since the air temperature in the cave was probably in the 50s, we didn’t really warm up much even out of the water, so we tried to get back to the light and head of day as soon as possible.
On our walk back, we hopped on the back of a big truck used for transporting livestock to speed up the trip back. Five gringos were hanging on for dear life while standing on the bumper as the truck hit bump after bump on the rough dirty road. This mode of transportation is not going to pass any safety requirements in the States, but there’s no beating it for the adventure aspect of it! Karen gave out a little scream as one bump sent us all flying upwards. Further ahead, we were passed by the family that owns Comedor Sharon, where we had eaten nearly all of our meals. The two girls got out to wait for us, and we hopped off our rustic ride to walk back into town with them. They took us to a spot in the river to cool off and play around a little bit in water that didn’t make us numb. That night, they treated us to baleadas for dinner, and card games for after-dinner fun. The penalty for losing was drinking a horrifically sweet Honduran concoction of different fruit-flavored sodas. Urgh! Much worse than alcohol!
Our final day, we woke up early to milk cows! I had never done it before and was looking forward to the experience. It was a fun experience, but at the same time, it’s something that I can now say I’ve done, but don’t feel the need to ever do again! It was very nice of the Olanchanos to let us try, though. It must have extended their morning milking chore by at least 45 minutes, as they tried to get a cow to let these inexperienced Gringos lay their hands on their udders. A little squeeze and pull, a tiny stream of milk landing in the bucket below, and ya! That was that! The fresh milk straight from the udder was quite delicious, too (sweetened, of course)!
With our milking experience and a pancake breakfast completed, we parted ways: Karen and Vishant headed north with Adam to Trujillo, and Miguel and I headed back to visit his family in San Francisco de la Paz. Miguel seemed really happy to get to see all of his cousins, aunts and uncles in San Francisco de la Paz, and I was introduced to many of them. We spent the day going from house to house, hanging out with many relatives for 20 minutes or so each (with a little basketball game at the park, too). They all promised me that I have to return soon: si Dios quiere!
Next time, I want to visit the waterfalls in the Rio Babilonia, and the Waterfall of Carbon (further down the road). So, I’m ready to return to Olancho for another adventure!