June 7th, 2009
We have now been bat free for almost two straight weeks!! Brian put up some wood and other random objects between the wall and the roof so he can not get in as easily. Also, every time we heard the bat come in we would get out of bed and chase it around with brooms - at like 3 in the morning. Our goal was to kill it (every one tells us to kill the bat by smacking it with a broom), but our ceiling is really high so he would just fly up there so we couldn’t reach him. Then he would fly at us and we would get really scared and duck. So maybe we scared him and that is why he has decided to stop coming into the house.
We gave away two of the three kittens already. We still have one left, but he technically has a home. We just do not want to give him up yet! But the darn mother cat is in heat again and running around town with some male cats. It looks like we will be seeing another litter of kittens before we leave.
The high school put on an event called ‘La Novia del Estudiante‘, which literally means Student Girlfriend. Each class in the high school elected a girl to be their ‘novia.’ Then the girls put on a fashion show. They practiced for about four days - you know walking down the aisle, posing, then walking back up the aisle. Although, they most definitely did not practice smiling while walking and posing. Brian and I went to the big event - it was a BIG event as people got really dressed up - and watched the modeling. The girls only had one wardrobe change (I thought they were going to have two) casual wear and sport wear. Casual wear was really just another word for really short skirt wear and sport wear was the category for really short shorts wear. One girl came out in a tennis outfit, which impressed me because I didn’t know they knew about tennis (although she was carrying a ping pong paddle). The boys REALLY loved her outfit because when she did her little spin they could all see her underwear. Alas, no winner was announced because apparently they have another night where we all go back to hear the winner - I am hoping they also have an evening wear competition. The truly best part about the night was that one of my teacher students karaoke a Vicente Fernandez song - if I cant post my video - I will at least post a You Tube of the song he sang.
***Update - So the competition continues this Friday night (June 12th) with two more outfits - Cowgirl and Evening Wear. And guess what??? Brian has been chosen to be a judge…haha. He doesn’t really feel comfortable being a judge, but I told him I will just tell him whom to pick. BUT now that I know everyone gets all fancy we will dress up too! Oh this is just so exciting!!! ***
Our Peace Corps service is coming to an end…we still have four months, but things are wrapping up. Next week, we have our ‘close of service’ meeting, a ‘regional’ meeting, and then we go on our last vacation in Honduras. We are going to the island of Utila to get SCUBA certified!! Once we get back to Colomoncagua at the start of July we will only have 3 months left…crazy! We are planning on throwing a Fourth of July party for our friends in town - hot dogs, Doritos, USA flag cake, piñata - the usual stuff . It should be a fun way to have a little cultural exchange!
And then we receive our very last visitors - Megan and Luis - Brian’s sister and her novio!! Yay! We are super excited for their visit, but as of right now have nothing planned. Our hope is that they stay in our town over a Sunday to experience our Sunday market, because unfortunately none of our other guests had been able to see it and it is really the most exciting thing our town offers…Plus it is the annual Potato Festival in La Esperanza - which, again, is really the most exciting thing La Esperanza has to offer.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I might be a Vampire
May 15, 2009
Today is a rainy day and I wish that we had internet in the house! Unfortunately, we don’t (we barely have internet in town!). The front of our house turns into the Amazon River when it rains hard and makes it near impossible to get to or from our front door. We literally have to forge the river to get into our house. I don’t want to leave! We have a second little gate that leaves our yard and if it wasn’t chained shut, we could avoid the Amazon, but, of course, it is locked shut.
And we have a bat - or two - or maybe even more. We are not quite sure how many are actually coming into our house, but just about every night in one comes. The bat decided he likes our house to poop in - especially on the extra bed. I have taken to keeping a candle lit at night because I think it keeps the bat from coming into our room. I am quite confident that the candle does nothing, but I need something to help me relax. My fear…thanks to Michelle’s nurse mother… is that it is going to bite me and Peace Corps will have run out of the rabies medicine…or that it will be too rainy for the buses to run and I wont be able to get to the rabies vaccine. Terrible.
I do not know if I should write about this on the blog, but I am going to anyway. As I mentioned a couple of months ago we are having housing issues with the Peace Corps. When we moved into this new house our rent went up quite a lot. I do not feel it is an unreasonable amount, as it seems to be pretty comparable to the other houses in town that are rented out. Anyway, PC will only pay part of our rent (most of it, but Brian and I are pay a small portion out of pocket). This wouldn’t bother me if we had a super nice house, but our house is quite average. I mean, we have bats and a river!! Also, we are being told different things by different Peace Corps staff members - which is just endlessly frustrating for me. What it really comes down to is that I do not think we should have to be paying anything out of pocket or at the very least we deserve an apology from Peace Corps staff members. If you want me to tell you more of the story send me an email…
And a little bit of work info... still teahcing English in the high school. We are pretty busy with them working three days a week. We started our creative projects project in the local elemantary school with 48 fifth graders. So far, things have been going really well - the kids love the projects are they are all worknig really well in their groups. We work with them twice a week. We have also started teaching English to teachers. We have about 26 teachers in the class - so far the classes have gone really well and I think the teachers are enjoying them as well. We taught them the ABC song and they LOVE singing it!! We are also meeting with them twice a week. And finally, we have our Educatodos students - we have two groups and we work them them three days a week. It is pretty amazing how filled our days have become.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Ingles 101
March 10, 2009
So soon and I am posting another blog! Mostly because I realized that in the last one I only spoke of the fun we are having and not a thing about work. And I certainly would NOT want you to think that Peace Corps is all fun and games and NO work!
Work - well, we were asked by the high school principal to teach their English classes. The English teacher is currently out on maternity leave (hopefully coming back!) and the school did not have anyone to take over the classes. Originally, the principal asked Brian to teach one class and for me to teach one class, but there are more than just two classes. So we decided to teach the rest as well. We will find out on Monday just how many classes there are - I am thinking only about 6 more which would mean 3 more classes for me and 3 for Brian. Not too bad. So far I really enjoy teaching the classes as my students are really funny and are pretty good at participating. Also, I just like the feeling of being back in a real classroom and feeling like I have a real job. The major downside is that there are no text books or school materials so we are creating the curriculum and using our own materials.
We are continuing with EDUCATODOS which is school for people that were not able to or did not want to attend regular school. We do not have too many students this year and Brian and I are splitting the class. Thus far, it is much better than last year because I am sharing class with Brian.
Another downside to teaching in the high school is that three of the five weekday mornings are now taken and the other two by EDUCATODOS. This is not so good because the elementary schools are only in school during the morning. We also can not switch the high school schedule because those students only go in the morning as well! This leaves us no time to do work in the schools, which is something I really want to be doing. The high school teaching is supposed to be until the end of April, which will then leave us with the time to work with the elementary schools. We plan to do more with our creative projects, I received a donation for Colgate and plan on doing a teeth brushing campaign in a school, and we are going to do some creative writing projects.
So soon and I am posting another blog! Mostly because I realized that in the last one I only spoke of the fun we are having and not a thing about work. And I certainly would NOT want you to think that Peace Corps is all fun and games and NO work!
Work - well, we were asked by the high school principal to teach their English classes. The English teacher is currently out on maternity leave (hopefully coming back!) and the school did not have anyone to take over the classes. Originally, the principal asked Brian to teach one class and for me to teach one class, but there are more than just two classes. So we decided to teach the rest as well. We will find out on Monday just how many classes there are - I am thinking only about 6 more which would mean 3 more classes for me and 3 for Brian. Not too bad. So far I really enjoy teaching the classes as my students are really funny and are pretty good at participating. Also, I just like the feeling of being back in a real classroom and feeling like I have a real job. The major downside is that there are no text books or school materials so we are creating the curriculum and using our own materials.
We are continuing with EDUCATODOS which is school for people that were not able to or did not want to attend regular school. We do not have too many students this year and Brian and I are splitting the class. Thus far, it is much better than last year because I am sharing class with Brian.
Another downside to teaching in the high school is that three of the five weekday mornings are now taken and the other two by EDUCATODOS. This is not so good because the elementary schools are only in school during the morning. We also can not switch the high school schedule because those students only go in the morning as well! This leaves us no time to do work in the schools, which is something I really want to be doing. The high school teaching is supposed to be until the end of April, which will then leave us with the time to work with the elementary schools. We plan to do more with our creative projects, I received a donation for Colgate and plan on doing a teeth brushing campaign in a school, and we are going to do some creative writing projects.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
WATERFALLS!
Greetings from windy windy Honduras! Yup, windy. It is crazy the strength of this wind - it could knock over a young child! It certainly keeps me off balance. Plus, the dust - oh gosh - I have never seen so much dust in my life. Our house is filled with it - we sweep and 10 minutes later the floor and all of our shelves are covered. We even wake up covered in dust and dirt! Then there is the trash - our front yard is the gathering place for all lost trash in Colomoncagua. I do not know where it all comes from, but it is all in our front yard and outside our gate. This wouldn’t be so bad if there was trash service, but since there isn’t we either have to pick up all the trash and burn it or Brian gets to take all of it to the makeshift dump. Either way it is not a fun process!
Sunday, March 1st was Saudy’s seventh birthday. Since she doesn’t know her birthday (kids here rarely know how old they are and their birthdate) her mom, dad, Brian, and I were able to surprise her with a fun day. Dinora (Saudy;s mom) came over late Saturday to ask if we could go to her house in the morning to make pizza and other food (but she needed me to make the pizza) and then go out to the waterfalls to swim and picnic. So, we went over the their house around 8:30am on Sunday made pizza - one big one and Saudy made one small one all for herself, refried beans, rice, salsa, carne asada, and tortillas. Dinora had bought a delicious tres leches cake from Dona Liliam (who makes the best tres leches cake not only in Colo, but I am convinced all of Central America and possibly even the US). We packed everything in their pick-up and went to the waterfalls. Brian and I had been to the bottom of the falls with my mom and sister, but this time we went to the top. Since the cab only fits two - we sat in the back and got nice and dirty since it is a dirt road all the way to the falls. We found a good place to set up and then did a little bit of swimming. I had not planned on swimming and didn’t bring shorts to swim in (people here generally do not have bathing suits so they swim in shorts and a shirt, I think it is also a modesty issue as well), but while taking a photo with my feet in the water, I slipped!! So, I ended up doing a bit of wading in the water. It was a great day for us and I think for Saudy and her family as well. I felt so special to be invited along since we really were the only guests.
Sunday, March 1st was Saudy’s seventh birthday. Since she doesn’t know her birthday (kids here rarely know how old they are and their birthdate) her mom, dad, Brian, and I were able to surprise her with a fun day. Dinora (Saudy;s mom) came over late Saturday to ask if we could go to her house in the morning to make pizza and other food (but she needed me to make the pizza) and then go out to the waterfalls to swim and picnic. So, we went over the their house around 8:30am on Sunday made pizza - one big one and Saudy made one small one all for herself, refried beans, rice, salsa, carne asada, and tortillas. Dinora had bought a delicious tres leches cake from Dona Liliam (who makes the best tres leches cake not only in Colo, but I am convinced all of Central America and possibly even the US). We packed everything in their pick-up and went to the waterfalls. Brian and I had been to the bottom of the falls with my mom and sister, but this time we went to the top. Since the cab only fits two - we sat in the back and got nice and dirty since it is a dirt road all the way to the falls. We found a good place to set up and then did a little bit of swimming. I had not planned on swimming and didn’t bring shorts to swim in (people here generally do not have bathing suits so they swim in shorts and a shirt, I think it is also a modesty issue as well), but while taking a photo with my feet in the water, I slipped!! So, I ended up doing a bit of wading in the water. It was a great day for us and I think for Saudy and her family as well. I felt so special to be invited along since we really were the only guests.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Tex is coming!!!!
***I wrote this blog last week - Feria already happened and we had a great time! We had some Peace Corps friends come and stay with us a couple of nights for Feria which was a special treat for us - we don’t get too many visitors down here.***
Hi All!
This year I am going to be really good about blogging regularly! I know we sort of ignored the blog last year….so here it goes!
Our town is growing! Just in this last week three new restaurants have opened up. We now have a Chinese restaurant, a Honduran/Mexican restaurant, and one that looks like it could be a bar (I don’t know if they sell alcohol though)/restaurant. We have yet to eat at any of these new places, but definitely want to try the Chinese place. I really enjoy the Chinese food in this country! And it has a spiffy name - Bamboo. This brings the restaurant count up to 7 - there could be more, but this is what we have counted. We are not quite sure how this is possible considering there are only about 2,500 people in our town and most of them do not go out to eat!! But Brian and I like the variety!
So, this week is feria week in our town. The patron saint of Colomoncagua is Jesus de Rescaste so our town throws a giant party for the week. Almost all towns in Honduras (and I would assume most of Central America) celebrate their patron saint in the form of a feria. The party has already started here - the rides are set up (a small Ferris wheel and a bug Ferris wheel), the papas fritas (French fries) have arrived, the various vendors are set up, and people have essentially stopped working in preparation for the big night(s). Our town will be basically transformed these next few days and then suddenly everything will vanish.
The feria celebration begins with a few nights of dancing and loud music in the Casa de Cultura. There are some shows - traditional dances, kids lip syncing, a cultural fair. Then there is the election and crowning of the Princess of Colomoncagua (the prettiest teenaged girl in town) and a Rey Feo (basically people make fun of each other - Rey Feo means ugly king). These last two will happen on Friday night - the biggest night of the feria. Soon there will be carnival games set up, some sort of gambling games, and lots and lots of food stands. Many have already arrived and many are still setting up. It is pure madness!
The last thing I want to mention is our little battle with Peace Corps. Yup, we are fighting the higher ups at Peace Corps Honduras. Since moving in to our new home our rent has gone up (and yes, I admit quite a lot). Peace Corps Honduras thinks too much and does not want to pay for all of our rent. This makes me upset. Peace Corps says they are going to pay your rent and I think that if rent is reasonable and average with what other people in town are paying then it should not be an issue. But because our rent jumped when we moved, they are saying they will only pay for a 10% increase…crazy considering they have not reevaluated the cost of living in this area for a very long time. Anyway, our fight is over 500 lempiras, which is about $25 US. Not much, but it is principal and I think PC should have to pay. I am sending an emaill to the country director and a few other Peace Corps employees here in Honduras. If the situation is not settled with them, then I am going to start emailing my Congressman, Senator, and Peace Corps in Washington DC. I do not know if any of this will help to solve the problem, but I am going to try. Usually, I wouldn’t do this much, but other volunteers are having rent issues as well and Peace Corps seems to be doing nothing about it (except not paying the entire rent). I will let you know what happens in these next couple of weeks.
Hi All!
This year I am going to be really good about blogging regularly! I know we sort of ignored the blog last year….so here it goes!
Our town is growing! Just in this last week three new restaurants have opened up. We now have a Chinese restaurant, a Honduran/Mexican restaurant, and one that looks like it could be a bar (I don’t know if they sell alcohol though)/restaurant. We have yet to eat at any of these new places, but definitely want to try the Chinese place. I really enjoy the Chinese food in this country! And it has a spiffy name - Bamboo. This brings the restaurant count up to 7 - there could be more, but this is what we have counted. We are not quite sure how this is possible considering there are only about 2,500 people in our town and most of them do not go out to eat!! But Brian and I like the variety!
So, this week is feria week in our town. The patron saint of Colomoncagua is Jesus de Rescaste so our town throws a giant party for the week. Almost all towns in Honduras (and I would assume most of Central America) celebrate their patron saint in the form of a feria. The party has already started here - the rides are set up (a small Ferris wheel and a bug Ferris wheel), the papas fritas (French fries) have arrived, the various vendors are set up, and people have essentially stopped working in preparation for the big night(s). Our town will be basically transformed these next few days and then suddenly everything will vanish.
The feria celebration begins with a few nights of dancing and loud music in the Casa de Cultura. There are some shows - traditional dances, kids lip syncing, a cultural fair. Then there is the election and crowning of the Princess of Colomoncagua (the prettiest teenaged girl in town) and a Rey Feo (basically people make fun of each other - Rey Feo means ugly king). These last two will happen on Friday night - the biggest night of the feria. Soon there will be carnival games set up, some sort of gambling games, and lots and lots of food stands. Many have already arrived and many are still setting up. It is pure madness!
The last thing I want to mention is our little battle with Peace Corps. Yup, we are fighting the higher ups at Peace Corps Honduras. Since moving in to our new home our rent has gone up (and yes, I admit quite a lot). Peace Corps Honduras thinks too much and does not want to pay for all of our rent. This makes me upset. Peace Corps says they are going to pay your rent and I think that if rent is reasonable and average with what other people in town are paying then it should not be an issue. But because our rent jumped when we moved, they are saying they will only pay for a 10% increase…crazy considering they have not reevaluated the cost of living in this area for a very long time. Anyway, our fight is over 500 lempiras, which is about $25 US. Not much, but it is principal and I think PC should have to pay. I am sending an emaill to the country director and a few other Peace Corps employees here in Honduras. If the situation is not settled with them, then I am going to start emailing my Congressman, Senator, and Peace Corps in Washington DC. I do not know if any of this will help to solve the problem, but I am going to try. Usually, I wouldn’t do this much, but other volunteers are having rent issues as well and Peace Corps seems to be doing nothing about it (except not paying the entire rent). I will let you know what happens in these next couple of weeks.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Back in Honduras, but in a new house
We are back in Honduras!!! After a GREAT time in the States we are back to Honduras! And of course, not without an adventure (I must post the story of our “adventure” leaving Honduras)!
We arrived in Colomoncagua exhausted and drained. The trip back here was long and we were lugging a lot of stuff around with us. We opened the door to our house and everything seemed normal, except that we had some new neighbors. Then we opened up our back door and…..it was filled with animals! Okay, so not filled, but there were a lot of chickens and roosters and a couple of pigs. There was chicken poop all over the porch and the kitchen area. I burst into tears and Brian took action. He went to our land lord and asked him what was going on. He told Brian that his brother came back from the States and was moving (ahem had moved) into the house. He also told us that the house is his brother’s and not his. We had to move out RIGHT AWAY.
Well, I wanted to go home. I just thought that this was incredibly disrespectful and really pretty darn mean. Brian said I shouldn’t and couldn’t go home - and he went off to look for a new place to live, while I had a mini nervous breakdown. Brian found us a house almost right away and begged the woman to let us move in ASAP. She was hesitant, as the house was dirty and needed some work, but he begged and she caved. So we packed up and moved our stuff (with no help from our land lord or his brother - nice people, huh?) with the help of some of our friends in town. Our new land lady and her family came over and helped us to clean the whole house and back yard for three days.
Our new land lady is incredible. She is super nice as are her kids and her husband. They are a pretty prominent family in Colo and everyone knows and respects them. She is a teacher and her husband owns a hardware store here in town and also does veterinary services for farm animals. Our house has a bunch of storage rooms in the back filled with old furniture and other stuff and we are allowed to use just about anything we want. Our house has a living room, a small bedroom, and a bathroom attached to the bedroom (it is pretty large so we keep our clothes there, too.). The toilet works only sometimes and when there is water it runs constantly (and if you look at the pictures it is not a pretty toilet!) also we have an indoor shower with an electraducha (a shower head with electricity running through it to heat the water), but the heating part is broken so we get cold water. They are supposed to come and fix the toilet and the shower. Also, there is a kitchen outside (but it is covered and mostly enclosed), an extra room (with two broken stoves), and a pila. We also have a decent size backyard. The house also came with a little cat named Min (pronounced Meeen), which we have started feeding. She is pretty small and can barely meow, but so far she has been good company!
We are once again neighbors with our old neighbor Dinora. Her new comedor is just across the basketball courts from us. I have posted pictures of the house, but not yet of the basketball courts or Dinora’s. The woman in the photos with Brian is our boss and Country Director of Peace Corps Honduras, Trudy Jacox. She came for a visit last week.
Other than that, not much else is new. We are getting settled into our Honduras routine - not really doing anything!!! - and getting ready for the school year to start. We have some meetings next week with Peace Corps and I have some allergy and blood tests coming up (I have terrible allergies here and was anemic at my last check up). We are also planning a trip into El Salvador and planning where we want to visit in Honduras this year - we are hoping to get some visitors from the States to go with us!!! Hint hint…
We are already missing the yummy food from the States, but not happy about those extra pounds we gained while being home! And, of course, hot showers (why are those so wonderful!!).
We arrived in Colomoncagua exhausted and drained. The trip back here was long and we were lugging a lot of stuff around with us. We opened the door to our house and everything seemed normal, except that we had some new neighbors. Then we opened up our back door and…..it was filled with animals! Okay, so not filled, but there were a lot of chickens and roosters and a couple of pigs. There was chicken poop all over the porch and the kitchen area. I burst into tears and Brian took action. He went to our land lord and asked him what was going on. He told Brian that his brother came back from the States and was moving (ahem had moved) into the house. He also told us that the house is his brother’s and not his. We had to move out RIGHT AWAY.
Well, I wanted to go home. I just thought that this was incredibly disrespectful and really pretty darn mean. Brian said I shouldn’t and couldn’t go home - and he went off to look for a new place to live, while I had a mini nervous breakdown. Brian found us a house almost right away and begged the woman to let us move in ASAP. She was hesitant, as the house was dirty and needed some work, but he begged and she caved. So we packed up and moved our stuff (with no help from our land lord or his brother - nice people, huh?) with the help of some of our friends in town. Our new land lady and her family came over and helped us to clean the whole house and back yard for three days.
Our new land lady is incredible. She is super nice as are her kids and her husband. They are a pretty prominent family in Colo and everyone knows and respects them. She is a teacher and her husband owns a hardware store here in town and also does veterinary services for farm animals. Our house has a bunch of storage rooms in the back filled with old furniture and other stuff and we are allowed to use just about anything we want. Our house has a living room, a small bedroom, and a bathroom attached to the bedroom (it is pretty large so we keep our clothes there, too.). The toilet works only sometimes and when there is water it runs constantly (and if you look at the pictures it is not a pretty toilet!) also we have an indoor shower with an electraducha (a shower head with electricity running through it to heat the water), but the heating part is broken so we get cold water. They are supposed to come and fix the toilet and the shower. Also, there is a kitchen outside (but it is covered and mostly enclosed), an extra room (with two broken stoves), and a pila. We also have a decent size backyard. The house also came with a little cat named Min (pronounced Meeen), which we have started feeding. She is pretty small and can barely meow, but so far she has been good company!
We are once again neighbors with our old neighbor Dinora. Her new comedor is just across the basketball courts from us. I have posted pictures of the house, but not yet of the basketball courts or Dinora’s. The woman in the photos with Brian is our boss and Country Director of Peace Corps Honduras, Trudy Jacox. She came for a visit last week.
Other than that, not much else is new. We are getting settled into our Honduras routine - not really doing anything!!! - and getting ready for the school year to start. We have some meetings next week with Peace Corps and I have some allergy and blood tests coming up (I have terrible allergies here and was anemic at my last check up). We are also planning a trip into El Salvador and planning where we want to visit in Honduras this year - we are hoping to get some visitors from the States to go with us!!! Hint hint…
We are already missing the yummy food from the States, but not happy about those extra pounds we gained while being home! And, of course, hot showers (why are those so wonderful!!).
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