Molding...

Blog: From Jessica

October 10, 2007

I am writing this blog sitting in our room – which now has two leaks in it! It is strange because the leaks are inside the wall so the walls look really wet. Our room feels really damp and I am afraid of mold! It kind of smells, too.

I am drinking something that Hondurans drink fairly often. I don’t know what it is called. I have never heard of it until we came here – maybe you have? It is cold water, oats (we use Quaker Oats), and lots of sugar. I add cinnamon to mine. It doesn’t sound all that good, but I am kind of addicted to it. You should try making it. And when I say lots of sugar, I mean add lots and then add some more! They love sugar here…and salt!

Brian and I feel like we have had a fairly busy week! This past weekend we showed some girls from the colegio (high school) how to make recycled paper. It was not an easy process!! For one, it was my first time making recycled paper on my own. I learned how to make it once during training. So I wasn’t sure exactly what to do. We finally got all the materials (it took a couple of days!) and started to make the mold. We constructed the mold only to discover that we made it too big so it wouldn’t fit into our buckets of water. But we improvised and made the paper anyway. It came out really thick so it has taken a long time to dry. As of today, I am still not sure if it is dry! On Monday, we helped the girls again. I showed them how to make flowers using tissue paper. This went more smoothly and I think the girls were pleased (see the pics!).

Yesterday I learned how to make tortillas – sort of! My host madre and sister made the dough before they called me into the kitchen. So I think I missed a vital step in the tortilla making process. Anyway they tried to teach me how to make the tortillas by hand, but my hands and fingers just don’t go the way they’re supposed to. So then I just flattened the dough balls out in my hand, but apparently that is not the proper way to make them, plus they come out ugly - This is according to my host family. I thought they looked perfectly fine and they tasted just the same! But because they were so ugly my host mom got out her ‘torteria’ or the tortilla press. That was MUCH easier! I did make sure to tell them that I really want to know how to make the dough, but they just kind of giggled. Maybe I didn’t say it right…

Today we taught an English class……JUST right NOW three horses – two big ones and one baby – walked past our door! Nobody was leading them or riding them, they just moseyed past our front door…..Anyway, we taught an English class today. It went really well…Brian and I had a lot of fun and I think the class did as well. At first it was hard to get them to say the words out loud, but once they realized that we are struggling with Spanish they felt more at ease!

Then this afternoon, Riecken Library came to our site to give a presentation and talk about what the community needs to do in order to get a Riecken Library. Brian and I really hope this works out and we plan on doing a lot of work with the community and Riecken Library to try to get a library for our site. However, we can only do so much because The Riecken Foundation requires that the community form volunteer committees to work during the process of being chosen for a library, the building of the library, and the running of the library. Brian and I can be a support for these committees, but they have to be comprised solely of community members. We don’t count. This is because The Riecken Foundation wants it to be a community project – built by and for the community. This way the project is sustainable and can be run by the community. For more info www.riecken.org. The meeting was very interesting – we learned a lot about The Riecken Foundation and we got to know a lot more people from the community. Some people have formed a committee and we will be going to their meeting on Sunday. Riecken library is coming out for another visit sometime next week.

Since there are no clothes driers – my pants are reallllllly stretched out! It’s awful. And it has been raining quite a bit so Brian and I have a lot of clean, but wet clothes. Also the power has been out ALL day. I hope it comes back on either tonight or before we wake up tomorrow.

UPDATE on October 16, 2007:

Our power was out for over 24 hours, but it did finally come back on. It has been raining quite a bit so sometimes the power goes out, but only for a little while at a time.

We really wanted to go to La Esperanza last week, but because of all the rain there has been no buses running from our town to La Esperanza. The road to La Esperanza is a very windy dirt road – so it is probably better that the buses aren’t running. We do kind of feel trapped here!! It didn’t rain yesterday so I am hoping that it doesn’t rain today or tomorrow. That way the road will dry up a little and we can hopefully get to La Esperanza sometime this week. I really want to go there to go grocery shopping and to use the fast internet. The internet has not been working in our site (but hopefully today it is so I can post this!).

We have pretty much officially taken over teaching English to the EDUCATODOS students. Brian and I both like working with the students so we are very excited to have something to do twice a week! I will probably start teaching the Health classes as well to the seventh graders. We have a lot to learn about the EDUCATODOS program so that will keep us busy for a while! We are hoping to go to a meeting for EDUCATODOS next week, but we have to talk to our project managers at Peace Corps about it because it is in Tegucigalpa.

Brian has been working with the Director of the Environmental Office from the municipality. Brian went with him yesterday to an aldea to check out a latrine project, but after several hours of trying to track down the guy that is running the project they came back to town (they never found the guy!). Brian has several other meetings set up with the guy to visit the aldeas around our site to check out various projects.

Today we don’t have anything to do!! It is pretty boring. Later today we are supposed to help the Riecken Committee get more people to join the committee. However, there was supposed to be a meeting on Sunday, but people never showed up and then another meeting yesterday, but again, no one showed up! It is so frustrating because they seem to really want the library, but they don’t really want to work for it. Apparently there are also some political conflicts – the mayor is of one political party and he has given money to some schools, but not others. The director of the school that he didn’t give money to is of a different political party and the director is also the president of the Riecken committee. So I guess there are some issues with different political parties in the committee and that the president feels like the mayor isn’t helping out with the library. But we talked to the mayor and he seems to really want the library and seems willing to help out by either buying the land for the library or by helping to buy the land for the library. It is all very confusing!

AND I finally learned how to make the dough for tortillas! YAY! And we learned how to make pupusas. There are basically tortillas with cheese inside - very yummy!