First Two Weeks in Honduras - 7/7/10

First two weeks in Honduras

After leaving Houston, TX, our group arrived in Tegucigalpa at around 11AM, and after customs, only one of 57 people lost a bag, (and it arrived the next day). That first afternoon, we ate pizza for lunch with apples (a rare fruit in Honduras) and bananas, in a secure parking lot next to the airport. We were organized into and rode to our training cite up in the mountains. The training cite is a beautifully manicured “lodge” where there are airy rooms for group sessions and smaller classrooms. It is surrounded by forest, and couldn't be much nicer. Also, each day we have purified water coolers and some of the best coffee I've had.
After a brief introduction, our host families picked us up from the training center and drove us to neighboring communities where we'd be living (since then, a bus takes us to and from the training center). My host mother and father, Alba and Ernesto, were somewhat too excited to meet me, and spoke too rapidly for me to comprehend. We arrived at their home, and I was shown my room (see pictures) and the rest of the “house.” I say “house” because there is not actually one solid structure, but rather, a few rooms and a few walls put together in juxtaposition so that the area between (the “hallway”), and the kitchen are not enclosed. So even though my bathroom is right across the “hallway” from my bedroom, if it's raining, I have to get wet to squeak a leak.
If you've read on other Honduran Peace Corps Volunteer blogs, you already know that sinks are not common in rural areas either. We use a large concrete basin called a pila for a water source, and scoop the water from the basin to a concrete “sink” that has it's own drain to wash clothes, hands, face, dishes, etc... Also, I'm lucky because we have indoor plumbing, so I actually have a real shower, albeit, only cold water—que refresco! Unfortunately, the plumbing doesn't tie into the toilet (other than the drain of course), so in order to flush, we just dump a few pails of water into the bowl. It's not too inconvenient, but when other people use the bathroom, they're not good at dumping pails of water into the bowl, so often there's water around the toilet, and it always seems like someone had poor aim.
The rest of my host family includes Luisa (13) and Oscar (16) and Cristobal (23), a Michigan grad who rents a room from my host family. Luisa has been an amazing help with my Español, as she's patient enough to rephrase things when I don't understand. Oscar, on the other hand, is not quite as patient, and while joking around with Cristobal and I, usually resorts to malas palabras or funny cultural signs. For example, here, if you hold your fist near your body (usually your stomach), and extend it to your side while making any noise resembling a fart, it means diarrhea, so we laugh while doing this gesture repeatedly.
Three paragraphs in a row with potty humor in the last sentence; I'm doing well.
My typical day currently includes waking at 5:45 to the cockledoodledoos (keekeleekee en Espanol) of nearby roosters, taking my cold, quick shower, eating breakfast (anything from corn flakes with hot milk to something resembling a white cheese tostoda), and heading up the block to the bus stop. We normally have language classes for the first 4 hours, and after lunch (seasoned rice, tortillas and a meat dish packed in a thermos by my host mom), we learn about security (Google crime rates in Honduras for fun), health (Google Chinches picudas, dengue or malaria in Honduras), or technical training, for me and 17 others (protected areas management). Despues, a bus ride back home, dinner, soccer or hanging around talking, telenovelas (typically Dona Barbara, but Lucha Libre (WWF) on Saturdays and Sundays), and then I retreat to my room to write a few lines home, look up all the words I didn't recognize, or want to learn to say, and then crawl under my mosquito net and fall asleep to the yaps, barks and howls of what must be thousands of local dogs. If I'm lucky, it begins to rain (most nights), and then the sound of raindrops on my sheetmetal roof lets me fall quickly asleep.
And although it's not raining tonight, the crickets and frogs are currently louder than the dogs, so I'm going to get some rest. ¡Cheque leque!