Pheww! Time is just a rollin on by. It has been almost a year since I flew off to begin this crazy journey. Let me tell you about what has been going on lately.
Honduran Labor Day, what a great holiday here. We actually spent the day together, with the people we work with, what a concept! It was great, we packed some coolers and headed down to the river. We ate, drank, danced and swam all afternoon. Here is our mayor enjoying the BBQ. This really brought me closer to my co-workers, although one had a few too many cervezas and was growling like a wolf because we were at a place called Los Lobos (the wolves)! Just like the office parties I am used to.
I am still working hard with Oscar to get the high school library in order. Here he is showing off the tables we had a carpenter make for the room.
We are also starting a project together to try to get funding for a sort of trade school at the high school. It would be like a technical training center for cooking, mechanics, woodshop, and other trades.
Also, we are working with the women at Grandma's house on a home garden project. Here are the kids. Hopefully this garden project can get some nutritious vege
tables in their bellies as well as some money from selling some to pay for other necessities. An organization called PeaceWork in conjunction with Virginia Tech University, a technical training organization called INFOP and members of the community are all playing a part in this project. My part... I like to play and talk with the kids and give lots of hugs and kisses. I have the best job in the whole world.
We gave some HIV talks at the factory at Standard Fruit Company. I asked 2 health volunteers to come and do it, I just set it up. They did such a great job. The factory workers asked us to come back
to give a demonstration how to use a condom. We showed them and handed out condoms. It was a great success. Right now we are working with the administrative offices of Standard Fruit to get a team of employess together to have them trained by Peace Corps volunteers on all of the HIV information so that they can give the talks. Sustainability, sustainability, sustainability.
Then it was time for my suntanned toes to tickle some sand. My dear friend Sandy from the states came for a week of fun. We started by staying at the Intercontinental Hotel, it was luxurious, especially having been removed from such joys for so long. We cranked the air and slept on the most comfortable beds in the whole world, I am serious. We spent a couple of days on Utila, one of the islands off the coast of Honduras. We stayed in a great hotel, the Mango Inn. It was in the middle of a bunch of trees and tropical plants. We swam in the pool, explored the island, snorkeled in the Caribbean, foun
d a mattress that Sandy really wanted to take home, ate serious amounts of food (including the most delicious cinnamon roll in the world, seriously, the outside is even more delicious than the inside, how can it be?) and I even found time for a pedicure, and yes, that is a ping pong paddle. We took a hike to a waterfall and another at the Pico Bonito lodge followed by a nice lunch. It was so great to have one of my peeps here with me to see exactly what I am doing, where I live and meet the people that have become what my life is all about. Plus, she brought me a bunch of goodies including Cranberry Chutney Yankee candles, hair gel (dont judge me, you try to have curly hair and live in the tropics), vegetable and herb seeds (although I may have to come up with a better plan than planting them in my yard, I recently discovered I have some coconut thieves) and dried apricots. Sandy went way outside of her comfort zone to be here, just ask her about her first encounter with a port-a-potty. Thanks for an amazing week Sandy! You will have to come back so we can find Utopia, for real this time. Oh, and to give your Honduran dog a day in the life of an American, maybe we can make a reality show.
Right after Sandy left (sniffle sniffle) it was Carnival in the La Ceiba, the biggest party in Honduras (smile smile). Along with Carnival there are little carnivalitos all throughout the area. Oscar took me to the carnival and it was surprisingly similar to one of our fairs. There was livestock, live music, cotton candy and even cheesy games to win your loved one an equally cheesy prize. We ate pupusas (think cheese, dough and fried) and listened to a live band. There was also a rodeo, yee haww!
English classes are going great! Recently the kids received an assignment to make a book of all the lessons they had learned including an activity for each lesson such as a word search. Thanks to Mary for offering the resources to buy all the materials they could have ever wanted to make their books. The final is
this Saturday, eeeek! Some of the adults also made a book. I was more than impressed, they obviously took a huge amount of time to complete these. Don`t worry, they were handsomely rewarded in the form of bonus points. Also, again thanks to Mary, the top 3 students from each class will be joining me for a lavish Pizza Hut lunch!
Ever zipped through the rainforest on wire cables and a harness? If not, you totally need to try it. My friends Susan and Scott host mission teams and one of their teams invited me along on their ziplining trip. We went to a nearby town called Sambo Creek where you drive up a steep mountain and arrive at the first tree stand. You have a harness with a hook that they hook onto the pulley thingy that tak
es you down the wire. The longest run is about a kilometer. You zip from tree stand to tree stand and are able to look out into the rainforest and the ocean. There were 18 zips in all. Amongst the rainforest are pockets of hot springs, some are even at boiling temperature. After the zipping we had a picnic at one of the cooler hot springs where there was a bowl of mud available for skin masks. Who needs Mario`s?!
Part of our program in the schools is checking eye acuity and for any obvious problems so that we can send them to an eye clinic for assistance. Recently I organized a bus to take 9 people to the clinic for glasses and other consultations. Two kids received eyeglasses, two kids will go back with their parents in August to talk to a specialist about surgery (both are cross-eyed) and one little girl with a cataract was informed that it was tiny tiny and that surgery wouldn`t be required at this time but we should keep checking it every couple of years. Here are my new little buddies David and Elvin.
