July 26, 2008

This is our group (50) having breakfast our first morning in Honduras. There are three projects, mine which is Municipal Development, Child Development and Protected Areas Management.


So I got a little treat today and was able to get online for a little while. Training is chugging along. This weekend we go to live with a current volunteer for three days. I am going to the south to Choluteca with another trainee in my group. I am looking forward to the break and seeing what a real live volunteer lives like.

I would be lying if I said I didn´t have moments where I freak out a little, but the people here are wonderful so that makes this adjustment process a little easier. My family and I talked for hours last night, about real issues like immigration, the state of Honduras economically and the way we do things in the U.S. What an insightful conversation, I never would have guessed my Spanish was good enough to express myself on these topics, but I am surprising myself everyday here.

I am making my family an American meal tonight, lasagna! Don´t have ricotta cheese (at least at the market I went to) so I´ll let you know how that turns out.

July 12, 2008

Safe and sound. My first few days in Honduras have been a bit of a whirlwind, but we only had a half day today of Peace Corps activity so today and tomorrow I am recharging my batteries, figuratively and literally. We flew into San Pedro Sula on Wednesday without any problems and drove about 5 hours to Zarabanda, near Tegucigalpa, where our training center is. I met my wonderful new Honduran family, at least for 5 of my 11 weeks of training, on Friday. Patricia is the mother, Javier is the father and Alexandria is their adorable five year old daughter. So far, she has been the highlight of my time here. When we got to the house Alexandria stood at the door with her hand on the doorknob asking her mom, “Puedo? Puedo?” (Can I? Can I?), when Patricia told her Ok she opened the door and the room was decorated with balloons and streamers with a sign saying “Welcome Jessica”. Yup, happy tears definitely welled up in my eyes. Then last night Patricia told me when she put Alexandria down for bed that in her prayers she asked God to look over her mama, her papa and Jessica. Flattered is not even the word, she is so sweet, curious and pure, it’s so refreshing and heart-warming. My language is coming along better than I anticipated, that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of blank stares amongst me and my host family, but we are able to communicate quite a bit and I am learning a little more every day. This country is beyond beautiful. There is so much green and the mountainside views are breathtaking. The people are very receiving of us Peace Corps volunteers and the curiosity about one another is a two-way street. I look forward to building relationships and getting to know more, about everything. So far our training has been basic general information on Peace Corps policy, safety, etc. I should find out more about my specific project in a couple weeks. I will be in Zarabanda for another 2-3 weeks, then will do Field Based Training in another city for 6 weeks, then we will all return to Zarabanda for the last two weeks of training. We will be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers on September 26 and them be sent to our respective posts, which are still to be determined. Stay tuned…

Off to Honduras tomorrow!

Well, I made it to DC, met the others in my training group, and got some very basic information about my service in Honduras. We leave at 2:30 a.m. tomorrow to fly to Atlanta then to San Pedro Sula. From there we will take a 6 hour bus ride to Zarabanda, which is right outside of Tegucigalpa, where we will be training. It sounds like training will be quite tolling, but I am very much looking forward to diving in and learning everything I can to make my experience the best I can. I will not have internet access for the first 3 weeks, after that I will be transferred to another nearby city for technical training on my job and may have access depending on where I am. In the meantime, I can receive mail from now until September 26, 2008 at:

Jessica Dillworth
Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal #3158
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

The next time you hear from me I should have lots more information to share with you. One exciting thing I learned today is that the city we are going to be training in, Zarabanda, is a new training city for the PC. This means that the families we stay with are housing American Peace Corps volunteers for the very first time. I am excited about this because this experience will be so new and fresh for both of us.