primeros dias en zarabanda

Hello All! Here is a brief recap of whats happening:

23 de Junio 2010

Saludos de mi primer casa en Honduras!

After we landed, our group was brought to the training center in Zarabanda (40 minutes outside the capital) in a yellow school bus that someone in the US must have given up on. We went over some basics, and were greeted by our first host families. At first I thought, based on the sheet I was given with information about my first family, that I would be living with a woman, and her sister in law, with a little bird, and electricity. I was pleasantly surprised about seeing electricity, so I looked past the part about no kids/no dogs. But as soon as I met my host sister-in-law and saw that she had a 5 year old daughter with her, I was at ease. As we began our journey walking to their home, we were picked up in a truck by another family heading the same way. Free ride in the back of a pick up truck… there must have been about 10 Hondurans piled in with us! We were let off the truck at this little cluster of about 4 homes, with a little store in part of one of them, dogs running everywhere, chickens in the back, and SO MANY LITTLE KIDS! I was exhausted, but made an effort to be social. In fact, the little girl that was there to get me from the training center hardly left my side until I went to bed! They are so excited to help me with my Spanish and teach my about their lives! My host sister in law will be cooking my dinner for part of the week while my host mom is at work (at a clinic in the capital that does cleans colons/intestines , if I understood that right). She, Lordes, is also taking classes to become a nurse. She was friendly and animated, and I loved her from the minute I met her. She is so easy to understand, and made me feel good about my Spanish haha. I already feel like its improved since talking to PC staff at the airport to now, and that’s just one day. Give it two years…!

First meal: fried bananas, an egg, interesting cheese, beans, and tortillas.

There is a real toilet.

And electricity.

I know I am spoiled in that respect, but tomorrow will be my first shower experience: either the water will be running and I can take a cold short semi-normal shower, or I will head out to the pila, get a bucket, heat it up, and clean myself somehow. I am meeting my host mom in the bathroom at 6am to learn how to do it!

I am exhausted. And I feel like I wont have as many amenities with my next host family so I am going to enjoy my bed.

24 de Junio 2010

The shower was, in fact, a bucket shower. It was fairly well. My first big success! Not sure how CLEAN I feel, but I’ll get better at it. And I will have to figure out how to rinse shampoo out of my hair using a bucket. Greasy McGreaser right here.

I guess no one has cold milk here… they always heat it up… the pasteurizing system isn’t like ours, so you can only find cold milk that isn’t bacteria ridden in the bigger cities. I had cornflakes with hot milk for breakfast today (everyone seems to eat cornflakes!).

Training is going to be intense, but they have free coffee, and it is absolutely delicioso. Molnday-Friday 7:30-4:30, and half days on Saturday.

The entire Peace Corps Training Staff is wonderful.And the training is excellent. It will be an extremely long 3 months but we will be well prepared when we are off to our sites.

25 de Junio 2010

Poco a poco, I’m getting use to the bucket showers… though again, not sure if I am actually clean. But that’s neither here nor there.

I’ve figured out a few things about life here through talking with my family. I was helping Dariella, one of the little girls, with her division homework, so I was asking her about school. It’s over after 6^th grade (12-13 years old), and when I asked what happened after that, she kind of shrugged. “Puede ir a la universidad pero es duro” (You can go to college, but it’s hard). Also, my ‘cunada’, or host sister-in-law, the one who looks out for me while Lordes is at work, is 25. Coli, her daughter, is 5, and she has a son who is ten. Her husband seems much older, but I cant tell. He works, building houses. He actually came in to help us figure out how to put up my mosquito net! And it seems that Lordes is the most well-off, in that her home has more amenities… Coli brought me into her house yesterday and it was a few rooms with concrete walls, some parts had a ceiling, others didn’t. I imagine the other few houses in our ‘compound’ (for lack of a better word) are similar.

Training is going to be tough, but I’m glad I have a base in Spanish, as that seems to be the most stressful part for a lot of trainees. Although on a positive note, a lot of them who haven’t had a lot of prior Spanish say they already feel like they’ve improved and it has only been a few days. They went over a lot of stuff about malaria (took my first dose of pills for that today) and dengue (another mosquito-ridden illness that is running ramped lately). Mosquito net, check. Bug spray, check. Ay que dios me bendiga! We also talked about other not so pleasant stuff (crime, safety and such) that is necessary to discuss, but certainly not fun to hear.

Today, thoughts from the internet cafe en Valle de las Angeles:

My host mom and i had a very extensive conversation about immigration over breakfast today.

Annnnd a group of us (most of the training class) came to this pueblo after this mornings training session (yes, half days on saturdays).

Todo esta bien. I am still exhausted, but luckily havent gotten sick yet