Week 2 on Route!

Hey everyone!

What a week! The second round of visiting volunteers was jam packed. My most glowing moment probably occurred with my Llano de la Cruz volunteers. Here’s how the story goes:

All of the volunteers need to work with the youth in the community to develop a community project that the youth want to accomplish over the course of the summer. The volunteers in Llano collaborated with the youth to come up with a project to build a fence around the soccer field to prevent runaway balls down the side of the mountain. Unfortunately, the project exceeded the funds that could be provided by AMIGOS. I was pretty disappointed that the project was not approved. But on Friday, when I was talking with a community leader in San Miguel, she suggested that for the project there that the mayor might be able to donate trees to be planted rather than having AMIGOS buy them. She promptly called him up and indeed, he enthusiastically funded the project. After she hung up, on a whim, I thought “Maybe the mayor wants to fund the project in Llano as well?”

I suggested the idea to Esna and she called him right back. I spoke with my new friend, the mayor of Santiago, and we set up a meeting for midday. So, rather than taking the short hike from San Miguel to Llano, I trekked an hour down the mountain and met with the mayor to tell him about the project. He listened for a few minutes and then interrupted, saying that representatives from the community would present the project for him the next morning at 8 am. I tried to protest, saying that was not enough warning to give the president of the Patronato (Fathers) community group, a few youth as well as the volunteers to come down. Javier, the mayor, persisted and I reluctantly agreed. I left the mayor’s house and started the hike back up to Llano. I stayed strong through the rainstorm and reached Llano in the late afternoon.

Upon arriving, I shared the news with the volunteers that their project had not been approved. But, then I added that there was a chance to receive more funding, so that they wouldn’t have to completely change their community project, to something less desired by the community. So then, the three of us gringos walked up to the soccer field, where all the youth hang out and we told them about the already scheduled meeting. To my surprise, they were totally fine with the impromptu meeting. They even prepared an extra letter of support of the project for the mayor.

The next morning, I was packed up and ready to go at 7, the agreed upon time to meet in front of the school. The youth were nowhere to be seen. But it was okay. It’s Honduran time. At around 8:15, the youth showed up and we started walking down to Santiago. We soon caught a ride on the back of a pick up truck, the typical means of transport to and from Santiago, and arrived at the mayor’s house well before 9 am. The eight of us piled into the mayor’s living room and he asked some questions about the solicitude for funds for the project. After talking for a few minutes, the mayor approved the project, saying that it would be a good way unite the community’s youth. The mayor then proceeded to ask the volunteers questions such as “Have girlfriend?” using the English he knew. The volunteers were sufficiently awkward as they dodged his questions. I had met the mayor during survey in Santiago and had also stayed at his house the first week when I was on route the first week in Santiago, so the overall conversation was pretty relaxed for me. All in all, I was very relieved to get the support of the mayor, both for the sake of the volunteers as well as for the committed community youth.

After the meeting, I got to spend some time in downtown Santiago, where there was a festival and parade going on to celebrate a certain Saint. There was a band of trumpeters and trombonists in the back of a truck playing Spanish music and I thought that was pretty awesome. People from the surrounding villages had come into town for the festival, and I saw a few community members from all the places where I have volunteers. It was cool to see how many people I had met in the short 3 weeks I have been here. I even saw the peace corps volunteer from North Carolina is super sweet and is working at the clinic in Santiago. I am excited to go back out on route next week, to see how my volunteers have progressed on their community projects, see friendly host family faces and meet even more community members.

Take care.

And, I’ll be seeing you all in another month!

Rachel

Pictures Route Week 1

Route Week 1

Hey Everyone!

Time is flying by here in Honduras. It's hard to believe that I have already been here for almost a month. I am definitely keeping busy!

I just got back on Saturday from route. It was quite an adventure . One volunteer told me a story of when she was walking back to her house with her six year old host brother and he started shrieking peligroso (dangerous). She looked down and saw a snake in the path. The host brother proceeded to hand her a machete and motion at her to kill it . She did as she was told and then used the machete to fling the remains of the snake out of the road. Yikes! And this is not the end of the creatures encountered during the first week. When I was visiting this same volunteer, she came running out of the latrine yelling "scorpion." Her mother took advantage of her machete to take care of this critter as well.

But overall, the first week on route was a good one. My volunteers are adjusting well to their communities. Most volunteers have already met with youth in their communities to start planning the projects they will collaborate on over the next five weeks. The volunteers in Santiago are considering projects such as painting a mural on the side of the elementary school and working to start community trash pickup. In San Miguel, the proposed youth based projects include planting trees around the soccer field and starting a club for teenage girls that cooks and makes jewelry together. In Llano de la Cruz, the volunteers are working alongside the soccer team of youth ages 16-25 (the range of ages for youth in Latin America is a little more lenient). They want to build a fence around the soccer field so that they do not need to chase stray kicks down the side of the mountain! I am very impressed so far with the progress that all the volunteers have made, and I am excited to see how the rest of the summer pans out.

It has been awesome to be out in the communities with the volunteers after so much preparation and anticipation, not to mention the delicious food I get to look forward to for every meal! However, I am definitely still adapting to my role as a supervisor. I have been tempted to jump in and teach the kids or youth something, such a game or an American song. But, I am really trying to lay low and let the volunteers have their chance to shine. I think this will become easier over the course of the summer as the volunteers improve their Spanish speaking abilities and there are not so many “silent” moments with community members. While my experience as a supervisor is different that my experience as a volunteer, it is a welcome change. I enjoy being able to see a few different communities each week as well as getting to interact with 9 different volunteers from all over the States.

Another funny story from route: I arrived in Llano de la Cruz on Friday, right before lunchtime. Because of the rotating meal plan, the volunteers did not know the location of the house they would be eating at for lunch, only the name of the community member. So, the host sister of one of the volunteers agreed, though somewhat reluctantly to walk us to lunch. We followed her up the main road and past the school located in the center of the community. Then, we started walking up a pretty steep path. After hiking for about 15 minutes we asked how much further the house was. She replied “30 minutes” and we all groaned in disbelief. As we went around each corner hoping for a downward sloping part of the path, we were disappointed to see and endless steep upward path. When we finally reached the top of the mountain, we were just about there. We only had to avoid the vicious, barking dog that was guarding the house and then we were there. What an adventure. It’s a good thing that I did not end up putting one of the volunteers with this host family because I do not think the other volunteer would have ever braved the mountain to go visit. Scaling these steep mountain paths is starting to become routine.

After I returned to La Paz from Llano de la Cruz, I relaxed and played many rounds of cards, including a Rummy 500 tournament, with the other supervisors. On Sunday, we decided that we wanted to try our hands at making corn tortillas. They only contained corn meal (maseca) and water. How hard could it be? After we mixed up the dough to a close to normal consistency, we made the balls of dough into tortillas using our tortilla press. Then, we tried frying them in a pan. We ended up with half-cooked, half-burnt tortillas that were not nearly as good as those made by host moms from freshly ground corn out in the campo. But by this point, we were getting really hungry, and the quesadillas we made topped with avocado were quickly gobbled up.

Well, I am off to prepare for today. Staff meeting, running errands for the volunteers and washing clothes on the pila (washboard) await. And then tomorrow, I am back off for round two of route!

Hasta Luego!

Que le vaya bien!

Rachel

Survey and Briefing...Done. Vols in Community!

Hey! I am happy to report that survey was a blast. On Wednesday (June 23), I took a bus to Santiago and then a mototaxi to my first community, Delicias. It is a small community of about 300 people out in the campo (country) where most everyone is involved in subsistence farming. I met the most wonderful host family for one of my volunteers. The host dad plays guitar and the family sits around the kitchen and sings the most beautiful Spanish harmonies in the evening. I wished I could just stay with this family for the rest of the summer, if not longer! This family had an AMIGOS volunteer two years ago who played guitar and taught the host family Beatles music. After they told me this, I was determined to find a guitarist for this summer.

In this community I also had my first foray in legitimate Honduran food. I had tortillas made from corn grown on the family’s farm, filled with beans, rice and Honduran cheese. And after eating this delicious combination for every meal on survey, I am excited to go back to visit the communities each week to eat more of it. For the coffee fanatics, you would be in a little piece of heaven here. Many of the host families grow their own coffee and roast their own beans. It doesn’t get much fresher than that!

From Delicias, I traveled back to Santiago on Thursday. Santiago is much larger, with about 4000 people living in the center of the city. It took significantly longer to prepare this community for the volunteers. It was difficult to find host families for the entire summer; at first the people I spoke to in the community were offering that the volunteers could stay a night in each of their houses. That was not going to work, since AMIGOS requires the volunteers to each stay with one host family for the whole summer. But, I eventually found housing for the volunteers with the mayor, the director of the elementary school and one of the director’s friends.

On Thursday, I woke up early to meet my point person, Esna, identified by our partner agency Plan Honduras to trek to San Miguel. A community member from Santiago walked with me to Esna’s house. Then, Esna, and I and all of things I thought I would need for my four day journey packed in my hiking backpack hiked up to the top of one of the mountains bordering Santiago, where my next community was located. It was a beautiful hike, but I will definitely downsize the contents of my pack before next time. I spent the morning finding out details about the community with Esna and another prominent community leader, Wilmer. Then, in the afternoon I was off to search for host families. I found one of my host families in the funniest way. I was sitting on the steps in front of the school with Esna, and as we were resting here, a smiling man, a machete in hand and knee high rainboots over his jeans walks by. He was returning home after working on his finca (farm) in the campo. I jumped up and approached him, telling him all about AMIGOS and the volunteers that were going to arrive in his community in a week. Within five minutes of chatting, he welcomed one of the volunteers to stay at his house. I happily confirmed and then stayed the night with his family.

The next morning, his wife and daughter happily showed me how to make the tortillas that went with breakfast. They chuckled as I ground the corn kernels in the manual mill (which is actually much more taxing than it looks). The giggles only continued when I put the dough, just cornmeal and water, in the tortilla press. A few times I put too much dough and the extra cornmeal paste oozed out the side. Another time, I forgot the place the plastic sheet over the dough and the dough stuck like glue to the tortilla press. I was quite the entertainment!

On Friday, I hiked out of San Miguel with one of the community leaders and over to the nearby community of Llano de la Cruz. I found a welcoming host family, with a mere 10 children, early on during my visit. The 8 and 10 year sisters were super excited to have me there and clung to me like glue. And, they taught me a new phrase, specific to Honduran culture. As I unpacked my cot, sleeping bag and mosquito net, each new thing was greeting with oohhs, aahhs and the phrase “que cheque.” It means “how cool.” And, I also found out that I could use the phrase “todo cheque” to respond to “como estas?” I guess I am starting to pick up bits and pieces of the Honduran lingo already.

On Sunday, I returned to Santiago and spoke with a couple more community members there. I spent some time at one of the future host family’s homes and her daughter introduced me to some of the Honduran fruit growing in their backyard. She shook down some paterna’s from their tree and with some trepidation, I ate the fruit off of what looked like seeds in a massive peapod. The flavor was interesting, and reminded me of a milky peach taste. And while I am on the topic of food, it’s hard not to mention the delicious tilapia that the host mom made for lunch. She had bought a fresh, whole tilapia in the market that day and then I watched her de-scale and prepare the fish with the skill of master fisherman. But, I think that is enough of the epicurean aspect of Honduras for now.

That afternoon, I returned to La Paz and then it was crunch time up until the volunteers arrived on Tuesday. I typed up all the notes I had taken in community as community profiles for the volunteers as well as helped plan out the activities for in-country briefing.

Then, some of the most mature incoming high school juniors and seniors from all over the United States arrived at the briefing site, which was near the top of a mountain next to La Paz. Missing luggage and chemically treated mosquito nets which burned the faces of some of the volunteers on the first night were among some of the crazy events at briefing. In addition, the international director of our partner agency, Plan Honduras, gave a talk about their organization which included a long tangent about Hondurans reproducing like rabbits, which had everyone laughing. We also ran through the normal briefing activities, going over the specifics of our project, the role of volunteers in the communities and the standards of conduct as well as the get to know you energizing games. The craziness came to peak on Wednesday night when we (the supervisors) made partnerships from 10 pm-3 am, matching up volunteers we thought would work well together as well as matching these pairs with one of the 25 communities we visited on survey. And, I was even able to put a guitarist into the first host community.

Yesterday, I met with my route a few different times to go over more project specifics. My route is the group of 9 volunteers that is distributed across the 4 communities I surveyed. The volunteer are awesome and I am psyched to visit them starting next Tuesday.

Now, I have a short break, to rest, relax in the city of La Paz with the other supervisors.

Be well and take care of yourself.

Rachel