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