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Day 65 – Tuesday January 01, 2002

 The new year should prove to be quiet a challenge.  We currently have two projects that are scheduled to begin in the month of January.  They all involve computer education.  We have a modern library with 4 computers that will be opening at the end of the month.  My job is to assist the librarians with learning about computers, managing a system for computer usage, internet usage, and a system for organizing and managing the books in the library.  They do not plan on allowing people to check out the books right now, just read them in the library.  Another volunteer in a neighboring and slightly "wilder" community retold the story of the opening of their Social Center; were all the people who came to the inauguration of the place left with a keepsake effectively empting out the building of all movable objects.  All the chairs, decoration, even the soaps that they put in the urinals in the men's bathroom were stolen.  I guess they felt that if they were going to spend their tax dollars on it they should get to take something with them.

 

Today was very laid back as new years day in the states may have been.

Day 66 – Wednesday January 02, 2002

 We got up early and went for a walk today.  We walked up the mountain on the opposite side of the river from our house.  The road to El Guido was all up hill and we got half way to El Piño before turning around and coming home.  It was all up hill and a great workout.  

 

Later in the day we stopped by the Centro de Salude (Health Center), to drop off some spreadsheets we had created for them to keep track of their monthly records.

Day 67 Thursday January 03, 2002

 We worked all day on revising the web site to its new beautiful form.  The electricity went out last night and didn't come back on until later this morning.  Jen spent most of the day typing up emails to send out at the end of the week.

Day 68 Friday January 04, 2002

 Jen had an English class today.  I worked more on the web site. We paid our internet bill which was about 700 lempira less than we had anticipated, and reveled in the fact that next months would be even less. 

Day 69 Saturday January 05, 2002

 I'm working backwards in the diary to try to remember what we did on these days, but am having difficult time the further I get from Thursday January 10th.   We did email this morning and it worked pretty well.  We were able to send and receive everything we wanted to.

 

Jen made a special treat of chocolate chip cookies in our easy bake oven that serve as our only means of baking stuff.  they were good, but we later found out we were missing salt from the recipe.

Day 70 Sunday January 06, 2002

 We tried to update the website this morning and email.  We were successful in emailing, but were not able to update the website.  We will have to try again when we go to Tegucigalpa. 

Day 71 Monday January 07, 2002

 We spent the earlier part of the day waiting to meet with Max.  Who is the person that donated all the computers for the high school and pays for the internet access that we have been using.  We met with Max and some of his family and friends at around 2 PM and showed them the computer lab where he was somewhat disappointed to find out that due to conflicts with the director of the school the lab has not been used by students or staff since Matt left.  He was also a little upset that a bunch of the books he had donated were being eaten by termites that had built a nest in the bookshelf the size of a palm sized basketball.  They had also spread to the ceiling, many of the desks, and had little termite tunnels running all along the corners of the floor and on the walls.

 

Later in the evening we visited with the Mayorga family and had dinner at their house.

Day 72 Tuesday January 08, 2002

 We left our site early this morning with Matt (the previous volunteer in our site).  We drove the 3 hours to the capitol and will be staying with him at his house until Friday when we will go visit another volunteer couple near on of the national park.  We hop to do some hiking and take in the sights.

 

We went to the mall with Matt, then to PriceMart, and finally spent the rest of the night updating the website over Matt's cable modem in his house.

Day 73 Wednesday January 09, 2002

 We spent the day in the capitol today.  We got up did some business in the central part of town and then went to the mall where we saw "Lord of the Rings".  It was really good movie, but we wanted it to just keep going into the next as ended kind of abruptly...well as abruptly as a 3 hour movie can end.  We shared a large popcorn in the movie and a soda, and later shared a McDonalds 2 cheeseburger meal.

 

We made moon pie for our nice hosts, and watched Ed on NBC.

Day 74 Thursday January 10, 2002

We are in the capitol again today and staying with the volunteer who used to work in our site.  Jennifer is not feeling very well and I fear she has contracted some kind of parasite or something.  She is having stomach pains and feeling nauseous.  

 

I went to the medical office for Peace Corps with a "sample" of what might have been ailing her and they told me to take her to the hospital as they couldn't do anything for her.  So I hiked back to Matt's house where we were staying and had the difficult job of convincing Jennifer that we had to go to the hospital.  

 

We went to the hospital and were warmly received.  It was the same hospital I spent my time in while I had mono.  The doctor came in and talked to us, took the sample that Peace Corps didn't want anything to do with, poked and prodded Jennifer, asked her a few questions, started and IV, and told us we would be there for about 3 hours until the bag a saline dripping into Jen's arm was empty as she was dehydrated.  He returned 2 1/2 hours later and informed us that Jen had a minor bacteria in her stomach, gave her some drugs, and told her she would be fine.  We went home and she was feeling better.  She didn't really like the IV though.

Day 75 Friday January 11, 2002

 Jen was feeling much better today, and had her appetite back.  We traveled to San Juancito where another married couple is stationed.   It is at the base of a national park called La Tigra.  When we get our photos developed I will post some photos of the area.  It was very beautiful.  We had enchiladas made from a Betty Crocker cookbook they had.  They were super yummy and more food than I eat in a week.  Their site is much cooler and was almost cold at night.  We spent the night relaxing, reading magazines that Peace Corps sends out (we get Newsweek every month or so to keep connected to the real world) to all volunteers in Honduras and presumably to other areas of the world.  

 

We finished up the night playing scrabble, which was a lot of fun.  We still haven't met any young couples in our site who we connect with, so to have another couple who we could relax and have fun with was really nice.

Day 76 Saturday January 12, 2002

 We got up this morning, had a crumb cake for breakfast that Jen and I purchased on our last visit to PriceMart, and then started the long trek up the mountain to La Tigra.  The visit would serve two purposes.  To visit La Tigra and to visit a German couple who live at the top of the mountain at the base of the park.  The woman is a veterinarian and the couple we are staying with has a small puppy that needed his vaccinations.  

 

On the way up the mountain we ran into a British couple who told us they were volunteering at an orphanage in Valle de Angeles where we had our original training and which is only about an hour from San Juancito.  We chatted for a little while and they invited us to stop by and visit them as we were going to be in Valle the next week for a training.  

 

The German couple had come to Honduras a couple of years ago to volunteer with the national park area just above their house and decided to build a house and stay for a while.  They build a small cabin and a large house that they live in.  The small cabin they rent out to tourists and we plan on visiting there in a few weeks when Jennifer's mom visits.

 

We then went to an abandon gold mine that now serves as a water supply location for part of the capitol.  The entrance was barred off and there was a 3 foot wall built up around the entrance to provide an area for the water to flow into the supply pipes.  We had lunch sitting on top of the supply pipe and picked deer ticks off of our pants before we continued our journey along the base of the park.  We spent the next 2 1/2 hours hiking along a ridge on the middle of the mountain.  There were several coffee farmers who had claimed much of the area years ago to grow their crops, and evidence of motorcycle traffic which was probably from the SANNA guys.   SANNA is the Honduran water commission that is responsible for providing water to all of Honduras.  As we walked we came across 3 large pipelines that were taking water from the mountain and its streams and funneling them 25 miles away to the capitol.

 

The last part our journey proved to be the most difficult as we decent about 3,500 feet in about a 3/4 mile distance.  After the earlier ascent and the 2 1/2 hour walk my legs started giving out about half way down.  It was killer in the last few hundred yards.  The decent was made on a rocky dirt series of switch backs that were angled at about 30-35 degrees downward.

 

For dinner we treated the couple to the "best plato typico" in town.  We ate at a local comeador and went back to their house for a second round of scrabble. 

Day 77  Sunday January 13, 2002

We prepared to leave this morning for Valle de Angeles.  Part of the preparation was a bath for their puppy.  Their puppy apparently doesn't like the 45 degree water that flows from the faucet and lets them know it by yelping like it being tortured.  It yipped enough to draw several neighbors who came to see what the gringo was doing to his new puppy.  I managed to calm the situation a bit by getting some warmer water from the bathroom (where they have an electric water heater attached to the shower).  The puppy didn't seem to mind the warm water quiet as much and only whined a little.

 

We then hiked out of San Juancito, which was a task in and of it self with a full backpack and rubbery legs from the day before, to catch the bus on the main road.  The ride was tough and we had to stand most of the way because it was so crowded.  We arrived in Valle de Angeles to find our host mom gone and the kids being cared for by a teenage girl.  We dropped off our stuff and went looking for ice cream, which we found at our old ice cream spot.  We wandered the streets and looked through some of the tourist shops and then had a chip and bean and cheese mixture that was really yummy.  

 

We spent the night chatting with our host mom and hanging out at the house.   

Day 78 Monday January 14, 2002

 Our first day of training involved 3 hours of language and an afternoon chat with our "bosses".  We talked about what was going on in our site, what kinds of projects we have going, and so on.  It was encouraging to hear there were only one or two people who were actually doing any work as the government transitioned, as I didn't feel like I was doing anything with the outgoing government.  

 

Day 79 Tuesday January 15, 2002

Another fun day at training.  We went and visited the British couple we met on our walk up La Tigra and got to hear some excellent singing from the children in the local orphanage.  The orphanage is sponsored in part by the evangelical church and the British couple volunteers 3 months out of the year to come and help out with language, arts and crafts, and other activates. 

 

When we arrived Ray was occupied with trying to figure out why the roof of the house they were living in was electrified.  Apparently something had shorted out in the ceiling and made contact with the roof and now the roof was electrified.  

 

After they got that sorted out, we joined them for an evening prayer service and some singing.  The music was incredible.  So far we have only really heard singing in the Catholic church were everyone sings in a yelling nasally tone that is kind of annoying.  These children sang like a children's choir in the us.  It seemed like all of them had perfect pitch and moved from one note to the next very smoothly and their voices were like butter.  After singing the director of the facility spoke about a verse out of the gospels, and then we broke off into groups to pray.  

 

Afterwards we chatted with the children and then went back to Christine and Rays' house on the grounds of the orphanage for a "spot of English tea" a treat neither Jennifer or I had had before.  We were very happy to find that English tea also involved scones and other yummy treats, as well as some really good tea.  We chatted about our lives and missions in Honduras and talked about the history of the orphanage.  We plan on going back to visit and to do a craft day when Jennifer's mom come in 2 weeks.   

Day 80 Wednesday January 16, 2002

Yet another fun day of training, which was spent mostly alone at all the advanced Spanish speakers, and those who didn't feel like being in language class went into the capitol to check out some of the organization that are more closely related to their sectors.  

 

We spent the night looking for somewhere to eat.  We ended up at a little bar with food that was mediocre.  All the good restaurants in town were closed.

Day 81 Thursday January 17, 2002

I went to the dentist today to check out the hole in my mouth that used to be my tooth, and then headed back up to Valle to go to a birthday party for Dr. Pedro Tores who is our groups resident Pediatrician.  Apparently Pedro, who is a retired doctor from Puerto Rico, had always wanted to join the Peace Corps, but his wife did not.  She always wanted to spend time in Spain where her family is from, and he didn't want to.  So Pedro joined the Peace Corps and his wife is spending her time traveling between Spain and Puerto Rico.  Pedro hardly lives like a volunteer and spend a big chunk of his own money to furnish a nice house in his site.  He threw a party for himself, bought food for everyone, and even supplied beverages of all sorts for the party goers.  He also rented out a space at a local park, and got a bus to get everyone back to the capitol.  He is a very generous and caring man, and one of my favorite fellow volunteers.  

 

For the evening we got together at "Ruby Tuesdays" and I finally got to have ribs which I have been craving ever since we went to our site and the day before we left "Fridays" didn't have ribs as their shipment hadn't come in from the states.  We had a great dinner and then went back to Matt's house, did email and updated our web site. 

Day 82 Friday January 18, 2002

We went to lunch with Michelle and her friend Roger at a nice little taco joint that had really good flour tortillas filled with meat and other good fixings.   We spent the day hanging out at the mall in the capitol, and went to see "Harry Potter".  We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant that had really good food and then went out to a little open air bar that had couches and coffee table for their patrons to sit at.  The capitol is definitely different than Concepción de Maria

Day 83 Saturday January 19, 2002

 We left at 5 am for the bus station to so we could be in Choluteca (our department capitol) by 8:30 am.  We had volunteered to help out at an orphanage for a day of games and activities for the kids.  I spent the afternoon clicking away photos for the two volunteers that had organized the event and playing with the kids.  Jennifer was hard at work painting faces.  Through out the morning we had several competitions like the egg on a spoon in the mouth relay, a make shift obstacle course, and a water relay that was designed to do nothing more than get everyone wet.  We then had lunch and had some more games for some of the smaller children and gave out prizes.  The activity was great success and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time.  The volunteers (there were other Peace Corps volunteers helping as well) ourselves included were exhausted when 3 pm rolled around and were happy to be heading for a place with cold drinks and shade.  We had spent most of the afternoon in the sun.  

 

We had a couple of sodas with the other volunteers and then went to Mass at the local Catholic church, which was nice...as anytime we can go to a real mass is nice.

 

After showering we headed to Raj and Nina's house (the couple that hosted the event at the orphanage) where we had pizza and cold beverages.  We spent the night socializing with other volunteers and then spent the night on the floor of another volunteer who lives in town. 

Day 84 Sunday January 20, 2002

 We got up early and left on the 9am bus to Concepción de Maria and made it home by 11:30 am which was nice as it usually takes much longer and we just missed the hot noonday sun.  We spent the rest of the afternoon putting all of our belonging back into our house and cleaning. While we were gone the owner of our apartment put in a ceiling to help with the heat, dust, and insects.  We had a roof, but no ceiling, and there were spaces in between the walls and the roof where all sorts of different things would come into the house.  It is very nice and they even painted it electric blue for us.  The house is cooler and has a little color now too.  I like it. 

Day 85 Monday January 21, 2002

 Today was laundry day.  I washed and hung out all the cloths that we had been wearing for the two previous weeks.  I think Jennifer is hiding from doing laundry as whenever I say we are going to wash cloths she, for some reason, can't seem to get out of bed (we have to do laundry early in the morning before it gets too warm).  I think it may be because the last time she washed clothes she rubbed her knuckles raw to the point of bleeding.   She later found out that her scrubbing technique was a little off and you are supposed to use your palms not your knuckles to scrub the clothes, however she claims that she is still recovering from this traumatic experience.   

 

I did make her do the dishes later on that day though so she is still pulling her weight.  We also spent the day rearranging the stuff in our house and cleaning up so that my boss, Jeff would have a nice little house to visit when he came to check up on us the next day.  I also arranged meeting with the old and new mayors to discuss my role in shaping of the local government.

Day 86 Tuesday January 22, 2002

 Jeff (my director)  showed up in the afternoon.  We chatted about our living conditions and I told him I didn't really have a lot of projects going due to the change in the government.  He assured me it was the same with most of the other volunteers as well and everything would pick up after the inauguration in the next week.   We met with the old mayor and was told the new one was out of town on business.  We also took a look at the new library that was almost completed and just needed a window put in.

Day 87 Wednesday January 23, 2002

Today was kind of a down day.  Although we have been in the country for 6 month, there are still some adjustments that have to be made.  It has been particularly difficult with the site we have been placed in.  The south of Honduras is incredibly hot.  Where as the northern, western, and central regions are very much different.  The north is also hot, but is very close to white sand beaches and access to the major islands that serve as the tourism areas.  The central and western regions are greener and definitely cooler.  We found out that there is another couple in the same development areas as us who are going to Copan in the north.  Copan is much more developed and the location of several Mayan ruins.  Some days it is a little harder than others not to be envious of what other volunteer may have or not have in their site.    

Day 88 Thursday January 24, 2002

We spent most of today recovering from yesterday and wondering if we were ever going to do anything here.  Everything is just kind of quiet, like the calm before the storm.

 

I started a picture frame to day made out of sticks to match the one I made Jen for Christmas.  It will hold photos of our family a and a wedding picture of us.

Day 89 Friday January 25, 2002

We went down to the river with the neighbor this morning and went to one of the local swimming holes on the river.  Before Hurricane Mitch we have been told the river was very beautiful with more house along its edge, more trees, more places to go swimming, and it was not as wide.  Mitch apparently widened the river considerably from what it was before making it rather shallow in places.  Now that the dry season is upon us it is apparent that the river will almost cease to be before rain falls again.  At the swimming hole we shared musk melon juice, ate fried tortillas with bean and cheese, and just kind of hung out in the cool water.  It was a lot of fun.

 

At 2 pm we attended the inauguration of the new mayor at an official ceremony where a blue and white strip of cloth was placed on the new mayor, a staff was handed over, and the new office replaced the old one by changing seats at the front of the crowd.  A lunch with sodas was served, and there were tons of people outside trying to get in to see what was going on and get a shot at one the free meals.  Since Jen and I are kind of like VIP's in town we always get to eat.

 

We sat with 4 Nicaraguan politicians who had come across the border to share in the celebration.  They were from communities that we share the national border with.  After the lunch there were 4 or 5 little girls that were waiting to take our plates.  When they did they ran over to a chair, sat down, and started eating like they hadn't seen food in a few days.  If I had know they were going to appear and be so hungry I would have eaten less.  It is considered rude here, or so we were told in training, not to clean you plate, so we make every effort to.  The portions are usually too big and food isn't all that tasty so finishing a full meal is sometimes difficult.  I've noticed however that many Hondurans will also not finish their food and just pick at a few pieces if they have already eaten instead of out right refusing. 

Day 90 Saturday January 26, 2002

We got up early and went to the local high school to connect to the internet, did email and research a digital camera we hope to purchase in the new future.

 

We traveled to a small town that is part of our municipality this morning for a birthday party.  It is also the town our neighbor Gloria works in.  She is a school teacher and works in San Benito Nuevo at an elementary school.  So we walked around town, visited her school, checked out a local fair that was going on, and went back to her friends house for cake.  

 

We had cake and the whole time I kept looking for the birthday boy, who was turning 15 years old.  Apparently it isn't all the cool to go to your birthday party when you are 15 here, because I never saw him.  He was out in the town with his friends.  I thought it was rather interesting that while he was out in the town were celebrating his birthday and eating his cake. 

 

We returned, by bus, to Concepción de Maria. 

Day 91 Sunday January 27, 2002

We did email again this morning and talked to Jen's parents for a while.  We then went to church and went out for tacos at our favorite little "restaurant" where we watch the presidential inauguration on television.

 

After lunch we moved the 4 computers that we were storing into the library.  One of the librarians came by with her brother's truck and 6 people to help and we brought them over to the library.  I then gave a short talk to the librarians on how to connect all the different cords of a computer and had them each try it out.  We then unpacked all of them and they got to set up the 4 machines. 

 

We meet again on Tuesday where we will make invitations for the inauguration, plan some presentation materials, and start cataloging the books. 

 

Later in the evening I worked on the mundane task of updating this journal.

 

At 7pm we talked to mom and a short time later Jennifer's sister called and she got to talk to her.

Day 92 Monday January 28, 2002

 I got up early today and did dishes.  We bought a larger tub to put our dishes in now more can accumulate before we have to do them.  Actually the tub is so large we ran out of stuff to put our food on.  Not that this is a normal practice, since we usually do dishes right after meals, but we have been kind of lazy the last couple of days. 

 

Day 93 Tuesday January 29, 2002

The new library is well on its way and it appears we will be ready for the inauguration.  Yesterday after the last window was installed and the furniture was delivered, we were ready to move the computers into the library.  We have a lot of work to do in terms of developing the skills of the three volunteer librarians to use, maintain, and monitor the computer usage.  

 

We used one of librarian's brother's truck to drive the computers over to the library and got the computers setup. 

 

The library, I believe, will be a transforming building for this community.  In general, the Honduran culture does not involve literature, and reading for pleasure is not very popular.  The introduction of easily accessible free reading material, especially to younger children, is going to provide Concepción de Maria with an opportunity to increase the learning potential of its youth.  The management of this project will also serve as a test to see how much the community cares about advancing technology and education for the youth in their town.  The project is dependent on the support, interest, and dedication of the local people.  We hope to help them develop an appreciation for the potentials of having a modern library in their community.  Many of the community members are very excited about being able to reference information on agriculture, mechanics, and other areas of expertise.  Our day in the library yesterday was very rewarding as we assisted three brave souls who will be in charge of making this project successful. 

 

Before departing I explained to the librarians what was needed to make the cards for the card catalog and they assured me they would have the materials ready for Thursday when we would be getting together to make the cards.

Day 94 Wednesday January 30, 2002

I got up early today and did laundry.  I'm finding that if I do it more frequently it is easy to get through.  I also boiled water.  We then went to the high school to do some email.  We then came home, I bought us some eggs which I then cooked (over easy) with a side of toasted dried hamburger buns for our toast, and made some hand squeezed orange juice.  It is one of my favorite breakfasts (except I like fresh bread).

 

We were supposed to have a meeting with the librarians and another group of people to develop committees for decorating, arranging food, cleaning, and other activates that have to be taken care of before the inauguration of the library in a week and a half.  The meeting was canceled, and we decided to meet at 1 pm to make the cards for the card catalog.

 

The cards for the card catalog needed some heavier stock paper, for which they decided to use manila folders.  I had gone over exactly how the folders had to be cut and what they should look like.  They showed up with 1/2 the number of folders we needed and they were cut kind of crooked and to the wrong dimensions.  I told them to make them look like 8 1/2 X 11 inch sheets of paper to make it easy.  Despite this little hurdle we were able to print 54 pages of the 104 we needed to print and most of the cards turned out pretty good with the exception of one or two that turned out strange because of a not so straight edge on the paper.  

I then spent the next hour and a half trying to figure out why one of the brand new computers was just shutting down for no reason.  I found out the bios set up for the CPU was set wrong and probably causing the processor to overheat and shut down.  I fixed that which made me very happy as I found out last week that the place they bought the computers from has gone out of business and there is no one to take care of the 1 year warranty that was on it. 

 

I then came home where Jennifer (who left an hour and a half before me) had made us tuna melts (sin the cheese, because there is no where to buy cheese in Concepción de Maria.)  They were very good, but left us kind of wanting.  We haven't had a major grocery shopping trip in over a month and have been trying to deplete our food stocks before Jen's mom comes in a week to let her have the experience of shopping day.

Day 95 Thursday January 31, 2002

We met with a committee for arranging the inauguration details this afternoon.  The meeting was focused on forming committees and designating jobs to committee members.  We formed committees for welcoming guests, decorating, security, food, and cleaning up the area.  I joined the welcoming committee and Jen joined the decorating committee. 

 

The committee were good, except that no one wanted to take on a leadership role and thought if they volunteers to be the committee leader they would be responsible for everything the committee did.  It was also interesting that the only ideas that were brought up besides having name tags were brought up by me.  They also wanted me to be the committee leader.  I told them I was here to help them with the process of organizing and making decisions, but I was not here to be their leader, so they picked the female in the group to be the leader.  She was also relegated later to do most of the work. 

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