Day 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184
Day 155 - Monday April 1, 2002
We left an early morning bus today and headed for Manuel Antonio. It was a two hour bus ride and everyone was pretty excited when we arrived. The beaches and small town feel of Manuel Antonio were incredible, and we truly felt that we were in Costa Rica. Since we didn't have any lodging, we stopped at a restaurant, ordered some beverages, and started to make a plan for what we're going to do. That the quick snack Jennifer, Andrea, and Kim went out to look for the hotel. There were several in the area, but we finally decided on hotel Manuel Antonio. It was built two years ago, was very clean, and the rates were very reasonable. The only drawback was that there was no pool , however we were directly across from the ocean.
After checking in and getting dressed, we decided to head for the beach. I laid in the sun for about an hour and then decided to go in for a swim. The waves were fairly strong and I started to do some body surfing. It was a lot of fun. On my last run into shore I caught a fairly big wave. I was moving so quickly that my hands were forced to my side and I was a moving headfirst towards the shore. I didn't think this was a big deal until the wave overrode me and drove me headfirst into the floor of the ocean. The force of the blow put stars in front of my eyes and disoriented me for a second. When I came upon a water there was a shooting pain radiating from my neck and moving down into my shoulders. I also had the wind knocked out of me, and I could barely walk. I got back up on shore and sat down in a chair, and realize that I'd hit my head very hard. My neck was starting to go stiff and the pain was steadily increasing.
After about ten minutes Jennifer and I went back to the hotel room, and judging from the pain I was in, I told her that I thought it would be a good idea if we went to the hospital. she went down to the front desk and had them call an ambulance, while I attempted to get dressed.
When the ambulance arrived is just a simple red cross van with the stretcher in the back. The ambulance ride was very uncomfortable, and the driver was driving very fast. when I arrived at the hospital, they transferred me to another gurney and rolled me into the main waiting room. I sat for about an hour waiting for the X-Ray guy to get off his dinner break and wheel me into the x-ray to get a few snap shots of my neck to make sure it wasn't broken. After another 15 minutes of waiting the doctor said I was not broken and could go home. I also got some Tylenol with codeine and ibuprofen to handle to pain. I was pretty happy to find out I wouldn't be in tractions for the next 3 months.
Day 156 - Tuesday April 2, 2002
I was pretty sore today after my little tumble in the ocean. I spent most of the day just kind of relaxing in bed trying to move as little as possible. We had breakfast at the Blue Marlin Restaurant, check our email at a local internet cafe, and I rested in bed while Jennifer and Cindy went for a walk.
For dinner we watched the sunset from the top of the Blue Marlin, went to Barba Roja for the actual meal, and went to Quepos for ice cream and some dancing. We found ice cream, but no dancing.
Day 157 - Wednesday April 3, 2002
Andrea , Kim, and Danielle went on a canopy tour which allows you to zip through the tree tops of the rain forest on cables. I thought that sounded pretty exciting and was the one thing I really wanted to while we were in Costa Rica. I will have to wait now until our next trip.
Jennifer, Cindy and I went to Manuel Antonio to check out the wild life, beaches and to go on a little nature hike. We saw some monkeys, an iguana or two, and some beautiful rainforest.
Later in the evening we watched the sun set and I got some great photos of the sun set.
While shopping for the "Perfect" gift Cindy had found what she was looking for, only to return to buy it and find it had already been sold. She started to cry knowing that she would be leaving the next day and had no more opportunities to go shopping. The store owners took pity on her and offered to drive her to Quepos to their larger store to find what she was looking for, even though their store there was closed.
She found what she was looking for and the event created a new friend ship with Cesar, Paula, and Paula's husband William.
Day 158 - Thursday April 4, 2002
Cindy and Andrea left this morning on a an early bus. Jen and I went shopping in Quepos and enjoyed some quiet couple time together. We missed Cindy and Andrea though.
We switched hotels from the Hotel Manuel Antonio to another hotel nearby.
Paula, Cesar and William invited us to a special barbeque on the beach where they grilled up steak and chicken and a couple of different salads. It was very nice. We had a huge bonfire and listened to the waves while we chatted.
Day 159 - Friday April 5, 2002
Kim and Danielle left today to head back to the U.S. while Jennifer and I stayed at the Hotel Eclipse in a very nice room that had a patio over looking the main road. On the other side of the road was a clear view of the ocean. It was very nice. Jennifer and I went to the upscale "Si Como No" resort restaurant near where we were staying. They food and the4 atmosphere was very fun and classy. The dining patio over looked the ocean, and the service was very good.
Since my neck and back were so stiff from my crash in the ocean and "Si Como No" had massage services Jennifer and I enjoyed a nice massage on a shaded deck over looking the ocean from a professional masseuse.
After lunch we went to an internet cafe to send some mail only to loose the one message we had been typing for 15 minutes to a brief power outage.
We watched the sun set from a restaurant across from our hotel called "El Avion" or the plane. It is a large C-130 or something similar that has been converted into a restaurant. It over looks a western shore of the ocean for a nice view of the setting sun.
After the sun set we went back to "Si Como No" to take advantage of their small movie theatre to see "The 13th Warrior" a rather dry movie staring Antonio Banderes. It was free so we couldn't complain. We got complimentary tickets for eating in their restaurant for lunch.
After the movie we went back to our hotel and had a short swim in their pool, which was just a little too warm, but nice.
Day 160 - Saturday April 6, 2002
We left early for San Jose, Costa Rica by bus. We had to catch another bus the following day to get back to Honduras. When we got into San Jose we walked about 12 blocks to a little boarding house near the bus terminal. We slept in a 8X10 room and spent as much time during the day away from the place as we could. We wandered around San Jose, which is a surprisingly modern city. Lots of cars, taxis, and busses. We did some shopping and shared a Papa John's Pizza.
In the evening we attended Mass at a church right across from the bus station, and went to a cultural arts night at the National Theatre. They had a dance troop from Korea performing. It was very entertaining and there was a large crowd.
Day 161 - Sunday April 7, 2002
We got up very early this morning and went to the Bus station to catch our bus that was departing at 5 AM. We arrived in Managua, Nicaragua at around 3:30 PM and headed out on the town to find some dinner and see a few sights in Managua.
Wanted a nice sit down dinner we ended up at the Hotel Intercontinental for dinner. Later we went to the Presidential Fountain and the location of the old national cathedral. It was very beautiful. We were slightly harassed by a drunk guy who wanted us to buy little animals he had made out of palm leafs. He followed us around for the longest time trying out the 10 or 15 words in English that he knew.
It would have been a great place if we could have blended in with the crowd, but I got the impression that it wasn't a very hot tourist spot, and we felt really out of place.
Day 162 - Monday April 8, 2002
Another early morning departure, long lines at the border crossing, and we arrived in Choluteca at around 11 AM. We did a little grocery shopping and hopped on a bus for Concepción de Maria.
Day 163 - Tuesday April 9, 2002
I found myself becoming bitter today over the fact that not only do we not have clean water (water we can drink straight from the tap), but now that the dry season is here we only have water for about 4 hours in the morning. Readjusting to life here after such a pleasant vacation is going to be difficult.
Day 164 - Wednesday April 10, 2002
Back to teaching classes today. Things are going rather well with the high school computer classes.
Jennifer and I also went for a walk before sunset and encountered some guys (late teens early 20's) trying to get some mangos down out of the trees. One of them yelled a cat call at Jennifer. I was ready to go down and give him a piece of my over inflated cop ego, and decided it probably wouldn't be tactically prudent to take on 7 guys at once 10 minutes from the main part of town over something so juvenile. Besides my neck still hurts from crashing in the ocean. It did however reinforce how different Honduras is from Costa Rica. The people in Costa Rica were very nice and very respectful. I see that here as well, but there is an equal amount of disrespect.
Day 165 - Thursday, April 11, 2002
Another day of teaching.
Day 166 - Friday, April 12, 2002
Another day of teaching and for the first time since I got here I had a "finally Friday" moment when all the little urchins filed out of the classroom and I realized I had two days to recuperate.
Day 167 - Saturday, April 13, 2002
Raj and Nina called and invited us to come down for the weekend and go swimming at a local hotel. We left on the last bus at 2 PM and had a group dinner, Raj, Nina, Perth (who lives in a neighboring community), and John (who lives in Choluteca). We had pasta for dinner, with dinner rolls and chips with hummus. It was all very good.
Jennifer and I slept on Raj and Nina's floor.
Day 168 - Sunday, April 14, 2002
We went to Mass this morning at San Jose Obrero in Choluteca. It was a nice Mass. Afterwards we met up with everyone from the night before to continue an Indian movie that we had started to watch the day before. It was 3 hours long, but very well done. There was singing and dancing and an interesting plot and finish. It was very enjoyable to watch.
After the movie we went to Hotel Gualacheme where we swam for a couple of hours and chatted pool side. We then went to get lunch at a local pizza parlor, get frozen cappuccinos, and do a little grocery shopping. Then Jennifer and I headed home.
Day 169 - Monday, April 15, 2002
Back to teaching. Today's class went extremely well. I adjusted one of my lesson plans slightly and noticed a huge improvement in the adaptation and ease of use that the computer students were demonstrating. It was a nice impasse to reach. However I now have to change my outlines in English and Spanish to reflect that change. Not a big deal.
I was also excited to hear that 8 teachers had committed to coming after classes to receive "train the trainer" courses on how to teach computer classes when we are gone. Actually before we are gone, but to sustain the project once we leave.
Day 170 - Tuesday, April 16, 2002
I spent the morning visiting with Yami, the librarian, and stopped in to my "office" in the mayors office to find that the mayor was again, not in.
In talking with Yami I found out that the other librarian had taken a paid job (the librarians are volunteers and don't get paid anything) as a school teacher in a neighboring community. She said she was considering doing the same as she has a child to support and no husband. I told her she needed to talk to the committee that over sees the library about getting her paid for her work.
The rest of the afternoon was spent working on update for the website and email.
Day 171 - Wednesday, April 17, 2002
We had classes this morning and also this afternoon. The classes with the teachers are moving along very well and two have agreed to teach the introductory class next week. We are very excited about this development as the last volunteers attempted to do classes with the teachers, but were not able to get the teachers to come to the classes on a consistent basis. So to now have the teachers starting to teach the classes we are very excited.
Day 172 - Thursday, April 18, 2002
We tried to go to the Capitol on the 2AM bus today, but woke up 10 minutes late and missed the bus. We went back to bed and tried it again at 6:30 AM. We managed to get on the bus and were in Tegucigalpa by 11:30 AM. We both had a couple of medical appointments to take care of.
We spent the night at the Maya hotel and stayed with a couple of our friends.
Day 173 - Friday, April 19, 2002
We had a meeting this morning for the volunteer advocacy committee. We spent about 1 hour talking about different issues related to volunteers and their interaction with Peace Corps Staff. We then met with the new country director for about 2 1/2 hours. The purpose of the group is to provide a venue for change and improvement in the way Peace Corps Honduras staff and Volunteers do their jobs.
For dinner we went to the mall, at TGI Fridays, and saw "The Royal Tananbaums".
Day 174 - Saturday, April 20, 2002
Jen and I got massages this morning. We hung out in the afternoon, and watched a couple of movies on TV with the three other volunteers we were staying with.
In the evening we all went out for dinner at TGI Fridays and the movie "Rollerball" which was really dumb.
Day 175 - Sunday, April 21, 2002
We went to church in the town center then walked over to McDonalds for breakfast burritos and pancakes. We checked out of the hotel and found a bus going to Ojojona. Ojojona is about an hour out of Tegucigalpa and there is a volunteer there who works in economic development. He managed to get their town a solar oven. It c$10,000 is way too much for an oven of any sorts, even if it does save precious trees. However for now they use it on the weekend to bake break, make pizza, cook corn and other duties and sell the items in the town's square which appears to be fairly busy with locals and outsiders coming and going.
We then hopped on a bus to get to the main highway, then onto another really over crowded bus that we got off of at the rest stop 20 minutes down the road. Having to stand for 3 hours didn't sound like all that much fun. We were lucky and managed to get onto a Catholic excursion bus that was heading to the same place as us. They originally said they couldn't take passengers bus changed their minds and let us ride with them. They were very nice and we even had a seat to put our bags in for the trip to Choluteca.
Once in Choluteca we went round and round as to weather we would return to our site. We were both pretty tired and the prospect of 4 more hours on a bus just didn't appeal. Our bus passed by right after we got into Choluteca and we instinctively got on it not thinking about what we wanted to do. Before we were out of Choluteca we decided that the run down bus with no shocks or leaf springs and in which many of seats seems ready to fall through the rusted floor was not a very good mode of transportation. So, we got off the bus, checked into a motel, and went looking for some dinner.
Day 176 - Monday, April 22, 2002
After getting up we headed to the grocery store where we purchased a few essentials. Then Jennifer headed to the big grocery store (to buy meat and dairy products) and I headed to the post office to check for packages. I then went back to John's apartment (another volunteer who lives in Choluteca) and made a copy of a CD for him on our laptop.
Jennifer and I then headed to the bus stop and then back to Concepción de Maria.
Day 177 - Tuesday, April 23, 2002
One of the most difficult things about living in a remote site is coming home after a visit to somewhere else. It seems like most of Honduras is nicer than where we live. We experience a little "cultural shock" each time we return. It makes it difficult to leave and even harder to come home. When we left we had hoped that the next day our landlord would start building us a private bathroom and finish the two week old hole in our wall that is supposed to be a window. When we returned nothing had been done. This made for a frustrating time as we have paid our rent through the end of the year to get these projects done. We are now wondering if they will ever get done.
Day 178 - Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Our landlord apparently had surgery yesterday, which kind of explains why our window wasn't done. It was so she wouldn't have any more children. I still can't figure out why is wasn't done two weeks ago when she originally said it would be. Oh well we are in Honduras and I should just be happy that we have another window to let the breeze blow through. Our bedroom is a lot cooler since it went in.
Day 179 - Thursday, April 25, 2002
My organic garden is a flop. Everything grew really well and then all the plagues of the bible figured out where my garden is. In Spanish the word for insects or other problems with crops is "plaga" like plague. I have aphids or some other little insect destroying my cucumbers and something called "white fly" killing my tomatoes. The white flies look like tiny flecks of ash, but have managed to kill 4 of my mature tomato plants before they fully yielded fruit. When I ask locals how to control them I get varied answers. I finally asked a guy who is studying agriculture at the university and he told me they are almost impossible to control. Another guy from the cooperative told me they like the color yellow and to coat a sheet of yellow paper with butter and put it in my garden. I did this and added some insecticide to it. I think I may be killing all the insects that are needed for pollination as well. I have really fertile soil. In the three weeks we were gone some kind of week landed in the garden and grew up taller than my 4 foot tomato plants.
My mom sent some vegetable from home and I am going to try planting them towards the end of the hot and dry season here. I mulched today and hope that with strengthen the plants enough to get a few tomatoes out of the less mature bunch. It doesn't look hopefully. After two weeks of yellow paper in the garden the white flies are still there, however their numbers seem to have dwindled.
At around 3 PM I hiked up to El Peñon to try to get photos of the setting sun. It feels like the rest of the world is on the other side of the mountain. Not true, there are just more mountains on the other side of the mountain. So I got some photos of some kids who showed me the trail through the mountains instead. I had gotten lost the first hour or so and was loosing sunlight quickly. At the end of the hike one of the boys pointed out the trail to the top and said it was only about 30 minutes away. I missed the road and trail on my way up and had wondered through a corn field for an hour. I never made it to the actual peak as there are few routes and much of the lower part of the crest is sheer wall about 50-100 feet high.
Day 180 - Friday, April 26, 2002
Today was a quiet day. Jennifer went to El Peñon and did crafts with the children at the school there. I went to the high school, did email, and chatted with the teachers there. There was not much in the way of classes as today is the national elections for school government. I was a little saddened by this, being a former student council member and class vice-president, as there was only one person running at the high school and no one was really all that interested in the student government.
I worked on a neighbor's computer for most of the second half of the day. He wanted to install Win98 on a machine he was running Win95. Pretty easy installation. His was riddled with problems. He had two hard drives that weren't configured correctly. Then when I installed the software it wouldn't work. This took most all of the day.
Day 181 - Saturday, April 27, 2002
The was out for the first half of the day and came back on at 4 PM. So working on the computer was out of the question. I went over to his house when the power came back on. I found that there were major errors on the main hard drive and had to re format it. This took like 4 hours to do. We then installed Windows again and this time it worked. He was very happy and so was I. It seems like 1 out of every 5 systems I do installs on there is always some weird problem that takes hours to sort out.
Day 182 - Sunday, April 28, 2002
We went to church this morning, then just hung out for the afternoon. I played video games while Jennifer scrap booked. Her sister and Andrea brought down creative memory book pages (that my mom gave her) and supplies for Jennifer to work on. So far she has done 51 pages, which is incredible. They look wonderful and capture the essence of what we have experienced here. Later on we went for a walk and talked about some of our culture shock problems we have been experiencing, as well as the prospect of Jennifer being sent to Washington, DC to get her knee checked out. History lesson...
About 7 months ago Jennifer and I were crossing a street in the capitol when she tripped and fell. She took a pretty bad fall and banged up her knee. About 2 months ago she went to the doctor as the knee was still tender and ached occasionally. The doctor injected her knee with something and it made the knee worse. Since then she has had a constant dull pain in her knee and walking down his create even more pain. This is a bit of a problem as our work demands lots of walking and we live in the mountains so at least half the time we are walking down hill. Jen is sad as she goes on walks to exercise. She returned to the same doctor two weeks later and he said that she just needed more time. She then went back two more weeks later (now one month later) and he told her she should be better by now and didn't believe that she was still experiencing pain. I think he may have even hinted at her making it up. A talk with the Peace Corps medical office a couple of weeks ago brought us the response of "we'll send it to Washington to see what they want to do." When a medical problem presents it self here in Honduras and they are not able to easily remedy it they send it to Washington to have a Peace Corps doctor look at the file and suggest a course of action. In Jennifer's case they want her to fly to Washington, D.C. and see a specialist there. They have already authorized it and already said that I can not go with.
This will not due and is unacceptable, as I nor Jennifer want her to be traveling alone to the murder capitol of the U.S. The shock of being reintroduced into the American culture will be huge, as well as transportation needs, getting around, and just staying sane being apart. Jen told the medical office that didn't want to go with out me. The medical office said she would check into me going for "emotional support". If there is any kind of extended stay for therapy or other treatment we couldn't be apart for a long period of time. So I think we will both be going. Jennifer says there is no other option and she will not go with out me. There is another couple in a community a few hours from ours that went to D.C. for a medical problem and her husband got to go with her for "emotional support" so I think we will be going together. I am just starting to adjust to Honduran life and to go back now is going to put a large ripple in my pond.
The only upside to this is Jennifer will be getting very good medical attention and hopefully they can give her a course of treatment to reverse the damage done by the doctor here as well as repair what ever the problem was in the first place. We will also be in D.C. for our 2nd anniversary which would be nice.
Day 183 - Monday, April 29, 2002
I dreaded today. I didn't want to do any work and didn't feel like leaving the house. However we had commitments to fulfill and classes to teach. So I did manage to leave to the house. I am pretty happy that I did. The computer classes went very well today, especially with the teachers. They learn very quickly and all seem to have an aptitude for learning computer stuff, which is kind of a pleasant surprise since most of them are 40+. My best "student" is going to retire next year.
There always seems to be something that is disrupting the flow of classes. Last week it was a meeting in Tegucigalpa for me. This week it is "labor day" which is Wednesday and no one works, so there is no school. Next week we have a conference in another town, and the week after that we will probably be in D.C. There is always something, and coming back and getting back into the swing of things is often difficult.
We had Spanish tutoring for an hour today.
Day 184 - Tuesday, April 30, 2002
We had a meeting with our community partners at 10 am today. The meeting started at 11:15 after my community partner showed up at 10:40 and Jennifer's needed a phone call at 11:00 to get him there. We did not really accomplished anything, but I guess to them it felt like we were getting somewhere. When we ran out of realistic things to talk about my counter part told me there was much work to do and he would like to see me:
o Eliminate the growing number of gang members who are moving into the "aldeas" in the area by training security teams for each "aldea".
o Get people to take more pride in their work and to work harder.
o Help the people of the community regain their patriotism.
o Give the young people of Concepción de Maria a conscience.
o Renew a spirit of volunteerism among the community.
I've decided that if I can accomplish these goals, as a foreigner, and with only a year left of service I can either become president of Honduras, or President of the United Nations. I especially like the first one since it would probably get me killed before we leave. Needless to say I don't have a work plan for any of these projects yet.