Day 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199
200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214
Day 184 - Wednesday, May 1, 2002
We got up early this morning and went for a long morning walk. in the afternoon we celebrated our month-a-versary dinner, which would also be our second anniversary dinner. We celebrated our month-a-versary early so that we would be able to go out to a nice restaurant for anniversary. We did not have Spanish classes today as it is Honduras's labor day.
Day 185 - Thursday, May 02, 2002
This morning we got up early and hiked up the mountain to El Peñon to work out with the children in the elementary school. We did an art project for mother's day in which we help the kindergarten children make hearts which they colored input stickers on to give to their moms next week for mother's day. When we got back to Concepción de Maria, and Jennifer went to the mayor's office to go before the leaders of the communities in order to promote the use of the library.
In the afternoon we had computer classes with the teachers at the high school, however we did not have classes with the students as they had other activities going on.
Day 186 - Friday, May 03, 2002
Today was laundry day and we have decided to hire a local woman to do our laundry. This will help us free up our schedule. We did not have classes in the high school as there was a large soccer game between our town and a neighboring town and all of the students wanted to attend.
We did go to the high school to do some work and then came home. Jennifer then made banana bread and cookies and we read books for the afternoon.
At 4:30 PM we went to Spanish class and had an hour-long class on the use of subjunctive and how to say the eight different forms of here and there.
Day 187 - Saturday, May 04, 2002
It was a quiet day of relaxation and we read for most of the afternoon. In the evening we watched the movie "Memento." We packed for our trip to Tegucigalpa and for conference in Choluteca which will be all next week.
Day 188 - Sunday, May 05, 2002
We went to 9:00 AM mass in corpus this morning, and afterwards met with Father Andres the priest who covers all of the municipality of corpus and Concepción de Maria. when Jennifer's mom had visited in February we had spoken with Father Andres who was having difficulty with asthma due to the dry weather. He had asked us if it was possible for us to get him a nebulizer from the U.S.. So, Jennifer's mom sent one down with her sister when she visited last month. Father Andres wanted us to stop by then to give him some directions on how to use it.
Afterwards, we went to the Mayorga's farm birthday to celebrate a birthday and to meet up with Matt who would be driving us to Tegucigalpa. After the birthday party we got a ride with Matt to the capital, and went out for dinner.
Day 189 - Monday, May 06, 2002
This morning we had to appointments in Tegucigalpa. I had to go to the dentist and finally got my tooth put in. Jennifer had to go see another doctor about her knees. In the afternoon I met with the new country director, Cisco, who told me that if Jennifer was going to be sent to Washington DC to have her knees looked at by a doctor there, and I would not be able to go with her.
We left on the late bus to Choluteca, so that we would be able to be at our conference on time. On the way to Choluteca, our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. The we had to change buses and because the only keys to open the luggage compartment below the bus are at the bus stations, we were not able to get our bag of cloths. We arrived and Choluteca at around 8:30 PM and went to the hotel where our conference was being held. We checked in and chatted for a while with other volunteers who were there. Then we went to bed.
Day 190 - Tuesday, May 07, 2002
We started our project development and management conference this morning. It is interesting, as it is completely in Spanish and we are having to work with our community partners. This is a challenge as my level of Spanish is just enough to be able to understand what is going on. The conference is focused on developing the management skills needed to develop a large scale or small scale project. Some of the topics that are covered include: project brainstorming, community interaction in decision making, how to conduct a community development study, the various stages of planning, cost analysis, and review and revision of projects.
In the afternoon I went to the bus station and got our backpack with all of our clothes and it.
In the evening a large group of us went to the Choluteca movie theater and we saw "Ocean's 11". It was the second time that Jen and I had seen it.
Day 191 - Wednesday, May 08, 2002
We spent the day from 8 AM to 5:30 PM in the PDM conference. It has been a good training so far and I could see myself using this in the future projects both here and in the U.S.
In the evening we had beers with friends and had dinner. After dinner we had a long discussion about Catholicism and religion with two other volunteer. It was a very encouraging talk and fun to share our faith.
Day 192 - Thursday, May 09, 2002
Today we worked on and presented our projects. It was somewhat frustrating as my community partner refused to write anything. Not because he couldn't (he was a teacher for many years) but because he wanted to dictate to me what I should write down. I didn't like being his secretary. We worked on a plan to build a new water system in Concepción de Maria. It is actually a pretty plan, but needs some more work. There are a lot of details missing. The funding for it will never materialize and it won't happen anytime soon. It was interesting to develop a project though and the training overall was very good.
Day 193 - Friday, May 10, 2002
We finished PDM with breakfast. Jen and I ran some errands in Choluteca and then headed back home to Concepción de Maria.
Day 194 - Saturday, May 11, 2002
We left for Teguz on early morning bus at 6:30 AM and checked into a bed and breakfast (in address book), had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant, ate too much, and went to the movie "A Beautiful Mind" at the mall. It was a good movie.
Day 195 - Sunday, May 12, 2002
For our 2nd anniversary we stayed at a really nice hotel, poor customer service but very cool place. We tried to go to dinner at a couple of different Italian restaurants, but had a hard time finding one open as it is Mother's day here. Mother's day is second to Easter and Christmas here and not very many places were open. We ended up at "Tony Romas" for dinner and shared a Ribs and Shrimp dinner.
Later on we went back to our hotel "Portal de Angel" and wrote letters to each other, which we did for our last anniversary as well. We plan on opening them on our 20th anniversary.
Day 196 - Monday, May 13, 2002
Jen went to the doctor for more X-rays while I went to dentist to have my bite adjusted and finally got my tooth right, but it is tender and I fear the dentist may have shaved the base down too far before putting in the bridge. The sensitivity is from nerves too close to top of the exposed surface where the bridge was glued on. Don't think it will go away and will have to have a root canal eventually. We hung out at the hotel, ate lunch at a nice Italian restaurant we had wanted to go to for our anniversary In the evening we did yahoo chat with Jen's parent, and later went out to eat with Matt at Mexican restaurant.
Day 197 - Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Jen left for DC this afternoon. I am really sad and miss her terribly. Matt and I went to look at a new house is going to be renting starting in July. It is nice, but kind of off the beaten path. The Peace Corps medical office wanted me to see a Psychologist for my "sad face" that I had when we were meeting with the Country Director. I wasn't too happy about sending Jennifer off alone to D.C. and we had been under the impression (the wrong impression) that if either of us were medically evacuated to D.C. the other would get to go. I was also not too happy with the CD's tone in our first meeting, where he told me we should consider an early termination of service if this was too hard to deal with. First impressions make a big difference, and I'm not too impressed.
Matt and I went to see "Collateral Damage" at the mall and I stayed at Matt's house for the night.
Day 198 - Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Matt was kind and made me pancakes this morning, they were very good. I spent the first part of the morning catching up on this journal and emailing Jennifer. We are going to go to Yuscaran (a town about 1 1/2 from the capital) this afternoon and then to Yuro tomorrow.
Yuscaran was nice and there was some nice scenery to take photos of, but it was a cloudy day and the lighting wasn't right to take too many photos; which is one of the reasons I had gone in the first place. I got a semi decent shot of some roof tops, but it isn't much. It was nice to se another part of the country. It was so green and the drive was mostly on smooth paved roads.
Day 199 - Thursday, May 16, 2002
We went to Yuro today the drive was about three hours and about half of that was on dirt road. The scenery wasn't all that much to look at. We went to a natural land bridge over a small river that runs through the area. It was really dirty when we visited, but apparently the water is usually very clear and clean, and this is a very popular place for people to go swimming.
We finished up early and were able to make it back to Tegucigalpa in the same day, which was nice as it did not feel like sleeping in Yuro that night. We got back into Tegucigalpa around 7:00 PM and coming through a mountain pass I was able to take a great photo of the city at night. I've been looking for a place to take a photo like this for a while, but it isn't exactly safe to go wandering around in the day much less at night on the outskirts of town. We were a little nervous about stopping where we did to take this photo.
Day 200 - Friday, May 17, 2002
I had planned on going into the peace corps office this afternoon in order to help of the assistant director print photos for a photo contest that Peace Corps Honduras is having, but I found out that the Peace Corps office had sent everybody home early as they were replacing all of the computers in the offices. They're in the middle of a large computer migration from Macintosh to PC. But I think this is great as I'm not much of Macintosh fan. So, my plans to go to the Peace Corps office canceled.
I spent the afternoon hanging out with Matt and running errands with him. We are going to go to his new house tomorrow and plant some flowers and vegetables.
Day 201 - Saturday, May 18, 2002
We spent the morning working on Matt's computer this morning. his hard drive was severely fragmented and had several errors on it, which was causing the computer to function very slowly.
In the afternoon we went to his new house planted flowers, vegetables, and cleaned up the yard.
Day 202 - Sunday, May 19, 2002
I headed back to Concepción de Maria this afternoon at 2:00 PM and arrived in Choluteca around 4:00 PM. I then waited an hour for the final bus to Concepción. The ride back to Concepción was long and bumpy, and right before we got on the dirt road it started to rain. The rain did not stop until we reached Concepción. It was nice to see rain, as it rained only once since Christmas. This marks the beginning of summer, and I expect that there will be much more rain to come.
Day 203 - Monday, May 20, 2002
I was pretty depressed when I woke up this morning. Jennifer is still in the states, the window and our bedroom which was supposed to have been completed a month ago is still not finished, I'm running out of clothes to wear, all of my tomatoes are dead or very close to death due to in infestation of something called "mosca blanca" or white fly. It is a tiny little bug that looks more like ash then insect, and destroys tomato plants. I was not very happy with anyone. I also think that my arrival the night before to a town where the electricity was out added to my depression.
I talked to Jennifer and nearly started crying thinking about how much I missed her and how much I didn't want to be in Concepción de Maria and would have rather been in Washington D.C. or any other place with drinkable running water. She calmed me and told me everything would be ok. She reacted perfectly to me and lifted my spirits. It made me miss her even more, but at least life seemed a little more manageable.
I made my self some coffee which seemed to help quiet a bit and went to the high school to try to send some e-mail, and see if we would be having computer classes today. Unfortunately, the telephone at the high school was not working, and it seems they are about three weeks behind in their phone bill. The reason for this that I was given was that the government has failed to pay the school's for things like telephone, supplies, and in some cases salaries for the teachers. With that I have effectively been cut off from the internet, however that has not been paid in almost a month and service was cut off some time ago.
I had class with my advanced students, which was very frustrating as they're not advancing very quickly. Due to the techniques better utilize within the classrooms here in Honduras, it is very difficult to do conceptual teaching. The teaching style here focuses on wrote memorization. This means that information is assimilated within the minds of the students. They have no idea why they're learning what they're learning, and have not learned the ability to utilize that information in practical application. This makes computer classes very difficult as most all of computer use is built on concepts, and although memorization is also key to successful computers it is the concepts that must be memorized not the exact manner in which to do a particular function. this has created much frustration as the students are trying to memorize exact steps for doing everything, and are not grasping the concepts. The frustration comes in that they expect to be told every step of the way what they are to do. The lessons that I'm teaching build upon one another and reinforce previous lessons by utilizing skills within the current lesson, and in order to the current lesson I have to give instructions on what the new task is. However, I have the expectation that they will be able to perform quickly the previous skills that we have learned. The problem is that in giving directions for the new task and having them do the old tasks they are not able to make decisions, execute previously known tasks, or create the logical sequence of steps that is needed to complete a task, and expect me to give them to step by step directions on how to complete tasks which we have done dozens of times before.
As frustrating as this was, I now have some more help in the classroom in the form of an experienced assistant who will hopefully take over the teaching of the class when I leave. it seems that are absence for two weeks has created some concern among the administrators within the school as to the sustainability of the teaching project. It was our contention at the beginning of this project that before the end of the year we would have several teachers trained in how to teach both the basic computer courses as well as the advanced.
In the evening I went to Spanish classes, and my teacher, Sandra, was kind enough to invite me to eat dinner with her family. I got home around 7:30 PM and was able to start on my journal and before the electricity one out again. This is the second night in a row of rain and of no electricity. I don't mind is so much, but without electricity a fan doesn't work. having had rain in the evening and hot sun in the afternoon has made it very humid, it would be much more comfortable to be able to sleep with a fan at night.
Day 204 -Tuesday, May 21, 2002
We had a make up day today to try to make up for lost time. We decided yesterday that we would start having classes everyday. I don't know if that is such a good idea for my sanity. We will see. Classes went ok, but I'm learning that unless I have the students complete and full attention with their eyes on me and complete quiet, only 1/3 of the hear what I am saying. We started using Microsoft Excel which they are taking to more quickly than they did Word. I think the application of this program is closer to what they wanted to get out the computer class.
Day 205 - Wednesday, May 22, 2002
I had classes again today, and continued with an introductory course as well as my advanced students. due to rain later in the day I was missing half of my advanced students. This makes things very difficult, as if they miss one class their way behind. they have done better about talking to their classmates about what was taught in the class the day before and trying to go over it with them before coming to class the next day.
In the evening I completely forgot about my Spanish class with Sandra and had dinner with her sister and brother in-law Ruth and Mario. I also received a phone call that Ruth's house from her mom, Asuzana, asking me where I had been for the meeting that was planned at the cooperative earlier in the day. About a month ago Jennifer I had met with our community partners in the office of the Mayor, and we had made plans to meet on the twenty seconds of may (Jennifer with her community partner in the cooperative and me with mine in the mayor's office). I knew my community partner had completely forgotten the meeting that would not happen. Jennifer's community partner was apparently unaware that she was not in town and they expected me to show up in her place. Also, in the first meeting, we had said that we would speak as we did not have a time designated yet. No one ever came to the house or sent word as to when the meeting would be, were, or what time would be held . So, I was very confused to get a phone call asking why I wasn't at the meeting when I didn't even know there was a meeting going on.
Day 206 - Thursday , May 23, 2002
I had class today, but was very difficult. I am missing Jennifer terribly and I don't know how ever get by without her. I was able to talk to her on the phone today which was nice, but it is not the same as having her in front of me and speaking to her in person.
The power went out again and around 8:00 PM, I stayed up reading for about half an hour and then decided just to go to bed. I'm starting to feel kind of depressed from not having Jennifer here, the rain, the power going off all the time, and just being in our site. I don't really feel like I'm making much of an impression in this town , and the people could care less whether I'm here not. It almost seems like unless I have something to give them they have no interest in me.
Day 207 - Friday , May 24, 2002
Today was particularly depressing, and I didn't even feel like getting out of bed . The power was out all evening long and long into the morning. I was supposed to have classes at 9:00 and 10:00, and without electricity is very difficult to have computer classes. At about 11:30 half a dozen of my students showed up at my house wondering if we were going to have class. I told them there was no power , and they told me that it had just come back on. I told them they should go to the library and practice what we have learned so far. They didn't like that idea because apparently it costs five lempira to use the computers at the library. This annoys me as they eat chetos and sodas all the time which cost about 10 lempira when buy the two together which would buy them two hours in the computer lat at the library. I'm not sure why this is as they're supposed to be free for a one to use unless you are printing something or playing games , but apparently it didn't seem worth there effort to go to the library and utilize the computers there. I keep telling them that they, not me, are responsible for their learning and if they do nothing out side of class they are not going to learn very much, as most of the learning in computers comes from experimenting on your own and mastering concepts.
I had a nice surprise later in the afternoon when I had really started to feel like I didn't like this town . Matt , the volunteer who was in this site before us had driven to Concepción to spend the weekend here . We chatted for while and just kind of hung out which was nice.
Day 208 - Saturday, May 25, 2002
For most of the morning today I experimented with the digital camera and creating a 360° interactive environment for people to see our patio, house, and other areas in town. and around 11:30 Matt came by the house and asked if I wanted to go swimming with him and some of the kids from town. We went up river to a swimming hole with the small waterfall.
In the evening Matt and I played a game of chess, and I spent the rest of the evening redesigning web pages.
Day 209 - Sunday, May 26, 2002
I slept in this morning and had strange dreams of being a special forces operative, as well as a peace corps volunteer; in fact they were almost one in the same. And with the onset of world war three as forced to change locations from Honduras to a secret base in Brazil. I was very upset over this as Jennifer was still in the states and I had to leave without her. One rather astonishing thing about the dream was that I had somehow learn how to speak Portuguese. I was flying in an old fashion the bomber type airplane the kind used in world war two. Most of my frustration came from not understanding why the military would be our services when we were flying in such a rundown of old piece of junk plane.
I woke up around 9:00 and walked outside to find Matt on the patio. He had just stopped by see what was going on. We chatted for about 45 minutes, and then I went to church.
When it back from church and made myself some pancakes, which were nowhere near as good as the ones that Jennifer usually makes for me, clean up the house, and started on my journal.
Day 210 - Monday, May 27, 2002
Hope restored. Today was a great day. My first class started off a little rocky, but I decided not to get up set and focus on the fact that it was probably my poor Spanish that was causing the problem and not my students inabilities. this seemed to help and as I made jokes about my Spanish and other things they seemed to loosen up and really excelled in what we were working on. Things are moving along nicely.
I went to Spanish class and focused on two verbs I've been having trouble with. Afterwards my tutor, Saundra, was nice enough to feed me dinner; knowing that Jennifer is not around. Saundra and her sister Ruth have adopted me and want Jennifer to know when she comes home that they took good care of me.
I got a phone jack connected in the neighbors house whose telephone we use when we have to make calls. Now I can send email from their line. They were pretty excited as I had an email from one of their daughters who lives in South America. It was a mother's day card that made her mom, Dona Aminta, cry. This made for a good start with the use of their phone for internet access. I let one of the other daughters, Carolina, type out a quick reply to her sister and set it along with my 15 or so emails over their phone line.
Day 211 - Tuesday, May 28, 2002
I was supposed to talk to Jennifer this morning, but the telephones are not working due to the intense rain that is here today. She finally got through in the afternoon and told me she had been trying to call me since 7:30 am, it was not 2:30 pm. She had called 7 times.
Day 212 - Wednesday, May 29, 2002
I talked to Jennifer this afternoon. She is going to have to have surgery on her knee tomorrow. I'm a little nervous of about this, but she said she trust her doctor completely. There is no time for me to go up to be with her and Peace Corps is saying it is a very minor routine thing, so I would not be able to go anyway. I've been disappointed in Peace Corps lack of empathy for married couples. They see us as two individuals and not a married couple.
Day 213 - Thursday, May 30, 2002
Classes went well today. I've been distracted thinking about Jennifer. I'm going to try to call her later tonight.
Later...A Peace Corps nurse called me tonight. I wasn't expecting that and it scared the crap out of me. I had been going over scenarios of what I would do if they called to tell me there had been complication, so a phone call from Peace Corps really sent my heart racing. Luckily it was just a nurse telling me that everything went well and Jennifer was recovering well. I asked if I could talk to her, but she said the anesthesia had made her tired and she was falling asleep when she left her. I should have just called her anyway, but the nurse made it sound like I wouldn't be able to get through.
Hopefully I will get to talk to her soon. They said that the recovery time would be about 4 week. Another 4 weeks with out Jennifer is going to be very hard.
Day 214- Friday, May 31, 2002
I headed to Teguz on the early bus this morning (2:30 AM) and arrived in the capital around 8:30 AM. I then went to the Peace Corps office to check in and hang out for a while. I talked to Jennifer using the phone in the health office, which was nice, and later met with the country director who told me I could go to DC if I wanted, but I would have to take vacation time and all the expenses would be my responsibility. When I talked to Jen we agreed that it wouldn't be such a good idea, financially, for me to go to Washington.
I'm staying with Matt for the weekend, and probably going back to our site on Monday.