Honduran equivalent to a U.S. city Mayor in the Municipality he has the final word on where money goes and what projects get done.

Spanish for "village", in Honduras any town or village outside the center of the main municipality.

Department within a municipal office that is responsible for evaluating property and determining property tax.  They are also responsible to keep track of who has paid their taxes and how much they owe.  This department is the heart of the municipality and is very important in developing municipality that has the funds to take care of local projects.

Community Partner

A person from the community who teams up with the Peace Corps volunteer to assist with assimilation into the community, guidance on local customs, assistance with housing, and just a person in the community who the volunteer can turn to for guidance. (Jen and I have great community partners who are very knowledgeable and easy to work with.)

Peace Corps volunteer in a region of the country responsible for communicating and keeping track of volunteers in their region in case of emergency. The responsibility rests in the hands of the volunteer to contact and communicate with their E-zone coordinator where they are anytime they are out of their site for any extended period of time. In the event of a catastrophe or other emergency they would be responsible for aiding the evacuation of volunteers in their area and taking a head count before U.S. Marine helicopter flew in and extricated the whole lot.

A stove made out of brick, stone or adobe that is used to preserve fire wood by making it burn slower than an open fire. It is also designed to funnel the smoke from the fire out of the house instead of allowing it to build up in the ceiling and then venting out through the tiles in the roof. Many of the respiratory problems with women in the “camp” (country) have been associated with poorly ventilated kitchens that count on open pit fires for cooking.

Four weeks of training in Peace Corps training program where what has been learned is practiced in a practical setting. In my case I was stationed in Sabanagrande and Jennifer was in Moreseli, where we practiced our Spanish and improved our technical knowledge.

 A system of 27 or so satellites that float above the earth and allow any one with a GPS receiver to know exactly where they are in the world. The information presents itself as a longitude and latitude. The hand held units we used were accurate to with in 15 meters, and the degree of deviance was constant.

A state of mind based on principles I learned from "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" which states that we control our emotions, likes, dislikes, and they are a reflection of conscious decisions we make in our lives to be happy or disappointed with what is in our lives. While in FBT I developed a rather negative attitude after visiting our site and dealing with the frustration that came from Jennifer about being placed there. This was a big surprise to most people as I had been a very happy positive volunteer up till now, and I simply replied with the fact that I was having some attitude problems and people should just ignore my poor attitude, it would go away after a few days. A few days passed and it did not go away until one day I drew a picture of a smiley face and a train on my water bottle and then wrote under it "get on board the happy train". This would be my battle cry. By the end of the day my attitude had readjusted.

 In 1997 a large very strong hurricane named "Mitch" made its way through the Caribbean and picked up force off the coast of Honduras. The resulting landfall of the Hurricane on the north coast and its subsequent path through the heart of Honduras resulted in an incredible about of destruction, flooding, and loss of life. More than 5000 people were killed, infrastructure (including roads, buildings, telephone, communications, and electrical were destroyed). The damage that was done is still very evident here and this poor countries ability to financially deal with it shows greatly in roads that have not been rebuilt (major roads connecting major cities), utilities that work some of the time, and destruction of natural resources that will take years to renew or will never be renewed.

Early indigenous leader who held a large offensive against the Spaniards. Also the name of the currency used in Honduras.

 In Honduras there are 18 departments, these are similar to states in the U.S. however they have no actual power or organization and are simply a geographic separation of areas. There is a mayor, but he is just figure head appointed by the president and has no powers. Frequently his office will serve as a central meeting point for the people in the department who have a bit more of a purpose to their work. There are some 298 municipalities with the departments and there are many more aldeas which are like suburbs of the city earmarked as the "municipality". The municipality encompasses the aldeas and is responsible for activities in the aldeas.