Hello followers! Sorry I have failed utterly at blogging the last few months. I am sure I have kept a few of you on the edge of your seats waiting to see how things go. So I am going to write a few months blogs at once to let you know what I have been up to.
November,
November I moved into my new house! It was perfect. It is located on the main street so there is a lot more people around constantly and a few of my neighbors and I are really close now. With November also comes Thanksgiving and my birthday! For Thanksgiving I cooked green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, cranberries, and roasted chicken. It all turned out excellent. I invited over my girl friend, my boyfriend, his mother, and one of the neighbors and we all had a nice Thanksgiving dinner , and I taught them about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it in the States. I always knew in the States I had a lot to be thankful for, but after living here it was even more strong in my my thanks to where I was born and all the things I was given in life. Just to always have a pair of shoes to wear is something I am thankful for. After thanksgiving, came the end of the school year here, and graduation time from the high school and primary schools. Just to graduate from the primary schools is a big feat for some, and many do not go on to finish high school, so there is a big celebration for those graduating from the elementary school too. The high school graduation was the night before my birthday, and a friend from Peace Corps came to visit me. We went to the graduation and then afterward we were invited to a big dinner and party to celebrate. The food was good and so was the company. After the dinner, my boyfriend, friend and I went to the dance to celebrate the graduations for a short while then we went to the hot springs. The next day for my birthday I went to the soccer field and watched my boyfriend’s soccer game like I do every Sunday. Lots of people from my village had found out it was my birthday and they all were wishing me happy birthday. Afterward we rushed home and started getting ready for the party. My boyfriend, and two friends did all the cooking for the party and the food was great! We had flame grilled meat, chismol which is chopped up tomatoes, onions, and peppers in lemons sauce soo good!, refried beans, and white bread. At my party were some of my friends, and the mayor and two of his friends. It was a good time. About a week after my birthday was the graduation of the primary school in one of the neighboring villages. I was asked to be the godmother for the graduation and my boyfriend the godfather. We bring gifts for the child and when he goes up to get his diploma all three of us sign as witnesses, and they graduates. Also as the godmother I danced with the boy for a song after they graduate. It was a nice, small celebration. There were only 6 children that graduated in this village. That pretty much sums up November. Work wise I will write it all together at the end because It all runs together.
December,
The beginning of December was pretty much a lot of the same. Went to the hot springs with friends a few times, went out to explore the villages, went to Tegucigalpa to visit my boyfriends family and go shopping, ect. I also started running with a friend during this month. We went about 2 or 3 miles out past the melon farms in my municipality. It was a beautiful run on our dirt road, with the farms and the mountains in the background. Unfortunately that road leads to the next municipality over and in that municipality the owner of a liquor company was kidnapped and ransomed, and we decided it probably wasn’t safe to be running there because they might see a gringa(white girl) running and automatically think I have money and want to kidnap me.. I also got a puppy in December, that was my boyfriends present to me because he knew I wanted one. When we were driving back from one of the villages he knew where one family had puppys for sale and he bought her for me. I named her Dulce. It means sweet. Work wise in November and December I was helping to set up the Women’s Office in the municipality. We set up a help group, and did a work plan for this year which is filled with lectures on women’s rights, self esteem, women in power, and domestic abuse prevention. We also plan to set up a safe house where women can go in cases of domestic abuse. I have also started on projects for building improved stoves and creating a tree farm I am just waiting on funding. In addition, I also helped the educational department in the municipality with their survey that will be given. Finally, I have started on trying to improve tourism in my site. The first step we have taken is creating a facebook, and we are beginning a webpage. After work comes play! I put my work on hold for the week of Christmas and went to the beautiful Island of Utila. It is one of the bay Islands, which are Honduras’ Carribean Islands. I went with my boyfriend, a friend from Peace Corps, a friend from a NGO here and his neice from the States. We were there for a week. While there I went on several hikes from coral cliffs, to the jungle, and the beautiful beach. Also I rented a kayak and went out snorkeling on the coral reef. The reef was so beautiful. It’s a completely different world under the sea with beautiful colored coral and fish. It was a wonderful vacation and we all had a blast. After returning to site it was back to helping others. I had been generously donated $300 dollars by family and friends to buy toys for the local kids. So I went to the market and got the best toys I could for their money. I got several large bag fulls of toys shipped from the States. We got at leat 36 sandals for girls, 50 water gunds, 30 mini cars, 30 mini action figures, 90 large stuffed animals 150 small stuffed animals, and many other large and small toys. To give them away my boyfriend and I first went to one of the small remote villages in my municipality. There are about 30 children living there and we gave them all beanie baby stuffed animals. The children there were so humble. I lined them up and told them to choose one toy that they liked, and they didn’t want to take it . I had to ask them ok which toy do you like, and they would point to it. Only after I say ok take it , it is yours would they take it. After all of the toys were given out it was getting dark and it would be extremely dangerous to try and walk out of the village and then drive on the narrow cliff path. You see to get to the village you have to drive on a narrow mountain path that was originally only made for donkeys, and several times along the path you come to where there has been a landslide and it doesn’t look like the car can make it through without falling off the cliff. However, my boyfriend has been driving for people for years here, and knows what he is doing and always manages to make it through. Eventually you come to the very outskirts of the town where the car can go no more. Then there is two paths to take to get to the village. There is the river path where you must walk on the slippery cliff rocks of the river, and risk getting wet. Or there is the other path where you literally must climb up a mountain on a narrow path only to go back down it before reaching the village. Anyways, in light of the dangerous paths we decided it was better to wait for day to head back home. So we stayed with one my boyfriends many sisters scattered around the municipality and her family. Staying the night was an eye opening experience in itself. This village is one of our villages without electricity or running water. It reminded me a lot of camping, except this is how they live. When it was dark the kerosene lanterns came out and everyone sat around talking or listening to the battery operated radio. I tried to be very conscious of my water usage, considering they have to lug the buckets up the mountain from the river below. I felt guilty just washing my hands when they brought me a bowl to wash with before dinner. O and the bathroom was another fun experience, it’s a good thing it was dark hah, there wasn’t even a latrine. There was a whole where they went. When I asked where the bathroom was to pee I was just told to go anywhere outside pretty much. However, iIt was actually a great time sitting by the lamplight, with good company, watching my puppy play with the kitten, and talking about random things. O and the stars! They were lovely! .. After that adventure we still had lots of toys left over. We let word loose in the poorest surrounding villages to come for toys on a certain date and time. About 200 women and children showed up. I completely cleared out my living room of everything including furniture and locked it al in my bedroom then I escorted them all to my backyard. Once in the backyard the children were all given coke and animal crackers. Afterwards with the help of my boyfriend, and two of my friends from the mayors office we got them all into lines and one by one brought a child in and gave them a gift. The greatest gift for me was that we were able to give 5 girls sandals that had no shoes at all. After we gave them their gift I told the to wait on the porch because we would watch movies afterwards. After everyone had their gift I brought them all into the backyard again. This time we had a projector and screen set that were borrowed from the mayor set up, and connected to my computer. We watched the little mermaid and The Lion King in Spanish, and passed around cookies and coke. Also during the movie we were able to do trivial games to give away some of the bigger and better toys that came in the bags to make it more fair for the children.
Incredibly after that night we still had toys left. I went to another smaller village and gave away 20 large stuffed animals to the children there.
To finish off the year I celebrated in our park with my friends and boyfriend. At midnight the houses with some money bring out their giant scarecrows stuffed with firecrackers, and blow them all up for like 10 minutes. It’s a lot of fun. Then afterward we all entered the dance and danced until early in the morning. It was a great time!
