Peter in Honduras

Hello All.

This weekend was our “Volunteer Vistit” when we are finally pushed out of the nest to see if we can fly on our own. Prior to this all trips out of Santa Lucia have been taken in groups or with training staff, but this weekend they gave us a roll of lempiras and a set of directions and pushed us out the door.

The Volunteer I was visiting was a guy named Matt who has been here about a year and 3 months. He lives in San Lorenzo which is about 2.5 hours down the Trans-American highway that run N-S through Honduras. I hopped a bus down there, heading for Choluteca (which we call CholuTexas) and pretty soon it was getting very, very hot. How hot? Well, it hit about 37 degrees Celcius (which is getting dangerously close to 100 degrees F). In this type of heat, I could only think about a few things, namely water, shade, and air circulation. But actually, it wasn’t too bad, I think I could live with it if I were placed in the South. San Lorenzo is right on the Pacific coast, along the bay that Honduras shares with El Salvador and Nicarauga. This made for a couple absolutely beautiful sunsets over Mangrove trees with islands in the backround, which I managed to take zero pictures of, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Matt, the volunteer, works at a local school where he teaches IT/computer classes to the alumos alli. His school is nice, although lacking in many supplies (and oversupplied in bats, which fancy the rafters), and he really seems to enjoy his work. We had a great time walking around San Lorenzo, grabbing a beer at the local cantina (and watching the sun set), meeting his local Hondureno friends, working at the school, and cooking a delicious dinner of shrimp, cous-cous, and veggies. (San Lorenzo is a shrimp town, which suits my interests well.

The next day we took a bus down to Choluteca, a bit further south, because Ruben Hernandez (Country Director of Honduras) was buying us lunch at a hotel there. Ruben’s a nice guy, and somehow already knows my name (as well as the other aspirantes). We took a nice dip in the pool after lunch and then headed back north because some volunteers were having a going away party for some PC people in Nakeomi. Half the fun is just travelling between these places, taking packed busses, walking down dirt roads, and trying to ask for directions to where “el gringo” lives. The party was fun, we watched three movies that we projected onto a brick wall (a la my football parties) and it was good to meet some currently serving volunteers.

So now I’ve made it back to Teguz (and the PC headquarters where they have free hi speed internet) and I’m about to return to Santa Lucia so I can get some much needed rest. I’ll send out an email of some pictures from the previous weekend if you’re on the mailing list, but I won’t post them here for now.

Cheque-leque como Siguetapeque!

February 19

I suppose the title sums it up, but just to reiterate- This weekend was amazing. It was so great that I’m having trouble figuring out how to describe it, there’s just so much to say. I’ll start at the beginning.Friday afternoon the Business program left for Santa Barbara. We piled into our trucks, riding on custom built benches that run the length of the back of the truck, so that you’re not sitting facing forward, which is NOT a comfortable way to ride from point A to point B. The drive took about 4 hours, and it was great to get to see much of the countryside that surrounds Teguz. However, the drivers here are absolutely insane. It doesn’t help that often there are no lane markings and often times there are huge potholes that force you to swerve into oncoming traffic. Driving on the right hand side is more of a suggestion down here and most drivers apparently don’t like being told what to do. It’s pretty exhilirating to be playing chicken with a huge truck that’s coming straight at you while you attempt to pass another equally large truck struggling to make it up the mountain. Being that my stomach is made of iron, I actually kind of enjoyed the drive, despite the sore butt.

Santa Barbara is beautiful, I hope to post some pics but I’ll also email the ones I don’t post- just beautiful. Lots of rolling green hills, open pastures, pretty sunsets. As if this weren’t already enough, they went ahead and threw in thermal hotsprings! In many spots the ground was blowing out steam and boiling water, and where this met with the cool water of the river, it was prime hot tubbing time. We also waded up the river and jumped off the cliffs, mucho divertido was had. If you dug your feet into the sand you could feel the heat in the ground, it was really pleasant and very relaxing. Besides the fun, we also did a lot of group bonding activities and other games, which we call dinamicas down here. Pretty much the standard trust fall stuff, but it serves a good purpose to get people relaxed and thinking about new ways to train/teach adults.

Saturday afternoon we left Santa Barbara and drove the four hours back to Santa Lucia only to stop briefly before continuing on to La Tigra, the national park nearby to Teguz. We stayed in this hostel up on a mountain which was spectacular. For 13 bucks we got rooms, sheets, dinner, breakfast, and entry to the park- what a deal. There were about 40 of us and we pretty much took the place over, I think there was only one other person there not with our group. We had speakers and we turned the hall into a disco party where I worked on improving my dancing technique with limited success.

In the morning we got up early and despues desayuno a group of about 25 of us set off for the mountain. We climbed up into the mist that was swirling around the top of the mountain which was perfect because it was cool and wet and just spectacular. There are lots of old silver and gold mines which we explored. We hiked the 7 kilometers to the other side of the park and came out in a town where we expected to be able to catch a bus back to Santa Lucia. However, it turned out that the bus we wanted to take had been privately hired and so today would not be doing it’s run, AND it didn’t even go to Santa Lucia, but only to Comayaguela, a very dangerous neighborhood of Tegucigalpa (which we are currently not allowed to visit without family or staff). This presented a problem. While we thought about what to do, someone started talking to a guy who had a big pickup truck who eventually agreed to ferry us down the road (about 10 kilometers) to another bus stop. So we all piled in the back of this pickup drive for a bumpy ride down this country road. Pretty much all roads in Honduras are either 1) Dirt and rutted or 2) Paved. Poorly.

Having survived the journey to the bus stop we were pleasantly surprised that there was a bus coming in ten minutes, so we hopped the bus to Teguz. I don’t know what it is, but I really like riding on busses in the countryside, it’s something we don’t really do much in the states, and I have to say it’s not bad at all, not to mention dirt cheap. It cost 50 cents to ride from La Tigra back to Tegucigalpa and it took about 45 minutes. So the bus comes to the end of the line and we find ourselves standing on a street corner in a shady looking Comayaguela with all our backpacks and sleeping backs. Luckily for us a line of taxis smelled out our money before someone else did and we grabbed a bunch of cabs to the other side of town where the busses leave for Santa Lucia. But of course, nothing works out so perfectly. Once we got to the other bus station, the guys there said that a bus had just left for Santa Lucia and another wouldn’t be leaving for hours, so they convinced us to board the bus to Via de Angeles and told us to just get off at the junction between Via and Santa Lucia, which is only about 2 kilometers from the actual town of SL. The downside: those two kilometers are ALL uphill. The upside: a nice guy with an extended cab pickup gave all of us a ride up the hill in the back of his truck. Riding in the backs of trucks is already one of my favorite things to do in Honduras.

So a long day of travel ended successfully and we all made it home. By Honduran standards I’m sure this was just another day, but for us it seemed like quite the adventure at the time. I wrote most of this post on Sunday, but today is Thursday and I’m finishing it up before I leave again for the weekend. This time I’m going South to San Lorenzo to visit a business volunteer who is working with an internet technology center there. San Lorenzo is right on the Pacific coast and is known for it’s delicious sopa de seafood, which I’m planning to investigate. I should be back by about Saturday, or maybe Sunday, so hopefully a post in a little more timely manner this time. Ciao.

Dude, it’s cold here! I think we’ve been spoiled by the nice weather because today was downright unpleasant. The temperatures dropped in the fifties for some reason and I’ve been freezing cold all day, because of course I went to school without a jacket. Even in my house it’s cold (since there is no heating) so I’ve been wearing that wool hat grandma made for me which I knew would come in handy.

I made a new friend on Saturday with this cute little girl named Gisel (spelling? pronounced ‘e-sel’) I’ll email the pic to the mailing list (p.schlosser@gmail.com subject line: Subscribe Peter) and try to post it here, but it often times doesn’t work. Maybe Joel will edit my post and upload it for me (hint hint). The balloons I brought finally came in handy (her favorite color is pink) and not surprisingly she enjoys listening to spanish language music with me on my ipod. Everyone else was playing frisbee so she and I walked up this huge hill to go and buy bags (yes, it comes in bags) of water. And when I say we walked, of course I mean I walked and she got a ride. It was the most exercise I have had in a long time.

Later that night I decided to meet some girls more my own age, so some of the other trainees and I went to this fiesta at the local disco. Some of you may know I’m not exactly the best dancer in the world, and now many of the people in Santa Lucia know this as well. No, not really, it was actually pretty fun, although I only danced with fellow Peace Corps girls, local girls are scared of me. Porque estoy muy alto.

We just started another week of language classes, which I’m still really enjoying. I’m hoping to get bumped up a level next week when we get reassigned. The head of the language department came and visited today and I got in a few pretty good jokes en espanol. I’m slowly learning the workings of spanish language humor.

This weekend is going to be packed. On Friday my project group is going to the town of Santa Barbara for a working vacation. They’re billing it sort of as summer camp or something. Should be fun. After that I’m going to try to meet up with some others who are going to go visit La Tigra national park and get in a day of hiking, sightseeing, etc, then we’re all staying at some hotel nearby. This should adequetely deplete the meager funds they’re going to give us on Wednesday.

All for now, I’ll let you know how the weekend goes. Hasta lunes.

I’ve made it through the first week of classes/training! It’s an odd feeling to get to the weekend, because I don’t really know what to do with myself. I still wake up way too early and just kind of bum around and clean my room, etc. Last night, it being friday and all, I stayed out until a surprising late 1130pm chatting up some locals at the favorite PCV restaurant. My spanish is improving by leaps and bounds, although these particular people spoke english as well which makes it really easy to communicate in spanglish. Its amazing how fast gossip (chisme) spreads in this little town. Last night I was talking to this nice girl who works at the panderia and this morning my host mom joked that I already had a novia (girlfriend).

Speaking of the language barrier, I’m getting into all sorts of trouble mispronouncing and misunderstanding words. For example, last night I went over to meet my friend Tara at her house which just so happens to be my host aunt’s house (although pretty much everyone is related to each other here, or so it appears). They have this cute little 2 year old girl named Alejandra who is my host sister’s god-daughter. So I bend down and start talking to her, saying stupid baby talk stuff like “Donde es Sheila?” (my host sister) and then I say “Sheila es mi hermosa.” Thinking I’ve just said that Sheila is my sister I smile to myself and am feeling pretty good in general, but I notice the parents are kind of looking at me strangely, and then I realize I’ve just said that “Sheila is my beautiful.” It didn’t help that I had just walked up a huge hill to get there so I’m already pretty red in the face, but everyone was cracking up so it was all good. Also, last night a friend of Mario’s (host bro) was over at our house and he starts talking to me, but the only thing I understood was the word ‘horse”, so I smile and say “caballo.” He starts saying something and then he says “Sunday at 2pm, ok?” Always eager to please I readily agree and he leaves. Then I turned to Mario for some clarifying:

Mario “Yeah, you and he are going horseback riding on Sunday at 2pm.”
Me: “Como? Es un chiste, si?” (It’s a joke, right?)
Mario: “No, you’re going horseback riding.”

Funny stuff.

But back to the training program for a sec. My biggest concern about the Peace Corps before I came here was that there would be a serious lack of structure, that we would just be dropped off in Honduras and left to fend for ourselves (like Joan Schaeffer warned of at commencement). This is SO far from the truth. Yesterday we spent about 2 hours going over are 12 week training schedule that has time allotted BY THE HOUR. Every week there is a summary of how many hours we are spending in each area. We have two technical trainers for our business group (16 people) that are with us 24/7 and then 2 more guys who drop in occasionally and coordinate the program from the capital, Teguz. Outside of the tech program, we have more trainers who work with us in cross cultural adaptation and local customs, so we don’t act like ignorant Americans. In addition to these, there are about 12 language teachers who we rotate through in two week blocks. This week I had four days of class, comprising about 16-18 hours of instruction. Next week there will be more. It’s awesome. Also yesterday we visited a small pueblo called Via del Angeles that has developed a number of local businesses and we toured many of these informal shops asking the owners all about how they started their business and what they would have liked to have had when they were doing this. It was great to actually get out in the field and see how this stuff works. Everyone is so friendly and eager to tell you about what they’re doing and why. Also, there was definitely room for improvement in a lot of these places. But more than anything it was very encouraging to have this type of trip early on in our training, kind of setting the stage for this type of hands on activities outside of the classroom setting.

Ok, that’s all I’ll leave you with for now. Hopefully I can get my pictures to upload correctly but if not I’ll just email you all copies. Hope everything is going well. Hasta luego.

I suppose I haven’t given you much information about where and how I live, except for the electrifying showers. Well, as I write this on my laptop, I’m sitting on my bed, which just so happens to be a full size bed (why didn’t I listen to mom when she told me to bring full size sheets?). My room is fairly simple, I have a little bedside table, a chest of drawers (gavetero), an armoire (amario), and a nice little bench to throw stuff on. In fact, I’ll take a picture for you and upload it (when I figure out how).

This week in training we have started our language classes and other training excercises. It’s nice to finally get into a set schedule, 730am-430pm everyday, except the weekend, when we have optional language classes on Saturday. Today was the first day in our level-specific language classes. I placed into advanced novice level, which means I’m able to communicate on a level slightly above grunt and point. In order to successfully complete training, I must advance to the intermediate medium level, two levels above where I am right now. I’m not too worried. I pretty much dominate my class as it is now, and I’m finally learning how to explain that I am only joking, but in spanish. Who could have thought 5 hours of spanish class could pass so quickly? I’m actually looking forward to it tomorrow morning. It’s so much different to have only four students and one teacher, I can’t even begin to explain what a difference it makes.

In addition to language training, this week we’re starting our project training as well. I have an interview with my project coordinator tommorrow, Edel Perez, whom I have met only once, but he seems like a really smart guy. I’m definitely glad I was accepted in the Business program, we seem to have the best job out of the three groups in my training class. I say this only because we’re guaranteed a site location cerca de la ciudad, not out in the campo (home of cold showers and no electricity). Honestly, every group sounds like they have interesting assignments. Besides business, there is Health and Water & Sanitation.

I forget if I explained in my previous post how money works here. While we are in training we live with a host family so we have housing and meals provided for us. But they also give us what the call “walk around money,” although this is only 50 lempiras per day (about $2.50). The food is DELICIOUS. For example, this morning I had orange juice for breakfast and a big ole slice of cake (don’t ask me why, but it was good). Lunch was a chow-mein type dish with fresh fruit on the side. My host mom makes it in the morning (she is up at 5am every morning) and I carry it to school in a fancy lunchbox. During the day I usually buy a snack at the local pulperia (store). My favorite is the baleado con frijoles y huevos. Pretty much just a soft taco with egg, beans, tomato, cheese (think feta), and salsa. Muy bueno. This costs 7 lempiras, or about 35 cents. Not a bad deal. Prices are both high and low here. For example, to send a letter to the United States, it will cost me 25 lempiras ($1.25). But for this price I could buy the following: two pairs of socks, or 5 rolls of cookies, or two beers at a restaurant, or an entire meal of comida tipico. Money isn’t really much of a problem, especially since I saved about $60 from our per diem in Washington DC and that will go VERY far down here.

So far I haven’t found much time to do any reading or other leisurely pursuits. I’m usually either going to training, hanging out with friends, working on spanish, or trying to converse with my family (with limited success). What can I say? All is well, life is great, and I can’t wait to hear from everyone.

Hello All. I actually wrote this first part on Feb 2nd, but I haven’t been able to upload it yet, so I’ll do that now and then write a little more.

I ventured to Hondutel today, the only interet cafe that is available in Santa Lucia, which is where the training center is located (and my host family) but since there were about 15 of us, I was not able to get online. But that’s okay, I’m not really missing it. There is so much to do here I hardly have any time to miss anything. Except hot showers. Those I miss. A lot.

In Honduras, you either shower by heating up a pot of water and using that or you have an electroducha An electroducha is a heating coil that is connected to the flow of water. When the container attached to the shower fills up, the coil turns on and heats the water, and there you go- hot shower. The only problem is that when you combine water and electricity, you get death, and this morning the first warning shot it fired was enough to keep me away and out in the cold, so to speak. I have been advised on how to use it, and look forward to hot showers from here on out.

Ok, that wasn’t really how I wanted to start this post out, but I am suffering from a mental logjam. So much is going on and I have so much I want to write about, but it is all trying to escape from my head at the same time and it can’t fit through the narrow door that is my keyboard. I suppose I could write it all out and organize it for you, but….

Well, that’s all I got that night because I spent about 4 hours listening to music on my laptop with my host sister, Sheila. It went something like this:

Peter: “Conoce esta cancionne?”
Sheila: “Si,” uninteligible spanish
Peter: Smile and nod.

For the most part, we can get general messages across to each other. For example, today I believe we were having a conversation about the merits of the catholic church. I went to church this morning by myself and I think my mom was trying to explain to me why she didn’t go. From what I understood she is a spiritual person but has a few problems with the Catholic church here in Honduras. But apparently that is better than the Protestant church which she says is more like a business and demands una montaña de dinero.

I have a bunch of pictures that I have shrunk down to an uploadable size, but unfortunately my hosting site will not allow access from Honduras due to repeated abuses. Just my luck. So I suppose I will email these to those of you on the mailing list for now until I find a new hosting site. If you’d like to be added to my mailing list, just email me at p.schlosser@gmail.com with the subject like “Subscribe Peter”.

Lastly, should you wish to contact me, you may do so at the following address until April 30th.

Peter Schlosser, PCT
Voluntario de Cuerpo del Paz
Apartado Postal 3158
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
America Central

I’d appreciate any letters but please remember packages are subject to import tax, so clear it with me before you send it. Also, never send electronics, as these are subject to huge taxes (think 75% of actual cost). I’m working on sending letters right now, but I haven’t located a post office yet. Email is the best way to contact me

Can’t wait to hear from you!