Peter in Honduras

I´ll try to post some photos on Yahoo photos so you can check them all out without me emailing them. There´s a link on the sidebar where it says ¨Blog Links¨

 Here too: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/thebigschloss/my_photos

Also, I´m required to say that:

This website does not, in any way, reflect the views of Peace Corps or of the United States Government. The opinions expressed in this blog are solely the viewpoint of its author, Peter Schlosser.

Duke lost?!? I’m sorry Joel, and on a personal note I also hate LSU because they claim half a national title (2004) that rightly belongs to USC.

It has been pointed out to me that my blog updates tend to be too much on the upbeat side. Today I’m going to focus on the negative, hence the quick reference to Duke. Also, last night this guy from Texas said “Oh yeah, you went to USC, my boys beat your boys.” I did not appreciate this.

It’s been kind of a hard week. I think my host grandmother’s death did have some effect on me. Not only is this a difficult time for my family, but there are a lot of pressures surrounding me as well. Site announcements are one week from Tuesday. The reality of moving to a permanent site is right around the corner and the pressure is increasing to become proficient in Spanish. This, I am not. Events such as death make you realize how incompetent you are in a foreign language. Perhaps it is apt that I worked in a butcher shop because that is exactly what I do to the Spanish language. You can only say “lo siento mucho” so many times before you realize how hopelessly inadequate it is to express the emotions you want to communicate. I want to be able to share experiences and offer advice, but I just can’t do it, so I end up acting like a mute and idly shuffling my feet. Uncomfortable.

The week ended with a shift in our focus. In an effort to broaden the scope of its HIV/AIDS program in the world, Peace Corps has instituted training for all its volunteers, regardless of whether they are in the Health program. Therefore, Friday and Saturday (today) were devoted to receiving a charla (Friday) and then giving it ourselves today to a group of high school students. Yesterday was exhausting. We did about 9 hours of education, activities, and finally planning – all in Spanish, all about HIV.

They actually have a very interesting, interactive program, which helps, but 9 hours of pretty much anything is too much. Luckily, the program we put on for the students today was only 4 hours long. I will be sending out the pictures to the mailing list (p.schlosser@gmail.com Subject: Subscribe Peter) today, but I didn’t get very many since I was attempting to explain myths and facts surrounding HIV/AIDS to a bunch of 17 year olds, en español. Hopefully I will be able to grab some pics from friends. We did the whole spiel: What it is, how you get it, how to prevent it (yes, we had the fake penises and condoms, which they handled surprisingly well), and many many games to reinforce what we were teaching. What amazed me was how paranoid the average Honduran is about coming in contact with HIV/AIDS (In Spanish it’s VIH/SIDA). There are many common myths here that you can get HIV from telephones, barbershops, and that married couples are some how immune to the disease (the lack of fidelity among Honduran men is generally assumed).

Speaking in front of people in Spanish is really hard. I get nervous just speaking in front of groups in English, and once I step up there my Spanish language ability calmly packs up its bags and takes a vacation. But it’s a process, and I take solace in the fact that every volunteer I have met says the same thing. Algun día yo hablaré en español.

Ok, last complaint – the schedule during FBT. The concept of the weekend also exists in Honduras. These are two days set aside to enjoy the following: sitting, eating, sporting events, sleeping, friends, and most importantly NOT WORKING. Therefore, all activities on our schedules that fall on weekend days are marked as follows: Optional. Apparently there is some sort of problem with the translation, however, because optional has mutated into mandatory. Honestly, it’s not so bad for me because I managed to weasel out of the optional activity last weekend (as Homer Simpson says: “But Marge, he has to learn how to weasel out of things, it’s what separates us from the animals…. Except the weasel.”) and journeyed to Santa Lucia (See Ups, Downs, and Riding in Pickups). Some of my compañeros, however, haven’t had a weekend off since arriving here. This is getting pretty draining and I think everyone is looking forward to the end of FBT. Luckily, this is only 11 days away!

It’s nearly 4pm, so I’m going to head to the internet café and upload this blog, since I’ve got church at 6. Church is great here, singing is fun in Spanish, I hope they sing “Dios es capaz,” it’s my new favorite. It just doesn’t sound the same in English (God is capacity… maybe that could be a slogan for Duracell or Energizer) Adios!

Another day, another dollar… this phrase actually does translate to Spanish, but there are countless others that do not. It is one of my favorite past times down here to attempt to invent new idiomatic phrases for the Spanish language. I have brought here such classics as:

Mi mal (my bad)
Cerca, pero no cigarro (close, but no cigar)
And my personal favorite: Punto! (but said the way you would say “count it” when you say something witty)

Much has happened over the weekend and during the start of this week. I’ll start from the beginning.

Saturday morning I hopped a Rapidito to Teguz. Living up to its name, it was indeed rapid. However, this did not translate to comfortable as well. It was a 12 passenger van that we filled with 15 people. Not comfortable for a gringo with long legs. In Teguz I was very pleased with myself because I have finally learned to use the collectivo system. In Teguz there are two types of taxis: directos and collectivos. A directo will pick you up and take you were you want to go lickity split, for a fee of between 40 and 60 lempiras. A collectivo runs along a pre-set route, picking people up and dropping people off as it goes and costs only 9 lemps and 50 centavos. Good deal, right? Quite understandable, they clearly mark the difference between these two types by painting them exactly the same color. Oh wait, yes, they’re impossible to tell apart, the only way you know it’s a collectivo is because when it honks at you it sometimes has people in it who look annoyed they are stopping for you. Then you ask him if he’s going where you’re going, if you have a match you get in, if not, Go Fish®.

            Ok, so that was part one, I conquered the collectivo system. I met my amiga Ana at the Peace Corps office in Teguz and we hopped the next bus out of town towards Santa Lucia. Actually, it was a bus towards Valle de Angeles, but it’s the same general direction and we got off at the junction where the road splits for Valle. This left us 2 kilometers short of Santa Lucia (still further up the mountain). Luckily, I have discovered the joy of taking a jalon (hitch hiking). Everyone is this country drives trucks. Trucks have much space in the bed. Truck beds are fun to ride in. It’s a perfect fit. Also, walking with an attractive woman helps greatly in procuring a jalon. It took us about 1.5 minutes of waiting.

            Santa Lucia was beautiful, and as usual, it was the typical lazy Saturday. We stopped and saw our families, I brought mine some pan dulce and we talked about how much better I spoke Spanish. A friend was kind enough to lend me his apartment so while dinner cooked on the stove we got to sit on the patio and watch the sunset- que bueno. I cooked the trademark Schlosser “Mince ‘n Tawdy,” which is always quick to sweep the ladies off their feet. A quick shout-out to mom since I stole her broccoli, ginger, soy sauce, and garlic recipe. I added carrots, too. Delicious. Sunday we walked about the town, jaloned it back down to Teguz, said goodbye, and I jumped a bus to Danli.

            Here’s where it gets interesting. Before leaving Teguz I tried to call my host family to let them know when I’d be getting back. No answer. No prob, I thought, I’ll just show up before dark. So Sunday evening I walked in the door to an empty casa and a note- my host grandmother here in Danli had died. She had been sick since my arrival; I had met her only twice while she was in bed with fever, which turned out to be hemorrhagic dengue. Muy triste.

            Yesterday was the funeral. We gathered in the late grandmother’s house with family and friends (about 100 at this point) to have an evangelical service (my host-father’s religion). After this, they put the casket in the back of a hearse-like mini van and we all walked behind it through the streets of Danli until we reached the church. And yes, I was front and center behind the van, looking very tall and white among a sea of Hondurans. The service at the Catholic church drew even more people, maybe as many as 400, I couldn’t tell. After this, the group walked (we drove) to the cemetery in Danli. Here, you are buried above ground in concrete tombs. A few last words, many tears, and they slid the coffin into the tomb. My father took the trowel first (the guy knows how to do everything) and began to seal the opening with bricks and mortar. They took turns until the grave was sealed. More hugs, tears, and handshakes and the people dispersed.

            We went back to the grandmother’s house and my brother and I started collecting all the borrowed chairs and took them back to the church. They fed us, we made pleasant conversation, and I felt absolutely exhausted. The whole process took about 7 hours, and by the end I wasn’t sure I could say another sentence in Spanish. It takes an amazing amount of energy to think and speak constantly in another language. I crashed at 930pm and didn’t open my eyes until I was good and ready at 645am this morning.

            All morning long, for no apparent reason, I felt kind of down. I mentioned this to my host-mother and she was very sympathetic, but it didn’t make me feel any better. However, by afternoon I was feeling pretty good because we spent 3 hours selling our products in the Parque Central for our business simulation. My product was a message board where people could leave messages for their secret loves/friends/whatever. For an additional charge we’d send them an anonymous text message letting them no they had mail. Our group lacked the necessary enthusiasm and publicity, but nonetheless we still made a couple hundred lemp profit. It made me remember I really enjoy hocking a product in a public place. And, to top it off, when I came home this afternoon my mom had 1) Cleaned my room, 2) Changed my sheets and made my bed, and 3) Left me the nicest card ever, which said: “Pedro, We feel that you are part of our family and we appreciate you very much.” And on that warm fuzzy note, I’ll say adios.

Update: Here’s a picture of Peter and his new friend. JAS.

Friday has rolled around once more down here in Danli. The weeks just seem to be rolling by during Field Based Training. This week we gave our talks (charlas) in the public schools, had a nice sunny day at the pool, and started our newest project which is to conduct a business simulation. I’d like to explain the new project to you a little, as I’m fairly excited about it, but first I have to recount the most amazing story, which proves, after all, that it really is a small world.  Yesterday, after another delicious lunch of rice and beans (and a special tea that my mom says is “good for the stomach”) I was walking with a group of friends to the Camara de Comercio. We were passing by a little comedor (restaurant) and I happened to glance in because something caught my eye. It was a bright blue shirt that read “Absolut Homecoming.” I own this shirt, we made it for Homecoming 2003 with AXO when I was living in Kappa Sigma my junior year. I stopped. I instantly knew I owned the same shirt, realized this was probably impossible, looked again, decided it was indeed the same shirt, tried unsuccessfully to fathom how this was possible, then proceeded to run into the comedor and babble in excited broken Spanish to a slightly scared little boy. I believe my exact words were:Your shirt. Your shirt. I made that shirt. Where is my camera? My friends never to believe I your shirt… where I bought… Los Angeles… your shirt!I think at first he thought I was telling him he stole the shirt, but I managed to calm down a bit and explain that I had the exact same shirt, and that I thought this was very cool. I didn’t have my camera on me, so we finished walking to the Camara de Comercio and I grabbed a friend’s camera and ran back. I told the kid (who was probably about 8) that we had made the shirt for an event and explained what all the words on the back meant. He had apparently gotten it from a relative who had brought it from the States. Keep in mind that Danli is a 20 min drive to LAX, a layover in Houston, a bumpy/scary landing in Tegucigalpa, a taxi ride across town to Jacaleapa bus station, a 2 hour bumpy bus ride over a patchwork road of pavement and dirt, all of which leaves you in the Southwest of Honduras, about 30 minutes from the border with Nicaragua. All this so that some gangly gringo can jump up and down about your shirt while you try to eat a couple tacos. (I don’t mean this as a stereotype, he was actually eating tacos)

Que suerte!

Well, it’s starting to happen. If you’ve ever lived with me for an extended period of time, you know that I tend not to be a fan of early rising. Now, I’m no Sean, but still, I have had my struggles with rising early. However, for short periods of time, I seem to have no problem with it. For example, on vacations with Joel, I’ll get up every day around 6, but this only lasts about a week.

But here in Honduras, I’ve had an extended run that ended this morning. Not once had I slept past 6:30 during the week, which has gotten progressively trickier now that my alarm clock has decided not to work properly (thanks, Office Depot!). However, this morning, the streak came to a halt, as I groggily awoke to my mom softly knocking on my door “Pedro, es siete…” Of course, this doesn’t really matter that much here, because nobody is ever on time in this country, so I wasn’t really that worried. And to make matters even better, I went next door to ask my companera when we needed to be at the chamber of commerce, and it turns out that we don’t have to be there until 8 today! Also, it’s gently raining! AND, we’re going to a water park today!

Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s a hard life. Of course the last two exclamations don’t really fit together well, but it’s only raining lightly, and I miss the rain, and it’s the dry season here anyway, so this can’t last long, and DUDE- a water park!?! Que Bueno. I think it’s going to be a good day.

Reading over my previous posts, I realize that much of my rambling has focused on the social aspect of my life so far in Honduras. Of course, the reason I came here was not only to adventure about the country, but also to make some meaningful impact on the lives of Hondurans. As directed by Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, the best way I can do this (apparently) is through my program: Proyecto de Negocios.

The purpose of this change of scenery from Santa Lucia to Danli has been to gain experience working in real business settings. It’s only my project, the 15 business volunteers, who are here. That being said, what are we doing, exactly? Let me tell you.

Living in Santa Lucia is a little like living in a bubble. The people there are all accustomed to living with gringos, and this creates a very artificial world for us. Everyone is very helpful and patient, always willing to explain the question a little more for the curious aspirante. The idea of moving to the big city is to replicate the real Honduras a little more.

We spent this week trying to mirror what we might do when we arrive at site in two months. The first day we spent getting oriented. There are no maps of Danli, a city of about 60,000 people – NO MAPS??!! This is, of course, not true, but the only one we found was so pointlessly detailed (Danli has an abundance of alleys) that it was of little use. Entonces, we spent the first day making our own map of the city center, splitting into five groups and then piecing together our maps to form one giant colorful map. How artistic.

Tuesday we donned our nicest clothes that haven’t yet been destroyed by outdoor washing and went to visit the mayor. A little shout-out to Uncle John here on this one, who was completely right about pressing the flesh, it’s all about doing things in the right order down here. If you don’t show up well dressed, smiling like an idiot, at the alcalde’s office the first day, you can forget about getting anything done in your town. Of course, this being said, the mayor decided not to show up, and sent her assistant instead. (Interesting sidenote, this is the first female alcalde that Danli has had). We got the standard talk about what is going on in Danli (not a whole lot), ate our snack, drank our cup of coke, shook hands, and we were done. Check.

Interspersed in all of this fun is 4 hours of Spanish class… daily. This is progressing, I can definitely make passable conversation, although this gets much harder with any background noise (ie not completely silent). Bueno. Wednesday and Thursday we finally got down to a little business, where we got to pick a business (from a pre screened list) and spent the two days with the business, pretty much doing a shadow type exercise. This was a lot of fun. I chose Ch@t People which is a surprisingly well run internet café. Aqui (actually, here they say ‘aqa’) the internet cafes are generally terrible. Prices are never posted, service is slow or non-existent, and the computers are poorly maintained. But this lady (Doña Blanca) has is down. She’s got 7 computers running Windows XP with a fast connection to the net (hence all the pictures as of late). She posts her prices on the walls along with her rules (no porn, no downloading). She also has a server running a PC Anywhere type program that allows her to view all other 7 machines, so she can clean up the desktop remotely and make sure the computer is working correctly. We talked about her business a bunch the first day, and I tried to hint at some improvements the second, but I didn’t quite feel comfortable enough to come out and say it all (especially because she generally has it down, she just lacks a good accounting system, promotional ideas, and a few other minor things). It definitely made me realize that there are a number of things that impede my “job” here in Honduras.

1) Spanish. It’s hard enough to be polite, creative, and helpful all at the same time in English, let alone in a language you can barely speak. It reminds me of that Woody Allen short story (which I think he stole from Catch-22, email me if you’re interested) that goes something like: “They conducted the interrogation in Spanish, a language the suspects did not understand and therefore could not easily lie in.

2) Cultural barriers: People don’t like to be direct here. It’s definitely the beat around the bush technique. If you come right out and say it, they’ll just give you a list of reasons why what you say can’t be done, is going to be done, or has be tried. This gets you nowhere. Also, this brings me back to number one, because I don’t even remember how to say ‘beat around the bush.’ (andarse por las ramos)

And finally, Friday, el ultimo dia, we spent in Spanish mode, preparing for the charlas (chats) we’re going to give to the 6th graders here next week. I have to say it’s fun to be actually out in a community doing work rather than sitting in a classroom, but it’s also hard and a little emotionally draining. And we’re doing all this while adapting to living in a new city and with a new family… Que Bueno!

Today’s motto: Join the Peace Corps, experience the world. (Much catchier than ‘Join the Army, see the opposing Army,’ don’t you think?)

March 6

First entry in Danli

Much has changed in the last couple days. On Sunday we boarded a bus from home sweet home (Santa Lucia) and three hours  and one dirt highway later we were in Danli, our new home for the next five weeks. My first impressions: Very different. No more of the small town charm and friendly people everywhere you go. Danli is a big city, more than 50,000 people, which is both bad and good. There’s more to do, but you also have to walk a lot further to do it.

My living situation is a lot different, too. One improvement is that I have my own bathroom and shower attached to my room, however the big drawback is that we don’t have hot water. I can’t say I love the cold shower in the morning, but it’s growing on me a little. I was disappointed to learn that I only had a mom and a dad and no brothers or sisters. But it’s not all that bad because although my mom is pretty quite my dad could have a conversation with a mute, which is what I effectively become when he’s talking. The guy talks about anything and everything and punctuates the middle of his sentences whenever ever he says the word “Danli” because he pronounces it very pointedly as “dan-LI.” It’s hilarious. We’re definitely a family now, because he introduces me to everyone as his nuevo hijo, after I called myself thusly, which he apparently really liked. I also introduced myself this time as “Pedro” just to try it out, but somehow they have discovered that this is not truly my name, and they now call me both Pedro and Peter. Que confudiendo.

Another difference is that my family here is a VERY christian family (evangelico). Both my parents here are leaders in the church and conduct meetings in the house once a week with other members (hermanos de la iglesia). Last night we had a planning session (think “planning to plan”) that I was invited to sit in on. This was interesting and helpful for my Spanish, and my dad reassured me that I’ll learn the words to the songs with time… Unfortunately it holds true that if you can’t sing well in English you can’t sing well in Spanish either. At first I was a little worried about my family being evangelical, but they’re very relaxed about it and seem to want me to feel comfortable with the way they worship. My dad took a long time explaining tonight that just because everyone’s waving their hands, this doesn’t mean I need to too, he said I should just do what feels comfortable to me. At least, I think that’s what he said…

The hardest part about being here is that I miss Santa Lucia and my friends in other groups. The other two groups are in Siguatapeque (Health) and Santa Cruz de Yajoa (Water and Sanitation). These cities are about 5 and 6 hours away from Danli by bus which makes them effectively impossible to visit in a weekend since 12 hours of travel time takes up a substantial portion of the weekend. Maybe if I get motivated I’ll arrange a way to meet halfway with some friends, but I’m not optimistic, and therefore a bit lonely.

HOWEVER, today was great because I made an extremely important discovery- there’s a gym two blocks from my house! Now when I say gym, of course I mean it’s somebody’s backyard, but they have one bench press, 4 adjustable weight dumbbells, and a few cardio machines. Today I gave them 50 lemps ($2.50) for the week and to my surprise I pretty much got a private lesson from this guy Carlos. I’m not quite sure, but I think Carlos gets to work out for free as long as he gives lessons. Any way you slice it, it’s a pretty good deal for me, plus I get to watch the girls do aerobics while I work out. Well, typing is getting a little tiring now, Carlos worked me pretty hard. Nos vemos.

Sorry for the lack of activity, I’ve been so busy that I’m actually writing this in the Hondutel office, instead of on my computer at home. Therefore, it will be quite short.

Life progresses quickly down here, this is my third to last day in Santa Lucia and then it’s off for Field Based Training in Danli, to the South of Teguz. It’s only going to be the business program, now 15 volunteers, so it’ll be a bit lonlier, especially because some good friends, and quite notably most of the female volunteers, are going to different sites. Nonetheless, I’m excited. Danli is a much bigger city and we’ll be getting down to business, so to speak, working on skills that are applicable to what we’ll be doing.

To start, we’ll be working with some local schools, giving talks to the students (good place to start practicing being comfortable speaking spanish). We’re going to try to iniate some small business projects with the students, think bakesale type stuff, savings plans, etc. We’ll also be working with local businesses, doing shadowing, and other fun stuff.

Tonight is a big party, so I gotta get going, I’ll be sending out some pictures to the email list, so if you’re not on it, you ain’t gettin’ pictures.

Ciao.