adios Catacamas

Buenas –

 

      I´m thinking back now and gees its been almost two weeks again, sorry for that everyone, but I´m sure you're happier that I´m not crowding your inbox!   So the last time I left off with everyone was I think right before I went to the futbol game.  I think I may have had too high expectations for a futbol game in latin America, because the olanchos have nothing on Georgia football.  I am still attributing this to several factors, one of which being it was the first game and the other being the huge storm that happened right before the game started.   Right before we left I asked my host brother if he thought I should bring a rain jacket and he said no, as soon as we walked up to the stands, which hold about 6,000 people, it started to pour.  Luckily, we paid for the covered seats but there was also a strong wind blowing so I got soaked and then everything got muddy and then we sat down and watched the game.   The game wasn´t terribly close, but our team won by 3 goals.  There were no fights and no rushing the field afterwards, I was kind of disappointed, but I won´t give up on the sport quite yet.

            The following week we did so much but I´ll just insert the highlights, we´ve been so busy, everyday from 7-5 that I barely have time to get anything done!   Wednesday we had a ¨taller¨ in a community outside of Catacamas about there watershed.  It was basically a town meeting to recognize the problem and begin to take action.   The town currently has some issue with a large number of fecal coliforms getting into their distribution pipes, how I´m not really sure.  We aren´t part of that part of the process but it could be from the pipes being old and they might have fissures in them and since it is the raining season the water is carrying fecal matter into the water pipes.  So the meeting was ok, it was an interesting view into how a community would really react to you telling them they have a problem.  From denial to asking for us to fix it to actually saying something needs to be done.   My part of the charla was explaining the things that Hondurans do that can potentially affect the watershed in each level.   Very easy because other groups had to explain the technical stuff about the chemical water tests, but getting people to participate in our little activity was like pulling teeth, without novocaine.   Very very painful. But we did it and its over and now they have the ball in their court, so hopefully they will think about something to do, unfortuantly no one from our group in going to be placed in this town so we will probably not be able to further help the process along.

            Thursday and Friday were completely devoted to information about AIDS and HIV, Thursday we had another taller presented to us and on Friday we went to a local high school and presented almost the same presentation to a bunch of 13 and 14 year olds.   It amazed but didn´t at the same time what some of these kids thought were facts and myths about AIDS.  I hope that we imparted some knowledge, because it isn´t rare to see a 13 year old with a kid or pregnant in this country.  After the charla at the schools we had guest speaker come and talk to us about his experience with AIDS.  Apparently he and his son are both living with AIDS and his wife has passed away.  He told us about the process to get drugs and how he lives his life, very healthy but many people don´t.  And also how they won´t provide drugs for the child until his white blood cell count is much further down, next year he is supposed to start school but he is already sick all the time.   It's hard to see, the little boy has no concept of what is going on.

            Saturday morning we got up early and headed out to the National Park, Talgua.  Before going into the caves we hiked 3 hours up a mountain to visit a community of coffee farmers that actually live in the middle of the protected area and have farms there.  Its very strange to see, after hiking on this little trail for almost 2 hours all of a sudden we came upon a house and then a few more houses and then a community that even has a church.  For these people to get anything they have to walk down the mountain and go into the nearby town, for them to sell their coffee they have to haul it down the mountain and for them to go to the hospital or to the clinic they have to go down the mountain, and I´m not even sure the kids go to school, but again down the mountain.  The name of this town, by the way, is Florida.  The people were very nice and hospitiable, they ama de casa made us all a cup of coffee and a snack before we headed back down the mountain.  Once we got back down we headed into the caves, which apparently were discovered as an important anthropological site in the early 90s by some Peace Corps volunteers, they found a bunch of bones and precious jewels and metals in one of the crevices in the caves.  Harvard and UW came down and excavated.  The tour of the caves its self was very similar to one in the states, this stalactite looks like a bear, this one looks like a clown, but the whole set up was so foreign.   Safety could defiantly be an issue, but it feels a lot like you´re still part of the exploring process, and actually we can be, because they still have more caverns in the mountains and more in the lower one that have yet to be completely walked.   Annually they said they have almost 24,000 people come visit the park, which I think is absolutely amazing!  And defiantly a great success story in ecotourism in Honduras.  Sunday morning we got up and built a trail, we learned the basics for safety and sustainability.  They are a lot more similar to steps though, but it was really neat to see it finished.   (Also my camera is broken so I´m going to steal pictures from everyone and I´ll have to post those, don´t know when I´ll get another camera).

            This week has been equally exciting and exhausting, Monday we had a session on chicken management.   We had a mecture first and then Luis our trainer was going to demonstrate how to properly vaccinate chickens.  I was sitting in the front row when the farmer brought up this huge rooster and the next thing I know I´m holding it by its wings and choking its neck (well not chocking but I swear it was pretending) at one point I lost its neck and all I could say was uh ohh, the rooter was NOT happy with me.  But I survived and we vaccinated 150 chickens with needles and eye drops.  And I stuck them too, by the way.   On Wednesday we had a similar session but with cows, which I also vaccinated and herded and lassoed and road.  

            More importantly this week we had our dia del agricultor.  We spent the entire day with an assigned farmer at his farm, doing whatever it was that they were doing for the day.  Lucky for me I ended up with another female because the day could not have been more interesting!  First thing we did was pick frijoles, and then we made two raised seed beds (like an entire row of corn long) which included clearing, ploughing, ploughing again and then picking out the rocks and then smoothing it out.  After that the work was done (this was after lunch) we headed over to the neighbour's farm and weeded and ploughed his field that he was getting ready to plant with cabbage.   At the end of the day I left with 2 marriage proposals, from two brothers, and a pocket full of frijoles, to make me fertile.  As well as a sun burn, a rash from the leaves of corn, ant bites and a good appreciation of what the farmers in Honduras, as well as the rest of the world go through on a daily basis.

            Today we made a pit latrine, not a very easy task either.   And tomorrow we are heading back to Santa Lucia for the weekend.  On Tuesday we get our site assignments so I plan on sending out a huge email then letting everyone know what I will be up to.  Thursday we have a site visit until Sunday and then we come back to Santa Lucia, pack up and on Thursday we swear in as official volunteers!   I can´t believe it's all gone by soooooooo fast.  I miss you all and appreciate your support.  I will try and write everyone back on Sunday in SL.   Until then.

PC Love,

Bridget

--
Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084

se fue la luz

I´ve been trying to send this email out for the past 2 weeks and it keeps
growing and growing, the latest excuse I have is, we had no electricity in
the city yesterday, I was actually in the middle of typing at an internet
place and the lights went out. Ohh well it happens. Sorry for the length,
read it in segments :)

Buenos,
I hope this email finds everyone well. Right now I am sitting at an
internet place in Gualaco. This weekend I am making up my volunteer visit,
but instead of 4 days I get 1. I got up at 5am this morning to catch a bus
at 6am out of Catacamas. By 7am I was standing on the side of a road in the
middle of no where waiting for a bus to Gualaco. In my lovely broken,
almost inaudible Spanish I got onto another bus going in that direction.
That bus ride took til 9 on a dirt road with many pot holes winding up and
down a mountain side. I made it here though, by myself, which I was
seriously questioning to my fellow aspirantes on Friday.
I´m getting a bit ahead of my self though, because not really any of you
knew that I was heading to another part of the country for 4 weeks. We
finished up in Santa Lucia 2 Fridays ago and on Sunday the three different
projects split off into other parts of Honduras for FBT (Field Based
Training) so PAM headed off for Catacamas, but not before I went into Tegus
for the day on Saturday to the mall to watch a movie and eat fast food. We
saw Pirates 2 with Spanish subtitles, they have 2 options for movies
usually, a dubbed version and a subtitled one (que suerte!). So a few of us
went to an early show and hung out and caught the 4 pm bus back to SL. The
whole movies experience was unique, we bought the tickets early in case it
sold out and hung around in the mall for a bit and went to a grocery store.
On the way into the movie there were several lines forming, so we asked a
guy standing behind us in Spanish if we were supposed to stand in line, he
gave us a weird look and then said, "umm I speak English." He ended up
working for the US Embassy, I´m not really sure in what capacity, but
was nice and explained the line process to us. Ohh I forgot, earlier when
we first got into the theater, one of the girls with us said she had to use
the bathroom and an English voice erupted from behind us, "its over there"
and pointed to the damas sign. I was like right, where it says ladies? We
walked away from them and someone guessed military. (ever since we had a guy
come to talk to us about safety in Honduras and he mentioned American
ex-pats and the crazy things they are doing in this country, so I tend to be
wary of anyone that is American looking and speaking English)

When we were talking to the embassy guy in line he told us there were a
bunch of military guys at the theatre right now, and that yes those two were
them (by military, I mean US Military). We went into the movie and there
must have been 50 kids in it who were not old enough to read. So throughout
the whole movies kids were talking and parents were not quieting them, and
then at one point the father (or responsible adult) of 5 kids behind me cell
phone rang and he answered it! But it was ok, we got to pretend like we
were in America for a few hours.
So Sunday morning we were all supposed to meet in front of the park
in SL and get on buses and go. We all got there around 8:30 but none of our
boss type people were there so some how we got ourselves organized and into
the two buses, youth devel came with us part of the way. It still amazes me
that we can organize ourselves sometimes without someone telling is what to
do. Our host families we waiting for us to arrive at 11:30, but we were on
Honduran time so off we went. On a side note, I left an entire duffel bag
in SL, I have NO idea how I´m going to get all my stuff to my site. Anyway
we got to Campmento, where YD was going on time, mas o menos, but we took
the same dirt road that PAM took to Campamento so it was a slow process with
cows and kids in the road, the driver stopping to talk to some random people
on the highway and picking up his kids and wife. After we dropped them off
we decided to stop for lunch, I´m still not really sure who came to this
decision, but we stopped. And that took a good two hours. We made it to to
Catacamas around 3:30 and had to take taxis to all of our houses. I shared
a taxis with someone who was living in my barrio, what completely fled us
though was that we didn´t have addresses of our houses, just directions, so
trying to relay this information to our driver was futile, so he dropped us
off in barrio La Cruz, and I had to drag all my stuff 3ish blocks on a
cobble stone road to a house that I wasn´t quite sure of where it was, but I
guessed right and rang the right bell, my new host brother answered the
door.

A little about my new family and Catacamas. I have a host mom, a host
sister who is 19 and a host brother who is 23. I have a host sister-in-law
who has a daughter who is 6. Her husband is in the states working as well
as is his other brother. So 2 of the kids of the family are in the states
working. They are very nice, although I think they thought I didn´t
understand or speak any Spanish, but now, a full two weeks into it, they
realize that I have pretty much understood them the whole time. They
defiantly have a different accent than my other family and they are not use
to having an American living with them like my family in SL, in fact this is
the first time they are doing this, so its a learning experience. The
family situation is different too, its nice having a family with younger
children because we have more in common, both of the children are in the
university right now, studying engineering and business, I think.
Our days are different, we usually have Spanish class in the mornings,
and lucky me my house is one of the places we have class, although next week
this is going to change, I will have class in someone Else's house. And
everyone goes home for lunch. The kids go to university in the afternoons
so we all have a big meal for lunch. The whole family sits down, its very
odd for me, I haven´t been use to family meals the whole time I´ve been
here. Sometimes its just my host brother and I at first, and he will always
say something like, Bridget, la gente en Honduras... and add some cultural
comment, like eat very fast or like chiles or something random. I have to
try really hard to keep from laughing. I never do but sin embargo its
pretty funny. Also my first experience with se fue la luz, Samantha
runs into the house after I got back from class and tells me to come
outside, I get out there and the whole family is there sitting around
their car listening to music, and my host brother turns to me and
says, usually, Bridget, la gente de Honduras come outside when we
don´t have light. It was fun though, very similar to something we
would do in the states too.

Also, Catacamas is hot, a lot hotter than SL, by now I am finally
getting use to it, but the first couple of days were ridiculous.
Another thing too, I think since there is more money here, there is
more meat and my family here feeds me wayyyy more traditional meals,
which I enjoy a lot. The other day we were having lunch and my host
mom made something they call enchalidas here but really they are like
fried tortillas with like a pulled chicken in sauce with rice and pico
de gallo on top, either way they end up being awkward to eat and I was
holding one in my hand trying to figure out the best angle to take
with eating it and I look up and my host brother is just starring at
me. Generally that happens a lot at meal times, sometimes I feel like
I am a zoo animal. And then my host mother sits down and says,
Bridget, how many enchalidas are on my plate. Seriously? I looked at
her and said 3. And they were all congratulating me. Wow. Another
time she asked me if I was eating fish or chicken. I thought at first
they were trick questions but no, she really thinks I don´t know the
answers. I think its pretty funny, they probably want to know why I´m
always laughing when I answer. ¿Que mas?
Ohh right, Catacamas is the wild west of Honduras, although it is in the
East. The people here are all very nice and hospitable but there are more
cattle ranches and more family feuds. You see oxen tied up to carts walking
down the street and women with umbrellas to block the sun. Its got three
supermarkets and plenty of internet places, a really great ice cream place in
the park,a hotel with a pool, and a few too many people for me to want this
as my site, but there are 2 PAM volunteers living here now and another very
close by, who will all be replaced by someone in our group.

And again as I was in the middle of typing the email again, the lights
flickered and we lost internet connection. So now I'm back at my house
trying to finish this up so I can just show up, send it without
anymore mishaps.

So far since we arrived, we learned how to build efficient wood
burning stoves, graft fruit trees, use integrated methods of pest
control, including more cheap environmentally friendly ways to capture
and eliminate local pests, make organic pesticides and how to spread
them, walked an entire watershed and analyzed it for a charla next
week, saw a small community water system, learned how to make yogurt,
marmalade, jelly and jam.

This past week we split into two large groups to give a charla to
teachers about integrated environmental education. After giving that
charla we were to get into groups of 2 and meet with one the teachers
so we could prepare a lesson with the kids for Friday. I'm sure the
news hasn't reached the states, but the teachers here have been on a
strike for the past week. So the logistics of these charlas were up
in the air, we had the one for the teachers planned but we didn't know
if we were even doing it until Tuesday morning. The situation with
the public schools here is the result of the government promising this
elaborate pay increase scale that has never come, so for the past 5 or
6 years the teachers have been striking occasionally, once for 2 or 3
months straight. But this time some of the teachers hadn't been paid
for 6 or 9 months, so they said they were striking for the week, and
no one took them seriously so they all fled to the capital and started
taking over streets in Tegus. The police were sent out and violence
started, some people were hospitalized and the President offered them
a 2,500 pay increase each if they would go back to work. So Monday
the public schools should be back in session, but we'll see. The
normal school year here is very different than ours, they have a
"summer" break in November and December, and so they are still in full
swing of classes.

My group ended up giving the charla at a private evangelical school in
town, the other group at a different private school. The charla with
the teachers, I think, went fairly well. I'm not sure they really
benefited from the information we had to provide, but they at least
participated, which was very helpful for us. When David and I were
supposed to meet with our teacher it turned out she wasn't there so we
left having no idea what we were supposed to be doing. On Thursday
afternoon we had sometime in our Spanish classes to work on our
charlas for the next day so David and I went back to the school to
look for the teacher and luckily she was there, she suggested we do
our lesson on conservation of natural resources. Oh yeah, we had a
fourth grade class. So David and I set out to plan.

I forgot to mention that, of course, this was all to be done in
Spanish. And at one point during our charla with the teachers we
broke into small groups to brain storm ways to integrate into each
subject and I asked one of the teachers in my group a question and she
just starred at me. This is the problem, even if I ask a really easy
question and I pronounce all the words correctly (which a very
difficult feat) someone who is not use to hearing a non native speaker
will not understand you. A lot of time if someone doesn't want to
understand you they won't. This is probably the most frustrating
thing I have come across here. I know my Spanish isn't perfect, but
I'm trying so why can't they? The same thing has been happening with
my host family, I would try and say something and if they were busy
than they wouldn't understand, now when I talk to them they look at me
in amazement because they actually do understand me now, and I don't
think they know what to do with this new situation.

Some people I have encountered are a lot more sympathetic and helpful
with my language skills. Coming home from Gualaco I sat next to a man
on the bus who was in the Honduran Navy and trained in the states and
he was very willing and encouraging and spoke to me in Spanish even
though he knew English. I know more of these people exist but when
you come across the other it really frustrates me.

Off topic there, but after I left the charla with the teachers I had
no idea how I was going to manage with fourteen 11 year olds. So
David and I planned everything, made visuals and showed up. The
teacher was there for support which really helped, but these kids
really already knew a lot about the environment, we tried to impart to
them the idea of an ecosystem and I think that they got it, I'm not
sure if they understood they reasoning behind humans protecting the
environment to preserve the global ecosystem, but possible in the
future they will understand. It was a good experience, although we
did talk about how different it will be in a public school versus a
private school at our sites, but having the opportunity to have the
attention of children for an hour and to have to convey a message to
them in Spanish was a valuable part of our training, I feel.

A little more about my trip to Gualaco, I made it safe and sound and
everything was fine. I spent all day Saturday there, we walked
around, talked to some of the volunteer's friends, ate at some
comedors and talked a lot about his experiences in the Peace Corps,
what his site was like, what his projects were like and what
challenges he faced. It was defiantly worth my time to go out there,
I was afraid of the buses but I needed to get over that fear and I
didn't really think a male volunteer would have that much to tell me
but he did. Also I got to stay in a hotel with hot water, which is
always nice! His project was a reforestation project for the town,
the mayor wanted trees to line the highway that comes into town as
well, so he went through the school. Each graduating class is
required to do a final project with an environmental component, so
they started a tree nursery at the school and grew 13,000 trees; they
only ended up planting 900 along the highway and gave another 2,000 or
so away to NGOs and people in the community. He also has a weekly
radio show of music in English in the town, people call in and request
songs. He has a few other side projects, but the tree project was his
major one while in service.

Tomorrow the Catacamas futbol season starts so my host brother and I
are going to the game. Next weekend we are going camping in one of
the National Parks nearby and to the caves.

PC Love,
Bridget

PS -

I forgot to mention that there are some missionaries in town for
the week, we met them yesterday. And I actually translated something
for one of them. I felt very proud of myself. But they told us this
story how the day before they saw some kids and threw candy at them,
basically they are, as grass root community development workers, our
worst nightmare. But I really did feel like a PC volunteer when we
were standing next to them in the park later that day. I know
everything isn´t perfect yet but in comparison, I´m defiantly in the
best position.

--
Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084

photos

Also, I don´t know if my mom sent out this link or not, but my photos are up, you can find them at http://community.webshots.com/user/bridgetkf .

 

Also please forgive all of my spelling errors, in my last email.  And don´t show it to any of my English teachers.

 

Thanks,

B
--
Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084