get out your Honduras maps

    OK now put them away, because you won´t find my site on a map.  I don´t want to lie, it was kind of a surprise.  The name of the aldea, its not its own city, its part of another a larger city, is called San Isidro.  The name of the city it is a part of is Taupacenti, which you will probably find on a map.  Its in the southeast part of the country, in the department of El Parariso.  The population of my little pueblo is about 300 people.  We have no electricity but we do have running water.  There are latrines and pilas for cooking, cleaning and what have you.  To get to my site, I take a bus from Tegus to the municipality (there are three that run daily) which is a 3 hour trip and from there if I get into town by 2 I can take a bus up to my site (there is only one bus that runs down and up to my site) if I get there after 2 or want to go back before then I have to jalon up a mountain for an hour, I´m not sure if that is just a Honduran word, but basically it means hitchhike.  Sorry gran gran, I´ll be safe I promise.  The good news is that almost all of the people in my community have a car, and my counterpart goes down to town at least once a week, they have electricity and internet and places I can buy food.  There are no commedors (kind of like restaurants but only serve plato tipico) and there are 5 pulperias (connivance stores) in my site.  But no one has electricity so no one has fridges to keep things cold, so I can basically buy Tigo cards and churros (chips).  This is not going to have any logic to it, I´m trying to type fast and get everything down, so ask questions if I confuse anyone!

    The people make there money in this community by growing coffee and tomatoes, the reason why my project is working with this specific community is because it is a buffer zone community to a protected biological area, called El Chile.  I haven´t been to El Chile yet, but the closest other PAM volunteer to me and I have decided we are basically going to single handedly map it ourselves.  The potential projects include environmental education, a tree farm with the school and water board to reforest the watershed, crop diversification, finding better markets for the coffee harvest, pesticide management, bringing electricity to the town (this is a bit of a leap, but they asked) and home gardens.  There are plenty of potentials for work, and the people I met seemed very excited to have me in their community, after all they were picked over several other communities. 

     The children we especially excited to have me there, which was a nice welcome.  I went to my site for a visit on Thursday with my counterpart (Antonio), well one of them, the other is his wife.  Respectfully they are the leaders of the community.  He is the president of the water board and she is the director of the school as well as the president of the patronato (which is like a less developed Kiwanis Club, just a organization for the community).  They are both really nice, Antonio is kind of hard to understand, but its because its almost like a different dialect of Spanish, but poca a poca, verdad?  Anyway, lucky for me Antonio drove to Santa Lucia so I didn´t have to take the bus, and thus all my stuff, on the bus with me.  One obstacle of the challenge taken care of!  We got there around 3 in the afternoon, we stopped several times to run some errands and we ate lunch and then I took a siesta, which was nice.  The climate is agreeable, hot in the sun during the day, but breezy and the nights that I was there were pretty cold, although I was told that during the dry months (March -May) it is a lot hotter at night.  As far as the no electricity, it wasn´t so bad.  I had a headlamp and they use candles, but they also have two car batteries charged so they can watch TV and turn on a light in the kitchen.  I just go to bed around 8 now instead of 9 (ha) and get up around 7 (instead on 6:30), no really the chickens wake me up at like 5 but then I get back to sleep pretty fast.  The school also has a pretty nice set up with a solar panel on top that charges 8 car batteries to run lights, 3 TVs and a computer.  They told me I could use the school when ever I needed to charge my phone to I´m sure they wouldn´t mind me using it for computer work.  Also it is a great location to hold town meetings.

   On the first of September they had a little fiesta for the Senorita Inpendencia and Miss Chiquita, because on the 15th is their Independence Day.  I went to the school that morning and met all the kids and helped them set up for the pageant.  They were all really sweet.  It will definitely be the kids that get me through the tough days.  Nolvia (the wife) explained the them why I was there and what the PC was and that you shouldn´t call me gringa, because at counterpart day they made a big deal about the communities calling us gringo/a.  The party started around 5, but it started to rain so we (practically the entire town) waited for the rain to let up, at one point we thought it did, but it started back up so we moved everything inside.  And that started the festivities.  The introduction to the evening also included an introduction to me well, and another please don´t call her gringa her name is Bridget and also she doesn´t speak a lot of Spanish, so talk slowly.  I just kind of stood there red faced the whole time.  But it was nice, there was food and dancing after the pageant.  And I met some more of the coffee farmers.  It turns out that almost all of them are in their mid 20s to mid 30s and single.  So I think I looked a little too much like fresh bait to them, it´ll be interesting to see how a working relationship can be formed, I told one of them I wasn´t married, but I might pull out the boyfriend card and possibly the boyfriend in another site card as well, because Rich said he would visit enough! 

   OK its getting late here, Thursday we swear in as official volunteers and Friday I am off to my site.  I´m not sure when I will get to write another email but hopefully soon.  There is a lot of time to spare in my site right now, so I will be doing ample reading and research and thinking.  Also, my address will be the same for now, until I figure out the postal system in Teapasenti, also if you´ve finished reading any good books, send them my way, I´m ready about a book and a 1/2 a week right now, and supplies are limited!

 

Thanks again for all your support!

PC Love,

Bridget

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Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084