Hey kids. So it is pretty apparent that I am not exactly a highly successful blogger, I apologize and beg your forgiveness. I assure you that my life is normally so boring that I would actually have to apologize and beg your forgiveness if I had kept up with my blogging. Although I have no concrete proof, I highly suspect that after reading several blogs that go something like this:
Today I drank a lot of water while I was reading. I liked this because it gave me something extra to do. Plus I had to get up a lot to go to the bathroom, which was an extra thing to do that also gave me a sense of accomplishment when I successfully completed the act.
You would maybe not ever want to read anything I wrote again, so I have to save up life events to make an action-packed entry (code for: I am super lazy and don’t really like blogging). So anyway, here is my life in a nutshell for the past couple (or 8…) months… (oh and also, read the post below this that I am posting for the first time today)
Yo Merezco Classes:
Yo merezco means I deserve, or I am worthy of. I gave these classes to a bunch of 5th grade girls and it was my best project so far. We talked about everything from self esteem to reproduction. It was a really rewarding class and the girls were awesome. For one lesson, I had to draw giant poster size versions of certain reproductive organs and colored them in a variety of colors to make for easy labeling but apparently the colors initially confused some of the girls. When I posted the drawings on the board one girl exclaimed “Where is THAT?!” another girl helpfully assumed a spread eagle position, pointed and said “Right here! Uhh I think, mine doesn’t have those colors though.” Not to worry, I quickly cleared up any confusion (or at least I hope I did or else there are going to be some pretty strange rumors about certain gringa body parts). Another favorite event centered around our caja de preguntas (box of questions). The girls could put questions in anonymously whenever they wanted. Normally the questions would be about class or life (what does ____ mean?, Why are boys mean?, Etc). However, my favorite question was: “Why don’t north Americans like salt?” Considering I use half a container of salt on my eggs I was a little stumped…
In addition to the classes I gave to the kids, I also worked with a couple of my friends to give a training on Yo Merezco classes to a group of new volunteers, their counterparts, and a couple of other Hondurans from different NGOs and governmental agencies (about 50 people in total). The training went really well (I think….) but was super exhausting. Talking in Spanish in front of a whole roomful of people all day is intimidating. Luckily I was presenting with my friend Leila who is super good at Spanish so she helped me out when I was tongue-tied (which was approximately every other word).
Now it is a new school year and I hope to start up the classes again. This time in addition to doing the classes with the 5th grade girls I am going to adapt them so I can give them to mixed girl/boy groups. More to come on that….
Halloween
For PC volunteers in Honduras Halloween is kind of a big deal. Every year almost all the volunteers head to the Copan Ruinas for a weekend of fun and debauchery (naturally the debauchery is culturally sensitive, professional, and volunteer-y). Everyone dresses up and a couple of the bars take turns hosting events. I was super impressed with the range of costumes I saw, especially considering the raw materials we have to work with here. I think perhaps people were slightly less impressed with mine. A little background is necessary to explain my costume. In Honduras, a popular way to serve/sell drinks in pulperias (little stores usually run out of peoples’ houses) is in a bag. The owners of a pulperia will open I big thing of coke and when someone wants to buy coke, they will pour it into a baggie and put a straw in it and bunch the baggie up around the straw. They also do this when they have glass bottles (extremely common here) and don’t want the customers running away with the bottles. So yea, naturally I chose to be a baggie of coke (drink kind not nose kind) for Halloween. What did my costume consist of? A brown dress, some tape, a big piece of plastic that my mattress came wrapped up in (I knew it would come in handy some day!) and a paper towel roll for the straw. I have to admit that I looked more like a crazy person wadded in plastic but it was free and easy which to me equals the perfect costume.
Thanksgiving
This year for thanksgiving I headed to Yojoa, a big lake in Honduras. We stayed at a hotel that consisted of a bunch of different cabins plus a kitchen that we rented out. It went really well thanks to our excellent cooks Lizette and Christine. There were about 15ish volunteers plus two US army people. We had a huge spread that included all the traditional stuff. Plus we were right on the lake so while food was cooking we could go out on canoes and explore. All together very satisfying and I ate way too much. That being said I still really missed my family and can’t wait to celebrate with them next year (especially considering it will also include celebrating Ria’s 21st!)
Utila
For my birthday this year, I headed to the beautiful island of Utila to meet up with Sara and Amanda (two friends from the good old SP). It was amazing!!! I got my scuba certification and (even better) got to spend tons of time with two of my favorite people in the whole world. It was so great to be with my friends again after a year and a half without them. Utila was AWESOME (everything about it: food, atmosphere, views, etc) but I think I could have had just as much fun hanging out with them in a landfill or something (maybe I am exaggerating a little but you get the point). In conclusion, I recommend checking out Utila (more so if you are under 35) and also having amazing friends.
USA!!!!!
As most of you know, I headed home for a delightful 17 days during the holidays. I will spare you the details because if you are reading this you were most likely there for the details but it was AMAZING. Friends, family, hot showers, couches, AND grocery stores…who could ask for more?
Feria
In February, it was once again time for Colo’s feria (fair). Everyone gets super excited for it but to be quite honest (and quite grumpy) it is not my favorite event. A lot of “strangers” come into town which means the GRRRRINNNGAAAAA I lovvvvvvveee you catcalls get even worse than usual. The plus side? A Ferris wheel. I believe I wrote a post about the Ferris wheel last year and essentially referred to it as a death trap. Now, a year later it became apparent that I am perhaps a little more Honduran. Throwing caution to the wind (kind of literally) I went on the Ferris wheel. It was terrifying. This was not your typical county fair grandma ride. It went a million miles an hour and there was no telling what was keeping my little car from catapulting into the crowds below. Not my smartest move, but exhilarating none the less.
Roatan
Roatan is an island right next to Utila and I met my family there in March. The fraternity…I mean group… included: Mom, Dad, Andy, Ria, Abby, Aunt cc, Aunt Karen, and Uncle Mark. It was flipping amazing. Roatan is gorgeous, the food is amazing, and the company was lovely (if at times a bit rowdy…) We did everything: a boat tour, scuba diving, snorkeling, sitting on the beach and sucking down monkey lalas, zip lining, etc. A definite highlight of the trip was watching Aunt Karen learn how to scuba (I got to skip the lesson because I was already certified). While everyone else was in the pool underwater following the teacher’s instructions she was above water giggling at me through her mask. Things went downhill from there. While we were actually in the ocean she spent the whole time holding the instructor’s hand (except from one memorable moment when he needed both hands and she grabbed onto his flipper). I almost drowned laughing into my regulator. In addition to the human spectacle that was AK, the reef itself was beautiful. We saw tons of amazing things including a sea turtle that swam right up to us and stared us down. All in all (and despite the sand fly bites) it was a perfect trip and I truly appreciate my family making it down to see me. It made coming back to the Dur after Christmas much easier and I am so excited that instead of waiting to see them again for a whole year and a half it will only be a couple more months! :)
Strrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiikkkkkkeeeee three, I’m out (of patience)
As soon as I got back from Roatan I was ready to dive into my last school year here in Honduras. Unfortunately, it was not to be. As I mentioned in the previous post (which I am posting today but wrote a long time ago…) there was a long teacher strike in August. Eventually the teachers did go back to work but nothing was really resolved. This became very apparent in March when the teachers decided to strike again. Yes, that’s right, another month long strike. I can’t really explain to you what the strike is about exactly, because everyone has a different version of the story (including newspapers) but as one of my friends (a teacher struggling with the need for a strike and the desire to teach) put it “All I believe in now is God and Alka-Seltzer.” I agree (but might add my kindle to the list...)
I don’t really think I can adequately describe to you how boring it gets here during strikes. I think perhaps the only people that would understand are people who have been on bed rest for a month, but then again at least they have TV. I knew I had reached a breaking point one night when I heard a car alarm going off outside and started making faces in time with the alarm (I’ll give you a moment to picture that….). My saving grace was that for part of the time I had a house guest named Jessica staying with me. She is a doctor from the US and a couple years ago she stayed in Colo with one of my friends for 3 months doing a study. She decided to come back to visit and since my friend’s house was full I offered to let her stay with me. It was really nice to have someone stay with me for a while, especially considering how bored I was. We cooked a couple of meals together and just chatted a lot. It is amazing how much more pleasant chores are when you get to share them. She was only here for a week but luckily, classes have now started up again so I will (try) to keep you guys informed as to what I’m up to.
That is about the extent of my ever so exciting life. I am counting down the days until I come back to you all!
Ps. I apologize if there are any terrible spelling or grammar errors in my post, I realized when I tried to spell want o-n-e-t that perhaps I am forgetting English. ¡Qué barbaridad!
Pps. Feel free to post questions or comments to give me something to do :)
pps. as i attempt to post this for the 6th time with this @#@(#*$(@& slow internet my reasons for hating blogging are coming back to me
No comments:
Post a Comment