"You Sound Really Happy"

This Wednesday, I finally called Chelsea to catch up.  It was so nice to talk to her, and one of the first things she said was, “You sound really happy.”  I think it took me hearing her say that to realize that I’m finally feeling more comfortable here, and definitely feeling happy.

This has been an important week in that I am finally feeling settled in and have more confidence in training, Spanish classes, and talking with my host family.  On Monday, Chris, Natalie, Deandra, and I had our last class together with Angelica.  She gave us a progress report, and her comments really gave me a confidence boost: 

“Tal vez usted necesita comunicar más sus conocimientos ante el grupo.” (Maybe you need to communicate your knowledge more in front of the group)

“Usted es una excelente alumna en actitud, participación en la clase, y presentación de tareas.” (You are an excellent student in attitude, participation in class, and presentation of homework.)

“Usted es brillante. Cada error que se le corrije, usted y no vuelve a comentarlo.  Cada dia su español es mejor.  Ahora usted va para otra clase más alta.  Yo sé que usted lo hará muy bien.  Confio en usted y su capacidad.” (You are brilliant.  Every error that I correct, you don’t make again.  Every day your Spanish is better.  Now you are going to another, higher class.  I know that you will do very well.  I have confidence in you and your ability.)

I was very nervous going into my new class on Tuesday with Carlos because I am at an Intermediate-Low level, and the other girls in my new class are Intermediate-Mid.  However, I think I’m doing pretty well.  This class is more discussion-based and less grammar work, which I enjoy.  We also have a lot more homework, some of which is a little…..interesting (like having to write a song using the random vocabulary words that we learned in class, including plumber, feminist, a type of cheese, etc.).  My challenge for the weekend is to use our vocabulary words from today’s class in a poem.  I can’t really say I could even write a poem in English, never mind in Spanish using words from our lesson on transportation and giving directions.  Should be interesting…

Tomorrow we have a big task ahead of us.  We are going to Tegucigalpa, which we do every Friday, but this time we are taking the public transportation.  We are going in groups of 5 and taking the public bus into the city and then taking taxis to a bus station where we will meet up with one of the Spanish teachers.  From there, we are going to the market to buy some fruits and vegetables for our host families.  Other than taking mototaxis (little motorcycle things with seats in the back) to the nearby tourist town, we really haven’t had much experience with public transportation.  However, we have been given enough information from our Spanish teachers that we should be just fine.

Our technical trainings this week have been up and down.  We had a safety and security training with a panel of volunteers, which was a little scary, and a training on coaching sports teams with a volunteer that was super-intimidating.  On Tuesday, we practiced using community analysis tools in our town, Las Cañadas, which was really helpful because we’re going to have to use these same tools once we get to our sites.  This afternoon, we had a really fun, interactive training with a current volunteer about working with youth doing dramatic arts.  We played lots of improv games and got a dance lesson too.  Speaking of dance lessons…we were also lucky enough to get a dance lesson on Tuesday from Sahadia who is the host family coordinator for the Peace Corps.  She grew up in a Garifuna community on the northern coast of Honduras.  The Garifuna people are of African descent, and their traditional dance is called “punta.”  It basically just involves moving your hips really fast, which is pretty difficult.  We had a great time learning and got some serious exercise.  Sahadia had fun too, so we’ll probably be having a few more lessons before training is over.

In the next few weeks, we have some exciting things going on.  We are going to be starting our self-directed projects, which are mini-projects where we work with schools and organizations close to where we are living now.  I am working with Constance and Julie and we are going to be working with a small school, grades 1-6, that has only one teacher and about 30-35 students.  Our task is to work with the students, teacher, and parents to design some kind of project based on the needs of the school.  Also coming up, during week 6 of training, is a 5-day volunteer visit where we get to go visit a nearby volunteer, see what their job is like, and help them out for the week.  Very exciting!

So, all in all, it’s been a very happy week.  I’d be lying if I said that I never felt homesick at all over the past 3 weeks.  Feeling homesick is kind of new to me, because I never really had much of an issue with it before, whether it was leaving home for the summer to work at the lake or studying abroad in Cape Town.  However, I’ve realized because this is a very new experience, it’s natural to miss family, friends, and certain luxuries like not needing to sleep with a mosquito net and having a toilet that flushes.  However, I talked to both Mike and Chelsea on the phone this week, and both conversations just made my day better rather than making me feel sad about being so far from home.  I think, in order to be here for the next 2 years, I’m going to have to get used to dealing with a little bit of homesickness.  However, this experience is too cool to let any of that get in the way.

Miss you all.  Hope you’re staying cool! (I hear it’s been pretty hot). 

Learning and Having Fun

It’s Friday again!  Which means we are at the Peace Corps office for the day and have internet.  This has been a pretty typical week.  We’ve had lots of time in language classes and technical training sessions as well.  We got the chance to talk to some current volunteers about what it’s like to work in schools, and we also got to talk with some youth from a nearby school about what challenges youth in Honduras are facing.  There were 2 exciting things from this week:

Exciting thing #1: ZIPLINING!

On Sunday, it was Chris’s birthday (one of the other trainees), so 11 out of the 15 of us decided to do a canopy zipline tour in the nearby tourist town, Valle de Angeles.  We had a great time, and it was a great bonding experience for us.  It’s crazy to think we’ve only been together for 2 weeks, because it feels like we know each other so well.  The zipline was fun and exciting.  The scenery wasn’t too special (nothing like the zipline tour over the waterfalls that I did in South Africa), but we had a great time.  After ziplining, we met the rest of the group in Valle and had cake.  It was a great day!

Exciting thing #2: COOKING!

On Thursday night, after playing some futbol (soccer) with other trainees, neighborhood kids, and some Peace Corps staff, I came home and my host cousin (who lives with me), Yeisling, taught me how to make flour tortillas.  They came out great, and we used them to make baleadas, which are flour tortillas with refried beans (but obviously homemade and not from a can) and queso.  It was really cool, and they said that next time I can make them all by myself (we’ll see about that!)

Me, Norma, and Yeisling making flour tortillas

All in all, another good week.  We’re supposed to be switching Spanish teachers next week, which is a real bummer for me and everyone else in my class.  Our teacher for the past two weeks, Angelica, has been great.  She’s super funny and full of energy.  I’m sure the other teachers are good too, but Angelica is awesome.  I’ve already learned so much already, and, hopefully when I have my next language interview during week 5 of training I’ll be at the intermediate-mid level and the pressure will be off a little.  For now, I just have to keep practicing.

Hasta la proxima viernes! 

One Week!

So, it looks like internet access will probably be a weekly thing.  Some of the other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) have internet in their homes, but I don’t.  Although some others are dying to use the internet, I actually enjoy not having it all the time.  It makes going to an internet café and checking my email an extra fun treat.  So, today marks one week in Honduras (I’m writing this on Thursday 12/14), however it feels like we’ve been here much longer.  The 15 of us are getting along well, and despite a few who have had some stomach issues things are going smoothly.  Our days are still very busy with training, and that’s going to continue for the next 10 weeks.   I figured I’d let you know what a typical day looks like.

Un Dia Tipico de un Aspirante del Cuerpo de Paz (A typical day of a Peace Corps Trainee)—we’ve been practicing describing our daily activities in my Spanish class, so it’s weird right now to be writing everything in English

6:30- My host family told me that I should wake up at 6:30.  Because I didn’t want to argue it/didn’t know how to in Spanish, I wake up at this time, even though I would still have plenty of time to get ready if I woke up later.  Usually our training starts at 8, but on Fridays we leave at 7 to go into Teguz (short for Tegucigalpa, the capital city, about 30 minutes away) to the Peace Corps office.

6:30-7- Bucket showering, brushing my teeth (with water from my water bottle of course) and getting dressed for the day.

7-8- I go out to the kitchen and eat breakfast.  Usually my host cousin, Norma, makes breakfast.  I’ve had everything from tortillas with quesillo (basically quesadillas) to pancakes to corn flakes (with warm milk) for breakfast.  I also usually have a cup of coffee.  The coffee here usually has a lot of sugar and never has milk.  It’s actually really good, and I’m definitely going to be a coffee drinker from now on, even though I never really was before.

8:00-12:00- All of our training days are different, but most days we have language class in the mornings.  Although 4 hours seems like a long time, it goes by fast because we learn so much and move so quickly.  So far we’ve been doing things like practicing how to introduce people to each other, describing our daily activities, and describing people.  In my first language interview (the second day I was here), I was graded at the intermediate-low level.  We have to reach the intermediate-mid level in order to be sworn in at the end of training (September 23^rd).  We have 2 more interviews to reach that level, one in the middle of training and the other at the very end.  I’m not at all worried about making the cut because I’ve already learned so much in my classes this past week.

12-1- After Spanish class, we all head home for lunch.  My other host cousins, Yesling and Patty, usually cook lunch.  It seems like lunch is pretty much the biggest meal of the day here.  Most of the time, I do fine with the food.  I’ve eaten a lot of tortillas, beans, rice, and fried plantains.  Everything here is fried, which gets to be a little much, but I always do my best to eat almost everything on my plate.  My favorite lunch so far was chilaquiles, which we had today.  It was basically fried tortilla strips with a creamy sauce and chicken.  Patty’s son Amir, who is 2 years old, is usually over, so I play with him for awhile before I go back for more training.

1-5- In the afternoon, we have more training.  They cover topics like safety and security, culture, and technical training.  Today we visited different types of organizations that PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) work with.  Each one of us, at the end of training, will be assigned to a site somewhere in the country.  Along with the site, we will have 3 counterpart organizations, at least one of which will be an NGO.  In order to get a feel for counterpart organizations, we visited a high school, primary school, library, and the regional education office.  We got to talk with students, teachers, and other employees about what they do, their work environment, and what struggles they have.

5-9- After training, sometimes I hang out with the other PCTs, and then I head back to my house for dinner.  I try to talk with my family as much as I can in order to practice (even though sometimes I feel like we’ve run out of things to talk about).  We have dinner around 7 or so.  My favorite dinner so far was catrachas, a crispy fried tortilla with refried beans and cheese on top.) Usually I have some kind of homework for Spanish class, and I also rewrite and review all of my notes from the day.  Around 8:30 or 9, I get ready for bed, and then I’m always asleep by 9:30.

Here are some fun things I’ve learned in my Spanish class:

·      There are certain phrases that are used here in Honduras (Hondurenismos):

o   Cheque=OK

o   Cheque-leque= same as cheque, just more catchy

o   Macanudo= great

o   Maca-cheque-leque-nudo= a random combination of words that mean awesome or great (another PCT learned this from his Spanish teacher and taught it to me, I don’t know if I’ll ever use it in real life)

o   Piropo= “cat calls,” when guys say things to you when you walk by them on the street

o   Puchica!= Wow!

·      Other fun words that I’ve learned this week:

o   Perlas= jellybeans

o   Sonambulo= sleepwalker

o   Panzacervezera= beer-belly

o   Cejas de gorilla= unibrow

Miss you all and hope you’re doing well!  I wish I could be on skype or facebook more to talk to people, but it doesn’t really look like it’s going to happen, at least not until after training.  Once I move to my site, I will be able to buy a modem so that I can have internet access.  Hopefully I’ll get to post again next week!

If anyone would like to send me a letter...here's my address until September 23rd:

PCT Sarah Stockmann
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3158
Tegucigalpa, D.C 1110
Honduras, America Central

Hasta luego!

Estoy bien!

Hi everyone!

I figured I’d post something now to let you know how I’m doing and what I’ve been up to.  I don’t have internet on a regular basis right now.  After training is over (in 11 weeks), I will probably buy a portable modem to have wireless, but I need to wait to see which service I should use, which depends on where I am placed for my assignment.

Right now, I am sitting in front of my host family’s house, looking out at a beautiful view of the mountains, which are covered with tall trees (I’m typing this in a word document to save to my flash drive so that when I can stop by an internet café, I can post it quickly).  

 We arrived on Thursday in the afternoon, and we headed immediately over to the Peace Corps headquarters in Tegucigalpa, the capital city where the airport is.  We met the staff, did some brief training (mostly an overview of our training program, tips for living with host families, and some “survival Spanish”). 

After that, we met our host families.  I am living with an older woman named Marina Eluvina Chavez.  She lives with her sister Sonia and Sonia’s two daughters Yesling (21) and Norma (18).  There are also other family members that have been visiting a lot, so it’s a lot of names to remember. 

My room is pretty great (bigger than my room at home).  I have a twin sized bed, a place to hang some clothes up, a table and a big chair.  The door locks (a requirement for host families) so I do have some privacy, although I feel bad going into my room a lot, so I spend most of my time with the family.  My room is attached to the kitchen and everyone else lives in a different part of the house, through a separate door (which I haven’t seen yet).  The bathroom is outdoors and there is no running water, which means bucket flushing and bucket showers.  For some of the people in the training group, this is a huge adjustment for them, but luckily I’ve used these kinds of bathrooms during my trips to Mexico, so it’s not that difficult.  My host mom even heats up my shower water, which is pretty awesome.

Mi Cuarto

Mi cuarto otra vez

The view from the porch of my house

I have been going to bed super early here! (the latest I’ve stayed up is 9:30).  Part of it is that I’m still catching up the sleep that we lost during travel (we are two hours behind Eastern Standard Time here, and we had to wake up at 1:30 a.m. to head to the airport when we were staying in DC).  It is also extremely exhausting trying to speak Spanish all the time.  My family speaks no English at all, and I feel bad when I can’t understand them.  However, they have had many Peace Corps trainees live here in the past, so they are used to it.  At this point, I need to learn some more Spanish, because we have run out of things to talk about, but our language training begins tomorrow (Monday), so hopefully that will help.

We had training in Tegucigalpa on Thursday, Friday, and half of the day on Saturday.  We have learned things about the culture, how to stay healthy (I started my weekly malaria medication on Friday), safety and security (which was a little scary), and various other things.  Yesterday, after we came home for lunch, a bunch of us went into the nearest town, Valle de Angeles, to buy cell phones.  So, I have one now.  I posted the number on my facebook if anyone is interested in calling.  The evening or weekends are the best times to call, since we are going to have training all day during the week.  I’d suggest using an international calling card because it’s probably expensive.  Because we´re doing everything in Spanish, it´s a relief to be able to talk to someone in English.  It is free for me to receive calls and texts.  It’s a pay-as-you-go type phone, so I have to keep adding minutes to it.  I think I´ll try to avoid making international calls on it as much as possible.

I was a little nervous about what I was going to do with all of my free time yesterday and today, but we found stuff to do.  After walking around Valle de Angeles for a few hours yesterday with the other trainees, I came home to find the entire extended family was visiting.  Friday was Sonia’s birthday, so they were celebrating on Saturday night.  There was great food and tons of people.  They even made me dance…although I’m not sure if they were laughing at me or with me haha. 

This morning, I went with Kelvin, Marlo, Kenneth, and Sesa (grandsons or nephews of my host mom- there are so many people, it’s hard to figure out how they’re all related) to the campo to play futbol (soccer).  Poor Kenneth fell in the mud right away (it has rained pretty much every evening I’ve been here) and the rest of us got pretty dirty too.

Los chicos

Walking back to the house

There are lots of really interesting things that I’ve been learning in training…here are some tidbits:

• ·        Macanudo!  This is my language class’s new favorite word.  It means something like awesome or fantastic.  I’ve decided to use it as much as possible.

• ·        This one’s for Chelsea—when someone sneezes 3 times, you say “salud” the first time “dinero” the second and “amor” the third (health, money, love)…our language teacher Angelica likes to teach us these fun things

• ·        You never throw anything to anyone if they ask for it…it’s seen as disrespectful.

• ·        The safety guy told us ladies that we should keep our money tucked into the side of our bra.  Apparently this is a good hiding place because many Honduran women hide money in the front of their bra and a robber will check there.  We’re also supposed to carry some “throwaway” money in our pocket to give away if we get robbed.  (but don’t worry, so far no robberies!)

I’m really excited to start our intensive language training tomorrow.  On Friday, we had language interviews to see what level we are at so that they can put us into small groups.  We have to reach the intermediate-mid level by the end of training in order to be sworn in as volunteers.  I think I did alright on the interview, but I’m looking forward to seeing how close I am to the goal. 

Well, that’s all for now.  Hope everyone’s doing well!

Hasta la proxima vez,

Sarah