"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).