I’ve been thinking a lot about what to write in this blog post, but it’s been tough. As much as I want to write that everything is wonderful (lollipops, cupcakes, and rainbows), if I did that then I’d be lying. It’s going to be a rough transition. The Peace Corps warned us about this, but I’ve tried to be optimistic in thinking that everything would work out, but it’s definitely just as hard as they said it was, if not harder.
So, I’m here at my site. Let’s start with some positives…swearing in happened on Thursday, the 22nd of September, and it was great! We got to get all dressed up, and my host sister Yeisling dried and straightened my hair for the occasion. It was a really long day. We left Las Cañadas at 7:15 a.m., and went to the Peace Corps office in Teguz to meet our counterparts. I think I’ve mentioned it before—but all of us have at least 3 Honduran counterparts that we’re working with, in an effort to make our projects more sustainable. By working with Hondurans, there’s a better chance that our projects can continue once we leave. My counterpart that came to swearing-in teaches English at the high school and is also my new host dad. We had a training in the morning and into the afternoon about working together and what youth development is.
Around 2 or 3, we headed to the embassy for swearing-in. There were speeches from our training director (Luis), program director (Sandra), the director of Peace Corps Honduras (Emily), the new U.S. Ambassador, as well as the Honduran Minister of Youth and Vice Minister of Education. These two people from the Honduran government presented the Peace Corps with plaques to celebrate its 50th anniversary. I would love to be able to explain more about the ceremony and what all of the speeches were about, but it was really all a huge blur. In addition to these speeches, Constance made a speech on behalf of our group that was both meaningful and funny. We also sang the national anthems of both Honduras and the U.S., and our whole group sang “Peace Train” (well, Chris played the guitar and sang the verses, and we sang the chorus with him). It was a really special occasion. Afterwards, we took some pictures, had some refreshments, and headed back to spend our last night with our host families. We hung out together for a little while, but I headed home to finish packing and spend some time with my host family.
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| Happy 50th Birthday Peace Corps! |
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| Me and Emily, the director of Peace Corps Honduras |
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| Me, Julie, and Constance |
Friday morning, we had to meet up at 5:00 sharp with all of our bags in order to meet our counterparts at their hotel in Teguz. It was super early, but a few people had to catch a 6:00 bus to make it to their sites, so we all had to wake up and be ready to go. Saying goodbye to my host family was really hard. I still tear up when I think about it. I don’t think I realized it until I had to say goodbye how much I appreciated all their help, friendship, care, and acceptance over the past 3 months. I hope that I can come to feel the same way about my new host family, but they have big shoes to fill. I miss them a lot already, and I can’t wait until I get the chance to go back and visit them again. (My host mom even made me call her when I got to my site…just like a real mom would do :-)
Saying goodbye to all of the other volunteers was just as difficult. On the bus ride to the hotel, I thought a lot about the transition that was about to happen. It is not often that you go into a new experience not having any clue whatsoever what it’s going to be like. Sure, going away to college is a big transition, but most likely you’ve visited the school before, gone to orientation, etc. Starting a new job is hard too, but usually you’ve learned a lot about your job through classes or had a similar experience in an internship, so you know more or less what to expect. Even with study abroad—I was always with a group of people I knew, and we had met each other before we left the country. Coming to Honduras and starting training was almost as hard of a transition, but we were with a group of 15, lived with experienced host families, and had Peace Corps close at hand to help us with any problems we had. But this time, we’re going out, alone, to a place we’ve never been before, to work with people we’ve never met, live with a new family, and we really have no idea what to expect. That’s tough.
I’ve been trying to keep this in mind since I said my tearful goodbye on Friday morning to the people who have become some of my closest friends. Peace Corps has told us that it will be “the hardest job you’ll ever love” and that we need to be patient and give ourselves time to settle in, but let me tell you…it is hard!
My new host family has a house in Teguz where 3 of their daughters live with their aunt, cousin, and grandmother. The girls are studying in Teguz (2 in college, 1 in high school). So, instead of heading to Sulaco on Friday, we stayed there on Friday night and headed out on Saturday. Friday (keep in mind I woke up at 4 a.m. to lug all of my luggage up a steep hill and down the street then had to say goodbye to my old host family and all of my friends), I was dragged along on a million errands with my new host mom and dad. We were literally out driving from place to place from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. I did get to spend some time getting to know their daughters, who seem pretty cool, but with the emotional rollercoaster, combined with the lack of sleep, I was barely holding it together. We got back to the house, and I laid down at 6:30, slept until 9:30, got up to brush my teeth and then slept the rest of the night. The next morning was filled with more errands (the second youngest daughter, Amada, had teeth pulled on Friday and got braces on Saturday morning), and we finally left for Sulaco at around 2:00 in the afternoon. The ride was about 3 ½ hours, and about half of it was on bumpy, unpaved roads.
So, I’m here, I made it, and I’m doing ok. The house that I’m living in is really great. It’s a two story house that they’ve been doing construction on for a long time, and I’m living on the 2nd floor, which isn’t exactly finished yet, but I have a nice room and there’s a bathroom right next to it (with occasional running water). And…there’s a toilet seat! (so Josh, you won’t need to bring me one :-) My host mom is a teacher at the primary school, which is one of my counterparts, and my host dad teaches English at the high school, which is another one of my counterparts. Their youngest daughter, Belen, lives with them here and goes to the high school. Saturday night, I unpacked, set up my mosquito net, and that’s about it. Sunday I was antsy to go out and do something. I guess in my mind I had pictured arriving at my site and getting a full tour of the town and getting to know everything. However, that wasn’t the case. My host family literally did absolutely nothing all day. At 4, my host mom was heading to church and I jumped at the opportunity to get out and see the community. The church is a really pretty colonial building. It’s a Catholic church, but was a lot less formal than what I picture when I think of Catholic churches. There were kids and dogs running around, and lots of singing and clapping. The priest’s sermon was about how the purpose of what we do should always be to serve others. When we further our education or training, we should think of it as a way to bring us closer to people who are in need, rather than thinking of it benefiting ourselves. I really enjoyed the message and the service in general.
Monday morning, I woke up early to head to the high school with my host dad. So, yesterday and today (I’m writing this on Tuesday, 9/27), have been a lot of introduction and, to be honest, super boring. It seems like I’m arriving here at a bad time. The high school currently does not have a director (principal), and the director at the primary school who filled out the proposal for a volunteer is no longer working there; there’s a new director. Which means that Peace Corps was right, I am going to have to be really patient. Being a typical U.S. go-getter, like-to-stay-busy type person, I would love to just jump into things and get going. However, that’s not how it works here. I’m going to have to be okay with doing a whole lot of nothing in the beginning, with the hopes that it will get better in the future.
My biggest concern right now is living and working with the same people. Peace Corps does not have people living with their counterparts. Technically my official counterparts are the directors of the schools, but since the director at the primary school is new and the high school doesn’t have one…my host parents are basically my two counterparts right now. I have a lot of things I’d like to do, but my host dad, because he lives and works with me, seems to think that he has the ultimate decision in what my schedule and projects look like. Also, because they work where I work, I am constantly tagging along with them and really wish I could have a little more independence. I have sort of a plan for what I’m going to do, but I have a feeling it’s going to take awhile to get going.
Surprisingly, it’s the baseball project that’s looking the most positive. Fernando, the baseball coach, seems really excited to have me here. He went to the U.S. through some kind of non-profit organization to learn about baseball and how to start a team. In Honduras, soccer is super popular and basically the only sport that exists, so the hope is to do something new and introduce kids to something different. We are also going to try to get the girls involved and have a girls’ team because girls do not have very many opportunities to participate in sports. I’m going to be going to baseball practice with Fernando on Thursday to meet the kids, and on Tuesdays I’ll be running the practice because he’ll be teaching (he’s the P.E. teacher at 2 different schools here in Sulaco).
So, I guess the bottom line is that I’m frustrated. And worried about working and living with the same people. Part of the difficulty comes from the fact that we are arriving at a bad time. Schools here are in session until the end of November and then they don’t start up again until February. There’s really not much time left until the end of the school year to start up projects and programs, but I don’t want to just be sitting around twiddling my thumbs. There are projects that I’d like to start, like TEAM (Teaching English and Methodology class for teachers) and Colgate (dental hygiene program for little kids), but those involve requesting materials from Peace Corps, which will take time to arrive, and will have to start up at the beginning of the next school year in February. So, it’s kind of hard. Also, the high school is having exams in the next week or so, which means I’m really doing absolutely nothing there.
So, that’s how it is. It’s frustrating and difficult, but I’m hoping it will get better. I debated whether I should sugar-coat everything for my blog, knowing that my mom will start worrying and call me in a panic if she knows I’m not completely happy and satisfied with everything, but I figured it would be better to be honest. I also need to keep reminding myself that I haven’t even been here for a week yet, and I need to chill out and not worry so much right off the bat. However, I wanted to give you an honest blog post about how I’m feeling and how things are going. Don’t panic, I’ll be fine, I just have to wait it out and see what happens. Needless to say, in the midst of all of the frustrations, it makes me miss all of you even more, but I know things will work out if I just keep plugging along!
****While posting this on Thursday, I wanted to mention that things are really looking up now. I´m going to be doing reading interventions and helping teach English at the elementary school three days a week, which will keep me busy. The stuff at the high school is still really slow, but we´ll see what happens...things are getting better every day!
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