Mira como beben los peces en el rio...

I've experienced my first (hopefully not my last!) Honduran Christmas...and I must say, it was pretty fantastic!

The title of this blog post comes from a really popular Christmas song that they've been singing at church and in the posadas this past week.  It's kind of bizarre and I don't really understand what fish drinking in the river have to do with Christmas, but Hondurans LOVE this song (at least the Catholic ones, anyway).

Here's the words to the chorus:
"Pero mira cómo beben
los peces en el río.
Pero mira cómo beben
por ver a Dios nacido.
Beben y beben
y vuelven a beber.
Los peces en el río
por ver a Dios nacer."

Translation:
"But look how the fish in the river drink,
But look how they drink to see God born,
They drink and drink,
And they return to drinking.
The fish in the river
To see God born."

Weird, right?  And the verses are all about the Virgin Mary doing things like bathing, combing her hair, and washing diapers.  After a little searching on google, I found some info on the significance of the song. It "draws a contrast between between the fishes in the river, who are excited about the birth of the baby Jesus, and the Virgin Mary, who goes about doing the chores of daily life."

...and here's an awesome 80's music video of the song, for your viewing pleasure. 

So, back to Honduran Christmas.
As I mentioned before, the week leading up to Christmas, the people from the Catholic church participated in "posadas" every night. I went along to the first one, and also participated in the one that took place in my host grandmother's house, which is right next door to where I live.  For the posadas, the people gather and walk to someone's house in the neighborhood.  Because Sulaco is a pretty big town, the posadas are organized by barrio and each neighborhood has their own little group.  They light candles and sing on their way to someone's home.  When they get to the door, they knock 3 times and then sing back and forth between the people outside the door and the people inside the house.  This is an imitation of what Mary and Joseph did when they were looking for room at the inn.  The people outside sing a verse of the song, asking for a place to say, and the people inside sing back, giving excuses for why they won't let them in.  Eventually, they are let into the house, where they pray, read from the Bible, discuss the readings, and then have a snack before heading back home.  It is a neat tradition, and definitely gets people into the Christmas spirit.

2 of the girls from our barrio carrying the glass figures of Mary and Joseph (Maria y Jose) during the posadas.  It was reported that the one on the right dropped and broke Jose a few nights later...oops!

You may be wondering why I'm writing my Christmas blog post at noon on Christmas day.  It's because in Honduras Christmas Eve is Christmas.  The 24th is the big day.

The festivities began when I went to church at 4 with my host family.  It was just like a regular service for the most part.  The priest's sermon was a about how Christmas is a time to spend with family and that you shouldn't drink alcohol.  That one caught me a little off-guard, but the priests often talk about corruption, violence, or other issues affecting the town or country during their sermons.  It felt a little bit like a lecture from a teacher or parent telling us to not party too hard on Christmas.

Then, we headed home and had some dinner.  A few days ago, they killed grandma's pig.  Although I didn't enjoy waking up to at 5 a.m. to the sound of the pig screaming, I must admit, it was delicious.  We had pork, nacatamales (tamales with pork in them) and tortillas.  Around 7:30 or so, all of the posadas from the different barrios were gathering at the church.  I walked over with my host mom.  The group from our neighborhood had already left, so we joined in with another group and headed to the church.  In the church, they did some readings, sang some songs, and shared some food (catrachas and bunuelos...yum!).  Then, back to the house yet again.  My host family's tradition for Christmas is to gather in the house of a great aunt.  However, one of my host sisters informed me that it is usually extremely boring.  So, the whole family decided that they wanted to kill some time and not head over there until 11:00.  We took some pictures, went cruising around the neighborhood with my host dad in his truck, and had a little living room dance party.  It's really great to have my other host sisters here from Teguz.  It makes the house a little noisier, but they are really fun. 

Belen, Amada, Me, Bessy, Grecia

 At 11 we headed over to the family gathering.  The girls still weren't too thrilled to be there, so we hung out in front of the house for the most part, setting off fireworks and playing with sparklers.  In the house there was a "nacimiento" (nativity) set up.  It was kind of a mish-mosh of lots of little figurines, many of which had nothing to do with Christmas or the nativity.

What?  You never heard about the Christmas triceratops?  I think the little drummer boy rode on him to Bethlehem :-)

sparklers!

 Christmas in Honduras is kind of like a combination of the 4th of July and New Year's Eve.  There are people with fireworks and firecrackers everywhere, and at midnight everyone sets off more firecrackers and hugs their family and wishes them a Merry Christmas.  When midnight rolled around, we headed back into the house and did an impromptu conga line dance.  Then, the Catholics got down to business and set up chairs in front of the nativity.  Everyone sat down, they began with a few songs, and then they recited the rosary.  (Not sure on the correct terminology because I'm very much not Catholic).  All I know is that it took like 20 minutes at least, and was mostly everyone murmuring incoherently in Spanish.  I sat and struggled to stay awake.  Amada, one of my host sisters, lost the struggle and ended up asleep in her chair.  At the end of the whole process, we hugged and headed back home.  At this point it was 1:30 a.m. and we were all hungry again.  So, we had some chicken and pork before crashing for the night.

All in all, I had a truly amazing Christmas.  I've kind of been bummed out the past few days because we found out we're going to have to go home.  Through the process of telling the family, my counterparts, and some friends that I have to go home, I've realized how well integrated I am into the community here.  People are really sad and disappointed that I have to leave.  It is sad that it takes bad news like this to realize how much you value the people around you and how much they care about you.  I recently got a phone call from my host family from training, to wish me a Feliz Navidad and check up on me, because they had seen the news that they were pulling us out of the country.  Throughout the night yesterday I got texts and phone calls from Honduran friends wishing me a Merry Christmas.  If you had asked me a month or so ago, I would have told you that I expected to be sad on Christmas because I will be away from my family.  But, the only sadness this Christmas was the fact that I will have say goodbye to all of these amazing people in a few short weeks.  It's going to be really hard to leave, but I have 2 1/2 weeks left here in Sulaco and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!  Hopefully this won't be my last Honduran Christmas!

This just in...

  We've gotten a lot of big news from the Peace Corps in the last week.  One of the emails told us "to exercise good judgment when using social media to share this news with friends and family."  So, I figured I'd just copy and paste their press release that they posted on the Peace Corps website:

Peace Corps Reviews Operations in Honduras

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 21, 2011 -- The Peace Corps is conducting an ongoing review of the security environment in Honduras, and has cancelled its next volunteer training class while this review is being conducted.

All 158 currently serving volunteers are safe and accounted for and will participate in a conference in January before returning to the United States on administrative leave. Peace Corps will review the safety and security climate in Honduras before continuing with volunteer operations.

“The safety and security of all Peace Corps volunteers is the agency’s highest priority,” said Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams. “During this time, we are going to conduct a full review of the program. We thank the people of Honduras for their strong support of Peace Corps over the years.”

Peace Corps has operated in Honduras since 1963. More than 5,500 Americans have served in Honduras since the program was established, working with communities on projects focused on health and HIV/AIDS prevention, water sanitation and youth development.

Families with questions or concerns may contact the Peace Corps’ Counseling and Outreach unit, which maintains a 24-hour, 7 days a week duty system. The telephone number during standard office hours is (800) 424-8580, extension 1470; the after-hours number is (202) 692-1470.


So, there you have it.  And, really, that sums it up pretty well.  We don't have much more information than what it says right there.  A volunteer conference in early January and then heading home from there.  This is really sad news for all of us.  Especially us H-19ers because we've only been in our sites for 3 months.  There seems like a slim possibility that some of us would get to come back, but there's a good chance we won't. 


Just wanted to fill you all in.  Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I'll see you in a few weeks.

Random thoughts on running in Honduras

So, I'm not much of a runner, and I never have been.  However, there's not exactly a Cardio Express or Planet Fitness around the corner for me to watch reruns of SVU while using the elliptical (but wouldn't that be wonderful?!).  Entonces, I've been going running every so often.  I don't go very far or run very fast, but it gives me something to do and allows me to get just a little bit of exercise.  I ran with some friends a little bit during training in the mornings in Las Canadas, and I actually somewhat enjoyed it, so I'm trying to keep it going as much as I can here in site.  Here are some random thoughts/experiences having to do with running in Honduras.

• People here don't run.  Or really exercise at all, besides playing futbol.  And even then, it's only boys that play.  The first thing you should know about going running in Honduras is that everyone will look at you like you're crazy.  
• There are often unexpected surprises while running here.  Things that you'd never experience on an elliptical at the gym.  Herds of cows, angry geese, campesinos telling you that they love you, little kids asking you to buy oranges....the list goes on and on.
• It's important to not run so fast that you get really out of breath.  Because you have to be able to say, "Buenos dias" or "Adios" to every person that you pass.  Occasionally there are longer conversations as well.  Usually people saying obvious things like "You're sweating" or "You're running"...um, duh!
• A couple fun stories:
• There's a barrio called La Colonia that I always run past, and sometimes there's a group of kids at the end of the road that I stop and chat with.  One day, as I passed by on the way back, they all gathered at the end of their street and cheered me on and chanted my name "Sa-ri-ta! Sa-ri-ta!" as I ran towards them.  One of the kids even ran along side me as I got closer.  It was absolutely hilarious.  You'd think I just finished a marathon or something.
• Another day, I had left the house to run and maybe 5 minutes later I came across a couple of girls who were headed to the river and they invited me to go with them.  So, I decided to change my plans.  We ended up joining up with a big group of kids and swimming in the river for an hour or so.  Then, I had to put my wet feet back into my socks and sneakers and walk home in sopping wet clothes.  You never know what will happen when you leave the house to go running!

We'll see how long I keep up this running thing.  Usually I run the same route each time.  I leave my house, walk up a small hill and then run to a bridge that crosses over the river.  I stop and sit by the river to catch my breath then head back, usually a combination of running and walking for the return trip.  In order to keep myself motivated, I'm thinking of looking for a 5K that I can sign up for in the end of August/beginning of September 2012 (did I mention that's when I'm thinking about coming home to visit?!).  That way I'll have something to work toward.  If anyone's got any info on a 5K around that time of year, let me know!

Some cows crossing the bridge where I usually turn around.  I must admit, the cows make me a little nervous when I try to pass them.

Merry almost Christmas!  The extended family has started to arrive here at my host family's house in Sulaco...so far an aunt and a nephew with 2 cute little kids.  Should be an interesting week!

¿Quién causa tanta alegria?

So, the feria is officially over.  My last post covered the beginning of the feria up until Monday night, so here's the rest of the feria scoop.  Honestly, I've done so many different things this week, I had to look back at the pictures I took to remember what happened each day.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, but here are the highlights.  Picture uploading is not functioning at the moment, but I did put pictures up on my facebook of all of the feria festivities!

• Burro racing-- One afternoon, I went to the park to see the burro races.  Only 3 boys showed up with donkeys, so they raced 5 laps around the park (which is finally finished, by the way). One of the boys that plays baseball with me won the race and 200 Lempiras (like $10).
• On Tuesday night I finally got a chance to go on the ferris wheel.  Here they call it the "Rueda de Chicago"...not sure why.  Is there a big ferris wheel in Chicago or something?
• Wednesday night was the vigil for the virgin Mary, Sulaco's patron saint.  At 6, we gathered at the church and then walked all around town in a huge group visiting altars that were all over the place.  About 20 total.  The whole way, the group sang songs, and at each house the family said a few words and the priest led the group in a prayer of some sort.  This gave me lots of practice on my Spanish Lord's Prayer.  I think I've got the words down at this point, just got to work on my speed so I can keep with everyone else.  They also kept yelling "Quien causa tanta alegria?  La Concepcion de Maria!" (Who causes such happiness?  The conception of Mary!) which is kind of the church's motto for the week of the feria.  We made it back to the church a little before 11, and at 11 they had a service, which ended exactly at midnight.  It was funny watching all the little kids nodding off in the pews, despite the singing and clapping that was going on.  At midnight, the church bells rang,  fireworks went off, and everyone sang more songs about the virgin Mary.  Luckily, they sang the same 3 or 4 songs all night, so I was able to memorize at least the choruses and sing along with them.  It was a super cool experience, although I was super tired by the time midnight rolled around. 
• Thursday morning, I judged the finals of the singing competition.  The contestants of this contest included the winners from the one I judged before, as well as people from other municipalities in the area.  It was held in the gymnasium at San Juan de Sula, and there was a great turnout.  Some of the kids were really great singers and some of the other judges were really bad at math haha
• After the singing contest, I rushed over to the park to see the Garifuna dancers.  The Garifuna are the indigenous people of African descent that live up on the north coast of Honduras.  They have their own language and style of dancing.  There was lots of dancing, drumming, singing, and colorful costumes.
• I spent another afternoon watching the rodeo...once you've seen it once, it's not worth the 20 Lempiras to go again.  Especially when the announcer likes to talk about you all the time on the microphone...it gets a little old.
• Thursday night was the crowning of the reina infantil, Lluvia.  She's 6 years old and just finished first grade at the school where I work.  She also occasionally plays baseball with me, so I know her and most of her family pretty well.  The crowning was a huge deal, with fireworks and lots of little girls in sparkly, poofy dresses and little boys in suits.  There were so many people there that it was hard to see or get any good pictures, but it was a really big deal and Lluvia was adorable!
• Thursday night I went to another "fiesta bailable" in the town salon.  This time there was a band instead of just a DJ.  I had a good time dancing, and didn't get back home until after 2 a.m.
•  Friday afternoon there was another dance performance by a folklore group that came in from Teguz.  They did some indigenous dances followed by colonial dances in beautiful costumes.  It was an interactive performance, with dancers coming down off the stage and into the crowd, and at the end they pulled people up on the stage to dance with them.  One of the drawbacks of being the only gringa in town is that you always get chosen for those kinds of things, but I didn't mind too much :-)
• Saturday I did a lot of resting.  I passed up the dance on Saturday night, but later on regretted the decision...oh well.
• Sunday I went to the salon again to play bingo, which was a fundraiser put on by a women's volunteer group here in Sulaco.  It started out fun, but the people were way too intense.  This was the first time they'd done an event like this.  I also discovered a new pet peeve of mine...when people have to make a comment after every single number they call in bingo.  Like "esto no me sirve" or "asi me gusta."  Obnoxious.  I didn't end up winning anything.  My host dad won a new stereo for his car and my neighbor Said won a stuffed animal (not such an exciting prize for a guy who just graduated from high school).  Other prizes included cows and horses.  Those were the games that got pretty intense.
• Sunday night was the final event of the feria, the crowning of the Rey Feo (ugly king).  I didn't enjoy it very much at all.  It was crowded and hard to see what was going on.  And really all it was was just a bunch of guys dressed up with silly clothes and masks.  But everyone else seemed to get a kick out of it.
• Even though the feria is over, the rides and games are still here.  Last night (Monday), I went on the ferris wheel again with my host sisters Belen and Amada.  Amada goes to high school and lives in Teguz, but she came home Sunday to spend the holidays with her family.  The volume level in the house has gone up substantially now that there are 2 sisters here...I can only imagine what it will be like when all 4 are home.

My other project that I'm starting up for school vacation began yesterday.  I had decided to wait until after the feria to begin the day camp type thing that I'm doing with the kids here for 2 1/2 hours every morning Monday-Friday.  Yesterday we had 8 kids show up, which was a little disappointing.  I had handed out flyers and my new bff the "animador" (guy with a microphone) of the feria made me announce it a bunch of times on the microphone.  Everyone seemed interested, so I was surprised at the small turnout.  However, today we had 18 kids, so things are looking up.  It's a real challenge to come up with things to do that don't take any supplies at all.  We did a raffle to raise some money, but it wasn't enough to cover the things we needed like a ball, paper, markers, etc.  So, I ended up spending a fairly significant chunk of my own money.  I'm hoping the numbers will keep increasing...my SLCC field games knowledge is really coming in handy, we've played animal love, big wind blows, and splat so far!

The Beginning of the Feria

So, the feria in Sulaco is in full swing.  I had expected lots of fun events, and there have been quite a few.  Although, I've also spent a lot of time just hanging out because most of the fun stuff occurs in the afternoon/evening.  On Friday, I went to the graduation of the 6th graders from the school that is my counterpart, Escuela Francisco Morazan.  In the morning, I headed over to help decorate.  The municipality of Sulaco has a "salon de actos culturales" which is a big room where they hold most of their important community events.  I helped blow up a ton of balloons for them to decorate the tables with.  The graduation was bring-your-own-table-and-chairs, so each family brought a table and chairs so that they'd have a place to sit during the event.  I sat up on the stage with the other teachers to watch all of the kids get their diplomas.  In Honduras, many students do not make it to their high school graduation, so 6th grade graduation is a big deal.  The students received framed diplomas and were each escorted to the stage by their godmother or godfather.  Afterwards, they served us dinner, which ended up being around 10:00.  It was great to see how happy the kids are about graduating, and I'm looking forward to working next year with those of them who choose to go to the colegio San Juan de Sula.

the kids all holding up their diplomas

While I was at the graduation, I talked to the music teacher who told me he was going to be waking up at 4 a.m. because that was the official beginning of the feria.  Little did I know that I would be waking up too...but not by choice.  Saturday morning at 4 a.m. I was woken up by firecrackers, a band playing, and a person riding around in a car shouting things in a loudspeaker.  They were traveling all around town yelling at people to wake up and making LOTS of noise.  I did get up, but didn't go down to the street to see.  Did I mention that they do this every morning during the feria?  Yup, firecrackers every morning at 4 a.m....awesome.

Saturday afternoon, there was a very short parade of people on horseback that went past my house.  They went by so fast, that I didn't get to take any pictures, so I headed to the park to get a better look.  Representatives from AGASUL (the agricultural organization in Sulaco), the mayor, the reina of the feria, and the "Madrina AGASUL" (winner of the beauty contest I judged) all were riding horses.  It was pretty neat.

Saturday night was the graduation ceremony for the colegio San Juan de Sula.  Somehow they managed to transform the half-finished gymnasium into a really pretty location for the graduation ceremony.  Like I mentioned before, graduating from colegio here is a HUGE deal.  One of the graduates made a speech about how she, along with many other female graduates, has a child to take care of at home but that didn't hold her back from graduating.  She also told her classmates that there is no reason why they need to stop there after finishing colegio, that they should keep striving for more....very inspiring.  And she was right.  A lot of the students who graduated are older and are married and have children at home.  One of the male students even brought his son up with him to the stage when he accepted his diploma.  It was another very special night for the students of Sulaco.

Afterwards I headed to the main strip of the fair where there are games and a few small rides.  I gambled away some money on some games, with help from some of my students from the escuela.

A little later on Saturday night, I headed to the salon de actos culturales to go to the "gran fiesta bailable." (dance party).  There were disco lights and a DJ, and I had a pretty good time dancing.  It is a little bizarre because there are adults and high school kids all mixed in with each other, and also some little kids running around too.  It was strange seeing some of the kids from my high school English class there.  It took awhile for people to start dancing (for the first 45 minutes or so people just stood around--kind of like a middle school dance), but once they did it was really fun.  I headed home at 1 and went to bed...of course only to be woken up again at 4 a.m....grrr

Sunday afternoon, I visited the church because they were selling food and the youth group had set up some games.  I played a balloon-popping game and won a little goodie bag of cookies and candy.  I also grabbed some pastelitos (little fried pastries filled with rice and meat) for lunch.  At 4:00, I went to the Catholic church.  They had their normal Sunday service, but also brought in a statue of the virgin Mary to make an altar for the feria.  Sunday night, because I was so tired from staying out the night before and being woken up at 4 a.m., I stayed in, watched a movie, and went to bed early.

Yesterday (Monday), I went for a walk before lunch and grabbed an ice cream cone (there's nothing wrong with eating ice cream before noon, right?).  In the afternoon I headed to AGASUL's rodeo, which was located about a 10 minute mototaxi ride away.  It was a really beautiful location.  Of course, it started at least an hour and a half late, but once it got started it was really fun.  A bunch of guys from Sulaco and a few from other municipalities took turns riding bulls.  The announcer on the microphone came over to me at one point and asked me a bunch of questions and made the band play a song for me.  It was a little embarrassing, but everyone in town pretty much knows me already, so we all had a good laugh about it.  The rodeo got over around 5:30 or so, and I'm happy to say that it didn't look like anyone got hurt too badly.

After dinner, I went back out to the park where the announcer was having some kind of boxing contest with kids.  The crowd was really into it.  Then I headed back to the main strip of the feria.  I ended up playing roulette for awhile.  I had tried it out on Saturday night, so I figured I'd give it another try.  The wheel has pictures on it, and all you do is put 1 Lempira on one of the pictures, depending on which picture it is you win different amounts if the wheel lands on your picture.  With my first Lempira I won 20, so of course I had to stay and play some more.  A little while later, I won 10 more, and then 50.  It was my lucky day!

The First 5 Questions Asked to a Gringa in Honduras

So, I've discussed this point with other PCV's and it seems as though Honduran men always go through a certain series of questions when they meet a gringa....

1. ¿Cómo se llama?  (What is your name?)...the most simple of the questions.

2. ¿De dónde es?  (Where are you from?)...no one has ever heard of Connecticut.  The first thing they do is look at me like I'm crazy.  Then they try to repeat the word Connecticut and pronounce it something like "Caneneca."  Then I follow up with "close to New York" and then they understand.

3. ¿Está casada?  (Are you married?)...you wouldn't think that this would be one of the first 5 questions asked of you, but it ALWAYS is.

4. ¿ Tiene un novio? (Do you have a boyfriend?)...relationship status is very important to Hondureños.  So that they know what level of flirting is acceptable.

5. ¿Porqué? (Why?)...When you say you aren't married and don't have a boyfriend, they ALWAYS ask why.  This question always baffles me because never in the United States has anyone ever asked me why I'm single.  Because I've been asked this question so many times, I have developed a go-to answer.  The first thing I say is "No sé" (I don't know.), but they usually don't accept that as an answer.  So then I go with "Porque no he encontrado el hombre perfecto" (because I haven't found the perfect man).  Usually this is followed up with some kind of compliment like "you're so beautiful I can't believe you don't have a boyfriend."  Really I think the whole question is a ploy so that you can set them up to give you a compliment.

So, to all my friends who plan on coming to visit...get ready to answer this set of questions because you will most definitely be asked every one of them.

On another note--recently I've been curious how many people read my blog.  The friends that I talk to say they've been keeping up with it, but I've been wondering who else reads it.  So, here's a little experiment...if you read this post, comment on it so I can figure out how many people are actually reading.  And thanks so much for taking the time to learn about what I've been up to!