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 

Why?

I've been asked this question lots of times by lots of people since I started the application process for the Peace Corps last May.

Here's the short answer:  There aren't a lot of teaching jobs, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time, and this is the time to do it (right after grad school).


The long answer takes a little more explaining...
I think the idea of joining the Peace Corps must have started when I studied abroad in Cape Town, South Africa during the spring of my sophomore year.  The program I participated in was unique in that each student had an internship three days per week, which allowed us to participate in the community and city in which we lived.  I was lucky enough to intern at Christel House South Africa, a school set up by a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to "helping children around the world break the cycle of poverty."  What many people do not understand is that while apartheid as a government policy is no longer in place in South Africa, the people are in no way living in "equal" conditions.  Many of the non-white citizens of South Africa still live in townships, which are informal settlements outside of the city.  The children in these townships do not have adequate food, sanitation, or health care.  Christel House gives many of these children a top-notch free, private education as well as 2 meals per day, school uniforms, school supplies, medical care, and transportation to and from school.  I absolutely loved working at the school as an intern and getting to spend time with the students, teachers, and staff.  This gave me a firsthand glimpse of a way that I could use my passion for working with children and desire to help others in a non-traditional way.  I had wanted to be a teacher for a long time, but I had never really thought about traveling and working in other countries until my experience in Cape Town at Christel House.  In addition to the internship, I also loved experiencing and becoming immersed in another culture.  It made every day a new adventure and learning experience.  I had definitely caught the travel bug!

After I returned from Cape Town, it took a long time for me to wrap my head around the impact that the experience had on me.  However, I knew right away that there was an impact.  I looked at my peers in my education classes (I had begun taking classes in my major during my junior year), and realized how much the experience had forever changed the lens through which I viewed the world.

My friend Josh, that year, asked me to chaperone a trip he was leading to work with an organization called Simply Smiles in Oaxaca, Mexico.  I had heard a lot about the organization and decided to go for it, even though it meant missing classes for a week.  After one trip, I was hooked and returned twice more after that.  While in Mexico, I was lucky enough to do things like play and do art projects with children at a children's home,  build a house for a woman who makes her living finding recyclables in the city dump, and distribute monthly food packages to thousands of starving people living in the jungle. 

The things that I learned during these trips and from working with the Simply Smiles staff, Bryan Nurnberger, Pete Allen, and Kristen Graves, have really impacted the way I view my interactions with others whom I am helping.  Simply Smiles' work is about building relationships with the people they help and improving their lives in a respectful, dignity-building way.  When I was asked to write my "aspiration statement" upon being accepted into the Peace Corps, I wrote about a lot of these same ideas.  In addition, Christel House's core belief that education is the best way to break the cycle of poverty is something that I will always believe.

I think that my experiences working at Christel House South Africa and with Simply Smiles in Mexico and their impact on my life have led to my decision to join the Peace Corps.  I hope that everything I have learned from these places and people will help me to be a successful Peace Corps volunteer!  

Dispatch Concert

Yesterday I went with Jillian, Stacy, Chelsea, Josh, and Jeremy to a Dispatch concert in New Jersey at the Red Bull arena.  We were right in the front, and the show was great!

The Boys

The Girls

Opening Act: Blue King Brown (from Australia)

Dispatch! (notice how close we were to the stage!)

at the end they sang from the top of the stadium and then ziplined down to the stage--CRAZY!

Saying Goodbye

This week, I went out to lunch with my friend Allie from school and had to say goodbye to her.  She was the first good friend that I've had to say goodbye to, and it's made me start thinking a lot about the next couple of years.  Allie's getting married this summer, and it's made me think about how much will probably happen in the next 2 years.  I'm sure some of my friends will be doing exciting things like getting new jobs, getting engaged, getting married, having kids (maybe), and moving to new places.  It's definitely going to be difficult being away while all of this is happening. 

I've had numerous dreams recently about the Peace Corps.  In one of them, I woke up and had to leave for the airport and was not packed yet.  In a recurring dream (more like a nightmare), I come home and all of my friends are gone or do not remember me.  Although that dream scares me a little, I have spent enough time with my good friends recently to realize that there's no chance that would happen.  Some of them have talked about coming to visit me, and they have been so supportive that I know they're not going anywhere. 

Now that subbing is over (yay!), I finally have time to start preparing to leave.  I borrowed a couple of Spanish learning CDs from the library, and unfortunately (or fortunately) they are at too low of a level for me.  Maybe I'll just start watching Spanish soap operas on tv :-) 

I had my last SLCC Board of Directors meeting last night, and I'm planning on heading up to the lake one more time before I leave.  It's definitely going to be hard to say goodbye and leave behind one of my favorite places in the world where I've met all of my very best friends, but luckily I know it's not going anywhere.  I know that all of the skills I've learned in my 7 summers there will be put to good use in Honduras!

I have been driving all over the place and making tons of plans with people to make sure I can say goodbye to everyone...so make sure you contact me so we can get together and I can say my goodbyes before I leave on July 6th!

Less than a month away!

I'm leaving in less than a month, and I can't believe it!  I've been feeling a little stressed because subbing has kept me busy for the past few weeks, and I haven't been doing much to prepare.  However, there are only 2 1/2 days left of school (thank goodness!), so I'll be having a lot more free time soon.  So far I've bought some clothes, signed the forms to give my mom power of attorney over me (so she can handle taxes and other things while I'm gone), and I just booked my flight down to Washington D.C. for staging on July 6th.  Staging is the last phase of preparation before heading down to Honduras.  We have a whole afternoon and evening of training and leave for Honduras on the 7th.

Things to look forward to before then:

• The last day of school!!!
• Shopping for more things that I need before I leave
• Dispatch concert in New Jersey next weekend
• My brother's high school graduation
• James Taylor concert at Tanglewood on the 4th of July!!!!

Hope everyone's staying cool!  I'm doing my best to get used to the heat because I realized it will be like this all year round when I get to Honduras!

Top Ten: Lessons Learned While Subbing in 7th Grade

I had a great Memorial Day weekend by the beach with good friends.  I've got the sunburn to prove it. Today was day 6 of subbing for 7th grade math, and it looks like I'll be in there until the end of the school year (8 1/2 days and counting...). They have had a lot of different subs in the past couple months, and apparently I've done the best job keeping them under control, so they're keeping me there.

Funny and so true.  Especially since I haven't had much experience with middle schoolers.

I've learned a lot, so I've decided to come up with the top 10 things that I've learned. Maybe top 10 lists will become a recurring theme for this blog...we shall see!

Here we go...

10. Say "please." Saying, "Please put the cell phone away," or, "Sit down, please," usually works better than yelling, "Put it away!" or "Get in your seat!"

9. Try to teach them something.  Even if you can just teach the few kids who will listen to you, it will at least make you feel like you accomplished something.

8. They will not walk in a line.  Getting them anywhere is like herding sheep.  Watch out for stragglers.

7. If you sneak up quietly enough, you can grab their cell phone/iPod/DS out of their hands before they can pull it away.  Also important to wear clothes with pockets so there is somewhere to store all of these devices.

6. When in doubt, stand by the door so they can't run.  I'm serious about this one.  Apparently I am very skilled at keeping the kids in the room (according to the other teachers, secretary, behavior managers, etc.)

5. Choose your battles wisely.  Running around the room and throwing things is worse than staying in your seat and listening to an iPod.  Sometimes it's just not worth the struggle.

4. Don't turn your back.  Crazy things can and will happen.  I would prefer not to give examples for this one.  Just trust me.


3. They'll do anything for candy.  Even math problems...imagine that!

2. Don't take it personally.  They're seventh graders.  Who cares what they think about you?  Don't let them make you cry. (I have been told that they have made many other subs/teachers cry)

1. As they get to know you better, things get easier.  Once they realize you won't give up on them, it gets better.  You have to earn their respect.


We learned a lot about resiliency in my seminar class this past year, and I am happy to say that my resiliency is at an all time high! :-)