The Depths

Contrary to popular belief I have not died. I´m still alive, and still in Honduras. I´m just bien haragan, that´s all. So, let´s see what has happened since my last post shall we?

Thanksgiving came and was celebrated in true American style. Most of the volunteers in the south of Honduras came down to my place (it being the most beautiful spot in the region, thank you) for a turkey day bash. And even though none of the family was there it still felt rather familiar. We had all the standard thanksgiving fare, right down to the pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce complete with the can ridges. Mmm. Delicious. Thank you very much massive Americanization that makes these products available.

The next holiday to come down the pipeline was of course the big one, Navidad. I had big plans for this year´s too. I was going to travel up to Monte Redondo to visit my former host family and to do the Santa Claus thing for the kids and give them some regalos. Well the universe just wasn´t having all that noise. The night before I was to go I got ghastly sick with a touch of the ole´Honduras stomach. So instead of spending Christmas surrounded by the closest thing I have to a family here  the only company I enjoyed was that of my peace corps medkit. Oh well. The truth is it wasn´t all that bad. Hondurans don´t really celebrate Christmas like we do. It´s just not that big a deal around here. While some families in San Marcos did have lights and the occasional decorated tree (or just branch really) it was nowhere near the level of the States. And the celebration here largely falls on the 24th. And all they really do that day is eat lots of tamales and set off little fireworks. No one does anything on the 25th, its like any other day really. So in that sense, I didn´t even really feel like I missed Christmas. It just feels like it didn´t even happen.  I´m sure that sounds really sad to the people back home, but don´t fret, it just means I will look forward to Christmas 09 all the more, which barring any unforseen change will take place in the States.

On the bright side, New Year´s Eve almost made up for the complete lack of Christmas. About 15 other volunteers and myself waved goodbye to 2008 from the shores of beautiful Lago Yojoa. Needless to say it was a good time, as it always is when Gringos get together to celebrate something here. In addition I got to see some friends of mine I hadn´t seen since training, which was wonderful. Furthermore on the way back to our towns some of us made a little stop over at the mall in the capital. It was like being back in America. All the consumerism, all the materialism, it was wonderful. And no, that is not sarcasm. It really did make me feel at home, and quite happy.

On the work side of life, things continue to go pretty smoothly. Rutilia and I have started work on an eco-fogon project for the area. That´s a stove that burns less firewood and produces less fumes in the home. We´re hoping to get these things out to more than 5oo families, so a pretty big project all and all. Also even though school is still out I´ve been doing a bit of environmental ed training with a group of high school kids. The idea is that in the school year to come they will help me do the enviro ed thing with the elementary schools so they can continue on doing that after I leave. Sustainability ya´ll.

So now here I am in San Marcos looking forward to the new year that is 2009.  I´ve got high hopes for this year, lots to do, lots to see. And hopefully some people will be visiting me…You know who you are. Actually anyone who reads this blog really. You are all more than welcome to come. Even the mothers of other volunteers who apparently keep up with this.

And of course les extraño a todos, especially you.

So I bought a bike this week. I figured with the protected area being so very large having a bike to traverse it would be helpful. And in some ways it is. Those ways are when I am going downhill. Before I purchased said bike I never really considered how hard it would be to ride around here. The roads in La Botija aren´t exactly the smoothest rides. Even when the roads are flat they are still filled with rocks. So currently I´m not as much tearing through the woods with the greatest of ease as I imagined as much as I am collapsing red and drenched in sweat on the side of the road every km or so. On the plus side my bike came with a water bottle.

Seeing many Hondurans casually pass me on the road on their own bikes made me think there are many things they excel at that I do not. In my few months here I have noticed that even though Hondurans live in a developing country and I presumably am here to help them out, they can do a lot of things that frankly most Americans cannot. Here is a short list of things I have observed that Hondurans can do that I can´t:

1. Ride a bicycle up a rocky mountain road at a sixty degree incline without breaking a sweat. 

2. Ride back down that hill without touching the brakes and without wiping out.

3. Drink the water.

4. Eat anything without the aide of a utensil. They also do this without getting messy at all.

5. Find any location given only the direction of “alli no más” which roughly translates to “over yonder.”

6. Ride in the bed of a pickup truck without holdng on to anything.

7. Regularly listen to and enjoy “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams.

8. Eat nances.

9. Watch three straight hours of telenovelas (soap operas) every night from Monday to Friday.

10. Drink four cups of coffee a day. Each cup containing at least three heaping spoonfuls of sugar.

11. Effectively wash the mold out of clothing.

12. Power a tv with a car battery.

13. Charge a cell phone with a car battery.

14. Know when any bus is leaving ignoring the fact that none of them keep to a set schedule.

15. Rock a cowboy hat.

That list is just a taste of the amazing feats that the average Honduran can do. One day I hope to be culturally integrated enough to do all those things as well. Except eat nances, those things are just vile.

And maybe not the Bryan Adams thing.

As always I am doing great. I did a self-esteem workshop the other week with a few different womens groups. It sounds kind of lame but unlike in the US where we are raised to think we are all the greatest and can do anything, Hondurans just don´t get that kind of encouragement. Especially not women. So I felt pretty good about that one. And in case you were wondering if I forgot about you, no I did not. I miss all of you, especially you.

October was the end of the rainy season here, or as they call it, winter. It rained everyday. That is not an exaggeration, every day. I have the moldy clothes to prove it. But then all of a sudden it just stopped last Monday. Since then it hasn´t rained at all. Instead it has been extremely windy. Además, it got cold. Quite cold. Shivering in my sweater cold. The sweater I had to buy here because silly me back in the States thought Honduras would be hot and I wouldn´t need to bring a sweater. Just to dispel some stereotypes about Central America, it is not always hot here. San Marcos being up in the mountains can make for some chilly times. That is not to say that I am not enjoyingit though. I am. It feels like fall back home, granted there are no leaves falling, and Halloween was pretty much non-existent here. I did however eat some ayote which is sort of like pumpkin. That made me pretty happy.

Another thing that made me happy was receiving a bunch of birthday cards a few days ago. Even though they took a while to get to me that didn´t make them any less wonderful. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy 23rd! And I must say Frank, that is one dashing ´stache you are sporting these days.

As for daily life here and the integration process here, things are going great. I´ve become pretty good at paseando-ing and platicar-ing. And now if I ever eat a meal without beans and tortillas I feel quite unfulfilled. Honestly I don´t know how I survived all those years in the US without eating a single baleada, pupusa, or tortilla con quesillo. And all the weight I lost being sick during training has returned. So nobody need worry about how I am eating. Incidentally I found a jar of peter pan peanut butter for sale here a few days ago and I quickly snapped it up. Peanut butter is possibly the thing I missed most from the States. So I consider the almost $5 I had to pay for it a quality investment.

On the work side of things, everything is going great. There was a political forum here yesterday with all the mayoral candidates present, and we made sure The Oficina Municpal de la Mujer was heard. The school year is just about over here but during the break I´ll be working with many of the teachers on plans for next year and a local NGO capacitating high school student volunteers for workshops they will give to their fellow alumnos. Just enough work to keep busy but not too much to get distracted from enjoying the natural beauty of Honduras.

I miss you all, and of course I love you Mom.

Patricio

Just a quick advisory. If anyone would ever like to send me any letters or packages my new address is the following:

Patrick Simmons

Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz

San Marcos de Colon

Choluteca, Honduras CA

I realise that doesn´t have an exact address, but I´ve been told that it should work just fine.

It seems I have let yet another month pass without update. I am quite bad at keeping up with this. On the other hand it should make for a more detailed entry.

September 26th was our swearing in date. It was quite a day. I must say I felt proud swearing to defend the constitution and all that jazz. Training was fun and unforgettable but I am very pleased to be a legitimate volunteer now. After our swearing in we had the chance to celebrate at the ambassador´s house in Tegucigalpa. It was a nice send off to many friends I will not get to see for a long time.

The next day I arrived in San Marcos de Colon to begin my two years of service. I´ve spent the past two weeks more or less getting to know the town, the people, and the surrounding area. All of which are beautiful. The protected area is called La Montaña de la Botija (The mountain of hidden treasure) and it is gorgeous. It has magnificent pine forests than remind me a lot of the mountains of North Carolina. It has tropical dry forests. It has white faced monkeys. It has anteaters (which they call ant eating bears). And Nicaragua is only a few hours walk to the south or east. Not that I can go there anytime soon of course. Nonetheless it´s still cool.

I´ve even starting working on a few things as well. I´ve been doing some good work in coordination with the Oficina Municipal de la Mujer, writing up reports and such. I helped out in a jelly making session with a women’s group. I picked the guavas myself and I must say it turned out pretty tasty in the end. In addition, a few days ago I gave a workshop on gender equality to a newly formed women’s goup in a little town called Las Delicias in the protected area. I think it went pretty well overall and it feels good to have accmoplishedsomething concrete. Little by little I´m getting to know all the schools in the area but unfortunately the school year will end next month and won´t start back up again until February. So my main project of environmental education will have to stay in the planning stages for the near future.

I briefly mentioned my host family last post and how nice they are but I neglected to mention anything about the food. In short, the food is amazing. By far the best I have had in my short time in Honduras. Best of all they have Mexican avocado trees growing in their yard and I eat one just about everyday. They are almost too delicious to describe. I also eat a fair amount of delectable locally grown honey.

In summation, if you couldn’talready tell by how many superlative adjectives I have used, my life here is wonderful and I am living it up. I do, however, miss everyone back in the United States. And new to this post, I miss all of my fellow H13 volunteers now scattered across Honduras. A special mention to my friends Kevin and Shannon roughing it up in Catacamas, the second best PAM site around. Hang in there guys.

Wow, over a month has passed since last I updated this. Has it really been that long friends? My apologies.

Much has happened. Field Based Training is done. I was simultaneously very sorry to leave my wonderful family in Monte Redondo and very excited to reunite with all my buds back in Zarabanda. I only returned to Z-town for one night however, as the next day, this past Wednesday, I left to visit my new home. San Marcos de Colon.

It is an amazing place. So beautiful. And the gente, tan amable y cariñoso. I love it here. Furthermore, I am convinced I am the luckiest peace corps volunteer in Honduras, or at least within the Protected Areas Management program. I say this because not only is San Marcos and the surrounding area breathtakingly gorgeous, I have a wonderful new house to live in. I don´t want to brag about all that I have here but let me just say I am well taken care of. Do not worry about Patricio roughing it. And the host family is most accommodating and friendly as well. Just this morning we went out to fly a kite.

My counterpart is an amazing woman as well. As another volunteer described her, she is “the grandmother of your dreams”. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. But along with all her kindness comes a determined effort to bring gender equality to the municipio of San Marcos. I am really looking forward to working with her in the Oficina Muncipal de la Mujer.

I haven´t yet had a chance to check out any of the surrounding schools, (they are all practicing marching for independence day on monday anyway) but I can´t wait to start my work there. Unfortunately I have to take a bus back to Tegucigalpa mañana but I will be back here in two weeks to start my two years.

Oh, and of course I miss you all a terrible cantidad. Especialmente tu.

Patricio

I am in my second training site now, and it is a blast. Instead of having spanish classes, I have begun to work in the local school helping to teach environmental education. It has been wonderful so far. All the kids are amazingly sweet and eager to learn. I couldn’t ask for better estudiantes. It is also great practice for when I get to my own site in a few months. I am doing well. My stomach is finally getting along with Honduras. I am healthy, and happy. But I still miss you. I miss you the most.

I am so thoroughly pumped about my next two years of service. Moreso than I have ever been. Earlier this week I had the chance to visit a volunteer in his site and it was amazing. It erased all my anxieties about peace corpse service and has made me extremely eager to get to my site. I have so many ideas for my new community and everyday I am learning new ways in which I could serve them. I hope they are up for some of these ideas. I am happy, I am healthy, I am safe. Power to PAM, power to your face. Oh and I miss you something fierce. Especially you.

-Patricio

Greetings all,

It is now the second official week of training. I’m still adjusting to life here in Honduras but things are starting to fall into place. Familiarity is increasing. However, I am sad to report that as much as I enjoy Honduras, my stomach unfortunately does not. I hope that one day my stomach and Honduras can be good friends but as of right now they are bitter enemies. I don’t know what the problem is but I am consulting with the medicos down here so hopefully my gastrointestinal status will improve soon.

Training is going well. I am very excited about all the things we get to do in the Protected Areas Management program. In a few weeks we get to build latrines. I’m not sure why this seems so thrilling to me, but it does. Maybe it has been my recent bout with stomach problems that has made me appreciate a solid latrine. Whatever the reason, I am excited to be building one. We have a lot of other really cool projects coming up as well. For example, we are going to build biodigesters, which are basically big compost pile sacks that break organic material down into methane gas which is then pumped into homes to light stoves. It’s a really cool concept. You should invest in one yourself. What I am most excited about however, is environmental education. We had interviews with our project leaders the other day and I told them that is what inerests me the most, so hopefully that is what I will spend the majority of my time on during my two years down here in the big H.O.N.D.U.

I know there isn’t too much new info here, this isn’t too big of an update, but it will have to do for now. I still miss everyone a great deal however. Especially you.

Greetings Friends,

I have now spent five days in this land they call Honduras. We arrived Wednesday, the 9th of July in the city of San Pedro Sula. From the air the countryside looked gorgeous. From the ground it was even more beautiful. After getting our luggage we took a five hour bus ride to get to our training site. It was a great opportunity to see much of the country, which in fact is about the same size as North Carolina. It is difficult to describe how fantastically magnificent the landscape is. Miles and miles of lush green mountains topped with an ever present mist. Valleys filled with pine, banana, and mango trees. Words cannot do it justice and I am very sorry that I do not have an accompanying picture. You will simply have to trust me that Honduras is truly awe-inspiring.

Wednesday night we spent at an excellent hotel, but the next day we were met by our host families and taken into their homes. I will not lie, I was extremely apprehensive about living with a Honduran family. I simply never had such an experience. Four days with them has showed me that my fears were unfounded. They are wonderful people. I have ben treated with nothing but kindness and respect. They accomodate me, but not in any way that makes me feel like a burden. Last night I watched a soccer match with them, Honduras vs. Guatemala. During the match they told me I was no longer a gringo, but instead a “catracho” like them. There’s nothing like sweet, sweet acceptance. Delicious.

Speaking of delicious, the food thus far has been awesome. If ever offered one, you should accept a “baleada”, for they are truly tasty. Rice, beans, and tortillas flow generously here and for that I am grateful. Futhermore, avocados grow everywhere around here, something I have always dreamt of. And if someone tells you you can’t be a vegetarian in Honduras you call them a liar because I had some gluten for lunch today and let me tell you, it was rico buddy.

Also, if you think the climate is nothing but hot, steamy tropics down here then you are mistaken. The climate is wonderful. So far it has been in the 70s or 80s every day (I think, they use Celsius here..) with little humidity. It is far, far more comfortable than North Carolina. Of course, this may change when I get to my for the next two years, but for now I am enjoying it thoroughly and chuckling at those less fortunate in the United States.

That is all for now. I am sure I will have much more in future updates. Everyoen should know that i am safe, I am having fun, but I still miss all of my family and friends back home. Especially you.

-Patrick