El Nispero! (Part 2)

El Nispero, Santa Barbara

Hello All!

I have finally arrived to my site in El Nispero, Santa Barbara. I can’t believe that training and swear-in have all passed so quickly. During the time, training seemed to drag on and on and on….but it’s over! Yay! Now the real work begins.

Training ended last Friday with our swear-in ceremony. We all arrived early Friday morning to the Peace Corps Office in Tegucigalpa wearing our Sunday best. It was great to see everyone dressed up but it also had the feeling of 8th grade graduation or a High School awards ceremony as we all loaded into the school bus for one final time. After a tour of the Peace Corps Office and some minor housekeeping issues, we traveled to the U.S. Embassy Honduras in Tegucigalpa. The ceremony it self was nice and short and was presided over by our Host Country Director and a representative from the State Department. The newly sworn-in Ambassador to Honduras was in Washington and couldn’t be in attendance. The best parts of the whole thing was probably the amazing number of pictures we took of ourselves during the day (in front of the Honduran flag, now in front of the Peace Corps flag, ok…now with the Santa Rita crowd…) and the amazing taco bar. After our brief ceremony, we were once again loaded up into the bus and were off to the Ambassador’s house where we could use the pool, tennis courts, and sand volleyball court. And wouldn’t you know within five minutes of being there it began to rain. One of those crazy Honduran rains where it just pours and pours. It lasted all of half and hour and then everyone kinda split up to roam around. It only took about ten minutes after that for Ryan to break his nose diving into the leg of Emily out in the sand volleyball court. So our babysitter, one of the Peace Corps Technical Staff, had to haul him off to the hospital. Around five o’clock we load back on for the last time as a group of 49(48 minus Ryan) of Hondu-13. The majority of us went on to a local bar in Zarabanda owned by an ex-pat for some burgers and pizza. All in all in was a really great day!

The next day Jessica and I loaded up on a bus for Santa Barbara, S.B. Santa Barbara is the capital city of my district and only about an hour bus ride from my site. It’s where I will go for groceries, including fresh fruits and vegetables, and other necessities I can’t get in my site. Jess and I met up there yesterday and her site-mate, Eli showed up this really great fried-chicken restaurant and a vegetarian restaurant ran by a group of 7th Day Adventist. The food was amazingly fresh and I ate a Veggie Burger for lunch. I know, a veggie burger in the middle of Honduras?? It was crazy. The only down sided is that the last bus comes back around 2pm so I need to get all my shopping done early in the day.

So, I am currently sitting on the couch in the home of my host family. I am living with a single woman who has grown children living San Pedro Sula. I heard they often come to visit but who knows what that means. The house is actually way above what I thought I would be living in. It has tile flooring, my own bathroom, and cable tv. Before you get to excited remember that this is Honduras and the cable consists of about 12 channels most of which are playing the local news in Spanish most of the time. My host mom has been gone since I arrived this week and I really have no idea when she is coming back. But I hope she does so soon because I am probably becoming to comfortable in her house. So far this week, I still really have no idea what I am going to be doing as a Peace Corps volunteer in this community. I have two counterparts one is the Alcalde (the mayor) and the other is the Reicken Library. The Reicken Library is this amazing library in a close Aldea named Santa Cruz built last December by the Reicken Foundation. The library has books, meeting space, and computers with FREE internet. Score! I will probably be working with them to teach computer classes as well as working with a youth group for teenagers that is supposed to inspire creativity and leadership skills. I really have no idea what I will be working on with the municipality but there definitely seems to be a lot of need here, especially in the Aldeas (rural areas that are within the boundaries of the municipality, a municipality is somewhat like a county). I was surprised to learn this morning that my Muni doesn’t have an office representing woman (OMM). This maybe something I can work on as the Office is required by the federal government under the laws pertaining to municipalities.

Well so far so good! I am looking forward to my time here and I can only hope that I will be successful and happy. Two pretty large orders, I know.