Greetings from La Campa! I arrived on Monday and moved in with my host family on Tuesday. And now I´m in the process of adjusting and settling in and meeting people and figuring out what I´m supposed to be doing and trying to remember people´s names (hard to do when they don´t enunciate and I only catch half the name).
My host family is composed of two women plus the extended family that lives in the neighbouring houses. The abuela (grandmother) is 95 years old - the oldest person in La Campa! She is blind, but has the sweetest toothless smile. Petronia is the abuela´s daughter. In the two neighbouring houses live some of Petronia´s children and grandchildren. I am getting to know two little girls (age 3 and 5), and Marta, who is about 15. This Saturday Marta is going to take me on a tour of La Campa! We live in a small house, a bit smaller than a 2 car garage. I have a room of my own with a bed, a table and a bench. So I am still technically living out of a suitcase, but at least the suitcase is not moving anywhere!
I think my hypothalamus started adjusting to the heat in San Pedro, because I am finding it cold here! It has been rainy and windy every day, all day, and the temperature has been below 20, I think. I had been feeling nostalgic for a Canadian autumn, and I am now getting the two worst parts of it - the cold and the rain - without the crisp sunny days and changing leaves.
My role here is very unclear. Besides the language challenges, my other challenge will be figuring out what I´m doing. Your prayers as I navigate these challenges are much appreciated. It is also very challenging to be outgoing all the time - a problem I have in English, let alone Spanish!
There is internet at the office, but it is a little thing from the phone company that you plug into a computer, so only one person can use the internet at a time. So I will keep trying to check emails, but I don´t know how often I´ll be able to respond. But know that I appreciate each email that you send (and if you can send a tidbit of Canadian/international news now and then, that would be awesome!)
Alison
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Some Notes
I have been jotting down observations over the past couple of weeks, and have generated a rather sizeable list of things that have made me look twice or think again (in no particular order):
1) Armed guards - all the banks have them, and many stores that have a large enough income
2) Campesinos with machetes - men from the country casually carry their machete through their belt loop
3) Children with machetes - boys younger than 10!
4) Tear gas on Independence Day - a group of people in resistance to the government held a protest in downtown San Pedro Sula (they support Mel Zelaya, who was ousted from presidency last year). I was at the Mennonite church several blocks away at a chicken barbeque when we heard a tear gas canister go off and saw a small crowd of people running down the street. Things calmed down quickly, and I didn´t see anybody injured.
5) Gecko poop under my pillow.
6) A cockroach leg in my bed - There was something prickly on my arm one night, so I slapped at it. In the morning I found a leg in my bed, and saw my cockroach friend running around with only 5 legs!
7) Participatory amens during a church sermon - when the pastor wanted to make a point, he said ´Amen?´ and the congregation responded with ´Amen!´
8) A scorpion in the bathroom (scorpions can´t swim, for future reference!)
9) Having to pour water from 5 gallon jugs to my 500mL water bottle - this takes steady hands even though there is a water stand!
10) Not knowing what language a word is in (was that English, French or Spanish...?).
11) Hearing a fellow MCCer say ¨y´all¨
12) An extremely wealthy church with tall fences and manicured lawn, surrounded by impoverished houses.
13) Receiving a 30 minute sermon on the public bus - every bus has vendors hopping on and off; this bus had a preacher!
14) Having a cell phone - weird!
15) Feeling surprised to see another blond person.
16) Guys in cars honking or staring.
17) Being head and shoulders taller than many groups of people!
18) Funeral homes open 24 hours
19) Bus taking a detour onto the sidewalk when the street was too busy
20) Entering the supermarket and finding that absolutely everything is packaged and bordering on junk food
21) Learning from a 9 year old that this year´s SALTers and YAMENers are a ¨good group of young people¨
22) Not feeling (overly) anxious about things - this is/was a surprise, as I fully expected much anxiety (hence my use of Julian of Norwich´s quote above)
1) Armed guards - all the banks have them, and many stores that have a large enough income
2) Campesinos with machetes - men from the country casually carry their machete through their belt loop
3) Children with machetes - boys younger than 10!
4) Tear gas on Independence Day - a group of people in resistance to the government held a protest in downtown San Pedro Sula (they support Mel Zelaya, who was ousted from presidency last year). I was at the Mennonite church several blocks away at a chicken barbeque when we heard a tear gas canister go off and saw a small crowd of people running down the street. Things calmed down quickly, and I didn´t see anybody injured.
5) Gecko poop under my pillow.
6) A cockroach leg in my bed - There was something prickly on my arm one night, so I slapped at it. In the morning I found a leg in my bed, and saw my cockroach friend running around with only 5 legs!
7) Participatory amens during a church sermon - when the pastor wanted to make a point, he said ´Amen?´ and the congregation responded with ´Amen!´
8) A scorpion in the bathroom (scorpions can´t swim, for future reference!)
9) Having to pour water from 5 gallon jugs to my 500mL water bottle - this takes steady hands even though there is a water stand!
10) Not knowing what language a word is in (was that English, French or Spanish...?).
11) Hearing a fellow MCCer say ¨y´all¨
12) An extremely wealthy church with tall fences and manicured lawn, surrounded by impoverished houses.
13) Receiving a 30 minute sermon on the public bus - every bus has vendors hopping on and off; this bus had a preacher!
14) Having a cell phone - weird!
15) Feeling surprised to see another blond person.
16) Guys in cars honking or staring.
17) Being head and shoulders taller than many groups of people!
18) Funeral homes open 24 hours
19) Bus taking a detour onto the sidewalk when the street was too busy
20) Entering the supermarket and finding that absolutely everything is packaged and bordering on junk food
21) Learning from a 9 year old that this year´s SALTers and YAMENers are a ¨good group of young people¨
22) Not feeling (overly) anxious about things - this is/was a surprise, as I fully expected much anxiety (hence my use of Julian of Norwich´s quote above)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Independence Day
Happy Independence Day! If I recall correctly, today Honduras is celebrating 189 years of independence. It's a big deal; many schools and businesses are closed for all or most of the week.
My visit to La Campa last week was great, although exhausting! The bus we were supposed to take broke down before it even reached the bus terminal, so we got to wait 3 hours for the next bus. We reached Gracias shortly after dark and were met by the husband of the CASM director who drove us into La Campa (16km = 1/2 hour). Before going to bed I had to overcome a bit of exoskeleton anxiety (one scorpion and five cockroaches can cause that).
La Campa is beautiful! Megan told me that I have won the placement lottery. It's a small town (120 houses) in a valley surrounded by mountains. Megan and I each tried to photograph it, but a camera lens doesn't do justice to the beauty. Clearly, you'll just have to come and see for yourselves :)
I met my supervisor, Cristina, saw the office and demonstration farm, and learned a bit about what I could be doing there. Based on my skill set (which I hesitatingly described in Spanish) she said there were three projects that might work for me:
1) Coffee processing creates a lot of agua miel, or sweet water, that contains a lot of organic matter and is generally released into the surface water to the detriment of the water. I can start a project to help mitigate this.
2) If there are available funds to do soil testing, I can test some soil samples to see what nutrients/other chemicals are present, and figure out what additives might be useful to increase crop production.
3) People are using more agro-chemicals on their farms since coffee production has been good in recent years and incomes are higher. However, when the first rains come everybody in the villages gets skin problems from the chemical runoff. I can start a project to help mitigate this.
Needless to say, I'm excited and terrified by these projects! At first I will likely just be accompanying other workers and building relationships with people. But then I can start my own work. Option 3 interests me the most, but it is probably the most complicated of them all!
I've been in SPS since coming back from La Campa, staying with a lovely family. This afternoon Megan, Noel and I are heading out to the farm until the weekend, as nothing is really open in the city for the next couple of days. Then on Sunday I go to Copan Ruinas for one more week of language study before heading to La Campa to start work on Sept. 27.
My visit to La Campa last week was great, although exhausting! The bus we were supposed to take broke down before it even reached the bus terminal, so we got to wait 3 hours for the next bus. We reached Gracias shortly after dark and were met by the husband of the CASM director who drove us into La Campa (16km = 1/2 hour). Before going to bed I had to overcome a bit of exoskeleton anxiety (one scorpion and five cockroaches can cause that).
La Campa is beautiful! Megan told me that I have won the placement lottery. It's a small town (120 houses) in a valley surrounded by mountains. Megan and I each tried to photograph it, but a camera lens doesn't do justice to the beauty. Clearly, you'll just have to come and see for yourselves :)
I met my supervisor, Cristina, saw the office and demonstration farm, and learned a bit about what I could be doing there. Based on my skill set (which I hesitatingly described in Spanish) she said there were three projects that might work for me:
1) Coffee processing creates a lot of agua miel, or sweet water, that contains a lot of organic matter and is generally released into the surface water to the detriment of the water. I can start a project to help mitigate this.
2) If there are available funds to do soil testing, I can test some soil samples to see what nutrients/other chemicals are present, and figure out what additives might be useful to increase crop production.
3) People are using more agro-chemicals on their farms since coffee production has been good in recent years and incomes are higher. However, when the first rains come everybody in the villages gets skin problems from the chemical runoff. I can start a project to help mitigate this.
Needless to say, I'm excited and terrified by these projects! At first I will likely just be accompanying other workers and building relationships with people. But then I can start my own work. Option 3 interests me the most, but it is probably the most complicated of them all!
I've been in SPS since coming back from La Campa, staying with a lovely family. This afternoon Megan, Noel and I are heading out to the farm until the weekend, as nothing is really open in the city for the next couple of days. Then on Sunday I go to Copan Ruinas for one more week of language study before heading to La Campa to start work on Sept. 27.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Happy September!
I am back in San Pedro Sula for a couple of days after spending a week and a half studying Spanish and then a weekend participating in an MCC Honduras team retreat. The most recent plan was for me to go to La Campa tomorrow to settle in with my host family, and then to start work! Well, plans have changed again! As I understand it, the people at CASM La Campa are in the midst of trying to meet some paperwork deadlines. My arrival would not make that paperwork go any faster, and I would probably just get in people's way as I try to figure out what to do.
So I will still head off to La Campa tomorrow with one of the country reps and the connecting people's coordinator. I'll get to meet my colleagues, and they can meet me. Maybe I'll meet my host family? Then next week, I will likely go back to Copan Ruinas for more language study. One thing that I am learning here is that I can expect that whatever I expect to happen will happen in a way I didn't expect!
Here is a small selection of photos for you:
This is a 200-300 year old ceiba tree at the Mayan ruins near Copan Ruinas. I feel so short!
Noel, Johanna and Elise overlooking the Copan valley.
Four of the five yearlings!
A bridge that was washed out in Hurricane Mitch. I was on the new bridge downstream.
The garden of my host family in Copan Ruinas.
MCC doesn't only help people! Chickens also benefit!
Roosters, however, are the bane of my existence. Whoever started the myth that they only crow at dawn never had to live with three of them in the courtyard. These roosters start their conversations between 2-4am. They calmly discuss the state of affairs, and then hear the neighbouring roosters conversing. So of course, they have to join in. And before you know it, the entire rooster population of the neighbourhood is having a heated discussion over all the important events of the previous 24 hours. And I lie there in bed, wondering why I left my earplugs behind.
I got to visit the CASM office today in San Pedro Sula.
Enjoy the approaching autumn if you can. I'm sweltering here in San Pedro, and can't wait to move to higher elevations!
Vaya pues!
So I will still head off to La Campa tomorrow with one of the country reps and the connecting people's coordinator. I'll get to meet my colleagues, and they can meet me. Maybe I'll meet my host family? Then next week, I will likely go back to Copan Ruinas for more language study. One thing that I am learning here is that I can expect that whatever I expect to happen will happen in a way I didn't expect!
Here is a small selection of photos for you:
This is a 200-300 year old ceiba tree at the Mayan ruins near Copan Ruinas. I feel so short!
Noel, Johanna and Elise overlooking the Copan valley.
Four of the five yearlings!
A bridge that was washed out in Hurricane Mitch. I was on the new bridge downstream.
The garden of my host family in Copan Ruinas.
MCC doesn't only help people! Chickens also benefit!Roosters, however, are the bane of my existence. Whoever started the myth that they only crow at dawn never had to live with three of them in the courtyard. These roosters start their conversations between 2-4am. They calmly discuss the state of affairs, and then hear the neighbouring roosters conversing. So of course, they have to join in. And before you know it, the entire rooster population of the neighbourhood is having a heated discussion over all the important events of the previous 24 hours. And I lie there in bed, wondering why I left my earplugs behind.
I got to visit the CASM office today in San Pedro Sula. Enjoy the approaching autumn if you can. I'm sweltering here in San Pedro, and can't wait to move to higher elevations!
Vaya pues!
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