Monday, May 24, 2010

PICS



Please notice the ISU shirt!!!! It was FATE! She just so happened to buy the shirt a couple months ago. CRAZY!


Last night with the awesome host family. My host sister and Lourdes.


Yolandy! Amazing lady! Taught me so much... like how to make tortillas.


TAAAADAAAAA. Lady in action! wATcHA!


Doña Berta!! The second host mom. Only pic I took of her. She wasn't too fond of pic taking.


Dinner with Doña Berta. EGGS! YUM! ....NOT!!!


Lourdes' neice, Collet, adorable girl! :)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

PHEWF AC! 5.18.10

I’m back! Thank goodness the office is air conditioned; now I can comfortably type away and think. I don’t know how I am going to withstand the next two years with this melting temp, locals even complain about the weather and it’s only going to get worse!

OH EM GE!

Any who,

Along with this new position, I have a new host family, Aminda (mom), Darwin (dad), 2 teen brothers, and one niece. Last night I had a nice little dinner with them and… watched a movie. What movie you ask? Creiendo en Dios (Believing in God). Aminda asked during dinner what religion I was, I replied, Christian and she said, “Oh, we are Mormon, we have reunions every Monday night, this week we are watching a movie, would you like to join?” After attempting to come up with a quick lie and simply stuttering out some ridiculous excuse (I can’t even remember it was so ridiculous), I soon accepted knowing that my lame excuse was not enough to not participate in the Monday night family activity. Well anywho, I wasn’t really paying attention, I was too distracted from the overwhelming heat and sweat emitting from my body (mind you, we were sitting outside while watching the movie).

Besides the movie, they are really a nice welcoming family! Young couple, Darwin is 25 and Aminda is about 28 I believe, they seem like cool hip Mormons. Aminda was telling me how much she liked raeggaeton and liked dancing then she invited me to a dance this Friday…of course I accepted!!! How could I pass this opportunity up, I love dancing! Woohhooo!!! I think this will be the first time I am out passed 9:30 p.m. woohoo!!! I’ll let you know how it goes though, don’t want to set any high expectations. I hope it’s not a Mormon band or something like that. For the record these are the first Mormon people I have interacted with, I didn’t know what to expect, but they seem like very nice people. I was also invited to attend church with them on Sunday, and as much as I wanted to say no I couldn’t help but accept the invitation. : ( ugh! I kind of felt obligated. I mean how would it look that I accepted an invitation for a dance but not church? … Let you know how that one goes too.

The house I am living in is different from the others as well. My room is separated from the others which is ok because it gives me privacy, but at the same time it's harder to integrate with the family. We have a courtyard in the middle of the house with trees, plants, and just an open airy place which makes the house a lot more comfortable and cool. The courtyard is surrounded by rooms, kitchen, and bathroom. I’ll post pics up soon…

Anywho, all volunteers are required to live with their host families for 2 months and then we have the option of getting our own place!!! At first I was inclined to live with the host family for my two year service, but now I’m seriously considering getting a place of my own. Not because of the family, I would just like to experience living on my own sometime in my life… why not now? Nacaome is a safe place… I guess we shall see after a couple months.

Well, I’m signing off. Hope everyone is doing well!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Officially Peace Corps volunteer 5.16

Hi All,

I have some exciting news... I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!! I swore in at the U.S. Embassy on Friday May the 13th!!! I’m not going to lie it was a bittersweet day because although I’m glad training is over and excited to start my assignment, I’m certainly not happy to leave my new friends, host family, and the comfortable schedule. I feel as if we were babied for the past few months and now the training wheels have been taken off to be let out to the “real world”.

***

I am currently sitting in my counterpart’s kitchen typing away while drenched in sweat!

WELCOME to my new home, NACAOME, Valle!

(Valle is one of the departments of Honduras) It’s about 90 degrees F year around at this place, OMG am I going to have to get used to this. I woke up this morning with damp sheets from my own sweat (sorry for the details just trying to keep it real).

So what will I be doing for the next two years you ask?

My primary counterpart is Jesy Baralaga, the manager of ADED- Valle (Economic Development Agency of Valle). ADED focuses on creating and strengthening women’s micro business and income generation endeavors. My role as a PCV in the Nacaome community is to primarily assist Jesy in designing and presenting trainings to the leaders of these groups in business topics. I’ve had some time this weekend to get to know Jesy and she is definitely another strong woman making it work for herself. When talking to her I feel her passion for bettering her community and empowering women. I am really excited to start working with this organization and hope I can contribute in their efforts.
-OMG is it hot!!!! I’m slowly melting away!

Oook it’s way too hot to type or even think right now! I’ll finish this later….