First week in Dulce Nombre
(Email from last week...)
Hi family and friends!
Sorry it has been a little long since my last email or blog post. My blog is down right now, at least from my end, so I thought I'd write this email and then copy it onto the blog another time.
Anyway - wow I have a lot to catch you all up on. Last Wednesday my training group went to Tegucigalpa for Swearing In and other related activities. Unfortunately I was sick that day...I had been up all night the night before with stomach aches. So I wasn't too alert that day. Anyway, we went to the Peace Corps headquarters and got some logistics squared away like our bank accounts and salary and living expenses. We got our new residence cards and other IDs, and check books. I went to the PC doctor and got drugs, yay. Then we bussed over to the U.S. Embassy which was really interesting. We got presentations from various people that work in the embassy on subjects such as visas, corruption in the Honduran government, the role of the embassy in Honduras, USAID, economic situation in Honduras and what the U.S. is doing. The ambassador dropped in and said a few works, and we all had to stand up since he is supposed to represent the President of the United States in Honduras. That evening we went to the huge mall in Teguc and I ate at T.G.I.Fridays. I had been planning on having a fun night out with my group but since I was sleepy and sick I didn't take part in the celebrating much. But we did have a hotel party on my room (of all the rooms!) and about 30 people were in there chatting, doing silly stuff, and drinking. We stayed in a fancy hotel and our room had an awesome view of Teguc. Luckily for me, people cleared out by 11 and went out to clubs and casinos, but me, I stayed and went to sleep in my wonderful comfy bed and had an awesome night sleep. The next day I was pretty much the only alert one as we went off to spend the day at the ambassador's residence. I had an awesome time...I felt much better. We enjoyed his pool, volleyball courts, tennis and basketball courts. The ordered in a bunch of Little Caesar's pizzas which we all consumed like a pack of animals. Then we all showered and dressed up for the swearing in ceremony. It was emotional and inspiring. The U.S. ambassador, Larry Palmer, the PC country director, the director of USAID, and the PC training director were there and all spoke. We sang the Honduran anthem and I led the American anthem. We had to stand up and say the same oath that the President, Vice President, ambassadors and all foreign service officers have to say. So I become a real Peace Corps Volunteer, and no longer a trainee! It was a cool moment and I wish you all had been there.
After that we schmoozed a bit with the bigwigs and then eventually made our way back to Siguatepeque. The next day all of our counterparts came into Siguat from various parts of Honduras and we had counterpart day, which was basically a day of orientation for them to explain the role of peace corps volunteers. Mine is awesome, a little lady about 55 named Mirian, who is a retired teacher. She has a huge family, 5 kids who will probably all be friends of mine. She is super involved in Dulce Nombre and has a long list of projects she is dreaming about. I think she will be a great counterpart. The sad part of the day was that people in my group started leaving for their sites. It's amazing how close I have gotten to these 33 people over the last 3 months. All the staff has said how amazed they are at the closeness of our group. Everytime I hugged someone goodbye, the tears came on...man, I was a mess! We are already planning a party in Santa Rosa on April 30, so I will see some soon, but others, it will be a while. *Sigh*
The next day, Saturday, I said goodbye to me Siguat host family and gave out lots of hugs, and I met my counterpart at the bus station to make my way to my site -- ahhh, the time had come! My "real" Peace Corps experience is starting! Her husband was waiting for us at the bus station in Santa Rosa in his pickup truck, and we piled my huge duffel bag into the back and made our way to Dulce Nombre. By the way, you can start sending letters and packages to my new address:
Lauren Mohlie
Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz
Dulce Nombre de Copan, Honduras
America Central
Yup, no numbers, no zip code. I already met the post office lady and she knows me, and I will go to her to check for mail. Anyway, back to my first day...we got to Dulce Nombre and hung out at my counterpart's house for a bit and then I went to the house where I will be living for the first few months. I chose to live with a host family at first, and then when Pri leaves in June (the volunteer who I am replacing) I will move into her very nice house. I don't know though, I am already ready to live on my own. My host mom is only 32 and has accepted me so much that I am like part of the family, which means I have little privacy. It is starting to drive me a bit crazy. But I haven't been home much so far because Pri has been keeping me super super busy. I have been waking up early and getting home late. I think I have already started losing weight from walking several miles a day and eating healthier. Since Monday I have gone to two improved stove demonstrations in the surrounding small towns around Dulce Nombre, helped give an English class to a kindergarten class, helped Pri give an aerobics class, gone to a meeting about the library they hope to get funds for, books and computers and please Lord, internet!, and which will probably be a project of mine, met a hundred people in the town. Everyone here thinks I am Honduran at first, and about 16 or 17 years old (because people age here quicker from the work and sun and babies). On Sunday when I went to mass with my family I got taken for Honduran again and got sucked into reading a long passage in front of the whole church -- ahh! Only later were they like, "Where are you from? You have an accent." Duhhh. On Tuesday I went to a great party at my counterpart's house and met a lot more people and danced and ate a lot and had some wine. It was a lot of fun.
My town has about 7000 people, and I still feel lost in it, but I have started already seeing my new acquaintences in the streets and stopping for short conversations with them. Every time I pass someone when I am walking to Pri's house or my counterpart's house, I say "Buenas!", or "Hola!" or "Adios!". I try to smile and call out to as many people as possible. Pri said that most of them probably know about me even if I have never met them. It's a great town and I think I have already started a few friendships. It is slow going though, and I try to remind myself that becoming part of a community can take the whole first year, if not all 2 years. Ok, so I have been really busy but I think over the next few days things might slow down a little bit. Pri is going away for about a week and a half and I will be left to my own devices for a while. I am going to a two day workshop in Santa Rosa with my counterpart next Monday and Tuesday, and I will probably try to catch up on letters and studying Spanish over the next week.
You can call me at (I took the number out b/c this is internet but call my mom or email me and I would love to give you the number). That is the number of my family's house, just ask "¿Lauren esta?". I am usually home after 7 or 8 pm my time, and the east coast is 2 hours ahead, so that means 9 or 10 pm your time. Anyway, soooo sorry that this is so long but the last week has been very busy and momentous in my PC life so far :) I am already super excited to show visitors around my site so start planning visits! I will be checking email about once a week from now on.
Love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon,
Lauren
Hi family and friends!
Sorry it has been a little long since my last email or blog post. My blog is down right now, at least from my end, so I thought I'd write this email and then copy it onto the blog another time.
Anyway - wow I have a lot to catch you all up on. Last Wednesday my training group went to Tegucigalpa for Swearing In and other related activities. Unfortunately I was sick that day...I had been up all night the night before with stomach aches. So I wasn't too alert that day. Anyway, we went to the Peace Corps headquarters and got some logistics squared away like our bank accounts and salary and living expenses. We got our new residence cards and other IDs, and check books. I went to the PC doctor and got drugs, yay. Then we bussed over to the U.S. Embassy which was really interesting. We got presentations from various people that work in the embassy on subjects such as visas, corruption in the Honduran government, the role of the embassy in Honduras, USAID, economic situation in Honduras and what the U.S. is doing. The ambassador dropped in and said a few works, and we all had to stand up since he is supposed to represent the President of the United States in Honduras. That evening we went to the huge mall in Teguc and I ate at T.G.I.Fridays. I had been planning on having a fun night out with my group but since I was sleepy and sick I didn't take part in the celebrating much. But we did have a hotel party on my room (of all the rooms!) and about 30 people were in there chatting, doing silly stuff, and drinking. We stayed in a fancy hotel and our room had an awesome view of Teguc. Luckily for me, people cleared out by 11 and went out to clubs and casinos, but me, I stayed and went to sleep in my wonderful comfy bed and had an awesome night sleep. The next day I was pretty much the only alert one as we went off to spend the day at the ambassador's residence. I had an awesome time...I felt much better. We enjoyed his pool, volleyball courts, tennis and basketball courts. The ordered in a bunch of Little Caesar's pizzas which we all consumed like a pack of animals. Then we all showered and dressed up for the swearing in ceremony. It was emotional and inspiring. The U.S. ambassador, Larry Palmer, the PC country director, the director of USAID, and the PC training director were there and all spoke. We sang the Honduran anthem and I led the American anthem. We had to stand up and say the same oath that the President, Vice President, ambassadors and all foreign service officers have to say. So I become a real Peace Corps Volunteer, and no longer a trainee! It was a cool moment and I wish you all had been there.
After that we schmoozed a bit with the bigwigs and then eventually made our way back to Siguatepeque. The next day all of our counterparts came into Siguat from various parts of Honduras and we had counterpart day, which was basically a day of orientation for them to explain the role of peace corps volunteers. Mine is awesome, a little lady about 55 named Mirian, who is a retired teacher. She has a huge family, 5 kids who will probably all be friends of mine. She is super involved in Dulce Nombre and has a long list of projects she is dreaming about. I think she will be a great counterpart. The sad part of the day was that people in my group started leaving for their sites. It's amazing how close I have gotten to these 33 people over the last 3 months. All the staff has said how amazed they are at the closeness of our group. Everytime I hugged someone goodbye, the tears came on...man, I was a mess! We are already planning a party in Santa Rosa on April 30, so I will see some soon, but others, it will be a while. *Sigh*
The next day, Saturday, I said goodbye to me Siguat host family and gave out lots of hugs, and I met my counterpart at the bus station to make my way to my site -- ahhh, the time had come! My "real" Peace Corps experience is starting! Her husband was waiting for us at the bus station in Santa Rosa in his pickup truck, and we piled my huge duffel bag into the back and made our way to Dulce Nombre. By the way, you can start sending letters and packages to my new address:
Lauren Mohlie
Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz
Dulce Nombre de Copan, Honduras
America Central
Yup, no numbers, no zip code. I already met the post office lady and she knows me, and I will go to her to check for mail. Anyway, back to my first day...we got to Dulce Nombre and hung out at my counterpart's house for a bit and then I went to the house where I will be living for the first few months. I chose to live with a host family at first, and then when Pri leaves in June (the volunteer who I am replacing) I will move into her very nice house. I don't know though, I am already ready to live on my own. My host mom is only 32 and has accepted me so much that I am like part of the family, which means I have little privacy. It is starting to drive me a bit crazy. But I haven't been home much so far because Pri has been keeping me super super busy. I have been waking up early and getting home late. I think I have already started losing weight from walking several miles a day and eating healthier. Since Monday I have gone to two improved stove demonstrations in the surrounding small towns around Dulce Nombre, helped give an English class to a kindergarten class, helped Pri give an aerobics class, gone to a meeting about the library they hope to get funds for, books and computers and please Lord, internet!, and which will probably be a project of mine, met a hundred people in the town. Everyone here thinks I am Honduran at first, and about 16 or 17 years old (because people age here quicker from the work and sun and babies). On Sunday when I went to mass with my family I got taken for Honduran again and got sucked into reading a long passage in front of the whole church -- ahh! Only later were they like, "Where are you from? You have an accent." Duhhh. On Tuesday I went to a great party at my counterpart's house and met a lot more people and danced and ate a lot and had some wine. It was a lot of fun.
My town has about 7000 people, and I still feel lost in it, but I have started already seeing my new acquaintences in the streets and stopping for short conversations with them. Every time I pass someone when I am walking to Pri's house or my counterpart's house, I say "Buenas!", or "Hola!" or "Adios!". I try to smile and call out to as many people as possible. Pri said that most of them probably know about me even if I have never met them. It's a great town and I think I have already started a few friendships. It is slow going though, and I try to remind myself that becoming part of a community can take the whole first year, if not all 2 years. Ok, so I have been really busy but I think over the next few days things might slow down a little bit. Pri is going away for about a week and a half and I will be left to my own devices for a while. I am going to a two day workshop in Santa Rosa with my counterpart next Monday and Tuesday, and I will probably try to catch up on letters and studying Spanish over the next week.
You can call me at (I took the number out b/c this is internet but call my mom or email me and I would love to give you the number). That is the number of my family's house, just ask "¿Lauren esta?". I am usually home after 7 or 8 pm my time, and the east coast is 2 hours ahead, so that means 9 or 10 pm your time. Anyway, soooo sorry that this is so long but the last week has been very busy and momentous in my PC life so far :) I am already super excited to show visitors around my site so start planning visits! I will be checking email about once a week from now on.
Love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon,
Lauren
posted by Lauren @ 17:19
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