Week 2
Hi guys and gals,
It's so nice to be sitting in this internet cafe right now. I am appreciating it even more now that I can't use it as much. I called my friend Angela today from Dulce Nombre to see what she was up to and I ended up coming into Santa Rosa, meeting up with her, and then going out to a tiny aldea for a meeting with a group of kids. We ended up just doing lots of fun activities and games with the kids (remember 7up?) and they taught us lots of songs. They were so cute, belting out these songs at the top of their lungs. I also tried to teach them Miss Suzy, that irreverent hand clapping song, and they liked that, even though they didn't understand the words.
This week has had its ups and downs. The main down was that last Thursday, just hours after I sent out that huge email to you all, I got really sick. I got really nauseated around dinner time and before I knew it I was throwing up all night. It was pretty awful. I went into Santa Rosa early the next morning to go to the private hospital that we PCVs get to go to; my counterpart and her husband took me, they were awesome the whole time. I was really weak and dehydrated so the doctor had me hooked up to an IV for a few hours while I slept in a hospital bed and he ran some tests. It turns out I had amoebas. Yeah. I must have eaten something bad or had some bad water. Who knows - I go out into the aldeas and when these destitute people offer me food or fruit drinks, I can't say no. But honestly I probably got them before I got to Dulce Nombre. Anyway, he hooked me up with some drugs to kill the little suckers, and I was feeling better by the next morning after a good night's sleep. So my first encounter with sickness wasn't that bad all in all - in fact, I was one of the last people in my training group to have to go to the hospital :) I am learning that in Honduras, if you don't feel good, it's best to just go to the dang hospital. So I basically slept, read, wrote letters, and slept some more all weekend. I don't think I really left the house. It was raining and chilly anyway so I was nice and happy inside.
Monday I decided to go hang out at my counterpart's house, where she has a little store in the front of her property. We went over Spanish...I am trying to study more now that I have the time. In the afternoon we decided we would wander over to the school so that I could meet the school director. Well it turns out they were preparing for a big ceremony to award a small group of kids that had been electer by their peers to different positions. The director invited me to watch, and I said, sure why not. My counterpart left to run errands. So I was sitting off to the side, chatting with a kid here, a kid there. When the ceremony started he started calling up various directors of various departments and schools up to the Principal table up front. He called them by their full, often long names and stated their position. Then suddently I heard, "and now here representing Cuerpo de Paz, Lauren"...just "Lauren". It was really funny. I awkwardly rushed up there in my Teva sandals and t-shirt and sat with the school bigwigs and stared out over a huge mass of kids. I saw my little host brother in the midst and he was smiling at me. It was just a funny moment, hard to convey to you all...but I sat there in the middle of this ceremony in Spanish, the lone American in the middle of a couple hundred Hondurans, not knowing what the heck was going on. But the good thing that came out of all this was that I made a friend! Yay :) She is a 19 year old in her first year as a kindergarten teacher. I am going to go help her with some classes and do some English with them. But the really cool thing is that she wanted to start a youth group a while back but it didn't work out. So I was like, hey, I really want to start a youth group too. And PC tells us, when starting an activity, group, event, whatever, try to involve a member of the community from the beginning so that when we are no longer here, it can continue. So I was thinking, yay, someone to be my counterpart for a youth group! She proudly showed me her kinder class room and took me over to her house to meet her mom and sister. It's funny how anxious I am to make Honduran friends here in my community and when I finally did, it was really satisfying.
Well that's about it from my end. This week was pretty low key because Pri isn't here to take me around and show me her various projects. I am enjoying the slow pace for now though. I think I am going to try to make outmeal and chocolate cookies with the family I am living with, and maybe lasagna....mmm. I am lucky because Carmen, my host mom, who's actually only 32, is a great cook, and has a fully stocked kitchen complete with an oven.
Well I am going to go down and catch the 5 pm bus out of Santa Rosa to Dulce Nombre. I enjoy the ride because the scenery is beautiful and I often get involved in an interesting conversation with someone on the bus.
Take care and I hope to hear from you all soon - email, phone, letters...your choice :)
p.s. They are playing Grease at this internet cafe right now...how random.
It's so nice to be sitting in this internet cafe right now. I am appreciating it even more now that I can't use it as much. I called my friend Angela today from Dulce Nombre to see what she was up to and I ended up coming into Santa Rosa, meeting up with her, and then going out to a tiny aldea for a meeting with a group of kids. We ended up just doing lots of fun activities and games with the kids (remember 7up?) and they taught us lots of songs. They were so cute, belting out these songs at the top of their lungs. I also tried to teach them Miss Suzy, that irreverent hand clapping song, and they liked that, even though they didn't understand the words.
This week has had its ups and downs. The main down was that last Thursday, just hours after I sent out that huge email to you all, I got really sick. I got really nauseated around dinner time and before I knew it I was throwing up all night. It was pretty awful. I went into Santa Rosa early the next morning to go to the private hospital that we PCVs get to go to; my counterpart and her husband took me, they were awesome the whole time. I was really weak and dehydrated so the doctor had me hooked up to an IV for a few hours while I slept in a hospital bed and he ran some tests. It turns out I had amoebas. Yeah. I must have eaten something bad or had some bad water. Who knows - I go out into the aldeas and when these destitute people offer me food or fruit drinks, I can't say no. But honestly I probably got them before I got to Dulce Nombre. Anyway, he hooked me up with some drugs to kill the little suckers, and I was feeling better by the next morning after a good night's sleep. So my first encounter with sickness wasn't that bad all in all - in fact, I was one of the last people in my training group to have to go to the hospital :) I am learning that in Honduras, if you don't feel good, it's best to just go to the dang hospital. So I basically slept, read, wrote letters, and slept some more all weekend. I don't think I really left the house. It was raining and chilly anyway so I was nice and happy inside.
Monday I decided to go hang out at my counterpart's house, where she has a little store in the front of her property. We went over Spanish...I am trying to study more now that I have the time. In the afternoon we decided we would wander over to the school so that I could meet the school director. Well it turns out they were preparing for a big ceremony to award a small group of kids that had been electer by their peers to different positions. The director invited me to watch, and I said, sure why not. My counterpart left to run errands. So I was sitting off to the side, chatting with a kid here, a kid there. When the ceremony started he started calling up various directors of various departments and schools up to the Principal table up front. He called them by their full, often long names and stated their position. Then suddently I heard, "and now here representing Cuerpo de Paz, Lauren"...just "Lauren". It was really funny. I awkwardly rushed up there in my Teva sandals and t-shirt and sat with the school bigwigs and stared out over a huge mass of kids. I saw my little host brother in the midst and he was smiling at me. It was just a funny moment, hard to convey to you all...but I sat there in the middle of this ceremony in Spanish, the lone American in the middle of a couple hundred Hondurans, not knowing what the heck was going on. But the good thing that came out of all this was that I made a friend! Yay :) She is a 19 year old in her first year as a kindergarten teacher. I am going to go help her with some classes and do some English with them. But the really cool thing is that she wanted to start a youth group a while back but it didn't work out. So I was like, hey, I really want to start a youth group too. And PC tells us, when starting an activity, group, event, whatever, try to involve a member of the community from the beginning so that when we are no longer here, it can continue. So I was thinking, yay, someone to be my counterpart for a youth group! She proudly showed me her kinder class room and took me over to her house to meet her mom and sister. It's funny how anxious I am to make Honduran friends here in my community and when I finally did, it was really satisfying.
Well that's about it from my end. This week was pretty low key because Pri isn't here to take me around and show me her various projects. I am enjoying the slow pace for now though. I think I am going to try to make outmeal and chocolate cookies with the family I am living with, and maybe lasagna....mmm. I am lucky because Carmen, my host mom, who's actually only 32, is a great cook, and has a fully stocked kitchen complete with an oven.
Well I am going to go down and catch the 5 pm bus out of Santa Rosa to Dulce Nombre. I enjoy the ride because the scenery is beautiful and I often get involved in an interesting conversation with someone on the bus.
Take care and I hope to hear from you all soon - email, phone, letters...your choice :)
p.s. They are playing Grease at this internet cafe right now...how random.
posted by Lauren @ 17:21
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