Catching up...

Hi all!

Sorry it's been a while. I was going to write this weekend when I went to Santa Rosa, but Sunday I was way too tired to make myself go to the internet cafe. I went into town for a party on Saturday night that a bunch of people from my training group came to. Most of them were from the Western region but some came from farther away. I had an awesome time. We partied at the house for a while, then went out to see a rock band that sang English songs (head banging and all) and then went out dancing at one of the night clubs in town. I probably danced for about 4 hours straight, until about 3:30 am. So since I woke up around 7 am from various noise and the fact I was sleeping at my friend Angela's place and there were a few people there too, I was pretty tired Sunday. Luckily everyone was dead tired too so we all lazed around the PC house and watched movies. I became a member of the PC house this weekend too. I have to pay so much every month and I get a key to the house and can stay there whenever I want. It is one of only a few PC crash houses in the world - they usually don't give permission for these types of houses. There are a few bedroom stuffed with beds and a big library, games, a nice new television with DVD player and VCR (so mom you can send me those tapes of LOST anytime now :) ), lots of couches to bum around on, and a fully stocked kitchen. So whenever I need to get away from my town and relax a bit I can go over to the house.

My last week before this crazy weekend was busy. I walked out to more aldeas with Pri to do some supervision with her on the stove project, helped with a vaccination campaign in another aldea (they seriously find every kid under the age of 5 in each town to give them their vaccines - in my case there were 80 kids under 5 in the town and we spent close to all day going down these tiny hidden roads to find these isolated houses - crazy stuff), I helped my counterpart Mirian find women to start micro-businesses in Dulce Nombre and some of the surrounding aldeas - they have to be groups of 15, and the Honduran government is going to lend them start up money and capacitate them on how to market their product outside of Dulce Nombre, possibly for export. So far we have a group of cigar makers, shirt makers to sell to tourists, pinata makers, and maybe lemon growers. It is an awesome opportunity for these women and I can't wait to see how it works. I am also busy with this library project. An organization wants to give Dulce Nombre money to construct a library, 1000 books, computers with internet, audio visual equipment, a small museum of Dulce Nombre, and a room for workshops and cultural activities. The only problem is that the municipality and the library organization (of which I was elected to a position) have different ideas of where the library should go, so that's the problem right now. Hopefully everything will work out. I have also continued with the English classes with Pri in the kindergarten classes, which is very fun, and continued to meet lots of people.

I am starting to make some good friendships. Last night on the way home from a library meeting this guy walked me home named Hugo. He has a very good reputation in the town and is very involved in projects and goes out to rural schools to teach about HIV AIDS and other youth topics. I probably talked with him for over an hour - a REAL conversation, not some b.s. about the weather. We talked about my goals and dreams, shared some funny words in our respective languages (I taught him "hey dude" which sounds very funny with a Honduran accent), talked about some of the cultural differences, and some of the problems of both Honduras and the U.S. I was very excited. I might go out with him next week to do a talk and some activities around Self-Esteem with some rural kids. Then when I went in the house I spent another hour chatting with my family, and somehow I felt the need to explain plate tectonics to them in great detail and how the state of Hawaii was formed. Since I didn't know the words in Spanish for continental drift, magma chamber, hot spot, subverting plates...I used pictures and analogies, and I think they got it :) Anyway, it was fun. I also told them about different places in the U.S. using the map I brought and showed them my picture book of Virginia and explained a bit about the Civil War. Anyway all of these little details are given to share my excitement at actually having real conversations with people, in Spanish, that mean something to me, and people I hope are actually getting to know me and me them. It's progress, let me tell you.

Today I am in Concepcion again and very happy that the internet is working. We are going to be walking a ton, which I am not exactly looking forward to, but at least my friends said this weekend that I had lost weight over the past 3 weeks, which is always a nice thing to hear :) Bye bye, Pre-Service Training weight. Tomorrow I am hoping Angela and Sarah will come in from Santa Rosa to Dulce Nombre to participate in a stove demonstration to a group of women. Angela is hoping to work with me and give me money from her wealthy NGO to do some projects in the future. I might do some health charlas in the Health Center this week with Pri also. So it is another busy week. I can't believe that in a few days I will have already been in my site a month. Time flies so fast here. But I can tell this whole community entry thing takes a while, and I am trying to stay motivated by all my little successes that happen throughout the week, even if it is only successfully remembering someone's name.

Well I love you all and miss you and hope to hear from you soon. Sarah and Rachel I am so excited to hear you might visit next January or March - that is a great time to visit! I am already looking forward to it. Ok people, que le vaya bien!