Feliz Navidad

Christmas has come and just about gone and it has been quite the celebration.
Monday before Christmas we had a party for our donors at the Comedor. Father Lucian was here and he said a mass in the afternoon, followed by cake, a bilingual rendition of Feliz Navidad and a general looking around the Comedor by the donors, many of whom had yet to see the actual place. The party took some tireless planning but was well worth it to make clear our thanks to all the donors who have made opening up the Comedor a possibility.
Tuesday before Christmas, we held another Christmas party, this time for the women and children in our support group for women suffering from domestic violence. We cooked up spagetti for 75 and had a full house for the afternoon. There was lots of eating, dancing and even a little Christmas pictionary.
Wednesday before Christmas was preparation day for the 24th. The biggest celebrations here happen on Christmas Eve, not Christmas and so we had planned a big party at Comedor for the 24th. The moms were going to cook all the traditional Christmas food, nacatamales, rosquias in miel and ronpopo. After our usual lunch at Comedor, the moms got to work preparing the Christmas meal for Thursday. On Thursday, Christmas Eve, we had invited not only all our Comedor kids, but all of their many siblings, moms, dads, etc. for dinner. With over 200 nacatamales and endless other food, we spent almost all of Christmas Eve in the Comedor with just about everyone who lives in Nueva San Diego. As always, the party consisted mostly of eating and dancing and generally crazynesss.
We got back to our house around 7:30 pm, just in time to get ourselves together for the 8pm mass. After mass, I went over to my host family's house for dinner. While Jessica got dinner together, Enrique, Maria and I danced (are you getting the dancing thing yet?) in the living room and I was asked endlessly to sing the English portion of "Feliz Navidad". After dinner between the 4 of us, Maria and I ran out to buy fireworks, Jessica made a fire in the street and we spent the next hour "throwing fireworks". I left their house around 11:30pm and made it to another friend's house, Esperanza for more dancing and the big firework madness that happens at midnight. When 12 o'clock rolled around, just about everyone in Talanga was out on the streets lighting off fireworks. These fireworks are legal, of all different shapes and sizes and completely dangerous. Yet everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, sets off fireworks at midnight (and any other time in the Christmas season) to celebrate. Next stop in the big celebrations was at another house (Eva's), my roommate's host family. There it was more dancing (surprised?). At this house was also the biggest and most elaborate nativity scence in Talanga. We left Eva's just before 2am and went back to our house, where the dancing continued until 4.
On Christmas Day, it was back to Comedor to have lunch as usual, but also to hand out presents that had been donated to the Comedor kids. The kids were all smiles as they received tshirts, hats, dolls, footballs and stuffed animals. After Comedor, nap time happened and then Christmas dinner and gift exchanging with Father Lucian. I dropped off to sleep to end Christmas watching a movie with my roommates. Although it was just awful to be away from everyone at home for Christmas, it was without a doubt a great Christmas and one to remember.

Comedor in Action!

Daniela and I

Comedor's street

Luis Omar

Harold

View from the front steps of Comedor

Comedor Infantil Pasionista

Gabriel

Reading after lunch

Darlene

Lunch

Orly and Harold

Washing hands before lunch

Comedor Infantil Pasionista

On Tuesday, November 17th, we officially opened the Comedor Infantil Pasionista. The Comedor is our big project for the year that my five roommates and I are working on together. A Comedor is, more or less, a place that gives food. Infantil refers to children and Pasionista comes from the volunteer program that we are in, Passionist Volunteers International. The opening of a Comedor is a huge step for the PVI program and has become a large focus of our time here in Honduras. The idea to open a comedor was born out of the regular sighting of children digging through the dumpsters in the market.
We've been here for 3 months now and have been working for about 2 months preparing to open the Comedor. Preparation was extensive, as we are truly starting from scractch. Our hope in starting from the ground up is that the Comedor will be sustained by the people in this community and therefore, go on long after our year is done. We've put in a lot of "pulp time" (as we've come to call it) - visiting pulperias and mercados in our town to ask for donations of food, supplies, money and time. The bulk of our 2 months of preparation was building relationships in town to try to tap into every resource and get as many people as possible involved. And then there was a mountain of logistics to work out as well. Where will it be? How much will it cost? Who will we feed? Who will cook? How do we work towards solving this problem instead of just putting a band aid on it?
And so, on the day of opening, Comedor looked like this...
We are located in Nueva San Diego, the poorest neighborhood in Talanga, in a house that we are renting for roughly $30 a month. There are 12 kids in the program, all between the ages of 4 and 6. Everyday at least 2 of us go to the Comedor, along with 2 of the kids' moms. The moms are responsible for cooking the meal and cleaning up afterwards. We serve lunch Monday - Friday and the kids are there for about 2 or 3 hours. Right now, they spend that time coloring or playing outside but as all the kinks get worked out, kid time will become more structured with some hidden education amidst the fun. Once lunch is ready, the kids say grace together, wash their hands and sit on the floor to eat. Then they are given vitamins, a piece of fruit and head home.
Our dreams for the Comedor are big. We know that hunger is a problem that expands far beyond 12 kids and hope to include many more children in the program. We also know that hunger comes from a variety of other problems. Among our plans is to help educate and empower the mothers whose children come to Comedor. The things that we want to do are endless and there is no way to know how it will look in August when its time to leave but as of last Tuesday, the Comedor Infantil Pasionista is a real place, no longer just an idea.
The day we opened, we stood outside the Comedor and watched the kids cut the ribbon and parade inside. We had only found the location a few days before and the paint on the building was literally still drying from that morning. We had no tables or chairs and the meal was cooked with pots and pans borrowed from our kitchen. There were, and still are, questions about how this is going to work. But the fact is that it can work. It does work. As we approach the end of week 2, there are still problems to work out, but there are also already successes. 12 kids have been fed everyday. Moms have showed up and worked. All the kids have been seen by a doctor and given the medicines they need. Everyday we are receiving something, whether it's a bag of bananas or enough money to feed a child for a month. The amount of work that the Comedor takes is sometimes overwhelming, but as you can imagine from seeing the pictures of the kids, it is well worth it.

Comedor Kids

Luis

Ingrid

Jose

Jaquelin Maria

Harold

Tanya

Gabriel

Blanca

Christopher Joel

Darlene

Orly

Daniela

Weekend Pictures

Patricia entering the first cave

Tilapia for lunch at Lago on the way home

At the waterfall with the roommates who are actually my ROOMmates

Jean awaiting cave entrance

Mike's self portrait while entering the cave

Kayaking on Lago Yojoa

Group shot in the cave

Patricia, Carolina, Rosalina, Juanita, Nina & Miguel

Daniel (our guide), Jean and I starting off towards the caves

Another cave shot

Dinner

Looking over the edge of the waterfall

Road Trip!

This weekend, my roommates and I headed to San Pedro Sula for a work trip that was really a vacation. We intended on leaving Thursday morning and spending a few days with an organization CEPUDO and then stopping by the lake or caves and coming home on Sunday night. However, when we got to Tegus to pick up our truck from the shop, it wasn´t ready. So after a long Thursday in Tegus, we spent the night at our boss´s house and headed north at 4am Friday morning. We arrived in San Pedro Sula a little before 10 am and were greeted by Matt (a former PVI volunteer) and Jess, who are now working with CEPUDO. We spent Friday with them, getting to know more about CEPUDO, visiting their office and bodega, where we were able to pick out some supplies that they were giving us for projects. (Including 300 lbs of rice and 300 lbs of beans for our Comedor Infantil!) The founder, Linda, had us over her house for dinner Friday night and Saturday morning, we checked out one of their projects. After a day and a half with CEPUDO our work was done and the vacation began!
We headed to a National Park to visit an enormous waterfall. I don´t know how many feet it was, but it was by far the biggest waterfall I´ve ever seen. We took a tour of the waterfall, where we were able to jump off cliffs into the pools at the bottom and walk behind the falls and even into a cave. The water at the bottom of the falls was incredible, at times you couldn´t see because of all the wind and water and had to feel around the rocks to continue. Once behind the water, there was a spot where you could look straight up, standing between the rock wall and the wall of water and see it tumbling over the edge above. It felt like a scene out of Narnia. Behind the falls, there was a cave that we were able to climb into and out of a tiny hole you could see the water coming down. The tour ended by going up to the top of the waterfall and standing on the edge, overlooking the drop below. By far, the scariest part of the weekend. After the tour, we went swimming in the water that feeds into the falls, which had an awesome current that you could swim into and it felt like waterslide.
After a full day at the falls, we headed to Lago Yajoa, the largest lake in Honduras. Chado would have loved this part of the trip because Lago Yajoa has great bird watching with over 300 types of birds living there. Matt and Jess came with us and the 8 of us rented two attached cabins for the night, overlooking the lake. We went into town for some tacos and pollo and then settled into the cabins for the night. It was halloween so we sat out on our porch telling ghost stories and had a very fitting stormy night. The next morning we were up early to go kayaking, swimming and bird watching on the lake. Matt and Jess headed back to work and the 6 of us headed out for our next adventure.
We had read in a guide book that there were some great caves to go spelunking in. One set of caves was well known and well developed and the other set was very undeveloped and apparently a huge adventure. We obviously were in search of the second set, but everyone we asked tried to send us to Taulabe for the first caves. We eventually got pointed in the right direction but only had the name of the town and the name of a guide there. We stocked up on PB&J supplies and headed for the town, San Jose. After a long debate over whether or not we should take the truck across a river Oregon Trail ¨Fording the River¨style (which we did) and many stops for directions, we ended up in the right town. We started asking around for Daniel, the cave guide and eventually found him at a soccer field. He set us up with a couple guides and we were off to the caves. After an hour or so hike through rivers and ankle deep mud, we found ourselves in what seemed like a National Geographic scene. Towering green mountains on all sides, a rushing river below and a TINY entrance to a cave in front of us. One by one we slithered into the cave behind our guides and ended up in an enormous cavern full of stalagmites and stalagtites. With our head lamps off, you couldn´t see your hand in front of your face. We explored for awhile but had to leave in order to get to the second cave before dark. The second cave was nearby and had a river running through it. We waded through water that nearly reached my neck and ducked out of the way of bats in what seemed like an Indiana Jones movie. The caves were discovered only about 20 years ago by the uncle of one of our guides. He had been hunting and followed an animal into the cave. We were 6 of only about 300 people who have ever been inside these caves. By the time we got out of the second cave, it was already dark and the hike back through deep mud by headlamp was an adventure in itself. We were soaking wet, hungry and covered in mud. Rain had started and Jean, Mike and I fell asleep lying in the back of the truck as we drove back to Matt and Jess´s to stay for the night. We loaded up the truck with project supplies in the morning and headed back to Talanga. We stopped by Lago Yajoa for fresh tilipia for lunch and arrived back in Talanga in the early evening after an incredible weekend away. (Pictures coming soon... in the meantime, there are pictures on facebook.)

Everyone in the tree!

This week's Vecinos a Vecinos activity was a photo scavenger hunt around Talanga.

This is the "everyone in a tree" picture.

Enrique, Marvin Miguel, Ivis, Karin and Nicole (who was very concerned about wearing a skirt in a tree).

In the background is our house inside that ugly, giant, green wall and our truck.

Happy Birthday Aine!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUGABOO!!!
Today is Aine Kate's 5th birthday and while I am not as cool as Uncle Dan Carey, who made a video from the Efffiel Tower for the birthday he missed, I do want to give a public shout out to my favorite niece! (In my defense, I bet the internet was a lot quicker in Europe than it is in Honduras.) I hope you have a great birthday and I'm sorry that I am missing it!!! I love you!!!

Frijoles

Carrying beans, Honduran style.

Vecinos a Vecinos

Finished art projects

Vecinos a Vecinos
(Karin, Marvin Miguel, Bryan, Nicole,
Oscar, Sandy, Jordin, Jose, Gabby, Ivis,
Enrique, Sussan, Danira, Nicole, Elia and Juanita)

Almost everyday, many of the kids who live in our neighborhood come knocking on our door, wanting to come in. I play a lot of card games and soccer and stumble through a heap of Spanish books with them. Sometimes when they are here, I am breaking up fights and repeating rules over and over. Sometimes the kids play by themselves while we go about our day and they’re happy to be allowed to hang out inside. Once in awhile, I’m lucky enough to have 2 or 3 of the kids help me do my laundry, at which they are experts. Several of the kids I know come by the house selling the food their mothers make. There’s a group of 5 siblings and 2 cousins who live nearby who hang out in a tree outside our house waiting for when we are ready to play.

Volunteers in the past have done weekly groups for these kids and after about a month here, I could see the need to have such a group. And so, “Vecinos a Vecinos” (Neighbors to Neighbors) began. Every Saturday from 2-4 in the afternoon, Vecinos a Vecinos meets at our house. My goal with this group is to give these kids a fun afternoon, with structure, discipline and education hidden within it. Each week has a theme, a book, an activity and a snack. This past week the theme was Nature in Talanga. We took a walk to the famous Ceiba tree in town and picked up leafs, flowers, sticks, rocks, fruits, anything that is from nature. Then we came back to the house and the kids made pictures from all they had collected. Before our walk, we talked about why nature is important and what everyone’s favorite thing in nature was. Then we had snack of apples, peanut butter and raisins (put together to resemble a ladybug) while we read Soy una Manzana (I am an apple) and learned about the life cycle of an apple. Even with a large age range, all the kids had a great time with their projects and had a lot to say about nature.

The youngest kid in the group is 3 year old Gabby and the oldest is Oscar, who will be 14 next month. This week there were 15 kids at our group and aside from a few very minor arguments, it was a perfect afternoon. My favorite part of this week’s group was Oscar’s search for a feather. As soon as we left the house, Oscar told me he wanted to find a feather for his project and I told him that it was a great idea. Later in the walk, I noticed him ahead of me running around in circles. When I got closer, I realized that he was chasing a chicken. After a few minutes of going after the chicken, Oscar held up the feather he had just plucked from it and yelled to me that he found one. His brother, Enrique, clearly was impressed and started chasing the chicken to get his own feather. Unfortunately for Enrique, the chicken caught on and found safety behind a fence. Nature was a success for Vecinos a Vecinos… up next is Salud (Health).

Toque de Queda

Earlier this week, ex president Mel Zelaya re-entered Honduras. While Juanita, Patricia and I were at the Health Center for our weekly Domestic Violence group on Monday, our boss, Amy, called us and said we had to end early. It was 3:30 and the government had just put on a 4pm Toque de queda, a.k.a. a curfew. We wrapped things up and gave all the women a ride home and arrived home a little after 4, feeling a little nervous and unsure about what it all meant. We quickly felt reassured when we realized that our neighbors and friends in Talanga weren't worried. People remained out and about much later than the 4pm curfew. Although things in Tegus (the capital) have been less stable and more dangerous, Talanga is the same as always. The toque de queda lasted a few days and aside from running out for food or to a neighbor's, we spend most of it in the house playing games, reading, napping, cleaning and so on. We are safe as always in Talanga and now that the curfew has been lifted, are going about our days as normal. I've heard a lot of different opinions from the people I know about the political situation but don't feel I know enough to put my own here. Just know that all is well with us in Talanga... more soon.

The Latest

Everything here in Talanga is good. Its hot and its been hot but everyone tells us we will be complaining of the cold in a few months. Things have been busy as we been getting started on some projects. I've been going to our women's domestic violence support group every week, as well as to school in the mornings and to visit the internos at the Casa Pasionista, a home for people living with HIV/AIDS. Next week, I start at a second school, the kindergarten in Nuevo San Diego, where I'll be assisting the teacher, probably once a week. Tomorrow is our first day of Kids' Club, a small program we are doing with the neighborhood kids who hang out at our house. I'm not sure how many kids we'll get but the idea is to give them a couple hours of structured, educational fun every weekend. I also hope to restart the baseball team that past volunteers have coached in the next couple weeks. On Monday, I'm driving out to a clinic in Guimaca, about a half hour drive from Talanga. Past volunteers who were nurses have worked there and they have expressed an interest in having a social worker so I hope to get a good feel of what its all about and what I could do there. As a group, my roommates and I have a couple of larger projects we will be doing together throughout the year. We have gotten started on the planning stages for one of them, Comedor Infantil. Its a program that will provide lunch every day for street kids and children of single mothers. Right now, we are talking to local business people about getting involved and drafting a grant to get support from outside agencies. We hope to have the program started sometime in October but its important to build it up correctly so that it will be sustainable after our year is done. Though projects are starting to take off, as always, much of my time is spent playing soccer in the street, visiting my host family and hanging out on the neighbors' stoops.


Some things I've learned during month one in Honduras.

- Desfiles (parades) always come first.
- While driving the truck, always keep your eyes open for tumulos (speedbumps), especially when the truck bed is full of people.
- Always keep your kitchen stocked with cookies and soda, because you will have unexpected visitors and you need something to offer them.
- If you are going to drop by someone's house, be prepared to eat a full meal.
- The best way to beat the heat is in the hammock or in the river, not in front of the fan.
- Geckos and cockroaches are essentially harmless, but ants will get you.
- When in doubt, use sunscreen.
- Everyone can dance, how well is a minor detail.
- It is worth getting up early to do laundry... its cooler then and it has all day to dry.
- Certain Spanish words are more accurate than their English translation.
- Everything is easier when you tell yourself "poco a poco" (little by little).

Approaching 1 month in Hondy!

Milking a cow

Some pigs hanging out in the fango (mud) outside the Health Center

Bryan and I anticipating birthday cake!
(This is an old picture...from our first weekend here
but I just got it from my roommate and its one of my favs)

Riding a horse to herd the cows...

Miguel, Juanita and I having lunch at Nana's house

Bulk grocery shopping in Tegucigalpa.... riding in the back to protect that peanut butter

Juanita in the back of the truck.... on our way to Tegucigalpa

Gabby and I napping in the hammock.

Using the machete to clean up the yard and get some wood ready for backyard bonfires

Carolina and I cleaning the pila


*As always, click on pictures to make them bigger*

Mango trees, Bean bushes & Tamales

We are approaching week 3 in Honduras and I feel as though I'm really starting to get settled. I'm still trying to find my daily routine but its becoming clearer and I feel like I know my way around now. It is still a little odd to think of Talanga as home but we have certainly been welcomed here. We bought new curtains and plan on painting the inside of the house this weekend, so concretely, it is becoming home. Father Lucian headed back to the states on Monday and Mike is leaving on Friday to go home for a month (he has been here for a year already) so the 5 of us new volunteers will be on our own for the first time this weekend. Its exciting to realize that this isn't a short experience where we are being led by Father Lucian and Mike, but rather, a new part of our lives that we are just getting accustomed to.
There are a lot of potential projects on the horizon for us, but its important for us to first get to know our community and the people in it. It is incredible to me that my "job" right now is simply to spend time with people. We do have some scheduled "work"... helping at the radio show, tv program, domestic violence group, having a variety of community meetings or meetings for past or future projects and other things. But so much of my days consist of going to school, visiting my family, playing with neighborhood kids, hanging out with neighbors or driving out to the aldeas to spend time with people there.
Any time spent with people is valuable and well spent. Yesterday, a few of us drove down to a river. We took 3 of the kids who live down the street from us with us and spent the afternoon swimming in the river and then washed our truck there. The day before, I went to the park with some of my roommates' host brothers to play basketball. It is rare to walk through town without being stopped to chat and be invited in for a visit. Our house is constantly full of neighbors, host families, kids and friends.
I am constantly being taught how to do things here. While visiting the aldeas, I have shaken mangos out from the top of a tree, beat beans out of a bush with sticks and grinded corn kernels to make tamales. This afternoon my "dad" taught me how to eat a fish (head included) using a tortilla for silverware. And of course, I am constantly learning more Spanish.
I wish I could more fully describe all that is happening here. Being in a new culture awakens your senses in every way. Although I've been to Talanga twice before, living here is an entirely different experience. Every day I am seeing both heartbreaking things and beautiful things. I am constantly being challenged. Though in my frustration I sometimes forget it, I know that I am learning and growing everyday, with Spanish and in many other ways.
I feel so blessed to be able to be here. I miss everyone at home but am thankful for all your updates. I know I don't respond to every email but please, keep them coming!! Its great to know how things are going at home.

Pictures (click on pictures to make them bigger)

Tererro

Juanita, Patricia, Miguel and I doing voices while reading a children's book on the radio

Honduran style transportation

Getting dinner at my host family's

Visiting people in Tererro... this is the "serious face" picture

Surprise Birthday party for Carolina and I
Rosalina, Bryan, Me, Bessy and Patricia

Hanging out in Tererro

Miguel, Nina, Carolina, Rosalina, Patricia y Juanita

The Llave (Key) to the Star Chart.... See below...

House Star Chart

My mosquito free bed