Delayed

I wish I was writing this post from Honduras, but unfortunately, I'm not there yet. My housemates and I were supposed to fly to Honduras last Thursday, July 23rd. However, because of the political situation there, our departure has been delayed.
Last month, President Zelaya was removed from office by the military and the leader of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, was sworn in as president. Since then, there has been an ongoing debate as to who is the rightful president, what actions were or were not constitutional and what kind of resolution can be reached. Costa Rica's President Arias has mediated some discussions between the two sides to try to reach a peaceful resolution but they have no yet been able to agree on one.
We have heard consistently from Amy (our supervisor in Honduras) and the current volunteers living in Talanga that life for them has not been disrupted. They say that things in Talanga are the same as before last month's events and that they haven't felt any threat to their safety. However, our director felt it would be best for us to wait to leave until some resolution is reached or until there is an ongoing level of stability within the country.
At this point, we don't have a new departure date and that has been the most frustrating part of this. Hopefully, there will be a positive and peaceful resolution and we will be able to start our year in Honduras soon!

Orientation Pictures

(Click on pictures to make them bigger)

Carolyn, Sarah, Carolyn, Jared, Matt, Joanine, Jamie, Charity

Tricia, Jean, Tracy

Pittsburgh wins the Stanley Cup!! We celebrate on Carson Street!!

First karaoke night

West Virginia

Honduras Group

Jean, Carolyn, Joanine, Jamie, Carolyn (& Mike)

Adult Development Session

(Proof that it wasn't all karaoke and baseball games)

The 10 of us after Commissioning

Carolyn and I after chopping off all our hair

Dancing in the fountain at Station Square

Pittsburgh

For 3 weeks in June, I was in Pittsburgh for orientation with Passionist Volunteers International, preparing to move to Talanga, Honduras for a year. (Along with Jamie, Jean, Carolyn & Carolyn, all headed to Honduras and Jared, Sarah, Tracy, Charity and Matt, all headed to Jamaica) Orientation started off with Pittsburgh winning the Stanley Cup and ended with a karaoke night. In between, there were daily input sessions, group work, a trip to a Passionist Volunteer site in West Virginia, Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games, Kennywood Amusement Park, more karaoke and much more. Pictures coming next....

New Blog

I'm attempting to create a new blog so that I can keep people updated while I'm in Honduras... this post is a test!