What's Going On?

This week has been SO busy!! We had a birthday party for two or the staff members and we made a pinata and some dessert...cake and apple crumble type stuff.

ALSO, yesterday was our first day to go into a school and work with the children on our own...it was very interesting. First, we had to take transportation because it's about 15 minutes away (I'm in a grop with three other people). Well, the transportation was crazy! The buses go incredibly fast, play really loud music (mostly in English), and are really crowded. There's no more personal space...lol. Yeah, so the people here really like English music, particularly rap and pop. AND, they sing to it...it's really funny. :) So, anways, once we got to the school we split the kids up and played games with them and made a calendar with some of them about when we'll be coming to the school, etc. It went pretty well, there were some mistakes (one kid got a bloody nose playing red rover, etc.), but overall it was good times. We played a treasure hunt game with the kids where they had to go find stuff, some of which was trash and then at the end we told them that they had just recycled as well as played a game! So, it's like hitting two birds with one stone...fun and recycling/cleaning up! :)

ALSO, today my family got PIZZA cause they went to Teguz (the big city)...it's been like 5 weeks since I've had pizza...OMG, I was SO excited! lol. I ate 4 pieces in like 2 minutes. lol. :) I was so excited to see American food.

Also, in case you're wondering what a typical day is like for me, here goes:
I wake up at 5:30a.m., take a cold bucket bath.
*I'm sure I look very funny as I gasp at how cold it is! lol.
Then, I read a little and listen to some music, then I eat breakfast...I really want more pancakes...anyways, then I go to school at 7:30p.m. (I walk with other peoples) and we have language class in the morning for 4 hours, break for lunch, and 4 more hours of technical training (train us for working with youth and train us on particular programs)
*For example, one day we learned how to teach sports to children and we're always leaning games to play with them as icebreakers.
And sometimes after class I have language tutorials for an hour and then sometimes we play soccer after school or do other things. SO, I usually get home around 6p.m. or 7p.m. and have dinner, hang out with the family (watch t.v.-the favorite pastime) and then go to bed...I might try to study a little before. BUT, that's pretty much training each day for the next 6 weeks of my life before I'm put into my site where it will be MUCH different because I might possibly be the only volunteer/American there. LOL. Pray for me that I would have an amazing site and a great host family there with hot water...gracias! :)

So...this weekend! SO excited...I'm going to church tomorrow! I've been looking for a church nearby cause I don't want to walk alone for too long...it can get crazy, you know. AND, some of us are going to go explore some caves nearby our town! I'm SOOOO excited. I get to use my headlamp for the first legitimate time. (I've only used it for a helping me to find my bed at night so far). LOL!

ALL IS WELL WITH MY SOUL!

Love,
Victoria

Ok...so I don't have a computer so I haven't been able to blog. BUT, so great. Praise the Lord because my friend next door has a computer and internet. :)

Anways, I also feel as though I should say more about the Honduran culture.
The culture...
So, people here always say "cheke", which means cool. Also, it's normal for men to stay in the house with their family when they're old (like 29 years old). I was really surprised!
The men piropo here, which means that men are always saying things when women pass by...sometimes a little nasty, but luckily I don't know what they're saying. But, one day it might hurt my feelings.)

The food...
The bannanas here are SO cheap. 2 lempiras...That's like $.10. I LOVE bannanas.
Also, here I eat...beans, rice, tortillas, pico de gallo, cereal with HOT milk, guacomole, etc. I LOVE the food here!

At first, the hot milk was interesting, but I actually like it. There are some things that I don't like...one of the fruits here is not so tasty. BUT, I love fruits. Also, they eat a lot of sweet bread and there is always a pulperia on the corner, which is like a family owned store. It's a cheap way for people to get money. There's at least one on every corner! And, most of the time, their house is attached. LOL.

The house...
My house doesn't have running water most times. BUT, we have plenty of water that they store in big containers near the toilet, in the shower and near all the sinks. It's really interesting taking a bucket bath every day. But, we have two or three televisions. AND, my family is really clean. They clean (my host brother who's 17 actually..which is also intereing in a machismo culture that a man cleans) every week by sweeping, mopping, and dusting. The house is also pretty spacious with a huge back yard...pics to come.

The toilet...
You CANNOT put the toilet paper in the toilet. Also, sometimes you have to throw water in the toilet pretty hard to flush the toilet. It's pretty fun. LOL.

My project (Youth Development)...
What we do...Yo Merezco (Preventing Teen Pregnancy), drug prevention, teaching English to adults, Colgate (teaching children to brush their teeth), tutoring Math, Spelling, Reading, etc.

More next time because this is really long.
Love you,
Victoria

Moving Once Again!

Hello!

This past week has been crazy! I went on my volunteer visit in Victoria, Yoro. It was HOT! But, the town was cute and the volunteer was nice and she taught us how to make tortillas and other Honduran dishes.

So, yeah...now, today I'm leaving for a different site, where I'll be for 7 weeks before I return here. I feel like all I do is move these days. It's definitely interesting! LOL.

Anyways, all is well. Last week, I actually saw a movie at the theatres. I forgot the name of it (it was something with that really white guy from Twilight). Anways, it was pretty cool...there were four of us Americans in the theatre and then we had Chruches Chicken to eat. LOL. I felt like I was back in the U.S. But, then reality hit once again.

So far, I feel like all we've really talked about is the culture of Honduras. But, these next 7 weeks will be more about the youth, which is the area that I'm working with. SO, we shall see. :) AND, language...OMG, I really need to get better on my langauge. Also, I miss church. :( I need more of the Lord...but, I try to read the Bible and I'm SO glad I put sermons on my MP3 player...very helpful!!

Also, below are some pictures for your enjoyment..especially because I might not have access to a computer like this in a while.


This is the crazy driveway that I have to climb each day...well, not any more for 7 weeks.


This is Santa Lucia...a nearby city.


This is our training center in Honduras.


PC Training Center again.


The Honduran flag...of course.

Talk with you soon,
Victoria

Food!

I can't believe the it's Wednesday already! Lots has happened. On Monday, I bought two loafs of bread. They are fresh and I'm SO excited to get them! I recieve them tomorrow! I ordered cheese bread and apple bread. :)

Also, by the way, there are these pretty incredible cookie/crackers here called Marias. I'm not sure if they also have them in the states, but you should check them out if you see them! Here they're only $0.50! So, anyways...the food here is GREAT! I get eggs, beans, rice, meat, tortillas, and cheese most nights. Last night, however, I got a soup. It was pretty good. I'm not much of a soup person, though. AND then last Sunday, we went to a great restaurant in Teguz called Pollo Tropical where we had Yuca fries! OMG, you should try these, they're really good. I also had platanos and platanos verde fried. It was all very good. And, they gave us like a half a chicken! It was SO much to eat. But, along with this eating, I walk around and up hills a lot so I should still be pretty healthy. AND, I eat many fruits here...anways...I love food too much.

Furthermore (because I want to use a different word than also), today we learned about teaching styles, classroom management, how to keep the class interested, we learned about the importance of reflection after teaching something, etc. I will talk more about this next week because I feel like I'm hogging the computer. BUT, in 1&1/2 weeks or so, I leave for FBT where I might not have a computer as easily accessible. So, I'm trying to use the computer while I have it. :)

Also, today we went to the market in groups of around 9. The market was in Tegucigalpa and it was pretty nice. It was a little dirty and smelled bad in the meat section, but I mean, it was ok. I didn't take any pictures because they advised us not to bring ANYTHING except ourselves and money hidden in various pockets. We couldn't have our bookbags, necklaces, fancy looking glasses, and we couldn't wear fancy looking clothes that would draw attention to us because it's a little dangerous in the major city.

Also, I have pictures from various places that I've been meaning to put up. I have more, but it takes so long to put them up, that I will wait because I don't want to tie up the computer any longer.

This is food from the Bay Islands...cocoa bread and garlic/cinnamon bread. This is from last Sat. during our "Day of Cultures".


This is the presenter of the Bay Islands (the islands off of Honduras).


This is a picture of an internet cafe in a nearby city. I don't need it know becuase I have a computer in my home, but anyways, I wanted to take a picture.


This is a picture of the soccer game between the U.S. and Ghana, I think. This is when we went to the restaurant to watch the game in a nearby city.


This is one of the Training Manager of PC Honduras, Luis Estrada. He was a "Peche" that day. LOL. He's really nice.

Enjoy!
Love,
Victoria

Muchos Ciudades (Many Cities)

Since the last time we spoke, I have traveled a lot! Today, we went to three cities in one day. By we I mean my mom (Dona Nora), dad (Don Erasmo), my mom's sister (Dona Luz), her husband (Don Ramiro), and another volunteer that is with my mom's sister (Kristin). First, we went to Tegucigalpa to get cellphones. It's very complicated, like in the U.S. There are three major cell phone companies here-Tigo, Claro and Digicel. I got Claro because it's cheaper and it has pretty good service. Tigo is very expensive and it's more expensive to call to the U.S. So, Claro is good. After that, we went to Valle de Angeles to eat. The food was SO good! We had like an apple pie thing (half moon shapes fried tortilla) with potatoes and meat inside and cheese and cabbage on top. That's very common here...cheese and cabbage on many things! After that, we went to Santa Lucia, which is beautiful! It has a little lake in the city and cobble stone streets. There, we had coffee, tea, and pan dulce (sweet bread). We have coffee, tea and sweet bread SO much! Everytime you go to someone's house and during the day in my house, we just have bread and coffee and tea and talk. It's a good time to brush up on the Spanish! However, I think I like the bread demasiado (too much) and I drink so many sweet things here. We always have juice, sodas (rarely), tea, and coffee. Of course, I don't drink coffee, but I drink tea a lot here. It's good, but it's not so good for my teeth or my sugar intake especially since I drank only water in the U.S. But, I will try to limit my amounts and I brush and floss well. :)

Also, today we have a "Day of Cultures" in the PC (Peace Corps) where we learned about different cultures in Honduras (Mayans, Lincas, Mestizos, Peche, Garifunas, Bay Islanders, etc.). We went around to different "stations" and learned about the culture, tried the food, and sometimes did the culural dances. It was fun!

Also, I must mention that two days ago when I went to Santa Lucia I had the best "ice cream" (they have a different name for it) ever! It was coconut ice cream with coconut chunks inside and it was only 6 lempiras, which is pretty good! :) Anyways, I should stop eating so many sweets.

So, about my project. I'm in Youth Development and it's very important in Honduras because there are SO many youth (1/2 the population) and Honduras doesn't do much with them. There aren't many places for them to play so they end up playing in the streets...which is of course dangerous. AND, there are many gangs and street children, so they def. need our support. That's all the information I have for now...more to come.

P.S. I do have a cell phone number, but I won't put it on the internet because of crazies. However, I will solicit it upon request via e-mail or Facebook message. Also, please dial 011504 and then the number to call internationally from the U.S. :)

Talk with you soon (Hasta Luego),
Victoria