First Week with the Peace Corps!

Day 0 – 6/21/10, Monday
My mom and I stayed up pretty late packing all my stuff.. I only got 2 hours of sleep before I had to wake up to go to the airport. My parents, sister and I headed off to Ontario airport at about 7:15 am to catch my flight to Phoenix, AZ, where I had a layover before flying to Houston, TX. Arrived in Houston, had to wait around at the airport for about an hour before getting a shuttle to the hotel. Stayed at the Hilton Houston Southwest. Another girl who was with the Peace Corps happened to be on the same shuttle with me, and we ended up having our rooms right next to each other. Got dinner at the hotel, we played a game of pool, and amusingly watched as an older man sat himself down at the piano in the lobby and played a few tunes. He played beautifully, but then... he started to sing. And that was dreadful. Played around on the computer about, made a few phone calls, then went to sleep.

Day 1 – 6/22/10, Tuesday
Staging registration began around noon, and I was one of the first people inside so we ended up sitting at the table talking for about an hour, getting to know each other. Then we realized that the actual orientation wasn't going to start until 2 pm... so I went back to the room to get some food. We did a bunch of team-based activities, including drawing our anxieties and aspirations. I drew a shrimp to represent my seafood phobia. I actually encountered several other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) who had almost the same fear as I do. Very nice to know :).

After Staging, we walked over to the nearest ATM to withdraw all our cash given to us on a credit card, which happened to be at a closed Wells Fargo bank that had drive-through ATMs. Two cars came and it must have looked pretty weird to them, seeing two different big groups of people surrounding the ATMs... We then split and some of us walked to the plaza that had a lot of Indian shops and restaurants and decided to try the Himalayan restaurant, since none of us had tried Himalayan food before. We split again into two tables, and we were all super super hungry. It took a hour to get our food, and during the wait, whenever the waiter would bring out food, other customers could probably notice the two tables of PCTs eying the food like they were ready to pounce. When our food finally arrived... and even though the wait was long, it was totally worth it. Completely DELICIOUS! But.. that may have been because I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala =P. It's my absolute favorite Indian dish. Came with Naan, and we also ordered beef kebabs, and two other chicken and beef curries, made with ginger, onion, cilantro, hot peppers and some other spices. All the food was shared, and I ended up taking the ton of leftovers back to the room because I hate to see such good food wasted, but didn't end up eating it at all =(. Went online for a bit, and only got about 2 and a half hours of sleep.

Day 2 – 6/23/10, Wednesday
We checked out of hotel at 3:30 am, and even though I got such little sleep, I seemed to be okay the rest of the day. We rode bus to the airport, and when I was checking in, one of my suitcases was 53 pounds and the other was 36 pounds... I have no idea how that happened but I had to repack! That's why my parents packed for me in the first place =P. Once I got to Houston and unpacked a few of my things then repacked them to leave, baggage weight problems happen. Le sigh. We had a couple of hours to kill at the airport so I took advantage of the wifi to send off some last minute e-mails and a long overdue resume for a friend.. (you better sell my car!!! ;]). Got on the plane to Tegucigalpa, fell asleep for a few minutes, and when I woke up to look out the window, the landscape was just so green and beautiful! I had heard that there were thunderstorms the entire week in Teguz, but I guess we got lucky :) The weather is BEAUTIFUL like California, and I saw lots of American chain restaurants like Domino's, BK, Baskin Robbins, Church's, Friday's, Dunkin' Donuts etc. I'm much more interested n trying the food here, especially since the common dishes don't include seafood >_<.

Arrived at the training center, about half an hour from the capital. It's up the mountain a bit, in a very forested area with small houses and dirt roads. It's such a beautiful location. I just kept looking around and couldn't believe that I would wake up every morning to this. We watched the presenters and had the chance to try the Honduran coffee offered to us. Coffee here is AMAZING. Very strong, very flavorful. Also tried some galletas (I think that means cookies, but they're like.. plain cookies perhaps used for coffee?). We received our our host family descriptions that listed the number of children they had, their expectations, what their house is like, etc.

At the end of this first day in Honduras, our familias anfitrionas came to pick us up and take us back home. Some PCTs had to take the bus to their locations because they were too far to walk, but my host family came and took me back in their car. They made it clear in a nice way that even though they did speak some English, we could only speak in Spanish so that I could become more fluent. And oh my goodness, I'm so surprised I can still communicate in Spanish and crack jokes after not practicing it since high school 6 years ago! I still have A LOT to work on of course but at least they understand what I'm saying and are insanely supportive and hospitable.

There is a mother and father, with a 7 year old hija y un hijo that's only 10 months old, and a babysitter/housekeeper who is 15 and hasn't celebrated her quinceañera :(. He is the most adorable thing, always smiling :). They are all so wonderful and sweet, and I feel completely comfortable around them even just for my first day. The father has una panadería behind the house with a concrete domed oven, and the mother works at a Hospital School. He's always smiling! No pets, and my room is much bigger than I expected. I have a full-size bed with a closet, a table, a chair, and a shared bathroom. They have a small heater that you plug into the wall (voltage is 110V in general, but 220V for stoves) and stick into the large water bucket for a little bit to get hot water. To shower, the bucket is used. The water from the sink is quite dirty. I tried to get my washcloth wet and wondered why it was getting so dirty when I hadn't even used it yet, then realized it was the water. Meh. Not a problem. I also saw how to wash clothes using one of those ridged boards and water from a pila (storage tank for water made of cement), but they do have an electric washer and dryer if I need to do a lot. I'm going to take my shot at using the board when the time comes though.

They served me dinner and I helped cut the green beans which were used for my lunch the next day. Dinner consisted first of some sort of beef broth soup with spices in it to settle my stomach before eating the food, and it was delicious, albeit a bit salty. Next was a plate of plantains, half an avocado, egg omelet with onion, and a hard salty cheese. The plantains were prepared by cutting them into quarters or thirds, and then boiling them in some water until they are somewhat cooked. They didn't taste like bananas, but more like some very starchy food, almost like cooked potato. I ate all of it with some OJ, and it was good, but very rich. The family is very open because they've hosted 5 PCTs before so know what to expect. They told me right off the bat that if I didn't like something I should tell them because if I don't eat it and they end up throwing it away, it would be a waste of food, which is true. I did end up telling them about my seafood phobia, and they told me that in this region of Honduras, seafood is very expensive and extremely rare, which is good for me! They also said it was fine that I felt that way because they would feel the same if they traveled to say China where they eat dog.... I asked them what the typical fare in Honduras is, and the host dad said they eat rats >_<. Joking of course! They're a good family :) We watched some Toy Story 3 and Journey to the Center of the Earth on TV, as well as some game shows, all the while having Spanish conversation. Eventually I called it a night and unpacked my stuff and got ready for bed. That's when it began to rain. Not very loud, but I guess the thunderstorms occur in the evening. Oh, and there's a gecko in the house that likes to make noises sometimes :). Cuuuuute.

Day 3 – 6/24/10, Thursday
This morning I had cornflakes with raisins and milk, and on the side was sugar. The host father was wondering if I put sugar in my cereal, and I said not usually unless the flavor is pretty plain to be polite (I don't usually add sugar to cereal), but I tried it anyway and it wasn't so bad :). After breakfast, my host dad and I walked up the hill towards the training site and ran into some other PCTs. I was sweating so much after walking only 5 minutes! It is all mostly uphill, plus while the weather isn't extremely hot and humid, it is still warm and I was wearing slacks. Plus I tend to sweat a lot >_<. Luckily, we arrived at the turn-off into the training center just as the bus carrying the other PCTs arrived and hopped on.

My day consisted of going over policies in the Trainee Handbook, which has been updated throughout the years based on trainee actions and other things (I think we're the 17th group of PCTs to come to Honduras), went over the dress code, and how our Language Proficiency Interviews (LPI) will go. During the dress code lecture, our trainer was going over how we shouldn't wear spaghetti straps, but accidentally said “G-String” >_<. He is a really funny guy and knows how to make things interesting. He realizes that we get restless after a while so tries to throw in jokes to keep us awake. I'm actually very impressed with the training because it is so thorough and they really do take care of their PCTs/PCVs. The trainers are all Hondurans who have worked with the PC for several years and so have a great deal of experience and knowledge about what to do. Although this is just the first week and I'm very tired because training can be long and intense, I'm looking forward to when the real training begins next week. That will be much more language intensive since we'll all have completed our initial LPIs that determine what language level we'll be in. It's to better place us into smaller, more appropriate language classes so those of us with the same proficiency level can excel even faster.

We then headed off to learn “Survival Spanish”... it was uneventful. I am learning so much vocabulary though and really need to study!!

For lunch I had yellow rice mixed with green beans (the ones I helped cut), onions, and I think beef but I'm not too sure, and also not too sure what part. It was shredded but there were some other things on the meat that I couldn't identify... I'm terrible at telling what's what in meat. In another box were sliced tomatoes, and then an apple. We then had someone take individual photos of us to make our PC ID, then had more Spanish language classes, and finally a few more training lectures, but this time they performed skits for us, and they were the most hilarious things ever. They basically showed us what to do and what not to do in certain situations. For example, you should NEVER toss something to someone, even if it's a snack, a prize, anything. It's extremely offensive. I can understand that too, because as they mentioned in the skit, they are not dogs. The correct thing to do is hand the item to the person. Also, sarcasm isn't taken very well here. I can be a pretty sarcastic person so I'll have to watch myself!

After training was done for the day, a group of us walked back but took a shortcut trail back to the entrance of the training facility. It didn't really shave off too much time from the walk, but the view was really nice. It started to drizzle a bit but I made it home in time to miss the downpour. I spoke with the family about our days, and we had a dinner of these sort of tortilla sandwiches. The tortillas are made from corn, from scratch, and are much smaller than those in the U.S. They're about the size of a small pancake/silver dollar. The tortillas were fried and in between was melted quesillo (cheese), and on the top tortilla was ketchup (salsa) and sprinkled cheese. Also had chopped tomatoes on the side with Coke to drink. Very delicious. I showed them pictures of my family and friends, and because host dad asked what kind of music I liked, I let him listen to one of the songs... “Waiting (First State Remix)” by Dash Berlin and Emma Hewitt. Hahaha... oh trance. He put on my ginormous headphones and was bobbing his head to the beat like dancing. It was awesome. Apparently they listen to a lot of Reggaeton here since the tv channels have that kind of music.. I think. Anyway, they also showed me their photo albums of when their children were born. Very cute :). All the while, their daughter was trying to work a yo-yo but couldn't manage to, so I took a look at it and it was broken! Fixed it for her and then showed her how to do it, but she was afraid it was going to fall on the floor and make a loud noise. She tried it on the couch but there wasn't enough space for it to fall so she could bring it back up. Oh well, another day! Oh, host mom was very impressed at how much my Spanish improved after one day =].

Day 4 – 6/25/10, Friday
Today was very, very busy! We went over banking, the mail, medical stuff, and safety/security issues, in addition to our Survival Spanish. We have to take 2 malaria prophylaxis pills every week for our entire service and they taste sooo disgusting. But if it will lessen the effects of malaria then so be it. I am a bit worried about the diseases here, but it doesn't seem that PCVs have gotten very sick other than Dengue or diarrhea, etc. We also went over what vaccinations we will need, and I need a typhoid booster, and rabies shots, which will be given in early July.

Our language classes today were much more interactive than yesterday. We played several games, one called “Punk” (poonk) so that we could practice numbers and penalize the people who made mistakes. We made one guy to a chicken dance, and another roll on the floor, and I had to yell “Cockle-Doodle-Doo” very, very loud so the entire training site could hear me ='(. Le sigh. It was only because I forgot what number we were on >_<. We weren't the only class playing games though, others were running around the training center like they were on a scavenger hunt and only had a limited time to find everything. We also played something like Taboo and Musical Chairs. Pretty fun stuff.

We later had our Safety and Security Officer come give us an overview of the crime in Honduras, and the statistics were extremely sobering. Honduras has the highest crime and murder rate in the entire world, with 66.8 murders/100,000 people. The world has 8.8 and the US as 5.4. Latin America itself has 18. And the number of homicides have been increasing significantly over the years. It jumped from 2416 victims in 2005 to 5265 in 2009. He also explained that when people get robbed, the thieves usually have guns, and sometimes knives. They won't necessarily hold people at gunpoint, but may show that they have a gun under their shirt or are carrying a knife. Fortunately for me, the Municipal Development PCVs have a significantly smaller amount of victimization than the PCVs in other programs. w00t!

After training, we walked back towards our houses and decided to stop at the small cafe down the road to practice our Spanish with each other. We ordered some Coke, which came in the glass bottles, and it was less than a dollar.. I'm not really sure how much Coke costs in the states since I rarely drink soda, but that seemed pretty cheap to me. Went home later, and attempted to put up the mosquito net we all had to take with us. I couldn't reach the hook on the ceiling even by standing on the bed so I fashioned some sort of device made of a broomstick and a long hangar tied to it with string in order to hook the mosquito net loop onto the hook. And it worked! Host sister and babysitter were watching the entire time and we were all laughing and were so happy when I finally got it to work. It must have taken 20 minutes to figure it out. But.... then the net didn't cover my entire bed and I discovered 3 more loops on it :(. Host dad came home and helped do it for me. The problem was the ceiling was too high so he figured out how to use the string so the loops could attach to it lower than before.. Then he hammered nails into the curtain valance so that the two other net loops could go around them and it worked :). As the PC keeps reminding us, think of our small successes! And this was a very entertaining and fun small success for me.

Dinner included fried egg omelet style but nothing in it, the hard sour small blocks of cheese, fried plantains, chorizo, and tortillas. Very good :). The cheese will take some getting used to, however, but I mix it with some other item on my plate and it tastes pretty good.

One of the other PCTs visited to talk about plans for tomorrow after training, since we finish early and a bunch of us are going to a city nearby to visit the shops and coffee houses and internet cafes. We could only speak in Spanish of course, but it's definitely getting easier. I guess one group is going earlier to watch the US soccer game on the big screen tv, and another group of us is going a bit later.
I'm excited!

I have my LPI on Saturday, wish me luck!!

Day 5 - Saturday, June 26th, 2010
Ah, half day of training and then the weekend! I had my LPI first thing in the morning and was 10 minutes late :(. Well, technically I was at the training center early, but I wasn't aware that we were supposed to go directly to our LPIs once we got there... The lot of us was just hanging around outside waiting... Oh well. It went much better than I thought it would. I answered all the questions asked and was able to communicate and ask my interviewer questions effectively. I really hope I'm placed at a level close to what we have to achieve by the end of this training period. Maybe I'll even score at that level, who knows.

We played 4 team-building games today. First we split into 2 groups, and went with our respective facilitator. We formed a circle and had to toss a tennis ball to someone in the group and had to say their name until everyone was thrown the ball, just because there are so many of us and none of us knows everyone's names yet. Then we had to go in the same order and go faster and faster! Aiiii, that was a disaster..but we did pretty good and it was fun. The second game involved a thin rope. We all had to hold it with both hands in a circle, and close our eyes and form a square. The idea of this game was to build trust in what others were saying and was also about communication of course. For our next game, there was a square on the ground about 2 feet each side, and we all had to fit in there somehow, but couldn't touch the ground with anything other than our feet, and we had to hold whatever pose we formed for 30 seconds! If any part of our body was outside the square, we'd be dead. And there were 14 of us >_<. Our first few attempts failed, and we even had the idea of some of us girls piggy-backing on the guys' backs, but I don't think that would have worked. In the end, we did manage to do it. One guy went in the center and I went in as the second layer, and basically everyone else hung on to him and lifted their outside foot up in the air, and every time I felt the group tilting to one side, I'd try to balance it out.. I was pretty much doing the squats in there. My legs are freaking killing me now! Really fun activity though. Our last game included 3 long thick but thin widthwooden boards/planks, and we had to all make it across the “acid river” using only those boards and placing them on the platforms on the grass. If a board fell on the grass/in the acid river, we had to bring that board back to the beginning and start over with it. We ended up making it in 22 minutes! I thought balancing on those would be difficult but it wasn't so bad.. Overall, a fun day =].

After, I walked home, got my stuff ready, and headed to the bus stop a minute away to wait for the bus for the other city; it was going to be about a 15 minute trip. Another PCT joined me and we waited together. Bus finally came and we got on, just standing in the aisle as it proceeded to its next stops. Arrived at the final destination and joined the other PCTs at an outdoor restaurant. The soccer game of USA vs Ghana was on the TV so they were watching that and eating. I ordered pupusas mixtas, which is basically like a flat bread filled with quesillo (cheese) and frijoles (beans), like a quesadilla but the bread is different. Also ordered a banana smoothie made with milk (they have a water option) and it was sooo good. Fresh fruit of course, and all this was about $3.50. Prices are jacked up in Valle because a lot of tourists frequent it, but it's still pretty cheap. After lunch, some of us went to look for internet cafes. They all seemed to be full, but we managed to find one that had some computers available, and was much cheaper than the other one. I spent nearly an hour on it and it cost less than a dollar! It was a bit slow at first but picked up speed later on. They also have wifi, so I may visit on the weekends with my netbook. There are a lot of coffeehouses and pulperias there, and a really cute bakery. It's a nice little town. It started raining there and I unfortunately forgot my umbrella because I thought I had put it in my bag, but I put it in the other bag, and I didn't really have a raincoat.. but I did have a hood so that was good. Safe to say I was bit wet when I got home, but I changed into my pjs and hung out in the living room for a bit practicing my Spanish a bit more. We watched Toy Story 3 again, but of course I didn't understand much of it... =/. I can really tell that my ability to speak Spanish significantly decreases as the day grows longer and in the night time. Anyway, host mom and I are going to try to make cheesecake and fried rice tomorrow I think.. or cheesecake at some point but fried rice for sure tomorrow. She asked if I knew how to cook and I said that was like the only thing.. We'll see how that goes!