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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Fathers Day...and yeah, it's wet here

Happy Fathers day. I am no father (I don’t think…just kidding…hopefully) but I want to say Happy Father’s Day to great man, my father, and two other great men, my two grandfathers. Thanks for your continuing support and guidance. Here’s to you.

And sorry for taking a long time for this blog, as usual the weeks have passed quickly under my nose. So here I sit on a Sunday in Honduras. The rain is pouring down hard as it has been every afternoon/night this week. The only problem today is that my washed clothes are hanging outside to dry. Ah well, I guess they will just get a second rinse…a little more freshness. On Friday it was raining harder than I have ever seen in my life…it was like movie rain. The streets turned into rivers. A group of us decided to go out to pizza and I decided that even though I didn’t have an umbrella or rain jacket I would take on the two blocks of down pour. This equals a terrible idea. By the time I made it to the restaurant I might as well have jumped in a pool. Needless to say it was a wet dinner.

All in all I am warming up to Santa Rosa here. It’s been over a month in site and it has flown by. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed. Projects got thrown at me right away and dealing with change was tough. As time goes I begin to figure it out. I am meeting more people and feeling more at home. The work continues to pull at me as I try to figure out what types of projects will be the best for this big community. Since my main counterpart, and well, office, is so big and developed, I haven’t begun to explore any personal work with the people directly. Right now I am developing a new website for this NGO, doing graphic design work for the promotions office, and attempting to develop a weekly TV show. I am not sure when the TV show will take off but the others are up and running. Not exactly what one thinks about when doing Peace Corps right? I didn’t think so either. Funny thing is I didn’t know I was neither a web designer nor a graphic designer. I am teaching myself quickly and it is fun actually. While the work is fun I am going to continue to explore more grass roots and needs based work in the town.

The culture I am beginning to soak up too and making friends is an important part. Soccer brings everyone together in Latin America and it did for our office during the USA vs Honduras soccer game. A lot of us got together and watched it at a co-workers house. It was the Hondurans, the German volunteers here in town, and us Peace Corps Volunteers together in one place for the event. It was the whole gathering against us, the North Americans. In Latin America calling yourself an “American” is no bueno. Here they see themselves as Americans too as they live in Central America and others in South America. They remind me that the word America is a Latin American name after someone in Columbus’ exploration party who claims both continents are indeed one big America. They do have a strong point…but I digress. Anyway, so USA was victorious and we gloated a little, but the Hondurans were gracious in defeat, and we all decided we would continue late into the night celebrating.

The adventures continue here in Honduras and I love them. I have visited many sites on day trips to explore more of Honduras and the west. I had to take another trip to Tegucigalpa and took my first bus ride from my site to the Peace Corps office. The 8 ½ hour bus ride is not so bad and I get to see the beautiful countryside.

I also have my quiet moments where I sit and ponder about my time here thus far and of course my friends and family in the states whom I miss very much. This is a very tough part. Everyday I wish I could see them and have some good times together. But life here is an eye opener and speaks a lot about the country we are from, our quality of life and its role in the global community. Life just isn’t the same in other parts of the world and everyday we need to remember how fortunate we are to be from the country we are…and be proud of that. We need to remember that we are a global community and whatever we can do to get others going with us, to work as if we are all a team and not in competition, will only make us all stronger. This is why I chose to do Peace Corps, and I will do my best to make what small change I can, to give those who have so much less than us, the opportunity to take a step ahead. I try to remember this in my work, and try to put it to action.

Whoo yeehaaa…alright got a little serious there and this blog is getting long and I have got to go. Again Happy Fathers Day to all fathers and miss you all in the states. I have a video here too but just want to note that I might be writing more and doing videos less; every couple of blogs. Maybe I should just take more pictures. We will see how it goes though.

…Until next time

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