Vaya Pues

Hello everyone,

Greetings once again from Ojojona. In case you were wondering my title "Vaya Pues" is a saying here in Honduras. It essentially means "alright then" or “okay”…so I think. I say it all the time then is immediately followed by a laugh...so maybe I don't get it. Moving on... It’s been quite a time here in training and everything continues to go well. Since the last time I posted much has happened. Last week was Semana Santa here in Honduras, which we know as Holy Week. Most people here have the whole week off until Easter. We had Wed-Fri off into the weekend. It was nice to get some time off from the language and technical classes. On that Wednesday we hung out and had a cultural day where all the trainees and our host families went to our training building and had a mix of cultures day. The boys sang “My Girl” acapela while the girls taught line dancing to “Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy.” It was a fun event. Most other days during this week we just hung out and enjoyed the time off.

After this week was over we took an amazing trip to the South Pacific beaches of Honduras. We studied the tourism there and interviewed some business owners. This vacation was pretty damn amazing. We first arrived to one beach close to the city of San Lorenzo in the south. We unpacked and then enjoyed the paradise like atmosphere. The water was warm and the sunset was awesome. We had a bonfire that night and played some team-building games. If you don’t know I love the beach and this trip was awesome.

The next day we packed up and headed further south. We hopped on a lancha (big boat with an outboard for transportation) and went to our own private beach. We had an hour to go in the water and enjoy. There are lots of pictures of this in the video so check it out. Then we hopped back on the boat and went to the island of Amapala. There we studied the tourism office and finished up at a restaurant on the beach. We were served some of the best seafood in the south. It was simply amazing. I felt right at home on the beach. After the meal we had to take the lancha again to the cars and we headed home. A great two days it was. My tourism group ended up making a promotional video for the restaurant we went to and it was pretty funny.

Training is going great. Last week I found out I was bumped up a level in my Spanish class and am now an Intermediate Mid. This means I now meat the requirements to be sworn in. It was a good feeling. Learning Spanish in general is getting tougher as there is still a huge amount to learn. I try to use humor to keep it lively but sometimes the humor doesn’t translate and it’s really awkward. One of the toughest things about the culture and language is not being able to express myself in the way I want to.

I guess this is now one of the lessons of Peace Corps. Us trainees talk a lot about how different the culture is. Sometimes we catch ourselves talking about the ways in which the people here are ridiculously behind. It’s a common trend amongst new and veteran volunteers. But when it comes down to it, it’s the way it is. This is the reality. This is whey we are here. One of the toughest jobs we have here will be changing behaviors. We are learning those techniques, but it will certainly be tough.

So I hope you enjoy the video…it’s a lot longer this time but there are some great pictures. Also, I know the blogs have been choppy and blunt but there is a lot going on here. I try to let the videos tell the stories.

And I know I have said this before but feel free to email me anytime with additional questions. I will respond as soon as I can.

My email: balemos@gmail.com

Until next time…much love