5 Months in Honduras...

Greetings again from Honduras. It’s another Sunday blog as this day seems to be the day where I have the most time to shinaggle around. Not sure that is a word but sounded great. I have now been in Honduras 5 months and in my site for 3 months. It is crazy how fast time flies. I have accompanied a video blog with this one too.

I just got back to a great trip in Yaramangila, about 2 and a half hours east of here, visiting a fellow volunteer and some friends. It was a like a trip to a “mountain getaway.” It was a breath of fresh air after some more crazy weeks. Work and life are getting unexpectedly stressful… but more on that later.

The political unrest continues. Former president Zelaya flies around Central America trying to gain support while the current interim government rejects all proposals and says it will hold out until the Nov. 29th elections.

The US and many other countries continue to pull back aid from Honduras. A lot of work is halting and volunteers are even seeing some of their counterparts and projects being downsized and even stripped of funding. The situation is still affecting the whole country.

I still feel safe, and Peace Corps has lifted all travel bans with the exception of needing special permission to go through the capitol of Tegucigalpa. This is where most demonstrations are taking place and are getting a little rowdy. It’s still up in the air how this all will end.

The US said they might not even recognize the Nov 29th election if the interim government is still in power. That would mean funds still being held past the elections. This could have a huge impact on aid to the country but we will see.

Work is going right along. Right now I am still working on getting my organizations website up, creating a new promotional look, and am about to start a new project at a local school called the World Map project. We will help them paint a new large map on the wall of their school to teach them geography. I am looking forward to it.

Things continue to be challenging here. Balancing life here is even harder than back home and I didn’t expect this. Work gets to me and it’s hard to say no to people when I know they really need help and I am their only source for a certain project. It’s hard to balance with so much on my mind. It’s a great lesson in patience, discovery, and finding fluidity to work successfully. It’s hard and definitely not what I expected to face here. But again, its part of the journey and the adventure drives me.

I visit friends and take moments of reflection to calm down and relax like the trip I took out to my friend’s mountain house. It was good times. He has a house that looks over the beautiful countryside. We sat and talked about Peace Corps, life, adventures, and challenges. It was a great time to catch up.

This journey seems to be half finding what is the best way to contribute to others, and half finding what I am all about; making new self-discoveries. Such is the journey, and such is life. So I’m taking the days as they come and not taking life too seriously…its fun, exciting, and all part of it. What times there are here in Honduras.

…until next time

P.S. Check out the video blog!