Adjusting to Life as a PCT

August 2^nd, 2011

            Well I am not sure when I will be able to post this because currently we have not had internet since Sunday. I am not exactly sure what the deal is because when I talk to my host mother she makes it sound like the internet is not working however my host brother told me that the company came here and cut the line because we had not paid for it. Now the validity of both of that information is up to debate because my host brother is 6 and both of them were speaking Spanish. So that is what I think is going on, I could be way off we will see.
            Let’s see since I last posted I had a pretty busy weekend, on Saturday morning we went for a run as a big group of us we ran close to 3 miles probably in the mountains here and saw some amazing sites. The beauty of this country surprises me every day. After that I washed my clothes (which are still hanging up outside because it has been raining on and off for the past 3 days) and cleaned my room. I then showered and shaved, at this point I thought I had done a lot in the day and I looked at my watch at it was only 11 in the morning. So I encountered a problem that all PCV’s encounter, being bored. It is an interesting problem to have because you are in a new country where there is so much to see and do but at the same time you do not yet have access to all of that. So I felt guilty just sitting and watching tv for an hour or so and sitting in my room reading. It was a very odd feeling. After killing a few hours some of us volunteers headed to the next town over and killed some more time which was nice. I came back and watched tv for another hour and then went to sleep. Forgot to mention that usually if I am bored I can play with my host brothers but on the weekends they are not home because they go to their dad’s house which is about 5 minutes away.
            On Sunday I went to church and then played around with my neighbors, myself and another volunteer tried to teach them a few card games as well as card tricks. It was difficult but they seemed to have picked up one of the card tricks and the card game of war. After that, we went to Valle again and while we were there we ran into some other Gringos. We found out that they were from all over the world but many of them were from the states and they were here in Honduras as part of an organization that provides care to Hondurans who are born with congenital heart problems. They come down here 4 times a year and perform the surgeries; one of the members actually lives in our town and is a neighbor to one of the PCT’s. He was a very interesting person, he was a priest down here and them he met his now wife down here and he left the church, married her, and now lives here and works with this organization. They wanted us to join them and they bought us drinks and food which was really nice of them. One of the interesting things that I learned in talking with them was that the government of Honduras really likes their group because when they perform these surgeries they not only reduce future medical costs but they also prolong the lifetimes of the patients meaning future taxpayers. After spending a few hours with them we said thank you and went back to our houses.
            Yesterday we got the chance to go visit a volunteer in his site and see exactly what a volunteer can be doing in site. The site was fairly remote and we really needed the four wheel drive vehicles that we use, the ride there was amazing as we were driving through cloud forests and saw some amazing sites. I tried taking some pictures but I don’t think they really did it justice because we were on the move and also just because I don’t think a camera could really capture the beauty of these things. When we arrived we watched the volunteer perform a session with some kids about how to be an entrepreneur. It was very cool to finally get a chance to see what exactly the volunteer lifestyle can entail. I think it really rejuvenated everyone as most of us where kind of starting to get over the honeymoon stage and starting to get a little (for lack of a better word) bored with the Spanish and technical classes schedule. One of the biggest challenges in talking with volunteers and everyone involved seems to be the ability to stay self-motivated. Usually there is not anyone in charge of you at your site and you are basically in charge of how much work that you want to do. If you want to travel around and see the country you can basically do that, on the other hand if you want to do a ton of different projects that really help out the community you can do that as well. Obviously most volunteers are the latter but there are some volunteers who do not spend as much time in their site as they should. One of the really positive activities that I think will help with this challenge is that we made a list of the top five reasons we are here. My list was as follows:
1.      Help people/Calling from God
2.      Learn new culture and language
3.      Go outside of my comfort zone
4.      Gain a non U.S.A. perspective on the world
5.      Go on an adventure of a lifetime

I feel as though I made a good list for myself and it is something that I will be able to look at when times are hard and hopefully that will remind me as to why I am doing this and reenergize me to continue doing my work to the best of my ability.  

P.S. Our internet had been out for like 4 days and now it is back however I am not sure why it went out so it could happen again. Just an F.Y.I. for everyone, so if it takes a while for me to respond to you in an email, etc. you know why.

P.P.S. New pictures

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