Beautiful Mess

August 4^th 2011,

           Today marks our fourth week in country which is technically 28 days however I am considering it the one month mark. It really does not feel like I have been gone for a month already, I am amazed at how fast the time has gone down here. I am also amazed to think back to a month ago and remember how bad my Spanish was, how unknown the culture was, and how much I just did not know in general. Looking back now, though it has only been a month I know so much more. My Spanish has really improved and I understand a whole lot of what I hear all the time, sometimes I will even think in Spanish and even dream in Spanish from time to time (though that may be due to the malaria pills we are taking that produce “vivid dreams” as a side effect and let me tell you they really do. Every morning we share with each other our weird and vivid dreams from the night before. Just last night I had a dream that me and another volunteer were riding a bus here and we had a lot of luggage with us, when we got to our stop for some reason we left our luggage on the bus because I believe we thought that we would just catch the same bus again when we were ready to leave. Once we got off we realized we needed to find that bus and get our luggage, we went to P.C. headquarters and called in some major favors from what I remember however when we found the bus finally in the bus depot our luggage (surprisingly) was not there… At this point unfortunately I woke up so I am not sure how we solved our problem but I remember it not being a very big deal. Anyways sorry for the long tangent). Getting back to the point I cannot even imagine how much more I will know at the end of this experience and I am getting really excited about that opportunity.
            Today we got some training on how to teach students to brush their teeth using a program from Colgate. The thought here is that students who know how to brush their teeth will have better oral health which leads to better overall health and lowers the burden on the countries dentists and doctors. It is an interesting approach because all of the materials are donated by Colgate so they get some free advertising as well as future customers; it is really a win-win situation for everyone involved. The person helping out with the training was a volunteer who is actually leaving tomorrow. As I sat there and thought about what it will feel like to be in that situation two years from now some of me wanted to switch places with her and already be done with the journey, completed everything I came here to accomplish and be headed back to life in the states. While the other part of me, and ultimately the part that I have agreed to upon further thinking, realized that I need to take my time and just enjoy the experience that I have been so blessed to receive. Before I know it these two years will be up and I will be on a plane headed back for the states, just like this first month has flown by. Never again will I have this opportunity to be immersed in a new culture where I can learn countless new things every day. Everyone volunteer that we have talked to has said that around the four week mark the novelty of the situation wears off and you begin to think “Whoa I’m going to be here for two years, what a mess I have gotten myself into.” After today, I have to admit that would agree with all those volunteers however what a beautiful, beautiful mess I have gotten myself into.
         I cannot wait for these next two years of my life. In life people always seem to want to be living in the past, everyone talks about the days of high school, and the days of college, and then the mid-twenties, and so on and so forth. It seems to me that not enough people are really living in the present and accepting the amazing gift that is each day. I myself have been guilty of it many times, however I am really trying to live each day to the fullest (I know it’s a cliché but it was between that and carpe diem…) and enjoy every second of this beautiful mess.

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

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150316049102359.392045.593887358&l=60b522cd52&type=1