Congrats

Just wanted to congratulate my cousin Robert Wille and his beautiful wife to be Jaci Boydston today on their marriage, sorry I am going to miss it but I feel like a blog post just for you is just as special. haha. Enjoy your big day, I'll be thinking about you guys!

Getting back on the horse

September 13^th, 2011

            Nice little story I wanted to share with everyone. This past Saturday we went to a restaurant in the nearby town which had just opened up (we had some inside information and a hook up from another volunteer who is working with this town currently). The restaurant had a pool and was in a valley of sorts with a river running next to it, it was a very good location and very beautiful. Anyways, as we were sitting on the balcony our waiter came and asked us if we wanted to ride some of their horses (for free, they usually rent them out to the clients). Of course all of us wanted to take advantage of this situation and so we all said yes. We have one volunteer who was on the equestrian team in college so one of her goals all training was to ride a horse; needless to say she accomplished this goal. The restaurant had two horses that we were able to ride around the property with free reign; most of the others had not ridden a horse before so this was a first time experience for them. As for me I am very experienced in riding horses since on a family vacation to Colorado we rode trail horses for two hours or so, it all came back to me the moment I sat on the horse. I was able to get the horse to trot a little bit but he would not go much faster than that, probably for the best.

            Another volunteer who shall remain nameless was riding the horse for the first time; he was being a little cautious and rightfully so. Well he got caught next to a tree and was not sure how he was going to get out of the situation because if he kept going forward he would hit the branches and he did not know how to go backwards. It was a quite a predicament. Well he decided that he was going to grab ahold of a branch just in case the horse decided to go forward he could hang on the branch and not fall. As he predicted, the horse decided to go forward and so he was prepared holding onto the branch however he was not prepared when the branch snapped and he fell to the ground (It is okay to laugh, we all did and so did he). He got back up to the laughter of just about everyone; apparently falling off a horse translates into Spanish as funny too. Well after a few minutes of rehashing the hilarious events that just happened he decided to hop back on the horse (literally) and rode it around a few times. Just like the volunteer fell off the horse I know that throughout my time as a volunteer I will have countless times when I feel like I am doing something for the first time and I will no doubt fall. The important lesson that I must take is that I need to stand up, dust myself off, laugh at myself, and get right back on the horse.     

Sweet Name

September 12^th, 2011

            Alright big news to report, today we found out what our sites are going to be, aka where we will be living and working for the next 2 years. Before I ruined the surprise, I want everyone to know that my site has a sweet name, literally. My site is called Dulce Nombre de Copan which translates exactly to sweet name. My site is in the west of Honduras and is near to the borders of Guatemala, El Salvador, and the Copan Ruins. Dulce Nombre has around 1,100 people, one of those just happens to be another PCV who is a Municipal Development volunteer. She has been in site for a year already so she will be able to help me when I first arrive which will be nice. Dulce Nombre has a climate similar to where I am at now; the average temperature is between 75-85 and lots of rain during the rainy season. It is in the mountains of Honduras and supposed to be a very pretty site. I will be living with a host family for the next two years as well, I will have a host mom, host dad, two host brothers (young I believe), and another new host brother in January. I will have my own room and my own bathroom which will be really nice. I have been told that my host family has a coffee farm so that means that I am going to have to grow to like or at least accept coffee as a part of my life for the next two years. I have also been told that my host dad owns horses but I am not exactly sure about this rumor, I am hopping it is true and I can ride horses around my town. Also, according to a quick google search (the wonders of the internet) I believe there is another American living in my site who is a lay missionary from Philly. I believe that is pretty much all that I know about my site at this time, if you all have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

            Now a little bit about where I am going to be working over the next two years. I have three counterparts (host country nationals who I will be working with). My first counterpart is running an organization that works with students with special needs, which is right up my alley. From what I can tell at this point, I will be working on a lot with this organization because they have very few materials and very little training as well so it is almost a blank slate. They do however want to learn and improve themselves which I am sure will help me and them out tremendously. My next counterpart is working with a primary school (school is named John F. Kennedy, how fitting is that?), with them I will again be working on teacher training as well as T.E.A.M. (teaching English and methodology) to the teachers. The school also has a lot of different activities that I could help out with and so this counterpart will give me lots of different opportunities. My third counterpart is a librarian at the public library in my site, the library is a Riecken library (go here for more information: http://www.riecken.org/). I have an endless supply of things that I can do with this counterpart as well, the library has a youth group that I can work with which I believe will be my main project at the library. Also the library has free wifi so that is just spectacular news, I am officially medium development spoiled. Well like I said if you guys have questions please ask me somehow (email, comment, snail mail, etc.) and I will do my best to answer any and all questions. Really looking forward to finishing up training now and getting to work in my site.  

P.S. Dulce Nombre de Copan has a facebook page for those of you on facebook you can look through it and it has some great pictures, I am going to post some of my favorites below.

P.P.S. Posted more photos from my life at this moment:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150361390422359.405401.593887358&l=58f2600c62&type=1

Never Forget

September 11^th, 2011

            I was walking to my 3^rd period music class with Mr. Schutt, I was in 7^th grade and school had just begun a couple of weeks ago. I was getting more and more used to middle school and did not have a serious care in the world but brought with me many petty cares such as how does my hair look, am I wearing the right clothes, etc. I had your average seventh grade mentality, little did I know this was about to change forever. As I neared the class, I saw my twin brother Joe and he stopped me in the hall right outside of our class, next to the cafeteria. He asked me if I heard yet to which I replied I had no idea what he was talking about. He began telling me about how two planes were flown into the world trade center in New York City and America was under attack. I did not fully understand what was happening, nor did I understand the significance of what had happened but I did know that something was not right, especially when I began to see how the teachers were reacting. We sat all through music class in dead silence with our eyes glued to the television. As I went through the rest of that day, everyone, especially the adults, seemed to be in a trance and simply going through the motions like their mind was in a place far from our tiny school in Plainfield. As school ended I remember that Joe and I walked back home with our friend Brian Goff and once we got home our Mom (my memory is blurry here… so you can help me out mom) told us to go outside and play some baseball rather than continue to watch the horrible events that were unfolding right in front of our eyes on the television screen. I remember playing baseball and still not fully understanding what was going on nor understanding the great impact that this event would have on my life, the live of the American people, and the world. The rest of the night is a blur to me and I do not remember much, perhaps I have blocked it out of my memory or perhaps I just did not get the significance of the events. I do remember discussing the events the next day in a lot of my classes and the teachers trying to explain this incredibly difficult topic to all of us. Those are the events that I remember from 10 years ago today.

            More than the events I remember the reactions, I remember the first responders who bravely went in when everyone else was running out, I remember the spirit of good will being reawakened within us, I remember everyone going out of their way to help each other out, I remember the flood of patriotism and all of the American flags that adorned every household, I remember the worldwide response that let us know we were not alone in our suffering. These are the things I remember most. It is sad that we needed a tragedy like 9/11 to remind us how we should treat each other every day, while at the same time it was reassuring to know that every human being has the ability to treat each other well and that we as a human race can come together in times of great need and provide for each other, just as we are supposed to. The hijackers on 9/11 were trying to destroy our buildings, our way of life, and most of all our confidence and American spirit. While they managed to destroy our buildings, and affected our way of life forever, they were never able to touch our American spirit. They were never able to touch the human spirit that lives inside of all of us worldwide and connects us as brothers and sisters. They reminded us that human beings can sink to unbelievable depths and commit incredible acts of hatred but also that we have it in our capacity to soar into the heavens and commit the very best acts of love and kindness. The latter is the very best of human beings and that love and kindness will always outshine the darkness of hatred. Never Forget.