Random Post Friday

November 18^th, 2011

            It is time for another RPF, and you guys are in for what I feel is a treat this week at least it is going to be better than last week’s RPF… I hope. This week I have decided to tackle the movie question that Jobro offered up to me last week. For review purposes, the simple question is if a movie was being made about your life, what would it be called and who would be the lead playing the part of yourself. I am a little embarrassed to say that I spent a rather large amount of time thinking about this question over the past week probably close to 3 or 4 hours which could have been better spent helping people most likely BUT the entertainment of my readers is my number one goal. So, without further ado I present to you the screenplay of my life.

            Obviously the biggest question that I encountered in this question was what in the world would I call it, this is the section that took so much of my brainpower and yet I still feel like I have not come up with a great name. I did however come up with a great list of throw away names and here are some of the titles that did not quite make the cut:

1.      Hanley, James Hanley Agent 008 (this could be a series with such titles as From Honduras with Love, and well that was the only James Bond title that I could think of a pun for so maybe it is just a one movie series)

2.      Slim Jim

3.      The Helping Handsley (see what I did there?)

4.      Mr. Hanley’s Wonder Emporium

Really just a terrible list of movie titles that I compiled there, but luckily I also came up with some others that are actually a little bit better which I will now try to explain. I am going to outline the top three candidates and then pick the winner. First candidate is, “On Shoulders of Giants.” The thinking behind this title is that I fully realize that I would be nowhere in my life without the people that have helped to raise me and made me the person that I am today. The title is a shout out to my family and friends because while I am in a great place in my life right now I owe it all to you who guys who have allowed me to stand on your shoulders to see farther than those before me (or at least I think that’s how the quote goes…) Second candidate is, “A Family in Faith,” because my family has made me exactly who I am today and that includes all of my aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, grandparents, cousins. Without these people in my life I would not be who I am today, so with this movie title I am paying some homage to them because I really don’t want a move just about me anyways.  The last and final candidate in the category of movie title is, “An Education in Faith.” So this title has a two of the most important things in my life, my faith and my education. Being down here in Honduras I have really realized just how powerful education is and how lucky I am/was to have received a quality education, also my faith is the most important thing I have in my life and my life and especially this journey here in Honduras has taught me so much about my faith and if I just trust in God things are going to turn out great for me. The winner is “An Education in Faith” though I really liked “A Family in Faith” as well so maybe “An Education in Faith and Family?” This movie title pays homage to my family and focuses on all of the important things in my life so it looks like we have a true winner, “An Education in Faith and Family” is it.

            Alright now that the question that I tried to actually take seriously aka made it not fun is over we can move onto the jokes or attempted jokes (I think I have become unfunny since I left the states… assuming that I was funny in the first place (yea I just reused a joke Paters, told you I was losing my humor)). As for who is going to play me in the movie it is obvious that they have to be tall, dark, handsome, and have a receding hairline also bonus points for being funny and not crazy aka most celebrities of today. The most obvious candidate is Jobro because well he looks just like me, only problem is as far as I know he has no acting skills whatsoever and may be a bit self-conscience about the receding hairline not too sure? Next most obvious is Will Arnet because I have been told on numerous occasions that I look just like him or he looks just like me, whatever it is. I do not see it myself but you decide for yourself with the following picture…

Twins?

Will is for sure hilarious as anyone who has seen an episode of Arrested Development knows however I think he may be a little bit crazy so we will go ahead and put him as an understudy, a role that I think he will be good at because he has Tobius to give him advice. Next three candidates are simply because I really like them as actors, I do not think that they have any resemblance to me as a person physical or personality wise. However I really enjoy Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, and Alfred (from the Batman series) so they have been added as candidates but since they have no resemblance to me I don’t think they are going to work out either. Side Note: I am so terrible with names of celebrities right now, it was amazingly hard for me to think of possible actors/actresses/directors so I am guessing that I missed some obvious great choices and for that I apologize, I blame Honduras. So finally we have come to the moment of truth, we are about to find out who is going to play me in the new blockbuster hit movie “An Education in Faith and Family.” Now this man I believe fits the four main points of being talk, dark, handsome, and has a receding hairline (I think…) I do not think he is crazy however seeing as how I do not know him I can not be so sure. I also feel that he would be a really funny and interesting guy to hang out with so he basically fits all of the requirements and on top of that he has the same first name. I of course am speaking about Jimmy Stewart! Congratulations Jimmy Stewart you have landed the chance of a lifetime to play me in the new straight to DVD hit movie, “An Education in Faith and Family.”

No movie would be complete of course without a love interest, however without currently having a love interest in my real life this part is really up in the air. My thinking however was that if I choose my dream girls here maybe that girl will show up in my real life soon enough, power of positive thinking right? I think most people are aware of what I am looking for in a woman so in just a few words I will describe her for the benefit of the rest of the internet community (If you know anyone who matches this description please send them my way, no I am not desperate at all…). My dream women has dark hair, is tallish (5’7” – 6’2”, yea I have a height restriction but seeing as how I am 6’5” hugging anyone under 5’7” is like hugging a little child and I don’t really want that in my dream women), is a women of faith, and most importantly is wholesome (I don’t feel as though I need to define this). So in my mind there are two girls who fit that bill in the celebrity word (actually don’t know about height, but the camera angles can take care of that) and they are Rachel McAdams and Kate Beckingsale. Since Rachel McAdams has always been my celebrity crush I am going to go with her and maybe I can even get her to reenact my favorite scenes of “The Family Stone” for me in her free time on site.

Last question is who is going to direct this lifetime movie, again for the fault of being in Honduras I could honestly only think of three directors very sad. First director I could think of was Stephen Speilburg however I just felt like I could do better than that so I kept thinking. I next came up with Stanley Kubrick and that was an appealing option because let’s face it that man really has a gift for making movies. A little bit more thinking and I came upon the obvious choice, Christopher Nolan. This man is my favorite director and I think he could do some amazing things with my life story to make it way more interesting and I also think he could do something really exciting with my death (*spoiler alert* sorry for ruining the end of the movie). So there it is my life in movie format. Please feel free to comment and tell me what I got wrong or add your own ideas.

Holy water answered

November 15^th, 2011

            I got an answer to the holy water question that I wanted to share with everyone here. The answer was provided to me by a man who is living down here in Santa Rosa as a lay missionary named John “Juancito” Donaghy and he does a lot of work with the Catholic church here. He has much more experience in the Latin American church. He writes:

Holy water is big here in Honduras - but people bring bottles (include plastic Pesi bottles) to have the priest bless the water. Then they bring it home and use ti for all sorts of "blessed" purposes. I don't recall seeing any holy water fonts here in Honduras. First of all, I imagine if they were there someone would come along and grab the holy water to take home. Secondly, they might be pretty dirty after a few people used them. Finally, it's just not the custom here. As for the few people who receive communion, there are several possible reasons. One is that they might not be married in the church. They also might not be baptized - or made their first communion (as you note.) But I think the main reason is a deep reverence. Also some people think that you have to go to confession just before going to communion. But I think a higher percentage receive here than I saw in El Salvador years ago.

Feel free to follow along with his blog as well at http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com/ he has some great stuff to say as well.

The Diplomada

November 14^th, 2011

            Alright I want to apologize for my RPF, it was really bad and I hope I haven’t lost all of my readers I am hoping that I can make up for it with this week’s RPF. I came up with a great idea in which I discuss who would play me in a movie made about my life and other details of said movie such as what it would be named, etc. I am going to put in lots of time thinking about it so hopefully it is well thought out and exciting. Also another note, if you want to “text” me download the app pingchat on your smartphone and then search for me I think my name is just Jim Hanley. So that is exciting news, looking forward to being able to communicate more with family and friends. It really is amazing that we live in a day and age when I can communicate with someone so far away from me with just the touch of a few buttons. I am not sure how the people in the Peace Corps back in the day did it, but I respect them so much more than I already did. I cannot imagine only being able to communicate with my family through letters and occasional phone calls if I was so lucky, so once again those Peace Corps volunteers who have gone before me I take my hat off to you I am truly amazed.

            Alright I want to share a funny story that happened to me this past week, it involves a language miscommunication, some mystery, and really does a nice job of pointing out some of the common issues that PCVs here in Honduras have to deal with. So please, sit back relax and enjoy a little laugh at my expense…

            It was a rainy Thursday morning here in Honduras and I was headed out to the aldeas with one of my counterparts (we will call her Mrs. Purple) and my site mate Jenna (we will call her Jenna) to give a charla about basic parenting topics to a group of women from the community. I am using the term giving a charla loosely because I was really not giving them at all instead I would sit in the back of the room and observe as I was using the opportunity to get to know the aldeas and the people. At 8:30, my phone rings and it is one of my counterparts (we will call him Mr. Brown) and he tells me that there is an emergency and that he needs me to go to Santa Rosa and pick up a diploma at a hotel so that my other counterpart (we will call her Mrs. White) could go to study in Spain. You see, there are a lot of scholarships that are offered around this time of the year here in Honduras so I was assuming that she needed this diploma for a scholarship application. Not knowing what else to do, I agreed to do it for him and went to tell my site mate my situation. I did not even have time to tell Mrs. Purple where I was going because Mr. Brown told me that I had to make the nine o’clock bus and seeing as how it was eight thirty and I was in an aldea I had to walk very quickly up a mountain back into town to get to the bus in time. I did just that, and what do you know the bus did not show up until nine thirty (should have known, buses are never on time…)

            When the bus finally did show up I boarded the bus and as I went to Santa Rosa I texted Mr. Brown asking him where I should bring the diploma once I got back into town. Mr. Brown told me I would be coming back tomorrow, this obviously confused me because Santa Rosa is only about an hour bus ride away from me and I was expecting to return before lunch that same day. As I sat very confused on the bus I slowly started to realize that I had in fact misunderstood what Mr. Brown had asked me to do however at this time I had no idea what I was really going to be doing. Mr. Brown told me that once I got there Mrs. Green would explain everything to me. Well I arrived and found Mrs. Green, she did not really explain anything to me but I did realize that I was at a training for people who work with persons with special needs. Mrs. Green lead me up to the room where the training was taking place and I sat there in a daze until it was time for lunch and I was able to talk with Mrs. Green and Mrs. White about what I was doing here and what exactly all this was. This talk was very short and I learned no new information other than learning that this was what is called a diplomada and is basically a class that goes on for six months with 2 classes every month and this class was covering topics in special education.

            Well I sat through the rest of the afternoon until afternoon snacktime (yes there is afternoon snack time, as well as morning snack time here in Honduras…) and I was finally able to really sit down with Mrs. Green and Mrs. White to discuss what I was doing there. I explained to them that I studied special education for 4 years and that I did not understand what I was doing here and why they wanted me to take this class. They told me that my spot was all paid for and that if I did not go to every single class than I would forfeit the spot as well as have to pay a large monetary fine, after all I have signed something saying just that (I did not such thing…), or so they said. I explained to them that I knew that I would miss some of the days because of Merl’s wedding and also because of different training that I have with the Peace Corps, they talked it over and decided that it was okay if I missed a few days and it was okay if I just made it to the days that I could make it to. I still was not understanding why I was in this class and how in the world I got enrolled, not to mention I did not want to be in it because there was homework. So I tried to explain to them that my spot in this class would be so much more beneficial if it was used by someone else in my community who is interested in the subject. They did not really seem to understand my logic that was I trying to use, this misunderstanding may have been due to my still evolving Spanish however.

            So it was set, I would be in this class and would come to the classes that I could make it to, but I would still be responsible for all of the homework. When I say all of the homework, I mean all of the homework as well because you see here in Honduras cheating is not looked down upon, it is seen as you helping out your friend. So when I told Mrs. White that I could help here with any questions she had in the class she promptly handed me a pen and paper and told me what pages I could find the homework on. Finally, to finish up this lovely day I was told that the class was also tomorrow, Friday and that I had to also bring a printed out copy of my resume along with two photos of myself and fill out a couple forms for the next day. At this point in the day, I was actually mad and that is rather rare from me but I was just sick of the lack of communication and surprises. I explained that I would not be coming the next day because I had a previous commitment which they already knew about and I would not be turning in all of those forms with the pictures and my resume because I did not have any place to print them out and no way of returning the forms to Santa Rosa for the next day. Now I could have in reality gotten that stuff printed out and sent to Santa Rosa for the next day but like I said I was a little angry at this point in the day and also I did not want to turn in any forms because of the fact that they told me that if I missed I would have to pay a lot of money so I did not want anything becoming official.

            Well they accepted that I would not be coming the next day and that I would not be sending the forms for the next day as well though I do not think that Mrs. Green was all that happy about it and when I finally got home for the night through some text messages I was able to figure out that Mr. Brown was also upset at me (or so I believe). I did not go the next day and did not hear anything more about the topic until today when I went to R.B.C. and talked with Mrs. White. I again explained to her that it makes much more sense for someone else who is interested in the subject from the community to take my position instead of wasting it on me and what do you know she agreed with me. Even better, she said that she knew someone who is interested and she would call Mr. Brown to see if a switch could be made. So that is more or less the full story up to this point, I am not sure what Mr. Brown is going to say or whether or not I am going to have to stay in the class. I should for sure know by this Thursday as there is a meeting with all of my counterparts and my boss (previously scheduled) in which this topic will surely be discussed. I will be sure to update everyone on this story as it develops…

            So, from that story you can see that communication here in Honduras is not the best and it certainly is not done ahead of time. If I am told something 2 days before hand that is almost a miracle, most of the time it is closer to one day before hand. Another of the issues that is really common here besides the lack of communication is the fact that people do not really think about how best to utilize the resources that are available to them. For example, I am a resource for the people here in my site and my counterparts thought it would be productive if I spent a good chunk of my time in a class learning about a subject that I already know about instead of teaching other about that subject. Another example is that they wanted to use my spot in this class on me, what a waste of an opportunity when that spot could be given to someone who is interested in the topic and would learn so much and then be able to share that knowledge in the community for years to come. I am sort of like a fruit while I am here in Dulce Nombre, I am only going to be ripe for two years and the people here need to squeeze all that they can out of me because after those two years I am gone and they can never squeeze that juice out of me again.  

P.S. That last paragraph about Honduras is by no means all encompassing, there are so many great people here who really want to work and do a great job of working with us volunteers. The last paragraph is simply more of a culturally overview of what can happen when working in this culture and what from time to time definitely does happen. So, please do not get the wrong idea of Honduras and just see that they have their flaws just like everyone else.  


P.P.S. new pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150443350407359.422760.593887358&type=1&l=0ee14885e5