Happy Birthday Brigid/RPF

November 25^th, 2011

            I would like to preface this week’s RPF with a very important news bulletin, “Happy Birthday Brigid Hanley!” The big one-eight, sorry that I am not home to be able to celebrate the big day with you but I hope you have a great day because you deserve it. You have a great letter coming your way in the mail which is supposed to be coming there quicker or else I was played by the Honduran mail system (highly possible…). Alright with that announcement out of the way I would like to move onto the RPF for this week. This week’s RPF, in honor of Turkey Day being yesterday, is going to revolve around animals and how they do not get absolutely bored out of their mind, and which animal has to be the most bored of the rest.

            This idea all started as I was walking to the school the other morning and I walked by some cows that we standing on the side of the road not doing much which is a typical sight here in Honduras. I did not think much of it at the time and I went about the rest of my morning. On the way back to my house for lunch, I walked past the same cows and they were literally standing in the same exact spots as they had been when I passed them earlier in the morning. Now these cows could have moved around while I was gone but did some great work to get back into the exact same spots that they were in before, while I do not want to say these cows were not capable of it I do not think it is highly likely. That means that these cows for literally did nothing but stand in the exact same spot for four hours, and I was reminded of what my high school tennis coach, Mr. Bayer used to tell people when they were frustrated during a match. He would always say (in his most relaxed voice), “Just think of the cows, they are just sitting in the field chewing their cud, not a care in the world” (this was supposed to calm you down, and surprisingly it worked rather well). The other day I realized that statement is entirely true and cows really do not have any cares in the world because they really do not do anything all day just chew cud and maybe wander about for more cud. I figure that cows must therefore be incredibly bored; I mean that is what they do for their entire lives.

            I then tried to think of other animals and if they also probably had really boring lives as well and the answer is that yea most of them probably do have fairly boring lives. However I could not think of any animal that has a more boring life than the cow. Think about it, any animal that can fly automatically has a cooler life than the cow because they can go exploring and fly whenever and wherever they want; you cannot tell me you would ever be bored if you had wings and could fly. The next group of animals that I eliminated was any animal that lives in the water/can swim because again, swimming is just plain old fun. So that basically left the animals that live on land to sort through and every animal that I could think of seems to have a more exciting life that a cow. I do not know if there is any specific reason for me thinking that other than my obvious discrimination against cows, but if someone can name be an animal with a more boring life than the cow I would like to hear about it. Please if you think of said animal, leave it in the comments section below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24^th, 2011

            Well happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I hope that everyone enjoyed this great day and took some time to reflect on everything that they have to be thankful for in their lives. I know I did, however I am not sure how many Hondurans did because Thanksgiving is not a celebrated holiday down here. So in order to spread this American tradition a bunch of the volunteers from out here in the west all gathered together yesterday to make a large Thanksgiving feast at a local girl’s orphanage in Santa Rosa. We spent most of yesterday cooking all throughout the day and then we were able to serve our incredible meal at night for the girls, which numbered around 70. There was 5 turkey’s, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, gravy, biscuits, fruit salad, salad, potato salad, broccoli casserole, corn casserole, two different types of stuffing, baliadas (Honduran food in case the girl’s did not like what we prepared for them), cranberry sauce, 4 cakes, and 4 pies. The four pies were contributed by me and another volunteer from my group named Julie and I have to say, after a rough start we really pulled together and make some delicious pies 2 apples and 2 banana creams. You can drool over the pictures below because they were really delicious. After the dinner we played a little pickup basketball before having a little late night serenade by the girls, complete with guitar playing. It was a really great time and a great experience and a great way to remember just how blessed I am to have everything that I have and everything that I have had in my life, both materialistic and non-materialistic.

Top one is the first attempt and one below is the second attempt. Obviously we learned.

banana cream pies

           I really do have a lot to be thankful for, I have all of my family and friends in my life still and they are the greatest family and friends that I could ever hope for, yea I’m talking about you! Of course, I love and miss you all dearly. I am also incredibly thankful for this amazing opportunity that I have been given to live and work within another whole culture. I am learning a new language, meeting tons of new people, learning new life perspectives, and getting the opportunity to help people in need with a skill(s) that I have been blessed with. This experience that I have been given is helping me to grow as a person while at the same time teaching me so much about the world as a whole. I have so much more to be thankful for which I will not list here but save for my gratitude list simply because I don’t want to bore you all with the small miracles of my life that I am thankful for.

            I just want to leave you all with one last thought on this Thanksgiving Day. Even though Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated here in Honduras, the holiday is translated not as, Día Del Gracias as a direct translation would have it. Instead it is translated as Día Del Acción de Gracias, that one little added word makes a large difference if you ask me. The added word is translated as action, and isn’t that the true meaning of what this day is all about? Putting our thanks into action, now how one puts their thanks into action is up to them but I think it is something that you should spend a few minutes thinking about. Instead of just having observing Thanksgiving Day once a year and thinking about all that we are thankful for why don’t we as a society start to put that thanks into action and  give back to those who do not have as much to be thankful for.

Shooting for the Stars

November 22^nd, 2011

            Well this past week I had my first official visit from PCH staff when my boss came out to visit me along with another volunteer who just extended for a third year and is living in Santa Rosa. This visit is basically a visit to see how I am doing and to make sure that everything is going alright in my life. Contrary to popular belief it is not an evaluation of how my work is doing, there is not really any sort of evaluation in place for my work. Make up your own mind about whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. Anyways, the meeting involved some time where me and my boss were able to talk about any/all problems that I am having in site and also a meeting with all of my counterparts together. It was really nice to have the meeting with all of my counterparts because the plans that they have for me and my own plans were all discussed so it really put everyone on the same page. Being on the same page is really huge here of course and can be hard to do especially since I am still learning the language, but I feel that we are all on the same page right now and we are ready to get through these next three months when next to nothing usually gets done because everyone is picking coffee.

            The meeting did leave me really excited about my service here because we discussed so many of the projects and ideas that I have as well as my counterparts have for my two years here. With all of the ideas placed on some pieces of paper, I have now hung those pieces of paper up in my room and have named that my “dream wall,” sweet name I know.

My "Dream Wall"

          I plan to leave those papers up in my room for the next two years and adding to these lists whenever I have a new idea and hopefully I can actually accomplish some of these goals. I say hopefully because it is a reality that it is very hard to get projects done here in Honduras, there seems to be an acceptance of mediocrity in the culture. One of the first things that other volunteers have told me once you get down here is that you have to readjust your goals and make them more realistic for the culture. Most volunteers come in with these lofty goals of changing the world and are very idealistic; I would say that I fit that mold. However, I have been thinking and readjusting your goals is kind of another way of accepting mediocrity right? Now this is in no way a shot at these other volunteers they have been living in this culture for much longer than me and know better than me, this is merely me thinking (or rather typing) out loud. My thinking leads me to believe that if I have these less lofty goals, then I am setting limits on my community, I am telling them what they can and cannot accomplish. In the world of special education that is a cardinal sin, you never want to set expectations for your students because most likely they will never surpass those expectations, only meet them.

            As a PCV, I hope that I never accept the part of Honduran culture where I am settling for mediocrity. I want to keep my high and lofty goals; I want to change the world for the better because this culture needs that. This culture needs people who say, no you can do better than the status quo. Sure there will most likely be failures and short comes along the way but that is all part of the journey. I am sure that all of my lofty goals will not be reached within these 2 years here and that is not a bad thing (I have some pretty lofty goals…), but I would rather shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars than not shoot for the stars at all.