January 22th

Hello friends!

Quite a few people have asked me about becoming a follower of this blog...
There should be a button ´´Follow´´ on the left side of the page that you can push and then just follow directions...

Life here continues to be great. Though different.   The rain stopped...well until this morning. It actually stopped last Sunday, the day that I went with Hadley to Pico Bonito national forest.  We had a really nice time hiking around with a fantastic guide, and because the river was swollen with rain water it made parts of the trail impossible to cross.  Fortunately, (dah dah DAH!!), they have this fancy ´´canopy´´ system already set up so we got to fly high above the forest and river which added to the excitement of the day.  Learned about a lot of different natural medicinal plants and remedies too, and got soaked by an enormous waterfall.

Life in the city of La Ceiba continues on...  spanish lessons are good, though at times I feel like I´m being held back and want to keep pressing on faster than my teacher wants to go.  I´m just anxious, I suppose... and in the back of miy mind I´m frightened that I´m going to be working independently with patients in just a few short weeks and I´m afraid my spanish isn´t exactly where I wanted it.  However it has definitely definitely improved, and I still have one week to go.  The school overall has been great, but the bad thing about it is that there are a lot of other english speakers at the school (maybe 10 of us?), so everytime we´re around each other, people switch to english because it´s so much easier to say exactly what you want to say (and because some are at a very basic level of spanish). It´s a tempting trap, and that has been happening with me this week a bit more than I´d like, so I´m really going to be making an effort to keep the spanish going as much as possible outside of the classroom during my last week here.  The good thing is that I´ve made like 5 or 6 actually really good local friends here in La Ceiba, and we´ve spent a lot of time together and have had a blast. They all speak some english, but for the most part we pass our time in spanish so I´ve been learning from them as well.  This will certainly continue as well...

On the same note, I was hoping to get lots of practice in with speaking spanish during my work at the clinic.  Well, unfortunately, this continues to be postponed, and is a continuing source of frustration for me.  All of our classes are in the morning and we´re done by like 12:15 every day.  We go home for a quick lunch, and then we have the rest of the day to do WHATEVER...  So three times this week I went to the clinic to work -- not a super easy task to complete -- and three times I´ve gotten there and they´re not open.  First it was the rain during my first week, now it was the sunshine this week??  There doesn´t seem to be any sort of schedule, and unfortunately there´s not much of a way to find out ahead of time if they´re open or not.  For example, the ladies that sort of work outside of the clinic in a local food stand told me when I went on Wednesday and found it closed that ´´maybe they´ll be back Thursday, or maybe Friday.. but definitely Monday! Yeah, definitely Monday..  you should come back Monday!´´   What does that mean???  I think that part of the problem is that they do most of their work in the mornings and do other things in the afternoon away from the clinic. Unfortunately I can´t do much about that because I have my spanish classes in the morning, and because it has been so hot recently (bright blue skies all week.. 85 degrees, 90% humidity, scortching sun and little breeze).. I don´t blame them for not wanting to be outside all afternoon doing vaccine surveys....  but I wish I could somehow become part of this!!  There are other clinics in the city, as well as a couple of hospitals and other places to volunteer like orphanages, but I´m just not as excited about that.  If I went to a hospital, they´d certainly be open and have things for me to do... but I´ll be working in hospitals for 8 weeks later this spring and was hoping this would be more of a public health experience.  And now I only have one more week...But so it goes.. Alas, I will try next week and see if I can get in at least one day of SOMETHING..

This past week I also have had quite a few intense conversations with the abuela.  As I´ve already mentioned, I really really like her.  She´s 80 years old and moves slowly, but she is very sharp and very very veryyyyy nice.  She has this sort of innocent wisdom that I just adore.  She´s told me about all sorts of different people and students that they´ve had stay in their house over the years... the good the bad the ugly.  She described one situation to me that seemed to me like a 20 year old male having a schizophrenic break... terrifying.  The risk that they take to have people in their house...  We´ve talked politics, religion, economy, and basically about just how to live life.  I think that she really likes me and I think we see eye to eye on a lot of issues. 

A few days ago we had a riverting discussion (that I later continued with my spanish teacher) about the coup of the Honduran government in June 2009.. lasting until January 2010 when they had official elections again. What I´ve learned from both la abuela and mi profesor es que the president of honduras was a very very corrupt man who was heavily involved in the drug trade (especially between venezuela and mexico and the US), and the rest of the government was sick of dealing with him and basically overthrew him.  Most people in Honduras knew it was going to happen and they supported it (except the poor of Honduras who were benefitting from social programs that this president was implementing to gain their support)... but the overthrow of the president was viewed by the outside world (including the US) as a very very bad thing and therefore all outside aid coming into the country (the third poorest country in central america) was cut off.  Interestingly, people from the outside world who were more informed about the situation also supported the coup, and it´s interesting to me why the US didn´t take that perspective. Anyway, because it was viewed in general as so bad, this put Honduras in a very very bad situation and tourism basically stopped cold turkey, prices sky rocketed, people were laid off and unemployment and crime and violence rose, and life was suddenly incredibly difficult.  At the time of the coup, the head of congress took over, and then in January 2010 they elected a new president and things have been getting on track (albeit, slowly..)... and life is slowly returning to normal. I wish I knew more details, but I´m still reading about all of that.  It just makes me wonder a lot about countries in which the US or other countries have placed embargoes or trade restrictions... it´s well known that those often just hurt the people and not the government in which they´re trying to oppose. I wonder how many other families like my Honduran family are going through at this moment what my family went through 18 months ago...

What I´m also truly beginning to realize and more deeply understand is that the family I´m staying with is quite poor.  I´ve learned that every month they struggle to pay bills.. I´m talking like $50 per month for everything.  They´ve had to hold back the 9 year old girl from school for one year because they couldn´t afford to send her to school.  The mom isn´t a great mom from what I´ve seen, but I do think there´s a lot of love in the house and the grandma tries to keep everything under control.... as much as an 80 year old can know about the happenings.  The 9 year old is on her equivalent of summer vacation right now and every day she just hangs out around the house.. doesn´t have anything to do, doesn´t read any books, watches a lot of tv and plays on their semi-functioning (old) computer, sometimes does art projects.  I think she has potential, but I don´t know, it just bumbs me out a lot.  She doesn´t have a soccer ball but likes to play soccer.. and she uses an old rope for a jump rope that she ties to the telephone pole on the street and tries to get SOMEONE to go outside and play with her.  I have a little bit... and feel like I should more. 
 
I feel so helpless.. the grandma apologized to me for not having an adequate lunch earlier this week because she didn´t have the money to go to the store to buy enough food for us.  The meal was fine, it really was (all of their food here is basically fried with lots of rice and these delicious red beans...).. but I just feel so bad that she feels like she can´t provide for me.  I told her that I´m very happy with how things are (though I´ve seen cockroaches in the bathroom and have more than a few creepy nasty bugs in my room and I´m about to strangle that damn rooster).. but things are going great! These things add to the experience and I´d feel spoiled if I was without them.  But like I said I feel helpless, especially because I´m so drawn into their warmth and feel welcomed as a part of their family... and especially because I know that I have been so blessed in ways they have not...

I´m trying to figure out exactly how to approach this situation at hand, but it´s tricky.  Any thoughts would be appreciated...

Despite these more serious topics, I have been thoroughly enjoying myself. Like I said, the weather has been great and I´ve been able to spend a few afternoons at local beaches working on a tan and continuing to read (almost done!) my first book in spanish. I´m feeling very comfortable manuevering the city, and even found a delicious bakery with my Vermont friend Hadley.  Also spent an afternoon at a Garífuna village about 30 minutes outside of La Ceiba. The Garífuna people are mixed descendants of African slaves brought over hundreds of years ago and the Carribean people... they make their lives now mostly on fishing and live, in general, in scattered villages along the caribbean coast in Belize and Honduras and in the Bay Islands just off the coast of La Ceiba.  It was super interesting to visit, and we were able to try their local foods, watch them perform their local music and dance, and also try their locally made (and ridiculously strong) liquor from the roots of plants in the area.  I also had plans today to spend the day on a boat with some of my new friends here, but it started raining early this morning (like a monsoon again) and is supposed to continue for the rest of the weekend, so those plans were cancelled and today has been more of a lazy day than anything.  Hadley left this morning. The German boy left last week, and this week has been replaced with a German girl (without the same personality), and today supposedly another student is coming to stay for awhile. 
I guess we´ll see what the next week will bring!

Thanks to those who have been keeping me updated on life back home... sounds like the snow and cold have been a bit overwhelming but otherwise things are good. Hopefully the cold will pass soon!!  Hope you`re well, and as always, continued updates will be cherished.

Cuidense,
Tara