HONDURAS AL FIN!

I'm finally here safe and sound in Honduras. The weather is the most incredible thing. It's a perfect 72 degrees and there's a slight breeze. Right now I am wearing pants, a shirt, a sweater, and a rain jacket. It's that cool. I love it! The training site is beautiful as well. We are up in the mountains and there are lots of pine trees (which I thought to be strange) and other exotic plants as well.

My family is really sweet. The mom is pretty young and she has 3 children: Eduar (3), Cristian (6), and Alexandra (9). They live in a pretty small house, but fortunately, we have running water and there is much more power here than in the DR. The water is freezing though and I haven't had the courage to ask her to boil the water for me to shower with. It has been about 55-60 degrees in the morning so you can imagine what cold water feels like at that temp. Ice water.

Today I am in a little town called Santa Lucia, and it is beautiful, complete with cobblestone streets and view where you can see for miles through the mountains.

Training is going well. The staff is great, very positive and we start formal Spanish classes tomorrow that will be divided among our groups of projects (I am doing youth development). We have also been given a more detailed account of what we will be doing here as well. Pretty much I am going to be doing teacher training and then whatever youth programs the community wants to participate in.

I hope that I am going to be in a site with weather and a view like this one. It's incredible.

Also, things here seem pretty safe. The zona where we are is pretty calm, so please don't worry too much about me. Most of the people here seem to want Zelaya back in power to restore democracy and have elections this fall, but it just depends on who you ask. The worst part about all of this is that the children here aren't able to go to school because the teacher's union is on strike. It affects everyone and it's really sad that the children are the ones who seem to be suffering the most in all of this. Hopefully things will continue to settle down and be resolved. Other than that, there is just a curfew and you aren't supposed to be out after dark, which doesn't really affect me, because I'm so tired right now, I want to go to bed as soon as the sun does.

Thanks for all your prayers/thoughts/concerns. I'm looking forward to my service here. It's going to be amazing and I love Honduras already!

If you want to send me mail, you can do it now, and I would love it (even if it's a silly card)! Send it to:

PCT Jessie Strange
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3158
Tegucigalpa, D.C 1110
Honduras, America Central

I am also getting a Honduras cell phone by tomorrow, so if you get a call from a random number, it's me! International calls from a cell phone here to the U.S. are only $.10, so I will be taking advantage of that. I'll also give you my number if you want, so you can always call me from Skype.