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.

This makes me happy. This is Joe.

I feel hopeful today. For the first time since about June 28th, I feel like we're actually going to get to go to Honduras this time. Just a couple more days.

This is our group:


It's been a good time in Miami, but we're all ready to be there. We also lost another group member today. Someone has decided to go home. Makes me sad. Who else will we loose over the next few weeks and months?



See ya on the other side! (Si Dios quiere)

Hoping the sun will come out.

The past four weeks have been a crazy emotional roller coaster. I moved out of my apartment, sold my belongings, said tons of goodbyes, and left my life for a supposed 2 years in the Peace Corps. That was tough. One day before we leave, plans are changed and we're sent to the Dominican Republic. That was totally fine with me. I got to see another country and learn a new culture. I wasn't however prepared for the extent of this whole experience.

When I said goodbye to my host family in the Dominican, they cried. I walked out the door and waved goodbye, but this was something that I was not expecting. I just spent 3 weeks getting to know this family and now it's over. The Doña said her door was always open for me to come back if ever I were to be in Santo Domingo again.

Following this, I am thrown unexpectedly back into American culture without giving a second thought to what we have just experienced in the DR.

Our flight Wednesday morning was delayed out of DR, so we ended up missing our flight to Honduras. We were rescheduled for a flight today and put up in a hotel by the airlines.... Lots of other things have happened too, like lots of people being sick and crazy scheduling, but we're safe and sound in a hotel in Miami and it looks like we're going to be here for several more days and we will try to leave again next week.

We're safe in a hotel. However, I do not feel that safe is really the word to describe how I feel right now. We are in a super nice hotel overlooking the Miami Bay, complete with running water (and hot water), swimming pools, air conditioning, and fluffy sheets, pillows, and comforters. Not the same scene I was in a mere 2 days ago. I feel guilty. Really guilty. I am trying to devote two years of my life to serving in the developing world, but instead I am being spoiled with U.S. tax dollars and fluffy pillows, and lots of them.

All I wanted was to live simply with a little host family, taking bucket showers and sleeping under a mosquito net, and hopefully learn and grow in the process. I guess that's too much to ask.

It's still unclear as to why we weren't able to fly down today though, which is frustrating. There are 2 senior staff members from D.C. down here now though so we're going to do some training activities and hang out in the community here in Miami.

This has been hard. It's hard to stay positive when doors keep getting slammed in your face and when everywhere you turn, plans are changed, all the while you are carrying around tons of luggage awaiting who knows what. I usually am one that just goes with whatever happens; for example, doing the Peace Corps in the first place. I applied on sort of a whim, and doors opened for me to do it, so I went through with it. Now, though, it's tough not to take all these bad things that are happening as signs that maybe this isn't what I am supposed to be doing, but does it mean that for the 49 other members of this group? However, it's not like I can just walk away. I'm in Miami with two suitcases full of stuff awaiting a long adventure. I don't have a job or a place to live back at home. What else would I do?

I just have to wait it out.


It's been a long day. I hope tomorrow is better.

HONDURAS BOUND!

We're finally officially headed to Honduras next week. We got word today that we had gotten the State Department's approval, so we're good to go! I'll let you know when I get there safely.

It's hot. So very hot. I cannot wait to be in Honduras.

There are lots of problems with infrastructure here. The main problem that I have been most in contact with is the lack of energy. Yesterday there wasn't any power for 12 straight hours. Please imagine this in 95 degree weather and 80% humidity. It's rough. Basically what is happening is that the government here doesn't pay very much for their electricity. All government buildings basically get away with paying pennies for all the energy they use. There are also lots of problems with people just running electricity lines to their houses and also not all the houses have meters. In turn, the cost of electricity for the normal person is extremely high. The people of the DR consume much more energy than they pay for and in order to make up for that deficit, they just turn off the power for hours at a time. So that, even the people who religiously pay their bills are without power because the society as a whole cannot resolve this problem (which seems to be such a simple solution). Businesses cannot operate because they either have to run on expensive batteries or just suffer the losses. It's terrible, and is a huge cause for the lack of development here.

The internet cafe I am in right now is running off of battery power, and fortunately there's a fan on here, so it's bearable.

Training is getting boring and it's tough because we cannot really proceed any further without actually being in country. Our trainers are doing the best they can, but it's been a boring week. We did however get to go on a trip with Spanish class to visit a Botanical Garden, and then yesterday we went out to the campo (rural part of town) to visit a PCV there and see her projects. It was a much needed change from the mundane.

This is our last weekend here and I think we may try to go to the beach again. We'll see.

Take a look at my facebook pictures if you like. :)

Rubios

It's tough here because everywhere we go, we are rubios (blondes). We are Americans and we stand out no matter what. People stare at us constantly, almost to the point where sometimes I want to scream. I hung out with some friends today, all of which are proficient in lots of languages. I feel dumb because I only know two. Between the four of us we had English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. People kept coming up to us to ask where we were from. We just kept throwing out new languages. It was a fun game.

I have to learn Portuguese next. Maybe I'll head to Brazil after the Peace Corps to take on that task. Then I will remember what it feels like to learn a new language again.

There are lots of people in our group of volunteers that don't even speak Spanish very well. I'm thankful that I have already accomplished that task, because it makes moving into a new country and new home so much easier. Some friends here are so exhausted from trying to learn the language that they don't even want to hang out with others at night. I remember feeling that way in Costa Rica.

Things are going great here. Besides the ridiculousness that is the hot weather here, I really like it in the DR. Sweating is a constant. Life is sometimes boring and without your own "life" you sometimes feel like a child again, but that is to be expected when you move into a new country and live with a host family. Today we just needed to get away from that, so we took a trip outside our barrios (neighborhoods) and explored a little. It was a good feeling. The one good thing about loosing your sense of freedom is the care that you receive in return. I haven't even poured my own glass of water in the past two weeks if that tells you anything.

I am going to cook dinner for my family tomorrow night though. I'm making spaghetti with homemade sauce and Italian sausage. It will be a nice change from rice and beans.

One more full week here. Hopefully we will know something mid-week as to definite plans for heading to Honduras, but right now, it's looking like things are going to be fine.