Parque Cental

We were out of town last week for the annual reconnect of the business project. Reconnect was a meeting of the PCV business groups of Hondu 8 and 10 which took place in a beautiful spot in the hills of Parque Cerro Azul Meambrar. We were initially not super excited about attending because of the all too close memories of times we had during training. Reluctant as we were about going (we had no choice as it is required of us) it ended up being a great experience gaining insight and new ideas from business volunteers from the class before us.

Reconnect added another benefit of allowing some friends a mas comoda (cheaper) opportunity to visiting us. They were our first planned on and “invited” friends to come and visit us in Comayagua. There are a handful of things for visitors to do here and most of it involves walking many hot hours around town. During the first half hour of walking around our group was separated resulting in the guys of the group looking for their wives for more than an hour.

After some time searching for them we ended up in Parque Central baffled about what our next step should be. Being off guard trying to come up with ideas of what to do, a crazy lady (very mentally ill person) who I have seen before around town, approached us slowly asking for “besos, pesos”, and then as nearing my chest “pechos”. This four foot something inch women attacked me, like a savaged animal with an open, mostly toothless, mouth going straight for my chest. She was trying to grab at my arms when in doing so made me turn back to her. At that moment she reached her hand into my rear crevasse area and jingled the family jewels. Keep in mind, Parque Central is a big plaza with the town cathedral in front of it. I turned around and told her trying to save face, “Basta! No enfrente de Dios!” A spark jumped into her eyes and she proceeded to go after each one of the three of us guys where we were so alarmed that we proceeded to high step around in a tight circle flailing our arms in all sorts of directions. In one of the circlings I caught a glimpse of other Hondurans sitting on benches in the park looking and laughing their asses off at us. Some how the gringo show ended and our lady friends, Sara and Kate, came strolling in to Parque Central minutes after the little psycho women had her way with us. I was extremely flustered from the incident and they were as calm and cool as could be excited about various used clothing prospects they had found around town.

In all we had a really good time with our first visitors, but plan on being more prepared for when family or friends come and visit us from back home, hopefully soon

--J

Random Photos

All photos except the last two are courtesy of our friends, who actually remember to take photos when we go places and do fun things.

Hummingbirds at Reconnect:
Kate tried very hard to get this picture...its not easy to get a shot of hummingbirds that isn't a blur. The cabins we stayed at during our meetings had several feeders which attracted some of the most colorful hummingbirds I've even seen. Beautiful!



At lunch one day during reconnect the kitchen staff surprised us with a meal of gigantic tilapia from the nearby lake. It was quite a feat to get through the whole fish, I don't think anyway managed to eat it all. Here Javi is getting friendly with his fish.


A few of us went on a hike through the beautiful Parque Nacional Cerro Azul Meambar. Here was the highlight of the hike, a beautiful waterfall tucked away in the jungle.



Sean and Kate came to visit us after Reconnect before heading back to Santa Rosa. Here are the guys eating helados in parque central.

Javi and I just got bikes from peace corps so we can cruise around Comayagua much faster. We are supposed to wear helmets (even if it will lead to rocks being thrown at us or intense harrasement) so here is Javi trying his on for size.

My mom sent me a few puzzles to work on, which has been keeping me entertained on slow nights (oh, the excitement!) Here is the progress so far....Thanks mom!!

Unexpected visitors and other news

There is an unwritten rule among volunteers in this country that you have total and complete access to stay at any other volunteer’s house. Of course, we don’t make much money so if you are passing through on your way to somewhere else or have business in town, you wouldn’t think of spending any of that precious little living allowance on a hotel, you’d call the local volunteer! With almost 200 of us in a small country, there are many volunteers and the possibility of a free night’s stay almost anywhere, especially in the west. Now that Javi and I have become established here in the house, we have begun to see a number of volunteers staying with us. We don’t even have a guest bed yet, but this is a hardy bunch and it doesn’t detract them one bit. The hard floor is fine with them. Some have come and gone without helping out with the cost of food and drink we provided (bad move) and some have been very gracious and generous. I know a couple who while living with the host family in their site, would allow passer-byers to sleep with them in their own bed (queen size) since there was no other place they could put them up. I personally would never do that, but you get the picture…free nights stay.

So last Thursday, Javi and Conor were planning on doing an AIDS lecture in a neighboring town and because of transportation logistics and the start of the talk, they had to spend the night the evening before (with a volunteer of course). It was the first night, I believe since arriving to Honduras, that I would have a night alone, so I was planning on enjoying a quiet evening to myself. Javi and Conor said goodbye at about 5 and not 30 minutes later I get a loud knock on the door. Upon opening the gate I see 6 gringo faces, all wishing to stay at my house, completely unannounced. Apparently there had been some emails exchanged among other people about them staying, but it was all news to me. I am normally completely fine with volunteer visitors, even when they push my patience I am normally okay with it, but this time I was pissed. They were on their way to do translating for a brigade doing health surveys in some nearby mountain towns, so what was I supposed to do? Turns out the guy in charge of coordinating the thing didn’t communicate fully that they would need a place to stay, so I held him accountable for the whole thing, forgave him and then let everybody in. We ended up having a good time that night hanging out, but sometimes I get tired of the attitude that my house (or anyone’s house) is a hostel or a frat house.

Below is a picture of some friends who were over that night:

Here is a picture of Javi, Conor and Marc (business volunteer in Cane, La Paz) after the three returned from the AIDS talk they did. The three of them were walking around the house shirtless that evening for some reason.....

In other news, we had our TWO year anniversary on Monday. The entertainment budget for the evening was less than last year’s in Dallas, but it was a good time. I made a quiche, Javi bought a bottle of Spanish wine (BIG SPENDERS!) and we had a nice dinner. Being the “Cotton anniversary,” I bought Javi a towel, and he bought me a shirt.

In the picture below, you can see Javi hard at work starting on our garden. He spent an entire weekend sifting through the dirt to get rid of all the rocks. Soon as we can get some fertilizer from a guy at work, I will plant the seeds that another volunteer (pictured above eating spaghetti) was kind enough to give us. The seeds are kind of old, and intended for a milder climate, but it will be interesting to see what grows.