hn53.

So, today I had a breakthrough, clear evidence that I am doing something right in terms of Peace Corps goals. I successfully transfered organization techniques to a group of people. To the max. And here's the short of it:

I have, in the last few months, organized a local group to participate in vocational courses (a little over 100 people). Now, most of the classes are planned for after the coffee season, but one was done this past week (Preventative Veterinary Basics). We had been planning it for almost a month, and although we had a few setbacks (one week the technico never showed up, the next the owner of the ranchito where we were going to do the class canceled), the course went down without a hitch. I had organized the whole thing, with help from a local coordinator, but the goal was for him to do the organizing. However, since we were in a rush, I thought it best for me to have a role. Well, now it's clear that I will not be necessary in the future. The people from the vet class have already planned another course with a different coordinator, and they already have the transportation, food, and housing lined up. So, BAM. The rest of the mini-class groups will get a little warm up training for me on organization of this type of vocational class, and then they will be on their own. Let's just see if this works out. But thats 1/1 so far. :)

hn52.

so i'm sick, and it's cold and wet outside. a perfect opportunity to write about everything that is worth writing about, which i guess changes depending on the reader. in this case, i'll just go ahead and write about whatever.

1. halloween - so my favorite US holiday was spent this year in Copan Ruins, with about 150 intoxicated volunteers. that is an estimated number, but I definitely think we were up there. PC guatemala was also represented, so that probably even further added to the chaos. and overall it was pretty awesome, if you ignore the fact that on the morning of the costume party i woke up with a sore throat and a fever. by the time the actual even happened i was feeling completely awful, but i still braved the night, put on my chilean miner costume and made an appearance. that only lasted an hour though, as with every minute i felt my sickness bearing down on me. by 11:30 i was ready to go home, and i said my goodbyes to my booing friends, and went home. however there were some highlights to the trip

a. the canopy zipline was incredible. its about the closest thing to flying that i have ever tried, and it was quite an experience. some friends took photos and video, so if those ever hit the internet, ill be sure to link there.

b. the copan hot springs are incredible. tiered pools. mud bath. natural massage. rainforest. what else can you ask for. and it mostly made me feel better until we hit the road on the way back and our jalon took twice the time necessary, while it got dark and really cold. that probably didnt help my whole sick thing at all.

c. the food was incredible. we ate in as many places as possible, but the main point is that what we ate was rarely tipico. we had steak/avocado/creamcheese/focaccia sandwiches (which for some reason was called a red neck), breakfast burritos, three course meals, and all sorts of other fun things. i would go back just for the food. and not too expensive either, surprisingly.

2. work - well work and projects are coming along. garden meetings are over, and we still have 30 spaces for local families, but there are a few communities in the mountains that are interested, and if their leaders are willing to get trainings with me, then they're in. i have also been thinking that i may just do the leader/participant trainings all at once, two birds with one stone style, and that way save some time and ensure a little more transfer of info. we'll see.

worms are doing great, and it seems that this season i may actually do what i promised last year, depending on funding, which has been promised, but is delayed, over and over again.

the vocational courses are on hold, mostly because of coffee season, but also because of inefficient management on the part of the instructors. apparently they don't manage materials lists for their courses, they just remake them every time (by hand, with paper and pencil), even though they basically stay the same except for actual quantities. they also don't have them in digital, meaning that i have to go to see all of the tecnicos individually, and convince them to give me the lists. regardless, its a big clusterfuck, but understandably so. however, a few organizations have shown me interest in supporting the classes, so once i have the lists of what needs to be bought, i can start begging for money, YAY!!

finally, i have this new idea, which i have been toying with for some time. something about a conference. but since i havent ironed out all the details, im gonna hold off on talking about it until i have everything set.

other than that, that's basically it. lots of reading, lots of watching HBO, some work in my model garden (which is on pause now that i'm sick), and some working out (also on pause). Pretty boring, no?

in fact, this whole blog thing seems pretty lame for the time being, since nothing of note is happening, and the only people who seem to read it are my family. and i talk to them on the phone. so, im gonna take a break.

hn51.

So I decided that I don't feel like writing much, and thus, I will tell my story in pictures. Or at least, the parts of it I can tell in pictures.

They're all mixed, so just bear with it.

Pic 1: This is Rene, he's one of my garden project community leaders. He's standing next to a compost bin he built himself of his own volition. Kick ass.
This is part of Don Neto's garden. Everyone's work coming along just fine, so there are a couple of these garden pictures. It seems for the time being that I taught them well, at least some of it. The rest they knew already. In fact, maybe I didn't teach them anything at all...
Pic 3: Ok so this flower I thought was awesome, especially because of it's constant erection.
Pic 4: This is what that coffee that I picked looks like now. More or less. Mad dry and mad tasty :)
Pic 5: This is a tomato plant at Arturo's model garden. Only 3-4 weeks since transplant, and it's huge!!!
Pic 6: This is a refrigerator that was converted into a compost bin. Yeah that's right, take that recycling.
Pic 7: Beats. In a model garden. I don't know, I'm proud of them. Kind of like grandchildren almost...

Ok, that's it for now. Oh, wait, one story.

So I went to meet with one of the communities participating in the garden project. 25 families in this particular town had signed up, and I went to explain all the details of the project and to get them to sign participation contracts with 4 little rules. Well, we started talking and one woman asked me about the distribution of her garden, and whether or not she could put one of the rolls of fencing to use for something else. Now, the point is, every family gets one roll. So i asked her how it was that she figured that she would get two. And her response was that she had two families living in her house (her's and her daughter's), therefore she should get two. And it turned out, that many families had signed up as 2 or 3 in order to get more material. So 25 turned into 12, in about 30 seconds. I didn't know what to do. I had never seen this before, not in any of the other communities, and no other place was so daring as to try to illicit more than they were intitled to. So now I have some extra spots open, and I'm not worried about filling them, but I was shocked. And they were all clearly explained to at the beggining that it was 1 roll per household. Apparently to them, a daughter who gives birth at 16 and stays living at home is considered a separate household. Since when? And how come no one in any of the other communities with their 10 children ( and even grandchildren) per family thought so...

yeah, that's it. it may not seem like much to you guys, but i felt cheated. but hey, you live and you learn. now, i'll make sure to make those kinds of things much clearer for the future. :P

hn50.

Ok, so first and foremost, this is my 50th entry in Honduras. Or at least, I think so. Regardless, let's just get on with it. Life is awesome. For now, I think that's basically it. Just had my mid term visit, where my my PTS, or Program Training Specialist, AKA boss, came to check out my work. We ended up sitting in meetings the whole time, but it was an awesome time, lots of future work got planned, some strong working relationships were formed, and all-in-all, I think it went well.
Work-wise, things are going well, although currently very slowly. Proposals are awaiting approval, solar panels are coming in December, and the coffee season is slowing things down all over. But, it all comes as a blessing, since I'm definitely in need of a break, and I can use the time to get involved in other things, smaller but equally exciting projects, and in the end stay equally occupied but less stressed out.
Oh, and the coffee experiment is moving right along. Although I'm not sure how it will turn out, because it hasn't been really sunny these days, and the coffee is drying in the shade, which may damage the quality. I guess I won't know until it's all over anyway. Here are a few shots of the process.

hn49.

So I have decided to start a little experiment, and I think it should be interesting to see how it all pans out. I will make a cup of coffee from scratch, and I mean the scratchiest scratch. I will pick the coffee, dry it myself (se llama cafe melado), depulp it, roast it, grind it, and finally drink it. I thought this would be easy, but after starting yesterday, it seems it may be harder than I think. For two hours I picked coffee in my host dad's farm, and only picked enough for a third of a bucket, which is worth 10 Lempira, or about 50 cents. So 2 hours of work=50 cents. Pretty good for a university grad (one redeeming fact is that only a small portion of the coffee is ripe enough for pciking, which makes the process much longer). For now, its drying, so we'll see what happens. Here are some photos.

So, I will keep you guys updated with the progress of my beans. Let's see if I can make coffee. Maybe at the end I can even plant a few, making the cycle complete.