Community Integration

Hola. I knew that people back home have been anxiously checking my blog day and night for the past several weeks to see when some word would come from me, to see if that kid is still alive down there in that country. Was it Nicaragua? So yes, Im now finally writing a new post to say that I am still alive and still in Honduras.

1. Community Integration
2. No longer the new guy
3. "Reconnect" workshop: in which I learned how that pure coffee is not soluable in cold water
4. Life in a house in the campo, on my own

1. Community Integration. I dont think that I have a whole lot to mention for whats been going on for the past month or so. Community integration, the five dollar term that has become a cliche in the PC, means that slowly but surely, Im getting to know more and more people more closely. And so that in and of itself has been a task that Ive been working on. People in my site now know that Im not a) a Spaniard b) named Kevin (the last PCV in site back in the early 2000s) c) a tourist or d) a greedy gringo capitalist there to spy on them for the CIA while at the same time ruining their culture with McDonalds and Starbucks. So thats a small success for me.

2. No longer the new guy. Also, the newest training group, H17, was just sworn in yesterday and are off to their new sites today. That means that Im no longer a freshman in the country. Im getting old now. Respect.

3. Reconnect. We just had "Reconnect," a Business project workshop for five days. I got to meet the rest of the business volunteers from the previous training group, H14, and we shared our projects and planned to work together, building sinergies and sharing best practices, more buzz words from the life of a bz volunteer. The meeting sort of felt like training all over again (sessions on commercialization of coffee and renewable energy... good stuff indeed, though quite a change in pace for me now), but it was worthwhile, I felt. We are clearly the best of the 6 projects in PC Honduras, just so you know.

4. Living in a house in the "campo." I am still fighting ants. They are all over the place all the time and most of them bite. There are also spiders and cockroaches and dirty walls that, slowly but surely, Im washing by hand and by broom. Yes, washing the walls by broom. I do enjoy living on my own and having my own place, but it is a little bit of work. My neighborhood kids are always fascinated by what the local gringo is up to and often spend time on my front porch asking questions and learning English phrases. My host mother and I have also planted 3 garden beds in my back yard. Soon I will be eating nothing but radishes, carrots and cilantro.

Things are chugging along down here. Siempre con la lucha.