Two more weeks of FBT

That´s two weeks since our last post, and also two more weeks planned here in Cantarranas. The Peace Corps is rife with acronyms, like "FBT" for "field-based training." So are other foreign-service organizations, judging by the visits we´ve had from USAID and other agencies.

Part of FBT is TDA, or "trainee-directed activities." In small groups we are supposed to find ways to help the local municipality or other organizations. It is not easy given our time constraints (and those language barriers still). We think we have made some small progress helping city hall with a computer question. Honduran municipalities use a specialized software program to track various financial matters. We have been able to provide some additional flexibility to staff here by determining how they could export data from that program to an Excel spreadsheet.

Last night we attended a "cabildo abierto," or town hall meeting. Not a bad turnout -- perhaps 50 people. Many of the issues were very familiar -- roads, garbage, sewers, schools, dangerous drivers. No noise complaints, though there is noise here all hours of the day and night -- dogs, roosters, car horns, music, loudspeakers, machinery.

We had been warned repeatedly that it would be unheard of if we were ever to schedule a meeting here without providing food. Sure enough, about ninety minutes into the meeting staff came around with trays of Pepsi and sandwiches. Something to consider back at home.

Our routine of Spanish classes and training sessions has been varied by a few excursions, most recently to a cigar factory. If our town is noisier than what we are accustomed to, the factory was far quieter -- thanks to the fact that it really is all done by hand. There were hundreds of people sorting and drying tobacco leaves at one end of the factory, aging and packing cigars at the other -- and, at the center of it all, rolling the "puros." Eighty percent will be exported to the States and virtually all the rest to Europe. Except in that factory I have seen very little smoking here.

In a couple more weeks we expect to return to the Peace Corps´ central Honduran training facility for our final two weeks of training. From there we will travel to the sites where we will be spending the next two years. The locations are still kept top secret (from us, that is). We´ll try to blog once more before we leave here.

Singing Frogs

Life here in Cantarranas - Singing Frogs - is muy tranquilo. This is a pleasant, comfortable town, only a little more than an hour away from the capital, but operating at a much different pace. We have a nice view of the main street into town from our balcony and on any given morning we will see a few cars and trucks, but also an equal number of horses and burros, an ox cart and a few mototaxis -- a three-wheeled rickshaw with a motorcycle engine. There will also be a regular schedule of American school buses, with the names of elementary schools still on them, which are the main form of intercity transportation. But there is never so much traffic that we have any difficulty walking up or down the cobblestone street or standing in the middle of it and talking for a few minutes (Elizabeth carrying her sombrilla for shade).

Cantarranas is in the foothills, below the nearby higher peaks. It is warm, but usually not too hot. We are getting rains every few days, but not too much. It is an agricultural area, with lots of corn fields on very steep hillsides, but a good amount of natural vegetation, as well. There are fruit and avocado trees, some large cactuses, but also something like Spanish moss that grows on the larger trees and the power lines. It all seems very alive.

We spend our week days in Spanish classes, in groups of four, in the morning and in technical training in the afternoons. Thus far we have been learning about access to government, local government organization, a few youth citizenship programs and emergency response. One of our roles may be to assist citizen groups in exercising their rights under the Honduran open meeting and public record laws, which exist, but are not widely known. It remains to be seen how well that will be received at City Hall. We are progressing in Spanish poco a poco. But improvement is not the same as being able to readily converse. We still have a long way to go, but Elizabeth does now have a favorite telenovela that she can mostly understand -- Amor Comprado.

Our zen activity for the weekend is washing our clothes at the pila, using the lavadero. This is a large cistern of water beside a built-in cement washboard. It works very well for cleaning, although it can be rough on delicates. Elizabeth finds it to be very calming. We are thinking of building one when we get back to Bisbee.

We remain in good health and continue to try to be open to all of the new experiences. Que le vaya bien.

Toto, I don't think we're in the Dominican Republic any more

We have finally made it to Honduras after 4 weeks of trying. We were struck by the beauty of the place as soon as we landed. We are only a few kilometers out of Tegucigalpa but it is very rural, mountainous, and green. It's also much cooler and pretty wet. We are headed out to our "Field Based Training" site tomorrow where we will start to focus on our assigned project of "Municipal Development." We also continue with our intensive Spanish classes. Our training site is a bit further from the capital but we think it will be topographically similar. There are lots of steep hills covered with an interesting variety of vegetation and it all seems very fertile. We are in a very comfortable home where we will return in September for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we will meet a new family who will be our hosts until then. Peace Corps continues to take very good care of us.

Our new site won't have Internet access. We'll see in a couple of weeks if we can arrange some weekend travel to a town with an Internet cafe.

Taking it day by day . . .

We have been enjoying yet more opportunities to practice that "flexibility" which the Peace Corps promised we would need. There turned out to be an unexpected delay between the Dominican Republic and Honduras, which we have been spending in Miami. We have simultaneously been enjoying luxuries like hot showers and wondering whether we will soon regret having allowed ourselves to be spoiled again.

The Peace Corps has sent down several personable and helpful staff people from D.C. to continue our language instruction, arrange for community service opportunities, and try to keep up our morale. They assure us that Honduras is not just a mythical destination and that we will be there before long.

It would be foolhardy at this point to predict when we will be setttled in Honduras to the point of having Internet access, but we will post again when we can.

Farewell to the Dominican Republic

Our time in the Dominican Republic appears to be coming to an end. The last news reports are that negotiations are continuing through the week and we think that we will be cleared to go to Honduras. Given all of the mixed reports that we have gotten about what is really going on there, it will be very interesting to have the opportunity to find out what people are saying on the ground.

The people in the DR have been very amable and have made our stay here quite enjoyable. We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to see a small part of this country. Perhaps someday we will have an opportunity to get out much further into it.

We may not have access to the internet for some time at our new post. Do not be concerned. We are being well taken care of and will look forward to letting you know what we are up to as soon as we can.

Week Three

The highlight of our third week here was a field trip to a Peace Corps site located about 90 miles from Santo Domingo. First off, the bus was air conditioned, an amazing luxury these days. This time of year here is similar to Houston summers, before electricity, with maybe a little less cooling at night. We traveled through a very lush country, with cane fields, rich grazing land and trees that seem to come from an earlier era.

The Peace Corps volunteer that we met is deeply engaged in a poor barrio in a small regional center. The pace was much slower than here in the capital. Although they seem to have more reliable electricity (we have regular blackouts, although we also have storage batteries and an "inversor" which keeps some things running) all other amenities were significantly less. It was inspiring to see the community library and other projects that they are building and to see how deeply connected he is to the local community. It was a little intimidating to see first-hand something that may be very similar to our living situation in Honduras. We will have a lot of adjustments to make -- like learning to collect and store water when it is only available for brief periods several times a week.

Our Spanish improves slowly. John had a dream in Spanish the other night, although with a bad accent and significant misuse of the subjunctive. We are almost getting accustomed to the complete failure of the "adopt a highway" program here and hardly notice the heavy exhaust from the nearby "autopista." Our host family continues to be extremely gracious.

Things seem to be heating up again in Honduras according to news reports, although they are still telling us that we are scheduled to go soon. All is well.

Our Studies Continue

This week passed very quickly for us. We spent the mornings in our respective Spanish classes of five people each. We are both still frustrated with our lack of ability to speak coherently, but we are making progress in hearing and understanding the language. After our morning session, we have a large comida at mid day and then we have been having classes on health and safety - how to clean vegetables, purify water and have safe sex - and we are now beginning to have more substantive discussions about Honduras and our assignments. All indications are that we will going to Honduras within the next two weeks, but that is still not final. We are receiving training at this point from a combination of Honduran and DR staff.

The highlight of our week was our trip to the Centro of Santo Domingo on Wednesday with our respective Spanish study groups. Interestingly, the Peace Corps headquarters for the DR is located downtown in a grand old house that was once one of the family homes of the Trujillo family, prior to that dictator being overthrown.
There is a very impressive Zona Colonial adjacent to the commercial and governmental center. Santo Domingo was the first Spanish city in the New World and there are a surprising number of homes, churches and public buildings that date from the 1500 and 1600´s. Their Design Review Board has done an impressive job of maintaining the integrity of a large area, that seems to include more than a couple of square miles.

We are both in good health - as are most of the other voluntarios - and doing well. Note that if you may have had problems posting comments on this blog, please try again, as we think that we have fixed this. Please keep in touch.