I finally jump on the KIVA bandwagon, and you should too

This past Christmas my parents gave me a gift card to the micro-lending website KIVA, which I just recently used to lend to a fascinating family in Africa.

But first, if you have never heard of micro-lending, well then there is a chance you have been living under a rock. And coming from someone who has been in the jungle for two years, that is really saying something. So here is a quick explanation. Or at least, what I understood from HowStuffWorks.com:

People at home can lend a minimum of $25 to a borrower of their choice. Most of the borrowers are asking for loans from $100-$1,000, so it takes several different lenders to equal their need. Then, through the magic of the interwebs, it goes from KIVA to one of 450 field partners in countries all over the world. These field partners are lending institutions that monitor the loans and make sure people pay them back.  (The Kiva website states that their repayment rate is 98.91% which seems pretty awesome. I daresay that is better than most American banking institutions). I also think it’s important to point out that Kiva gives 100% of your donation to the lender, and their business subsists solely on donations, volunteer work and business partnerships.

Now this is the best part: Once your borrower repays the loan, you get paid back in “Kiva Credit” so you can keep loaning that same amount to another person! Or, if you want, you can withdraw your money back. But honestly where’s the fun in that?  There is a cute one-minute video on the website that explains things with pictures.

Once I fully understood how everything works (not really) I got excited about picking my borrower. On the website you can scroll through hundreds of profiles and pick the very person you want to contribute to. So with great pleasure, I present my borrower:  The Gbedjromede family, led by Agbannago, who is the woman in the middle (I think my spell check just exploded).

They live in Benin, which is a small country in West Africa. The three women are family members and want the loan so they can expand their palm oil and palm wine manufacturing and exporting business. Well wadda ya know wine just happens to be one of my favorite things!

I picked them for several other reasons:

1. Awesome dresses ladies. Love it.
2. Her bio says that Agbannago is a mother of four kids so she clearly needs all the help she can get.
3. Finally, the website provided information about the  NGO/lending institution that will deliver the loan. It’s called Alidé and in the local Benin language it means “a path always exists [for the very poor].” Their delinquency rate is .65% which, from what I gather, means that over 99% of the people they loans to, pay them back on time and in full. They have similarly good credentials listed on their site  but they were very number-y and complicated-sounding so I’m going to assume they know what they are doing.

The Gbedjromede family has asked for a loan of $525 which is the equivalent of 262,316 Benin francs. Once enough lenders give them loans from Kiva, they will receive the funds from the aforementioned field partner and then they have 13 months to implement the funds and then repay the loan. So 13 months from now, I will get $25 in Kiva credit to pick another entrepreneur to lend to. How exciting!

I think this is such a cool concept and the very definition of grassroots development as a sustainable way to lesson world poverty. At the risk of sounding like a complete public service announcement, I think more people should get involved in micro-lending. Because $25 to me is five trips to Starbucks. But to the G-bed family (I just made that up) on the other side of the world, it will help them work towards a higher quality of life.

Awesome.

More links:

https://www.microplace.com/ Microplace is another micro lending institution, however this is different because a lender has the ability to earn interest off their loan.

http://www.kiva.org/lend Browse hundreds of people around the world awaiting loans

http://www.kiva.org/gifts/kiva-cards#/print Buy a gift card for someone so they can go online and donate to the G-bed family too!

Thank you, Google Images, for showing me what the palm oil productions process looks like

**I am in no way affiliated with Kiva and I wasn’t paid to write this. Although if ya’ll are hiring I am obviously interested…

Honduras in the news

I can’t tell if Honduras has been in the news more recently, or if I am just paying more attention because its close to my heart. At any rate, here are some various things I have found in the news.

BTW I’m sharing this because its whats out there and it explains why we were taken out. But please remember, this is not the Honduras that I knew and loved. The Honduras I lived in was smalls towns full of kind families, beautiful mountains and baleadas. Not guns and violence. Just keep that in mind…

A short video about violence in San Pedro Sula from CNN

The Houston Chronicle was one of the first papers to run an Associated Press story that quoted me as a source

The Christian Science Monitor

An Op-Ed piece in the LA Times “The Peace Corps Kids are Alright”

Huffington Post with yet another story about our evacuation.

An interesting photo slide show in the New York Times about the mansions of imprisoned Drug Lords from Mexico. Kinda makes me think of of the huge abandoned mansions we used to drive past on the Honduran North Coast…

Reverse Culture Shock?

I don’t like the term “reverse culture shock” because America is still my culture so there’s not much about it that could shock me. But coming back from Honduras,  it’s tough to remember how it was and catch up on the stuff I’ve missed.

When I came back a few days ago I was too busy sobbing in the airport and being depressed to really take notice of the little things. But when I came back before Christmas three weeks ago it had been a year since I was in the greatest country in the world. At the time I made a list of all the amazing, odd, and ridiculous things that I had seemed to forget about while living in the jungle. Here they are (in no particular order):

• So much sterility. Things are so clean. Walls are so white. Floors are spotless.  I think I could eat off the counter in the Houston airport bathroom.

• In the airport everyone seems to be talking on their phones without actually talking into a phone. Those Bluetooth things are odd. On that note, those newfangled iPhones have seems to take over the cellphone market as well, and in the effort of time I am not going to get started on iPhones because I don’t like them and that’s not what this particular post is about…

• Hot water comes out of the tapppp!!!! Not enough words to describe the luxuriousness of this modern marvel. Especially given my next point…

• It’s f’-ing cold. I feel cold all the time, even in three layers. There is a small space heater that follows me every where I go in the house.

• America is more diverse than I remember. Walking around D.C. I saw lots of different skin colors and sometimes hear several languages being spoken. I haven’t really left my house here in Cincy yet, but I’m sure its more diverse here than I remember as well. Best part: I no longer get stared at for being taller/blonder/whiter than everyone else.

• For the first 48 hours back home I was instinctively saying gracias, disculpe, and por fa in most social situations. It’s like a reflex. My brother thought it was annoying. I’m still working on it.

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  How did it get that long?

  I straightened my hair for the first time in a while. IT IS SO LONG.  Then I got a haircut for the first time in a year which was way overdue.

• American beer (and most imported beer) is so delicious and rich and heady and so much better than the watery Honduran crap we’ve been drinking. Although give me a month and I’ll want an Imperial and get all nostalgic about it.

• What exactly is the purpose of carpet? Other than to trip over and collect dirt? We should all just have tile floors that we can dump water on and mop and sweep all the dirt out the front door. It would be easier that way.

• 16 kinds of ketchup for sale at my local grocery store.  NO ONE NEEDS THAT MUCH CHOICE.

• I was driving yesterday and I pulled up to a four-way stop and for several brief seconds I completely forgot what to do. But being able to drive myself around where ever I want whenever I want is so very liberating.

• TV is just crap these days and there are way too many channels.

That’s all for now.

Evacuation update part 2. …The goodbyes have begun…

So we have made it to the conference and as I write this I am sitting through a series of boring lectures where staff members from DC keep telling us how they can relate to us (because they worked in Africa in the 80s) and making us talk about our feelings and fill out paperwork. Plus we are on lockdown and not allowed to leave the hotel since we are in the big bad city. It would be awful, but we are in a very swanky hotel with all our friends here and we have a pool and a gym, and hot showers (!) at our disposal. So I can’t complain too much. We are all scheduled to fly out on Thursday the 16^th, however a lot of volunteers won’t make it to their destinations in the same day so some will be staying the night in Miami.

I’ll try to get you up to date with what has happened since I left my site…

Leaving was really hard. There are not words to describe the range of emotions that one goes through when they are essentially losing their job, moving to a different country and saying goodbye to everyone they know, all at the same time.

On Saturday we had our Clausura for my Yo Merezco group and I was very pleased with how it went. Twelve of the 15 girls were able to show up on short notice and for the girls that couldn’t be there, a family member or friend was there in their place. Each girl got a diploma and a bag of goodies which was really just tons of girlie stuff from my house that I was trying to get rid of. But they loved them none the less. Then we had cake that was paid for by the municipality and cookies that were made by me. Despite the fact that it started an hour and a half late, it went really well. Big thanks to my sitemate Leticia who took all the pictures for me during the ceremony.

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I think the thing that really made me cry was having to take Bernice to her new home. It broke my heart, but Peace Corps said we absolutely could not bring animals with us to the conference or on the plane. (When volunteers leaves their service normally, there are several avenues that allow them to take pets of all kinds home. Not so with us). Several of my friends were able to smuggle their dogs out when family came to visit. But lots of us had to leave pets behind because of the short notice and PC rules for the emergency situation.

I spoke with several different families who talked to me about wanting a rabbit.  And then I selected one that had rabbits before, and seemed like really great people.  I don’t want to talk about it too much because it genuinely makes me want to cry all over again.  They are nice family and they promised to take pictures of her and email me when they complete this big screened-in enclosure they are working on for her.

I gave away all of my furniture, all my work materials, I emptied everything from my house. Packing was stressful because Peace Corps gave us a luggage limit which was, of course, a fraction of what I would have preferred.

The proud new owner of all my stuff - Jose, former Peace Corps volunteer from 1965 back to live in Taulabe

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Oh and there was this fun little crisis the morning before I was supposed to leave town. As I was packing I discovered that Bernice had chewed the zipper completely off my huge black suitcase which rendered it useless. Panic would not be a strong enough word for what I felt. I went out at 8 am to go door-to-door to every single furniture/appliances store in town, (all four of them) looking for some kind of container to hold my stuff (cardboard box anyone??). As I was explaining the situation to one very uninterested sales lady, another shopkeeper overheard and told me that Don Jorge had one in his back room that he was willing to sell me. Don Jorge wanted 800 lempira, which I totally had but wasn’t willing to spend so we played that fun haggling game until I got my savior suitcase for 500. Two days later when I was hauling the brand new luggage full of my stuff up the stairs of the hotel lobby in Teguz, the handle snapped clean off and nearly rolled down the stairs onto my friend. Get what you pay for I guess…

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On Wednesday I had an impromptu despidida (going away party) with the staff at the health center in Jardines. One of the nurses made me a cake, and the Doctor made everyone go around the room and say something about me. Which was kind of awkward because there were some new nurses there that had never met me but they came up with something nice to say anyway… I surprised myself when it was my turn to speak. I didn’t think I would get choked up but I did. It  hurt to tell them that I wanted so badly to stay and work but my organization didn’t think it was safe for me to be there anymore. It doesn’t seem fair that, since I am an American, I just get picked up and removed from a situation and deposited back in my little suburb, while my friends and counterparts have to stay behind in Honduras in a country that is dangerous and corrupt and barely functioning.

With my favorite CdS staff members. The man in the middle is Dr. Garcia, my main counterpart and co-worker

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It’s simply not fair. I want to stay here and see things through till the end.  I still just feel so unprepared to leave, and what’s more, I am completely unprepared to re-enter society in America. Go ahead and laugh, but I really really don’t want a grown-up job. I don’t want to start paying bills and having responsibilities and I definitely don’t want any part in this ridiculous iPhone revolution where everyone’s email follows them everywhere.  And even though I am already craving good Thai food and hot showers, somehow it doesn’t feel like it’s worth giving up all this…

Honduras: I take back all the mean things I ever said about you. Well maybe not ALL the mean things. But most of them. This has been the most incredible adventure of my life and I relish every lesson learned here and every friend I made. I can only hope that I’ve done more good than damage*. I leave no regrets. I will always cherish the families that have taken me in and treated me like one of their own. I don’t know when it will happen but I pledge to come back and visit some day and hopefully return some favors.

As I’m winding down here, I’d like to say a huge and thoroughly insufficient GRACIAS to all the people who have supported me throughout this journey. I am so lucky to have a network of people cheering for me and supporting me and being sympathetic when I complain about the inane trivialities. And lets not forget my two biggest supporters: my parents. I could not have made it without their unwavering support and encouragement,  of both the emotional and financial kind. I feel at this point I have put them through quite a lot. For every sickness, accident, disappointment and personal crisis of mine, they have felt the pain just as acutely as if they were fighting a bout of food poisoning themselves. Every single time I called them up in tears bemoaning whatever was the crisis de jour,  they would, without fail, try and help me in whatever way they could. And when they couldn’t, they reminded me that I am strong and capable and able to handle anything that gets thrown at me. If nothing else, that’s one of the grandest lessons I have learned while being here**.

Also, thanks to all my loyal blog readers. I’ve enjoyed keeping this record of my adventures and all the faithful readers and commenters have really made it worthwhile (over 27,500 hits in two years. Boo ya!). I plan to continue to write, as long as I still have thoughts that entertain me. And no promises yet but I am planning a trip in the near future to another Spanish-speaking country which will prove to be some interesting fodder for new blog topics. So keep checking back.

I just heard a presenter mention something about passing out money. So I think I should sign off here.

Que le vaya bien…

-Sarita

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*Among other things, teaching Honduras to play flip-cup qualifies as damage

** That, and avoid drinks with ice cubes. And don’t trust directions from Taxi drivers. And no matter how much you study a language there will always be lots more that you will never understand. And it’s best to just accept that early on.

Best of the Best: My favorite souvenirs

As I am going through the piles of stuff in my house, I have begun placing things in three distinct piles: what’s going, what’s staying, and what ought to be burned (anything I wore while hiking Talgua). It’s been bittersweet. I’m enjoying reminiscing about  all of my many, many adventures here in Honduras. Seeing as how I am a pack-rat-boarding-on-hoarder, I have collected a lot of, well, things. Here are some of my favorites:

The conch shell from the trip to Cayos Cochinos. This little cluster of islands was probably the most unique place I have been here in Honduras, if not my whole life. The Garifuna people were friendly without being overly so, and they managed to carry out their lives without being disturbed or posing for the camera while I took pictures. A photographers dream. These conch shells were literally lining the island. You couldn’t take one step on the beached with tripping over these giant beauties. I had actually collected like four of them but due to space constraints I only managed to bring back this one. It definitely made the cut to get brought back home.

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Mayan Statue – the obligatory touristy souvenir from Copan Ruinas. I’ve been to the ruins three  separate times and fortunately I only have one cheesy statue.

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Sexiest Trophy – I earned this Halloween 2010 along with six other Lady Gagas. You might have heard, but we won the contest.  This was originally at the house of another one of the Gagas but she left the country a year ago and passed it on to me.

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My Where-I’ve-Been map -  I have circles around all the places where I have either worked, slept or partied. Sometimes all three. I could probably tell you a really good story about every single circle on that map.  By the time I leave this country I will have been to 16 of the 18 departments in Honduras. And one of them is off-limits and doesn’t have roads. Not too shabby.

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My machete – To the untrained eye, it might just look like a really big knife. But I assure you it’s not. Did I really NEED  a machete? Probably no. But I wanted one because, hell, I lived in the campo and every one else in El Real had one. The funny thing is I mostly used it for cutting cardboard for various art projects. Plus this isn’t the size of a normal machete. I once heard someone call it a “womans machete” because it is a size smaller than the ones the men use in the campo. But I liked having it. Although I’m doubtful this will make it back to Ohio with me….

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My Olancho Pueblo Crawl t-shirt. And matching computer sticker. Because, obviously.

(“Come if you want, leave if you can”. It’s a reference to how people really like Olancho and stay forever. But honestly I think it’s more probable that people come to Olancho and get shot so they can never leave… Potato, potato.)

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My hammock. Why would anyone ever want a couch when you could have one of these?

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Well that’s it. If only I could figure out how to pack the REST of my stuff….

-Sarita

Best of the best: Insects

In the nearly two years I have been here in Honduras, I have done a lot of strange things in my free time.  But one of my favorite hobbies is something I have been working on for the entirety of my service. What I have here is a sampling of my collection of the creepy and/or disgusting insects that have graced my path during my service.

This post is dedicated to my former roommate who was obtaining her Masters in Entomology at UA when we lived together. Victoria: if you can identify any of these things for me, let me know. Congrats on your upcoming wedding btw (;

I hope all of you will enjoy viewing these just as much as I did.

SPIDERS:

A tarantula nearly the size of my lens cap. This guy was trying to scamper out of the shower at my host family’s house in El Real.

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This Golden Silk Spider (?) was spotted during a hike in Punta Sal rain forest preserve off the coast of Tela. I stayed pretty far away from this and had the camera is zoomed in as far as it would go. Which was, unfortunately, not nearly far enough.

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These guys were everywhere all the time. I tried googling it and my best guess is a Wolf Spider, or Brazilian Wolf Spider. The one above seems to only have 7 legs, and because of this oddity I was able to recognize him every time he showed up in my house.

I wasn’t scared of them until my friend Kristi told me she got bit by one while she was taking laundry off the line.

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And if you’re not careful, the spiders will lay eggs in your clothes while you’re not looking…

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BEETLES and things that look like Beetles:

Found this ugly guy in my bed at the host fam’s house

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Actually I think I’ve seen these things in my parents backyard in Ohio. But they don’t belong in my sink.

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I don’t even know.

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Whatever it is, it’s the size of a house key.

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ROACHES: 

Roaches are disgusting for obvious reasons, and most people have had too many encounters with them for mine to be noteworthy. However some are just too creepy to pass up…

A roach in my bath scrubby thing. Needless to say, I no longer use a bath scrubby thing.

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Huge hissing cockroach found in our pila in El Real. It didn’t move until…

…I flipped it over with my keys and it  made very loud, angry noises.

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So this is my favorite nature story. One day, I saw this particularly gross roach in the corner of my kitchen. Several hours later, it was still there. Which presented a bit of a problem because I would have to move it somehow and, well, gag me. However, later that day it was gone. But I soon found this behind a door…

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A big giant wolf spider had the VERY SAME ROACH in its MOUTH. Big win for team arachnid! Oh wait…

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OTHER UNIDENTIFIABLE/CREEPY/INTERESTING BUGS:

Finally something not hideous: A giant luna month (?), probably five inches in diameter.

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I only know this guy by the name that the host family uses and they call it an esperanza.

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Another slug-looking thing in my lettuce that I bought from the mercado. I was going to give it all to Bernice anyway…

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This scorpion was spotted by my friend as she was walking barefoot around the pool at the house we rented for SunJam on Utila. They were going to kill it but I wouldn’t let them until I took a picture.

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Finally, the one that  grossed me out the most:

Drum roll please….

The ant infestation in my bathroom in El Real.

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See those dark spots in the corners? Not dirt. Not water. ANTS. Lots and lots of ants.

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I woke up one morning and there were hundreds (thousands?) of them around the bathroom sink and all over the wall. I don’t know why they were there or what they were eating. But after I  threw up a little in my mouth, I sprayed them down with roach killer. Good news: it killed them all and they never came back. Bad news: I had hundreds (thousands?) of ant carcasses to clean up. Disgusting. I still get chills looking at it.

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Though I am very disheartened and emotional about leaving Honduras in two weeks, there are some things I will not miss. Actually there are about 10 million things I will not miss.

Evacuation Update pt. 1

Since the big bomb dropped a week ago I have had a little time to process what’s going down in our post right now. And I definitely don’t understand it all at this point. Regardless I am going to explain as much as I can….

So I was  day 3 into my marvelous trip back to the states. My bro and I were having great time in DC. I got to go to his office on Capitol Hill, then he took me to a cool bar full  of Cincy fans as we watched the Bengals whoop up on the Rams. We also got to take a VIP tour of the Whitehouse while it was decorated for Christmas which was really amazing (pictures on flickr). I was working hard on my list of “food I want to eat while in America” so you can be sure I was consuming plenty of sushi, Thai food, cheddar cheese and bloody marys.

On December 20^th while I was chillin on Stevens couch, flipping through eight bajillion channels of cable, I received an email that was sent out to all volunteers currently serving in Honduras. It was from our Country Director and stated that a mutual decision had been reached by both PC Honduras and the main offices in the US. Basically the decision was to pull all volunteers out of Honduras due to the increasing violence and other problems here.

There will be a mandatory meeting of all 150 of us in mid January where we will meet with staff and Reps from DC. Hopefully more of our questions will be answered there. After which, we will all be sent home for a mandatory 30 days while these Reps evaluate and assess the overall safety of this country and determine how bad things have gotten and if PCVs can still safely work here.  After the 30 day period, us volunteers will be notified as to whether they decide to reopen the country for service. However, everyone in my training group (H16) and the one after us (H17) will be close enough to our 2 year commitment that they are sending us home for good. Those of us in H16 will have the opportunity to COS (Close of Service) officially with all the pomp and circumstance of those who finish their service normally. Technically we would only be four months shy of the end of our service. Everyone else is offered what they call “Interruption of Service” which just means their two years were cut short due to  circumstances beyond their control.

In the email it stated that, after the 30-day assessment, there is a possibility that they will reopen the country and allow a very few dedicated volunteers of the most recent training groups (H18 and H19) to come back under restricted circumstances. However given recent events and some of the crazy stuff that has been all over the newspapers I find it hard to believe that anyone will be coming back at all. But that’s just speculation.

There has been chisme for months about the possibility of shutting down Honduras as a post, especially since a Peace Corps volunteer was shot in the leg during a bus assault several weeks ago. She is back in the States and recovering, but it really shook many of us and was a startling realization about how bad things have gotten. After all, having your wallet stolen is one thing, but when a person’s life is in danger, well that’s something else entirely. Still, I was in denial that they would make us all leave, especially since I was getting close to finishing my service on time. But it seems the decision has been made.

Bottom line for me: I am going home around January 15. Although I don’t know the exact date or where we will be leaving from. Or the manner in which they will be sending us back. I do know that I don’t seem to have any choice in the matter and needless to say I’m not happy about it. In fact I’m quite devastated.  Just when things were getting really good for me in my site, I am being made to pick up everything at the drop of a hat and leave my site and never come back. This feels oddly familiar. Oh yes, that’s because I did THIS VERY SAME THING SIX MONTHS AGO.

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[deep breaths]

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[more deep breaths]

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So now I am back here in Taulabe, after a fantastic but all-too-short trip back to the states.  It was hard to really enjoy my holiday to the fullest because I was preoccupied by the mess I was coming back to. Not to mention we are all on Standfast here in country which is just PC lingo for being quarantined. Any and all travel has been cancelled and we have been threatened within an inch of our lives not to dare leave our sites. Which means our NYE trip to the beach in El Salvador definitely won’t be happening. It looks like I will be spending both New Years and my Birthday with my next door neighbors and their plethora of children and fried chicken. It could still be fun though. Not exactly what I originally had in mind for my 25^th but it will be unique, that’s for damn sure.

Right now my next steps are breaking the news to work partners in town and also planning a swift but completely adorable graduation ceremony for my Yo Merezco class that wasn’t supposed to be done till mid-February. I also have a sick feeling growing in my stomach because there is doubt over whether I can bring Bernice back to the states with me or not…

In looking at my calendar, I’m realizing I now have exactly two weeks to wrap up all of my other work projects, pack everything, say my good-byes and then get out of town. Only this time I am leaving Honduras for good, done with my Peace Corps adventure. I am still kinda numb to the idea.  Especially since there are so few details that have really been confirmed so everyone is still very confused about everything. I’m definitely not ready to go. It’s sudden. It’s unfortunate. And it’s heartbreaking. And don’t ask me what I’m going to do when I get back. One hurdle at a time, please.

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hasta la proxima vez…

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-Sarita y el hermanito

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Some shocking news…

You might remember the post I published a few weeks ago, lamenting my indecision about what I’m going to do with my life post-Peace Corps. Well, in light of recent events, I’m going to have to hurry my ass up and pick something. Like, soon.

This is because the PC folks in Washington DC have decided to shut down Honduras as a post and send us home. Right now it is a very complicated issue and details are sketchy, I’ll write more when I know more. But the one thing I know for sure is, come mid-January I will be unemployed and on a plane for Cincinnati.  And despite my overwhelming desire to stay here in Honduras and see this to the end, there is nothing I can do to about the situation.

I am still in shock and havent really had time to process my options. I’m mostly just dreading the task that comes in two weeks when I get back in to my site in Honduras. How do I start packing all my stuff and saying a premature good-bye to a community I adore? Again.

This sucks so bad. I am heartbroken.

A formal press release from PC

A story in the NYT

Mini Island Vacay? Yes Please!

Here in the Peace Corps, there’s nothing more intersting than meeting another volunteer’s family - biological and otherwise. I had the pleasure of spending time with Niccis mom who was visiting from California, as well as her host family who live in a small town outside of Choluteca.  In honor of family visiting from the states, the whole gang went on an overnight topical island vacay and natrually I tagged along (:

Amapala is the only island belonging to Honduras on the south coast, the Gulf of Fonseca, and it is surprisingly small. One of the lancha captains told us it was 18 kilometers wide and there are only about 2,500* permanent residents, including one of our own H16 Peace Corps Volunteers. There are several little islands scattered in the area but the others belong to either El Salvador or Nicaragua. That said, from just about any vantage point on the  island you can very clearly see coasts of the other two countries near by.

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Some more history – Back at the turn of the 19th century, Amapala was a pretty happening place, considered a thriving port town and one of the biggest cities in all of Honduras. But since the 1950s, the once-thriving shipping industry has moved elsewhere and left this island to rely on tourism alone. Check out the pictures I found online of the puerta (main dock) back in 1910, conpared with mine from last weekend.

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We stayed at a nice little hotel on the opposite side of the island from what is considered “downtown”. It was a quaint little spot. La Playa Negra has probably seen better days (the 70s perhaps?) but we were pretty much the only one’s there so we had the beautiful black-sand beach all to ourselves. Plus the kids were delighted to take over the pool and run around like we owned the place. 

Can you believe this picture was taken with a Blackberry? (Click to enlarge)  Clearly technology has been improving by leaps and bounds in my absence.

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Niccis host family is probably one of the most kind and generous Honduran families I have ever met.  I had the pleasure of meeting them once before when some friends and I came to visit and even though that was nearly a year ago, they all remembered me and are now plotting ways to set me up with one of the single sons back home (fijise ain’t gonna happen).  This time around group consisted of the three sisters and their younger children who range from 3rd grade to 17.  This particular trip was touching because the kids had never stayed in a hotel before, much less been on a full-fledged vacation. They were super appreciative and about as stoked as I was to be there.

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Can you spot the gringos?

[A side note: I don't know what it is about Honduran women getting such a kick out of  trying  to teach white girls to dance. It seems every time I get together with a group of Honduran women, they threaten to put on some punta music and "teach" me to dance. Don't be fooled however. There's never any actual teaching going on.  They obviously just mean to laugh at me while I prove that I cannot move my hips the way they have been brought up to. I am pretty sure other white girls have been subject to this same humiliation and we should ban together ladies, and say no more! Its not fair and I will not stand for it. Humph.]

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Another seaside vacation perk: The seafood.  I hadn’t had mariscos this fresh since the last time I was on a tropical island in August.  (Go ahead, hate me).

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Sopa Marinera.

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 The second animal massacre in recent memory…

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Truly amazing company, new sights, black-sand beaches, seafood everywhere you turn. What could be better?  Oh wait, I know what… 48 hours from now I will be IN AMERICA for ELEVEN WHOLE DAYS. I’ve never been so excited to freeze my ass off in my whole life.  (Btw I just got done watching last years Glee Christmas Special on my computer -the one where Artie walks- and if last weekend’s liquor-themed Hanukkah party didn’t put me in the holiday spirit, this definitely did.)

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I’m comin home!!

Hasta la proxima vez

-Sarah

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*I just saw a number on a different website that was vastly different which reminds me you can’t believe

everything you read online. Even you, Wikipedia.

The Near and Foreseeable Future

I just recently found out our official Close of Service date is May 12. That snuck up on me. It’s still five months off, but good God where did the time go??

Since the finish line is now in sight, it has got me thinking: What am I going to do when I’m done with the Peace Corps? Several people have asked me and I’ve never once responded with anything other than a shoulder shrug and a quick change of subject. It’s worse than when you were a senior in high school and everyone was asking you if you’ve decided where you’re going to college. I’m sure you remember that time. It’s all the old people ever wanted to talk about, and it stressed me out something awful.

But to tell you the truth it was easier then because at least with college, there were some parameters. Back then I was just  deciding between four or five schools and I had the freedom and debauchery of college to look forward to. Now, on the other hand, I literally have no idea what I want to do when I leave Honduras. And no matter what, I will have the added drudgery of health insurance and car payments to get excited about.

The few people that I talk to keep asking me over and over again (dad) about what I’m going to do next.  Most of my friends my age are either happily employed, or well on their way to degrees in law and medicine and whatnot. It’s intimidating really.

Though I’m not completely without direction. I’ve considered several things:

1. Grad school – Masters in Public Health would be a logical choice. Although I’m not yet in love with the idea. I could pick something slightly more interesting but less practical: Masters in Latin American Studies. Or I could go with something infinitely more interesting, but generally useless: Masters in Creative Writing. Not to mention the whole grad school can of worms forces me to start applications and writing personal statements (blech) and applying for Peace Corps Fellows scholarships which will then limit me to about a dozen schools across the country, most of which are located in rather unappealing places (no offense New Jersey, Omaha and Albuquerque). I’m getting anxiety just thinking about it all.
2. The other option is, obviously, job hunting. Gag me. Where do I even begin? I don’t have any established connections in any industry. Do people still go door-to-door dropping off resumes? My mom keeps telling me how bilingual positions are in high demand right now, so that’s promising.  But I still don’t know if should I narrow things down by city or by job type. San Diego is really appealing right now, friends from college are luring me there. Also D.C. sounds promising; my little brother loves it there. But it can get damn cold from what I hear. Or perhaps I should go back to my roots and do some networking in Cincy. But again, too cold. And don’t even ask me what kind of job I would want because I simply couldn’t tell you.
3. The option I’m most leaning towards: More traveling. That would be ideal. Peace Corps will be giving me a nice fat check for a few grand in May and I could definitely spend every cent of that traipsing through South America. I even have some girlfriends here in Peace Corps that have agreed to go with me. Machu Picchu. Buenos Aires. Rio. I wanna see it all…

Call me crazy but I have also considered extending my time here in Taulabe. Apparently we are allowed up to six months additional time with the Peace Corps, anything beyond that requires extra paperwork and special permissions and whatnot. I’m only considering it because, in some ways I feel like I’m just getting started here. I love this town and no matter what there will always be more stuff for me to do.  Although if I did stay here longer, I would only be delaying the inevitable decision that I still have to make at some point regarding my re-entrance into society.

Sometimes it feels exciting to know I have these endless possibilities in front of me. It seems like every day I fanaticize about something new; starting a life in different places doing something exciting and fresh. But it’s also stressful and overwhelming and intimidating. I guess I have some serious thinking to do. Good thing I have no plans this afternoon except to chill in my hammock and do just that. Suggestions from friends and family are welcome (except dad. I already know what you’re going to say).

Writing it all down and looking at a list of options has been quite cathartic for me. Hopefully I’ll narrow things down as time goes on. Or not.

[sigh]

-Sarita