HOLA TODOS!!
Disculpame por favor! I know I haven't written or posted pictures in a really long time, but my access to internet plus my limited time with electricity has made it difficult to upload pictures or spend time writing. But now I'm in the Tegucigalpa office trying to write a grant (bringing a solar panel to the schools of two communities so we can later get computers) and am doing this while my partner adds up some figures.
So here are some photos of my life, some still in training and others as an official volunteer.



This is me (clearly) during training showing off the "fogone" (a wood burning stove made out of adobe) that we made for a family in Moroceli. We all got muddy but it was fun and cool to see how they are constructed, seeing how that's what my family uses all the time to cook.



My friend Liz and I holding up a banner we made for the Sept. 15th (Independence Day) parade in which we marched. It was a little awkward but fun to see the festivities (unfortunately being in the parade didn't allow me to take pics).



A view out of the window of my house in El Suyate. That's the burro that would brey every morning around three am-it was awesome. That's also my laundry drying on the barb wire fence-no wonder clothes fall apart a little quicker here!



This is the PAM (Protected Areas Management) team! Yes we all got matching t-shirts! The woman on the bottom left is my project manager who is awesome!



Another pic of the PAM team before swearing in at the Peace Corps office- everyone was surprised at our ability to dress up!



Here we are again after swearing in~Official Volunteers!!! The whole team from field based training is in the photo, including the spanish teachers and the two old and wise volunteers who helped us during training. (If you look closely, I have an odd grin on my face as I had just realized i had black bean in my teeth).



A cool pic of some of the guys jumping into the pool at the ambassador's house. We spent the afternoon there after swearing in, swimming, playing volleyball, and enjoying eachother's company before shipping off to all corners of Honduras. His house is gourgeous but unfortunately he wasn't there to hang with us. He's a cool guy though; at swearing in he told us that he thinks the Peace Corps is the US governments best organization!



A pretty view of Tegucigalpa on the bus ride back!



The PAM drinking team the night of swearing in-we definitely needed to celebrate!



My little host brother! This was on his first birthday! He's pretty cute and i spend a lot of time hanging out with him-he can kinda say my name now ("icia") which is cool.

I had some more photos of my new family and of my site but for some reason they don't want to download. So they will have to wait until next time. And there will be a next time soon!
But i gotta go now to catch my bus back to site-which is incredibly muddy and rainy and slightly cold (i never expected Honduras to be cold!). Hope everyone has a happy turkey day-i will really be missing the states next thursday!

Hasta Pronto!
Alicia

So here´s a recap of all the work I´ve done since being here in Field Based Training here in Moroceli. I would write more, but unfortunately I seem to have been struck by another illness (most likely Dengue) and have no energy. I can´t go to the hospital again because there is a huge strike in Tegucigalpa and no one can enter or leave the city, so I have to sit here and sweat it out (literally). The last two weeks have been pretty eventful, so I wanted to at least give everyone a little taste!

1. Went to the immigration office and am now an official resident of Honduras!

2. Got to go to the mall in Teguz and eat some wholesome american fast food and icecream...yum!

3. Went to another soccer game in another town close by-this time the guys were playing so we got to make fun of them like they made fun of us (unfortunately one of them scored so we couldn´t laugh very much).

4. Built to latrines in two afternoons! Learned how to mix cement, use a hoe, lay bricks, level a toilet seat, and mucho mas!

5. Spent a morning working with my host dad on the farm-when I say working i really mean he let me do only ten minutes of light labor because he didn´t want to hurt my soft hands. But I got to ride a horse there and back, which was fun and gave some entertainment to the town!

6. Built a family garden with the local elementary school-it´s amazing how well those ten year olds know how to use a machete!

7. Went on a field trip to Hoya Grande where we spent the day with a local farmer constructing live and dead barriers. This included planting trees and beans, and making a 100 foot rock wall! We decided to go for beers (1 each so we don´t get a bad reputation) and baleadas (tortilla with beans and eggs...yum) after and they tasted so good!!!!

8. Taught fifth graders what international development is and how they can help-don´t think they took much in, but at least they paid attention.

9. Went to Danli (bigger city about 45 minutes away) for the festival de maiz (corn festival). This is third largest festival in Honduras and thus it took us about 2.5 hours to find a ride-all the buses were jammed pack. But once there, we had a great time, eating local food and catching up with the other training class who also came in for the festival. We even got to go to a supermarket, which was pretty awesome!

10. Was taught how to dance by my next door neighbor-basically i tried to dance while everyone else laughed at me.

11. Went to the farm again to pick corn which we used to make a local dish-it was quite a process!

12. Went to a cigar factory where I learned all about the process-it´s pretty intense!

ok gotta go-love to all-wish me luck with whatever illness this is I have!
besos-alice

I´ve made it a month!!!!!!!

I have officially been here in Honduras for five weeks!!! I can´t believe it-the time seems to fly by but at the same time I feel like I´ve been here for ages!

What´s new...? The biggest news I suppose is that I survived my first hospitalization-WOOHOO!! I had what we have affectionately named Lempira´s revenge-a nasty virus that gave me diarrhea and made me throw up anything i ingested. It wasn´t that serious but since I couldn´t keep anything down and the Peace corps doesn´t like to take chances in terms of health and safety, so I was taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon. After hooking me up to several IVs and sticking me several times trying to draw blood, I was taken to my own room. The hospital was really nice, although I have been told that it is the nicest hospital in Honduras and since the PC gives them so much business, they treat us Volunteers pretty well. The director of the Hospital even came to visit me the next day to make sure I was enjoying my stay and that I liked the view from my room. I left around one that day, fully hidrated and feeling much better. The best part is that my host mom here can´t give me any fried food for a whole week!!! I love it but she´s having trouble finding anything to give me besides soup.

My family here in El Suyate is really great. They call me their hija and are very protective of me. In fact, they are a little over protective, but it´s nice to know they care. And the town is interesting-I´ve never lived in a town like this. The gossip is ridiculous-I think the whole town knew I was sick before I had even left my house. And I hear things about the other trainees hours before they tell me. It´s funny-we are beginning to feel like celebrities. Finally I know how Paris Hilton feels!!
We got to play soccer this past weekend with the girls team-Las Bambis-which was really fun!! A big dumptruck loaded us all up and took us to the next little town over-El Campo-where we played their women´s team. It was great-a lot of the town came out to watch so we had plenty of cheerleaders. I´m not gonna brag about my soccer skills but the other gringas did really well. The only problem was that when I would run along the side of the field, all the guys would yell ¨hola gringa, my love, i love you¨. Made me feel a little awkward and thus i decided to play on the other side of the field after half time.

So it´s been raining a lot hear. It´s great-it makes it a lot cooler and the trainees who are in the bigger town Moroceli can finally take a shower. The town hasn´t had water the whole time we´ve been here. There was a really big storm right before we came that broke the pipes and they still haven´t been fixed. So the kids in this town are beginning to smell a little rank-jk. My extended family, which is like half the town of El Suyate, has been filling the back of their pickup trucks with barrels of water to take to Moroceli to sell. Hopefully it will get fixed soon, although I´ve heard that a hurricane might hit Honduras next week, causing all sorts of problems.
All right gotta go...this has been kinda random, but it´s been a long week. I´ll try to upload some more pics next week. I´m gonna research some recipes now for some american food cuz we are going to cook for our families this weekend.
Hope to hear from you all!!!
xoxo-alicia

Alugunas Fotos and my trip to La Tigra National Park

This is a picture outside my bedroom window-I think there are other houses down there but all I see are the banana plants.

This is mi casa-it´s down a little path off the main road. The clothes on the line aren´t mine, but let me tell you-washing clothes in a pila is hard work!

These are all the staff members at the training center-they are all Hondurans and are all very kind-clearly looking out for our well being!

These are some of the guy trainees (we only have a few more and five of them are married-as i said before, the ratio isn´t in the girls favor), and Shirley, my friend who ended up leaving Saturday. Actually three more people have left, including the 74 year old guy. It´s sad to lose people from the group but i guess they needed to do what they felt was right.

These are some of the ladies-I´m there in the middle with a peace sign!

This is Bryce and Rachel in the back of the pickup truck we took in La Tigra. We left Santa Lucia around 7:30 Sunday morning, walking 2.5 km down to the main bus stop. There we had to wait 50 min for our bus that would take us to San Juancito, the little town at the base of the park. Once there, we hired a guy to take us up the hill to the entrance to the park-the other group didn´t know about this ride up and they spent two hours walking up the really steep hill (it was definitely worth the 200 Lempiras=10 bucks for all of us).

San Juancito from the back of the pickup truck

A pícture of the group minus me (Kyler,Rachel, Bryce and Dan)

A cool picture of the dense cloud forest we were walking through.


A really cool big tree we saw along the trail and of which we all took like 10 pictures.

A cool lizard we saw on the way down...don´t know what it is called but it´s pretty!


Pretty views of the valley.

This is a view from our local coffee shop...it looks over the valley and you can see the lights of Tegucigalpa at night! Definitely more picturesque than any Starbucks I´ve ever been to.

Ok that´s it for now...it takes forever to download the pictures at this place, so next time i won´t do it all in bulk. Not much other news-I went to Tegucigalpa this week for a visit to the market with my spanish class. It´s a pretty insane town with lots of traffic and even more people.
I gotta go now since it´s getting dark and I have tarea for tomorrow!

First Week in Honduras!!!

Bienvenidos a Honduras and congratulations to me!!! I’ve made it through my first week of Peace Corps training here in Santa Lucia, Honduras!!!!

I arrived in Tegucigalpa last Wednesday, beginning my three months of being a Peace Corps Trainee (called an aspirante). The landing at the airport here is crazy-because the city is surrounded by mountains, the runway here is extremely short (rumored to be the shortest in the world) and thus the landing was extremely rough-I think we bounced off the tarmac at least three times. But nevertheless, we made it safely and took our first steps in Honduras. Passing through customs, I got hit on for what I assume will be the first of many times by the custom official (he liked my eyes and apparent “sexy” smile). After collecting all my luggage (I admit, I overpacked) I was greeted by Peace Corps staff, a luggage truck, and a much welcomed snack. Once we were all accounted for (there are 47 of us trainees), we boarded a big yellow school bus (the standard bus here for all transportation) and headed towards Santa Lucia.

Santa Lucia is a small mountain town about 15k from Tegucigalpa (Teguc for short) and has hosted Peace Corps Honduras training for many years. When the trainees come, its kind of like tourist season for the pueblo as we are all anxious to spend our money at the internet café and the restaurants. So while here, we live with host families and attend 8 hours of training during the week days. I am living with the Rodriguez-Nunez family, which includes Olga and Miguel (the parents) and a lot of kids. Luis is the oldest (24) and doesn’t live at home; Pamela (14) is next and helps Olga to take care of all the others; Melissa is 9, Ondina is 7 and Gustavo is 5. Those are the kids who actually live here, but Miguel’s sister is here everyday and has two kids: Javier 8 and Cynthia 3. And there have been a couple other kids around here over the past week, but I haven’t figured out yet to whom they belong. So it’s pretty noisy around here during the day, but at least I have lots of willing playmates.
I have my own room here and my own bathroom, which is a luxury. I feel as though the family gave up a third of its sleeping quarters for me, but they are used to it, as they have hosted at least a dozen other trainees. I eat with the family for breakfast and dinner, and they bring me a hot lunch to the training center everyday (I’m definitely being spoiled-it will be a big shock when I have to go to my site and actually cook for myself). The food is really good-a lot of rice and beans, some meat, cheese, and amazing fruit. The other day I had a breakfast of fruit-Pineapple, watermelon, papaya and mango. I’ve also eaten quite a bit of plantain and even got to try yucca the other day. The only bad thing about the food is that the Hondurans like to fry just about everything-not so good for my intestines or my waistline. I even had fried bologna the other day (definitely not my favorite). But oh well things could be a lot worse-at least I have a hot shower in the mornings. Many of the volunteers have to take cold showers or even bucket showers. So I count myself lucky with my electroducha (affectionately called the “widow maker” by some- something about electricity and water mixing…).

Training is pretty interesting-we spend half the day in language classes and the other half in lectures (about development, Honduras, safety, etc.) We also break up into our project areas some-I’m in Protected Areas Management (PAM) and there is also Youth development and Municipal development. I’m still not exactly sure what I’ll be doing with PAM, but I’ll let you know when I find out. Anyway, we are learning quite a bit and in between classes I’m getting to know the other volunteers better. They are all really cool people from all different backgrounds. There are five married couples in the group (which dramatically reduces the eligible bachelors as there are only 14 guys), a guy named Larry who is at least 65, a lady named Cynthia who has lived in 7 different countries and decided to do the Peace Corps once her kids were grown, and a whole lot of others. Gradually I will introduce the others, but 46 is a lot. Unfortunately, I think one of my friends has decided that she isn’t cut out for these tough two years, and will probably go home. But I’m still trying to convince her not to.

Que mas…the other day a bunch of us trainees went down to the soccer field for a game of pickup soccer, which was a lot of fun. I admit, I didn’t do a whole lot more than run up and down the field, but I got a couple of good kicks in and at least it helped reduce the effect of all that fried food. The futbol field is in the most beautiful place: you have to walk to the bottom of one of the hills (not so pleasant to walk up after playing an hour of soccer as it’s about 20 minutes of steep uphill) where the field is in kind of a bowl of mountains. I’ll take my camera next time as I really don’t think my words can do it justice. I also went to the Catholic mass on Sunday with my sisters which was interesting.

Other than these few events, my days basically consist of waking up around 6:15, showering, cleaning my room, eating breakfast and leaving for “school”. Afterwards, I sometimes go to the internet café, or just come home and play with my siblings. The family watches a lot of TV so I’m up-to-date on most Spanish pop music (thanks to Pamela), Sponge Bon Square Pants, algunas telenovelas, and the news. After a dinner with the family and more TV, I go to bed and am usually asleep by 10 o’clock. Definitely a different lifestyle than college, but I guess that means I’m growing up.

That’s a pretty good summary for now. My computer battery is running out (I’ll send this tomorrow at the internet place) and it’s almost 9:30 (bedtime), so I’m going to sign off.
Here is my address if anyone is interested in sending some snail mail-it would be very much appreciated!!!

Alice Douglas
Cuerpo de Paz
Apdo. 3158
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Central America

Ok-until next time-besos para todos!!!
Xoxo-Alicia

Predeparture-My trip to Provence

So before leaving for two years of "roughing it" with the Peace Corps, I got to go to France with my mom and dad for a week of relaxation, good wine and food, and beautiful countryside.





I started in Aix-en-Provence, where I visited my friends Katie, Cassie, and Amy who have the good fortune to be living there for the summer. Although my bags didn't make it, I had two great days of touring, shopping and hitting all the cool local night spots. I even got to meet some locals, although they were forced to speak in english since my french skills are kind of rough.

After these two crazy days, I met my parents and my baggage at the airport and we headed to Montbrison, where are friends Kees and Renne have a beautiful house-our lodging for the next week. Situated on the side of a hill, we woke daily to a view of the valley full of lavender fields and grape vines.



We went into Marseille for a night to meet my dad who had a meeting there and toured around this crazy yet beautiful city.



The rest of the week was spent touring Provence, hitting up local markets to buy delicious fresh produce, fromage, bread, and olives. We even managed to visit a few churches, which made my dad tres happy.



All in all, it was a great trip and I feel fully rested to begin my adventures in Honduras!