My time is winding down here in Gracias. As much as I love it here, I am ready to go. The end of the summer is crunch time for staffs as we have to type up a million different evaluations; of the project, of the volunteers, of each other, of the communities of ourselves.... The list goes on. All this work really contributes to my desire to leave. To skip out on all this paper work and just enjoy my remaining weeks here in Honduras. Alas, I am a responsible person and would feel bad the whole time. Plus, I'd hate to get low marks on my evaluation.
Despite the amount of work I have, I have found some time to do things I love, like dancing. This past week Gracias has been celebrating "Dia De Lempira." A holiday to commemorate a fallen hero, Lempira. From what I understand Lempira led a stand against the Spanish during the conquests, but sadly did not succeed. His rudimentary weapons were no match for the Spanish gun. It's probably best that he wasn't around to experience the pleasure of small pox and other diseases the Spaniards brought with them. Enough with the history lesson, back to dancing. This whole week has been celebration after celebration, baile after baile. I've been to four different dances in the last week, each better than the last. On Sunday we went to a dance held in what remains of a Spanish fort. The excess of drunken men pulling on your arm for a dance (including two 12ish year old boys) could not put a damper on our fun. We danced the night away, staying out until 1:30 in the morning! (Trust me, this is late when you've become accustomed to being in bed by 10.) The DJ even agreed to play some American music for us, which quickly cleared the dance floor of all the Hondurenos. We titled the CD "Los megas grandes exitos de los Estados Unidos de Julio 2008 " (the mega biggest hits from the US of July 2008 ) thinking the DJ would be more inclined to play it. Many of the songs were not the biggest hits of July 2008, or 2005 for that matter. Most were several years old, but I don't think they knew the difference. Plus, I don't think the title had anything to do with him playing the CD. Most Hondurenos with do anything to put a smile on a gringa's face.
Beyond dancing and work I have been working on a list of things I want to do as soon as I get home. It is as follows:
-Drink a Dr. Pepper
-Get a manicure/ pedicure
-Eat Taco Bell
-Deep condition my hair
-Go for a run

There are a lot of other things I'm looking forward to, but I'm not going to list them as they will make me look like a glutton as most of them are things I want to eat.

I'm excited to see you all when I get home, but will be enjoying my time here in the meantime. I'm heading to Guatemala in 2 weeks to see some Mayan ruins, active volcanoes and to overall disfrutar. Hope all is well in the home land.

Cheque-leque,
Raquelita

P.S. I saw a dead horse on the side of the road last week. This week as I passed by there was nothing left but bones. Gross.

...

I´m not very good at blogging, or keeping in touch. I apologize to all that thought I might be dead. I´m not.

I´ve been very busy and have been preparing for the end of the summer! Yay! I spent a week in La Paz Honduras helping out the project there. It was a nice change from Gracias, but made me appreciate it that much more. It was a lot like being away from KC. I don´t realize how much I love it til I leave. During my trip to La Paz I racked up about 16 hours of bus time, 2 more days in San Pedro Sula, a day in Tegucigalpa and 5 more hours of airport time. I got to see some friends I made during training, so it made it all worthwhile.

Other than that our vols leave in less than two weeks. This is the moment we have been preparing for all summer. Things are considerably less hectic when you aren´t taking care of 55 high school students. I´m aprovecharing all there is to do here in Gracias. Hot Springs, beautiful walks, cheap food. There is a festival here on the 20th called "Dia de Lempira." Hondurans celebrate holidays the way I celebrate my birthday- beginning 3 weeks in advance. There are rides already set up, booths selling food and games and a fiesta tonight that I can´t wait to go to. I danced with the dance troop again last night. I was really nervous because it´s been about 4 weeks since my last practice. I´ll get some pics and try to put them up.

Hope all is well up North. Todo cheque aqui.

-Raquelita

Soaking it in.....

Life has been pretty busy here in Gracias. I have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for volunteer arrival. I went on community visits a couple of weeks ago. I will be working in two communities that are conveniently located in the mountains. I think the mountains are beautiful and majestic and all those other good things. It´s just very hard to appreciate them when you believe that you are going to die trying to hike your way up. On my way back home I had to wake up at 4:30 am to catch a 6:30 am bus back to Gracias. I rode a horse to the bus stop, through the mountains, as the sun came up. While bats flew around my head. Vale la pena, I suppose.

Beyond climbing mountains I am trying to immerse myself in the Honduran culture. I joined the PLAN dance team and have learned a couple of folkloric dances. On the last night of briefing we put on a presentation for the volunteers and I got to show off my newly learned skills. I wore the dress which weighs about 15lbs and probably sweated off just about as much trying to dance in it. But the dance went well and everybody thought I had been learning for years, but really I only had 2 practices.

In other news, I have scabies. It isn´t the end of the world like I thought it would be. I´ve taken some meds, researched them on Wikipedia and have come to terms with it. I´ll keep you all abreast of the situation.

Hope all is well at home....

Todo cheque,
Raquel

Living the life....

I'm adjusting quite well to life in Gracias. We found a house that we'll be living in for the rest of the summer. It's a pretty nice house by Honduran standards (and US standards for that matter) and pretty big. It's very big for three people, but I imagine nine people will be a bit of a stretch. We have running water, electricity and most importantly, hot showers. But, rumor has it that the water sometimes goes out intermittently, so that will be a joy to deal with over the summer.

The weather in Gracias is quite pleasant and much cooler than San Pedro. It rains just about every day, but not very hard. We're able to go on with our lives. I am very thankful that it's not kill yourself hot outside. It appears that gracias is home to the biggest grasshoppers I have ever seen in my life. When I first saw them flying around I thought they were birds. They're quite gross. Most of my day is spent trying to avoid them. They are slow moving once on the ground, but they fly and jump around, fast. I hate them.

We're back in San Pedro for the next couple of days waiting for the rest of the staff to arrive. As it turns out, San Pedro is the AIDS capital of Central America. What a claim to fame. We spent most of our day on a bus trying to get here. The bus rides aren't any less scary the second time around. Luckily, there is usually some old guy hootin' and hollerin' on the bus about Jesus. So if there is a wreck, I may have received my last rites. After arriving in SPS we headed straight for the mall. We arrived to much fan fare, alas it wasn't for us. The Honduran futbol team was also scheduled to appear at the mall fresh off a win against Puerto Rico. The place was packed. Except for the part we were interested in, the movie theater. We were able to get a good look at the soccer players and keep moving on to our movie, Iron Man. In Honduras it is frowned upon to put your feet on the chair in front of you, and someone comes in periodically to check and tell you to put them down. It is not, however, frowned upon to talk loudly on your phone, or listen to music. Nice to know for future reference.

Hope none of you get swept away by the tornado!

Besos,
Raquel

Settling in...

We made our way to Gracias where we will be spending the rest of the summer. We had to take a three plus hour bus ride to get here, winding our way through the mountains. Taking a busride through the mountains is exactly what I didn´t want to do. Latin America isn´t big on traffic rules and it seems that most drivers tend to make them up as they go along. That means that cars are often passed on blind turns through the mountains. I think I saved myself a panic attack by sleeping, or pretending to sleep, through the whole ordeal. It won´t be the last time I have to make that trip.

Gracias is a quaint community set in the mountains. When the conquistadors arrived they were so happy to find land flat enough to set up shop that they cried "gracias a Dios." Hence the name, Gracias. There aren´t any paved roads, so the rainy wheather makes things a bit muddy. Supposedly there is a hurricane heading for Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, but I think we´re so far inland that it won´t be a problem. So, don´t worry too much about me.

Peace,
Raquel

The Arrival

I have arrived in San Pedro with minimal difficulties. I was almost delayed a day because I didn't want to sit around the KCI airport for 2 hours and showed up right before I needed to board my plane. Apparently this isn't good practice and you can be bumped as a result. Luckily, someone else was running even more behind and I got to take thier seat.

Honduras is hot. The pollution from the cars in the city doesn't help when you're walking around. But it's bearable. San Pedro is home to about 5 Pizza Huts that I have seen. They are all Mega Pizza Huts. They are the biggest Pizza Huts I have ever seen. We also have the option of eating at other American staples such as Applebee's, Burger King, Churches Chicken, Wendy's and McDonald's. We'd like to see a movie and lucky for us there is a Cinemark at the Mall that is showing Indiana Jones. It's like being in KC, but with bigger Pizza Huts.


I'm having a great time so far and am trying to aprovechar all I can here in the big city before we head to Gracias tomorrow.

Paz,
Raquel la vaga