Hello, blog. Remember me? I´m the one who created you and then left you like a baby in the dumpster. (Note: I don´t condone leaving babies in dumpsters.)

So where have I been? What have I been doing?

First, I just spent about 3 minutes trying to figure out where the question mark is on this key board. I swear I know how to type properly, they just changed some of the keys.

I´ve been watching a lot of soccer. I had my hopes built on an underdog team and watched them all wash away when Spain and some idiot referees took away the chances of my Paraguayan team making it to the semi finals.

Other than that I´m just living the good life. I go to bed every night around 10. Wake up around 7 or 8. Make some phone calls. Walk to the city. Walk back home. Make more calls. You know, things like that.

My stupid camera is broken. While I´m not a huge photog, I´d at least like the option of becoming one over the summer. Big let down.

I swear better things are happening around here, I just can´t think of any right now. Come back later when my imagination has returned.

Peace,
Raquel

Alive

Well, we made it with relativley few set backs.

I left KC about an hour later than I intended to thinking I would just sleep "another 10 minutes" which of course turned into 45 minutes. In true Raquel fashion I showed up to the airport about 45 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave- I checked my luggage and immediately boarded the plane. Maybe I've outsmarted TSA and figured out that it is completely uneccesary to show up 2 hours early. Maybe I like flirting with disaster. Maybe I'm bad with timelines. Maybe all 3.

After a day in Houston and some amazing breakfast tacos I made my way to Buenos Aires. We (my associate Kyle and I) had to switch airports when we landed and were treated to a 30 minutewhirlwind tour of one of my favorite cities in the world. The view isn't quite as lindo through a dusty taxi window.

We arrived in Asuncion yeterday afternoon to my favortite kind of weather- pleasant. We have been busy exploring the city and meeting with contacts. Today was an especially productive as we met with the director (and his assistant) of Paraguay's largest newspaper- ABC Color- were interviewed and had our picture taken for the paper (the VIP Corner I hope), and toured the US Embassy.

My experimentation with vegeterianism is all but over as carne is about the only thing on any menu in this country. Hope my stomach doesn't mind.

Enjoy the hot weather, suckers. I'm going to bed.

A NEW ADVENTURE!

Well friends, I'm leaving again. Gearing up for my new adventure! This time to exotic... Paraguay. That's right, the middle of no where. For those of you not familiar with rarely mentioned South American countries it is nestled between Argentina and Brazil.

My trip begins June 1, giving me about a week to tie up any loose ends here in the States. If you know me at all you know there are tons of loose ends and I haven't even started to think about tying them. Yesterday was the first time I started to sort clothes to maybe bring with me, and I had a few Bud Lights in my system. Needless to say, I'm gonna have to re-sort them.

This summer I promise to update a bit more than last time. Hopefully there will be some good stories.

-Raquel

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