Finally in Site

We were sworn in by the American Ambassador on Wednesday, and headed to our respective sites the next day. I am indeed in a very rural locale. It´s about an hour and a half away on dirt road from this other big-ish town, comparable to Monteagle TN. The bigger town has electricity, and one internet cafe.. slow but functional. My site is pretty cool. It´s absolutely beautiful, but with no modern amenities. It´s a town of about 300 spread along this one dirt road at the base of some mountains. All the men in the town are Campesino farmers (Campo = country) and the farms are interspersed along the same road. It´s about 70-90 degrees all year round, from what I can gather.. although every farmer has a different story. Everything is incredibly green... tons of fruit trees, and they literally have so many grapefruits, mandarins, etc that they thrown them away or feed them to the chickens. (PS I am SO not in love with roosters)

I live with a host family who are extremely nice and caring. The father grows platanos (a kind of starchy banana) and the mother makes baskets out of pine needles to sell. There are three kids from the ages of 6-18, all very nice. I will live with this family for 2 months, as a Peace Corps rule, and then can move into my own house. Although I am allowed to move I am not sure it will be possible because all the houses in this community are used, they do not just have vacancies. I am going to keep my eyes open though. There is one possibility but it has a dirt floor, outdoor latrine, no glass or bars on the windows, etc. Possibly I could lay concrete inside to fulfill the PC requirements, but will have to talk with the landlord as well as my Project Director.

The one other obstacle is communication. My site has no electricity or internet or cell phone service. There is one place to which I can walk to have service on my Honduras cell phone, but even then it´s a little sketchy. Luckily, my host father DOES have a solar panel so I can recharge my phone. One other volunteer lives nearby, about an hour or two walk, other than her the closest is probably a 3 to 4 hour bus ride.

For the first two months we are just supposed to get to know the community. I have been working with the farmers, sitting around chatting with the women, helping them make tortillas, playing with kids, etc. My Spanish is improving by leaps and bounds now that it is my only method of communication.

I think the internet may shut down soon, basic infrastructure is still a large problem thanks to the Coup détat government among other things. All for now, but I am seriously going to try to post pictures next time. Lots of love, Carmen