My Computer (Non) Disaster

The past couple weeks have been pretty eventful. Two weeks ago, I returned to Tomatin to help Alex with the monitoring report for the agricultural store there. I had told Roberto, the president that I would help him with his English and had planned to spend an hour of the visit doing that. When we arrived at the meeting, 14 members of the Caja were there and wanted to participate in the lesson as well. They actually got a chalk board for me to write on. It was pretty funny since I had never formally taught English before. I taught them basic phrases and words and also some microfinance related vocabulary. They were not as interested in knowing financial terms and began asking me about food. Everyone was more attentive than usual during the class and very appreciative. In addition to teaching English, we were able to get all of the current information and book balances with their agricultural store, which is running perfectly!

As I had mentioned prior, women's involvement can be difficult. In order to increase that involvement, we made a recommendation to the women of Tomatin that they should be in charge of all of the operations with the agricultural store with some supervision from the men. They liked the idea and hopefully next time we return will have more women involved with the store.

Most of the products the communties purchase for their agricultural stores are from the closest larger town but often the products are pretty expensive. Alex found a distributor in Tegucigalpa that sells fertilizers and pesticides much cheaper and has recommended to all of our Cajas that they purchase their products at this distributor. Currently Zurzular and Pajarillos are doing this and Tomatin will do the same. In order for the community members to get to the city, they typically get a ride from a friend has a car to a nearby town where they then take a bus into the city. However, two of the Caja members from Pajarillos rode their bikes down an extremely rocky road from their community to Cantarranas (neighboring city) which is about 2 hours away. Imagine riding a bike 2 hours on a rocky road?! Incredible!
Once they arrived in the city, Alex drove them back to Pajarillos with their products (and their bikes).

This past week was definitely a bit of emotional rollercoaster. I recently started going to an aerobic dance class owned by a man named Carlos who spent some time studying dance in Costa Rica. He and his Canadian girlfriend teach classes that are somewhat like Zumba- a combination of salsa, reggaton, and bachata-typical latin dances. They have classes all day --usually. I started out my day on Tuesday waking up early to get to a dance class at 7 before work started. I had a cab pick me up my apartment and take me there and arrived about 10 minutes before the class was supposed to start. I waited until 7:15 and no one arrived, so I had to call the cab and have him return to pick me up. It was slightly frustrating because I had confirmed with Carlos at the class the night before that there would definitely be a class that morning. He told me when I went to class later in the week, that if they do not have enough people coming they cancel and he usually calls the regular students that attend. However, since he did not have my number he could not call me to notify me. It wasn't a huge deal, but definitely an inconvenience having to pay for a taxi both ways when i could have just woken up an practiced yoga for free on the porch.

After returning to the house, Daniel (who we call D strong because his name is Daniel Truong) one of the staff asked me to go to a cafe to work that day since the power/internet had been pretty inconsistent the past couple days and we were not able to be too productive. So Daniel, Frank, and I went to the French cafe which has a really nice atmosphere, and great internet and food. After spending most of the day inside, i decided to relocate to the patio where Frank and D strong were sitting and didn't bother to tighten the lid to my canteen since i was just moving locations quickly. As soon as I set my computer on the table where they were sitting, i inadvertently placed my canteen near D strong which was unfortunately right next to my computer. D strong moved his hand and accidentally knocked my canteen of water all over my keyboard. The moment the water hit my computer, the screen went black. I convinced myself that since battery doesn't function for longer than 10 minutes without being plugged in, that it had gone black for that reason. After talking with my brother later that evening, he told me that was probably a bad sign.

We immediately left the cafe and returned to the house where I submerged my computer in rice. I left it in our living room in rice for 2 days and since there are always tons of people in and out of that area my computer was decorated with random things, including the tiles from banagrams arranged in different sometimes inappropriate sayings.

However, after a few days, miraculously my computer still turned on! Then Frank and I spent about an hour removing each key of my keyboard and plucking out the rice from underneath with tweezers. Since the incident, I feel that liquids are still out to get my computer. i am currently using the interenet at Denny's, which is surprisingly extremely nice, has great service, bottomless coffee, and pretty good vegetarian options as well. i was holding my cup of coffee trying to keep it away from all hands and potential accidents. One of my friends and GB staff, Jen was sitting next to me and bumped my arms nearly spilling coffee on my computer but just missed. Then, Danny got up from the table and shook it nearly spilling coffee on my computer again. Not to mention, the night before the water disaster, I also spilled tea on the edge of my keyboard. Needless to say, my computer has almost been destroyed several times this week. So i am going to be extra careful until i return home in September for a week. I am considering buying a Mac as this computer does not run as well as I need it to for my job.

Other than my computer incident, this week has been good and productive. Yesterday, I went to Parque Aurora, a really beautiful park about 1/2 hr from Tegus, with Katie, who is the new Research and Evaluation lead for GB. She lived here 2 years ago in a city called Comayagua, which is also a surrounding area of the city. She taught English at a boys home called Horizontes al Futuro, and we went to the park to spend the day with the boys from the home. The home is run by a Spanish monk named Don Goya and they have several volunteers that come from Europe, the US, and Canada. The boys range in ages from 3-21, some are orphans and others have parents but are unable to take care of them. Many of the boys have been through some extremely traumatic experiences where they have been addicted to drugs, been part of a gang, and even killed people. They need so much and it is so sad but at the same time heartwarming to see how happy they were yesterday at the park and their relationships with the volunteers and staff that work for Horizontes.

The park was really nice. It had a pool, horses, a lake with canoes, and ducks roaming around.I played volleyball/soccer with some of the boys and talked with one of the older boys named Hugo. Hugo is 20 and has lived at Horizontes since he was 8 years old. He is really bright and happy despite all that he has been through in his life. He wants to go to college to study computer programing and English. We were talking about music and how that listening to the lyrics in English/Spanish can help you learn the language. I told him that I had a hard time understanding reggaton because it has a lot slang and I said like "caliche", which is what the street-talk/slang is here in Tegus. He told me that he used speak caliche when he was on the streets as a kid, and didn't like to remember those times. I felt bad for mentioning it but at the same relieved that he no longer has to live that life and that he has so many more opportunities living at Horizontes.

After returning home late afternoon yesterday, we had a dinner with our entire US staff of about 25 people. One of our staff, Sam left earlier this morning and we had a nice evening together talking, eating, and watching a video that we had made for her.

This is such an incredible group of people to work with, and everyone has become so close during their time here. Even though it is challenging living with 15 people, I feel very lucky to be surrounded by people with similar interests and the same passion for life, work, and helping others.

The Work Week

This past week I started to notice my work load pick up the most since I have started working with GB. It has been good because I have been getting into a routine. Most mornings I wake up early to do yoga which I am so grateful for. Since I cannot get out too much to walk around during the week, yoga has been the perfect way to start or end my day since I do not need much space to practice. It is also nice because there are few other staff members that also work up early to exercise in the morning and sometimes we will all do yoga together. It is a good way to motivate each other to get moving early.

I also have been eating breakfast everyday, something that I rarely did in college. Usually I was scrambling to get homework done and get my books together and bringing a granola bar or toast with me to class. Its nice to sit down with a group of people in the morning and talking while having breakfast and coffee before starting work.

Michelle, the director of student affairs and also my boss arrived last Thursday, so we have been having several meetings concerning program development and the upcoming student conferences in Chicago and Seattle. I have also been working with the education coordinator to create a curriculum for the education aspect of the Microfinance Brigades.

I was originally supposed to be going to the Chicago conference in August but was informed last Friday that I would be going to Seattle in September instead. I was pretty upset because I had planned to meet my parents there and also visit some friends that I have there. I voiced that the Michelle but since the board ultimately makes the decisions and is paying for me to go, I do not really have a say. I am excited to go to Seattle since I have never been there. I am going to fly to Ohio for a week following to see my family and work from home. So everything always works out in some way.

This past week, like I said was busy. I took on some other tasks outside of my own microfinance program development and advising roles. GB's website and student resource page need lots of updating, so I have been workin on that. I have surprised myself with my ability to make charts and graphs pretty easily in excel and being able to update the website without too many problems. Usually technology challenges me with things like that.

On Thursday, I went to visit the new community called Guaricayan that the Microfinance team is starting a new Caja in. There were about 25 community members that attended our meeting that are interested in being a part of the Caja, about half of them women, which I was pretty excited about.(see *Machismo below) Usually it is difficult to get women involved with the Cajas here because they feel their main role is to work in the home cleaning, cooking, and taking care of their children and husbands. In Guaricayan, we had several women answering questions and excited to become more involved with the Caja. Actually in other countries where microfinance institutions are present, such as India and AFrica, they will only lend to women because women are more financially responsible than men. These institutions have a greater percentage of women who pay back their loans than men. I am interested to see the growth of Guaricayan and how it develops differently than the other Cajas we work with.

Another interesting aspect of GB's microfinance is its relationship with the Public Health (PH) Program, something I did not fully understand before working here. Public Health's brigades work one week in one family's home installing a floor, eco-stove (which creates a pipe that allows smoke to be released outside instead of inside of the house), a pila (pool for washing with a faucet with clean water) and a latrine for waste. Prior to Public Health's involvement, the Water Brigades installs the water systems that allow the families to have clean drinking water. For GB's brigades to work with a family, that family must raise 20% of the money themselves in order to have the students provide the remainder of the funds to do the project. Many family's choose to take a loan from the Caja in order to pay that 20% and then pay it back over an extended period of time.

Normally when we start working in a new community it is in conjunction with PH, like in Guaricayan.PH encouraged Microfinance to get started quickly which we have been , but this past week one of the Honduran staff informed us that PH no longer will be working in Guaricayan. It created some tension and frustration amongst the staff. Since the PH program lead was out of the office last week, we will be meeting with him this week to figure out all of the details.

Overall, the week was productive and fun. There were more staff who ended their contracts this past week and new staff arriving. So everything has been constantly changing and I have been getting to know new people which is fun!



*Machismo is something that exists in all Latin American countries. It refers to men as being "macho" and the dominant gender in society. This is why when you may visit a Latin American country and notice the men cat calling women on the street or just seeing women as inferior. Luckily I have not experienced the cat calling as bad here in Honduras as I did in Argentina. However, in the rural communities men do not feel that women should have the same role in household in terms of making financial and other life changing decisons. After speaking with Hirel and Daisy, who are the two medical students working on GB's Community Health Worker (CHW) program just for the summer, I was told some pretty horrendous stories in reference to machismo. Before I do that, let me briefly explain the CHW program because I feel it is one of the many reasons why this organization is sustainable.

**GB got started only with Medical Brigades, where student groups come to Honduras to set up medical clinics and provide pharmaceuticals and basic medical care. In order to perpetuate the program between brigades, Hirel and Daisy started the CHW program. They trained women in several communities to be able to provide basic nursing care such as vaccines and routine checkups and also to be able to distribute some medicines. Hirel and Daisy have heard so many traumatic life stories from the women they have gotten to know over the years. In reference machismo, nearly all of the women they have trained have been raped or mistreated in some way. One woman gave birth to over 20 children and got pregnant again. With her most child, she had serious complications during labor and needed to go to the hospital. GB staff were present and told the husband that she was going to die if she did not go to the hospital because she was bleeding out and unable to push the baby through. The husband refused to take her to the hospital, so the mother of the woman giving birth stepped in and pulled the baby out. Luckily, after several days of bed rest, this woman recovered, but there are many other women who do not survive a traumatic birth such as this one. Many of the men in the communities see that their wives have been able to manage giving birth to 4-8 children without going to the hospital because they were lucky enough to not have complications. In emergency cases, they still do not see it fit to take their wives to the hospital to receive proper care.

Amapala and some other stuff...

Last weekend, a group of ten of us traveled to Amapala which is about 3 hours south of Tegus on the coast. We got lucky that one of the drivers from GB has his own "busito"or small bus/large van and we all paid $20 to have him drive us there and back. We actually had to be dropped off in Coyolito and take a boat called a lancha from there to get to the island of Amapala. The whole island is actually a volcano, which we intended to hike but no one was ever willing to hike early enough in the morning.

After arriving to the island of Amapala, it took the ten of us about an hour to decide which beach on the island we would stay at. We finally decided on Playa Negra where we stayed at the only hotel on that part of the island. The hotel was pretty nice with a pool and beach access but definitely not the cleanest place I've ever stayed.

That afternoon, we spent at the beach and walked to a small restaurant owned by a family that was pretty much in the sand directly on the beach. There was no menu..the only option they had was a big fish or small fish. Since I do not eat fish, especially with the eyes and skin still attached, I asked the waitress if there was any vegetarian options. She was super nice about it and brought me eggs,beans, and tajaditas-which are plantain chips.(*see Vegetarianism below)

It was incredible to be sitting right on the beach and having the option to swim in the ocean while waiting for our food. Even the chickens that most likely they use for food and eggs were wandering freely in the sand. The little chicks were so cute! As you can see in the photos...

After a day in the sun, our group ventured into the center of town to find a place for dinner. We ended up at a fried chicken place, where I resorted to the only vegetarian option of french fries. After dinner, just a few of us ventured to the only club in downtown Amapala, Hey Mister. There was a really great mix of music playing throughout the night and we actually met some French Canadians who were living nearby working in a community. I attempted to talk with two guys but there was quite a language barrier. The little Spanish they knew was difficult to understand with their accent and then they would occasionally say some words in English and then in French. However, they were all very nice and it was kind of fun attempting to decipher what each other were saying in three different languages.

The second day was pretty much just a beach day. We ventured to another beach called Playa Grande where we again ate at a restaurant that only had fish or shrimp. The woman who was our waitress and also a cook offered to make me beans rice tajaditas and avocados. While we waited nearly two hours for our food, we swam in the ocean. I played catch using a coconut with the little boy who's parents owned the restaurant.

Something I have enjoyed living in Tegus and also during my first trip out of the city, is that I do not feel like a tourist. Since Amapala and Tegus are not marked top tourist destinations, I have felt very much a part of the local culture-with the exception that everyone stares at me when I go places-as I cannot blend in at all. In Buenos Aires, I was able to blend in much easier. After I told one of the GB staff that I learned Spanish in Argentina, he thought that I was from there. This made me feel pretty good about my Spanish.

Sunday night, we all hung out at the hotel and attempted to get snacks or food of some sort but there was literally nothing so we just finished off the little food we had brought. Monday morning we woke up early to catch a few hours at the beach and then headed back to meet our driver in Coyolito.

Since it was 4th of July, we were very lucky to have the day off. So when we returned back to Tegus around 2:30 we made typical 4th of July food and grilled on the roof of the apartment. I made black bean burgers for myself and Alex, who is the other vegetarian in the house. Unfortunately it rained as soon as we moved all of the food upstairs. Being the rainy season, that was expected, so we put up a tarp and ate underneath it.

The rest of the week was pretty busy with meetings and office work. My boss, Michelle arrived on Thursday as well as two other advisors. So we are working on training a little bit this week and getting to know each other. This weekend a bunch of the staff as well as some Honduran friends and staff went out for one of the old advisors' "despedida"-farewell/goodbye. We went a place called El Patio which was a karaoke bar...pretty entertaining.

Yesterday afternoon, Fabi, who is the girlfriend of the HR director/Program Lead for Water Brigades, Ben, had us over for lunch. Her mom made sopa de mariscos-seafood soup. She was afraid to make something vegetarian for me,so she said to me "this is your home" and opened the fridge and allowed me to make my own food.I wasn't really expecting because the day before she told me she would make something vegetarian. I can understand that vegetarian food is pretty uncommon here, so I was fine making my own food. Next time, i will make a dish to bring and share it with everyone.

Today, Danny, the microfinance program lead, the new medical advisor, Nicole, and I ventured to the American school to play ultimate frisbee with some people from the US Embassy. We arrived there and the security guard let us in once we told him why were there, but there was no one there playing frisbee. We ended up walking around the school which was really nice and in a pretty cool neighborhood. Once we were leaving, the guard then proceeded to tell us that they played this morning. Why he didn't tell us that when we got there, I'm not really sure.

This week should be good. Two medical students, Hirel and Daisy, that are here for the summer, are going to take me to a Honduran vegetarian place. FINALLY!



*Vegetarianism doesn't really exist here in Honduras. So I usually have to explain that I do not eat any meat-including chicken and fish. When I visited Tomatin a couple of weeks ago, the wives of the Caja members wanted to serve Alex, my co worker and I lunch -which included fish.I was going to accept whatever they served us because I would have felt rude to refuse to eat something that they had to work so hard to prepare. However, Alex interjected and told Roberto, the Caja president that I was vegetarian and didn't eat fish. They women were so sweet and offered to make me beans and eggs. When I returned the second time they remembered that I didn't eat meat and again offered us lunch and made me fried yuca. Yuca is a potato-like vegetable and is sooo delicious! Its so amazing to me that the people in Tomatin who are definitely one of the poorer communities we visit and yet are so willing to offer us a food. Explaining to Roberto that I was vegetarian partially for moral reasons was somewhat difficult because I know that they do not mistreat the animals they eat in the communities like they do on factory farms in the US.