today has been ok

Some interesting things about Honduran culture I'm working on remembering to write up:

1) guys who cook for themselves are weird. evidence: somehow one of my office buddies got asking me about what I do for lunch, and I said I go home and make a sandwich or three from peanut butter or eggs, or have some cereal or something. he got a little quiet and leaned in like he was sharing a secret and said "I cook for myself too!" also, when talking to the woman who does my laundry, when I told her I do my own cooking most of the time, she actually recoiled in shock. Quite amusing. My office buddy and I agree that eating out for every meal gets expensive.

2) guys love their momma more than anybody. evidence: dinner conversation with the girlfriend of a buddy in town turned to my plans with my girlfriend and the status of my family. she said she expect i miss my mom quite a bit. i said i do, but i think i miss my girlfriend more. she was shocked and disagreed with me, saying that was impossible and i surely missed my mom more. i found it amusing. sorry, mom.

3) coins are worthless. it costs the honduran mint more to make their coins than they're worth, and they're so value-less that nobody uses them, except in emergency change-making situations. it's fun seeing how various businesses get around using coins. i first noticed it in a ciber in sabanagrande...the owner had a desk drawer literally full of coins that he never planned to get of. then in a supermarket here, my total was like 341 lempiras and 47 cents. i was given 341 lempiras paper, and a little peppermint-sized candy. no coins in the register. so i'm collecting coins to give as gifts when i get back to the states. i like coins, even if they're worthless.

Let's see...misc. happenings.

I saw a gringo backpacker pass my office 3 times as I was working on my computer, so I walked out and talked to him, asked him if he needed any help. Talked to him a bit, he's from France and had backpacked from Mexico City and was trying to get to Panama eventually over the course of 2 months or so. He looked like a typical modern hippie, with pierced and gauged ears, goatee, skater ponytail. I offered to meet up with him after my office closed and grab some dinner or something and he took me up on it. So I called Leala and she wanted to meet him too, as did my French neighbors. So eventually he showed up and the 5 of us sat in the French neighbors' place for an hour or so, then spent the rest of the night hanging out at various local houses hoping for a free dinner, but that didn't work out so we got Honduran tacos at a late night diner. Best commercial tacos in town, from what I hear, and they're one of few places open late that doesn't sell booze, which is a plus. After dinner we hung out a bit longer, and when people started getting sleepy the backpacker and I went and got a beer at the bar I walk past nightly on the way to the internet cafe. I'm friends with the bouncer now, we say hi and chat every once in awhile.

A few days later, the french couple invited me over for dinner and we had some baleadas and a semi-failed attempt at potato casserole. Too much cream, so it didn't stay together. But the flavor was spot-on. We talked for 3 hours at the table, laughing and sharing experiences in volunteering, observations about Honduran culture, etc. It was actually fun, and we definitely bonded.

I'm still working with Engineers Without Borders on final preparations for their arrival in mid-July. The community wants to dig out the foundation for the water tank and the trenches for some of the pipes before EWB arrives, and next week I'm going to bust out the Abney Level and pinpoint appropriate sites for the tank and for a slow sand bio-filter the engineers want to use in a pilot study to see if it's feasible. I'm kind of excited. And I had a few proud moments when I came up with a couple insights based on my own limited experience that actually changed the EWB plan slightly. It's fun being seen as even remotely helpful to a group of PhDs.

I'm kinda conflicted about sustainability. Is it better that I do the topographic studies myself to let towns get a water system more cheaply, or should I be teaching an officemate to do the studies? It seems better for sustainability to ONLY teach locals how to do things, and do NOTHING myself, alone. But when I do nothing, I have nothing tangible to be proud of, it feels like. There's a lot of glory in doing topo studies and seeing a town get water a year later. Then there's the funding aspect...I still have odd feelings about the EWB coming down to manage the project here. That ain't sustainable. That's a total handout. It's good that the people are gonna do some digging themselves, and I know they'll help mix concrete and be unskilled labor and whatnot, but still, all the funding is coming from the US.

The advice of the upper levels of the Peace Corps staff is "Remember, don't be a hero. Make heroes out of the people around you."

My morale is still pretty good. With all my internet use and the quality of cell phones here, I don't feel isolated at all, except in the physical sense. Didn't really feel any conscious homesickness until I called home while my dad was at work and heard his voice on the answering machine. Haven't heard that message in months, and it got to me way more than I expected it would. But yeah, I feel like my work is helping and useful, and I'm crazy eager to start feeling comfortable doing my own surveying work. Basically right now I'm a facilitator, translator, and lower level technical advisor... on a project that started a year before I joined the PC.

When I'm not working on that project, I'm working on removing viruses from the office computers and traveling around to other aldeas to view water sources and hear about water problems and try hard to look like I'm thinking about relevant things when I'm actually just gawking at the amazing junglescapes.

Also, a couple days ago, my landlady (I decided she's not really a host mom...nothing family-like involved in our relationship) made some soup and let me have some. We didn't eat together, thankfully, this time. There was a freaking chicken foot in my soup. knee to toenails. scaley skin. in. my. soup. i drank half the broth, then gave up. First time I ever seen that. I've seen what live chickens walk in. Why would I eat a foot? Seriously now.

Then I made lentils a couple days later and let her try it. She liked it so much she asked for more and made it her dinner. I call that a victory. I was quite pleased, especially after realizing halfway through that the recipe only called for half a bag when I had actually used the whole bag of lentils. I scrambled and salvaged it with added water and more heat and careful stirring. Used a ton of pepper and seasoned salt, and pulled it through. I don't consider myself a good cook yet, but I have conquered lentils. Next step: standard 3 egg omelette.

Last bit of news: I think, within a month, I will be living in a brand new, spacious apartment all by my lonesome. I am stoked. 2 bedrooms, a large living room and a kitchen compared to an 8 by 10 cell that I have now. It's only 2 blocks from my current place, closer to groceries and internet, further from my office. Gotta do a ton of paperwork to make the switch with PC clearance, but usually it goes smoothly.

Cheers.