Our first couple of weeks

This is our first opportunity to use the internet other than to dash off a quick email to our parents to let them know we arrived safely. We took the bus to a neighboring town and are sitting in an internet cafe. We live with a host family in a rural mountain town and are enjoying learning about the culture of Honduras. Monday through Friday we have classes from 7:30-4:30 and Saturdays we have class only in the morning. Our classes focus on language (we usually have 4 hours of Spanish class each weekday), culture and job-specific training. There are three project groups training at the same time: Youth Development, Protected Areas Management (PAM), and Municipal Development (our training group).

We usually wake up around 5:30 (which sounds obscenely early, but we go to bed around 9:30 so it´s not that bad) and take turns showering. Our first few days we took bucket baths, but our family has since installed an electroducha (which is an electric showerhead that heats the water), so we now have hot showers, a luxury we are enjoying while it lasts. It is the rainy season now, so it is common to have torrential downpours for many hours of the day, but when the sun is out, it is fierce. We are learning the basics of life here, such as washing our clothing by hand and hopping onto a packed bus. As part of our formal education, we learn about different Honduran ethnic groups, and yesterday we were able to meet with representatives from 7 different groups from around the country. We spoke with them, sampled their food, and learned about the specific issues each group deals with.

We´re playing lots of soccer with the neighbor kids and we´re enjoying trying all sorts of new food. We hope all is well with all of you and look forward to hearing from you soon. We may not be able to respond in a timely manner, but we will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Love,

Daniel and Emily