The Hair of the Dog that Bit Me

Well, we’re doing well as we near the end of our first week in Siguatepeque, which will be our home away from home for these next two years. Considering we´ve only been here for a week, we´ve already had a number of new experiences, ranging from the challening to the exciting. ¡Welcome to our life as Peace Corps Volunteers in this little nook of Honduras!

First things first. We are indeed volunteers! After wearing the name of aspirante (trainee or aspirant) for nearly three months, last Friday we attended our swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Embassy and then enjoyed an afternoon of swimming and exploring the grounds at the ambassador´s residence, although as circumstance would have it he was in the States at the time. The ambassador´s grounds have a number of toronja (grapefruit) trees, so we relished the opportunity to gorge ourselves on that sweet vitamin C.

Here are some pictures from our swearing-in:

Michael (a Youth Development volunteer) and us

The Muni-D girls with our new Peace Corps shirts

Municipal Development:

Top row: Mark, Natan, Ryan, Dan, Kristin, Jessica D., Chad
Middle row: Erik, Alejandrina (the boss), Emily, Brenna, Jorge (our training director)
Bottom row: Emilie, Jessica G., Casey, Ana, Ellie

With our new Peace Corps shirts

Upon our arrival to Siguatepeque Saturday afternoon, we entered the gate of our host family´s home (per Peace Corps policy, we´ll be living with a host family for our first two months at site to acostumbrarnos – acclimate ourselves – to this new location), which seemed a sensible thing to do since we were in fact at our new residence and were tired after a few hours of continuous travel. I wasn´t able to enter the gate as quickly as Emily because the bags I was carrying were stuck together. As a result, she entered first and bore the wrath of our host family´s perra brava (vicious female dog) when she broke her chain and gave Emily a nasty bite in the calf. I don´t think we´ll soon forget that first half hour of being at our host family´s house, which included the dog biting Emily and soon being restrained by our host mom (first minute), digging out our Peace Corps issued medkit to grab bandages and stem the bleeding (first five minutes), calling the Peace Corps doctors for instructions (first ten minutes), scrubbing the wound in the shower to disinfect it (minutes ten to twenty five), and catching a cab to the hospital (at the half hour mark). Being the stalwart and strong gal she is, after arriving at the hospital she bore with good humor a second scrub of the wound, several injections directly into the wound, and two stitches. For my part, I gave her a hand massage as they delivered her injections and put the stitches in. Needless to say, it was the least I could do.

Although my harrowing tale is not nearly as harrowing as hers, my weekend didn´t pass without incident either. Here in the altiplano, which signifies high plain, (we´re at about 3,000 feet) thunderstorms arrive quickly and are quite fierce, not unlike what many of you are accustomed to in the States. Well, as I made my way home from buying groceries for the first time, I found myself huddled under the eaves of a pulpería (hole in the wall convenience store, of which there are many in just about every community) as the street was transformed into a river (sound familiar from a previous blog entry?) and as ambulances and police trucks raced by periodically, undoubtedly tending to mishaps caused by the storm. As I tried to count the gaps between thunder and lightning to judge when it was safe to dash home, it was no small challenge to distinguish between flashes of lightning and flashes from the passing emergency vehicles. Although soaked to the bone, I made it home without incident, just in time to begin our first work week with my now somewhat-hobbled wife.

The week´s highlights were many, despite a rough start. First and foremost, our host family is very kind. Our host mother, who is very good natured, had the perra brava sent to another home and served us our meals in our room for almost two solid days so that Emily could keep her leg elevated. Our host siblings are also very nice, and we have a chihuahua named Terry (the origin is terrible) who we already like a great deal. Regarding our work, in addition to reading manuals (me) and attending meetings (Emily), we´ve already traveled to some of the aldeas (small communities) where we´ll be working, all of which have their own personality and rather rustic beauty. Meeting the people of the communities is of course the greatest joy. Each time we see the wizened grins of the elderly and the timid but brilliant smiles of the kids as they peak over window ledges and through door frames, we´re impressed by the kindness and humility of our new neighbors.

One trip that will be particularly memorable was a trip we completed yesterday, under the guidance of my counterpart. We visited a community that exists deep in the national park our organization oversees where we met with a family to discuss the sustainable and responsible development of resources in the very fragile and precious section of the park where they live (because they lived there long before the territory was declared as a park, they´re entitled to stay and to some degree make use of the land). Although Emily and I are more or less along for the ride at this early stage in our service, we learned a great deal and have fond memories of meeting the family and being guests on their land. The trip to their home was, in itself, a memorable experience as we had to first summit a series of deeply riveted and rocky mountain roads in our 4x4 pickup (as volunteers we´re prohibited from driving except for in very rare circumstances, so my counterpart does the driving) before parking at the base of a mountain and starting what would become a 3 hour round trip hike. During the trip we saw a few exotic butterflies the size of my hand, one of which was cobalt blue. We also ate bananas we found in the jungle, and drank from mountain streams (yes, the very same streams we´re trying to protect). The forests in the park are naturally stratified very distinctly according to elevation, so at one point we found ourselves, in the span of 2 minutes, transitioning from highland pine forest to bonafide jungle.

Here´s a picture of Lago Yajoa, which is near Siguat, that we were able to take while on one of our "business trips."

Last but not least, we may have found a home after a good bit of questioning pulpería owners and tracking down the homes, often with the help of a willing neighbor. Details will be forthcoming if we actually get the house (we will start renting the 1st of December, si dios quiere). In the meantime, wish us luck!

I think that´s about it for now. We´ll look forward to giving our next update as the month of October moves along. We hope you´re doing well, and please keep the emails coming!