Leala in Honduras!

What an invigorating but frustrating month! I am now at the end of my field-based training, and I will find out on Monday where I will be placed for the next two years.

Here is a recap of what I have been doing for the past month though.

HIV/AIDS Training of Trainers (TOT) – we were trained to train other people so that they can train other people about HIV/AIDS. The focus of TOT is generally on youth, in high schools and in primary school, and the recipients are meant to learn through interactive activities. I LOVE doing this! We gave a four-hour charla (talk) to high school students the day after we learned how, and we had such a great response. Of course we made mistakes since it was our first time, but they were things we could improve upon.

Abstinence Training – Yo Merezco (I deserve) – Now abstinence education is an interesting concept here as well as in the United States. If you think about it, it’s a great idea, but the reality of the situation is that it does not work and does not help to curb the rising rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. However, I really like Yo Merezco. It’s not just about abstinence. It’s more about empowering girls to know and feel that pregnancy is not a destiny but a choice that they can make.

Baby Weighing – Went to weigh babies in a small town surrounding La Paz. It’s not just about weighing babies though; it’s about charting the progress of babies and helping to advise mothers about what they can do to increase the weight of their children when they weigh too little. I like the idea, but I find that I am not too keen on doing it all the time for the next two years.

Men’s Health – What to say about teaching men’s health? It’s not something I ever expected to do, but I find that it’s lots of fun. Health outreach has often focused on women and children, so I have never really thought that guys needed some help too. I would love to do charlas in my site on men’s health. The initiative and training have many deep lessons, even though the activities we do with the men are more fun and racy. It was fun trading jokes with the guys and frankly, I did not feel uncomfortable at all.

Midwives – Midwifery here is not like that in the States. Let’s start with how midwives are generally chosen by the community: whoever has had many successful births to their own children are likely to be the next midwife. In my group, there was an old woman who was classic image of a partera (midwife).

Spanish Frustrations – I am forgetting everything about Imperfecto y Pretérito!! I need to buckle down and study, but I feel as if I have not had enough time to do so this past month. The final interviews are coming soon, so I really need to get on it. I don’t want to go down a level! What has been taking away a lot of my time has been the community projects that my Spanish class was assigned.

Community Project – We were to teach the TOT to the students at the high school and the primary school in Yarumela. The four of us were only supposed to teach one class in each place, but things just spiraled out of control. We definitely got a look at the many situations we are going to have to be flexible about. At the high school, we planned to teach 2 groups of 20 students on two separate days at the high school, but we only ended doing the first day because the director neglected to tell us that there was a school-wide futbólito tournament going on the second day. At the primary school, we were supposed to teach only one class of 20 or so students, but the director convinced us to teach all 78 sixth graders. Thus, my class enlisted the help of 3 other trainees and split up the grade into 3 groups. Let me just say that we could not have done it without them. That day was absolute hell! (but a good learning experience). First off, we started almost 40 minutes late because the school as celebrating Día de las Americas (which is the first time I’ve ever heard of it) even though they had a day off to celebrate it the day before. Next, the kids did NOT want to participate, in any of the three groups. In my class, it took them 15 minutes to fill out a 10 question pre-evaluation that they only had to answer Yes, No, or Don’t Know. Also, they were little devils. I had to yell at them so many times to listen, and even had to threaten them if they didn’t quiet down. The teacher was not a big help to us or to the students. He did not quiet the students down and when a little girl fell down and started crying during one of the activities, he just sat there and did not help her at all, even though she fell right in front of him. Well, I would not say that the disaster was the complete fault of the students or the teacher. This particular sixth grade class just was not mature enough yet to get the objectives of the activities. Matt and I ended up cutting out a lot of activities because we felt they were not going to be appropriate for them. Definitely was a learning experience though. Now I have some tools and knowledge to handle situations like this in the future

Last Tech Interview – This final interview would determine what I would be doing for the next two years. Too bad it sucked. I just ended up doubting myself. It was my fault as well as my bosses as well as the timing of it all. I was the last interview of the day, the 15th that they had given, so my bosses were tired. I also did not prepare myself for the interview, which my bosses took were taking very seriously especially in comparison to the previous 2 interviews. I actually ended up having to defend my opinions about what were my interests and assure them that I would be working towards the project goals. Geez, I don’t know where I will be placed, but frankly I do not care. I trust them to make the right decision for me, but God, what a crack at my self-esteem.

Leaving – As I am writing this blog, I have, basically, finished packing. Tomorrow morning I go back to Santa Lucia for two more weeks. I am going to missing my family. I started tearing up at the going away party we had for all of the families. This family has given me my first real “home” in Honduras, not just a house I am staying in. I am definitely going to be visiting them a lot during my service. However, not only am I going to be missing my family here, this will be last day and a half of being a (Yaru-)“melon.” This is also the last time that the Hondu 12 health group will be all together. Come Monday, we will be with everyone else, which is great but is definitely going to be weird getting used to.

Final Thoughts – This has been an incredible experience for me, and I can’t believe that training is finally coming to an end. As we persevere in the final stretch though, things are becoming more and more a reality. Peace Corps is a job that I must take seriously. It is not just about being a volunteer, where you can just go home after the job is over and forget it for awhile. My personal life here IS my professional life. I do not have the pleasure of separating them, so I must always be careful about how I portray myself in my off-time. I do not want to do something to ruin my professional image and not be able to work successfully in my community or even worse, be administratively separated from Peace Corps. With that being said, we had our first ET (Early termination) last Wednesday. Peace Corps felt that she was not ready to be a volunteer (after a 9 week evaluative period that we all had), so they gave her two options, resign or be administratively separated. We all kind of saw it coming though but we were all (even her!) quite surprised at the suddenness of it all. One day, she just disappeared to Tegus, and then there was an announcement about her leaving. Everyone has been saying that our Hondu 12 group and our health group, in particular, are one of the best groups they’ve ever had because of our attitudes and how well we relate to each other. So it sad and unreal to think about losing people. Well, I shouldn’t mull over it so much but all I can do is work as hard as I can in my own work as well as offer support to others so that we can have the best experience together. I hope to talk to you soon. Wish me luck with my placement!