“It’s like trying to make pumpkin pie out of cow shit …”

This was the best quote from reconnect. I forget what exactly it was in reference to, but I think the speaker intended it to more or less summarize the Peace Corps experience. What can I say, some people (sometimes we) are cynical! We had a “constructive criticism,” which essentially allowed for all the jaded folks to unleash their disappointment with Peace Corps.

Other than that, reconnect was great. It was great to see all my friends again and meet the H12ers. I think reconnect mainly serves as a morale booster, but I learned a few things as well. It was unfortunate, because our last day the power was out until about 5:30 so we couldn’t do all the training sessions that required computers or projectors. These sessions happened to be the ones I was the most interested in!

It essentially was four days where Volunteers could catch up and get rowdy together, but we talked work too. It was absolutely exhausting, especially after the previous weekend with Noche de Fumadores, but well worth the trip. Not too much to talk about!

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Probably what I’m more concerned about mentioning is the arrival of a permanent visitor in my home … my puppy! After reconnect I went to Andrea’s house and met the remaining puppies. They were so cute! I wanted to take them all home, but this guy will be a handful as it is; HE IS SO HUGE! He’s only two months old and is about the size of an older, 4 month-old puppy. He also has HUGE paws, which I imagine indicate that he will also become a big dog.

After being bombarded by puppy love, I got some one-on-one time with Sapo, which was his name given by Andrea; means toad/frog. I actually really liked that name, but Hondurans DESPISE frogs and I knew they would really not like his name. Actually, they still don’t like Bourbon because they can’t pronounce it. Now, his Spanish name (Hondurans always want to know how names translate and don’t understand when I tell them they don’t normally …) is Toby; that’s a common Honduran dog name and easy for them to say. Anyways, he really could have cared less about my existence and I kind of got sad, thinking that he didn’t like me or something. Little did I know there would be plenty of time to bond in the next two days!

We picked up Bourbon and went to my friend’s house, where a bunch of people were staying for the despedida (going-away party) for a guy in the area. One of the girls in Santa Barbara has Bourbon’s sister and they were playing all day, which was great because I feel like it eased his transition a little bit. They were pretty rough and Lady (the female dog) was dominating Bourbon, but everyone had fun with the two not-so-little puppies in the house … Well, apart from Lady having a fondness of attacking men’s nether regions and Bourbon not yet understanding the concept of not peeing on people’s sleeping mats.

We all hung out there for the night and had a couple of beers to congratulate T on the completion of his service. It was a nice break after reconnect and get used to Bourbon before we continued on to my site. The entire time I was mildly fretting about the 5 hour journey that we had ahead of us …

Two weeks ago Andrea made little traveling boxes for all the puppies. Key words: TWO WEEKS AGO. The little buggers had grown so much that he barely fit in the box and could easily stick his head out the top. He was really good on the way into the city because that was the first time he was out of the house and I think he was majorly overwhelmed.

Well, let’s just say that the next day on the way to the bus stop he was not as well behaved. On the walk down to the bus-stop he was squirming to get out. Not to mention the pitiful crying that he seems to have adopted as a major method of announcing his disapproval of any and all situations.

Anyways, we were waiting in the bus stop for quite a while and he kept crying, wanting to get out of the box. I let him out for a while, because it was really hot, and when the bus finally came I had him securely bundled inside, because bus drivers (especially on the fancy buses like the one we took) aren’t too fond of animals on the buses.

Well, I’m climbing on the bus with the box in my hand and the bus driver says, “Que tiene?” / “What do you have (in there)?”

I couldn’t lie … :sheepishly: … “A puppy…”
“No, dogs aren’t allowed. They’re prohibited.”
“Please.” And Hannah just walks by with the box. Just. Walks. By!

I had just spent a week with a whole bunch of Americans and the extent of my desire to speak Spanish was minimal and I didn’t want to argue with the guy. The bus was pretty full, so I didn’t get very far, and as we drove away I heard the bus driver bitching about how dogs weren’t allowed. As they were discussing the presence of a dog (IN A BOX!) on their bus, a few people around me noticed him (by now he had thrust his head out) and were commenting on how cute he was. A woman sitting in the very first seat told me to put the box at her feet, because they would kick me off if I kept the box in the aisle. After the discussion up front became more heated, I decided to take her up on her offer, and put Bourbon in her seat. He struggled to get out because he was so hot, but we had to keep him in the box because I was hoping that the bus driver would forget and chill out! This woman was really nice! Hondurans hate dogs and this woman was a saint to let me put my dog at her feet while he’s panting and crying to get out! Poor thing, looking back I felt so bad, but at the time I was so stressed! At this point I was cursing myself and my situation because it was really too hot for him, but I couldn’t take him out.

Well it took the bus driver and his ayudante (helper) several minutes to start threatening me; it was weird, we were on the bus for quite a while before they tried to throw me off! I tried to ignore them, but it didn’t really work. Luckily, another Volunteer was with me and he helped advocate to keep the puppy upside. The ayudante wanted to put the box underneath the bus, and I was so thankful that all the people around me rallied on my behalf and battled the mean bus driver! Everyone started shouting, “It’s just a puppy and he’s in the box! He’s not bothering anyone! Plus, he’ll suffocate and get so hot down there he’ll die!!” After a while they laid off and we rode the rest of the bus ride to the stop. I will forever be grateful to those people who stuck-up with me, because if it wasn’t for them I would have just gotten off the bus and been stranded, trying to figure something else out. That experience (with the nice people) really boosted my respect for this culture, because people are quick to help you out and very accommodating and nice.

Even though the guys stopped threatening me, I was on the verge of tears the entire time. A seat finally opened up and I sat done with the box in my lap. After .2 seconds Bourbon started HOWLING and I mean HOWLING to get out of the box. I tried to keep him quiet, but he wasn’t going for it. At this point the bus driver might have forgotten he had a dog on his bus, but this definitely reminded him, and I really didn’t want to upset him anymore. T (the Volunteer) was really nice and told me not to worry about the bus guys and we should take Bourbon out and see what happens. Bourbon was really content just being out of the box and slept on T’s lap for the rest of the trip. THANK GOD!

We got off the bus and almost immediately caught another. This was a chicken bus (yellow school bus) and services local areas, so they could have cared less about a dog on their bus. They’ve probably had tons of weird animals on that bus, because for 99.9% of the population that’s their only method of transportation! I was so relieved, because that first encounter had me terrified that all the buses I had to take would be the same. Bourbon was really good and slept the entire way; he didn’t even go to the bathroom on the bus! … but then again that could have been because the bus broke down shortly after we got on!

We were on the side of the road for a while before another bus came. We tried to rush to make it, but with my big-ass suitcase and all of T’s stuff, we weren’t moving very fast; they left without us. So, I took that opportunity to walk Bourbon and luckily another bus came within a half-hour and we were off again! This ride went smoothly. T got off about 45 minutes before me and I had the rest of the ride to Santa Rosa de Copan. As if the journey wasn’t enough of a hassle, I found out I missed the last bus towards my site and the next bus that would pass about half-hour outside of it was delayed, so it would be getting dark and I didn’t feel too comfortable with that. SO! I called up my lovely friend Kathryn and she is awesome and had no problems with us crashing for the night.

It was actually a welcome stop because I was so tired and stressed it was nice to be somewhere familiar and rest before completing the trip. One of the other PCVs who lives in SRC invited us out to celebrate her boyfriend’s birthday, so we had a wonderful dinner and watched the Honduras vs. Trinidad & Tobago qualifying soccer game for the World Cup (Honduras won!).

At half-time I went to check on Bourbon and see if he had destroyed Kathryn’s apartment. He had indeed used her floor as a public bathroom, which I promptly cleaned up and then decided to take him for a walk. The entire time we were walking around the block he was crying! I think he was so scared of everything and overwhelmed that he just cried and cried. It was kind of ridiculous. So I go to leave a few minutes later and he starts HOWLING again! Like, if I’m not right by his side, he’s howling; even if he can still see me. I wanted to stay and comfort him, but they were waiting for me for dessert and I couldn’t resist … hah! I could hear him howling from about 2 blocks away.

He cried a lot in Kathryn’s place and woke her up in the morning. I’m terrible and pretty much forgot that’s how puppies are! I was mortified because I already felt like I was putting her out, but she was fine. Anyways, woke-up the next morning, jumped on the bus and got to Corquin! I lost my phone on the bus, which I noticed about 15 minutes later and ran to catch up with the bus, but it was already gone. I think the kid working the tickets took it, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I had a lot of credit on there, which was annoying, but oh well. At least we’re home and he’s settling down and seems comfortable. I’m going to go take a nap, but there will be plenty of puppy stories because HE IS SO CUTE!

Not the best blog, but it served to de-stress me at the time. I wrote it when I had just got home and served as more of a bitch session, but things are better!

Bourbon is really intelligent and I good dog. He’s calm and is just a big love-bug. I had people over to celebrate some people in my area completing their two years, and he was great with everyone and didn’t destroy anything! He loved all the people playing with him. He cries less now and is even getting pretty brave. He’s a little rough with other dogs in the beginning and definitely has some food aggression when other dogs are around. I can play with his bowl, but my friend brought his puppy and Bourbon was very aggressive when they were eating. I have to work on that with him!

So, that’s that with puppy stories for now. I have the same number, so don’t worry about that!