General Update

The holidays have come and gone and I thank God for that. It was great to see family, but the emotional disturbances caused by such holidays just really don’t seem worth it at times.
Christmas – I was in Santa Rosa with a crew of friends who mostly live around me, hence we have developed a good bond because we see each other more often. We had a lot of fun and ate amazing food, once again prepared by the brilliant chefs KatP and Raquel. We had a “white Christmas” gift exchange, which resulted in the destruction of a baby doll and the playing of kazoos for like … hours. No joke. It was fun and I am really glad that we had the opportunity to spend that time together. It helped, but it still didn’t feel like Christmas without family and the normal traditions.
After Christmas I left for Belize, where I joined my family at a beautiful beach in the southern part of the country. It was quite a trip (in both meanings).
Honestly, going through the airport in El Salvador almost made me cry. The Honduras airports have nothing: no people, no shops, no food, just like 2 planes a day. I get to El Salvador and I was immediately overwhelmed by people trying to sell me things, rows of shiny objects and people in their valor jumpsuits and Louis Vuitton handbags. I forgot what commercialism is really like! How many options you have for perfume, liquor and the like in duty free shops! My God!
So everyone is all happy with their families on the day after Christmas, heading to their luxurious vacations … blah blah blah. Here comes sad little Hannah with her pit stained shirt with a hole in the side (nicest one I had at the time) with my jeans stained by banana plants and soap from them being “washed” in the pila.
Now, I live in a world where I get excited about avocados in my local market and the most luxurious item I can buy in my site are Dorito chips. The most I see of white people are fellow Volunteers, but I don’t consider them strange because they’re going through the same experiences as me. Any other white person I encounter in Honduras I automatically wonder who they are and what they’re doing in MY country. Peace Corps Volunteers have a reputation of being snobby, but HEY we put in the time man!
So, I get to the San Salvador airport and there are real displays with real customer service. There are so many white people speaking English that I just wanted to cry. I was there, looking crappy and sitting alone. All I wanted was to go back to my house in Honduras and forget the emotional, physical turmoil. I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I didn’t belong amongst these upper middle class families anymore because of the way I looked and the way I felt. I kept thinking back to Honduras and they people that I knew there and I felt like I was betraying them. How could I ever expect to gain their respect and trust if I can still run off to my exotic destination vacation and forget about the life that I lead in Honduras? I felt like a fake in both cultures and lives.
To make matters worse I get on the plane, double check my seat number and look up and realize I’m in first class … Now, before Peace Corps I probably would have done a jig and promptly begun taking advantage of all that they had to offer. Not anymore. I stood in the aisle, looking around. There has to be some mistake! There’s NO WAY I, ME am supposed to be in First Class. After what seemed like hours, I finally realize that that is my seat and I sit down and probably looked really uncomfortable. While everyone boarded I just kept waiting for the flight attendants to accuse me of sitting in the wrong seat and not being where I belonged. I was meek and just miserable.
I get in Belize about three hours before the fam, which was torture. I just wanted to see everyone and know that I belonged somewhere. That I had a family and they were coming for me … I belonged where I was. Plus, I didn’t have any money! HAH
Belize wasn’t any better. I hadn’t slept the night before, which resulted in me sleeping on a picnic table in the outside waiting area. I would wake up periodically to people staring at me. I was probably paranoid, but to me, their stares said, “Poor thing looks lost.”
Met up with the family and it was amazing. I can’t begin to describe it so … I won’t. It was an amazing vacation. I got a massage, swam a bit, ate amazing food and most importantly … took hot showers and watched T.V.!
Got back to Corquin with Chris, where we had a nice little visit. I realize now how important it is for people to visit. You see my pictures and hear my stories, but no one will ever begin to understand unless they visit. I hope people visit, because if not, that’s two years of my life that will be lost to my friends and family and will be, up to this point, the most important two years of my life.

That was despressing, but it’s an unfortunate fact of Peace Corps. You wake up one morning after having spent the entire week in your house, avoiding Honduran life, and you think, “Gosh! I think I’m depressed!” And then!, you get depressed because you are depressed! And you think, “What am I going to do?! If Honduras makes me sad … then I’m screwed!” Then you call your friends and you just get over it, hopefully. That’s where I was at a couple of weeks ago.
Turns out, avoiding getting back into work was a bad thing! I’m back on track and slowly getting into the groove again. Right now myself and KatP are working on a big project, which will probably result in us being committed to an insane asylum! We’re working on the conduction line of my casco urbano. So, the water that comes from the source and then goes to the various tanks is in the conduction line. After the tanks it’s called the distribution line, because it distributes the water. Funny how that makes sense?
So, last week we went to meet up with the mayor in Corquin about the water project for the new community they’re building at the moment for 40 families who lost everything in a landslide last year. We were under the impression that we would be designing that water system, but fijeseque (you see, unfortunately, blah blah blah) they already did a design. Hmm … HOW DID EVERYONE FORGET TO MENTION THAT TO US?!
Well, that project may be done, but they want us to do this improvement for the main line of Corquin! Fun, interesting, do tell me more … ! We agree and tell the mayor that we want the various designs and we also was to walk the line just to see how bad they’ve changed it and butchered the pipes. Now, you might say, “Hannah, that’s unfair to assume that they’ve messed things up!” No, no it’s not because Hondurans have a wonderful “fix it” mentality, that I honestly appreciate, except for the fact that it ruins numerous water systems. Then again, if they didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have a job.
So, we go back the next week on Wednesday and walk up to the municipality and … they’re closed. Why? Nobody knows, but they’re closed. WOOT! Free day! Ok, well next day we get ourselves up to the office and the mayor isn’t there and no one bothered to look for the designs. Professional much? Ok, we’ll come back after lunch. Go back after lunch and fijeseque the mayor still isn’t there and they don’t think they have the designs. They. Don’t. Have. The. Designs.
Now, on U.S. standards, maybe a town of 8,000 people isn’t too big, but here in Honduras it’s big. These people should be able to keep track of the designs of the water system. The system in this town that brings life to the people. This is how they shower. This is how they wash their clothes. Their houses. Their COFFEE! I mean … IS THIS NOT IMPORTANT TO ANYONE?! We wanted to scream. How? How can you lose something of such importance?? CUENTAME!
Well, after a couple more visits they finally find the plans, which don’t help us at all. We’re going to walk the 9 mile conduction line over the next couple of days to see if we can figure it out. Going to be so fun! I love when the Honduran countryside kicks my butt. Literally. I swear tree roots and rocks go out of their way to trip me. Oh well. Builds character.