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From almost no news to a massive amount - since I last wrote we've been induced, travelled to La Esperanza, met our homestay families and had our first day at the project!
Firstly and most importantly I've tweaked what I'm actually doing here. Partly on the recomendation of the i to i contact in Valle de los Angeles and partly because of personal preference I decided to do both projects in Esperanza - so I work building houses in the morning and then spend the afternoon in the INFA centre for the kids. I suppose I wanted to try and be of most benefit to the most people and leave something tangible behind at the same time as trying to make the kids lives a little better. More on both later!
The bus ride to La Esperanza was outstanding - it's at about 1500 metres and so involved a lot of climbing into the appropriately named cloud mountains. The forest here is odd though since pines seem to sit comfortably with the other more tropical vegitation. The landscape is so unspoilt - lush trees punctuated by the odd house for miles. Even La Esperanza is surrounded by forest-clad hills. The town itself is as basic as I thought - no running water installed in many places, very poor buildings, hardly any with more than one story, almost no medical facilities.
The people though are very friendly - I'm staying with one of i to i's main contacts in Esperanza, a lady called Thelma and her husband and three year old son. The accomodation is out of the town - about 25 minutes walk away and is basic but very comfortable. No shower or running water inside so washing is done with buckets and the toilet has to be filled manually! I expected all of this to bother me more than it does - I guess I think that it would be so unfair to want more when the people around me are clearly contented with what they have. If they complained about the living conditions all the time, they-d have a pretty miserable life. The beds are comfy and warm which is important given that it gets quite cold at night and Thelma cooks well. Again people seem to hve issues with the food but as I'm sure you're all fully aware I'm happy eating pretty much anything and I really like it. Beans, cheese, plantain are the norm, all of which are yummy. Whether or not I'll like it as much in six weeks is another question!
I've also found Spanish oddly easy - I have a long way to go before I could hold a proper conversation but for the basics and a little small talk I've been fine. I think I'll try to learn a little more each day and hopefully by the end I'll be pretty decent!
The building project is great fun - we're essentially building a whole house out of three different kinds of mud for a subsistance farmer. It's going up very quickly and the whole think probably takes no more than three months to complete. It is messy though and I'm very glad I brought my boots. Some of the work is physically tough too - mixing the mud and sand with hoes is intensive work, as is lifting the heavy sun-baked mud bricks into place. The only slightly disappointing part is that we only work until midday because of the heat and the intensity of work. But this allows us to take a pick up back into town, eat and then head off to the INFA project which is obviously valuable too.
The children are very sweet - all are pretty young, amazed by sunglasses and love being picked up and swung around! But they are pretty tragic at the same time. Most of their parents are apparently either drug addicts or alcohol abusers and some even pick them up when they're under the influence. Their education is non-existent and it's very hard for the other volunteers to order the day at all because they've never had any structure in their lives. It's hard to imagine how they'll ever break out of poverty with conditions the way they are and the difference we can make seems to be more about helping them to enjoy themselves and keeping them distracted than actually teaching anything constructive.
I also have concerns about the building project - Thelma said that construction is the major industry in Esperanza and we must be depressing wages by being here. Also, while I would never begrudge anyone shelter and wouldn't think twice about supporting the family we're building for, it's a family of 10 children and I wonder if we would be needed there if sex education and cultural factors didn't encourage such large families. In other words, this volunteering is all about making the most of pretty terrible conditions. I think I didn't expect this although I don't resent this realisation. If anything I think it's just as important to have experience of the the problems created by poverty to look at tackling the causes.
Anyway enough politicisation. We actually have enough weekends off that it looks like I may be able to see the Copan Ruins and the Bay Islands and even take a short diving course! I had no idea how easy all of these things would be, although they'll obviously be considerably easier because I'll be going in a group. Brief illustration of the other volunteers: Joe has just finished History at Warwick and is about to do a law conversion course, Sonya is a Brit who's going into her last year of school and is applying to Cambridge for Geography, Stefanie is from Texas and is going into her last year of school too and Tiffany is a US med student heading to her second year of medical school. A really friendly bunch - all fairly outgoing and very easy to be around. There are others but I hang out with those guys most and it's them you'll be hearing about.
Sorry no pictures yet - I left my camera at the homestay with the cables but will try posting some at some point during the holiday when I've taken more. Do ask questions if there's anything specific you guys want to know! Will post as often as I can which is easier than I thought actually because the cafe is cheap and very central. Don't expect them all to be as long as this one though...
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