soup!

Some of you know about my hatred for Honduran soup. It runs deep. It's always eaten on the HOTTEST days of the week, and you have to eat it with your HANDS! I know...soup--with your hands--you must be crazy!

BUT--I'm not the only one who feels this way. My good friend and cohort in the never ending quest to discuss, dissect and generally absorb all that we can regarding Honduran culture wrote a wonderful post about this very topic. Since we helped each other articulate these deep feelings, I feel good about reposting her excellent work. Enjoy.

[Oh, and check her blog. It's good too :) Elise's Blog: A View From Honduras]

I avoid generalizations about Hondurans, since I obviously don't know every single inhabitant of this beautiful land. However, I will take my chances with this one. Hondurans LOVE soup. They are obsessed with soup. Soup is their life blood. Seriously.

Hondurans can wax poetic about the qualities of a bean soup for at least 30 minutes without effort. Recently, a lady stared selling a different type of soup every day at work. We spend most of the lunch hour discussing the qualities of the tortilla soup, and planning which soup they'll order the next day.  

My host mom always tells me excitedly in the morning if she'll be making soup that day, and the whole family joins in the joy about the delicacy. 

I however, don't share these feelings. This is why: 

That's a typical Honduran beef soup. Do you see the CHUNKS of meat, corn, yucca and plantain?!?! That is NOT soup, that is broth with unmanageably large pieces of starch that I have to take extract from the burning broth with my hands, and then try to figure out how to eat without a knife in sight (you shouldn't need a knife to eat soup). 

In my cultural context, you eat soup with a spoon. It's a smooth, creamy, experience, to be eaten with bread and maybe lemonade. It's a great treat on a cold, winter day. 

Here, I am not allowed to eat my soup with bread (it has to be tortillas) and heaven forbid I drink a cold beverage with my soup (hot and cold things can't mix). To add insult to injury, soup is eaten on the hottest days (once again, can't mix hot with cold). 

Finally (I promise, this is the end of my rant), soup broth has so much lard in it, that washing a receptacle that has held soup is a nightmare. I often find myself angrily stabbing at a soup pot with my sponge taking out all my anger at the piece of plantain that I had to eat earlier in the day. 

Now, thankfully Honduras has so many wonderful things, that the difference between my cultural understanding of soup, and a Honduran understanding is minor in the scheme of things.  However, after I come home from a run on a hot day, I must admit, the piping hot seafood soup on the stove makes me want to go running in the opposite direction.

behind the times

Life has been pretty busy lately and I'm so behind in blogging (not to mention journaling!) Between moving apartments, spending an entire weekend away at a church retreat and a full week in Tegucigalpa visiting the host family, dealing with residency stuff and an MCC team meeting, I feel a little crazy. Oh yeah, and did I mention that I leave for a visit home in less than 2 days???!!!!

So, I will try to fill you in later. The church reatreat itself deserves its very own post...and I should write more about my immigration and residency fiascos. Oh, and of course MCC life. Hopefully when I'm on VACATION with my FAMILY I will have some time to catch up on the blog.

Here's a pic of the very best team anyone could ask for! Love you guys!!

MCC Honduras May 2012

new digs

So I've moved to a new place!

Last Saturday I had packed up everything in my tiny apartment and was ready to move to another one at least 3 times the size of where I was living. This is exciting for many reasons, the best being that now I have a guestroom for all of my visitors to the bed & breakfast ;)

The other great thing is I'm only a block away from where I was living...so, not far to move everything and still conveniently close to the office and church.

Thought you might like to see some photos so, I will try to give you the full tour...

walking into the parking area, to the right, more apartments

to the left, my groundfloor apartment, and parking space, if i had a car ...

come on in!

my very own SEPARATE living room :) kitchen door to left, bedroom door straight ahead.

lets check out my huge kitchen!!

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notice: stove!! and hanging baskets...courtesy of my personal handyman 

Lets take a look at what I've got cookin' :)

no cookie sheets yet, but this girl can improvise  haha

 

sink area 

more storage...to the left of the sink.

a look back to the living room as we walk to the bedroom...

to the left when you look in bedroom, looking into spare room

guest room, or currently, junk pit !

looking back into the bedroom from the second room doorway. door ahead is bathroom

and the bathroom. dont worry, there is a shower, you just cant see it.

So there you have it. It's nicer in person, so you should probably come and visit soon!!

culture crash

Sometimes its hard for me to articulate what is so different about my life in the States compared to my life in Honduras.

Other days, its a continual barrage of differences that get under my skin and get me all riled up!

Culture incorporates so many tangible and (more importantly) intangible things that make us who we are, that dictate what we do, and even how we react to things. You might be thinking, yeah, but is it really that big of a deal? I mean, people are people no matter where you go. And you might be right. According to my co-worker, any time I bring up the idea of cultural differences he tells me that it's an excuse and talking about culture is "papadas" (read: you're full of crap).

Well, I would just like to say that it's not crap. It's real. And I struggle to live with these differences, good and bad, every minute of every day of my life in Honduras. And I don't appreciate being told that it's an excuse when it's something that feels very real to me. Until you have lived in another culture and understand the subtle differences that culture adds to everyday life, you can't tell me it's nothing.

Primarily I get riled up in the work place where we have a LOT of differences in how we approach things. Granted, a lot of this is personality...and I will freely admit that. However, there are a lot of cultural trends that shape how we approach our work and how we do or do not get things accomplished. The inefficiency and lack of just...getting-things-done is enough to drive me crazy. There is always tomorrow. And you rush, rush, rush to wait. Hurry up and wait is very typical. And meetings...don't even get me started. If you just spent one hour actually DOING something at your desk, we would need 95% fewer meetings to talk about what you plan to do.

In a different vein, I was reflecting on the food of Honduras and how really, well, un-interesting it is. Every restaurant seems offer the same standard menu, no matter where you go. Oh sure, there are establishments that specialize in fried chicken, or pupusas, or maybe just baleadas...but really, Hondurans have a startling lack of variety in their diet.

It got me thinking about how many varieties of food I used to enjoy in a typical week...but then my daydreaming about Thai food got me drooling over everything so I had to stop that! But it is interesting to consider what a cultural trend there is in the U.S. to try something new, the latest thing, something rare...because it's exciting, and you might discover the next greatest thing. Here in Honduras, you stick to what you know. New is scary...new might be bad.

So where does all this leave me? What am I trying to say?

Well..I guess I'm just trying to blog-it-out  and express that living in another culture is challenging for the very ways it stretches you to do things differently and live in ways that don't feel "normal." It's not always bad...there are a lot of good things about it to (hopefully a future post ;) )...but I just need the acknowledgement and affirmation that it is hard. It's not papadas. That what I feel is justifiable and when you've only been steeped in your own culture, you can't really know what all is wrapped up in that word, and how it might make others feel out of place, or un-welcome some times. I know what that's like because I live it.

There are just those days...when it's too much. And you don't want to eat another piece of fried chicken. You really just want something...different!

for the birds...

The last week of March I had a good friend who works for MCC in Tegucigalpa, Kathy Troyer, come to Santa Rosa to live with me for a week. Kathy has a lot of experience in gardening projects and worm-composting so we invited her to come and share her knowledge with ACDIM's women's groups.

 We planned a whole week of time to prep the training, do a demonstration with me and my coworker, and then visit the 4 community groups to teach them how to create worm composting beds in old tires.




It was a busy busy week with lots to do and lots going on. Kathy and I had quite a time wrestling old tires and trying to turn them inside-out...lets just say, we decided the difference in "space" wasn't worth our time!

Kathy gave us lots of great resources for learning more about worm composting and other gardening techniques. Together we put together a 10 page lesson covering the basics of worm composting, organic fertilizer, what the worms need to produce the organic fertilizer, and how to create a pleasant atmosphere for them in a tire. As we went to each of the women's groups, Kathy took the lead on the training and I was there to back her up and fill in some of the blanks.

After each lesson in "theory" we did a demonstration and left some starter worms in each community.

they were not to sure about touching poop with bare hands, like Kathy does :)

I learned A LOT more than I ever wanted to know about worms in this week and saw the passion Kathy has for her own worms :)  More importantly, I learned how they can really make a difference in the lives of women who care for them and reap the benefits of a nicely fertilized garden plot. Kathy has witnessed the change this kind of project has made in the lives of her friends and neighbors, and we are hopeful the women we work with with get excited about the possibility of family gardens as well.

Oscar...he is one of a kind

What I did not anticipate was having to care for my own crew of worms. The idea is to have a supply  for when women in the groups want more worms...and I thought for sure my co-worker (who purports to be expert in all things related to agriculture) would jump at the chance to take ownership of the worms--boy, was I mistaken!

I now have my own pets, living it up in collected excrement and coffee pulp. Not only did Kathy leave behind her beloved worms, but also a healthy fear of needing to protect them from the elements and predators (even fishermen who want to steal them for their hobby!). It has gotten to the point that I have found myself running around in thunderstorms with flashlight in hand to protect the rain-soaked worm bin from flooding...and wondering "what the heck have I gotten myself into?"

Overall, it was a productive week and a great chance to spend time with Kathy before her time with MCC wraps up this summer. It was good to show her my life here and share a week together, the ups and downs of life at ACDIM, living in a tiny apartment, and sharing some good laughs too.

time marches into march

So the month of February flew by and I realized it's been awhile since I've given an update. A lot has been happening, so I guess I'll give an overview on the different areas of my life...

It's almost 6 months since I moved to Santa Rosa and I have slipped into a pretty good routine. Overall, it is a quaint town that allows a single female a great degree of independence (and this is much appreciated). I enjoy going to the gym regularly and walking all over town. Recently, I have had a slew of visitors to my home, and have been running a little hotel side-business...not as lucrative as one might think, as most guests are MCCers, but I get by ;) 

Work keeps moving forward, although most days it feels like 2 steps forward and 6 steps back...or 3 steps to the side. We are still working with 4 groups of women, though one ended and we have started a new one. Although this 4th group will be behind the others in terms of the training schedule, our goal is to catch them up in an accelerated fashion. We have just started business trainings since the new year started, which are mostly my territory, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I have been able to utilize some of the curriculum I worked on last year in Teguc, which is an exciting thing for me. We are also collaborating with an MCC friend to do some worm-composting trainings at the end of this month and hope that this will give a good start to family garden projects with our beneficiaries. 

Most recent work excitement: I got my first dog bite on the moto! It didn't bleed so everyone tells me it doesn't count as a bite, just a scratch...but there was some stinging involved when forced to pour lemon juice on it...so its going on the Honduras memories list as a bite.

Church has been a good source of community for me since I moved to Santa Rosa and got involved in the Mennonite congregation here. Although it can be intense and a little demanding at times, I appreciate being part of the church family and feeling cared for by people of different generations. Most recently I was roped into helping write the "Plan for 2012" to delegate tasks to all church committee and narrowly avoided being part of the leadership council in youth group. I think I may be a chronic church-aholic and am trying to work on this to reach a better balance in life!

MCC relationships are a source of support and refreshment in the challenges of living and working in another culture. I have been blessed with great friends on the Honduras team and this month brought us the unfortunate task of saying goodbye to the Stephens family who are ending their 3 year term with MCC. We had a team reunion in San Pedro to spend a few days together having fun, eating lots of pizza, and reflecting on all that we will miss when the Stephens are gone! They will be heading home for a few months, but ultimately returning to Honduras to work with an orphanage on the north coast. 

So...although they won't be part of our MCC team, we know we'll see them again soon.

I also realize that I have not been documenting my life in Santa Rosa with many pictures...I guess it usually requires having a visitor to do touristy things with that inspires me to take lots of photos. So, let me know when you want to come down for a visit and book your stay at my hotel! I offer very competitive rates. 

I am also talking about going home for a visit in May to see my family, so that is an exciting prospect on the horizon!

Prayer: Just to keep you posted on some things you can be praying about for me...

> focus at work to know how to help ACDIM and what my role is in developing the organization

> safety in all aspects of living/working/traveling in Honduras (and for the safety of all MCCers here)

> opportunities for refreshment and peace to allow myself a break 

> wisdom in relationships and opportunities to connect with more foreigners