rain, rain, go away...

I'm guessing not to much news from Latin America makes it's way up north...well, let's be honest, I don't even have good access to regional news where I am either!

The past few weeks have been rather scary as heavy rains caused by a tropical depression have been hammering Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. There are a lot of roads and bridges that are out of commission, mudslides and flooding. Transportation is becoming increasingly complicated, and many areas are under a state of emergency as the rains continue.

For Honduras, and I think most of this region, it is rainy season right now, but the persistent rains and cold front  of the past several weeks has been more intense than what is normal for October.

CNN.com reports that at least 60 people (though I would guess it may actually be higher than that) have died due to flooding of rivers and the collapse of their homes.

Here is a brief article I found if you you want to read a little bit more.

Being that I am good friends with MCC's Regional Disaster Coordinators for Latin America, I know that they are discussing next steps for helping with the situation, mostly in El Salvador and Guatemala. This could include material resource aid (like health kits or canned meat) but will likely be more long-term projects to help with the rebuilding of homes when the flooding recedes and mud can dry up.

Thankfully where I live it hasn't been too bad. We are always having rain, and some roads to rural communities where we go for work aren't the best, but we have been blessed to not have problems so far. The southern part of Honduras has been hardest hit, and we are concerned about an MCC Honduras partner in Choluteca that has experienced a lot of loss and damage.

Please remember to pray for the people in these countries and that the rains would soon move on. You can also be praying for MCC and wisdom in how we help respond to the ever increasing needs in these 3 countries.

laughter is the best (coping) medicine

Here is a video of the skit my SALTer pals and I did at the re-entry retreat in July.

The idea was to share cultural experiences from where we spent our year, so the 3 of us decided to write a skit based on real life experiences of thwarting unwanted male attention as Northamerican females in Honduras.

Hope you enjoy :)




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Bqwc_IbRU

working girl

It has been awhile since I've blogged, mostly because I haven't felt like there is much to tell. I have been struggling to find my way at work, don't have much of a social life to speak of, and generally have been up and down with being sick. Exciting stuff, right?

Also, I don't have any new pictures. I really want to show you the beauty of the countryside where I've been working and show you my town, but the camera has been collecting dust of late and I'm falling behind on the photo-documentation of life.

But for all the stuff that's been getting me down, there are some bright spots. So I guess it's better to focus on that.

This week at work was our week of community visits. About every 3 weeks we visit 4 different rural communities and lead a training on various topics for the women's groups that meet. It takes about an hour on the motorcycle to get to each town, though some are a bit further than others. I do not drive the moto yet, but Oscar would like to teach me!

Our topic this week was domestic violence and how the law protects women in Honduras. Overall the visits went really well. Up to this point, I had only been to 2 of the 4 communities, but now I have met each group. The women are always gracious and hospitable and it is fun to see the personality of each group.

On Friday my coworker Oscar and I did 2 visits in one day. About 5 minutes before the training, he asked me if I wanted to lead it. I felt there weren't too many options, so I took a deep breath and said "sure!"

I was pretty nervous, but overall it went well. In fact, Oscar was convinced the women participated much more with me than they ever do when he is leading the training. I've always had my doubts about being a teacher, but everyone in the group was very affirming of my ability to lead and teach the session. I only made a few blunders with my Spanish, but it seemed to hold their attention, so I decided to make it part of my routine :)

We were at the second town by 12:30 and were able to wait out the daily rain storm at someone's house (much better than being on the moto!). I led the session again, but with a bit less participation from the crowd this time. All in all, it was a good day and I'm glad to have a some practice leading the trainings.

Although I said at the beginning that I don't have much of a social life, the church youth group has become my main social outlet. There is hang-out night on Friday evenings, youth service on Saturday night at the church, regular church service on Sunday evening and we usually go out to eat after the service. So far, they have been gracious in accepting me and inviting me along. I'm trying to take advantage of their interest while I'm still novel and interesting...it's only a matter of time before they decide I'm not really that cool ;)

So, things are moving along. It's not always easy to be living on my own, but I am slowly making friends and learning my way around, figuring things out as I go. Thank you for your prayers as I continue to settle in.

adventures in tiny cooking

As you saw from my previous post, my kitchen is nothing if not grand and imposing. Also, it is fully stocked with any kind of kitchen implement one could want...
Well--almost.
Let's just say, my tiny apartment in New Cumberland, PA and hand-me-down kitchen was great preparation for living solo in Honduras.

Since I finally started feeling like eating real food again in the last few days, I decided to see what could be done with what I've got.

Meal 1: Pancakes!
A simple meal, you are probably thinking. And you are right...it's nothing worthy of a Food Network show...
but let me remind you, I made all of this happen
without measuring cups, a flipper (plastic, metal, or otherwise)
and using a burner that I could take camping.

You know, an amateur start...but I felt pretty good about it.

Then last night I was on my way back from aerobics class (which, almost rendered my legs useless) and was craving something more substantial. Since I had been to the grocery store and stocked up on veggies, I threw caution to the wind and...

Meal 2 = Pizza!
This was a more impressive feat than the first. I made half of my mom's pizza dough recipe and even used yeast! Then I decked it out with all kinds of veggies and baked it in my toaster oven.
Pretty excited about how this turned out.

The only thing that could have made it better would be some shredded mozzarella, but since super Target is not just down the street, you take what you get :)