Feliz Dia de las Mujeres

Today in Honduras is a day dedicated to the female population. Such a beautiful day to celebrate with a wonderful surprise of cake presented by the men of our capacity program area. This week has been busy, hence lack of my blogging. (Sorry readers). Yet it has been really productive! I met a woman who works in the English dept of Bayan's SAT program; her name is June and she is from Savannah Georgia. June and the capacity program coordinator, Ruhollah, took me out to a colony named Peru where a majority of the SAT tutors are trained to teach to their students. Last Thursday and Friday was dedicated to English and this Mon-Wed had a focus with Math (Algebra). Fortunately my love for math was to my advantage because Ruhollah "trained" me so I was capable of leading the class myself, which is what I did today. I was terrified standing in front of these 20 tutors who would question my answers and take my teaching tricks to their students who will eventually apply for college and if they didn't pass their entrance exams it would be my fault!!! Well, I don't think I have to worry about that, these students had a good enough grasp of algebra that I didn't feel like I was confusing them or making things difficult. I found teaching to be a lot of fun!
During the lunch period, the program coordinators, Ruhollah and another man named Melvin recruited all the women into the classroom to announce that a horrible incident had occurred in the girls dormitories. I was confused why I had to attend the meeting but I figured if there was going to be drama I wanted to have some stories to bring back to my friend Andrew Jopson. Melvin was explaining that "this kind of behavior" was unacceptable for SAT tutors, and at that moment the men walked in yelling "FELICIDADES" and carrying a giant cake with 3 liters of soda. Such a sweet surprise! As we enjoyed the cake, the 9 men in the classroom each gave a small speech of how important women are in the world and why they need to have an appreciation day for us. They even dressed up for the event!

I found a position to serve with Red Cross which is something I am really excited about. There are two programs that I will be involved in and they both are related to the youth in the more run-down parts of La Ceiba. The way the coordinators described the work made it seem very similar to my junior youth group. We would present ourselves as a mixture of a friend and a mentor but working in terms of preventative medicine. We would teach about STDs, AIDs, nutrition, and encourage exercise by playing a game of volleyball or soccer. I start Monday! The second group is working directly with people (youth in particular) with AID prevention and management. There is lots I need to learn and understand but I think it will be a joyful experience because I am a strong believer that we adults can make a huge impact in the life of a child especially a junior youth.
I found a gym which has dance classes every night, Monday thru Friday! Today was Salsa and Samba! Watch out Marion n Lucho! Our dance-off is coming soon. Next week we will learn La Punta, which is a traditional dance here on the Ceiba Coast of Honduras. I also meet two girls my age that are excited that I will be joining their dance class, yay friends! I can't wait to teach them CrossFit because doing CrossFit on my own is never any fun.

Anyways, tomorrow I have to be up early to start one of the Ruhi book series, book 3 (I know Marion you must be thinking "FINALLY"). But I hope everyone is enjoying life and thank you so much for your support. It means a lot to know that my friends do miss me as much as I miss everyone there. PEACE!

Transitioning to La Ceiba

January 16, 2013

I guess I should start this off by giving a small introduction as to why am I here in Honduras. Well more than 6 months ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, I realized I wanted to take a small break between transitioning from my undergraduate career to my post graduate life which includes a bright future in medicine.
Two wonderful friend, Lucho and Marion Boddy, introduced me to the Bayan Association here in Honduras. Lucho and Marion are good friends with the program director Soheli Dooki and without further thought, I downloaded the application, applied, and waited for good news. By September I had already confirmed my flight to Honduras for a 6 month period of voluntary service.
Now the Bayan Association is a non-profit, Bahai-inspired organization that is dedicated to the social and economic development of Honduras. Bayan's primary focus is with an innovated educational system designed to permit youth in the rural areas to complete high school and acquire appropriate skills for sustainable living. I hope to be very involved with this program called SAT (sistema de aprendizaje tutorial).
I arrived in La Ceiba on Jan. 14, 2013 at 3:30pm. It was at a temperature of 82*F but super HUMID. It beats Davis weather anytime though, I feel like I am already started to brown up again into my summer colors. A member of the Bayan Association named Denis came to pick me up from the airport and explained to me a few of the details in regards to La Ceiba and safety. Regardless, I feel a lot more secure here in La Ceiba as opposed to being in Morelia, Mexico. In fact, majority of the Honduran population find Mexico to be at least 20x more dangerous than Honduras. I don't know why I got so scared from the stories I had hear prior to arriving in La Ceiba. Of course there are precautions that I need to take, which is the same that I would take walking through Compton in LA or getting out of the airport in Mexico City. Try to carry a small, non-visible purse or no purse at all, very little money or no more than $100 cash, no flashy jewelry, keep the tourist look on the down-low, and wear casual looking clothing (which I very much failed at doing).
As soon as I got to the Bayan Association which is in the area, Barrio Bella Vista, I finally met the people who I have been communicating with since I submitted my application online, Mr. Mario Miranda and Mr. Soheli Dooki. I spoke to Mr. Dooki about a few logistical issues and he then escorted me to my room to unpack and relax.

Later in the evening, Mr. Miranda took me to take out some money and buy some food for the evening and morning. The money system is in LEMPIRAS, and the currency rate right now is 1 dollar for every 19.99 Lempiras. It has been a bit confusing trying to convert everything in my head to see if it's a good deal or not. For example, today I bought a cell phone for calls and texts. It cost me 480 Lempiras which equals out to $24.
Overall I am still adjusting to the Honduran lifestyle and La Ceiba's heat. I am excited for the weekend that is coming so I can go to the beach. Yet I have a lot of work to do apart from filling out applications, to reading books that talk specifically about the SAT program, and looking for new friends to hang out with.

Thanks for reading!