Here are a few photos from the last two weeks:

The first is my favorite photo so far. I don't know this boy's name but I saw him in an aldea called La Majada Verde. I just love his expression.

The second is the view from La Majada Verde, an aldea up in the mountains surrounding Talanga. The vista is incredible, most of the countryside indeed looks like this. Que bonita!

The third is a group pic of the PVI's on a hill overlooking Talanga.

Week 2

First, sorry for the delay in updating TalangaVision. I’ve come to the internet café twice in the past week to make a post, but I could hardly remember what I did in the past two weeks much less tell you about it. Alas, here’s my best shot at communicating what’s been going on.

I think the most exciting part of the last two weeks has been getting to know my host mom, Eva. While I live in a house with fellow volunteers, we are all assigned a host family in addition to practice Spanish, learn about culture and tradition, and as a break from the house and service. Eva has turned out to be a great host mom. She cooks me dinner all the time, brought me to a fair a few nights ago, and is very patient as I learn Spanish. She lives just around the corner from me in a nice house with her daughter, granddaughter, brother, and perhaps a few others. That’s another thing I’m observing and seek to understand – families here extend very far. Despite the utmost importance placed on family, though, nuclear families are very hard to find. The majority of couples are never married, first, because it’s expensive, and second, because they are so vehemently opposed to divorce. Fathers often leave and single motherhood is the norm. So, daughters stay with their moms as they raise children. As my relationship with Eva develops, I hope to learn more about her family and family structure in general here in Talanga.

A few of you might be wondering about food here. It’s actually quite good! I’ve been able to try several typical dishes since Eva cooks for me often. Most meals involve beans and corn tortillas with mantequilla (a condiment that’s a cross between butter and sour cream). I think that corn must be in season because it is used in basically everything: corn tortillas, corn on the cob (sold on the street), tamales, tamallitos, atol, etc. Those last three are typical Honduran dishes. Yuca is also popular; it’s a potato-like food often fried. Balleadas are great; there is a vendor in town who sells these quesadilla-like flour tortillas with refried beans, eggs, mantequilla, and a little bit of cheese inside. As I expected, meat and/or poultry is very rare. My stomach is handling the food well, though, and I’m enjoying learning how to make and eat it. Oh yea, utensils are also rare, usually just a fork is given, so I use the tortilla and fork together and basically eat with my hands.

Hm what else? I’m learning to drive stick. It’s going pretty well so far. I’m nervous to try it out on the treacherous hills outside the city up to the aldeas, but I’ll learn eventually. My Spanish is coming along. Even after just two weeks I feel more confident and can feel myself improving. We have Spanish class twice a week with a Seminarian here named Oscar, but I’m learning mostly by listening and trying. At the end of the day my brain can’t wait to rest after working tirelessly all day just to communicate. Needless to say, I sleep really well here in my mosquito-net-enclosed bottom bunk. My bed is great is great, so comfortable.

I haven’t been assigned yet or chosen specific projects to work on, but some opportunities that I’ve learned about over the past two weeks are: coordinating a Domestic Violence support group, visiting the sick, spending time with internos at an AIDS hospice nearby, working with Catechists at the church as they lead kids’ programs (Eva is a Catechist), getting funding for a new soup-kitchen like cafeteria for street kids who can’t afford to go to school, supervising a program in one of the aldeas to weigh and track the weight of (mostly underweight) children, and so much more. There is no shortage of work to be done, it’s just a matter of choosing what I want to do and where I’m best suited. I’ll keep you updated.

Thanks for all of your e-mails and encouragement. I’ll try to update a bit more frequently going forward. Hope you had a great weekend!

Abrazos,
Patricia

Snapshot: Correlitos

I’ll post snapshots occasionally to report experiences that touch me particularly strongly. Without much commentary, I’ll give you a snapshot of what happened.

Last week we visited an aldea called Correlitos. Aldeas refer to small villages outside the town of Talanga. Most aldeas are only about 3-4 miles outside of town, but the drive is about 45 minutes to an hour due to treacherous roads up hill (aside: our truck has gotten stuck three times in two weeks in holes). The families that live in the aldeas are very isolated; they live very simply entirely from the land and rarely leave the aldeas, with the exception of fathers, husbands, and brothers who work on larger farms or sell their crops in Talanga – a two hour walk there and back. On a particularly nice day, we six volunteers and Father Lucian visited a family in Correlitos that former volunteers frequented. The matriarch, three of her daughters, and their collective 10+ children were there. After they made us a great lunch, the other volunteers took the children to a river down the hill to wash the car and play. I stayed behind with Father Lucian because there was little room in the car and I didn’t really feel like going in the river at the time. It turned out to be a great decision. I hung out in the kitchen with the mom and her three daughters (all in their late twenties, I think) as they made tamales and gossiped, in Spanish of course, about a pregnant friend who has no husband or money. It was really refreshing and felt very natural to be among a family just sitting around, preparing food, laughing and talking about people. The parallel to my own family should be obvious.
The experience leveled the playing field in a way and deepened my understanding of why I’m here in Talanga. While there are vast differences between the family in Correlitos and my own in New York, we are also very much the same. I’m here to find those similarities and forge relationships with them, to find a common understanding of each other.

Changing the Channel

Estoy aqui! I´m here!

I arrived in Honduras on August 15th. Flights went smoothly and I met my fellow Passionist Volunteers and our director Fr. Lucian at the Tegucigalpa airport. We drove through Tegucigalpa to get to the highway to Talanga. Graffiti on most buildings and walls provides evidence of recent protests and political turmoil, but the city otherwise seemed normal. A bumpy drive through green countryside and hills brought us to Talanga. The house we live in is in the center of town. It has three bedrooms and two ¨bathrooms,¨ though no running water. That means bucket showers and flushing the toilet by dumping a pot of water into the toilet bowl. It´s very basic but livable; my only complaint is a lack of natural light in our communal living space, but the room that I share with Joanine and Jean has great light. After meeting various neighbors and friends, we were very tired. I successfully hung my bednet in my bottom bunk, creating a little nook. On Sunday, we went to a two masses. The children’s mass in the morning was crazy. Everything is done by the children, even the singing. It was basically a free for all. We also attended an evening mass with lots of community members. Fr. Lucian introduced us to the parish; they were very excited to meet the new gringas. Monday we toured the schools that we will be volunteering in all year. We will not be teaching, but rather placed in a classroom initially to help with learning Spanish and once we are comfortable, as a teacher’s aide. I chose a first-grade class at a school around the block from our house. The kids are adorable and have so much energy. Unfortunately they cannot afford workbooks for each child, so the teacher has to write everything on the board and the children simply copy; the amount of learning actually taking place is minimal. I can’t wait until I’m more confident in my Spanish and can actually communicate with the children and the teachers (not to mention everyone in Talanga…).

My roommates are great. I live with four other girls and one guy. In English there names are: Joanine, Jean, Carolyn, Jamie, and Mike. In Spanish, their names are: Nina, Juanita, Carolina, Rosalina, y Miguel, respectively. One HUGE change for me is that my name is Patricia here. Since there are two Carolyns in our group, and it would be really confusing for the Talangas if we had the same name, I decided to go by my middle name. It’s a bit weird, but I like it. New life, new name.

Life is great so far. I still can’t believe that I’ll be here for a year; as time goes on I’m sure it will get more real, but for now, I’m just enjoying the learning process. Not knowing Spanish is frustrating, but I trust that I’ll get it someday.
My contact info in Talanga is:

Carolyn Patricia Plunkett
Iglesia Catolica
Voluntarios Pasionistas
Talanga, F.M.
Honduras, Central America

Cell # +504 31 94 2036

Thanks for reading! I'll try and post often and with a bit more commentary so it's not simply a rundown of my days when I get to know the people better. Hopefully that will be soon!

Abrazos!