Settling In

Today is my first Sunday in Honduras. I am bit-by-bit adjusting to life here, no big surprises so far. I find myself often comparing to Bolivia and the Peace Corps, which I expected. The main differences are that I have a lot clearer view of my purpose here than I did when I first arrived in Bolivia and lot more direction. Part of the Peace Corps process was finding your own way, your own path, your own way of doing things. There was support where you needed it, but we were certainly not coddled once training was over. I got dumped into a town where I was the only American with maybe a few ideas for projects but nothing officially set up for work. It took me months to meet people, earn their trust, get into the swing of it all and finally drilled my first well about 9 months into my service. By the end of my time in Hardeman, however, new people were knocking on my door every day asking if we could drill them a well. It went from one extreme to the other.

Here, my set-up is quite different. I am a new employee at a health clinic that has been in this small, rural town for about 20 years now. I'm no longer the local gringo celebrity, gringos are a dime-a-dozen in this town. Many have come and gone along the years, and large groups of them invade on our brigades. I don't think I will necessarily get lost in the shuffle, but it's far cry from Peace Corps where I was the only gringo to ever spend a significant amount of time in my little town. And there are benefits to both. It is pretty nice having all these resources here, for example wireless internet all the time, access to trucks and some other Americans around who can get excited about Ohio State football for example. I try to imagine all the work I could have gotten done in Hardeman with just a fraction of these resources. But as strange as it sounds to say it, Peace Corps wasn't just about getting a bunch of work done. It was just as much about spreading goodwill to my fellow man and hopefully showing the folks in my town a good example of an American, as well as learning about them and sharing what I learned with other Americans. So that time spent getting to know things was a very important part of my service. It is not like that as much here. Townspeople have an idea of what Americans are like and may assume that I am the same. And perhaps I am, depending on their ideas. It's just a whole different experience from arriving to Hardeman. But I definitely find it much easier to adjust to this life having been through my Peace Corps experience in Bolivia.

As far as my day-to-day goes, I share a room with my friend Alex, who is a nurse here in the clinic but dabbles in just about everything. In our "apartment" right now are Leslie & Mark, a married couple who have been here for a little over a year. Also in another room is Yanire, a researcher working on a nutrition study. We have some common space as well, a big living room and a kitchen, but all that doubles as offices for all of us, which really consist of lunchroom tables mostly. There is another apartment up here as well that houses the majority of the Honduran medical staff...doctors and nurses. We are on the second floor, downstairs is the main kitchen and eating area where we eat most of our meals. There are some more employees living in rooms down there, and people are always coming and going, for a few months, weeks, or days at a time. It's a little strange living with the same people I work with and working in same place I live. But for now it's all there is. I am settling in very nicely and have felt pretty useful up until now. More to come soon.