After exceeding pressure from my extensive network of followers (pronounced: Mike Levene and Rachel Short), I realized it was time to give a little update about the year and how things are progressing here in Honduras.
I have finally hit the meat of the year. Mike, BECA's director, told me at the beginning of the year not to become too involved in every little thing. He very clearly and frequently explained that the job is work enough and not to overextend myself before it got harry. I didn't really see it at first. School was slow, not much work to do every day. I worked my way through classrooms freely and with little stress. That was until the first of the month came up.
Bills to pay, people to pay, expense reports to fill out, and...the becado meeting. It was like a giant wave emerging from nowhere and hitting me dead on. The work had finally hit me and has hardly slowed down since.
Over the past few months there have been a number of instances in which I have been surprised by what responsibilities fall under my purview. It is not so much any one particular thing, but the summation of a number of small things. In some ways this is a nice way to work. On days where there are a bunch of little things to do, I often feel a greater sense of accomplishment. I saw something through from beginning to end, even though it was only making a schedule for something. It is all the little things that have made me incredibly more organized about my schedule. I finally realized I can no longer relay on my memory to complete everything. Not that my memory is bad, but because I actually think it is impossible for someone to remember so many little things. Not to mention half of them are asked of me in a different language.
The real work comes with the big stuff, what I am caught up with right now. Planning for the becado meeting, planning the visa renewal trip that I am not even going on, planning the trip that I AM going on, and planning a month in advance for a professional development trip in the beginning of October. Not to mention, it was the first of the month.
It has been a great experience so far, including some of the more difficult points. I enjoy the responsibility of having larger tasks to do and I am managing my time better. Admittedly when I accepted this job I relished the idea that once I left school my work would be finished. That has hardly been the case.
For me the crown jewel of it all is the work I get to do with Hondurans. Working with the scholarship families, coordinating with the other Honduran administrators, shooting the shit as often as I can with parents at school, it all is a cultural experience I felt I didn't get as much of last year and a way to improve my Spanish. About two weeks ago I went with our principal, Ms. Amarilys, to her house way up in the mountains. I picked corn with her husband and made fresh, blue-corn tortillas with her in-laws. After that weekend Amarilys gave me the nickname Semi, Semi: Semi-gringo, Semi-Catracho (the slang term for Hondurans).
In a few weeks I am going back to the mountain to pick coffee as the season is coming up. They are going to pay my salary in food. Amarilys' mother-in-law wants me to milk cows with her, but waking up at 4AM just doesn't sound that appealing to me. I will be sure to write about that adventure once I return. Who knows, you may stop by a Starbucks one day and drink a freshly brewed coffee picked by me. A long shot, but someone is going to drink it.
For now, that is my update. This weekend, while the group is traveling to get their visas renewed, I will be heading over to Copán, near the Mayan ruins, to present for BECA at a conference of the NGO's working in Honduras. Then it is off to Guatemala for a day or two to get my own visa renewed.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for the push Mike.
