O-Face Killa

Sometimes down here people ask me what life was like in  United States. I normally talk about friends or family or how I miss chocolate chip cookies (I know that I can make them down here- but they never taste like Break and Break). I then am asked to regale them with a story, and most of the time I tell them some simple heartwarming moment, but occasionally I will spice it up.

Occasionally (actually pretty frequently) I have laughing fits- where I cannot stop laughing, struggle to breathe, and cannot stop matter how hard I try. These "fits" are normally brought on when I am trying to tell someone about something funny that happened in the past. The original story is probably not funny at all which just sets me off more. So, I decided to tell the nurses that I work with about a picture, that no matter how hard I try I cannot to tell anyone about, because I start laughing so hard. I am physically unable to describe this picture without breaking down in hysterics. When I told the nurses nothing had changed and I couldn't get through the story. So I just sat in the Health Center I drove myself to tears just thinking about this picture.

So... I have decided to share with the world the picture that makes me laugh harder than anything.

Judge me if you will, but just don't ask me to describe the photo for you.

Ps- Sorry O for posting this.

Workin It

Now that I have about run out of bizarre, anecdotal stories I figured I should let you all know about the actual work I am doing out here in Oco.

I have a few counterparts (local offices or organizations who work in the health field) in both Nueva and Antigua Ocotepeque. My “main” counterpart is a rural health center in Antigua, where I help the nurses and doctor on a daily basis, as well as working on my own projects. An average day there involves working in the pre-clinic, where I record patient history, temperature, weight and blood pressure in their file; along with helping in the pharmacy, where I provide medications and instruct patients on dosage and usage. In the center I also have two groups that meet monthly- a group for pregnant women, and regional health volunteers. During our meetings I normally give a charla (presentation) over topics like- anatomy, first aid, STI’s, cancer, or any topic that they have requested.  Monthly, I go out to our most impoverished aldea  (rural community) Polcho and talk to the school (20 students kinder garden to 6^th grade in one room) about common health problems and ways to avoid them. Last week I went out with one of the nurses and gave a charla about dental health and was able to give toothbrushes and toothpaste to all the kids. I am very lucky to have a supportive and active counterpart- we have a few more projects in the works but I will let you know once they come to fruition.

I am also working with an NGO called Organización de Desarrollo de Mujeres, which works on promoting women’s rights, avoiding domestic violence, and now women’s health. This was not one of my original counterparts, but I happened upon them and struck up a conversation with the new director one day. She wanted to start a health project for their members but was short on money and staff to start a new initiative. Because I am a free volunteer and have a pre-planned program about women's health, it seemed to be a perfect fit! I now have 5 women’s groups who are learning from the new Peace Corps Women’s Health manual. Things are just getting started and I have only given a few charla’s to the women’s groups, but so far things are going very well. I am also helping with some of their other projects- like forming a Departmental Women’s Support Network, which is something that is sorely needed.

My third counterpart is the Reicken Public Library, where I have a youth group with teenage girls. Once a week we meet up and talk about health and leadership topics. The girls are great and very active during our meetings, but have already completed the young girls Peace Corps Honduras program called "Yo Merezco" so I am inventing our lesson plans as we go. I am lucky to have access to information from other Peace Corps projects so I am able to find activities  in other manuals.

Finally, I teach 4 dance classes weekly! It originally started out as 2 a week, but Ocotepeque lacks after school activities and a million children (exaggeration) so now I have 4. I teach 2 ballet classes to young girls- ages 4 to 10, and two women's exercise dance classes. With the young girls it has been fun to give them their first taste of ballet and to see the progress that they are already making.  I try to teach the women dance steps and exercises that they can do on their own so that (hopefully) they will incorporate exercise into their daily lives. Exercise is not a very popular past time here in Honduras, so I am very excited that my students keep coming every week. 

Well, I hope that wasn’t thoroughly boring to read and gave you all some insight into what I am actually doing down here!