So Apparently THIS is week 1 and last week was week 0…

Hola a todos!

Hi all, things have been very fun this week. First off, let´s start with ¨Fun with Language¨

1. In my language class I kept insisting that the other night I was playing soccer with my hijos. Oh wait, ¨hijos¨= sons…..HERMANOS = brothers…. Oops.
2. Cargar = charge….. Cagar = shit…. Right. Roll those R´s
3. Sorry Gillian (if you are out there) but I forgot that ¨Me gusta Jose¨ means a whole lot more than Jose is a cool guy….
4. My friend Rebecca was telling her classmates about how when she was 8 a horse stepped on her foot. Apparently the word for ¨stepped on¨ that she used in Honduras means ¨to f*ck.

So this week we finally got our language levels and I am an Intermediate-medium level Spanish speaker which is the minimum requirement to be accepted for service (after training). So that´s pretty cool because I don´t have to stress out too much about that. I am supposed to get to at least Intermediate-Advanced by the end of training, which I feel like it would be impossible NOT to under the immersion circumstances. Because I am an over-achiever I´m totally aiming for Advanced-Low.

The training program is amazing. I was talking with one of my directors and apparently several years ago they hired an instructional design firm to design the training materials and it totally shows. They are amazing to the point that they actually took a learning-style inventory so they could change their teaching activities to meet our learning styles. Of course, it helps that there are all of 4 people in our Spanish classes. So a typical Spanish class includes lecture, role-play, group activities, games, pictures, creating stories, etc. It´s rather intense but really fun. We do language 4 hours per day in the formal class.

After language we have lunch which is always hysterical to see. People compare the odd things that we get in our lunches. All of the sudden mine have included a fruit and a vegetable pretty much every day. So I usually get some fruit, some salad with dressing (AKA mayonnaise) and some kind of meat.

After language the day varies depending on the day of week. Sometimes we have safety and security training which is pretty intense. Sometimes we have health class where we learning things like:

• Don´t call the nurse unless you have had diarrhea at least  4 times in a day.
• If you get a hook worm you won´t really be able to see it anyway but if your foot hurts a lot call us.
• Scabbies = bad.
• Kids = lice.
• Moquitos = dhengue or malaria

Job skills training is my favourite because I am a dork. We got to go see a water system yesterday and actually took water samples and had to figure out things like the Ph of the water and the oxygen demand, etc. I have lots of pictures of tubes and pipes that I probably will never know what they are again. Except I have to know… so I will memorize them.

Speaking of job skills, I had an interview about my job the other day. It was fun. They definitely want me to do training for kids and adults and possible create a manual for PC Wat/San in Hondu (what we now call Honduras) for those who have to teach in the field. We shall see. I have yet to have an actual definition to my job. I also expressed extreme interest in the last of the Wat/San goals which is to educate about watersheds. I am totally interested in the watersheds. I did also find out (as an aside) that I will actually have to do some wat/san work which means I may have to do some designing of water systems. I pay close attention in class. Of course, I will work with an engineer at least as long as it takes for me to do surveys correctly and draw up plans correctly. And I´m sure an engineer will still oversee my work.

I had to do trig for homework yesterday. My brain is still recovering from where it ruptured.

My host family is fun times. I had a long conversation the other night with my host dad about the economic situation and that day my Spanish just happened to work correctly. So then like 2 days later he was having this rather intense conversation with me about the political situation in Hondu. My Spanish wasn´t working so hot that day so I just kept nodding and saying ¨Si, Si!¨ Unfortunately, he doesn´t follow the typical Hondu male stereotype and actually wanted my opinion. So I had to actually respond to his questions. That was tricky. But he was sated and kept talking to me.

So all of us have started speaking in rather terrible Spanglish. I hear things like ¨My phone won´t cargar!¨ or, ¨The perro in my house is really skinny.¨ Of course I do this on purpose all the time because its fun. Apparently I make people laugh a lot.

Anyway, not much else to report unless you want to hear about how mantequilla, which in Spanish class they tell you is butter, is actually this sour cream type substance which makes me sick within about 1 hour. But I would have to have that event happen 4 times in a day to call the nurse and I only eat 3 meals a day…..

Ohhhh I crack myself up…..

Anyway, I miss you all and I will try to write again soon. I have to go do some work on the Internet.

Love,

Becky