Hello friends and family!

Sorry it´s been a while since my last post. All of the volunteers went to Utila to go diving and take a break over the weekend.  I did my advanced diving certification while I was there. 5 dives in 2 days it was really intense but I loved it.  Since it´s my last full week here I´ve been really busy with working on the houses and with the kids, trying to fit in time for my host family and getting to know the volunteers.  We are putting the roof on one of the houses right now and that takes a lot of work which is great and the other house we will be putting the roof on next week.  Its a lot of heavy lifting and digging holes so that we can make more mud, but I love at the end of the day how exhuasted I am and how my arms always hurt the next day! The child care center is a lot of fun.  Tuesday a church group came and brought a ton of donations it was great.  Yesterday I played soccer with the kids for about 2 hours they´re pretty good for being 6-10 years old.  Its always fun to take pictures at the care center because the kids love to look at themselves.  Tomorrow will be my last day at the care center because I leave Monday at 2 right after construction.  It’s going to be hard saying goodbye to all the children.  A lot of the volunteers are leaving this and next week since school will be starting up soon so last night we had a s’more party at my host house and tomorrow were having a party at one of the restuarants in town.  It’s wonderful to met people from all over the world and you get to know people so much faster here than in the “real”world just because you spend 12 hours a day with them.  It will be nice knowing that if I ever want to go to New Zealand, Sweeden, England, France, Austria, Germany, Canada, and many of the states I will have someone I know and can visit with!  Saturday is also going to be a hard day, one of the other volunteers that lives in my house is leaving sunday so our host family is hosting a going away party for the two of us. Its going to be hard saying goodbye to my family here, the kids at the center, and the families we build for because I doubt I will ever see them again.  When I think about  saying goodbye to the volunteers its not so hard just because I know we will all keep in touch

Monday afternoon I went to IHNFA the child care center from 1-4:30.  The kids there are very much in need of attention and by the end of my day there I was completely exhausted.  The kids here know absolutely no discipline and it’s really a shame.  They are constantly hitting/ kicking each other, they don’t know the meaning of share, and don’t listen to us or the caregiver.  It’s very hard to see kids around the age of 2 who are already cussing and hitting other children, it’s sad knowing the usually there are no volunteers at this care center and that one women, who seems like she could care less, is watching over these 20-40 kids by herself.  I also meet all of the other volunteers here on Monday night.  There are about 15 of us total all doing different projects so it was nice Monday night when we all got together and went to the pool hall. Tuesday we got 2 layers of adobe put on one of the sites and the other site is ready to put cement on the outside of so that one is almost done its getting exciting to see all the progress we’ve made even in the short time we’ve been here.   I got really sick last night and I’m still not feeling well so this morning I didn’t make it up to the building site, but went to IHNFA for the whole day since it is right across the street from my home stay.  I think it was from a fruit smoothie I had since they used milk and my stomach isn’t used to drinking unpasteurized milk, now I know better.  Tomorrow the whole group of volunteers is traveling to the island of Utila so hopefully I am feeling better for the 7 hour drive.  I’ll update next week sometime!

Hola! Como esta usted??? So my Spanish is getting a little better, although I still wouldn’t feel comfortable being completely on my own with out someone semi-fluent.  So Honduras… I love it here. The weather is wonderful depending on the city anywhere from 75-90 with very little humidity.  It is very mountainous and everything is green because it is winter here or their rainy season.  The only bad thing about it is the sun is up at 5:30 and down by 7 everyday so my sleep schedule has changed greatly.  We usually go to bed around 11 and wake up at 5:15 or so when the rosters start crowing. 

            So everyone is wondering if I changed programs and everything about that.  I loved the city of Gracias and would have loved being there as a volunteer in the Health center however there were a lot of students there from within Honduras at the time so it was almost as though there were too many people that there wasn’t much for me to do.  I would have loved to get experience in the health field obviously, but I wanted to be somewhere where I would actually be helping and making a difference, not where I was an extra hand sitting around watching.  Sonya is another volunteer here, she arrived on the same flight as I did and we had the same host family in Gracias so we shared a room.  She was also doing the medical project and had a lot worse of a time than I did the first day.  She had been working in the lab and they just made her a secretary and made fun of the Spanish she did speak to them.  So anyways she had decided to switch to the building project in La Esperanza and with my limited Spanish I didn’t want to be the only volunteer in the whole city with the closest ones 2 hours away.  So I also decided to switch projects.  As much as I wish I could have been of help and gained experience in the medical field I’m glad that I switched.  I have meet a lot of volunteers in La Esperanza and feel like if I had stayed and been the only one in Gracias I wouldn’t have enjoyed my trip and would have wanted to come home.

            Now what I’ve been doing!  Thursday we took a bus the 2 hours to La Esperanza from Gracias it was miserable.  I had a lady with a 1-2 year old boy on her lap and he threw up a good hour of the time.  The bus was hot and bumpy and the smell of the vomit almost got to me.  It is so odd here that they just let him throw up all over the floor of the bus didn’t pull over or get him a bucket.  After we got to La Esperanza we meet our new host family.  There are about 20 or so people who live in this sort of complex where we are staying.  They are all part of an extended family and there are around 10 or so kids between the ages of 3-17.  There are no husbands at the house, but we don’t ask why… something to ponder I guess.  We got to know the family Thursday and also met Rose another volunteer who is staying at the same house.  Sonya and I have like our own little “apartment” it has our bedroom we share and a living room area.  The bathroom is outside and everyone shares and there is also a shower, but only running water about 25% of the time.

            Friday we met the rest of the volunteers there are 4 others doing building at the moment and 2 that teach English, plus a bunch that stay in the city that we haven’t met yet.  We all ride in the back of a pick up truck about 30 minutes up to the school and then we walk about 10 minutes to the building site.  We got there around 7:30 or so and began making concrete and mud.  We added to the middle of the house using a layer of mud and adobe blocks.  We are building up the middle wall so that the roof will be slanted.  Friday there was only one building site because a lot of the volunteers had gone out of town for the weekend so there wasn’t a lot to do.  Around 11 we walked back to the school and hitched a ride back to town.  I don’t want anyone to worry about hitching rides here.  **Very few people here have cars so the way to get around for almost everyone is to ride in the back of pick-up trucks.  Some of the people will charge you to ride in their truck and others will just give you a free ride because they were already going.  I saw a truck with 17 people in the back of it.  We have a joke about how many people you can fit in the back of a pick up because every time we see one it seems like there are more people on it than the last one. ** 

            We got back to town around 1130 or so and walked back home.  Normally we would then go to the child center to teach and watch the kids from 1230-5.  The center is a government daycare for single parents and one any given day there are 20-40 kids, however the government can only afford to pay for a single caregiver.  Most of the kids come in the afternoons which is why it’s essential that we spend our afternoons there helping where we can.  On Friday it wasn’t open though because of some strike about the President trying to come back.

  The building site and the child center are both closed during the weekends so Sonya and I decided to join two other volunteers that were going up to the Copan Ruins.  We left around 1 on Friday and arrived there around 8.  We got a hotel room for the night for just under $6 a person it is so cheap to stay in the country.  In the morning we went to the ruins it was an experience.  It’s amazing how over a thousand years ago with no machines people could build such amazing structures and carve such beautiful pictures.  We walked around for about 3 hours and decided to make our way across the boarder to Guatemala since it was only 12km from the ruins.  We spent the afternoon in the market in Guatemala before heading back to the Ruins to spend the night.  Sunday we left around 10 in the morning and arrived back home around 5 it was a long day but the scenery is so beautiful you’d barely notice how long of a ride it is if it weren’t for how bad the roads are.  I did my laundry by hand when we got back then washed my hair with buckets of water since there was no running water.  

Today we went up to the house at 7 am and build 2 layers higher of adobe and mud before we left around 12.  I´m heading to the child center in about 10 minutes, but I thought I´d come update since today is my house mom´s birthday and I wont be able to stop by later.  I´ll update in a few days hope everything is going great in the states.  PS I think I´m adding another week so that I can help more, I love it here and it´s a great feeling seeing a house be build before your eyes and by your own hands!

I first must say the computer keyboards here are different so writing this update will be quite difficult.  I had a great flight Monday and arrived in Honduras around noon.  Nick the Honduras director picked me and Sonya the other volunteer up at the airport.  We drove around Tegucigalpa and saw the city it´s not as impovershed as I had expected.  We headed out to our hotel around 2 and ate a huge lunch then went Sonya and I went into the town of Valle del Angeles and walked around for about 2 hours.  We went back to the hotel and napped and rested the rest of the first day.

First thing Tuesday we woke up and had breakfast before packing up the car for the 6 hour drive to Gracias.  About 2 hours in there was a road block for a teachers strike so we had to detour about an hour around before heading on our way.  We arrived in La Esperanza around 1 and had lunch.  That is the city that most volunteers are staying for building and teaching.  Then we made our way across the unpaved roads through the mountains and forest to Gracias.  We met our Gracias contact and our host family.  They are all wonderful people however from here on out no one speaks English AHHH!  We unpacked, we share a room and I stole the top bunk, then we ate dinner and rested.  Our host family has a 4 year old daughter Elisol who loves to color and talks up a storm so she kept us busy up until we went to bed at 11.

Today we got up and headed into town at 8 to the central de salud.  First time Sonya and I have been split up and it was difficult since she speaks a lot more Spanish than I do she had been helping me.  I got to do a lot of work for the patients before they went into see the doctors. For today I took Blood pressure, weight, height, etc much like work at home.  My Spanish got me through today however I understood almost nothing the other workers were saying to me.  Enough to get my work done but not be involved in the conversations it was very lonely.  They had a lot more people able to work that I thought they would it doesn´t seem like were needed much hopefully that gets better! Were also keeping in touch with the director and other group doing building so at some point we may transfer to help build if we will be more helpful there!  Ill keep you updated

Autumn Rose

I am officially leaving for Honduras tomorrow morning! My flight from Omaha leaves at 5 am and I will arrive around 1130 there.  I don’t know how soon after I arrive I will be able to update but hopefully I’ll be able to let everyone know I’ve landed and what my plans will be!  Keep me in your prayers

Autumn Rose Shapland

I got to the airport this morning for my 530 am flight and found out my flight from Altanta to Honduras would not be happening today.  The Tegucigalpa airport in honduras is currently closed down due to exiled president trying to reenter the country.  At this point my flight and trip is rescheduled from July 13th to August 6th pending the airports reopening.  I’ll keep you all updated.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

So the fourth of july and all its excitement are over and now all I can do is get ready for my trip!  I leave in less that 30 hours and I’m starting to get really nervous.  I know many of you are really worried about me being in Honduras with everything that is going on politically right now, but we have been assured that everything is still safe for us.  The people there still need my help and so I am still leaving as planned.  I wont be in a big city or the capital where most of the political action has taken place either so there will be no protests or anything for me to watch out for.  The other girl who was going with has dropped out so now I will be the only volunteer down there in my city which makes me nervous about the only spanish part but I’ll survive!

Ill update as soon as possible once I’m down there!

Autumn Rose

Hello friends and family. It’s only June 17th and I find myself starting to get nervous about my coming up trip to Honduras.  At this point I’m wishing I’d kept all my cloths from going to Malaysia last year.  So I’m heading to the Goodwill to look for clothes that are cool but cover my knees, elbows and almost up to the neck.  I don’t know how the people in Honduras live in the heat and humidity always in so much clothing.  I got an email from the Global Volunteer Network that I’m volunteering through yesterday! They said that there will eight of us heading to Honduras on July 7th. We’ll all stay that night in Tegucigalpa and do a day of training before heading off to our prospective cities for our field.  Some of the other volunteers are Building houses or doing childcare.  I will have one other volunteer with me in the medical field and we started emailing each other to get to know each other so that should be nice.  Her name is Carlee and she goes to Western Washington University for Nursing with a minor in Spanish.  Thats another thing, I haven’t taken Spanish for 4 years so I’ve been practicing and trying to relearn since the family I will be staying with speaks only Spanish and I’m not sure how many of the hospital workers will know English. 

Well I have to start looking for cloths and practicing my espanol!

Adios y gracias para leer!

Autumn Rose Shapland