Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Hey everyone I´m now in Gracias Lempira for 4 weeks of field-based-training. New host family, new city, new experience. you´ll have to excuse the lack of visuals the only computers I´ve been able to find are pretty old and can´t support my camera software er something. Things are going really well here. Gracias is smaller than Siguatepeque and much more beautiful, it is located between the two highest peaks in Honduras and is surrounded by tall mountains and cloud forest. It has a pretty amazing history too. I´m pretty sure it was the former capital of Honduras and it is the oldest colonial city here. there´s an amazing plaza and old, colonial churches and a huge ceiba tree (i think the ceiba is the tree of life for the Maya) in the middle of town. My new family is cool too, they´re pretty formal and I´m not sure who exactly lives in the house with me and who just hangs out all the time, I´m also working on their names. There´s a one-year old, Michelle, that is absolutely terrified of me. I don´t think she´s ever seen a gringo this big. Also the food is great, for lunch the other day i had a big plate of chicharrones, pig skin fried in its own fat, and yesterday i had talapia (the local freshwater fish of choice). i´m also learning some interesting ag techniques. we´ve spent a couple of days on integrated pest management, spread out some decomposing leaves that had been soaking in water for two months (it smelled exactly like a dairy and brought a little tear to my eye reminding me of home), and did some tree grafting. To day we had a seminar on agriculture extension techniques and tomorrow we´re learning how to construct more efficient wood stoves, should be cool. I´m also improving my Spanish poco a poco, by watching novelas (spanish soap operas) with my family, and taking 4 hours of Spanish classes a day. I´ll be in Gracias Lempira for 4 weeks and am going to try and make it to see Copan ruins and try and climb up part (if not all) of mt. Celaque, the highest peak in Honduras. all for now, I hope to post some pics soon of this beautiful, beautiful place. paz, Joe

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