Where to begin, these last two weeks has been huge. You are now speaking with a real Peace Corps Volunteer, an aspirante no longer. Last week I visited the site (Cruz Alta, La Campa, Lempira) where I’ll be living for the next two years it incredibly beautiful and looks a little like northern New Mexico, lots of pine trees and mountains all around. I met a few of my neighbors and will meet a bunch more soon. Right now I’m in Santa Rosa de Copan, just hanging out and taking a giant breath before making the big hike back to my site. I only got to spend a couple of nights in Cruz Alta last week but I’ll soon get a chance to know it intimately. While I was there I was able to hang out with the volunteer serving there now (John, he’s leaving sometime in October) and the original volunteer of the site, Pete. Both of them were very cool and made big impacts in the site. Pete’s wife, Elyse, was also there, she spent about a year and a half living with Pete at the site. She did a lot of good things in Cruz Alta as well. I met some women from a bread group she helped out in and they were very happy to see her again. One woman gave us some killer banana bread that Elyse had shown her how to make. The last night in site the three of them decided to have a special dinner. Pete had arranged to pick up a rabbit (canejo) and we were going to make stir fried rabbit with vegetables. The only problem was that the rabbit was still breathing and nobody quite new what to do with it. The guy who sold it to us recommended hanging it by the neck and assured us that it would be dead in a couple of minutes or so. None of us thought that hanging for a couple of minutes was a very humane way to go so I took care of it myself and earned the nickname windmill for awhile (I’m trying to avoid details). After the site visit I headed back to Siguatepeque for a couple of days of more training and on Thursday night we headed to Tegucigalpa for some more training and a reception at the US embassy. After that we headed back to a hotel and smoked some of Honduras’s finest cigars. All the guys in our group had been growing beards and had planned on shaving them except for the mustache for our swearing in party. It was really funny, some of us looked like sex offenders and the rest looked like crooked politicians. After shaving we headed down to a casino and I managed to blow through all of my “emergency” money like it was on fire or something, good thing we were paid the next day because I didn’t have two pennies to rub together after that. Needless to say we were all pretty tired and a few of us were a little hung over for our swearing in on Friday morning. Tomorrow I’ll head to Gracias and either catch a bus or a jalon (hitchhike) to La Campa and then walk for an hour or so up a big hill to my site. I have most of my stuff with me and it weighs a ton, this hike is going to kill me. I don’t have power in my site so I’ll be out of communication for awhile, I am planning on getting a cell phone and I’ve heard that there is at least weak service in Cruz Alta, well folks all for now I’m a little tired and I’m sure none of this makes any sense. I’ll be sure to straighten it out later and give some more details about the goings on down here. Love to all, Joe.

Here is about where I am located if anyone wants to come see me. (just click on the map to blow it up and look for the little red arrow)

Getting ready for conejo in Cruz Alta

Three generations of volunteers heading up to Cruz Alta

Swearing in day, how proud you all must be.

Last night as aspirantes in Tegucigalpa

Man, there’s a special feeling that hits you when you’re driving down a windy, mountain, pothole filled, dirt road of Honduras, sitting in a toyota held together with duct tape and a radiator that is constantly filled with the same coke bottle for drinking which happens to be next to the coke bottle for gasoline (also behind the seat), next to two people you don't know who are speaking a form of Spanish you've never layed ears on, one of whom has a large revolver crammed down the front of his pants and you can't tell him that he really isn't demonstrating the propper way to carry a firearm because you only know half of the words to that sentence, but it doesn't really matter because you're all eating off of a pineapple the size of a two-year old and you realize that you aren't scared and this all seems strangely normal and it all makes sense. Well, that pretty much sums up today. I´m in route to Cruz Alta, a tiny (700 people) aldea about two hours (only 17 kilometers) south of Gracias Lempira. I'll have much more to say on Monday or so when I get back from this site visit and have seen the place I'll be for the better part of two years. It all seems really big and really small at the same time. It is a little hard to describe what I'm feeling right now, all in good time I guess. I've met the person that serves as my introduction and guide to the community. Her name is Profesora Maria Santos Perez and she was the lady sitting next to me in the car and her husband was the dude with the gun. Both are extremely nice people. A lot of people down here have guns actually, kind of like the old west and it really makes me miss mine. Nothing says Peace Corps like bustin a cap in somebody´s ass that´s trying to make off with your burro. Also I've had some complaints from back home about my skeleton like figure seen in the pics, not much I can do about it now, I've lost about 25 pounds but plan on gaining them back as soon as I can. I also had a bout with a bacterial infection this week that pushed me over another hole in the belt. It is the wet season down here and it really brings out the bugs (of all shapes sizes and severities). Two more people from our group look like they might have Dengue, the problem is that you can't test for it until the 5th day you've had it, don 't ask why. As for me I remain in good health 95 percent of the time and attached to the can the other five. Aside from my pants always falling down I actually feel really good. I'm going to eat two jars of peanut butter and have a good cry the first night I'm actually stationed in my site. alright alright time to get some plato tipico (beans, tortillas and fried bananas). ciao Joe
oh yeah, maybe I'm the only one not to figure this out but you can click on the pictures on my blog and they get bigger, who knew.