Ice Cream, Roberto Moses, Carnival y Cervecas de Beliga

So....after some boring posts about Hondu statistics and national news that no one cares about in the US, here is what I've been up to for the past month or so in 4 acts. I'm going to try and keep these posts a little more interesting than my previous ones...

Ice Cream Chronicles: After 2 weeks wih no one running the ice cream shop below my apartment, I started to get a little worried. I mean, where else was I going to get my semi-daily Choco-Banana fix in the oppressive 95 degree heat that lacked wind? Anyway, it turns out that the usual employee, my host aunt, decided to take another job. Leaving Lupe, my host mom/ landlord/ counterpart/ middle-aged woman/ my best friend in site (sad but true), with no one to run the store. So, with little hesitation I offered my services to run the shop until she could find a more permanent solution.

Sarita Ice Cream-The predominant brand in central america

Running an ice cream shop was the last thing that I expected to do here in Honduras. No really it was, I expected to solve Honduras' [insert ridiculous, unsolvable problem here]  before running a damn ice cream shop, but it was not a bad way to spend the week. I got to help out my host family, while still managing to get work done on my other projects. That's not to say that eating ice cream, talking Spanish, eating more ice cream, doing inventory, eating more ice cream wasn't great. I mean, Fucking-Sam-I-Am ain't got shit on how much ice cream I ate that week, to steal a quote. As of now, my younger host brother and a family helper are running the shop full time. There are, however, two things I took away from the experience.

1) Running a shop in Honduras is a lot of work, and scooping ice cream all day is a bitch. stephen you weren't joking.
2) The store does not operate on a very high profit margin. In fact, after reviewing the distributor's prices it becomes pretty clear that the best way to make money in Honduras is not by running your own business, but by being a distributor. For me, this just sheds more light on Honduras' thriving pulperia industry. With such slim profit margins it's pretty amazing that many of these shops stay open as long as they do.

Anyway, i did more than just eat ice cream. Since the shop is located adjacent to the soccer field and park that we're restoring I was able to keep tabs on the progress we were making and the work we were undertaking, which brings me to one of planning's landmark figures....

"Roberto Moses:" We received our SPA grant roughly two weeks ago, and have commenced more of the work necessary to get the park ready by our August deadline, but it seems that every step of the way we're facing challenges brought on by a combination of poor planning and lack of administrative oversight because of the municipality.  After months of questioning everyone in the municipality about funds for this park project, which numerous times I was assured there were, I'm now starting to get the sinking feeling of an inevitable fijese que, la muni no tiene fondos para el proyecto en parque. 

The temporary fence to protect the grass while it's growing. 

Plus, the project is starting to feel somewhat hijacked. For one, the soil that was used to raise the field, which I didn't advocate for, was moved as a favor to a local business owner, but using 3 large municipal dump-trucks and a caterpillar (not sure where those funds came from). Now that the ramifications of raising the field are finally being realized, people are beginning to flake. Problems like where are we going to get 1 manzana worth of grass seed, and an altered hydrology were not thought out before the muni started dumping dirt on the field. plus these actions are absent from my plans and grant application. i only found out about it after returning from a meeting in teguz to find mounds of dirt covering the field. we're definitely making adjustments, but having to correct the muni's actions along the way is difficult and costly.

For example, last week our civil engineer decided to cut down nearly 11 thirty foot tall trees on the south side of the field in order to construct changing rooms without consulting UMA (he apparently has crazy plans for the field, which entail turning the current field into a small stadium (no joke) with raised seating, and a 5 foot tall concrete wall to close the area completely off.) Crazy, Robert Moses-esque plans, but no funds or physical plans to back them up. This was exemplified by the fact that after cutting down the trees, the stumps were left in the ground, and the muni couldn't seem to find the funds to remove them. However, with the need to plant grass within the few weeks, to ensure it doesn't get washed away in the upcoming torrential rains, we used SPA funds to remove the stumps, but with a looming fijese que from the muni, the ability to buy seeds is now in question.

Repairing the south wall, note the chopped up trees in the foreground. There is a "good " fijese que behind this picture as well. The property owner on the other side of the wall promised (verbally) to support the project by buying the 300 bricks we would need. Come the day we have to start work, there are no bricks, just a fijese que and your here so you shouldn't waste your time and just get to work. Lesson learned, always be a dick. get it in writing. 

I noted the other day to another pcv how it's funny that even when things are going well, like when you finally get the grant money you've been waiting for, you can still end up feeling down. That's the case with this project. the pitfalls and challenges are overcoming the excitement of working on it, but on to some less depressing/overwhelming news like,

"Carnival:" On the second to last weekend of May every year a huge festival is held in Ceiba known as the Gran Carnaval Internacional de La Ceiba, or simply Carinvial. The event is in held in honor of Saint Isidore the Laborer, the patron saint of the city. The celebration starts at least one week before the big Saturday parade, which is followed by an all-night party along Avenida San Isidro. Literally all of Saturday and early Sunday morning, San Isdro is packed with people, vendors, food, beer stands, concerts. At times it was easy to forget I was in Honduras, since it felt more like mardi gras or saint patrick's day in chicago. The Zona Viva (Ceiba's typical party area) was just as full, and needless to say just as fun. Although the unrelenting crush of people did become pretty ridiculous along San Isidro after it got dark. Since Ceiba is only a 30 minute trip for me, I decided to shun the hotel room after some confusion about the number of beds, and instead just take the first bus back to site in the morning.

Parade down San Isidro (N. Hagan)

The all nighter went great. I found myself on the side of the highway the next morning at 5 am nursing my headache and a relentless sleepiness with a hot cup of sugary coffee. i was ready to get back to site, crawl into my own bed for a few hours and sleep. i had to give give an english lesson around noon, so sleep was short lived. all in all it was a great time, and one that i'll probably end up doing again next year. I spent way too much on food (we found chili baleadas!), drinks, sunglasses, and more food, but that's what always happens.

Late night carne asada (N. Hagan)

For part of carnival we were joined by 3 belgian backpackers who had stayed the night at my place through Couch Surfing the night before. It was a lot of fun to host these guys as they backpacked through central america, intent on jaloning as much of it as they could. It was funny how the conversations would flow from Spanish, to English, and finally into their native French (which i didn't really understand, despite 4 years of french in high school), and I really enjoyed the fact that our conversations in spanish were often how we communicated as it was our clearest medium. sometimes the conversations got interesting and heated, requiring international phone calls. As did our conversation about.....


Cervecas de Beliga: So one conversation that really got interesting was the debate over whether blue moon could be considered a belgian beer. the main sticking point was that a beer should never have anything put in it, with the exception of Corona and lime of course. the belgians were dumbfounded on two counts. one, they had never heard or this belgian beer, which they prided themselves on, and  secondly putting anything in beer was a travesty. entonces, the phone calls commenced. there were calls to other pcvs in Honduras, friends and realatives back in the states and others. all to find out if blue moon was in fact belgian. at the end of the day wikipedia setteled our debate, stating that it is, "...a Belgian-style witbier brewed by Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado." Damn Europeans always being right. regardless, it was a great first couchsurfing experience.

"Easy to enter, Forced to Leave:" One last thing, but recently it was decided that due to increasing violence all volunteers in the Catacamas area are being forced to leave site and undergo a site change. also, the region around Catacamas has been made officially off limits for volunteers. after almost getting moved my self, I can completely empathize with these volunteers. so, best of luck in your new sites guys. i guess it's true what they say about Olancho, "Olancho es ancho para entrar, y angosto para salir"


Random Stuff: 

• Scar above my eye has gotten a lot better. 
• Im putting off getting my junkyard cat until after my trip to Guatemala. 
• Closing in on the one year mark of my time in Honduras (June 24).