Those Moments

I wrote this article for the Peace Corps Honduras newsletter.

PCV Melissa Bridges
Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortés

Those moments…

So I met this old gringo at the lake a couple of weeks ago and being that he was a writer and he asked me about my life here in Honduras as a Peace Corps Volunteer, it got me to thinking, could I one day write the all encompassing novel about my experiences here? On the other hand, maybe I should just try my hand at an article for Alli No Mas, because you know they are always looking for new points of view.

I know throughout our two years in our sites we all have “those moments” that we will remember for the rest of our lives. (And possibly spend the rest of our lives boring our friends and relatives with the retelling of the good ol’ days in Honduras.) I am sure you all know what I mean by “those moments.” If not, I will try to give a few examples to make it a little clearer for you.

If I had to pin point my first “moment” I had in my site, it was the day that I was walking through the parque with my sitemate and we decided to cross in front of the Centro Civico (read: my office) on our way a almozar. It was precisely at this moment that my right foot stepped off one of the only sidewalks in our town and decided to turn underneath me. In a split second I realized with shock and horror that una de las gringas was going to end up smack in the street in front of Dios y todo el mundo. The worst part was that this particular day I happened to be wearing one of my cute little sun dresses that I brought to try to look a little more like a girl and not some grungy PCV. It is amazing the grace and speed with which one can fall flat on your face in the street and still manage to answer all the little shocked campesinos’ ¿está bien? and then proceed to tell your sitemate through gritted teeth that you are find except your pride and to get you out of there. It was not until we were safely two or three cuadras away that I looked down at my knees and realized that I needed to go home and break in that handy-dandy Medical Kit, Jutta had given me. Of course, the saving grace of the whole situation was that in my fall I managed to keep my dress down around my knees and not up over my head. And did I mention the good fortune I had, that my sitemate and I looked enough alike that everyone in town wasn’t sure if it was me or la otra as they loved to call us.

Then there was the time that we were giving the Como Planear Mi Vida charla with our wonderful group of second year business students at the colegio. The topic that week happened to be Paternidad/Maternidad and of course anyone who had to sit through junior high sex ed class knows that this is the one where you talk about how to have safe sex. If I remember correctly, they hadn’t come up with “safe sex” when I had to sit through that class, but now I am just showing my age and digressing from the point. This day my sitemate and I had asked, pressured, cajoled, whatever you want to call it, our local boy PCV to help us with the tema.

I will have to say, I had two of “those moments” that day. The first came when we had split the group into smaller groups to discuss the vocabulario del dia. The idea of which was for the students to become familiar with all the words and know how to use them in a sentence. It was during this group discussion that I was busy talking with my fellow PCVs and happened to look over at one of the groups. This group consisted of Mario, our resident Casanova, and two of our girls. One of the girls had the work sexo oral and bless her little soul didn’t know what it was. However, super stud decided it would be easier to explain it if he demonstrated his technique rather than use words. It was at that moment that his eyes and mine meet and we were both VERY embarrassed. Of course, my fellow PCVs wanted to know what was so interesting as to cause that reaction. It was then that I had to demonstrate to them what Mario was showing his classmate. We all had to go out of the room to keep our composure and relative level of professionalism intact in front of the kids.

Oh, but as I said earlier, that was only the first “moment” we had that day. The second came at the end of the charla when we were giving the time-honored demonstration of how to put a condom on a banana. I know, you’re thinking what could possibly go wrong, as Volunteers, we all know how to use condoms because as they like to say alla it is not a matter of protection, it is a matter of life and death. This was my thinking on the matter at least and I left the demonstration in the capable hands of my two fellow PCVs while I helped ease some of the tension with the female students. It was at this point that el otro voluntario and I realized that my sitemate did not have a clue what she was doing and was going to destroy the condom trying to put it on the banana. Thus began the instruction from teenage catrachos to my sitemate in the proper way to put on a condom. It was quite a “moment” for us all.

Well, that ends my explanation of “those moments” that have passed in my short time here in Honduras. I am sure that during the course of this next year I will have several more to share with you all. So my question to you is, have you had some of “those moments” yourself? If so, start sharing with the group we may be the only captive audience you ever have!

Me with said PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) Jude & Monique. Notice how Monique and I are both wearing khaki pants, white shrits and bandanas on our heads. When we walked into the Mayor's office that day, he asked us if that was the Peace Corps uniform. Just a coincident, but it made for a good laugh at the time.