Trying to Get Life Back to Normal

Okay, so my life doesn’t quite fit the standard for normal, but whatever it was a month ago, I want it back.  I spent a lot of time away from Ocotepeque in June starting with a women’s health workshop where the manual I have been working on with other Peace Corps Volunteers was finally debuted, which was followed by a wonderful vacation at home.  I was really excited to be coming back to Honduras with loads of motivation and plans that I had been waiting to implement in order to be done with the women’s health workshop, but then we have nothing less than a golpe de estado to once again throw things off.  I suppose this is part of the experience living in a developing country and although this is an extreme case I think there is always going to be something interrupting life and productivity.

 

Rather than getting right to work I barely even left the house my first week back because no one was sure if things were going to turn violent or stay peaceful.  I have finally been able to go to the health center a few times to follow up on some consultations I had scheduled (somehow no matter how many times I tried to explain the difference between being a psychology major and being a psychologist it never came across so I just gave in), but most of my other projects are on hold.  The teachers are on strike until Zelaya comes back so I can’t continue with the tutoring with the girls from my youth group or the hygiene project that I had started just before vacation in Polcho.  It’s also going to be hard to start a women’s health group because people right now aren’t really in the mood to go to meetings or to talk about anything else, which is understandable and is exactly what Peace Corps Volunteers are going through too.

 

The first week and a half of this was pretty agonizing just waiting to see what was going to happen.  I didn’t really think or talk about anything else so now I’m trying to find distractions even if they can’t be work related.  I’ve been doing the work I can while researching grad schools and trying to study French so I can distance myself from everything that’s been happening.  Maybe it’s not the most productive in terms of my work goals here in Honduras, but I’m hoping that when things get back to normal I will have avoided driving myself crazy and be ready to get back to work.