Cheque

Cheque is a Honduran slang word that doesn't have a real English equivalent because it is used for many different word we would use. Mainly cool or well. It is used constantly. It is on Pepsi billboards that only have the logo and say Cheque underneth. There is a magazine called Cheque. When you ask someone how they are they'll say cheque and when you say see you later they'll say cheque.
So far we have been in orientation every day, or as Trip calls it, “disorientation,” because we have been bombarded with a ton of information about the way the ranch runs. It is particularly grueling because there are some in our group that don’t have a firm grasp of Spanish so we’ve had an interpreter. Thus, Trip and I have had to hear everything twice, which is frustrating, although necessary. Part of our orientation has covered culture shock, and the side effects that they describe from this are very broad. Trip now facetiously blames everything, from being tired in the morning to being hungry, on culture shock. In the evenings we have been hopping between hogares (homes). Each night we are each separately placed in different homes for dinner and recreational time so that we can get to know each group better. We both agree that it’s truly our favorite part of the day. We have to then decide what our three top choices are for which hogar we would like to be placed in for the duration of our stay. We would spend every night with this hogar and every other weekend as well, so it is a really important decision that will define a big part of this experience. I feel more confused about the decision with each different group of kids I meet! It’s a tough decision. Originally, we were told that we would be able to be in a hogar together, but as there are not enough volunteers to go around to each hogar, we have decided that it would be alright if we were separate. We would both like to be placed either with the girls or the guys, though, because the genders are split on opposite sides of the ranch and generally they do a lot of activities separately that way. We would definitely get to spend more time together if we were on the same side of the ranch. Hopefully they’ll compromise with us!

We have each had separate experiences so far, as we aren’t really spending much time together. On Saturday, I was placed in the youngest hogar, which is a coed dormitory. On a typical Saturday morning on the ranch, you see all of the kids out doing their various chores from 9-1. They are out picking up trash, sweeping, chopping wood, hand-washing their clothes, baking bread for the week in the huge outdoor wood stove, and various other “aseos.” With Casa Suyapa, the youngest home, it was the day to wash all of the mattresses for the kids up to 7 years old that had been peed on an uncountable number of times during the month. It was amazing how much these young kids participated in this chore. They helped me and the tias (their full-time care takers) haul all of the leather mattresses outside to be scrubbed down and hosed off. They were all so eager to help. It is really a part of the culture here on the ranch for these kids to be so hard-working, even at their age. It’s something that you really have to see. One of the youngest boys was helping me out the most. He’s not yet four years old, he has the most adorable face you’ve ever seen, and he was all smiles and giggles the whole time we scrubbed.

Here is the little guy:

Afterwards, we scrubbed all of their little flip flops and then raked leaves, trash, and accumulated things outside. I had a really great time with them, but it was exhausting.

Trip had quite a different experience. He’s going to tell about it here:

This is Trip typing now. The boys are in the coed dorm Casa Suyapa until they are 7 or 8 years old then they move to the Buen Pastor (Good Shepard) where they stay until they start studying a trade and things change a bit in their living situations. There are four hogares in the Buen Pastor the oldest being Arca de Noe consisting of boys around 15yrs old. I went to Arca around 8:00am and they broke into two groups to do different chores. The group I got sent with had the chore of cutting down trees in the mountains with an ax to take to an old woman who had no one to help provide her with wood. It was great that the boys were doing charity work given their situations. We all followed the tio up into the mountains over rough terrain with briars and underbrush while he searched for a suitable dead tree:

On the side of a steep hill we chopped one down and chopped it into 9ft pieces. I then drug a big limb back to the volunteer home (San Vincente) retrieved water for the boys and climbed back up into the mountains. The tio, who is such a nice hardworking guy, had chopped down another tree which had rotted up the middle so we split it long ways into three pieces. A 15yr old boy and I drug down two of these 20ft long logs and afterwards a few of us had a fight splashing each other by throwing rocks in a creek:

By 1:00 when it was time for lunch I had blisters on my hands (because of culture shock) and I was soaked in sweat and water from the creek. I’m glad because I look forward to getting into great shape again since college has made my mind sharp but my body soft. The older boys didn’t open up too much to me, but I think that’s natural, although I do think I earned some respect with my hard work and clearly unexpected skill with an ax that I got from cutting wood with dad my whole life. Also, I showed them some tricks on a bicycle which impressed them. So far I’m just blown away by the tios and tias. They are just great people and I think that they are key to helping raise these kids right.

Now we’ll go back to Jessie typing for both of our thoughts.

The next week of our orientation is based around learning the jobs that a variety of people have on the ranch so that we can come to know and respect the hard work that we do. We will be changing jobs everyday next week. We will be working in the kitchen, the hortaleza (vegetable gardens), the granja (where they raise chickens, cows and pigs) the tortilleria (where they make tortillas) and as tios and tias for a whole day each. I’m sure it will prove to be an exhausting week! We will also continue our hogar rotation.

Another great part of this experience aside from coming to know all of the kids (we usually learn at least 15-20 names a day!) has been coming to know all of the other volunteers. We are living in a big house with about 20 other volunteers right now. It is set up where the rooms wrap around a courtyard with a bunch of trees and a bonfire pit (we’ve already used it three times! Great fun!) and then there is a common area and a common kitchen.

Courtyard with bonfire pit:

Common kitchen with "the fridge" note there is no handle:

Everyone is super nice and they all come from interesting backgrounds. I’m really excited to be spending the next year with all of them!

Most of the volunteers:

We are waiting for the old volunteers to leave, so we’ve been staying all together (8 girls) in a very tiny dorm room. It’s kind of a pain, but it has been a great bonding experience. Trip is staying in the same size dorm with one other guy. They have so much space!

We have to go now to go to yet another meeting on a Sunday night… great! Signing out for now, but more later.

Love, Jessie and Trip