Hogar Dulce Hogar

Finally, after months of waiting and wondering what I would be doing and where, I finally have an answer, more importantly for myself, but also important to all you back home! :)

My new home for the next two years will be Guiamaca, Francisco Morazán.  F.M. is the department (or state).  I'm just going to excerpt the rest from the information booklet that they gave me.

"Guaimaca is a large town within a big municipality in the department of F.M. with a total municipal population of approximately 20,800 people, with an estimated 12,400 living in the (main city) and the rest of the population in the outlying (communities).  Since this community is located on the border between F.M. and Olancho, there are some communities in Olancho that are closer than Tegucigalpa.  Tegucigalpa is approximately an hour and a half bus ride, Campamento is a 20 minute bus ride away and Juticalpa is about an hour away.

Guaimaca is located in the easternmost part of F.M.  The main highway from Tegucigalpa that goes into Olancho passes right through the town.  There is a Mennonite community living within the limits of the (main city), they have a restaurant and small grocery shop.  There is also a Baptist church and hospital in Guaimaca; so you have a sense that despite being a medium sized town, they're used to having Americans living amongst them and to religious diversity.

The (main city) area is rather flat and hillier as you go into the (surrounding communities).  There are two natural reserves within the municipality; Misoco in the North and El Chile in the southern part of the municipality.  The average temperature in Guaimaca is rather warm, 85-100 degrees F.  During the rainy season, it rains with frequency, cooling the temperature a little.

The population in the (surrounding communities) works in agriculture, mostly corm, beans and coffee.  To a less degree, cattle farming is also part of the local economy.  The (city) of Guaimaca has timber as another source of income; there's a major lumberyard that operates in town and that generates many jobs for locals.  Inside the city there are many private businesses such as clothing stores, grocers, Internet cafes, etc; public services such as lawyers, dentists, private clinics, pharmacies, and of course there are many carpenters."

The following is more about my work description.

"Your primary community partners are the (local women's office), which operates within the authority of the (other city offices).

This office is currently collaborating with (larger national women's initiatives) to support several groups of women who operate and own micro businesses.  They will look to you for support there groups by training them in business related topics, such as marketing, basic accounting, packaging and commercialization.  There are several (small micro credit unions) currently operating in Guaimaca, they will look for you to support them by helping them in being able to identify and generate income generation projects in their respective communities.  This office also works with people in the (surrounding communities) in assisting them to develop their ecotourism potential and artisan groups.

The (local city government) has developed and is in the process of implementing their (city wide economical development plan).  Their (plan) is the result of the analysis that the (city government) and other community stakeholders make of community's political, cultural, industrial, socioeconomic, demographic, geographical and environmental resources.  Their (plan) has been recognized on a national and a regional lever as being very strong; in fact other municipal governments have visited Guaimaca to familiarize themselves with the document and the process that led to its creation.

Your other main community partner will be the (local high school).  This high school offers several different options to obtain a high school diploma.  The (school's) leadership, both the director and the sub director , share a vision in which they want to promote entrepreneurism among their students, to do this they want to develop and incorporate into their curricula methodologies and tools to train the students on business plan creation and other important managerial/business topics like marketing, accounting and commercialization.

You'll find that the (high school) will also call upon you to strengthen the IT curricula that their students receive in their computer classes.  Some important topics that they want to cover are web research and how to use simple applications to improve the way that a small business is ran."

So there you have it!!  You all know about as much as I do about my future home and work.  This Friday we head into the capital to be sworn in at the US Embassy as official volunteers.  We take off early Saturday mornings to our new sites and jump in. 

For now, I'm just enjoying time with the friends from the other two projects of Water/Sanitation and Health who I missed the past seven weeks.  This week is already flying by and it's hard to stay focused...believe me!  I will post again soon with info about my new site and host family.  Thanks for reading!

Hasta la proxima vez...