Reflections on Year 1

Ten things I have learned after being a Peace Corps Volunteer for one year.

1) I am in control – Peace Corps is probably one of the only jobs where you have complete and total freedom in the work place. If you want to work you will, if you don’t you won’t. The equation is no simpler than that. Any time I feel like I don’t have work it is my own responsibility. I am the employee of no one but my own mind and effort. If I don’t put forth the time and effort IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. The outcomes that you want will only come if you push them.
2) I am NOT saving the world – I never really had that mindset to begin with. However, I certainly thought I would be welcomed with open arms and all my ideas would be eagerly accepted and immediately put into practice. I am the educated American after all. Such is definitely not the case. Hondurans are a ridiculously proud bunch and at the same time the majority is accustomed to hand-outs. In two years I will not single handedly break their pride nor wean them from their ‘poor me’ mind set.
3) The children are the future – In the past year, I’ve felt the best working with youth and children. They make up the future of this country and for them it’s not too late. I soak up every minute I’m with them. They’re still impressionable and I can actually impart some wisdom on them. I can teach them the value of hard work, thinking outside the box and planning for the future. Blowing kids minds with new ideas and killing the stereotypes is definitely the most rewarding part of this job.
4) Respect the culture and accept it for what it is – There is no delicate way of saying this. The culture here is culprit for many of the pitfalls in the society. Women aren’t respected, neither is education. A society that doesn’t respect all members doesn’t respect itself. I’ve come to terms with this. The culture here is male dominated, women are second class citizens and men rule. Fine, I’ll mind my business and you mind yours. Until the women here decide to stand up for themselves and demand equal treatment, the culture and country will stagnate as it is. Education is purely at the whim of teachers when they decide to give classes and not be on strike. Kids are taught they’re not worthy of receiving a decent education and therefore not worth much. What do kids get at that age besides an education anyway? Just another issue that needs to be addressed.
5) Platonic may as well be another planet – Men and women cannot be friends in Honduras. To say otherwise is a complete lie. In the past year I’ve been burned by three men who were merely friends. My crazy American mindset was just far too forward thinking for the machismo male. I am fully aware of the definition of insanity – doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. In my second year I am not even talking to a Honduran male unless he is an employee of the business I am visiting, a relative of a friend or happens to be in one of my classes. Life is easier that way.
6) Home is where the heart is – Living on your own in Honduras makes life a million times easier. My first ten months of service I lived either with a host family, in a small studio room where I had to use my landlady’s kitchen, or with a family sharing a room with my future landlady and her five year old daughter. Essentially I’m an only child and for the majority of my life I’ve had my own room with my own space. Living in a different country where the culture is repressive is hard enough without having your own space to escape to at the end of the day. The last two months of living on my own have been amazingly refreshing and have given me an entirely different outlook on life in Honduras. You can take the girl out of America, but you can’t take the American out of the girl!
7) Study aboard is not sufficient to prepare you for Peace Corps life – Sure, I lived in Spain for nine months. They were the best nine months of my life. I lived in a dorm, had my meals in the cafeteria each day and was always surrounded by other people experiencing the same thing as me. Studying to better yourself is nothing like trying to convince people to better themselves by following your ideas and advice. The only thing that can truly prepare you for Peace Corps service and its challenges is living life as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
8) Gringos are my life support – Unlike the study aboard program, I’m on my own in this town. Sure there are approximately 200 of us volunteers here in Honduras, but that’s across the whole country. Without a doubt they are what keep me going. Parties, texts and phone calls with other volunteers brighten my day, encourage me to keep up the fight and are my outlet. No one in the world knows exactly what I’m going through besides another Peace Corps Volunteer. More specifically due to the challenges of this country, a fellow Honduras volunteer. Venting, sharing ideas and positive outcomes of our peers is the best life line for us. If I were truly alone in this, I may have thrown in the towel months ago.
9) I know who I am – My entire school life, from the age of 5-23, I was in Adventist schools. The other kids had similar backgrounds and beliefs. Being vegetarian was normal and observing the Sabbath was what we did. I’ve finally broken out of that bubble and have met people from other backgrounds, religions and beliefs. It’s refreshing hearing their stories and respecting them for who they are. I still know where I come from, what I believe and why. My beliefs are now stronger than before because I’ve discussed them, tested them and debated them with people who would otherwise write them off as ridiculous. It’s refreshing and rewarding.
10) It’s just two years – I chose to serve in the Peace Corps. Honduras was not even a county on my radar of possibilities. When I got my letter inviting me to Honduras, I was disappointed. I had hoped for other countries. Now that I’ve lived here for over a year, I still feel like I got the short end of the stick at times. A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in both Honduras and Bolivia said Honduras is “Peace Corps Light.” The country is close enough to the US that all culture is influenced by the North and the Honduran Dream is getting to the US to make big bucks. The culture tries to emulate that of the US. In Bolivia they are hardly aware the US in a country. Sure, they’ve probably heard of it, but they could care less about emulating the culture and ever dreaming of going there one day. It’s sad to say, but I feel Honduras may never overcome its status of developing country. Heck, they’re still recovering from Hurricane Mitch which passed in 1998. When the country suffered a coup two years ago their GDP was severely affected and many organizations failed when international aid was temporarily cut off. So, in its 50 year history here in Honduras, I don’t know that Peace Corps has been all that great. Sometimes I think we’re just perpetuating the seeking hand out mentality that the people tend to focus on or creating dependence on an educated, motivated American being around. All I know is that in my two years I will focus on making a true sustainable difference where the people I choose to work with will be able to perpetuate the good work even after I’m gone. And I probably won’t tell Peace Corps to replace me with another volunteer. Can’t create dependence for one thing and besides that I’m just too hard an act to follow!
11) BONUS! – Variety is not the spice of life, it is the very essence! The variety of the US is dizzying compared to lack there of here in Honduras. Many things here are either/or options. Catholic or Evangelical. Nationalista or Liberal. Montagua or Olimpia (Real Madrid or Barcelona). Pepsi or Coke. The lack of variety creates a huge divide and strain on the culture. People are always arguing about which is right or better. I miss the US and its variety, acceptance and open mindedness. There are more religions than we can count, there are more sports than just soccer and each league has around 30 teams, trendy brands of water are more popular than soda and well, sadly the political situation is about as lame. The US is just an amazing place and I am so thankful for all that it has to offer.

Hasta la proxima vez...

Not So Super-stitious

Let me preface this blog by saying I am not superstitious. The whole idea really strikes me as ridiculous. Black cats, stepping on cracks, breaking mirrors and Friday the 13th – whatever. Yet, my Friday the 13th turned out to be a real nightmare this year. Read on, if you dare!

The day was great. I prepped for the charla I give on Saturdays, hung out with two of my friends, made banana pancakes and even figured out how to finish the project I’m helping finish for my friend who left me in charge of an important project. That was until the evening when I came home.

Now, it’s summer here and summer means rain, heavy rains. I had just gotten home and it was around 8:30. Then the rain started and came down hard. I was trying to do my Zumba workout which I couldn’t even hear due to how loud the rain was pounding on my aluminum roof. Doing some perfectly performed Samba-like move, I danced to the side and noticed my back room was flooded. I paused my video and ran to check for a leak from the roof. Nope, nada. Instead what I saw was Hollywood-esque special effects of water surging in from under the wall via the soil. Really?! I have the back room papered in an effort to train my dog, so I thought, “OK, more paper!” I laid down a few more sheets of newspaper and tried to continue with my workout. Yah, it was like that saying, “Trying to put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.” In a few seconds the sheets of newspaper were being carried away by the running water. I panicked – my house was quickly filling with water and I was short a couple sand bags.

Having to do something to save my few precious possessions, I began getting all my things off the ground. Suitcases and pack on chairs and tables, guitar on the book shelf, colchonetas suspended between two chairs and external hard drive up on the table and off the floor. Knowing that my belongings were safe, I called my land lady. The noise from the rain was so loud she couldn’t even hear me. I was just yelling “Hay agua en la casa!”

She hurried over and assessed the situation. Then she disappeared as I was fretting over the rising water. Turns out she was outside moving the old terra cotta roof tiles away from the outside wall of my house, in the tropical torrential downpour. Having to act like I was trying to help I quickly changed out of my New Balance and grabbed my flip flops. It was classic: drenched, throwing the tiles aside while trying to not break them and pleading with God that any creatures hadn’t decided to take refuge there we were in the rain just trying to save our house. (Mine in the meantime and hers in another year.) After all the tiles were moved my landlady found a hoe and started making a trench for so that the water had somewhere to flow to, besides under the bricks and into my house. All that hard work resolved the issue of the water entering the house.

All that was left to do was deal with the water that had already made its way into the house. My bedroom, kitchen and living room were all under a couple inches of water (and mud). But, before I continue my story I have to explain that my house is sunken. As in you have to step down upon entering. In many homes someone could just take the broom and push the water out the front door. Well, not in my house. My landlady and I set to work with my five gallon bucket, a small pail and a Gladware container, scooping water and filling the bucket, team lifting it to dump outside and starting all over again. I’d say we filled and dumped it about fifteen times (around 75 gallons of water). My landlady mopped up what little was left and we called it a night after about a two hour ordeal.

So, that was the story. Not let me point out a few things that would have made the situation a lot worse. 1) Thank God I was home when this happened. Had I not been here, or had left for the weekend, my stuff would have been ruined and no one would have found out until later. Being here I was able to save all my stuff. 2) Thank God Honduran homes don’t have carpet. It would be ruined and clean up that much harder. 3) Thank God there was light. Many times during the heavy rains the power goes out. Last night the power had actually gone out for about 15 min. and when that happens there’s no saying it won’t happen again. Doing all that clean up by candle light would have been just perfect. 4) Thank God my landlady lives about 100 ft. away. Otherwise, I don’t know who I would have called and who would have bothered to come so quickly.

Anyway, that was my event for Friday the 13th. Below is the video I took post clean up so everyone could check out the aftermath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_hGkhxxUIg&feature=channel_video_title

Hasta la proxima vez…

Check out my Honduran Home!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGcBlCbQqAo

Ditto for April!

I honestly have no idea where the time goes down here in Hondu. It really was just this time last month where I was in the same position of trying to get a blog post on the last day of the month just to say I got one out for the month. Unfortunately, this month will be the same thing of just a summary of my month as opposed to some witty funny anecdote of Honduran life.

Yo Merezco - This is a Peace Corps Honduras project created a few years back by the Health project. It is designed for girls age 10-15 and teaches about abstinence, self esteem, health relationships, HIV/AIDS, human rights, menstruation, anatomy and puberty, amongst other things. I started this project with a group of around fifteen girls. We meet Saturdays and I change their lives and blow their minds. OK, not really…but I do try to get the good messages across to them as best I can! :)

Chamber of Commerce – Things are continuing along with this project. We had a second meeting here in Guaimaca with some representatives from Tegucigalpa with a better showing of people this time around. Still not exactly the numbers we had hoped for, but they say the turnout we got was actually a good number for Guaimaca… Something about motivational problems here. The afternoon and days following the meetings we took to the streets with a team of five people from the Teguz office doing a survey. The survey was essentially asking to see if the local businesses would be interested in having a Chamber of Commerce here in town and what the benefits would be for them as business owners. We didn’t get as many respondents as we hoped for, however after speaking with the central office, things still look good. I should be hearing from them on Monday to know what decision they’ve made and to learn the survey results.

Showing ‘em the ropes – For a few days this month a couple of Trainees came to visit me. These are the people who are here and will soon be sworn in to be the next crop of brand new Peace Corps Honduras Volunteers. They sent two young women my way and they got to see my work for two days. It’s a really good tool that Peace Corps permits the Trainees to visit current Volunteers to get a feel of what life here is really like. The conditions during training and living with host families are much different from our day-to-day life as Volunteers.

Semana Santa – Or Holy Week to my English speaking friends. Holy Week here in Honduras is essentially Spring Break. Most institutions are closed for the whole week and many people get to escape to the beaches. Here in Guaimaca both the Alcaldia and high school I work with took the whole week off. I followed suit and enjoyed some time with friends and relaxed. It was AMAZING and a much needed vacation.

Amor y Frijoles – This is the title of a Honduran movie which was filmed in the town where I lived during most of my training last year. It was pretty much my first taste of Honduran culture, or at least holds a special place in my heart. With having my new house, I decided to fill it with pets to make it a little homier. I was gifted a dog and a cat from two different friends. Both are all black. My dog, which I got first, is a mutt but looks like a Lab. I’m glad about that. Oh yah, her name would be Frijoles. My cat has green eyes and has just joined us at home about three days ago. She is Amor and I’m hoping she grows fast since she’s not the cutest right now…

So again, those are the highlights of a month flown by. I’ve made another Cribs style video of my house since I’m finally all settled in and everything is in its place. I’m going to try to include the video here for everyone to see.

Thanks for reading!

Hasta la proxima vez…

Can't let March pass me by...

Well, as per usual I’ve been AWOL from my blog for quite some time now.  I apologize, but March was a hectic month, kinda.  I try to get at least one blog out a month, so this is my last ditch effort to not let March pass me by!  The best I can do is summarize what I did this month.

New month/new house: After waiting for many months and having been told that my house would be ready by January I finally moved into my new place on March 5!  It’s great for just me.  It has a good size living room area which is long and narrow.  I’ve designated one side as my work area where I have my computer and the other side is my chill out zone – my hammock and string lights make it quite relaxing.  There is a kitchen, which I’ve got stocked with mini-fridge, two burner stove, blender, rice cooker and espresso maker.  I don’t believe in roughing it in the Peace Corps!  Off the kitchen is a small bedroom, which is just perfect for one person.  Off the kitchen on the other side is where my pila (large water storage tank) is and beyond that my bathroom.  I’ll try to make another “Cribs” type video and get it posted soon so you can see it for yourself.

Vacation!: On March 12 my dad, stepmom, stepmom’s mom and stepmom’s aunt flew to the beautiful Honduran island of Roatan.  I met them there by way of ship from the mainland and we spent an amazing week relaxing and having a blast.  We rented scooters to toot around the island on, zip-lined, met some monkeys, went golfing, snorkeled, went deep sea fishing, did some parasailing and of course ate plenty of amazing food – lobster gnocchi, seared tuna, lobster tail, etc.  Of course the week flew by too fast and it was sad to say good-bye all over again to family and leave the easy island life.

Work/More vacation:  Prior to leaving for vacation I was supposed to have presented two charlas at the local high school and the students were going to have started their own microempresas already.  The week after coming back from vacation I was also going to start a coaching volleyball at the high school.  That was until the teachers and government decided to all throw a temper tantrum because they can’t work out an agreement.  I’ve heard the government is claiming to have overpaid the teachers at some point along the way and is now asking for the money back, up to L. 45,000 in one case I know of.  So, yes of course this is unfair.  However, the teachers union is ridiculously over powerful and they can pretty much strike when they want and for as long as they want.  This is the third whole week without classes and they were various days between February 14 and March 11 when classes first started that the teachers weren’t giving classes.  The sad part is no one can see the bigger picture and see the long term effects this has on the country.  Uneducated masses leads to the problems that abound here, but no one cares to see it that way.

Aside from the school, my other counterparts in the Mayor’s office wanted me to help them write a grant to have a day care center here.  I was all ready to start it and get rolling, since they’ve been asking me since December.  The day I head in to work with the vice-mayor he tells me that the Mayor just got some funds from elsewhere and it may or may not include money for the day care.  So, since they can’t get their act together I really have no way to help them.

Therefore because both of my assigned counterparts are very ineffective right now, I’m taking off on my own projects.  We’re still making great advances in the process of bringing a Chamber of Commerce here to my town.  We went to Tegucigalpa on Tuesday for a meeting with the main office and our next meeting will be here in Guaimaca after which they will leave a group doing a survey of local business.  On Saturday I’m starting a project called “Yo Merezco”.  This is a Peace Corps Honduras project created by the Health project a few years ago.  “Yo Merezco” means “I deserve” and is designed for young girls between 10-15 years of age with the principle goals of the program being abstinence, self-esteem, leadership, smart decision making, learning about healthy relationships and essentially lowering cases of teen pregnancy and STDs.

Puppy: I was given a puppy on Wednesday.  She is a mutt and all black.  The people who gave her to me are not quite sure how old she is, but assume the litter was born around March 1.  When I brought her home and gave her a bath, with the special dog shampoo, I was shocked at the number of fleas she had.  Poor thing, I don’t know how being so little she could even survive with that number of fleas.  I also got about four ticks off of her.  Anyway, I’m taking good care of her with her vaccines, vitamins and trying to train her.  Yes, she has a name, but I’m keeping it under wraps until I pick up my kitten, which was also born recently.  They’re going to form an amazing duo, so I have to present them together.

I think that about covers it for the month of March.  As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for future updates.  I’d like to give a ‘shout-out’ to Quinn who was here in Guaimaca with a group awhile back working with the Catholic church.  I hope you’re able to follow your dreams and go make a difference in the world some day!  It was great meeting you and the entire group. 

Hasta la proxima vez…

Work, Work, Work

So all my faithful, unfaithful, and new readers can see that I do work from time to time, I plan on updating you on the latest and greatest in the 9-5 department.

Being a Business Adviser to a town of 34,000 is a daunting task.  I would love to say that my being here has made a big impact when I leave at the end of two years, but let’s be honest.  In the long run my impact will have only been important for a handful.  To maximize my impact I’m doing what I can to bring in long term help in the form of a Chamber of Commerce.  It just so happens it was an idea I came up with after assessing the needs of the town, but when I talked it over with the vice-mayor he said it was something the mayor had promised in his campaign.  However, due to huge political divide here he wasn’t very successful.  Enter la gringa with no political ties and I’ve got the ball rolling!

My first step was calling the main office in Tegucigalpa to request information on what kinds of things need to be done in the process.  Within a week we had an appointment in Tegucigalpa.  You would have thought they were trying to sell the idea of the Chamber of Commerce to us here in Guaimaca, based on their presentation.  It was great and definitely sounds like something that will be a huge help here.  Two weeks later we were having a meeting here in Guaimaca to inform the business people here what would be the benefit for them.  Unfortunately we had little turnout.  We had invited around 80 people and maybe 30 showed up.  It was disheartening, but one must always stay chin up in Peace Corps work.  Nonetheless we formed a new committee to help spread the word.  The committee and I had made an appearance on local TV to discuss the idea and share what would be the benefit to local business.  Based on the calls to the program that evening, people seem interested and excited.  However, my biggest challenge now is getting in contact with the Tegucigalpa office again.  They have not responded to my e-mails in over a week now.  I just hope they know I won’t give up and will go back into Tegucigalpa again if they try to ignore me.

One thing I love about the Peace Corps is that I am my own boss and can do whatever work I please.  The Catholic church here in my town is a great connection to the US and they bring in many volunteer groups for various projects.  A few weeks ago I was able to meet some Engineers Without Borders from the Boston chapter and I will be helping them give trainings about how to properly use latrines and conserve water once the water system is fully operational in a few months.

Last week I was a full time translator.  The church had brought in a medical/dental brigade and was attending to patients morning and afternoon for four days.  Translating for the medical part was easy enough as I already knew most of the vocabulary for common medical conditions here in Honduras such as: high blood pressure, diabetes, and allergies.  Translating in the afternoons for the dentist (same guy as the doctor!) I learned some interesting new vocabulary: sit up straight in the chair, filling, and baby teeth.  It was nice to have a week of actual 9-5 work for awhile, since most of the time my schedule is all over the place.  The group of medical professionals who came down were a great team to work with and I really enjoyed getting to meet them all.  So guys, here’s hoping one (or all of you) is reading and I will shout you out as promised.  Bill, Dina, Steve, Noreen (Doreen?), Nicole and Jade you guys are amazing for dedicating your time to the people of Guaimaca and I hope you get to come back again!  Thanks for letting me work with you. :)

I still have a long term goal of creating a Sister Cities relationship between Guaimaca and my home town in California, but it’s a difficult and lengthy process.  Sister Cities International suggests beginning with linking things such as local Lions Clubs and high schools, so I’m starting there.  Americans are generally open to international aid, so I addressed my Guaimaca Leones and asked if they would be interested before even trying to contact the club at home.  Sure enough, they were interested and even passed a motion for me to become an honorary member.  I think that means they won’t make me pay dues and I have to go to their meetings every Thursday.  All I really want is to encourage them is to be more active in the community.  Here’s hoping.

What I’m really looking forward to is on the horizon.  The Honduran school year just began this week and I’m really excited to be working with the youth again.  In a couple of weeks I will again be teaching the kids about marketing, production and how to write a business plan.  After that the teachers will assign them to groups and they will form their own micro-businesses.  I’m hoping to also start a girls’ volleyball team and some sort of mentoring programs.  I’d also like to start a program, based off the successful project of another volunteer, where the people are taught how dangerous burning plastic is, plastic is instead collected and later recycled for income.  So, mostly ideas for now, but I’m going to do my best to get them to reality.  Again, here’s hoping!

Anyway crew, in future posts I’d like to do some brief ‘supporting cast’ profiles about the important people to me here in Guaimaca, so you can get to know who I know a little bit!

Hasta la proxima vez…

Honduras Low Down (1 of 2)

(I was just trying to write this all in one blog and realized it was getting to be around four pages.  In an effort to respect the overly busy American of my target audience, I will make these two posts.  You can thank me later and read each of these at your convenience!)

I have TONS of down time here in Honduras.  Believe me.  Today I felt successful because after sleeping in ‘til 9:30, watching old TV on my computer until 11:00 and finally leaving the house by 1:00, I was able to visit three people in the community and score an invite to the Lions Club meeting on Thursday.  Compare that to what I would call a successful day in the US and comparatively I did nothing.  (Side note: I’m hoping to form a “brotherhood” between the Lions club here in Guaimaca and at home in Ceres, CA.  My ultimate goal is to form a “sisterhood” between my hometown of Ceres and current hometown of Guaimaca.  According to Sister Cities International, linking organizations such as the Lions is a good starting point.)

With that delightful anecdote of my day, it’s safe to assume there’s not much to blog about in my present life.  Rather I’m going to elaborate a list that I’ve had going for some time now to share some cultural difference between the US and Honduras.

Don’t drink the water.  Such sage advice is essentially cliché for anyone traveling outside the US.  Who even drinks tap water in the US anymore?  Where I currently live, I don’t even have a sink.  (You know that if you saw my YouTube video “My Current Digs.”)  Suffice to say I have to bring my five gallons in from a safe source.  Guess what my safe source is?  Some underground spring located under the vacant lot behind the gas station across the street, which the locals claim has been tested and is 98% clean.  The craziest thing of all: it’s free!  About every two weeks when I need a refill, I simply carry my five gallon-er across the street, saddle it up to the nozzle, flip it to ‘on’ and fill ‘er up.  I’ve never gotten sick from it and we’ll see if I have any parasites at my 1-year of service mark in May when I journey to Tegucigalpa for medical check-ups.

This may be redundant for my faithful readers.  However, showering here is also quite an experience.  Water has one temperature: COLD.  Thankfully we’re just starting to come out of winter here, so the cold isn’t quite as COLD as it had been.  In the colder months here we had days where the high probably hovered around the mid- to upper 60s.  Taking an early morning shower in those days was painful and masochistic.  I couldn’t change my OCD American personal hygiene habits of daily cleanings of my ENTIRE body, to the frequent adopted arm pits, butt and “privates” and feet.  I mean after all, my knees, scalp and elbows would get jealous.  Gotta make sure they’re all equally loved, or uh, washed!  Anyway, in the HOT summer months the water isn’t COLD or even cold.  It’s fabulous and refreshing. 

Many products which we’re used to seeing in large, gallon size, plastic bottles in the US frequently come in small (one liter or less) bags.  Purified drinking water, bleach and milk are ones that have made my list.  Initially it’s a frustrating conundrum trying to drink your half liter of water in one long swallow, place the bag of bleach just-precariously-enough-so-it-doesn’t-spill, and fold the top of the milk bag over just right so it doesn’t spoil.  I’ve come to terms with all these things after being in country for nearly a year now.  You really do drink your water quickly or pour it into a bottle which you’ve got left over.  Same goes for the bleach – either have a big cleaning day and use it all up or find some random discarded bottle to store the remains.  The milk (usually) doesn’t spoil.  Just make sure to use it within five days of opening it!

For having poor plumbing, clogged toilets are very rarely an issue here.  After all, toilet paper doesn’t go in the toilet.  Nope, it is neatly (if you’re lucky) discarded in a trash can that is beside EVERY toilet in this country.  Many brands of toilet paper marketed here are scented and most people take trash out frequently.  I’m sure the prissiest Americans back home are thinking how gross that is and that it must stink.  Eh, you get used to it and it actually doesn’t, surprisingly.  Also, taking your trash out here isn’t like taking it to your big rolling bin beside the house which you place on the curb weekly.  No, no, no.  If you’re lucky to live in a city, like I do, there is trash pick up – minus the rolling bins.  Trash still goes on a weekly basis; however some poor city employees simply pick up the small pile in front of each home along the route.  For the po’ country folk the only way to rid your life of trash is to burn it.  Many homes here have a familiar black spot in the backyard where they burn their trash.  It does wonders for the air quality here.  That and all the vehicles that come from the US circa 1980 and would never pass SMOG in the US.  (I now understand why they made such a stink to double check that I didn’t have asthma before being accepted.)