hn56.

so, it's friday, and I just finished my first GIS/GPS workshop. and by finished, i mean finished teaching, not sitting in as a student. i didn't do it alone, in fact, i wouldn't even call myself principal facilitator or anything, but I would say I did a chunk of work. and i organized it more or less. so i'm fucking proud of myself. it went incredibly well, with 8 tecnicos and ingenieros leaving with a basic knowledge of ArcGIS and some pretty substantial understanding of mapping with a GPS. and we have the second, advanced, portion planned for january, and another 5 day workshop (for a much larger group) for february. that's what peace corps calls training of local capacities. BAM!!

hn55.

it is so cold here you can see your own breath. now, usually, when you think of tropical south america you think rainforests, steamy jungle, people running around in sombreros and short sleeved collared shirts. at least, that's what it used to look like. but for the seventh day now, we have had a cold front move down from mexico (damn you mexico), and the temperatures have hovered around 12 degrees Celsius. what does that mean for all of you american friends of mine, it is around 50. but wait you say, 50 isn't so bad. and yes, that's true in the states where you have heaters and insulated houses. not so true in honduras, where there is no heat and everything is built with cinder block so once it gets cold, it fucking stays that way. for days. and what's worse is that the temperatures drop to 10 at night, or 40's, which then stays in the tiles and the walls and when you wake up to take the morning bathroom run, it becomes an excruciating experience. you can't escape it. and i thought, with me being russian and everything, that my blood would still boil at this temperature, and the constant percentage of vodka in my veins would keep me warm. well, i was mistaken. it seems that during the first few days all the vodka was used up, and now im running on just my body fat (which is around .5% according to my mirror). so basically without 3 or 4 layers, i am cold all the time.

now, with the knowledge you have just aquired, i would like you to imagine something else. imagine the same conditions but in delapitaded wooden shacks. imagine leaky roofs, uncomfortable mattresses, dirt floors, and a 5 minute walk to the nearest bathroom. imagine being 5 hours away from home, on someone else's property, for months, having to share one room with 20 other people, stuffed together like sardines in rickety wooden bunk beds that seem older than i am. and now that you have all of that in mind, imagine waking up in the morning at 5 am, picking coffee until 5 pm, and making 8-10 dollars for the effort (that's if you're a pro, a typical begginer makes 2-4 dollars). that's twelve hours of work with maybe 2 half hour breaks, and you make what a US mcdonalds employee makes in an hour. oh but, you have to pay for food, your 5 children, clothes, rubber boots, baskets for the coffee, travel (since you're far as fuck from home). and you're stuck here, because you didn't come in your own car, because you don't even own one, so you had to spend 5 hours in the back of a small truck with 20 other people, standing, while you rolled across the mountains at a snail's pace. oh and it was cold. did i mention that. and if it gets too cold you can't even pick coffee because your hands are so cold you can't feel the cherries right and you don't end up picking only ripe coffee. so you sit in your shack and pray that the cold goes away so you can afford a pound of beans and some corn...maybe an egg or two so you and your kids can make it until dinner without lunch.

now, after all of that, it's important to know that the typical coffee picker in this country does this from November to April, every day of the week. and there are almost no protections on this labor, no rights, just what the people are willing to put up with. most of which, i font think i could handle for one day. all because the costs have to be kept low, so the farmer who hired them can make enough to feed his family (because he only makes 1.00-1.50 $ a pound (of dried green coffee) after taxes and costs, if he's lucky) and all of that, because the exporter wants to make a dollar, the importer wants to make a dollar, the roaster wants to make a dollar, and finally because of us, the consumers, who aren't willing to pay for quality and just treatment. and you can say, well i pay 15 dollars for organic coffee at whole foods, and that's fine, but very little of those 15 dollars goes to the producer (and frequently its not even organic), and all the profit ends up in the hands of the middle men. and don't even get me started on starbucks or wherever it is that you go to get a cup of coffee, where you're told that its fair trade and sustainable. if you want to buy into that, go ahead, but i sure as hell ain't fooled.

hn54.

well it seems that I have gone from writing almost every day, to writing once a week, and finally, now, to once a month. and I know its my fault because well, who else is there to blame? but for the time being there isn't much to say that hasnt been said before. work is coming along, with nothing exciting going on. i am supposedly giving a GIS workshop next week to a bunch of tecnicos, so if that happens, that should be a pretty good step up. otherwise, my dad just came, and that was pretty incredible. we climbed the tallest mountain in honduras in 9 hours, with enough water just to get to the top. it was grueling, painful, and all around awesome. most people told me it was not possible in 1 day, but bam, we were down off the mountain by 3 30. as for the rest of our adventures, we cliff dove, swam by a waterfall, hiked coffee farms, ate delicious seafood soup, swam in the ocean, and did a little bit of everything (and somehow i managed to work almost every day as well). so i think overall the trip was a success. next is the brother in january, so i'll see how that goes. the weather for now is crummy, with rain and cold temperatures all day. doesnt really help keep the mood in check, since this is about the time when everyone hits their second strong depressionary slump. i seem to be doing ok for now, but its hard to maintain oneself animated when everything is either on hold or going wrong. but hey, that's life, and if you can't deal here, how the hell will you deal when your career is on the line. right? well, that's basically it, if i think of anything else, ill be back, but i dont know when.