Gerald's Peace Corp 5

I lived across the river from town in a small wood framed shack.  There was a swinging suspension footbridge to cross the river (that's how I took the bottom photo). A lot of folks washed their laundry and bathed in the river.  I boiled a gallon water for an hour each evening on my 2 burner kerosene stove and let the water cool over night.  No refrigerator....not sure why I had the ketchup.  I ate a lot of bananas and egg sandwiches for breakfast and dinner.   For lunch I ate at lady's house in town and she frequently fed me cabbage soup with a beef bone.  I lost 25 lbs that year ....guess I should try that diet again.  One of my main problems was the scorpions....they seemed to like my house.  I hunted them every evening before sunset....I became a skilled scorpion killer. 😁

Gerald's Peace Corps 4

Life seemed to be very slow in Texiguat.  I know I was slow....because of the heat.  Everyday it was hot.....probably in the 90's.  It took me weeks to adjust to the heat.  The above photo is me standing in front of the middle school which had classes in the evening.  When I first arrived in Texiguat there was a generator to provide lights to the school ....but it broke down that first month.  I had bought a Coleman lantern and I lent it to the school and used candles instead.  The bottom photo is the Catholic Church ....there was a crowd because of an event to commemorate a new statue of Francisco Morazon.....who was like the "George Washington" of Central America.

Gerald's Peace Corps 3

After training there was a graduation ceremony and we were officially sworn in by a representative of the US Embassy as Peace Corps Volunteers.   I was assigned to the small village of Texiguat ....which is in one of the poorest areas of Honduras.  It has a hot and arid climate and farmers are unable to grow corn....so they grow millet instead.  There are some livestock but no pasture and cattle forage like goats to find what is edible.  The town has dusty streets and while I was there no electricity.  There was running water from a spring higher in elevation to houses in town.  Away from town water had to be carried.  Several small stores had kerosene refrigerators with cold sodas and beer.

Gerald's Peace Corps 2

This was my host family.....part of it actually.....grandparents also lived there and other family members came and went....especially on the weekends.  Below is the kitchen with the Adobe cook stove.  Smoke went up the wall and through the roof.  Very typical in Latin America ....bad for the lungs.

In case you're not sure where Honduras is here's a map.  The little town of Santa Lucia where we trained is located very near Tegucigalpa..... the capital city.  Our training consisted of Spanish classes daily as well as classes on the culture and politics of Honduras.  My sector learned about Honduran agriculture and we received hands on training in soil and water conservation.

Gerald's Peace Corps 1 - Honduras 1984-86

In this blog are photos I took as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras from July 1984 to August 1986.

From Miami our group of trainees flew down to Tegucigalpa, Honduras and then on to the training center in the small mountain town of Santa Lucia.  We were here until September....although we did overnight field trips as a group and we were sent out individually to visit Volunteers in the field.  About half of the trainees were in the agriculture sector (including me) and half in the forestry sector.  We each lived with a different family during training.

Here's 2 photos of Santa Lucia.  The second photo shows the house of the family who hosted me.  That little building above and to the right of the blue car was my room.