Mens Health

One of the health projects in the Peace Corps is called “Aqui entre nos…” or “just between us…” it is a men’s health initiative that targets at risk men, primarily dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention. This is a project that I want to get more involved with because I think it has a lot of potential to grow and improve. I had known about the conference for a while but it was looking like I wasn’t going to be able to attend because I was doing my own men’s health stuff with the military guys. Less than a week before the meeting my boss gave me a call asking again if I could possibly come and bring 2 counterparts that would want to work with this program too. After a few last minute changes in plans I managed to convince the coronel at the military battalion to lend me two people to attend this 4 day conference. It was all very last minute, but it ended out working out, I met the two counterparts at the bus stop in Quimistan at 6:30 in the morning, we got to the San Pedro Sula bus terminal and literally walked downstairs to the ticket office, paid, got on the bus, and left. We arrived in La Esperanza, Intibuca at the hotel at 11:58, 5 ½ hours later, two buses and half the country to get there 2 minutes early, it was amazingly easy…I was worried about that, nothing works that easy here. The hotel was ridiculous, it was very nice, in the woods, had a pool, and bizarre but beautiful wood and fake wood decorations and artwork. La Esperanza is a small town, the biggest in the department however, it is located near the center of the country, a little bit to the west, the craziest thing about it was that it was cold there. Maybe it’s just because I’m used to the heat in San Marcos, but I was legitimately cold there, I wore a jacket and hat all day and used a thick comforter all night, although it was a shock to my system it was a nice break from the heat. The conference wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, mostly because I had already seen the whole presentations 4 months earlier and I was already implementing the techniques in my site, but it was fun because there were 7 volunteers and 35 Hondurans participating, we had a lot of fun. On the second night we went out to a pool hall as a way to demonstrate how to teach in risky areas and also to have some fun, among our group we had a tournament, me and my partner, a super nice guy from the north coast, won the first game and then got killed in the second round. On Friday, the last day we got to go out in groups and implement the manual, my group was assigned to a group of police, we had a lot of fun and I honestly think that the policemen and one policewoman really learned some things. After doing the 4 hour presentation my group went exploring around the city a little bit before going back for the dreaded debriefing. We got to see a shrine to the Virgin Mary that was built into a hillside/rock face, from above it you could see the whole city and the aldeas. After that we went to see some natural bathing areas that had been built up by the city, also very pretty. All in all it was a fun trip, getting to see some volunteers I hadn’t seen in a while, meeting new people and hopefully strengthening the programs that I’m doing in site.