Natural Disaster Awareness Training

Dear friends, family, and whoever else is reading this blog,

I'm setting a new record for the speed of my blog posts. Going through all of the effort to actually write a blog post generally dictates that I ought to write it about something, however. Herein lies the problem. I don't have anything specific about which to write, or at least nothing is really ringing a bell.


I think I'll talk about my experiences with how Honduran institutions operate.

The largest source of my interactions with the Honduran government are typically somehow associated with the school, La Escuela San Pedro (St. Peter's School).
We're currently in the process of government-offered (mandated? I'm not sure) natural disaster training.
These meetings are scheduled to start at 8 am and run until 4 pm, and they happen during the school day, so we've obviously gotta cancel school.
A typical day in disaster awareness training:
8: arrival to the school.
~8:40: arrival of the government group
8:50: The European Union and some organization in Norway have kindly offered to sponsor these events. As a result, we'll focus on getting comfortable in our seats while several posters are pasted up on the walls.
9:00: It's time for the icebreakers!
9:20: Okay, let's go ahead and turn on the projector and get down to the real gig. Assuming there's electricity (60-40 shot), we're going to open with the all-important faith-based motivational powerpoint.
9:30: We're splitting up into groups now to discuss the possible natural disasters we might experience while living in Honduras.
9:50: A debate has now been brought to the table: a tsunami is or is not a viable possible natural disaster here in the bay?
10:00: Let's assume that it is. Given that, we've got documentation saying that in the event of a tsunami, we'll have about two hours of warning... or wait, this other thing says 20 minutes. Well I guess that concluded whether or not there's a possibility of tsunamis. Good. Let's move on.
10:15: Great, well, it's been quite a while since we started now, so let's go ahead and have the merienda (snack).
10:45: Okay guys, let's go ahead and make and then give our presentations on the possible disasters available in the area. Group 1, you guys can start. Okay group 2, you guys, although you've got the exact same list, should probably go up and present as well. Let's take a pause to paste those presentations to the wall as well.


I'm really excited about this post, so I'm going to continue it later, but for the time being, you get the gist, and I gotta run.

- Kevin