Living in Honduras

More small stories about what life is like in Honduras. And for those of you who complain about the lack of photos of myself, well, I included some.

• Water- There are few places in Honduras where you will find potable water. In order to drink water, once a week Christina and I trade off walking down the block to our local mini-super (our small grocery store). We give them our empty water bottle and they unlock the case and give us a new full one. It costs about 24 Lemps ($1.25). Then we lug the heavy bottle back to our house.
  

• Propane Gas - Although most houses here are connected to electricity, they do not have gas lines. We have a gas stove so we have a propane tank under our kitchen sink which connects by a rubber hose to the stove. We will run out of gas about once a month. When this happens we have to call Vanessa, our school volunteer coordinator, and then she tells one of her brothers or her dad. They come by, take the empty propane tank, and bring and hookup a new one. At the beginning of the year we had a little row about who should pay for this: the school said they had never paid for gas for previous volunteers, we argued that they stipulated they would pay all bills associated with the house (electricity, etc.). Both parties finally agreed to each pay half. The tank is 205 Lemps ($10.80). They also have a delivery service where a guy will bring a tank to your house on the back of his scooter.

• Stove - As for lighting the stove, we have to turn on the burner and light it with a match every time we want to cook. The oven is a bit scarier as we have to remove the bottom plate and reach our hand in to light it. Immediately there is a big burst of flames and Christina and I are lucky to pull our hands out burn free. We both dread it each time.

• Electricity bill- since there is no mail pickup or delivery service here (you have to go to the post office), once a month Christina or I will discover a tiny, paper electricity bill stuffed into our front gate. What if it rained or blew away? Then we give the bill to the school to pay. For the Internet, we have to ride into town to their office by the 5th of each month to pay.

• Grocery shopping - Luckily we have a mini-super (a small grocery store) only a block away. Conveniently, the guy who owns our mini-super was born and raised in Queens in New York so he speaks fluent English. In most small barrios and colonias, they will have only a few mini-supers.We do most of our shopping at our local mini-super. They have everything we need: cereal, syrup, butter, beans, tortillas, OJ, peanut butter, bread, eggs, Top Ramen, pasta (but only tomato sauce, no alfredo), cream cheese (when we're lucky) , and even soy milk! (Did I mention that milk, soy milk, and eggs are kept on the shelf - not in the fridge and refried beans come in a bag?) Sometimes our mini-super has fruit and vegetables but most times we have to ride our bikes to the nearest stand for those. Pulperias (tiny shacks that sell items you would find in a 7-11. You don't actually enter a store, per say, but you purchase items at the walk-up, outdoor, window counter) are everywhere you look. It seems like every 10th house has one built out front. The only thing we really buy from them are bags of water when we are biking. That's right...I said 'bags' of water. Lots of stuff here comes in bags. As for big, American-like grocery stores, you have to go into the center of town (interestingly, when you checkout, you bag your own groceries and they charge you 2 Lemps ($0.10) for each bag!). Even these stores are still much smaller than anything you would find in the states. Oh, and only half the store is food, the other half is clothes, shoes, and toys.
  

• Rambutans - Speaking of food... there is a delicious fruit grown and sold everywhere here. It is called a rambutan. They are small, round balls with stiff hairs poking out all over. I have seen them in red and yellow. You have to first bite a piece of the skin off and peel the rest. Then you can eat the white part inside (doesn't it look like a little brain?) but watch out for the seed. They taste a bit like grapes. (I previous labeled them lychees ("LEE-chee"), which are in the same family. Everyone here calls these lychees and if you asked for rambutans they wouldn't know what you wanted but they are, no less, rambutans.)

• Trash - Littering is rampant in every part of Honduras. While riding on the bus I have seen grandmas, mothers, children, elderly gentlemen, every kind of person throwing their trash right our the window with no feeling of guilt or shame. There are some trash cans throughout town but everyone just drops their trash on the ground. The ironic thing is when people actually use the trashcans, the trash falls out of it and it blows away anyway because all the trashcans here are just strips of metal with gaping holes between each piece. Consequently, there is a lot of litter everywhere. In front of each house is a wire box (with giant holes) to put your family trash in. Then a trash collecting truck comes by randomly and hauls it away, dropping 50% of it on the ground in the process. We try to put our trash in plastic bags and tie it before placing it in out trash box but somehow it always gets all over anyway. Oh, and people here get rid of yard waste by burning it.

• Billiards - There are many places to shoot some pool here in Honduras except only men play. There are never any women in these places and, even when just walking by one, we are harassed. Speaking of...
  

• Harassment - Women here are constantly harassed. Every time Christina and I walk out the front door, some guy (anywhere between 8 and 80 years old) begins the process. It continues until we get back into the house. Almost every guy we pass feels the need to say something to us: "Oh, mi amor", "My love", "I love you", "muy guapa", "muy bonita", "hey baby", Kissing sounds, etc.
  

• Hard Workers - The people here are extremely hard workers.
• There is the "hamburguesa" man that rides his bike all over the city everyday starting at 6:00am hawking his burgers.
  
• There are government employees who shovel, sweep, and haul away all the dirt that piles up in the streets with wheelbarrows.
  
• The women constantly gather all their family's dirty clothes and scrub them, rinse them, scrub them, rinse them, and hang them to dry. All by hand.
  
• The custodian at our school, Carol, sweeps and mops the entire school and cleans the bathrooms all day without ever stopping or sitting and she is always smiling and giggling.
  
• The people (mostly women) who work at the food stands making dough, cooking, selling fruit and vegetables, from early morning until late evening. This woman is frying up plantains to eat like french fries, chicken, beans, and tortillas. We buy baleadas (like bean burritos) from them often. The blue pot has dough balls in it. The red jar is filled with pickled onions. Each baleada is about 6 - 9 Lemps ($0.30-0.48) depending on what you want inside it. Here is a link to a woman cooking our tortillas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ShxqkV1w-I
  
• The Garifuna people, including very young children, who walk up and down the hot sand balancing tubs on their heads filled with pan de coco (sweet bread), machete and coconuts in hand to offer up fresh agua de coco (coconut juice), or asking if you want trenzitas (to braid your hair), even when the beaches are empty.
  
• The ice cream men who push heavy carts around the city and on the sand.
• The men who must cut the always growing grass, weeds, and plants. They are hunched over with only their machetes hacking away all day.
  
• The construction workers who are lifting, climbing, hammering, mixing, etc. for the never-ending buildings going up.
  
• All of these people do all this while the hot sun beats down on them and most of them wear button-up collared shirts, long pants, and full-coverage shoes.

• Television - Just a reminder... we have no T.V. in our house. That's right, we don't watch any T.V. We can watch movies we brought on our computers but that's it. I am fairly certain we are the only people living here that do not have a T.V. and cable. Just like in the U.S., everyone else here seems addicted to T.V., even people living in one-room shacks.
  

• Oh, and did I mention the lovely beach? - We rode our bikes to town on Sunday (Dec. 2nd) and it was a beautiful day. I think this was the first time since mid-October that it has been this nice. It was warm, sunny, and everyone was enjoying the beach. It was a tiny bit windy, thus the waves. Strangely, most Hondurans swim in their clothes. The guys don't even bother to take off their shirts. Maybe they are just more modest or possibly they can't afford bathing suits, I'm not sure of their reasoning. Here is a video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GayX0NtkyeE It has been so nice here we have started going to the beach in the morning for a few hours before work. Riding our bikes to the beach we pass many pulperias, horse carts, munching cows, construction sites, taxis, other bikers, and cool houses... Here I am arriving in paradise... And of course I am always reading... And I can't resist the gorgeous water for a swim... And there are always a few fisherman about, swim faster little fish...

• Animals, always - these horses were right outside our kitchen window one morning just munching away. As I mentioned in a previous blog, there are animals to be found everywhere you look. At night, barking dogs, crowing roosters, and chirping crickets lull me to sleep. While in the morning I am greeted with singing birds, loud cars, and more barking dogs.

See, it ain't so bad here. For those of you who are under the impression that I am roughing it, well, judge for yourself. I personally think those of you who live where it snows are demented. Although, I do admit the snow is very pretty... but only in photos. This is so far the most stress-free, relaxing year I have had since I was 5. Except for missing my family and friends, it has been an amazing time.

School has been going well. This week is just a review week. The students take exams next week. My students are doing well and I hope it shows on the exams. This year is really flying by but I am cramming as much learning into their heads as is possible.