Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink!

What a fabulous weekend. So you want to know what it is like to live in Honduras? This weekend was a good example.

We got back from Pico Bonito on Sunday and it rained off and on all week. One cool side note: Last Monday, the high school kids learned how to weave hammocks! Oh, and we actually got to teach real lessons the whole week! Weeks like this remind me why I am here and I begin to get really excited and feel like the kids are making progress...until the next "holiday".
Also last week, in honor of Halloween (which no one here celebrates and they all think it is bad), I read scary stories to my class and had them write their own. They even illustrated them. The stories came out surprisingly well considering only 3 kids said they had ever written a story before. All the rest of the 18 kids had never written a story before!!! The teachers never have them write, they only use the workbooks. How truly depressing. I am so glad I am here. We also got our pen pal letters from Mrs. Miller's class in San Diego. My students were so excited. They began reading theirs to friends and writing back immediately!

So anyway, back to our rainy weekend...On Friday morning I needed to go to the post office and it was a sprinkling a little. I knew it would probably rain more so I put on some beach clothes (shorts and a tank top) that I wouldn't mind getting wet. I rode my bike the 20 minutes to the post office. And of course they were out of the 15 lemp ($0.80) postcard stamps and I had to buy the 25 lemp ($1.30) stamps instead or wait until whenever they might get more. When I finished, I turned to walk out of the post office and it began pouring. So I biked home while getting soaked. The rain would occasionally get in my eyes and obscure my vision. At least it wasn't cold out and now I no longer needed to avoid puddles...I just rode right through them. Along the way, some guy rode his bike along with me trying to become my new friend. Great. I got home, towelled off, hung my clothes to try, and went to work.

It was still pouring rain when we got home. I washed the dishes in cold water, as usual, since we do not have hot water. (The only place you will get hot water in Honduras is in a fancy hotel or if you boil some). While eating, we noticed the dining room ceiling was beginning to leak and turn a little moldy. It was only dripping a little though. Then we watched a movie and went to bed. We tried to sleep as the rain pounded down the entire night.

When I awoke Saturday morning, Christina and I found the water in the whole house had been shut off (not all that unusual, it probably happens once a week, but usually the faucet in the shower works...not this time). We couldn't go out because it was still raining so we were trapped in the house. We read, watched movies, read, ate...etc. Meanwhile the ceiling in the living room was getting worse. There was a good-sized puddle forming on the floor and the mold was spreading. Now there was a wet spot forming on my bedroom ceiling also. Luckily that one was not dripping. I moved my bed over just in case. (FYI: this photo is the dining room, not my bedroom.) That night the water had still not come back on. Just to clarify, this means we could not fill our bucket to shower with, we could not flush the toilet, we could only wash dishes using a pitcher to rinse them, we couldn't even wash our hands or faces. So I decided to put buckets and bowls outside to catch some rain water. It got a little chilly so I put on some socks but all I really have for shoes are flip-flops so I looked like a little geisha walking around the house. We went to sleep to the sound of thundering rain yet again.Sunday morning, the water was still shut off. It was also still raining so we were trapped in the house for another day. Argh!!! We were beginning to go stir crazy. I mean, how many hours can you just sit on your bed and read or watch movies or go check to see if the water had been turned on yet. That night, we used the rain water to shower with and flush the toilet. Since it has been colder (about 65 degrees F, the coldest it will ever get here), we have been boiling a pot of water to add to the water in our shower bucket. This makes the water just warm enough to "shower" with but I still have goosebumps the entire time.

On Monday morning, the water finally was turned back on. It was still raining but we had to go to town to pay the internet bill. We decided to fork out the 15 lemps ($0.80) for the cab ride there and back so we could stay dry (or drier than riding our bikes anyway). During the cab ride home, we had to drive over a dirt road, a good stretch of which had been transformed into a lake. The water reached up to the bottom of the car doors. Luckily we stayed dry inside.

Then we got ready to go to work only there was one problem...flooding. Our front walk was just a giant puddle. A few weeks ago when it flooded I put wooden boards down to walk on (like a gangplank...arrgh matey!) but someone stole them...Why? They were all rotted! This time I tried putting some big rocks there. They were wobbly but we made it across without getting soaked. Then we had to balance on the curb and jump over the puddle to the middle of the street. (Improving my acrobat skills so I can join the circus and save all the animals.) At work we mentioned the leaking ceiling and they came and looked at it. They said they would check it out when it stopped raining. Great idea, fix it when it's dry out. And when will it stop raining? They all said not until December.

After work, we came home and the water was shut off again. Ahh... the joys of living in Honduras. Isn't it a bit ironic that they shut off the water when there is so much supply (rain). My only conclusion was that it must be contaminated...except we often turn on the faucet to find brown water with things floating in it so who knows. The soccer (football) players never let the rain bother them. They play in the field next to our house almost everyday, mud or not. Oh, and if you look close, they are not wearing any shoes. They always play barefoot, ouch!By the way, Monday we had parent conferences but we weren't allowed to show the parents the report cards unless they showed us their receipt proving they paid October's tuition. Nice. The meetings went well otherwise. I had about half the parents come and it was raining so that seemed like a good turnout. Tuesday we got to teach all day (yippee!) and Wednesday school was canceled because of too much rain. Unfortunately the teachers still had to go in and make a new bulletin board featuring famous Hondurans. Oh how fun. Hopefully we will get to teach Thursday and Friday. Oh, and for each Friday of November, some lady comes to each class for 40 minutes and reads Bible stories and talks about God and Jesus with the kids. No pretense of separation of church and state here.

At least we have running water again...for now. Here is the lovely murky water I am about to shower with. Well, we haven't developed any weird rashes yet.