Hello! I haven’t felt a whole lot like blogging lately- I’ve been tired. Today is Saturday...I woke up at 8 am to the sound of rocks hitting my my metal front door. I got up and opened the door. Milton, of course. He was so happy to see me. I told him he needed to pick up all those rocks from the porch, and that he needs to not do that in the future. As cute as he is, I don’t want him to be my alarm clock. I got my clothes on and let him in to join me. He played with the tether ball while I made breakfast. Then I put on James Taylor and we danced. It was a nice way to start my day.
I didn’t leave my house today though. I had every intention of going to do house visits today but time didnt allow for it. I wasn’t able to wash my clothes last week because of all the rain. So that meant I had double to wash this week. I started at 9 am and didnt finish until 1 or 2. I did take a lunch break. But washing all your clothes by hand here really takes a lot of time and energy. Especially sheets and blankets.
I have the option of paying the next door neighbor $5 each time I want her to wash my clothes. And I know 3 people in this town that have washing machines they said I could use. So I have a way around this. But for some reason, at least for now, I have no desire to take the easy way out. It’s not like I don’t have enough time to do it myself. And hopefully I will get better and faster at it so it wont take up my entire day.
After washing, my host parents came into my house to help me fix my mosquito net. I needed to set it up so that I could put plastic on the top of it to prevent the water leaks from dropping on my bed when it rains. It’s a lot better now than it was before. But while we were working on this, my mom spotted one of the rats that I’ve been living with hiding behind the barrel of frijoles in the corner. We chased him around for a while... everytime we got him out from hiding behind one thing he’s just run and hide around another. I don’t know why I’m such a sissy, but everytime it ran out into view I screamed like a little girl. I couldn’t help it. But it doesn’t make sense because once upon a time, I had pet rats. Looking back- that was effin weird. They are gross. I learned that rats are very good jumpers. My dad ran to the house and came back with his machete. He was planning to whack it. I was like- ooooh grossss rat guts in my house...but then I realized if we didnt kill him he would probably just continue coming around and making noise that keeps me up at night. So I said, “ok do it. but i can’t look!” I went and sat in a chair on the other side of the room with my back facing the scene of the murder.
But then they couldn’t find him. The sneaky little rat got away. I’m kinda glad. Being whacked by a machete is a brutal way to die. Do you think rat venom is kinder?
Anyway... Sorry I know I write an awful lot about the rats and the bugs and what not. It may seem like I’m not doing much of anything around here except for devising plans on how I am going to live with or fend off these creatures. I go to the school everyday monday through friday, and I do house visits as part of my census and community diagnostic. So I am busy doing stuff for work too. It’s just that right now all I’m doing is getting to know the people in this community and what I can do for them. I am not supposed to start projects or serious work until I am done with my PreService Training 2 (PST2) which is in November. So then is when you may start seeing me write more about other stuff. Of course, I will probably never stop mentioning my encounters with the critters and experiences with the everyday little stuff. So I will go on....
Last night I was on my front porch talking to my mom about how I would hang a hammock on it. I looked down and saw a culebra snake... It wasn’t gigantic but it wasn’t small.... She said they are poisonous. She ran to the house and, of course, came back with a machete. The culebra was chopped into pieces like a green bean.
The family’s dog, Tyson, didn’t like me at first, because I was a stranger. He was barking at me and trying to attack me a little. But now he knows me and really likes me. He has starting sleeping outside my front door at night. I especially like him now. He is a good guard dog. Except some punkass kids from the street through a rock at him the other day and hurt his front leg... so he’s only walking on 3 now... Hopefully he gets better. I dont like him though when he bites the little puppies faces. They are his sons and only a few months old... they try to get in and eat his food but Tyson wont have that... the other day he bit my favorite puppies face and it had a bloody wound :( But it’s a dog eat dog world out here.
3 out of the 5 pairs of shoes I brought to this country have molded. My birkenstocks that were pretty new molded in the first month. I think I might have to chuck them. My greek sandals started molding this week, but i just wiped the mold off, and I think I’ll still be able to use them. Is it bad to walk around in moldy shoes? My toms molded but I can wash those pretty easily I think. The problem is, I am realizing my shoe supply is insufficient and it is nearly impossible to find shoes for my big feet in this country of little people. Maybe I can run into some size 10 shoes in the capital. If not, I will be asking for shoe donations.... or mom and dad, maybe i have some at home that i could use and u could ship me.
People really are small here though. I am taller than almost everyone. And people here will just tell you you’re fat. They don’t consider it offensive. Either that or they just don’t care if they are offensive. Where I come from, that’s just about the most offensive thing you could tell someone. I ran into my old host brother from training the other day and when he saw me the first thing he said was “You’re fatter.” Ummm thanks. And then I was at the thrift store shopping and the lady at the store, while i was trying on shirts, would tell me “Your too fat for that.” Ouch. I haven’t really gained weight here... but no woman wants to hear that. I exercised today for the first time in weeks.
I bought a ton of stuff I needed for my house yesterday. My favorite thing I bought is my nica. It’s a little bucket that I can pee in. It’s great! I don’t have to go leave my house at night and walk to the latrine. I get a little scared of the dark out there at night. Even with my guard dog. My host mom tells me to always lock my door whenever I leave my house. The bolos, drunks, walk around and go on to peoples property at night and steal stuff. They have been known to steal food from peoples gardens, chickens, and various other things. So I dont want to go outside at night. My host dad goes out at night a lot because he has to pee a lot. He told me he will get up and go 5 or 6 times in a night. I’m pretty sure that is a prostate problem. What do men do for that? Take pills? Drink something special? Maybe it would be weird if I gave me him medical advice on that. He could go to the doctor if he wanted to.
Around here there is always someone coming to your house with stuff they are selling. Today it was a lady from Honduras with a bag full of plastic crap made in China. It was all junk. I wasn’t really interested but before i knew if she had all her oriental trading spread out on the floor of my front porch. I bought some hair clips, a stress ball, and a recorder. The recorder could be fun when I am bored in the future. I know how to play one song on it that I learned in elementary school and never forgot. Oh and I got some dish towels. Not too bad. All that for about 2 bucks. Not bad. The lady said she comes twice a month. So she’ll be back in 15 days to try to sell me more crap I don’t need. She said she lives in Honduras. What a tough way to earn a living. All of the junk she sells can be found when u go shopping in the city. And everyone here goes to the city to do all there shopping. There really isn’t really a need for her job... But people here do what they can to make a living any way they can. Rough.
Marinita, my host mom, randomly asked me today- “So your mom is from Mexico right?” I laughed... I dont know why she thought that. She has seen pictures of my mom on the wall in my house... I guess mom could look a little mexicana. She also said you look young mom. You are a young mexican mama according to Marinita.
Lastly- it’s funny to discover what Marinita thinks she knows about me. When we were shopping, looking through the Honduran lady’s merchandise- the woman offered me a catholic rosary. Marinita said, “Oh no Amy wouldn’t want that. She’s Evangelical.” Haha! I guess she knows I’m not catholic, I dont get on my knees when we go to mass, or do that cross thing with my hand on my head. So that must mean i’m not catholic- and if I’m not Catholic- well I guess to her, there’s only one other thing I could be. I am pretty sure they don’t know about other religions here. I was invited to pray at the metal shack house again tomorrow at 4. Mmmmm... no más por favor. I told her I’d go if I don’t have anything else to do... I might be busy with house visits.
Allrighty- Time to go to bed! Staying up til 10:30 is super late for the campo.
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