Tuesday, June 2, 2009

I´m back to billy baths!

It´s only 5 pm and my brain is FRIED. But it´s been an interesting day, so I want to write about it. As I wrote the last entry I smelled something yummy cooking. (All right all of you who have been her before... get ready to be jealous!!!) Karla was making pupusas of spinach and cheese for lunch for us. She made a ton of them, I asked it Jose was coming home for lunch but she said no, there were 5 for each of us. We each ended up having 2,with the sliced cabbage and another mixture of onions, jalapenos and broccoli on top. They were soooo good. She has promised to teach me to cook and let me help from now on.

During lunch we talked and talked (all in espanol with a little help from my spanish dictionary). I think our mothers are very similar in some ways. And I can´t wait to meet Karina. She sounds like she is a lot of fun.

Then I unpacked all of my stuff and was headed out for the store, but it was hot so I decided to take a quick shower. I felt foolish when I asked Karla how to turn on the shower. She came upstairs and explained that the shower head doesn´t work so I use a bucket to scoop water from a barrel of water to wash myself. It´s not a big deal as I was used to billy baths when I worked in the wilderness. At least it´s not snowing, and I have as much water as I want. Seriously, I am not complaining.

Karla and I headed out to do errands. She asked what I like best about Honduras. I told her the food, the people, and the bright colors of the houses. Walking down the streets here is something I will have to get acccustomed to. There are many street vendors. I´m not sure what they´re selling. And although we live at the end of a row of houses, which is at the end of an alley, which is at the end of a street, still people walk up to the door and yell inside trying to sell empanadas, avocados, plastic containers... almost anything you want you can buy from your couch.

Back to the errands. We exchanged my money. Karla warned me never to carry my cell phone in my hand because someone once shoved their keys into her ribs and told her to hand over her cell phone. So I´ll keep mine in the new little bag I bought for this trip (shout out to Heather who helped me find it!). I had to leave my phone overnight for them to set it up to work in Honduras. I can pick it up tomorrow. I was happy to have Karla there with me because I had no clue whether they were trying to rip me off or not, but she said it was fine. Then we went to Valery´s school. Valery has Down Syndrome and was in day care until recently. Valery´s teacher seems wonderful, but she has a whole class to teach and Valery needs individual attention. Valery does not like school at all and does not like to socialize with her peers at all. It is a sad situation. I feel like the teacher and the family expect that I will have answers for these problems, but what do I know?

On the way home Karla stopped at a little store and asked if I want some juice so I ordered what ended up to be a banana milkshake and the best part was they served it in a bag, then you drink it with a straw. I told Karla that if I had my camera I would have asked her to take a picture of me drinking my milkshake because pèople in the states would like it.

Well, it´s time for dinner. Jose just came home and I don´t want to miss out on my cooking lesson. Looks like we´ll spend some time out back first. I really like these people a lot. Sometimes I forget the language barrier and it feels like I´ve known Karla for much longer than less than 24 hours.

There are so many noises here that aren´t familiar - besides the vendors. But soon they will be familiar. And Karla also invited me to see her mother´s house in the country. I hope I have time to do all of these great things! Lots to look forward to!!!!

Anyone have ideas about how I could help Valery, please let me know---

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