Monday, April 20, 2015

Hips and Helmets

Today I met with the car insurance agent about transferring the account into my name.  Until now I have been blessed by a friend from my previous church who offered to pay the bills.  He is a very generous man who is constantly helping people in a silent way.  I am grateful for all he has done for me.

In any case, I am now responsible for the payment of my own car insurance.  We went over the policy and realized that the car is still listed at the value it had two years ago, so my agent is going to adjust that and send me the official cost within the week.  He is a really kind man.  Very patient with each of my questions.  He's the kind of guy you'd want to call if you were flustered because you just got into a car accident.

I started going to the gym almost a month ago.  The first week the trainers gave me a program to work on, but it messed up both of my shoulders, which have a tendency to be messed up anyway.  Since then I have been doing my own thing and feeling pretty good about it.  But I noticed my muscles are not sore like they are when I work out with the trainers so I decided to go back to their routine today.

I purposely went early so that I would get the nice trainer who understands I have shoulder problems and doesn't tell me that I should be lifting heavier weights.  He walked me through everything and it was a great work out.  I was there for 2 & 1/2 hours!  (Which made me 10 minutes late for my meeting with the insurance guy, but he didn't seem to mind.)

Afterward I was talking to Fany.  Last week I told Fany about how I sat down in a child's seat when I was visiting Los Pinos and my side saddles were too big to fit so all of the ladies started teasing me.  She knew that it made me uncomfortable and assured me that Honduran women WISH for big hips and thighs.  I thought she was just saying that to make me feel better at the time.

Then today I told her that I had been at the gym for hours and worked on my side saddles.  She asked, "Did you work to make them bigger?  Or smaller?"  Shocked I told her, "SMALLER!"  She said, "Are you sure?  You better ask the trainer.  Because many women in Honduras work hard to have big hips."  Thankfully, all of the hip exercise I had done was textbook pilates, so I knew it was to get rid of side saddles.  But now I know in the future that I need to be specific about not wanting to build up my hips if the trainer asks me to do something different.  We'll see if my muscles hurt more tomorrow after their workout compared to mine.  (I also got an extra 1/4 mile in during my 30 minutes on the treadmill!  Go me!!)

This afternoon I had a nice little walk to the market by myself because Fany was out of town.  It has been so hot we haven't been going outside if we can help it until after 5 pm, but today there are some clouds in the sky.  If only it would rain!

Normally I always walk over to the colonia next to mine with Fany,  My colonia is gated so we don't have any markets.  It's fun to check out what all of the vendors have at the colonia next door.  They line the streets selling fruit and veggies, cheese, I saw a big table full of flip flops today, burned movies, second hand shoes, grilled food, and a million women with tortillas.  But because the vendors sometimes try to rip Fany off, so I feel better knowing I got a fair price if I am with her.  Also we love to look through the used clothes stores.  It's a amazing what you can find for $2.50.

We have a favorite banana guy and a favorite avocado guy.  We buy tomatoes and other produce where it looks best.  I went to our regular avocado guy and he sold me everything at the same price that he always asks.  Yay!  While I was paying a lady came along and asked where the avocados from the US are.  He said that the airport took them, so he has no produce from the US.  Personally I like Honduran avocados much better anyway, but it's sad that he lost a lot of his produce.

And in case you are not my friend on Facebook, one last thing.  Yesterday as I was driving to church I saw the funniest thing!  Honduran motorcyclists wear helmets.  It seems to be the one law they follow.  They also often wear ski goggles, which cracks me up.  Sometimes I see ski goggles I know are really expensive in the US.  Since there is no skiing here, I assume the cost of goggles is quite low.

For a few months it has been driving me nuts because a man I really like at my church wears a bicycle helmet on his motorcycle.  I know he can barely afford upkeep on the moto (as we say in Honduras) so I bet he can't afford a different helmet.  But I worry for him riding around in a bicycle helmet and have even prayed that God would show me a way to get a motorcycle helmet for him, without having other members of the church find out.

I say I need to do this without others knowing because Pastora Ruth does not want the church body to see me as someone who is going to start buying things for all of them.  She wants my relationships with church members to be real, not based on what they think they might get from me.  Therefore, she asked me to be really careful about how I share things at church.  In fact, for the first few months she told me I should not invite anyone to my house or buy anything for anyone.  Now if I buy things I buy them for the church, not for any specific person.  This has been really helpful in cutting out envy, arguing and gossip.  Plus I know that if people are hanging out with me it's because they like me as a person.  I am grateful for Pastor Ruth's wisdom.

North Americans have earned themselves a reputation as people who come here and throw their money around.  I used to have to fight that stereotype a lot.  It was really frustrating.  I know visitors believe they are helping and do everything with good intentions, but check this out.  Recently 2 separate teams came to visit.  All I heard about one team was how much STUFF they brought.  The other team did not bring as much stuff, but did lots of hands on things with the kids.  Guess which  group the kids enjoyed the most, whose names they remember, and who they miss most?  The team that gave less gifts, but spent lots of quality time just playing and hanging out.  Sometimes STUFF gets in the way of true relationship.

Okay, so yesterday I am driving to church and there is a man in front of me, driving a motorcycle, wearing an orange construction helmet.  I have no idea how that thing stayed on his head.  I guess the law is "helmet".  That was indeed a helmet.  But I can't imagine it would protect his head at all in an accident.  It would probably fall off before he hit the ground.