Grumpy

Yesterday was a strange day.  I haven't been able to fall asleep since I got back from the US.  Every night I am awake until 3 a.m.  If I wake up at 5:30 a.m. or 7 :30 a.m. I still can't fall asleep the next night until after the clock passes 3 a.m.

So, after not getting to sleep until close to 4 a.m. the night before, I had plans to sleep late and spend the rest of the morning doing a bible study.

I was in the middle of a good dream.  Skiing with my good friends from high school.  Just like the old days.  We are hanging out and skiing in my dreams.  Probably because everyone on the East Coast is talking about all of the snow they are getting.  Or maybe because it is so cold here I had to turn on a heater for the past 2 nights in my bedroom just to stay warm.  Who knows.

In the middle of this good dream with good friends I hear the voice of my neighbor, Fany, calling from the front door.  This time, I think, I am not going to answer.  Then she comes to my bedroom window.  I look at the clock.  It's 9:30.  A reasonable time for her to think I am awake.  So I answer.

She starts talking about men who are here to cut off my electricity.  Woah.  This is way too early in the morning for this kind of talk in a different language.  I am still skiing with Peter and Brooke in my dreams.  But harsh reality comes crashing in.

How can this be?  I just got the bill on Friday.  Fany says I have to go talk to them.  So I climb out of bed in my fleece pajamas and go to the front gate.  Needless to say the young men are not impressed.  I try to plea my case but they don't want to hear it.  They tell me I need to go turn off my breakers because they are here to do a job and they are going to shut off my power.  So I walk back to the house and turn off the breakers.

Fany is still talking with them.  She says they will come back in an hour to turn it back on if I go pay the bill right now.  I doubt it.  I am ready to go back to bed and deal with it all later.  But then Fany says she also needs to go to the bank.  If I am going to pay the bill, could I please take her.  Fany never asks for anything so I pull on some sweatpants, brush my teeth extra fresh because my breath stinks from this sinus infection I am fighting, and put on a baseball cap.

Fany, her daughter Laura, and her nephew whom she is babysitting all pile into my car and we go to pay the bill.

Now, in Honduras there is no mail system like in the US.  We get the bill taped onto our front gate and we have to go to the bank to pay it.  Which means that every bank, at every hour, of every day has close to an hour wait.  Sometimes more.  I have tried to figure out a way around it, but there is none.  After spending a year bumming rides with others I have spent a lot of time waiting in lines at the bank.  Everyone does it and that's that.

So we waited in line.  With the kids running and playing and almost knocking over grocery displays.  Tugging on my sweatpants until I think they are going to come down in the middle of the supermarket.  (Some banks are just little stations inside supermarkets.)  I felt my patience draining.

I had already lost it once before we left the house when Fany told Laura we were going to the bank and Laura started one of her new things which is to cry. "I don't want to!  I don't want to!  I don't want to!" over and over.  Fany was in the house and Laura sat down outside, refusing to go get dressed.  So I said to her, "I don't care if you want to or not.  You are not in charge here.  Your mother is.  And you will do as she tells you.  Now go inside and put on your shoes."

Normally I stay our of those things.  But today I didn't.

Then we got into the car and her mother told her to put on her seat belt, which triggered the second new phase we are going through this week.  It's the "I can't" phase.  I can't cut with scissors, I can't lift myself up on the bed, and my personal favorite, I can't open the door, which means she stands outside asking if she can come in until she realizes that I am not going to get up and open the door for her.  Then she suddenly can.

Today she couldn't put on her seat belt.  Which, honestly, is not the easiest.  But she can.  Fany could tell I was stressed out so she started to do it for her.  But I said no, she can do it.  Again, overstepping my bounds.  We waited calmly until she did it.  I helped and encouraged.  I was not all mean.  But I was not in the mood for manipulation from a little girl (whom I love and adore!) this morning.

Alright, enough of me complaining.  The bill is paid and now we have to run some errands for my landlord.  We get those done and go to the electric company to show them the bank receipt which states my bill is paid.  Now can they please send someone to re-connect my power?  They start talking amongst themselves.  One is on the phone while another points out a phone number on the bottom of the bill.  She said, instead of coming here if this happens again you can just call this number from home after you pay the bill.  I ask, so is somone going to come and re-connect my electricity today?  She says, well, we are calling this number right now to get someone to do it but nobody is answering.  And that is the same number I am supposed to call from home for service if this happens again.  Great.  Finally Fany steps up and the lady says to Fany, don't you have someone who could reconnect this for you?  The line is working, it just needs to be connected.  Fany says no, we don't.  The lady assures us someone will come at around 1p.m.  I leave feeling sure that nobody is ever going to come.  But I am tired and just want to go home.

Of course today is the day Laura and her friend found a new delightful game.  They run into my house, find the cat and then hide from the cat.  It doesn't matter that the cat is asleep and oblivious to the fact they are there.  Or that my floor was just cleaned and I have to sweep it four more times throughout the afternoon.  It is the most exciting game in the world to dash inside, look at the cat, then hide and giggle.

Fany would never allow this.  Laura always asks before she comes in under normal circumstances.  But today Fany is busy with a lady who is visiting.  Later she tells me that she heard the whole thing and was concerned because she didn't hear Laura asking permission to come in.

Eventually the game got boring.  Thank God.  And later I got over my bad attitude and went over to visit Fany.  She was stressed out because the kids were fighting and our laundry was hanging on every tree in the yard plus the clothes line but it is so cold nothing was drying.  So I told her let's put this in the dryer, which seemed to relax her a little.  We would all have clean, warm pajamas to sleep in tonight.  We sat and talked until her nephew got picked up.  We put Laura to bed and talked more.  Last night we looked at her wedding photos until past midnight so as I noticed the night starting to slip away, I said good night and headed to my house.

Yesterday I learned that I have a sinus infection.  The medicine is making me sick and I have no appetite.  I cooked some dinner but couldn't bring myself to eat it.  I did get some yogurt into my belly.  That was the best I could do.

In fact that is kind of how this whole day went.  It wasn't the greatest day, and I didn't handle some things very well.  But I did the best I could do.  I have faith that tomorrow is going to be better.  I have a lunch time meeting with Pastor Ruth, and dinner plans with some North American friends.  Plus some study time set aside in between.  I think this gusty, cold wind has me on edge.  But tomorrow will be better.