Spent all morning trying to pay my rent, see how my residency card is coming along, pay cable, pay lights and car insurance. I say trying because paying bills is a pain in the neck in Honduras. You read yesterday about how Molly has been trying to pay school fees for weeks and keeps getting the runaround. The same thing happened to me today.
First the lady at the bank said that I needed to have the bank account number in order to deposit my rent. I have been paying rent for three years and never needed the bank account number. But suddenly today that changed. Last month I could no longer make the check out to Fany's name, although she is on the account. It now has to be in my landlord's name. I swear they make up random rules just to make things more difficult.
I never did get the cable paid. The bank said I needed a password. I have no password so they couldn't find my account. They said to go to the cable company, so I went to the cable company. They said I could get the password and then pay the bill right there. The password people got me set up, but when I went to the cashier to pay the bill, their system was down. Systems are always down in Honduras.
Fany, Laura and I waited an hour and a half to find out what is going on with my residency card. My card expires on the 15th, but Honduras is out of plastic, so they can't laminate our residency cards. This happens all of the time. It happened when my friend Carol renewed her card a few months ago and it happened when I got my first residency card. That time it was months before they could print out the cards. Ridiculous.
Monday Honduras finally got license plates. They haven't had license plates since I bought my car 2 years ago as far as I know. That is why it was important that I bought a car that already had plates. Sunday night on the radio they announced that police would have roadblocks for all the people who are traveling with expired or with no plates at all because the plates are finally in. Except, ooops! They didn't print some of the plates yet. If your plates start with certain letters then you still have to wait. This stuff could drive you insane if you let it.
My cable is not paid, my residency card is not printed, but my plates are fine and my rent is a month ahead. The bank said my insurance cost $50 less than my agent told me I had to pay. That's all good stuff.
A funny thing happened too. While Laura, Fany and I were waiting the hour and half for residency stuff, we were sitting with another man. Laura and I got up and were looking around, trying to entertain ourselves. The man who was there with us said to Laura, "What is your name?" She was silent. Then he said, "I am Jesus." Laura's eyes got huge! She ran over to her mom and said, "Mami! It's Jesus!" Fany had to explain that Jesus was this man's name, but he is not the same Jesus who lives in our hearts, he is just a regular man. At that point the man said, "Yeah, you can just call me Achiles. I wish I were more like that Jesus, but I am not him." It was a conversation that is not likely to happen in the US.
Laura came down with the cold that Molly's kids have while we were out running errands. I had a sore throat, swollen glands and a drippy nose by this evening.
The afternoon was more productive than the morning. I picked up Molly and her kids to take them shopping. Molly let me do a load of wash at her house because, although the city released water last night, it never made it into our tank. Last night at midnight Fany and I were so excited when we heard the water running under the driveway. But it has to fill all of the cisterns downhill from us before it can fill ours. When it was still running at 6 a.m. we thought we would be all set. But we opened cistern lid to find you could still see the bottom. The city water stopped running a few minutes later.
Fany and her family went to Coa where her in-laws do have water. She offered to take my laundry with her which was nice, but she does a lot of the washing by hand there. I figured Molly's house was a better bet.
We went to the mercado near Molly's house where local people sell their wares. Some places sell dried goods, some sell plastics, others vegetables, or dairy products. You can buy almost everything there. It is like the vendors that sell their stuff in the streets of the colonia near mine, where Fany and I walk to get our tortillas and cheese and veggies.
Molly stocked up because she doesn't have a car. She was grateful for the ride. Then we went to Pricesmart. Pricesmart is Costco, but in Honduras. It has all of the same stuff, exactly. Sometimes it feels so nice to be around things from North America! I mostly wandered around and looked at things I haven't seen in a long time. Gold Toe socks, wine refrigerators, car seats, mountain bikes, smoked cheese, Special K with dried berries... Oh, the plenitude. Ocean Spray Cranberry-Grape Juice is one of my favorite things to buy there. And laundry detergent for $18 instead of $45. I have a tiny fridge, so I couldn't buy the hummus I love. Mostly I just enjoyed seeing the vast abundance of things. Things we take for granted in the US. Pricesmart has everything. Sometimes there is a comfort in knowing that, although you are not going to buy it, you could. The only thing I couldn't find was adult vitamins. All they have is Centrum.
Molly got a pizza for dinner, but by then I was fading out. The cold was getting the best of me. The power had gone off while we were gone so her washer stopped in the middle of a cycle. We got it to finish rinsing, I grabbed my wet laundry and headed home.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, which means we have our second meeting with the women's group. Erika is coming with me. It will be great to see her. Also I am excited to see how it will go in the group tomorrow and what plans God has for these ladies in the future. I feel big things coming!
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