Today I finally finished my job application for the child advocate position. It was a daunting task as it was all in Spanish and had to be written out in full paragraphs. I woke up, pulled out the computer and got started. (I exhale deeply here.) It all flowed out of me, easy as pie. What a relief!
Fany came over to review it, changed two words and told me it was "Muy bien. Perfecto!" I never expected that. I can talk up a storm, but writing in Spanish is still intimidating to me.
All I have to do now is have an interview with the head of security, and then I can start shadowing people to see where I fit in best.
This has been such a great week. I took some time this morning to sit back and be thankful.
My wrist is going to be fine. No surgery. Not even an MRI.
Fany has had a wonderful time with her family. Sometimes family visits for any family can be stressful. She has been under enough stress already. Last week Fany was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I think she is still processing it and figuring out what it means for her. But she seems to be better since the diagnosis. For that I am extremely happy. I also love that her time with her family has been such a blessing for each of them. I heard Fany and her father up late talking together last night. That is a really good thing.
Today I have my first PT appointment. Then I am driving to Valle de Angeles for a night of worship with friends. I will spend the night and come back in the morning since I am traveling alone. I'm not sure I'll look forward to physical therapy in the future because it may be painful, but today I am looking forward to starting the healing process.
A week of good stuff and still more good things to look forward to!
Here's a random thought I had yesterday while peeling a pineapple. (Do you peel a pineapple? Is that the right word?) I was looking at how much pineapple I wasted in order to get all of those little pokey things out. Then I flashed back to peeling a carrot in the kitchen of the church where I served previously. One of the women there told me I was pressing too hard on the potato peeler and wasting too much carrot. I had never thought of wasting a carrot before. Especially using a potato peeler. I was just trying to get the job done quickly so the carrot could start cooking in the soup.
In the United States we are more likely to be wasteful with our resources than with our time. In my mind, I wanted to peel the carrot and the pineapple as quickly as possible. I did not want to waste time trying to get every bit of the edible flesh. My time (although I had nothing else to do) was more important or more valuable.
Then I started thinking about this whole thing in relation to birthday cakes. In the US, we value time. So if someone takes the time to make us a homemade birthday cake, that is very special to us. Now I have a better understanding of why homemade birthday cakes are less appreciated here.
In Honduras, they value the resources. In the case of birthday cakes, the resource would be the money to buy the cake. For them it is special to have someone purchase a cake at a store because it means someone spent their money (resource) on a cake. They will also take the time to rinse out a Ziploc bag and reuse it. While in North America we would be more likely to through it away and grab a new one.
Of course this is a generalization. Not every North American loves homemade cakes and not every Honduran loves cakes from the store. But it is interesting to see how different cultures have different values and the way those values effect the society's behavior.
There's my Honduran observation for the day.
