Home Sweet Home: Where the Bats Fly and the Rats Roam

November 1-5, 2010

Mail day; the cards/letters/packages make my whole week!

 This week has been nothing short of interesting! After landing back in Choluteca Monday morning from my whirlwind week, I jumped off the bus and walked to the post office where I found a great big packages waiting for me from my friends Fiona and Jason and my mom! Added to a couple of letters from my Meemaw and friends Kris, and D’Ann made my whole long trip worth it! Whenever you receive a package in Honduras, you must pay a fee, so I paid my L40 and thanked Ana, the nice lady that works at the post office. Then I took off with my package, and two backpacks into the central market area where my new bed was waiting. (Today is the day I am moving out of my host family’s house!) I walked in looking like a smelly backpacker, and the guys started laughing as they asked if I was ready for my “nueva cama.” I went to point out the one I had reserved, when they pointed out that the larger “matrimonial” (queen size) was L1,000 cheaper than the “soltero” I had reserved. I told them I would take it. This is how the conversation followed:

Them: But aren’t you soltero? (Which, first just sounds mean and makes anyone want to run off and find a willing partner get hitched in Vegas as fast as possible.)

Me: Yeah, but the matrimonial bed is cheaper.

Them: But, you are soltero. You don’t need the bigger bed.

Me: Just pack it up, okay?

Them: You need a companero?

Me: (Insert loud laughter) No, thanks. Just pack it up.





Small cochon for visitors, or right now my couch

 After sorting out why I don’t need to pay L1,000 more for a smaller bed, I also take a small cochon (mattress), for any guests I will be having and call it a day. I have now spent L3,000 of the L5,000 that PC gives me to furnish my place, and all I’ve bought is a bed and a floor mattress. I start looking around at fridges, to which I find none that are used and all the small, mini-bar one’s priced above L5,000. How am I supposed to afford this? PC frowns on you supplementing your income from the States, they want you to live like the locals. But, all the locals I know have a refrigerator. Finally, I pick one and ask if they have a credit plan. He says yes and after asking me three times what PC is, I finally convince him that I’m legit and am not going to run away to the USA with this refrigerator. I even show him my residency card and he still doesn’t believe that my only boss is in Tegucigalpa. After promising to come back on the first of every month for five months to pay off this fridge, he says yes and I sign a credit form, which I haven’t had to do since I was 21. If I only had money left to fill the fridge up with food…



Keeping up on my gossip and NEW LIP GLOSS! Thanks Jason & Fiona!

 Finally, the guys pack up the little pick-up truck with all my things and three of us fit in the front cab, along with my backpacks and postal mail. We take off for the hour ride up to Orocuina. Once we arrive, I see that my new house has all the security upgrades needed for PC, including an awesome bright red door and chicken wire type stuff outside of my windows, in between the bars. The only problem is I don’t have the keys to the new door. So, I take off running across town and find my friend who is in his pick up truck taking off…I run after the truck and he has to cut his string keychain to give me the keys. Keys go spilling all over. He starts laughing, so I do too, even though I feel bad that keys are all over. I say a quick goodbye and take off running again where I open the door and the guys bring in my three items of furniture. They are then kind enough the bring a stove over from my friend Wilmer’s house; he has GIVEN me his stove, which is a huge gift here! Most PCV’s cook on a little two burner stove, but I have a big real stove! I am so excited.

The stove in question

I continue to move my stuff back and forth from my host family’s house all day, which is difficult b/c they only live four houses down, so mainly I just lug what I can carry in my arms. When all is settled, I sit down to cook a meal and my stove doesn’t work. I am so tired, I eat a Cliff Bar and call it a night. When I wake up, it’s time to get busy b/c another PCV is visiting me today and working with me to present a recycling charla. He has done some great work here in Honduras to promote recycling through schools and I hope to continue the program in Orocuina. Once he gets here, I show him around town before we have lunch and head over to the colegio. After setting everything up, we are joined by about 20 students and two teachers, plus the President of the Padres de los Ninos, which is like the PTA here and a couple other people from local NGO’s. Chad shows his documentary on recycling in Honduras, passes out little pieces of plastic which used to be bottles and cans, and then we gauge the interest of the students. They tell me that they’d like to make it a competition with the schools nearby, and I think it’s a great idea! The more motivation, the better! After the presentation, three students come up to me and tell me they want to get started right away and would like to go around on Saturday to solicit sacks from local businesses. I am super excited that they are so enthused about the program. Here is a little bit about how the recycling program will work: the students will need to solicit large sacks, then they will go around town collecting the bottles/cans/plastic/cardboard from the streets, businesses, houses and place the items in their sacks. Next, we will sort them at the schools and find someone who goes to Choluteca a couple times a week so that we can sell the items to a recycling buyer. He will pay us a cut and the kids will get to use the money for school projects (they can decide what they want). In the meantime, I hope to apply for a grant so that the students/town have their own compactor in order to cut out that middle man buyer. If we compact our own stuff, then we only have to take the stuff to Teguz a couple times a week. We will need to seek out a local person who goes to Teguz a lot for this, too. I emailed several corporations this past week (Coca-Cola, Pepsi) to see if they are interested in donating the recycling bins, b/c they have a program to work with the bins, but I am not sure if it’s international. So, we will see. This is the beginning of the program.

Before Chad left, we were also able to meet with a man in Choluteca who builds the compactors. Using him would be ideal, since he is only 30 minutes from me. He seems to have a good business in building large machinery, so I think some other PCV who already have their grants underway are going to use him and if it works out, then I will too.



Why I need furniture-all my stuff sits on the floor

 Back at my house, I continued to try and get things situated. After two missed meetings with the carpenter, we were finally able to meet up one afternoon and they measured my house for new furniture. I could live with plastic tables and shelves for my clothes, but I figured if I was going to live here for two years, I might as well have stable tables and bookshelves. Plus, I can put some money back into the local economy. I can always sell it to the next PCV or give it to a local NGO when I leave. The electrician came to check out my stove, too, and found that it was working, but the electric lines weren’t! So, he ended up having to re-connect the whole electric lineage for my new stove. Finally, after an hour, he had it all figured out and I was able to cook, but not until I cleaned a dead mouse out of my stove. (Thanks, Wilmer for the free stove, but now I know why!)…





Dead rat #1



Remnants of Dead Rat #2

 Yes, Thursday my house was a little stinky. This was also the day that my safety and security advisor decided to come and visit. (In the middle of my busy week). He walked into my house and immediately said “You have a dead rat.” I said “I know! But, I don’t know where it is.” Well, it turned out that I had TWO dead rats, not just one! After moving the stove outside so it didn’t stink anymore, I woke up Friday morning to SMELL, SMELL, SMELL. I went outside and into my bathroom, where I closed the door and let out a blood curling scream. There was a dead rat waiting for me behind my door, right next to my toilet. I mean, THANK GOD that he was dead, b/c as brave as I am, I don’t think I could deal with a live rat. After composing myself I took the broom and swept him away, fearing the whole time he would revive himself and kill me. Later, when the electrician came, I made him take the stove apart to find the dead rat inside the stove. There were plenty of remnants of him…lots of free fur flying around at the bottom. After taking the stove apart, he didn’t find anything and then replied to me “But, he is dead anyway.” Yes, but I don’t want to cook in a stove with a dead rat up on the side! After cleaning out the whole stove and making sure there were no more critters in there, I took the Asistine (Lysol type stuff) and shined it up. Then, I began cooking all the healthy meals I have been waiting for since June. Just to make sure I was paying attention, as I cleaned up the house Friday night and walked in from the outside, a bat flew over my head and tried to come inside the door. Another screaming fest later, I slammed the door and decided not to go back outside after dark.



The beginning of my Map of the World

 I am really thankful this week has come to a close. Even though all my stuff is still lying on the floor in boxes or suitcases, it is so peaceful at my house. There are no crazy chickens or loud dogs; I can practice yoga outside on my patio and have really nice neighbors. I started building my “Map of the World” last night and have been including the photos that everyone sent me so far. It makes me feel so good to know I have so many friends and family all over the world who think of me often and love me enough to send a card/letter/package during their busy days. They always seem to come at the right moment. As the weather begins to change where you live, it is still summertime in my country. So, I would love to see you if you have the chance. Happy November!