Muere cucaracha muere!

Sunday, I met this, the biggest cockroach I have personally killed. I was not excited when it suddenly appeared in my shower as I was trying to bathe (I mean, dumping a cold bucket over my head). Of course, it looked even bigger alive and "flying" around my shower. Not the biggest I have seen, that award goes to Edwin for killing it as he ran around the park barefoot.

I believe this is the first cockroach I have actually seen in this house. Therefore, I am telling myself it lived outside and was just trying to find it's way back out. It did actually appear to be searching for a path through the teja. Then it fell and met a new friend named Raid.

On a happier note... It rained last night! After weeks of drought it poured rain for a few hours last night, effectivly cooling the air (I got to sleep under the sheet) and greatly reducing the dust. I even got to run on my dirt road route again this morning! They are doing construction and it has just been too dusty. Therefore, I was running on the paved road past all the car workshops. It's a boring route full of unoriginal piropos. Such is life.

LOVE-HATE

Despite living here for over a year and a half, some things still amaze me, or at least leave me in some state of awe.  I have realized that my opinion of Talanga, and Honduras in general is very love hate.  Although every time a Honduran askes me, "Do you like it here?" I say yes.  It is a lie.  I can't say that I "like" it.  Love-hate is more appropriate.  Most things I neither love nor hate, it is very much LOVEHATE.  When I reflect on my life here, my experiences, everything, I cannot decide whether I love it or hate it.  The list of things I will miss the most is incredibly similar to the list of things I will miss the most.  I know it sounds odd but it is just the way it is.  Somethings, no matter how long I spend here, I am not sure I would adjust to.  That is both positive and negative.  For example, I still feel a bit odd when the school day begins and ends with a prayer.  Each Monday, to commence the week's "Civic Act" the entire school prays together.  It is great that the school has the freedom to do this and there is never a threat of potential law suit but my conscious still screams,  "separation of church and state!"  I gave my English class of teachers an assignment in lesson planning.  They were to make a lesson plan and self-evaluate it (self-evaluation? what do you mean?--very foreign concept.)  One of these lesson plans, in the "methodology" section read: step 1-prayer to the devine creator.  Really?  In the methods section?  I guess I did say to include everything.
Another favorite practice here is to fill the potholes in my dirt street town with loose dirt.  This happens time and time again.  Doesn't anyone realize that filling a giant pothole with loose dirt doesn't work?  Sure, it fills the hole for today, but the first time it rains and a car drives over it, the loose dirt gets pushed out of the hole.  This effectively makes the hole even bigger since the original hole reappears and the sides grow with the newly depositted dirt.  Really?  At least there was immediate satisfaction in fixing the hole for a day.
I love that people can do things like this over and over again and no one seems to see th idiocracy in it.  I hate that the puddles come back time and time again (when it rains at least.)
I love the attention.  I hate the attention.
I love free food.  I hate having to eat everytime I visit someone, even if I am not hungry.  (I have learned to visit people away from meal times, unless of course, I need large meal that will last me the rest of the day.)
I love the sun.  I love the rain.  Until it starts raining, then I will like the rain because it cools the air and limits the dust.  I hate the rain because it means mud and I have to wash my jean more often.I hate the slow internet.  I love the legitimate excuse not to check email regularly.I love the freetime.  I hate being bored.  (On that note, suggested book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.  Very thoughtprovoking)I hate hearing "fijese que..."  I love using "fijese que..."  It is a free excuse for everything.I hate hearing "si Dios quiere," if God wills it.  Take some freaking responsibility and show up to the meeting we arranged!  Ok, that one I don't love in any way, shape or form.  It is a free ticket to not take responsibility and not to commit and I refuse to use it.  If i used it, I would probably love it.

Enough ranting for today.  Here are more Colgate pictures with my kids brushing their teeth.  They LOVE having their photo taken.  Yet, getting them to look at themselves in a mirror is amazingly difficult.  We looked at our own teeth one day.  You do not want to see inside their mouths, many look painful.  Also, the market before Easter, yes, those are whole dried fish.  Very traditional.  A little girl and her chicken on my bus to Tegus.  They are called "chicken buses" for a reason.  Sunset over the Caribbean from beautiful Roatan.

Thumbs Up

Most weekends I spend at least one day playing soccer with a group of women/girls (ranging from about 13 to 31) from in and around Talanga. Supposedly, the “team” is in a league in Tegucigalpa and we were to travel there each Sunday to play (along with several other women who live in Tegus). In reality, I think I played in Tegus twice, arrived in the capital for the game to be cancelled because there wasn’t a field available and missed one game. We end up playing most games against other small communities and aldeas near us. Aside from a few decently talented (but generally unfit and/or lazy) players, the level of play is usually pretty low, like a “rec” team in the States. I continue to play for various reasons; they invite me, it is a chance to socialize with people other than teachers and students at school, it gets me out of the house on days I have no other reason to leave, it’s good exercise and one of the only opportunities to exercise with other people (I am sure I could find a young man willing to accompany me running but I generally turn down that offer.) Last time I played was one of the worst days I have recently had. Nothing especially bad happened that day but it was a day I had not planned on playing. I planned to be on the beach hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law and getting to know my nephew again. Unfortunately two of the three were sick and they had to postpone their trip. While it was the best decision for them to stay home, it was still a bummer. As I was surrounded by giggling 19 year old girls, I felt completely depressed. There is nothing like being around other people enjoying themselves to make you realize the extent of loneliness.  
Yesterday as we arrived at the field in Rio Dulce, I felt none of this. Since most of our games are in small communities, not many people go to watch and I generally don’t know anyone in the crowd. Somehow, they all seem to know at least my name by the end of the first half. I guess that is the result of being the only gringa playing and one of about 3 in the area. Rio Dulce is also an aldea of Talanga but more importantly, it is one of the communities I work in regularly. My original baseball team is there and I am currently doing dental hygiene in the school and kindergarten. We changed into our uniforms and walking onto the field, I saw several familiar faces. Baseball boys. More accurately, most of them soccer players who occasionally play baseball. It was really nice to feel I had true supporters outside the soccer team. We played against the championship team of the Tegucigalpa league. Rumor has it that they are the U18(ish) national selection. Whether this is true, I have no idea but they were hands down the best team we have played. They maintained positions, didn’t play bunchball and passed between themselves. Somehow we won 2-1, goals off a free kick and counter-attack breakaway. It was probably the best I have seen our team play and the best I have personally played since being here.
Toward the end of the first half, I heard my name called. While I generally ignore male voices yelling my name from the sidelines, I knew this one came from the baseball boys. I turned to look and I saw Juan smile and give me a thumbs up. It may have been the proudest moment of my service. I internally beamed at being praised by 11 and 12 year olds. After the game, one of the coach’s friends (aka our supporters) hollered, “How many goals did Laura miss?!” “Three.” said Richard Noe grinning, one of my baseball veterans. Great, someone was counting. And yes, they were solid opportunities I blew (Oops! That’s why I don’t play forward!)
Does pride and joy in praise from a couple of kids indicate my lack of social interaction, lack of feedback or was it feeling accepted and integrated into the community? Probably, all of the above. I will find out in the next few weeks if it has any impact on my relationship with the kids at school or success getting kids to show up to baseball practice. For now, I will revel in the thumbs up from a kid I desperately want to play baseball regularly (he is really fast and seems to have a good attitude.)

¿Qué significa "rain"?

It is summer. Definitely, officially summer, or dry season. While you folks back home suffer through the unpredictable weather of early spring, rain and snow seemingly out of nowhere, here that is not the case. I envy you (at least in the middle of the day as I sweat and hide from the sun in my house, trying to avoid the heat. I like warm weather. At least when I can escape it briefly or I am on the beach and can enjoy it. Here, summer means dust and more dust and more dust. My version of air conditioning is riding my bike down hill or into the wind and hoping the breeze is slightly cooling. It doesn’t work very well since I have to turn around and come back after. I am learning the important lessons of hiding in the house with the door CLOSED in the middle of the day (to keep the heat out) and opening the door in the evening to let the breeze (if one exists) in. It is probably time to get my fan repaired again. The problem is, I don’t want to carry it to the repair guy because it is too hot outside and I don’t want to leave the house unless necessary. I have also returned to bathing at least once a day. Dumping a cold bucket over my head finally feels good. No longer like jumping in the cold lake on a moderately warm day where you take a deep breath and go for it as quickly as possible (the last few months), nor avoiding it whenever possible because it is just miserable and the power went out again so you can’t even make a cup of hot coffee or tea after. I know, I probably shouldn’t admit it, but bathing in the winter is an “only when absolutely necessary” chore. Summer is the opposite, bathe every chance you have. The problem, water can be scarce in these dry summer months. Therefore, I try to limit it to once a day, usually afternoons to cool off or evening to wash the dust off my feet, returning their natural color. It is also the season for watering the dirt, reduces the dust a bit. Just watch where you step, most people fling the run-off water (potentially raw sewage, depending on the neighborhood) out of the “gutter” onto the street. Last Thursday, I did my good dead for the day but gifting water to the neighbors. I saved the kids several trips hauling water from the river, left the contaminated water in its bed and relieved my conscience by not wasting the water to clean the pila. Do I really live here?

PHOTOS:  Field trip to the river with my 3rd graders.  We loaded half the kids in the back of the teacher's pick up while the others started walking until the teacher picked them up.  Things are a bit different here.  This is one of the "cleanest" rivers in the area.  Too bad it is the same stream that first passes through Rio Dulce where the quantity of garbage and number of vehicles I have seen washed in it is disturbing.  And people bathe in it!  It was a great excuse to talk about littering and caring for the water.  Then they wrote down everything they saw.
Kinder kids in Rio Dulce brushing their teeth after snack.
Chichara on my kitchen light, also known as cicadas.  Quite possibly the most obnoxious insect ever due to their everpresent whine.  Unfortunately, they are here until the rains return.