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.