Saturday:
After posting the last blog (if it looks weird, I had computer problems) I returned home for a while. I watched Bend It Like Beckham in Spanish. The thing is, I have watched it in English on my computer a lot since arriving here, so it was interesting to watch it in Spanish. And I watched Enchanted in Spanish. Everything was in Spanish, even the songs were in Spanish. Anyone who wants to send me a copy of that movie can by the way.
In the afternoon I went for a run with my sitemate. She actually runs, I normally say run when I mean slow jog, but she means run. I ran for much longer than I thought I would be able to. I think she was disappointed that I had to cut it short, but I have two years to improve while we are here. I did run for a lot longer than I thought I would, and that is with the fast pace, so I wasn’t disappointed.
Sunday:
After sleeping in, I went to the internet café, and posted the pics. I returned home, at more hot soup on a hot day, and put the information from the topo study in my computer. I like my house here, a lot of people have been having problems sleeping in, if they are not out of their rooms by a little after 8am, their families think they are sick, its now 2pm and my family is still running around in their pajamas. I like this, they don’t care when I drag myself out of my room on the weekends, but do get concerned if I don’t come out to eat lunch. You don’t skip meals here in
So, directly after lunch, my family told me there was ice cream in the freezer if I wanted some; well, when was the last time I turned down ice cream? I look in the fridge, and there is a tiny bit of ice cream. I scoop a little bit out, taste it, and it was awful. Ice cream can be awful people, this I didn’t know. I knew it could be low quality, but imagine the lemon/lime kool-aid flavor without sugar in ice cream. It was disastrous.
Later I met with my host Mom’s brother, who will be my tutor for a few weeks. It should be interesting. At the very least it will be three hours a week of me talking in Spanish. So, you may be thinking, don’t you live in
Right now I have an awful taste in my mouth. I didn’t eat a lot for dinner, so tried to make a grilled cheese and the cheese they had was yellow sandwich cheese, but tastes nothing like the cheese you are used to, and its kind of late on a Sunday night, so I can’t run to the store to get something to change the flavor.
Stories from the topo study;
First of all, I think they make Honduran cigarettes different than American ones. I was out in the field the other day and was like, what is that smell, I kind of like it. Turns out it was cigarette smell. Part of me things they make them Honduran by adding fried fat and salt into them, but who knows. Later, I regained my disgust of cigarette smoke by the shear volume I inhaled. Relax, there is no chance that I will take up smoking down here, even if they did add fried fat and salt.
We were working on a branch of the system the other day and arrived at the house. I sat down for a minute to write some things down in my notebook, and I happened to glance at the ground. What was there you ask? Well, there was a piece of newspaper that was about the size of this paragraph or smaller with Micheal Jackson’s face. Odd, I know, but it made me laugh.
I went to Teguc to get yet another vaccine, which I can’t really complain because I opted to get the HPV vaccine. It was a fun day though. T’s (sitemate) parents had decided to give us a ride since they were going into the city that day. I was supposed to arrive between 7 and 7:30am. Well, I woke up, thought, oh, this feels nice, then immediately knew something was wrong, waking up on weekdays generally does not feel nice. It was 7:24am. So, I race out of bed, go brush my teeth, send T a message saying I am a few minutes later and get dressed as fast as I could. A minute before I was going to leave, she calls me and tells me that her Mom really wants to go right this minute. I tell her I will be out the door in three minutes or less and finish getting ready and hope T can stall her Mom. So, I power walk down the streets of my town, having to skip breakfast I am so late. Then, three houses away I get a call saying T’s Dad hasn’t eaten breakfast yet, so there is no hurry. Fun! It’s a good way to start your day.
The ride to Teguc was really quiet. We got dropped off and took a taxi to the Peace Corps office. There were already a few friends there. After getting the shots, a bunch of us went to the mall to eat and meet up with other friends. I have to say, it was very good to see everyone, and it was also very good to eat little ceasar’s crazy bread. That mall is so American it is not even funny.
Getting back to town was interesting because’s T’s parents call and tell us to meet them at the Dunkin Donuts on this one street. It turns out there are three of them on that one street, and we picked the wrong one first. So, we ended up paying for two taxis when one would have done the trick. Then, driving back we hit quite the storm, and you could see the side streets just become rivers. Very fun.
Back to work:
After that huge storm the back roads are disastrous. There are mini-landslides that go across the roads, and the ruts are now way deeper than before. Those of you who have lived on or near dirt roads know what a good storm can do to the road.
The day went fairly well, and a few funny things happened, although I don’t know how well they will translate to story telling. At one point I attempted to hold a coffee tree back with my left (they are very flexible), I used my leg because I needed my hands to write in the notebook, and very nearly got catapulted down the mountain. It turns out there was an equal and opposite reaction to me trying to move the tree. Physics, what would we do without you.
Last day!
Well, the last day of the topo study I learned that I should just wear the same pair of pants every day in the field. They just get SO dirty, that I am not looking forward to washing them by hand! I saw today that my coworker was wearing the same pants, and was like, he has the right idea. Ahh, I guess its good to know from now on though.
Also, if I were an entomologist, I would be in heaven right now. I have seen so many odd bugs. The one thing that has bugged me the most though, is not bugs, it’s a plant. It is a plant that I was told “pica,” which normally means itch, but it actually burns. I discovered this the other day when I slipped and a minute later part of my arm burned. Then, today, my smart butt sat on a bunch of the stuff. I put my hand down and a minute later felt my mistake. It only burns for a few minutes, so is more annoying than anything else. I guess it is better than poison ivy which itches for days.
In my work, I am using a theodolite. It is not a new one that is all digital, and to read the angles you have to use a system to mirrors to catch the sunlight. But, we are in the rainy season, so sun light can sometimes be a scarce commodity. This is why I am so happy my cell phone has a flash light. It actually has a light at the top. So, when you say that you used your cell phone as a flashlight, its not your phone flipped open, but the light is actually one. Getting back to the point, I have used this many times now to force light through the mirrors. It’s very convenient.
Vegetable peeler vs machete
Here in the campo, most men have a machete. I think I have mentioned this before. It is a very invaluable too. Among its many uses, is to peel vegetables. We passed a mango tree (common occurrence) and they all ate a mango and used the machetes to peel the mangoes. They repeated this with oranges. Perhaps I should create a list for uses of machete. Use number 63: Vegetable peeler.
Deforestation:
Well, I am not planning on writing up an entry on what is deforestation and why is it bad just yet, but it comes up now in a small way. So, to do the topo study, I need to be able to see from the point where I have my equipment set up, to the point where I want to go next. Problem: We are not in open well-groomed fields. So, when we are in the forest, there becomes this swath about a meter wide that is highly visible. Sometimes I feel a little guilty because sometimes these trees are positioned in very valuable positions, fighting off erosion and whatnot. It’s kind of like being on trail crew again, I am destroying a little bit of land for a better good.
Weekend!!!!!!
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