send Jill free texts online!

Ok, so you can send me free text messages anytime you are online! go to www.tigo.com.hn and this screen will come up. Click on the yellow/orange one in the middle

This will then show up. type in your name, make it short like Jill vs Jillian Churchill. then click "aceptar"

then this will pop up. in the first place, put my number, 9525-5595. this is one more digit then you are used to, but trust me, it works

Ok, so now type in the bottom spot what you want to send me. when you are done, click enviar on the bottom right.

Now, you have to do the verification, like any site you need to prove you are a humann, and not an automated machine. every time i have tried this, i have needed all lower case. type the verification in that white box below the numbers and letter, and then click on the "enviar" that is right next to it.

Then keep texting! It is kind of expensive to text back, so you may not hear from me, but it is a great way to say hello to your favorite daughter/sister/niece/cousin/friend when you are online.

workin' for a livin'

Ok, so I am not feeling very communicative today, so this might be a very short blog, solo Dios sabe.

I went out to a mountain community two times in the last two weeks. Now, here is the thing, i work with gravity water systems, so the dam has to be higher than the tank so the water flows downhill, and then the houses below the tank, so again, water flows downhill to the houses. There are pump systems that use a pump to get water out of the ground and into a tank, but i don't do those.

So, we go, and try to verify that the water source was higher than the tank site. we normally do this with a GPS, to get a basic picture, because they are not 100% right. But, on trip one, we find out that the GPSes don't want to get a signal because the source is in a canyon. Then, when i go back with my survey equipment, the townspeople are all about starting at the tank site and surveying to the source. so, we go downhill (not a good sign), then continue going down until we hit the source and they are like, "We're here!" and I get to tell them, "No we are not!" Yeah, whole day wasted.

fun note, as we are working I heard loud booms, and the first time i thought it was thunder. Nope, its the Nicaraguans disarming bombs by exploding them! Now, mother, don't worry, it was several miles from me, its just that sound travels so i could hear it.

ok, really not feeling like typing, and Erin, forgive the typo errors, i don't have the energy to correct them although i know they drive you nuts.

Jill

Campfire night 1. Making smores!

View from the trail. That is a lake in the background.

Further up the trail.

Looking out into the mountains.

Waterfall!

That's me! The flash caught the little droplets of water that bounce off the bottom of the waterfall.

At the top.

Lookout. This is the group I travelled with. Great people.




Jealous yet!

updates

So, not too much has been going on lately. My sitemate, S, left. that was sad. She is a great friend and an excellent person. She has been replaced by M who seems like a really nice person, but I don't know her that well yet.

Work is going, slow progress but going.

This weekend, I went to the national park Cerro Azul. It is beautiful. I met a lot of really nice, new people. I signed up for couchsurfing, and they were all a part of it. I was kind of disappointed, I have been sick lately and not working, so I haven't been speaking that much spanish, so I was excited to talk to them in spanish but almost all of them spoke english. there was another person there that only speaks a little bit of spanish, so they all spoke in english. oh well. I will try to get pictures up later from the trip and you can all be jealous about me living here and kick your butts for not coming and visiting.

Also, most of you (ie not Erin, Megg, and Mom) have not completed the New Year's resolution I set for you. So, get out some paper, write me a letter and pop it in the mail!

Take care all,
Jill

New hair cut

So, yesterday I was bored, and really tired of my long hair. So, I decided to cut it. Myself. I began cutting to the normal level I cut my hair, which is right before it hits the shoulders, but then decided to go for something that I had been thinking about. My hair is now a bobbed length, although my hair doesn't behave that way. Its kind of Molly Ringwold, 1980s style.

Hey there all

Well, lately I have been thinking about how you know you have been in Honduras too long. Here is what I have:

You stick everything in your bra. It’s an anti-robbing technique meant to separate your money from your bag. However, when you put a chip bag there because there is no trash can, it may have been kept too far.

You stand six inches or less away from doors. In Honduras, if you want to go into someplace next, there is no polite space allowance, stick your face on the door to signal you are next.

Espagetti is acceptable food. This is spaghetti, but with cream mixed into the sauce. I have not reached this phase, but friends have.

You love fried food. Well, I used to eat healthily.

You prefer soda over water to refresh yourself. I never bought soda for my house, now I down large quantities on nearly a daily basis.

You throw everything on the ground.

You now speak Spanglish and not English.

Ants in your food no longer upset you.

You have been sick on a bus a few times.

You call out “chitch, chitch, chitch,” to get someone’s attention. In the past that was only used on dogs.

You see a cute little kid on the bus and think, “Que linda la negrita.” In the states, that would be extremely offensive; it means what a cute little black girl.

You can tell rich Hondurans based only by skin tone. The richer they are, the less time they have ever spent in the sun, and thus the whiter their skin. My friend was recently quoted saying, “He’s light skinned, but not rich white.”



Yeah, that’s all I have for now. Every book/ article on going back to the states says that getting readjusted to the US is more difficult than getting used to the foreign culture. There are many theories on why, but I believe that our concept of “normal” has changed. Also, how do you put the extreme poverty that we sometimes see against people spending outrageous amounts of money. The fact that all Americans are not rich and in fact can be quite poor although they make a lot by Honduran standards has been a common topic of conversation lately.

Photos!

A little after sunrise, day 1.

The group (minus 1) getting ready to go snorkeling.

This island is for sale! Any takers?

Pelicans. They are looking at a guy cleaning fish. He cleans out the insides and throws them anything he takes out.

After the big class 4 drop, the one in the background. It looked more impressive in real life.

Me, jumping from the large rock. Mom, please note the life jacket and helmet.