- I have five fresh, juicy oranges sitting on my table. I´ve already enjoyed three.
- There is a gorgeous sunset outside (red sky at night, sailor´s delight!).
- People at work are friendly, as are the people in La Campa and the surrounding communities.
- I was just able to talk with family via the wonders of the internet. So different from when my great-aunt Ann went to Paraguay 40 or 50 years ago, and even when my family went to Lesotho 20 years ago.
- I am learning Spanish; although it feels slow, each day I learn something new.
- I am healthy! Only two bouts of digestion problems so far, and no other issues.
- I have very interesting work prospects.
- The rainy season is ending, and the sun is showing its face with greater frequency. I especially appreciate the sun when I take my outdoor cold-water shower.
This morning I took a bus into San Pedro Sula for the weekend. This was my most eventful bus ride yet! Most of the buses here are old school buses from the US. Each bus has two workers: the driver and the conductor. The driver drives (a challenging feat in narrow, pot-holed roads), and the conductor has a myriad of tasks. He leans out the door loudly advertising the destination of the bus; he collects the fare; he carries heavy packages for the passengers; he brings a plastic bag in response to somebody´s urgent cry of ¨bolsa!¨
My bus this morning was of the school bus variety, which means that my legs do not fit in the limited space between the seats. Its seat configuration meant that 5 people sat across the bus instead of 4 like I grew up with. So imagine a very squashed Alison against the window (my debate is always whether to sit by the window so I don´t get motion sick, or whether to sit in the aisle where I have more leg space; this morning I opted for the window). Unfortunately, the young woman sitting next to me got very motion sick, and her shout for a bag came too late. I gave her my stash of toilet paper to help clean up, but throughout the 4 hour ride I would occasionally see her emptying her stomach in her fresh plastic bag. I must have appeared to be a very comfortable person, because when she wasn´t vomiting, she was asleep on my shoulder!
The bus ride is also not complete unless somebody has brought a chicken on board. The chicken on my bus happened to be in a cardboard box just above me. Sometime during the ride, the chicken laid an egg, which promptly broke. I looked up to see egg mixed with chicken feces dripping onto the seat back in front of me. While my neighbour slept on my shoulder I watched the egg slowly drip down the seat until it finally dried and crisped up.
Can you identify me in this picture? Even if I wasn´t blond and white, I stand out everywhere by being so tall. I have to duck to go into all the doorways in La Campa and the surrounding communities. At church on Sunday, the woman behind me moved to the aisle when I stood up so she could see.
This picture shows me, a couple of colleagues, some student interns, and the guys that hitched a ride in the back of the truck and wanted in on the photo with the gringa. The woman standing next to me is my supervisor.
A view from the office. La Campa sort of spreads out to the right.
How many people does it take to vaccinate a cow? One to hold the rope around the legs, one to actually complete the injection, three to stand around and give advice, and many more to stand around and watch!
A school futbol field does double duty as a horse pasture next to a hillside of coffee.
The view from the top of the mountains is spectacular! But first I had to hike up slick roads and paths that were as tricky to navigate as a hill covered in ice and slush.
A ´friend´ that I found in my bedroom this morning. It had evidently fallen on its back, and couldn´t right itself so it just lay there struggling. 10 minutes later it was happily crawling back up the wall. Cockroaches make too much of a crunch for me to step on them.
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