"Heat, ma'am!"

"Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones." ~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir

Last week I left the mountainous La Campa for the valley region near San Pedro Sula. A difference in altitude of 1km makes a significant difference in temperature (about 6C). So instead of high temperatures of 30C, we have high temperatures of 35C PLUS the humidity, making it feel over 40C every day. Instead of sleeping with a blanket every night, I kick the sheet off, and wake up sweating. My sweat droplets coalesce into raindrops with unprecedented frequency.

I am spending about 2 weeks in the valley region, helping out at a farm/retreat centre that is being supported by MCC. The property was donated to one of MCC's partner organizations, but they lacked the resources to run it. An MCC family is getting it running and profitable before turning it back over to the management of the partner organization.

I am spending the mornings exercising my landscaping skills, getting muddy and eaten by ants, and loving it. I no longer have to wonder where my insect bites are coming from: they all come from ants. In the afternoons I am helping out at a tutoring program for kids who are struggling at school. Two of the more challenging kids are two siblings, age 8 and 12, who are both still in grade 1.

After spending months living and interacting in a culture that is not my own, it is very relaxing to be living with a North American family, where I know what to expect, and where my actions are expected. Where I can jump in and help with dinner, because it is something I know how to cook. Where I can eat and make comfort food from my home culture. Where I can fully articulate what I want to say, because I can say it in English. Where I can curl up on a couch (what a novelty!) with a book, and not have it be a surprising event. All these are things that it is so easy to take for granted, until you get placed in another culture. Where different foods are cooked by different people on a stove I don't know how to work properly. Where I have to speak another language. Where couches are rarities, and reading for pleasure is practically unknown. So despite working physically harder here than I have yet to do in La Campa, it is easier mentally and culturally.