Unexpected visitors and other news

There is an unwritten rule among volunteers in this country that you have total and complete access to stay at any other volunteer’s house. Of course, we don’t make much money so if you are passing through on your way to somewhere else or have business in town, you wouldn’t think of spending any of that precious little living allowance on a hotel, you’d call the local volunteer! With almost 200 of us in a small country, there are many volunteers and the possibility of a free night’s stay almost anywhere, especially in the west. Now that Javi and I have become established here in the house, we have begun to see a number of volunteers staying with us. We don’t even have a guest bed yet, but this is a hardy bunch and it doesn’t detract them one bit. The hard floor is fine with them. Some have come and gone without helping out with the cost of food and drink we provided (bad move) and some have been very gracious and generous. I know a couple who while living with the host family in their site, would allow passer-byers to sleep with them in their own bed (queen size) since there was no other place they could put them up. I personally would never do that, but you get the picture…free nights stay.

So last Thursday, Javi and Conor were planning on doing an AIDS lecture in a neighboring town and because of transportation logistics and the start of the talk, they had to spend the night the evening before (with a volunteer of course). It was the first night, I believe since arriving to Honduras, that I would have a night alone, so I was planning on enjoying a quiet evening to myself. Javi and Conor said goodbye at about 5 and not 30 minutes later I get a loud knock on the door. Upon opening the gate I see 6 gringo faces, all wishing to stay at my house, completely unannounced. Apparently there had been some emails exchanged among other people about them staying, but it was all news to me. I am normally completely fine with volunteer visitors, even when they push my patience I am normally okay with it, but this time I was pissed. They were on their way to do translating for a brigade doing health surveys in some nearby mountain towns, so what was I supposed to do? Turns out the guy in charge of coordinating the thing didn’t communicate fully that they would need a place to stay, so I held him accountable for the whole thing, forgave him and then let everybody in. We ended up having a good time that night hanging out, but sometimes I get tired of the attitude that my house (or anyone’s house) is a hostel or a frat house.

Below is a picture of some friends who were over that night:

Here is a picture of Javi, Conor and Marc (business volunteer in Cane, La Paz) after the three returned from the AIDS talk they did. The three of them were walking around the house shirtless that evening for some reason.....

In other news, we had our TWO year anniversary on Monday. The entertainment budget for the evening was less than last year’s in Dallas, but it was a good time. I made a quiche, Javi bought a bottle of Spanish wine (BIG SPENDERS!) and we had a nice dinner. Being the “Cotton anniversary,” I bought Javi a towel, and he bought me a shirt.

In the picture below, you can see Javi hard at work starting on our garden. He spent an entire weekend sifting through the dirt to get rid of all the rocks. Soon as we can get some fertilizer from a guy at work, I will plant the seeds that another volunteer (pictured above eating spaghetti) was kind enough to give us. The seeds are kind of old, and intended for a milder climate, but it will be interesting to see what grows.