PICA PICA

Javi and I recently got ourselves a nasty case of poison ivy, or “pica-pica” (itch-itch) as the Hondurans call it. At the moment we are both quite miserable, constantly dosing ourselves in calamine lotion and staying heavily sedated on Benadryl.

I thought poison ivy was only a bane of the Northern Hemisphere, but it is alive and well here in the tropics.

However, HOW we came into contact with the vile plant was WELL worth our current suffering. We saw monkeys, in the wild, and got to talk with them! (well, communicate)

We traveled to Danli (near the Nicaraguan border) this past weekend to spend time with some friends who live there. Annie and Luke set us up on a fabulous trip to head into the mountains with a friend of theirs, a man who owns a coffee farm and a 100+ year old hacienda. We watched as he washed his coffee and we got to ask him all kinds of questions about growing coffee. He would later go on to sell his coffee that day for about $120 for two hundred pound sacks, still wet. ($.60 a pound) It sure does get a lot more expensive by the time you buy a cup at starbucks! Food for thought when you read one of their "fair trade" brochures they hand out at their coffee shops.

Anyway, Rene (the owner) led us through the mountain side (literally straight up the side) to a spot where we could find monkeys. He left to go back to work and we stayed and had a great time interacting with the monkeys.

I took a video as Javi was “talking” with one of the bigger males:




On the way down we got a bit off track and had to end up climbing down the mountain side through vines and jungle thicket. And that is where we found pica-pica, I’m sure.

Honduran Street Dogs….pobrecitos!

I have heard that pets are often a reflection of the economic status of the place they live, and I think there is a lot of truth in that. For instance – American dogs are generally a happy, healthy bunch. I’ve seen quite a few overweight dogs and some get the royal treatment in many ways. There are dogs who get better health care than some Hondurans do! I even read the other day that some rich lady in Connecticut recently bequeathed to her dog her entire fortune of $12 million.

Well, no such luck would fall on a dog here in Honduras. I’ve seen some that seem to live in a pretty good situation, but I’ve seen MANY that have it pretty rough.

Take this guy for instance…..

I know what you are thinking. Is this even a dog? This guy has no hair and barely enough energy to drag his bony body around the block that he lives on. While I was taking his picture, I was warned to stay away due to all his diseases from a man sitting nearby in a wheel chair. But when I was talking to him, his wrinkled ears perked up and he did a little head tilt. Poor, poor dog. We walk past him everyday on the way to work so I’ve decided I will bring him scraps when I can.

There are lots of dogs always digging in the trash, trying to find a bite to eat. Some are mama dogs who look so malnourished you wonder what kind of milk they are giving to their pups. (…with what appears to be "utters" practically dragging on the ground.) Others are very scraggly beasts with so many fleas, you can see them swarming from a distance.

They almost always run at a "trot" around town, always seeming to go in a particular direction. I always think that is interesting and wonder where they are going with such purpose.

Sometimes you will see a female in heat running away from a pack of 2 – 10 dogs on her tail. In some of the poorer, smaller towns around here, you will often see two dogs "stuck together" (if you get my drift)….which is a very disturbing sight all in its own.

Here are two dogs, "after the fact" (note tongues hanging low). No one wants to see the actual act so and I was fortuante to have missed it myself, so I'm glad we were all spared that!

Here is your usual subject. He exemplifies the classic street dog look - long ears, skinny body, ratty hair.

And here is one lucky dog who happened to be adopted by a dog loving peace corps volunteer!

She is sweet but how quickly they get spoiled!

David does the laundry

All guests to our house, if they stay long enough, eventually have to wash some laundry. I recently showed David the ropes.

Step 1: Soak in laundry soap for at least an hour.
Step 2: Take out of bucket and scrub (extra soap on the pits and dirty areas). The pila has a great cement washboard for scrubbing
Step 3: Rinse several times till all soap is removed.
Step 4: Hang to dry
Step 5: Repeat with all other articles of clothing that you dirtied that week.
**Extra step (not always necessary): Remove clothing from lines (or move to protected area) if there are dark clouds looming on the horizon.....rain is not good for clean clothes!

Javi took a quick film of him as he was getting the hang of it....




Transcript (if you have trouble hearing it):

(Me talking in the background about girls at work who asked if I do my laundry by hand.......)

Sara: They were surprised and they said I bet you didn't do that before you came here..... and I was like hell no! I had no idea!

David: Well, its new stuff for me! (pause) I tell you this sucks.


Well,
David has left us now, back to the States. Our house is quiet again and seems lonely without a visitor. After almost a month of visitors, it seems strange to not have anyone at the house!

Its been great fun. I can't wait for who visits us next!

Pictures from Rafting (See post below)

The drop I didn't want to do.....


Another shot of the drop.....


David sans tooth......

With the guide.....

David is here……and he already has lost a tooth

Javi and I got back to work on Monday, the 7th. We are pretty busy trying to get the kids (and ourselves) organized to open the store through the vocational school we work with. After our 3 month business training, about half of the kids have decided to stay on with the school and try their hands at entrepreneurship. They are finishing building their shop and where the store and reception will be. The administrator of the program is busy working with us on how this all will work. Its fun and we are enjoying ourselves. As auditors in Dallas, we didn’t get much experience on starting and running a real business, so this is new for us as well. A Spanish girl working at the school for 9 months as a business “consultant” is also working with me on making a business plan for the store.

But, moving on the title of this post….what you all have been waiting for. What is this business with David’s tooth???? For those readers who don’t already know….David is Javi’s brother. He arrived last Friday and he will be here with us for two weeks. We picked him up at the airport on Friday afternoon, and because we were already up in the part of the country where most of the “fun” stuff is to do, we decided to head over to Pico Bonito National Park (near the coastal town of La Ceiba) where we thought we would try out a little white water rafting.

Pico Bonito is said to have some of the best white water rapids in Central America. The three of us spent two nights in an Eco Lodge called “Omega,” which also arranged various trips in the area, including a white water tour with a guide. The rapids were class III – IV, and being our first time, we were all a bit nervous. On Saturday morning we set out for our trip. After a quick survey of the “drops” on the river (and our subsequent approval to move on with the trip) we were given a quick run down of safety tips while rafting. A few minutes later, we were paddling down the river. My memory has already gotten fuzzy, but on only the first or second drop (I can’t remember!), only about 5 minutes in, David and our guide were violently tossed out of the raft in a very crazy rapid/drop. They both quickly climbed back in, but as David was climbing into the raft he yelled…. “Well, lost a tooth on that one!”

I was like you lost what?!!!!

Apparently, recent crown work on the tooth had not had enough time to “settle in” and it came off when he was thrown from the raft. I couldn’t believe how well he was taking it!

After that, I lost my nerve and decided not to do the last drop in the river. I took pictures with our water camera from the sidelines, but David and Javi pressed on. I climbed back into the raft AFTER we had passed the craziest part of the river.

The good thing is we all had a great time and it was a fun introduction to Honduras. Javi and David have gotten some recommendations for good dentists in Comayagua, and they are out looking for a dentist to fix him up as I write this.

When the pictures are developed I will see if I can post a picture of the three of us smiling from the raft after we finished the trip, David missing tooth and all.

Visitors for Christmas!

Wow, it has been quite a long time since we have posted anything. (Almost a month!) Hopefully that has not disswayed what few readers we have from continuing to check up on us, but we have a good excuse. Javi and I had a total of 6 visitors here over 15 days, all coming and going in different shifts. We crisscrossed the country (several times) trying to show our guests the best of Honduras, while celebrating the holidays at home. We had fun but man, are we exhausted! Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks.

My mom, her husband Clyde, my sister and her boyfriend Andy came in on the 19th of December. We took them right away to Copan Ruins (Mayan ruins) in western Honduras. Javi and I had already been with the kids from the Escuela Taller, but this time was a little more relaxed without 30 eighteen year old Honduran dudes.

We hired a quirky English speaking guide who told us stories about the ruins and the Mayans.


It was beautiful....I don't think you can go enough times.

We also payed a visit to the bird park, where many species of tropical birds like toucans, macaws, and parrots are on display.

Toucans were my favorite!

One part of the park allowed visitors to "interact" with the birds. Here is my mom with a few, right after the blue and yellow guy had finished chewing on the buttons of her shirt.

After Copan we took the family to Comayagua to spend Christmas in our home.

Clyde got comfortable right away in the hammock.

Mom and Holly washed some laundry in the pila (that big cement area you see.) I think they had a new found respect for laundry washing in Honduras.

We made Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve..........

And opened presents on Christmas Day. (Do you like our tree?)

After a sad goodbye, we left my mom and Clyde in San Pedro Sula to catch their flight home, and Holly, Andy, and Javi & I headed to the coast to catch a ferry to the island of Utila. We met our good friends Sebastian and Erin there. They took a scuba certification course and the rest of us spent a few relaxing days on the beach.

This is the view from Holly and Andy's room. Our hotel was built right on the water. A beautiful spot!

After an awesome time there, Holly and Andy went to San Pedro Sula for their flight home, and we took Sebastian and Erin down to Comayagua. We spent New Year's here and a few days around the house.

Here they are on the "couch."

And here is Erin doing laundry too!

It was so fun! Thank you all for visiting us....we hope you had a good time!

We hope everyone had a nice Christmas break as well!

Happy New Year!

Feria! (urgh)

Javi and I have put some long hours in lately at the Escuela Taller, helping the kids get ready for their product and service exhibition at Comayagua's annual feria (fair). There was lots of coordinating to do, logistics, inventory tags, fliers to make, etc, so it has been pretty hectic. To add to the stress, there is the "Honduran way" of doing things that always makes things a bit more complicated and last minute.

For example, take this picture to the left. See the variety of products displayed? This is not what we had planned for at all. Javi and I had planned for the students to have 3 - 4 weeks of shop time to make more feria like products (small, cheaper things) but because of the hectic and random way things go down at the school, 4 weeks turned into 3 days. We pulled out projects they had worked on in previous shop lessons, cleaned em up and shipped out to the feria. We added some products from the artisan group and then even pulled some stuff out from around the office from years past, dusted it off and set it out. It's not ideal, but we got it together.

The idea more than anything is to show Comayagua what the student's can do and inform the area who they are, so that people know in the future where to go if they would like custom made furniture, doors, etc. I think we accomplished that at least.

Friday we were supposed to have everything over to the fair grounds before 5 pm, after which no more vendors/exhibitors were to be allowed in. We were ready at 3 pm, but the guy who arranged our transport didn't get our truck to us until 4:30, at which time we were sweating bullets. No worry on the Honduran side, though....this is how it works here, they said.

Sales have been slow to put it delicately - we have actually sold about 120 lempiras worth of stuff ($6) in 2 days, not counting the 60 lempiras we took out to feed some hungry Escuela Taller kids on Friday night! But the kids are getting experience talking to customers about their products, probably the first time they've ever had a professional experience in their lives, so that is good. They seem to be enjoying it too.

We have another week in the exhibition, so we might just sell some stuff yet. However, the stuff is expensive for Honduran standards. All being made by hand makes it more expensive then the Chinese-imported goods that many prefer to buy on their limited budget. This has been a learning experience for us as well - how things are here in Honduras and the deep seeded problems start to reveal themselves to us. But there is hope and these guys are leaning, and that's all we can ask for I guess.