A Day of Firsts

Today I took some pictures of my classroom.  The one looking outside is the view out my front door.  The other is inside my classroom.

One of top picture gives a first look at D and L's school uniform.  They were playing Blink on the balcony before school this morning.  All the other times I would try to take their picture with their uniforms on and they would just get all silly.  On a side note with the uniforms, last Friday was "colors day" where all kids could wear "regular kid" clothes.  Each kid who came to school in color clothes had to pay 5 Lempiras (about a  quarter).  The money goes toward, uh, I don't know yet, but I 'll find out.  It was a shock to my eyes to see all the kids looking - so, well - typical.  It's amazing how quickly my eyes have grown accustomed to seeing them in their uniforms.  I also love it around our house in the morning when the kids get dressed because the decision of what to wear is already made.  

Today was D's first day of soccer practice.  On Sunday, he was having second thoughts about it.  I think he was feeling nervous about trying something new in the sea-of-all-new-things he is trying.  But when school ended today, he was already in his cleats, shorts, etc. and was excited to got to practice.  It also really helped that his good friend Diego was also going.  All of the coaching was done in Spanish and it's a miracle in and of itself that he stuck with it the whole time.  But the most amazing thing was watching him run the entire time and put himself in front of the ball every chance he got.  He clearly was the least experienced kid on the field, but you never would have known it by the big grin on his face.  It was a joy to watch him go for it.  But there were also moments when we were worried that the other kids would get frustrated with him for his lack of understanding of how the game works.  At one point, we saw one boy from his team walking with his arm around D and I was imaging him explaining the rules of the game to him.  

When practice ended, D kind of fell apart with us, griping about this and complaining about that.  At first we were frustrated with him for being so difficult after the great feat of his first soccer game on foreign soil in a language he doesn't know.  We were ready to high-five him and celebrate with him on his own personal victory.  But then we realized that he had probably been operating on high adrenalin for the last hour and he was exhausted physically from running around the field more than any other kid out there and exhausted mentally for trying to understand what in the hell he was supposed to.  

New Habits

Shopping habits are a funny thing.  When we were living in Northern California, I had my shopping gig down.  There was a particular store that was my place and I knew that store like the back of my hand.  I could whip through the aisles in less that 25 minutes and get a weeks worth of groceries for about $150.

We are starting some new habits here... our new place to shop is La Colonia.  There is one not to far from our house.  The produce is pretty good (notice the beautiful basil - D loved the basil so much he picked off several leaves and put them in a bowl by his bed because the smell reminded him of our a field trip he went on last year in kindergarten), the aisles are well organized and it's not too big where you'd feel like you would get lost.  I don't like "Pais".  It's a big grocery store in the mall that we went to a few times when we first got here.  Come to find out, it's owned by WalMart.  It's huge, has a lot of crap, and we tended to wander the aisles and back track to find what we needed.  I think the first time we went there, it took almost an hour before we were done.  It is cheaper, but not worth the effort.  Typically, we have been spending about $130 a week on groceries here.  Hopefully as we stock up our shelves with more of the basics, our weekly food bill will decrease some. 

We now buy milk in a carton.  That was a little weird at first.  The carton sits on a shelf in the store, not refrigerated.  We Americans are funny about refrigerating our dairy products.  But we have been drinking the stuff and no one is sick.  Of course, we refrigerate it after we open it.  L doesn't like it, but everyone else does.  

Zambos are plantain chips with a delicious spiciness to them.  Yummmmm.  Even L likes these.

Salva Vida's go down real easy.  I can't say that I'd choose to drink it at home when there are so many great IPA's to choose from, but when in Rome... We've also been buying Stoly vodka for about $8 a bottle.   I hate to admit that we also buy Coke now, but we also have a new drink in our repertoire - rum and Coke is dang tasty. 

Another new habit is getting our bottled water once a week. The water guy that comes around each Saturday morning at about 8 o'clock.  He stands on the street below our apartment yelling "Agua!" but it sounds more like "Awa!".  We tell him how many 5 gallon bottles we need, he hoofs them up 3 flights of stairs to our apartment, we trade our empties for fulls, and voila! we have drinking water for the next week.  A 5 gallon bottle is 30 lempiras, about $1.50.  We give him a tip for bringing the water up.  This morning, between Colin and Elisa and us, he brought up three 5 gallon bottles all at once.  We had the kids take down the empties.

The last photo is of the kids sorting through candy from a "pinata" D went to yesterday.  Pinata is what they call b-day parties.  At a pinata, a kid can score so much candy, it rivals a successful night of trick-or-treating.   To my chagrin, the kid's candy intake has increased one hundred-fold since we arrived.  Its an ever-present entity at school and pinatas.   Anyway, a boy in his class celebrated his b-day by inviting friends over to slip 'n slide.  Because we don't have a car yet, the boy's mother graciously offered to bring D home after the party.  He got back at about 7:30, with the boy, his mother and their Driver.  Come to find out, this boy's grandfather is a former president of Honduras (not the most recent former president, however).  Hmmmm, our life is really different here...

Feeding Soldiers

We have a new Honduran friend who is very dear to us.  She told us a story of how she was getting together with a group of women to cook food for the soldiers who are guarding some of the important areas around the capital.  We were intrigued and wanted to learn more.  After hearing the story it just had to become a post on our blog.  It turns out that this political crisis has been difficult for soldiers and their families.  Soldiers here are not very well taken care of, they are clearly professional soldiers but they are not paid very well.  Honduras has been a political crisis since June 28th and soldiers from the national army have been on alert since then.  

So our friend and her friends have been cooking and delivering warm meals to soldiers and their families for the past two months!  It was inspiring to hear of these women who get together to "support the troops" in a meaning full way.  None of them have yellow ribbons on their cars, they quietly and patiently cook food to show their support of the young men helping to protect this small nation.  These people, the soldiers and our friends are intent on protecting the democracy of Honduras by following the Honduran Constitution.  Honduras continues to defy the odds and is still persevering.  I for one am in awe of the people of Honduras, their commitment to peace, their ability to resist foreign pressure and their sense of pride (despite being one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere).  Us North Americans as and our holier than thou ideas about democracy could learn something from the tiny nation of Honduras.

Valle de Angeles

Today we rented a great little diesel powered Pugeot and traveled to a nearby town called Valle de Angeles. Valle, as the locals call it, is about 18 km from Tegus and it is a great escape from the hustle and bustle of the big city. It was very nice to drive up into the mountains and relax in the tranquil town. We had lunch outside in the city square and spent the afternoon wandering around, looking in shops and a museum.  We haven't seen many dogs around our neighborhood since we've moved here, but there were a lot more dogs in this rural town. The funny part was that as we walked the calles of the town, we would see the same dogs over and over. There was one happy-go-lucky little white dog with black spots that made an appearance at the restaurant during lunch, in el parque central and then later in the doorway of a little shop. Seeing the dogs made us miss Milo (insert sad face here).

Renting a car meant that we got to have our first Honduran driving lessons. In order to drive in Honduras you pretty much need to forget everything that you learned when driving anywhere else in the world. First off, there are really no rules when driving here. People pretty much do whatever, whenever, and usually for no apparent reason. Driving here reminds me of riding my motorcycle back in the states. You have to be so vigilant here that it is actually pretty safe; everyone is looking out for the unexpected and nobody can afford to relax because there is just too much happening. The roads are so poorly maintained that it is not uncommon to come upon a man hole without a cover in the middle of the road. Sometimes there is tall grass growing out of the manhole, so that's a nice heads up to swerve around it! We wanted to take a picture of the "safety cones" for some road repair that was happening in our neighborhood a couple of days ago, but we didn't have the camera. The workers had dragged large rocks into the middle of the road to prevent cars from driving on the new concrete and they created a slalom obstacle course of boulders and wet cement.

Happy Birthday Nana!

Tomorrow is Nana's birthday and it may also be our busiest day yet since we've been here. Won't bore you with the details, but it entails buying a computer desk, 10 plants and an Open House that lasts for three hours.  In case we don't get a chance to call you on the phone tomorrow, this is your birthday message.

SO.....

Happy birthday to my mom and D & L's Nana. You are a bright shining star in our life and we miss you so much.  I hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane... I had to dig deep into the vault for some of these pictures.

Uniforms!

Here are the kids in their PE uniforms.  On non-PE days, they wear a white collared shirt with these outrageously fancy pin-striped pants.  I have yet been able to take a picture of them wearing their pimp-daddy uniforms.  The pin-stripe pants are actually custom made by a tailor here and took a week to get, that's why the kids were wearing their PE uniforms to school for the first few days.  

Cable Color

Hello everyone, We made it through our first week of school!  The kids are adjusting to our new schedule and we are figuring out how to live here in Tegucigalpa.

The other day Colin and I went to the Cable Color kiosk in the Mall to set up our cable and internet.  So we walk up and ask for cable and internet...

Girl: "Ok what is you address?"

Us:  "We don't know what our address is." (We don't actually have an "address" as we know it.)

Girl: (starting to smile) "Alright, what is your phone number?"

Us: "Don't know that either..."

Girl: "Can I see your Passports?" 

Us: "We didn't actually bring any identification."

Girl: (laughing at us)...

Us: "Is it Ok if we open a couple of beers?..."

By the way this entire conversation was in Spanish.

More about the mall...

The local teenagers spend a lot of time at the mall.  They even have a Spanglish word; Malear.  Malear means "to go to the mall".  The mall is pretty close to our apartment and probably represents the highest concentration of wealth and economic activity in all of Honduras.  It is a very nice mall by any standard.  It certainly defies our preconceived notions of what Honduras would be like.  

Another mall story (from Jennie)... last week we were running out of food so we went to a supermercado under the mall.  We had spent all day at the school sitting in on staff meetings and preparing for the first week of school.  At about 5 o'clock we headed for the mall and realized that we had better eat dinner first before heading into the supermercado.  We ate at a TGI Friday's (a completely unforgettable experience) and then went into the store at about 6.  It took a while to do the shopping, and when all was said and done, we had 6 grocery bags and a pack of 12 roll toilet paper.  Herein lies the problem - how do we get our grocery bags up to the level where we could catch a cab? Elevator didn't work.  Kids were starting to wank and the mall experience was beginning to take its toll on all of us.  Eric left the the kids, groceries and me as he headed out to get a cab.  Minutes later, Linnea says she has to go to the bathroom.  She starts crossing her legs to hold it in.  She's experiencing some intestinal upset.  She begins to cry because she can't hold it in any longer and she goes in her pants.  Poor thing!  So I am stuck there with 2 kids, a cart o' groceries and no cell phone to call Eric to have him come back right away.  Finally, Eric returns, Linnea and I high-tail it to a bathroom, and we eventually walk our full cart of groceries through the entire length of the mall to the spot where we can get a cab.  Because of our height, clothing, and one loud, blond child, we already stand out in the crowd.  But now we are the stupid gringos pushing a shopping cart through the mall.  I wanted to crawl under the coffee kiosk.  

La Muchacha

Here are the pictures of our apartment in Tegus.  The maid came today and cleaned, so I figured it would be a good day to snap some pictures while it looked really good.  It also gives me the opportunity to smugly say "Yeah, the maid came today".

So far we only have our "muchacha" coming twice a week.   She just cleans and eventually we would like to get someone everyday who will also cook for us.  It's amazing how quickly I came around to the idea of having a person in the house who would perform all the tasks I took care of at home just 2 short weeks ago!  But working full time and the availability of incredibly affordable house help makes the notion much easier to swallow.

When we got home after the first time she came, we walked around the house, giddy, saying "Look!  She lined up all our shoes!" and "Look! She folded all the shirts!" And also "Where in the hell is the baking dish!?" and "Where did she put the placemats?"  By the way, each time she has come, she has put the clean baking dish in the oven.  I'm not complaining though, I am so grateful to have the help!

So, now to our apartment.  Much different from our 100 year old Craftsman style bungalow in Sebastopol.  I feel like I'm living in a high rise in SoCal or something.  It has a lot of things I wasn't expecting in an apartment that we would ever be able to afford... granite countertops, bidet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 balconies, 1 covered patio (maybe we'll have and indoor garden there?), 4th floor views of the beautiful mountains and twinkling city lights at night.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Tomorrow is our first payday and we are taking ourselves out on the town!!

Political update - The Pro-Zelaya folks are at it these days and getting quite a lot of media coverage.  They know that when they throw rocks and burn hot button icons like a Popeye's Chicken restaurant or a school bus, it will garner a lot of dramatic press.  We are well informed by the administration at the school and we are personally taking precautions to be aware of the events of the city before we head out.  The rock throwers and arsonists are only a small fraction of the people in this city of almost 2 million, so take the mainstream media's reporting with a grain of salt.

Last night, Honduras beat Costa Rica in a soccer match, 4-0.  We watched the game at Colin &  Elisa's place.  As each goal was scored, we would turn down the volume on the TV and listen as our colonia erupted in cheers.  Air horns and gun shots were also heard (don't worry, the gun shots were not as alarming as it sounds - amazing what you can begin to tolerate about a new culture in a short amount of time).  Honduras needed this win on so many levels.  The political situation has been dominating people's psyches and it was good to focus on a positive element of this new culture that we are just beginning to scratch the surface of. 

Playa (local slang: to take it easy or chill)

Today is Sunday and we are having our first relaxing weekend! The kids are busy building a fort in the living room out of cushions and sheets and we had a slow paced breakfast of coffee, spuds and cackles. It has been very hectic since we arrived eleven days ago. In that short time we have; moved to a new country, started new jobs, found an apartment, moved into a new apartment, outfitted the apartment with all the various sundries needed for a family of four, helped the kids transition to this new lifestyle, set up cell phones and cable/internet (almost) and learned to navigate a crazy Central American city. Needless to say it is time to take it easy!

We were invited yesterday by local Honduran woman to visit her home in Santa Lucia. She and her husband picked us up and drove us 6 kilometers outside of the city to their beautiful home. We drank tamarindo juice and guava nectar on their picturesque covered patio overlooking their lush garden. We took a lot of pictures of the flowers, parrots and the kids enjoying themselves as they ran around the garden.

As far as the political situation goes… We are safe and well informed and the school is taking precautions as warranted. Classes were postponed due to some rumors about protests along the school bus routes so school is scheduled start on Wednesday instead of tomorrow. There are not any marches or protests expected in our colonia. Please do not believe the Media reporting on Honduras. Most of the protests are peaceful and supportive but they receive little media coverage.

There is so much to post about life here it is hard to know where to start, feel free to ask us questions in the “comment” section on the bottom and we will answer them directly or post on common threads. Just know that we are all well and adapting to our lives.

Here is D looking at the city. Imagine what he thinks about all this...

Leaving the Maya... Maybe...

Here is a picture of the view of Tegucigalpa from our Hotel Window. It seems so peaceful from up here but in fact it is a quite a bustling city. We will probably move to our apartment today and with luck we will have internet by next week. There may be a slight delay in our blog posts so bear with us. So for now we pack our bags again and get ready to move...