An omen that the world will soon be ending

Welcome, bienvenidos, to my blog! Usually not one for trends, I’ve decided that keeping a blog is necessary in order to communicate en masse about my adventures in Honduras. I hope you enjoy and are convinced to come visit me!

Today is January 23rd, about 6 in the evening. I was watching “Mean Girls” with Ninfa, a niece of my neighbor’s, earlier today on my laptop and when the movie ended I went to my backyard to use the bathroom. Don’t worry, I don’t poop in a hole in the ground, my toilet is simply separated from my house. Anyhow, as I walked through my porch I heard what I thought was water running from Dona Hilda’s house next door; when I turned to look I discovered, astonishingly, it was a thousand bees swarming through Kate’s backyard. I’m no entomologist so I have no idea what was going on. The bees hung out for about fifteen minutes and then, just as surprisingly, vanished! This may seem boring to all of you except my Dad and Drew but I was flabbergasted. Do plagues of bees just appear out of the blue and buzz about for minutes and disappear for no reason? Or is this a bad omen, like raining toads? I much prefer the bees, by the way, for most of you know that toads scare the crap out of me.

So that was interesting thing number one to happen today. Interesting thing number two to happen today is that I decided to trust someone without a beautician’s license to cut my hair. In all fairness, she’s been going to beauty school every Sunday for the last 5 months and her pedicures have always been fantastic so I thought the awesomeness would reflect in her hair cuts as well. WRONG! I will now be wearing my hair up for the next month or two until it regains its length and I can go to a real salon and get it fixed. I thought I was clever; getting my split ends cut for free, helping a friend practice her cutting techniques, getting lunch out of it as well, but the end result was not the desired one, albeit lunch was great! Coot, we’re lucky we went to Scarlet’s instead of Suyapa’s when you were here or your hair would look like it did when I cut it as a three year old.

The remainder of the day has proven uneventful. In order to pass the boredom that accompanies being a Peace Corps Volunteer I’ve contemplated the behavior of bees, worked on English vocabulary words, read some of Barak Obama’s autobiography “Dreams of My Father”, cooked dinner, and worked out a wee bit. While doing dishes I noticed two repulsive possums frolicking about. I can’t wait for February because I’ll finally have work to do again!

January 25th

Good morning! Soon I’ll be walking to the only internet café in Corquin to post this blog. I’ve already had my requisite two huge cups of coffee, provided by the aforementioned Suyapa from her parent’s coffee farm. It is delicious! My dad claims it’s the best coffee he’s ever tasted, and that praise comes from a well traveled man married to a Colombian woman, where the coffee is famous for its flavor. I’m not implying that all the coffee from Honduras is great (some people even grind it with corn to make it last longer) but Suyapa’s family’s coffee is amazing.

After my rendezvous on the internet I plan to trek over to the Maternal Clinic where I hope to talk to Reina, my counterpart, about starting a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). There aren’t many known cases of people infected with the virus in Corquin but I think that with the neighboring cities (mancomunidad) there could be a group of at least twenty people. I’m interested in starting a support group because the director for the health project, Dr. Helmuth Castro, has personally asked me to help him start a support group initiative in Honduras. Me and two other health volunteers from my group will be in charge of the project and have to come up with a manual, entirely in Spanish, about support groups for PLWHA. We have to start doing research on the psycho-social aspects of living with HIV, adherence on taking the anti-retro viral medications, and identifying leaders for the support groups.

**I was just interrupted by a woman selling fresh veggies door to door. I wanted to point that out because it’s one of the things that I love about this country, especially my little town. I love that I can leave my front door open, enabling me to feel the cool breeze wafting through the room right now, and that the various women selling the products they have worked hard to produce will come by and ask if I need anything. I didn’t buy anything just now but two days ago I bought tomatoes, red onions (my favorite), and carrots.

Anyhow, I hope you’ve all enjoyed my random rants. When I go home to visit in April I will know who reads this blog and who doesn’t by the questions that I’m asked. Many volunteers who go home to visit often complain about the repetitive question and answering sessions they go through with everyone (HINT HINT) so this way everyone will already know!

Any questions and/or comments about today’s entry are, of course, recommended and .anticipated. Just remember that many people will be reading this, hopefully, including family members who many not enjoy vulgarity as much as I do.

Next Entry: Translating for a gringo urologist, “El doctor va a meter el dedo en tu ano, trata de relajar”.