Cold Showers and Hot Tortillas

It would be easy for me to say that not much has really happened and that is why I haven't posted in a while, but that would only be half true.

Not much has happened. I still wake up really early--on purpose--5 days a week and try to sleep in the other two. I still cook every monday. Nothing really changes day to day. But that is not to say that things here are not exciting.

For example, showering has become a competition, with myself, to withhold a scream for as long as possible. We have reached the Honduran "winter" and we experience lows in the 50's during the night and mid 60's during the day. So it is really not that cold here. The one hinge to it all is that we do not have hot water. I am now able to completely bath in less than 5 minutes and use less than 2 gallons of water. If it were avoidable I would avoid it, but for now, my biggest fear is not longer having all the kids come in the morning, but rather the 5 minutes of bone chilling bathing.

The Totem Pole

Another example of a less painful nature was the month of November. When you take into account that we have sporadic internet, no TV to watch, and we spend every minute of every day together, we occasionally have to "create our own fun." During November we decided to put a moratorium on shaving and go through with a very manly no shave no-shave-November. When I say very manly, it was a very poor attempt on showing our braun but given that the men were the only ones doing it, it is de-facto manly.

Man-partment Family Portrait

My experience was less than thrilling, but I will include photos to show you the most exciting part (that being taking the photos). Most of my month after November 12 was filled with upper lip discomfort and the strange feeling that my face was always dirty. Once the itchy phase passed the only annoyance was really the mustache. But all-in-all my facial hair is nothing to write home about. Making this entire paragraph a little bit ironic.

Another self created means of entertaining is the student impressions and application of said impression in non-academic setting. This should encourage all of you to come visit and see these kids in action so that you can see how spot on my impressions are becoming and why acting these out when at the mall in San Pedro can be quite humorous. I will attempt to get video of this, but it will be hard to do.

But as winter vacation quickly approaches, going home tends to dominate the discussion. I have done my best to avoid this at all costs. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to going home as much as the next, but thinking about it, pining for it, practically drooling on the front row in my class doesn't do much other than make all of my awake hours suck. Rather, I have taken the really-getting-into-Honduran-things route. I am pretty sure I am the only one on the team that has gotten really into Honduran food as of late. It is really nothing special, but when done well, the simple can be really good.

When we were in Copán, I ate at this Honduran restaurant that was absolutely awesome and since then have been obsessed with finding the best corn tortilla. You all are probably thinking how can those things in the grocery store ever be good. I'll tell you, when they are made with real, fresh corn. Corn tortillas will never be as good as flour, but they are cheaper and very tasty here. I like to think I am finally hitting my stride with Honduran food. But then again, I am sitting at the computer salivating over a Mellow Mushroom Cosmic Karma.

I hope to update more regularly, but usually the times that I am able to sit down and type out a good post are the times that I do not want to sit at my computer. I am looking forward to coming stateside, and if you are interested in donating some school supplies to my classroom, let me know. See you all in a week. Hasta luego.