Adventures in Honduras: Honduras is a buggy place...

As always, yes, it has been another busy month. Time flies by here. I absolutely cannot believe that it is May. If someone told me it was still March I would probably believe them.

Here, on the ranch, we walk a LOT. A lot a lot. Most mornings I walk about ¾ of a mile down to the external clinic then in the afternoon I walk back (mostly uphill) to my house and then up to the internal clinic (also uphill). Every day I walk to hogar in the evenings and usually a few other places in my errands or what have you. The point is, the ranch is a big place and majority of our transportation involves our own two feet. It’s always a good day when you can get a jalón (a hitchhike or a ride) from one part of the ranch to another, especially when it’s really hot.

Speaking of hot – oh my goodness has it been hot lately. The last two weeks have been insanely hot (at least by Western Washington standards). We were hitting high 90s and occasionally 100s almost every day, we’d be in the 80s once the sun went down and we might hit mid 70s by 5am before the sun came up again. Now imagine working in a clinic with no air conditioning (hahaha air conditioning…what’s that?!), traipsing up a hill every day around 1ish when the sun is at its strongest, and wearing scrubs. Surprisingly, as hot as it was, it wasn’t completely unbearable. I was actually really scared for this time of year because I wasn’t sure that I would be able to handle the heat. I somehow managed (frozen yogurt in the freezer helped) and now it seems like the worst of it is over. The May rain began on April 29^th. We had the most epic tormenta (storm). It made me really happy. It poured and poured and poured and we had an amazing lightening show that lasted hours. Everyone is very thankful for the rain. This month it has been very smoky outside due to the wildfires burning in the surrounding mountains. Our water levels on the ranch have also been extremely low. I was told about a two weeks ago that we only had two weeks worth of water left on the ranch. I’m not sure what would have happened if we’d actually ran out of water but luckily the rains came before that happened.

Anyway…I had a point to all of this and then got sidetracked on other points. The point is…I walk a lot and during all this walking I frequently have brilliant thoughts about things that would be good to share on my blog (okay, so they’re probably not brilliant, but interesting at least). The problem is that I’ve usually forgotten most of these interesting tidbits by the time I go to actually write a blog post. As such, I’ve started jotting down notes in my phone to remind me of some of these points later. So here goes another installation of:

Cheque Wachiman

(aka interesting/funny/strange Honduran/Ranch factoids)

The Honduran Power Grid

The power here may go out for the entire day, part of the day, or be on again/off again as many as 10 (or more) times in one day. Luckily at the clinic we have a generator that kicks in literally the second the power goes out but that doesn’t stop the computer from completely shutting down. Also, if we’re running on generator power we only have one outlet that gets power (the one the computer is plugged in to) so in order to do nebulizations we have to unplug the computer monitor in order to plug in the neb machine.

Our kids don’t have an awkward phase

We all just recently realized this when we had a group of middle schoolers visit from the United States. As middle schoolers they were at the height of their awkward phase, which made it really entertaining to compare them with our kids of the same age. I think it has something to do with all growing up together. Everything is out in the open. There is literally no secret that is safe on the ranch. Everyone (kids included) is always involved in everyone else’s business. It’s just a fact of life here. Somehow this translates to no awkward phase. At least our kids miss out on one part of life that most of us wish we could have skipped (or forget).

Weird bugs

Bugs are just a fact of life here. We live on a ranch in the middle of the country side – ergo: bugs. Currently the mosquitoes are driving me nuts, but only at night and I haven’t actually been bit much, I just hear them buzzing. We have the usual spiders (some bigger than others). We also have scorpions. I’ve yet to see any big ones alive but I’ve seen my share of babies. We also are in the season of the chicharra (cicadas). Having grown up in Western Washington I had never seen or heard a cicada in my life. What a weird sound! The first time I heard it I was sitting by some electrical wires and I thought that’s where the sound was coming from. I was a little concerned something was about to explode. The kids love catching them and one of my girls even found one with an injured wing and made it a pet for a while. The newest bugs are the ronrones (I think that’s how it’s spelled…maybe? That’s how it’s spelled phonetically anyway). These are very odd bugs that look sort of like big hazelnuts with wings (though I’ve yet to actually seen any fly). I seem to just always find them crawling around on the ground or dead or dying. They literally die almost as fast as they come into being. I’m not really sure what their purpose is but sweeping them up sure is a pain.

Coming up next weekend is volunteer retreat at a surprise location! More to come on that…

But until next time…here’s a bunch of pictures!

Getting ready for a night out in Tegus

Michell x2

Hanging out with Ivania

My girls love taking silly photos, especially with my phone...

Real Hondurans eat with their hands...my girls wanted to show everyone proof that I'm becoming Honduran...

We don't call it the Ranch for nothing...

This was an evening of lots of giggling. Sometimes you just need to put your feet up.

My girls had to work in the granja (farm) one Saturday, so obviously I took pictures of baby animals...

This is a cicada or chicharra. I actually think they're kind of cute with their big bug eyes. Yes, that is my hand.

Part of my walk back from the external clinic one day.

One of the families I had proyecto familiar with. And Matias.

One of my girls found a toad. So she got her picture taken.

The "selfie" concept is a cross-cultural phenomenon. Clearly.

No blog post is complete without a picture of Mili. She's walking now by herself and she can almost say my name!

Mojito sleeps on rare occasions...

My love of Harry Potter has become a survival skill...This is how I manage 11 patients in the clinic during a night shift...

5am. Apparently this is comfortable.

Cutting veggies to put in omelets for a Volunteer Dinner of breakfast food.

Christianne working hard making breakfast.

Tortilla making masters for our HUGE proyecto familiar with all of the año familiar girls (girls doing their year of service before going to university) working in the baby's house and girls hogars.