Gabe and Igor at the swimmin' hole
One of my colgate kids happily avoiding a lifetime of oral health problems
i brushed my teeth five times that day...these are my kindergarteners in town
he needs two hands
little ali
freaking claw-spiders, all over my house...this is held by alex, the Brave Neighbor
view of alubaren from my sittin' hill...
douglas checking kaiser for fleas
do it igor!
bat dog! when the wind hits just right...
wrasslin with my dude
alison, contemplating
igor sittin in the river.
me and douglas, sittin on my front steps
the kids with alison's birthday surprise, a clifford pinata i imported all the way from tegus
alison and her uncle alex (nely's brother)
patrick and igor at da swimmin hole
please note douglas is too rude to end his phone conversation for the picture (featuring nely and noel)
noel, nely's son
hermanos! kaiser loves to give igor kisses on the face. they're very close.
this picture is hilarious.
one of my aldea kids
the man loves mangos.
reading a book (thanks Mrs. Kaufmann!) to my preschoolers
the whole gang, at alison's 5th birthday
on our way to the regional championship!17 May 2009
Hey, chochachos! Man do you guys ever get those zits in your armpits that hurt like the dickens? I totally got one of those things goin’ on right now. Armpit zits = not cool. I bet if a famous journalist was doing a story on Things That Ain’t Cool he or she would totally fly down to Honduras to interview me, cause of my armpit situation I got right now. The front-page picture could be a shot of me showing the camera the red bump and wincing painfully. If you guys know any famous journalists, send them down here. I got a story for em!
Other than that, though, I’m pretty good. I got just ALL kinds of lonely last night, I don’t know why…I was just lying in my hammock, drinkin’ some crazy-delicious cactus tea (thanks, Mimi!!) and thinking about stuff when I just started feeling all lonesome. It’s not that I miss the States…I don’t. Really. Yes, I miss the ample and toasty sandwiches that are available at all hours of the day due to the natural abundance of supermarkets and toasters. And I miss delicious frosty beers of the fancy variety, all on tap, all served to me in a pint glass. And I miss pretzels. And chocolate. And dried fruit. And Swedish Fish (thanks again, Mimi!!). But those are all a) related to things I put in my mouth and chew up, and b) of trivial importance (after all, I can and will stuff myself when I get back to the land of delicious treats in September 2010). But I don’t miss the cars, and the stress, and the greed, and the self-centeredness, and the obsession with money and Things, and the constant need to be entertained, and all that stuff. I could live here in my little yellow concrete and adobe bungalow forever (can I call it a bungalow? I’m unsure of the actual definition of that term, but I’m rather fond of it, so whatever it’s a dang old bungalow as far as I’m concerned). I love my latrine and pila and bath barrel outside, and I love my mango groves all over the place, and my swimming holes, and hills all around my house, and my chirpy birds and blinky bugs (more on that in a bit) and all the little kids that own this town and are my most constant companions. And I love my dog. But even though my neighbors have become my family and the kids my gang of friends and drinking a cup of coffee in a plastic chair my idea of a bitchin’ Friday night…sometimes I just get hells of lonely for all you guys back home. I made a big poster the other day; glued like 15 pictures I’d brought from home glued to a sheet of poster board, colored it all up with crayons, framed it with sticks and hung it from the ceiling with hemp. So it’s not that I’m homesick, per se…just peoplesick. I think part of it has to do with the fact I don’t have much to do in the evenings here—after about 7 or 8:00pm, when the neighbors have turned in and I’ve eaten my dinner, I just lay in my hammock and pet Igor and think about stuff…you’d be surprised, with all one’s reading materials exhausted and no TV or iPod, you get really good at just thinking and thinking and thinking, flowing from one topic to another in your head without direction. It’s sort of like a silent conversation between myself and myself. I’m not crazy, though…just introspective. There’s a difference.
I can’t complain though. A week ago, two fellow volunteers Gabe and Patrick came and visited me in my site, which was excellent fun. David, the volunteer who lives in the next pueblo over (like an hour walking), came over too and the four of us had a great old time, eating tasty foods and speaking in English and having adventures. With my neighbors Nely and the kids, we hiked out to these awesome little swimming holes carved out of the rocks by the water, surrounded by little caves and big trees. It was very beautiful, and the rust-colored water (due to the rotting leaves at the bottom of the pools) was delightfully cold. The next day just me and the gringos hiked back out and swam some more, ate a lot of guacamole and tortillas, and then had a crazy two-hour hike back home “as the crow flies,” as in tramping up and down vertical hills, weaving (very carefully) through farmer’s crops and stoppin’ at what I like to call Mango Town, where a thick carpet of freshly-fallen mangos cover the dirt under the canopy of green. (You gotta be sure and only eat the ones without worms, though…unless you’re into worms. Igor, for example, is not picky). Then we scrambled up to my favorite look-out spot, an isolated little perch on top of a rocky hill that gives you a view of the whole town. Later we made spaghetti, and each drank 4-5 “purple drinks,” which are these awesome popsicles in plastic tube-shaped bags (think short, fat, Otter Pops) that my neighbor, Nelo, sells as beverages. Drinking liquid popsicles = making a lot of my childhood dreams a reality.
It’s the rainy season now! About two weeks ago, David came over to work on a project we were doing together. It was a hot Saturday afternoon, just like any other….when SUDDENLY, the sky turned chunky gray and the thunder boomed and it just RAINED like the dang old dickens, all that day, all night, and most of the morning the next day (David spent the night on my floor on my extra mattress, which provided a lot of fodder for my gossip-hungry neighbors). Ever since, it’s rained every other day or so. My backyard, which used to be pure dirt except for the small patches where I dumped pails of water, has transformed itself entirely. It looks like someone ate a bunch of green Skittles and then just barfed all over the place. EVERYTHING is growing! Everything is green! Everything is flowering! It’s crazy. I have a lawn where I used to have dust. Random seeds I’d thrown around casually have sprouted, resulting in a small watermelon patch by my front door (from the time I was too lazy to throw the seeds and rinds away properly) and a bean patch by my water spigot (from when I sit and sort through the good and bad beans for dinner). And my cantaloupe patch has taken over about half my yard now. I can’t get over how green and leafy and wonderful everything has become. At night, sometimes I just go and sit out in the darkness, and enjoy the blinky-ness of the night. Fireflies are crazy this time of year; the air is so thick with them it looks like a psychedelic light show. The lightening flashing over the mountains adds a distant layer to the blinky-blink. The waaaaap-waaaaap of the toads and the laser-gun frogs are like an auditory blinky-blink…and, since the lights usually go out if it’s raining, the flickering candles from people’s homes makes it all the blinkier. Basically I’m just delighted that we’re finally ending the dry season and beginning the wet season…we’ll have rain now until November. I get water in my pila almost every day now, and the torrential downpours make running and screaming in the water a neighborhood activity. Dang but man I love this rain!
My butt is sweaty…I’m gonna go take a bath. Hooray!
Love
Hayley
Hey, chochachos! Man do you guys ever get those zits in your armpits that hurt like the dickens? I totally got one of those things goin’ on right now. Armpit zits = not cool. I bet if a famous journalist was doing a story on Things That Ain’t Cool he or she would totally fly down to Honduras to interview me, cause of my armpit situation I got right now. The front-page picture could be a shot of me showing the camera the red bump and wincing painfully. If you guys know any famous journalists, send them down here. I got a story for em!
Other than that, though, I’m pretty good. I got just ALL kinds of lonely last night, I don’t know why…I was just lying in my hammock, drinkin’ some crazy-delicious cactus tea (thanks, Mimi!!) and thinking about stuff when I just started feeling all lonesome. It’s not that I miss the States…I don’t. Really. Yes, I miss the ample and toasty sandwiches that are available at all hours of the day due to the natural abundance of supermarkets and toasters. And I miss delicious frosty beers of the fancy variety, all on tap, all served to me in a pint glass. And I miss pretzels. And chocolate. And dried fruit. And Swedish Fish (thanks again, Mimi!!). But those are all a) related to things I put in my mouth and chew up, and b) of trivial importance (after all, I can and will stuff myself when I get back to the land of delicious treats in September 2010). But I don’t miss the cars, and the stress, and the greed, and the self-centeredness, and the obsession with money and Things, and the constant need to be entertained, and all that stuff. I could live here in my little yellow concrete and adobe bungalow forever (can I call it a bungalow? I’m unsure of the actual definition of that term, but I’m rather fond of it, so whatever it’s a dang old bungalow as far as I’m concerned). I love my latrine and pila and bath barrel outside, and I love my mango groves all over the place, and my swimming holes, and hills all around my house, and my chirpy birds and blinky bugs (more on that in a bit) and all the little kids that own this town and are my most constant companions. And I love my dog. But even though my neighbors have become my family and the kids my gang of friends and drinking a cup of coffee in a plastic chair my idea of a bitchin’ Friday night…sometimes I just get hells of lonely for all you guys back home. I made a big poster the other day; glued like 15 pictures I’d brought from home glued to a sheet of poster board, colored it all up with crayons, framed it with sticks and hung it from the ceiling with hemp. So it’s not that I’m homesick, per se…just peoplesick. I think part of it has to do with the fact I don’t have much to do in the evenings here—after about 7 or 8:00pm, when the neighbors have turned in and I’ve eaten my dinner, I just lay in my hammock and pet Igor and think about stuff…you’d be surprised, with all one’s reading materials exhausted and no TV or iPod, you get really good at just thinking and thinking and thinking, flowing from one topic to another in your head without direction. It’s sort of like a silent conversation between myself and myself. I’m not crazy, though…just introspective. There’s a difference.
I can’t complain though. A week ago, two fellow volunteers Gabe and Patrick came and visited me in my site, which was excellent fun. David, the volunteer who lives in the next pueblo over (like an hour walking), came over too and the four of us had a great old time, eating tasty foods and speaking in English and having adventures. With my neighbors Nely and the kids, we hiked out to these awesome little swimming holes carved out of the rocks by the water, surrounded by little caves and big trees. It was very beautiful, and the rust-colored water (due to the rotting leaves at the bottom of the pools) was delightfully cold. The next day just me and the gringos hiked back out and swam some more, ate a lot of guacamole and tortillas, and then had a crazy two-hour hike back home “as the crow flies,” as in tramping up and down vertical hills, weaving (very carefully) through farmer’s crops and stoppin’ at what I like to call Mango Town, where a thick carpet of freshly-fallen mangos cover the dirt under the canopy of green. (You gotta be sure and only eat the ones without worms, though…unless you’re into worms. Igor, for example, is not picky). Then we scrambled up to my favorite look-out spot, an isolated little perch on top of a rocky hill that gives you a view of the whole town. Later we made spaghetti, and each drank 4-5 “purple drinks,” which are these awesome popsicles in plastic tube-shaped bags (think short, fat, Otter Pops) that my neighbor, Nelo, sells as beverages. Drinking liquid popsicles = making a lot of my childhood dreams a reality.
It’s the rainy season now! About two weeks ago, David came over to work on a project we were doing together. It was a hot Saturday afternoon, just like any other….when SUDDENLY, the sky turned chunky gray and the thunder boomed and it just RAINED like the dang old dickens, all that day, all night, and most of the morning the next day (David spent the night on my floor on my extra mattress, which provided a lot of fodder for my gossip-hungry neighbors). Ever since, it’s rained every other day or so. My backyard, which used to be pure dirt except for the small patches where I dumped pails of water, has transformed itself entirely. It looks like someone ate a bunch of green Skittles and then just barfed all over the place. EVERYTHING is growing! Everything is green! Everything is flowering! It’s crazy. I have a lawn where I used to have dust. Random seeds I’d thrown around casually have sprouted, resulting in a small watermelon patch by my front door (from the time I was too lazy to throw the seeds and rinds away properly) and a bean patch by my water spigot (from when I sit and sort through the good and bad beans for dinner). And my cantaloupe patch has taken over about half my yard now. I can’t get over how green and leafy and wonderful everything has become. At night, sometimes I just go and sit out in the darkness, and enjoy the blinky-ness of the night. Fireflies are crazy this time of year; the air is so thick with them it looks like a psychedelic light show. The lightening flashing over the mountains adds a distant layer to the blinky-blink. The waaaaap-waaaaap of the toads and the laser-gun frogs are like an auditory blinky-blink…and, since the lights usually go out if it’s raining, the flickering candles from people’s homes makes it all the blinkier. Basically I’m just delighted that we’re finally ending the dry season and beginning the wet season…we’ll have rain now until November. I get water in my pila almost every day now, and the torrential downpours make running and screaming in the water a neighborhood activity. Dang but man I love this rain!
My butt is sweaty…I’m gonna go take a bath. Hooray!
Love
Hayley
2 comments:
douglas is so hilarious. we call it the "huhhhhh" picture!
- max & harrison in evanston
Um, your description of the rainy season made my heart wrench a lot. It sounds so amazingly beautiful.
And we miss you too, Hay Hay!
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