I'm Back!

I’m back, for good this time (I hope). First off all, sorry for my temporary absence from posting blogs.  My internet access turned out to be only temporary.  One week after purchasing my modem and an internet plan (that was suppose to last for a month), it stopped working.  The main problem with this is that there was nothing I could do about it for a few weeks.  I could have attempted to try and call some sort of customer service hotline but to be honest, I don’t know if that even exists or if I could even accomplish anything with my current level of Spanish (let’s face it, most of the time you can’t accomplish things with customer service agents that speak English)!  I was finally able to take a day trip into a my nearest big city to deal with the issue.  After a complicated and frustrating exchange with the people working in the store, my Internet was finally restored…at least for a few weeks until it randomly stopped working again! 

I think after more than two months, I might have gotten most of the kinks worked out with my internet problems.  That would be too easy after all, I am a PCV after all. You now you need to consider the recent power outages we have been having here in my site!  While I still have power most of the time, the power usually goes out a few days a week.  It’s usually out for anywhere between a few hours and more than a day.  This means that I have to ration out my computer usage on days when the power is out and of course, whenever I have free time (and am motivated) to write a post, I never have power and/or internet! 

Now that I have gotten my lame excuses out of the way, I am back on the blog writing bandwagon!  I hope to try to update this blog a few times a month (okay, at least once a month). 

Since I last posted, everything has been going well!  I have more work, which is keeping me pretty occupied. I have taken a few short trips to visit my fellow PCV friends, which has been great.  I have spent countless hours on the chancha de futbalito  (a cement court of sorts where I play soccer with the kids) and even played one full-fledged, full field game of soccer with a local group of girls from the local church.  I have eaten the famous Honduran dish of Sopa de Mondongo (that’s a whole different blog post) and lived to tell the tale.  I have taken a few hiking trips in the mountains ranging from a few hours to more than 6 hours.  I really live in a beautiful place; ya’ll all need to start planning trips to come visit me! 

I would love to post pictures on this blog, but once again the Internet situation (which I hate, but can’t live without) prevent me from doing so.  I am on a limited monthly data plan and also can’t wait hours for a single picture to upload!

Also, I would love to hear from my family and friends back home!  Please email me at jessica.ball.pchn@hotmail.com.  Let me know what is going on stateside.

On a side note, I will share a funny Honduras story with ya’ll.  I am currently sitting my town’s public library.  It is actually quite nice and was built a few years ago with the help of another PCV who lived here.  It has a few computers (no internet though), some tables, a small but decent collection of books and a kid’s corner with games and children’s books. I decided to escape this afternoon to the library to get some work done.  I was working in my bedroom, but the little kids at my house decided to sit outside my door and knock on it every few minutes to ask if I could play uno with them.  The fact that I told them I busy and we could play after dinner meant nothing to them. I packed up my things and walked over to the library and found myself a nice quiet spot in the corner.  I was finally able to get some work done for a few minutes before chaos erupted.  A family of baby chickens wondered into the library.  The lady that works here then proceeded to chase them around like a crazy person as she tried, unsuccessfully, to shoo them out the door (which I should mention are kept open to let in a breeze).  After that interruption, I got back to my work.  Shortly thereafter, I felt something breathing on my foot.  A dog had wondered in the building and was sniffing my backpack with great interest.  This of course, led to the librarian running around like a crazy person again, shooing the dog out the door.  Just when I thought that was the last of the interruptions a group of wild children (not the ones from my house) came running into the library. They decided to play (super loudly) with a few toys that the library has in its kid corner.  Then, just to make sure I didn’t get any work done, a man from my town who had stopped by the library asked if he could talk to me.  That turned into a 30-minute conversation about whether or not I could teach him and a group he belongs to, how to make fermented orange wine?!?!?  Unfortunately, I do not know anything about fermented fruit wines, but said that if they every figured out how to produce it, I would be happy to help them with the business aspects of producing, marketing and selling the product. I have now decided to declared defeat and leave my work till tomorrow!