lenguaje de signos hondureña

Today we did two things:

1. We taught a brother some English slang. Specifically "spiel." The other day we taught him "slacker." I'm sure he will benefit greatly from this education. This is unlike the time we told a different brother that a fork is called a "red chicken."
2. We went out in service with the Sign Language group.

They had run across a couple of English speakers while in the territory, so they brought us back to meet them. This involved taking a bus to a part of town we had never been to, and are unlikely to go back to without a large group. We saw a lot of interesting things, but did not take pictures, because it was decided that it was best to leave things of value at home.

So we met the English speakers, and Zach started a study with a man. He now has three calls names "Mario." His call book is going to get confusing. Then we went to a couple of deaf studies. I felt really bad for the sister conducting the study, because she had to sign, in Spanish, occasionally speak in Spanish, and then translate to English for me, because I speak neither Spanish nor HSL. 

Honduras has its own Sign Language. It's similar to ASL, but different. It is based on Spanish, instead of English, so even if a sign is similar, you form a different letter with your hand, ie. Yes vs. Si. I can't really describe the sign, so hopefully you know what Yes looks like in ASL. Imagine it with an I. Or maybe an S. They were signing so fast, I couldn't tell. But I think there was a pinky involved. So the sister had to learn the variations, and learn Spanish when she came down here. Makes me feel bad for complaining about trying to learn one language. 

We had a lot of fun though. It's amazing how you can communicate with people even when you don't speak the same language.

Not All The Tarantulas I See Are Dead

We finally saw a live tarantula. We were walking home from meeting one night, and it was just sitting there in front of our gate. I did consider picking it up to fry, but Zach scared it by chasing it around to get a good picture in the light, and I considered that enough torture for one night.

Plus, I told Zach of my desire to eat spiders, and now he thinks I'm weird. 

The cat is still hanging around. Turns out it's a girl. And she's pregnant. Now I can't turn her away. The other night she brought a friend to dinner, but they ran off when we got home. I really don't know what we are going to do when she starts bringing the kittens around. Also, I'm a little worried she's going to give birth in the living room.

Anyway, we have made some decisions about things. Mostly these were things that we were already thinking about, but now we've given them the green light.

Decision One- As much as we love traveling, we need to have a home base. That home base is going to be La Ceiba. So, our cards are getting sent here, we are locking in our apartment, and even having internet installed in said apartment.

Decision Two- We aren't going to be going to the States for our Visa runs, due to the new healthcare laws and what they mean for our budget if we are in the States. That means you have to come visit us.

Decision Three- This one makes me sad. We aren't going to be spending three months in El Salvador like we had hoped. At least, not until after we get our Honduran residency. With the conflict between the two countries in regards to tourist visas, it seems we might have to stay away from Salvador for a while, simply because they won't let us in. We'll still probably try to get in for a few weeks though. 

That said, we'll be going through Nicaragua on our way back from Costa Rica early next year, so CharleyRachel, NicaChica, and anyone else in Nica who'd like to hang out or show us around or know when we'll be in town so you can conveniently be somewhere else, please send us a comment on the form to the right side of this page with your email address so we can make plans. The comment form goes straight to my email, so you don't have to worry about it being broadcast publicly. 

 

So....we do like visitors. And emails. And phone calls. Just sayin...

New Healthcare Laws in United States

I don't know how many of you follow the news back home, I know I try not to. However, there is a fun little law that is going into effect in the States right now that might affect some of us.

Yes, the Affordable Healthcare Act.

This is not a political post, I have no opinion on the law whatsoever. However, we do have a duty to follow the laws of the land.

So this is what I have found:

https://www.healthcare.gov/am-i-eligible-for-coverage-in-the-marketplace/

Essentially, in order to get coverage, you have to:

• Be a US Citizen
• Not be in jail- hopefully this won't be a problem
• Live in the United States

Hmm, that last one is a bit of a problem. Also, the website says this:

Direct Quote

U.S. citizens living in a foreign country are not required to get health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

What qualifies you as "living" in another country? Well, it helps to actually have residency in that country. Of course, not all of us have that.

So the Government set down some qualifications. I don't really understand all of them, it's stuff like "Did you tell the country you reside in that you are not a resident?"  "Do you have to pay income taxes in that country?" and "Does your family live with you in that country?"

But the one that caught my eye was, you must be outside the United States for at least 330 full days in a 12 consecutive month period (also known as a year.) Which means you can go home for exactly 35 days each year, no more, if you want to be exempt from the law.

I guess, technically, if you still call the States "home" then you still consider yourself a resident of the place. 

Another thing to note, is that most of the insurance plans available only cover medical care in the States. So, if you do end up having to purchase coverage, you might want to check that you get one you can actually use. 

Some of the websites I searched seemed to think if you have travel insurance with medical coverage, that fulfills the requirements. But those weren't official sources, so I don't know how accurate that is. 

We plan to consult a tax guy just to make sure of everything, so if I find out anything else that might be useful, I'll share it.

All The Tarantulas I See Are Dead

I remember reading an article one time about tarantulas, and how they come out after rain storms. There was also something about a migratory pattern and massive amounts of them taking off together to go...somewhere.

At any rate, we always only see one. And it's always dead. Usually so dead that I decide it's best to not consider picking it up and frying it, and if it's not that dead, well I don't pick it up anyway, because what would Zach think?

That's the thing about us. He is terrified of spiders. I envision going to Cambodia and eating them. To each their own, I suppose.

I love the street vendors. As we walk down the road, people are hocking everything from food to clothes to bootleg movies, even gum and lottery tickets. Right now rambutan is in season, and tons of people have carts piled up with them. So pretty to see. Since we are obviously foreign, when we stop to buy some, people usually offer us a sample first. Don't mind if I do! I guess they figure we haven't had it before. Today there was even a guy selling strawberries, and they looked pretty good so we picked some up. Usually they look really pathetic here.

The one part I don't like about the vendors is walking by the fish. There's flies, and it's out in the hot sun with no ice usually. The smell, omigoodness, the smell. I try to run past that part. I accidentally started to pull us into a meat market today, that was so very bad. I can't even stand the smell at our butcher shop, or when we walk by the meat section of the supermarket. And yes, I know, I used to help gut dead animals. But those hadn't been sitting in the hot sun for who knows how long.

Today we had a very exciting shopping trip. The store had a small supply of Dr. Pepper, so I picked up a couple. And managed to knock one down so it exploded all over the front of the store. Also, we went down the liquor aisle, just to see what there was, and everything was so cheap! There was a gift pack of a decent sized bottle of rum with a laptop case, for 76 Lempira. That's less than 4 bucks. Last night we were hanging out with some Canadians, and they were telling us how much cheaper alcohol is in the States compared to their home, and then we see this today. Awesome.

I really don't understand the pricing on items here. There are some things that are much cheaper than back home, and some things that cost way more. Sometimes, it's cheaper to buy beer than a soda. Bottled water costs so much less than in the States, even though in the States you can drink tap water (and that's really all bottled water is) but you can't in Honduras (and they actually have to treat the water that's bottled.) Gas costs more. In fact, the gas prices got so high here, that they had to change from stating the price per gallon to stating the price per liter, because the numbers wouldn't fit on the sign.

Of course, when we first got back, we didn't know that, and thought that prices just decreased ridiculously. I was a little sad to find out that wasn't the case.

We went out to a little, well I guess you would call it a restaurant, but it's attached to a person's house, and I think they cook the food in their kitchen. Anyway, it's a place where you order food and sit down and they bring it out to you and you eat it there. I got some really delicious chicken nachos and Zach got meat with beans and plantains, plus we both had refrescos, and it cost like seven bucks. If you don't eat at the American restaurants, a night out is really cheap.

A curious thing that we have noticed, is there are three categories of proteins here. There's chicken, fish, and "meat." Meat is anything that is not chicken of/or from the sea. People will walk down the street selling food, and when you ask what they have, the answer is "meat." Ok, what kind? Meat. For obvious reasons, we don't buy anything from these people, but if we did, I'm really curious what we would be eating. Obviously, there are words in the Spanish language for beef and pork and the other various delicious parts of pig, but in general, they don't seem to be used too often. We have noticed ourselves doing this as well. What do you want for dinner? Meat. That's why I can't tell you what Zach ate at the restaurant. It was from an animal though, I do know that.

Well, I'm pretty sure of it anyway.

Kitty

Honduras is not being kind to us. First, it's not raining. Then I get sick. Then I hurt my foot. Then Zach gets sick. Now he's sharing the germs with me.

Today is the start of the Annual Meeting back in the States. Since we don't get to see it down here, if anyone wants to send us details, that'd be cool.

The other night we were making dinner, pork with lots of spices, and it smelt really good. Apparently,  it could also be smelt from far away, because as we sat down to eat, there was a loud crying at the steps to our apartment. We opened the gate, and in walks a cat. He just came right into the room and sat there, waiting for some food. So....I didn't eat my dinner, because...you know, kitty.

He stayed for a little while, and sniffed out the place then left. But he was back the same time the next night, wanting to be fed again. I'm thinking there is going to be a pattern here. 

Right now, the other units in our building are being used by the Circuit and District Overseers for Spanish. I think there is an Assembly this weekend. But the point is, I know they are not here right now, and I have heard their doors opening and closing all day. It's probably the wind, because these places are not that big, and surely any vandals would be done by now.

Here's some photos from service. You will notice I did not take a picture of what was obviously a narcotraficante's house. I did go up to their gate and yell very loudly, but no one was home. It was quite the place though, large fences hiding an incredibly large house- bigger than the ones on our street- and the gates were decorated with metal scorpions. On an unrelated note, it appears the people on our street that we refer to as the "nice drug dealers" may actually own a hotel in the Zona Viva. But, you know, we like our theory.

I particularly like this last picture. Apparently, Hondurans are so rich, that they don't build stables for their horses. Instead, they live in houses.

A side note on the narcos... A brother told us that the US Government posted a list of the narcos on the Embassy website, and told the Honduran Government to go get them, and the Hondurans have actually been listening. This has led to them fleeing La Ceiba, and crime has gotten better around here. Also, one of our other neighbors has recently put their house up for sale; we're not sure if it's related, but why not?

While I was perusing the Embassy site, I found this interesting link to the International Religious Freedom Report. Who knew there was such a thing? Anyway, Jehovah's Witnesses are mentioned a couple of times in regards to persecution in other countries. 

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm#wrapper

That's all for now.

Pictures

So I have a new favorite fruit. The rambutan are delicious. Today we were walking to the supermarket and there was a guy selling them on the street, so we bought a bag and started eating them. Since you have to peel off the skin, I'm thinking we probably won't get parasites from not washing them first. At least, I hope so.

Dengue seems to be big right now. We don't have bug spray. 

Friday at meeting we had the "How Did We Do?" part. Instead of just reading off the numbers, the brother had me calculate all the totals from the seat and share them. The little congregation with an average of 25 publishers got 7,335 hours!

I love service here. People will just come up to you and ask for the magazines. The other day, as we were wrapping up, a guy called us over from across the street. He asked for the magazines, then went into his work hut and came out with a Bible Teach in Spanish. He then asked for someone to come by and study with him in Spanish. O, ok. We can arrange that. 

Saturday we took a hike up the river to go swimming. First we took a taxi to a certain point, then started walking the rest of the way, not sure how far it was. Supposedly, a bus drives that route every two hours, but no one knew when it had last come by. I hurt my foot, so we decided to flag down a truck for a ride to the top. Seemed like a good idea, then the truck that stopped was full of policemen. They let us hop in the back, and two of them joined us. Ok..... So Zach says we should take a picture, cause no one will believe this. I look up, and the officer was taking a picture of me! I guess they didn't think anyone would believe them either. When we got to our stop, we realized that the truck said they were the Tourism Police. No wonder they were so nice! They took a couple more pictures with us to show their boss. I can't help the feeling that we will soon be on a billboard as an advertisement for them.

Turns out that little drive was 8 km. I'm glad we didn't walk. Next we went on a swinging bridge across the river. It looked stable, but Zach and I got it swinging pretty good. The sister with us was not happy.

Then we walked down the road to a hotel and went swimming in the river. We brought our snorkel equipment, but I'm not really sure why, because you can't actually see anything. 

That last shot is supposed to be one of those half in the water, half out sort of things, but it didn't work too well. The good news is our camera is indeed waterproof.

That's all the excitement for now.

More Fruit

So I finally ate the maracuya. Turns out it's just passionfruit. I don't think mine was quite ripe yet, it was very sour. I read online that they are supposed to be yellow or purple, and this one was green so...yeah. I'll try it again, but it was a little disturbing looking. It was kind of like a pomegranate, where you eat the seeds, but the seeds are covered in this slimy stuff, kinda like the cacao. But sour, very sour.

I'm feeling sick, but I can't tell if it's because of climate changes or allergies, or if I actually have something. Since I only have two bug bites, I doubt it's malaria.

Now that we've had a week to adjust *sort of* we are starting our new schedule this week. Can you believe we only arrived a week ago? It feels like a really long time.

Today we ran our errands. This started with going to the ATM at the closest bank and pulling out all our money for the week, plus enough to fill our Internet SIM card, because apparently watching Netflix is a really good way to go through your internet allowance for the month. More on the Netflix later.

Then we went to the Pharmacia Kielsa to try to fill Zach's Rx without a prescription. Not surprisingly, they didn't care we don't have a written prescription. The biggest problem was translating the generic name into Spanish, then figuring out which of the two different packages was the one we actually wanted. So we got that figured out, then they had us wait. Still not exactly sure why, but I think they had to run to the Pharmacia Simon two doors down to get some more because they were out. So they had us come up to the counter again. Then go back to the wall. Then we went up to the counter and she took my debit card, and as she swiped it, the power went out. So we waited some more. The power came back on, she rebooted her computer and took my debit card again, power went back out. Ok, let's see if we have enough cash. Now, this particular medication, without insurance, costs like $10 in the States. Surely the amount of cash we just got from the ATM will cover it. Well, yes it did, but we were literally counting out our last few lempiras, which to put it into perspective, was like rooting around for the last 20 cents you know is in your purse somewhere. So. Back to the ATM.

Did I mention the power had gone out? The ATM decided to freeze, so we had to go into the bank. At the bank are the typical guards with guns that you see outside pretty much every store, and like pretty much every store, they used the metal-detecting wand on Zach, even making him lift up his hat and pull out his cell phone, but waved me on through with just a smile. Apparently, in Honduras, girls don't carry guns. So we wait some more. This seems to be a great Honduran custom, waiting in line. Everywhere you go, everyone does it with no complaint. It's very orderly, and quiet. Slow, but quiet. Maybe we're all just grateful for the time in an air conditioned building. So we get to the teller, and she takes my debit card, and swipes it on a credit card machine, essentially just making a purchase for the amount of cash I want. Interesting method, I like it. Too bad places in the States won't do that.

Next to the pulperia to get saldo for the interwebs. I got distracted by a kitten under the table, which kept trying to eat my fingers instead of letting me pet it. O well.

Then down the street, past all the honking taxis, on the way to Maxi Dispensa. Apparently we haven't been gone too long, I still remember the hand gesture to tell the taxi driver we don't need him. It still cracks me up that every taxi in line will honk at us, after having seen us wave off the last one. The one place I never see a taxi waiting is at the Maxi Dispensa. At all the other markets, there are a couple taxis parked and waiting, but never there. Hmm weird.

O Maxi Dispensa, how I've missed you. I can't find plain salt, and your brown sugar comes in hard rocks, but you're full of interesting things to look at, and your alcohol aisle is never empty. Not that I need the alcohol, but it's fun to look at.

Also...new fruit! Well, actually, it's not new. We saw it last time we were here, but usually on the ground and flattened, this time it was at the store and looked edible, so we picked some up. This is called rambutan.

It looks like something my parents took me to pick one time in California, that was called gooseberries or elderberries, I don't remember. It was spiky and weird looking, that's the point. These are actually quite pretty with their bright red coloring. And, I checked online, I think I picked some ripe ones. Here's a photo from online that shows what they look like when opened.



Our shopping choices for this week are...interesting. I feel like a kid fresh out of mom and dad's house, trying to figure out what we need to set up house. Actually, that's kinda what we are right now. Yay spaghetti and hot dogs! Thankfully, we have a good reserve of Coke that will last us at least two days.

So we are home again. Tonight we study and relax, and tomorrow starts our service week.

I just figured out how to turn my computer into a hotspot (without having to buy an adapter, I might add) so finally I can download the Watchtower to the tablet to study. We were able to get new KMs to replace ours, so I'm starting to feel whole again. We had all our materials in an envelope in a suitcase, but the envelope got soaking wet, then ripped and everything was destroyed. I'm still not sure where our Jeremiah books or songbooks are. On the bright side, we remembered to pack our personal Bibles this time. I really missed mine last year.

So..Netflix. Apparently, if you already have an account, you can use it in Honduras. The only difference seems to be that the English subtitle option disappears and is replaced with Spanish and Portuguese. I was so excited and watched a bunch of movies in bed cause I'm sick, and then remembered that although we pay for Internet a month at a time, we are only allowed to use 4 gbs each month. Of course, I did not remember this until after I had used our allotment. Oops.

The other thing I was excited about, was that we had left a bag of stuff at a sister's home here, and we got it from her a couple days ago. We had been wondering what we left, maybe there would be something cool that we had forgotten about. Nope, not really. Our laundry basket, some natural disinfecting stuff we had brought from the States that I like to use on our veggies, and Monopoly. That was the highlight. I'm glad to have those things, but everything else we kept in there, not so much. It's funny the things you think are important at the time seem like such a waste later. But hey, with Monopoly, Quelf and the Bible games we have, I think it might be time to have a game night.

My cousin in Canada sent us a message the other day. She said it was really hot the other day, it got up to 28 degrees Celsius. Funny, I set the A/C to 30 to cool down. Please, no one tell me what that equates to in Fahrenheit, I'd probably cry.

Well, I think it's time for a siesta.