The Waterfall Pictured Below is Better in Person (Visit Me!).
Buenos tardes (o dias, o noches, whatever the case may be),
Apologies for the extended period of time without an update.
So what’s new here in Honduland? Lets see… Gringo, my puppy, is getting bigger by the second, I’d say he’s doubled in size since the last journal entry. I bought a boot leg DVD of Michael Jackson’s Number One’s. It’s great! I’ve worn the thing out, I don’t know why, but I could watch him dance all day long. The guy is definitely missing a few screws though, his “Black or White,” video really just emphasizes stereotypes, and his “You Are Not Alone” video is scary, how’d he become so white? And he’s got a creepy “outtie” belly button. Is there some sort of skin bleaching technique he uses to become so white? If anybody knows please respond on the comments part of this page. BUT, his latest video, I think it was released somewhere around 1998 or so, is stinkin’ cool! It’s got Chris Tucker and Marlon Brando in it. It’s called “You Rock My World.” He really returns to his King of Pop roots, starts dancing, and quits the “save the world” garbage that he can’t really pull off (in my opinion). Okay so I just killed a paragraph on Michael Jackson. Oh yeah, I’m in Honduras!
It’s funny, I’ll put down my Newsweek after reading it for about an hour or so, and I kind of realize, oh yeah, I’m in Honduras. I guess I just zone out of “Honduras mode” when I’m reading Newsweek or watching Michael Jackson moonwalk on my laptop. I never kept up much with the situation in the middle east, but now I know more than I ever thought I’d learn about it, and I know all the Newsweek columnists and their specialty. One of the Volunteers wrote in his Closing of Service Report that the one thing he did when he was totally bored was to read a Newsweek from cover to cover. I haven’t gotten to that level of boredom, but I could definitely see that happening sometime in the future. How much does a subscription to “The Newyorker” cost? If it’s a reasonable price that’d be an awesome Valentines Day gift, I hear they mail internationally at no extra charge. Just a thought.
So, I have been working a lot with the “Junta de Agua.” Which is the group in Honduran communities who maintain the pipes to and from the town’s water source. They also maintain the water towers (if there are any), and collect money for maintenance. I guess you could call them the “water board.” “Summer” is coming, so we want to find more water. So, we went up to our watersource, way out and up in the protected area of Cerro Azul Meambar National Park, and looked around for solutions. What we found was, right above our current source was our old system, from before the community became so large. We decided it’d be best to use the old system to inject more water into our current system. So, we went up a few days later and cleaned up and got the old system running again, and hooked it into the new system. And voila! We had more water filling our current pipes. The problem still remains however. I’m no water engineer, but I think we’d need pipes with a wider diameter to handle the new quantity of water. I suppose that the new injection will help with the new system isn’t sufficient enough to fill the pipes completely. I still don’t have water from 8 am until 8 pm every day. The problem lies within the community. As Summer arrives people still continue to use their water like it’s been raining every day. They’ll leave the hose on after washing off their patio, or they’ll leave the faucet on in the pila (a pila is basin where all the clothes and dishes get washed). I don’t have water because I live up higher in the community, so the folks down low never even know there is a problem, unless I go down and say “hey, cut it out!” But ofcourse, I’m more suave than that.
While we were exploring around the mountain we found an awesome waterfall! A waterfall bigger than both the waterfalls featured by the trails in the park. I’ll try an include a picture, that’ll surely be an injustice to it’s beauty (come visit me and see the real thing in all it’s glory!!).
Oh, quick comment on the seasons here. You’ll notice that above I said “As Summer arrives…”. You might have thought “he means Spring, right?” Well, there’s really only two seasons here; the HOT/DRY season and the RAINY season. The hot and dry season they call “summer,” and the rainy one they label “winter.”
We finally finished the work I started wayyyy back in October with the library in the school. Hopefully I can attach a picture of the final result here on this page along with the waterfall mineraturized injustly. About a week ago Isaias and I rounded up a group to help us with cleaning and organizing the bookshelves we had FINALLY completed. It took all day, but the result was well worth the sweat. And get this, the school wants to put my name on it; “Biblioteca David Joseph Egetter.” Talk about a great honor. I stressed that it isn’t a result of my doings, but mostly of the boat load of people who all contributed. They said they wanted to name it after me because I was a good example of a community volunteer. But, I feel guilty because it’s my job to be a volunteer. Sure, I’ve got time to do things like renovate a school library because I don’t have to cook three meals for five kids, do the laundry by hand, weed the pineapple farm, milk the cow, etc. I’m sure anyone in this community with the liberties I have would do the same thing. Nevertheless, I’ve resigned to blushing and accepting the honor for fear of offending the Director of the School and the teachers who made the decision. I’ll be sure to keep reminding them that my job is “volunteer,” and that the library is a work of the community, not David. We shall see. I bet Grandma’ma (avid librarian of her time) is extra proud looking down on Honduras though, which makes me smile.
Okay, I think that’s enough for now. Hopefully the new journal entry didn’t, as my friend Matt says, “serve the same purpose as a heavy tranquilizer.” Until next time!
Vaya pues,
David
P.S. “Vaya pues” means “allrighty then” but they use it here a lot of times to say goodbye. I think if Papaw had been Honduran he’d say “vaya pues” a lot. Seems like his kinda word. He’d probably even shorten it, like a lot of the older men here do, to just “vaya.”
Apologies for the extended period of time without an update.
So what’s new here in Honduland? Lets see… Gringo, my puppy, is getting bigger by the second, I’d say he’s doubled in size since the last journal entry. I bought a boot leg DVD of Michael Jackson’s Number One’s. It’s great! I’ve worn the thing out, I don’t know why, but I could watch him dance all day long. The guy is definitely missing a few screws though, his “Black or White,” video really just emphasizes stereotypes, and his “You Are Not Alone” video is scary, how’d he become so white? And he’s got a creepy “outtie” belly button. Is there some sort of skin bleaching technique he uses to become so white? If anybody knows please respond on the comments part of this page. BUT, his latest video, I think it was released somewhere around 1998 or so, is stinkin’ cool! It’s got Chris Tucker and Marlon Brando in it. It’s called “You Rock My World.” He really returns to his King of Pop roots, starts dancing, and quits the “save the world” garbage that he can’t really pull off (in my opinion). Okay so I just killed a paragraph on Michael Jackson. Oh yeah, I’m in Honduras!
It’s funny, I’ll put down my Newsweek after reading it for about an hour or so, and I kind of realize, oh yeah, I’m in Honduras. I guess I just zone out of “Honduras mode” when I’m reading Newsweek or watching Michael Jackson moonwalk on my laptop. I never kept up much with the situation in the middle east, but now I know more than I ever thought I’d learn about it, and I know all the Newsweek columnists and their specialty. One of the Volunteers wrote in his Closing of Service Report that the one thing he did when he was totally bored was to read a Newsweek from cover to cover. I haven’t gotten to that level of boredom, but I could definitely see that happening sometime in the future. How much does a subscription to “The Newyorker” cost? If it’s a reasonable price that’d be an awesome Valentines Day gift, I hear they mail internationally at no extra charge. Just a thought.
So, I have been working a lot with the “Junta de Agua.” Which is the group in Honduran communities who maintain the pipes to and from the town’s water source. They also maintain the water towers (if there are any), and collect money for maintenance. I guess you could call them the “water board.” “Summer” is coming, so we want to find more water. So, we went up to our watersource, way out and up in the protected area of Cerro Azul Meambar National Park, and looked around for solutions. What we found was, right above our current source was our old system, from before the community became so large. We decided it’d be best to use the old system to inject more water into our current system. So, we went up a few days later and cleaned up and got the old system running again, and hooked it into the new system. And voila! We had more water filling our current pipes. The problem still remains however. I’m no water engineer, but I think we’d need pipes with a wider diameter to handle the new quantity of water. I suppose that the new injection will help with the new system isn’t sufficient enough to fill the pipes completely. I still don’t have water from 8 am until 8 pm every day. The problem lies within the community. As Summer arrives people still continue to use their water like it’s been raining every day. They’ll leave the hose on after washing off their patio, or they’ll leave the faucet on in the pila (a pila is basin where all the clothes and dishes get washed). I don’t have water because I live up higher in the community, so the folks down low never even know there is a problem, unless I go down and say “hey, cut it out!” But ofcourse, I’m more suave than that.
While we were exploring around the mountain we found an awesome waterfall! A waterfall bigger than both the waterfalls featured by the trails in the park. I’ll try an include a picture, that’ll surely be an injustice to it’s beauty (come visit me and see the real thing in all it’s glory!!).
Oh, quick comment on the seasons here. You’ll notice that above I said “As Summer arrives…”. You might have thought “he means Spring, right?” Well, there’s really only two seasons here; the HOT/DRY season and the RAINY season. The hot and dry season they call “summer,” and the rainy one they label “winter.”
We finally finished the work I started wayyyy back in October with the library in the school. Hopefully I can attach a picture of the final result here on this page along with the waterfall mineraturized injustly. About a week ago Isaias and I rounded up a group to help us with cleaning and organizing the bookshelves we had FINALLY completed. It took all day, but the result was well worth the sweat. And get this, the school wants to put my name on it; “Biblioteca David Joseph Egetter.” Talk about a great honor. I stressed that it isn’t a result of my doings, but mostly of the boat load of people who all contributed. They said they wanted to name it after me because I was a good example of a community volunteer. But, I feel guilty because it’s my job to be a volunteer. Sure, I’ve got time to do things like renovate a school library because I don’t have to cook three meals for five kids, do the laundry by hand, weed the pineapple farm, milk the cow, etc. I’m sure anyone in this community with the liberties I have would do the same thing. Nevertheless, I’ve resigned to blushing and accepting the honor for fear of offending the Director of the School and the teachers who made the decision. I’ll be sure to keep reminding them that my job is “volunteer,” and that the library is a work of the community, not David. We shall see. I bet Grandma’ma (avid librarian of her time) is extra proud looking down on Honduras though, which makes me smile.
Okay, I think that’s enough for now. Hopefully the new journal entry didn’t, as my friend Matt says, “serve the same purpose as a heavy tranquilizer.” Until next time!
Vaya pues,
David
P.S. “Vaya pues” means “allrighty then” but they use it here a lot of times to say goodbye. I think if Papaw had been Honduran he’d say “vaya pues” a lot. Seems like his kinda word. He’d probably even shorten it, like a lot of the older men here do, to just “vaya.”
posted by David at 1:00 PM
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