Work

Well, I'm back after almost two weeks. There was work to be done last Friday and every day since then, so I've had to wait until today for my next trip into town. It's quite surprising how busy I have been. The school has me teaching the elementary kids now, which adds two more days of english classes to my week. Things have been a little more active with the coffee cooperative as well. Right now I have activities planned every day until the Friday after this coming one when I will presumably head to town again.

It's almost too much for my mind to keep up with right now to think about all the news and whatnot. Let's see... I played soccer the 15th (independence day here) and the following Sunday as well. Between those four games we won three. The first team we played on the 15th wouldn't let me in because of some obscure rule that I'm not quite sure even applies to me. They beat our guys 2-0 and I'm sure my presence would not have made any difference. The second team was nicer and let me play. It was quite possibly the largest crowd I've played in front of (not that that is saying much) and I had a pretty extreme save when two of their forwards got the ball past our goalie and I intercepted it right on the line. Lots of cheers for that. Felt awesome. We ended up tying 1-1 and winning in penalty kicks. The team we played on Sunday is the same one we beat in my first game and we beat them again. Nothing real dramatic to report there.

Yesterday I accompanied some water techs from USAID/MIRA around the local water systems while they were sampling to test for fecal coliform bacteria and chlorine levels, if they were in fact chlorinating the water (which at this point, they weren't). I think even without chlorine my community has pretty great water though. Stomach problems seem to be quite a rarity. Anyways, this watershed project wants to set up a monitoring system and train some people to do it after the project leaves to keep an eye on quality, and I think I can probably help out with that which is cool.

I have been trying to track down and sample all the fruits they have here in the last couple days. Many of them can't be found right now due to the fact that they aren't in season. Supposedly this mountain can grow any fruit that is found anywhere in Honduras, which might be a slight exaggeration, but it's certainly not far off the mark. Here's a list of all the fruits I have found that I never knew of before coming here (most of them probably don't even have English names). Stars are ones I've tried, two stars for the really good ones.

Guanabana
Anona
Zapote
Sunga
Licha**
Mamon*
Mame*
Granada
Granadia
Maracuya*
Jocote
Jobo
Paterna*
"Limon real"* - like a lemon but big as a grapefruit and sweeter
Siruela*
Nance** (though it should be noted that 95% of gringos absolutely hate these things).

Maracuya or Grenadia might be what we call Passion fruit, but I'm not sure. Then there are of course that many again or more of fruits that we do have in the states. The only things they don't have here that I know of are blueberries. Apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, and absolutely everything else is present.

Sorry for a short entry today, but after a long time away I have even more to do in town right now. I will try to get a better entry in next time.

Gabe