And a Cockroach, to Boot...

Vinegar did NOT do anything for the ants. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I cleaned off the counters with hot soapy water, then dried them. Next, I sprayed them down with full-strength vinegar and let that air dry on the counter. Within minutes the ants were walking all over it. I was frustrated, but at least my kitchen smelled like a salad for a little while. All I would have needed was to add some olive oil.

This morning, though, I met my kryptonite: Mr. Cockroach!! Few people realize how much I hate them. Did I say, "hate"? Perhaps loathe and despise would be more appropriate. Roaches are to me almost what snakes are to Glenda. That should put it in perspective for some. After my shower, I was back in the bathroom and went to squeegee out the shower floor, to keep it free of standing water. Well, there he was, swimming around in the corner, mocking me with his antennae, daring me to do something about it. So I did. I squished the entire 2 1/2 inch length of his ugly little body. He squirmed. I squished some more. Finally, the fight went out of him and he surrendered to death. I picked him up, with the squeegee of course, and gave him his proper burial. FLUSH!

I'm better now. In fact, I'm ready to head out the door to go to church. We're going to visit the Vineyard church here in Comayagua. It will be awesome!

Ugh! Ants!

I have ants in my kitchen. Lots of them. Unlike when I was here before and identified at least 4 or so different varieties, so far I've only seen two types. But it's the smaller ones that are driving me nuts. They're on my counters and all around my sink. The first day or so I was just wiping them off with hot soapy water. Then, Sandi suggested making a paste out of boric acid, sugar, and a little water. The idea is that the sugar is sweet and they'll eat that, taking some of it and the boric acid back to the nest, eventually killing it. I've been doing that for about a week and I'm not seeing any real improvement. Plus, it's been hard not to just annihilate them when I see them.

So, this morning I'm trying vinegar. When Sandi and I were at La Colonia yesterday I bought a bottle of vinegar. It had a smaller bonus bottle taped to it. Cool! Free vinegar. I win! I found the spray bottle that I bought three years ago, rinsed it out and then filled it with the small bottle. Then, I washed one side of the counter, getting rid of ants and boric acid paste alike. I dried the counter, then proceeded to spray it down with vinegar. I got the splashguard, the corners, all of it. Now, I'm just letting it dry on there. Supposedly, since ants are dependent on smell for finding their way home, this will help.

Time will tell!

It's All About Power...

... Or, rather, not losing power. I think today is the first day all week in which we have not had one or more power failures. We had at least three yesterday. So far, most of them have been very brief. The longest power failure so far was the third one yesterday, but even then, it only last 20-25 minutes. I was cooking dinner when it happened, but since I cook with gas, I just kept on cookin'. I do wonder if the government is going to impose rolling blackouts like they did three years ago. Those last much longer and usually happen in the hottest part of the day -- when you really need the fans in the classrooms to circulate the air.

Now that the week is over, I've met with all three grades I will initially be working with the most. The 6th graders today were an absolute blast. I hope they had at least a little fun, because I sure did.

Earlier tonight, I started hearing what I thought were firecrackers. Then, I was in my kitchen and looked out the window. I saw that it was actually fireworks. The real kind. The big kind. So I stood there for a few minutes and watched. I have no idea what they were for. I thought that they may have been somehow related to the government, but I don't know which side they would be for. I also thought that they may have been to celebrate the opening of La Colonia, a new grocery store that just opened last night. Sandi and I went there this morning. Wow! It was clean and shiny, and their prices on many items were lower than at Del Corral. They also have a lot of imported items. At first I was pretty excited when I saw Heinz ketchup there. Then, when I saw that the price was almost $3 for a small bottle, I opted for the $1 bottle of Campofresco ketchup. I know it's a lot sweeter than Heinz, but I'll get used to it.

One Week Later...

Having arrived last Thursday, I've been here for right at one week now. So many things are familiar to me: the house, the school, the youth center, and especially many of the people. But there are a lot of changes, too: new stores, new roads, new political uncertainties, and even new people. I'm settling in, but of course that takes time.

Yesterday, I started spending time in some of the classes at the school. Initially, and probably for the rest of the school year, which ends in November, I'll be working with the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. I'm going to teach a Literature class, but it will cover reading, writing and conversational skills. Since there are only 9 weeks or so remaining in the school year, I've decided not to try to dive into a novel with any of the classes. Short stories, it is. I found some good resources on the Enlaces library shelves and even have a basic skeleton of lesson plans for my first two weeks with each class. That's a start, at least. The rest should flow pretty easily. I hope.

In addition to all the new classes that have been built, we now have a computer lab on site. There are 20 computers in it and each is running Windows XP and has Microsoft Office installed. I haven't checked to see which version of Office, yet, but the whole lab is pretty darned nice! I spent two class periods in there yesterday, just to get a feel of what's being taught. The curriculum being used is actually provided by Microsoft and seems to be geared to having the children achieve a high level of computer proficiency. Impressive.

I need to get back to the grocery store and start replenishing my shelves. Although many highly processed foods are available here, they're pretty expensive and I've been sticking, so far, to mostly basic items: beans, rice, tortillas, chicken, veggies and fruit. I did find Sriracha sauce among the hot sauce selections, so I had to grab that. I'm sure the time will come when I have an urge to walk across the street to Pizza Hut or head to Wendy's, but for right now, my cooking is satisfying me just fine.

(New) Life at Enlaces

That's right; I'm here in Honduras, at Enlaces, beginning the next phase of my life. When I moved to Lawrence, KS in 1980 to go to school, I thought I'd be there for 4 1/2 years -- just long enough to study for 4 years and do the 6-month internship required of my degree. So, here it is, 29 years later, to the month, that I packed up all my stuff and moved.

I'm in Comayagua, Honduras, answering God's call to me to go to the nation of Honduras. It hasn't always been an easy process, nor have I always had a clear view, but this is where I'm supposed to be right now. And in that, I can rest easy.

Well, I got here on Thursday. I flew in to San Pedro Sula, and after going through immigrations and customs, Sandi and her son, Samuel, were waiting for me. We loaded my things into the back of the pickup truck and then headed to PriceSmart. PriceSmart is a warehouse club, like Costco or Sam's, and pretty much every trip to the city includes a trip there. It doesn't matter if we need to go to Tegucigalpa or SPS, because they both have a PriceSmart.

After PriceSmart we began to make our way back toward Comayagua. It had been quite a few years since I've flown in to San Pedro and I was amazed by how much the area has grown. There is a lot of road construction happening right now, so our progress was a bit slower than we had hoped.

We made it here to Enlaces shortly before 9:00pm. We dragged my stuff over to the mission house and Sandi tried to open the door. Nope. The security pin on the door had somehow been released and so now the only way in was through the window, after first removing some slats. I stayed at Sandi's house that night and the next day we had Fredi help us get in.

All of my suitcases are now unpacked and I'm settling in. More of my stuff will arrive in a container from the US, but for now, I'm quite comfortable!

That's it for today. Look for more to follow...