Day 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154
Day 124 - Friday March 1, 2002
Today was a free day for me...kind of. Jennifer went to Choluteca (the department capitol) today with our neighbor Gloria to say goodbye to Gloria's sister who is currently living in Venezuela and was visiting for the month, and to do some shopping. While she was away I put a new screen door on our bedroom door as it has been getting hotter and hotter each day and we want to keep our door open at night. One of the other bedrooms had a screen door on it and our landlord (Gloria) told us we could put it on our bedroom door as no was using the room it was attached to.
The task was rather simple with the right tools, but armed only with a hammer and my Gerber Multi-Tool, I took to the task which with the tools I left in the state I probably could have completed in about an hour or less. 4 1/2 hours later I had modified both doors with parts from each other (as the one I wanted to just install didn't fit in the door opening), drilled holes for the hinge screws using a large nail, and installed simple slide locks using a piece of rebar to drill the holes for them in the door casing. I miss my cordless electric drill, assortment of screwdrivers, well balanced hammer, drill bits, pry bar, and saw. One of the doors was a little wider than the door frame in a couple of spots so I took to whittling the 1 1/4 inch piece of wood with my knife. All said and done the doors look pretty good. I have to look into buying some stain and a new door handle for the new door on the kitchen as the original stain is looking kind of worn and the door handle is all rusted.
When Jennifer got home she was pretty worn out from the ride of the bus, and the long day in Choluteca. We were pretty excited to open 2 care packages that she had picked up from the post office, and happy that we now have lots of yummy treats and real Kleenexes for the next time we have a cold.
Day 125 - Saturday March 2, 2002
We got up early this morning, had some breakfast of Cinnamon Life (a treat sent in one of our care packages, and went for a walk. Then we went to a meeting at the library at 8 AM to create a work plan with librarians. The work plan took about 1 1/2 and we out lined what thing we need to focus on over the next couple of months to create a library that can sustain itself and bring in enough income to pay for printer cartridges, paper, and other necessary items. This was one of the most productive meeting we had and I think everyone was pretty excited about what we had talked about.
We then went home and Jen worked on her project report while I read the bible. We started a plan this month to read the entire bible before we are done here in a year and a half. I don't think I have ever read the entire book of Genesis before. I found it very interesting. We then had a surprise guest show up. Perth, a health volunteer from a neighboring town (about 1 1/2 away) showed up to talk to us about giving a talk to local health care providers (those that work in the out lying communities) about AIDS prevention. It sounds interesting.
In the afternoon Jen spent more time working on her monthly report for her boss in the capitol and started making us dinner. We then had a visit from Matt (the volunteer who served in our site before we came, and is working in Honduras as part of the Riecken foundation to build libraries in Central America) and a friend of his who is traveling through Central America on his way back up to the U.S.
For dinner we had a delicious Manicotti that Jennifer slaved hours in the kitchen preparing. We were later summoned to the library to play bingo, but it was trick they were having a meeting with one of the people from Teguz (the capitol) who is part of the NGO (non-governmental organization) that help manage the library. So instead of getting to play bingo, we had sit and listen to them go over our work plan we had done earlier in the day. We did the work plan with idea that each week we would work on a different goal with in the work plan. After another hour and a half of talking about the same things we talked about that morning, we were no closer to solution for the items in the work plan than we had been when we started. It was rather flattering and showed good organization that we had the work plan done, as there was nothing added to it and it brought up points that hadn't been considered or thought about by the NGO managing the project. We did eventually get to play bingo and I won twice, donating the money to the library. The bingo games are designed to raise money for the library, and they earn about $.12 per game. They are going to have to play a lot of bingo to have enough money to buy the $30.00 print cartridge that is sitting dry right now in one of the two printers.
Day 126 - Sunday March 3, 2002
We went to church this morning, and then came back to the house. Jen cleaned and I read the rest of the book of Matthew. We had pasta for lunch.
In the evening I worked on a lesson plan for Monday and Jen helped by drawing some really awesome computer parts for me.
It was a pretty quiet day.
Day 127 - Monday March 4, 2002
The first day of classes at the high school. I never imagined I would be a high school teacher. Much less a high school teacher in Honduras instructing high school kids on how to use a computer, and doing it all in Spanish. I took Spanish in High School and I wasn't all that great. I got B's, C's, and even a D one quarter in Spanish. Jennifer took a hike up to El Peñon to assist the local medical office with vaccination day.
My classes went well, but I was missing one of my classes in the morning session. I found out later that memos don't work very well in Honduras (at least at the high school) for relaying information. So starting next week I have a full load of classes. We are doing an introduction to computers, how to turn them on and use the mouse, for the lower grades, and a more advanced class on Microsoft word, Excel, and Internet Explorer for the senior class who are studying business. The challenge is a good one as it stretches our language and teaching abilities to the max. It is also helping me to go way back to the basics of computing to think about what it was like before I knew anything about moving a mouse, typing, and how to turn on and off a computer.
In addition to teaching classes I have also been trying to get two of their systems back up and running with some spare parts that were donated along with the computers. This has been stretching my technical abilities as I have only my Gerber Multi-tool, a beat up copy of Windows 98, and absolutely no documentation for any of the hardware. The systems are about 10 years old and really getting close to a permanent retirement with out some upgrades.
In the evening Jennifer and I spent a large chunk of time reliving our days. As is so common whenever we are apart for any length of time now. I wonder what it is going to be like when we get back to the states and have to spend entire days apart every day. It makes me sad to think about this as I love having her by my side day and night to talk to, love, and listen to.
Day 128 - Tuesday March 5, 2002
Today was a day off. We are only teaching at the high school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I was supposed to have a class with the librarians on computer basics, but they changed their hours of operation in our last meeting and found out that that effects the hours they would show up for computer classes, so no computer classes today. I spent much of the day reading. Currently I am reading "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver which is probably going to go on my "highly recommended reading list. So far it is a really great book, and it is one of Jennifer's favorites.
Day 129 - Wednesday March 6, 2002
Another day of classes...well maybe not. We had our first hour of classes and right as the advanced group was heading up the hill to the computer lab the lights went out. No computers, no class. So Jennifer and I spent the time reading and writing email so we could use the phone line one last time before we left to go home. The electricity never came back on and we had to cancel both the classes for the day and go home.
For dinner Jennifer made a wonderful pasta as my birthday dinner and we had a romantic candle light dinner, even though the lights had come back on by then.
Day 130 - Thursday March 7, 2002
We got up early and did our laundry this morning. Jennifer got up before me and made apple muffins for my birthday. Then we started the task of cleaning the house and doing laundry as two of our friends were coming up to visit for the day. At about 11:00 AM we got an invitation to go to the high school for a special birthday lunch in my and 4 other teachers honor at 12.:15 PM. We were expecting our friends to arrive around 12:30 or so and weren't so sure the lunch would start on time. We left a note for them telling them where they could find the keys and to help themselves to ice tea in the fridge.
We got to the high school about 10 minutes early hoping we could get to eating a bit sooner, but lunch didn't start until about 12:40 or so. We ate and sang "Happy Birthday" and said our "thank yous" and then headed back home. We were pleased to find Nina in a hammock reading and Raj inside drinking ice tea.
We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting, eating hummus and crackers, visiting the library, and just enjoying the company of another Peace Corps couple to commiserate with. Then right at sun down, the lights went out and we lost electricity. Shortly there after we received an invitation to go to the Mayorga's house for dinner and birthday cake.
Dinner was excellent and we had grilled chicken, bean, rice, and tortillas. They had also made me a birthday cake identical to the one they made for their grandmother who I happen to share a birthday with. So we sang happy birthday, in English and Spanish, and ate cake. It was very enjoyable and I think we are very lucky to have such a great family living so close who want to share with us. Without I don't know if we would have had much of a birthday dinner. We would have made due, but it was sure nice to have hot food.
On another note through out the day have noticed a rash on my body that itches severely. I think I may have gotten some local version of poison ivy.
Day 131 - Friday March 8, 2002
My rash is worse, and I'm pretty sure it is a food allergy. I'm just not quiet sure what food it was. I had some tamarinds, a few days ago and again yesterday and I think that might be the culprit. I've never had a reaction like this to anything before. I took some benadryl yesterday for it, and it didn't really seem to help. Today I took some Claritin and it seemed to help a little. I just hope it goes away soon as it is really annoying. Whenever things like this happen to me I can't help but think of Job and the trials he faced. I'm lucky it's just a rash.
We had classes today and Jennifer was a huge help. I think we are going to start switching off teaching classes with me teaching one and her the next. It is really good practice for our Spanish and she really likes doing training type things.
I spent the late afternoon at the library helping Yami with a schedule she needed to get done for the elementary school. We also got to meet a Honduran woman who moved to the states 45 years ago who married a German guy who also moved to the states 45 years ago, who were in Concepción visiting their family. They were a very interesting couple and we look forward to talking with them again in a week or two when they return.
We had dinner, which was tuna fish sandwiches, and fell asleep together in our big hammock reading a great marriage book on communication we bought called "Communication Key to Your Marriage" by H. Norman Wright.
Day 132 - Saturday March 9, 2002
We tried yahoo chatting with Jen's parents and our friends from North Carolina, Scott and Jami, this morning, but it didn't work very well. I had to leave Jennifer at the school to meet with the librarians about our work plan. In the meeting we talked about how to make a schedule for the elementary and high school students to use the library during school hours, and about some rules for the teachers to bring kids to the library.
After the meeting Jen and I met at church for Mass, which was completely packed full of people. We were standing for the first 45 minutes until a really nice woman went home and got us some plastic chairs to sit in. I don't know what we would have done as the Mass was about 2 1/2 hours long and started about 45 minutes late.
After church we had left over Chinese food for lunch. Jen's mom had brought down La Choy Beef Pepper Oriental Chow Mien in a can with crunchy chow mien noodles in a bag that we had eaten a few days ago. It was so good. We played a game of scrabble and took a nap.
Later in the evening I got a surprise birthday party from the neighbors and their kids. We had a piñata which turned ugly when they found out there was a small smiley face ball inside. Our landlord managed to grab the ball and was then attacked by her sister and 7 little kids. In the melee one of her daughters was injured (very minor) and went crying into the house. There are two little boys that always show up at these things who always get the majority of the candy. They venture in to collect candy while the blindfolded person is still violently swinging away. One of these days they are going to get whacked in the head with the sawed off broom handle we use to kill the piñatas. We then had cake which was actually pretty good this time around, and as I lay in the hammock on our patio pretty much in the same position and in the same cloths as in the picture, one of the neighbor girls, Lilly to be exact, dumped a bucket of water on my to say "happy birthday". It was pretty funny, if you don't mind being wet. Luckily everything dries here in an hour or so.
Then Jen and I rematches in yet another game of scrabble. I'm afraid she usually kills me at the game, and it is a crush to my ego each time we play. A good lesson in humility. Although tonight I managed to beat her.
Day 133 - Sunday March 10, 2002
We hung out at home for most of the day today. We did email in the morning and spoke with Jennifer's parents and with our friends from north Carolina. In the afternoon I read the "Poisonwood Bible". Around dinner time Jennifer I read a book on marriage. over the last few days I have developed a rash, it is really bad tonight, So I spend most of the night itching.
Day 134 - Monday March 11, 2002
Had class today, everything went really well. we began another session with the beginning classes, And continue the sessions with the advanced classes. Launch was fried chicken at the school. One of the perks of working at the school is that we get free lunch every afternoon we teach of the school.
Tomorrow and Jennifer leaves for the capital and she has a training for the support and advocacy group. This is a group of volunteers who are available to all the volunteers within the country who may have difficulty adjusting to life in Honduras, or may just need someone to talk to. Her training is for five days and she'll be returning on Saturday. I will miss her very much.
In the late afternoon I finished reading the "Poisonwood Bible" and Jennifer and I read another chapter in our marriage book.
Day 135 - Tuesday March 12, 2002
This morning we left on the bus for Choluteca at 6:30 AM. When we got to Choluteca I had to say goodbye to Jennifer, this would be the first time we have been a part since field based training. I got off the bus and she kept going. I had to go to the hospital to see what could be done about my rash. When I arrived at the hospital, I was already lost. I had never been to this hospital before in the setup was somewhat confusing. I got into line with about fifteen other people in front of the window that said adults. After about twenty minutes and it's the front of the line and apologized to the women as I didn't know what I was doing. I'm sure she thought I was crazy as the first thing out of my ball was "excuse me, But I don't know what I'm doing here." I told him the name was "Miguel Silvera" antennas from Concepción de Maria. she gave me a small pink sheet of paper and directed me to a waiting room on the other side of the hospital. I went to the waiting room which was a large open room with several wooden benches, and about 50 people waiting to be seen by the doctor. Amazingly, my name was called within ten minutes, and that was directed to another smaller area with about ten other people to see a doctor. twenty minutes later I was seen by the doctor. the doctor's office was a small room with it with examining table, a small desk, and the weak fluorescent lamp. the doctor sitting behind the table was a man in his 40's whose initial impression was that I was using up his precious time.
I explain what the problem was, and with out a clinical examination he whipped me out three prescriptions. What was for eye drops, the second was for hydrocortisone, into the third was for allergy medication. I ask him three different times, and in three different ways that he thought the rash was and all he told me was to go to the pharmacy.
I went to the pharmacy and noticed there was a large line and group of people waiting to get their prescriptions. While standing at the back door of the pharmacy I asked a person walking by if I could fill my prescriptions at a different pharmacy. She told me that I could, so I started walking towards the front gate of the hospital. As I started, a woman called to be from the back door of the pharmacy. She asked to look at my prescriptions, then went inside then returned with two of the three items that I needed. She told me that I didn't have to pay for the prescriptions.
Looking back, I am not sure how the hospital is going to get paid at all . I gave them the name "Miguel Silvera" and told them I live in Concepción de Maria. They will probably just send me a bill, and I will have peace corps take care of it.
after I was done at the hospital, I went to the emergency zone coordinator's office. there and that up with another volunteer who was in town and running some errands. we've agreed to meet at a local store for lunch. I then went to the post office with it was a package waiting for me. One of our friends had sent us in the Easter basket.
We had lunch, and I went to John's house to hang out with the rest of the afternoon. around dinnertime Raj in Nina shed up and we had grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. before they arrived, I spent about two hours reading a new book that one of my friends from the state sent me called "Bourne Identity"
After dinner we went to see "Behind Enemy Lines". It was pretty cool movie and I really liked the cinematography, especially the first fighter scene. Very cool. After the movie I slept at Raj and Nina's house.
Day 136 - Wednesday March 13, 2002
This morning I went grocery shopping and picked up some reprints of photos I had made. I also got a Mocachino Supreme at Cafe Americano, which is a frozen coffee with whipped cream on top. It is one of my favorite treats in the hot dry city of Choluteca.
I then went to the bus and after a few exchanges with the bus driver got a bus that I thought was going to Concepción de Maria. When I got half way there they informed that it wasn't going all the way to Concepción. so I got off in Corpus and waited for the next bus to come. While I was waiting the priest from the Catholic Church came by and we chatted for a while. He told me that after Easter Concepción would have it's own priest. I was pretty excited to hear that.
When I got home I stained our screen doors and main doors, epoxy some large plastic buckets back together (which didn't work too well), and passed the time waiting for Jen to return in three days.
Day 137 - Thursday March 14, 2002
I hung out at home most of the day today, but also spent quiet a bit of time in the library trying to fix a computer that had been destroyed by some kind of software glitch or someone deleting random files.
Jen is still gone...I miss her.
Day 138 - Friday March 15, 2002
I had classes today, they went rather well. There are definitely two different levels of people in both of my advanced classes. I have two or three kids in each class who are holding up the progress of everyone else. I have suggested morning sessions for the slower kids or a time when the computer room could be open for them to practice the previous days lessons. I'm not sure how that is going to work. At this point it may just be better to force a morning session for one group and an afternoon session for another and move at different speeds for the two classes. Some of the kids are having a difficult time with some of the most basic items. For example for 6 full hours of class now we have been clicking and dragging. Some of them still just don't get the concept, even after holding their hand and taking them physically through the motions.
Jennifer is still gone and I miss her terribly. I don't know how to get by day to day with out her. She is my other half. She makes me complete.
Day 139 - Saturday March 16, 2002
Did the journal once, but the program crashed and I lost the last weeks worth of entries. I'm not too happy about that. I use Microsoft Front Page XP, but I'm not terribly impressed. I had hoped it would be on the same level for editing as Microsoft Word XP, but it is not. I also don't like the reporting format for error checking. It also doesn't have an auto save feature so I have to continually remember to save my work. Oh well....
Day 140 - Sunday March 17, 2002
We had church at home this morning feeling moved to worship together in English and Spanish, with our own music. There is no priest here today and we would have to go listen to the "speaker of the word" a lay person who says very little in a very long period of time. We should be getting a priest some time after Easter which is pretty exciting. We will finally be able to attend Mass every Sunday.
Day 141 - Monday March 18, 2002
I started regularly scheduled classes with the librarians this morning. They are great and pick things pretty quickly, which is good as I have a lot more information to cover with them than my basic classes a the high school. The idea is to train the librarians to be able to give classes on computers in the library so they can earn money for the library to buy printer ink, paper, and other supplies that are needed.
I also had classes at the high school that went really well.
Day 142 - Tuesday March 19, 2002
This morning I met with librarians discussed schedules, raising money, schedule of payment for the work they do as well as printing. Up to this point they have been spending hours typing out and transcribing stuff for people in the community and only charging them for the printing. I told them if the people want to come and type stuff they can get the printing for the cost of printing, but if the librarians have to type all the information they have to charge more. They agreed that this made sense, but that the people in the community just kind of expect it to be free. I told them the people in the community can go to Choluteca and Teguz and compare prices of what you offer here and will probably change their tune about paying the very small amount they are asking for to type up papers for people. \
I spent the later half of the day reinstalling an operating system on a computer that was really messed up. I think something went wrong in an uninstall of Office XP which was running unlicensed on the machine so I had to uninstall it.
Day 143 - Wednesday March 20, 2002
I taught classes this morning and started translating the IT manual to Spanish. The IT manual is a series of 13 classes from basic use of the mouse to advanced functions of Microsoft Word used to teach the computer classes. It was put together by other Peace Corps volunteers here in Honduras and I am using it as the core of my computer instruction. In order to get the Hondurans to teach these classes I thought it would be important to give them a copy of the manual in Spanish. So I started translating them via the web. Microsoft word XP has a cool integrated translator as part of the program. It connects to a website and translates whole documents maintaining the formatting which is great. I was able to translate 6 documents in less than 30 minutes. They are being checked for accuracy by a couple of the teachers in the school.
I brought a laptop home that was given to one of the teachers. It is running slowly and has half the programs in English. I will convert it all to Spanish and do some tweaking to speed up the operations.
Day 144 - Thursday March 21, 2002
Spent most of the day rebuilding the Laptop that the teacher gave me the day before. It is a Dell which is nice, but there is no way to put both the CD and Floppy drive in the computer at the same time making it difficult to get the windows start up disk to function.
While Jennifer was cooking our lunch the wires in our stove melted together and caused a huge arcing flame under the stove. She screamed and I saw the blue green aura coming from around the corner of our kitchen nook. The electrical systems of most houses here are wired pretty haphazardly. I saw a breaker box in the main part of the house, but it looks like it has been disconnected. So all our electricity is straight from the line. If something shorts it doesn't trip a breaker it burns and burns until there is no more contact. Our stove burned until the wires that were touching burned back into the insulated parts of the wire. The end result is a stove that doesn't work and won't with out some rewiring, and a table top that now has a large burn mark and a hole half the size of a dime in it from where the wires cut a burning hole into the table top.
We have been trying to save our money where we could and using the older stove left over from the previous volunteers was one way of doing that. However Jennifer doesn't feel comfortable using the stove any more, despite my reassurances that I could "rebuild it better than before". So we are getting a brand new stove that will have two burners so we can cook and boil water at the same time. We are movin' on up!
Day 145 - Friday March 22, 2002
I spent some time in my garden this morning, which was a little disheartening. I have an infestation of "white flies". They are tiny little white bugs a little smaller than gnats that eat the leafs of vegetable and fruit plants. I have my mom sending me some marigold seeds which are supposed to help with the soil for tomatoes and ward off various types of bugs that would turn my vegetables into a feast of their own. The fruit on most of my tomatoes and cucumbers have come in and they don't eat the fruits only the leaves so I think I may be able to get some of the fruits to use before they destroy the whole plant. They don't seem to like the jalapeños.
I started the book "Atonement Child" earlier in the week and worked on that for most of the day.
Day 146 - Saturday March 23, 2002
We stayed home and got ready for our trip to Costa Rica today. It was pretty quite we organized the next few weeks and just kind of hung out at the house. I read a majority of "Atonement Child" and have to say I really really like this book.
Day 147 - Sunday March 24, 2002
We went to Mass this morning and were pleasantly surprised by the presence of a priest at church. This wasn't our week to have one, but we had one and he said he would be here all week. I was pretty thankful for that.
In the afternoon I read a bit further in "Atonement Child" and am almost done with it. We also did email and did some more preparing to go to Costa Rica. We are really excited as Jennifer's sister Cindy and her friend Andrea (her college roommate). They are flying in on Wednesday, coming to our site for a day and then we are off to Costa Rica. It is going to be crazy, but it should be fun. I'm looking forward to going on vacation and I'm very excited about going to Costa Rica.
Day 148 - Monday March 25, 2002
The shopping day from hell. We went to Choluteca at 6:30AM this morning. The 6:30 is the express as it makes less stops and continues on to Tegucigalpa after stopping in Choluteca. We got our grocery shopping out of the way which was crazy. The grocery store was packed with people and there were only two cashiers. So we waiting in line for about 25 minutes before we got to check out. Then we went to a couple of different of different places looking for stoves. The groceries we had purchased we were now in my backpack which weighted about 70 Lbs. Which isn't that much weight, but made the 105 degree day seem even hotter.
I then dropped Jennifer off at a little cafe where we bought some cold fruit drinks and set out to find some propane for our new stove that requires a propane tank. I found a place after asking around at several places that sold the tank and gas for 500 Lempira, which is about $31.00. I was told it was one of the better deals in town, but I think they all charge about the same. I then hiked the tank which also weighed about 70 lbs on my shoulder the 4-5 blocks back to the cafe where Jennifer was waiting for me. From there we took a taxi to the bus which was completely full when we got there at 11:35 AM. After cramming our stuff and our bodies on board we headed up the mountain. The drive was painful. We seemed to stop everywhere along the way to run errand or pick up more people. At one point we had about 70 people on our 72 person bus that had 4 of the 3 person seats occupied by stuff people had purchased stacked up in the back of the bus. there were also several people who just wouldn't or couldn't let people sit 3 to a seat with them. I was sitting in a seat when my butt started cramping and I had to stand up. It got better half way up as many of the people were off the bus by then. Jen and I were able to sit back together and another 10 minutes down the road we were able to put our backpack and the stove into a seat, and relax a little bit.
I started reading "A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks today and am caught up in the story. It sounds kind of like my senior year in high school when I met Jennifer. She totally changed my life. It was a nice story and an easy read. I'm using it to practice my "speed reading" techniques.
Day 149 - Tuesday March 26, 2002
I finished "A Walk to Remember" today it was only 225 pages with a medium font size so it went pretty quickly. I loved the story though and told Jennifer that I am really glad we got to date when we were 17 years old.
We delivered Easter Baskets to some of our neighbors in town and visited with several people. Did email twice and found out our best friends, who is moving back to MN are pregnant. We are excited. They told us we have to have a baby and come home.
Day 150 - Wednesday March 27, 2002
Jennifer and I debated at length this morning as to whether or not I would go to Tegucigalpa with her. Her sister and her friend from college are flying in this afternoon. they're coming to visit our site for one day , and then we will be off to Costa Rica. It will be a very short trip, but they really wanted to see where we live.
Matt, our friend from Tegucigalpa who used to be a volunteer in our site, is coming to Concepción de Maria and is picking Jennifer and guests up at the Airport and driving them back to our site. This should shorten the amount of time that it takes them to get here, as a bus ride would take five to eight hours. By car it is only three to four hours. there also bringing down to large suitcases full of this items from the states for us, and to bring those down on the bus would be very difficult. The only problem that we've encountered, is that Matt's vehicle can only comfortably seat five people. Matt has a land cruiser, and if I win today than they have been doing for me in the Backseat that is never comfortable and it would be very crowded with all the luggage that people were bringing. Matt also had to bring Rafa, who has been staying with him this week, back to Concepción de Maria. so after speaking extensively this morning we decided that I would stay home, and Jennifer would go to the Airport to pick up our guests.
I spent a good portion of the morning doing laundry, cleaning bathroom, and clean up the rest of the house, which was a good thing as I found out that we have an infestation of ants. The ants were housed in the bottom of a box which sits in the corner of our "kitchen". I took the box outside and spend it down with insect killer, effectively ending our ant problem.
Jennifer, her sister Cindy, and her friend Andrea arrived around 5:30 PM and for the rest of the night we spent part time visiting with our neighbors, our friends, in looking at all fun interesting things out that brought us from the U.S..
Day 151 - Thursday, March 28, 2002
We left on a bus 4:30 AM this morning as it was the only bus that would be leaving Concepción de Maria all day long. It was an excursion bus on its way to pick up people in Choluteca where we had to go to catch our bus at 12 noon. We burned the morning reading and sitting round the park near the cathedral of Choluteca. We then hung out at the "bus station", a small store that served as a pick up and drop off point for the bus, for about 2 hours, and finally got onto the bus.
While we were waiting for the bus the subject of when we would arrive in Costa Rica came up again and we were told that since tomorrow is Good Friday no one works and we would be spending an extra night in Managua, Nicaragua. This was a surprise since we had been reassured several times that the bus would get us there in two day.
After some rather long and tedious border crossings, exiting Honduras and entering Nicaragua, and a long bus ride we ended up in a not so clean little room near the bus station in Managua that we rented for $5 each for the night.
The scene at the bus station was rather tense. We had no idea where we going, even though we did had a guide book and location picked out. Once we got out the front door of the bus station we were mobbed by 5-8 people who wanted to bring us to local boarding house to earn their commission for referring us. On top of that there were 2-3 taxi drivers also trying to get our business as well. It made for a very loud and annoying scene.
Day 152 - Friday, March 29, 2002
Being in Managua for an extra day we set out to find another place to stay for the afternoon and the night. We ended up at the Hotel Intercontinental, probably one of the finest hotels in Central America. They seem to have one in every capitol city of Latin America. The accommodation are equal to that of a 4 star hotel in the U.S. The service impeccable, furnishings and room clean and immaculate. Compared to our little dive the night before this was a slice of heaven. Using the Peace Corps card and the fact that one of the people in our group worked for a travel company (kind of) we managed to get our room for 1/2 price. That and they were way under booked being that it was Holy Week and business was kind of lacking.
We treated ourselves to a movie (Oceans 11)at the mall next store, and had dinner at the Intercontinental restaurant. We slept well, but had to get up the next morning at 4:30 AM to be to the bus terminal on time for our departing bus.
Day 153 - Saturday, March 30, 2002
After yet another very long border crossing between Nicaraguan and Costa Rica, and another eight hours on the bus, we got off the bus and caught a cab to Punta Leona, Where we were planning on staying for the rest of the week. After 1/2 hour we arrived in Punta Leona, checked into our room, and went searching for Kim and Danielle who we were supposed to be meeting.
Day 154 - Sunday, March 31, 2002
Punta Leona was very beautiful was very beautiful and had some very nice beaches, however it was a very large compound in very removed from anything that resembled a local area (it was like a giant campground). Although we were in Costa Rica and everything was very beautiful, they were just too many people in Punta Leona.
After some discussion it was decided that we wanted to leave in the morning to go to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica.