Topollillo, Topoyiyo, Topo....nevermind. Frozen goodness in a baggie.

The whole time I've been in Honduras, I've been seeing these little baggies of stuff in freezers at the super market. I'll try anything once but I wasn't clamoring to be the first in line for, what looks like, somebody's momma's homemade KoolAid frozen in a bag with a knot in the top. I only take shady looking stuff from folks I know. A few weeks ago a man who works at the school started selling these things during break, at lunch, and after school. I still wasn't amped about it. My former colleague, Alicia (who has since bailed on me to have her baby in the States) told me they're called topoyiyos. I'm still not 100% sure how to say it or spell it but I can tell you that they cost 6 limps (30 cents) and they're aaaahmazing. The guy at school sells them in coco (coconut) and cacahuate (peanut) flavored. Peanut is my favorite. Love em so much that I've made friends with the man that sells em. I have at least one a day since it has become hotter than the 7th layer of hell in these parts.

   The precious little man who sells these. I asked him if I could take a picture of him and we struck up a conversation.

Him: So, you really like these, yeah?
Me: Yeah, I do!
Him: Where you from?
Me: Texas
Him: You don't have anything like this there do ya?
Me: Nope. (I don't have the Spanish skills to tell him about being ghetto and putting KoolAid in ice trays with lopsided toothpicks making popsicles when I was little)
Him: I should take my ice chest and go to the States to sell these. I would make a fortune....You think you could help me get my papers?

   It always goes back to the papers. I try to tell people that I haven't the foggiest idea about how to immigrate to the States. I've never done it. Anyway...back to the point. 

 

      To eat/drink this little piece of Heaven, you have to chew on of the corners off your bag and suck the contents out through the hole. Not the most flattering thing you ever did see but I do live in a country where no one uses a knife to cut their meat. You just pick it up with your hands and go to town. We all know I'm somewhat of a stickler for table manners so that one took some getting used to. A year later, here I am gnawing on meat with no utensils and slurping mystery goodness out of a bag with a hole chewed out of the side. That, my friends, is acclimatization at its finest.







Enjoying my squishy goodness.








       And then it was gone....There's always tomorrow!

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”

 I have a memory card with hundreds of pictures that no one will ever see because I keep my camera on me practically all the time just so I catch moments like this. Both of these pics were taken about 15 seconds apart while standing in the same spot in my yard. Sunsets here are generally pretty ridiculous because of the mountains but not once in the past year have I seen the sky look so markedly different depending on which direction I was facing.  I'm easily entertained and amazed and this did both.

We've got bananas!!!

       I've been a lazy bum about keeping up with this blog business. I would say "I'm sorry." but I always tell my kids "Don't be sorry, be better." In keeping with my own advice, I'll just spare you the apology and skip straight to the "be better" portion of the program.

    My roommate and I moved (well, got moved...but that's a whole other story) into a new house in October. There are trees in our yard that we thought were banana. Having never actually, knowingly seen a banana tree in real life, this was just a guess on my part. The months have come and gone and we've seen not a trace of fruit which led me to believe that maybe they weren't banana trees or they were too young to produce fruit. While Skyping with my mom today, I was showing her my yard from my bedroom window when low and behold, I spotted a bunch of bananas! Walked outside later to find that two of our trees have fruit on them. I don't have the first idea about when they'll be ready for picking or if they're even really bananas. Plantains looks exactly the same to me and plantains are EVERYwhere here. Who knows what they really are?? For now, I'm just so stinking excited to have anything growing in my yard that we'll figure the rest out later. I aspire to garden one day and this is as close as I'm getting for a while. The banana/plantains and we've got come cilantro growing be the gate. It'll work for now!

Getting Back on the Wagon.

I made it about two weeks into the new year before my blog became less than a priority. Teaching has a way to seep into every, single area of your life. I find myself laying in bed at night thinking of better ways to present vocabulary words or analyzing my latest attempt at disciplining middle schoolers. After all, my one and only reason for being in Honduras is to work at Agape. If it weren't for my job, I'd be somewhere else having a different crop of experiences. (I just finished my first interview about what I've been up to the last couple of years teaching and traveling wise. Check it out  HERE:)) I also have the blessing of being able to completely focus on my work.  I look forward to my future but I'd be doing my students and myself a disservice if I didn't take full advantage of this time in my life. Alllll that to say, I'm jumping back on the wagon. I have been a champ about taking pictures every day but I never carve out the time to upload them and blog. I'm caught up with school stuff, for this second, so I'm issuing myself a personal challenge to get all caught up.  Here's a little preview. I have to be clocked in at school by 6:50. An ungodly hour by anyone's definition. The silver lining to that yucky, dark cloud is that, when I have time, I can sit and watch the sun rise over the mountains. I stopped straight in the middle of the sidewalk to snap this one. Dropped all my stuff and dug out my camera as soon as I saw it. I'm not a morning person but I don't care who you are....that's just breathtaking.

January 14, 2011

When it rains, it pours.

It started raining a few days ago and doesn't look like its ever going to stop. You would think that folks living in a country where the "Rainy Season" really happens would be prepared. You, my friend, would be wrong. They freeeeak out. Schools shut down. Not mine, of course, but three others that I heard of were flooded so bad that they suspended classes for the day. A field trip was even canceled...All because of some rain. A lot of rain, but still. Craziness.

In front of the preschool.

My Yard. That standing water made it just about to the house.

Waiting at the bus stop.

Simple. Just the way I like it.

I always love to see Wednesday come and go. It means I have a day full of class tomorrow but only three on Friday and then the weekend. This weekend, Rachel and I are headed to our favorite place in Honduras. It may very well be my favorite place on the planet. The Caribbean Coral Inn is this awesome little place about 45 minutes away, right on the beach. More about that later. Nothing super special about today other than I woke up with air in my lungs and was able to get out of bed. I'm a glass half full kind of girl.

My ride home from school. Pictures can be deceiving. This looks like a quiet country road, not the scary death trap it actually is. These people give new meaning to the words "defensive driving".

Somebody showing off with those rays of sunshine on my way to tutoring.

I made a friend a little further down the road. 

A friend who just so happens to like being scratched under his chin. Don't catch yourself coveting my uniform either. I can totally get you a job down here and an ill fitting shirt to go with it.

I tutor Scott and this is his little brother who was all too excited to let me take his picture on his tiny motorcycle

.

My mountains at the back of the colonia. Yes, I take full ownership until June. The view never, ever gets old.

 

 

 

 
View down the other side of the street. I live in a really pretty neighborhood. You can't see my house from here anymore because a gigantic house is being built next door. My house didn't know it was tiny until the new one got here.

A Girl's Gotta Eat.

 January 12, 2011
A trip to the grocery store in any foreign country is generally a treasure trove of photo worthy moments. Last night was no different.

This stuff is called mantequilla. That literally means "butter" in Spanish. As you can see, this ain't yo momma's butter. It's this funky mixture of sour cream (even though I canNOT find sour cream anywhere here) and heavy cream. These folks but it on ALL kinds of stuff and its not half bad. Awful for you, but most of the food here is.

Fruits and Veggies.

I really couldn't tell you when a squid tube is. This sign was on the side of a bunch of Butterball turkeys. Whatever it is, you can get it for less than 10 bucks.

The crown jewel of my trip. First, let me say this is the first time I've encountered such a thing here. In Korea, ALL the time. Here, not so much. However, this was, in fact, a whole (stinky) pig just hanging out in the meat dept. Had a USDA stamp and everything. I'd loooove to know how in the heck it came to be here.

I'm thoroughly amazed at these clear, cannish-bottle things.

Just in case I was wondering what "others are doing in the bed" in Spanish speaking countries,