June 2, 2011
Lesson #568:
If you walk into your outdoor shower and find yourself standing in 2 inches of soapy rainwater, you can, in fact, use your flip-flop as a plunger to unclog the drain.
On a more serious note, Lesson #583:
If you are going to a developing country to do surveys, bring paper copies, even if you are intending to use your computer. Fortunately, in a fit of what I thought was over-preparedness, I printed 300 copies of my survey and brought them with me.
Today I used about 25 of them and I assume I’ll use another 40-50 tomorrow. If I hadn’t brought those blessed little pieces of paper, I would have more or less lost this week of work as well. We went to San Nicolas today, talked with all of the teachers, and surveyed over 40 kids. That makes about 100 surveys in 3 days. Not bad J. They fed us a huge lunch and literally told me that their door is always open to me. Good to know that translates directly.
I know you're dying to see what a day in the community looks like for me, so here are some pics.
Of interest, I asked Baltazar why kids here don’t smile when I smile at them. Really, I just expect all random strangers to want to smile at me when I smile at them. That's the only time they don't smile. Once we get to know each other they warm up. He told me it’s the culture and that only kids who grow up watching tv smile so liberally.
Spanish words of the day:
Hermita: church. They know the word iglesia, but they always call their church an hermita.
1peso = 1 Lempira. No, they aren’t the same, but the kids here say they bought 1 peso of candy and it’s the same as buying one Lempira of candy (the Honduran monetary unit.)
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