I have learned that sometimes you must be flexible.
Take today for example: I came to school thinking that I would do my work, read a little bit while I waited for Alex to finish making some tests, and then go home and relax. What really happened is that I saw an opportunity to go to Santa Rosa and decided that it was a better plan than the one I had envisioned hours earlier.
Now, it is better to travel by car than by bus for several reasons. One of which being that if you're going to buy things from another town, you don't have to worry that someone is going to rob you. This is of the highest importance if you don't have a lot of money... like us. Oh, and the safety factor, too.
Doña Olga, our school's headmaster/principal, needed to go to the bank in Santa Rosa to do some business. When I heard this, I asked Marco, second in command, if he thought it would be an inconvenience to her if we tagged along, as we needed to get some things in the city. He didn't seem to think so, because we started walking over to her office. She, being the nicest lady, said it was no trouble and then invited us over for lunch.
Once we got all the little details worked out (finishing the tests, getting students to leave us alone so we could actually leave), we ran home to drop off our things, get some more money, and then ran to Olga's house where we quickly ate a quesadilla (corn tortillas with quesillo), and then climbed into the back her son's, Jorge, van. Olga quickly became wrapped up in a conversation with her son and, not knowing the young lady in the van, so we fell asleep.
We arrived in Santa Rosa and were dropped off at a market place where we were told we would find the items that we needed. On our list was a rolling pin (rodillo), some towels (toallas), and a camal.
Needless to say, we did not find anything in that market. I don't even remember what the name of it was, but if you every come across a building with many makeshift stores with various random items in each one just leave.
We started walking around and after asking around, we found a store called Comercial Casa Bueso. This is actually the store that Alex went to the second week we were here. He knew from experience that this was the store for us.
We found everything we needed and then some:
- Rodillo para cocina (rolling pin) = L. 84.82 ($4.49)
- Dos (2) toallas (towels) = L. 416.08 ($22)
- Camal (aluminum griddle) = L. 189.29 ($10)
- Batidor manual (plastic whisk) = L. 11.61 ($0.61)
- Juego de panas (set of plastic bowls - different sizes) = L. 151.74 ($8)
- Dos (2) jaboneras plasticas (plastic soap dish) = L. 14.28 ($0.76)
- Espatula Cocina (plastic spatula) = L. 64.29 ($3.40)
- Cuchara Medidoras (measuring spoons) = L.196.43 ($10.40)
**So expensive because they are stainless steel**
- Taza Medidora (measuring cups) = L. 62.50 ($3.30)
- Machacador (masher) = L. 103.57 ($5.50)
- Alfombra (door mat) = L. 98.21 ($5.20)
Grand Total (with taxes): L. 1560 ($82.50)
Yes, a pretty penny indeed!
We were not expecting those taxes (L. 168/$8.85), either, since we don't pay them in San Marcos. But, really, we needed some of these things for cooking, as we didn't bring them with us from home, and it was no more than what we would have paid at home.
Anyhow, after our shopping spree, we walked around a bit more and then returned to the market where we had been dropped off. We were thinking that our phone might not work due to the fact that Tigo (our phone/internet provider) sucks.
And, we were right.
Around 5pm, after nearly 2.5 hours of sitting and waiting, we finally saw the van that we had come in. They told us that they could not get a hold of us because our phone wasn't not allowing calls through. So, they returned to the area where they dropped us off and started looking. Thirty minutes later, they found us. And thank God because it started raining and it was getting cold, and we were just about ready to enact our Emergency Plan in case they forgot us, or couldn't find us.
Though we were tired, hungry, and really had to pee, we stayed up and talked with Nicole, Olga's granddaughter. I'd have to say that she is one of the very few young people we've met that has a good head on her shoulders. She wants to study law at Harvard and then come back to Honduras to help fix the corruption. We talked about teen pregnancy, school, AIDS, speaking English/Spanish/French, etc.
So yes, I have learned that flexibility is a good thing. Go with the flow and you might experience something you otherwise wouldn't have.
And, when all is said and done, I'd have to say today was a pretty good day.
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