Homes Sweet Homes

Sorry that I haven't posted but I just got back from spending 2 weeks at my parent's house in Dallas.  It was great to be home in Dallas but I am glad to be home in Honduras.  I think I'm lucky to have multiple places that feel like home to me.

The last 2 weeks were really fun but I hadn't realized before just how short 14 days can be.  I tried to spend time with everyone and was almost successful.  The truth is that I am one of the luckiest people in the world because I have so many people who really truly love me and care about me.  Not only do I have all of these people in Dallas but I had SIX visitors who had to get on planes to come just to spend some time with me.  They all came during the weekends so my weekdays were spent running from lunch with so and so to dinners with family.  I feel like I had a chance to really get to know my little niece and nephews who keep growing so much while I've been gone for the last almost-a-year-and-a-half.  I did a ton of shopping for important stuff for our apartment like couch covers and curtains and even some small kitchen appliances.  I spent a day cooking with my grandmother and sister-in-law to try to get down some wonderful family recipes.

The culmination of the visit was the shower which was amazing.  I know that I tortured everyone by not registering.  The big practical stuff, I know that I can get down here without having to worry about how to get it down here and the baby clothes down here just don't compare to what I can get in the states.  I'm so proud of all of my friends because out of like 100 outfits and blankies and towel sets, each one is gorgeous but I didnt get a single duplicate.  I am going to have the best dressed baby in Central America!  I'll try to blog pics of him in all the outfits as we go through them.  The whole shower was amazing though, the games were really fun, the cakes were beautiful, the food was delicious (thankfully because there was so much of it we were eating it for days), and most of all, the company was great and let me leave Dallas feeling so loved.  I'm sure that the baby felt that love and even though we are a world a way, he will know that there are people in this world who love him and care about him.  OK, I must be pregnant because I am getting all choked up writing this.

As a huge contrast to my 2 weeks spent in Dallas where everything is so 1st world and orderly and new and perfect, was my day yesterday trying to get home to the mine in Honduras.  First of all, my parents and I awoke at 4:30am.  There is nothing like having to be up that early to make you wake up 100 times during the night.  Mom and I threw on our clothes and headed out to the airport.  Even though the first part of my trip had perfect Dallas springtime weather, it was really cold as we walked into the airport.  I was excited about the flight part of my trip because instead of taking American Airlines and paying with miles, I tried out Continental which goes through Houston and cuts about 5 hours out of the travel time.  I would arrive in San Pedro at 11am, giving me time for lunch, grocery shopping and still getting back to the mine not long after Rob finished work at 3:30.  HA!  My flight to Houston was uneventful.  I managed to doze for about 15 minutes.  Everything seemed fine in Houston...I boarded the plane happily into my seat in 11F which is nice a close to the front.  I settled into my seat and noticed that everyone on the plane was yawning from similar early mornings to mine.  The flight was only about half full so the middle seat next to me was empty of people.    We all kind of settled into our naps.  Through the haze, I heard the pilot say something about finding something that they didnt like going on with the plane during the pre-flight inspection but whatever, I was tired.  Probably about 30 minutes later, he came on the loudspeaker and said that we were to change planes because of this mechanical problem.  Not a huge deal.  We were all headed to Honduras so its not like anybody was in a hurry and we all need to get used to things happening on their own time, right?  Once we got on the plane, they even told us that the $6 direct TV would be free for us for the hassle that we had so I settled into a movie and not long after it ended, I looked out the window and saw acres and acres of palm trees.  It made me smile.

I got off the plane and was instantly hit with hot air from outside.  As I walked through the airport I was tugging at my sweatshirt trying desperately to get it off of me while at the same time trying to beat out the passengers from another big flight for a good spot in line for immigration.  I won and it all went quickly and smoothly as usual.  "You are headed to El Mochito, Santa Barbara?" "Yes" "I will take your picture now" "OK" "Thats it, NEXT".  It was the most an immigration official has ever said to me in Honduras!  Then off to get my bags.  The lady who sat next to me on the plane was complaining that she hates how they pull the bags off the belt for you in Honduras but I was relieved because I'm not supposed to be lifting and my bags were really heavy.  We laughed that the conveyor belt wasnt even turned on which employs 10 guys whose jobs it is to tug all of the giant, heavy suitcases along and put them in a line on the floor.  Its very typical Honduras and I was really feeling at home and laughing to myself at the gringos for whom this was obviously their first trip.

I called Rob to let him know I was finally here and he sounded relieved.  "I've been waiting for hours to hear from you."  "Yeah, my flight was late, it was a fiasco but no big deal"  "Well, your day is not looking like its getting better. There are major strikes going on and the roads are closed.  Mine personnel from San Pedro couldnt even get to the mine today and you might have to stay the night in San Pedro."  I just laughed.  The best part of the mine is that they take the task of taking care of all of us very seriously.  I spoke to Winston, the head of security, who was also stranded in San Pedro.  He told me that we would check in with each other in 4 more hours and in the mean time to go with the driver wherever I wanted in San Pedro.

My driver was great, a young guy named Ariel who told me that he works for Winston's family.  Of course, I wouldnt be using a normal mine driver since they couldnt actually get into San Pedro because of the strikes.  I wasnt angry about the strikes because I am sympathetic for the teachers who continue to teach even though they rarely actually receive their pay checks.  I found out later that yesterday just happened to be the day that 14000 healthcare workers and many other national employees decided to join the teachers for a big, giant strike.  Oh well, more shopping.  I checked out baby stuff at various stores and got the curtain rods to hang the curtains that I bought in Dallas.  I even spend a couple of hours at a fancy mall with international stores like Benetton.  I looked at every baby outfit and smugly was assured that my baby will still be better dressed than even the rich San Pedro babies.

Finally, I ran into my driver, who was probably enjoying a day on the clock spent wandering the mall and he said that the roads would be open soon.  Finally we headed for the supermarket and after an hour spent shopping for the "everything" that Rob said we needed, a busito from the mine arrived to take me home.  I was pretty tired and after chatting with Marbeo (or something like that), I laid down and napped.  I finally sat up as we were driving through Los Naranjos, the town where we had lived at the brewery.  We were surrounded by the now-familiar towering tropical mountains.  I know I got a big smile on my face because we were on the home stretch and I remember just how much I love these lush, green mountains and multicolored flowers.

Blah blah blah, we finally got home, dragged my stuff down the stairs from the parking lot to the apartment.  I'm home and ready to get back into my routine.  It is summer here and for the next month it is going to be hot hot hot during the day.  Maybe I will go swimming today.

Home - Apartmento B-4

As promised, here is a video walk-through of our new apartment.  Here is a little commentary on what you will see.  It starts with our view.  First the swimming pool from above.  There is a big covered area preventing us from actually seeing the pool from our balcony which is fine with me.  Then the mountains of which the tops are covered in clouds this morning but the view is still beautiful.  Then the other 3 apartments in our block.  The apartment is just 3 rooms, the livingroom/kitchen, then the master bedroom and the nursery/guest bedroom.  As I watch the video, I am realizing just how bare the walls are with no artwork but we will work on that over time.  I will be bringing curtains home from my trip to Dallas which will also help a lot, especially with the blankets we have over the windows of our bedroom.  Its kind of small but its home and we are very happy to be here.  By normal Honduran standards, this is a palace and after being practically homeless for over a year, it sure beats a hotel room.

21 week doctor's appointment

I really want to put together the video walkthrough of the apartment but first I want it to be tidy so you guys will just have to wait.

In the mean time, I will tell about the yesterday's doctor's appointment.  First of all, it was a lot more fun than usual because Rob was able to come with me.  First we had another depressing weigh-in, not as depressing as the last one but I'll just say that I'm very happy that I am finally in control of my food and portions and not eating every meal in a restaurant.  With that out of the way, we went in for the monthly ultrasound.  I think the doctor really enjoys them and I am fascinated by them.
 He started by taking the measurement of the circumference of the head and torso.  Somehow they use these to double check the estimated due date.  I noticed that based on the torso, I am 21 weeks and 2 days but based on the head, I am 22 weeks and 2 days so I guess the baby's head is slightly large and out of proportion.  Please dont make fun of him for it...I'm sure he will grow into it eventually.  We saw his beautiful brain which looked just like they do on TV so he has one for the time being.
Then the doctor's phone rang for the obligatory phone call from his family...usually it is his wife but this time it was his daughter.  No big deal and it always makes me kind of glad that he is a family guy, and very glad that this time the ultrasound was on my stomach and not the internal one like the first visit where I had to endure the phone call.
After getting back on track, we watched the heart beat and confirmed that all of the ventricles are looking great.  Then we distinctly saw the umbilical cord which Rob and the doctor had a nice joke about its size...if you know what I mean.  Eventually, we got to the real proof that this kid is a boy and the doctor printed out the proof as a souvenir for me.  If you can't tell what you are looking at, this is the view of my baby from the bottom.  For those not used to these things, it is a cross section so trust me, he does actually have legs.  The important part is where the arrow is.  Imagine that he is sitting on a photocopier and we are seeing his butt (maybe he is leaning a bit to one side) and what is that arrow pointing to????  Yep, its the proof that he is a boy.  The doctor said that I should tell everyone at home to buy lots of blue stuff...he says no yellow because he is definitely not a chicken.

Then he switched to the 4d ultrasound.  We counted 10 fingers and saw 2 little feet.  The doctor tried so hard to get a view of the baby's face but this little guy is super shy.  We were kind of peeking around the side of the kid and at first he had his hand up to the side of his face covering the view.  Then he turned so that his back was to us.  The doc had me roll on my side to try to get him to turn around and he just turned even more so that we got a great view of his back and the back of his head.  So far he is not a performer but from what I can tell, he is a very handsome little guy and has nothing to be ashamed of.

Shopping!!!!!

Hi everyone.  The past 2 days have been so busy and I have so much to blog about.  I will do them in 3 posts, yesterday's shopping trip, the doctor's appointment, and finally another 1 about the apartment complete with video walkthrough. I'm sitting here watching the Japan earthquake coverage on CNN espanol since that is the only real news channel that I have until hopefully later today when they should come to hook up our satallite.  I have to mention how grateful I am that it is not us having to deal with an earthquake since Rob's guys just expertly repaired the cracks from last years, much smaller earthquakes here in Honduras.  I have a pile of stuff to clean and organize, and laundry, and 3 days of internet to catch up on even though the internet is currently only working in fits and spurts.  I'm so happy to finally have stuff to do!  

Here goes....Yesterday was a HUGE day.  I had a doctor's appointment in San Pedro and Rob took the day off to come with me.  It was actually, his first time back in the city since we got back to Honduras and his first time using the mine's busito system.  One of the great perks here is that due to us being in the middle of nowhere and many people not having any cars or anything, the mine provides transportation wherever you need or want to go.  You have to schedule it and sometimes have to share the truck or van with other people going other places, but it is better than driving yourself.

We were lucky enough yesterday, to have the entire van to ourself with our lovely driver, Alex.  He picked us up at 9am right near our apartment and we headed out to the big city for a day of shopping to stock up on EVERYTHING for our new apartment and the doctor's appointment.  Its about an hour and a half or so to get to San Pedro from here and the first part is through curvy mountain roads.  I tried to sleep for as much of the ride as possible and eventually we were there.

Our first stop was El Canal, which is like a really big, Honduran dollar store.  It is super cheap and we were able to buy a ton of odds and ends for the house and kitchen.  It was so funny, we had both the girl who worked there and Alex following us around with baskets to carry everything that we chose.  It was like being royalty.  I'm not sure if that is Alex's job since the drivers are also security or if it is just more interesting than waiting in the van but it is going to take some getting used to.  I suspect that this is one of those things that the latino mine employees have no problem with but the gringos tend to feel very uncomfortable with.  We just tried to do as much as possible ourselves and kind of pretend like he was just our friend hanging out with us and take the opportunity to practice spanish as much as possible.  On that subject, I have to say how proud I am of Rob's spanish.  His grammer might suck but his vocabulary is amazing!  While I spend my days speaking only to myself and a handful of other English speaking women here, Rob is fully emmersed and kicking butt.  I'm confident that he will be pretty fluent in just a few months.

After Canal, we went to Burger King so that Rob could have a coveted Whopper.  Alex tried to sit and wait at his own table but we bought him a whopper and made him sit with us so that we could practice our Spanish chitchat.  He lives in La Guama with his wife and 2 little kids.  He has only been working for the mine for 2 months, just like us.  What a nice guy!

After Burger King and our little taste of the States, we got a giant taste of the States at Pricemart which is just like sam's.  I got us a membership card so I now have my first official Honduran picture ID.

Then we wandered the place, filling up the basket that Alex kindly pushed around behind us.  I suspect that we blew his mind at the amount of money that we spent  and stuff that we bought.  He has a great job but even so, I suspect that he would never be able to afford a shopping trip like that.  The place is stuffed with the same stuff that you would find at home...giant TVs, appliances, and huge quantities of American brand stuff!  They have huggies and pampers and car seats and everything that I will need.  The meat was gorgeous, export meat.  Sadly, Honduras is a huge meat producer but they ship away the good meat and only sell the crap stuff to most of the population.  Luckily, Pricesmart picks up a bunch of export meat and the prices were unbelievable.  We bought steak and chicken breasts and ribs and really nice ground beef (the stuff in town is ok but has no fat at all...great for some stuff and healthier but would never work for a juicy burger).  We cant even buy chicken breasts in Las Vegas.  Needless to say, we are fully stocked on a lot of stuff for a while which is good because I wont make it back to San Pedro for probably a month.  It was an experience in excess and felt great.  Rob has done so little shopping in the past year, I think he was in heaven.  I went back and forth between enjoying it and freaking out about how much we were spending.

After that, we had more time so it was off to an American style supermarket for things that we need but didnt want to buy in 50lb bags like flour and sugar stuff like that.  Alex still followed us as our official cart pusher.  I can just imagine the conversation that he had with his wife about these spoiled rich mine employees and their shopping spree.  Frankly, I'm a bit embarassed when I think about it.  It is not a Honduran concept to pick up and completely move and we came here with only clothes and a few other things so we are starting from scratch.  Needless to say, we are pretty stocked up and I have my work cut out for me today to try to get everything cleaned and put away.  As you will see in my post about the apartment, we are pretty limited in storage so I will have to be efficient on the storage and smart about future shopping trips.  I really need to get to Vegas for some produce shopping but it is a crappy, rainy day today so that probably wont happen today.

The other interesting thing is that it seems like everyone here is desperate to clean for me.  Rob's department is in charge of all maintenance and the mine provides a housekeeper for all single employees that live at the camp and all of these housekeepers fall under Rob.  Rob is a beloved jefe and very respected by his staff, of course, can you tell how proud I am of my husband?  Well he told me this morning that his counterpart, told one of the girls to come clean our apartment.  I've also had to turn away at least 3 private housekeepers who have stopped by to see if I need help AND one of Rob's guy's mother cleans here privately and wants to be our housekeeper.  Honestly, this is all I have going on and I will not be happy if someone takes away my only work.  Maybe the other ladies here are ok with sitting around all day but I want to keep as busy as possible while I can still move around.  I think I will let someone come in to do ONLY the bathroom once or twice a week but this place is really not that big and I know for sure that I dont want these ladies touching our laundry.  We have a washer and dryer and these girls have not grown up with these appliances and dont know how to use them properly.  Ahhh, the trials and tribulations of being a housewife here.  I'm just thankful to finally have a home to be a housewife at.  I should get to my work before some sweet lady comes in and hijacks my only work.

The Feria

The feria or fair is in Las Vegas right now.  Thats Las Vegas, Honduras not Nevada.  I'd been wanting to go since it isnt often that something different happens.  It certainly isnt the Texas State Fair but it was fun.

 First of all, it was a good opportunity for some street food.  Here is a picture of the food section of the fair.

We had roasted corn with lime and butter which was tasty even though the corn here is not the sweet corn that we are used to in the states.  It tasted more like popcorn but was still delicious.  We also had some really tasty baleadas which are probably the most Honduran food that there is.  Baleadas are large flour tortillas (much different than the mexican flour tortillas that we are used to) with scrambled egg, refried beans and a little local cheese.  The ones we had also had some chorizo and hot sauce.  They are my favorite food here.  Here is a picture of one that I stole off the internet.

Then we wandered around for a while.  I'd really wanted to get a video of the ferris wheel because the one down here runs really fast.  There was no way that I was getting on any of the rides.

Rob shot the BB gun at the little army guys and won us a bunch of stuff.  Some of it will actually come in handy in our new apartment that we will be moving into tomorrow.

The end is near

...the end of over 14 months of hotels and other temporary housing, that is.  Its good to be married to the guy in charge of housing.  Rob has made a deal with his guys, if they can be done fixing up our apartment so that we can move in on Wednesday evening, he will buy them lunch from Pollolandia on Friday.  Yes, you heard me, Pollolandia.  I agree, it is a stupid name for a restaurant but, as far as I can tell, there is on in every town in Honduras.  Can you guess what they sell?????  Yep, chicken.  Its good, its cheap, and everyone seems to love it.

I dont have such a problem with the hotel except the lack of a kitchen, the lack of a room to go into to get away from this person that I have shared single rooms with for over a year, a lack of any sort of distance between the bathroom and this single room AND as a bonus, they have started building car ports on all of the parking spots outside of the hotel this week.   They start bright and early at 6:30am running a generator and saws.

I can't even begin to say how excited I am to move.

Magically growing belly

I had to make a quick post to say that I swear my belly grew last night.  I barely slept so I'm not sure when it happened.  Normally my tummy is smaller in the morning and kind of grows as I eat during the day but this morning, I got up and looked in the mirror and I swear that its bigger.

I think I have some kind of cold or allergies or pregnancy related congestion.  As with most things this pregnancy, I cannot tell the difference.  Its been about 2 weeks but I think that maybe its gotten worse in the last few days making me think that it is a cold or allergies.  It is just my sinuses but I only get sick every few years and am feeling pretty miserable.  It could be allergies since over the last couple of weeks, the weather has become hotter and drier and distinctly different.

20 weeks

I'm 20 weeks this week which means that I am halfway there.  The biggest news is that I am feeling him kicking and moving around a lot and even Rob has felt a kick.  I'm finding the whole process fascinating.

According to the internet, he is the size of a small cantaloupe this week.  It just so happens that I bought 2 small locally grown cantaloupes this weekend.  I ate 1 yesterday and boy was it yummy.  I studied it next to my stomach and it seems a bit bigger than the baby.  Maybe they are just talking about length.

For the past week or so, its been getting pretty hot here and the regular rains have let up, too.  It still cools off at night which is nice but standing in the sun during the day can be brutal.  Its still nothing like Dallas summer, although, I can see that if it really gets hotter than this here, we will be very happy that our apartment is next to the pool.  Until then, I've discovered that the pool area is a nice place to hang out during the day.  It is central so people are always walking by and there are nice tables and chairs in the shade where it is always comfortable temperature-wise.

I'm still pretty obsessed with my weight.  I wont bore you with it but it is absolutely the most difficult part of this whole process for me.  I've given up on the idea of being all tummy.  I'm still walking on the treadmill regularly and am just trying to focus on how much I will be running on it after July to get back in shape.  For the first time yesterday, on the treadmill, I could really feel the baby hanging out very very low in my stomach. I dont think that he is a fan of my workouts but I'm going to keep at it as long as I can.  I can see now that I will hit a point where I will have to stop on the treadmill...maybe I can move to the bike after that.