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.
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