Dangers Of The Electric Shower Heaters

I don't know if there were any warnings about this danger explained in the instructions that came with the heater, but we are certainly aware of the danger now. Yes, for those unaware, it's very common not to have hot water heaters for the whole house. Many have an electric water heater in the shower head. Sounds crazy to mix electricity and water, but somehow it works.

Sister took a shower the other night but failed to turn the water off completely and since she can't reach the switch for the shower settings, she couldn't turn the water to NO HEAT as we usually do after a shower and were told to do by the electrician who hooked it up. There are three settings for the shower head. HOT/NO HEAT/WARM. Sister likes to take HOT showers. With the water just barely coming out it caused the heating element to overheat. Thankfully Sister was out of the shower when this happened. I was at work but could still smell the results when I got home. There was a lot of snap crackle popping and a flame then the lights in the house flickered. Papa was close by and got the breaker turned off in a hurry. It was over fast but here are the remains of our hot water shower heater:





The showers have been terrible cold the last few mornings. Brrrrr.....

Here's A Little Catch Up

Life here in Honduras has been moving along at a steady pace. I can't believe it's been about 8 months we've been living here now. Being that I now have a job, I've been feeling less cooped up, you could say. It's also starting to get hot around Honduras so it's nice to get out of this concrete oven we live in for a short escape at work.

My Teaching Job
The job teaching English has been going good. I've been hearing good feed back anyway about my teaching skills. I do like it and find it a good challenge. But there are two major issues with the job. The company I work for doesn't pay well and the time it takes to get ready, spend money on gas to get to work and the cost for childcare makes my "take home" pretty measly. That and I also hate being away from my kids and husband for a big chunk of the day. It really makes the job a lot less appealing. Papa says he misses dinner together at night too.

But who knows. I'm going to see if they would be willing to up my pay and maybe I'll stick around. If not, I'm going to see if I can pick up some students to tutor in English. So if you know someone around here wanting English lessons- send them my way.

The Maid Situation
Lets see...Ah yes. Our maid that I mentioned in my last post. We brought her back. Her name is Melinda, btw. We did attempt to find someone else. We called a girl highly recommended, but after talking with her on the phone, I guess you just need to figure that, "I'll get back to you" = no.

After debating the issue for a few days and weighing all the feedback we got from everyone, Papa and I talked to the maid's parents and sat down with Melinda too and gave her a second chance. I guess Melinda's father gave her a pretty harsh talking to, too. The first few days she was back, she was a little uncomfortable, but now seems to be back to her usual self. Laughing and talking. The one thing that helped us make the decision to bring her back, was that our son seems to like her and she likes him. They play and laugh. It's cute.

It's A Zoo Out There
On another note, I got into a small fender-bender a few weeks ago with the car. Papa was not happy. Maybe you saw me mention it on twitter. I rear-ended someone who I didn't see stop. Yeah...it basically cost me my whole months salary to get it fixed. But it looks better now than it did before because there was still some damage from my 1st accident. I think Americans have it almost too easy in the states because you can drive mindlessly. I remember driving places and arriving to my destination and thinking..."was I even watching the road?", "How did I get here?" The roads are wide, open and clear in the states for the most part. Cars usually stay in their lanes and drive at a fairly consistent speed. People don't make frequent sudden stops and theres not cars jetting out in front of you causing sudden breaking. In Honduras you better drive with both hands on the wheel and keep your eyes on the road and what's in front of you. Stay alert! I think that is where I have trouble. I think I forget I need to stay so alert.

Places to Go
We made it to the beach last week. It was a perfect day. I brought the camera and didn't take one photo. Sorry. A friend came along with her two adorable kids and it was a very good day.

I went out a few weekends ago with some girls I met. I also have made kind of a little chum at my job. It's nice to have some girlfriends to hang with. My girls back home can never be replaced, but no matter where you go, I think a girl needs girlfriends. Very important. So we went out and hit the town. Okay we went to one place and stayed there all night. But it was fun and we all danced our tails off. It was a-lotta fun! I felt 25 again.




Brother Updates
Brother graduated from potty training a few weeks ago. It was a bit of a struggle at first. He wouldn't put his "big boy underwear" on but we also would not put a diaper on him. So he ran around naked for a few days. After he wet himself he realized he did not like that and begged and screamed for his diapers. I told him diapers are for babies and had him help me (he watched me) put a diaper on a stuffed animal. He didn't like it at first. He screamed and was very upset at me. He wanted his diapers. But the next day he decided that mama was right; diapers are for babies and started letting us put his underwear on and he would tell us when he had to go. He now refuses to wear anything but his big boy underwear and is bringing himself to the toilet. I''m so proud of him! But the best thing is...no diapers to wash!! Thank heavens for my pila. They are invaluable, in my opinion.

Sister Updates
Sister has really been making leaps and bounds on her language skills. She is understanding a lot more now and I've seen her react to instructions given in Spanish or she will respond in English to what she hears in Spanish. I've been encouraging her tutor to get her to speak more now. Sister also has been picking up a lot of Spanish at school. Her friends seem to be pretty good with trying to help her speak more. They understand that she needs to learn.

I didn't mention this before, but we hired a woman in the neighborhood a few blocks from us that drives her kids and one other kid to school. I was a bit hesitant at first to hire this woman. Mainly because I didn't like that she was charging us so much even though she would be bringing her kids to the school anyway. She's charging us about $50/month which is almost the total cost of gas. We could hire a bus service to pick her up for less, but she would be picked up very early. So paying a little more has worked out well and Sister has fun with the kids she rides with and they too help her with Spanish.

Language
I on the other hand, am still in desperate need of Spanish lessons. I tried to study from the computer with some of the free programs out there on the web. I tried to read my Learn Spanish books. I don't know what I need because everything I do on my own puts me to sleep. Literally. And I don't retain anything. It's like I read it and forget it. At least that's how I feel.

Papa Updates
Papa has been working really hard. What else is new? Ha! I wish there was a magic formula to make his business grow like we want it to. But the systems here are so backwards and literally no one is consistent or is dishonest with their business practices, which makes it very difficult. Papa's joy definitely is in his family. He might have a very stressful day, but he always has room for love and play for the kids and wife.

That's All Folks
I could keep on writing but I'll stop this post here. Just wanted to catch you up on some things.

Help Wanted - Experienced Nanny & Maid

Yes, you read it right. We are in desperate need of another nanny/maid. This sounds a little snobbish to my American ears because it's just not common for the middle class in America in which I grew up to have either of these. But, the middle class in Honduras - you can bet a lot of them have maids. Now, nanny is another thing. It is more like we need a babysitter. I work for about 4 hours in the morning. I leave shortly after 8am and get home by noon most days. We hired a 15 year old girl who has done work for us in the past to come into our home and watch our son as well as do light cleaning. Nothing major. Most of her time here was just keeping an eye on our son, which meant they probably watched a lot of cartoons. They did go play outside and go for walks once in a while, but she would often play with him while they watched TV. I figured as long as my son wasn't being neglected and attended to as needed, we could work with that. Papa is often in and out of the house anyway, so could keep tabs on things too.

She started almost 4 weeks ago now and she seemed to be excited about the job. We paid her really well, in comparison to what other maids are paid. She was required to work about 4 hours a day and like I said, it really was pretty light work. We also fed her breakfast and lunch. She showed up on time and seemed to respect our property. I never noticed food missing or things out of place like she may have rummaged through anything. The one thing that I did notice was that she often cleaned up Sister's room without us asking her to. Not that sister has anything extremely valuable, but I moved some of her jewelry that she had gotten as gifts out of the room and figured there wasn't much else that was worth stealing and if it was...well, it probably wouldn't be missed all that much anyway. Sister is 10. Our now ex maid just turned 15. We even got her a cake and ice-cream and had a mini party for her after lunch on her birthday. Sister doesn't have anything extravagant as far as furnishings or things in her room, but the things she does have are girl type things and compared to what our maid grew up with, I can imagine she may have dreamed of having her own room like Sister's, with stuffed animals and a stereo to play music and a pretty girlish bed set. So I let it go. Like I said, I never saw anything go missing.

Today we found out that she had been using the house phone against our instructions. Land lines are slightly different here. You pay per phone call and it costs more to call a cell phone. Land line to land line is cheaper. So we use our cell phones to call cell phones and our land line to call other land lines. We gave her emergency numbers and told her to call only in an emergency. Turns out that she used up all our credit on the land line. The tip off was when Papa was trying to use the house phone and the calls wouldn't go through. Confused, since he had just paid the phone bill, he called the phone company and requested the numbers called and proceeded to call the numbers he was told we dialed from our phone. Yep, they all knew our maid. As sick as this sounds, she spent two weeks pay in just over a week talking on the phone.

Papa questioned her asking if she was using the phone. She insisted that she hadn't. Then Papa basically reprimanded her, told her that he knew that was not true. Papa said she kept her head down and was clearly ashamed. Papa told her that we won't be needing her services and she forfeits this weeks pay (she was just paid last Friday).

I know I should say "no excuses". But in a way my heart goes out to her. I honestly think she didn't know that the phone use could have been tracked. She was being a dumb teenager who wanted to talk on the phone. If she grew up without a phone, how could she know. We just told her not to use the phone. I don't think Papa explained why she wasn't supposed to use the phone.

I felt like she was learning from us and also feeling a little more comfortable learning how we like to have things done. Not that we are real picky. She was just learning how to do things without being asked. Now we are basically stuck. We need someone starting Monday to look after Brother and we don't have a clue who or where to turn to.

Why do I have this wave of guilt for being tough and sending her on her way for this? I hear so many other horror stories about maids and ours was basically doing a pretty good job. Do you think this was too harsh and she deserved a second chance? Or did we do the right thing?

It's Raining Black Ash

Summer is upon us. We are inching closer to the hot season which starts around March. This is true for much of Honduras anyway unless you live way up in the mountains. One way to know the season is changing is when the sugarcane fields are harvested. My neighbor tells me they call this season "Zafra" because it is the time when the land is prepared.

Things kicked off last night with the burning of some nearby fields. Sugarcane fields are burned as the first step in harvesting. It gets rid of a lot of the excess to make harvesting easier. I found it explained here in English in a PDF- Louisiana Sugarcane Burning.
The image of the burning fields is one I ripped from a website about sugarcane harvesting.

There are lots of sugarcane fields around San Pedro Sula. I actually tasted raw sugarcane for the first time shortly after we moved here last July. Our neighbors who live across the street grow food crops in their yard for their own consumption and also to share. Sugarcane, plaintains and yuca. They had two or three good bushels going and they cut a few stalks for us. We all got sugar rushes chewing on the raw cane, except for Sister who is very reluctant to try anything new. Brother loved it, of course. I'll have to see if I can get a photo of some of the sugarcane juice stands around town. Maybe a video would be good too. They sometimes ride around with a mill and stalks of sugarcane and make fresh cane juice for you right there.

The number of sugarcane fields around San Pedro Sula are probably because there are large flat stretches of land in the valley which are surrounded by hills. I don't understand how winds and weather work exactly, but it's obvious this geographical layout creates a pollution problem. I wonder how all the burning they do effects those with respiratory problems? Especially for the young and old. As I mentioned before, I have allergies, and I'm not sure how this may effect things, but today my eyes are sort of burning and my throat and eyes are a little more itchy.

Here are some photos of the ashes that showed up around our house. A lot had blown away since this morning when the winds picked up this afternoon. Needless to say, it's not the time to be wearing white.

That is not dirt you see in the photos. That is sugarcane ash blown in from the burning fields a few miles away.