The Sprouts Celebrate Halloween

I admit it. I've been homesick the past month. Maybe it's that the "holidays" are here and it just doesn't feel like the holiday spirit yet? At least not the way I know it. I need it to get very chilly, turn the heat on in the house and cuddle up under heavy blankets at night.

The stores have all been decked out with Christmas gear already. There were only a few Halloweeny things out at stores. I did get a bit nostalgic driving by a Hallmark store though that was spookerific. Fake cobwebs and big black spiders and ghosts in the front windows. It was awesome. We drove by and I thought to myself that I wanted to go back to drive by again. I don't know why? To feel nostalgic again? he he he

I find myself wanting to pretend I'm in the US. For example, I try to look at something and put a frame around the image. Mostly when at stores or restaurants that remind me of someplace in the US, but I have done it even driving past green fields and rivers. I place myself in the US for a moment to feel what it would feel like there. Lately I try to imagine cold air and the smell of the house with the heat on. Especially the smell of leaves drying on the ground once the trees have given them up for their long winter sleep. MN has great smells. The seasons are clear as a bell and each has it's own unique scent. It's awesome.

I used to think Halloween was silly and evil. I tried to not celebrate it. But then I had kids. And gosh, it's just good fun. I also realize now that without it, a time marker is missing. I feel disorientated. Like I just woke up from an afternoon nap and I'm not sure what time it is.

It was a little discouraging to try to celebrate Halloween for the Sprouts. Sister was getting a lot of flack at school about it. Her friends don't "believe" in Halloween and think witches will come to get us if we do celebrate. I said *boo* and decided that since Sister wouldn't be able to go out trick or treating we would bring Halloween to Honduras. Well, at least to Sister's classroom. I made a trip to the big City Mall to the K-andy Land store and bought some candy corns and chocolate foil wrapped eyeballs. We also picked up some caramels from the grocery. Placed some of each candy in little plastic bags to keep them fresh and then into paper Halloween treat bags that I found at the grocery store. It was a big hit with the kids and I guess some decided they like Halloween "a little".

Pumpkins grow in Honduras, but I don't think many farmers plant and harvest them only for Halloween. We heard about stores having some in, but they proved to be elusive. No luck with pumpkins. But! If you get lemons, you have to make lemonade - right? So we carved watermelons! It worked out great! I'd do it again. And we don't mind eating the insides.

We went out for pizza for dinner to celebrate and had a very happy time. Came home and played around the candlelit watermelon jack-o-laterns for a few minutes and called it a night. Here is a slideshow:

Con Quien Hablo???

Getting ready for bed last night I get one of those irritating one ring phone calls. For those who may not know this, in Honduras there are no 2 year contracts where you have an allotted number of minutes per month. Here, there is just prepaid minutes. You only use minutes if the person you call answers. Since everyone has a cell phone but is a minute scrooge at the same time, people call, let it ring once and hang up before you can answer as a signal that they want you to call them back on your minutes ~ not theirs. So anyway, cell phone etiquette is not what this post is about.

Pretty soon I'm getting a bunch of these one ring calls from a lot of different numbers. I ask Papa what he thinks is going on and he suggests that someone is playing a prank. Okay? Then I start getting text messages in Spanish saying things like "how old are you little Alejandro?" and "Why do you live by yourself?" and "I would like to be your friend" and worse, but I'll leave it G rated. Some from men even. Okay, okay...Who the heck is Alejandro? And why are all these people suddenly calling and texting me (him) on a Tuesday night? After laughing at all the messages coming in and the one ring calls I decided to turn off the phone for the night. I really only have two people call me anyway. My husband and my daughter and they were both with me safe at home.

I got some texts this morning and I wrote back to ask how they got the number? They mentioned something about "seeing my message". Hmm?? What message and where did they see it??? Later in the morning a few more calls came in and finally we got someone on the phone. A guy actually. I quickly hand the phone over to Papa who gives the guy some not nice words and hangs up. I tell Papa that we have to find out what is going on! That somehow my cell phone number has gotten out to a LOT of people. About an hour later I get another call. Papa answers the phone and this time it's a woman. He plays it a little cool like he could be Alejandro and asks how she got the number. She tells him from an ad on the local TV station. You've got to be kidding me.

I ask Papa if the message was like a 900 number ad where some hunky guy is saying he lives by himself and to call him for a good time? He said he didn't think so. That it was probably just some ticker type scrolling want ads at the bottom of the screen.

Who's responsibility is it to make sure those personal ads on local Honduran TV are publishing the correct phone number? Should a TV station check phone numbers before they hit the airwaves? You know...just to make sure that it wasn't a number to some English only speaking gringa ~ME!

Naptime for Brother

I know I have been a bit behind on updates from the Sprouts in Honduras. But October is proving to be a busy month with both my parents and Papa's mother visiting! I will try to catch up soon.

But until I get some good posts written, here is a cute video I took of Brother a few weeks ago while he was eating lunch. He thinks I am taking his picture and is trying to keep a smile on his face and his eyes open! You can tell it is somebody's naptime.

Residential Security Fees

This image is at the entrance of our colonia. We have armed guards and other security personal that ride bikes around the neighborhood 24/7. We should be very glad they are here. Our security monthly fee is L400 ($21 US). I'm told that the security salary is L4000/month ($212 US). I'm also told that this amount is a point of contention between the guards and the neighborhood committee (or whatever they are called). The guards are saying they are underpaid and the committee just tells them to put a sock in it. There are just over 300 homes in this colonia and 16 guards. Total security fees collected each month are about L120,000 ($6,349 US). Total salaries are L64,000 ($3,386 US). The excess after salaries are paid are said to cover costs for bikes, guns & misc for the guards. Does it really cost L56,000/month ($2,063 US) for bikes, guns & misc? That is the big question.

A while back I wrote a post about the colonia staging a little protest and the news crews coming here. A new guarded residential like ours is being built next to ours and they are going to be tapping into our well. Who knows what will happen with that, but it wasn't enough to stop it so far.

Last week we got a notice at our door saying that we needed to pay an additional L500 ($26 US) for attorney's fees to stop our well hijacking or they would not accept our security fee. I have heard now that only about 20 residents have paid this L500 fee. The residents that are trying to pay just the security fee are being rejected and told they won't accept anything without the extra fee. So what does this mean? The guards are paid out of the security fees. If the committee won't accept payments, how are our guards going to work with no pay? I certainly wouldn't work without pay.

A woman that was on the neighborhood committee was recently kicked off because she started to ask too many questions and wanted to see documentations of expenses, etc. She was personally insulted by some guy on the committee who when he first moved here drove a crap car, but recently has been seen driving a nice new SUV. He handles all the finances. Oh, he must have got a promotion at his job - right? mmm hmmm.

It doesn't make sense to me. Another woman Papa talked to says that the case is already lost and there is nothing left to fight so the attorney fee that they want to charge is bogus. Maybe it will really suck to have the new residential tap into the well here. Maybe we'll lose water pressure. Maybe we will have to ration water. Who knows what will happen, but if collectively the community doesn't want to do anything about it, they shouldn't be strong armed into paying a bogus attorney fee that they don't want to pay. At least that's what I think.

Oh, and I asked Papa what will happen if someone doesn't pay the security fee. He said that the guards just don't lift the gate to let them in so they have to get out of their car and lift it themselves. Ha! I guess there is a problem with some people not paying the security fee. Ever.

Hopefully we'll still have guards by the end of the month.