Mi Cuello

So anyways, I've found that your neck hurts a lot more the second, third, and fourth days after you've been kicked in it then at the actual time it happened. While I still don't think there will be any lasting damage, I feel it's only fair to share the complaining I've been doing with you all (as I honestly believe that the other voluinteers can't handle me talking about it even once more). I have appreciated and will continue to appreciate all your thoughts and prayers on this matter.

Nuestras Mascotas

No house would be complete with a pet or two, and our house in Honduras is no exception. When we arrived, (in addition to cockroaches, mosquitoes, mice, ants, and giant grasshoppers) our house came with a trusty, loyal, and useful guard dog named Oso… or at least that’s what we were lead to believe. We quickly discovered that none of words used in the previous sentence had ever or would ever be used to describe our mangy pet. Instead, words like lazy, useless, idiotic, clueless would most likely be used. It wasn’t even so bad that he was dumb (which he was in truckloads), but instead that he was just plain annoying (he would always escape, and instead of coming back when you would call him, would prance (literally prance) just out of reach from you as you chased him down the street with the dumbest look I’ve ever seen on any man or beast before (sorry for the venting there, but it had to be said)). I say this in all honesty as a person who loves dogs (I’ve had dogs since I was born and even worked at the Humane Society for the 4 years I was at college just to have some interaction with man’s best friend): Oso was the worst dog ever. Notice, I said was (don’t worry, we didn’t kill him). We endured as much as we could, but eventually he had to let him go (by this, I mean give him away to a neighbor).

But as a group that collectively liked animals (just not Oso), we couldn’t stand the idea of being pet-less. As such, we now have a new baby kitten who has already proved his worth by killing a nest of 4 mice. He is very ugly (he doesn’t have much hair and has a really big head), but as mentioned previous he is very useful (and actually fun to play with. I wouldn’t go so far as to call him “adorable” (the machismo Honduras culture wouldn’t let me), but he’s pretty awesome). Due to his startling appearance, we have named him Volidmo in reverance to the dark lord (the guys wanted to call him “Voldimort” while the girls wanted to call him “Minimo” (translation: banana), so we had a compromise). I’ll keep a tally of his kill count as the year goes on.

Lago Yojoa

Instead of writing too much about Lago Yojoa, I’ll let the picture do most of the talking for me. Needless to say, this place was (and still is) beautiful. We camped out next to a river for a couple days, cooked food over the coals from the fire (how rustic we’ve become), and explored the area as much as we could.

The lake itself was clearly spectacular. We rented some kayaks and took full advantage of the sights that were before us. As usual, Joe was being an idiot and ruined every picture that was taken of yours truly.






The Pulhapanzak Falls, pretty much one of the sweetest things I’ve ever experienced in my life. Looking at it from this picture, I’m sure you can appreciate the beauty of these falls, but believe me when I say that you gain a much deeper appreciation for its majesty when you’re looking up at it from (literally) beneath the falls. For $5 a pop, we were given a complete tour of the falls complete with an opportunity to jump off 8 meter (not feet) cliffs. It’s hard to see much when you’re being pounded by rapidly falling water (though I’ve never been caught in a snow storm or dense fog, I would most liken it to either of those experiences as at times I couldn’t even see my own hands in front of me)), but suddenly and inexplicably these torrents would let up, leaving you with a view from within a waterfall which truly took your breath away. Best $5 I ever spent.

Hopefully I’ve at least helped a few of you to consider traveling south to see these sights and more.

Entrevistas

Over the last couple months I’ve been lucky enough to recieve a handful of interviews at medical schools throughout the country, and I’ve been even luckier to have heard back some good news from a couple of schools (i.e. I’m going to be a doctor (as long as I can get through that whole “medical school” thing over the next 4-8 years (easy))). So who knows, I may be coming soon to a city near you! I’ve also been fortunate enough to meet up with some of you during my travels, and to you I would like to say thanks for either offering me a couch to sleep on or taking the time to meet up with me for coffee. Also, for those of you whose city I haven’t yet been to or wasn’t able to meet up with, don’t lose hope; I hopefully will be making one more trip back to the states (interviews-pending). If that doesn’t work, Honduras is a great place to visit for a weekend, spring break, whatever your fancy (I say this to all of you people with jobs that pay more than 2000 limps a month). Anyways, I’ll keep you all updated on where my future may take me.

Mi Numero Nuevo Nuevo

So my phone broke again (probably had something to do with me dropping and losing it in a puddle for an hour), and thus I have another new number:

+01150432354181

I promise that I will try and let this be my last new number.

Perdon

So again, sorry for the lack of posts. While I could blame it on a number of things: my computer not being returned to me by the (incompetent) staff at BestBuy in Miami (as a personal favor to me, please never shop at BestBuy ever again. Suffice it to say that they didn’t get my computer fixed by the time I left the country (only 5 days late by their own estimate) and then jerked me around to the point where I returned to the store 3 times with no results. I’m kind of bitter); not going to the internet café as I’m trying to save money for traveling; being busy with work and traveling back to the states (for medical school interviews. More details to follow). As I haven’t written or posted in a while, I hope people are still even reading this, but if not, I understand (and if that’s true, then I guess I wrote that last bit just for my own well being).

I decided to jump back on the horse following an eye-opening experience I had recently. I’ll just jump to the punch line and say that I either got roundhouse or scissor-kicked to the throat last night. Don’t worry mom and dad, I wasn’t in a fight (leaving the grand total of fights I have been in at 0), but was rather playing soccer. The reason I don’t know what kind of kick I received was that I didn’t see it happen (I was following the ball) and I didn’t know the words for “roundhouse-kick” or “scissor-kick” in Spanish (I now know to ask whether it was a “una patada casa redonda” or “una patada tijera” (literal translations… probably not right)). Surprisingly it didn’t hurt much at the time, but it is more than making up for it this morning. Anyways, I realized that should some unfortunate accident occur to me, I wouldn’t want to leave you all (my loyal fan base) in the dark about what I was up to. So with no further delay, some updates.