The Week of Wildlife

I have had a taste of Honduran wildlife this week! I'm not usually that squeamish but I have yelped a few too many times for my liking this week...

#1. As we were walking into the apartment after going out for dinner we happened upon this guy.

Mr. Scorpion was hanging outside on the wall. I definitely do not want to rely on the Danli hospital to save my life so I'm going to try my best to stay away from these creepy things in the future. Some are more venomous than others but I can't tell any of them apart so I'll just avoid any and all scorpions from here on out... hopefully!

#2. I was laying on my bed the other night and heard some bug wings buzzing. I searched for the source of the noise and looked no further than my laptop screen to see a two inch cockroach peaking over the top. I guess he/she was coming to say "hello" but I was having NONE of that. I hopped up and screamed. It was somewhat out of character for me to be yelling about a bug but I have no patience for cockroaches. They really gross me out. Maybe its the fact that this one was FLYING, yes a flying two inch, hard shelled nasty cockroach. Also the fact that people say they can survive a nuclear war weirds me out, how is that possible?

Anyways, I got off track... the cockroach disappeared and I went on a 20 minute hunting mission to find it. There was a 0% chance of me sleeping soundly if I didn't find and murder that yucky insect. Jamey helped me search and we even flipped over my bed. Eventually, the cockroach showed itself and I squashed it! As my step-dad Bret would say D-E-D dead.

#3. THE BAT! I decided to work out and was sweating like a pig very hot afterwards. We don't have AC so I sat on the porch to cool down. I saw a shadow of what I thought was a bird flying up above. The flying thing swooped down a couple times but not super close. All of a sudden I realized this wasn't a bird, it was a bat and it was flying right at my face. I felt the wind from its wings on my face and swatted it away. I screamed and ran inside immediately. Looks like I will be cooling off indoors from now on.

It has been a frightening lovely welcome week from the wildlife of Honduras. I feel well acquainted now so they can just stay away from me in the future.

Side note: I have a really big fear of flying animals... I didn't realize this until recently. One day a bird flew in the classroom at the children's center and I flipped and ran out. I've been told that I terrorized our pet bird when I was younger but maybe the bird terrorized me first, think about that! This fear had to develop from somewhere... haha

Life in Honduras

There are a few changes to my everyday life here in Honduras. I thought I would share some of them with you all!

First, I don't have a sink in my bathroom. We're not sure why my bathroom was built without a sink. It must be that they just ran out of space because there really is no room for it. Since I don't have a sink I wash my face with a "paila" (pie-luh) which is basically the bucket/ bowl shown below. I'm completely fine not having a sink because I only use the paila for washing my face. I brush my teeth with a cup of water and just spit in to the shower drain.

Our water comes from a big tank that gets filled up by the city water about twice a week. When we are without power, the pump in our tank doesn't work and we're without water. If we are ever without water for a while, we have a back up called a pila (pee-luh). Pilas are common to many houses in Honduras. For some families, it is their only source of water so I am very lucky that we have a tank as well. The pila has two washboards on it since it is the only way for many people to do their laundry other than sending it off to be washed. Jamey and Lesley have a washing machine and I'm super super thankful for that. Below is a picture our our pila.

We are lucky to have a washer but we line dry our clothes like everyone else. With the warm weather here the clothes dry super quickly!

There are a lot of little geckos running around everywhere. They get in to my room often... and sometimes poop on my bed. They are pretty cute though so I don't mind. I was finally quick enough to capture one.