First, the streets seem to be cleaner. We pretty much walk everywhere we go; to school, to the grocery, to our friend's houses, and during our treks, we always see so much litter! Empty bottles, wrappers, cups, broken glass (to name a few) are scattered around the streets and sidewalks. This sight is always a little
disheartening to Greg and I, as we always discuss ways to improve the waste system here. Some of it is not the locals' fault, trash cans are few and far between here - but come on, have some pride in your beautiful country and put your waste where it belongs! When in doubt, find a bathroom, there is sure to be a garbage receipticle next to the toilet! Anyway, each morning on our way to school, we pass city workers sweeping up trash with a broom and dustpan. Apparently it is helping because Greg and I sure have noticed a decrease in litter. (We recently learned that this is part of Comayagua's new mayor's charge - to clean up all the trash!) We nearly passed out when we passed a public trash can (bolted down of course so it isn't stolen) overflowing with garbage. We were so impressed that it was full! What a positive change - we hope it continues!
Another great thing - no taxi drivers have tried to rip us off yet! Maybe it is just because we now have the taxi hailing process down: 1. Hail the cab (often this step is omitted because we are actually stalked by cabbies that want to pick us up). 2. When it pulls up, don't get in. First ask the price per person to your destination. It should be 20 Lempira each for anywhere in town. 3. If the price is right, enter the cab and make nice with the driver. So, we aren't sure why we keep getting fair quotes, but we are very pleased about it! It used to be only 15 Lempira per person, but the price increased by 5 Lemps (about 25 cents) last spring because of the elevated gas prices. At least that is what we heard! Wait, maybe we are getting ripped off afterall... Just kidding!
We are also happy to report that the school seems to be fun
ctioning better this year. Although we still haven't received our official class rosters or our grade books, the administration is more organized. They assigned each teacher a locker in the teacher's room (last year it was first come first served and there weren't enough), we now have 4 new functioning computers with internet also in the teacher's room (and no students are allowed to use them), and we can get our paychecks direct deposited (into our Honduran bank account of course). In addition, Maranatha now has an official student body band, which marched in the Indepence Day parade (we didn't participate l
ast year), and we now have a detention hall! Overall, things are just running smoother and the kids (well most of them) seem to be more calm. We are really enjoying our experiences at the school this year!
And finally, we have been amazed with the power company's ability to restore electricity in record time! Since it is the rainy season now, we have pretty frequent storms. In fact on Friday night we had a pretty violent one, and just as our friends were walking out to their car (they had come over for dinner) the transformer outside of our house started shooting out sparks, then the lights all went out! Well, this left our friends in predicament because our electronic gate (pictured above) will not open without power! They decided to hail a cab and pick up the car the next day, as we figured it would be hours - even days - before power was restored. You can imagine our complete shock when only an hour later the electricity came back on! The next day we lost power again, only for about 20 minutes though. Kudos to the power company for a job well done!
We are super impressed and way excited about all of the great changes happening. It thrills us to write about positive happenings here - and hope to include more soon! Have a wonderful weekend!
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