Life's Like A Jump Rope

September 11th 2009 10:15pm

That title is for Daniel. A word of caution: Should you wash your clothes by hand and then subsequently hang them to dry, check the weather forecast for the next 24 hours in the unlikely, though not impossible event that a downpour may occur an hour after you are supposed to get back to you apartment to pick up your clothes. Because then you have to wash your clothes again.

Friday Tie Day started off well, and I was looking good in my purple tie this morning. I set the chicken out from the freezer to let it thaw and was excited to try to make chicken parmesean tonight. When we got to the office this morning, I was able to get a lot of work done. I caught up on my translation and contacted a few people in the US about possibly taking trips down to Tegucigalpa over the next couple of years. The background of my computer at work is a photo of me playing the ball game at camp. Some of my co workers were asking about it, so I showed them the staff video, which has a clip of the game. Everyone wants to play now, though no one can think of a pool where we could play.

A woman came through the office selling tamales, but not like hot tamales. It was a combination of rice, potatoes, chicken, and beans all wrapped in some sort of a soft bread and contained by seaweed. It was delicious. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but I need to live like a Honduran sooner or later, and I'm glad I decided to make it sooner.

There is a woman from the office that I have yet to mention. Her name is not Naomi, but it is something like that, so thats what I will call her until I figure out what it really is. Naomi is the woman who started the organization, and has essentially an Iron Grip on the CCD. Without going into it to much, people in the office feel a need to be on her good side. She isn't there all the time, but the atmosphere at the office is very different when she is there.

Naomi had a meeting in the office today in the room where we normally eat lunch. For half the day, she was in a meeting with Nancy, Freddy, and Marisela. The rest of us decided to eat lunch in the secretary room. We all ate our tamales, and then talked about different hobbies that we had. People started to filter out, and Patty and Betzabe went back to their desks.

Edgardo then piped up and said that he really enjoyed dancing, and wanted to teach me the right way to dance like a Honduran. Cristian got some music started, but neither her nor Heidy volunteered to dance with Edgardo. So, he went and got Betzabe who teaches a merengue class and the two of them began dancing. I watched for a while, and then Heidy volunteered to help me, and Cristian began dancing with Elmer. It was a sight to see.

The three pairs danced and switched and danced and switched, but as soon as I got to the teacher Betzabe, we heard keys jingling, and everyone flew to their desks and turned down the music. Edgardo pretended to be showing Heidy something, Elmer was asking Cristian a question, and I didn't really know what was going on, but decided to play along and show Betzabe my lesson plan for tomorrow.

Apparently, the office is a little bit more strict with Naomi around, and my co workers are very jumpy about the situation. We waited for a while, and when we were sure enough that Naomi was not just outside the door, we got the music started up again and the six of us danced for a while. We danced both the bachata and the merengue. I need practice, but they said that I was better than they expected. I am taking it as a compliment and moving on.

The rest of the afternoon, we spent laughing whenever Naomi would come into the room. If she was facing one of us, the other two in the room would smile and giggle. It was very reminiscent of Mrs. Palmer's chemistry class.

Around 3:00pm Marisela, Freddy, Freddy, Elmer and myself went out. I did not know where we were going. It turns out we were going to the cell phone store to finally get a phone for me to use here. It turns out there is a lot more paper work than we were prepared for, and some signatures that people back at the office needed to sign. Cell phone plans work a little bit differently here, and because I will be on the office plan, there are a lot of people in the office who have to sign off on a few things. I had asked Marisela earlier in the day if she could look over my notes for the class to correct my attempts at Spanish. She ended up not getting around to it, but promised that we could after work, like we had the last time.

We didn't get back to the office until close to 4:30pm, and the sky was turning dark. Earlier in the week, other than my trip to the south, I had been getting home close to 4:30. I had checked the weather when I went to go and wash my clothes, but the report misinformed me that the rain would hold off until the late evening around 9:00pm or so. Freddy had asked me earlier that day if I had wanted to join him and Yasmine for some mini golf this evening, but by the time we got back to Plaza, it was pouring. We switched our plans to a bowling evening, and he resolved to pick me up around 7:00.

Marisela went over my paper for close to an hour, and I became very frustrated with my lack of progress over the course of the past week. I didn't make the same kinds of mistakes as I made last time, but I made just as many if not more. I was also upset at this point about having to redo my clothes, so that didn't help.

By the time Marisela was done helping me, I was very frustrated with myself and I knew that there wasn't enough time to make the chicken parmesean that I had been looking forward to all day. Rather than eating at Plaza, however, I resolved that I would walk home and have a cheaper meal of a peanut butter sandwich. I had found peanut butter at the store earlier in the week, and had been dying to have a good peanut butter sandwich. After walking home in the rain, I went to prepare my peanut butter sandwich with the bread I had purchased a week ago. I don't know if I didn't close it up right, or if I just bought bad bread, but every piece was moldy.

At this point, I was very frustrated with my day and was very much looking forward to bowling. Freddy picked me up around 7:00pm and we were able to pick up Yasmine and grab a bite to eat before meeting some of his other friends at the bowling alley. I never know what to say when someone asks me if I'm good at bowling. I think I'm very average, and I usually score between 125 and 140. 150 is a good game for me. Tonight, I bowled a 130 and had twice as many points as second place.

There is only one bowling alley in the city though, and no one that was playing had ever practiced much. I felt good about myself though, and it helped to pick my day up a little bit. As I went to leave the car to go back to my apartment, Freddy told me that we don't have work Monday or Tuesday due to the Honduran Independence Day on Tuesday. That picked my day up even more.

I am looking forward to further exploration of the city.