Barbie…Coffee Farms…and more…

It seems like recently, Emily and I can’t go anywhere without hearing, “Barbie! Barbie!” The thing is, they are talking to me! No, I don’t have long blond hair- but let me give you some background. Last week, I went to a nearby town with the soccer team to play in a game during the other towns fair. I played goalie, and we won 4-0. There was an announcer and when I would make a save he would say, “Oh, great save by Barbie, the Uruguayan.” I thought it was amusing and later my teammates told me that there is some really good goalie from Uruguay nicknamed Barbie. So now sometimes when my teammates see me around town they yell Barbie.

I recently took a trip up to a local coffee farm owned by our friend Joaquin. It was a great time. The landscape resembles the pine forests of eastern Washington with some more tropical plants thrown in. After a long windy drive with a pickup full of people that included a flat tire and the crossing of a few rivers, we arrived at the coffee farm. Coffee beans need shade so people usually plant bananas or oranges. This means there is a huge supply of free bananas and oranges right now (he invited me up to see the farm and cut some bananas). Joaquin grabbed a machete (standard equipment here) and gave me a tour of the various kinds of bananas (minimos, guineos, platanos, filipos). He walked up to the first tree which was about as thick as a telephone pole and with one quick chop the whole thing bent right over and the bananas that used to be 15 feet in the air were now hanging right in front of us. With one more quick chop we had about 50 bananas in our hands. After repeating this process a few more times, usually with me playing out some samurai fantasy and chopping away at the tree, we had a few hundred bananas. So now we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a few weeks. It's worth noting that banana trees grown REALLY fast and are only good for one "real" harvest. After the first harvest they grow worthless small and gross bananas. So they can sprout up 15 feet in less than a year. They are also easy to plant, you just chop a piece of the tree off and stick it in the ground.

Side note: a few months ago when Joaquin was crossing the river during some big some big rains, he was swept downstream for a good story and some minor scrapes and bruises. Interesting thing is the river was just a trickle when we crossed it.

Emily and I just received some “Christmas” packages and want to send a big thanks out to those that put those together. I imagined my grandma going through the checkout line with loads of candy and the clerk wondering if she had the munchies. Little stuff (and big stuff) from home means a lot here and other volunteers also benefit as everyone passes on books and magazines when they finish with them. I also have to add that Vago now has more toys than any dog in Honduras. Though I’m not sure that any of the great toys we received can replace his favorite 30 cent plastic ball that we play soccer with. Emily and I stand at opposite ends of the hallway and Vago stands in the middle, then we play soccer- he’s a tough defender.

The interesting thing about dogs here is that a lot of them (50% I’d say) are more or less “wild.” By that I mean that they just wander the streets scavenging for food and they are so skinny and beat up from dog fights that they would all make the news back home in the states for animal abuse. This is because the people here can’t afford to take Bob Barker’s advice because it is really expensive to get your pet spayed or neutered and the only place it can be done is in the larger cities, which is a long expensive trip for most people.

Check back shortly as we should have a work update for those interested in what we're doing- like sitting in a hammock and playing with kids isn't work!