Hola

The title of this post originally inspired me to try to write the first paragraph of this blog in Spanish. That quickly failed after I realized I didn't know the second word of that sentence, "title," so I quit. And went and ate some guacamole - which let me tell you, I have mastered the recipe (it is potentially the only recipe I have mastered since we've been here). Speaking of cooking, I still haven't figured out the heat situation with our oven. Everything is gas heat so I can't tell it to turn on to 375 degrees, I just have to turn it to a number on the dial and hope for the best. Yesterday I attempted to make chocolate chip cookie bars for our spanish teacher and instead I made something more similar to black bricks. I had to throw them out but not after I of course tried to eat them first... I mean throwing out chocolate is just inappropriate.

Sorry for the ramblings. I think the heat is getting to me as it is not only 1 million degrees here currently but we are also out of power on the island (i.e. no fans) and have been for 3 hours. So I am sitting on our couch in my swimsuit as close to the window as I can get. I stayed home today due to a sore throat and so far my day has consisted of reading, a nap, making spanish flash cards, and swimming in the ocean. Roatan productivity at it's best ladies and gentlemen.

As for the clinic - I finished my class on adolescent reproductive health and we are going to pilot it at the clinic and a methodist school on the island that has agreed to teach it. If all goes well, we are going to try to get it into more schools as time goes on. My next project will be a grant application from the government for funding - the clinic has 501c3 status in the U.S., so we can use that to apply to USAID. Eric is still enjoying the clinic overall, although he has noticed more and more cultural barriers as time goes on. It's difficult for him to get hard facts about what is happening with the children sometimes because the parents here tend to significantly over state what is happening in hopes for extra medications, etc. For example, a mother brought in a 6-month-old child the other day and told Eric he had been throwing up daily for 4 months straight and wouldn't eat a thing. The child was laughing and of a healthy weight - so obviously these facts are not quite accurate. On the other end of the spectrum, he saw a 14-month-old child last week who was the size of a 2-month-old, and he said the parents both looked as if they were about 12 or 13 (he actually asked the dad if the baby was his brother). They said the baby wouldn't eat so all they had been feeding it for months was rice. This is likely also because they don't have any money to buy other food, but there isn't any kind of food bank or food donations on the island. Now of course I have been brainstorming how I can start a food bank...

On a happier note, Eric and I started our scuba diving certification this past weekend. We finished 2 of the 3 days, and have 2 open water dives remaining (we finished 2 this weekend). We both really, really enjoyed it. On our second open water dive we saw a sea turtle eating! We got to hang out right next to it and watch it eat, and then it swam away and surfaced. We have also seen more fish than I can possibly remember, such as angel fish, parrot fish, grouper, sea urchins, a flounder, eels... and so many more. My favorite thing (other than the turtle) was the school of Dorrie fish (from Finding Nemo) that we saw on our first dive :) I am easily pleased with fish it seems.

Some random pictures are below for you to show you we are still alive and well :)

Yes, those are iguanas below and yes, it was disgusting. We were at an iguana farm. Never again.

 A shrimp boat used for shrimping, which is a huge industry down here.

And the power literally JUST came back on. Nothing like a good 'ol fan to complete the day :)