The Update Post

Sheesh, with all of the last minute preperations, and court issues (if you are my friend on facebook, Im sure you have read about it = if not, I will post a bit here in a minute) and everything else that is my life, I almost forgot that I had said I was going to post this blog post. Anyway, this blog post is where my mother will come and periodically post updates in the comment section. So if you care, and want to keep up on the updates until I can come back or can get online, check the box that says to email follow up comments to you. That way, everytime she updates, you will see it :)

As you know from my last post, Lale was in a bad car accident. He is still really bad, from what I hear, but he is at home. I dont know to to much about the accident, just what he told me the one day I was able to talk to him - and he was so drugged he told me a couple of different versions, LOL. I dont know whose fault it was, what happened, nothing. All I know is that our truck looks like a pancake, both our truck and the trailer flipped/rolled over a couple of times, and the driver of the trailer was put in jail for 2 or 3 days.

So this past Wednesday my father in law had to go to the fiscalia, which I am assuming is like court. Why? Because the owner of the trailer decided to sue us for the damage to the trailer, as well as the lost product (there were bananas in that trailer). It was decided by the judge or whatever that we would have to pay her L340,000 - almost $18,000 or Lale would have to go to jail. And we had 24 hours to pay it in. WTH??? Thats crazy. My brother in law, who was going in place of Lale, because he can barely walk, went back on Thursday, the day the money was due, and said to the judge, look, he is sick, can't walk etc. etc. why would you put him in jail. Plus, with him in jail, how are you going to get your money. Let us work out a payment plan and you will get paid, but there was no way we could come up with that money in 24 hours. Um, we make less than that a year. WAAAYYYYY less. And we have a family of 11. (but someone told the owner that I was a gringa, and also that my brother in law is a well known locutor - so we MUST have money. the funniest part of that is Lale and I, and that brother in law and his family are the poorest of all the brothers and sisters, LMAO) Anyways, the owner of the trailer said nope, I do not want any payment arrangements, I want my money. So the judge gave us an extension. Until 10AM today. Oh yeah, thanks. we couldnt get it in the first 24 hours, but those second 24 hours, thats a HUGE help. Thanks.

My poor father in law was calling all the family members, and everyone he knows to lend us the money - and borrowing a little here, and a little there, he was able to come up with the $18K and paid the bill. So that was taken care of, and as a bonus, we are now the proud owners of a broken down tractor trailer. Woo Hoo. Yeah the judge told my father in law to take it home after he paid the money.

The next step when I get there is to figure out how we are going to pay this money. We are going to have to sell our land, although I dont know if we are going to sell all of it, or just part of it. I am hoping to sell all of it, pay what we owe, then use the rest and move and build somewhere else. Really I do. I have been telling Lale for awhile now that I wanted to move if we could. Maybe this is Gods way of getting us to where we need to be. So all of my plans - for my pulperia, finishing my house, etc. etc. is now on hold (yet again) as we figure out what in the world we are going to do.

Se Vende

FYI*On Sunday, last week, I sat down and wrote a bunch of blog posts to post every other day or so. This is the last one that is saved, and I was planning on writing some more. However, I am not sure how many more I will be writing. I am heading home on Friday - earlier than I had planned, and I have to use this week to get everything together. Last Monday night, Lale was in a car accident and was hit by a tractor trailer. The first night, they said they didn't think he was going to make it, but he evidently got better enough that on Wednesday they sent him home. I have been keeping in touch with my inlaws and they said that he is out of the danger zone (obviously) but that he isnt doing real well. He has a hard time moving around, and is just in alot of pain. He doesn't have any broken bones, but he has stitches and scrapes and who knows what else. Anyways, this Friday I am heading home to take care of my husband, and the kids. (the kids weren't in the car when it was hit). Anyways, I will add as many blogs this week as I can, but after Friday, check back on the comment section of the last post posted (it will be posted Thursday night) and I will have my mom post mini updates there in the comment section.

At one point I had a sign on the front of my house that said something along the lines of :

Se Vende:

Hielo

Vasitos

Coctel

Topogigos

Choco-Bananas

Yes I used my markers to make it the colors you see there as well. What does that say? It says we sell: ice,little cups of frozen milk stuff, cocktail, frozen milk stuff/frozen kool-aid in a bag, and chocolate bananas.

Why did I have that sign on my house? Well duh, because I sold all of that, LOL. Really it was to make extra money for the kids to take to school for their snacks and to pay for my replacement gas tanks for the kitchen stove.

When I first got there, I only made ice. And it was made in used soda bottles that were washed out. The 2 liter and 3 liter bottles usually. The ice sold for 1L/liter. But the bottles took up to much room in my freezer, so I switched to bags. My sister in law in Tocoa sells everything that is listed on the list as well, and she told me which bags were best to buy, etc. etc. So now I sell 1.5 liters of water, made into ice for 2L.

Milk Vasitos and Topogigios (pronounced Toe-Poe-EE-Oh's) are basically the same thing, only packaged differently. To make vasitos and topogigios you take equal parts milk and water and mix them together. Then you add a ton of sugar and mix it up until it disolves. It should taste extra sweet, because when it freezes, it looses some of the sweetness. You can also add flavor to it - i.e. Choco-Choco (to make chocolate milk), Shredded Coconut, Strawberry milk flavoring, basically anything that tastes good with milk. Then you can fill up the little cups, which are about the size of dixie cups, put in a popcicle stick, and put it in the freezer. For topogigios, you make it the same way, only you put approx 1.5 vasito cups of the milk mixture into the bags, tie the bags as close to the milk mixture as you can, and put them in the freezer as well. These also sold for 2L.

Kool-Aid Topogigios - To make the kool-aid topogigios I would mix 11 packets of the kool-aid, 6ish pounds of sugar (the actual amount of sugar changed depending on the flavor of the kool-aid) and water in a 5 gallon container. Once mixed well, they would go into the topogigio bags, I would tie them and into the freezer they went. These sold for 1L.

The topogigio bags, and the kool-aid packets
Frozen Topogigios - Pineapple flavored. Ready to be taken to the chest freezer.


Coctel - To make the coctel, you need 1 gallon of orange juice, or Quanty - wich is sort of like tang, 1.g gallons of water, 1 pineapple, 1 watermelon, 1 melon, more sugar (5 - 6 pounds, depending on how sweet the fruit it) and 4 packets pina flavored kool-aid. Although you can use different flavors of kool-aid, and other mixture of fruits as well, this is the basic recipe.

Now my sister in law said you cut up all the fruits, put it in the 5 gallon container, in a seperate bowl or container, mix the kool-aid, oj, sugar and water then pour it into the fruit mixture. Mix it up well, then pour it into the vasito cups, add a popcicle stick freeze it and you are done. I didn't like doing it that way because some cups had more fruit, while towards the end, some cups had almost nothing. So I followed the entire recipe as stated above, only once I was done mixing the kool-aid mixture, I didn't add it to the fruit mixture. (I actually had the fruit in a huge bowl, and the kool-aid mixture in the 5 gallon container).

Here are the cups with the fruit mixture in them.
I first filled the cups with the fruit mixture, then I added the kool-aid mixture and the popcicle sticks. These I sold for 2L as well.

Here are the cups with the kool-aid mixture before I put in the popcicle sticks.

Everyone knows what Choco-Bananas are I think. Frozen chocolate covered banana halves on a popcicle stick. I sold them too (yup for 2L each, LOL) but I didn't sell them that often. The main reason is because even though we have tons of bananas on our land, Johan never lets them get ripe. He will eat the bananas before they are ripe. Or we will use them when we make tajadas.

Unfortunately I have 9 children. 8 of whom can walk, and know how to open the freezer, grab what they want, and go and hide and eat the yummy treats. Andre in 2 days ate over 50 kool-aid and milk topogigios. So most of my product was making its way into my childrens belly's and it was costing me instead of me making money. So until I open up my pulperia/mini super (more to come on that in a different post) I am only selling ice. The kids dont like to sneak the ice, LOL.

But I Love My Worm

Torsalo - The Bot Fly

For those of you who follow Olancho Bound Gringa's blog, you may already know about this. I actually had forgotten that I was going to post this until I had read her blog post on it.

Back in July, Lana got bit by a mosquito. Then the mosquito bite got bigger, and Lana for what seemed like no reason, would start to cry and dance around. It seems that her mosquito bite was Torsalo.

Now this isn't our first time dealing with a Torsalo. And in all reality, I doubt it will be the last. But I will say this was the biggest one that I have seen.

We tried to squeeze the torsalo out, but it wouldn't come out. We put vaseline over the hole - so that it would suffocate and die, and come out. That didn't work. We did so many different things that usually work, but this torsalo did not and would not come out.

As we were trying to get it out, we would tell her that it was a worm, and that it had to come out. We knew it hurt, but once we got it out, it would be all better.

I ended up taking her to a doctor in Tocoa, who after looking at her, and trying to squeeze it out herself, said that it would have to be surgically removed. She would have to be cut open, the torsalo pulled out, and then she would be stitched right back up. (and all of this for a grand total of L500, which comes out to about $26.50)

When Lana heard this, she decided that having a torsalo was much better than having a shot (to numb the area). She started telling the doctor in her non perfect spanish - no more, no more, I like my worm.

As the doctor came at her with the needle, I held her arms down, Sendy had her legs, a nurse had her body, another nurse was helping the doctor and the doctor was trying to give her a shot to numb her. With the first shot, all the anestesia squirted out the hole that the torsalo made. Same thing with the second and third shot. Then with the fourth try the doctor hit the torsalo, and that thing tried to come out the hole so quick, it wasn't funny. But it was so big, it didn't fit out the hole. The doctor got her little scissor/treewer things and began to pull on it. Now Lana is yelling, (still in spanish) I love my worm, I love my worm. Leave my worm alone, I want my worm in my chest. DONT TOUCH MY WORM. I LOVE MY WORM. I WANT MY WORM FOREVER. NO MORE. I DONT WANT YOU, I WANT MY WORM.

Do you know how hard it is to comfort your 3 yr old daughter when you are laughing at what she is saying? It isn't easy.

In the end, the doctor got the torsalo out, although the fuzzy/spiney part broke off as she was pulling it out. We had to wait for that to work its way out later.

The best part was when we got home, she had tears in her eyes as she told my husband, Papi, they took out my worm and killed it. I loved my worm.

Getting Even, Lana Style

Growing up, I was the only girl (besides my mom) in a household of boys. (Maybe that explains my lack of 'girlyness'?) I got along with all of the boys except one. Myself, and that one brother, all we did was argue and fight. And by fight, I mean physical fighting. My poor mother.

I now have 9 children that live with me, and am being paid back on a daily basis. (although I am not sure my brother is being paid back, and if he isn't, that really isn't fair!) The only difference is that my brother and I were older - it started when I was 12 or so, and we finally began to get along when I was 18 or 19. The kids that are paying me back right now are the little ones. Especially Levi and Lana.

When Levi was a baby, Lana and Levi played together all the time. See I have proof.

When we came back here last year to have Ari, everyone was so sure that Levi was going to be jealous of her, and have major sibling rivalry going on because he was (still is) my baby. But when Ari was born, he didn't give me any problems. From day one he was easy with her, and plays with her, and looks out for her.

It was in Honduras that his issues began. But not with Ari. With Lana. It seems that in those 4 months apart, their love changed to hate, LOL. They both will be sitting quietly on the sofa watching a movie, and then out of nowhere Levi will get up and hit Lana, or try to push her off the couch so he can sit in that spot. One day she was sitting on the floor of the front porch playing, and he came running by, realized he was running by his arch enemy, swerved by her, grabbed her hair, and drug (dragged?) her into the house.

And Lana, who is a tough little girl - she doesn't take crap from any of her older brothers and sisters - she would just take it and cry if it got to much. I would fuss at Levi, he would get in trouble etc. etc. but it didn't make a difference. I told Lana, if he hits you, you have to hit him back. Because that way he will realize that she isnt his personal punching bag, and will leave her alone. But she never would. Then one day I do believe she got fed up. They were in the kitchen fighting, and she pushed him out the back door. Which in and of itself, isnt that big of deal. The big deal is that there is a 2 foot drop or so out the back door to the concrete step because we still haven't done the back porch. And Levi went flying out the back door face first. He landed on his mouth and cracked a tooth.









After making sure he was ok, I had to laugh to myself. Because Lana, in trying to show him she isnt going to take his crap anymore, just made matters worse for herself. Now his tooth is sharp and pointy, and when he bites her, its gonna hurt worse. I had to tell her that I said when he hits her to hit him back, not push him out the back door and try to kill him.

Although being pushed out the back door didn't slow Levi down, he has since learned though that if he is nice to Lana, she will let him tag along with her and Johan when they go and get into things and get into trouble :)

At minute 1:15 you can see how much being pushed out the back door has affected how Levi treats Lana.

*you know when you have kids, you say things that you never imagined you would have to say. I never thought I would say to one of my kids - you know its ok to hit him back IF he hits you, but its not nice to try to kill him.

Thanks are in order - and the worst placement of lace EVER...

Before I post anymore blogs, I need to say thank you so much to Stacey. Stacey is someone who offered to send me some magazines so, as she said, I dont have to memorize the Joy of Cooking. Well yesterday I got my box of magazines. I wasn't going to open it until I got to Honduras, because I know how I am. If I open it, within an hour I will have read all the magazines, LOL. So I set the box aside, made a mental note to send of an email to Stacey today and went on doing what I was doing. Sometime around 2AM I couldn't stand it anymore and I opened the box (you should see me at Christmastime. They don't have to be gifts for me - if I have a gift for you, you have to open it, but NOW, LOL)

Not only did she pack in a ton of magazines for me, it also looked like she robbed a bunch of pediatricians office, there were so many Highlight magazines in there for the kids.



Look at the cover on the Real Simple magazine. Can you see it? It made my heart happy. It says lists. It is a list of lists. I love lists. I have lists telling me to write lists. I think that is why I love new notebooks so much as well. Its a fresh new start for me to write different lists in. Seriously. I ahve a notebook for home improvement that has all sorts of lists in it. As well as a notebook on the household budget, that is filled with lists. I love lists.



Even more than that, there were some shirts in there from her daughter (I dont know her daughters name, but I wanted to send a BIG THANK YOU to her daughter as well) that Mickey and Isa are going to have fun fighting over, and a shirt for Johan, and the perfect PJ for Levi.



I say perfect PJ for Levi for two reasons. One because it is lightweight, and Levi can't handle the heat that well. He will break out in a heat rash. But the second reason is because it is covered in geckos. And that boy LOVES him some geckos. He will sit there and stare at the wall waiting for the geckos to come out of hiding, then he will harass the living daylights out of me - Ma, Ma gecko. Uno gecko. Dos geckos. MA GECKOS MA, MA, MA GEEEEECCKKKOOOOSS. So I can imagine how much fun he will have with this shirt!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I was online today trying to find bras on sale for me to buy. I know TMI - anyways, I was scrolling through and out of the corner of my eye say THIS. I had to do a double and triple take. This has got to be the absolute WORST placement of black lace - ever.

Videos of Ari

Here are some videos of Ari taken December 29th.

Spending my Lempiras

People are always asking me how much money do I spend on different things compared to what I would spend in the US. So I thought I would post what I pay.

I have included the amount per month that I usually buy. There are things that I wish I could buy, but I just can't justify spending so much money on it. The money amount listed at the end of each item is how much it costs per item, not how much I spend in total.

For example an 8oz package of montery jack cheese runs 78L at the Mega grocery store. Which means it costs almost $10/pound. For 90L I can get 3 pounds of quesillo, which is a soft cheese that sort of is like mozzerella, but not quite. Or I can get 3 pounds of queso seco. Dry cheese. Yuck. Everyone in the house likes queso seco except for Andre and I. I much prefer quesillo.

Oh, and if it seems like I buy alot of food - I do. Lets do a recap of who eats in my household.

• Lale - who eats the equivalent of 3 teenage boys.
• Me - who eats normal
• Andre - who eats the equivalent of 4 teenage boys
• Sendy - the equivalent of 2 teenage boys
• Jordan - normal
• Mickey - normal
• Isa - normal
• Johan - the equivalent of 1 teenage boy - seriously.
• Lana - normal
• Levi - more than normal
• Ari - eats a good deal as well.

So while there are 11 mouths that have food shoveled in, it is like I have to cook for 27 people. (because we all know that 1 teenage boy is the same as two normal people). Seriously. At each meal make approx 55 tortillas for everyone. That isnt including me, because I rarely eat tortillas. 38 of those are for 4 people.

Anyways...

on average, $1 = 18.87L

Water bill for the year = 240L

Replacement Chimbo (gas for the stove) (2/month) and it varies. I have paid anywhere from 176L to 215L. It all depends on the price of gas.

(5/month) Baby Formula 354L

(2/month) Ketchup (1 gallon) 123L

(1/month) Mayo (generic semi icky flavor brand) 40L

(1/month) Mustard 36L

(6/month) Hot Sauce = 15L

(2/month) Coffee (1lb bag Cafe Oro) = 34L

(1/month) Creamer (the BIG container) = 55L

(4/month) Margarine (5 sticks Issima brand) = 14L

(2/month) Oil (1 gallon) = 210L

(4/month) Manteca (think a tube of crisco. 1 Kilo) = 24L

(10/month) Hielo bags (20 bags) = 4.5L

(varies/month) Topogigio bags (30 bags) = 4.5L

(2/month) Flour (25lb bag) = 180L

(2/month) Maseca (50lb bag) = 290L

(4/month) Rice (25lb bag) = 230 <> (1/month) Rice (100lb bag) = 880L

(2/month) Spaghetti (5 lb sack) = 110L

(4/month) Diapers (50 diapers size XG Huggies) = 290

(1/month) Salt (Sal Fino 25lb bag) = 80L

(2/month) Sugar (2 fardos. 1 fardo = 40lbs) 220L

(15 chick/month) Chicken (frozen, 4-5 lbs each one) = 20L/lb

(1 big bag/month) Dog Food = 13L/lb or around 490L for the big bag - 40 lbs I think?

(12/month) Macaroni noodles (8 oz bag) = 8L

(3/month) Tomato Paste (12 pack case) = 80L

(5/month) Shampoo (crappy dollar store type, 1 liter) = 48L

(3/month) Conditioner (same crappy dollar store type, 1 liter) = 48L

Deodorant (Dove brand) = 80L

(1/month) Dishwashing soap (24 bar case) = 190L

Dishwashing soap (each) = 9L

(25/month) Laundry Soap (each) = 12L

(1/month) Laundry Soap (powder, medium bag) = 45L

(2/month) Bleach (1 gallon) = 38L

(2/month) Flash cleaning liquid (1 gallon) = 88L

(15lb/month) Hamburger meat = 40L/lb

Hamburger meat (more fat) = 25L/lb

(15lb/month) Meat (think roast) = 40L/lb

Beef tenderloin = 48L/lb

(varies) 3L of soda = 30L

veggies (250L/week)= 1000L

The deodorant I buy enough for everyone for the year here in the US, then either take it down with us, or shove it in the box we send down. This year I am doing the same thing with shampoo. I really miss my Pantene. And the price of the small pantene in Honduras is almost equal to the price of 1 liter of Pantene in the US.

The veggies I buy either from the market in Tocoa, or from the veggie truck that comes by our house every Saturday morning. Usually - but not always, the veggie truck is cheaper than the market in Tocoa. The picture above shows what I bought from the veggie truck for less than 160L. Or between $7 and 8$. For that amount I got 5lbs of tomatoes, 3 heads of lettuce, 1 head of cabbage, 4 pounds of red onions, 5 pounds of potatoes, 3 pounds of carrots and 10 green peppers.

Speaking of food - Isa was looking at pictures of her cousins birthday party, which we werent able to make it to, and she asked me why only he had friends over his house for a party. We celebrated her birthday at home with a special dinner, a cake and just us family. We didnt have the money to do anything big, and I hate having a bunch of people over to the house anyways. So I told her, Isa, you have so many brothers and sisters that together they make enough people for a party. So not only did you have a party for your birthday, you have a party EVERY time you sit down and eat. Just think of how lucky you are to be able to have a party 3 times a day.

I dont know if she bought it or not though because she just sort of looked at me funny and walked away.

The Visit...

You see it all over Ebay. Bread, potato chips etc. etc. - all with the image of the Virgen Mary. The Virgen Mary seems to show up everywhere. Everywhere except at our house.

Instead we were blessed by the vision of someone/something not so holy...

Thats right folks, we are blessed with this vision - the dude from The Pirates Of The Carribean.


I saved this tortilla to show Lale when he came down the mountain from working. Thank goodness I took a picture, because I gave him the tortilla and told him to look - he says look at what, as he shoved it in his mouth. Man, there went my couple of thousand dollars I was planning on getting from my ebay auction.

Tan lines - Honduras style

I dont know if I posted about it before, but last year I amused myself each night by playing a game called is it a tan, or is it dirt. Right before I took a shower, I would take off my flip flop and look at the line. I would then have to decide is the line a tan line, or a dirt line. I never knew until I got out of the shower. (I actually had before and after shower pictures of my feet, but I lost them)

This year is no exception. Except that it seems the kids have gotten in on the game as well...

Push It!!

It makes me happy to know that I haven't lost my juvenile sense of humor. He is saying Push it, although it so doesn't sound like that, LOL.

Tu Bandera

This is the national anthem of Honduras. Sung with the correct words.

Now here is what is sung at my house - they are pretty close, but not quite.

Lana and Mickey...

Isa...

and finally, Johan.

For some reason YouTube is having issues with the video of Johan. If it doesn't fix itself, I will try to re-upload it again later.