Goal Check

I realized last week (thanks to my lovely friend Mckenzie) that I only have five months left on my 27 in 27 goals.

Here is quick update to keep me honest:

1. Read a book a week - Still on track with this one and I am loving it!
2. Rescue a baby sea turtle*
3. Give it three months - Ehh - sort of did this
4. During non travel/brigade put in 10 hours of Spanish Time - I have not been doing this at all
5. Each week, point to one thing way outside my comfort zone, that I did
6. Write a letter every week - Always send a thank you note - I have a stack waiting to be mailed!!
7. Some goals are private
8. Write a book
9. Do all 33 new habits
10. Get into Johns Hopkins - DONE!!
11. Complete the USAID course
12. Touch every country in Central America - Only 2 left!
13. Learn to scuba* - DONE!!
14. Private
15. Run a Half Marathon in under 2hours - I'm not sure this is still a priority of mine
16. Climb the highest peak in Honduras
17. Hit Fluent - GW test 110 & 100% - GOT to get moving on this
18. Write a grant proposal - May be shifting this one a bit.
19. Get a meditation routine going
20. Read Patholigies of Power AND a Peace to end all Peace
21. Leave Shoulder to Shoulder with an amazing rec.
22. Work on my penmanship
23. Submit a short story/article
24. Still more privacy
25. Learn my multiplication tables*
26. Stay in contact with the people I care about
27. And some more privacy

Still got some work to do!

Back in the swing of things!

Wow - I have been a terrible blogger! 

T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E

Getting back from two months of travel has made it a bit hard to get back into normal life.

The adjustment has been a bit tough but, this week my goal is to get going again on all the things that make up life in Santa Lucia.

Including this blog!

Only in Central America

Remember my last post about being flexible?

Well today my ability to be flexible was really, really tested.

Here is how the day went

We got up super early and walked to the bus terminal for our eight hour bus ride from Managua, Nicaragua to San Jose, Costa Rica

(Side Note: In our hotel room last night there was a spare door frame holding up one corner of the ceiling - No Joke)

After a couple of hours we finally arrived at the border. According to immigration Jill had overstayed her visa and would need to pay a fine for the extra days, plus a "gift" in order to make sure she wouldn't have problems getting back into the country.

(Side Note 2: Seriously, if anyone can figure out the visa stuff around here, please fill me in!)

After dealing with all the immigration hassles we got back and the bus and went on our way. For an hour.

And then what happened? Our bus broke down. Yup, dead as a door nail on the side of the road

So we did what all flexible travelers would do. Get real comfortable on the side of the road

Jill doing some reading

After about an hour or so a semi pulled up. We figured the driver was just there to see if he could help fix the engine.

But no, this was our tow truck.

We even got a police escort

Fortunately, they only towed us across the street to the next gas station but we did all get to ride in the bus as the semi pulled the bus.

Talk about a once in a lifetime story

After 13 hours of travel we finally arrived and got settled into our hostel.

Tomorrow we have another long bus ride to David, Panama.

Hopefully this one goes a bit smoother!

Just roll with it...

Flexible:
adjective 
1. capable of bending easily without breaking
2. able to be easily modified to respond to altered circumstances
3. ready and able to change so as to adapt to different circumstances

One of the biggest lessons of travel is that you must be flexible.

Like crazy flexible

After three days in Managua, Jill and I have decided to change our plans and head straight to Panama (Long story BUT if you can make sense of the abusurdly complicated C-4 regulations/visa extensions for this area let me know!)

What does this mean?

Tomorrow we are heading to Costa Rica so as not to overstay our visa in Nicaragua. We will spend a night in Costa Rica, and then head on to Panama first thing in the morning. 

Basically, it will be two days of long, long bus rides, and then a boat to Bocas del Toro, to spend the holidays there!.

If being flexible means accepting that you will spend Christmas on the beach than I am just fine with it!   

Off we go! 

All the photos!

One of my goals for my 27th year of life was learn to take good pictures

In order to do this, I am trying to take a lot more photos. I made a photobucket to share the ones I really like:

Erin Glesne-Smith's Photobucket

Enjoy! 

EDIT: Click the little arrow, on the left side, next to the phrase "Show Albums and Stories" to see all the albums and photos!

Update

So, this is a long overdue update!

However, since I'm fairly sure my parents make up about 50% of my blog audience, I didn't do any updating while they were in town.

It was a really great trip, and I loved showing them where I am living. We spent a week in Copan Ruinas, two days in Pico Bonito (an incredible National Park), and another week in Roatan. I got very very good at being on vacation!

Also, if you are looking for an amazing place to stay in Honduras you should have my mom do your travel plans. Both of the places we stayed were incredible!

For example, this was our dock in Roatan. Every night we watched the sunset out there:

 Doesn't get much better than that!

Now, Jill and I have started our adventure to Panama. We arrived in Managua, Nicaragua yesterday and head on to Grenada tomorrow!

Proof!

When I said the wheel fell off I was not exaggerating..

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

A few photos of Pulhapanzak Waterfall near the brewery

Enjoy!

An Vacation Begins!

I wrapped up my last brigade (University of Wyoming) of 2012 last week.

Do you know what that means? 

Vacation has officially begun! 

Okay, so life is pretty cushy on a daily basis but I am still really excited about this vacation!

So far our itinerary looks something like this

2 weeks of travel with my parents and Mollie

Copan Ruinas and Roatan - I'm so excited to see them!

San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua 

It is sea turtle season - #2 on my goals for my 27th year

Panama City - New Years Eve

Bocas del Toro, Panama

2 weeks at Palmer Tent Lodge - More on this later

Obviously, there will be lots of stuff in between but that is the plan so far!

Jill and I are kicking our travels off with a few nights here:

D & D Brewery! Good beer in Honduras - It is going to be hard to leave

Gotta love life in Honduras!

Giving thanks in Honduras

I made Pumpkin Pie!

Homemade pumpkin pie! From scratch!

This was an especially big deal because making pumpkin pie from scratch in Honduras is no easy task.

 Every single ingredient has to be tracked down at a different store. 

We had one tiny oven so we did everything in shifts

Add this to the fact we were making pie for 50 people! 

It was a serious, twelve hour long, task.

Step One

Track down a pumpkin or squash. 

We purchased two from our lovely neighbor at the clinic

Pie One

Pie Two: This made for a very very green pumpkin pie

 Step Two

Attempt to hack open the squash

Jill trying her best

 Step Three

Find Maria and have her do it

Don't mess with a Honduran woman. They are T.O.U.G.H.

Step Four

Clean out your squash

This is pie one. Squash here has very very green insides.

Step Five

Bake the squash to make "goop" for the pie insides

 

 

We only had one tiny oven. With one oven rack. This was a long process

Step Six

Scoop out all the insides

This was pie one. It actually looked like normal pie

 Step Seven

Blend up all the insides

Pie One: We realized about this point we were making WAY too much pumpkin goop

Pie Two: Yeah. yeah. Not an appetizing color

 Step Eight

Make the pie dough

Jill's grandma's dough recipe. I told you this was from scratch!

Step Nine

Fill the pies and bake

Jill filling pies! This was just one of the vats of pie goop

 Step 10

Enjoy so much pie!

Pie One! Probably some of the best pie I have ever eaten

Pie Two! This one came out very green!

 

 The green color did not go over well with some of the little kids at the bilingual school.

One child nearly cried when I tried to give him a slice.

In the end we made FIVE pies, though a few of them were crustless

And we still have all of this leftover

Pumpkin goop waiting in the freezer for future pies

There will be many more to come!

This one time...

Before last week I could never have said the following two things:

This one time, in Honduras, I had an ant crawl in my ear while I was sleeping.

This one time, in Honduras, the entire wheel fell off the truck I was in.

Yup. Both of these things happened. In the same week. 

Life is always an adventure here

just another weekend in Hondu!

I was going to write about my amazing weekend in Honduras...

Then Jill did it for me:

A weekend in Honduras

She even included pictures!

No reason to recreate the wheel.

Enjoy!

H. to the Opkins

The Johns Hopkins medical brigade is currently in town, so I have not had much of a chance for updates.  They are keeping my very busy, since I am the only one working this brigade, but it has been a lot of fun.

Everyday, we load about at 7:30 (really it ends up being 8:00 or so but we are operating on Honduran time), and head out to some new location to do field clinics.

So far this week we have seen:
- A possible case of Chagas
- A possible case of TB
- A woman whose knee cap has been firmly located in her thigh for the past four years
- Lots of pneumonia
- And absolutely EVERYTHING in between.

The Brigade Leader, Ed Zueroweste, has basically become my idol. He works for the Migrant Health Network, as the medical director as is a nationally recognized TB expert. Not to mention just an amazing person.

This has probably been one of the more educational weeks of my life... when it is over I am going to sleep for three days straight.

Lost in translation

Some things don't translate.

Last night I was informed that teensy weensy was the spider's name.

How do you go about explaining that one?

Skills

You pick up some interesting skills when living in another country.

I am great at scaling bathroom stalls after being locked in one in Bolivia

I know how to get a Honduran dog to stop chasing you.

I am great at buying snacks out of bus windows

And now, I know how to wash long hair with a bucket shower!

Camasca, where Jill just got a position, only has running water every other day. And even then, only for a few hours in the morning.

This means that time spent in Camasca is also time spent taking bucket showers.

At first, it was a bit of a task but, then last night I figured out I was going about it all wrong. 

Instead of bringing the bucket to me, I needed to go to the bucket! Just squat down and stick your whole head in.

Okay, so I look a bit like this dude

But it works! 

I'm going to start putting that on my resume!

I live here

A former Honduras Peace Corps Volunteer once told me it took her about 8 months to feel really comfortable, and at home in Honduras.

Well, over the past week or so, I have been realizing how true that statement really is.

It hit me this week that living in Honduras just feels so incredibly normal. I know that I am living in another country, but it no longer seems unusual or strange.

I live here. 

Simple as that. 

Now, here are a few photos from the sunrise hike this morning. Just to show off what an amazing place I live in.

Never Gets Old

I started my day off today watching a chubby little girl be born.

It was amazing.

Again.

This is the third birth I have seen in the past four days, and I am loving it.

I'm filming all the births for a study they are doing here. My roommate Kathryn normally does this, but she is in the US for six weeks, so I am stepping in.

I love it.

Maybe after twenty of these it gets boring and routine.

But, right now, it is amazing each and every time.

Saturday mornin'

I woke up in a bad mood this morning.

The power went out last night, and when I was awakened this morning, by the sound of a pig screaming, it was still out.

This meant I had to make coffee on the gas stove.

And that the milk I put on my cereal was of questionable safety.

And my plans to work on some application stuff online today were not going to happen.

It all just made me cranky.

Then someone called me to come downstairs,

And I watched a baby girl be born.

It was, in one word, incredible.

 Absolutely. Perfectly. Breathtakingly. Incredible

Cranky = GONE

That, my friends, is how Honduras works.

Out of the crappy moments, will always come the most amazing surprises.

Even when the power is out.

Book Updates

So, I have not been doing very good on book summaries as of late.

However, I have been ROCKING my goal of reading one book a week. I think I have maybe missed two weeks, and the following weeks I read an extra one to make up for it. This has probably ended up being my favorite goal on my 27 things to do in my 27th year list, and something I would like to keep going for many, many years.

Cutting for Stone – Amazing. Amazing. Amazing book. The author also wrote another book called In My Own Country, which I am hoping to read soon but it is not yet on Kindle.

The Glass Castle – A good quick read. It makes you appreciate how sane and normal your own family is.

A Time to Kill – I have decided John Grisham is going to be my new go-to, long distance travel author. I read this while Jill and I were taking nine million bus rides and it was the perfect travel book.

The Coming Plague – If you are interested in public health or infectious disease you will completely nerd out on this book.

Shades of Gray – Not. A. Fan. I’m sorry, but I don’t get what the hype is all about. I think that the author forgot that most good book have a plot. Or a point in general.

There have been others, but those are the most recent ones.

My book this week is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This is another one my mom recommended. She is a smart one, because I can’t put it down. If I had a required book list for all medical and public health students this one would probably be at the top.

Happy. Happy. Day.

Oh. My. Goodness. 

I have had the luckiest week of mail in my entire life.

I got back from vacation to not one but TWO letters. One from the lovely Ms. Eileen and one from my Grandma Smith (who has become, by far, my best pen pal)

Then, today, I found out I had a letter waiting for me at the front desk. 

But, this was no ordinary letter. This was a package containing Sour Patch kids and, wait for it...

PUMPKIN SPICE VIA PACKETS!

The wonderful, and amazing Jennifer Cox (who I worked with at NPH), sent me a care package. 

Jen and I spent a lot of time talking about the joy of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes at the ranch. Usually over less than amazing coffee, 

I was so touched she sent them to me that I maybe had a little tear. 

Every now and then you are lucky enough to meet truly wonderful human beings. 

Jen Cox, I am so happy I was lucky enough to meet you! 

I miss you so much!