El Valor de Un Dolar

El Valor de un Dolar

Thought you couldn’t buy anything for a dollar? It’s funny that I’ve only been out of the US for a month and I can’t remember what you can still buy for a dollar besides gum or candy. Anyway, I want to explain a bit about the lempira, Honduras’s currency. Right now I believe the exchange rate is about 18.25 lemps (local slang. Get in on it) for 1 dollar. Here’s a list of average costs that I’ve encountered, keeping in mind that we receive about 1000 lemps per 3-4 weeks:


1 Bolsita de Café (lasts me 2 days drinking 2-3 cups per day): 1/2 lemp. (the coins have names but they’re so worthless that we haven’t learned them yet. However, coffee is really freaking cheap)
20 oz. Soda: 20 lps.
Paleta (popsicle) store-bought: 20 lps.
Paleta from my favorite lady in Coconut, Chocolate, or Corn Flake sabor: 3 lps.
Loaf of wheat bread: 50 lps.
5 oz. of peanuts: 50 lps.
Colgate: 30 lps.
Snickers Bar (hard to find): 15 lps.
M&Ms: 12 lps.
Raisins (big bag that lasts me about a week): 40 lps.
Vitamins: practically non existent
Decent Shampoo: 120 lps.
Una bolsa de agua: 2 lps. Served cold, mind you.
10 minimos (bananos): 15 lps. (take that, America)
Aguacate (avocado): 7 lps. (even better)
Cuaderno (notebook): 10 lps. (but it’s really crappy and small.)
About 30 minutes of phone time: 100 lps.
A Cool Converse T-Shirt: 70 lemps
Delicious Donut: 7 lps.
Teeny Cup of Coffee: 6 lps.
Liquados: 30 lps. (these are delicious and you can get them with fresh fruit and granola)
Hair cut: 100-400 lps., depending on where you go. I’ve heard coloring is 500 lps.
Beer: about 20-30 lps.
Mojitos: free, if you know the bartender
A good meal at a restaurant: 60-120 lps.
Bug repellant: really expensive so I hear but I can’t find any
Mosquito nets: apparently really expensive because the Peace Corps is having a hard time providing us with enough for everyone to have. If I get dengue this season, I know who to call.
Newsweek: about 50 lps. But you can’t find them here except in homes. Peace Corps volunteers have been receiving them for free for years, but they’ve cut that off along with a lot of other things (like free bicycles) this year. So, my group is the first to be cut off due to funding. (hello, Christmas present…)
Nancies: I don’t know because I hate them. Apparently gringos always hate them. I don’t know. I don’t mind the juice. But damn the fruit is gross. There’s actually a lot of gross fruit, but some delicious fruit, too.
Jeans: well, mine were 100 lemps from a used American clothes store and they’re awesome, but they can run you up to 500-600 lps.
Other clothes: depends on if they’re new. A new shirt can be 150 lps.
Cigarettes: about 20 lps., but I haven’t been smoking, don’t worry.
Piropos from the local Honduran men: free and extremely frequent. Also it is amazing how many of them know how to say “I love you, baby” in English. Also lots of the kids here know “I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it,” as well as the YMCA song.

Comidas y Bebidas

Thank God, my mom here at the new house doesn’t give me soda every day. I actually get fresh juice with every meal, which is great. They love the Chop Suey here, but they all make it at home. I’ve enjoyed that. When I tell people my favorite foods are Japanese and Thai, they ask me if I like Chop Suey.

El Canto de Los Gallos

I don’t know why they call it a canto. Canto means song. I wake up at 3:45 every morning to the terrible, shuddering sound of roosters. It is a grito; it is not a canto.

El Idioma

Moving along. I was Novice High a month ago, classified Intermediate Medium now but judging on the other classifications in my class I think that’s because I really bombed my interview. I should probably be Intermediate High. But either way, I’m already apparently at the stage you need to be at in order to be sworn in. Which is scary. I have a month left and gosh darn it I am going to be an avancado. (it looks like avocado but it’s the Spanish word for advanced)

Escuelas

I’m writing this in my room in Thursday night so by the time I post it Friday afternoon I’ll have already gone, but tomorrow is our first real visit into a school. I’m going with three other people from my group and we’re going to have 8 visits with a local elementary school throughout the rest of FBT. Tomorrow is just for observation.



Manana

Now it´s manana and I´ve officially substituted having a nice cold beer after a long week with having a nice hot cup of coffee and a delicious donut. I hope I don´t get fat, but I´ll have to keep working on getting in shape to avoid it.
Today we found out that classes are being arranged and I´ll be with new people soon so as to learn faster, which is cool, ´cause I´ve worked my way out of the lowest class.
Today we saw a man huffing gasoline on the side of the road. We almost asked him if maybe gas was getting a bit too expensive for that.
The school was pretty fun except some classes took almost an hour out of their learning day just to introduce themselves, and in between a lot of the rooms is a wall that is opened on top, making it extremely hard for the kids to concentrate.
Tomorrow I´ll be heading on a hike to the big cross at the top of the mountain here. I´ll be sure to take pictures. I´ve heard it´s beautiful.
From my second technical interview a couple of days ago and talking to a current volunteer, it´s sounding like I´ll be heading to Choluteca for two years. This is a big, hot, ugly place in the south cerca de Nicaragua and the Pacific ocean. Though it is big, hot and ugly, I´ve heard nothing but positive things otherwise. No seriously, I hear it´s a ton of work and a ton of fun and people are really nice, so that´s cool. But I have to cover my tattoos for at least the first 6 months. And it´s really hot. I mean really hot. So, if anyone has an extra Ace Bandage they wanna send, that´d be awesome.

Love and miss you.