On Living a Slow Life

Pros and Cons of Living in Rural Honduras

Pros:

1. There's really no way to convince yourself NOT to be active. If you have free time, which you do when you live in rural Honduras, there are generally 6 activities that are available.

a. Running/walking around (by yourself or with your new street dog)

b. Playing tennis

c. Looking at the internet (although in "real" rural Honduras you wouldn't be able to do this)

d. Reading

e. Drinking (possibly at the nearby restaurant, Chicken Drive)

f. Playing the guitar

Now, looking at the odds, there's a 33% chance that, at any given moment in your free time, you will either be running/walking or playing tennis. And that is why Andrew and I are becoming such beautiful specimens (see reason #1 in CONS list for why this may or may not be true).

2. Things are pur-ty. See photo.

3. There's lots of time to think. You can think about anything, really:

-what's happening in the news

-what's happening on American Idol

-who's going to win American Idol, and whether or not you're going to win the bet you made with your hubby

-how your dog might be a genius for learning how to sit

-whether or not you should let your dog come on the bed

-what's your favorite number out of 18 or 81

-what's your favorite color combination

-why we call football "football" instead of calling soccer "football"

-how it is so great that you have time to think

-which kind of cheese you will get the next time you go to the supermarket

Which leads me to.......

CONS

1. When you live on the campus of an agriculture university, you can be sure that you won't be missing dairy products. Our current favorite is Queso Crema with jalapenos. The yogurt and ice cream is delicious. And the chocolate milk isn't bad either. Although #1 could easily find its way into the "Pros" list, it's down here with the "Cons" because, despite all these scrumptious dairy products, we both may have some sort of slight intolerance for dairy.

2. There's lots of time to think. You can think about anything, like:

-how you will ever get rid or your dog's bugs

-all the bad things happening in the news

-poverty

-war

-death

-starvation

-greedy rich people

-evil giant fleas taking over the world

-evil dictators

-how to determine which people around you are communists

Okay, well, maybe I don't really think about that last one.

I'd write more, but I have to scurry back to my hurried rural Honduran life.

Commitments

As if getting married wasn't enough, Andrew and I have decided to make some other pretty big commitments in our lives.

1. We have committed to staying here in Zamorano, Honduras, for the next two years. During these two years, we are going to participate in an international Masters in Education program through the University of Alabama. The program is outrageously cheap (apparently the University of Alabama is taking on the social mission of furthering the education of teachers teaching abroad in bilingual schools), and we'll both go back to the States after two years with a Masters degree and no loans. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, yes it does, but there is a downside. The program won't get me a teaching license, which becomes problematic in terms of getting an actual teaching job if we move back to Minnesota. Apparently the people in Minnesota actually want their kids' teachers to have a teaching license. BUT, if we went back to New Orleans, I'd have more success with the job search (of course, we all know that the people in New Orleans don't really care who teaches their kids, as long as they learn how to play jazz trumpet and can design the best Mardi Gras costumes...). On the flip side, Andrew will have his Masters along with the teaching license he already has, so he will be well on his way to becoming the Secretary of Education.

(Okay, my secret's out- I'm terrible with photo editing...)

2. We are getting a dog. Yes, we've decided to take the plunge. We always said we'd have a dog before we ever made the crazy decision to actually raise kids one day, so here goes. We've already chosen our pup- she's a medium-sized stray with an absolutely lovable and calm personality. Right now she "lives" somewhere around the gasolinera and the nearby chicken restaurant (also known as "Chicken Drive"), where we see her every week scrounging for food and affection. This weekend we went to the gas station to investigate- I asked some folks if they thought anyone would be sad if we took the dog as our own. The response was quite entertaining- both women we asked started laughing hysterically when we mentioned that we wanted to have the dog as our pet. My summary of the responses would be: "Of COURSE nobody will care if you take that dog off the street, but we thing you're CRAZY for wanting it".

This weekend Andrew went into Tegucigalpa to get some dog supplies while I was teaching a Saturday computer class, so we're all set up with food, bowls, leashes, collars, and plenty of flea treatment. The plan is to bring the dog home from Chicken Drive this Friday, so we'll have the whole weekend to get it settled in (including house training- don't worry, we have plenty of cleaning solution...). We also have a local vet where we can get our new little lady checked out. For your entertainment, here she is:

Now, all we need is a name. We want the name to have a least a little bit of a Spanish twist- when we are out of town we will be leaving her with Spanish speakers, so we'll be training her in Spanish. Any ideas?! Please post them!

And that, my friends, pretty much covers our two biggest commitments. At this rate, we'll probably have a house in the suburbs with a picket fence and 2.5 kids before the year is over.