Brrrrrrrrrrrr
Honduras has had a rough few months weatherwise. First came the hurricane season which was a little worse than normal this year. Then at the tail end of the season came a bad rainstorm (or a hurricane depending on who you asked, news tends to get a little garbled in San José) which triggered mudslides, flooding and quite a few bridges being washed away—including MINE. Yes, unfortunately my bridge going into Taulabé collapsed and floated downriver due to the heavy rains (luckily we now have a hanging bridge built, and right now the bus is fording the river with little problems, though I doubt that doing so will do any good to the bus).
Then came the frío. This cold spell started about a month ago, let up for about a week and a half, and now is back with a vengeance. It is COLD here. I’m not talking about it being in the 20s and snowing. However, it’s in the 50s and rainy and the shoddy construction of Honduran homes leads to the temperature always being the same whether you’re inside or outside. In essence, you can never get away from the cold. This I do not like. I don’t feel like taking cold bucket baths or even bucket baths with heated water because it still meant taking off sweatshirts and scarves and being cold for a few excruciating minutes. Washing clothes is out of the question because nothing ever dry. My pants were on the line for almost 2 weeks before they got semi-dry, and they ended up smelling like mold (thank God for my imported Febreze). With the added rain, electricity posts fall down and for awhile the power went out pretty much every day for at least 3 hours.
Luckily the weather turned sunny and beautiful for about three days before it went back to cold and miserable, so there were at least a few good days to wash clothes and air out the moldiness of the house. I swear, after these two years, I will never ever take for granted again the joy of a hot shower, insulated housing, fireplaces and central heating. Anyone reading this who possesses any of the abovementioned items, know that you’re lucky as hell.
Then came the frío. This cold spell started about a month ago, let up for about a week and a half, and now is back with a vengeance. It is COLD here. I’m not talking about it being in the 20s and snowing. However, it’s in the 50s and rainy and the shoddy construction of Honduran homes leads to the temperature always being the same whether you’re inside or outside. In essence, you can never get away from the cold. This I do not like. I don’t feel like taking cold bucket baths or even bucket baths with heated water because it still meant taking off sweatshirts and scarves and being cold for a few excruciating minutes. Washing clothes is out of the question because nothing ever dry. My pants were on the line for almost 2 weeks before they got semi-dry, and they ended up smelling like mold (thank God for my imported Febreze). With the added rain, electricity posts fall down and for awhile the power went out pretty much every day for at least 3 hours.
Luckily the weather turned sunny and beautiful for about three days before it went back to cold and miserable, so there were at least a few good days to wash clothes and air out the moldiness of the house. I swear, after these two years, I will never ever take for granted again the joy of a hot shower, insulated housing, fireplaces and central heating. Anyone reading this who possesses any of the abovementioned items, know that you’re lucky as hell.
posted by Maureen at 9:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home