The hair looks a little like Suze Orman, don't ya think?
A reader wrote that she was having problems opening the Blogicito using Internet Explorer. In fact, she said that she hasn't been able to read it for a month! Yikes! That's bad. I want everyone to be able to read the Blogicito.
Have any of you had any problems like that? If so, do you have any idea what could the cause of the problem. I want to fix it if I can. I've made a few minor changes in the past month, but I don't think those could be the problem (new weather widget and list of latest articles from my blogroll).
I convinced her to download the free Firefox browser, which she did − not just to read the Blogicito, but because it's just a better browser and she had been wanting to do get anyway. Firefox flies like lightening on my computers compared to IE. I would never go back.
I'd appreciate any insight any of you can give me.
Actually, this is not such an uncommon occurrence. People, usually men, get drunk out of their minds and then just sleep it off wherever they fall. At least he isn't in the street. It's best not to stop to help because sometimes they are robbers faking it. Chances are good that this guy just drank up the week's grocery money.
We did find a woman laying in the middle of the highway one night! We couldn't leave her there so we stopped, thinking that she had been hit by a car and left for dead (another common occurrence − some give no more thought to hitting a person than they would a dog or cat. Don't believe me if you want. It's true.). We stopped, blocking the highway, put the blinkers on and got out of the car.
At first I thought she was dead, but then she started moaning. El Jefe tried to find out what happened, where she was hurt, etc. and he called the police to have them come and send an ambulance. This also is a big risk, as we have been warned by neighbors to not stop to help people as the police may accuse YOU and detain YOU for injuring the person, even though you were the good Samaritan.
Then I noticed that she was laying on her cardboard 'bed.' Not likely that would happen in an accident. Spectators came out of nowhere and we were informed that the lady was crazy. She must have been because she refused to get up and get out of the highway. She got belligerent when someone picked up her 2"x4" (piece of wood that she apparently used for protection).
That scared me because I was afraid she would hit someone with it or smash our car window. El Jefe promised she would get it back, but she first had to get out of the highway. He and a friend finally picked her up and carried her off the road. He talked to her for awhile to try to get her to understand that she couldn't sleep in the highway.
There are a lot of mentally disturbed people like that in Honduras. There is no real help or assistance for them in most areas and they probably wouldn't take it if there was.
The following are some of the more interesting Honduran news items for the week ending July 20, 2008. Links to the complete articles (in Spanish) are given.
Tegucigalpa: No sooner had the teacher strike been resolved when the students went on strike demanding a doubling of the transportation bonus. In Tegucigalpa, 3,000 students marched to the Presidential House, committing acts of vandalism and throwing rocks and bottles along the way.
Another group of students held a demonstration in front of the Ministerio de Educación building, similarly throwing rocks. Later in the afternoon, students again "took" the Ministerio de Educación and the National Congress installations. Thousands of motorists were inconvenienced by the marches.
The police were said to respond inadequately. Thirty students were detained. All this was following other demonstrations earlier in the week and a supposed agreement between the Minister of Education and the student organization. The government provides a L.400 (US $21) transportation bonus to 150,000 students. Students wanted it increased to L.800 (US 42). Some 400,000 students are ineligible for the bonus because they are failing or repeating grades.--Ever heard of student bus passes? They'll probably just buy cell phones with the money anyway.
Politics: The big news last week was the official announcement of the political candidates for the 2009 elections. Every presidential hopeful has a female vice presidential candidate. Those candidates already mamando la teta gorda have to resign their government positions in order to campaign. President Mel may be running the government solo for the next year and a half. --Forget the hoopla. I predict the big battle will be Pepe Lobo (Nacionalista and 2005 losing presidential candidate) vs. Roberto Michelletti (Liberal and current president of the National Congress), though Mario Canahuati (Nacionalista and big businessman) is interesting to me. The next president will be a Nacionalista because so many citizens are very unhappy with the Liberal government of Mel Zelaya.
Dario Banegas, the cartoonist, is running for Diputado (Congressman) from the Department of Cortés. --Good luck to him! He'll have no end of material being right in there with the corruptos. If he's elected, it will be interesting to see whether the tone of his caricatures changes.
Miami, US: Advisor to the Honduran President, Milton Jiménez Puerto, was offered a plea bargain in his resisting arrest and public intoxication charges. In exchange for attending an anger management class and a $50 fine, he'll get out of the potential one year in prison sentence. A few months ago Jiménez resigned from his former position as Chancellor of the Republic after causing a huge scandal when he was stopped for drunk driving in Honduras and later got in a brawl with several police officers at the station. It was captured for YouTube. --Jiménez: Do you know who I am? It was only wine. That doesn't count. Me: I told you so. The guy is an embarrassment to the country. Get rid of him. International: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has 'flexibleized' Honduras' payments to Petrocaribe. Honduras will now pay 40% of the cost of our fuel in 90 days with remaining 60% being paid over 25 years with 1% interest. --The interest rate is good, but isn't that kind of like taking out a 25-year mortgage on your lunches at Burger King?
Gasoline prices increased another two lempiras (US 10 cents) this week. Prices for La Ceiba are now regular, 78.35 (US $4.15); superior, 91.11 (US $4.82); and diesel, 89.68 (US $4.75). The rates are set by the government for each city.--The government is still subsidizing the prices.
Honduras has experienced a noticeable 2.2% drop in the birth rate according to the United Nations due to the increased use of contraceptives. --Sounds good but I don't trust the statistics. It's too hard for some to get a birth certificate to be sure.
More Strikes: Public hospital doctors threatened to strike. They demanded and received a 3.5% increase. Current base salaries of the 2,500 public doctors are L. 23,000 monthly with specialists receiving L.26,000 monthly (US $1,217 and $1,376, respectively). --Well, L.23,000 is only about 7 times minimum wage. Of course, I think most of these doctors are part time and have private practices, too.
The National Congress is studying a proposal to increase salaries as follows: 8% for those making L.10,000 or less monthly (US $529), 6% for those making 10,001 to 20,000 (US $1,058), and 3% for those making over 20,000. The proposed increase would not affect employers with less than five employees or those employees in syndicates or collective contracts. The current minimum wage is L.114.28 per day (US $6.05), which only covers one half of the cost of food for an average family of five.--The increase is needed, but I'm not sure that the highly paid should have an increase. Inflation is expected to be 12% this year.
Strikes and demonstrations, and the scoreboard this week:
Horse cart full of recyclables -- saves gas, too La Ceiba, Honduras
A lot of us lament the fact that there is no organized recycling in Honduras (at this time that I know of). But if you live in one of the medium to larger cities and towns, if you bag it, they will come.
I was a big recycler in Dallas and was very involved in getting my neighborhood to do the same − pretty successfully if I do say so. So when I came to Honduras and had to throw that first Coke can in the trash, I felt terrible. Over the months and years, I didn't get over feeling bad about throwing cans and plastics into the trash. I couldn't get used to it. Finally, after we were living in our house, one day I noticed the trash men opening the trash bags and digging through them before they threw them into the truck.
I had seen a man looking for food in the trash before when we lived in an apartment (and fed him) but these men weren't looking for food, they were looking for plastic!
So, El Jefe talked to them and told them that we would save our plastics and cans in separate bags and put them out alongside the trash. They were very happy about that. We can only imagine what a horrible job it is to search through our nasty trash.
I rinse all the plastic and metal refuse and put it in a small bag hanging in the pantry. When it gets full we take it down to the garage and sort it into two larger bags, one for metal and one for plastic. When these are full, we put them out for the trash men. Rinsing and sorting may be more than you need to do, but it takes less than a minute a day out of my life and costs nothing.
I'd like to encourage all of you expats in Central America, or anywhere where there isn't organized recycling to talk to your garbage collectors about whether they recycle. They can make a few extra pesos by selling these things and you can feel good about not contributing to the mess that we all complain so much about.
If you don't have garbage collection or they aren't interested, ask around your town. There is bound to be someone who collects recyclables for sale. A once a month trip to drop it off when you are going to town anyway is not a big deal.
In countries where there are so many extremely poor people, sometimes all you have to do is put the bag on the curb and someone will pick it up for the little money they can get for it. Once they find that source (you!), trust me, they'll be back. Maybe your or your neighbor's maid or gardener would like to take it to sell. We don't have any neighbors close by and people rarely are walking on the street, but whenever we want to get rid of old paint, scrap metal or wood, really anything, all we do is put it on the curb and it disappears like magic! One man's trash is another man's treasure. We don't have to be filling the landfills with things that people can use.
Who more than we gringos who so loudly lament the litter in Central America should take that extra step to do something about it? Talk to your neighbors, or better yet, their kids about what you are doing. It takes such little effort to collect the things. Rinsing is optional, but I recommend it to avoid attracting bugs to your kitchen or garage. Don't make excuses. Just do it!
Those small steps won't solve the littering problem because you aren't the one who is littering, but it is a start. The more people who recycle, the less trash there is to litter the streets, rivers, and ocean. Plastic bags are one of the worst offenders, so try carrying cloth or other reusable bags with you when you shop and maybe you'll start a trend. Decline all those unneccessary bags and you'll save the vendors some money, too. (Please see the eye-opening article from Panama in the link above.)
Those bad habits of littering and not recycyling can change. I was so encouraged by this article from Playa del Carmen, Mexico, How are we doing? Take a look at it. People can change!
We can go from this:
This photo could be taken in any colonia in La Ceiba
Oh, boy. This one tops anything yet to which I've ever admitted here on the Blogicito.
I flooded the house.
Actually it was only two-thirds of one level of the house, not the whole house, which would be difficult to do since it is several levels.
Whenever the water has been off for awhile, we have to clean all the crud and black water out of the lines. I've explained that before and I'm not in the mood to do it again. Read this if you don't remember.
I started my rounds of all the faucets and showers. Finally, I turned on the kitchen faucets (we have two sinks)
After all the usual crap came out, I noticed the water was still yellow from the sand/soil in the well. So I left the faucets running and I went upstairs to the....um....you know....the computer.
I was just going to check my email, not answer anything, you know? But then there was this interesting article I was just going to glance over. Then I had to look at some photos that someone sent me. Then there was that 'urgent' email that needed to be answered. And then an idea for a blog for which I was just going to make a few notes. And then later, much, much later, I went downstairs to find this:
Can you imagine my face when I turned the corner and saw my kitchen? And then when I looked to the hall and saw the water coming my way and headed down the hall toward the guest bedrooms. And then looked to the sala and saw all the wooden furniture legs soaking up water. Thank goodness for ceramic tile floors. Oh, this was nice, too:
The tablecloth had sucked up water to about 5 inches above the hem. An added bonus:
This was an old, cheap table meant to be covered with a tablecloth to hide its cheapness. When people tell you not to get furniture made with particle board in the tropics, please believe them.
Many thoughts rushed through my blood-pounding pea-brain in the first few seconds. I looked around for somebody to blame, for someone to beg to help me with this monumental task, but there was no one else around. I thought about calling El Jefe to see if he could come home to help, but then discarded that idea quickly thinking about trying to explain what happened. The teenager in me thought about running away. In my dazed state, I even thought for just a few moments about bringing the dogs in to see if they could drink it, but I didn't think they would be up to that task. No, I guess not, because after I mopped up this 7 gallons of water...
there was this one:
and then this one:
then this one:
and this one:
and then finally this last couple of gallons.
Two and one-half hours of mopping. Thirty-seven gallons of water.
I left the fans running to help to dry everything out and went to bed.
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Okay. I know you want to know: How did this happen? The strainer in the small sink ALWAYS falls down and locks itself for filling the sink. ALWAYS. No matter how carefully it is placed. I know this, yet I started the water running without removing it. Apparently it locked itself into fill mode the moment I left the kitchen. It's a small sink, so within a few minutes it had filled, the water ran over (and behind) the countertops and continued on its merry way. That is why it was stupid.
I counted 11 large coconuts, 17 medium coconuts, and about 27 small to tiny coconuts on this palm! I had no idea that coconuts were so prolific. It shouldn't be long now. I'm drooling. There is just so much you can do with coconut!
Even the yellow coconut palm has fruit. This tree isn't as healthy as the other. It has a black sooty mold on the palm fronds. It was infested with fire ants which made it difficult and painful to get near it to spray, so I'm surprised that it is producing. If anyone knows of an organic way to get rid of this mold, I'd like to hear about it.
You can see the coconut status at April 2008 and October 2007 and the first two that were picked in April with more information about cocos (coconuts). The October article includes a photo of both my coconut palms in May 2005 when they were about waist high. The growth has been amazing. Both palms are now as tall as our second story bedroom. The swaying palm fronds make for a nice view from our upstairs terraza.
Everyday, ho-hum stuff for some, but downright exciting for me!
The hair looks a little like Suze Orman, don't ya think?
