Christmas in June or "Will you buy me some underwear?"

Nikon L12 Coolpix

Can you imagine shelling out $300 of your hard-earned money for someone you've never met, don't know exactly where they live, and don't even know their real name? Haha. Me neither. Especially so since I've come to Honduras, the land of mistrust, where a recent study shows that 47% of the people don't trust anyone and 46% have very little trust in others, and with good reason most of the time.

Reader G (I'm going to call her G because I don't want anyone else trying to fill up her suitcases on her next trip), wrote to say that she was coming to Honduras with mostly empty suitcases and would be happy to pick up some things for me if I wanted. I was really in need of poppy seeds and celery seeds, for cooking, not for planting. That was pretty easy. These can be found at any grocery store. I thought of a few other things, too.

Then I started thinking about what I really miss and can't find here in La Ceiba − cotton underwear! When I told El Jefe that I had asked a complete stranger to buy underwear for me, he was shocked to the core! But, hey, I'm wearing a pair right now and boy, do they feel good. It was worth the humiliation. One of my readers now knows what size underwear I wear.

As many of you know, my old camera won't zoom which makes it tough to get good photos of bugs and flowers, or closeups of anything. Fellow La Ceiba expat Katrina picked up a camera for me when she went home in December. Katrina brought me the camera in January, and in March, I dropped it 4 feet (1.2 meters) to a concrete sidewalk and broke it. I've been torn between wanting to replace it again and feeling like I didn't deserve/shouldn't be trusted with a new one.

Finally, I decided I was going to go for the new Nikon L12, 7.1 megapixels with vibration reduction, which strangely was selling for almost exactly the same price as the previous L6 model. The L12 also has an optional A/C adapter which I thought would be excellent for saving on battery usage when I'm uploading photos and videos.

Problem was that Amazon couldn't guarantee it would be delivered on time, even with expedited delivery. So I told G "never mind," boohoo. She suggested I check BestBuy online and miracle of miracles, they had the exact model that I wanted. Problem was that I couldn't buy it online as the only person who can pick it up at the store is the credit cardholder, with identification. G said no problem!

So, G arrived and Thursday we met with her and her friends for lunch, had a great, but way-too-short time, and I received my little Christmas bagful of goodies! I'm so excited to have a new camera to play with. Hopefully, I'll be able to return a favor someday − maybe a shopping expedition to San Pedro, G?

Oh, I also asked G if she would mail my tax return and report of foreign bank accounts in the U.S. as it costs more than $10 each to Fedex them from here. Then I started remembering those questions they ask when you get to the airport. "Did anyone pack anything for you or give you a package," etc. So, just to be safe, I left the envelopes open. So now I have a reader who could have read my tax return and could know my social security and bank account numbers. Haha. But after meeting G, I feel certain that she wouldn't even look in the envelopes.

Ain't trust wonderful? Trust is something that I really miss in Honduras.



P.S. Don't forget to sign my guestbook and upload a photo. I'm anxious to see if this widget works!