La Vida Catracha!

Trying to get settled in that little cement house was no easy task. There was really nothing in the way of furniture. I had purchased a two-element, electric stove top and had a few pots. We found a old table and put a plastic sheet on it. We had water jugs, as then (as today), you could not drink the water. We also had a tape machine and played Selena's "Como la Flor" album incessantly. It had come out just prior to my travels in Central America and was incredibly popular. Her songs still bring back Honduran memories from 25 years ago. 

As for furnishing the house, things that are quite common today - fairly cheap and easy to obtain - like mattresses, covers, pillows or sheets were almost non-existent then, and cost an arm and a leg to buy. Colchones were definitely out of my price range. So, we went to the local wood mill to see if we could buy a few slabs of wood and blocks of concrete to lay on for beds. I didn't know how to haggle properly and ended up getting ripped off on the price. But, we now had bare slabs of wood to lay on. Our ambitious plan was to build bunk beds, but that was never to be.

One of my most vivid memories was when we contracted hair lice. I had gotten it from one the kids. In order to get rid of this plague, we all needed to be treated at the same time with de-licer and a haircut. This was much easier said than done. However, Giovanni stepped up and offered to cut everyone's hair after it was shampooed.  He was very confident about his styling skills. It was hilarious to watch the boy's looks of horror when he held a mirror up to their faces after he was finished. I snickered to myself; which I shouldn't have, because five minutes later I stepped on a nest of fire ants in the backyard. For anyone who has done this, they are sticky and hard to scrape off your skin. It was incredibly painful and the kids laughed as I ran around screaming knocking things over in the backyard.

The first few weeks were relatively calm, but there were still mishaps with the kids and some locals. My treasured radio was stolen one day and none of the kids would admit it. Later, Alberto was high on shoe glue and angry about something I don't remember and tried to spill boiling water on me. That incident scared the living daylights out of me. Some days, a local guy would stop by and knock on the door and tell me to leave town - usually this related to the shoe glue trade, which I did not tolerate.

Video of  Selena Quintanilla singing "Como la Flor"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwZTgDjRLM0