It is a beautiful, quiet Sunday morning here in our neighborhood El Naranjal (which means “the orange grooves” in Spanish which is what this land used to be. A neighborhood over is El Trononjal – the grapefruit fields). In a country that works five and a half days a week, Sundays have a special calm. Right now tropical birds are chirping, Nacho scratches himself occasionally, and it’s so quiet you can even here Zimmer, the 8 year old next door, laughing and talking to a quieter soul in his home.  

Neighbors… standing on the landing to our kitchen door at the rear of our house, I could throw a baseball and hit three structures in the adjacent property where Zimmer lives. Three full size houses and one recently added apartment, for the grandmother/matriarch, share two smallish lots. Among the structures live five siblings, two husbands, the grandmother, eight grandkids and two large dogs. If that isn’t enough togetherness add the fact that three of the adults run three different and competing souvenir shops. Married relations to Bullard children take heart: at least we don’t all live in the same couple of yards. One of the husbands who married into this clan said, quit frankly, that the living situation was, ummm, not conducive to enjoying the fullness of life. Apartment dwelling urbanites have long appreciated the pros and cons of living in such close proximity to neighbors and getting to know more about them than one might have wanted. What makes our situation nicer is not just the sounds floating from one living space to another (which make me wince when I think of Sadie’s and Hannah’s hell storms), but the mixture of the human sounds with the sunshine and nature sounds. In an apartment building it might get annoying to hear Lenin (the 11 year old) singing at the top of his lungs, but here in this setting it’s like we are extended family and it’s nice. Not his singing necessarily, but the total package.

Sunshine… can’t say enough about this tropical delight. Sure we have sunshine in the states, but normally we see it from sealed off environments due to too much or not enough of it. Here our windows are always open and that brings closeness to nature’s light. I’ve complained a lot about the heat here, but in the past few months I’ve come to appreciate how the benefits of tropical shine far outweigh damp undergarments. Many of those who live in a four season climate marvel how people in more temperate zones could not miss the seasons. I was certainly that way, but now I can see how Floridians can easily embrace the sun 24/7/365.  Our brief venture into the cold in December was more than enough for Ellen and me. I don’t know what studies show, but it would seem like it’d be harder to get depressed or down in a climate like this one. Is it possible that there is even a connection between the sunny optimism that this climate produces and the rampant corruption that the citizenry tolerates?

Corruption… Yesterday while Hannah was participating in a spelling bee, I spoke with an anesthesiologist that we know. He explained that government jobs are very highly sought after because they provide an 80% pension and once in you can’t be fired or let go. So the national electrical company, national telephone company, national water company, all government jobs and even the national health system are loaded with people who have no incentive to work. So quite often they don’t. This is particularly disastrous when it comes to national health care. This doctor was invited to work at the public hospital recently but because of the work ethic, or lack thereof, of he majority of the staff, he declined to accept the appointment. It would have been financially in his favor, but he couldn’t tolerate it.  Just to pluck a number out of the air, say that there are 20,000 health professionals in the country on the government payroll. It’s seems so tragic to think that so few people are making six million residents literally suffer even to the point of death. It makes you shake your head in disbelief that the medical profession, with the highest level of education and enlighten in this society, won’t come to terms with this outrage.

Spelling bee… Hannah was selected by her teacher to represent her class in the national bi-lingual spelling bee. Sadie had been selected also but declined because she gets nervous in these settings. We were pleased for both them and for ourselves that it was held in La Ceiba this year. Participants, by grade, were led to their classrooms at 8:30 to start the competition. For some reason parents aren’t allowed to be in the room to watch and students are advised not to wear school uniforms as there had been some impartiality in the past. So how long does it take for 20 kids to take a spelling bee? If you guessed four hours you’d be correct. Apparently they had five practice rounds before starting the real competition. Hannah didn’t win, but she did well and was pleased to have had the experience. We were pleased to get away from there before dark.

Mom’s and Phillip’s visit … what do you get when you put Phillip into a new and different environment? A stimulating conversation about things you have not noticed in almost three years of living here. I can’t remember many of them now, but he gave my brain a much needed workout. While I needed my daily siesta, Mom rarely needed to rest. Last Saturday she flew high above the jungle floor on eight different zip lines. We visited an Adelante assembly, lunched at the Pico Bonito Lodge, hiked in the jungle, breakfasted on the beach, and visited the girl’s school among other fun activities. I have to credit Phillip with “getting my back” when he suggested that we should check the depth of the water under a well known, but relatively high, jumping rock on the nearby river. In late December a major storm rearranged much of the river and when we jumped off a much lower jumping rock and quickly touched bottom it was fortuitous that he urged caution earlier.

 There isn’t much to report on the home front. Sadie and Hannah continue to enjoy their dance class. Hannah has a big project due on Columbia and Sadie has a similar one on India. It’s fun to see how they learn things through these projects. Ellen has been battling a cold this week and hasn’t been herself but it appears the worst is past her now. This afternoon we are planning on watching the New England Patriots take on the Indianapolis Colts in a playoff game (football). A Patriot win would help lift her spirits as well.