why do pictures take so long to load anyways?

i don't know.

i'm trying to upload them, but if it doesn't happen here's some pictures painted with words:

Yeah! My computer is alive! Silly me thought the battery was dead when it was actually the charger that was caput. New charger, new battery, and we're in business, apostrophes and all.

It is a cool and rainy spring here in Chiquimula, keeping the laundry from drying and us from leaving the house, as well as the perpetual need to mop the floors- my favorite! It's good exercise I chant to myself as I heave and ho scrubbing duck sh*t three times a day. Yes remember I mentioned our adorable little duckling? It is now considerably larger, drastically uglier and creating immensely greater volumes of black oozing excrement. I can hear the sound it makes coming out and I shudder while grabbing the broom. Cristian says he's going to buy some mesh fencing to corral the duck away from the house, so now my job is to bug him about it until he actually buys it and installs it.

So, what else is new? I have one less tooth! One less wisdom tooth that is, with three still hanging out in the rafters waiting for an inconvenient time to budge on down. The wisdom tooth that was removed was on the lower, right hand side and had emerged partially roughly 6 months ago. It wasn't bothering me at all so I just let it be, disregarding the dentist's warning of infection, cheek inflammation, and looming pain. Roughly 2 weeks ago I started to feel some discomfort, but figured the tooth was maybe just growing in a little more, so I took some pain pills and forgot about it. After two or three days it got worse and had spread from my temple to my throat, the whole right side of my face full of a pulsing, tender ache. I went to a dentist, waited roughly 2 hours to be seen, spent less than one minute in the chair because the woman informed me that I needed surgery, something beyond the capabilities of that particular office. I gave her my number and she said she would call when the surgeon was in town. In the meantime I didn't eat very much and brushed my teeth at least 5 times a day. Finally she called, the next week, to tell me that in fact the surgeon wasn't coming, but she recommended another dentist in town. I gave him a call, and he said “Sure, come in tomorrow at 9 o'clock.” I figured I was in for another wait-for-an-hour-only-to-make-another-appointment-after-he-looks-at-my-tooth, so I brought Ezra and we planned to go shopping at the market afterwards. Well, I did have to wait roughly a half hour, but once in the hot seat just as soon as I opened my mouth I was getting shot up with anesthetic. While we waited for my mouth to go numb, we talked about general things (kids, how to get them to brush their teeth, language, etc.). The whole time Ezra is sitting in the dentist office on the floor in a corner looking slightly mortified until the dentist hands him some toothpaste and he is completely content. So after the alloted amount of time and my tongue has gone partially numb he gets out the big wrench like tool and extracts the tooth with amazing quickness (for Guatemala especially where everything takes forever- I'll tell another story about that in a minute). After he has removed the tooth he places a wad of gauze in my mouth and tells me that I should not eat, drink or talk for the next hour. Doh, what? I can't talk? Now is the time I have many questions, and I cannot talk? So there we were, Ezra and me, in downtown Chiquimula on the busiest street in town, me spitting blood every few feet and Ezra watching me quizzically, no doubt wondering why I am grunting at him rather than talking. I tried to call Cristian to have him come and pick us up, but he didn't understand my grunting. A lesson to all, if you drop someone off at the dentist and they call you a little while later unable to talk, please just assume you need to go pick them up. They are not calling to grunt at you. Anyhow, we had to go find my medication (to prevent infection and ease the pain) which meant visiting several pharmacies all the while wiping blood onto the single napkin the dentist provided me. By the way, the tooth was in this napkin.

We did get the medicine and I managed to communicate well enough with my monosyllabic humphs to get us home in one piece. It was an awkward morning to be sure, and I sure do hope to not have to go through it again. If the situation does repeat itself however, I will know to ask all my questions before extraction, as well as inform my son I will not be able to talk. To be honest I think he enjoyed the vacation from hearing me urge him to hurry up, put that down, get away from there, and no you cannot have a soda pop. It was rather cheap, approximately $40, although the medication cost roughly the same so at the end of the day it cost about a week's salary of a Guatemalan motorcycle mechanic.

Ezra is really making great strides in speaking Spanish! Today he said “donde esta?” which is his first complete sentence. He also said “lluvia” for the first time today, and yesterday he said “pelota” . He knows perhaps 15 words in Spanish, which is pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I think now he will start catching on faster. It is pretty special to hear him speaking more or less with his father, as well as neighborhood characters. For example today we went to the store by our house and Ezra said “Por favor chocola-tay” to the man behind the counter. Guess who got a chocolate bar? How's that for motivation.

Other than the language he's more and more curious everyday. He wants to know how everything works (doors, locks, computers, extension cords, gates, etc.) and he is also very into textures. He spends hours playing with dirt, picking up hand fulls and dumping them in another location (he says he's “dumping garbage”). One funny story about his dirt is one day when it was raining he came out of the house to look at the patch of dirt where he always plays. His shoulders slumped and his lower lip puffed out he said, “Awwww, it's raining on my dirt, now my dirt is covered with mud.” He was really distraught. Another thing that causes him to be extremely distraught is when he is under a blanket but his feet are sticking out. He wails, “Mama, my feet are not snuzzleing!” and totally looses it until his feet are properly snuzzled.

He is still very much into books, something I am very happy about. I was worried because of the lack of library here, but we have been able to subsidize the selection with help from grandma's care packages and trips to Copan. In fact we went to Copan just last weekend and had a terrific time. There is just something that makes me feel good about being there, and I'm not sure if it is the gringo presence, the comparable modernity of the houses there (screens on the windows, attached bathrooms, running water!!), or the small town feel with mountain vista. We saw some old friends and made some new ones, especially Ezra. He makes so many friends everywhere we go! We took ourselves out to lunch and by the time our order arrived he was having a tea party with three new friends. I had to tear him away to eat his French fries and burger! Later at the park a little girl came up and insisted Ezra play with her pink, squishy ball while she gave me the third degree (“Where's his father? How did you get here? What time? When will you leave? Etc.”) Her father called her a 'placticadora' which means she likes to talk a lot. I told him it was okay by me, I know several placticadoras, including myself and Ezra. Well, he would be a placticadoro of course.

I just heard the Bunsy boy wake up from his nap, and it just started raining again. Better move the laundry and make sure Ezra hasn't dismantled the television. Oh and I just heard the . Oy vay.

*The next day: the duck has left us to go live at the abuelo's house. I miss it the tiniest bit.

Still no photos...

Argh! We are having endless computer problems resulting in limited photographic evidence of our activities here. We are still bumbling right along here, getting pretty sick of beans and overly salty meat but trying to find alternatives that we can all live with. Seriously the food is the biggest problem right now for me! I remember the last time I lived down here that I got bored with the same old same old, but at this point my body is down right rejecting the typical food! I seem to only be able to stomach pizza, calzones, and popcorn. Oh and smoothies of course. I have always liked beans but at this time I just about wretch looking at them.

Pobres frijoles.

Ezra doesnt seem to be tired of the food, and has even taken a liking to corn tortillas much to his fathers delight. I couldnt care less about them, even though I have to buy 15 of them every day. Cristian cant eat without tortillas. The hand where the tortilla is supposed to be just hangs there limply. Poor Guatemalteco. We like some of the same things, like eggplant and chicken, but he likes everything dripping in grease, namely margarine grease. My poor grandmother, watching me cook with the palm oil horror day in and day out. Food is basic and necessary, and while I was worried about a lot of different things, I wasnt prepared for the confrontations of combating cuisines. Oh and he also likes MSG, as everyone does here. I shudder.

But he and Ezra are getting to be pretty good friends and its adorable. Ezra understands more and more and Cristian understands more and more too. Ezra says "Im hungry" and Cristian says "Tienes hambre?" Hes always been good at detecting what someone is saying.

We have more gall darned pets. Two more birds and one dog. The dog was fogotten at our house by a friend of Cristians who came over to help do some landscaping and proceeded to get wasted. So drunk you forget your dog, for two weeks. We assume the dog will stay. Hes ok, nice enough, when he isnt eating the toilet paper or burrowing Ezras shoes deep in the dirt!!! Just what I need. No more pets! I mean it!

Ok, well, I wish I could just sit and ramble but Im at the internet place by my house and theres no apostrophe button and its irritating. And I still have to make flyers for my English lessons.

Savor your favorite foods! Especially if those near and dear agree with your palet.

Saludos!

Hello, hello! Que tal a todos, and my deepest apologies for the lengthy absence of postings concerning the whereabouts and well being of myself and my guy. We are in fact here in Chiquimula, Guatemala where it is somewhat difficult to acquire the necessary means to access the internet from one's casa. It's a long story, but I should mention that one critical element of the down fall of staying in touch is the inability of a company called needabattery.com. I ordered a battery for my computer from them 2 months ago, and have finally received it. Yes, the lesson here is to check the consumer report before purchasing as I later found that this particular company received an overall F.

So here we are, living in an adobe house, getting a feel for life here a little bit more everyday. In general it is very tranquil, with folks setting along our quiet street talking about the rain, the heat, the price of corn, etc., as well as at least a dozen children of all ages running up and down, kicking an empty, crushed plastic bottle for sport. Many of them have actual soccer balls, but they appear to prefer the bottle- I suspect for the sound it makes scraping along the pavement. How about that for recycling!

Our house has one medium sized bedroom, an equally medium sized living room, a large patio, a large kitchen, and many fruit bearing trees in the expansive backyard. Our neighbors on one side are primarily chickens, with one large dog that likes to have conversations with our pet birds. Yes, we have multiple feathered friends as well as other pets. Currently we have one parrot (Homero Jump Rope), two small green birds (la Turra and Eyebrow), one cat (Gato), one duck (Patito Feo/Ugly Duckling), and one iguana who doesn't have a name because we rarely see him as he hangs out in the trees all the time feeding on insects and such. The iguana was rescued from Cristian's dad's neighbor's house where it was tied up in a plastic bag and had had its tail and fingernails cut off. Cristian is some kind of animal whisperer and had to rescue the poor creature, so here he is growing back more tail and nails every day and is nothing of a nuisance. The duck was also a rescue effort of Cristian, as its mother did not want it and would peck at it whenever it got close. I guess what happened was that there were two mama ducks and all but one of the first mama's eggs hatched. To save the egg it was placed in the nest of the other mama duck, but when her real eggs hatched along with the adopted one, she knew it was not her young and rejected him. The poor thing really just wants to follow someone around, and although sometimes I accidentally brush him with my foot no one is deliberately pecking at him here at our house. He and the cat get along very well, except when the cat thinks he's going to eat the duck, but the duck is growing faster than the cat so it's not a very good chance the cat will be successful.

The torrential rain has ceased thankfully, as our house is on a down slope from the rest of the yard and often times we found ourselves fighting to keep the water out of the house with brooms for longer than my arms preferred. Cristian's father's house was re-flooded, and this time was apparently worse than the time before (remember all you generous souls who helped out? Thanks again!). However, this time around many more people showed up to help clean and donate food and all of that so I am electing to not sponsor a fundraiser. Seriously, the river overtakes your house twice in a rainy season, you need to move. What's that saying, fool me once never gonna fool me again? Yes, the river has proven its strength as well as the imbalance of the environment. Move it or lose it.

What am I talking about weather when I should be giving the Ezra update? Right. Well, he continues to grow I noticed this morning when I put on his ball cap and it looked comically petite resting on top of his head. He is picking up some Spanish, he can count from one to five consistently and sometimes when I am speaking to Cristian in Spanish Ezra understands what we are talking about. A lot of the time I think that Ezra understands more Spanish than he lets on but, like all children, he often times prefers not to understand (like when the neighbor boy asks him for his toy back, or his father tells him not to strangle the cat) because he wants to continue his way. He's a little too obsessed with watching television which I let slide a bit mostly because it is all in Spanish and I figure it will help him to learn. We spend everyday together and I primarily speak in English with him (when I speak in Spanish he says, “Mama, please speak in English.”) so I think his progress of learning Spanish is slightly retarded by the continued English immersion for the majority of the day.

Here's a cute Ezra quote from the other day:

Me: “Where does your food go after you put it in your mouth?”

Ez: “Into your milks (breasts).”

Me: “And after that?”

Ez: “Into your tummy.”

Me: “And after that?”

Ez: “To Grandma's house.”

I've asked him these questions several times and he always answers in this way, and I don't suspect that he is joking as his delivery is quite serious.

Here's one more from this morning:

Setting: after doing number two in the potty he looks down at his work and remarks:

“Mama, there's a skateboard in there.”

His poop looked like a skateboard? Sure sweetie.

Cristian got Ezra a bike, but he can only ride it with us pushing him around which gets very tiresome. Life is a bit more tiresome here as everything takes much more human power than industrial power. There is not dishwasher, there is no washing machine, there is no Swiffer. I'm a bit of an environmentalist so I can find my deep appreciation for the exercise and interaction offered by the lack of mechanical luxuries. However, doing everything takes so freaking long and there are many, many times when I want to throw in the laundry and catch up on some reading rather than get my upper body work out.

I guess that leads into what exactly am I doing. At the present I am basically a house wife, which is a funny kind of job to be plopped into. One of the key reasons why I decided to haul us down here was so I could spend more time with Ezra, rather than having to work and put him in child care as I would have had to in the US. So in my new role I am able to do just that and I do enjoy it. We have our moments of insane frustration and grief, but overall we have a good time together and I like watching him learn new things every day, whether it be standing up to pee (“Like Uncle does!”) or cracking an egg or making fresh mandarin juice (his current favorite) or pouring himself a glass of water, there are so many opportunities to learn.

Which brings me to what I would like to be doing in addition to my current house wife chores: teaching. I have two potential students, a girl and a boy each 3 years old, but I am waiting for their parents to make up their minds about when, how long, and so forth. I am brainstorming fun activities and making worksheets and such, but am weary of investing too much at this point since my students are still only hypothetical. I am going to print up some business cards and put some flyers around town sometime very soon and hopefully that will jump start things.

In the mean time I am cooking a lot, as a housewife must. It is much more challenging here, as I have no idea what much of the food in the market is. At first I would only buy the things I knew how to cook, but soon that got old so I've begun to buy random things that look interesting and then Cristian tells me how to prepare them. For example, squash blossoms. So pretty, but what on earth do you do with them? Make a soup! I also bought okra the other day, something I know more or less how to cook, but have learned that okra is delicious bar-b-qued! Most of the weird looking fruit can be turned into a fresco (juice the fruit, add water, sugar and ice), an activity that Ezra thoroughly enjoys. I have not jumped onto the weird meat wagon however, even though Cristian has expressed interest in eating pigs ears. Yes, pigs ears. I see them in the market and I simply cannot buy them. I told Cristian that he would need to do something for me if I cooked him pigs ears, and I haven't figured out what humongous favor that will be quite yet. Cristian would also like to buy a whole, live chicken that he would then kill. I think this could be a good thing to do, but am a little worried about Ezra's reaction both to the death of the bird and his attitude towards our pets afterwards. I'll keep you posted about that.

We did make it to Copan a few weekends ago and had a super wonderful fantastic great time. I pretty much would prefer to live there, but alas it doesn't really seem possible at this point. It is so small and clean and the air is so fresh and the mountains... oh and the countless English speaking friends and amazing library. I had to tear Ezra kicking and screaming out of the library when we went it was so sad. There is not a library here in Chiquimula and it stinks big time. We will have to go to Copan very frequently and gain the trust of the librarians so we can take books home with us. The selection we have is getting a bit stale, although the care packages from Grandma are very helpful to liven things up.

Cristian and I are getting along alright. He works a lot so I feel like we hardly ever see him. He works Monday through Saturday, 8 to 6 with a 2 hour lunch break from noon to 2 when he comes home. This leaves only Sunday and since the house where we live needs a fair amount of work he spends all day busy working here. Of course one of the reasons we came here was so that Ezra could build a relationship with his father, and right now I don't see that happening. I'm sure it's happening much more subtly than I realize but at this time my first wish would be that they spent more time together. At this point when Ezra sees his dad he asks, “Is he going to work?” as though he doesn't belong in the house. I think the language barrier is a huge obstacle to overcome, as they can't really communicate and plus when Cristian is here I speak in Spanish to him potentially causing Ezra to feel left out because he doesn't understand what we're talking about and prefers to be a part of the conversation as anyone would.

At any rate, things are above average most days and the house is coming together nicely and my computer works so really who can complain. It's started to rain now, not torrential I don't need to get the broom, but our pet birds love to make all sorts of funny noises when it rains, especially the parrot. I think he really likes the rain. Oh and by the way just so you know, the birds are not in cages they just live outside in a tree near the patio. The parrot can't fly and Cristian clipped the other birds' wings, which I will have you know is just trimming their feathers not actually maming them in anyway. I wouldn't want a bird in a cage in my house. I don't like that.

I'll be much better at keeping in touch from now on, I promise! Here's some pictures and videos from our first month here in Guatemala.

OH NO! The pictures are taking an extremely long time to load and I only have access for 10 more minutes! I will have longer access next time, I'm so so so so sos osososososoososso very sorry- only words this time. Boo hoo.