Papaya

Have you ever seen a papaya this big!?  I think its even bigger than the photo makes it look.  I chopped off about one fifth from one end and made two big jugs of papaya smoothie, and still had lots left over (from the one fifth) to eat.  Now the rest of the papaya is in the fridge taking up almost a whole shelf.

There have been some stalls up the road where people who live in the mountains are selling fruit and vegetables for very good prices.  The papaya in the market are about a quarter the size of these ones, and almost the same price.

I cannot believe how dusty everything is. The world of Copán is so dry right now, everything is dust.

Photo of me with the Profesora. Photo was taken last year.

UPDATE 26/03/09: Wow, over NZD$500 has been donated for the teacher now.  I think this will be enough to cover her costs, and if anyone else wants to donate money, there are many things the kids in the orphanage need at the moment, so please feel free to donate to the same bank account and all the money will go towards the kids.

UPDATE 25/03/09: Thank you everyone who donated money, and so quickly!  Over NZD$200 was donated which will be an enormous help for her.  I will be withdrawing the money today and passing it along to her.  I will also be talking to the lady who runs the orphanage to see if the teacher can have some time off very soon to go to the hospital.

One of the ladies who works at the orphanage has the role of teacher (profesora).  To be honest, I only know her as Profesora as thats the word everyone uses when talking to her.  She does mini-classes with the younger kids while the older ones are at school.  She does arts and crafts with the kids.  As part of her role, she has to spend the night with the kids a couple times per week.  She lives about 20mins away by moto-taxi.  Every day she has to spend L30 (about NZD$3) for the taxi rides to and from her house.  She has a family to feed and look after.  She only earns about L1,800 per month, which she has to spend about half on taxi rides.  After buying food for her family she doesnt have much left for anything else.

She told me today that she has a problem where for the last 10 years she hasnt been able to taste anything.  She only eats what she’s familiar with as she has no idea what the other foods should taste like.  Along with not being able to taste her food, she gets infections around her stomach.  At the moment alot of people in town have a cold because the weather is changing.  She also has a cold which has made everything alot worse and she is suffering.  I dont know many details and didnt want to ask too much about it.  She asked me if there was anything I could do to help her get to the hospital.  She needs to go to Chiquimula, which is about an hour away by bus (over the border in Guatemala).  She cant afford to bring herself there, and she cant afford to take the time away from work.  I dont know exactly how much it will cost to get there, or how much the hospital fees will be.

If you are willing and able to help even with a small amount, please deposit the money into the account using the details on this page.  Please use the reference: Teacher.  So I know what the money is for.

Milk bag

…and you?

I took some more photos of the apartment today and uploaded them.  You can see them on flickr.  The older photos are in there too.

Brayan and Eduardo

The classroom

A Better World - Canada

There is a private Christian school in town (a few houses up from where I live), and 3 kids from the orphanage attend. A lovely fellow, who I’m yet to meet, from A Better World Canada donated money last year to construct some new classrooms. Two of the kids from the orphanage are in one of those classrooms.

Hannah and Jean-Mari moved out of the kids home yesterday and in with a host family.  Its been a hassle since they arrived here about a month ago… they were supposed to be living with a host family from the start.  Its not easy staying at the kids home, so I’m pleased and surprised they havent complained about it at all.

Massimo left on Wednesday.  He has returned to Italy.  One of the things he had arranged to do with his time here was replace the windows at the kids home.  They were just meshing to protect from bugs, but there was no way to keep the wind out.  Massimo paid to put in glass windows with meshing so they are still protected from the bugs when the windows are open.  The window people came and measured all the windows twice, but when they brought all the new windows, none of them fit!  So they took them all away and re-made them.  Two days before Massimo left, they installed the new windows.  They make quite a difference.  The weather this past week has been quite cold, so its a good time to have windows that can be closed.

The kids are back into the routine of school now.
I’ve been sick this week with a fever and sweaty, shivery, sleepless nights.  I got some medicine this morning so I’m hoping to sleep the whole night tonight.
Church with the kids in the morning.

I have taken some photos of the food in my apartment here.

I moved into my apartment last night. I’ve put some photos up here which arent very flattering. The apartment is actually quite nice, but I think the photos make it feel a little weird. I have moved a few things around (in the kitchen you couldnt open the oven door all the way because it was blocked by the sink), so I think I will take some more photos later on today.
Its been exciting doing the food shopping and buying a few things to cook with etc. I had been looking forward to grocery shopping since I arrived in the country!