Cultural Amphibians – January 4

In the foreword to a book I am starting (about different types of gardening – spell binding I know and on all your New Year’s resolution lists of things to read) the author talks about the need for people who are Cultural Amphibians. These are people who are comfortable living in two or more cultures and who are able to communicate the needs and values of each culture in ways that those within each culture are unable to see. Of course, when I think of amphibians, toads and salamanders come to mind first. So, they are not nearly as glamorous as Cultural Amphibian sounds. But, there is always the hope that if you kiss enough of them, you will find a prince or princess.

Yesterday I went in to San Pedro Sula for a day off. I checked out two movie theatres and went to see Australia. It was nice to sit in air conditioned comfort and watch the scenery and enjoy the happy ending. After the movie, I phoned a former teaching colleague and met him for coffee which stretched to a five hour visit. He is an American married to a Honduran and had spent several days with in-laws so was delighted for a chance to talk English with words of more than one syllable. He is a decidedly brilliant young man and so I always get to learn something when we talk. He is hoping to build a church building for the congregation he works with. We talked about design ideas and various building materials. If you can change a few parameters (like walls and rectangular shapes) there is so much of interest and excitement that can be utilized. When the only weather you need to fear is rain then the boundaries are even less firm.

For supper we went to a restaurant which is owned by another colleague who spent a lot of time in the States. He has an atrocious New York accent and is lots of fun to talk with. His restaurant serves the best ribs so I enjoyed that treat, sitting in the open air and watching NFL playoff football on a huge screen in between eating and visiting.

Oscar, the restaurant owner was gracious enough to allow me to sleep in his office for the night. I had, of course, by this time missed any chance of returning to Santa Cruz. Oscar has only a small, one bedroom, sparsely furnished apartment so couldn’t entertain me there. But, his office featured a comfortable (surprise) folding bed, high speed internet, a hot shower (yahoo) and air conditioning (which I shut off). The computer also featured flickering views of the eight or nine security cameras he has set up on his premises. Every so often, something would set off a motion detector and there would be a slight ping. Of course, that was a different type of noise so I immediately flashed open my eyes, grabbed my glasses and tried to see what was happening. There was a night watchman so I really didn’t need to get all that excited but ... sigh. Since the restaurant doesn’t close till 2:00 a.m. the night was a wee bit short. But, it opens at 11:00 a.m. so I got to sleep in.

A new mall has opened near the restaurant and I headed there to see what it looked like. It includes a ten metre (or so) Ferris wheel in one area among other bells and whistles. Everything looked a wee bit out of my price and need range so I caught a rapidito to the centre of town. There I went for brunch at a combination tourist market and typical food service court. Today they featured live music. The band was featured on a straw covered stage behind bigger than life size manikins still standing guard from Christmas. The singers were very good but I couldn’t help but think of the good news bad news aspects of their gig. Good news – you get to sing in the Plaza Típica. Bad news – your gig starts at 11:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Good news – you get paid to perform. Bad news – no one will notice that you were there.

Strolled around for a bit and then headed to the terminal for the trip home. The last couple of buses have featured large, gaudy “Party Girl” brand air fresheners. I don’t even want to go into that one.

In the city, there are boulevard crews whose job it is to keep weeds, grass and trash at bay on the boulevards. Each crew has several weed eaters, a number of machete wielders and then teams of men and women whose job is to hold up walls of white gunny sacks sewn together so that the stones and what not thrown up by the weed eaters doesn’t hit the passing vehicles. That ranks right up there in careers you don’t want to pursue.

We have had two days without clouds so the temperatures begin to climb very quickly. We’ll see if this is the start of the dry and hot season. But, as you know, amphibians are much happier in +30 than -30.

Bryan