So It's Come to This...

Well here we are again ready to begin another decent into random musings and I gotta tell ya, that’s about what you’re gonna get this time around. I’ve been sounding the death knells of well-informed repartee emanating from La Ceiba for weeks now and it seems that since last I wrote the axe hath fallen; there just don’t seem to be occurrences of great note transpiring here. Don’t get me wrong, life is grand, I’m loving it in fact and can’t imagine being anywhere else right now but life here has become, well...life. It’s no longer a new world bursting with strange and wondrous secrets; now it’s my life, normal, steady, beautiful (but fairly predictable) life. Needless to say this week’s dispatch is what I’d really call the bottom of the barrel, I’m really reaching here but I do hope you enjoy.

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So I've learned to ride my bicycle no-handed...I know I'm about 10-15 behind the curve on this one, most of my elementary school chums were doing this as 7-year olds. Alas, the curse of no-hand-eye coordination made it such that it took me til my 26th year to finally master this simplest of tasks. I don't know how it came upon me exactly, perhaps riding the streets of Ceiba on my lime green equivalent of a Huffy and seeing the mass of persons riding about no-handed like Circus Bears lit within me the desire to finally learn how to do it. Anyway, I've been practicing and practicing (haven't fallen once) and last Friday night it finally came to me; I'm not entirely sure how but it did and I was so elated I kept riding around the street just to keep on doing it. I was so pleased with myself. I should say that I haven't exactly mastered the art quite yet, I'm not yet able to sit back and peel and orange, talk on the phone or clip my fingernails (all of which I've seen here) but we're getting there.

- So it's finally starting to cool off here (slightly) - I feel as though the rainy season may soon be upon us. No one here is able to tell me with certainty when the rain will actually commence, which strikes me as strange because in Costa Rica people practically had the start and end dates of the rainy season marked on their calendars. People here just keep saying "The rain will becoming soon...in just a little while we'll be drenched" - they've been saying this since the middle of August and I've been waiting patiently. Anyway, I think they may soon be correct - the weather has started to cool and noticed this because the other day when I went to the beach I packed a long sleeve shirt because I thought to myself "Matthew, you will be cold when you get out of the water"...in the middle of July that would have been a crazy statement to make but now, in September, it strikes me as perfectly rational...and I was right. I needed that long sleeve shirt. Aye por fin el clima esta cambiando.

So speaking of the beach, Monday the 15th was Independence Day for most of Central America...as in Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Guatemala & Costa Rica all have the same day, September 15th, as their Independence Day. Last year on the 15th my friend Kelly Kim and I watched the parades in San Pedro, San Jose, Costa Rica...this year I took a slightly less patriotic tone. I was invited to the beach with one of my co-workers, Karen Flores and her family and thought it better to be in the blistering Honduras sun next to the ocean as opposed to standing in the blistering sun in the middle of downtown Ceiba...so off I went. It was lovely time with the fam, we played UNO, ate incredible food and relaxed in the tepid water of the Caribbean. A lovely way to celebrate Independence I thought.

Independence Day Celebrations from a year ago in San Jose

An Independence Day March in Ceiba...and fotos from the beach

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Read "The Life of Pi" the other day...loved it. I highly recommend it to anyone. That's all really, just thought I'd throw that out there. Oh, I suppose I could mention that I found this lovely little book exchange right next my house, they have stacks and stacks of novels for the taking...and boy have I been taking. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on, Madame Bovary, Portnoy's Complaint, In Cold Blood...good grief, even a history of the Johnstown, Pa Flood. It's like my own little personal library.
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Here are few random shots of things I thought were interesting:
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Found this fellow in my bedroom the other night...I killed him...thoroughly.

Thought these clouds were pretty impresive...didn't produce any rain...but they looked cool.

Street-turned-Creek after a recent downpour

So I suppose that's about it...I warned you before hand that we had really hit a low point - in all seriousness things should start to pick up here in a few weeks, I have a few short outings planned and more work with the gangs so stay tuned and Blessings to you. Peace!

- Matt