Homesick

Started July 2nd -Finished July 5th

The weirdest things have had nostalgic effects on me here in Honduras. The other day at about 4:30 a.m., I was woken up by a big diesel truck starting down the street. I’ve been in Honduras for more than four months now, but when I heard the truck start up, I was in Port Alexander, sleeping in my bunk on the boat, and my dad was starting her up to head out for another day of fishing. It only took a few minutes for reality to set it. The smell of diesel, the Pacific, and fish slime were not in the air; there was no rocking on the water; there was no static coming from the VHF; and I was not rapped up in a think sleeping bag. Nope, the reality of it all was that I was sleeping in a strange bed; roosters were singing up a storm; and I was half underneath a thin sheet and still sweating.

It is strange when the homesickness decides to kick in. Four thirty on a Tuesday morning to the starting of a big rig; one in the afternoon when I see pictures of my friends out camping on Facebook; and sometimes when I look at the clock at 6:30 p.m. and know my parents would be sitting down to watch Wheel of Fortune.

There are quite a few things here in Honduras that when I see them, I long for the States:

1) I just can’t seem to get over ants in the fridge. I don’t like ants in general, and the little buggers that bite my feet all day are bad enough, but then to open the refrigerator only to see the big ants running around, is enough to make someone long for the “cleanliness” of the States.

2) Every so often, I see a little kid, usually between the ages of one month to two years old, with weird bumps all over their body. It kind of looks like scabies, but the bumps are a little bigger and all over the body. It is not an attractive thing to see, and I get grossed out when I have to pick the kid up for some reason because I think that I’m going to catch whatever they have. That is enough to send me screaming for a shower and long for the States.

3) When a host family makes spaghetti for dinner I definitely long for the States. Picture white noodles, not cooked all the way, with a sauce made of tomato paste and butter. It is not good. And, to make sure you have enough carbs and calories on your plate, you are then given a stack of tortillas to eat your spaghetti with. Every time I see spaghetti in this country it makes me miss the food back home, and the gym!

4) Cockroaches. Thankfully I have not seen many of them, but when I do, I definitely cringe. Last night for example, a cockroach was having some trouble outside the kitchen door. I think I might have injured it unknowingly when I opened the door. So, I stepped on it, and thought all would be over - that my host mom would sweep it up in the morning, and I wouldn’t have to see it again. But no, I was mistaken. The little bugger somehow managed to crawl (on its back) into my room because when I woke up this morning, instead of being in the garbage where my host mom would have put it after sweeping, it was in front of my closet. So, I kicked it out of my room and back into the hallway, hoping my host mom would see it and deal with it. I just didn’t want to touch the little bugger. However, my host mom was in the garden all morning, so when I came home for lunch, the cockroach was in the middle of the hallway, still on its back, kicking its feet all around and being attacked by a flock (family, herd?), of ants! One of the grossest things I have seen yet here in Honduras.

5) Bugs in my bed are too much to handle. However, I have become amazingly accustomed to them. At first, I cringed and wanted to cry every time there was a bug in my room, let alone in my bed, but now, I just kill it and brush it off the bed. However, even though I may have gotten used to having to deal with bugs in my bed, it still makes me want my nice clean bed at home! There is nothing more terrifying and gross than waking up to the feeling of something scampering up your arm! I’m just grateful it isn’t spiders.

On that note, luckily, I have not had many run-ins with spiders. I was trying to prepare myself for spider incidents before I came here, but I don’t think I can really do anything to prepare myself for when I finally do see a giant spider. I get scared enough be the itty bitty ones. During training, I had to deal with the medium sized spider, well I guess for here it was probably more on the small side, that taunted me every night and caused me to put my mosquito net up. I didn’t want to wake up with that big, black, ugly thing in my bed with me. Also, one day during technical training, there was a huge spider in the corner of the room. I didn’t see it until after a bunch of other people had already seen it, but most of them were keeping their cool pretty well. Not me, when I saw it I gave a little screech, grabbed my chair and pulled my feet up off the ground. The guy who was giving the presentation that day looked at me like I was pretty strange. I said that I was sorry but that I had just seen the giant spider in the corner. Our training director then grabbed a broom and tried to get it out of the classroom, but it was in such an awkward spot in the corner of the room that all he could try to do was kill it. However, it scampered out the door before he was able to accomplish that task. I was a good twenty feet away from that spider, but still my hands were sweating and I was breathing heard. I don’t have any idea what I’m going to do when I come face to face with one - possibly faint!