Magnolia

Magnolia

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Life In A Third World Country

I've now been Tegucigalpa a little over 2 weeks. Seems much longer than that with all I've experienced. Learning my job is getting better. There's just so much to learn and the person I'm replacing is leaving Friday, June 13th. Yes, for me, that will be an unlucky day!! Next week, it's learn it all or learn how to fake it realllllly well! I'm sure I'll be fine.

I still don't have a car. I'd love to say I don't intend to get one because you honestly take your life in your hands when you drive here. There are few traffic lights in the area I live so it's every man for himself. It's a must that I buy a car but for now, I have a driver, take a taxi or find someone going where I want to go and then plead with them to come take me too! So far, so good.

Yesterday around 3:00 in the afternoon, there was an attemped assassination on a female attorney. She had stopped near her residence and suddenly, 4 men came out of nowhere and opened fire on her. There were 14 shots fired, 6 hitting her. This morning's paper said she was still alive, but barely. I was at work at 3:00, fortunately. The shooting took place in front of the door to my apartment. When my driver brought me home, he had to stop about half a block away because of the yellow crime scene tape. Another embassy employee kindly offered to walk with me to my building and of course, we were stopped. I told the policeman that I lived there and he allowed me to pass. Today, the street looks normal. Such is life (once again) in a third world country. I know things like this happen in the US all the time...but I've never lived this close to the action before. I try to keep things in the proper perspective and tell myself that I AM careful, that I DO watch where I'm going and take all precautions I can. And fortunately, I'm not an attorney.

On a lighter note, I'm headed to Honduras' version of Sam's Club again tomorrow, PriceSmart. It's nice that so many American items are available. As you can see, on my last trip there I found many goodies. Note the Hellman's mayonaise...they love things in squeeze bags!!! Stuff like tomato paste, ketchup, mustard and so many other things come in the squeeze bags with the screw on cap. Of course when you realize that the packaging cost more than the contents, you think twice about buying it! I thought it was cute! The parmesan cheese that I use on so much set me back $7.00 and the chocolates...$9.00. But when you want something, who cares what it costs. It's all offset by the lower cost of other things in life. My haircut, color, blow dry and style was only $25 today and I'm now back to looking 10 years younger than I am!! The best $25 I've spent lately and I now vow to NEVER get assigned to a country where there aren't good hair stylists and manicurists!! God bless them!
That's about it for now. I'm taking my camera with me everywhere in the weekends now so I hope to have more pictures to post here. Maybe I'll find something interesting to shoot at PriceSmart tomorrow!!

4 comments:

Todd E. said...

Hey Debi - Todd here! Had to check out your blog after you did the same. Welcome to Honduras, by the way! Curious...did you mean 'PriceSmart' instead of 'PriceSaver?' 'Cuz if there's a store called Pricesaver here, too...I'm all over it! How long is your Honduras assignment? Be sure to check out 'hondurasthisweek' every so often. I am one of the editors - it's a weekly newspaper in English. All the best to you!

Debi said...

Ooops...it is PriceSmart! And yes, I did check out the link to hondurasthisweek'. I even sent it to my father back in Fort Worth. I'll be reading your blog on a regular basis! Thanks!

Todd E. said...

Hey! Both you and LaGringa are Texas girls...but I'll bet you two already discovered that, huh? I will be checking your blog from time to time as well! Hope you are settling in here in Teguc!

Debi said...

You know, I haven't commented on her wonderful blog. I MUST take the time to do that. I love the way she writes and gained so much insight about Honduras over the past several weeks since finding out I would come here. Settling in is coming along...if I could only get in to my permanent house!! I'm in temp residence #2!