I got the Blue Screen of Death on my laptop today...I'm hoping that it doesn't cause too many problems. Though before this, something happened with my drives. I can only access my external hard drive through the auto play, and my C drive...when I try to open it, it asks which program I'd like to use...so I can't get to it. I haven't spent much time trying to figure out what happened. I might just transfer a few files and roll it all back. But now...I can't access Word. It asks if I want to open it in Safe Mode then fails. And then asks to Detect and Repair...and fails again. I don't know...grrr.

I am alive and surviving my first rainy season in Honduras. I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd done laundry until I realized I had 20 pair of underwear hanging on the line. Who even has that many? And I wasn't completely out either! Besides that things have been good. Slowly getting busier, but classes end the 15th of November, so it might slow down again. Starting to make a few friends and have a couple of people to talk to in town, but still few...and some are teachers who don't live here during the break!

I had to jalon for the first time. As much as people would think that soccer is the national pastime, I strongly argue that jaloning is. A jalon is a hitchhike...normally in the back of a pickup truck (since thats what 98% of the population out in the campo drive). It can be planned or it can happen unexpectedly. There may be as few as 2-3 people or as many as 20. Babies and young children are not discriminated against...the more the merrier! Most of the time its free, but sometimes you may get charged a small amount. It could be for a few miles...or a few hours.

So I went to town last Tuesday to go to the bank and the post office and pick up more (powdered) soy milk from the grocery store. Traveling can be a little annoying here. There are 3 times that buses pass to go into town. 5:15am, 6:30am and 7:15am. After 7...no more buses. If you want to go you need to find someone with a car that is going. So I got on the last bus into town and another guy from town that I had seen once or twice got on and sat next to me, so we were able to talk the whole way. He was nice enough to pay my fare (which was about $2)...its nice to make friends! The post office ended up costing me 1/4 of my monthly pay...argh! But it was worth it. I sent a small package to my sister and bought a stamp which cost $25 and spent another $25 to rent a PO Box for a year. Just having my mail closer to me will be a benefit...instead of waiting for the Peace Corps office to forward it once a month...and once it is forwarded I don't exactly have mail service in my town. There's a guy that goes once every 15 days to pick up mail. My host dad goes to Marcala once a week so I can always send the key along with him and have him pick up my stuff.

So I got done what I needed to do and ate some lunch before getting on the bus back to Florida. The 12:00 bus didn't show up...but there was another bus going past my town for the border that normally leaves at 11:30...so I went over there; it was waiting around longer b/c of the other bus not showing up. So we take off about 12:30 and about 20 mins outside of town is where we turn to start climbing up the mountain. The bus couldn't make it...so we all got off and started climbing then got back into the bus. As we started taking off again there was a horrible noise...the tire broke (I think something with the axel) and we were told that we'd have to wait for the next bus...which doesn't pass for 4 hours!

The first truck that passed by everyone ran for...there was about 20 people in the bed...so I decided it was safer to wait. I ended up being on the side of the road with one other high school boy from town for almost an hour before somebody finally passed by. Luckily, it was a man from town. I hopped in front with them and we took off. It took almost as long as the bus between picking up people and the driver stopping to chat along the way. But he didn't charge me...and I scored a free bag of organic coffee that is produced by a woman's cooperative in town!

I can't seem to travel anywhere w/o something happening...buses breaking, my bags leaving on the bus w/o me, national police officer losing his gun, etc. Excited to find out what else could happen...waiting for a flock of chickens to crazily fly through the bus....haha.