Winter Wonderland

Okay, so Honduras isn’t quite a winter wonderland but it is “winter”. Honduras has two seasons: winter (aka the rainy season) and summer (aka the dry season). Right now we are in winter and things are actually starting to cool off and it feels amazing. Summers in Santa Barbara are usually around 90-100 degrees, I try to wear as little clothing as possible and sweat constantly. I sleep with a fan on me all night long. Now that it is winter the temperature probably gets down to around 60. During the day it can still be hot but at night it is usually cold. While in the summer I wear flip-flops 24/7, now I can actually wear socks and tennis shoes with jeans and my fleece. Not only do I no longer need my fan at night I am actually cold because all I have on my bed is a sheet. So I had to dig my yoga pants and long sleeved shirts out of storage and wear warm PJs to bed. Although I hate being cold and I don’t want it to get any colder here it is nice to feel cozy and drink hot tea for a change. In the states I never really appreciated seasons (because I didn’t like the cold ones) but being here makes me a little nostalgic for the activities that come along with the seasons. I reminisce about fall growing up and going to the cider mill, picking apples and drinking hot apples cider and eating donuts. There are actually apples available here but they are imported from Washington state and cost a ton so I probably won’t be making apple cider anytime soon. Although we will have to make an exception and splurge for Thanksgiving so we can have apple pie.

Another element of winter is the rain. Before the rainy season came around I was a little scared because I imagined non-stop torrential downpours. Luckily it isn’t that bad (at least not yet, they tell me the rains will still get harder). It usually rains in the afternoon and sometimes at night. If I am inside at night I love the sound of the rain outside and it makes everything very cozy. If I have to walk in the rain it is not as pleasant however. Although the rain can be nice it does bring some difficulties. I now have to strategically plan washing and drying my clothes. During the summer I could basically do my wash any time of the day, hang it outside on the line and it would dry within a few hours. Now if it is overcast it takes forever to dry, or if it is raining I´m totally out of luck. One time I put my clothes out in the morning and they didn’t dry because it was overcast so I left them out all night and brought them in the next day. Although they were dry they smelled a little musty from being wet outside in the cold. Another problem is that people don’t seem to want to do anything if it is raining. Sometimes this makes sense, for example if we are planning to install filters in a community but the road is washed out obviously we can’t work. However, sometimes it is just a lame excuse. Last week Katie and I invited three friends over to eat pizza with us. Well, it happened to be raining that night so only one showed up and the others called to say they weren’t coming because it was raining. So what, you get wet! It perplexes me that in a country with a rainy season the rain can stop so much from happening. I guess in the states the weather (especially rain) doesn’t affect our daily activities as much because most of us commute in cars from our garages at home to our offices and most of our roads are paved so most weather doesn’t stop us from working. At least I should be thankful that it didn’t rain during my Men’s Health workshop last week, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have even had 13 show up.