Hi again!
This next picture is of my counterpart, Danilo. It´s only his profile, but I wanted to catch him at what he does best. He was chatting with a farmer down the hill (the farmer was planting beans) about planting fruit trees. Danilo´s job right now is reforestation, and he spends his days traveling to other communities setting up tree nurseries. He loves it--he loves to walk and he loves to shoot the breeze with everyone he meets. He looks unnassumming, but he is the way that politicians should be.
As you have probably heard, it has rained an exceptional amount in Honduras over the past two weeks. There have been landslides and people have had their houses washed away. Luckily, we haven´t had any calamities in my site. But the road to get out of my town is being washed away. As you can see in this photo, half of it has washed away. A small truck can still pass. Hopefully they fix it soon, but that is not too probable.
Here we have some of the beautiful girls in my town that shout to me as I pass their houses. ¨Jennifer,¨ they call. They are pictured in front of the house of the teachers, where I live right now. In the background is also the football feild.
This is Oneyda, my counterpart´s wife, and her daughters Daniela (sitting) and Tanya. I spend a lot of time with them.
This is me with one of my possible future cats. I decided that in my new house I want to have a cat (sorry, Ben) to eat the cockroaches and mice. I found some kittens in some nearby houses and had a great time petting them one afternoon. The Hondurans around thought I was pretty weird (cats are for kicking) but I made the kids only touch the kitten nicely. As you can see I am wearing a sweater. It has been pretty cold.
I spend my last few hours of the day at my desk by candlelight, so I thought I´d take a photo so you can see how it is. I spend time writing letters, writing work notes, and reading. There is only so long I can operate by candlelight, though, so I always end up going to be early, around eight thirty.
This is Profe Panchita, the dueña of the house I currently live in. She is a teacher at the school (second and fourth grade, I think). She is sewing out on her patio (it´s an open space connected to the house with a roof). She is serious and doesn´t talk much, but she takes care of me. I´m sorry I have no photos of her daughters Ana and Ada. Next time.
Here we have Omar, Betty, Marleny and Daniela at dusk by the soccer goals. The kids play here every evening as the sun sets. 
These are Alayda´s oldest daughters, Marbelie and Jolibet. They are standing in the doorway of their house.
This is the Catholic Church I go to every sunday for a service (there is no priest, so there is no mass). Alayda usually goes with me (you can see her back in this picture). There are three women that lead the song and do the readings. It is pretty simmilar to mass in the US, but the content of the sermon is usually a little more literal.
These to photos are of my new house. As you can see, it needs a little work. Today I am buying cement and some other supplies so that we can fix it up this week. I will be moving in in the begining of December (hopefully). 
This is little Luis (people call him Pichin), who will be my neighbor in my new house. Oh! He´s holding his little brother. The afternoon that I took this photo he told me that his mom had gone to pick coffee--he was at home caring for the kids. He is eight. 
This is Ana (the teacher I live with) and Jairo (her brother). This week we went up to their coffee finca in the mountain to look at the construction they have done there. The cement structure they are standing on is where they are going to pour out the coffee to take off the shells. 
This is Marjorie, peeling an orange with a machete. That´s right, a machete. Until I came to Honduras I never knew that a machete has so many uses, but now I know that you can cut the grass, chop up firewood, dig holes, all with a machete. 
Here we have the whole troop in Jairo´s truck. From left to right, starting in back, is Ada (the other teacher I live with), Jennifer (a girl from town), Ete (Ada´s sister), Ana (the teacher), Omar (Ete´s son), and in the truck is Panchita (the mom of Jairo, Ana, Ada, Ete, and the teacher in the school) Marixa (Jairo´s wife) and Jairo. 
Finally I´m sending a picture of my closest friend here in Planes, pictured with the flowers she loves to care for outside of her house. Her name in Alayda. She is about 32 (I think), and went to school until 4th grade, after which she helped her mom by selling bread in the community and the nearby ones. She married for the first time (well, here people don´t marry often, they just live together and call it marriage) when she was around 17 I think. Now she is living with her third husband (this one of eight years) and she has three really sweet daughters. Every time I visit Alayda I end up staying longer than I planned, and we laugh a lot. She teases me about Ben a lot, calling him Mincho.
Well, that´s all for today. This next week, I am looking forward to a community meeting in Cienegal, a town a two hour hike away. We are going to do a community needs analysis and hopefully start working on a latrine project. Wish me luck at running a meeting in Spanish! I will try to take pictures there!
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