Dearest Rachel –
When I gave my lesson to the students here the other day, one of the first things I asked them about was regarding large, long-term purchases that they would want to save up for. Most of them understood the gist of my question, and offered similar responses to those that an American class would give – a car, a house, and the like, many of which would necessitate a credit history to borrow money for. There were a few unusual responses; one of them mentioned saving up to buy a piano, which, while definitely an excellent example of a long-term savings goal, would have never crossed my mind. But you know how it is; people have their own priorities, and sometimes they’ll surprise you with them.
During a brief lull in their responses, I suggested that, given the ambient temperature in the room, it might be worthwhile to look into saving up for a space heater. Upon cracking this joke, I found myself facing these blank looks that I remember from last year, when I tried to have the kids practice a spreadsheet using the idea of running a lemonade stand. It just wasn’t part of their lived experience, and I had to back away from the line, suggesting a few other possible expenditures instead to keep the discussion going.
The thing is, cold is not all that common down here in Honduras – which I’m sure most people could guess from looking at it on an atlas. Given how far south it is, compared to literally anywhere in the States (except Hawaii, but that’s a literal outlier), what’s more surprising is that it’s cooler here in the summer than it is at home; this can be attributed to its elevation in the mountains. To call it chilly here is to insult anyone reading this over your shoulder at home, as they continue to deal with the arctic blast over the past week.
However, it is still January, and it’s noticeably colder than in July. In fact, it’s colder than some of the locals remember it being for a long time, complete with that misty rain that not only chills you, but leaves the road a soggy, muddy mess. And while they’re able to put on extra layers of clothing, including jackets and sweatshirt, we’ve only got what we packed for the week, and in most cases, we packed for warmer weather than this. So, you’ll have to forgive us if we talk about how cold it is down here; we’ve not got much to deal with it.
Sure, we have the clothes we wore while we went to the airport Sunday morning; one doesn’t walk out in January in Chicago wearing a T-shirt and jeans, even if one is travelling to warmer climes. But that’s just one ensemble of clothes; one can’t wear that for three days in a row as the rain continues to spew from the clouds.
And as a result, while we’re fully aware of how much warmer we are down here then if we stayed back at home, but since we didn’t come prepared for it – or at least not so much of it for so long – it’s at time been less comfortable in places that if we’d stayed at home. At least, when our bedroom gets chilly from the zero-degree temperatures outside, I can turn on the space heater to warm up the room. Here, they don’t seem to have a word or phrase to translate the term so it could be understood; they just put on an extra layer of clothing that we didn’t think to bring.
At least they tell us that today is going to be sunny and warm (room temperature warm, not tropical resort warm, but that’s more than good enough), like we’d expected until now. Even so, I could stand it if you’d keep an eye on us, honey, and wish us luck. We’re still going to need it, regardless.
Letters to Rachel 