international health insurance

Remember a few months back when I wrote about Holli and helping her get home? She was in a nearly fatal motorcycle accident in India and suffered major brain trauma. The hospitals there, like in most developing countries, weren't sufficient to care for her injuries. So she needed to be med-evac'd back to the states. Do you have any idea how much that costs?? Evidently hundreds of thousands of dollars!

So it got me to thinking. What would my family do if I were in an accident like that? The hospitals here probably aren't much better than the ones in India. And I don't have US health insurance to cover something like that. And who just has $150,000 laying around?

So a couple of weekends ago we were visiting with friends here in Tegus. (The husband commutes from the US every couple of months, and his wife and family live here permanently.) They have health insurance that works in Honduras AND in the US. And it covers emergency evacuation for situations just like the one Holli was in.

So since then I've been researching international/travel insurance. One of the sites I found was www.hccmis.com. And according to the prices on their site, it's very affordable depending on the deductible, even on a Honduran salary. ;)

So if you are traveling abroad (studying abroad, backpacking, whatever!) or living abroad like me, then I suggest you consider what you and your family would do if you were in an accident like Holli's. If you want, you can click HERE to obtain a free quote for international health insurance. It's quick and painless, and this kind of insurance could turn out to be priceless if something ever happened to you abroad!

Bring a canned good, your Bible, a friend, and...your gun

Please read this article about a pastor in my very RED home state of Kentucky.

Didn't you know that our nation was founded on "a strong belief in God and firearms?"

A gun raffle AND patriotic music? Y'all can count me in. ;)

taxi driver murdered, very close to my house!

(photo from elheraldo.hn)

I was greeted by this scene yesterday as I was heading home after work. There was an obscene amount of traffic on the Blvd. Suyapa, and as I got closer to the road that goes into my neighborhood I saw why. There were about 20 police cars/trucks on the other side of the street (the same side as UNAH, for all you Tegucigalpans). The whole area was taped off with police tape, and there was a parked trailer that said "Crime Scene Investigators" on the side.

"Woah what is this about? What do you think happened?" I asked the driver.

"For there to be investigators and police tape and stuff, either someone was murdered or kidnapped," he replied.

And he was right. A taxi driver was murdered at 3 pm on Tuesday afternoon by a gang member for refusing to pay the illegal "taxes" that the drivers are "required" to pay to the gangs. He was the 3rd driver to be murdered in the previous 24 hours.

Very scary!

(To read the article from El Heraldo in Spanish, click here. To read the very rough translation in English via Google translator, click here.)

getting pulled over in honduras

Jose and I left the house this morning just before 9 am to go to a funeral. As we crossed the Blvd. Suyapa, we noticed 2 police officers on a motorcycle pointing at us. We kept driving, because how were we supposed to know that pointing meant pull over? When Jose realized they were pulling us over, he put on his seatbelt (whoops!).

We pulled over in a gas station parking lot about a block down. The 2 police officers approached the car. Jose handed one of the officers his license and registration. Jose asked why he had been pulled over. The officer said that it was because he didn't have his seatbelt on.

"Yes I did," Jose lied. (Quick note to people that don't know how things work here: Please don't judge us for lying to the police. :) It's a different world here. The only thing that would have happened if we had told the truth was they would have expected us to pay a bigger bribe than if we hadn't done anything wrong.)

"I saw you...you didn't have your seatbelt on," the officer says.

"I DID have my seatbelt on," Jose lied again.

"I think that you just woke up and you are still kind of asleep and you didn't remember to put your seatbelt on," the officer said to Jose.

The officer asked his little sidekick, "What do you think? Should I give him a ticket?" The sidekick said, "Yeah, I think you should."

The officer then asked Jose again, "Were you wearing your seatbelt?"

Jose lied again, "I told you I was."

Then the two officers really started to play their little game, trying to get a bribe from us. "What do you think, man? Should I give him a ticket? Yeah, man, you should do it." They were trying to get us to beg, "No! Don't give us a ticket! We'll pay you a bribe instead!" Jose didn't say a word.

At that point I thought it might help our cause if they knew there was a gringa in the car. I took off my sunglasses, lowered my head, made direct eye contact with both of them, and said something to Jose in English. The officer asked Jose, "Where are you from? Are you Honduran?" Jose told him yes. "And her?" the officer asked. "I'm from the US," I replied directly to him in Spanish.

The two officers looked at each other, and then told Jose that he was free to go. Shocking, considering they saw him without his seatbelt, and then he lied to them about it.

I'm pretty sure my white skin and blonde hair had something to do with it. Jose is soo lucky to have this gringa as his wife. ;) hehe

el terremoto

Word of the Day Thursday:

Terremoto = Earthquake!

(say tEHrrrrrEH-mOH-tOH)

At 2:24 AM this morning (3:24 AM KY time) there was an earthquake off of the northern shore of Honduras. It registered 7.1 on the Richter scale.

(picture courtesy of usgs.gov)

In some places I've read/heard that there was 1 death, and in others, that there were 4. I still don't know the exact number. There are some damaged highways, and I heard a bridge collapsed somewhere in the north. From what I've read on Honduras Living, it seems like the people that live on the islands felt it the most.

I live in Tegucigalpa, which as you can see on the map, is pretty far from the epicenter. Jose and I are okay...we slept through it, I guess. We didn't even know there had been an earthquake until we saw it on the news this morning as we were getting ready for work. I vaguely remember hearing Charlie bark in the middle of the night, so maybe he felt it. And I'm so jealous if he did. I survived my first earthquake and don't have any exciting stories to share because I slept through the darn thing. ;)

Word of the Day Wednesday

Maje (say mAH-hay)

I'm running out of favorite Spanish words to teach you. *gasp* So until I can come up with some new ones, I'm going to use my husband's favorite words.

And I'm pretty sure this is his favorite word because he says it all. the. time.

My online translator defines maje as a guy/bloke. The best equivalent I can think of is man/dude. Por ejemplo:

Hey maje, what's up?
Hey maje, let's go play pool tonight.
etc.

burning season...blame it on the farmers!

I mentioned burning season in yesterday's post about the palomillas. I thought you might be interested in knowing a little more about it.

The culprit of all of the smoke during burning season is from slash and burn agriculture.

It's a method that has been used in this area since the time of the Mayans. Slash and burn agriculture is when you use fire to prepare a field for planting. Cut vegetation is left to dry during the dry season, then right before rainy season, it is burned and the new plants are planted in the ashes.

I have been critical of this farming technique for a long time. I mean, I'm no farmer, but it always seemed to me that burning everything would just strip the soil of its nutrients. Not to mention all of that smoke. That just can't be good for the environment (or my allergies!).

And then last week when we were on our way to the hot springs in Copan Ruinas, we passed a burning field. I asked the driver, "Why do they do that?" His explanation was that the fire kills the disease causing bacteria in the soil.

Hmmm. I was intrigued. So I came home and looked it up. It is estimated that 250-500 million people practice this in 1/2 of the land in the tropics. And evidently, if done correctly, there are some benefits to slash and burn farming:

1. Slash and burn farming resembles natural ecosystems...more so than modernized farming does. Ex: with slash and burn farming, you don't have to remove the trees like you do to accomodate the equipment used in modern farming. Also, fields are supposed to be left to return to their natural state every few years. They sure don't do that in the fields in KY!
2. The "charcoal" left in the soil from the burned plants (the slash of slash and burn) creates a natural fertilizer. A much more environmentally friendly fertilizer than the man-made ones.
3. It does reduce the chances of losing crops to disease.

BUT... notice that I said if done correctly. There is an exception in all of this that applies to Honduras:

1. It takes A LOT of land to use this type of farming correctly because plots of land have to be rotated and left unused for long periods of time. It takes a lot more land than the typical Honduran farmer has access to.
2. In areas with steep slopes (hello, all of Honduras) or in areas with population booms, it is destructive because the "rest periods" are not used for the proper amount of time.

So, after the facts, what do you think?

I have decided that the Honduran farmers should not use slash and burn farming. If you know one, tell him I said that. And then wait for him to laugh at me, because hey, what does this gringa know? Haha.