Un cumpleaños, 3 pizzas, y la fumigación

Today was my host dad's birthday.  I had always been a little jealous of my friends who talked about host family birthdays, so I was excited to experience my first.

I've had a very busy week, working 2 days with Plan in their La Esperanza office (reminded me a lot of office days in SF, with the cooler temperatures, fast(er) internet, and a coffee maker).  The director and I are working on a new savings curriculum for youth, and I'm very excited about it!  I've also been going to nearby municipalities several times a week, so when I had the opportunity to take a lazy day today, I enjoyed it!

About mid afternoon, my host mom and sister summoned me to help make pizzas for the birthday.  I was scared at first because Hondurans typically use ketchup as their pasta/pizza sauce, but my family knows what they're doing, and it turned out to be delicious.  We had a lot of fun making the dough and sauce, and even stuffed the crust with quesillo!

All of a sudden, we heard a horrid noise and my host mom goes ¨vienen los fumigadores!¨ ... which translates to ¨the fumigators are coming!¨ Yes, here in Honduras (or at least my town) there are people that go around with what look like giant fiery leaf blowers, spraying each house with pesticide to kill the mosquitos.  (Picture someone barreling into your house without warning and spraying the whole thing with a fire extinguisher.)  They'd done it to the municipal building last Friday while I was there, so I knew what to expect... and I knew we needed to flee!

My Spanish suddenly got very good, as my host mom and I went into a panic.  We crammed the finished pizzas back into the oven on top of each other, put away all the plates and utensils, grabbed the cake, and ran outside.  I also darted back into my room to bag up all of my food and throw it under a sheet.  Between the panic and the smoke, it felt like we were fleeing a fire.

Flash forward 20 minutes, and we're all sitting outside, eating pizza and cake and drinking fresco as disgusting smoke billows out of the house.  Totally normal, except we have to cover our faces and sprint every time we need something from inside.  I guess that's what people do here... they improvise!  My host dad didn't seem to care.  I suppose his birthday gift was a reduced risk of getting malaria or dengue.