Mechanics, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and House Hunting in Honduras….

You´re wondering, how are these things related?

Allow me to explain. When I returned to Cabañas last week from a trip to Tegucigalpa, I was shocked to find four pickup trucks, three boys, and three men in my backyard. I asked one of them what was going on, he kindly let me know that my landlords had decided to start an auto mechanic workshop in my backyard. Awesome.

So I spoke to my landlord about the situation and explained that it is not acceptable that strange men are loitering around my house. He said, oh, well, I guess you need to move then. Clearly, I was not happy about this. Here is the expression on my face when I found out:

QUE?!!

To make things worse, I also discovered a dead bat in my pila (a thingy for water storage). We all know that SARS come from bats, and that I am very paranoid about microbes. So in order to avoid being infected by SARS and attacked by strange auto mechanics, I needed to start house hunting. These were my priorities for finding a new house in Cabañas:

1.) No strange men loitering in backyard.

2.) No dead bats in pila.

Fortunately, I was able to conseguir a house that is ... BRAND NEW!!! It has tiled floors and a real roof! Here is a comparison between my old and new houses:

Old, Crappy House ____________________ New, Pretty House

Mechanics in backyard.....................................No one in to be found!

Dead bat in pila....................................... Just water here!

Electrical wires close to showerhead............Light fixtures on safely ceiling

Massive, cave-like hole in wall............No holes here, just cement!

New, pretty house is much, much better. Me = happy!