Hooked on Phones!

When we came to the island getting a telephone was difficult.  There just were not enough lines to go around so one had to wait until a phone number opened up.  Of course then you only had HonduTel to work with and if you lived in an area with access to their lines, it was still difficult at best and almost impossible if you did not have access.


About 6 years ago or so (more or less), cellular phones came to the island!  What an innovation!  While we had all connected with our VHFs and depended upon that for a source of communication we now had access to cell phones.  


It took us a while before my husband and I broke down and bought a phone giving up our VHF connection.  Of course here on the island we have to buy minutes and these are sold at many of the stores around town.  At first the cards were small but manageable and of readable size.  Suddenly, one day, TIGO, in their infinite wisdom to save money (?) decided to downsize the card and now it is 1"x1".  Of of course this means it is much easier to lose and to read those scratched off numbers which one must input into the phone.  Then there is always the problem of being in the middle of a conversation and having no idea that you are almost out of minutes and bam, the conversation is ended.  You keep talking thinking you are still connected and then suddenly realize that that other end of the line has been disconnected and there is a vast void out there.

Of course, there are times when you have minutes available but evidentially TIGO or some other power decides that “Hey, you’ve talked long enough” and the line goes dead for no reason at all.  And calling is not always that easy.  Sometimes you will get a message that there is no access, but if you are persistent and keep on entering the number in various ways you will get through. Sometime, for no reason, you seem to be out of reach of the tower’s band width even though you are in the same spot where you’ve made hundreds of calls.  Then there are always those blackouts; unexplainable happenings wherein we get no signal even though we have enough bar codes for strength indicated.

One becomes accustomed to these inconveniences; after all, we are now in step with the modern world and we have communication at our fingertips so we must take the good with the bad.  This along with the internet has made our lives so much easier.

Of course, once they have you hooked they do all sorts of stuff.  Like, make your old phone obsolete either by the way it functions or it looks.  People are constantly scrambling to upgrade their phone for who knows what reason.  I prefer to stick with what I have; it works so why spend more money?  Then, since we live on the ocean, many phones are lost over the side of the boat!

If they can't get you with that well then the "World At Large" decided that in order to control terrorists, people running drugs and/or kidnappers everyone must now register their cell phone.  Ok I say - what's the big deal?  We are offered the option of registering on-line so I do.  It is a little time consuming and redundant because they got all this information when I bought the phone and the number, but what the heck, in the name of safety and our future well being (?) I'll go along.  

Then they announce that while you can register on-line, they have decided that you MUST go into a TIGO office to present your I.D. and complete registration.  Well, this is just great.  Here we are, on an island and no TIGO office or representative to take our information.  This means each person must spend about $200 to fly to the mainland and register!  What the really, really poor people are going to do is beyond me.  I for one go the coast twice a year; once for a yearly medical checkup and secondly to renew my residency and get blood work done at the clinic.  I'm not about to spend money to fly over just to register my phone!

We did have until May 15th as the deadline to accomplish this registration but then the government or whoever is in charge decided to extend the deadline.  One source said we now had until December 2012, another source said July 15, 2012 and finally, from what I hear, we have until June 15, 2012!

Plus, I was just reading the other day on our Honduran Living Group the following:

"[I] went to Tigo at the mall in La Ceiba last week. I had already registered my # online but was also told that I needed to come in. My friend had also added some time onto my # a few days before and I had only been away for 2 mos. Regardless, although they accepted my registration and my friend's $$ (no refunds!), they had already "recycled" my number. The young man assisting me told me that chips will now automatically be recycled every two months if they have no activity.

Upon trying to buy a new chip, it turned out that they are having a lot of problems with the chips and the first 2 did not even work. Finally I was able to get my phone working but it took quite a while.

For those of us who travel back and forth, I guess this means that now, in addition to trying to keep our #s active, we will have to continually go to Tigo to register NEW numbers! Agh! Just another day in Honduras . . . . 

Never gave this much thought before but I wonder how far away we are from world-wide, low-cost cell phone service?"


So, now I'm reading that if you don't use your phone for two months, they take away your number which means we must go through the whole process again!  


I'm sorry, but this is complete madness.  The "government" (or whoever is in charge of this action) says that if a terrorist/drug runner/kidnapper uses your phone in a crime, you are responsible because it is your phone!  Yeah, like they are going to enforce that law!  Hey, they don't enforce the laws against stealing, breaking of environmental laws, murder, child abuse, trespassing, land stealing - so why should they enforce this one?  And if your phone is stolen and you live on an island with no representative or in some remote area and can't get to a TIGO representative to report it and a crime is committed, what then?


This all may work in the "real" advanced countries but just ain't gonna work here.  It is simply a real inconvenience not to mention a huge expense on the people that do not have access to a representative!  


What can we do however?  Luckily for me I registered my "travel phone" in Ceiba when we were there for our residency renewal in April and am fortunately going to leave soon to attend my Grandson's wedding in Indiana.  On the way out of the country I will be in San Pedro Sula and I can register my phone then.  But what of all the unfortunate people that can't afford it or live too far to make the long trek to a village/town/city where they can register?

Over Hill, Over Dale......or, are we crazy?

Walking is not a casual thing on the island.  Walking is akin to a sport - Mountain climbing.  There are a few "trails" on the island which are simply beaten down paths that people use daily to get from one place to another.  We have made the trek over the island via Michael's Peak (the highest point said to be 1,500 feet) several times and the last trip (with my Grandsons) was just that, my last!  I don't mind the hike up; its the travesing the rocky hillside down that is dangerous and, at my age, is best left to those with less years under the belt.

So, we were talking to Ann and Jim who live on the other side of the island in a remote area and it was agreed that we would "drop by" for a visit.  Our intentions were that if the seas were too rough and we could not dock at their place, we would go around to the marina and hike up the mountain.  Notice, I do not say "hill" as Ann refers to it in her FaceBook entries!  Sorry, Ann, this is no hill - it is a mountain.  If you want a hill, go to Florida.  Ann, dear, you are now in "mountain" country.

This is a view of the area called Grant's Peak.  While their home is not "on" Grant's Peak and is to the right of the mountain when you face it, this gives you an idea of the area they live in. While not the tallest of the mountains on the island, it is still something to walk up.  Grant's Peak is one of the mountains that is quite visible when one arrives by plane.  As a matter of fact you pass right over it (or to the side) when getting ready to land on the runway.  It is quite barren and treeless with scrub brush and lots and lots of rock formations.

This is the point where Jim and Ann live -  it is about in the middle of the photo although their dock and house don't show up too well (their place is to the right of that dark spot you see in the middle of the photo).  We came up from the grayish area towards the back and to the top left of the photo - so, it is a long walk.

As I said, we found we could not dock at their pier so we had to go back around the point to the canal where there is a marina that we could park in.  The first part of the trail is fairly level as you can see here:

After this point, there is about a 5-8 minute walk along the beach and then we start the uphill trek.  Most of it is fairly gradual except the last portion, but all is rough going with huge, loose rocks causing one to watch where you step.

This picture does not really give you the degree of incline of the hill and, at this point, it is not too bad.

Now the incline starts to increase which you still can't tell well from the photo, but take my word for it. The bad thing was that I had not thought of walking to their house until we left and were half way to the other side.  I wore flip flops with a really slippery insole and it proved to be a very bad mistake as the going was rougher than had I worn proper walking shoes.

We are still walking uphill at this point and the last few inclines ahead.  The one directly in front and the one to the back of that hill, were extremely steep.  As a matter of fact, the other people that live on this side of the island have a 4-wheeler and travel to their home on it when the weather is rough.  Even riding in that machine is scary because of the steep incline of the mountain.

   

Success! 

At last, we reached the top (about 20 minutes later from when we left the beach) and we at least have level terrain to walk on.  However, it is still filled with large rocks and pebbles making it difficult to walk.

This is the view of the airport runway (in the middle of the picture and the canal to the right looking off to the East/Southeast of the island.

This is a view of Michael's Rock which juts out on the left of the point out in the water.  Not to be confused with Michael's peak which is in about the middle of the picture and is the tallest mountain on the island.

This is a view of Jim and Ann's dock.  The water doesn't look particularly dangerous but the rollers that come in preclude one from safely maneuvering a boat along side the dock.

And, now, our guests, Ann and Jim with two of their dogs.  The one behind Ann is a visitor from the neighbor's house.

This is a photo of their guest cottage and where their full-time worker lives.

Everyone on the island tries to do something silly or cute or unusual to set their house apart from the rest.  Ann and Jim have created Ernie and Ernest (I think that's what their names were) with cast off pieces found on the beach.

This is an older photo of the back of their house.  It now has a fresh coat of paint and looks really nice. Sorry, I didn't have a photo of the front of the house.

Ann in her kitchen.  She is happy because she did not have to cook a meal for us.  I had volunteered to bring a special baked sandwich, cole slaw and banana muffins as they have been so busy working on their home between trekking over the mountain to do their errands that I felt they needed a break.  They were very happy to see us arrive, especially with food in our hands.  They said we could come back any time!!!

Here we are, ready to trek back and this time I have more confidence because Ann loaned me her walking shoes!  Thanks Ann - they were a real help.  We also took "walking sticks" which are a definite must when going up and down steep mountains.

 Ann mentioned that she has really built up her strength and can now walk some of the inclines without stopping half way up!  Way to go Ann!

We had a very pleasant day with them and enjoyed our visit.  They have come a long way from when they bought a "shell" of a house and are doing a lot to make it cosy and warm.  We look forward to revisiting them but, hopefully, the seas will be calmer and we won't have to make the long walk.  

As I've said before, you must have stamina and be willing to do things you ordinarily would not think of doing when you live on Guanaja!  And I know people who simply complain when they have to walk too far to the store from where they parked in the parking lot!  HA.

My new project

I've been busy crocheting up items for gifts and then, while surfing the net, I found a really nice purse pattern.  My friend, Martha, left me some upholstery scraps which she picked up from a store and they no longer wanted the samples.  Martha suggested that I make small purses out of them.  I expanded on her idea and decided to go all out and do a purse for myself.

 The pattern I chose was fairly simple and straightforward.  I wanted to use my quilting template for the center, which is of irregular shape, and then sew strips of varying widths to each side of the shape.  Since the upholstery samples were limited in size (about 8 x 15 or so) this project would use several different designs but I tried to stay within the same color scheme.

Of course the downside of the pattern was that it was oblong in shape with the handles running up the middle of the pattern.  This meant that when I sewed the side seams and laid the purse open, the sewn "side" seams would become the front and my original design would be on the ends.

But, wanting to make a crazy quilt type pattern, I went ahead.  I covered the muslin pattern with all the material sewing each strip individually and adding as I went.  I found a lining material I had on hand and I was good to go.  Made the lining, put a long strip of fabric and sectioned it off for pockets on either side of the inside and then joined the lining and the purse.

Since the side seams were now the front I decided I would cover them with pockets and, hopefully, the design would be pleasing to the eye.  This gave me two extra pockets - one in the front and one in the back.  I put a metal magnetic snap closure on the front gold pocket and added an embellishment.

The back pocket was sewn with right sides together and the top left opened and hemmed.  I then turned the pocket right side out and then sewed to the purse.  Thus I had, in effect, two pockets; the inner one where I had left it open at the open at the top and a space behind the pocket.  This was an organizers dream! 

 Above it one end panel and the second photo is the other end panel.

This is the purse filled with my items to show how it hangs.  The best part was that I could put pockets along the inside on either side; 3 on one side and 2 on the other.  I now had a fully organized purse which was surprisingly lighter weight than some other purses I've had.  

I also finished a baby star afghan blanket for my friend Joan's first grandchild due in June.  I had a lot of baby yarn on hand that I wanted to use up and since most of my friends are well past the "birthing" stage of life and most of them have already had grandchildren, this was an excellent opportunity to use up the yarn.

I had never tackled this particular pattern before and, while it was fairly easy, I did discover a few "dos" and "do nots" while making it.  I plan on making her a baby cocoon as soon as I finish the wedding present for my Grandson and his fiancé who will be getting married in June.

So, I've not been sitting on my laurels, so to speak, and in spite of the fact that I have not blogged much I am still just as busy as ever with Yoga, crocheting, reading, gardening, laundry, baking and entertaining.  

Life must go on even on an island.