Evaluation

This is the last week of the first half of my time in Honduras.  I have been here two and a half months.  Sometimes it seems like I've lived here my whole life.  Sometimes it feels like I just arrived in San Pedro yesterday.

It's hard to make an evaluation when one's lived somewhere for this long.  The things that bothered me at first I'm now used to.  The things that were once new are now just an everyday part of life.  Of course I'm still learning, and new things still happen.

In an attempt to wrap up what has happened over the first two and a half months...to make them more tangible...I'm going to list them.

I have....

1.)  written a factsheet over local corn production
2.)  designed and carried out an experiment
3.)  started propagating avocado trees
4.)  gained a Sunday school class
5.)  gotten a major sunburn
6.)  learned how to live without electricity
7.)  learned how to live with an inconsistent water supply
8.)  mastered cooking rice
9.)  been creative with marinades
10.) learned how to make lemonade
11.) become addicted to true Honduran food
12.) gained a whole bunch of friends
13.) taught someone how to make a grilled cheese
14.) gotten said person addicted to grilled cheese
15.) learned how to correctly scramble eggs
16.) learned how to count to 100 in Spanish
17.) fell in love with running
18.) become a bit more assertive
19.) and more self motivated
20.) and better at predicting the weather

I could go on forever.  But basically, I have learned to live in a completely different culture.  I have learned how to adapt to changing circumstances and to be more perceptive.

Yesterday Shannon called me an enigma.  I was like "a whatta"?  A mystery, a person of bewilderment, a conundrum.  Throw me a curve ball and I'll figure out how to hit it.  I guess not everyone is like that?  Anyway, he said it was a blessing.

What I'm trying to say is I've learned an immeasurable amount of usable information.  And I can't list it all.  How's that for an evaluation?

How Much is too Little?

"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give.  I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.  In other words, if our expenditure of comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little.  If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.  There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them."

-C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity-

I'm not posting this to say everyone should live in complete depravity, or to make everyone assume I give until it hurts.  This quote just got me to thinkin' this afternoon.  Typical after C.S. Lewis reads.

What are your thoughts?