Dentists and Doughnuts

How does a simple trip to the dentist turn into drinking wine with misionaries?
In the magical world of Honduras, all of your dreams can suddenly come true....

As Crystal mentioned below, ( if ya havent read her post yet, go check it out! I'll wait here!) I've been in Tegus since yesterday, taking care of a broken tooth (turned out to be minor) issued to me by some beans, so don't believe all this propaganda in the media about basic grains and their peaceful ways, cuz it ain't so. Dentist appt went rather smooth: the ability to afford dental care is obviously a luxury here, and in response the dentist office is kinda a swank place, this particular office was in the same building as the Columbian Embassy and the Standard Fruit (Dole) Office. She was very nice, spoke english when necessary, and gave me a cleaning and a patch job on the spot. However, she thinks that i might have.....(bum bum bummmmm) Gingivitis!! If I was on a tv commercial for toothpaste, the lighting would be ominous and i would would looked simply shocked, and accompanied by an echo (gingivitis.....gingivitis...........gingivitis), but she gave me some new toothpaste and I should be on the road to gum health soon. Thanks medical insurance!!

Crystal and I are broke as a joke right now, which made this trip to tegus bittersweet: I could eat whatever i wanted, go to a movie, and even go grocery shopping for exotic delights such as peanut butter and black pepper, if only i could afford them. More likely i was gonna eat some cupcakes for dinner and tough the night out. However, I was destined to remain in my hotel room and watch tv cuz its free. It was my one chance to watch the winter olympics, but the only event for the entire night was figure skating. NOOOO! was my desperate plea: Give me the luge, curling, ice hockey, anything but women's iceskating! However, I was saved from this fate by our pals Dave and Dez, who just so happened to be in Tegus as well. We went out to a really good cuban restaurant and had some beers courtesy of my credit card. We met two guys back at the hotel who we thought were old pc volunteers, but later found out to be missionaries. Typically this is not the social company I tend to keep, but they proved to be lacking in the brainwashed department, and simultaneously well stocked in the Mexican Tequila department.

We talked politics, passed arround their guitar, and spoke of my favorite peace corps urban legend: The Crazy Girl Who Makes Doughnuts. Lore has it that there was a volunteer who lost her marbles while in her village for peace corps, and proceeded to make doughnuts with her every free moment. This activity went on unchecked and beknownst to PC for a while, until they randomly visited her, and were soon overcome by the presence of doughnuts on every available surface in her house. This led to her being sent back to the states as a crazy person. The location of this story is always a mystery; people here claim it was in Honduras, but our sitemate Sidney first heard it when he was a volunteer in Nepal, where it was also supposed to have taken place. However, we were able to find out last night from our missionaries that this story has been arround since at least the first time they lived in Honduras, some 15 years prior. It also proved to be the inspiration for Sidney's business project that we have been working on and has been the most sucessful of our projects to date: a doughnut company to raise money for youth activities.

Therefore, with shiny teeth, I'll be heading back up to Vegas today, Crystal and I need to get ready to host some trainees this weekend, they are visiting to see what the peace corps experience is all about. The will want to know about the struggles, the accomplishments, the adjustments, the true essence and grit of what an actual volunteer is and what they really do. And they will see the full embodiment of being a peace corps volunteer on Friday, for we are all gonna make Doughnuts.