The Home Stretch and Man’s Best Friend

It’s never too late to make a change, and with only three weeks of classes left Jeff, Maki, and myself have decided to start running on a regular basis. Since it is very hot and dusty in the afternoons (see “Hot and Bothered” below) the idea was put forth that we should run in the mornings before school. I’m not sure what possessed me to go along with this scheme, but for better or for worse I am now getting up at 5 am to go run the grimy streets of Juticalpa.

Actually it’s been rather nice. It is a lot cooler in the am, and the dust is still on the ground where it belongs, since the morning traffic hasn’t begun yet. There are two concerns I have though. One is the trash. Most Honduran main street folks start the day by cleaning up all the trash in the gutter of their shop fronts. The garbage truck, too, does not start its rounds until about 7, meaning that the streets of the city are ripe (and I do mean RIPE) with some of the more offensive odors known to human kind. More than once on some runs I have had to fight back a strong urge to evacuate the contents of my stomach.

The other concern is the roving bands of dogs which basically own the streets after dark. At least one other volunteer gave up running in the morning for just this reason. You see, being a predatory species nothing gets a dog’s dander up like seeing something running. Be it a car, a bicycle, or lone pedestrian, something clicks in the reptilian part of the brain, giving rise to age old instincts and the desire to chase whoever the unlucky sap happens to be. Some of these canines are also quite large, and encouraged by their owners to chase off anyone approaching their house outside of business hours.

All this has not endeared the morning constitutional to me…although the dogs do provide excellent motivation.

But a savior has appeared to defend us on those gray morning runs. He is a force like no other in Juticalpa. The streets are his kingdom and his home, and he rules them with an unshakable…umm…coat of dust! Yes, one might even say that he is one with the grime itself! I am of course speaking of none other than “Spotted Dick* ” Oso, the little dog that lives next door!

(* I would like to clarify for any non-English readers that spotted dick is a type of bread pudding with raisins in it. There seems to have been some misinterpretation going about, and I want to make certain that nobody’s sense of propriety has been affronted by my blog.)

Yes, little Dick followed us on our entire run the other morning, all the way from our house to the center of town and back again. He chased off several dogs, and even slowed down to wait for me when I couldn’t keep up with Maki and Jeff (I have never been much of an athlete, unlike Maki and Jeff, who are both in disgustingly good shape. Talk about lessons in humility.)

I do suspect that fewer dogs would have bothered us had Dick not been there, but at least the ones that did give chase were barking at Dick and not us.

PS. The first plantains didn’t turn out too good (I tried to bake them and they just didn’t take to it). They were also green which, although it seems to be the only way to buy them here, may have lent to the somewhat chalky texture. Ah well, better luck next time.