One of the biggest hassles we have here is paying our bills. We have to withdraw money from the ATM on base, convert it to the local currency of lempiras (we can do that on base too), then go to the bank of the merchant to pay the bill directly in to their accounts. We may or may not have an actual "bill" to pay it from so sometimes we forget - like with the cable bill and the Internet, which I must tell you we've have each disconnected at least once since we've been here.... Due to the daily limit restrictions on the ATM bill paying could sometimes take a few days since we have to pay rent, school for the boys, electric, cable, and internet all the same way. Did I mention that we have to go to different banks? I loathe paying bills here....
Like the good wife that I am, I ran around paying everything that was due or would become due while the boys and I would be in the States so that my husband wouldn't have to worry about any of it (since he is at work during most of the banking business hours). There was one bill that we didn't get to - the electric bill. Jose insisted that it was no big deal and that he would take care of it (I really should have known better) but I left it alone. June came and went and the bill didn't get paid, July came and went and we were just busy - the bill came (it gets tucked in the crack of the door of the house) but we were travelling and then getting settled back in to routine and well it didn't get paid either.
One day while Jose was at work some guys showed up in a truck in front of the house so I went out to see what they wanted. They spoke in Spanish of course and I had no idea what they were saying. I called to Jordan's friends who were upstairs playing to come and translate. They explained to me that the men were here to cut the power and that we owed 6 thousand something lempiras for the past 2 months. Needless to say I was NOT too happy with my husband. I called him at work to tell him what was about to happen as my visitors pulled a ladder out of the back of their truck and leaned it against the pole where the power lines were. I exchanged some not so nice words with Jose as he assured me they wouldn't cut the power off. He asked to speak to the guys they just smiled and continued with their mission. Once more Jose assured me that they wouldn't turn the power off and that he was in the car headed to the bank to pay. The house went dark.... I was livid!!
Within the hour Jose showed up at the house with "Moncho", a worker from the neighborhood. Moncho smiled at me as he jogged over to a new home construction site just across the street from us, grabbed a ladder, then quickly shimmied up the pole with his little work bag and reconnected our power in less than 5 minutes. Jose paid Moncho 150 Lempiras (about $7.00) for his trouble and then gave him a ride back home. In Honduras everything can be fixed - if you have the right connections!
