Luna

I was waiting on the side of the road last week for my ride to work. Luna, this crazy old islander who lives across the street, was out mowing his yard. When I say mowing, I really mean he has a machete in one hand and a stick in the other and is swinging away with the machete to cut the grass. I watched him for several minutes and realized that he was able to cut the grass pretty evenly with this machete. It's not the first time I've seen this done. There are always guys using machetes along the road. It appeared they were always cutting down tall grass,  but Luna was trimming his grass. He likes it to stay around a "quarter" high. He actually carries around an American quarter and uses this on occasion to measure his grass. He says his quarter will be worth quite a bit one day. He talks about it so passionately, I almost believe him. Luna waits on the road in front of his house each morning to say hi to us. Even though I cannot understand most of the things he says to me, it always makes me smile to see him each morning.

Yesterday, when I arrived to the side of the road he offered me some bamboo. I told him I had already eaten breakfast (mostly as a joke), but he proceeded to eat it. When he saw the slightly surprised look on my face, he told me it was sugar cane. Of course I had to google it as soon as I got to work. Evidently it is in the same family of grass, however bamboo is too hard for us to eat with our teeth. Sugar cane, on the other hand, can be eaten right off the stalk. This has been his favorite food since he was a kid, unless he was in trouble. Then the sugar cane became a whip. He said that islanders grow up with sugar on their bottom and on their teeth. That is how you know if someone is from the island or not, he tells me. Today, I introduced him to Oreos.

Bug Life

So we've gotten moved in to our first place (I say first place, because I suspect there will be a second place soon). I love the location but something just doesn't feel right about the apartment itself.

It could have been the scorpion we found the first morning. It was a team effort getting it out of the house. I frantically held the shorts it was sleeping on while Val managed to put on a shoe so she could step on it outside. Needless to say, the scorpion got away. It fell under our front porch. We hope we scared it enough to never come back...we'll, keep you posted.

It could also be the constant tiny ants that plague the bathroom and kitchen. You would be amazed at what those little tiny ants can find. There was evidently an itty bitty hole in the cereal bag (that wasn't even opened yet) so they attacked it like it was their last meal. Now, we've learned to do the tight seal test. If you squeeze the bag and it looses a bit of air, it goes in the refrigerator. That means everything, dry spaghetti noodles, spices, unopened bags of anything. You'd be surprised at how many packages loose a little air when pressure is applied. So our little refrigerator is full with almost everything from the kitchen. Those little ants find anything...a drop of something left in the microwave, a tiny crumb dropped on the floor that you can't even see, and your plate you are using that you sat on the table less than a minute ago while you took a bathroom break. There's no such thing of leaving the dishes for later here on the island.

It could also be the bugs I see crawl through the little cracks in the walls while laying in bed at night. Since it is a cabana, it is literally plywood nailed around the house frame. I've never really appreciated caulking and other seals like I do now. Although I feel we live in a structurally sound place, I can still see daylight between the pieces of wood. Thank you God for creating geckos. They eat mosquitoes and other bugs. So geckos can crawl all over the place and I don't mind one bit, especially since they seem to be scared of us. We haven't found any tarantulas yet - knock on wood. Speaking of which, does anyone know where that superstition came from? I was trying to explain it to someone on the island and they just thought I was crazy.

Welcome to my thoughts :)

As most of you know, I am living in Roatan, Bay Islands. My friend suggested that I write here on the blogspot to share my experiences and thoughts. I cannot promise that I will make regular posts or that I will have great grammar, but I will share nonetheless.

As always, I look forward to the journey...