Sunday, August 26, 2007
Lip Pointing
So, no one uses their hands to point here. They point with their lips. It takes some getting used to. I haven’t quite mastered it yet, but after 2 years and 3 months here, I am sure that I will come back to the states with a lip pointing habit. If you’re not accustomed to lip pointing, it is pretty humorous to watch.
Honduran Hygiene and Sickness Beliefs
One thing that I’ve noticed in Honduras is that many people do not use soap. I am not sure why, yet. Perhaps it is too expensive or maybe it’s because they have different beliefs about what causes illnesses. For example, in the US we believe that bacteria and viruses cause illness. However, in Honduras bacteria and viruses are not common knowledge and the general belief is that sudden changes in temperature are what make you sick. For example, you are urged to drink cold drinks with caution, as they are prime illness agents. When you are hot and sweaty, you should under no circumstances drink a cold drink or take a cold shower. The greatest evil is drinking cold drinks while you are sick. That’s just asking for trouble. No one will take any pity on you for doing this.
Also, if you are cold (ex: just came back from swimming and are soaking wet and shivering) you should, under no circumstances, take a warm shower. This will also make you sick. Warm drinks (ex: coffee) should be enjoyed on hot days, because warm drinks release the heat from your body. This is also true of soup. What better time to have a steaming bowl of soup than on a 90 degree day? Perhaps Americans are completely wrong on this note. If anyone finds some research on the subject, let me know.
It broke my heart the other day when I went to the kindergarten and the kids were washing their hands with just pila water. I guess this is better than not washing their hands at all. Also, little kids are not taught to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. They will literally just cough all over someone else’s food at the table and not think anything of it. In the kindergarten class, it was sad because about 1/3 of the class was absent for being sick and of the remaining 35 students about ½ were sick. It made me just want to go into a power Charla (what we call presentations/workshops or literally “chat”) about the importance of washing hands with soap and covering your mouth when you cough.
As I have confianza (meaning something like “trust” but stronger) with my family, I have began educating them about bacteria, viruses, hand washing with soap and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. In the almost 3 weeks that I have been here 4 out of 6 of my immediate family members have had a cold (including me).
Another widely-held health belief exists here in Honduras. People get sick at their stomach from eating fruit and especially vegetables. In many families, vegetables are rarely eaten, and if they are eaten, they are cooked until they have negligible nutritional value and covered with mantequilla (this is not butter in Honduras, but rather a whitish liquidy mixture of butter/margarine with sour cream). The problem is that people attribute fruits and vegetables as food that makes them sick and don’t realize that these foods only make them sick because they do not wash them properly. In Honduras, it is necessary to soak fruits and vegetables in water with a few drops of chlorine. If this is not done, you can become very sick at your stomach.
I am thankful that my family understands the importance of fruits and vegetables and washes them properly. Most of the other Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) rarely get fruit and vegetables. My host mom tells me that many of her friends think that she is crazy for giving her kids so much fruit, but it is healthy and that’s what her kids want to eat. She has obviously attended and understood Peace Corps nutrition charlas for host families. Yesterday she made me the best meal ever: tamales filled with beef, potatoes, rice and tomatoes and cooked broccoli, carrots and squash. She made comments like, “I don’t cook the vegetables for too long, because if you cook them for too long they no longer have vitamins.”
Also, if you are cold (ex: just came back from swimming and are soaking wet and shivering) you should, under no circumstances, take a warm shower. This will also make you sick. Warm drinks (ex: coffee) should be enjoyed on hot days, because warm drinks release the heat from your body. This is also true of soup. What better time to have a steaming bowl of soup than on a 90 degree day? Perhaps Americans are completely wrong on this note. If anyone finds some research on the subject, let me know.
It broke my heart the other day when I went to the kindergarten and the kids were washing their hands with just pila water. I guess this is better than not washing their hands at all. Also, little kids are not taught to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. They will literally just cough all over someone else’s food at the table and not think anything of it. In the kindergarten class, it was sad because about 1/3 of the class was absent for being sick and of the remaining 35 students about ½ were sick. It made me just want to go into a power Charla (what we call presentations/workshops or literally “chat”) about the importance of washing hands with soap and covering your mouth when you cough.
As I have confianza (meaning something like “trust” but stronger) with my family, I have began educating them about bacteria, viruses, hand washing with soap and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. In the almost 3 weeks that I have been here 4 out of 6 of my immediate family members have had a cold (including me).
Another widely-held health belief exists here in Honduras. People get sick at their stomach from eating fruit and especially vegetables. In many families, vegetables are rarely eaten, and if they are eaten, they are cooked until they have negligible nutritional value and covered with mantequilla (this is not butter in Honduras, but rather a whitish liquidy mixture of butter/margarine with sour cream). The problem is that people attribute fruits and vegetables as food that makes them sick and don’t realize that these foods only make them sick because they do not wash them properly. In Honduras, it is necessary to soak fruits and vegetables in water with a few drops of chlorine. If this is not done, you can become very sick at your stomach.
I am thankful that my family understands the importance of fruits and vegetables and washes them properly. Most of the other Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) rarely get fruit and vegetables. My host mom tells me that many of her friends think that she is crazy for giving her kids so much fruit, but it is healthy and that’s what her kids want to eat. She has obviously attended and understood Peace Corps nutrition charlas for host families. Yesterday she made me the best meal ever: tamales filled with beef, potatoes, rice and tomatoes and cooked broccoli, carrots and squash. She made comments like, “I don’t cook the vegetables for too long, because if you cook them for too long they no longer have vitamins.”
Bucket Showers are Bomb
So here in Cantarranas I take bucket showers. That’s right. There is no running water here. So every morning I fill a bucket with water from the pila. The pila is basically a big cement washbasin. I stand in the shower and pour water from the bucket over my head with a small bowl called a paila. The fun part is that my family is awesome and they believe in the concept of lukewarm showers (not so of many other host families). So in the morning I heat up a pot of hot water to add to the icy pila water. I have to say that I prefer bucket showers to the Electroducha (shower that heats water up in the showerhead that I had in Santa Lucia). I never wanted to stay in the Electroducha for very long, because I felt that I was wasting water. But the great thing about bucket showers is that I don’t have to worry about wasting water (but I still don’t stay in for too long, because lukewarm turns to ice cold in a matter of minutes). Bucket showers save so much water. When I get back to the states, I might just continue my bucket showers.
Field-Based Training
So, we left Santa Lucia and our full group of 44 people and now we’re in Field-Based Training or FBT, as we like to call it. The Protected Area Management trainees went to Moraceli, Municipal Development went to El Paraiso and us Youth Development volunteers are in Cantarranas. I have to say that I was ecstatic to leave Santa Lucia. I had a great family, but the last week I was crazy sick at my stomach and had to go to the Peace Corps Medical Center. (Highlight of the trip = Free Internet at the Peace Corps Headquarters). To make it more fun, I picked up a random cold w/ fever and to top it all off, I had over 80 flea bites. No, that was not a typo. 80! So let’s just say I didn’t shed a tear. Lots of people in my group were really sad and some cried. (They evidently didn’t have flea bites or tarantula threats).
We left Santa Lucia early in the morning and after 45 minutes and one of the scariest bus rides of my life, we arrived intact but wishing we would have brought the Dramamine. We arrived on the day of a funeral and people crowded the streets as funerals are a very big deal in Honduras. They last 9 days. So rude bus driver guy evidently didn’t know that a funeral was going on and started obnoxiously honking to try to clear the street for our arrival. And then we were dropped off in the park with obscure directions to our new host families’ houses and all of our luggage that we were suddenly regretting we had brought in the first place. Thoughts rushed to my head. Why did I bring sweaters, a jacket and a hoodie? It’s a million degrees here! And Why did I bring so many toiletries? I should have just bought some local stuff. But, nothing I can do about that now. Just suck it up.
We left Santa Lucia early in the morning and after 45 minutes and one of the scariest bus rides of my life, we arrived intact but wishing we would have brought the Dramamine. We arrived on the day of a funeral and people crowded the streets as funerals are a very big deal in Honduras. They last 9 days. So rude bus driver guy evidently didn’t know that a funeral was going on and started obnoxiously honking to try to clear the street for our arrival. And then we were dropped off in the park with obscure directions to our new host families’ houses and all of our luggage that we were suddenly regretting we had brought in the first place. Thoughts rushed to my head. Why did I bring sweaters, a jacket and a hoodie? It’s a million degrees here! And Why did I bring so many toiletries? I should have just bought some local stuff. But, nothing I can do about that now. Just suck it up.
My Almost Mullet
So Field-Based Training (FBT) for my Youth Development group is going to be in Cantarranas, which is supposedly very hot with water problems. The thought of washing all the shampoo out of my long hair via a bucket shower did not sound like a lot of fun. Also, having long hair in 80-90 degree heat was considerably less appealing. So on a whim, I decided to cut my hair today, the day before we leave for Cantarranas. My hair was about to the middle of my back, but I wanted to cut it to a little bit past my shoulders. Armed with photos I cut out of magazines of women with a little longer than shoulder-length and slightly layered hair, I ran up the street to Ashley’s Beauty Salon (the only beauty salon in town). I’m not sure why it’s called Ashley’s Beauty Salon. There’s no Ashley there and the girl who cuts hair looks younger than me, although she must be older because she has two kids.
I showed “Ashley” the photos and explained in my limited Spanish haircutting vocabulary what I wanted. Hair words like “layered” and “bangs” just do not usually come up in everyday conversations. She said “Cheque” (that means OK here). Then she began to cut my hair. I’m not sure why, but suddenly “Ashley” cut the front of my hair really crazy short. Perhaps she wasn’t wearing her glasses and couldn’t see the photos. Maybe she was talking on the phone at the time. Maybe she didn’t have very much haircutting experience. Or maybe she just didn’t like the haircuts I had picked out and decided to do her own. Perhaps it was a combination of all of the above.
It was definitely too late. A large chunk of hair fell to the ground. I tried not to freak out. I just smiled and braced myself for the worst. And the worst was what I got. After a torturous 20 minutes hair chopping session with my occasional non-offensive suggestions for next steps, I had a mullet.
And I mean a mullet in all senses of the word. I was a female Billy Ray Cyrus. My hair was about 3 inches long in the front and past my shoulders in the back with feather-like layers cascading down. I was mortified. I had two choices. Live with the Mullet. Or cut my hair really really short. I began to try to think of ways to fix a Mullet until my hair grew back out and nothing really came to mind. So I cut my hair very short.
“Ashley” seemed to be confused, as she had thought that a mullet was exactly what I wanted. (Evidently, it is rather stylish here in Honduras.) I’m usually not ultra-picky about my hair, but I felt like I had to do something in this situation. I felt bad because I kept telling her to cut my hair shorter and shorter in the back. 2 hours later, I must say that it looked cute. And it is certainly convenient when it comes to taking bucket showers. “Ashley,” wherever you are and whatever your real name is, I’d like to thank you.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Mysterious Bite & ER Fun
I just wanted to let you know that I am fine. Yesterday, I officially became a Honduran resident. Shortly before becoming a resident, I noticed that my left foot was very swollen. I called the medical office and they just told me to take Benadryl. So I took it and went along my business. After hours of waiting at the immigration office, we took a surprise trip to the best mall in Teguz where I ate Pizza Hut (but didn't get sick!) and Baskin Robbins and bought Nature's Valley Oats and Honey granola bars, antibacterial hand gel and wet wipes (they make an excellent shower alternative for those times when there is no water). I guess only Honduran malls have a grocery store inside.
However, as we were leaving the mall I noticed that my left foot was about twice the size of my right foot. It also hurt and burned and was red. The day before I was in Nueva Esperanza teaching small business skills to 5th and 6th graders and visiting a women's recycled paper microbusiness. While we were waiting to go into the recycled paper factory something stung or bit me. I didn't see it, but it really hurt and left a mark.
So yesterday when in swelled up, I called the Peace Corps medical officers again and they told me to go to the emergency room. So on our land rover's way to Cantarranas, the small town where we have our field based training they dropped me off at the ER in Teguz.
They gave me a cocktail of 3 anti-inflammatory IVs and lots of medicine. The IVs took over 2 hours to administer and sat in bed watching Legally Blonde in Spanish as it was the only thing on. The swelling went down a little, but by the time someone from PC picked me up from the ER it was 8:30pm and evidently there is a PC rule that no one is allowed to travel after dark, so I had to stay in a hotel in Teguz. It was very clean, but filled with mosquitos. There was also a big bug with pinchers in the shower. And I was without the Bugzooka. So I killed at least 10 mosquitos with my bare hands. How tough am I?
So right now I'm in the PC medical office waiting to get clearance to go back to Cantarranas. I'm fine though. I guess I'm better off than my friend Wesley. He has dengue.
But no one really knows what happened to me. Some suggested scenarios from medical personnel and a Peace Corps volunteer who studied insects.
-I was stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction.
-I was stung by a scorpion.
-I was bitten by a "water bug" (they are apparently very vicious).
-I was bitten by a chinche (the Chaga disease bug that bites you and then the disease goes into remission for 10-20 years and then 1% of cases go into heart failure. But don't worry. It is completely curable as long as it is treated within 2 years and they will test me for it.)
-I was bitten by some other kind of insect and then got a bacterial infection.
They are all about equally pleasant. I just wish this kind of thing would happen to me during the week, so I could miss all those classes. I feel like I'm missing my weekend. I had really hoped that I could play Uno and tag with the neighbor kids.
My friend Wesley and I ordered a Pizza Hut pizza today and Cini-stix so we're super-excited! We rarely get a chance to eat anything that does not consist of rice, beans, corn and potatoes. And lots of very sweet ketchup.
Sorry it's been so long since my last post. My Field-based Training (FBT) site does not have training and I can really only get internet on weekends. I have about 20 blog entries saved on my flashdrive, but unfortunately, my flashdrive was in my backpack in the back of a land rover that left the mall early. I also have a ton of pictures! So I'll post all that next weekend!
I absolutely have the best host family! I have two sisters named Escarleth (age 7) and Kensy (age 9). I also have a brother named Olvin (age 6). I live with a host mom named Mercedes and a host aunt named Santos who is about to have a baby. I have a calico cat named Maiyumi who is about to have kittens. I also have lots of cousins next door, including the most adorable 2 year old named Dulce Maria (Sweet Mary). She calls me "mom". I spend most of my time here playing tag, Uno, Go Fish and Jump Rope, when I'm not in classes. I also have started to teach latin dance classes at my house to children in my neighborhood. It's a good time here! I absolutely love it! I'll have to tell you about my almost mullet (fyi my hair is now shorter than chin-length = bucket showers are easier)next week.
However, as we were leaving the mall I noticed that my left foot was about twice the size of my right foot. It also hurt and burned and was red. The day before I was in Nueva Esperanza teaching small business skills to 5th and 6th graders and visiting a women's recycled paper microbusiness. While we were waiting to go into the recycled paper factory something stung or bit me. I didn't see it, but it really hurt and left a mark.
So yesterday when in swelled up, I called the Peace Corps medical officers again and they told me to go to the emergency room. So on our land rover's way to Cantarranas, the small town where we have our field based training they dropped me off at the ER in Teguz.
They gave me a cocktail of 3 anti-inflammatory IVs and lots of medicine. The IVs took over 2 hours to administer and sat in bed watching Legally Blonde in Spanish as it was the only thing on. The swelling went down a little, but by the time someone from PC picked me up from the ER it was 8:30pm and evidently there is a PC rule that no one is allowed to travel after dark, so I had to stay in a hotel in Teguz. It was very clean, but filled with mosquitos. There was also a big bug with pinchers in the shower. And I was without the Bugzooka. So I killed at least 10 mosquitos with my bare hands. How tough am I?
So right now I'm in the PC medical office waiting to get clearance to go back to Cantarranas. I'm fine though. I guess I'm better off than my friend Wesley. He has dengue.
But no one really knows what happened to me. Some suggested scenarios from medical personnel and a Peace Corps volunteer who studied insects.
-I was stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction.
-I was stung by a scorpion.
-I was bitten by a "water bug" (they are apparently very vicious).
-I was bitten by a chinche (the Chaga disease bug that bites you and then the disease goes into remission for 10-20 years and then 1% of cases go into heart failure. But don't worry. It is completely curable as long as it is treated within 2 years and they will test me for it.)
-I was bitten by some other kind of insect and then got a bacterial infection.
They are all about equally pleasant. I just wish this kind of thing would happen to me during the week, so I could miss all those classes. I feel like I'm missing my weekend. I had really hoped that I could play Uno and tag with the neighbor kids.
My friend Wesley and I ordered a Pizza Hut pizza today and Cini-stix so we're super-excited! We rarely get a chance to eat anything that does not consist of rice, beans, corn and potatoes. And lots of very sweet ketchup.
Sorry it's been so long since my last post. My Field-based Training (FBT) site does not have training and I can really only get internet on weekends. I have about 20 blog entries saved on my flashdrive, but unfortunately, my flashdrive was in my backpack in the back of a land rover that left the mall early. I also have a ton of pictures! So I'll post all that next weekend!
I absolutely have the best host family! I have two sisters named Escarleth (age 7) and Kensy (age 9). I also have a brother named Olvin (age 6). I live with a host mom named Mercedes and a host aunt named Santos who is about to have a baby. I have a calico cat named Maiyumi who is about to have kittens. I also have lots of cousins next door, including the most adorable 2 year old named Dulce Maria (Sweet Mary). She calls me "mom". I spend most of my time here playing tag, Uno, Go Fish and Jump Rope, when I'm not in classes. I also have started to teach latin dance classes at my house to children in my neighborhood. It's a good time here! I absolutely love it! I'll have to tell you about my almost mullet (fyi my hair is now shorter than chin-length = bucket showers are easier)next week.
Friday, August 3, 2007
My Cell Phone
Yay! I have a cell phone. I had to wait in line 4 hours to get it. So I'm superexcited to finally have it. Good News: You can send me text messages that are free for both of us on the website www.tigo.com.hn . I can't always respond immediately, but I'll try. It's only 10 cents for me to send a text message to the US. My cell phone number is 9765-3909. To call or message me from the US, dial 011-504-9765-3909, I think. I look forward to hearing from you. I can receive calls for completely free (for me, at least...)
Right now, I'm in La Libertad visiting a youth development volunteer and I´ll be back in Santa Lucia on Saturday.
Right now, I'm in La Libertad visiting a youth development volunteer and I´ll be back in Santa Lucia on Saturday.
Tarantulas are not my friends
So I almost died last night—of shock. I was just sitting on my bed writing a paper for Spanish class, when out of nowhere, 2 feet away, a spider pops out from under my door. And by spider, I mean the biggest spider I had I ever seen in my life! A 4-inch in diameter tarantula! I know that you probably don’t believe me. I would have taken a picture, had it not immediately crawled under my bed. I don’t know about you, but I can’t go to sleep knowing that there is a tarantula under my bed that could end up on my face in the morning. I gather that you probably couldn’t either, even if you didn’t have a serious spider phobia. But, as you probably already know, I am one of those severe arachnophobia nut cases.
I was basically wide-eyed and trembling on the opposite side of the room crouched down with my headlamp shining on the tarantula in an effort to not lose track of it. After all, the only thing worse than having a tarantula in your room, is having a tarantula in your room and not knowing where it is. I crouched there in fear for 5 or 10 minutes, as the tarantula had a hey day under my bed. What to with a tarantula... (Thanks to Juliane, and the Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide that she gave me, I know how to get one off of me if one ever gets on me. I hope that never happens. But the book doesn’t elaborate on tarantula removal). Let’s just say that my Bugzooka was not designed for tarantula removal. (I’d need a BugCannon for that job). The idea of chasing it with a shoe was about as appealing as just ignoring it and going to sleep. Another thought was that I could go to the living room, sleep on the couch, and worry about the tarantula in the morning when my family could help me out. I might have done this, but unfortunately the door to the living room was locked. And I sure wasn’t going to sleep in a chair in the courtyard and die a slow cockroach-induced death.
Compared to the tarantula, cockroaches suddenly seemed rather cute and cuddly to me. The freak out ratio for me is now about 10 cockroaches: 1 tarantula. If I had had a big heavy bowl and the tarantula was in a more easy to reach location (aka not under my bed) I would have chosen the trapping strategy. But, alas, I had not bowl and wasn’t about to crawl under my bed. Another option might have been to spray the tarantula to death with an insecticide. However, I didn’t have that and even if I did, I would be very nervous about chasing a tarantula armed only with raid. (Also, I read a Honduras PCV blog where this girl tried this method and it just made the tarantula more aggressive and it started running right at her. No gracias.) So my remaining options were 1. Stand there like an idiot all night. 2. Be a fool and wake up one of my host brothers at 1 am to kill it. I chose the latter.
My brother Marcio was really cool about it. He came in with a broom handle that seemed to be designed just for the killing of large tarantulas. My brother trapped it in the corner under my bed and did the dirty work. He even removed the carcass from my room. What a good brother. However, if you can image, tarantulas leave quite a gooey mess. Unfortunately, he didn’t clean that up. And here in Honduras, if you don’t clean something like that up, you end up with a platoon of arts. That was about the last thing that I wanted to wake up to. After all, I had definitely had enough creepy crawlie fun for at least the next 24 hours. So that meant that I had to wet wipe up the mess. Wet wipes = one of the best things I brought. I welcome wet wipe care packages. (I definitely procrastinated on cleaning up this mess. My Spanish paper began to get rather very long and rambly…) But I had spoken to soon on the bug thing. A furry spider appeared from the doorframe. At least it could be Bugzookaed.
So since the incident, I have crammed my plethora of Spanish grammar books under all three of the doors that lead to me room. (All of those books did come in handy for something…) However, I’m not sure about the effectiveness of this, as my walls are covered with cracks and crevices that give bugs easy entrance. Also, some of the walls don’t quite meet. Maybe at least I’ll keep the tarantulas out. I wish I had a caulking gun or some spackling. I’d at least like to duct tape a few places (such as the holes over the head of my bed.) All I know is that when I get to my site and have my own house, I’m going to duct tape it mercilessly.
I had almost gotten to sleep, but the creatures in my ceiling/on my roof were having a late night fiesta. By the sound of them, they are too big to be cockroaches, tarantulas or mice. I’d say that there’s a 90% chance that they are rats. They are really chewing things up up there. The dust from a hole flies down sometimes. I hope they don’t chew through the ceiling. Now, that would be charming. My host mom swears that they are cats on the roof. If only...
I was basically wide-eyed and trembling on the opposite side of the room crouched down with my headlamp shining on the tarantula in an effort to not lose track of it. After all, the only thing worse than having a tarantula in your room, is having a tarantula in your room and not knowing where it is. I crouched there in fear for 5 or 10 minutes, as the tarantula had a hey day under my bed. What to with a tarantula... (Thanks to Juliane, and the Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide that she gave me, I know how to get one off of me if one ever gets on me. I hope that never happens. But the book doesn’t elaborate on tarantula removal). Let’s just say that my Bugzooka was not designed for tarantula removal. (I’d need a BugCannon for that job). The idea of chasing it with a shoe was about as appealing as just ignoring it and going to sleep. Another thought was that I could go to the living room, sleep on the couch, and worry about the tarantula in the morning when my family could help me out. I might have done this, but unfortunately the door to the living room was locked. And I sure wasn’t going to sleep in a chair in the courtyard and die a slow cockroach-induced death.
Compared to the tarantula, cockroaches suddenly seemed rather cute and cuddly to me. The freak out ratio for me is now about 10 cockroaches: 1 tarantula. If I had had a big heavy bowl and the tarantula was in a more easy to reach location (aka not under my bed) I would have chosen the trapping strategy. But, alas, I had not bowl and wasn’t about to crawl under my bed. Another option might have been to spray the tarantula to death with an insecticide. However, I didn’t have that and even if I did, I would be very nervous about chasing a tarantula armed only with raid. (Also, I read a Honduras PCV blog where this girl tried this method and it just made the tarantula more aggressive and it started running right at her. No gracias.) So my remaining options were 1. Stand there like an idiot all night. 2. Be a fool and wake up one of my host brothers at 1 am to kill it. I chose the latter.
My brother Marcio was really cool about it. He came in with a broom handle that seemed to be designed just for the killing of large tarantulas. My brother trapped it in the corner under my bed and did the dirty work. He even removed the carcass from my room. What a good brother. However, if you can image, tarantulas leave quite a gooey mess. Unfortunately, he didn’t clean that up. And here in Honduras, if you don’t clean something like that up, you end up with a platoon of arts. That was about the last thing that I wanted to wake up to. After all, I had definitely had enough creepy crawlie fun for at least the next 24 hours. So that meant that I had to wet wipe up the mess. Wet wipes = one of the best things I brought. I welcome wet wipe care packages. (I definitely procrastinated on cleaning up this mess. My Spanish paper began to get rather very long and rambly…) But I had spoken to soon on the bug thing. A furry spider appeared from the doorframe. At least it could be Bugzookaed.
So since the incident, I have crammed my plethora of Spanish grammar books under all three of the doors that lead to me room. (All of those books did come in handy for something…) However, I’m not sure about the effectiveness of this, as my walls are covered with cracks and crevices that give bugs easy entrance. Also, some of the walls don’t quite meet. Maybe at least I’ll keep the tarantulas out. I wish I had a caulking gun or some spackling. I’d at least like to duct tape a few places (such as the holes over the head of my bed.) All I know is that when I get to my site and have my own house, I’m going to duct tape it mercilessly.
I had almost gotten to sleep, but the creatures in my ceiling/on my roof were having a late night fiesta. By the sound of them, they are too big to be cockroaches, tarantulas or mice. I’d say that there’s a 90% chance that they are rats. They are really chewing things up up there. The dust from a hole flies down sometimes. I hope they don’t chew through the ceiling. Now, that would be charming. My host mom swears that they are cats on the roof. If only...
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