here's something from back in march


So my home: I was relaxing one evening when the mouse scurried in - my scream sent him back out. Everyone here is amused that I am troubled by a mouse. (surely daphne you can accommodate a mouse?) But I plugged up the hole with a face cloth and haven’t seen him since. One night a cat came in through my window and landed on my head on top of the mosquito net- I jumped - but fortunately cat had the wherewithal to jump back out the window. My other pets are little lizards which scurry around up high and knock little pieces of cement down from the tops of the walls. I’m very happy for the geckos to be with me. Then I have a small population of little harmless ants. I don’t mind them at all as they are just wandering around, not infesting food. I’m close to living outside as I have two doors and can sweep ants and crumbs easily out. It’s an easy home to maintain as it’s about the size of most American bathrooms, and per tradition here I put down a nice sheet of linoleum on the floor. Everything wipes up or sweeps out easily. I’ve got a cast iron wok and wooden spoon with which to cook.
Outside my door it’s the dirt road, getting muddy now as the rains are starting again, where a lot of tour operators are. One is Jamal, who’s around a lot, nice guy, I see him most evenings and we can share a cob of corn, or as last night, fried cassava and fish from an outside stand- that’s a cheep dinner for here- about 20 cents- and a popular one in the rainy ‘low tourist’ season. There’s one shop run by a young woman carol. She has a fridge with beer and soda, so her shop becomes also a makeshift pub. This is supposed to be a tourist area; it’s full of budget hotels, but there are very few tourists partly because it’s rainy season, but I’ve never seen a huge tourist presence anyway. But there are usually five or so around.