Q: What's worse than finding a worm in your mango?

A: Finding half a worm! Ha ha ha ha ha.

El Murcielago, part 4

So, I thought that I was done with my friend Bat after that last encounter, but it was not to be. A couple weeks later, who should enter my room again one night when I happened to still be on the wrong side of sleep at about midnight? It was an unfortunate situation, because I was very near the right side of sleep, and frankly, the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed and chase a panicked bat around my room in the middle of the night. And, I wasn't particularly concerned about a mess, or him eating my clothes, and if he ate some of the bugs in my room, so much the better, as long as he was fairly quiet about it. Señor Murcielago (so much more work to say than 'bat'!) however wasn't inclined to operate within this arrangement, instead preferring to hurl himself around my room, squeaking all the while. Occasionally he would find stop for a few minutes in the rafter, and I would almost be able to get to sleep...but then he would find something uncomfortable in his situation, and considered it absolutely necessary to find a new position, which he was incapable of doing quietly. By around 1:30 or 2, I gave up on him being quiet, and tried to drown him out by listening to music ...which trebly didn't work, as my headphones aren't designed for sleeping comfort, I kept trying to actually listen to the music, and it did nothing to cover Mr Bat's noise anyway. By 4AM (each time period passing with little bits of dozing and lots of tossing and turning and trying to force sleep), I'd given up the idea of letting him be, and decided to remove him. Unfortunately for this plan, he had become more adept at the art of flight than the last time, and spent much more time at the tops of my walls than at the bottom. You know, I'd always had a vague idea that bats were rather graceful, however, this fellow has thoroughly convinced me otherwise, as he would half land at his destination, and then have to scramble to secure himself, else he would land on a broad, horizontal surface and crawl around a bit. I will admit that he's a cute little nuisance, though not so much in the middle of the night. After some time spent chasing him around with my shoebox trap, eventually he flew into a shirt I had hanging, and I was able to catch him and take him outside. The following day, Señora Ana's brother-in-law Roberto stuffed more newspaper around the outside of my bedroom walls, as well as further blocking access to the preferred-bat-entry area at the top of my closet, the wall of which divides the closet from the front porch. (You're welcome to review the wonderfully artistic diagram from whichever previous post that was).

Speaking of wonderfully artistic diagrams, I've more or less decided to learn to draw, that is to say, teach myself to draw. At least, I've been doodling more officially in my officially-labelled 'Sketchbook' (it says such on the cover, and who am I to argue with that?) with colored pencils, pens, and most recently, some drawing charcoals that my friend and fellow volunteer Julie gave me. It's fun, although I've yet to produce anything satisfactorally representative of whatever I was trying to depict. But, fun times, and delightfully messy!

And as a segue from drawing, one of my attempted subjects has been the puppy which joined the family about a month ago- don't ask what breed, I don't know, but probably will be a medium sized mutt. He's absolutely adorable, quite intelligent, well on his way to being thoroughly confused from the mixture of messages he receives from my, Ana, the kids, and all of the other family and community members who come by. He's also very toothy, but I believe he's learning that fingers and ankles are not chew toys, He also loves to attack my skirts and pant legs.

One particularly clear sign of his intelligence is that he likes mangoes. I have no idea whether mangoes are healthy for dogs or puppies, but this fellow (Rocky Balboa) is definitely fond of them, and will chew the peel if that's all he can get, but prefers chunks of the fruit itself. And there is- dare I say it?- plenty of mango to go around! I don't know how it's possible, but I've actually found myself on more than one occasion, disinclined to eat a mango. As I right this, there are probably 30 mangoes on the ground around the nearest mango tree that have fallen in the wind and rain, as well as the 10 or so we've knocked from the branches. And they're almost all perfectly ripe. The other day, Ana had to have to kids throw a basket of mangoes away because they were too overripe. It would have been a terrible tragedy, but there are so many more! Of course, you should come visit me and help us eat them! I don't know how much longer mango season is, but going by the amount still in the trees, and the trees that still have the little bitty proto-mangoes, they'll be around for a good while. I hope that when I move to my house (which nothing will prevent, I sincerely hope!) I'll be able to fetch mangoes from here rather frequently, because that is one of the unfortunate aspects of the new place- no fruit trees... I do imagine that I'll find a way to survive, however.

I still need to get official Peace Corps Approval on the house, but I don't forsee problems with that. I have enjoyed living here, but the 3 kids (2 bipedal and the quadruped), and generally the amount of noise here is starting to get to me. I feel rude when I retreat to my room, but sometimes I can only take so much Spanish, or just so much bru-ha-ha. It sometimes seems that there's a civil war brewing between the kids and the adults here, and I am interested in avoiding such a thing. They're very intelligent kids, and tend to get their own ways in almost anything- I have no idea what a punishment here would be, because there never seem to be repercussions for disobedience. At least another month here, though, for better or worse, and although there have been some skirmishes, the war hasn't begun, and I am generally content.

Work has been going really well, overall.  This past week had its distinct challenges, but the 2 previous weeks were fantastic- principally due to the teachers I've been working with.  A couple weeks ago at the Primary, we spent Friday working in the school garden (in Spanish), and the following week at the Ciclo, I actually helped the teacher plan her next lesson, using strange and novel techniques such as building on the immediately preceding topic.  The students are very shy, but are as cooperative as their various ages would be generally expected to be...

And my explorations of the surrounding area have continued: 

Here's a picture of a pretty little fairyland waterfall in Los Gonzales

And a new activity, when it isn't raining, and we have time:

I'm not entirely sure, but I think that 'winter' has come; the mornings are fairly hot and sunny until 11 or so, at which point it starts raining until about 3 or 4. The rain usually brings some breezes and cooler temperatures, to the point that it gets down to the 70s at night, and I've been comfortable in jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt. At times it still seems to hot to exist, but these times are decreasing in both duration and frequency.

A sunrise in front (around 6 AM)













And a sunset, with the papaya tree (around 6 PM)