The real sandman

I live in a beautiful humble abode. A house made by the hands of my community members. Up on stilts, made of wood that we cut from my neighbor's farm, with a thatch roof from another neighbor's farm. It is beautiful and I have a beautiful view of the caribbean ocean. I love it. But it sways when I walk and a lot of dust falls from the roof inside of my house. So much, that if I don't sweep everyday, all of my things are covered in a thin coating of very fine sawdust. One day, I asked Fernando (an incredibly motivated and hardworking community partner, definately one of the most forward thinking in the community) if this was a normal quantity of dust to be falling from the rafters each day. He told me that it was an exceptional quantity, not normal. And I asked why. He told me that little bugs were eating the roof away but that it wouldn't harm the roof itself. And I asked why. He told me that it was maybe because we cut the thatch in a new moon, but more likely it was because I gave food to a man inside my house before it was finished, whose wife was pregnant at the time. And he said, " I don't know how the bugs know, but they know when a man whose wife is pregnant ate inside the house before it was finished". We thought back, and identified the man whose wife was pregnant at the time, who ate inside my house before it was finished, while he was working on my house. So I asked how I could solve the problem. Fernando told me that I had to find a man whose wife is pregnant, and have him throw sand on top of my roof. So I have high hopes that this real sandman will help lift the fine coating of dust falling over my head while I am dreaming, and that I don't wake up with too much sand in my sheets!

What I can see from my window

Here are a few pictures from my windows of my house, of my wonderful neighbors. Everyday is a different scene, always interesting.







My life is moving along rapidly. I have lived in my community for almost one year and I can say that I am happy here. It is always challenging, but also always fun and an incredible experience. I recently went on a little adventure to collect a certain leaf that people eat cooked with coconut milk. They call it Sega. So I set out with my three neighbor kids on our adventure as they showed me all sorts of wild fruits and leaves that you can eat. Little did I know that I would soon be up to the middle of my thighs in mud, almost losing my boots and my balance. I was laughing and yelping as I almost fell over, but they told me that when you harvest these leaves, you have to be very quiet, because if you talk to much or too loud, the leaves taste bitter. Also, if your mother is scolding you and you talk back, the leaves will taste bitter, but if you tell her "okay mom, I will try harder next time" the leaves taste sweet as can be. We had a fabulous time tromping in the mud, trying to catch crabs and little fish in the meanwhile. And we cooked the leaves up that night with coconut and it seems like we did a good job, because they turned out soooo sweet and delicious.