VIENTIDOS DE JUNIO

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2007

Vientidos de Junio

We are currently taking care of four orphaned kittens:

Meet Nico. He is equivalent to a human toddler. He is super needy and will only stop his incessant crying if someone is holding him. He sounds like a deflating squeaky toy and he looks like a cross between a gremlin and Quasimodo. He is SO annoying with his constant need for affection, but one cannot help but love him, especially when he latches onto our pants like velco and climbs all the way up to our shoulders. This is actually a very flattering photo of him. Be not fooled.


Meet Linda ("pretty" in Spanish) Linda is the equivalent of pre-teen. She's like a thirteen-year-old girl going thru puberty.. her voice has even changed! Her meow is 3 ocataves lower and nothing about her is kitten like anymore. She’s not whiny and is easy to please. She spends all day climbing trees and chasing butterflies.



Meet Aries. He is the equivalent of a an 8-year-old boy. He was found drenched on the pavement after a giant thunderstorm. He was dragging his back legs behind him because for some reason they had very weak muscle and had no form to them. The vet made him makeshift casts out of masking tape, which he wore for a few weeks. His legs now function perfectly and his only flaw is a bit of skiddish shyness. His fur is incredibly soft and he is very loving to the other kittens.


Meet Salvadora. We’ve named her this because she is very sick, but we are going to save her. She was also found abandoned and is clearly malnourished and very ill. She has giant eyes that remind us of the eyes of starving children in Africa. She will look and feel healthier soon, I hope. We are feeding her with syringes and keeping her swaddled in a dish towel.

DIECINUEVE DE JUNIO

 

TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2007

Diecinueve de Junio

So, here we sit with the wind loud in the trees of the garden beside us. The garden is right now a wall of black without even a touch of light to make out where it begins and ends. Adan hovers a mini flashlight over his reading and i soon will do the same for there is exactly nothing else that can be done in this large house in this small town with no electricity and no running water. We are not irritated and instead have adjusted in these two weeks to the uncertainty of everything.

We cook in the dark, we read in the dark, and sometimes when the water works but the lights do not, we shower in the dark. And when the lights work but the water does not, we cook with dirty hands, empty our intestines without flushing the toilet, sweat through our clothes and crawl into bed with no showers.

When there is no electricity and no running water there is absolutely nothing to do but idolize the universe. Across an unfathomable expanse, the stars can be seen for lightyears and one cannot help but bow with a novel respect. When there is no light and no water, there is nothing to do but look at the stars, talk about the stars and take photos of the stars through the ironwork of our balcony.

When there is no light and no water there is nothing to do but kiss in the dark. There is absolutely nothing to do but rediscover the texture of one another’s lips in a pitch black kitchen.

There is exactly nothing to do but sit on our balcony and listen to Spanish humming from the dark sidewalks, nothing to do but listen to our neighbors creak in their rocking chairs and purr in melodic conversation. With no electricity, there is nothing to do but shine flashlights on spiders and marvel at the acute angles of their many skinny legs which create Spiro-graphic shadows on adobe walls.

There is nothing to do but write by candle light, play viola on the balcony, search for kittens with flashlights, swing in hammocks in the pitch black garden, and feel completely content with the uncertainty of everything.

DIECIOCHO DE JUNIO

 

MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2007

Dieciocho de Junio

Here, the elderly have phenomenal faces, a story in every line.

DIECIDIETE DE JUNIO

 

SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2007

Diecisiete de Junio

Today we did the tourist thing and took a boat tour around the Isletas, which is a cluster of tiny islands that people live on with amazing monkeys and colorful birds. You can click on the pictures to see them closer! (You've gotta see the baby's face under the umbrella... lil cabbage patch cheeks.)

DIECISEIS DE JUNIO

 

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2007

Dieciseis de Junio

After our morning Spanish lesson we search for Lilly to help out in the café and when she is nowhere to be found we fall asleep in hammocks reading sad and bizarre books. It is a blessing and a curse having no cell phones. Adam gets a haircut, I make him shave his gotee into a skinny Mexican moustache and then we find an internet café to let the family know we’re still alive.

We then search for nocatamales (a special Spanish dish served in banana leaves, that we hear are quite good). We walk the whole town, with folks telling us to go 4 blocks west, then four blocks east and when we finally give up our search, a big ass NOCATAMALES sign falls at our feet.

We sit outside the restaurant and chat with the street kids until the restaurant owner wildly waves his hands at the children as if shoo’ing flies and sends them all away. We didn’t get a chance to tell him that they were not bothering us. We went on drinking our mimosas and taking photos of the electric blue and black sunset clouds, simultaneously bright and dark.

QUINCE DE JUNIO

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2007

Quince de Junio

CATORCE DE JUNIO

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2007

Catorce de Junio

I refuse to focus on the distasteful aspects of this experience, however they must be noted for my future memories of the complete encounter.

For example, It’s really quite hot here and the only relief is a nice cold shower or three. Even a brief rinsing grants immense liberation. HOweVer, devilish water shortages hold hostage even DRIPS of deliverance and I am left to my sticky swelters, fiddling with the faucets in vain hope – all day long.

And….. I can’t think of anything else that bothers me right now. We came here with really low expectations in the area of comfort and convenience, so we’ve got it pretty good. So I guess that’s the end of my complaining.

We’ve just returned from a movie night with some foreigner friends of ours and discussions about how much worse it could be make me forget my other grievances. Things ain’t so bad.