Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Ticks, bricks, and puppies!


My neighbor Angela, me, and the new puppy Randy


A flowering mango tree, mango season is starting! Yesss!!!


The same mango tree after the bloom and full of fruit(May 2009)

It’s the hot, dry season now, from about February to June. So everyone has started to make adobe (mud bricks) to make houses and to start any other outdoor construction projects. The best part about summer is that a cold shower doesn’t seem that bad. (Although I recently installed an “electroducha” which gives me hot showers). Also, there are baby animals all over the place! Baby cows, horses, goats, puppies, and kittens! Even baby opossums that Vanessa found! I was visiting a friend in her home and what I thought was a black dog came inside and as it passed I said, “Wow your dog has long legs like a goat.” Then I did a double-take . . . it was a goat! An adorable baby goat that pranced after me and wanted to follow me home!


Pastor Emilio's new puppy! He even has his paws together like he's greeting "Bendiciones" (Blessings) like the people do here.


Another not-so-exciting thing about summer. A giant spider that came into my house.


Baby horses in Olominas


A newborn calf



Vanessa's cat gave birth to five kittens! It didn't seem like a pleasant experience.
The bad part about summer means that it’s time for ticks, fleas, and invisible grass mites to come out and leave more scars all over my body. So since those furry little creatures are so tempting to cuddle, I’m back to shaking my sheets out and ironing and washing all my clothes. The dry season also means that fires on Celaque are very common. Every year, people sneak into Celaque and purposely light the forest on fire. And every year this will be a problem as very little, if anything, is done to find the perpetrator. At least there are lots of people here willing to go help put the fire out. Many people from various communities went to help fight the fires. This year was definitely worst than last year, with the fires only about an hour walk away from where Vanessa lives.


The view of Celaque from the road to Gracias


The mountain has been so dry the fire took the whole side of the mountain in one day


The smoke was so thick it was blocking out the sun and my view of Celaque

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