Our new cadet was a bit taken aback by the mustiness and rustic nature of our digs, but she seemed to take it all in stride. After giving her a few moments to let it all sink in, we were off for her tour of the whole island! By this time I had become the new tour coordinator seeing that I could bounce in between languages and make sure everyone was able to communicate with each other; the last person that you would want to be given a tour by however, would be me. I showed her everything and introduced her to everyone! By the end of our whirlwind two hour adventure, I had shown her the good, the bad and the ugly. The way I see it is, why bother not giving someone a truly realistic view of their surroundings and what they're getting themselves into? Mission accomplished!By the time I was done showing Heidi everything, she set off to explore and we all went back to our daily regimen. Rice, beans, yucca. Rice, beans, yucca. Just like our entertainment and socializing had its staples, so did our meals. These three ingredients were what kept us fed for the most part; some days we'd have thin pancakes, and others perhaps a noodle concoction, but for the most part it was rice, beans and yucca. I was in heaven while everyone else had started to enjoy the grub as well, and as the days went on, the food became more and more interesting. Cue our annoying rooster!
Like I've mentioned before in other posts, our food for the most part was organic and home grown from the garden; how Turi made such great meals with so little will always astound me. At the end of the first week, tensions had started to rise amongst a few at the garden; our real coordinator was slacking in helping us if at all and Turi, besides being angered by Mauricio's lack of help, was also annoyed because of our ever disappearing poultry. Unfortunately, we had no Rottweiler or a solid and secured fence line, so anyone and everyone could come and go as they pleased; that lack of security interestingly enough though is what connected us more with the neighborhood. We still locked the hut every time we left as a precaution.
So with this small air of insecurity and strife in the midst, I present to you the Caper of the Canoodling Cock!
It all started with the subtle disappearance of a chicken or two from our chicken coup, or so it was thought. Turi at this point had reached a point of extreme annoyance; we could only offer as much help as we were able to, being that our good intentions highly surpassed our gardening abilities. Mauricio was supposed to be the one who helped run the place efficiently, yet as the first week ended, we started to realize that it would mostly fall on us. So Turi grabbed two of the neighborhood guys and myself for a mission to find this feisty fiend, all the while believing that the bird had been stolen; unfortunately with some of the distrust that developed around our side of the island, that wariness could be completely understandable.
We ended up going about a quarter of a mile down the road to a neighbor's house with news that the rooster had been spotted there. Something I learned that struck me as really interesting though is the fact that instead of knocking on people's door to ask to be let in, everyone asked for permission from their gates or boundary markers. You NEVER went into someones yard unannounced or without asking for permission; if no one was out front, you'd yell to get there attention, but no matter what, you never walked on their land without them approving first. It seemed very old fashioned to me, but at the same time, I love the fact that even though many lived without much, they still respected each other and their land. Human decency is such a beautiful thing, and confusing... but I'll get to that in another post.
Before I get to the the cock chase, I must say that this one particular neighbor had a beautiful home!! Solid bamboo fencing, beautiful yard, big house with GLASS windows. I had later come to find out that she was not only the representative of the island to the surrounding communities, but that she had also initiated the push to get this one little remote piece of land recognized by the neighboring towns; just with doing that, this madame deserved the utmost respect, and it was shown to her as we all took one step past her bamboo barricade.
Most of the homes had access to the river's edge or the beach and this domicile was no different; in the back of her property, sitting calmly within the swamp was our rooster! He apparently had created another family of chickens behind the backs of his other feathery females... this didn't bode too well with Turi. Deeper into the swamp we all went, mud getting thick and deep, everyone trying to step on branches or rocks to stay afloat of the sludge. I follow behind Turi as he lightly skips over the mud pits, years of experience under his belt, and then comes me, the out of town Brontosaurus. I step on a rock and SQUISH!!! Both my legs sink into the mud and God knows whatever else was hidden in all of that mess. I let out a squeal and just powered my way out one slushy step at a time! I wasn't so turned off about the mud as I was worried about what other creatures laid in there. Oddly enough though, with my feet being as swollen and beat up as they were, the mud felt surprisingly great and refreshing. It was that same squawk of mine that sent the rooster running and us going home bird less. As with everything else, Turi's insurmountable optimism peeked its head and he told us not to worry, that the bird would be caught later that day.
Come the morning of the end of the first week, and we were presented with our prize: the adulterous rooster was held for all to see by Turi during breakfast! The look on his face showed just how happy and vindicated he was with capturing this bird. We applauded him and then continued with our meal; the end of that week was leaving us a bit beat up.
At this point we were in full work mode, working two blocks of two hours in the garden and then up to ten hours in the other camp, plus having to help maintain our volunteer family together that starting to tear alittle at the seams; ripples were finally being felt in paradise and we had to work very hard not to let it conquer us all.
One weapon we had though that always seemed to get us through things was laughter, and at no other point during our meals did we laugh so hard than that following lunch, when we were presented with the remains of our adventurous rooster in a stew. Some laughed out of horror seeing legs sticking out of their bowls while others laughed just out of instinct, needless to say, Turi told us that we would never be awoken again by our chronologically confused ex-comrade; it made the meal that much sweeter.
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