Paradise Found

I can hear the bugs buzzing, the roosters crowing, the ceiling fans whizzing. Occasionally a car goes by on the road outside the gate. But I don't pay much attention. All the windows are open to the breeze. Actually, they never close. Screens keep the bugs out and let the breeze, and the dust, in.

MIL has to dust every day if she wants to keep the house clean. It's a beautiful house. The walls are cement but MIL has painted a beautiful fern motif in the living room and bedroom. The rest is textured cream. The floors are mostly tiled but we'll have to help them move the bar so they can get to the floor underneath.

The furnishings are an odd mix of the luxurious and the makeshift. They brought their bar, their king size bed, the huge television. But the stove is a pair of camp burners. The counter is a folding table. It's a work in progress. When it's done it really will be paradise. They're planning for a screened patio and an in-ground pool.

Yesterday, we met the neighbor boys, Jose and Aris. They are the sweetest kids imaginable. Grant and I don't speak Spanish but we understand a little. Ditto for Jose and Aris with English. Poor MIL and FIL had to act as translators.

The conversation consisted mostly of giggling, with the occasional shy look at the people you couldn't speak too.

Jose had been watching the house while MIL and FIL were gone. So we asked whether he had any trouble from the Bruja, which translates as witches but means something more like evil spirits. He insists that the witches can get through the kind of windows MIL put in the house. But this time all was quiet.

The boys are hard to describe. Both are dark skinned, with dark hair and eyes. Jose is heavier set and blockier than Aris, but Aris is only 14 to Jose's 17.

Jose wants to be a doctor. He plans to go to Cuba for the free medical training.

I took one picture of them last night. Maybe they'll let me take some more. I'll post them all when I get home. I will also try to post more extensively over the next few days. It should be easier now that we're in a place with Internet.

I leave you today with a quote from Laurie Anderson, "Paradise is exactly like where you are right now ... only much, much better."