A Visitor from Home

How exciting, I have a friend coming to visit from home. She`s coming for 1 week which will be very short but we`ll make due. I`ve made arrangement to borrow a blow up bed and sheets. I`ve checked my water schedule and we`ll have hot water for most of her visit. I`ve gotten used to not having hot water for days at a time but for someone visiting that might be important. I`m interested to see how she perceives this place because most of my acquaintances on the mainland still think I`m crazy for living here. One lady who says she`s been to the Island asked if I was the only one living here, she was not aware that people actually lived here.....hello, did she not see the houses and the people...we`re not hidden up in the tree tops. How could she not have heard the honking of the gas guy and the water guy, they cruise around all day long.
I ran into Luis at the fish market today on the other side by the docks, I wasn`t shopping, I have not been that brave yet. (Maybe I`ll take my visitor with me) Of course I didn`t have his seeds on me, I told him my plants were fine although a few of them still look quite sad. He was holding a fish that was about 3 feet long and I didn`t understand whether he had just bought him or caught him, he was still totally intact. I need to learn some fish related words in Spanish. I asked my meat guy what kind of fish I should buy and he wrote down the name of a fish that he thought was a good frying fish (pargo) I just haven`t made time to go get it and when ever I happen by the market I am not ready to have fish or am on my way somewhere and don`t want to carry fish with me all day. It`s just not something you want to have in your backpack all day. Speaking of backpacks, I had a little scare last week. There was a gentleman at church on Sunday that had been stabbed (not fatality) in a neighbourhood not too far from the street that I always walk on my way to downtown. Two thugs wanted his backpack and he had fought for it, and lost. He was lucky; the knife went in just above his heart just barely missing a main artery. I always thought that if I was a man walking alone I would feel completely safe and I didn`t think that thugs would knife you for a backpack unless they knew for sure there was something of value in it. So this bothered me for a bit because I do carry my laptop in my backpack to the Golden Zone to post my stories onto the net because I don`t have internet in my house anymore. I was bothered until I heard that he had been walking and taking pictures with his camera in full view of anyone and everyone and then put his camera back into his backpack. Plus it was the week of Carnival and thugs from all over the world came to Mazatlan to pillage from the 1 million tourists that have come for the event. However, not to push my luck I will be taking a bus instead of walking when I have my backpack on from now on. I believe God has taken care of me and he will continue to do so but I feel I have been given a warning and I would be foolish not to heed to it.