First night in the little casita by the sea

November 29th (I think)

Turns out I live on pony lane, in front of my house is the ocean and behind my house runs a road alongside the coconut plantation. Somewhere down this road I believe live all the people that have horses. They are constanly galloping by my house and as my friend Kathy pointed out to me they leave a lot of fertilizer behind (horse poo), the composting guru that I am I plan on scooping up some to add to my plants that I plan on buying soon. I figure it's so hot here it will compost in days. I must have a garden, I just can't live somewhere and not grow stuff. I plan on doing the scooping after it's dark out because the locals will think I am completly loco if they catch me out on the road picking up horse manure. So tonight I went out there with my shovel in the dark and guess what...it's dark, I can't see a thing, need to buy a flashlight. I have a candle but the wind kept blowing it out. People often ask me "what do you do all day there" they have no idea how busy I am and I really can't explain it, don't really want either, they might think I'm loco too. Anyway.......I was going to tell a sad horse story.....There is a man who rents out his horses on the beach to tourists for trailriding and every morning he brings his horses in from somewhere up my road. He has them all tied up together and comes galloping up the beach really fast with them and one of the mares has a little foal (cutest little thing) the foal is not tied up, he just runs along side but he always stays behind and the dud does not slow down or look back to see if the little guy is still there, poor little guy just running and trying to keep up. Today at 3:30 (same time everyday) dud goes home with his horse, just at my house he makes a turn into the plantation but the little guy is so far behind he goes straight instead of turning. After awhile I can hear him crying (neighing) and he comes back, confused, he turns, going in the right direction now but soon comes back when he can't see them ahead, he's just crying in such a panicky tone, my heart was breaking for him. He went left and right but kept coming back and crying and crying. He raced back onto the beach and just turned in circles for awhile and then came back and just circled around the corner and crying. Dud must have been all the way home before he realized he was missing the foal, it was about 40 minutes when he came back on his horse with the mare in tow, poor little guy was so happy to see them and finally go home. I sure hope dud slows down from now on. These are the things that keep me occupied all day. Since hurrincan Rick came to visit everyone is rebuilding palapas and the palm branches are being hauled out of the plantations, all day long wagon pulled by horses drive by my house, piled so high with palm branches sometimes you can't even see the driver, pickup trucks full as well. These guys know how to load up a truck or wagon to the max.

I spend the first night in my house and aside from a midnight visit to the bathroom it was pretty uneventful. I had taken all percautions to make sure I didn't have any creepy crawlys in the house.Nina had sprayed some stuff to kill off any bugs they have and I had chalked out all the holes the house to keep out cockroaches. They have a chalk here that cockroaches don't like, if you draw a line with it they will not cross over the line (so I am told) Must work, I have not had a single roach in my house but I forgot all about my bathroom. At 1 am I had to go to the bathroom and so I wander on over there and open the door and the place was swarming with roaches.....all sizes, unbelievable. So back to the house for my spray and sprayed the bathroom and as soon as I could see they were getting drunkin-like I took a broom and swept them out. Today I chalked the door way and any little holes. Will be keeping on top of the chalking from now on. I have geckos and iguanas running around all over the place and I don't mind them because I know they are harmless but at night when it is dark I assume every little scurrying sound is a rat, keeps me on edge a bit. The last bit of my evening was spent just sitting and thinking of how thankful I am to God for everything, it is truely due to Him that I am here and I must never forget that the more I yield to Him the more amazing my life will be and in turn I will not be able to help it but praise and worship Him, and I pray that this will spill out to my nieghbours and everyone around me. Once again I got a lesson this morning in the Spanish service on praise and worship.