I have seen way too many spiders in the last three days. First, I was walking home in the dark a couple nights ago and something scurried across the street in front of me. It caught my attention, so I let my glance follow where the animal was headed. However, to my surprise, it wasn’t a frog, or mouse or any other sort of animal I would have been expecting. It was a huge spider. In all actuality, the body was probably only the size of a golf ball, but the legs made it seem huge. I screamed right there in the street. Thankfully nobody heard. It was the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. As soon as I got my wits back I got away from that things as fast as I could - ok, I didn’t run, but I sure walked fast. Then, when I got home, I was checking my kitties litter box to see if he had finally figured out what the heck it was for, and as I bent down, something on the wall caught my eye. I peered to my left as I continued to bend over toward the litter box, and as my mind realized what I was looking at, I jumped backward and scared the hell out of Junior (my new kitty). Again, a yell escaped my lips, but thankfully not a very loud one. I managed to gain the courage to grab a flip flop and kill it. This one was about the size of a silver dollar, including the legs.
So, to add to my torture, the next day, I was showering and felt something funny on my foot. Yep, looked down and there was one of those big, black, silver -sized spiders on my foot. I jumped and screamed, and luckily was wearing flip flops so when I stomped on the little sucker, I didn’t have to touch it. That shower was over right then and there. A little later, when I was headed to bed, there was yet another one of the little buggers on my floor - another kill for the flip flop.
So, today, I was reading and out of the corner of my eye, saw something scurrying across my floor. Another spider. This one was the same size as the other, ugly black ones, but it was more of a gray and seemed to have a white stripe down its back - like a skunk-type spider. I still screamed, but luckily that trusted flip flop was right next to me, so I grabbed it and killed the spider before he was able to get under my bed and out of my reach. It is still sitting in a curled up ball on my bedroom floor. I was hoping Junior would eat it, but that does not seem to be his style.
On a different note - a happier one - my landlords are some of the nicest people I have ever met. My first night, when the power went out, they brought me a candle, then, during my first week, Don Adrian saw that I had my laundry hanging on the fence, so one day he knocked on my door and showed me the clothes line he had just finished putting up for me. Twice they have sent one of the kids over to give me some fruit called “nancys,” which I really don’t like, and I finally got the courage up to tell them that the other day. They always invite me over to watch TV, which I usually don’t take them up on, and they are always inviting me over to eat. They are currently building a really nice fence around my house for security, and they know that I want to learn to make Honduran food, so when they are making tortillas, they always let me know, so I can go observe, help and learn. So, yesterday when I was in Santa Rosa, I bought them a box of chocolate as a little thank you. They seemed to really appreciate it. Then, today, Junior managed to get out of the house when I was out for a run - I left the windows open, and he jumped right through the bars. They heard Junior meowing outside, chased him down, and took him inside their house until I got home!
I feel like I really lucked out with my living situation. I love my new house, and my landlords and their family are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Yes, sometimes I would really like to just be in my house and not be bothered, so it is frustrating when they come over just to chat, but then don‘t really even say anything, but that is just part of the culture. Other volunteers say that I should set boundaries and tell people that when my door is shut not to bother me. But, I am ok with being inconvenienced sometimes if it means forming better relationships with the people I will be living with for the next two years.
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