Actually I’ve been back for two days, but I’ve been busy with the class blog and PACKING!! We’re leaving tomorrow. The flight leaves at 7AM, but we have to be there two hours before and it is a one hour drive to the airport. Then, to top it all off, Dyon (owner of where we are staying) will do a walk-through before we leave. So the plan is to meet at 3:30AM in the courtyard. Is it worth sleeping? That answer is always yes!
The trip to the interior was both worse and better than I thought it was going to be. I feel that I cheated myself by counting down until we were getting back from the moment we left on Monday. My countdown started at 108 hours. I didn’t keep track of all of them, but it was only a few moments for me to calculate if someone asked.
It was an experience that I’m going to always have, but I’m still not sure if I’m glad that I did it.
The days were fine. It was hot and humid and I wore the same two things just so I wouldn’t ruin anything else with the sweat and mud. I bathed in the river and waved to the boatmen as they motored past every morning. The world was my sink and I brushed my teeth every morning standing on the porch of my hut and spit into the grass, knowing that the nightly rain would wash away the evidence.
I was more comfortable peeing in the woods than I was using the stall at the edge of jungle. And this was before I knew about the bird-eating spider that lived behind the toilet.
I didn’t have to sleep in a hammock, but I almost wish I had.
But the nights were the worst. Do you keep on the oil lamps, knowing that they next bug that it attracts could be a 6 inch beetle? Or how about those baby scorpions that we found living under the table? I know now that I have amazing powers of self-delusion. Once I close my eyes, I keep them closed and the monsters and bugs and everything else becomes a far away threat. When we lifted up the thatch on the roof and found four inch roaches living in the leaves, the nights became filled with bumps and rustles that during the day you don’t hear, but the in the night you have to convince yourself is just the rain.
I also learned that I am not afraid of frogs, I just have an intense dislike of them. Roaches however, I am afraid of. Especially as they are crawling on the bug nets over the beds.
But it was beautiful.
I think that I took the best photo of my life standing in the rain, with bats flying in a cave only 5 meters to my left.
Today, I’m just going to post some of the photos, tomorrow or Tuesday, I’ll post some of the funny things and give some more commentary.
YAY! You are back and made it through! Can’t wait to see the pictures!