I'm Back

Hey folks. Colin here. It's been a while...over a month. Good to smell ya again.

Why has it been so long, you might ask? Can't say exactly. Several factors were at work. For one thing, it's been pretty tranquillo around here and I didn't really have much to comment on. For another thing, Elisa and I felt like we were scrounging around on the bottom of the culture shock floor, there for a few weeks, and I just didn't care to put my thoughts out there. They were mostly not happy ones.

But things are looking up now. For one, there's a new president now (you can see him handsomely pictured above). His name is Porfirio 'Pepe' Lobo. I'm sure that he's a real nice guy. Honest, wise and just, no doubt. And everything went well at the elections. No major violence broke out anywhere and the largest number of registered voters ever turned out at the polls...so that's nice.

But there's still plenty to be thoroughly annoyed by in this place. For example...when you go in to use a public bathroom around here, there's always a sweet little lady called a 'muchacha' who is diligently mopping the floor. Even at our school, the cleaning ladies are always in the bathroom...and they don't leave when you come in! So, I'm supposed to maintain my composure and urinate properly with a muchacha swabbing my feet with a dirty mop.

Or try this on for size: every time you go in the dern grocery store--they've switched things around on you. What once was the potato chip aisle might now be the home of feminine products...and vice versa.

Or if that doesn't get you sufficiently frazzled, you ought to try getting some kind of nasty tropical fever that leaves you with 18 of the worst hours of your life, complete with hallucinations, sweats, vomiting, tremendous aching (especially around the spine and shoulders), etc. At first, I thought it was dengue fever. Now, I suppose it was only jungle chicken.

Anyways, it's not paradise. But then again...what is?

Ciao for now.