In Case

Just in case you were skeptical about whether or not Haitians read the shirts they buy....

This is what Zizou came over wearing the other day:

It reads "Grandmas are moms with LOTS OF practice!"

The Discovery

The last few weeks in Haiti haven’t been terribly eventful. Besides the storm that never came, excitement has been between zero and nothing. Right now it is seasonably hot, mosquito infested, and avocado season. I am beginning to have a set schedule and I am adjusting to my weekly routine. Despite that, every now and again there are bumps in the road. I would like to share a bump with you today.

A couple weeks ago Zizou informed me that a gecko had gotten itself stuck between an opening in my window and the wall.  I, not wanting to touch the gecko, asked Zizou to take it out. He quickly followed up with the hard reality that the gecko had probably been stuck for some time and it was now dead. “Oh”, I said, “Then we’ll figure out what to do with it later.” The next morning was an early clinic day. I left around 730 am and didn’t get home until dark. When we arrived back at my house Zizou instantly noticed a smell. “Its the gecko”, he said. “It can’t be the gecko Zizou, it didn’t smell like this last night!”, I retorted. He just shrugged his shoulders as I began checking every room for the source of the smell. As I got closer and closer to “the room” the smell became overpowering. In my mind I wondered how in one day it could decompose at a such a rapid rate. Hadn’t it been dead for awhile? Recalling that it had been an especially hot day, it began making sense. As we opened the door I swear my body folded in on itself from the smell. It was practically unbearable. While Zizou made a wire hook, I rummaged through my toiletries and found a bottle of coconut body spray. We were ready to get it out. 

The beginning of our mission consisted of me holding my nose and carelessly spraying coconut body mist around the room. Then, I went directly to the gecko and sprayed him too. Zizou followed with his hook in hand. While I held the flashlight and sprayed sporadically, I watched  Zizou try to reach in and push it out. After several different attempts to get the gecko from inside and outside the house, we decided that a new plan was necessary. We figured out that we needed to pierce it with the hook and then pull it out. About 5 minutes later we had success and the dead gecko was free. After flinging its body over my back wall we sprayed the room 15 more times and called it a night. The smell lingered for about another day,  but all things considered it was pretty smooth bump in the road for us. Who wants to stay at my house?!

In very recent news:  The container has finally been released! Tomorrow an inspector will come and we will work to empty it out completely. I am extremely excited to move my things into my house and fill it up!  Thinking back, I can remember the big items we placed on it, but the contents of the rubbermaid containers remain a mystery! I will post  pictures of my full house once I get all situated!