The Bowels: Or sometimes the bellows

 

This is what I look like when I’m hungry and about to eat. I do not always look like this, nor am I always hungry. Just earlier that day I was not feeling so well. The night before it had started with a lump in the stomach that really dampened my appetite. That morning it had manifest itself as a total lack of appetite followed by a curious bloated feeling. All morning I was tied up in meetings and then lunch came with the boss and there are no public bathrooms at restaurants here. Back at the office I was alarmed when my after lunch meeting partner found me right as I came through the door. After that meeting the main conference room that my room, the resource room, is abutted to, had a meeting in full swing so my meeting compadre called and had the office assistant come and let me out the side door. I was feeling very much like a puffer fish by then, so I sought out the office baño, only to discover it was out of order, at least I took whatever the writing was on the sign to mean just about that much. Not knowing what else to do I started walking home. I’m not sure if you know what its like to walk 4 blocks not knowing at any step whether your labor contractions will overcome your glute strength but let me tell you, it does require a whole lot of controlled breathing. After making it home I had to negotiate the stairs to the second floor and then strip before exploding. The good part about an entire room of tile is that it is quite easy to clean! Bon Appetit.

Sunset

Here is just a taste of what we get most every night. This actually does not do some of the sunsets we have seen justice. Last night when we went for our walk on the beach, a guy ran out and introduced himself as “Bobbi.” He said he was just going out for a walk and he asked if he could “shadow” us. We said yes and he proceeded to practice his English with us. At one point he whipped out a pocket translator, which leads me to believe that our nightly walks are getting a little too predictable. After a while he said he needed to see a friend and left us to continue our walk.

The waves were much larger then normal, maybe because it was high tide and/or the moon, who knows. We say down to enjoy the changing colors. There were other people doing the same up and down the beach. There was a father and son sitting of to our right and beyond them a guy trying to body surf. After a little a group of kids collecting the sand crabs came wondering by. He would try to pounce on them as the crabs tried to make it to the water. Sometimes they would even get them all the waves were receding, I am still trying to figure out how they saw those crabs swimming. One little guy with his two top front teeth missing came and sat just 5 feet from Laura and I. I noted he was on Laura’s side and he really didn’t mind staring at her, even more then I was. He didn’t say a word, he just sat and either watched the sunset or Laura. Laura and I continued our conversation and I would smile at him every so often. After a little bit he got up and ran into the water and caught another crab. He did not have a water bottle to put it in so he brought is back to where we were and dig a little hole in the sand and threw it in there. Then he ran back into the waves to wash off. I thought he was going to leave the crab there but soon he came back and slowly dug until the crab tried to make a break for the sea again. The crab really couldn’t see too well with all the sand on its eye I’m thinking but whatever the reason this kid caught him right up. Then he offered the crab as a friendship offering to Laura and she dug a hole and buried the crab. Oh, we were making friends now! She dug the crab up and when she re-caught it he just beamed. By then it was late and we stood up and started to walk home. After a little he started to talk to Laura but he knew no English and Laura could only say she knew no Bahasa. He walked with us right up till we went into our house and patiently watched as I locked up the gate. Then I waved and said “salamat siang” or good evening and he was off.