Catastrophe

I woke suddenly, and not knowing why. Then I heard his faint cry. Or – more like a “RAWRE----RAWRE----REAAAWR!”

“no, no, no, no” was all I could muster, as I jumped up. I saw Matt was just waking too. He was nearly out the door, jumping over me. He was able to say what I was thinking, “flashlight!” We continued to hear Jack struggle.

I jumped back over the bed (surely rustling up Tetra). I grabbed the spotlight and brought it to the door. Nothing! The light wasn’t working.

“Get the next one! On the stove!” he shouted. I reached there. Jack’s noises stopped. The battery was dead.  - - - -

I finally found another one that worked.

We called and searched for long time. I had to pull TJ out of bed because she was upset we had left. She searched with us.

Finally, we went back inside. In silence. The girl went back to sleep. Matt said he heard a big animal, maybe dog size, trot right past him in the darkness—right after Jack stopped making noise.

We couldn’t sleep. Matt was clearly upset---going over the many things that made it right for the predator: unfinished fence; our dogs were away by the front cabana with the guests; didn’t latch the screen door; didn’t grab a flashlight fast enough; didn’t make enough loud noise to scare off the predator; etc., etc..

I sat at the back door for a while. I went back to bed. There were no answers. I could see his big eyes. I tried to imagine what happened.

Eventually, the tears came. How could I have let this happen? Why is the world so risky? Is he gone? How will I go on? (you get the picture)

Matt and I held each other. Both so confused and defeated.

I went to blow my nose for a second time, and thought I saw the shadow of an animal. Was I hallucinating? I looked closer. It was a cat? It was Jack?!?!?!?

I couldn’t believe it. This was like the craziest shared dream ever. Cat cries. Cat dies. Cat lives. All in pitch black darkness.

Of course, we showered him with affection, and Matt cursed a bit at him.

Note: I can’t get over how completely blind humans are at night. It’s something I never thought about as much when electricity was so abundant. Living with minimal power is a real eye-opener.

May is coming and going

We recently decided that the end of May is the absolute deadline for the house to be finished. This news seemed to surprise Luciano at first, but after an hour of pleading our case, I think we convinced him that we were serious.

The next day we arranged for Tito and Tony to come and put flooring on the ceiling. They've been at it for a few days, working on contract, and they're doing a great job. The old crew is currently working on the veranda, and that flooring is almost done too. Luciano was on task to find someone to do the bathroom. From what I've heard there's really no one available right now, so it might be the next thing we put Tito and Tony on.

We are really determined to get in by the end of the month. Matt has even been spending time on the house--getting the numbering off the wood, and helping the workers. Our current lifestyle is tolerable, but it's just not what we had in mind at this point in our lives.

We have been fortunate to see a lot of fun nature happenings, including bird mating dances, egrets  mating, sugar swimming like a fool, and all sorts of crazy looking bugs. I even found one dragonfly who's wings never properly opened. We spent the day together and I got to look at it's big round eyeballs for a long time. That was actually super fun for me: staring into his eyes and wondering what it was thinking, if it was scared, if I can help it… turns out I couldn't really help it, unless it enjoyed sitting on my hair as I walked around... so it could at least get the feeling of flying before it died. I don't know what happened to it. It was on my hair for quite some time, but one time I checked and it was gone.

Tetra is doing great. She continues to be a silly little girl, and she continues to test our patience when she runs away with something in her mouth, or throws her fork on the floor. Our parental goals include getting her to sleep without her mother, and better nutrition through solids. As soon as we move into the house, we're gonna rock that potty.

Tetra has a small vocabulary including the words doggie, baba, mama, dada, papa, bamboo, bike, boat. She's working on coconut, mango and bullet (as in bullet tree).

I'm afraid I can't post any photos at the moment because I have lost my iPhone usb jack, but I encourage you to continue to reference Matt's photo uploads.

Speaking of Matt - he is so determined to get the house done that every day, he spends a minimum of 2 hours working on the house. Without guests, he spends more time. It's quite moving for me to see. I know he despises manual labor, but his efforts mean a lot to the crew and to his family. :)