Three quick stories...

1) A kid came into the center the other day and stared at me as I organized the new books for our library. I didn’t give it much thought, because every afternoon there is usually at least one La Caya kid in the library watching me, seeming to be amazed that I can function on my own. After a while, he tapped me on the shoulder and told me that his grandmother just got a dog and named it “Estacie.” It reminded me of a blog I wrote earlier about having La Caya babies named after me. I’m not even sure if this dog was named after me, but we do apparently share the same name. I guess a dog is better than nothing?

2) Today at Silvia’s for lunch, she told me that they found a huge toad by the fence early this morning and that their new puppy was afraid of it. Immediately the grandpa (who is 91) got up from the table without a word. He returned about five minutes later holding a rope with the huge toad (about seven inches long and four inches across) tied by its back leg. He brought it out like a puppet and laughed hysterically as I jumped back when it made a lunge toward me. Angel got home from school a few minutes later and when he saw the giant toad he was even more scared than me. This cracked Grandpa up even more, and he continued to puppeteer the frog in both our directions. Meanwhile, Grandma’s sitting on a chair about a foot away from Grandpa with a large kitchen knife, telling him if he doesn’t knock it off she’s going to kill the frog and him. Grandpa who’s hard of hearing didn’t catch on to her threats, and so he kept swinging the frog by the rope toward Angel, who was hiding behind Silvia’s husband Juan Ramon. Grandma’s trying to comfort Angel by saying things like, este sapo no hace na’, or “this frog won’t do anything.” And then continues by making apparent random frog sounds like, “plop, plop, plop.” Juan Ramon chimes in with, “yeah, but it will make the dogs sick, so don’t touch it Angel.” And by this time, all the rest of the animals at the house, the chickens, dogs, cats and guineas (I don’t know what they’re called in English, but it’s a crazy looking chicken thing) are going crazy and Grandpa just can’t get enough of it all. Grandma’s still waving the knife, Angel’s starting to cry, Juan Ramon is laughing and I’m sitting in the chair with my feet up in case the frog breaks loose from the string and comes after me. Finally, Silvia walks out into all the commotion and settles things down with one, two-letter word, YA. Which in this case would translate to “enough,” or “done.” Grandpa takes the frog away, the animals calm down, Grandma puts the knife on the table and order is restored. But for the rest of lunch, Grandpa kept telling Angel he was going to get the frog if he didn’t finish his food. Ahh, my daily life in the campo.

3) About two months ago, Francia got another puppy. This makes four dogs at our house now. This puppy, which only about two weeks ago was given a name – Pili – is probably the most annoying puppy on the face of the planet. It pees everywhere, it eats everything (including the trash in the kitchen and random chicken bones I find everywhere, which is perplexing and impressive at the same time) and it tears apart Francia’s outdoor furniture. You get the idea. On Sunday morning it was barking and going crazy at about 5 a.m. and I thought to myself, “man I wish that stupid dog would get run over or something,” as I threw a pillow over my face to try to block the sound. Well, be careful what you wish for, because yesterday morning, our puppy terror Pili, was run over by a car and killed. I have never felt more awful in my life, I swear to God. I feel like I caused her death and I just, I can’t believe it actually happened! And so I would like to end this blog and say to Pili that even though you drove me crazy, I never actually wanted you to get run over. But I know you are happier now, because all dogs go to heaven… Right???