I know that many of you are curious about Jill's impressions
of Utila. The question she will hear more times than you can imagine: So,
do you like it there?
First, the pretty pictures...
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Here we are after swimming at Rocky Point. (I'm wearing a T-shirt because I got a sunburn while snorkeling the day before. Me, who lives here!) |
| And here we are at Sandy Bay. There's not much nice beach on Utila but this section is very pretty and popular with locals and tourists alike. |  |
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Jill got to meet all the neighbors, including this pair of geese from next door who think they own the place. And get very defensive about it. |
It was a pretty typical couple of weeks with the average share of life-on-Utila frustrations. I smile whenever I think about the idyllic life people envision on our little island. Now that you've seen the pictures, here's the reality check...
Jill arrived on Utila at 5:50p.m. Tuesday, August 17. I liked the yellow dress she was wearing but she began to grow tired of it by the third day. (While Jill arrived on time her luggage did not.) She scrounged through the clothes left by a recent mission team. Found a nice polo shirt and a pair of shorts that were a few sizes too big. A clothespin kept 'em on her. The luggage finally arrived on Thursday's last flight of the day.
We rented Jill a bicycle on Thursday. The derailleur (shifting mechanism) broke on Saturday while we were two miles away, between Rocky Point and Big Bight. We walked them home. When we turned in the bicycle the proprietor insisted on charging us for the damage. The next week we again rode out to the same place, now using the new bicycle we purchased for Jill. This time my bicycle broke down. We walked home. Again.
In between those two rides we rode over to Pumpkin Hill. I have never seen the mosquitos so bad. The road had turned muddy too. It was pretty miserable.
On Thursday Jill bought some postcards to mail from here. Friday we went to the post office to mail them. The postmistress told us they were out of stamps. More were expected on Wednesday. (They didn't actually become available until Thursday.) A post office without stamps for six days. Hard to imagine in the U.S. Fits right in here.
Jill decided to try her hand at cooking in our kitchen. We couldn't get the stove to light. I found and fixed the problem the next day: a crimped hose. Though less than two years old, the range really is awful. You have to use a board to prop the oven door closed. Plus, the oven door has no handle so it's not easy to open, either. Neither the stove nor the oven lights itself any longer; you have to hold a match up to the burners. (Just a tad scary.) No one has been able to fix its multiple problems. We're hoping to replace the whole thing.
| "Home, Home on the Range..." Note the board for propping closed the oven door. |  |
The mission house was burglarized. Stolen: 420 lempiras ($15) from a locked drawer containing over $1,000. (Most of the cash was left here by my predecessor for a U.S. citizen with property here.) I strongly suspect a certain 11 year-old boy who (at the suggestion of the circuit steward) I have told never to set foot on the property again. (All but about $200 of the cash is out of the house now.)
And then there are the things that seem never to change, like the day in, day out sweating. People back home seem to think there's always a breeze here. Sometimes there is; sometimes there isn't. (The times there isn't is when the mosquitos are the worst.)
Of course we have many things for which to be thankful: Jill's numerous flights both coming and going were on time. Jill had a very comfortable place to stay (with 24 hour air conditioning!) at Utila Lodge. (This was paid for in part by a geneous gift from the Wesley UMC - Beaumont, TX work team. Thank you, team!) Neither Jill nor I was sick the two weeks she was here. Neither of us was aboard the ill-fated SOSA plane. (See The Reports of My Death...: August 30, 1999 page.) We enjoyed a few really nice hours of snorkeling. Jill cooked some marvelous meals in spite of the range. We treasure the time we spent together. And Jill got a taste of what it is to live here. ("For better, for worse," to quote the vows we will exchange October 30.) It was a good two weeks.
