I made the most gruesome discovery yesterday. No, not tropical flying jungle cockroaches this time.
I was about to make coffee (life’s blood when in times of temporary single-parenthood) when I noticed the coffeemaker smelled a little funky. After a bit of sniffing I zeroed in on the coffee pot itself. I unscrewed the top and didn’t notice anything right off, so I rinsed it and smelled again. Still there. Then I noticed some little white specks on the inside of the pot lid. Hey- wait a minute, those specks are moving! maggots!!! little maggots!!!!! crawling inside the pot too- ewwwwwwwww! Gag, dry-heave, scream- disgusting!!!!! You know what this means. This means Jungledad, who is the designated coffee maker (as I am the designated nurser) has been doing his slutty habit of just rinsing, not washing, the coffee pot in between uses. This is slutty indeed. I bet he’d never notice the smell either. Who knows how long this has been going on? If he hadn’t gone up to the volcano, forcing me to have to make coffee (and care for the twins alone, which makes me need coffee) myself, I would be drinking maggot coffee for months! Maybe I have been drinking maggot coffee for months! Maybe the occasional nausea I’ve attributed to too much coffee is actually due to the maggot content of my coffee. Well, maybe there’s a silver lining there…..
I’ve been freaking myself out for weeks because of this nausea- thinking its morning sickness. Its not, it must be maggot sickness! Hooray! I’m sure I sound like a terrible person to say I would rather have little worms inside me at this point than a new precious baby, but hear me out. Jungletwins are kicking my ass. With Jungledad away for work they are kicking my ass overtime. I love them to bits, I love all babies, I would love to have more babies. But not now. Not with my C-section scar barely healed, the memory of my 5 wk say in the hospital prior to their birth (due to unpleasant complications) still fresh in my mind. No jungle triplets please. Don’t worry, there is none. I’m not pregnant, just irrational. If Jungledad had managed to power through birth control and impregnate with babies, then worms, back to back, I would tell him to stay on that bloody volcano.
Moving on. Despite the many mold/maggot/large insect issues one finds living in the tropics, there are some pretty wonderful things about being here. As bad as my coffee pot smelled is as good as it smells outside. It smells amazing outside- there are wild flowers blooming all year round. The flowers are everywhere- bright, huge. Wild ginger smells the best- I can’t get enough of it. I took the girls for a long walk yesterday and the and there were huge ginger plants lining the path. Mmmmmm. It was a clear day and we could see everything: the volcano puffing, the town below, the Pacific wrapping all the way around. Everything was bright, glittering, silent. It was warm and not too hot, with tradewinds bringing in a lovely breeze. Its never too cold to walk, any time of year, and that’s an amazing thing for a girl from New England. There are always flowers. Flowers in December. Fresh fruits all year round. Picking delicious bananas from a tree on your front lawn- very cool.
Better wrap it up. Lulu is starting to get restless. Lulu is the most demanding/most delightful baby in the world. When she’s happy (like after she’s done a huge poop), she makes all manner of charming facial expressions. She wiggles and dances, coos and batts her eyes and this is all devastatingly cute. When she’s not happy- hold on to your f-ing hat! Speaking of, better leave now before she goes there.
