Water in my paint

I have never experienced this much rain in all my life. Since we got to site in mid-May, we´ve spent almost 3 weeks lounging around reading, pretending to be working, and reading some more while the rain proceeded to turn our road into an impassible hill of sludge. The locals claim it usually doesn´t rain this much in the summer. I feel they may just be lying so that we don´t pack our bags and head to the beach until the rains are over.

I came in to Ocoa today to buy more paint. Last week we got a bed, a stove and a gas tank, and some paint. My host family is convinced that a gallon of acrylic paint needs at least a liter of water added to it. At least 5 people came up to me and asked why I had not added water to the paint. I said that it was runny enough. They replied that no, that´s what water-based paint means, it means you add water so that it covers more. I tried to explain that watery paint just needs more coats, but they didn´t agree so we stubbornly painted on. Now they think I´m wasteful as well as ignorant. Ignorant in that I´m always asking what things are called. Once I asked what a screwdriver is called. My host dad told me, and then went and fetched a screw and turning it with the screwdriver demonstrated what the screwdriver was for. Well, I hadn´t known that before. Now I know how I can get those screws to hold my new deadbolts in place.

Last week we dug the hole for our latrine. They did their best to hide their shock when they saw I knew how to handle a pick and shovel as well as any of them. Well I guess there are lot more surprises in store for all of us.

Our day in Photos.

courtesy of Anne, here are some photos of a typical day in the mountains.