More Mini Updates

Polly the Parrot
So my host sister came to me one day and said "Megan, I have a parrot!" She was pretty excited as one would imagine. So I went to her house and saw said parrot. At that time it was tiny and had absolutely no feathers. A week or so later it started to get green feathers and look more like a parrot. She decided to name her parrot Polly (I found this really amusing). So the parrot has been around for a few weeks, it gets fed masa and they give it water. All in all they take good care of it. I guess I should mention it was brought home by her husband after he found it nearly squished under a tree they were cutting down. I have to sadly report, though, that Polly the Parrot died Sunday. My little host niece brought me a box and said "look!" and the poor parrot was laying in the box dead. I had grown pretty attached to the squawking little creature and will miss him!
My Furniture
I was told that my house lacks furniture and whatnot. I have to agree. I do have buckets to sit on/store water and food in, but other than that I have a hammock and a small table in the kitchen. So Bernadina and I decided we would build me a shelf for my books and things. There were some scrap pieces of wood in the yard that we collected, and then we went to her father to borrow a saw and hammer. Unfortunately it takes a really long time to cut lumber with a really dull hack saw. But eventually we managed to build a slightly slanted, but very useful shelf. :)

This picture makes me believe it is the rainy season, but I keep getting told it isn't. The neighbor's ducks seem to believe my yard is a pond every time it rains and I am tempted to agree with them. This is what was happening outside as we were building the shelf inside.

Graduation
I am proud to say that my village has 3 new high school graduates! Before this year only one person in the village had ever completed high school, but two boys and one girl graduated from High School this month.

Mango Sadness
My newly discovered allergy to mango trees/mango skin is a bit sad for me. The kids keep picking the mangoes out of my trees and bringing them to me. I love mangoes! Sadly I just have to say no now. The kids are always picking fruit they see that is ripe out of my yard, and then insisting that I eat it all (which normally I don't mind). I will figure out how to peel and clean a mango without actually touching it, or find someone nice enough to do it for me soon.