A New Normal

Within minutes of arriving at POC on the mountaintop, I noticed my legs itching from bug bites. Bug spray does help, but ironically, the time we get the most relief is at night—we sleep under a mosquito net! I wish we could just wrap ourselves in a net all day, because it really does a great job of keeping the bugs away. It takes some getting used to, though, to not be able to just sit down on the bed any time I want. It is a bit of a process to get into bed: lift the mosquito net, crawl under it, and replace the net from the inside, making sure not to leave any open areas! Our windows also have screens on them to keep bugs out, but there are no panes in order to allow the breeze to come through—our version of air conditioning! Thankfully it hasn’t been too hot so far; in fact, I have been wearing a sweater every morning and evening. We’ve been told not to get used to the milder temperatures.

During our tour of the POC facility after we arrived, we discovered that we are on duty to heat the water for showers the first week. That requires building a fire at 6 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. that heats the water container. There is a stockpile of wood behind the bath houses from which we have to find small pieces, or use a hatchet to break bigger pieces apart. After placing some wood inside the “heater,” we sprinkled it with kerosene and lit it. Sounds easy enough, but we couldn’t get the matches to light! Finally, Eric used our lighter to light a match, and then lit the firewood. The trick was getting the wood to catch and stay burning, but also not building the fire too big—apparently too much heat turns the water black!

After starting the fire, we headed to our respective bath houses to shower. As with heating the water, using it to bathe is a process, too! First we fill a plastic bucket with water from the warm water spicket. Then we take the bucket into the shower stall and lower another bucket, which is suspended from the ceiling. Empty the first bucket into the second (checking to make sure the “shower head” is closed first!), and finally raise the bucket shower so you can stand under it. All that is left is to open the shower head and take your shower! I shared my stall the first day with three dead moths and one live one.

As I was brushing my teeth the first night, I heard an unusual sound above me. Looking up, I saw a lizard on the ceiling emitting some sort of call from his (or her?) throat. It was kind of fun getting ready for bed surrounded by the sounds of wildlife, but I was glad to not see any in our room. We did go to sleep with the sounds of the rainforest around us, and woke up to the sound of roosters crowing quite a long while before the sun came up. It is a little different than going to sleep with the sound of the city around you, and a street light shining in the window!