the pains of piña painting

Instead of harvesting coffee at Faynier´s place, I finished painting the piña. I showed it to Juli and Geni, explaining, ¨Muchas horas después, y tan fea.¨ They both laughed and said that it would look great with the lacquer on it, as the lacquer darkens the wood. I spent the rest of the morning working on the lettering for Citronella and Lemon Grass.

At about 12:15, I asked Juli whether there was a bus for San Vito at 1PM. She replied that it would be at 1:30PM instead and might wind up going to Cañas Gordas. After a beat, I asked if there were one earlier, and she replied yes, at 12:30. With that, I threw on my boots and ran off to catch the bus to San Vito.

It was new and nice to be in San Vito by myself. When I got off the bus, which had taken a different route than I was used to and temporarily convinced me that I was lost, I wandered around for a bit looking for a panadería and a restroom. Eventually I made my way up to the Post Office and right there was a nice ledge that offered shelter from the rain. I sat down and wrote three postcards, to John Borrego, Marley, and my mother. I mailed those, along with the ones for Stephanie, Chris, and Mr. Bonilla - the clerk asked me to leave more space for the stamps when one covered some of my words (it was just rambling about the TLC anyway, I suppose). On my way back up the hill, I stopped at a panadería and bought Jack a little soft cake for his birthday. The bus ride back was hilarious: my host father was taking it back too, and this little girl who´s a neighbor of ours was keeping the back row in stitches. To avoid embarrassing myself, I drew flowers instead of talked: first a heliconia, and then a rose at the request of the girl´s older sister.

I went straight to the Cooperative, where Sara and Amanda were plotting what to buy Jack for his birthday. They settled on a panda notebook (knowing full well that he hates pandas) and I bought him an umbrella and nail polish. He was thrilled.

Karie is here! She arrived safely at about 4:30PM and is now well-situated with Humberto. The first thing she did when she walked in was to laugh the joyous laugh of a traveler who has finally reached her definition, and threw back her reddish hair and smiled. I swear, it was one of the best sights of my day.