Cockroaches, Dirty Towels, & Funerals

So, at one point during my time here in St. Lucia I had a little problem with mice in my house. As most of you know, I gracefully took care of it. Then they came back. Once again, I was able to remedy the problem (with a little more grace, if that’s even possible). No, they have not returned to discover if the 3rd time’s a charm with respect to permanently moving into my pretty, pink little abode. A new breed of infestation, however, has decided to storm my residence. Cockroaches. The troublesome little pests have invaded with full force, and given that there are dozens of easy access entrances into my house, it has been impossible to completely exterminate them. They also seem to have built up immunity against the insecticide spray, as I still occasionally find them in my utensil drawer, even after taking out all the drawers and spraying tons of poison into the dark abyss found behind them. And now little ones have appeared. Wonderful…

One day as I opened the cabinet under my kitchen sink to grab food for Mr. Bojangles, I couldn’t help but notice that there were approximately 15-20 roaches inside the nearly full bag of dog food. Grrrrreat. What to do? Do I force myself to believe it was only a figment of my imagination and move on? Do I throw the entire bag of perfectly good dog food out? Do I take the insecticide and spray the whole cockroach clan along with the dog food? While option 1 is convenient, I’m a realist. Those are definitely real roaches. Dog food is expensive, and I’m cheap, so that eliminates option 2. Wait a second, you must be thinking. Wouldn’t spraying insecticide all over a bag of dog food imply that one would then be obligated to dispose of the poisoned food? Well, evidently not in my twisted mind. I started to contemplate about the nature and purpose of cockroach insecticide spray. Would it really prove that much of a health hazard to Bo? After all, it’s designed to kill small crawling insects, and Bo is quite a bit larger than them (though it is arguable that, left to their own devices, some of the roaches would soon be of comparable size to Bo). So yep, you guessed it. I decided to put Mr. Bojangle’s life in jeopardy to save about 45EC dollars (18US). I sprayed the insecticide inside the bag as if I were a 16 year old girl trying to get her hair to stay just right for prom, sealed the bag, and listened to the sound of scurrying cockroach feet helplessly trying to escape their death chamber. After 20 minutes of marinating, it’s dinner time for Bo! Before you all go calling PETA on me, I did ultimately decide to dispose of the top layer of dog food directly affected by the spray before feeding Bo a helping of nutritious Trail Blazer dog food. And yes, in case you were wondering, Mr. Bojangles is still alive and well. In fact, he’s stronger than ever. You know what they say…

I’ve posted a few interesting conversations I’ve had with my host mom from training. Well, here’s another classic one that happened to be over the phone.

Ben: Hello, good afternoon MaPego. How are you?
MaPego: I’m good. How are you?
Ben: Good.
MaPego: Ok, that’s good. I haven’t seen you for a few days and I noticed that you’ve had a towel out on the line all week.
Ben: (laughing to myself) Oh yeah. I had accidentally left it wet in my bag overnight and didn’t want it to smell up my house, so I decided to leave it there until I do laundry again.
MaPego: Oh, ok. You know, I just wanted to check and see that everything was ok. As long as you’re alright.
Ben: Yeah, I’m great. Thanks for checking in. I’ll drop by and see you sometime soon. Take care.
MaPego: Ok, you too. Bye.

Strangely enough, I knew that my dirty towel that had been permanently chillin’ on the line would make it way into a conversation at one point or another. lol

Funerals in St. Lucia are very different than those back in the States. I’ve been to a few since I’ve been here, but recently my Fond St. Jacques supervisor’s mother-in-law passed away and my experience at the funeral really struck me. I would describe funerals here as more of a celebration of life than a mournful time of sadness. After the funeral I rode down to the cemetery with the church choir. Along the way, we joyously sang praise songs as if on the way to a youth revival or summer camp. Many songs were also sung in a lively fashion at the grave site. Later on that night at the reception, people generously drank, ate, danced, and sang. Somehow I wondered whether I was at a funeral or I had missed the memo and a wedding had actually occurred. While it was a very surreal experience, and made me feel somewhat strange given the funeral tradition I’m used to, it was interesting to look at funerals from a different perspective that emphasizes rejoicing in life rather than mourning death.

The other aspect of funerals that differs from those in the States is that the grieving family is expected to throw a big party in honor of the deceased. This seemed strange to me, as I would think that since the family is coping with the loss and arranging so many things for the funeral itself that others would take care of bringing food and drinks for the party, if there were to be a party at all. As I sat with the choir upstairs in my supervisor’s home, I was taken aback by the fact that the only daughter of the deceased was frantically running around and stressed out, making sure everyone had enough drinks, food, etc. In my mind I was thinking that she should be seated and resting herself after having just buried her mother. In talking with my supervisor, I learned that this expectation that the family takes on the responsibility of throwing a party for the deceased is tied to traditions of times past. Back when there wasn’t the convenience of a funeral home to take care of preserving the body, providing the coffin, etc. people from the community would come together at the home of the deceased the very night of the death and work through the night to help take care of everything that needed to be done (building the coffin, arranging flowers, etc.). The family would provide food and drinks for the workers to keep them going, and jokes and stories would also be told to keep people lively and awake. Even though funeral homes now take care of most all that needs to be done, and the family of the deceased doesn’t rely on the community as much to help with the arrangements, the tradition of the family providing food and drinks for others is still upheld and expected.