The Guppy House and Doubles- Jan 2014

The second week of January, 2014

I’m writing from the Guppy House, tucked in a small cluster of homes on the side of a tropical mountain. Sitting here in a bright blue woven hammock while colorful birds chatter, two bats nap under the eves, and a light breeze blows. The air is pleasantly humid, and the wind is cool, making a comfortable seventy or eighty degrees. The bugs aren't bothersome (it's the dry season baby!) but by night we sleep under mosquito nets. The house is huge and comfortable, made of old concrete walls and cavernous ceilings. Natural light streams in through constantly open doors and windows, and the lifestyle is diurnal to match.

We've had a few quiet days of adjustment before work begins in earnest tomorrow. J-, the other new girl, and I jumped right in… literally. Taking machetes (more often called cutlasses here) we hiked to one of our field sites to do some trail clearing, wading waist deep in chilly stream water. We hacked away fallen trees, green webs of vine and overgrown ferns. All around us the rainforest was thick with color and sound, birds and bright blue butterflies and biting insects fill the air. Sleeves and bug spray keeps most of the pests at bay. I am also experimenting with a botanical solution, cooking with scads of garlic.

That night we had our first Trini “lime," which is to say, drinking beer and hanging out. Beer here is mostly Carib and Stag. Both are watery, but after a hot day outside you wouldn't want it stronger. We started at P-'s, a local place where the neighborhood (loosely including us, when we drive the ten minutes down the mountain) goes to lime. From there we went to H- H-, our local bar, then in to town where the doubles stands vend fried bread filled with spicy mash. All you say is how many doubles you want, and say “slight, medium, or plenty,” for peppers. Slight is delicious. I’m no pansy, but I’d be afraid to bite into a plenty pepper double!