Hammock Time!

Yesterday we had one of our first vital lessons: how to buy and hang a hammock. It was pretty neat! While most of you may think buying a hammock is silly, especially since they aren't cheap, it is actually a necessity. While we do have beds here at the house, buy the end of the semester it gets really hot here. Around 105 or higher with 99% humidity. And sleeping in a hammock is much, much cooler than sleeping in a bed. Also, on one of our trips to a village, we must bring hammocks because they don't have beds for us.

I was a little nervous about sleeping in a hammock, but last night I was reading in mine and found sound asleep. It was really comfortable; I felt like I was sleeping in midair. Although I slept in my bed last night, I'm definitely going to sleep in it at siesta all the time until I get absolutely used to it.

If you have every tried a hammock and found it uncomfortable, I'm willing to bet you sat in it wrong. There is an art on how to sit comfortably and without falling out, and once you nail it, the hammock is more comfortable than almost any chair or bed!

I ended up buying a hammock because the people who came supported fair trade hammocks, which means the ladies who make them receive a fair profit. We got a discount so the sellers ended up not making a profit off them, which was really nice for us! Mine is blue, green, and light purple- the colors of the Caribbean. I'll have to post pictures soon, as soon as I take some!

Other than hammocks, we took our first trip to the Mega Mercado. The Mega is basically a Walmart like store. It was interesting because the options were more limited than I'm used to. However, I was able to find some notebooks, a towel, and Pepsi (Yes!). I was ready for some caffeine by the time we walked there. It's several blocks away, and across some busy streets. We also got wrong directions to the Mega by Keith, one of the 3 guys studying here this semester. But we made it and figured everything out. Except that we didn't know we were supposed to tip the bagger, so now I feel really bad. Lesson learned!

Today is our trip downtown...that should be interesting!