a paper cup of rainforest
Shall I try to capture my surroundings in a paper cup? The first sensation would be the heat pressing through the pads of your fingertips while you gingerly hold the burning, not-intended-for-hot-liquids cup. It's so immersive I'm going to mix metaphors - it climbs up onto your lap and demands an overly friendly and burdensome attention like that of a slobbering dog. He pants and grins exuberantly, his furry insistence that you and he are, in fact, bffs!! All things considered, it's WAY too close for comfort and absolutely impossible to miss!
The color of the contents of that cup would be shimmering shades of green forest straight out of a technicolor fairy tale. The feathery plums of bamboo shoot up like fountains amidst the shorter shrubbery and taller multitude and variety of trees. The waxy, glossy leaves shine brightly like clustered-jade constellations in the canopy. Heat hits every surface. A soupy scent of vegetation and flowers and rot waft in and out - alternating - pleasant and sour.
We have brief breaks in the heat with the arrival of dark and powerful storms. If the everyday heat is like that of an over-bearing, love-lorn pup then the coming storm charges across the landscape like a rare and raging elephant suddenly showing up in our midst. It's so singularly amazing and powerful, mysterious and big. The wind whips through the house and slams doors, rain splashes in forming shallow puddles on the tiled floors. Curtains twist and jump with the cooling air. Once, after the cool of a storm blew through, we opened our silverware drawer and the built up heat from the day radiated out like it was lined in lava.
The forest sings on repeat. The buzzing and creaking and skittering sounds out a symphony of movement. Great green mops of vegetation lining the dirt paths suddenly quake as some unseen creature bolts for cover. Mosquitos feast upon exposed flesh, especially at dawn and dusk. The itchy red, raised welts add color and texture to my fair and freckle skin. Spiders spin webs that stretch thin and sticky across dirt roads capturing unsuspecting people as well as insects. There have been 4 panther attacks since September due to de-forestation deep in the jungle. I find myself very aware of every sound and movement especially when out for an early morning run through the hanging mist.
The color of the contents of that cup would be shimmering shades of green forest straight out of a technicolor fairy tale. The feathery plums of bamboo shoot up like fountains amidst the shorter shrubbery and taller multitude and variety of trees. The waxy, glossy leaves shine brightly like clustered-jade constellations in the canopy. Heat hits every surface. A soupy scent of vegetation and flowers and rot waft in and out - alternating - pleasant and sour.
We have brief breaks in the heat with the arrival of dark and powerful storms. If the everyday heat is like that of an over-bearing, love-lorn pup then the coming storm charges across the landscape like a rare and raging elephant suddenly showing up in our midst. It's so singularly amazing and powerful, mysterious and big. The wind whips through the house and slams doors, rain splashes in forming shallow puddles on the tiled floors. Curtains twist and jump with the cooling air. Once, after the cool of a storm blew through, we opened our silverware drawer and the built up heat from the day radiated out like it was lined in lava.
The forest sings on repeat. The buzzing and creaking and skittering sounds out a symphony of movement. Great green mops of vegetation lining the dirt paths suddenly quake as some unseen creature bolts for cover. Mosquitos feast upon exposed flesh, especially at dawn and dusk. The itchy red, raised welts add color and texture to my fair and freckle skin. Spiders spin webs that stretch thin and sticky across dirt roads capturing unsuspecting people as well as insects. There have been 4 panther attacks since September due to de-forestation deep in the jungle. I find myself very aware of every sound and movement especially when out for an early morning run through the hanging mist.
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| This panther was actively attacking a man when it was shot. The man that was attacked came to Bongolo Hospital to get treatment as his hand had been shot with the panther, he lost 3 fingers. |
Also snakes... we can't fully appreciate the full-bodied taste of this cup of wild without shaking in a few snake stories! Recently a local high school boy walked to school and went to his classroom where he opened his backpack and STRIKE!! A snake uncoiled from inside his backpack and struck him right on the face between his upper lip and nose. Fortunately it didn't release poison and though he was shaken, and perhaps forever traumatized, he was miraculously fine. That same week I heard that from time to time someone might come into the hospital with blunt-force trauma to the abdomen due to a python hurling it's giant-snake-body at an unsuspecting person walking through the forest! They said it's the kind of trauma you might expect to see from someone being hit by a car! Can you imagine?!? So raise your pinkies and take in the all the steamy glory of this tiny paper cup O tropics (sprinkled generously with mixed metaphors!)
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