starting to feel like home

Animals
There are way more animals in my life here in Panamá than I had in the US. Everyone(!!) here has chickens and our yard is full of them. Mainly the laying chickens have to stay in their cage during the day, but the roosters and other chickens just walk around the yard a lot. Sometimes they hang out in the cage, but from what I can tell they are never actually locked in, they just have free reign to do as they want. Sometimes they come up to the house and come inside, stealing the cat`s food (which is cannabilism often because the cat eats a lot of chicken!) Roosters are usually the first sound I hear in the morning and the last sound I hear at night, they crow all day long. Of course there are also the kitties...so adorable. They are now running around outside of our room, occasianally sleeping in the box where they spent the first few weeks of their lives, but mostly we find them in boots and shoes or, against the rules, inside the house.
The family also has two dogs, but like many families here that doesn´t mean the same thing as it does in the states. Whereas we back home might keep the dog inside our house and feed it regularly, dogs here are the way many outdoor cats are in the US, they roam the streets during the day and maybe sleep outside the house at night. The family puts out food that is for all of the animals and whatever animal comes by when the food is placed out gets to eat it. It`s not dry cat or dog food but the leftover scraps from dinner.  There are a lot of stray dogs and cats around- not many animals are spayed or nutered here- and that is hard for me to see, but there is not a large amount of expendable income to be used on animals.
Bugs and lizards are another part of our everyday life. Lizards run around the walls, or hang out in the shower pretty much every day. Cockroaches, beatles, mosquitos, spiders, flies, moths and unidentifiable flying creatures are the norm- I´d probably be concerned if I didn´t see them. I find myself not even bothering to shoo them away while I eat-  when we first got here we would actually try to get some of the bugs out of our room before bed, but that is really a waste of time. I am not weirded out by bugs, even the really big ones, but I could do without the bites. Every meal I have, everytime I watch TV with the host family and every time I sleep I get bites. Itchy, itchy bites.  I am very excited to say that we got our mosquito net yesterday!!!! It was a great night`s sleep! We do have to shake out our shoes, clothes and sheets before using them every day, just in case there is a particularly unsavory creature waiting for us...
There are also some animals that have made appearances, but that I coudn`t say are every day experiences.  I saw a group of monkeys in our yard swinging through the trees. They were white and black and had long tails. Pretty awesome.  Sean has seen a few snakes (both living and dead) and after the training on the snakes of Panamá we received Tuesday...I am glad it`s him and not me who has seen them.

Below are some pictures of the place we are calling home for the next few months

Our Room

View from our room