Questions, questions

Living in another country is a valuable experience. Not in the least because of the interesting questions that one encounters. In this post I would like to share some that have been on my mind lately.

 

Fauna:

 

1) Why is it that roosters cry out at 4 AM when it is still dark and nobody in their right mind wants to wake up?

I am quite appalled at this. (Those of you who know - and perhaps even share - my fondness of sleeping long hours may sympathise.) When I was little I was led to believe, through picture books and inocent pre-school stories, that roosters live on farms, not provincial towns in the Pacific. Every farm supposedly had several chickens and ONE rooster only. Apart from helping the chickens produce chicklets this ONE rooster's job consisted of politely crowing out once, at let's say 6 AM, thus kindly facilitating the farmer in waking up in order to milk the cows, or whatever rural type of activity he chose to engage in at such an early hour. In Lakatoro there are literally dozens and dozens of roosters. It is quite unneccesary. And they are neither polite nor kind. At 4 AM they start SCREAMING and SCREAMING and SCREAMING as if there is no tomorrow. This goes on (and on and on) until well after 6 AM, when it is time to get up. It is impossible to sleep through. Thankfully my mother is going to send me a new batch of earplugs, because the pair I happened to bring with me have nearly worn out already.

 

2) Why is it that Ringo bites Max's penis?

For those of you who think that I have landed in the middle of some sort of kinki gay-scene scenario: Ringo and Max are the dogs that I have inherited and now co-own with my neighbours. Sorry to disappoint.

 

3) Why is it that the gekko that lives on my ceiling changes size, sometimes several times during one evening? Fascinating stuff, I must say.

 

4) Why is it that sometimes you walk into a room that you were also in a couple of hours before, but this time you find a dead cockroach on the floor somewhere lying on its back? Do they have heart conditions? Do they suffer from sleep-apnoe? Do they practise sommersaults when they think nobody is watching, and the ones I find have failed miserably - and most definitely - to join the ranks of the national Olympic gymnastics team?

 

Office:

 

1) Why is it that my chair at the office is in fact two chairs, white plastic (garden) ones, stacked on top of one-another with a pile of black clothing in lieu of a cushion?

 

2) Where do my colleagues go to when they seem to disappear during the day? Is there perhaps another office somewhere, in a parallel universe maybe, that nobody has told me about yet? And what kind of chairs do they have there?

 

Food:

 

1) Why is it that the cucumbers they sell at Lakatoro market have the size of the Hulk's right upper-arm (lenght AND width), whereas the peppers (a.k.a. capsicums or paprikas) are no bigger than my big toe?

 

These are things that I am willing to get to the bottom of. Although I doubt that I will succeed with most of them. Any help you may be able to offer is most welcome.