swim

here's a good way to understand the pace of life down in Belize.  A couple of Saturdays ago a bunch of us volunteers went to float the river.  This is how one does it.  You tie some cash into a little plastic bag on the your clothes and head to the riverside bar.  Drink a beer or two, try to talk over the blasting Mexican music.  Then clamber down to the river and start floating.  You literally just flow with it, making only the effort to keept afloat.  You hold your breath for "the flush,"  a stretch of rapids that will hold you under.  "Just don't worry about breathing," counsels Mr. Mail, the teacher who hosts the event.  After about a mile of so of float, you climb onto the shore and head up the bank,  to another bar.  That's where the plastic bag with money comes in. Enjoy the cold beer and warm sun.  Jumb off a tree back into the river and keep going.  The rope swing is the best part, launching you ten feet up and twenty feet out over the water.  (I did not attempt the back-flip)  This itinarary can only be complete with an open fire barbecue and another... coke, which is the national drink of Belize

funeral

Went to my first Belizean funeral today.  It was an odd experience.  Some the of the relatives were crying very loudly in the church and afterword.  Such a demonstration would never be seen in Caucasian communities,  reall/ it was more a shrill scream than crying.  Afterword, the casket was simply placed in the back of a pickup and driven slowly to the cemetery.  Everyone followed on foot.  The caskets are usually placed in cement reliquaries rather than buried.  Some family reliquaries are twelve feet high.  As previously noted, there is a lack of funeral services here, so the family pretty much takes care of everything.

Yesterday I went out for a long trail ride on "my" horse, Consentido, meaning "the spoiled one."  Have you every galloped to the top of hill overlooking a river valley at sundown?  That's what we did yesterday.  Spectacular.  Of course,  riding until sundown meant that I had to walk home two miles in the dark, but it was worth it.  I hope you guys and come down and experience it down here.

all the best

Jonathan

run

I have mixed feelings about tooting my own horn, but I will tell you all about this.  Today we had our annual "Race for the Border"  run from the school to the Gautemalan border and back.  I finished 7th in a field of 53, and first among all the teachers!  I was pumped!  But now I'm kind of tired and sore.  The two-mile race wasn't exactly a marathon, but I will rest on any laurels available, or any available couch  for that matter.

What I wasn't as much help with was the tug-o-war for our house vs. the green house.  Fortunately, we had Joel.  Joel is a six-foot, 260-pound freshmen with a talent for pulling.  Green had us almost on our knees, and was about win, when Joel gritted his teeth.  He sank low and started moving backwards, six inches at a time.  Green raised a desperate war cry, Joel stared ahead and gripped the rope tighter. Our house recovered their feet.  Slowly, everybody started pulling again.  But Joel led way unitl green was vanquished.  We were ecstatic!  We would have lifted him on our shoulders, but he had all of us by at least 80 pounds.

Jonathan

wakes

Wakes are the oddest tradition I have seen here.  Benque really doesn't have funeral homes as such, so the deceased are laid out in their own homes.  But the family rents out a tent and sets it up on the road that runs past their house.  They put rocks in the road to block traffic and benches under the tent.  The whole setup might be there for two days.  No one seems to mind though, and cars just find a different route to their destination.
This is a funny place sometimes.

there's a....

After having tarantulas in my house, lizards in my printer (see previous post) ants in my toothbrush (going after the trace amounts of toothpaste that may not get rinsed out,) red ants in my bag (they bite and sting) and ticks in my skin,  I'd thought I had come to terms with Belizean wildlife.  Not so.

This morning our breakfast regulars were chatting over oatmeal when my friend Molly says, "What's that?" while pouring sugar on her oats.  We all looked up and saw a strange dark blob in the sugar.  Nick, a second-year volunteer, grabbed the sugar and scooped the something into the garbage,  "Just a piece of sugar-cane," he said, "just a unprocessed piece of sugar cane."  Needless to say, I was dubious.

It took me a while and considerable effort,  but I finally dragged the true story from a recalcitrant Nick.  "It was a beetle," he said, "but not large one."  I guess this was supposed to be comforting.  I guess I might just eat a small beetle and not notice right? "Golly, this sugar is crunchy today."  At least beetles aren't considered part of the daily diet right?  "And for lunch, we are having carmelized Hercules beetles! Yum!"

Apparently, you can take the sugar out the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the sugar.  I want to go home.

football

I just have to have it out with guys who think that one football game being watched on TV justifies every football game being watched on TV.  The other day I was at the one house with a TV, admittedly to watch a Ravens/49ers game.  But for some reason,  the clicker command decided that every commercial break needed to be spent checking the scores of the 1) Florida U v. Florida State game, 2) The Steelers v. Packers game, 3) the Army v. Connecticut game, and 4) and Some Random High School v. Some Random High School game.  (Fortunately we didn't watch much of that one.)

Look, isn't one football game enough?  Really,  You don't see people doing this with any other kind of show.  If The Office, goes to break, they switch to the news, not Parks and Rec.  I don't juggle between three different baseball games during the playoffs.  The scores run the on the bottom the screen.   Are these guys worried that we will miss a better football game?  I don't get it.

Here's a better system,  at commercial breaks, the clicker command surrenders the remote to some person selected by vote of the people.  If said person is female, she will do the reasonable thing of keeping the same channel so that we can watch the commercials.  If the person selected is male, he will probably submit the group to a demonstration of how fast he cant flick through channels, because men are not interested in what's on TV; they are interested in what else is one TV.

Thanksgiving

Today the whole school is giving thanks that a student of ours came out of critical condition over at the hospital.  A massive infection caused him to lose consciousness right here at campus.  I would ask for your continued prayers for Freddie.

This reminds me of all the blessings that I am thankful for this year.
First of all the grace of God, which has guided me on a sure path though I often don't even see the next step.

Next my family, who I miss more and more each day.  I love you guys!

Two communities of great support, one in Vermont, and the other in Wyoming (or wherever you graduates are.)  Your letters, emails, and notes have pulled me through some hard days as a missionary. 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  Be strong and hope in the Lord!

Jonathan

Placencia , this time with sound. enjoy

hello the states

Hey everybody!

Sorry its been so long since I have published.  Technical difficulties with a slideshow I put together for y'all's enjoyment has stalled the Lone Sombrero.  Will work on it this weekend.

What's been new?

I and the other volunteers took a little break in San Pedro this weekend; its a tourist hotspot with gorgeous blue water and all the gift shops you could ever want!  The best highlight,  snorkeling over a coral reef.  The variety of fish and marine plants was amazing!  I think God must have scattered a rainbow underneath the waves for us to find.  The sting-rays were scary though, they look quite alien as they flit about on the ocean bottom, fins undulating rhythmically. 

The nurse sharks were also a little intimidating, but quite harmless.

Other than that, we went and danced to some live music at a seaside bar, which was a blast!  The Eric Clapton cover left some things to be desired, but overall the music was great.  We also took a swim off a pier as an orange moon rose over the water. 
This all raises a bit of problem.  Who's going to think I'm on a mission trip if all the pictures we take (And we take most of them on these getaways)  show us dancing in bars,  swimming in aquamarine water, and relaxing on fine white sand?  This is a bit of a difficulty : )


Anyway,  Happy Thanksgiving, I love and miss you all

in the cave

Hey everybody!

This weekend we went up and explored an old cave system in the jungle. Though we followed a road, the jungle is thick!  There are part where it would be basically impossible to walk through; machetes are a must.  the cave itself loomed black out of a high cliff that itself just seems to appear out of the jungle.  (the thick undergrowth reduces your line of sight quite dramatically) 

At the entrance we made a torch out of rags and oil and dived in.  The good,  unbelievable rock formations that look like gargoyles, statues, and moon rocks.  The bad, bat guano that pretty much covered anything.  the bats were quite funny,  they'd peep out at you from their little crags in ceiling and then hide, peep out again, and then hide.   They can spider across the walls quite nimbly.   When we had our lights on they kept their distance, but then we turned our lights out.  At first I thought there was a draft from the outside, but then I realized the bats were flying only an inch from my face!  Scary.  Other interesting creatures were the centipedes and cave spiders.  The latter have extra long legs that they use as feelers in the dark.

Much of the cave we explored by walking, but several sections could only be traversed by crawling through tiny crevices that never looked big enough for your body.  I can't believe nobody got stuck!

I had my hero moment of the week when a caught a female volunteer who tripped while descending a steep ledge. Hold your applause, please.

We didn't bring a camera because of the really tight skin-to-rock squeezes and standing water.  We didn't want a camera to get broken or wet.

If you are interested, look up the blue morpho butterfly.  We saw several on our way to and from the  cave sight.  As you can see, they are beautiful

A day in the life

Hey everybody.

Some of you guys have been asking what my typical day looks like; so I decided to blog about it.
My typical school day begins around 4:45 or 5 am, when I roll over and decide I should try to go back to sleep for a little while.  Then I get up around 5:30, read my bible, and work out for about 45 minutes to an hour.  7 am (ideally) has me arriving at the girls' house to accompany one of the female volunteers to breakfast, since she prefers not to walk alone.  After breakers (oatmeal, every day.)  we walk over to the school and sign in.  I usually have three to six hours of class time, the rest of the time I prep for class, email, blog, grade, and other wise save the world one text document at a time.  School gets out around three and then there is tutoring and disciplinary JUGs, or Justice Under God.  It usually consists of misbehaved students performing some chore or extra work.  Then its more class prep for the next day.

Dinner is usually rice, beans and scrambled eggs.  The eggs haved usually been cooked around four, and I don't get to them until about six, so the contents of that pot are not high cuisine.  The only way to vary it is with Donya Betty's (not a brand, our cook)  secret-family-recipe hot sauce. Did I tell you I like oatmeal?

Mass in the evening.  Then I perhaps hang out at the girls' house or read at mine.  Currently I'm working on Teresa of Avila's spiritual autobiography.

9:30 its lights out, although since my roomate is a night owl, I usually just go to sleep with the light on.  I'm tired anyway.

Weekends might include a poker game, movie night, a hike, or travel for groceries, sports equipment, or just a lark.  More about that in my next.

Later,
Jonathan

Placencia again

This is me at Placencia, right before Mass.  I'm trying to figure out how to show you guys more photos of well, me.  Just kidding, although your favorite guy in Belize will always be close by, I'll try to give you a photographic sense of what its like down here.

Shopping in Belize

Yesterday I went to pick up a few things at the supermarket, which is really a large convenience store, or that's how it would appear to us.  I got a couple of yogurts and, at the last second, a gallon of milk.  Milk is pretty expensive down here, which I forgot about,  so I didn't have enough money to pay for it all. I was about to put a yogurt back when the storekeeper offered to let me take the items and come back the next day with the rest of the money.  I was speechless.  But needless to say I accepted her offer (other possibility: does she like me?)  Only in Belize.

I'm still speechless, but that's because my mouth is full of yogurt.

Jonathan

Two Months!

Today marks two months in Belize everybody!  The second months has gone so much faster!  Time always seems to to be wanting to floor it.  I wouldn't mind flooring it either, buy I don't have a car.

Jonathan

Placencia

Well, we finally made it to the beach this last weekend.  We were in Placencia, a beachfront town located on a tiny peninsula on the southern coast of Belize.  Most of Belize is protected by a large coral reef, so the waves were actually quite small.  The water was a very deep blue, not the aquamarine shade we usually associate with the tropics.  However, the comibination of  beach, water, perfect blue sky and shady palm trees blew me away.  It was so glorious!  The ocean wafted a cool breeze across the golden-white sand, and we drifted into long naps underneath nodding palms.  perfect.  I also a led a canoe/kayak expedition around the peninsula, which was a lot of fun.  For that I was glad there was such calm water, since not too many of us really knew how to handle a canoe or kayak.  The absolute highlight was dusk on the last night we were there.  A buddy and I took the kayaks out in the lagoon, or the water between the peninsula and mainland, to watch the sunset.  Just as the sun went down, a pair of dolphins swam by.  They were so graceful!  The arced their backs out of the water just enough to breath and then silently slipped back under .  I tried to follow them in the kayak, but they were quick and silent-difficult to track in the dimming light. 

Unfortunately, i got food poisoning the last day; that was a bit of a drag, especially since I had to travel five hours on a bus.  But these things happen.

Overall, a fantastic trip.  I hope all of you can experience the same someday

Jonathan

Stars

I hope you all know that many nights I look up at the sky and see the same stars that you all see.

This is a great comfort to me

tarantulas

Its about time I told you all about the tarantulas in our house.  They have started to invade it.  As you may know, the house is infested with geckos that hide in walls and wake you up at night with their cleek-cleek-cleek sounds.  We don't often think of arachnids (spiders, ticks, tarantulas, scorpions,  etc.) as things that would eat lizards, but the relative size of these tarantulas and geckos puts the eight legged freaks solidly in the "predator" category.

A couple of nights ago,  my friend and I walk into our house to find another volunteer in a standoff with a cornered tarantula.  It had hidden itself in a cupboard, and attempts to flush it out with bleach had been to no avail.  But with three of us now in the house, we figured we had it outnumbered, although it still had more legs than all of us.  Using a combination of brooms, headlamps, and loud yells(Which were a little too high pitched to be war-cries)  we drove the enemy from his position and swept him out the open door.

The next night there was another one. 

We now have a game called tarantula hockey that we play in our house.  Its really easy to play.  All you need is a live tarantula, brooms, and a bunch of guys in bare feet.  The goal is the sweep the hairy thing through the door.  I'm the current high score holder. 

After the last game one of the other volunteers told us how last year he woke up in the middle of the night to find a tarantula sitting on his chest.  He came to no harm, but he achieved his optimal heart rate in about two seconds.  Remember how I said that the geckos wake you up at night?  Well, they don't anymore, because I never fall asleep.

There's a gecko in my printer

I went to the library today to pick up some photocopies.  Another person was running a print job when a gecko, sans tail and with a desperate look in his dimunitive eye, dashed across the table.  He looked funny, not so much because of the missing tail, which many lizards can lose and then regrow,  but because he was covered in black splotches. 

"Oh," said my head of department, Mr Mai, "he must have run out of the printer."   I was quite taken aback by the notion of reptiles taking up their abode in office equipment, but this did not bother the native Mr. Mai, who started collecting his copies.  I then observed aloud that the printer was smoking.  This likewise did nothing to phase Mr. Mai, who merely commented on the fine quality of the print job.

I beat it out of there, not wanting to be present should the thing burst into flame and disgorge a whole family of printer-dwelling lizards.

the Maya temple

Hey everbody!

This week we made our first foray into historical Belize!  We explored the ancient temple site of Xunantanich, a minor temple of the Maya Empire.  It dated to about 650 A.D.   The Mayans tended to have temple plazas,  where the temple was only one of various buildings and courts.  Believe it or not,  games that were a cross between soccer and basketball were of high religious and social importance, so the courts were quite close to the temple site.  Most of you are familiar with the typical look of a Maya temple, a tall pyramid-like structure dominated by a kind of porch landing with various altars.  What I learned was that the stairs were made deliberately steep and high so that supplicants approaching the priests at the top would have to practically crawl up to them.  Believe me,  scaling even this minor temple in the full heat of Belizean midday was no fun.  Even the proudest man would be humbled as he half-climbed, half-crawled towards the dark silhouettes of priests standing several stories above him.  Apparently only animal sacrifices were made at this site though;  I remain unclear on whether the Mayans practiced human sacrifice like the Aztecs. I'll have to do some research.

Since the view and breeze are wonderful, we lunched at the top of the temple.  A friend and I took turns reading a biography on Damian of Molokai, another Catholic missionary.  It occured to me that God's grace truly is pervasive, since now here we were learing about a great saint in place that had once been embroiled by darkness.  The light has not been hid under the bushel basket.

Jonathan

One month down

Its been a whole month for us new volunteers down here in Belize.  For many, including myself, it feels much longer, like three or four.  I think this it is generally true that people in new environments experience each thing more vividly, so time tends not to just slip past you.

Belizean culture also tends to strengthen these sensations.  Belizeans tend to take their time about things.  For example,  we make all our copies at the library, but each copy job has to be handed in the day before at least.  You simply don't expect same day service.  But on the other hand,  stress levels down here are always low.  Nobody really gets worked up over much.  The buses don't leave on time, but in a way, its nice to know that you can probably still make it to a bus if you're a couple of minutes late.  Maybe all this is because we are in the tropics.  Whatever the case,  watching the futbol game is considered more important that readying a lesson plan for tomorrow.  The futbol is now.  That lesson plan can always be handed in the day after.

We got a copy of the Wall Street Journal today.  We were all glued to during lunch.  It was irresistable to read something straight from America.  What is going on out there in the wide world?  We glean a little bit from the internet,  but I could tell you practically nothing about any part of the world except that Vermont got flooded recently.  Still, it can be nice to be away from the constant noise of American culture.  We should all give it a shot sometime I think

horses

Today I got to ride a horse in parade!  Granted lots of people ride horses in parades.  But let me tell how I got the horses.  That's more interesting. 
I met a  student named Rolphie at 5:30 am to head out to the ranch.  Since cars aren't something anyone lends out around here,  we had to bike.  On one bike.  So anyone up early this moring in Benque might have seen an American teacher furiously pedaling a single gear bicycle with a Belizean teenager perched on the handlebars.  Eventually we picked up another rider with an extra bike.  We rode to the ranch, saddled our trusty mounts, and headed back for Benque.  Turns out that these horses like to stop occasionally for no reason. They might do this anywhere; in this case, one horse decided to stop in the middle of the road.  Now traffic in Benque does not stop, not matter the obstacle.  So this horse refuses to move, but the oncoming bus does not stop.  I thought something was gonna die.  The bad news.  The bus hit the horse.  The good news, nobody was injured.  The horse wasn't even bothered by it; apparently, the blow was glancing.

Never a dull moment.

More later

Music

Two nights ago Benque celebrated St. George's Caye, a sort of saint's feast rolled into a national holiday.  At the end of the night there was a sort of street dance at which they played quite a bit of American music.  I was off playing basketball, but the raucous sound of Lady Gaga telling us about her bad romance were unmistakable.  I had two distinct reactions:  First,  the sound of a familiar American artist was a great comfort, although I am not a fan of her music by any means.  Nonetheless, something so distinctly American made me feel not so much at home, but that home was not so far away.

Second,  I realized the the battle for souls in Belize is not drawn at the poverty line, so to speak. Belize has just enough affluence to allow a pipeline of Americana to reach its people, especially the youth.  To be blunt, I don't see this as a good thing.  The products of pop culture seem to be accepted with near total openness.  The fact that something is from America makes it popular.  At least this is how it appears to me thus far.  More later

pants

What's with the two belts loops in the back of pants?  They are always right next to each other, and they are always right where I can't see 'em.  Did someone need extra practice sewing?  Did the one  belt loop call for reinforcements? "uh, oh, We got a 44- inch waist here, I'm gonna need backup, over."
 Here's my take on it.  Why should a pair of pants set me up for embarrassment by making me miss a loop every time?  Its not like I put the belt through one loop and say,  "Ooh, that doesn't feel strong enough, better find another one."  No, One loop and I move on.  Look if, their going to insist on the extra loops, why not have them in front where I can see them?  That way I don't walk around with this under-over mess.

Imagination

As I stand here
Splash, plish, slosh, splosh, cars through puddles in the road.
Never could 've imagined
thump thump thump, rat-tat-tat, rain on all the tin rooves
Being here, here in small Belize
Hey mon, hola, que dollars? a hundred people in the bus station
here

the weekend

Hello everybody,

This weekend I headed to Belmopan, the capital of Belize, for a referee clinic.  Ostensibly, its purpose was to teach me how to be a good basketball referee.  However, the biggest lesson that came out of it was that I need to learn Creole.  Here's how it went down.
 I arrived and was of course the only American at the clinic.  However, the presenter, Jaun, spoke very clear English I thought that the next several hours would see me soaking up knowedge about the finer points of reffereeing  basketball.    This remained mostly true until lunch. (rice and beans and chicken, of which I only got the chicken)  The conversation around the lunch tabe revealed that English was not the preferred language of anyone but me, a bad omen.  We gatherede again after lunch and the presenter continued onto the rules of the game, specifically, how many feet must be in the backcourt for a backcourt violation to be called.  But about this there was far more disagreement than about how to raise one's hands on a three-point attempt.  One participant disagreed with the Jaun, saying (I think) that one foot is permitted to return to the backcourt.  Another flew to the rescue of Jaun, the instructor, saying (I think) that any contact by the ball or dribbler in the backcourt was a violation.  Soon both were speaking in raised voices in Creole, while everyone else prepared their two bits on the topic.  Eight voices clamored at once, each offering counsel, each straying farther from the topic at hand.  At this point I lost all comprehension of the conversation, and sat in silence, trying to make some sense of the language. 
 Its impossible to relate the experience exactly, but here is my best approximation of what I heard.
Speaker One: "But ghol en henz o playa maciatio es"
Speaker Two:  "No way mon.  the ball hes too fubber en ghulltion o lyning"
Speaker Three (Very loudly):  (Ooh mon,  tu sixtyn secos omee befo macceeccee ober.)
Speaker Four:  "HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
(Indistict conversation between Speaker One and Six)
Speakers 5-8: various stories, anecedotes, and opinions.
Speaker four:  "You understand what we say, mon?"
Me:  "Not really,"  (shy smile)
Speaker four: "HAHAHAHA, yah mon."

And so it went.
For two and a half hours.

Needless to say, this little language barrier obscured all discussion of controversial rules, so I flunked the exam.  Passed the physical though, so there was some consolation. 
Now I just need to wait until december to re-test; this gives me plenty of time to work on my Creole, to which I say, yah mon.

Jonathan

Day 13 First Full Day of Teaching

Wow!  I'm surprised I'm still alive!  I have over 100 names to learn and I'm already grading homework!  I admit that I was (and still am) somewhat nervous about everything.  Since these are high school kids, structured discipline from day one is essential, but each new teacher is also just trying to handle lesson plans, grade books, the material, and being on the other side of the desk, so to speak.  Landing on your feet is quite a trick.  The time goes fast though: a twenty minute speech used to be a big challenge, now I'm presenting (if not speaking) for 50 to 90 minutes.  Many of the kids are clearly going to be a joy to have in class.  They have already started to make fun at my bald head!


I will keep you all updated.  Love and miss you all so very much! Please keep me in your prayers

Jonathan

P.S.  My camera broke so pictures will be a while in coming.

Day 9

The odd facts of life continue to fascinate me.  Here in Benque all the shops are owned by Chinese people.  It is unclear to me whether they are from the mainland or Taiwan, but at any rate I understand that Belize used to be part of smuggling route bringing Chines emigrants to the United States.  Some of those involved decided to stay and quite literally set up shop.  The result is that very nearly every retailer in the town is Chinese.   So here in Benque one has the opportunity to speak four languages: Chinese, Creole, English, and Spanish.

Jonathan

Day 6

Just found out that I am the Vice-President of the NSSSA, an organization whose existence I became aware of at about the same time as the beginning of the my vice-presidency. 
Fact:  All that  the above means is that I am in charge of my school's regional and national  sports meets, which is still nothing huge because the whole country is the size of Massachusetts.
Fiction:  I'm very important.
Fact: This will look great on my resume.

Jonathan

Day 3

Dear all,

Hope you are all doing well.  I wanted to give you a sense of where I'm staying.

Benque is a relatively large town near the Gautemalan border.  It has about 10,000 people and is pretty set in the middle of the jungle, although there are other towns nearby.  Reaching the town is an interesting propisition.  There is no such thing as a true highway to Benque;  there is pedestrian traffic, bicycles, semis,  buses, and every description of vehicle all sharing the same two-lane road.  Interestlingly,  the atmosphere of the town itself reminds me of the beachside community my family visits every summer.  The people are generally laid back and there is never any particular sense of urgency to anything.  15 minutes late to meeting is considered on time.  I have seen only one wall clock since I got here.
What has impressed me the most is the beautiful smiles of all the natives here.  Everyone, especially the children, breaks into a wonderful grin at the mere suggestion of smile on my part.  Yesterday I played frisbee with a group of young kids and they could hardly contain their excitement when I was about to throw them the disc.  Soccer, or football as it is called here, is the most popular sport.  Hopefully I will get a little better while I am down here.

So far, so good!

Sincerely,
Jonathan Rensch

Day 2

Hey everybody,  finding my feet here in Belize.  By the way, skype is illegal, so I will not be getting in touch with y'all that way.  nuts!  trying to find a way to get some photos for you, the flowers down here are gorgeous!  Its odd to look out over hillsides and see jungle.  I mean, we usually think of the jungle as only being something in movies.   Our pastor, Fr. John, might lead a hike tomorrow, so hopefully I will start to see the natural side of Belize.

First Day in Belize

Hey Everybody!  Here I am in Benque, Belize.  Trying to prepare for my first day of classes and figure out how I will scramble over the language barrier.

Jonathan

P.S.  There's a gecko in my bedroom