Arrived !!

Hanky House

I was welcomed by Robyn and her baby daughter Solly and shown to The Hanky House where I will living and sleeping with seven others for the next 3 months. It is a super structure and was designed and built by an Englishman who was 26 at the time.
I quickly unpacked and had a welcomed very cold shower, the front of the shower is open and so washed myself looking into the canopy of the rain forest! I was called to dinner by someone blowing a Conch Shell all meals are announced this way, the food is mainly rice, beans and vegetables which as an intern we all take turns in preparing. I met the others interns who are all American apart from myself and a guy from Portugal, I am the oldest by far, the closest in age is 30.
There is a course running here and so it is very busy in total there are 45 people staying which is the largest group that they have ever catered for. I spent the evening meeting everyone and chatting, all are very friendly, the most popular word here seems to be awesome which of course is very American!
The toilets here are self-composting which basically means that they do not flush! Again these are open fronted and look out onto the rain forest, I found it rather hard to go at first but was given some aloe plant and after stripping it inside is a clearish jelly substance, mixed it with water, drank it and hey presto!
My internship officially starts on Monday and also take a share in kitchen duties, I help prepare meals three times a week and help clear/wash up etc four times a week. I have tried very hard to muck in as well and this morning as I was awake very early, I joined in with breakfast preparations which start at sunrise....530am!
My first night I had a massive cockroach land on my hair it was over 4 inches long and 2 inches wide, so that night in bed I kept thinking something really awful was going to land of me. I am finding it very difficult to sleep it is so noisey comapared to home, the jungle noise is constant and as my home is only partly walled you can hear it all, I am sure that over the next few weeks I will get used to it. I have been waking at 3am and then lay and listen to the frogs, insects and all the other sounds.
I am going to leave it there for now, will try to write more later if not will try to add to this later in the week