Baboon

October 31, Sunday
10 pm

    Colleen scurries through the doorway, arms full of our water bottles and worksheets (hopefully enough to keep us occupied) in a hurried scuttle into our quarantine bedroom for probably the rest of the night.
    "How many are there?" inquires Summer, huddled behind her computer….
    "10 to 15. Im not sure!"
    ….::: baby crying and malayalam mumbles in background:::…….

    At 9:30 pm on a Sunday, our new 'mama roomy' rolls up with the whole gang,  probably from the wedding for which she left at at about 10 this morning.  Colleen and I normally would have stayed and interacted with our lovely new house guests; however, our energy for sitting and smiling awkwardly (while Malayalam is tossed back and forth around us like a dodge ball game), was runnin on slim pickins considering we had already received 3 other unannounced house guests (one being the principal of RIMS)….no big deal.  And we do love company, but by this time I had also already changed into my 'scandalous' basketball shorts, and had no intention of turning back.
    This is a TdoubleI moment.  This is also a 'babox' moment. ….and I want everyone to know that my typing application just tried to auto-correct my word 'babox' to baboon.  While I find this hilarious and am considering informing Colleen that we should say baboon instead, I would like you to know that if I say "baboon,"  I probably mean "babox"  (ah! did it again!)
    The noise subsided so Colleen went out to investigate the house occupancy….she comes back in with the I'm-gonna-quote-someone-right-now-face and says, "One woman stay tonight. my auntie.  She know Enlglish.  I will bring pepsi tomorrow." Splendid!
--------I may or may not need a blood transfusion considering the amount of "debris" on my leg from the mosquito I just assassinated. GUACATELA!!! 
      Ok, but the irony about baboons here is that I did, in fact, encounter baboon-like creatures on Friday on a field trip to Snake Park with 4th-6th standard.  I did not agree to attend this educational excursion until it was confirmed that the 'snakes' were contained.   I mean jeez, Snake Park makes it sound like some theme reptile getaway filled with hot rock slides and fizzy venom drinks.  i was assured that they were contained and not sipping fizzy venom drinks by the poolside.  The name would indicate the presence of only slithering reptiles, yet there were some screeching, awkward-bottomed, baboon-like friends there.  In addition to the 20 something species of snakes, there were peacocks and peahens, porcupines, "forest cat", "bobby cat," owls, doves, other birds, and crocodiles.  One area mimicked a gladiator arena, where visitors could crowd around and watch a cluster of various snake species massacre one another.  Just looking inside the uncovered, occupied coliseum gave me a big VVVDEEEWWWWWAAAAASSHHZZXVVV shiver down my spine. Ugh, I am not into snakes.  But I did enjoy looking at the king cobra (which can get up to 15 meters kids!)  The rest was an extremely depressing environment; while Im walking beneath a canopy of palms, breathing the fresh green air, I look into a row of 8 x 8 ft bare cement cages, all of which had a corner where a lonely animal or two huddled to sleep, or peered out eagerly at all the curious faces from outside.  I felt really bad for them.  Who knew that a porcupine could tug at my heart strings, but as a family of three (yes there was a lil baby!) paced back and forth along the bars as each onlooker passed by, I felt an impending urge to use some hidden Magneto power to bend all the cage bars and scream, "be free wild beasts!!"  The baboonish monkeys were in a much larger cage, propped on the cage bars, shivering, whimpering and screeching as we watched.  No me gusta.
    Well I have significantly gotten off track as I originally intended to explain babox.  Looks like you'll just have to stay tuned because my cold medicine is putting me into a foggy stupor, and the letters are starting to belly dance before my very eyes.