Lesson #3: An Island isn't Paradise

Over my break these past few days, I visited the island of Cayos Cochinos with my downstairs neighbor, my roommate, and her friend from another bilingual school in Honduras. We traveled all day Thursday (leaving at 6 am) by bus until we finally arrived at the town of La Ceiba, which is located on the coast of Honduras. From the coast, we traveled by boat to the island. We finally arrived around 5 pm Thursday night. I was thrilled as we launched the small boat into the ocean-the islands ahead of us looming in the distance. I never have taken a boat out into the ocean, and I have never been on an island before. I couldn't stop smiling because I felt to happy and excited. When we finally got to the island, we realized that the island was very small. There clearly would not be a lot of activities to do while on this small island. Then we were shown where we would be staying. We ended up staying in a lady's house. She was renting out her rooms to us. The first two things I realized that night were 1) the floor was sand and 2) my bed had a large hole in it. Both of these factors contributed to my discomfort that night. Although I could enjoy and appreciate the sand on the beach, I did not feel the same toward the sand in my bed. Also, that night, when I finally was able to go to sleep, I kept waking up to the fact that I was falling into the hole and that I was drenched in sweat from the intense heat and humidity. I felt completely disgusting.
Our second night, we all chose to take our blankets and pillows outside and sleep on the beach. It was amazing to go to sleep to a night sky filled with stars of varying brilliances and sizes. I've never seen stars that actually looked like they were moving in place in the night sky. Then we awoke on the beach to a beautiful sunrise the next morning. At one point, I awoke to the fact that I was cold (the island was very windy that night). But at the same time, my feet felt very warm. I looked down to see the reason for my warm feet, and discovered a dog sleeping on top of my feet. A pile of sticks was by my feet, and the dog was happily chewing on one of these sticks while resting on top of my feet. :) Sleeping on the beach was definitely a highlight of my island adventure.
To make matters worse, the people on the island did not have showers. They probably rarely bathed, and if they did, they would 1) bathe in the ocean or 2) use fresh water that they were able to get from a neighboring island. Sadly, neither of those options were really options for me. They did not offer us fresh water for bathing and I also did not feel clean after attempting to "bathe" in the ocean. The purpose of bathing would be to clean myself of the sand and the salt on my body and in my hair, but bathing in the ocean would only add new layers of this salt and sand. Plus, sand sticks better to wet feet than to dry feet, so every time I stepped out of the ocean, I only increased my sandiness. Because I realized that showering was not an option there, I asked to have one of the ladies braid my hair into the really tight braids that the people there (Garifunas) wear. I definitely did not think they looked becoming on me, but I was so happy to not have to worry about getting sand in my hair and my hair becoming terribly matted in salt and grease.
The toilet situation was only a little better. They had an outhouse-style bathroom available for our use, but it at least had a toilet that flushed. The toilet only flushed when we filled and poured a bucket of ocean water into the bowl. Thankfully, my neighbor had brought toilet paper. Otherwise, I don't know what we would have done. I think some people had thrown palm leaves into the trash??? (I guess that could have always been a possibility...) My options for washing my hands was, of course, the ocean; but I thankfully also brought along my bottle of hand sanitizer (which was a lifesaver!)
Because I felt so dirty all of the time, it was hard for me to really want to eat. The food situation was a little difficult because we didn't have a lot of choices for eating, and the food on the island was very expensive. Thankfully, my roommate's friend brought lots of peanut butter, jelly, and bread; so we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day. It really was a blessing, but the second day that we opened the peanut butter jar, ants came swarming out of the jar onto my roommate! The ants had actually gotten inside of the closed jar of peanut butter. Not having a lot of options and not wanting to waste the peanut butter, we still chose to eat the ant-infested peanut butter. Our second night we ate an amazing lobster dinner. We had bought two gigantic lobsters that the fisherman had just caught that morning and asked the lady who was supposed to be cooking for us to cook the lobsters for dinner. I had also brought beans and rice, so I asked the lady to cook the beans and rice for dinner as well. The people there also make really tasty coconut bread, which we also ate with our dinner. Our dinner that night was also a highlight of my island adventure. Sadly, we bought more lobster than we could eat. Consequentially, we also provided a tasty lobster dinner for the family that we were staying with on the island.
Really, the ants were not just all over our food. The ants were everywhere. We could not sit or walk anywhere without seeing ants. Although walking without any shoes on was sometimes a better option than walking with shoes because of the sand; the ants would often attack my feet when I walked barefooted. Even when I simply was sitting on the beach or laying on my towel, the ants would always be there ready to bite. The two inescapables on the island were the ants and the sand.
For these reasons, I discovered that an island is not paradise. The views were breathtakingly beautiful: the crystal blue water, the blue sky, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets, the distant mountains, and the neighboring islands were all astounding. Despite my beautiful surroundings, I felt disgusting and dirty and uncomfortable. If only I could have gotten over my discomfort, I know that I would have found the island to be a paradise. Really, though, I feel this is the truth in any situation. I feel as though I base my level of contentment and satisfaction on my level of comfort. If only I could get over myself and my wants and expectations, I think I would enjoy life a lot more-just to realize that it's not about me or what I want. It just is. And I want to enjoy things for what they are. Not what I want them to be. An island is not paradise...it's an island.