I decided that I would mow the side of the hill at CLM close to the playground. They gave me a 220 electric mower with a 300 ft cord spliced in several places. (By the way, only three wheels worked...but I was up for the challenge.) Trying not to get electrocuted or lose any toes, I took my time. Things were going great until about halfway when out of nowhere, I hit something metal. All of a sudden water gushed up from the ground in a geyser. I was soaked (remember the 220 electric?) and a little scared and confused. Who puts an exposed waterline on a hill side? While I was standing there with a dumb expression on my face, I felt a searing pain shoot up my leg. Thinking I was getting shocked, I ran for my life. The pain did not stop! I then realized that I was standing on a hill of fire ants. They had gone up my leg when I stopped mowing. After a culturally offensive dance, I was able to get them all off. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, I saw one of the older boys running at me wide-eyed with his shoe in his hand. Once again...dumb expression on my face as he hit me VERY hard on my back. All I understood was "VERY DANGEROUS." I didn't want to know what he had just killed on my back so instead I asked him where the water line went. And in perfectly understood Portuguese he said..."your house." After 3 hours of plumbing work, I finished the mowing just before dark. Not learning my lesson, I tried to do another good deed and prepared a Mexican dinner for Mary with hot peppers from our garden. While relaxing after dinner, I realized that I had been bitten several times during my mowing experience by the dreaded "borrachudos." (Brazilian mosquitos on steroids) I went to scratch a persistent bite right below my eye, not realizing that I had some pepper residue on my hand. I felt like my eye was on fire. I rushed to the bathroom medicine cabinet for my tube of eye gel. With my blurry vision, I threw off the cap and squeezed it into my eye...but much to my dismay, the burning intensified. Who knew that my cold sore medicine was in an identical tube as my eye gel?!
