Mexico, the escape artist, got back from a night of carousing a bit messed up. We think a chicken owner put out poison and he ate some. He has been lying around looking pooped and breathing in a panting sort of way. “Do you think he will die?” I worry, (Although I CAN see some upsides to the possibility of that happening.) “Him na gwaan die!” says Bobo. If he were, he would be dead by now! It has been several days, and he’s not dead yet. He is hard to kill.

There are a bunch of hard-to-kill people “all bout” here, too. Rocky, is my candidate for the hardest of all to do away with. He is a mason and has been with us from the beginning of building this frigging castle, which I never bargained on having. (I was envisioning more of a board house with a couple of rooms.)

Rocky will come and do great work for us for about 3 weeks and then self-destruction will set in; bad work or showing up drunk …something like that. When he gets paid on Friday he goes right out and spends it all on rum. Bobo will get mad at him and fire him and never consider using him again until some months or a year later and we start all over. He came drunk this morning. “Rocky gone, but him come back tomorrow.” Better than working drunk I suppose. So far, he has cast the kitchen counter in the new kitchen and fixed the stairs that were set up all wrong by “Doctor”, Bobo’s uncle, who is another whole story.

I enjoy having him around when he is sober. He is upbeat, energetic and spry despite being a raging alcoholic. And he would certainly be just the person to have on your team if trouble came knocking on your door. (Which can happen in Jamaica). He has been sober as a judge until this morning and he had the good sense to go home. Things “agwaan good” for the nonce, anyway.

The other person I like having around is Kumbo. He eats dinner with us and clearly appreciates my cooking, and I appreciate that! What a great worker, too! As long as you let him do what he wants. The whole place is painted up beautiful now. Sometimes, when we “drive out” at night, Bobo will take him along as a sidekick. It is like having a bodyguard and I like the feeling. Bobo pays him every day, unlike the other workers who get a week’s pay on Friday. As soon as he gets his money he goes off and loses it at gambling. There are a bunch of guys waiting for him “outta road” to help him do this.

Kumbo goes “mad” every now and then. He is “mad” right now and wandering around raving and talking to himself. Bobo made him come into the kitchen to cook some dinner and he did that all right but was having a whispering conversation with some entity in his head the whole time. Hope he comes down soon and we have his sweet other self about again.

So both of them are out of the picture today. “John Crow,” came by looking for work. He can do all the electric wiring, (and train you in jungle warfare, apparently, if you wish.) But we are short cash right now and have put him off for now.