apartment on Havers

After an all too surreal ride from the Beef Island airport (memories from my previous trip feeding the sensation of a dream), as well as a brief stop to reacquaint myself with everyone at Bamboushay, I entered that room to find 6 mattresses resting on opposite walls. The screens were off the windows, and one of the glass shutters was hanging loose, but I thought little of it in an ungrounded moment. Instead, I was drawn to a book that seemed intentionally set atop a disassembled rattan chair in the corner of the room. It was an old copy of John Milton's "Paradise Lost", which lay open to a page where the first verse was underlined. It read:

"Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven"

Shaken by sudden intuition, I turned to leave the room, upon which I saw the snake sitting on one of the mattresses. I looked at it for a second and after realizing that this species was not immediately recognizable to me, I decided it was all just too strange for comfort, but a sheet pressed to the bottom of that now closed door would be reassuring enough to secure that lingering history in my head.

For the days that followed, I was becoming increasingly frustrated that I did not have any drawers or hangers to begin unfolding my clothes that remained crammed in my suitcase. I remembered a closet in the second room, and it was only a matter of time when the want of a hanger overrode my foreboding feelings towards the coincidental circumstances of that space (although this was delayed several nights longer as I woke up that morning to find a decent sized scorpion on the kitchen floor). Needless to say, I was eventually overcome by some feeling of necessity to retrieve those hangers, and found out as well that the very same snake I saw only 4 days earlier was stuck in that same position to a piece of tape hanging from one of the plastic packages for the mattresses... It's difficult to describe the range of emotions that ran through me at that moment, albeit some combination of guilt for not being more observant towards the snake to begin with and maybe a slight undertone of comic relief.

As a memorial to this now dead serpent, I've incorporated it into a sculptural piece about all things finding themselves stuck; which also includes some tangled rope washed up with seashells, and a broken watch. Also to note: John Milton's book is now replaced with Gulliver's Travels. 

I've done the best I can with the rest of the apartment, although not having a car definitely limits my capabilities for sprucing it up. Instead, small and improvised efforts will have to suffice for now. I still don't have any gas for my oven (and therefor have no way to act on everyone's recommendation that I boil my water)... and I really do need to buy some type of mosquito repellant... but again and for the moment, I'm just glad to have mopped floors and clean counters. Also, the freshly washed sheets I'll sleep on tonight will be well worth the climb up the mountain with a bag of linens in tow, especially if there are less bugs to shield myself from via these, and a few cool breezes to travel though my windows.