Only Men Fish

Every morning, I get to watch the sun come up and every nite, I get to watch the sun go down and the full moon come up over the horizon. It’s incredible but I can see from east to west in one 180 degree horizon stretching over the ‘mar’.

The mar herself is amazing: she spends the day slowly leaking out into the ocean – so slowly it takes her the entire day. As far as the eye can see, flat, shell-laden moist earth with several canoe-type boats sitting motionless on their bottoms.

And she spends the night leaking back into the mar, so that by the time the sun comes up, the mar is full. Not deep but deep enough for a boat to float with the fisherman using a long stick to push the boat along from the bottom of the mar.

And they are all men, for I asked Chuyita, who was born and raised here, if any womyn fish & she looks at me as if I’ve asked does the sun rise in the west. She said no, of course not. Only men fish. The sun only rises in the east.

I spend the day today at my ‘space’ in front of the mar. Chuyita shows up about 2 or 3 with her 2 nieces, Gabby and Veronica, and Gabby’s boy. I am hanging out studying Spanish, on the shore under the little outdoor roof. I make them strong coffee, and we hang out laughing, talking, trying to understand each other for a couple of hours.

The soldiers pass by, not interrupting our conversation and fun. They leave just before the sun sets. I should have invited them to eat, but me, unlike the other womyn of this town, have no food to miraculously appear. I should have cooked earlier… oh well.

Tonight, for at least an hour before sunset, a man has been on a loud speaker saying something over and over and over again. If repetition would make me understand Spanish, I would know everything plus by now.

Previously, when men have been on loud speakers in their trucks, I’ve been told they’re selling things. If this guy is selling things, people probably buy from him to hope to shut him up.

I think I hear “marcos” who I think is the president, yes? I hear numbers, and persons, rapidly, color, shoes, grandmother, other, red, for example, today, on the right, cat, to think – he almost sounds like a proselytizing auctioneer.

I am too lazy to put on warmer pants and go see what’s up.