Mango Memories

Today I ate one of the first mangos of the season. It was an experience I won’t forget.  The taste of my first Caribbean mango was indescribable. I had forgotten how true mangos taste. In the states they sell mangos, but those ones are picked long before they actually have the chance to ripen. They lack those magical flavors.  Today, the second my tongue touched that golden, mature mango, I was thrown back in time to my years in Africa. All my mango memories rushed into my mind. I could recall dozens of mangos experiences....

So many sweet mangos, so many sweet memories.

Mayaguez is the mango capital of Puerto Rico. Destiny? Definitely!
There is even a phrase here.."Mayaguez sabe a mango," meaning Mayaguez tastes like mangos.

I love mangos.

Finding a place to live.

So much has happened. To sum it all up, I found an apartment, registered myself for school, started classes, made lots friends and went on a ton of adventures.

Apartment hunting has not been my favorite part of moving to the Caribbean, yet I did have some interesting experiences. A guy, in his mid twenties, VERY macho/manly showed me his apartment. The whole place looked great, but as I walked into his room I almost fell over laughing when I saw the comforter on his bed. It was full-out, Power Rangers!!....What made it sort of even funnier was that he didn’t even seem to care at all. He didn’t make up a long story, give an excuse or anything. In my mind I was thinking, “come on man, at least make something up, have some shame!” haha. He must be one of those die-hard fans. Then I thought, “don’t worry buddy, I totally respect that, your secret is safe with me.” But later when he wasn't looking I quickly changed my mind and I used my ninja camera skills and took a quick picture and published it on the world wide web. Sorry Ricardo L



my room consists of my mattress, laptop, clothes and a
little calender of Brandon and Marilyn's family.

A little later, after much searching, I had finally decided on an apartment and was about to go sign the contract, but, all of the sudden, I heard about a different place that was even cheaper, so I decided to go check it out. I ended up really liking the place and my roommates seemed to be really cool so I made up my mind to live there. I came back the next day to move all my stuff in (just my two suitcases) and my housemate was leaving to work. He then told me, after only having known me for about an hour, that if I wanted he could drive me to his work and then I could take his car for the rest of the night, run errands, buy things, etc and then just pick him up when his shift was over.


the roof top. can you see our washer machine?



 I was extremely shocked. (I thought I was the only one that would lend my car out to everyone....including strangers?) He is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. I turned down his offer naturally, I was just grateful to have such good roommates and to be living in a place where most people are  astonishingly pleasant and kind. I love Puerto Rico.