under the mango tree

There have been requests for pictures of the shack, as I have been calling it. But I will have to choose  a new name, because it's a beautifully built (by my friend Jimmy) new structure.

Mind you, it isn't large, but it has most of the mod cons  crammed into the space: sink, fridge, microwave, rice cooker, toaster, etc. All of it clearly bought new, advertised by tags carefully left on.

My landlady, Norma, clearly cares about decor as much as I do. Birds and Elvis are repeated motifs. And doilies. She works nights in the kitchen at the local grocery store where I buy all my poke and papaya. She loves plants, too.  That's the outdoor shower attached to her house she's standing in front of, next to the steps from the—Bird House? The myna birds are certainly loud enough. And the roosters.

Norma is from the Philippines originally. She lives in her house with her daughter and son-in-law and their two kids. She apologizes profusely for her English, which is quite good. And she apologizes even more for the fact that the (flush) toilet is not in the shack, but in its own separate room with a  moon.

 So here I am, rght here, right now blogging in the house under the mango tree—Bird House? Please feel free to suggest alternative names.