The Tragedies of Leo: The Flu, the Room, &Tony

Good morning everyone! It’s been more than a month and I’ve got a lot to share. So, grab a cup of your favorite coffee or chocolate milk and get ready, this is gonna be a fun ride with a dramatic ending.

While the title of this entry could be interpreted far differently, it’s just another way of saying: “I was sick, and in effect, I couldn’t clean my room, and I missed the Tony Rath photo shoot.” Let’s start things off with the flu.

The Flu

Some two weeks ago, the flu started to circulate around the San Ignacio area. It wasn’t the first time I had seen it since my arrival at San Ignacio, but I never saw it coming this big. Just imagine two of every five people you meet walking around with handkerchiefs and runny noses. It stroke me so much, I even came up with a definition for the flue. Here, take a look:

The Flu: A highly explosive device, which for some undisclosed reason, was designed by the spirits of the indigenous Maya, and was left back for the sole purpose of destroying a minimum period of five precious life units (days) of a specific group of related individuals, any of whom live adjacent to each other and don’t take their vitamins nor say their prayers or have done some bad thing in the past and haven’t paid for it.

Eventually, we the inhabitants, of 2^nd Street, San Ignacio Town, surrendered. One by one we fell starting with Romeo, the landlord, way up to Murphy, my next door neighbor. I’m not sure how I got it, but I did, and it was anything but pretty.

At school I underperformed, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t shower, I couldn’t clean my room (not that I do anyway); I basically couldn’t do any vital action of betterment other than taking Contact – the magic pill!

Thanks to the magic pill, my illness lasted for only 4 days and on the 5^th, I was off to the NTEC (National Tertiary Education Conference) in Belize City, mingling with doctors and highly reputed individuals in tertiary educational. P.M. was there, and boy did he look shaky.

I never really recovered until the sixth day but it could have been worse. It's just a reminder of how we all get sick at some point in time.

...I guess that’s it for the flu so fire up the flashlights and put on your reading glasses, next stop…my room!

The Room

Recall my previous post Room, well guess what, it’s even worst than that this time. While I was sick, I was unable to do many things, one of them being able to clean my room.

Take a moment to stare. (I’m sipping on some chocolate milk right now.) Yes, I know, this one’s worth more than a thousand words that’s why I have it as my desktop background at the moment. I still can’t believe it, it’s simply outrageous. I’ll give a snicker bar to the first one to spot my keys in this rumble and two if you can tell what time I took this picture. Click here for a larger view of ‘My Sick Room’. For even larger views, please make a request – they’re going like hot cakes!

I’ll give a pack of watermelon bubblicious to the first one to spot a pair of dotted underwear in this one. ‘Smarties’ for the one that finds my laundry detergent. Click here for a larger view of this one; I think you’ll need it to find the golden nuggets. As always, photographs of my room speak for themselves.

Fact: Believe it or not, when I was sick, I found myself waking up on the floor next to the heap of clothes beside my bed.

Tony

If there was one thing that pissed me off most about the flu, it was the fact that I was forced to miss a once in a life time opportunity – a photo shoot with Tony Rath! The plan was set months in advance, and we had been anticipating it like sharks on the hunt. The photographer and good friend of mine, John Banman, had made arrangements for only 3: Tony, himself, and me. This is the email I received prior to the trip:

Hi Leo Tony says he will sleep in San Ign and will be at our house 5:30 Friday morning. Would you like to camp in our studio for the night, or what did you have in mind? For us it would be OK if you stay here. Get the batteries charged and cards formatted!~! It looks like there might also be some aerial shooting involved, but the plane can only hold the pilot plus 3. John.

Here's an exerpt of my response:

It was in my mind the entire week. Even in my dreams. Unfortunately, I don't recover too quickly from illnesses (flu). I apologize for not informing you on this earlier. I could imagine how much i missed out, i hope you guys go at it again and hopefully, by that time, I'm 100% fit. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sincerely, Leo

For anyone that doesn’t know who Tony Rath is, he’s like a Belizean celebrity. He’s Belize’s foremost wildlife photographer and founder of NPL. I’m going start crying again if I continue talking about this topic. Who wants the rest of this chocolate milk? Oh crap, I think I just triggered the flu again. That’ll do for today. Tune in next time.

Update: All prizes have been won. Beat Roy. He got most of them right. Wish I had more to give away.