I love my kitchen!

It sounds funny to say that I love my kitchen . . . but if I am truly honest, I love my American kitchen. Recently my mother suggested that I not prepare a certain dish because it was "too much fuss" to its preparation. I instantly came back with "cooking is so much easier in America!" I honestly could not complain. Kitchens in Asia where I used to live were dingy places, blackened from the smoke of the wood or charcoal used for cooking fuel, crawling with lizards, cockroaches, ants and rodents. And in most cases, there was no running water. So it is no wonder our landlords wanted to put a door on my kitchen after it was built. For the longest time, I could not understand why. I loved my kitchen and I loved admiring it when it was clean. But to them, the kitchen was a place you hide and protect the rest of the house from.

I also love animals. But I'd have to say there are limits to that love. Though I worked hard to keep my kitchen spotless, nearly every morning I awoke to an ant trail leading to some forgotten crumb or a dead lizard in the corner. I hated baking and even cooking at times. I got tired of mealy worms in my flour, ants attacking my food and utensils and the mosquitoes chomping on my feet and legs from under the counter. That on top of the fact that cooking around fires (even the gas ones we had) is not fun in 90 degree weather.

A couple weeks ago I was reminiscing with a friend who grew up in Asia and went to school in Indonesia. I laughed and laughed as we exchanged scary and funny animal stories we had experienced. I thought I would add some pictures to my memory:

We had mice all over our house, which was built like a hay barn, rafters mounted atop high wooden support posts. The mice could climb up the posts into our house and then run all around above our heads during the evening as we sat for supper or reading. They were bad, but the rats were worse.

I absolutely hate rats. I am terrified of their red eyes and I despised them for constantly maneuvering around my attempts to protect my kitchen, namely, my rice bin. When the rains came and the rodents preferred our house to the sewars, we finally went to desperate measures to ward off the rodent population. We got a cat. Two cats actually. Though I am not very fond of cats, ours were very helpful in controling the rodents and eating the cockroaches. Unfortunately they also killed our geckos.

I loved our geckos. We had the little green ones and then a number of the largest species, Tokay, pictured here. They had the most comical writhing bodies and eating habits. Though I didn't appreciate their droppings all over the house, I did enjoy their echoing chirps and whines through the night. And best of all, they ate tons of bugs.

I certainly don't miss having to sleep under mosquito nets. As my friend said, the nets were also great repellants against all the other critters I pictured here. Yes, life in America is definitely easier at times, at least where I live anyway.