Allow me to introduce you to perhaps the most ridiculous human being on this planet.  Words will never fully do him justice, but I will try my best.  Meet Saoul.  Sauol is both a professional bus driver and a professional eater, and it would not surprise me one day to find that he is also a professional wrestler.  Sauol has three gold teeth, an enormous belly, and a glow in the dark rosary which he displays proudly around his neck.  

My first memory with Sauol came 3 years ago, when we were working in a small fishing village near Honduras.  He didn't speak much that didn't come out in grunts, but one word was always clear, "comida."  "Comida", meaning "food", is usually Saoul's main reason behind taking any sort of action.   A gigantic iguana crossed our path, and Saoul burst into joyous chortles, waddling after it in the brush, murmuring to himself.   A few moments later, he emerged, holding the dinosaur by the tail.  Proudly, he held it up and announced, "Comida."  The day went by and I later found him slurping out of a rather large bowl.   Protruding out of the bowl were the claws, tail, and head of his captured beast.   I don't think I ate for days after that experience.

Since then, my love for Saoul has continued to grow, and so has his vocabulary.   He still speaks in mainly grunts and the occasional shouts, but his gold tooth grin rarely leaves his round face. Every morning I find him in the fridge, searching for something new to munch on, or just looking at things to daydream about all day.  He frequently takes his shirt off just to rub his watermelon of a stomach, but never does so without cracking himself up.   I have yet to meet someone who is that content in their mere being, and I must say, I appreciate it.  His ability to make me laugh simply by existing is a stellar quality.  Well done, Saoul.

It was my plan to write all of the above last week, but never got the chance.  Now that I have shared with you my dear love for that rotund man, it would be remiss of me not to tell you the rest of the story.

As I have made quite clear, Saoul is difficult to understand when he speaks.  His Spanish is slurred, and I find myself often having to repeat it in my head before I answer.  Last week, Saoul was sitting at the beach with several women from the group, looking pleased.  I approached them to check on their afternoon, and one said to me, "We've been talking to Saoul.  He lived in Canada for two years, did you know that?"  At hearing this, I laughed, and said, in English, to Saoul, our pseudo-spanish speaking bus driver, "That's a load of crap.  You did not."  And without hesitation, he replied, IN ENGLISH, "I did.  In Toronto."

Do with that what you may.