Pineapple

While in the Philippines last year, I fell in love with pineapple.  Prior to travelling to the Philippines, I could take or leave pineapple.

A tray in my Manila hotel room featured a couple of complementary packets of dried pineapple alongside two bottles of water.  I never considered opening one of the packets.   Several days into my stay, Desiree opened one.  She offered me a small chunk, which I immediately popped into my mouth.  “This is good,” I remarked.  “Really good!”

The dried pineapple was not too sweet and definitely was not sour the way pineapple can be.  I became rather addicted to the gummy little chucks.

On the 9^th of December, this year, my dearest Desiree stuffed packages of dried pineapple into a box and sent the box my direction by way of the Philippines postal service.  The Philippines postal service is not known for efficiency.  For two weeks, Desiree tried to follow the package with a tracking number.  Each of her inquiries resulted in the message: “package cannot be found.”

Amazingly enough—some twenty days later—after a little molestation at U.S. customs, my rural postal delivery person stuffed the box (no room to spare) into my mailbox.

Sometimes, even in the year 2020, stuff actually works!   

Thank you, Des!

—Mitchell Hegman