My host, Désirée, was telling me that everyone working at the Copantl Hotel has a nickname and that the nicknames are decided very quickly .... sometimes within minutes of a new employee arriving. 

This, of course, led me to wonder what mine was. So, at a supervisor meeting/training session that we set up this week, I asked them. They didn't want to tell me but, it turns out, I am "Gecko".

The gecko isn't native to these parts, but in 1978 it was introduced to Honduras as a natural pesticide in the banana plantations. They can eat a lot of bugs. So, calling me Gecko was the staff's way of saying that, while I am not native to Honduras, they see my working here as a benefit.

I like that.