Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

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I have almost come to the end of my last week here in Concepcion. After all my bitching and moaning and whining and winging, turns out I'm actually rather fond of the place, and even more so of the people. Having said that, the thought of only having a month left untill I will be home envokes a feeling not unlike a five year old waiting for christmas morning.

All the kids clubs this week were goodbye meetings instead of a normal teaching. We played games, sang songs, ate cake, took photos and gave me presents. In the teachers meeting on tuesday every ten minutes I was told to go check on the brownies in the oven (the chocolate kind, not the small child kind) untill eventually I just yelled "I know when I'm not wanted" drama queen style and went and played with the kids so they could talk about their 'surprise' goodbye plans in peace. haha They gave me a goodbye present of a tshirt that says Concepcion and has a crocodile on it. I had seem them in a shop and thought it was so hilarious that there were Concepcion tshirts, like it was a tourist destination or something, that I wanted one! But it was too small, well no, it fitted perfectly but I plan to put back on all the weight I've lost here when I get back to England, so Claire took it back. Unfortunately no more will arrive untill Tuesday, so I'll be waiting a while for my replacement, as Claire will give me it the next time she's up in Asuncion.

The kids club on wednesday in the Chaco was lovely, just singing, playing and we did a crafty thing so they could make mothers day presents (mothers day is the 15th May here). However after the kids club was a nightmare. Three busses passed us by and wouldn't stop to pick us up because they were too full with everyone going for mothers day. We were waiting by the side of the road for HOURS, I got well and truly eaten by mosquitos. Eventually a lorry took pitty on us and gave us a lift back to the city, so we didn't have to spend the night. I was just upset that the pretty vet guy from last week didn't make another appearance.

On mothers day (thursday), Blanca (the lady who looked after Romina untill she died and Zuni's mum) invited Claire and I to her house for lunch. It was really interesting to see how different things are here. Firstly, the mum's have to work even harder on mothers day than normal, because not only do they still have to cook and then clean up afterwards, but they have to do it for the entire extended family! There were I think 15 of us in total for lunch that day. Not only that, but they manage to cook all this food on what would be considered a camping stove in England. It was just a metal thing with some hot coals in it. That was it. She cooked a meal for 15 people, consisting of sausages, pork meat, sopa paraguaya and speghetti on some hot coals... My mother has enough trouble in our trailer tent stove at New Wine! It was truly impressive. It was also lovely to spend time with the family, seeing as I'll be leaving so soon.

I arrived very late to the meeting in Inmaculada on Thursday because I had to go half an hour later to the meeting then Claire did because of something I wasn't allowed to know about... lol But yeah Javier was supposed to take me in the truck but come 6 when I supposed to be there he had dissappeared in said truck and didn't come back untill 6.30 so I was very very late. I arrived in time to recieve my present; a traditional Paraguayan straw hat with all the names of all the kids written on it and a poster they'd made saying that they loved me (soooo cute), and to give them cake and then they all went home! So I was only there for about 10 minutes of my leaving party in Inmaculada! hehe

Villa Alta on friday was much more successful in terms of my attentance. I managed to arrive at 6 for that one. It was so sweet, I had to walk in with my eyes closed and when I was told I was allowed to open them I was bombarded with an entire magazines worth of home made confetti. It was so very sweet. Untill they all started picking it up off the floor to throw it again, because then I got covered in dust, stones leaves and no doubt some poo too. When I took off my clothes when I got home lots of bits of paper fell out of my underwear! haha So that was sweet. They had also made me two posters saying how much they loved me, and gave me a traditional fabric belt in the Paraguayan flag's colours with all their names written on it. We also played and sang and ate cake. It was lovely. They're the group of kids I probably know best and will therefore miss most, because they're the most faithful so they always come so I've ended up spending much more time with them. Narci nearly made me cry (she's one of the ladies who helps with the kids club, we were at her house) because she read a bible verse that Gad had given her for me and started crying and so I had to fight not to cry too.

Saturday morning we went to San Antonio and sang, played and ate cake. There I was given a leather pen holder that says Paraguay on it. I won't need to buy myself any souvenires at this rate! Afterwards we went to visit Maggie, because I'm worried she won't be able to come to my final goodbye party tomorrow evening at the church, so I wanted to make sure I definitely got to say goodbye to her. She's such a special girl and has gone through so much. Her mum has come back to visit so everyone is walking on eggshells because she can be (the mum, not Maggie), a bit of a handful, to put it nicely. So I really hope her Mum lets her come tomorrow evening. In the afternoon we had the Centro kids, but only about 8 came so it was really relaxed, we just played games - mostly Old Maid, for some reason they absolutely love that game - and then ate cake.

So that has been my last week! Tomorrow is church in the morning, Victor and Zuni over for lunch, helping get ready for the party in the evening, goodbye party in the evening, then going out for dinner with Claire then packing... Which I probably should have done today... Oooops.

I made bannoffee pie the other day. Check me out! I'm like a proper cook now or something, yeah. To be fair it is an awful lot easier to make here as the 'offee' part comes ready made in the form of Dulce de Leche, whereas in England it must be made via a tedious heating process of condensed milk. My banoffee pie came out really well, I'm dead chuffed with it. I woke up one day with a massive unexplainable craving for banoffee pie, just to explain why I decided to make it in the first place.

Last friday, I don't think I've blogged about this but appologise if I have, I went with Zuni to 'Cultural Fridays' which is an open air concert organised by the music school underneath the massive hiddeous Madonna statue (the virgen, not the pop star). It was rediculously loud (everything in Paraguay is, they appear to be under the believe that volume is directly proportional to quality, the louder, the better) and very interesting. First was a group playing traditional Paraguayan music, which is nice, but there are no words to convey how exactly the same every song sounds, by the end I was thinking it was getting a bit rediculous to keep playing the same song over and over again, even though they actually weren't. Then there was some Japanese dude on the violen, which surprised me as I can't understand why he'd want to come here, it's not by any measure the cultural capital of... anywhere, not even Paraguay. Then there was traditional Paraguayn dancing, in the traditional costumes which was soooo cool, but my stoopid camera batteries ran out so I couldn't take any photos! *cries* Then was a load of kids on guitars and harps. Now they were impressive. They were so young and so amazingly talented! Then we left, even though it was still going on, because Zuni's daughter Rebecca was falling asleep, so we thought she should probably go to bed.

Talking of music, the youth group having been driving Claire and I absolutely up the wall since Thursday. They're going to be doing a song in church tomorrow and have been practicing. Now normally I would have absolutely no problem with this, I still applaud their dedication and effort, but for the following reasons I would no please like to beat them over the head with their own drums. A) They started at 8am and didn't stop untill about 5pm. B) For those *counts* 9 hours they were only playing one song over and over and over and over and over C) No matter how many hours they practice for THEY'RE STILL OUT OF TUNE! And not just a little bit, I mean painfully so, especially when arriving at key changes. I mean ouch, it actually makes me cringe. I never thought I'd say this about someone's singing, but I think even I could do better! D) They started on thursday morning, it's now saturday evening, they're still playing that one song, badly.

And on that, rather unkind but tragically true, note I do believe I shall leave you. As this has ended up rather long, and I've run out of things to say anyways! My next blog will be winging its way to you from the bright lights and dizzying heights of the capital city. Or something like that.

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Photos

Paper Snow
Magazine confetti at my goodbye party in Villa Alta

Gourmet Kitchen
See those two little metal things on the ground? Yup that's what dinner for 15 was cooked on.

Inmaculada
I do tip my hat to thee sir.

Where's Sophie?
Like Where's Wally? Only female. And not stripey. In Villa Alta.

Kiss Kiss
Halp! I'm drowning in children!