The Joys of Capitalism

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I had the most wonderful day yesterday. I went to the capital city, Asuncion for a day. We got the bus at 4 on Sunday and arrived in the city about half 9. I went to stay with a lady called Elaine who I had met back in England at our training weekend. I did not realise beforehand but she is actualy living in quite possibly the nicest house in all of Paraguay! Okay no that's a total exageration, but it is an awful lot nicer than my house. Her lounge is about the size of our entire house here. It's a family house and she's living in it on her own at the moment, so that's why. It's got a massive lounge/dining room with air con, a downstairs toilet and a massive kitchen, with a washing machine (I'm sooo jealous!) and then upstairs there are 3 bedrooms, Elaine's has an en suit bathroom and air con, and there this is another bathroom about the same size as my bedroom here! So having a shower on monday morning was the most immensly pleasureable thing. Simple things, eh? Anywho, we arrived in the evening so Elaine and I had a bit of a chat but then it was bed time as she has to be in school by 7am and I was exhausted after the bus journey. So the next morning Elaine went to work and I waited for Claire to come get me. We went to the church's office and I picked up two letter, one from Holly and one from Lisa. So that was lovely, and we walked past the school, which is massive and looks really nice. Then Claire dropped me off at a shopping center and went off to the hospital to get little Romina's test results and things. So I spent a glorious 2 hours wandering around a massive shopping center. It was soooo nice to do something that felt normal. I ended up buying quite a lot. Although to be fair I wanted a whole lot more than I actually bought, I do have self control! I bought a Spanish-Italian dictionary as I've wanted one for ages, as there's always times when I can think of the word in one language but not the other, and so that'll save me having to go back through English. I also got a fiction book in spanish that I have at home in English, as I figured that would be helpful to read already knowing the story. I also bought two tshirts, one of which I don't think I will wear while I'm here because it's just far too nice. Where here is so hot and dusty, and I don't have a washing machine, clothes just do not appreciate it. So yes, then Claire finished at the hospital so she met me and we had chinese food in the mall's food court. Then we went to a big supermarket that imports some American foods, and I bought LUCKY CHARMS! The best cereal ever! Also got peanut butter, oreos, twix and snickers. Joy of joys, chocolate! Then we went to the christian bookshop and I got myeslf a gorgeous bilingual bible, so it has on each page a column in Spanish and next it a column in English. Which is just so very useful. It's lovely, it's leatherbound and is an NIV version, and best of all only cost a tenner. Then we went to one last supermarket and then Claire gave me directions back to Elaine's and just left me! It was quite scary, especially as at one point I managed to go down the wrong road and had about 10 minutes of "I'm lost on my own in Paraguay's capital... ARGH!" But I managed to find where I was meant to be eventually. Thankfully. So I got in and Elaine cooked dinner and we ate and chatted, then went to a bar round the corner from her house and had Pina Coladas. Embarrassingly we only had one each, and were both raaaaaather tipsy! So we went back and then decided it would be a fantastic idea to change the massive water bottle in the water dispenser thingy. So of course we ended up getting water everywhere and collapsing in fits of giggles. Good times. Then we had to take the old empty bottle round to Penny's house, so I met her and her family for the first time, she has three adopted Paraguayan children, who are very cute and who showed me their pet tadpoles. Lovely. Then it was time to go and get the bus home at 10pm, so we arrived back here in Concepcion at about 4am. Lovely. I couldn't sleep on the bus, my legs get too cramped. My legs today are killing me, they're so stiff.

So yes! I really enjoyed my trip to the capital. It was lovely to see Elaine again, as she's awesome. And it was soooo nice to escape from here and have a bit of time for some normalcy (Is that how you spell that?) and also to stay in such a nice house! hehe Elaine said I'm welcome to go back whenever I want, and she also said that next time I come she's going to cook me curry and we'll watch The Mission in Spanish. Claire also suggested maybe going and staying for a week or two and getting to go to the school. Which would be cool as it would great to experience something different, even if it does involve getting up before 7...

What else? I've been teaching Zuny English, I think it's going well. We do a different thing each day, today was reading the bible to practice pronounciation. Fun times.

I seriously worry that I have so little to say. I'm in south america for crying out loud! A thought wich occurs to me randomly every so often, and makes me smile at inappropriate moments. Wonderful.

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Comments

[Neil]

Wot no photo's
Some of us don't have facebook you know!