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Published: March 10th 2008
Yes yes, I know, Sophie is very bad at blogging. I just never think what I'm doing is interesting enough for you guys to want to read about!
I just smashed a glass and cut myself trying to clean it up. Because I'm
that smart. From now on I'm only using plastic cups.
A few mondays ago I went fishing with Zuny and her husband Victor. It was great fun. We went across the river in a little canoe style boat, (how on earth do you spell canoe?), and went to Victor's grandparent's house because their land backs onto the river but in a sheltered way that I have no idea how to explain which means that there were no currents because they said it would be too difficult for me on my first time with the currents. As with everything here in Concepcion, fishing is not exactly high tech. We didn't use rods, oh no, we had a long bit of plastic string/wire (not sure what you'd call it in English) with a hook on the end which you kind of swing round your head for a bit in order to get the momentum to chuck it out into the water so it takes a few attempts to get it where you want it. So we arrive and Victor gets out some rubbery elastic looking thing and wanders off, a few unusual sounds later he comes back carrying a bird he's just killed with what was apparantly a makeshift sligshot! He then proceeds to cut open this poor dead bird and cut up chunks of meat to put on the hooks as bait. As Zuny put hers on her hook she said "Oooh it's still warm" and I tried hard not to faint and/or throw up. Life in Concepcion means you can't be too squeamish apparantly. The gardest part of the fishing is pulling the fish out quick enough when they bite as your just pulling this length of string with your hands, there were several times when fishies got away because I couldn't reel it in fast enough. I did however manage to catch 3 fishies. Go me. I could totally survive in the wilderness. Grr. Well apart from the fact that I made us go home at like 8pm because the mosquitoes were biting me more than I could bear. The next day I had to buy ointment and antihistamines (I can't spell that either) because my entire legs were red raw from too much itching. But it was worth it. We intended to eat the fishies we caught but somehow it never quite happened, and when I was offered them a week later I declined, sensibly I think.
Last week a group of kids and teachers from Colegio San Andres (the christian school in Asuncion that Elaine is out here working for) came to Concepcion for a school trip. We painted some rooms in the hospital here in town which was great fun, and really makes a difference to the feel of the place. We also took them to visit Petrona, who is a little baby girl who has Down's syndrome, and Romina, who in case you haven't read any of my previous blogs is a little girl with lots of health problems whose Mum abandoned her so now a lady from the church is looking after her. It was really interesting seeing the difference between the kids from the school is Asuncion (who are very well off, it's a very good school) and the kids who live here. I found it so much easier to relate to the kids from Asuncion because they were so much more confident and so much more like kids at home as they listen to music, watch films etc etc. We played some hilarious games of Uno in which Floppy (which is the most awesome name ever and is somehow short for Florencia) accused Gabi of not saying Uno every turn even though she had several cards left untill Gabi just went "I'm not playing with her anymore!" and stormed out and went to have a shower, and got the surprise of her life when she shared it with a giant toad. Life here is very very different to life in Asuncion.
One of the teacher's who came for the trip was Rachel, who is Elaine's new housemate who I met when I went up for my birthday and who I got on really well with. The school went back on Friday but Rachel decided to stay the weekend to see what we get up to here and stuff. It was really lovely having her around as she's great fun, and she also helped me realise some stuff when we were chatting. I've been feeling really guilty about being so antisocial here as I spend a fair ammount of time alone in my room. But Rachel was talking about extroversion and introversion and how everyone assumes it's just about how outgoing you are but it's actually more about where you get your energy from; people or alone time. Which made me realise that actually I'm not being anymore antisocial here than I am at home, I spend just as much time at home alone in my room because that's where I get my energy from. Being with people, however much I love them and enjoy what we're doing makes me tired and to be able to be with people I need alone time before and afterwards. That's just the way I am. Which makes me feel better as before I'd assumed that the reason I wanted to be alone was because I wasn't enjoying being with people, when infact I am, I just need my alone time too. I remember that that was the thing I found hardest about the Brazil trip 2 years ago, as we were in a team and they were worried about safety so the only time we were ever alone was on the toilet! (You'd expect shower to be there too, but oh no, not even that was entirely private for the seccond week at least.)
Whilst Rach was here it was Romina's 4th Birthday, but her first since arriving with Blanca, the lady who looks after her now, and so therefore her first birthday that got celebrated, so we threw her a really big party at their house. It was so lovely, all the nighbours and some people form the church came and Estella, the Bishop's wife, made a really beautiful cake and Anna did lots of balloon displays. Romi bless her was completely oblivious and pretty much slept through most of the party, but that's not the point, it was still nice anyway that for the first time on her birthday she got presents and people cared that she had been born. Her grandmother came to the party, but her mum didn't, which is sad but not surprising.
This week I got into trouble with the Bishop. Oopsie. In the prayer meeting on Tuesday we sang a song and I laughed through the entire song and afterwards he told me off as if I was a 4 year old. The reason I laughed was because on arriving at the chorus I realised that we were in fact singing a worship song to the tune of "Our sargeant major jumped from 40 thousand feet..." Which just so happens to be one of my favourite songs from back in the day of childhood and Girl Guides. Once I realised what we were singing I just got the giggles and couldn't stop. Well until I got yelled at, that shut me up pretty quickly. For those who aren't familiar with the song, the charming chorus goes, "Glory glory what a hell of a way to die, with your finger up your nose and your toenail in your eye, glory glory what a hell of a way to die, and he ain't gunna jump no more" Genius. So you can see why I found it so funny that we were worshiping but that's what I had in my head. In my defence I hid behind the songbook and was very quiet and I had actually thought no one had noticed untill I got a bollocking. He surprised me though by coming over 2 days later and appologising not for telling me off, but for the
way in which he told me off. I mean really, I know it's a prayer meeting and all, but I find it hard to believe that God didn't find it funny too... He does have a sense of humour after all. Unfortunately now Jessi, his 5 year old Grandaughter, my next door neighbour whom I love dearly but at the same time is the bane of my life, keeps telling me that I'm not allowed to laugh, or that "This isn't funny Sofi..." but when we're just like in the kitchen or something. It's annoying and at the same time worrying, because it means she heard her Grandad talking about how I'm a heathen blasphemer (probably not in those exact words, to be fair) because I laughed in a prayer meeting! Oh dear.
Well it's now my bedtime. Our clocks changed today but of course I haven't got round to changing mine, so it's telling me it's 11:20pm when it fact it's 10:20pm, which is still bedtime really. Alas this means that the time difference between me and you is now 4 hours, and when the clocks change in England somewhen this month it'll be five hours. Which sucks.
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non-member comment
Talk about.....
....lacking a sense of Humour! That's the problem with Protestantism. Well I had to make one inflammatory comment!