Yet another week has passed which means time for another
blog. I’m writing this over a delicious dinner of jam and toast with bread that
I had to traverse a country to buy (I took the canoe over to Suriname this
morning for a cheeky spot of shopping- what is that about??). Let’s just say
that with only a small fridge and no freezer between 5 people and an ice-tray
that leaks and spills fridge-juice everywhere, I am going to have to start
being creative with what can be considered a meal.
Update on all things my life:
The feet: Good news! It seemed for a while over the weekend
that the whole fungus/ worm/ unknown thing was improving, however it now seems
it could have just been the anti-itch cream which was reducing the reaction.
Bad times- it seems to have spread to my hands as well. The whole thing is
becoming rather non-drole. But: I’m still trying hard with positivity, so not
going to moan.
The Christmas present: So, after having been exciting about
a package in the mail coming my way for well over 3 weeks, I received a letter
from customs today saying that unless I can provide a receipt for the goods
inside it is going to be sent back to England. I am hoping that a handwritten
letter explaining that it is a Christmas present from my family and please, please
can I have it, will be enough.
The teaching: Last week I made approximately 200 Christmas
cards with the children. I promised to send them all to England. I even
promised to send one to the queen. I am
such a liar. This week we are making snowflakes. I’m not even bothering with
English anymore, we are going for, this is a cultural thing that all English
school children must enjoy every Christmas season. I’m hoping for some more
inspiration in the new year.
*Note: Dear teacher of CM2 at Terre Rouge, putting a bag of
Christmas decorations on the floor and handing a staple gun to 10-year-old, is
NOT an acceptable way to spend 45 minutes.
The Nenge Tongo lessons: Mi wani ferstan Nenge ma a de
fanado di mi taki moro. Mi musso du moro! Ha! Try and find a translation for
that one on word reference. Two classes in and three to go, I think I really
need to do some revision tomorrow. The teacher announced that he was worried
about me and Katie’s progress at the last lesson. Well, it is potentially
because 1) he goes at a million miles an hour 2) Its the only thing I have
actually had to use my brain for, for a number of months or 3) The fact that
because he is teaching in French, for us, every word has to go through 2
translations in my head in a number of seconds Nenge-French-English. Even
though Nenge is supposedly 45% English based, sometimes when you go through
French you lose all sense of the similarity. For instance it took me almost a
whole lesson to work out that kondre (con-dree) is actually not that far away
from country. Through pays in the middle and its easy to get confused! Never
mind. Tomorrow, I plan on doing a cheeky bit of revision with a Desparados when
school finishes at 10:30am? Too early for a beer? Well, it is nearly Christmas,
not that you would know from the 33 degree-ness that persists.
The weekend: Really fun actually! Laura, a girl that we met
in Trinidad and again in Tobago, flew over for a week of exploring South
America and came to stay for the weekend. As she arrived on Thursday, we had
the perfect excuse for a long weekend. (Ok, I did have to work 3 hours on
Friday, but in my mind it was a long weekend.) We rented a car whoop! (we are
not going to talk about the 1800 euro deposit on MY card that doesn’t seem to
have been refunded yet... am I panicking.. no... not panicking... no panic
here.... will check again tomorrow :S) But yes, the car was great for freedom
and Friday afternoon we were picking up the car and heading straight for a swim
in the river – so much nicer knowing you don’t have to bike back! We then got
dragged around by a friend of a friend and ended up at the worst restaurant
ever. Waited over an hour to be presented with a pile of soggy chips and a
piranha with eyes and teeth that had been fried so much you couldn’t actually
pull it apart, let alone enjoy it. The night did improve luckily. Me and Laura
pre-drank to chase and status in our kitchen with a bottle of 3 euro rum. That
was finished soon enough so we headed down to the Mombari for a boogie and some
more rum. I asked for one beer and one ti-punch, got presented with three
beers. Told bartender I only wanted 1 beer. 5 mins later, she comes back with 3
ti-punch. No! One of each. Evil glare ensued. We moved onto Chez Ones in the
Charbo until around 4 before retiring. (We won’t tell the rental car people
about the jokes time we fitted 7 people into a kia picanto :S)
Saturday
was a late started due to slighttt Rum headaches and general laziness. Checked
out the Christmas market and the normal market and then bought all the
ingredients to have a typical French picnic. Except it was the 8th
December and we picnicked in bikini’s by a creek. We had lots of cheese,
baguette, salami... and that seems to about cover the French diet. It was
really nice just driving around and seeing some different scenery and places
even though we didn’t go that far. Checked out Apatou and stopped by some
waterfall things on the way back. However, no one seemed to like my mp3 player
choices and kept swapping to the Caribbean reggae Cd we have heard a million
times and quite possibly could provide most of the top 10 worst songs ever in
the world. I was not impressed. They only made it 4 bars into 1D and skipped
earthquake before it could even get going! Saturday night was more chilled, and
involved juice and cookies from the hut by the river, pizza takeaway and lots
of Gavin and Stacey. Perf.
Sunday:
Bright and early start to make the most of the car which had to be back by 3 to
the garage. Drove to Mana and then onto Awala-Yalimapo (bit of a mouthful) for
some beach time! We did manage to pick the first consistently cloudy day we
have had since we got here to go, but in somes it was nice. Almost like an
authentic English beach experience, except I could still swim in the sea in
December without dying of hypothermia. We saw where the ocean meets the Maroni
river and lots of people kite-surfing
and even snuck in a nap. On the way back to St. Laurent we stopped in Javouhey.
This is a Hmong village so the people are (their ancestors probably) were
refugees from Laos who were brought here by the French government to do
agriculture and provide fruit and veg. The climate here is also quite similar
to laos. There was a craft market and I bought yet another traveller style
purse with a long strap – you can never have enough! And we then went to one of
the many food stalls for some delicious spring rolls and other South-East Asian
delights. Not sure pineapple cake is one of these delights, but, I bought that
anyway! It was such a nice Sunday morning thing to do, and obviously popular
with the metropols as the place was crawling with them. The afternoon was a
blur of more napping, dropping of the car and sorting out petrol money, but we
were back on track by the evening.
For
weeks now I have been attempting to hit-up the local “chorale”, but I’m either
not in St. Laurent until late Sunday night, or tired, or some other reason. But
this week I was determined as one of the teachers I work with had specifically
invited me. After a fair bit of biking slowly looking shady, I found the place
and was like, erm, please can I come sing ? Everyone was really welcoming and
I’m definitely going to try and go every week I’m in St. Laurent. The level is
slightly... school standard, but, it’s just nice to be singing and if nothing
else it is really good sight-singing and French-language singing practice.
Afterwards, me and Laura went to the Goelette (bar on a boat, jazz music), for
a cheeky despé (desparados) to finish of the weekend and chill out. And Voila
another week down, and only 17 days until I fly to Miami to meet a certain Mr.
James Sanderson. More than psyched to hear some good music and be in a proper
club and chill by a pool and the beach!
All that stands between me and the holidays are a further
100 christmas cards and 250 snowflakes. On y va!
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