Saturday Post -- 11/12/10

Sorry, folks. After that refreshing, feminine-infused interlude last week, I'm afraid you're stuck with me again. But I'll see if we can hire her for another appearance soon. She's not bad, you know.

BREAKING NEWS: A shop has opened within a stone's throw from our house. It has bread and everything! Our neighbourhood, very much on the brink of Trinidad, is undergoing something of a transformation, with people buying up land and building properties. The dirt track that leads to our flat is fast becoming just another street. So the shop's opening is further proof that we ain't in Kansas no more (when I say 'shop', I refer to an oversized shed, as most such establishments are here). Many's the Saturday morning back home when, with both cupboards and botheredness levels running on empty, we'd nip round to the neighbouring Co-op for some munchies, often in a state of wanton jammie-bedeckedness. So you can no doubt understand our sheer giddiness at the latest turn of events. Right?

If you want another slice of Trinidad life, try this for size. The other week one of our tyres got two major punctures. We took it to a tyre specialist and got the punctures repaired for the princely sum of 25 Bolivianos, or about £2.50. Back home, that would have been a straight replacement. The lack of such resources here leaves you with no other option when it comes to cars, but doesn't it say a lot about us Westerners' disposable outlook on life?

We've had a pretty busy week. Amanda mentioned the graduation ceremony last weekend and we've included a picture from it, above. We thought that was it for 2010 until, on Sunday morning, we got an invitation to another friend's school graduation party, on Monday evening, beginning at 9pm. Now, back in the UK, if you're invited to something, there's usually a good half-hour of leeway re. the actual arrival time. But in Bolivia, if the invite says 'Come at 9pm' what it actually means is 'See you at 11!'.

This left us in a bit of a quandary. You see, we're not getting any younger and rare's the night we're not sound asleep by 10.30pm at the very latest. And, of course, it was a school night. Very much a school night. So we reckoned there was only one thing for it: show up at 9, look like idiots in the process and politely slink away about 90 minutes later.

Well, as Meat Loaf once eloquently put it, two out of three ain't bad. It was at least two hours before the whole party had arrived and the obligatory parade of the new graduates didn't start till about 11.30pm. The rest of the week has therefore been a bit of an upward struggle, energy-wise. However, we're just chuffed that people would think of us in that way and, as you can imagine, it's a great opportunity to develop relationships with some of the families around here.

At work, we've both been busybusybusy, with Amanda really getting into the nitty-gritty of the data processing she's been tasked with, while I'm at the beginning of the long process of preparing curriculums (should that be curriculi?) for next year's Community and English classes. I'm also taking meditations next week, which requires a lot of preparation.

Excitingly, though, we got our Christmas tree up on Wednesday evening. If you haven't already seen the pictures on Facebook, here are a couple. Many thanks to Chicho and Rachel for lending us the tree and decorations. It's my first faker in years, something of a challenge to my principles, but as you have probably guessed by now, like Co-ops, tyres, and most other things, real ones are hard to come by down here.




Prayer
• For Craig as he leads the meditations next week.
• For Amanda as she organises the data for FT’s EPPDATO survey on hearing loss in the Beni region. It’s a huge project, with the deadline at the end of January.

Praise
• For the opportunities in the last week to develop relationships as part of the school graduation festivities.
• For getting through a busy week with significantly reduced energy levels!

¡Que Dios les benidga!

Craig & Amanda