(no subject)
Hola!
So I realise I´ve been here 2 weeks so probably should´ve started a blog before now, but I´ve been so busy doing nothing.
As most of you have probably heard, I spent the whole of my first week wanting to come home really badly. I´ve never felt anything like it before, it´s so weird being here totally on my own. I was so close to jumping on the next flight home.
But this second week has gone by a little quicker and I¨m starting to think that maybe I can stick it out for the full 4 months. I know it will be hard and seem like forever, but I will let a lot of people down if I don´t.
So my day consists of getting up at 6am, having a COLD shower (I suppose I will be glad of it in Summer), driving the 45 minutes to work where I give the kids breakfast, sing songs, play in the sand, feed them dinner, put them all to sleep, have my lunch (only meal of the day! My family have decided not to feed me - maybe I look fat enough? Hmm), then go back to play in the sand some more. I finish at 4 and go home to do absolutely nothing.
I´m loving work, the kids love me (unlike the kids in England, who look at me like I just stole their dummy) and just want cuddles all day long. Which is great because I feel so shit constantly that cuddles are all I want them too. Although I would prefer them off Dave instead of a nit-ridden, snotty kid (I love them really).
The nights are the hardest because I´m just sat on my bed, so all I do is think about home. Although the past 2 nights have been rather interesting...
Thursday night saw me getting a taxi home from work after going to an internet cafe. My house is so far out from the city that every single taxi driver I´ve had gets lost and has to stop for help, yet it never seems to cost more than a fiver.
Anyways, this taxi driver decided to stop and change his tire, while leaving the meter running. Then proceeded to get lost 5 times, stopping for help each time but also getting out the car, locking me in and going to chat with other taxi drivers while drinking their Terrere! So it took an hour to get home and when he wanted 8.50 from me, I said no (8 pound is a ridiculous amount for a taxi here), so we argued for a while, each in our respective languages. Then he decided to pull a knife out on me! So I gave him a tenner and jumped out.
And lastnight, Fanny (my "mama") told me I had to get the bus home (I had got it to work on the morning, and had to hang on the side because it was so full. This seems to be the thing to do here...). So I got the number she told me to, and after riding for an hour, decided that I was totally lost and got off before I ended up in Brazil. I called Lisa (fellow GAPper) but then ran out of credit, so just sat on the pavement outside a shop, in the pitch dark, crying like a baby and hoping that she would sort things out for me. 2 hours later, Fanny picked me up and couldnt apologise enough, so maybe she told me the wrong bus? I don´t know.
By the way, Terrere is a drink. Before I came, previous GAPpers told me about it and how absolutely everyone drank it here. But I didn´t realise it would be so popular. Everybody carries around these huge flasks full of water, and a strange leather cup with metal straw attatched, filled with chopped up leaves (literally just leaves! the guard outside the Anglo lastweek was picking them from the tree!), and topped up with water. Apparently it tastes like cold tea, but I disagree. Paraguayans are big on sharing, and is considered extremely rude if you don´t accept to drink their Terrere. But it tastes like shite! I tend to put the straw in my mouth and smile.
Well I´m sure I´ll get to an internet cafe tomorrow (it´s all there is to do on weekends), but tonight we are going out for a drink for the first time. It´s an English bar called Britannia, so may be ok.
Love and miss you all. x