“Not much”, I think is the answer. Although, that’s not quite correct, I’ve had quite an adventurous weekend (in the mildest sense of the word). Let me see, where do I start?
Well, Thursday when I last wrote was really good. I got to join with a team for a bit in the evening, which was really good fun and it lifted my spirits as I am totally a team person! The whole week had been quite tense because of adjustments with our household and people coming and going. On Saturday two of the girls I shared with were moving out and since Friday night they were packing, my other housemate and I went shopping. We figured it was easier to not get caught up in the chaos that packing to move houses is. It was fun to go shopping, even if we only went to Wall-Mart and HyVee (big grocery and other thing shops). We got a few bits and pieces for the house to make it more homely and generally just had fun looking at all the stuff they have. We’d decided that when the other girls had moved we’d do a big clean of the house (no point doing it before as we all know that moving boxes and things around isn’t in itself a clean and tidy endeavour). (And I also got a really nice and snugly warm winter jacket at a bargain price at Wall Mart, which I have been very grateful for the last few days, as it’s been cold outside).
Saturday morning I went off to my Spanish class, and realised that I need to work on not watering out my accent when I speak English. My teacher wanted to use me as an example of someone from a different country who speaks English well, but who still has a slight accent they will never get rid off. It was a little bit awkward to try to explain in a nice way that I am actually totally bilingual and that English was my first language (I didn’t add the last bit). But the thing is, that being here I notice myself picking up the American ways of saying things and the way they pronounce their words. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it’s as if I’m subconsciously thinking they won’t understand me unless I do so, which of course isn’t true. So these last few days I’ve tried to stick to British English and not mix it with American English. However, I do see that it’ll probably slide again…I remember once in Fortaleza when we’d had a team of Americans with us I was praying and said “Gawd” (as in “God” with an American pronunciation). My friend Andrew politely and lovingly corrected me and said “It’s “God”, Els, not “Gawd”. I still laugh at that one. I need some British people around me to keep me on my toes.
Well, back to my cleaning story. Those of you who know me in a house setting know that I quite enjoy cleaning and so does my housemate (or roommate as it’s called here, even if you all have your own rooms. My conclusion is that it’s because the common rooms are rooms you share and so you are “mates” in those rooms. Who knows where it came from to start with, and it’s not really that important either). Anyway, the girl who is still sharing the house with me (who didn’t move out) and I set about cleaning and after three and a half hours had the house spick and span smelling clean and looking sparkly and shining! It was a good feeling and it felt so much lighter. It now feels like home in a way it didn’t before!
Sunday morning came, the sky was blue and it was quite nippy outside, although otherwise a beautiful day. Melissa (my housemate) and I were stood in the kitchen eating breakfast and enjoying our clean house when one of the girls from downstairs (there is a separate flat in the cellar- or as you’d say it here “a separate apartment in the basement”) knocks on a our door wanting to borrow our shower as the floor downstairs is covered with water. Hmm…a wee bit disconcerting. But of course we were happy to let her use our shower and I didn’t think anymore of it (like the fact that taking another shower might add to the amount of water downstairs). I checked that she’d let someone know and she said she’d rung the landlady.
The shorter version of how this all continued is that the cellar was flooded because the drains weren’t working (i.e. draining), and so we weren’t allowed to use any water. At first we thought they’d turned it off, but then we realised that we had water, we just couldn’t use the drains. That of course made it possible to stay in the house even with some restrictions. It was quite amusing to be washing up dishes in a bucket and then chuck the dirty water on the lawn. A recycling bin is also a good addition to the bucket if there is a lot of dirty water. To go to the toilet we’d just nip down the road to the prayer room as it’s of course open 24/7. It felt a bit like camping (especially yesterday when going for lunch at my friend’s I brought shower stuff so I could have a shower). Thankfully it was sorted out yesterday and by the evening we were allowed to use the drains again. It really made me aware of how much we take for granted and how much we use water.
I am sat here writing this in the prayer room. I have earplugs in as the music is quite loud and the good thing about these earplugs is that they “turn down” the volume but I can still hear everything and join in + (and this is the best part) for some reason they block background noise like people chatting or shuffling stuff, and so it’s easier to focus. We just finished a 2-hour intercession set where we prayed a lot for the local schools and the government, and now we’ve just started a Worship With the Word, where the worship team basically sings around a passage of scripture. It is so good! On the front right of the room a bunch of people are standing on the lifelines- praying for justice, and next to me people are pacing back and forth. Just another Tuesday in the prayer room I guess you could say.
It is good to be here and be a part of this. It is good settle more. Today my landlady and handyman were rearranging furniture and sorting some more bits and bobs out in the house and I am really looking forward to when things are in order so that I can really settle and not spend so much time on the practical sorting out of things.
So that’s a little update. There is a lot more I could write, and I have wanted to- some days I’ve been like “yeah, I should write that on my blog” and then it’s just slipped from my mind. I need to get better at writing things down straight away.
Until next time (whenever that may be).
Well, Thursday when I last wrote was really good. I got to join with a team for a bit in the evening, which was really good fun and it lifted my spirits as I am totally a team person! The whole week had been quite tense because of adjustments with our household and people coming and going. On Saturday two of the girls I shared with were moving out and since Friday night they were packing, my other housemate and I went shopping. We figured it was easier to not get caught up in the chaos that packing to move houses is. It was fun to go shopping, even if we only went to Wall-Mart and HyVee (big grocery and other thing shops). We got a few bits and pieces for the house to make it more homely and generally just had fun looking at all the stuff they have. We’d decided that when the other girls had moved we’d do a big clean of the house (no point doing it before as we all know that moving boxes and things around isn’t in itself a clean and tidy endeavour). (And I also got a really nice and snugly warm winter jacket at a bargain price at Wall Mart, which I have been very grateful for the last few days, as it’s been cold outside).
Saturday morning I went off to my Spanish class, and realised that I need to work on not watering out my accent when I speak English. My teacher wanted to use me as an example of someone from a different country who speaks English well, but who still has a slight accent they will never get rid off. It was a little bit awkward to try to explain in a nice way that I am actually totally bilingual and that English was my first language (I didn’t add the last bit). But the thing is, that being here I notice myself picking up the American ways of saying things and the way they pronounce their words. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it’s as if I’m subconsciously thinking they won’t understand me unless I do so, which of course isn’t true. So these last few days I’ve tried to stick to British English and not mix it with American English. However, I do see that it’ll probably slide again…I remember once in Fortaleza when we’d had a team of Americans with us I was praying and said “Gawd” (as in “God” with an American pronunciation). My friend Andrew politely and lovingly corrected me and said “It’s “God”, Els, not “Gawd”. I still laugh at that one. I need some British people around me to keep me on my toes.
Well, back to my cleaning story. Those of you who know me in a house setting know that I quite enjoy cleaning and so does my housemate (or roommate as it’s called here, even if you all have your own rooms. My conclusion is that it’s because the common rooms are rooms you share and so you are “mates” in those rooms. Who knows where it came from to start with, and it’s not really that important either). Anyway, the girl who is still sharing the house with me (who didn’t move out) and I set about cleaning and after three and a half hours had the house spick and span smelling clean and looking sparkly and shining! It was a good feeling and it felt so much lighter. It now feels like home in a way it didn’t before!
Sunday morning came, the sky was blue and it was quite nippy outside, although otherwise a beautiful day. Melissa (my housemate) and I were stood in the kitchen eating breakfast and enjoying our clean house when one of the girls from downstairs (there is a separate flat in the cellar- or as you’d say it here “a separate apartment in the basement”) knocks on a our door wanting to borrow our shower as the floor downstairs is covered with water. Hmm…a wee bit disconcerting. But of course we were happy to let her use our shower and I didn’t think anymore of it (like the fact that taking another shower might add to the amount of water downstairs). I checked that she’d let someone know and she said she’d rung the landlady.
The shorter version of how this all continued is that the cellar was flooded because the drains weren’t working (i.e. draining), and so we weren’t allowed to use any water. At first we thought they’d turned it off, but then we realised that we had water, we just couldn’t use the drains. That of course made it possible to stay in the house even with some restrictions. It was quite amusing to be washing up dishes in a bucket and then chuck the dirty water on the lawn. A recycling bin is also a good addition to the bucket if there is a lot of dirty water. To go to the toilet we’d just nip down the road to the prayer room as it’s of course open 24/7. It felt a bit like camping (especially yesterday when going for lunch at my friend’s I brought shower stuff so I could have a shower). Thankfully it was sorted out yesterday and by the evening we were allowed to use the drains again. It really made me aware of how much we take for granted and how much we use water.
I am sat here writing this in the prayer room. I have earplugs in as the music is quite loud and the good thing about these earplugs is that they “turn down” the volume but I can still hear everything and join in + (and this is the best part) for some reason they block background noise like people chatting or shuffling stuff, and so it’s easier to focus. We just finished a 2-hour intercession set where we prayed a lot for the local schools and the government, and now we’ve just started a Worship With the Word, where the worship team basically sings around a passage of scripture. It is so good! On the front right of the room a bunch of people are standing on the lifelines- praying for justice, and next to me people are pacing back and forth. Just another Tuesday in the prayer room I guess you could say.
It is good to be here and be a part of this. It is good settle more. Today my landlady and handyman were rearranging furniture and sorting some more bits and bobs out in the house and I am really looking forward to when things are in order so that I can really settle and not spend so much time on the practical sorting out of things.
So that’s a little update. There is a lot more I could write, and I have wanted to- some days I’ve been like “yeah, I should write that on my blog” and then it’s just slipped from my mind. I need to get better at writing things down straight away.
Until next time (whenever that may be).