#16 - Sunni day

18/02/11

Shaved Andrew again this morning.
Yesterday was with his electric to sculpt, and today was with a manual to get rid of excess stubble and give him some killer sideburns.

The bites are fairly annoying, not going to lie. But I don´t want to waste the insect repellant so I´ll tolerate them for now - at least I can moan on here and no-one can really complain back.

Our training today was about a method called The Camel, which is a method for reaching out to and engaging with Muslims. It has features such as quotes from the Qur´an which confirm the deity of Jesus and yet that is against their doctrine - this is because from an early age, they simply have to memories the Qur´an and are not allowed to debate or dispute its teachings.
It was very interesting because I have so much respect and love for the Muslim community - they get such a bad rep because a tiny minority commit terrorist atrocities which are completely in contrary to the teachings of the Qur´an.

Had our daily trip to the Panaderia - as we arrived a massive rain storm erupted so me and Jarett were trapped there for an hour.
It was such an unfortunate situation - trapped for one hour in a cake shop.
We had no choice but to, in desparation, try loads of the cakes. After all, we had no idea how long our predicament would last so we were being sensible by stocking up on nutrients and carbohydrates.
The cakes were absolutely gurtlush - one was a cinnamony pastry with icing and a cherry on top.

Ryan came over in the afternoon to talk to us about cultural differences that we need to be prepared for.
There were three different categories: time, communication and the role of the self.
For instance, over here the attitude to timings is relaxed so if I asked someone to come round for 8, they would consider it rude to come at 8 as that regresses the relationship to a businesslike meeting.
Instead they´d come at around 9 to show we were good friends.
This would infuriate me.

I can´t explain enough how Ryan is the nicest guy you could ever meet - he has such a contagiously friendly personality. And he´s some company for the Americans to talk to in their improper accents.
On that note, I stuck the English flag on the door to the training room so for the past three days, we´ve all been training under witness of Her Majesty. Not sure the Americans have noticed yet.

Us guys felt we were perhaps annoying the girls earlier - we were using the volleyball for football as it´s so nice and soft, but they were complaining (with justification, it has to be said) that kicking it deflates it.
But we carried on.
This also happened to coincide with Ryan´s talk on the stages of team morale and how sooner or later, the honeymoon period would be over and we ought to be prepared for disagreements and things not going completely smoothly.
It´s certainly something to watch out for and luckily we´re all aware of it.
Partly with this in mind, we let them use the volleyball for volleyball (even though there´s no net) - men can be generous. And we did all the washing up that accumulated from lunch and dinner which took a good half an hour, which I hope they noted as they ought to be setting the example and completing the tasks society has assigned them.
That was a joke by the way, the sort of joke that us guys may now restrict so I´ll save them for here.

Dinner was beautiful as well - Lucy Maria (the housekeeper who also cooks and is an absolute legend) is a brilliant chef. It was some local delicacy that was kind of starchy and fried - a great combination.

I´ve decided to get more sleep as I´m averaging about 6 and a half hours a night which is more than I averaged when I worked for Starbucks but still, on top of the training it´s difficult.
The time is currently 9:48pm so I could realistically be in bed by 10:30 which would be the earliest time for a good few months.

We´re now almost 10 days in - seems so much longer than that, home is a distant memory.
A few times a day I think about home and just want to be there, back in normality, more than anything - things are great here but part of me always wants the comfort of being back in the UK.
Seems like so long until I´ll be home.

Andy just came up to me, farted, then left.

Quick apology for mocking Luke yesterday - it was unnecessary and it´s his birthday today so happy birthday mate.

Hope you have a nice day.

JG