11/03/2011 (posted 17/03/2011)
Wasn't aware of any more cockroaches crawling around me during the night but I guess I wouldn't have been as I was asleep.
Woke up at 6:15 for my morning wash in the river, which was absolute AGONY as the sunburn was stinging an awful lot. It felt even worse when I got out.
One positive however was that I finally had an opportunity to shave! Baltin trimmed around my neck last week as he was decimating my hair but for the first time in around two weeks, I'm clean shaven. It feels so good.
Put some suncream on to moisturise my skin when I got back to the house - it was SO painful to move my shoulders, I mean REALLY painful. As I moved my arms it felt like I was just ripping skin from my back. I probably was.
At 8:30 (well 9 really, Panamanian timing) some local kids started arriving. Every child from this neighbourhood plus some from local communities came and we played some games, painted faces, made bracelets etc. for about 3 hours.
They seemed to enjoy it, especially one act called The Grecian Fountains. Jonny and Christina were carried on wearing white t-shirts and trousers and were each given a jug of water and a glass. They filled the glass, held the water in their mouth and then spat it either in the air above their head or at eachother to mimic Grecian fountains.
It was absoulutely hilarious and I have a photo of water mid-air travelling from Jonny's mouth en route to Christina's face.
The afternoon was spent doing more work on the altar.
We absolutely caned the clay area and did an awful lot of work towards the finished article - we're still not sure if we'll get it quite finished by the end of our time here though, we only have Sunday left.
In the West our machines could do this work in a matter of seconds but we're essentiall moving a hill of clay from one place to another which is tough work.
We snacked on some Panamanian Guava - over here, what we call Guavas are called Guayabas and what they call Guavas have no English translation.
At 4:30 we called it a day and went to the river to wash some clothes and cool down. Andy and I stayed after the others left and had a long chat about life and everything.
We were in a shallow sandy area and some tiny fish came over and nibbled our feet and legs - it tickled a lot but felt really nice all the same. I used a combination of these fish and sand to exfoliate and properly scrub my feet clean and I left feeling very fresh indeed.
However none of us had a watch on us and by the time we got back, got changed and got to the church it was 6:40. It turned out dinner had been at 6, and ours was sitting there cold.
Oops.
It was nice though, and I even enjoyed the Banana and Coconut cake! Perhaps I'm slightly warming to the taste of banana, but I still hate the texture and a more plausible reason for liking the cake was that it was cake.
We spent the evening relaxing and playing Uno for the first time in ages which was lovely. My sunburn is feeling slightly better but it beginning to peel.
We're now drawing to the end of our week here and are almost halfway through our mission here in Panama - it's amazing to think how much I've learned in this time and that a month ago, I didn't know these people who are now great friends of mine.
It's 8:50 - positively late! Must get sleep before my ritualistic morning dunk at 6:15am, where I will once again be in agony. Damn sunburn.
JG
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