Someone's ear is in danger of having hair brushed over it...

This was mostly written Tuesday...

I came home last night to a very animated discussion mid-swing between the 24-year-old Italian, incredibly devout Christian and the house father, a 60-something-year-old Muslim. Also, I think the Italian only recently had major revelations about God after his girlfriend of 6 years didn’t want to get married. But I merely got the gist of that from the others. I ate and then joined my two French roommates in our room where the door only mostly closes, but it didn't really matter, since they were just outside the door anyway.

We tried to quietly do our own thing but I finally started laughing because it was ridiculous. It was pissing Julia off because she went to church with the Italian the other day and he is an especially obnoxious breed who lectures and judges. She smokes and he went off about how hard it was for him to watch her smoke because she’s killing herself and he wants to help her—you get the idea. She, on the other hand, considers herself a believer but really loathes that sort.

I laughed and said I’m sorry, but it’s people like that who have actually made me anti-religious. Maud leaned down from the top bunk and high-fived me. Maud is usually so quiet but she definitely has her opinions.

I think after another hour they stopped. Thank fuck.

Yet another day of no internet. And yet I have acquired a fourth case passed off from Scottish Andy who leaves today. It’s an incredibly depressing case but just involves finding shelter for this guy and his brother. I won’t go into what this guy has been through, but he is a refugee from Rwanda, with a Tutsi and Hutu parent each, neither of whom survived. And that’s just the beginning. But it’s really hard to find shelters because of their age difference and the fact they are male—the shelters are very full and they can’t be separated.

Ok, I’m back in my shitty dive bar. I like this place because I can work on wifi and they have outlets. And no work people come here. I think it’s because it’s a hole in the wall that’s really hard to find it. I found it accidentally. I do like the people I work with, but I also quite like to not see them every second of the day.

Today I had to walk up to the main office to use their net and phones. So I did get some stuff done. I walked instead of taking the minibus. I haven’t been doing things like HIKING TABLE MOUNTAIN, as some people have, but I also feel like I’ve not been getting ANY exercise, so that made me feel a tiny bit better. Of course, the beer I’m having now is totally contradicting any good that did. But considering that it was sort of a shit day content-wise, you bet your ass I’m havin’ these beers.

Ok, it’s Thursday. I have no idea where the week has gone, but it has been so unproductive at work. Not having internet or phones will do that. A bunch of us moved to the other office and I went upstairs to use the phone in the journalism office. The journalism office was mildly chatty, there are only about eight of them in there. By the time I got done with my first phone call, yeah, they were totally silent. I almost giggled. It wasn’t an unpleasant conversation, but the contents of it certainly were (I was updating the husband of the woman who was sterilized). So I hogged their phone for the rest of the day, and I need to use it again today. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.

On a completely random note, I have noticed how much fun the language barrier can be. A couple examples:

French Anthony turning to British Aimee and asking, “What is ‘slap’?” But it was too easy to actually cave in and slap him.

French Emily turning around to British Liam, giving him a look and getting in response a cheeky, “Are those your bedroom eyes?” to which she laughed and asked, “’Bedroom eyes’? What is this?” I honestly don’t recall what he said, I so wish I could.

And in the same day, I had to explain to DM what “spontaneous” and “rim job” meant, but not in the same sentence luckily. As soon as he asked what it was, I so regretted having gone there! (We were discussing my having worked in a theater, just fyi.)

Ok, back to work...