I love the BBC

13 September 2008


I made tortillas today while listening to the football match between Manchester and somebody (two richest teams in the league?) It wouldn’t be my first choice for my listening pleasure, but sometimes it’s just inexplicably nice to listen to people speaking English.
I’ve become quite attached to my short wave radio. I listen to BBC World Service almost every morning while I get ready. It’s so nice to get the news and be able to understand more than just the general concepts. When I can occasionally get a show that does current event analysis, I get really excited. Once I’m finished with the book of fiction I’m currrently devouring, I’ve really got to get my hands on some non-fiction current events book. I really miss it.
Not that I read much of books of that genre while I was in Edinburgh – but I was so busy with my 2 (or 3) jobs that I hardly had any reading time at all (what with a full social schedule and a very chatty flatmate – I miss you, dude!)
In any case, its’ great to have the chance to use my leisure time to catch up on the type of books I spent my years at university working through. A couple of other volunteers and I are thinking about trying to work our way through the recommended list of books for foreign service applicants. Not sure I want to join the foreign service, but I’d love the reading, and there’s nothing bad about keeping options open.
I was relatively stationery today. There was a wedding in a nearby village. I thought my homologue was going to come by to pick me up to go with her, but she never did. So I spent several hours sitting in my nice complet, with a necklace and some mascara and everything but for nothing. Eventually I changed, did some sweeping and made tortillas – I’m going to make tuna and sprout wraps tomorrow yum yum!
I’ve started doing “work” in the village, which is great. I went to a meeting about rice farmers and was able to introduce myself, although I didn’t really participate any further than that. I learned a couple new words like engrais=fertilizer. Not the standard vocabulary I’d learned in French lessons.
In my downtime, in order to help establish a routine and get me out into the village every day I’ve gone ahead with the couturiere apprenticeship. I’ve been doing a lot of sewing exercises- various ways of hemming by hand, sewing buttonholes, etc. It’s tedious, but any new skill is until you have the basics down. So that’s been fun, mostly having the chance to hang out with the other apprentices and listen to them chat in Ewe. One of the girls speaks French well, so she’s kind of the intermediary. I’m going to start making more of an effort to speak Ewe and write down what I learn next week.
It is nice to be able to take it slow- knowing I’ve got two years here.
I love the BBC.