It is a fact that saying yes to one thing necessarily means saying no to many others, so even though my heart aches at the thought of all the loved ones I won't see this Christmas, it is also bursting with gratitude for all the rich experiences I am having here in Guinea. I shall try to share a few of them with you.
Almost two weeks ago, my good friend Rebekah got married, and I got to be one of her bridesmaids. Here's a picture.
Last night, the Australian contingent got together and planned a traditional Australian "Carols by Candlelight" sing-along. We all gathered on the dock to eat grilled chicken and sing Christmas Carols. Highlights of the event included: a visit from "the Wiggles" and a very African looking Santa, and getting to hold real candles with real fire on them while we sang. My friend Leanne took this picture. The glowing cups are our home-made candle shields.
It was strange to look at our ship all lit-up last night and think, 'I live in that big blue and white box with about 300 other people.' I've noticed lately, that people here are getting to know me well enough that I am no longer able to pretend my way out of a bad mood. More than a few times over the last few weeks, I've told a friend that I was feeling 'fine,' only to meet skeptical eyes and pointed questions. It's unnerving to have people digging around your feelings until you're all teary and vulnerable. But I really appreciate having people here who care enough about me to help me work through things instead of letting me ignore them until they fester. I know you all would do that for me if you were here. I know you think about me and pray for me. Maybe your prayers are helping my friends here notice things. In any case, I am well taken care of.
Well, it's Christmas Eve, and there are things to do before our special dinner tonight. I've decided to give my students coupons for a free game day sometime this next semester as a Christmas present. Having no Wal-Mart within driving distance really forces a person to get creative in the gift-giving department.
I love you all, and I am holding you in my heart this Christmas.
As Tiny Tim likes to say "God bless us, every one!"
2 comments:
Good morning how are you?
My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Guinea? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Guinea in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Happy Holidays to you too, Sarah. We miss you at Conway School, but we are happy for you too! Please drop us a post card with a return address for you. Also information on how we can help sponsor you financially. Take care! Jennifer W
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