NOW WITH PICS! Too much gin, dancing to bad music and painting stuff green...

We had a lovely evening last night, a meal with Aida, Flo and Silvina (the middle sister) and Aida led a round of applause on how much Spanish I had learnt in a week, and she said we were the nicest couple they´d had stay yet (Aida tends to get the couples because they have a double room to let). I joked she probably says that to all of them.

Catherine and Jen came round and we headed out for a few drinks about 10ish.

Found a bar and ordered a G&T. The biggest ever (a full tall glass of gin & ice, a bottle of tonic AND a double-shot glass on the side, with...more gin), for just over a quid. I actually felt giddy after half of it and we left the bar a couple of hours later with it still only half drunk (as was I).

There is, as yet, no T in my G, and note the shot glass of extra G.

Decided to stick to cola in ´Power´, which we hit about 1.20am. The club was weirdly full of boys. Where were all the chicas?! I wondered if we´d hit a gay night, but Flo´s told me tonight at dinner that the boys tend to hit the town on a Friday, the girls and couples on a Saturday. How very strange. How do the single boys and girls meet in the first place?!

C & I struggled to find one of the 8 rooms in the club playing any music we actually knew or liked (OK we are both music snobs, but still), so after a vain attempt at a bit of a dance to some electronica, we decided, seeing as we´d pulled anyway, to go home by about 3. Still can´t get used to Latino socialising hours. ´Mucho mas chicos´ were arriving as we left, and C was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. God, are we getting *that* old?!

Next day, up to the DIY store before 12 (they all shut after that) and I managed to ask for blackboard paint, roller tray, rollers, brush, sandpaper and a sanding block (OK, I cheated with mime and a bit of pointing and drawing). As the point of language is to make yourself understood though, I was quite pleased with this random achievement - and all before breakfast.

We met Fabiana at 3pm outside ´la escuela´. She´d brought her 2 ´sobrinas´ (nieces), Macarena and Camila (again!) aged 6 and 15, who, all unexpectedly, started helping us sand the board down. Many hands, light work, and C and I were left to paint the board eventually (Fabiana did try to ´help´ but I kept having to stop her making a mess and offering un-needed advice, in Spanish, bless her).

Fabiana, Macarena, Camila and C get sanding

Macarena, with sooty moustache from the sanding

Macarena shows off her sooty hands. Cute, huh?!

In between coats, C & I went out for a little break and casually watched a few local boys playing a footy game on the red-earth pitch over the road. Little Macarena, who had become our unofficial ´helper´ followed us out. She shyly informed us she didn´t like football but loves ´el basket´ (basketball is huge out here too) and then started hiding behind things and appearing as I played at ´Donde es Macarena?!´.

As we sipped maté in the sun with Fabriana and Camila, F informed us her nieces actually had 4 other ´hermanos´ who lives in a ´refugio´ as their father had died of leukaemia five years previously. Their mother didn´t care about her 6 kids, and F had taken these two girls in to raise with her own son, Lucas, 11, but unfortunately she couldn´t take them all in as her house was too small. (Are you amazed I´m understanding this much Spanish?! I am!).

I thought of the kids at C´s hellish-sounding refugio and shuddered. How could their mother could give up on her six children and split the family up like that? And how amazing is F, taking in these children, holding down a job and renovating her school in her spare time? I found out today that she, the head and another school director, Cristina (the one who keeps trying to get me off with the maths teacher), also attacked the guttering, roofing, gardens and changed the rotten windows, helped by money from donations.

It´s obvious F adores children, and seeing her with the kids at school, that they do her. Camila sweetly leant in, kissed her ´tia´ (auntie) and said ´Ella es mi madre´.
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Second coat and the board, I have to say, looks spanking new. I´ll post some pics when I´ve worked out how to do it. My slight fear is that my baby-Spanish has meant we got paint that was merely the *colour* of a green blackboard as opposed to actual blackboard paint (it had a picture of a house on the tin, confusingly). I´ll see on Monday when I can´t rub the words off, I guess!

That´s not real chalk. It´s a pen top. The camera *does* lie, see.

We left F and the kids at their little house (it is *tiny*), played with her dog ´Junior´ for a bit and headed home, exhausted by an honest day´s graft in the heat.

Dinner tonight was a girls night in (Flo, Mariana, Silvina, me, Camila the dog...and C). Lots of banter, mainly at poor C´s expense, being the only man...and M commented how much my Spanish had come on too. Yay!

We looked at the kids on C´s camera, and I did end up shedding a tipsy tear when I saw the kid he´d bonded with most, a 4 year old boy who looks like a tiny Tiger Woods, with a face that lights up when he smiles, which C said, is a lot. What chance do these kids have? What happens when we (and other voluntarios, who bond with these kids) leave?

As I type, C´s gone to bed, he´s been wiped out all day, I guess after a very intense week, and Flo and her chicas are having a drink before going clubbing (it´s midnight and they´ve not headed out yet).

After today´s manual labour, I´m ready for bed too...

Bummer...I *am* getting old...!