Home Is Where The Heart Is
October 30th Monday
It has been so long since I've written. I apologize if you all have been coming here hoping for something. There have been many things I could have wrote about, but it has been a tiring time.
Yes, my birthday went by uneventfully. I received a wonderful present from my two sisters. They made a small photo album with photos of Faith and me. Though we've been together for such a long time, we have so few photographs together. I have a whole bunch of her, but being as unphotogenic as I, I try my best to avoid breaking the camera lenses. It's a nice album to remember the times we've had. Thank you both, dearest sisters.
I volunteered to help out in a children's Halloween carnival on Friday night. It's a weird festival, not one we have back home. I learnt that Halloween came from a day to remember and mourn the dead, and turned into something totally ugh (to quote the teacher who was telling me its history). I was put in charge of a stall where kids paid a quarter (25 cents) to throw three bean bags into holes put in a board at a chance of winning candy. One thing I learnt here is that candy is not plural like back home. At home, we say you have two or three pieces of candy. After a few failed attempts at communication, I realised the phrase here is "you have three candies". English I've more or less figured out, it's American I have these problems with. :)
On Saturday I volunteered to build low-cost houses with Habitat for Humanity. It was a great experience. Unlike other volunteering activities I had attended, there was little or almost no time where I was uncomfortable. The very moment I stepped unto the soft mud of the site, the site supervisor made all of us feel at home, and put us right to work. I shoveled sand and gravel, mixed concrete, laid huge bricks and ate donuts. Donuts never tasted so good, despite my less than sanitary hands. It felt wonderful that the home owners were there working with us. The people who volunteer their strength and sweat are not the rich who have it good, but the ones who have just enough. Where are the rich? I hope I will never forget this lesson. There is brotherhood in the poor. I guess in many ways I will always belong there.
I made a wonderful friend from the listserv of my eroticism and love in the Middle Ages class. Alyssa has been most encouraging over the whole listserv incident. I am thankful for her comfort. She carves the most beautiful pumpkins. I had no idea you could put anything but those ugly faces on them. Well, new things I'm learning everyday.
I registered for next semester's classes. I'm really looking forward to them. There's an acting class which I feel will be interesting. I'm not a total extrovert who loves to perform. I do not bask in the center of attention or enjoy being seen. What I love about being the midst of people's attention is the chance to touch people, to make them feel again. Too many things in life numb us. It's the amazing feeling of quickening.
I still can't get my computer program to work. Will head back to it now. Goodnight you all.
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