Good Weekend everyone.
so, brian and I are exhausted, seriously. The stretch of good weather has outlasted us. We have worked all day everyday for the past three days and we're about spent. We need a rest. We have been mixing tons of concrete by hand (not quick-crete) which is difficult and has led to my right hand being covered in cement. It has leaked into my pores, soaked up the water and cured. So my skin is dying. Great. Not to mention, it's extremely painful, like having your hand on fire. Washing, doesn't seem to do the trick. It was also a strange sensation of fatigue. Normally when I get tired, I feel tired, and my muscles ache or are sore or something. Well I felt completely fine yesterday but the cinder blocks we were building with seemed about 5 times as heavy. What the hell? They seriously went from like 20 pounds a block to 40 pounds a block (so I guess only 2 times as heavy). But still. Lifting 96 40 pound blocks over your head and then trying to mortar them while holding them in place is extremely draining. But we are ready to put up our new roof. And the weather is still holding out...
However, two friends of ours are in the country and so. a break is in order. hooray. We haven't seen many of our stray dog friends lately which is sad. There was a large article in the local paper about how a stray dog bit a local child. We are afraid, all our stray dog friends have been killed.
So yeah. I will have more to report come Monday. But for now, work work work. Things are coming along nicely. I post some pics of the work after this weekend. Enjoy.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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Well, it would seem that your understanding of the community you’ve moved into remains as sketchy as ever. Ah well, at least you’re trying.
ReplyDeleteIf you think you’ve experienced anything remotely approaching cold weather, you haven’t. Wait until November and the wind starts whipping off the Swilly and blasts through every nook and cranny. I strongly recommend the big guy ditches those shorts!! (As a matter of good taste if nothing else.)
Although I strongly suspect there may be more culture in a yoghurt (Wilde’s an Irishman!!! No shit.) You could do worse than try to get your hands on the following:
1. ‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme’ – Frank McGuiness.
One of the finest Irish plays of the last 30 years and written by a (gasp!) Buncrana man.
2. Seamus Heaney (Anything really.) Won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1995. Heaney was brought up in your neighbouring County Derry and boarded at Saint Columb’s college in Derry City (9 miles away.) Some of his early poetry reflects his time in the city.
3. Flann O’Brien – ‘At-Swim-Two-Birds.’ Regarded as a pioneer in postmodernism, O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan) was born in 1911 in Strabane (just over the Donegal border at Lifford.)
4. The Gingerman – J.P. Dunleavy. Love it or lothe it really. Post war American moves to Ireland and annoys all and sundry. Has a rather swinging time in the process.
‘All I want is one break which is not my neck.’ Indeed.
5.Dylan Thomas – poet. Tenuous link this one. Thomas once spent a winter living in a remote shack in Donegal, freezing his bollix off and looking for inspiration
Sorry if this list comes across as a tad patronising but I’m sure that must make an interesting change.
R.
I grew up in Iowa where winters could get to -40 (Fahrenheit and Celsius) and school would close because exposed flesh would freeze in a matter of minutes. The winds of the American plains are also quite strong when they come down from Northern Canada. I spent years shoveling several feet of snow, I know cold weather. And every person in town has warned us about the frost. It's still really cold to shower naked outside in the wind with unheated groundwater.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming the yoghurt comment is regarding Wilde's ability to represent Irish culture, which yes, I would agree. I still enjoy his prose. And (gasp!) not every American may know Wilde's Irish.
We've both read Seamus Heaney and are fans before we came over. But we also have already started re-reading.
McGuinness' play was also recommended to us and we've yet to nab it.
I wouldn't view the list as patronising because I would assume that patronisation was not your intent.
I don't expect myself to understand a foreign culture, completely ever, not even well in less than say 10 years. So I'm satisfied with trying.
If you have any of the items on your list we would be extremely appreciative if you would like to lend them to us. We'd take good care of them and return them in a timely fashion. The library sometimes has a faulty selection...
and i'm not being patronising, i'm being serious.
ooooooohhhhh! Prickly.
ReplyDeleteI'll dig some books out and drop them off with the Eggman. You may want a crack at Tarry Flynn as well.
yeah well, I was hungover when I wrote that...but it's still true. Good to hear about the books, although I'd prefer to shake hands.
ReplyDeleteSean!!
ReplyDeleteno i have not been in cotonou, but i'm going to visit ashley jackson (pomona chica, doing a fulbright) there in december, why do you ask??
sounds like the work is going well, you need to keep eating magnums to stay strong! good luck with the concrete mixing and just let me know when you want to pop down to w. africa, i'll be here to greet you at the airport with a camel.
a bientot
mags