Hot in the city... hot in the city to-NI-IIGHT....

Did I mention it's HOT??

This weather give the word ''clammy'' a whooooole new meaning.  Basically you wake up, sit up, and start actively sweating.  You don't really stop until you go to sleep, and then you are passively sweating.

I got totally sprung today, we were resting in the afternoon, and I couldn't breathe properly or focus on my Kiriol study, or even READ (I know, that's serious!), and so I dunked myself (fully clothed) in the shower, and then lay down on the floor outside the bathroom on a towel.  The floor is tiled, so hard, but tiled, so cool, and I positioned myself for maximum airflow (breeze is stretching it).

I was also indecently attired in a sleeveless, fitted singlet but who cares, noone was around, right?

But THEN... Salome, who is the Treasurer and also works in a village in the south, came to say hello because we'd only been briefly introduced yesterday.

So she knocks on the door and shouts 'Kon, Kon' which amusingly is knock knock (backwards!) and I have to quickly scramble into more seemly attire, and answer the door... and when she comes in she can totally see the towel on the floor with my book and my pillow... she thought it was hilarious.  Then Anna came by and Salome told her too.  The whole compound will probably know by now.

And everyone keeps telling me how red my face is... which is true.  Grrr.

Went to church this morning, a brief fifteen minute walk from the compound, along little backstreets of red mud, lined with small homes of various descriptions (mud and thatch, mud and corrogated iron, brick, concrete...) and small shops selling little cakes, fruit, clothes, piles of charcoal... and pigs wandering around... and I cracked up because some kids started yelling 'banku, banku'(not sure of the spelling) which from the tone I ascertained was probably the GB equivelent of white, white!  And I was right.  Even Anna who is Thai gets called 'white'.

The church is a large concrete building with arch-shaped window holes and a tin roof.  Heaps of people, several hundred.  We were feverishly practising our Kiriol and after an hour of singing (in Portuguese, Kiriol, Pepel AND Balanta) we were asked up the front and managed to stumble our way haltingly through 'Hello, my name is ____, I am from NZ, and it's good to meet you''.

The pastor was really good, Kevin translated for me while he preached.  It finished at 12 (very on time which isn't always the case) and by the end of it, most of the men up the front were completely drenched so us newbies felt a bit better.  As one of the church guys said afterwards, 'Noone minds if you sweat... we just sweat and it's ok!''  One of them was taught English by Americans, so kept saying, ''Sweeeet!" to us.

The church is a Pepel church (one of the GB tribes) and so far I can say hello in Pepel so now I am bilingual, hooray!

Am going to get my residents card tomorrow (well, apply for it) and then have a Kiriol lesson for one hour with Kevin, and then go shopping with Anna for local style dresses, and then have orientation stuff, and then go shopping with Anna for some food for the village.

Titus doesn't eat breakfast so we have to provide our own.

I've been told I'll be sleeping in a house with another lady (a local) but I will have my own room.

By the way, Ingore (the village we are going to) is pronounced IN-gore-ay.

If we don't pay for internet in Ingore, it will be once a month emailing when we come back to Bissau to pick up supplies and finances for the next month.