Tuesday, October 9, 2007

New Curtians and Bead

Well this is a blog about my new curtains and the bead store (which I finally have a few pictures of), but before I get into all of that would you like to hear about a funny, inappropriate, and embarrassing thing I have been saying to people by accident for quite some time? Oh, you would? Ok then, here goes...
We have a girl who works for us for a few hours in the morning three days a week. She does laundry, and goes to the small vegetable market for me. Everyday that she comes I tell her what I want her to do that day. Recently Jason heard me talking to her and told me he didn't think that I was saying this one thing correctly. I asked the English teachers and they laughed for a long time. Basically I would tell her that I wanted her to go to the Market and get whatever things were on the list. Then when she got back I would tell her where the clothes were that I wanted her to wash, etc. What I was saying was "N misti u bai pa ferra y kumpra…." (I want you to go to the market and buy…) Now I know that "N misti u" by itself means "I want you" in an inappropriate way, but I didn't know that what I was actually saying translated as "I want you. Go to the market and buy…"
I have said that to a lot of people. Especially to the maintenance guy Paulo. "Paulo, N misti u leba es kusa pa kasa di ospri" – "Paulo, I want you. Carry this thing to the guest house." Needless to say, I learned the correct way right away – "N misti pa bu pa bai pa ferra y kumpra…" which translates as "I want you to go to the market and buy…" much better. Wow!
Ok, so enough of that story… We are living in a brand new building so we have had to add a few things along the way so far and others are still coming. One of my main projects these past two weeks has been making curtains. First I just purchased fabric (an adventure in and of itself), cut it, and hung it between the bars on the windows. That at least shielded me from the neighbors when changing. One by one I have been sewing the fabric into curtains.
We set up my teammate's sewing machine in the kitchen. The work has been slow-going because of lack of power and light. The power is on from 8:30 to 1 but I am in a staff meeting and then teach class from 8:30 to 11. After that I have to make lunch for Jason, Erica, and me, so I can get about an hour of sewing in then, unless anyone needs my help with anything, which happens most days.
In the afternoon the power comes on again from 4pm to 10pm. I teach from 4 to 6, so that gives me four hours. The problem with that is we had a bad switch that was shorting stuff out in the kitchen so the lights didn't work. By the time I got back from class I really only had about 30 minutes of good sewing time. So, slow progress J I took a few pictures along the way and I thought you might like to check them out J

The good news is that the switch is now fixed so our kitchen is fully lit at all times. In fact right now, until we get a new part in a few days, we actually can't turn the lights off without shorting out the electricity in the whole building, so we definitely have all the light we need.
Now on to the bead store. I think I have extolled its wonders before, but I think they deserve mentioning again. It is buried in the middle of the crazy maze they call Bandim market so finding it is an adventure in and of itself, but it is worth it. They have lots of pre-made necklaces hanging up on the walls and then big things full of beads. On this trip alone I spent 18 dollars buying beads, which is an accomplishment J
The lady who always gives me a good deal.
The wall of beads
Erica and I choosing a few from the case
A few of my recent creations. I am especially proud of the wire work on the earrings.
Ok, well that is all for now. I hope you all liked Jason's "vlog" as he calls it. Is that the real name for a video blog? We have another one that I think he is posting today that is sure to wow an excite you many times over :-) hehe

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