Wednesday 15 September 2010

My New Friends

When I arrived at Uma's, I was put in the dark room downstairs , sharing with another girl . Then I was moved to the room upstairs the next day. I did not question the move. I thought it will be nice for a change to be in the management block, so to speak. It was a much brighter room, though it has extensive damp patches on the wall .The good thing is that I did not have to share. It felt like a promotion after 2 years of effort, haha

I started my physio soon after my arrival. It is fair to say that September is supposed to be the start of the dry season. However , with the unseasonal rain,it has made the downstairs room very damp and smelly. Imagine my surprise one afternoon when I was coming through the gate, that the 2 Greman girls confronted me( very nicely ) if I would mind them moving into my room, to escape the dampness and smell downstairs.I ( had to )agreed, but did think that my comfortable stay was so very short lived.

The room is a largish double room with 2 single beds on either side of the room. I did wonder how the third bed will be accommodated. But we managed.It is amazing that when one has to , one usually does.Sig is truly Germanic with blond hair and blue eyes. Anja is of Korean father and German mother. Its mind boggling that they speak so many languages between them . Needless to say , they speak perfect English. In fact Anja used to be a lecturer in English for uni students.They are back packing round the world.It took only a short while for us to realise that we share similar sense of humour.

Jordan is a young Texan .He was turfed out when I moved into the room.In fact, he was promoted to the attic room. Less pleasant I understand. A great young man who has done a lot of volunteering work in different parts of the world. A wise and mature head on a very young shoulder .

As a group, the 4 of us have had a few chats on topics ranged from family values, culture to what the rest of the world looks like. We shared our experiences and insights from our travels, either as a volunteer or as a tourist.Breakfast is our sleepy time, where no much was exchanged. Sig is not a morning person. She tends to be quiet and grunted if you ask her a question. Some evenings following our dinner, we would create our own entertainment, talking about funny things that has happened to us during the day. It then tended to include what it was like when we were young and growing up. In fact, we reminisced

Last night we touched on how we would celebrate Xmas and new year in our homeland. That included Swiss, German, British , Korean , Chinese and American ways . The whole topic came alive when we talked about how some children would be expected to behave and respond to traditions in the different settings. There were some very interesting as well as amusing anecdotes.. We learnt a lot from one another. Jordan is almost 40 years younger, and the girls about half my age.The amazing thing is how well we have gelled and got on in spite of our age and cultural differences. We thoroughly enjoy one another's company . Sig likened our room sharing to staying in a youth hostel. It sounds pretty cool to me.

However, all good things come to an end. By the following Monday , I will be the only one left, before leaving for UK shortly afterwards. Like I say to Jordan last night, I hope to live to a hundred. So I will be meeting a lot more people in the years to come. However, I am very mindful that I have been privileged to have met a group of exceptional young people here this time. They have made my stay here simply quite splendid. Therefore it is important for me to mark the occasion with this blog

Thank you all. And I won't forget you when I become famous through the book I will be writing!

1 comment:

Anja said...

Thanks for the whole blog entry on me (and us)! :)
I think that one meets the best people while traveling; and I surely met some really great persons this time. You are a great roommate, Laisee!
Love, Anja