He then took one for himself and we went up in the woods and hit things and cut things. I never really worked out what we were doing since Ailton sent me one way and he went the other. However, hitting things with a machete is really fun. i cut vines, trees, the ground, roots, and once, copying Ailton, i dropped it blade first into the ground so that it stayed thereupright, whilst i did something else. I am so cool. It took me a lot longer to ´do´myside than it did for Ailton........
Me practicing my smug look whilst perched on our windowsil.
Whilst i am doing this, Xss is moving earth on the building site. This is monotonous in itself, but becomes more than that when after moving it by wheelbarrow and spade for days on end for only a week later, them to move it again. You can see the beginings of the 3 houses below Xss, and then beyond the rubble is the football field (is desperate need of water), the volleyball pitch, and the sheds.
Does it look like Xss is in old fashioned pjjama´s? We only have a few clean clothes each for relaxing in. we are heading up the hill to enjoy the view and a beer after a long day. Well, actually days are the same length everywhere, work just starts earlier than when we are in London.
I also got my first experince of playing Risk in Brazil, which has been much discussed and long awaited. It seemed like a great idea as we gathered around the war table (the pool table, with several white plastic chairs stacked into piles to make us tall enough to see), everyone was laughing and joking, music played in the background and the rules were amicably explained (they have aircraft that can bomb countries!!). However, the moment the dice were first rolled, the laughing stopped and silence followed. I immediately regretted agreeing to play (it was already 1030 at night, i had to work at 8.15 the next day), this was not going to be fun. I now know that Brazilians take Risk very seriously. It was a matter of great concern when Marcus(19, scotish, very intelligent) gave me an aircraft because i had most of Africa and explained that there was a large famine and humanitarian aid was needed. The plane was confiscated and put out of play; and thus the game began mirroring real life.
Happily for me, and mostly due to his good luck, Marcus got out of the game first, having taken one begruding turn after finding out that Great Britian had been labelled England on the board, like he didnt even exist. So that left me, the one foreigner. I was initially VERY smug about this as my mission card had stated that i needed to destroy the greens - Marcus´team. I smiled a lot, asked what to do when i had fullfilled my objective and even passed it over to my most senior colleague to validify, before Marcus agreed to check it for me and pointed out that Verhmelo is red, not green!!! So i deflatedly set about trying to kill the red men. However, as i already stated, this is not a happy game but a serious one, and people do not like you when you try to kill them. Hafa (16, Brazilian) took particular offence to my 15 plane attack and shouted a lot, got moody, went silent and then gave me evils for 20 minutes. As luck would have it someone else got me out before he could reap his revenge. I am honsetly not sure if we are still friends or not, i might avoid his house for a few days and i´ve given up Risk for good.
The view from the hill on the farm. Nice huh.
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