Wow, I’m tired. Early to bed for me! I taped tests this morning with Steve then went to ‘City Super’, a supermarket that sells many foreign goods to get some ingredients for Lourdes. Chocolate cake had been requested and as I didn’t find an interesting (and easy) recipe I decided to go for a cake mix. Off to Lourdes where I enjoyed leftover curry for lunch (YUM!). My fellow volunteer, Gino, was late, so I hung out with the guys. One of them, A, told me that he thinks his partner may have contracted AIDS as they did not always practice safe sex. I asked if his partner had been to see a doctor. No, A answered, as he doesn’t have health insurance. Health insurance is super cheap in Taiwan, around NT600 a month. (Currency converter.) So I said that A’s partner should go register. Well, it turns out that A’s partner has a warrant out for his arrest (I didn’t ask why) and so is worried that if he registers for health insurance he will get arrested. Tricky, eh. So then I suggested that A’s partner just go and pay the full fee (still really, really cheap by world standards) to get tested but use a false name and address when he registers at the doctor’s office. Naturally neither A nor A’s partner have any money. And the last thing: if A’s partner does get tested and is HIV positive, he has said that he will kill himself. And possibly A as well, I’m not sure on that point. What a cheerful conversation.
As I was listening to A’s tale of woe, B popped over to the smoking balcony (A was smoking, not me!!) B had a huge, happy smile on his face and said, ‘I think I’m falling in love!’ I saw a photo of his love-interest and he’s cute (so’s B, he’s one of my favorite guys at Lourdes.)
At 2:00 Gino still hadn’t showed up so we made the cake. I also had a bag of strawberries that my neighbour had given me, so I sliced them into a bowl to be served with the cake. One of the lovely social workers, Sophie, came to chat as I was slicing strawberries. I ranted a bit about one of the guys, C, who has succeeded in irritating me beyond belief since his first day. He alternates between sulky little girl, screechy teenage girl trying to impress and just plain stupid. Any three of these personalities (regardless of gender) irritate the crap out me but to find all three together in C: Grrrr. About three years ago I talked with Sister T about C, her response was terrific: We all know C has a serious lack of interpersonal skills and if we had more resources we’d do intensive counseling with him. Unfortunately, as a charity, our resources are very limited. But if C ever bothers you too much, just leave. Let us know in the office that you’re leaving and then go. It’s not that he consciously tries to irritate me, it happens totally naturally! I have never taken her up on her offer, but it is good to know that I can leave if I want to. I played ‘Big 2’ with some of the guys (including C) which was fun.
After letting the cake cool I cut it into squares and served it with cut up strawberries. Their reactions were very interesting: everyone ate the cake (some people had seconds and thirds!) but they didn’t rave about it. They ALWAYS rave about everything. Conclusion: after a year of making cakes, pies, cookies and biscuits by scratch using the best ingredients I can find, a cake-mix cake did not thrill them! The folks at Lourdes now have more discriminating taste buds! :o)
I went for a massage at 4:30 which lasted about 45 minutes. At the end I fell asleep and slept like the dead until 5:45! When I came out my masseuse told me it was Friday already. Ha, ha, funny lady. :o) It felt really, really good.
Home, fed the beasties, ate the last portion of chicken curry (YUM!) with a Hoegaarten (YUM!) Walked the dogs, got wood shavings, checked out Constance’s latest wood work project and congratulated Sophie on her MASSIVE trophy from abacus class. I put Dodo’s dog house together and put her outside for the night. She is NOT a happy camper. She scratched at the door, whined and barked fro 20 minutes before giving up (for now.) It’s about 20 C out and fairly clear, a good first night out in her new accommodation.
Well. I feel better now. It’s 9:30 so I’ll upload this, check out your blog and then drift off in the arms of Morpheus.
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