Okay. Two weeks to go until i head out bush. I justified coming to the internet again today by the fact that i won´t be able to soon. That and the fact that i needed the walk because i ate too many chocolate/rum balls yesterday - and panamanian sauages don´t really go down a treat.
Christmas was a flurry of activity, accentuated by fireworks every two seconds, more dogs barking, more car horns, more people at the beach and just generally MORE - as it is in OZ.
We cooked and cleaned on Christmas eve, i did a couple of loads of handwashing and put my glad rags on. While the boys were having our 30th cigarette of the day, the group leader Stewart, asked me to cut the back of his hair. I then proceeded to enquire as to whether or not Stewy wanted a ´crazy line in the back of his head´- ´why not´he replied. What ensued was madness. Firs the back of Stew´s head, then two in Jesse´s eyebrow, two in Andy´s head, two in my head, two in a couple of sideburns, two in the back and front of every girl´s head...and then finally at the end of all of this..we were.. the TWO LINE CREW, Panama´s hardest working most festive and bizzare volunteer crew.
Anyway after this flurry of excitement, we went to Elda and Elba´s house for a party (yes they are twins and yes their names are ridiculous, just like the girl named ´Maybe´, no i´m not kidding) we drank and drank and danced in the street at midnight with about 50 other people. Radios and stereos were blaring in all directions, fireworks were going off, i was covered in more sweat than the first time i went to the gym since i swore off sport years ago. Dinner wasn´t ready until 2am and i think we got home at 4 or so. We exchanged chris cringle present halfway through the night and i received a t-shirt and a tincy wincy pink pair of y-fronts from a Costa Rican girl named Genina. Everyone had a good laugh at this, including me, who felt very sexy in pink.
Yesterday, being Christmas day, we went to the beach and had a bbq surrounded by palm trees and cars containing about 50 subwoofers each, blaring ´panamanien reggae´ at 1 million decibels. Panamanien snags are no good, especially covered in the semi black sand from their beaches. We also had, choccy/rum balls, chicken, heyps of salads, rice blah blah blah.
Anyway, it´s been a long couple of days, and i won´t say more fun than christmas in Oz because i can see my parents frowning at me as i write it. No, instead it was...very different, in a really good way.
Hope you are all well and fat like me.
Write to me soon if you want to because i´m off to the bush soon. julian@cleanocean.org or mad_julios@yahoo.com.au.
Can´t wait for new years!
love, hugs and firm handshakes. Jules.
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