Please Pardon My Fervor

I apologize for my psychosis regarding our feathered friends.
But come on. Baby owl?

Sickk.

And I mean that in the best possible way.

I said that I had some epic things to report from yesterday. I suppose that is true.

After church Ema, Diego, and three girls I had not met before went to the Feria. Because it's apparently what we do. I think the Feria is so cool. I love open air markets, and you can buy anything and everything. They have wagons that just sell cheese, and tables upon tables of fruit and vegetables, honey stands, and in between each of those stands you can buy watches, video games (bootleg?), t-shirts, shoes, maté. And, as you can see from my fervor, you can buy most types of mammals. Reptiles too. And fish. And it's all cheap. I bet my precious baby owl was 3 or 4 dollars, my gatito 2. So it's awesome. And it's not far from where we live. Ema and Diego always take us and it's fun just to hang out. Except yesterday was a terrible Spanish day. Epic fail sauce all around. I couldn't order a hamburger to save my life, and then with Diego and Ema, any spanish I ever learned fell out of my brain. It basically disappaeared. Freaking annoying. And discouraging. I feel like this is the one thing that I am going to be hard on myself in, because there are a lot of ways to improve myself rapidly, but it's not happening. I need to take those opportunities and think through the Spanish and go over my vocab. I know how to do better. And I need to do better so that I can stop whining to myself about it. But it was the weirdest thing. The Spanish just didn't work. But then, a little bit later when we were all sitting outside talking, I felt mildly proficient again. Strange things. Then someone and I decided to try to take a bus to the mall. And like I think I said before, epic fail. Epiccc fail. We ended up getting off too soon or something, and we had to walk a billion miles uphil to find it. Which we did. And it was good. That was the kind of adventure I was itching for, and I was utterly content in the taxi on the way back, proud that I could figure it out and stoked on the fact that I can call a taxi without fear and that I had some kind of grasp of the city. It's a super cool feeling and I'm enjoying it a lot.

As I think about the Uruguayans I meet I realize that they are some of the nicest people ever. Not just like fake nice and not just polite. They are really nice, kind, caring people. We were talking about hospitality in chapel and it helped me realize that the Uruguayans are so hospitable, all of the time. Even if you're in a nonpersonal setting, people are still really nice. When you go into stores, you never feel like you are being an inconvenience or that weird feeling you get when some store workers make you feel like they are doing you a huge favor. They let you, and even encourage you, to go through the store and figure out what you like and don't like. Maybe it's just a ploy to make you buy stuff, but still. Either they're doing a better job of faking niceness in stores than in the U.S., or the are actually just really nice. Even at Plaza Independencia, the people selling antiques are friendly and aren't finicky about their stuff. Now that I write that I realize it's becase they wants thems some monies, but maybe it's not. Their attitudes are similar to other Uruguayans that I don't try and buy things from.

I also feel like extreme hospitality is standard outside of the Western world. The United States and the European countries I have visited pale in comparison the the graciousness that has recieved me in Asia or Africa. Even as I think about the way I was treated in India so long ago humbles me. Or how my American 'I can do anything' mentality came to a screeching halt as I was given water by a woman in Tsau when I didn't any or the means to find any. People outside the US have a much better understanding of hospitality and graciousness. It is something I want to learn how to implement when with wisdom whenever I have a house. Who knows when that will be.

I was again surprised at the sensitivity of myself here. All of the lack of distraction has given my heart the ability to feel more. I got really upset when I was looking at pictures of Haiti, and when someone shared a prayer request at chapel, it made my heart hurt. Which it normally doesn't, or at least not that poignatly. And, hello. my preicious baby owl. Shed some freaking tears for that. Almost. Anyway. Loving the feeling. I'm loving feeling for something.

paz. para ahora.